The Endorsement

We have all met them before. They are our friends, our family members, our coworkers or maybe even ourselves. They are the ones who stand up loud and proud when they proclaim that they are in love... with being single. They are adamant in their statement, and they do everything in their power to prove their lifestyle. Sometimes, with lots of panache.

The life of these individuals is really something to behold, though it's all a bit misleading until you indulge in it yourself. I myself am living the life right now. I have been told that I am truly in an incredible position. I can do whatever I want and really have to only answer to myself. I can travel anywhere my heart desires, eat what I want, spend my dough on myself and not be tied down. I'm young, motivated, and floating on the sea without an anchor. Do I see a freakishly expensive electronic? Charge it. Am I curious to what the difference is between American and German chocolate? Put me on the next flight to Deutschland. Hot new game out? Pass me the Red Bull, it's gonna be a long night. I have room to stretch my legs and freedom is my shadow. I've got the world on a string.

But then I ask myself, what good is gaining the world when I don't have anyone to share it with?

Pass The Chips

What do you get when you combine 1 girl, 7 guys, buckets of chips and one incredibly cute puppy? Why, a night of poker of course. Now, poker for me is one of those things that I do "when in Rome." I'm not usually a betting man, I'd feel more emotion losing ten bucks than gaining a hundred, and last night was no exception. I am somewhat familiar with the rules, and I know how the flow of the game usually goes, but the truth is, I've only played a real round of poker once before, so I'm still pretty green when it comes to the game. However, I am pretty confident in what I knew so I decided to give it a shot. I was also banking on beginner's luck showing her pure white smile on my corner.

Even though there was one girl present that night, it was still pretty much a sausage fest. Everyone playing at the table was a dude. Yes, even the dog that was scampering around our feet was a male. The game was no-limit Texas Hold'em. It was a five dollar buy-in that night and me being the broke fool that I am, my friend volunteered to spot me so I could get in on the action. I wasn't planning on playing that night, seriously I'm not a betting man, but how could I say no to the puppy eyes of my human friend Louie? So, I took my seat, the chips were passed out and before long the first hands were dealt. We played for a few hours before I had to call it a night. It was tough to walk away, I was actually ahead on the chip count with only two other guys fighting for the winner position. But, I had a pretty early tennis match in the morning. Plus, I was playing on borrowed chips anyway, so it wasn't like I was gonna lose anything by quitting. Yeah, lady luck has a sick sense of humor that way...

Though, I did enjoy the way she stacked my chips.

I wish I could've seen the end of it all, but congrats to Irv for being the big winner that night.

Honestly, I was really happy hangin out with those guys. I feel like its been so long since I've had company that good, and the timing of it couldn't have been any better. So, this post goes out to Elaine, Mark, Phil, Irv, Louie, Zab, Pat and Lovie for the laughs.

Graham School of Nursing Graduation 2008

I guess it's about time I update.

Busy, busy, busy. It seems like every year, there are always two major date spans that are major sources of stress. I'm not talking about having an increase in occurrences of deep sighs. I'm talking about freak-out, hair-pulling, waking-up-more-tired-than-when-you-went-to-sleep type stress. The stress that comes only from chronic anxiety, from even though you've planned weeks in advanced, things still turn south faster than you can keep up. You know that stress. It's the same stress that makes you lose(or gain) ten pounds and forces you to wear clothes that makes laundry day seem like every day. The two time spans that I'm talking about? I’m talking about Christmas for one, and basically the month of May for another. The month is just over two-thirds over, but I've been to three graduations, one concert, one camp meeting, one banquet/photo shoot and one church photo shoot. Two of those graduations I had to travel over two hours for and in both of those graduations I had arrived thirty minutes late. I had to coordinate a song service, and I'm doing another one tonight. I'm in charge of adult Sabbath School tomorrow and I'm still not 100% ready. Oh, and I almost destroyed a $600 light set-up. Coming up, I still have my sister's graduation and I have to help my sister send out invites for the graduation as well as design an invite for her pending graduation party. I've skipped out on various house parties so I could get my stuff together, but I know there are going to be a lot more coming up.

Actually, compared to past years, this wasn't all that bad. I got to see a lot of people that I haven't seen in a while and got to see places I've never been to before. I was able to try some new techniques with my camera that I've never been able to try until recently and I'm really getting a lot of chances to flex my creative side. So, I guess I can finally take some time out now to put everything I've done on my virtual ledger. Starting with photos from two of my friends' graduation!

Graham School of Nursing is a small nursing school located in Canton, IL, a small town about two-and-a-half hours south west of Chicago. The trips to Andrews University aside, this is the first road-trip I've been in, in a while. The graduation was slated to start at 7 PM, May 16, 2008, and I convinced three of my friends to drive with me. Actually, there were quite a few of us headed to the graduation, but instead of caravaning it up, we all decided to travel at different times. In my car, I drove with Randy, Irv, and Louie. There were three other families that made it as well.

Even though we left thirty minutes late, got caught in traffic, stopped for gas and some food and showed up thirty minutes late, we were still able to see most of the ceremony. After the ceremony, we had dinner at Flat Top Grill then made the drive that night back home, though my friend Louie drove. So, congratulations to Zabdiel and Sharon for making it through the program! Here are some of the pictures I left Canton with. More pictures can be found here.

Familia Asuncion

Last Saturday, my dad had the sudden urge to update our family portrait. This idea was actually thought up a while ago because, due to external circumstances, our family portrait suddenly came into high demand. Plus, the one hanging over our piano is almost seven years old, and of course, we're not getting any younger.

My dad and my sister collaborated with how and where the shoot should be. It was mid afternoon, with on and off patches of clouds and sun. My dad wanted to do a formal shot and and informal shot, and my sister suggested we do a white theme for the informal shot. My dad chose the campus of McDonalds University in Oak Brook for a location backdrop.

(what?!)

To my surprise, it was a pretty nice place. There was a little preserve there with stone-paved trails, lagoons, fountains and modern art. We only got to explore a small part of it, but it was enough to take some decent group shots and a few solos for my sister.

The shoot started off nice enough, but it quickly got overcast and the temperature dropped significantly for us to hurry it up. Also, we were not the only ones that had the idea of taking pictures that day. Along with the casual patron, the location also served as a reception hall for a wedding and some high schoolers decided to take their prom pictures there. Over all, it turned out to be a pretty nice shoot. I got to experiment with a little strobism and I actually got more time in front of the lens instead of behind it! Link to more pictures can be found here

Apparently, There Is A Cure For Cancer...But None For Boredom

I am so bored at work right now. So bored. SO BORED!!!! Ahhhhh! Somebody, pull a fire alarm, create a chemical spill, throw a pie... Do something! Anything! I'm stuck here waiting for my stupid tests to finish and I have nothing to do but yak on my blog about how bored I am... Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo booooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedddddddddddddddd.

*sigh*

What's a guy to do? Well, there's always...

Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

Chuck Norris was born in a log cabin that he built with his bare hands.

Some people get lucky and kill two birds with one stone. Chuck Norris once killed four birds with half a stone. What's that? You say there's no such thing as half a stone? The four dead birds didn't think so either.

Mr. T once defeated Chuck Norris in a game of Tic-Tac-Toe. In retaliation, Chuck Norris invented racism.

If you ask Chuck Norris what time it is, he always says, "Two seconds 'til." After you ask, "Two seconds 'til what?" he roundhouse kicks you in the face.

On Valentine's Day, Chuck Norris gives his wife the still beating heart of one of his enemies. Being very romantic, Chuck Norris believes every day should be Valentine's Day.

Chuck Norris's body temperature is 98.6 degrees... Celsius.

On a high school math test, Chuck Norris put down "Violence" as every one of the answers. He got an A+ on the test because Chuck Norris solves all his problems with Violence.

Chuck Norris once visited the Virgin Islands. They are now The Islands.

Chuck Norris puts the laughter in manslaughter.

Sometimes, Dads Can't Help But Be Cool

So, I came home yesterday to a smirk and a hello from my mom. I gave a "Hi, hello." back, albeit, very suspiciously. That's when my sly mamma said,

"Your dad has a surprise for you..."

I turned back and asked her what it was. Naturally, she didn't want to spill the beans (despite her already having opened the proverbial can of said beans) so I waited until my dad found me. When he finally came around, he had a white plastic bag in his hands which contained a box which contained this:

Canon EF-S 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS USM

"!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The last thing he brought something home was a mocha-chip frapp from Starbucks which he got for free and gave to my mom...

Needless to say, just like rock beats scissors, lens trumps frapp any day of the week. Yes, even those super Summer sizzlers when the temp reaches 100F and the humidity is at 10,000%.

He went on to say that this was my late graduation gift... I graduated almost a year and a half ago =P Ah, well. Better late than never.

So, please join me in welcoming the latest addition to the Asuncion Family!

Canon EF-S 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS USM
Presented May 6, 2008

Night Vision

I originally posted these pictures on my Myspace. I wanted to keep them, and since this is now my number one blog, they've found a permanent place here.

Andrews University Graduation: May 4, 2008

Showing up thirty minutes late, in some cases, can either be good or bad, fashionable, or rude. Showing up thirty minutes late to a party: fashionable. Showing up thirty minutes late to court: bad. Last Sunday, a few of my friends and I showed up thirty minutes late to the Commencement ceremony for this year's graduating class at Andrews University. The timing was... somewhere in between. The mall that only thirty minutes before was empty was filled when each individual from the inside of Pioneer Memorial Church found their way outside. The weather was clear, the temperature was a pristine seventy degrees, and the luminance of the sun was extremely challenged by the beaming faces of everyone there.

I wanted to try something a little unfamiliar to me while I went around taking pictures. Being late, I felt that I had already missed out on some prime "hey look at me, I'm a fresh graduate!" photo ops, and with such a huge event, it was only natural for every other person to be holding a camera, poised and ready to take portraits. So, I decided it was a good opportunity for me to try a little photojournalism. Most of the pictures I took were completely candid. I either tried to do a little scene stealing by taking pictures of people who were posed to take pictures from other people or tried to take pictures of people when they weren't looking, a la sauvette style. For my subjects, I chose people I already knew, because, well, my memory card's small and I knew I was going to be shooting a lot.

Turns out, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be.

I couldn't get out of the portraiture mentality. I've been shooting nothing but portraits for months now, and because of that, I couldn't get my mind to open up and take in the whole picture.

Maybe if I wasn't so biased and actually took pictures of people I didn't know....

Nah, it would've turned out exactly the same way.

In either case, here are a few shots from that day. As always, more can be seen on my flickr by clicking here.





























Congratulations to all of this year's graduates.