See well?

In Ann Arbor, I watched the first season of America's Next Top Model with sort of glee. Let's see the kind of hoops these bimbos have to jump through to get into the fashion circus.

But I didn't expect Elyse. Elyse, the oh-so-self-aware pre-med waif. Elyse who dared to talk about human behavior and facial symmetry with Janice Dickinson (it flew across her head, naturally). Elyse who would point and laugh and complain about the other girls like the zoo animals they are. Elyse, who promised, upon being eliminated (third place not so bad what) "You won't see me again. When I leave, I'll be gone."

She's not exactly gone.

She's deferred med-school and is trying her luck at modelling. Shock! Horror! But I forgive her just for all the adventures she has, the neighbors she had to put up with, the friends she makes and all the fabulous pictures she takes. And her kick-ass pink converse.

My favorite pictures are the one with the rock and staircase in Chile's Museum of Contemporary Arts, and anyone of her in mid-air. Read through her archives for funny accounts of her experience in Hong Kong (a Giordano billboard! Haha! Now I know where they get all those mat salleh models) And an email about KL's modelling world is positively enlightening.

It's amazing the things she does with a tripod and a self-timer. She made me want to get a tripod. Not that I would take pictures of myself. Of course I would. Hell yeah. I'm just as narcissistic as the next top model. I just won't put them up here.

But. Can you imagine me lugging around those long and cumbersome tripod everywhere only to perch my itty bitty Nikon on top of it? Oh the incongruity! Could always get those mini-tripods but that would mean sacrificing height instead. I wonder if there are any standard-size tripods that could shrink down to about a foot or something. One of those telescope-y kind. Never mind. This doesn't concern you.