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dancressman
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[15903561]
[2010-12-08 01:55:31 +0000 UTC]
"Daniel Cressman"
(United States)
# Statistics
Favourites: 17; Deviations: 33; Watchers: 4
Watching: 30; Pageviews: 3415; Comments Made: 293; Friends: 30
# Interests
Favorite movies: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along BlogFavorite writers: Patrick Rothfuss
Favorite games: You Have to Burn the Rope
Other Interests: Reading, writing, photography, volleyball
# About me
Hi!Decided to start a deviantART account in order to post my pictures from Photography class and see what people think about them. I am currently a senior in high school and enjoy photo, reading, writing (which I may post up on here eventually...), volleyball, and a whole lot of other things.
I've been putting up all of my pics from Photo class. Unfortunately, this includes both good and bad ones, as I don't really want to leave any out. There are some I prefer and some I don't, (though you can look at all of them if you really want to) and many of these pictures were done to fit the requirements of a certain project. My favorite groups are the HDR/Night Project, Retro Project, and Identity Flower Project. Most of the rest (Studio Lighting; One Object, Many Places; and pretty much all of Photo I) are simply included for the sake of having a complete collection of all my pictures.
So if you have the time, take a look at my pictures and tell me what you think! If there are any you would like available as a print, let me know and I'll put a better quality picture (in PSD format) up and allow that to be printed. Thanks for your support!
-Daniel
Current Residence: Colorado
deviantWEAR sizing preference: XL
Favourite style of art: Good Art
Operating System: Windows 7
# Comments
Comments: 95
Okay I don't know if you've already heard of the place, but Madison and I found a gamer coffee shop called Enchanted Grounds near Valor and I don't know if you game but I'm trying to get everyone into Pathfinders (Madison, Tori, Audrey, Jeremy, anyone else I can think of) so we can do a short campaign at this place around Christmas time. So yeah this is really advance notice but I was just wondering if you'd be interested, too (you already play Magic, right?).
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Absolutely! That sounds awesome! Jeremy, Corey, and I used to go to Enchanted Grounds for Magic all the time. I can't say I have any experience with Pathfinders and I've only done a few roleplaying campaigns in general, but I'd be up for learning.
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Pathfinders is pretty similar to D&D actually. Only it's a little more roleplay focused so generally speaking the whole campaign could change based on the players' actions. The way my group at school plays it is pretty lax, so we've never had a total party wipeout or anything. Since it seems I'm the one with the most experience, I guess I'll be the GM and start working on the campaign. I've only GM'd a couple times before, but I figure we'd just be doing it for the fun of it.
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Sounds great! Looking forward to it.
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Of course! I was going through a folder of my pictures yesterday and realized that the best wallpapers I have and some excellent pictures that I downloaded a while back were all by the same artist. Figured I had to find you and keep updated!
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Oh, awesome!Β Glad I have a fan
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Hello!!! How is life?
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Not too bad. Aaron's still a beast at music (seriously, skipping a year of music theory to join our class???), a bunch of valor students visited Westmont, and college kicks butt.
How about you?
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Yeah, Aaron is pretty darned epic at anything he puts his mind to.
All is well down here! The weather is cold, but it's not too bad. College is going well!
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Oddly enough, it's cold here, too. Not like, Colorado cold, but still enough to need layers. What're you studying?
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Majoring in Biology, studying Pre-Dentistry. You?
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Majoring in music and physics. Not sure what I'm gonna do with it yet.
Why on earth would you want to be a dentist? D: Is it just, like, for the fun of it?
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Pretty much! Easy job, steady income, relatively fun!
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Relatively fun... well, I guess if you think it is, kudos to you.
I'd rather be writing music for films or building satellites, I think.
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Haha well, if I could do either of those I might consider it. But I wish you the best with your endeavors!
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Thanks! Yeah, you too with that dentistry stuff. 
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Exactly! If that book ever comes out... Still no word on if he's made any progress so far...
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Gah! I just finished re-reading them, and I want the stupid book to come out already. I mean, it's finished, right? He's just editing now. :I
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Haha well, so was the Wise Man's Fear. And that took four freaking years!
He said this one shouldn't take as long, but he still has no timeframe for us, to my knowledge. I wish he would take a page from Sanderson's book and just keep us updated on the progress. That dude has a percentage bar and everything telling how close he is to finishing each of his projects!
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I know, right! I've checked his blog a few times to see if he's posted anything about his progress. Nada.
Although, I did discover that he is a Whovian.
He talks a lot about his other projects, too, but never Wise Man's Fear.
Remind me what Sanderson has written?
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A few books here and there. He's most well-known for finishing up the Wheel of Time series after Robert Jordan up and died before he had written the last book. (Sanderson made that last book into three, but you can hardly expect it to turn out the same when the author just dies in at the end of it.)
What I've read of his, though, was "The Way of Kings", which is a rather brilliant piece of work. Up there at the top of my favorite books, right alongside NOTW!
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Ooh, I will have to check him out, then. Always up for a good, new series. I find that I have these impossibly long lists of books I need to read, but when I reach the library, I can never remember what I'm looking for. (And I feel the same way about some of Douglas Adams' books that followed up by other people).
I'm usually wary of starting a new series unless someone recommends it to me. There's too many books out there that just aren't up to par, sadly.(However, I am very happy with my collection of Sherlock Holmes that I'm currently re-reading).
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I don't think I ever got to the part of Hitchhiker's that was written by other people. I gave up on that series near the end when it just got too bleak... What used to be a funny, lighthearted series just became depressing.
I did just download the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes onto my Kindle the other day, though! (It was free.
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Yeah, it does get pretty depressing... And what is it with classic novels being free? I mean, great, 'cause then I don't have to pay for it, but I'd like to think they're worth more than that.
I haven't heard much about Martin, though I've seen his books around. I checked out his website; he actually has a countdown clock till the release of his next book! I'll have to check him out, too. The other series I've read recently was Divergent; everybody said it was really good. I admit it was engaging, though it kinda feels like the writer jumped on the dystopian bandwagon.
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I suppose classic novels are free because no one who actually worked on the novel is profiting from it anymore. Why pay people who had nothing to do with it?
Haha and Martin's countdown is for the next season of the HBO show based on his books. I don't think he could do a progress bar for his stuff as he ridiculously slow: slow enough that he earned nicknames like "The Grey-Bearded Glacier"! It took him six whole years to write his most recent book, and he has only finished 4 more books in his SOIAF series since the first was released in 1996!
I've heard a lot of hype around Divergent, but I'm still not sure if I want to check it out. Seems like it has the potential to be rather overrated.
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That's true, though I figure they could do something useful with the money instead, like providing books for public school libraries or something. I dunno, that's just what I would do.
Oh, of course it is. I knew that. SIX YEARS to write a book? How long was it? (4 books since 1996, equals roughly one book every 4 years...geez, that's slow)
Divergent is pretty overrated. I finished it in less than 24 hours, actually. It's a good read and all, but it doesn't really force you to think or anything. It's not particularly deep.
By the way, Aaron told me to ask you about that prank you guys pulled on his Mom? Something about your parents dying in Rome. He says he doesn't remember if that was for April Fool's, or if it was some other time. (:
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That would be smart, but publishing companies don't usually think about helping anyone else. I suppose they could modify the law to fit something like that, but they would most like decide that people could just donate to the libraries instead.
If you write a book, perhaps you can make a request that they do that with yours.
Yeah, even Rothfuss isn't that bad. Martin is slow enough that Paul & Storm write a clever song about it over the summer!
[link]
Haha! Yep. That was April Fool's Day. Aaron and I came out of Valor and hopped in his mom's car. The story was that my parents had gone on a surprise trip to Europe but that Aaron and I had decided that I would just stay with them for a week. We actually managed to make the story believable enough that Mrs. Wilk started pulling out of the Valor driveway to take us back to their house. We were rather proud that we took down the Queen of April Fool's!
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I will keep that in mind if I ever write a book.
Oh, my roommate was reading Martin last semester! She actually told me not to read it because of the more graphic scenes, and because all the best characters kept dying. That was a very clever song, well-done! And I learned how long most of my favorite series took to write, too.
Haha, yeah, Aaron did mention something about 'de-throning the queen'! He also mentioned a prank they pulled together once on her grandpa about his dad needing bail to get out of jail.
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Yeah, there are some downsides to the series. But the way he isn't afraid to kill of characters is a plus, in my opinion. It adds a more realistic perspective to the story and makes the danger characters are in a lot more tangible, since they really do have a chance of dying.
I wouldn't put that prank past them! Mrs. Wilk goes all-out.
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Yeah I guess it would keep you reading, just to find out what happens to the characters and whether or not they make it out alive. I must admit, some of my favorite books are ones where the best characters die. I really should make more time for reading... 
Also, did you hear? They're gonna start construction on the arts building! My sister said it should be done by her junior year, which is a little under 2 years from now. Can I just say, about freakin' time?
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No other books I can think of off the top of my head. I haven't been reading much lately either. I did just get a copy of The Last Unicorn in the mail today, though! Quite a few people have said that it's pretty much the best book ever.
Finally working on the arts building? Well, I guess that's good news, though I'll never be able to use it... They have said that they are "starting" several times already. Not trusting it until something is actually built.
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I read The Last Unicorn ages ago...I don't remember most of what it's about, actually. I'll add it to my re-read list!
Yeah, I don't quite believe it either. But I'm hopeful! And we have alumni privileges.
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Well, I do hope I get to see some productions in the Arts Building! Hopefully it turns out really well after all they hype they've put into it. They have certainly raised people's expectations a good deal by putting it off so long. But then, they've always done a nice job with the buildings.
Also, Rothfuss posted up a sneak preview of book three yesterday!
"When Auri woke, she knew that she had seven days."
No idea what it means, but we know he has at least one sentence written by now!
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Wait, why, Rothfuss? WHY??? He's taunting us. :I Release one sentence, then probably take another year to release the book. Most authors will release at least part of a chapter...
But I will go and check his website now.
Yeah, the arts building will be nice, I'm certain. It'll probably be even better than the Westmont arts buildings, honestly.
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He did release a good part of a chapter a few months before The Wise Man's Fear came out, which was pretty cool. But I don't like how he gives no updates on his progress.
Unfortunately, I probably won't be in Colorado for most of the arts performances. So I don't think I'll be able to see much of the arts building, at least for the next few years.
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Yeah, thankfully, I didn't start reading until right before The Wise Man's Fear came out, so I didn't have that long, arduous waiting period like most people had to go through. It seems like he's got a lot of stuff going on the side, and he updates about that plenty. Then he says he's writing, but doesn't say how close he is to being done. And of course he's got the kid, too, which I get.
Yeah, I know! I'm gonna be completely gone next fall, over in Heidelberg. And then after that I'll be out here pretty much year round till I graduate. Then, unless I go to grad school in Colorado, won't be back until 4 years after that. So probably the same for me. You planning to do grad school somewhere other than Colorado, then?
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He did say that this book should take a good deal less time than The Wise Man's Fear took, since he has that editing process down now. Granted, a bit faster is still slow for him, but as long as he makes a quality product, I'm fine with it. Gives me a chance to catch up on other books!
Grad School will probably be in Oklahoma. 6 years of that. Yay.
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Haha, true. Possibly, by the time he comes out with the third one, I'll have forgotten enough of the storyline to reread again. I always enjoy that part, opening up a familiar book.
Ooh, yeah, 6 years. Better than medical school, though. And then, of course, there's Sam Sandifer with his 5 years straight school (including summers) so he can learn to be a pilot/airplane mechanic and do airdrops into 3rd world countries. Which, you know, is cool, but I certainly couldn't do it. Why Oklahoma?
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I do enjoy rereading books! Perhaps a bit too much, really. Reread some of my old favorites as a kid 5 or 6 times... Pretty ridiculous now that I think about it, but there were still things that I caught in the last read that I never noticed before.
Really? Med school would be rough. Most of the ones I know of are only 4 years post-grad, though. And Sandifer was always a touch insane, so no surprises there!
Oklahoma has a rather good dental school which would be easier to get into as I will have gone to OU. I'll either go to the OU grad school or head out to somewhere like UCLA as one of my dad's closest friends from California used to be the dean of the dental school there. But I have plenty of time to make that decision.
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Haha, I didn't get into reading until 4th grade, but after that, I would blaze through a book in less than a day, and if I ran out of books, I'd reread them all. In order. It's true, though, you always notice different things the second or third or fourth time through.
The only thing about med school is that even if you 'graduate', you still have to relearn all the advances that have been made. Yeah, I'll be excited to see what Same does with an airplane!
I haven't even started thinking about grad school...well, not until I saw Caltech's labs. Now I have to make a decision, whether to go to grad school for music composition or research physics. We'll see what happens. I'm doing research this summer just in case though. And lots of people in California, it'd be cool if you were out here!
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I've had my ups and downs when it comes to reading. I had two or three favorites through all of elementary school, but I never started reading seriously until I got a copy of Eragon as a Christmas present in 5th grade. And I read the crap out of that book. Branched out from there, though I stopped a bit in High School. Fluctuated from there. And now I don't read nearly enough.
Freaking technology. Always has to keep progressing. All of us are always behind the times. It's kind of frustrating. Just when you think you have something down, a whole new branch of it appears out of nowhere!
That's good that you're testing it out! I'm going out to practice dentistry over Spring Break to see if it's a good fit.
And every school I applied to except for OU was in California! Pepperdine, LMU, and Westmont were my three top choices. But the scholarship here was a big enough deal that I had to turn them all down. Still love it all there, though.
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Yeah, I read pretty steadily through high school, though a lot more over breaks like summer than during the school year. Eragon was the first book I ever reread (well, first novel), and I own all the books from that series, but never finished the last one. I really need to get on that, but would have to reread the series again. Takes a lot of time which I currently don't have. Yeah, school kinda sucks up your life.
No kidding! We're generating information faster than we can retain it right now. The same thing's happening with research physics. They're already looking at quantum computing as a way of storing memory.
Yeah, I hear grad schools look more at your experiences than your degrees. Same thing with potential employers, apparently. They wanna know that you can actually perform the job, not just that you've learned about it. I'm trying to get an internship writing music for film with a guy I know, too. We'll see.
You applied to Westmont!!! I guess it is a pretty expensive school. Out of the five I applied to, Wheaton was my top, and Azusa was the only other one in California. But Westmont gave me the most money in scholarship, and I ended up loving it here! I'm glad you like you're school. I know a lot of people who end up transferring after their first year because they wish they were somewhere else.
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Yeah, breaks seem to be the time when I catch up on my reading. It kind of irks my family sometimes, though, as I have a book with my in all of our pictures on vacation!
That sounds ridiculously awesome but also really expensive. I'm sure it'll have to be refined a ton before it's ready to be used affordably, but it's good to know we're making progress!
That's good to know. I'll be sure to fit in plenty of experiences, then! Grad school is tough to get into. The OU Orthodontics School only lets in two people a year. Two people! For a total of four people in the school at once. I have no idea how that works, but it's rather strange.
I think Westmont was one of the better schools on the scholarship side, but OU's deal was a rather significant difference. I have a feeling I would have been happy anywhere I went, though. It could be better and could be worse at any school and I'm just kind of content to be away from home right now.
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Haha, I'm always the one by the pool or at the beach with a book instead of getting in the water like everybody else. It's at those times that I finish off 900+ page books in a few sittings.
To actually create a usable one, yes. Thankfully the lab-testing is not too expensive. And besides most decent researchers have good funding.
How can you...? Four people total? I'm just trying to picture what that would be like. I hope not every grad school is like that!
Yeah, Westmont gives out good scholarships. It was a matter of how much total I'd end up paying of each school's tuition, and Westmont ended up being lowest. Go figure. And I know what you mean. I thought last year I might've liked living close to home, but it's been good to branch out and sorta get away from familiar places. Not that I don't miss everybody, and I wish it snowed here. But still nice.
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Exactly! People are always telling me that vacation is supposed to be enjoyable and that I should be out in the water, but I find sitting with a book in nice weather to be much more relaxing. When I went to Mexico with the Alvis family, they were constantly worried that I wasn't enjoying myself, but I had a great time! Reading without having the threat of needing to do something else is just so peaceful.
That's true. Well, I look forward to seeing their developments in the future!
I guess orthodontic schools are just exceptionally small. The dental school is decent-sized (maybe 70?), but the orthodontics part afterwards is brutal. A very cutthroat kind of environment when only 2 people can make it in from all the applications.
Snow is probably the thing I miss most. I liked going on walks with my dog in the snow. And it snowed here the other day! First time since I've been here. And it was very pretty, though I could not appreciate it as I was too busy running around campus and turning in papers and crap. It was just cold then.
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I know, right? When I went on this cruise with my family, they wondered why I'd rather be sitting on the deck with a book than exploring the ship. I did a little of both, but found it more relaxing to just sit there and read. It is more enjoyable when you know there is nothing else that has to be done!
So you want to go into orthodontics specifically? I hear knowing somebody in the field who can give you a glowing recommendation is the best way to insure getting in (my childhood friend's dad was an orthodontist). 70 still sounds pretty small too me, too.
You actually got to see the snow! For the most part, it just gets cold here (like upper 30s or low 40s), enough to be too cold for the beach, but not cold enough for snow. Then again, walking across campus in the snow would be rather difficult, being on a hill and all. Hmm, I wonder if they would cancel classes if it snowed.
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Haha I did exactly the same thing on our cruise! My cousin had to take pictures of it and post them on Facebook.
Yeah, we have three or four close friends who are orthodontists, which should help out with getting into Ortho school.
Yeah, that's how the weather usually is here lately. Though it's been really nice the last few days. Which irks me because I have to sit in at the computer and do homework and crap. But I was very thrilled to get a tiny bit of snow! One of my friends is an exchange student from Venezuela and he had never seen snow before, so he was rather excited.
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Hehe, I was in charge of the camera on our cruise, so nothing like that happened, but I did manage to leave the ship for a few excursions. I think I still preferred sitting on the deck with my book, though. The ship was nicer than the port towns we stopped in.
Oh wow yeah that should definitely help things. Have you considered interning with any of them?
Yeah, whenever it's particularly nice out, I find it difficult to stay at my computer and work. Then again, I don't know how much of that time I actually spend 'working' so much as procrastinating. It's always cool to see people excited about snow! It reminds me that it's actually not all that common. And then of course here the weather is the same year-round, so you'd hardly believe it was winter at all.
Might be coming home for spring break, though. Maybe I'll get to see some snow then.
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