It is bloggerstock time again!  For those of you who don’t really know what bloggerstock is, it is a new take on a blog swap where instead of a 1-to-1 swap we make a ring.  You can get more information about it over at the Bloggerstock website.  This week I am bringing you Kara from Chatter. If you are looking for my post, it is over on Benny’s blog: “Young Urban Amatuer.”  By the way, thanks to Toya for the new graphics!

It’s hard to come up with what’s on my desk without babbling on for hours on end. (Okay, maybe not hours, but for long enough to make you go, “WTF WOMAN SHUT UP ALREADY!”) As I sat at work pondering what I would write about my place of Zen and solitude, I looked around and realized that nothing on my desk was very exciting. Nothing. I have no pictures of friends, significant others, or family, no cute little gadgets, nothing. Even my “desk” (which is actually a wooden TV tray) at home is boring.

You see, I just recently moved into my little home away from home at the beginning of May. I’m only just starting to feel comfortable at my new job and my surroundings, so I’m slowing starting to make it more “me”. For one, it’s freakishly organized compared to my coworker’s desks and I have to give up a little bit of space for communal objects.

The other day  I figured I’d draw up a little doodle of my desk, just to show you how freaking boring it really is:

Oh look! I even drew in little numbers to make it easier to explain what's going on, and the yellow means shiz I share with everyone else. OCD for the win.

1. My basket of things to do, be it customers I need to call or ads I’m waiting to complete.
2. My pen mug. It has a funny face with a little 3D nose and it was there when I started. I don’t have the heart to get rid of him. Maybe I should name him. Suggestions?
3. My day planner. It reminds me which days I work late, which days I work at my other job and it reminds me that the weekend is always further away than it seems.
4. My computer monitor. It sits on a stack of paper for height and I’m so glad it’s a flat-screen so it doesn’t take up any precious space.
5. The keyboard. Enough said.
6. My squishy wrist supporter for my achy, carpel tunnelly wrists.
7. The mouse. Double click away!
8. The communal “To Do” basket. People just drop stuff off when they need something done, and it all goes into this basket until whoever’s available can do it.
9. My telephone. Probably the coolest part about my desk since it’s BRAND SPANKING NEW. Everyone else’s is a horrible yellow colour.
10. My box of Kleenex. My nose is always running. Always.
11. Printer paper for the …
12. … Printer. At least I don’t have to get up and walk to the printer. Ah, it’s good to be lazy!

So there you have it. There really is no story to my desk. Everything, except for the box of Kleenex and the wrist support thing, was there when I started. Even the stick man. No lies.

So I had this idea last night as I was writing letters.  I actually write real handwritten letters to people all summer because when I am at camp it really seems like the thing to do.  That mentality probably comes from when I was a camper and the only form of communication that we had was letters.  I like writing, and writing letters at the end of the day is a great way to decompress (especially after a day like today).

I suppose though, that you are wondering what the idea actually is.  Along with writing letters I also like to get mail, also, the walls of my cabin are kind of bare.  So, I thought that I would put out a proposal for post cards.  I don’t really know how many people read my blog, but if any of you out there write me a postcard from wherever you live or are spending your summer then I will send you back a nice handwritten postcard from Maine or New Hampshire.  I will even sweeten the offer and say that if you write more than one postcard this summer I will send you back more than one.

Now I suppose you are going to ask why I would do this.  As I said, I like to write and I am happy to write to anyone who writes to me.  I also think that writing by hand is a dying art and I would like to keep it alive for as long as possible.  It is also fun to get mail from other places.  This certainly is not the most expensive of summer opportunities and it is cool to get neat post cards.  Maybe if I get postcards from any of you I will scan them and post them on my blog.

If you want to send me a postcard and participate in my summer postcard swap, you can find my address below.  I made it a graphic just for a little sense of security.  Of course, in order to write you back I will need your address, and I figure the best way to do that is to either email me or use my contact form here.  If you don’t care then i suppose you could just leave your address in a comment.  In any event, let’s have some fun with this!

This month 20SB is hosting a Blog Carnival in conjunction with Charles Schwab.  In my mind it is kind of an unlikely pairing, but hey, we twenty-somethings should learn what to do with our lack of money!  Actually, I took advantage of the recent economic struggles in the country as I saw it as an opportunity to start making some investments.  The market was low and I had some liquid assets and I have the time to wait for the markets to rebound.  So actually, I opened my investment account through Schwab on the recommendation of my family and so far, I have been pretty happy.

One of the stipulations of the blog carnival event was to test drive Schwab’s new financial fitness check-up tool.  Basically, it is a short questionnaire that tries to determine where you stand in terms of financial habits.  I tried it out and did my best to answer the questions truthfully and I got a score of 84, which puts me in the “Good” category.  I certainly try to be good about my money but i know that there are things that I could be better about.  I am probably a little more frivolous sometimes than I should be, but I have never really felt like I was hurting for money and I have never really been living from paycheck-to-paycheck.

Schwab wanted some feedback on the check-up tool, which seems reasonable.  It was pretty straight-forward and easy to use.  In general I felt like the questions were very general questions.  I don’t really know what the point is because I am not sure what your score is supposed to tell you.  What is the next step and what is the goal?  For that matter, aren’t everyone’s goals slightly different?  Is the answer that Schwab gives the right answer for everyone?  I don’t know.  I suppose, if nothing else, it is not a bad place to start though.

The real topic for the Carnival though is to write about something that you were happy you splurged on or a time that you should have not tapped into the coffers.  For me, there are two things that come to mind.  First, I have an annual splurge that I am still trying to figure out how I afford.  Each year since I moved out to Utah I have bought a season pass for skiing.  Unfortunately, Utah is probably one of the most expensive states to ski in.  You can’t really pass it up though when you live there!  Normally I do take some time to contemplate big purchases, but I have never thought twice about skiing.  It is not a cheap sport to be involved in, that is for sure.

I live about 30 minutes from seven of the 13 ski areas in Utah, so picking where to get a pass was an interesting decision.  The first two years I was out there I qualified for a deeply discounted pass at the Park City Mountain Resort.  After that there was one heck of a price hike.  The average pass in Utah for an adult is over $1K for the season with most around $1.2K-$1.5K.  I like to get the most bang for my buck so I discovered that you can get an Alta/Snowbird Pass for $1.5K which is the same price as Deer Valley alone, so this seemed like a great idea.  I certainly have never regretted that decision.  I get great enjoyment out of the skiing and I don’t usually end up hurting too much in the wallet.  Besides, Alta is probably my favorite ski area.

My really big splurge though, was significantly bigger than a ski pass.  All things considered, I am probably really still recovering from the purchase.  As many of my readers should know, I am a photographer.  While I don’t rely on my photography to make a living at the moment, I am a professional.  When I was hired on as the staff photographer for PTC I decided that I really needed to step up to a professional level camera, needless to say, they cost some big bucks.

Now, I didn’t need to go top-of-the-line flagship model camera, that would have been a little too much, but I did want something that could keep up with the times.  I did as much scrimping and saving as I could, but this purchase really made quite the dent in my financial situation.  When all was said and done I probably ended up paying more for the camera than for my computer.  Totally worth it though, I love my camera and I have been making a decent little income off the theatre photography business.  It isn’t huge, but every little bit counts for something.  Besides, you do need to have the right tools for the job!

Of course I am now looking towards the next big purchase that I have on the horizon, a new computer.  I am a creative professional and I could really use a desktop computer at home with a nice big screen.  Those 27″ iMacs are looking super sweet.  I am not entirely sure how and when I will come up with the money for that AND continue to keep up my skiing habits, but somehow it all seems to work out in the end.  I know that I can’t sacrifice my living budgets (food, rent, gas, etc.), but I will figure it out.

Legal Stuff:

It should be noted that while I am a Schwab client, I am not employed by them nor am I in any way affiliated with the company.  I only keep an investment portfolio thought them.  The opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent the opinions of any other people or organizations.

Disclaimer: This post is part of the 20SB Blog Carnival: Friends & Money, sponsored by Charles Schwab. Prizes may be awarded to selected posts. The information and opinions expressed in this post do not reflect the views or opinions of Charles Schwab. Details on the event, eligibility, and a complete list of participating bloggers can be found here.

No, I am not “Sick and Tired” in the sense that I don’t like what I am doing, I am actually sick with a little head cold and very tired.  I am thankful that tomorrow is Sunday and that means we get to sleep in and have a pretty relaxing day.  I do have to say though, I would rather be sick now, at the beginning of the summer rather than in the middle like last summer.  I am sure that once I kick the “camp crud” that everyone gets at some point each summer, I will be fine.  I am sure that it is just the adjustment to the schedule and demands that wear on you here and I know that I will bounce back strong.

One of our little games has begun for the summer.  Being part of the IA/FA media services team or “Geek Squad” (we even have t-shirts) means that you get to play fun photo games.  Rich (the staff photographer) and I are often on the lookout for funny “bubble” pictures.  Last year we had quite a few and the games have begun anew this season with this photo:

Um, so yeah, that is me on the horse with Rich's thought bubble...

Yes, we love to make fun of eachother.  I just thought it would be fun to have a photo of me on a horse in my duster.  I wanted to have my hat as well, but rules are rules and CJ won’t have any photos of people not following the rules, so a helmet it was.  Funny thing was, that while I don’t really know much about riding, I have ridden before (though I don’t know if I have ever ridden English Saddle, or if that is even the correct term), but I think that I surprised CJ in that I knew something about what I was doing.  Of course in Rich’s eight years at camp he has yet to get on a horse so I won’t have any funny shots of him riding…

Beyond that, it is the second day of camp and we (Rich and I) are already running around like crazy.  I have racked up like 70 miles of driving for camp business, and most of that is just going back and forth the 2.2 miles between camps.  I made at least four trips today I think.  The problem is that both camps had big events that needed our services at the same time.  We have decided that we actually proved tonight that we are interchangeable.  Rich is supposed to be the photo guy and I am supposed to be the video guy, but we both can do both and did do both tonight because there was no way that we could both cover both events. (let’s seem how many time i can use “both” in one sentence)

For the most part the boys don’t really pay us any mind, but when either of us walk into the girls camp with a camera on, we are the most popular people in camp.  Every ten steps there is another gaggle of girls asking us to take their photo or to film something they made up.  Almost every girl in camp stops to say hi to us, it is quite amusing.  Some of them seem to think that I am a jungle gym, but there are worse things.  Needless to say, they run us ragged here and it is only day 2!  At least I can usually go to bed at a reasonable hour whereas Rich stays up sorting photos and uploading them for the parents to see.  If Rich misses a daily upload people call in asking about their kids and sometimes they even ask if Rich is OK.

My first video of the summer was shown this evening, but I don’t think that I can really share it on the tubes.  I am not sure that the people in it would appreciate that.  It was a fun project and the campers enjoyed it.  I will have other videos that I can share as the summer goes on.

Just another day in one of the best places to spend the summer.  Even if I am sick, tired and over-worked, it is still fun.  Don’t ask me how that can be, just know that it is!

I am sure that many of you thought that I would post some photo from camp for Foto Friday, but I don’t think that is going to happen.  At least not this week.  I have one image that I might consider, but I haven’t had the chance to actually work on it yet.  Also, we are not really supposed to post any photos with campers on the public internets, so odds are you won’t see anything like that from me.  I like my job, I want to keep it (even though every kid will go home and post all their photos on facebook).

So, for this week I thought that I would go back to the Moab Workshop.  I finally got some images from the final day of the workshop posted on my site so I thought that I would share them.  Besides, you really can’t go wrong with most of the images from that trip!  It is such beautiful country out there, I highly recommend that you put the Utah desert on your list of places to visit if you have never been there, especially if you are a photographer!

The potash evaporation ponds below Dead horse Point State Park in Moab, UT

This image was taken right around sunrise, looking out from Dead Horse Point State Park.  It is an HDR image and I just love the way the canyon textures came out.  I apologize for the watermark that runs through the image, but in this day and age where it is so easy to snag images off the nets I feel like it is a must-have (and yes I know there is a spelling error in it).  I don’t really know much of anything about the potash production or what it is used for, but the evaporation ponds are really pretty in the morning light.

An interesting point of note about Dead Horse Point State Park is that it is featured in the movie “Mission: Impossible II” in the opening scene where Tom Cruise is rock climbing.  I had never realized this until it happened to be on TV a couple weeks ago and I recognized some of the formations.  Just a little fun fact that most people probably don’t really care about!

In other photo related news, I hope to do some more experimenting in IR photography this summer.  We now have two IR cameras at camp, the photographer’s and one of the other staff member’s.  I am sure that both would let me borrow their cameras.  So, hopefully I will have some other fun images to share in that department!  With that said, as usual comments, questions and critique are always welcome!