Photography - Rodeo Ferris Wheel

Howdy everyone!

Some dear friends of my family invited us to the Rodeo Carnival and Blake Shelton concert. I had a blast attending both. The friends, food, and fun created a day that I will never forget.

As always, one of my favorite carnival attractions is the Ferris Wheel. You can see to the left the picture I took from below the Ferris Wheel while in line. In the sky, you can see the sun just beginning to set, which created a bit of a lenseflare, which I enhanced while editing it. I also added a few clouds to the sky to give it a fuller feeling. To finish off the picture, I added two different filters. The first was an increase in saturation by applying a layer of blue above the photo, fading it to 5%, and changing the layer setting to saturation. Then, I added a layer of yellow, faded it to 20%, and changed the layer setting to darken. These two filters updated the colors and gave the photo a retro feeling.

Hopefully, I will post some pictures of Blake Shelton and other rodeo photos soon. His concert was amazing. The platform he was preforming on rotated to allow the whole stadium to see him. When the back of the state faced a certain side, it seemed almost see-through. However, when you could see Blake's front, the stage lit up with different LED backgrounds. The rodeo was amazing as well. The pledge of allegiance was sang beautifully and at the end a plethora of fireworks went off. During the pledge of allegiance, a woman rode a horse bare back with a huge American flag. The whole event was quite spectacular. I also witnessed bull riding, mutton busting, and other rodeo games for the first time.

Texas is most famous for the rodeo and history of agriculture and cattle. That night, I finally understood what all the hubbub is about. The rodeo is about spending time with people you love and get along with. It's about celebrating Texas traditions. People's hard work and talent are displayed at the rodeo, inspiring future generations to come. I enjoyed visiting the rodeo and I cannot wait for the opportunity to go again.

Literature from Plato - PowerPoint Backgrounds

Recently, I had to create a PowerPoint for my literature class. Our topic was literature from Plato. You can scroll down to the end of the post to see the backgrounds for the PowerPoints. These two images were composed of several different images edited to fit my purpose. Working with greens is always refreshing to me.

We had to analyze the Symposium by Plato. The Symposium is an interesting story. According to the story, Plato did not actually attend the party the story references. The story matches it's name's Greek meaning because it was a famous drinking party between distinguished Athenian men. The men decided in the Symposium, to give speeches praising Eros, love, instead of drinking more that night. Each character had their own pagan opinion on love. Overall, it is quite an interesting story and encourage mature readers to take a peak at it if they have not. 

In class, my professor contrasted their opinion's on Eros type of love to the more modern, "Ladder of Love".  He stated that the ladder begins with Eros, physical desire. Eros is the most shallow form of love because it is not based on anything but fleshly desire. Next is the love of friendship. Some might call this love the love of companionship as well. Less shallow than Eros because the two have begun to care for each other but it is not completely selfless. Family love is the next level in the love ladder. The love shared within a family is deeper than either Eros or the love of friendship. Blood is thicker than water, after all. The last love on the love ladder is Agape love. Of course, this is another Greek word and not a wrong use of the word agape. Naturally, God is completely unselfish. He gives everything to those he loves. Even to the point of giving His own/His Son's life for mankind. As we grow throughout our life, we work up the love ladder and strive to be more and more loving like God. 

Hearing so many different opinions on love was interesting. Each member of the class was able to give their input and share their opinions. Some people's views matched the Greek versions of love, others agreed with the Ladder of Love, and a few had different opinions. Each person was able to express their view on society's look on love as well, which was interesting because the consensus was that our society has become much like Athens. Overall, this was one of my favorite class sessions this semester.

And, yes, Platonic love was mentioned. Ironic.