i’ve spent some time each night since we’ve been back getting organized. i’ve organized all of my photography files, at least by year, and put a new snapshot on my server. i’m starting to burn copies of the backups on to DVD, and i just got in the new portable hard drive. backups are good. the more i do my research and want to get more “pro” with everything, i see the value of backups and organization in not only the files, but the process, resources, and equipment, too.

it’s starting to flow into other areas now, this whole organization thing. i can see the glass of the desk in my office at home. things are finding their way back to their places. i went through the box of magazines i have to catch up on and put into recycling the ones that were irrelevant and outdate and made it easier for me to identify the oldest of the issues i did keep. i organized the units from my photography class, and have the bundle ready for the unit on which i am currently working so that i can jump back in to it.

it feels good. the honeymoon put a lot of things in perspective, and i’m glad the flight back didn’t squash my good intentions. i’ve even started making lists again, which got really long, really fast. but it seemed to make things easier when i actually stayed on top of them, and they still work great at work. i added a photography project to the list that i want to work on, on top of working on the honeymoon “keepers”. i’ve set a few goals for myself in a few different areas, too. they should be realistic, and accomplishing them will give me a rewarding feeling to build bigger goals. perspective is good. realizing it’s a journey and enjoying the trip is better.

a quick post tonight, but i wanted to at least write something to keep with last nights post. i’m headed to bed early, for tomorrow i shall rise and get on an early flight to texas. i’ve actually never been there before, so it’s a new place to see, even if just for a short trip. i think i’ve gotten to used to not traveling in the past 3 weeks that i haven’t had to go anywhere, speaking of routines. it should be alright, though. we’ll be meeting a vendor that i’ve needed an “in” to for awhile, and i get to see some colleagues from the east coast that i don’t get to see much anymore. oh, and i started learning a new song. all in all, a crazy busy day, a short, early evening, and tomorrow is a whole different animal (i’m flying frontier!).

the mrs. and i were talking about actors and actresses tonight…the batman preview came on, and she mentioned that christian bale was one of “those” actors of our generation. for some reason, christian bale to me is always american psycho, even thought i really liked batman begins. in case you were wondering, joaquin phoenix and adrien brody were the other ones i came up with.

when we were talking about actresses, she came up with cate blanchett (who, honestly, i couldn’t name 5 movies she was in), and we both agreed on kate winslet. i mentioned one of the first movies i saw kate in was jude, based on “jude the obscure” by thomas hardy. since everything is on youtube nowadays, i found a preview for the movie.

ok, not really. but i’m sitting in my hotel room in PA, trying to finish up a few things so i can go to bed. but gladiator is on HBO (and a “behind the scenes magician show” talking about “catching a bullet in your teeth”). i’m not a russell crowe fan, but that movie is awesome and very distracting. ok, and now there is a reality show on the CW evidently entitled “farmer wants a wife”, which i watched for about 2 minutes until i looked up the title.

in any case, i wanted to write something, even if insignificant. it’s a good start for making it a part of my routine, i think. but we’ll see how long it lasts. still, i’m sitting all alone in a hotel room a thousand miles aware from where i want to be and who i want to be with, and i wanted a distraction that wouldn’t kill brain cells.

writing definitely beats a reality show about a farmer that wants a new wife. and gladiator might possibly be the best movie ever.

go to them.

so, i think i made a decision which, for those of you that know me, is so unlike me.

i woke up this morning severely early due to being sick. instead of trying to go back to bed (i couldn’t, even if i wanted to), i pondered. well, i surfed, really. i got an e-mail from one of my best friends about the latest picture i put up on kettlepot. it was really the first picture i’ve put up in awhile, and she said some nice things about it. i also talked to one of my photographer friends this week about my lack of motivation, direction, and all that. she made a good comment that i think, in some regards, applies directly to me. i feel like a lot of my good shots are luck instead of technique or skill. the old saying “i’d rather be lucky than good” does have its merits. sometimes a great shot is about luck; being in the right place at the right time, or timing something that you capture a shot that’s 1 in a million.

i’ve read my share of books, and blogs, and articles. i’ve talked to other photographers, and experimented. but i think what i need are some actual classes. i’ve been looking at some online classes, mostly because of the travel i’ve been doing and my life schedule. i don’t want to have another excuse to not take a class, i guess. my camera is with me at all times, even when i go out east, so i think an online class offers the best opportunity to continue with the photography in spite of life opportunities. my plan has always been that if i take this class, which covers a wide variety of topics and photography types, that i would then (hopefully) pick an area to focus on and take appropriate local courses here to advance my skill. sounds like a solid plan.

the other thing i’ve been struggling with is upgrading my camera, but the one i want, the Nikon D300, is $1,800. my saving grace has been that amazon didn’t have it in stock, which changed today. they do.

the perfect storm? extra money came in this month.

so, here i sit, way too early in the morning. i’ve been saving up for the course, the camera, and a new guitar. i’m trying to rationalize everything in my head, weigh the pros and cons. it’s enough to make my already churning stomach spin out of control. and then i rationalized it.

i think the course should come first. my camera is a decent, solid camera that is fine for what i am doing (or not doing, as the case may be). i can’t really justify spending the money on a new camera when i don’t really use the current one. really, the only push for me to do it would be because the new camera would do way better in lower light situations, which happens to be where i’ve been shooting mostly lately, and that’s the shows for kerri’s school. but the shots i’m taking are fine. i have two fast, low light lenses i can use. and, realistically, if i bought that camera and only used it to take pictures of the shows, i’d be disappointed in myself.

next will come a new guitar, i believe. we’ve been working on note reading and more classical guitar work, so i think it makes sense to get a reasonable classical guitar to help me work towards that. i guess as the things i work on get more complicated, having the classical guitar will make it easier.

the extra funds this month will then help pay for some of the wedding bills that we’re piling up, which will definitely help me sleep better. then, maybe sometime in the spring or summer, i can look at upgrading the camera. by then, i should be deep into the course work (if not done, assuming i get highly motivated) and have a higher technique to luck ratio.

it seems all logical written out. not bad for some early morning decisions.

i hate being sick.

i don’t get sick very often, and when i do i think my body does a pretty good job fighting it off. but it still sucks. the timing of this illness couldn’t have been worse, either. my guys from out east are in for a visit, so my plans for a team dinner and a vendor dinner were foiled. luckily, those events still went off, but i wasn’t there.  i did manage to go to work and get the stuff done that i needed to (and hopefully minimizing the potential for spreading my bug, although i read somewhere that i was probably contagious before i showed  any symptoms…still, it’s the thought that counts). i probably stayed too long today, but i think it was for a good cause.

i’m actually sitting on the couch right now, trying to do too many things, so i figured i would do none of them and write for a bit. and watch hockey. so far the lightning haven’t blown it like they usually do, and the vancouver game just started so they haven’t had an opportunity to lose yet. oh, speaking of hockey, i checked out my old teams website tonight. it looks great (except the old, freaky picture of me)! i miss playing and am trying to figure out if i want to fit it back in my life next season, although that’s unlikely with the wedding. and the 1,000 other things i want to do. still, if i can work the schedule, i think i’d like to.

and, speaking of wedding. i still haven’t made an appointment with a photographer, although it’s a work in progress. i did check out a few more websites tonight, and have a few more lined up to look at tonight. i need to focus my priorities and stop making excuses for not making the appointment. tomorrow.

i need to update the website, too.

ok, enough about all the things i need to do. it would become the never-ending post.

it’s going to be a busy few days. i got a violation letter from the HOA because i haven’t taken the christmas lights down yet. between travel and all that, it was a low priority, but i’ll take care of it saturday. i think it’s supposed to be nice out. we have an engagement party on sunday, and i think some folks from work will come up, so that makes me very happy (unless, of course, they get sick between now and then, and then i can only blame myself. and them, for getting sick).  then on monday, i’m flying east for the week. it will likely be my last trip for a few weeks. kerri and i are going to florida in march, just in time (hopefully) to see my friend’s new baby, or to see her right before she has it, or to be there when she has it so we can babysit their precious daughter. we’ll see a hockey game with mom, and spend some (noisy) QT with the new puppies. We’ll probably head to Orlando for a bit, too. I think I’ve earned a free night at a hotel with my Marriott points, so there is something to be said for the travel.

a light night of writing, i guess. no deep thoughts, no keen observations. it was an eventful day, but one that i’m trying to process, i guess. it was also work related, and i don’t / won’t post about that stuff. it is what it is.

oh, speaking of. i know a few folks that hate that saying. but there was a brief segment on npr talking about the saying. i looked for a link but didn’t find one, but it was a light story talking about the phrase, where it might have come from, and how it’s used.

and on that note, it’s back to photographer websites. vancouver scored and my insides are churning in celebration. stupid being sick. boo. still…

it is what it is

as always, i’ve been meaning to write for awhile. i’ve had all these (good) ideas that i’ve been wanting to write about but didn’t take notes and now, after a very long day, my head can’t recall what it once thought was the most important thing in the world.  i’ll work backward and see how far i get…

today we took the ski train up to winter park for some mountain fun. it was actually planned for my birthday, and it was a great present. the ski train itself is worth it, but being up there with kerri and two of my best friends makes it even better. it was a good day, though. it was a cold and we were reminded we need to upgrade kerri’s gear, but we made the most of it. my legs felt good, and my friends, who hadn’t been up there in over a year, did great. i brought the camera but didn’t use it; too cold, too overcast, but more on that later.  this paragraph already had a few things that sparked my failing memory.

my birthday. the big 3-4. i guess i’m destined to prefix all my birthdays from now on “the big”. i still don’t do birthdays, but k had the house decorated when i got home from work, which was awesome. we drank some wine, had dinner, and watched hockey. what more could i ask for? she got me a midi controller keyboard, which was way to expensive but that was very in line with what we’ve been doing musically lately. what a weird thing to say…”what we’ve been doing musically”. a couple of guitar lessons and all of a sudden i’m a musician.

speaking of music… the guitar lessons are going very well. we’re switching back to more classical work so i can focus on my note reading. i’m also continuing to read my music theory book, so things are starting to (somewhat) make sense.  a few weeks ago, kerri and i were playing with a keyboard and she was teaching me a few things, then we went for a few nights with me working on my songs (i have 3 “covers” that i play and (try to) sing) and her playing keyboard accompaniment.  music will always fascinate me, i think. it’s such a combination of so many things…theory, math, formulas, patterns, creativity, passion, soul, everything. i’m not nearly as advanced as i need to be to do the things i want to do, but i have some cool tools (including my birthday present) with which to experiment.

i actually took a few pictures yesterday, too. as i said, i took the camera with us on the train today, which was big for me. i didn’t use it, but it was there. yesterday we went with some friends to an acquaintance’s photography show, and it inspired me a bit. we got to talk to the photographer, and i actually sounded like i knew what i was talking about, which made me feel pretty good. i put two new pictures on kettlepot, which are the first new pictures i think i put up since i redid the website.

a new family guy is on tonight, so i’m totally distracted.

finito!

another busy couple of days…

last night the management team went to the avalanche game in the corporate suite for team building. the avs got shut out 4-0, but just being at any hockey game is a good night for me.

tonight i worked late, followed by a good workout, and now watching the taped ufc fights. some friends and i got tickets for the ufc fight night that will be in broomfield in april, so that will be pretty exciting. i know i should be saving, but i’m generally pretty good about not buying things for myself, so i gave myself permission to buy it (and asked for permission from k, too, of course).

it was actually a pretty busy day, both at work and with personal stuff. mom’s dog had puppies the other day, so i have to do some updates to her website. i think we’re set to go to florida at the end of march. conveniently enough, there are a few tampa bay lightning games that week, so we’ll take mom to one. i think we’ll use my marriott points to get a hotel one night in orlando, too, and maybe go to epcot or something. i guess between that and the frequent flyer miles, something good will come out of all my travel. i’m headed east again next week, speaking of travel.

i don’t really have a point tonight. i want to get back in to the habit of writing, so here i am. i wrote a little this morning, too. i had a weird dream last night, and i woke up and wrote bits and pieces of it that i could remember, making minor edits as i went along. i don’t know if i’ll ever do anything with it, but like getting back in to working out, i want it to become a routine part of my day. although i’m pretty sure i couldn’t handle doing the new workout routine twice in one day. at least, not yet.

two of my best friends became parents on saturday. it’s so weird. i can’t imagine how they feel with this new life that has become part of the family. from these two people, their love and commitment, a third person is created.

it was an amazing thing to visit them on sunday. it was kind of overwhelming, which i guess is a term i’ve been throwing around way too much lately. but it really was. it was incredible to see my friends, who i had seen the day before, holding their child. and everyone was healthy, and everyone was happy, and there was this child, not 24 hours old, in their arms. and i got to hold him, this tiny little person who had not been out in the world long enough to even have the earth rotate once on its axis. me, i’ve seen more than 12,000 revolutions. right now, raj is working on his 2nd.

and now that his existence has begun, time will tell what becomes of him. he has a great family, and probably couldn’t ask for better people to have as parents. the extended family are going to be and are capable of being very positive influences, as well. and us, their friends. 2 days old. a lifetime to go.

usually, if i need an outlet, i either write or i take pictures; rarely do i do both. tonight was a night for both. i will try to get a picture or two up tonight on the main kettlepot site.

i have been reading some photography related articles, and i jotted down a few projects that i wanted to try and equipment i would need. after work, i grabbed my list and went shopping.

one stop was to the grocery store to pick up flowers for one of the photography projects. i walked in to the store, executing the traditional “head-nod-acknowledgement” to the young man gathering the carts. as i passed him to enter the store, i heard him talking but thought nothing of it.

having completed my shopping, i started back to the car. the same young man that i had seen earlier passed me and stood at the front door. he surveyed the lot, mumbling to himself, and darted right. as i walked back to my car, i found myself studying him. i had not noticed initially, but it became more obvious that he was different.

he hurried to the cart bin, collected the carts, and brought them in to the store. he quickly exited the store and headed to the next cart bin, repeating his tasks.

here was thing young man doing this amazing job on what most of us would thing is a very simple task. it really looked like he was giving everything he had to do his job. i thought about my office today, about the people that i work with. i thought about myself, and how i approach my job every day. i am pretty sure that the attention that this young man was giving to his job would have put shame to the attention i put towards mine. i think i have a pretty good work ethic, but sometimes, like everyone i think, i get distracted.

i think we take a lot of things for granted. we take our jobs for granted so much so that we find ourselves focusing on and complaining about things that do not matter. there are a lot of people that are unemployed. there are actually people out there, like this young man, that feel lucky for just being able to work at all.

i do not know why i was so fascinated. and as i read what i wrote, it does not do justice to my sense of wonder at the whole situation. but i just felt that i had to write something about this young man, and at least acknowledge how fortunate i am, even if i do not appreciate it.