Well the current crop of holidays are passing us by and for once, it hasn't been the deep hole of depression this time of the year usually brings me. I'm not mr super happy either, but I've been feeling fine as a whole. This year I gave quite a bit, not as much as I would have liked too, but good amount none the less. The last month had been good for me concerning all the crap I dropped on ebay and the continuation of unemployment too. I also spent part of the last month digitally copying most of my middle sister's family photo collection, so I was able to make new prints for some of the family from them and also made quite a number of other prints from what I had shot of them this last year. One of the things I had hoped to do was to make large number of prints for friends, but honestly couldn't really find the time to wade threw all my photos from the last year and see what was printable. Maybe next year? My other big give, was also a receive of sorts.
Earlier this week I was checking the photo section of the local craiglists when I spied a listing for not one, but two Kowa medium format camera's and 4 lenses. Now for a number of years I had wanted a Kowa and had actively looked for one, but found my Mamiya M645 first and settled on it. Anyway, the price for the pair and lenses was stupid low, so I dropped the guy an email asking if he'd part with em for well, even lower. I got a reply back the next day he'd take offer if no one else was willing to pay the amount he wanted for them after a day or two. Fast forward to the 23rd and an email back saying they were mine. Of course I don't need two camera's so after picking them both up on the 24th I shot a roll on one of them to make sure it worked and then took a quick trip across town and gave that away to a friend of mine as an Xmass present (He's been borrowing medium format camera's or using a Holga off an on for the last two years when he needs to do portraiture). Anyway, they both have found good homes!
Happy New Years folks!
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Grade Inflation
So I passed my capstone class. I actually passed it with flying colors and perfect score. In all honesty, I don't deserve it. I think maybe a A- or B+ for the Capstone itself, presentation was solid B and my participation was another solid B. How I pulled off an A+ is beyond me and reading my professors feedback was useless.
Per proff smith concerning my presentation: "Very nice job, Jeff. You had obviously spent a lot of time preparing this, and it showed. I liked your use of notes throughout, which was efficient and unobtrusive. You gave a very interesting picture of your development in the program and what you are now prepared to do. You presented your artifacts well and made good connections between theory and practice. Well done." - in reality I wrote it up two days before the presentation and then rewrote it in class based on the other presentation that were being given. I only shared two of my outcomes, but was fairly complete on them both. I was well under the 10 minutes max time too. I can say that I sat through at least 5-9 presentations that were worse then mine, about 10 that were in the same ball park and another 10 that were much better.
Per proff smith concerning my actualy portfolio: "This really does look good, Jeff. I like all the quirky little pictures that you can miss if you’re not paying attention. The content is solid, and the pictures add a little flip for those on the lookout, but they’re never intrusive. Nice job." No shit, I wrote up 3x the amount that the average person did for this assignment because this dumbass did such a poor job describing what was expected on this stupid ass assignment. I'm perplexed for not being knocked down on this assignment for typos (I always have them being dyslexic).
http://filmphotoarchivist.net/Capstone01.html
Honeslty I'm glad it's over. I'm hitting the gym daily to deal with all the weight gain I've added in the last year. Should take me quite a while to get back into shape again. Ugh.
Per proff smith concerning my presentation: "Very nice job, Jeff. You had obviously spent a lot of time preparing this, and it showed. I liked your use of notes throughout, which was efficient and unobtrusive. You gave a very interesting picture of your development in the program and what you are now prepared to do. You presented your artifacts well and made good connections between theory and practice. Well done." - in reality I wrote it up two days before the presentation and then rewrote it in class based on the other presentation that were being given. I only shared two of my outcomes, but was fairly complete on them both. I was well under the 10 minutes max time too. I can say that I sat through at least 5-9 presentations that were worse then mine, about 10 that were in the same ball park and another 10 that were much better.
Per proff smith concerning my actualy portfolio: "This really does look good, Jeff. I like all the quirky little pictures that you can miss if you’re not paying attention. The content is solid, and the pictures add a little flip for those on the lookout, but they’re never intrusive. Nice job." No shit, I wrote up 3x the amount that the average person did for this assignment because this dumbass did such a poor job describing what was expected on this stupid ass assignment. I'm perplexed for not being knocked down on this assignment for typos (I always have them being dyslexic).
http://filmphotoarchivist.net/Capstone01.html
Honeslty I'm glad it's over. I'm hitting the gym daily to deal with all the weight gain I've added in the last year. Should take me quite a while to get back into shape again. Ugh.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Boot straps
So my unemployment ended last week and I like many others are waiting at this point. I've exhausted my main benefits, but should be eligible for an extension at this point. And by eligible I mean the current congressional broo ha ha needs to be completed. Oddly enough, I'm fine for the moment. I've been saving for the last couple of months and with the help of ebay have been able to put some money aside for this. I should also be able to afford xmass without it sitting on my credit cards. I'm super lucky. Most folks in my position are not. I do hope that for for these holidays, that they survive all of this.
Happy Holidays folks!
Happy Holidays folks!
Monday, December 6, 2010
Tis the Season . . .
December is upon us again and like many, this time of the year I tend either to be sick, depressed on some occasions, sick and depressed. I've been this way most of my life this time of the year between Thanksgiving and the new year. This year, lots going on, but not enough going on either. (note, this is long and full of self righteous drivel)
This year has been a duzy of course, having lost my job just over a year ago. I've never been unemployed this long in my life. I can't see the end of the tunnel too well concerning work, and as depressing as this is, I still have it much better then most folks. I have friends who have been unemployed for more then 2 years now. The tunnel is most respects has closed and I can't fanthum how they are handling it. Yet, it still depresses me.
Grad school is technically done too. I've spent the last year taking classes and really wondering if this is what I should be doing. Actually in theory it was the best thing I could do. I remember just over a year ago deeply hoping to be laid off so I could more easily finish school. I think I waned grad school to liberate me from where I was. It hasn't. For instance I spent the last three months doing a practicum at a local art school library working with a former classmate of mine. She's been working there for the last year and half on a part time basis, and they still won't make her full time. I worked my ass off knowing their was no way I'd have a chance to getting hired on. Now add two more classes and this last semester has been fully stressed out event for me. My neck has been stiff and hurting most of that time from the stress and burn out. I stopped hitting the gym as I couldn't always find the time and then easily wouldn't make the time to go. My pressure based eating hasn't been easy either and of course I've ballooned in weight too. Much of normal clothing isn't fitting too well either. ugh.
Anyway, I started back at the gym last week at least. I've mostly been hitting the walking machine to get my muscles working again. I tried using the stair climber, but I nearly blew my knee out on it. I'll wait a another week or two before hitting it. I started swimming again too (by start I mean, literally just yesterday). I have a nice big hole to get myself out of concerning my health right now too.
What else, I have a birthday coming up in a couple of days. No thanks, I'd almost prefer to skip it this year. I think I've told the family no celebration for me. I blew off going out to a combined December birthday party on Friday too. Again no thanks. This depression makes my social skills nearly non-existent. The only cure for this is working on my social skills, but most of the time I either don't want to discuss or if I do, it's toward more depressing topics. Both make me feel like dead weight most of the time where I force myself to be social. Most folks pick up on this quickly too, and I can tell some of are avoiding me because of it. I don't blame em. I rarely find myself that amusing, fun or even informative to be around most for more then an hour at a time.
Anyway, the last three months has been killer on my psychy. I've been irritable and irritated to no end. For one class it's been killer on me since the proff is complete shit head who has yet to post any grades for the class. I have no idea what so ever how I've been doing in it either. Emails with him have not answered most of my questions, so I tried planning for the worst and did about 3x the amount of work I would normally have done (and would note, 3x what the rest of the class has done as far as our major assignment). I also had to travel to Denver for this class and give a presentation, I over wrote it and rewrote it in class as I watched everyone else do their presentation. I cut about 60% out so I wasn't reading from a script either. Again no grade here, no idea how well I've done or even if I'm going to pass. I know I will, but fucker should have posted grades on at least the major assignment weeks ago, or at least presentation grades, since it's been 2-3 weeks since we did the fucking thing.
Anyway, I'm bored as shit now. I'm in my last week of unemployment under the current first extension too. in some ways it was nice to hear of the extension passing. Though I had prepared for this and put money away, I wished Obama had gone to the matt with the Republicans on this and taxes. Fuckers need to learn what happens when you don't compromise on this stuff if you ask me. SO it looks like I have another 6 months of unemployment possibly coming to me. I'd much rather have a job.
Anyway this is all for now. Happy Holidays.
This year has been a duzy of course, having lost my job just over a year ago. I've never been unemployed this long in my life. I can't see the end of the tunnel too well concerning work, and as depressing as this is, I still have it much better then most folks. I have friends who have been unemployed for more then 2 years now. The tunnel is most respects has closed and I can't fanthum how they are handling it. Yet, it still depresses me.
Grad school is technically done too. I've spent the last year taking classes and really wondering if this is what I should be doing. Actually in theory it was the best thing I could do. I remember just over a year ago deeply hoping to be laid off so I could more easily finish school. I think I waned grad school to liberate me from where I was. It hasn't. For instance I spent the last three months doing a practicum at a local art school library working with a former classmate of mine. She's been working there for the last year and half on a part time basis, and they still won't make her full time. I worked my ass off knowing their was no way I'd have a chance to getting hired on. Now add two more classes and this last semester has been fully stressed out event for me. My neck has been stiff and hurting most of that time from the stress and burn out. I stopped hitting the gym as I couldn't always find the time and then easily wouldn't make the time to go. My pressure based eating hasn't been easy either and of course I've ballooned in weight too. Much of normal clothing isn't fitting too well either. ugh.
Anyway, I started back at the gym last week at least. I've mostly been hitting the walking machine to get my muscles working again. I tried using the stair climber, but I nearly blew my knee out on it. I'll wait a another week or two before hitting it. I started swimming again too (by start I mean, literally just yesterday). I have a nice big hole to get myself out of concerning my health right now too.
What else, I have a birthday coming up in a couple of days. No thanks, I'd almost prefer to skip it this year. I think I've told the family no celebration for me. I blew off going out to a combined December birthday party on Friday too. Again no thanks. This depression makes my social skills nearly non-existent. The only cure for this is working on my social skills, but most of the time I either don't want to discuss or if I do, it's toward more depressing topics. Both make me feel like dead weight most of the time where I force myself to be social. Most folks pick up on this quickly too, and I can tell some of are avoiding me because of it. I don't blame em. I rarely find myself that amusing, fun or even informative to be around most for more then an hour at a time.
Anyway, the last three months has been killer on my psychy. I've been irritable and irritated to no end. For one class it's been killer on me since the proff is complete shit head who has yet to post any grades for the class. I have no idea what so ever how I've been doing in it either. Emails with him have not answered most of my questions, so I tried planning for the worst and did about 3x the amount of work I would normally have done (and would note, 3x what the rest of the class has done as far as our major assignment). I also had to travel to Denver for this class and give a presentation, I over wrote it and rewrote it in class as I watched everyone else do their presentation. I cut about 60% out so I wasn't reading from a script either. Again no grade here, no idea how well I've done or even if I'm going to pass. I know I will, but fucker should have posted grades on at least the major assignment weeks ago, or at least presentation grades, since it's been 2-3 weeks since we did the fucking thing.
Anyway, I'm bored as shit now. I'm in my last week of unemployment under the current first extension too. in some ways it was nice to hear of the extension passing. Though I had prepared for this and put money away, I wished Obama had gone to the matt with the Republicans on this and taxes. Fuckers need to learn what happens when you don't compromise on this stuff if you ask me. SO it looks like I have another 6 months of unemployment possibly coming to me. I'd much rather have a job.
Anyway this is all for now. Happy Holidays.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Reaction
Yesterday, my esteemed professor posted the "Answers to All Your Questions: I have purposely held back on answering many of the minutiae of your questions for the simple reason I wanted you to figure things out for yourselves."
In all honestly I wanted to kick this ass in the teeth after reading this. When people give me vague answers, it means they either don't know what they want, or the are clueless fucking dicks. Because I couldn't get an answers to most of my questions, I ended up doing considerably more work then anyone else did on class. I wanted to cover all of my options and write at least 3x the mount that most of class mates did. Thanks, for the extra stress and waste of my time. Anyway . . ..
I am done. At least I think I am, I won't know till I see my grades. Anyway, today's capstone presentations went off without much fan fair. I was 5th from the very end, so as people did their presentations I rewrote what my own. I started off with 8 cards (many two sided) filled with facts about me and my capstone. As of this morning it took me 9 minutes to give my presentation. I knew I needed to cut it down and after a few presentations it was easy to figure out what needed to be cut. Instead of talking about 4 artifacts and long introduction, I cut it down to 4 cards by nixing 2 artifacts and nixing nearly all of my intro. As the day went on, I rewrote the intro and expanded on my 2 two artifacts and broke it down so I wouldn't be reading much off cards. Keep it natural and hit the points. Decent presentation, but I could have shown off my website a little bit more. My fellow presenters passed me the following notes:
"Nice touch to all the film strip graphics."
"Thanks for traveling a long way to do your presentation! Sounds like your are going to have a successful career in library sciences".
"Congrats! to [sic] bad there isn't a voodoo doughnut. You deserve the bucket!"
"Like your tie" Bibliography was one of favorite projects too" Portfolio program great way ti integrate your information skills."
"Kudos on building your own (web) site! I was going to try but ran out of time. Great job! Thanks for sharing your capstone."
"Interesting background and how it led to this program. Thoughtful content on your artifacts."
"I really like your tie" <---- At least three feedback notes indicated this. My tie, originally from Montgomery Wards is fucking awesome.
In all honestly I wanted to kick this ass in the teeth after reading this. When people give me vague answers, it means they either don't know what they want, or the are clueless fucking dicks. Because I couldn't get an answers to most of my questions, I ended up doing considerably more work then anyone else did on class. I wanted to cover all of my options and write at least 3x the mount that most of class mates did. Thanks, for the extra stress and waste of my time. Anyway . . ..
I am done. At least I think I am, I won't know till I see my grades. Anyway, today's capstone presentations went off without much fan fair. I was 5th from the very end, so as people did their presentations I rewrote what my own. I started off with 8 cards (many two sided) filled with facts about me and my capstone. As of this morning it took me 9 minutes to give my presentation. I knew I needed to cut it down and after a few presentations it was easy to figure out what needed to be cut. Instead of talking about 4 artifacts and long introduction, I cut it down to 4 cards by nixing 2 artifacts and nixing nearly all of my intro. As the day went on, I rewrote the intro and expanded on my 2 two artifacts and broke it down so I wouldn't be reading much off cards. Keep it natural and hit the points. Decent presentation, but I could have shown off my website a little bit more. My fellow presenters passed me the following notes:
"Nice touch to all the film strip graphics."
"Thanks for traveling a long way to do your presentation! Sounds like your are going to have a successful career in library sciences".
"Congrats! to [sic] bad there isn't a voodoo doughnut. You deserve the bucket!"
"Like your tie" Bibliography was one of favorite projects too" Portfolio program great way ti integrate your information skills."
"Kudos on building your own (web) site! I was going to try but ran out of time. Great job! Thanks for sharing your capstone."
"Interesting background and how it led to this program. Thoughtful content on your artifacts."
"I really like your tie" <---- At least three feedback notes indicated this. My tie, originally from Montgomery Wards is fucking awesome.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Over Easy
I'm about 4 hours from boarding a plane and heading off to Denver for my very last class. I'll be giving presentation on most everything I've learned in Grad school, it's what they call Capstone. I generally think of it as a easy out for not doing thesis, that having been said, I think I've spent more time and effort on this stupid thing then I ever would have done on thesis. Plus it doesn't help that I've had probably the 3rd worst teacher/proff for this class to boot. OK, maybe worst isn't the right word here, maybe useless works far better? He never answers the questions I've had for him or when he does, it's usually useless information. THis class has been far more stress then it ever should have been, especially when you consider that it's a one unit class, that's had as much work to it as my current three unit classes for some dumb, and I do mean dumb reason. Anyway, I'll be in Denver starting tomorrow and coming back on Monday morning.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
So it's Been a While . . .
I haven't made a post in a while, probably since I really haven't had anything to add to the discussion or that my life hasn't been that interesting. Anyway, here's what's up.
I'm almost done with grad school! I have small paper and presentation to do in Denver, and then I'm done. DONE I tell you!? Now what? Well not a lot, I'm looking at jobs in the library field and not finding much. The close to home jobs are currently a no. No in the respect that either I'm not remotely qualified or I don't want to do it. I came close to applying for a job at Merylhurst, but then I remembered that I'd be working for the woman that I took cataloging with. She was possibly the second worst teacher I've had in the Emporia program. I ended up repeating the class and got an A. No way she'd hire me, and no way I'd work for her. I know, why waste our time applying.
In other news, instead of sitting around on Tuesday night and watching depressing election results, I took a trip to Bend Oregon and caught Billy Bragg play a pretty intimate show. Absolutely wonderful night and trip. Actually I hadn't really planned it this way, when I found out he was going to be in Oregon and playing locally I found out he was going to be playing at the local McMinnimin locals. I don't really enjoy this venue and at $72 plus fee's I was really turned off. Then I saw he was playing in Bend for $23 and no additional fee's. I've never been to Bend and it seemed perfect. It didn't hit me that it was going to be election night. The only down side I thought at the time was that Nevill Staple was suppose to open for Bragg here in Portland. I'd have liked catching Staple too. But after 3 hours of Bragg, his great song writing and cheeky humor, it was nearly perfect. Anyway, my only kick me moment was finding out that he was OK with photography and I left the M6 in the hotel room. I did have the cheap and old point and shoot that snuck in (even though I didn't have too). Photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/filmtwit/sets/72157625177144097/
I'm almost done with grad school! I have small paper and presentation to do in Denver, and then I'm done. DONE I tell you!? Now what? Well not a lot, I'm looking at jobs in the library field and not finding much. The close to home jobs are currently a no. No in the respect that either I'm not remotely qualified or I don't want to do it. I came close to applying for a job at Merylhurst, but then I remembered that I'd be working for the woman that I took cataloging with. She was possibly the second worst teacher I've had in the Emporia program. I ended up repeating the class and got an A. No way she'd hire me, and no way I'd work for her. I know, why waste our time applying.
In other news, instead of sitting around on Tuesday night and watching depressing election results, I took a trip to Bend Oregon and caught Billy Bragg play a pretty intimate show. Absolutely wonderful night and trip. Actually I hadn't really planned it this way, when I found out he was going to be in Oregon and playing locally I found out he was going to be playing at the local McMinnimin locals. I don't really enjoy this venue and at $72 plus fee's I was really turned off. Then I saw he was playing in Bend for $23 and no additional fee's. I've never been to Bend and it seemed perfect. It didn't hit me that it was going to be election night. The only down side I thought at the time was that Nevill Staple was suppose to open for Bragg here in Portland. I'd have liked catching Staple too. But after 3 hours of Bragg, his great song writing and cheeky humor, it was nearly perfect. Anyway, my only kick me moment was finding out that he was OK with photography and I left the M6 in the hotel room. I did have the cheap and old point and shoot that snuck in (even though I didn't have too). Photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/filmtwit/sets/72157625177144097/
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Debt, Loans and Being a Student
While I've carried debt before, I've actually never taken any student debt on. So now that I'm nearing completion of my MLIS will come out of this owning nothing. At the start of it, I was tempted to take on a bit of debt and rush the degree. Instead, I've worked full time (and for part of that time, more then full time) and either payed out of pocket on tuition, or was lucky to have my employer pick up most of the tab. For the last year, it's been out of pocket but I am still holding on in the green at the moment having just paid off the credit card (with the semester debt on it). I'm feeling home free in a lot of respects, but hearing co-workers and other students complain about their student debt is something.
That having been said, I want a job.
That having been said, I want a job.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Sum of It
Q) Why do we (or me) spend so much time looking back these days.
A) I would say because we're not happy with today and for me looking back give me an idea of what I like and where I've found it in the past.
That having been said, I'm not finding it that healthy to be always feel like I've been looking back. Though it has given me some good solace. Things were definitly not always any better or let alone good in the past. As such, those things I hope stay as such.
A) I would say because we're not happy with today and for me looking back give me an idea of what I like and where I've found it in the past.
That having been said, I'm not finding it that healthy to be always feel like I've been looking back. Though it has given me some good solace. Things were definitly not always any better or let alone good in the past. As such, those things I hope stay as such.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
News
So found out today that an old friend of mine was just named director of a major archive. Wow, part of me is very happy for her, part of me looks at my unemployed ass and wonders where I went wrong. Shit, maybe I should followed her off to Austin 10 years ago. Fuck, I hate Texas, never would have worked. OK, time to get on with life.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Old Story: Tricks of the trade
So over the weekend I was at a BBQ and was reminded of an old story I'll retell here.
YEars ago I started my professional career (or sorts) at a well known Archives. I had been identifying some old Hammer or maybe it Ealing film from the early 50's that Republic had acquired and then donated to the Archives years later. The film itself was original B&W negative, but Republic had decided to recut new titles into the film for some odd reason. Anyway, as I'm winding threw the film in question the new titles are easily identifiable as safety based film from 1954. But the actual original negative film only has "Kodak - France" printed on it. No year, no identifiable "Nitrate" or "Safety" on it at all. Even after checking each cut I hoped they might have changed stock. No such luck.
So based on what skills I had, I know that you have to be careful with films from the early 1950s as this was a transitional period. Even if you can trace the film title to a film that was finished in let's say 1955, you have to check ever part of the film because the production might have used older stock which could be nitrate based. The film stock feels thicker and more durable, which can possibly be nitrate as the early diacitate safety stocks tend to be thinner and more pliable.
That having been said, this isn't a sure fired way to identify nitrate. There's really only one way to really identify nitrate if you don't have etch coding, that is you need to break out a nitrate test kit and well, burn some if it. In order to test it of course you need to destroy a small piece of the it and this being original negative, well I'm just an assistant archivist and really shouldn't be tearing apart original negative. Plus, the head and tail end of the reel are slugged with safety duped titles. I can't tear a piece from the end to start where it won't be missed. But I'm pretty sure nitrate, but I just don't know. Worse of all, my boss is out of town so I can't get him to OK from him and I'm not comfortable just doing it myself. So I go looking for help and I know the expertise is still here in the building to make this call. So I go looking for someone in Preservation department as they deal with stuff like this every day.
A quick trip down the hall and I can make out the head of the department is in his office talking to the Feature film archivist. At this point I should point out I'm not going to name any names here, but the head of preservation department is a world renoun person here, while the feature film archivist is a nearly complete windbag that I've rarely ever seen work, let alone ever touch a piece of film in the two years I've been working at the archive. His only real call to fame is having played a small bit part in a really fun film where he beaten by gang of Mods with a baseball bats. Anyway, I knock on the door and ask for some help. Both come out the film bench I'm working at and look at the film elements. Mr Preservation winds the film and is as dumb founded as I am about it's true nature. After 5 minutes or so, he throws his hands up and walks away. This leaves me with Mr Windbag, who tells me wind to the end titles. So I do so, and point out that they are dupes and identified as safety based film. Mr windbag reach over met and promptly rips a 2-3 foot section of film from the end of the original negative where it meets the dupes titles from the Oneg. I am stunned, perfectly stunned. Mr Windbag tells met follow him outside where to lights not small section of this 2-3 foot of original negative, but lights it all. Guess what, it's Nitrate. I'm told to get it out of the safety area and lock in a vault at that point.
What I learned. Just because someone has a big title and advanced degree, doesn't mean they know shit.
YEars ago I started my professional career (or sorts) at a well known Archives. I had been identifying some old Hammer or maybe it Ealing film from the early 50's that Republic had acquired and then donated to the Archives years later. The film itself was original B&W negative, but Republic had decided to recut new titles into the film for some odd reason. Anyway, as I'm winding threw the film in question the new titles are easily identifiable as safety based film from 1954. But the actual original negative film only has "Kodak - France" printed on it. No year, no identifiable "Nitrate" or "Safety" on it at all. Even after checking each cut I hoped they might have changed stock. No such luck.
So based on what skills I had, I know that you have to be careful with films from the early 1950s as this was a transitional period. Even if you can trace the film title to a film that was finished in let's say 1955, you have to check ever part of the film because the production might have used older stock which could be nitrate based. The film stock feels thicker and more durable, which can possibly be nitrate as the early diacitate safety stocks tend to be thinner and more pliable.
That having been said, this isn't a sure fired way to identify nitrate. There's really only one way to really identify nitrate if you don't have etch coding, that is you need to break out a nitrate test kit and well, burn some if it. In order to test it of course you need to destroy a small piece of the it and this being original negative, well I'm just an assistant archivist and really shouldn't be tearing apart original negative. Plus, the head and tail end of the reel are slugged with safety duped titles. I can't tear a piece from the end to start where it won't be missed. But I'm pretty sure nitrate, but I just don't know. Worse of all, my boss is out of town so I can't get him to OK from him and I'm not comfortable just doing it myself. So I go looking for help and I know the expertise is still here in the building to make this call. So I go looking for someone in Preservation department as they deal with stuff like this every day.
A quick trip down the hall and I can make out the head of the department is in his office talking to the Feature film archivist. At this point I should point out I'm not going to name any names here, but the head of preservation department is a world renoun person here, while the feature film archivist is a nearly complete windbag that I've rarely ever seen work, let alone ever touch a piece of film in the two years I've been working at the archive. His only real call to fame is having played a small bit part in a really fun film where he beaten by gang of Mods with a baseball bats. Anyway, I knock on the door and ask for some help. Both come out the film bench I'm working at and look at the film elements. Mr Preservation winds the film and is as dumb founded as I am about it's true nature. After 5 minutes or so, he throws his hands up and walks away. This leaves me with Mr Windbag, who tells me wind to the end titles. So I do so, and point out that they are dupes and identified as safety based film. Mr windbag reach over met and promptly rips a 2-3 foot section of film from the end of the original negative where it meets the dupes titles from the Oneg. I am stunned, perfectly stunned. Mr Windbag tells met follow him outside where to lights not small section of this 2-3 foot of original negative, but lights it all. Guess what, it's Nitrate. I'm told to get it out of the safety area and lock in a vault at that point.
What I learned. Just because someone has a big title and advanced degree, doesn't mean they know shit.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
I hat this . . .
I hate blogging about the same things over and over again.
Mainly because I get sick of hearing myself whine.
Anyway, once again I find myself super frustrated about a couple of things. In the last month I've applied for two jobs locally that based off the descriptions I am super perfect for. Not over qualified, not under qualified. Really, perfect and so far I've heard zilch on either one. I could check with a friend about one, but I have a feeling it will just piss me off. The second one closed for applications last week, so I still might hear something in the next week or two. Or maybe not. Ugh, this frustrates me. I'm sure that in either case I'm not even in considerations because of my 10 months of unemployment or because I don't have an "In" at ether place. I'd hate to find out that they hired someone from within as well. Why the hell even post a position if you plan on stacking things so you can hire some from within?
ANyway, whining off.
Mainly because I get sick of hearing myself whine.
Anyway, once again I find myself super frustrated about a couple of things. In the last month I've applied for two jobs locally that based off the descriptions I am super perfect for. Not over qualified, not under qualified. Really, perfect and so far I've heard zilch on either one. I could check with a friend about one, but I have a feeling it will just piss me off. The second one closed for applications last week, so I still might hear something in the next week or two. Or maybe not. Ugh, this frustrates me. I'm sure that in either case I'm not even in considerations because of my 10 months of unemployment or because I don't have an "In" at ether place. I'd hate to find out that they hired someone from within as well. Why the hell even post a position if you plan on stacking things so you can hire some from within?
ANyway, whining off.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Anxiety
My anxiety levels seem to have risen in the last couple of days as well as dips in my current depression levels. Both are magnified by my current employment and unemployment levels. I've had three rejection letters this week. Two of these I could care less about, mostly since I was way over qualified for the jobs in question and I knew I wasn't going to get an interview. The third I thought I was perfect for and was hoping for an interview. Ugh. Add to it all that I started an internship that I'm not really going to gain anything from other then update to my resume. Listing to my current co-workers isn't of much help either I hate to say. Talk was about landing library/archive work in the Portland area. The head of the small library I'm at indicated how he landed his current gig based on contact (ex-proff) from his undergrad days. My immediate coworker had been telling me how much she didn't know earlier in the day about archive and cataloging work to boot and then finished up the current conversation about having to better then everyone else to get work in town. Ugh.
Last night I met up with a bunch of folks I started the library program with, most had finished up the program last year and were only now (a year later) starting to find some work in and around the PNW. Ugh. Depressions levels drop.
I also started my last semester in the program this week. I suspect this is where most of my anxiety levels are coming from right now. For one of my classes I need to document what I feel I've learned from the program and I'm drawing lots of blanks I hate to say. Anxiety up. I'm also applying for jobs and had two come up in the last two weeks that I'm perfect for (note - these are not a part of the ones mentioned in paragraph 1). I've been writing and rewriting my resume all week and can't seem to really come up with a good combination resume and coverletter for either position. Anxiety and depression levels spike. Anyway, I'm back to resume for this evening and hope to have it down before hitting the sheet.
Night.
Last night I met up with a bunch of folks I started the library program with, most had finished up the program last year and were only now (a year later) starting to find some work in and around the PNW. Ugh. Depressions levels drop.
I also started my last semester in the program this week. I suspect this is where most of my anxiety levels are coming from right now. For one of my classes I need to document what I feel I've learned from the program and I'm drawing lots of blanks I hate to say. Anxiety up. I'm also applying for jobs and had two come up in the last two weeks that I'm perfect for (note - these are not a part of the ones mentioned in paragraph 1). I've been writing and rewriting my resume all week and can't seem to really come up with a good combination resume and coverletter for either position. Anxiety and depression levels spike. Anyway, I'm back to resume for this evening and hope to have it down before hitting the sheet.
Night.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
When Did life start feeling like such a blur?
Is it just me, or am I really as old I pretend to be these days? Part of my life seem to go by so quick I can't really focus on them, other parts are too much in focus. My eye doctor didn't say a damn thing the last time I saw him either.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Interview
So I just got back from an interview for an internship. About 15 minutes into the interview it hit me that I know more and have done more then the person I'll be working for. Fuck, I'm not really going to learn a damn thing and at best I'll be doing this keep my resume current.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Left Behind
My old work is starting to hire on a lot of folks for the next feature and oddly enough I'm feeling left behind for some odd reason. Part of me is thinking that I'm missing out on this. I have stories to live and tell in some respects that I can tell anyone about working on a film. The thing is that I really don't want to work on films. I haven't in years. I took the jobs I did with my last employer not because I wanted too, but because I needed too. I wanted to work, and when I worked the production I was miserable, in part because it sucked so much of my time and life away from me. I nearly kicked me out of grad school and I never had time to do anything including work, school or even keeping up with friends and family. I was bored in my first position to boot. I was snappy with sarcasm and quite an asshole at times too. When I landed my second gig at the same place, I was happy. I was going to do work I liked and wouldn't have to work 50+ hours a work. So things settled down, I finally had some time and wasn't really any happier to be honest. Why? The place wasn't interested in my work at all. I was bored again and didn't like the place I worked at. Honestly for the last 3 years I feel like I've been spinning my wheels in place and not moving forward with life. Portland seriously has had that effect on me as a whole too. If I can find work some place else I'll be happy to leave I hate to say.
Months ago when I dealing with that animation company in NYC, I was really looking forward to the change in life. I had always not wanted to work let alone live in NYC, but I've been craving change and NYC might have been perfect. Who knows.
ANyway, I wish the new crew on the new film Laika the best.
Months ago when I dealing with that animation company in NYC, I was really looking forward to the change in life. I had always not wanted to work let alone live in NYC, but I've been craving change and NYC might have been perfect. Who knows.
ANyway, I wish the new crew on the new film Laika the best.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Working it OUt
I woke up with some painful feet today. Yesterday I spent the day doing lighting work on a low budget short for some former co-workers. I didn't actually work very hard but spent the better part of the day on my feet, as such they ache a good deal today. Anyway, things seemed to go well other then normal things. We finished up with
This afternoon I went to pick up all the lighting equipment and had a chance to see the rough cut. Gotta say, good luck.
This afternoon I went to pick up all the lighting equipment and had a chance to see the rough cut. Gotta say, good luck.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Parts
So as I think most of you know I've been building a lambretta for the last couple of months. Most of the parts for it I already owned or tried my best to buy locally. In a couple of cases I've had to order from one of a handful of shops here in the US. Oddly at the top of my list has been Scooters Originali out of New Jersey. If you had asked me a couple of years ago about their mail order business I would not have ranked them that high. At this point, very top notch. My second choice has been Casa Lambretta, very good mail order services but at times pricey even with the %5 discount (via Lambretta Club USA). At the bottom of my list these days is West Coast Lambretta Works. They used to be second choice, right behind Casa, but now they are rock bottom. Three weeks ago I made an order online and got an email indicated they got my order. Then, nothing. A week goes by and I email em. Nothing, I check the website and it indicates I made the order 4 days after I actually made it. So last week I email again with all the relevant info and again nothing. Not wanting to make a stink I called today and asked about my order and it was crickets. They had to look it up and I got some sob story about being down one person. Giermo (SP?) said he'd call me back in an hour with an update on my order. Guess what it's been 6 hours. Time to call and cancel my order.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Semester is Done! (Boring Sidney Borning)
This was painfully boring semester for me with only one class. I have the next three weeks off to do as little as possible. Actually I hope to start my internship in the next week or two, I'd like to get the 120 hours done as quickly as possible only because I'm carrying three classes this winter semester so that I finish up the program at the end of the year. God my life is as boring as this post is.
Anyway, we'll see what life gives us next week.
Anyway, we'll see what life gives us next week.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Oddly Enough
This morning I was checking my flickr account and found someone had emailed me. This tends to be odd since I really rarely get email via fickr and most of it isn't interesting to say the least. Anyway, the email was from someone I had gone to high school with. Actually we go back farther then as we had played baseball back when we were 8ish. I had been off and on again posting photos from my days back in southern California that took place in Pasadena. Most of these are architectural photos, but I had also posted a couple of childhood photos of me and my sisters (class & little league photos) that showed off something about the surroundings of Pasadena.
Anyway, this morning my former little league companion was looking at this same group and found my photos of our team (see below for the photo in question) and emailed me. Now I was never really close with the person in question though our parents had been friends for a while. We had different friends and activities so our paths really never crossed very much. After 20+ years now I'm really only in contact with one other person I went to high school and really haven't saught out anyone I went to school with. I went to two high schools as a teenager. The first was a decent catholic prep school and while I liked the Brothers who taught there, I felt a big disconnect with reality with the kids as many were what you call "white flight" folks who feared non-white kids at the time. I remember bringing my jr high school year book to school and having more then one reaction to all the "Black" folks I had gone to school with. I had a few good friends from my two years among the catholic white kids,but over the years I've lost track most of them.
My second high school was at a Pasadena public school, but a real oddity school at that as it was an early magnet school and it ended up attracting many of the fundamentalist kids who's parents couldn't afford to send their kids to private christian schools. If I felt disconnect from the white catholic kids, I really felt disconnected from them as a whole. My home life was pretty awful too during this time and making new friends wasn't high on list of things to do. Plus I was bored pretty quickly with school itself and spent as little time as possible at school or with folks from school. My only school activities were track (which I was mediocre at) and two years of Yearbook. I liked yearbook mostly because of who taught/over saw the class. While looking back I can say that I didn't like really only a handful of kids I went to school with, again the real feeling was sense of disconnect or never really connecting with most of these folks.
After graduating I really never looked back nor did I have any intention of keeping up with anyone from that school. I should say that I still had a number of good friends through high school, I just didn't go to school with most of them and hung out with them on the weekends or during the summer. I'm still friends (from a distance now) with most of this group. Though I do feel disconnected from them.
A couple of years later I ran into Peter E, who had been a year behind me, we had a couple of classes and few years later we both ended up working together at two different companies. We even produced a mutual friend's film together. Most of the folks I thought of as friends during high school were also older then me, so I really had few friends my own age.
Anyway, 20 years later I have to say I was surprised to get the email in question. Oddly enough I found myself quickly looking them up on facebook and sending out the friend invite. They've actually kept in touch with folks from the 2nd high school, but looking at that list of folks I find a lot of familiar names and even faces, but as I looked, I felt no need to friend any of them I hate to say. I'm disconnected and will probably stay as such.
Note - having taken a quick look at many of my former classmates from back in the 80's I had to giggle at how many of them now strike me as 40 year old "Bro's".
God I'm awful and should go to hell for that.
Anyway, this morning my former little league companion was looking at this same group and found my photos of our team (see below for the photo in question) and emailed me. Now I was never really close with the person in question though our parents had been friends for a while. We had different friends and activities so our paths really never crossed very much. After 20+ years now I'm really only in contact with one other person I went to high school and really haven't saught out anyone I went to school with. I went to two high schools as a teenager. The first was a decent catholic prep school and while I liked the Brothers who taught there, I felt a big disconnect with reality with the kids as many were what you call "white flight" folks who feared non-white kids at the time. I remember bringing my jr high school year book to school and having more then one reaction to all the "Black" folks I had gone to school with. I had a few good friends from my two years among the catholic white kids,but over the years I've lost track most of them.
My second high school was at a Pasadena public school, but a real oddity school at that as it was an early magnet school and it ended up attracting many of the fundamentalist kids who's parents couldn't afford to send their kids to private christian schools. If I felt disconnect from the white catholic kids, I really felt disconnected from them as a whole. My home life was pretty awful too during this time and making new friends wasn't high on list of things to do. Plus I was bored pretty quickly with school itself and spent as little time as possible at school or with folks from school. My only school activities were track (which I was mediocre at) and two years of Yearbook. I liked yearbook mostly because of who taught/over saw the class. While looking back I can say that I didn't like really only a handful of kids I went to school with, again the real feeling was sense of disconnect or never really connecting with most of these folks.
After graduating I really never looked back nor did I have any intention of keeping up with anyone from that school. I should say that I still had a number of good friends through high school, I just didn't go to school with most of them and hung out with them on the weekends or during the summer. I'm still friends (from a distance now) with most of this group. Though I do feel disconnected from them.
A couple of years later I ran into Peter E, who had been a year behind me, we had a couple of classes and few years later we both ended up working together at two different companies. We even produced a mutual friend's film together. Most of the folks I thought of as friends during high school were also older then me, so I really had few friends my own age.
Anyway, 20 years later I have to say I was surprised to get the email in question. Oddly enough I found myself quickly looking them up on facebook and sending out the friend invite. They've actually kept in touch with folks from the 2nd high school, but looking at that list of folks I find a lot of familiar names and even faces, but as I looked, I felt no need to friend any of them I hate to say. I'm disconnected and will probably stay as such.
Note - having taken a quick look at many of my former classmates from back in the 80's I had to giggle at how many of them now strike me as 40 year old "Bro's".
God I'm awful and should go to hell for that.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Bodgery
So I have all the bodywork for the Lambretta and started to put the rest of the scooter together. I've run into a couple of problems, mainly my own bodgery work.
Bodgery #1: The headset ring needed to be rechromes, but since I had so many problems with local chromers, I opted not to have it re-chromes. Anyway it looks like shit and I found out last week that Casa Lambretta makes new ones (that are chromed). So bought one and proceeded to take my headset, all the cables and part of the wiring loom apart. THis major work since all of the wiring and cables passes threw the ring and not around it. Ugh, day later and the ring is in but I still haven't hook everything up. Best of all, the cables haven't come back together that well.
Bodgery #2: Left side "L-bracket" the previous owner of the frame cut this off, I forgot to get a new one and have it welded back on. Worst of all, the frame was repainted and I had to attach the LBracket and guess what, it doesn't remotely fit right. So I spent today grinding and hammering the shit out of it to make it fit. It fits, but not that fantasticlly and the right rear floor board is touching the frame in the wrong place too. Ugh.
Mistake #1: I oreded the wrong rubber parts this week too, Ptown had the right ones, mistake avoided.
Mistake #2: I have some wrong hardware, should rectify this in the morning, I hope.
Here's the damn scooter so far
http://www.flickr.com/photos/filmtwit/sets/72157623338894738/
Bodgery #1: The headset ring needed to be rechromes, but since I had so many problems with local chromers, I opted not to have it re-chromes. Anyway it looks like shit and I found out last week that Casa Lambretta makes new ones (that are chromed). So bought one and proceeded to take my headset, all the cables and part of the wiring loom apart. THis major work since all of the wiring and cables passes threw the ring and not around it. Ugh, day later and the ring is in but I still haven't hook everything up. Best of all, the cables haven't come back together that well.
Bodgery #2: Left side "L-bracket" the previous owner of the frame cut this off, I forgot to get a new one and have it welded back on. Worst of all, the frame was repainted and I had to attach the LBracket and guess what, it doesn't remotely fit right. So I spent today grinding and hammering the shit out of it to make it fit. It fits, but not that fantasticlly and the right rear floor board is touching the frame in the wrong place too. Ugh.
Mistake #1: I oreded the wrong rubber parts this week too, Ptown had the right ones, mistake avoided.
Mistake #2: I have some wrong hardware, should rectify this in the morning, I hope.
Here's the damn scooter so far
http://www.flickr.com/photos/filmtwit/sets/72157623338894738/
Monday, July 12, 2010
Irritable Part II
So late last week I blew up at the guy who is doing that paint job for me. Over the course of the weekend I was still angry and mad, but started to wonder why. This problem in itself should have me this angry, so why all the anger? The why is for a couple of reasons. First - the guy hadn't finished the work he should have finished months ago which leads too - Two - Every time I step into the garage I see this unfinished project that I can't do a damn thing with, which leads too - Three - I spent the last year in a job where I do work and then wait and wait for someone else to finish up their part of the work, or worse I'd have to report to someone about said work and they wouldn't make any decisions. So every time I see this project I'm reminded of the last year and frustrated I was and it makes me even more frustrated. Plus, to be honest I'm irritated, frustrated and angry about my life right now. Which just makes things worse.
So last week I got a response to a part time position I had applied for. The response was something to the effect of "we had a lot of responses to said job and are turning down your application as we've found someone with more qualifications, blah blah blah." First, I actually like to hear back about position that I won't be interviewing for, I can scratch it off my list so to say and any worry I might have goes away. At the same time, I know I'm actually over qualified for the position and of course that's a huge irritant. I applied for the job in question because I wanted a part time gig and not a full time gig after all. How the fuck wasn't I qualified to get interview then? Well, it could be for a couple of reasons. First, they were probably really only going to hire some one they already knew or their was an inside applicants and legally speaking they had to post the job. This is the most likely cast. Second, it could be that because I haven't been employed for the last 9 months that I'm automatically disqualification, even though I hadn't lost my last position due to anything I had done. This of course is a killer and I know it happens and it damn irritant. Ugh.
Anyway, whiny rant over.
So last week I got a response to a part time position I had applied for. The response was something to the effect of "we had a lot of responses to said job and are turning down your application as we've found someone with more qualifications, blah blah blah." First, I actually like to hear back about position that I won't be interviewing for, I can scratch it off my list so to say and any worry I might have goes away. At the same time, I know I'm actually over qualified for the position and of course that's a huge irritant. I applied for the job in question because I wanted a part time gig and not a full time gig after all. How the fuck wasn't I qualified to get interview then? Well, it could be for a couple of reasons. First, they were probably really only going to hire some one they already knew or their was an inside applicants and legally speaking they had to post the job. This is the most likely cast. Second, it could be that because I haven't been employed for the last 9 months that I'm automatically disqualification, even though I hadn't lost my last position due to anything I had done. This of course is a killer and I know it happens and it damn irritant. Ugh.
Anyway, whiny rant over.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Irritable
I can't tell you how irritable I've been feeling most of this week.
Part of it comes from being bored. Part of it comes from slogging threw a class that bores me. Part of it comes from the heat. But for today, most of it comes from the fact that I can't finish this stupid Lambretta Project I've been posting about for months now.
Last September I was laid off. On that same day I went to a scooter Rally (these two events are not actually tied together) and ran into my painter. I had dropped off a Lambretta with him about 2 years prior, but since I was working full time and working I hadn't cared that he hadn't started the project since I simply didn't have the time to really deal with it. Added to that is that it took me nearly a year of that two years to deliver all the parts to him. OK, so I ran into him and asked him if he couldn't now put some time into it as I was unemployed and wanted to get started on the project. He told me he should be able to get to it by Thanksgiving. OK, so over 2 months passes and well, he hasn't gotten to it for good and bad reasons. I'm given till Xmass, and guess what, he still hasn't gotten to it (this time for good reason, such as it's nearly freezing every day and snowing and well, it's Xmass - all good reasons in my book). Anyway, the new years comes and goes and the new scooter season is about to begin and he still hasn't touched any of it.
So in February I tell him I can't wait any longer and I'd like to come pick up everything. End of February I go by his place and am ready to pick up everything and he tells me his schedule has opened up and he can start on my scooter. OK, but I want a real schedule at this point. 2 weeks and the frame and head set need to be done, and another 2 weeks for the rest of the white work followed by all of the "red" work. OK, he's OK with that schedule.
He's little over a week late with the first work. I'm OK with this. I start to build and three months later I've built up the scooter as much as I can. I need the rest of the body work and in that time he hasn't finished up the "white" body work and keeps telling me that the front fender is giving him trouble. I've told him I have two other fenders to choose from, but he keeps telling he'll stick with this one. That was 2 weeks ago (note since delivering the frame and headset to me in March, it's been 4 months) and now he isn't replying to emails. I'm sick of the bull shit, I want my scooter back at this point since it's obvious he's not going to finish the work in any timely manner. Fuck this shit.
Part of it comes from being bored. Part of it comes from slogging threw a class that bores me. Part of it comes from the heat. But for today, most of it comes from the fact that I can't finish this stupid Lambretta Project I've been posting about for months now.
Last September I was laid off. On that same day I went to a scooter Rally (these two events are not actually tied together) and ran into my painter. I had dropped off a Lambretta with him about 2 years prior, but since I was working full time and working I hadn't cared that he hadn't started the project since I simply didn't have the time to really deal with it. Added to that is that it took me nearly a year of that two years to deliver all the parts to him. OK, so I ran into him and asked him if he couldn't now put some time into it as I was unemployed and wanted to get started on the project. He told me he should be able to get to it by Thanksgiving. OK, so over 2 months passes and well, he hasn't gotten to it for good and bad reasons. I'm given till Xmass, and guess what, he still hasn't gotten to it (this time for good reason, such as it's nearly freezing every day and snowing and well, it's Xmass - all good reasons in my book). Anyway, the new years comes and goes and the new scooter season is about to begin and he still hasn't touched any of it.
So in February I tell him I can't wait any longer and I'd like to come pick up everything. End of February I go by his place and am ready to pick up everything and he tells me his schedule has opened up and he can start on my scooter. OK, but I want a real schedule at this point. 2 weeks and the frame and head set need to be done, and another 2 weeks for the rest of the white work followed by all of the "red" work. OK, he's OK with that schedule.
He's little over a week late with the first work. I'm OK with this. I start to build and three months later I've built up the scooter as much as I can. I need the rest of the body work and in that time he hasn't finished up the "white" body work and keeps telling me that the front fender is giving him trouble. I've told him I have two other fenders to choose from, but he keeps telling he'll stick with this one. That was 2 weeks ago (note since delivering the frame and headset to me in March, it's been 4 months) and now he isn't replying to emails. I'm sick of the bull shit, I want my scooter back at this point since it's obvious he's not going to finish the work in any timely manner. Fuck this shit.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Boring Sidney, Boring
I can't beleive how bored I am these days. Worst of all is how lethargic I feel too.
I have one class this summer and it's finally really nice out too. And guess what, I'm sitting around doing as little as possible. I can't be bothered to do anything fun. At best I've cleaned out the garage this last weekend, only to have my sister try and refill it. I did talk my rents into finally getting another cat last week, so this things has had to be my muse from time to time.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/filmtwit/sets/72157624401287386/
I have one class this summer and it's finally really nice out too. And guess what, I'm sitting around doing as little as possible. I can't be bothered to do anything fun. At best I've cleaned out the garage this last weekend, only to have my sister try and refill it. I did talk my rents into finally getting another cat last week, so this things has had to be my muse from time to time.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/filmtwit/sets/72157624401287386/
Friday, June 25, 2010
My ultimate vocation in life is to be an irritant
So on the way back from the Gorge yesterday, I'm stuck in (by Portland standards) heavy traffic and nearing home. I find myself behind some clod in a Lexis and he's actually driving slower then traffic as we go up the hill. Then he starts to weave into the bike lane and for about 400' he's driving in both the right lane and said bike lane. No bikes are in said lane btw. I can't really drive around him because 2 blocks later later I need to turn right and the traffic is such that I'm not going to get around him. As we make our way to the light I can see that he's playing on PDA/Cell phone and looking up to make sur ehe doesn't cause an accident. Now the folks in the left lane are cutting in front of him and because he's driving so slow we miss the light. He's obviously not paying attention to traffic and I give him a honk at this point.
As we settle up to the red light he rolls down his window and starts to yell at me (I'm right behind him in my mini-van). Honestly I shake my head at this point and yell back "Dude, you're not paying attention to traffic, that's why I honked at you." The response is "Do you want to settle this like men!" I shake my head again and ignore the threat and repeat myself again "you're paying attention to traffic, you have your head out the window and you can't see the light, you're obviously not paying attention to traffic" More yelling back and forth. I hate to say it but this whole thing is ludicrous. Part of me is thinking, did I really need to honk at this retard, another part of me is laughing that this same retard is all ass hurt about having been called out about his bad driving and his ego won't let roll the window back up and get on with his sad ass life.
Anyway, the light turns green and traffic begins to roll, well all accept our lane as this same retard is still yelling at me about how great a driver he is and how big an asshole I am. Again, I repeat myself with how he's not paying attention to traffic and how he hasn't noticed the light is green. His response is classic, he yells about knowing it's green and that it's more important that he yells at me and be right then to get on with life at this point. Since he's now blocking traffic for at least a mile and people are passing our yelling match everyone else stuck behind him is getting mad and they start to honk. It's at this point Mr Retard finally figures out that he's in the wrong rolls up his window and starts to drive. Another block later and I'm turning and getting on with mine.
A day later I'm not really feeling proud of being such and irritant over such a stupid thing. That having been said I still think the guy was amusing for being so butt hurt over a honk. I really hope he worked out his frustrations and didn't go home and beat the wife and/or kids.
As we settle up to the red light he rolls down his window and starts to yell at me (I'm right behind him in my mini-van). Honestly I shake my head at this point and yell back "Dude, you're not paying attention to traffic, that's why I honked at you." The response is "Do you want to settle this like men!" I shake my head again and ignore the threat and repeat myself again "you're paying attention to traffic, you have your head out the window and you can't see the light, you're obviously not paying attention to traffic" More yelling back and forth. I hate to say it but this whole thing is ludicrous. Part of me is thinking, did I really need to honk at this retard, another part of me is laughing that this same retard is all ass hurt about having been called out about his bad driving and his ego won't let roll the window back up and get on with his sad ass life.
Anyway, the light turns green and traffic begins to roll, well all accept our lane as this same retard is still yelling at me about how great a driver he is and how big an asshole I am. Again, I repeat myself with how he's not paying attention to traffic and how he hasn't noticed the light is green. His response is classic, he yells about knowing it's green and that it's more important that he yells at me and be right then to get on with life at this point. Since he's now blocking traffic for at least a mile and people are passing our yelling match everyone else stuck behind him is getting mad and they start to honk. It's at this point Mr Retard finally figures out that he's in the wrong rolls up his window and starts to drive. Another block later and I'm turning and getting on with mine.
A day later I'm not really feeling proud of being such and irritant over such a stupid thing. That having been said I still think the guy was amusing for being so butt hurt over a honk. I really hope he worked out his frustrations and didn't go home and beat the wife and/or kids.
Monday, June 21, 2010
I'm just like all these other collector losers
"You think it's healthy to obsessively collect things? You can't relate to other people, so you fill your life with stuff... I'm just like all these other collector losers. "
I've been a collector of crap off and on during much of life. As a teenager it was comics, albums and old games. The music kept coming and I still buy CD vs downloading and copying all my friends music for some odd reason. I'm now back to four scooters (2xLambretta's and 2xVespas). I'll need to get rid of 2 of them in the next year if I want to keep from letting the obsession back into my life. Camera's are another "thing" i have too much of too. I can at least use a camera to create other things so to say, so they are not really an obsession in my book since they are like brushes, paint and canvas of sorts. Tools after all. Oddly enough it took me a long time to really look at collecting and collectors.
When I restored film I worked with a "Film Collector" who fucking drove me nuts. He always wanted everything we were suppose to throw out. It took looking at his obsession to really put my own obsessions into light. My parents sold the house I grew up in, it was easily for me to take all my childhood obsessions and sell them off. Really easy actually. The comicbook and games went quick and easily. But I turned around and stared the scooter buying very quickly after that. One fueled another. When I moved to Portland I was easily able to get myself to sell off all my running scooters too. Didn't need em, best to find em a good home. The nicely restorred TV175 Lambretta I built and rode once was easily to sell off too. I hope I can do it again as easily with the two scooters I'm currently building. That having been said, I know i need to get paid if I do!
Currently I'm being lazy about my book collections. Honestly I'm not about to ever open half of these books I read 10-20 years ago.
I've been a collector of crap off and on during much of life. As a teenager it was comics, albums and old games. The music kept coming and I still buy CD vs downloading and copying all my friends music for some odd reason. I'm now back to four scooters (2xLambretta's and 2xVespas). I'll need to get rid of 2 of them in the next year if I want to keep from letting the obsession back into my life. Camera's are another "thing" i have too much of too. I can at least use a camera to create other things so to say, so they are not really an obsession in my book since they are like brushes, paint and canvas of sorts. Tools after all. Oddly enough it took me a long time to really look at collecting and collectors.
When I restored film I worked with a "Film Collector" who fucking drove me nuts. He always wanted everything we were suppose to throw out. It took looking at his obsession to really put my own obsessions into light. My parents sold the house I grew up in, it was easily for me to take all my childhood obsessions and sell them off. Really easy actually. The comicbook and games went quick and easily. But I turned around and stared the scooter buying very quickly after that. One fueled another. When I moved to Portland I was easily able to get myself to sell off all my running scooters too. Didn't need em, best to find em a good home. The nicely restorred TV175 Lambretta I built and rode once was easily to sell off too. I hope I can do it again as easily with the two scooters I'm currently building. That having been said, I know i need to get paid if I do!
Currently I'm being lazy about my book collections. Honestly I'm not about to ever open half of these books I read 10-20 years ago.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Gym Socks
So since being laid off I've tried to get back into a very regular exercise routine and mostly failiing at it. I'll go 5 days a week for 2-4 weeks and then either hurt myself or take a break that lasts 1-3 months. My last attempt is now nearly 2 months long and so far I haven't hurt myself (which honestly has been the most common problem).
Right now I'm doing 40 minutes on the tread mill (3 miles I think?).
Then 20 minutes on tread mill (300 stairs I think?).
Followed by 30 minutes in the pool (16 lengths or 8 laps) - freestyle.
One of the problems with my old routine was that I'd get to certain point concerning the tread mill and either I'd need to start running as I can only walk it so quickly. I've opted to get to the long quick walk, but then kill it (I started off at an hour on the tread mill for instance) and build up on the stair climber and swimming. So far, so good.
Right now I'm doing 40 minutes on the tread mill (3 miles I think?).
Then 20 minutes on tread mill (300 stairs I think?).
Followed by 30 minutes in the pool (16 lengths or 8 laps) - freestyle.
One of the problems with my old routine was that I'd get to certain point concerning the tread mill and either I'd need to start running as I can only walk it so quickly. I've opted to get to the long quick walk, but then kill it (I started off at an hour on the tread mill for instance) and build up on the stair climber and swimming. So far, so good.
Lambretta
So I've been building a Lambretta Tv175 Series III motor scooter. Over the last week I hooked up all the cables and wiring and this weekend I wanted to start it up and see how well it was working. I remember to put gear oil in the engine since I accidentally spilled it out when I was building it. It actually kicked over on the 3rd try and promply died a moment later. The carb leaked a lot of fuel and it didn't seem to be getting all the oxygen it needed. 2 hours later I had rebuilt the carb twice and re-runned throttle cable. At best I could keep it going for a minute or two and then it would die. Ugh.
You can find lots of photos of the build so far as well as a couple of videos of me trying to start the damn thing at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/filmtwit/sets/72157623338894738/
You can find lots of photos of the build so far as well as a couple of videos of me trying to start the damn thing at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/filmtwit/sets/72157623338894738/
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
These are the Days
I find my self getting irritated easily these days. I hate feeling irritated, it tends to turn me into big ball of asshole really easily. While I can be an ass, I tend not to like being a complete asshole. There's no fun in it.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Bullet Dodge
So I had two interviews for a part time position with the Oregon State University. The position was for a on call undergrad reference librarian. 16 hours a month and max of 88 days a year. Down side, 1-2 hour each way to Corrvalis. I haven't heard thing since the second interview, so I'm thinking this is the blow off. The experience would have been fantastic, but having done the drive down and back I'm thinking I dodged a bullet here. 90 miles each way would have drove me batty. No really, by Portland standards this was the commute from hell, even if only once a week.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Feelings
I feel disconnected from the life around me. This isn't anything new to me, but none the less, I feel it in and around me. I can't make myself connect. Frustration.
Happy Jesus-Zombie Day
Ok, as usual not a lot going on, but some updates none the less:
School: Just finished up my Photoshop class and should be finishing up my Lightroom class this coming week. I should sign up another class at Newsroom, but I kind of want a break and Real school should be getting a bit busier from this point on in the semester. Real school (MLS) is about 60% and I have another paper to do this week. Ugh.
Car/Truck: The Nissan is running, but I've opted not try and renew the registration since it's blowing more and more smoke these days. I had to cheat the last time around to get it to pass smog and I know the rings are bit more warn after two years now. The tires are nearly bald and I know I should replace the fan, bearing and shaft at this point. I suspect there's about $2k in work needed to get the Nissan back on track. But I've opted not deal with it. Once I track down the title it will go up for sale. If you can find a good engine or know how to replace rings, then it should really cheap way to get a very good truck. Honestly I've had it for over 3 years now and it's been bullet proof to me and never caused me any problems. I've been pretty religious about maintenance is partially why and good about getting anything fixed before it became a problem too. But after 190,000 miles the rings have just worn out. Again it still runs and if you're outside of Portland you won't need to get it smogged either! So expect it to go cheap.
Work: Have a telephone interview this week for on-call library reference position at OSU in Corvallis. If I can land this, I'd say work wise I have what I want and need till I graduate. Now to land the work. Ugh.
School: Just finished up my Photoshop class and should be finishing up my Lightroom class this coming week. I should sign up another class at Newsroom, but I kind of want a break and Real school should be getting a bit busier from this point on in the semester. Real school (MLS) is about 60% and I have another paper to do this week. Ugh.
Car/Truck: The Nissan is running, but I've opted not try and renew the registration since it's blowing more and more smoke these days. I had to cheat the last time around to get it to pass smog and I know the rings are bit more warn after two years now. The tires are nearly bald and I know I should replace the fan, bearing and shaft at this point. I suspect there's about $2k in work needed to get the Nissan back on track. But I've opted not deal with it. Once I track down the title it will go up for sale. If you can find a good engine or know how to replace rings, then it should really cheap way to get a very good truck. Honestly I've had it for over 3 years now and it's been bullet proof to me and never caused me any problems. I've been pretty religious about maintenance is partially why and good about getting anything fixed before it became a problem too. But after 190,000 miles the rings have just worn out. Again it still runs and if you're outside of Portland you won't need to get it smogged either! So expect it to go cheap.
Work: Have a telephone interview this week for on-call library reference position at OSU in Corvallis. If I can land this, I'd say work wise I have what I want and need till I graduate. Now to land the work. Ugh.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
The Things
OK, it's a been a news black out for me concerning the NY thing.
I've emailed em twice in the last 3 weeks and nothing.
I'm guessing that they figured out that they don't need an archivist, which is fine, but It would be nice to know in order to set up an internship and make other plans.
Ya, I feel frustrated about this. While I wasn't promised a job at this point I had really warmed up to the idea of living in the NYC area. Plus, I really want to work, I'm bored and it's become a negative thing for me. I have loads of friends in the same boat about this too and it's really hard not to be negative about this and other things right now. Plus I know too many people who feel the same way and are in way deeper then me. I actually have it really good and am far better off then most.
On the good side, I signed up for two computer classes to work on my photoshop and lightroom skills. I'll follow that up with some other workshop classes too. I don't have any excused not to be doing this and working on my skill sets. Plus it gets me out and among people instead of just stewing in my own self pity. I hate to say it but I haven't felt much like socializing these days and I know my what little people skills I have need work. Hopefully this will keep my above water?
I've emailed em twice in the last 3 weeks and nothing.
I'm guessing that they figured out that they don't need an archivist, which is fine, but It would be nice to know in order to set up an internship and make other plans.
Ya, I feel frustrated about this. While I wasn't promised a job at this point I had really warmed up to the idea of living in the NYC area. Plus, I really want to work, I'm bored and it's become a negative thing for me. I have loads of friends in the same boat about this too and it's really hard not to be negative about this and other things right now. Plus I know too many people who feel the same way and are in way deeper then me. I actually have it really good and am far better off then most.
On the good side, I signed up for two computer classes to work on my photoshop and lightroom skills. I'll follow that up with some other workshop classes too. I don't have any excused not to be doing this and working on my skill sets. Plus it gets me out and among people instead of just stewing in my own self pity. I hate to say it but I haven't felt much like socializing these days and I know my what little people skills I have need work. Hopefully this will keep my above water?
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Updates
School: Has been going fine for the most part. Both classes are online and involve me doing daily readings. The cataloging class started out as a complete mess and 2 weeks ago the proff dropped out. Ya, she took a leave of absence. We have a new prof and things are progressing. We've put together a local group to go over homework too, so I'm not worried about this class at all at this point.
Knee: For the first time in a week it feels like it might have healed up. I'll see about starting to exercise again probably starring on Saturday.
Work: I'm still unemployed, but with prospects. I had applied for two jobs at the Portland Art Museum. I kind of knew I was under qualified for one and over qualified for the other. I heard back and PAM agreed with my findings. Ugh, the under qualified position was actually my local dream job (Curator of Photography), I suspect I'll need a second MA if I ever really want to land this sort of job. The other was working in PAM library as a page. Honestly I'm over qualified and as soon as I could find job I'd have left. I don't blame em. If anything I'll see about doing an internship this summer. But onto prospect #2.
Work pt II: So last November I was woken up at 8am by rather odd call. It was actually wrong number call. They asked for someone I used to work with in previous job and when I told em they had the wrong number they asked what number they had called. It turns out they were recruiter for animation study in Connecticut. And by Connecticut I mean this sliver of land jets into suburban NYC (Westchester). Anyway, they were in town and wanted me to come in and do an interview. So a day later I sit down with them and find out that they had been look for an archivist much earlier in the year. Unable to find one, they had closed the position. After going over my work history, they were pretty excited that I might be perfect should the position open up again. OK, so I just interviewed for a position that didn't really exist and I'd have to move to one place I'm really iffy about ever living in. Why? because I used to spend part of my summer's as kid in NYC and hated it. Actually I hated it mostly because I had to live with my dad. As an adult I've avoided entertainment work there for nearly 20 years. But after living in Portland for the last 3 years, NY actually looks inviting to me. I won't actually be living in Manhatton (too expensive anyway) since the location of the studio is out in the Burbs. I'd be in the Bronx area, but more likely White plains or Yonkers.
Down sides would be that I'd still need a car (the place is not on any train routs) and I have no idea how I can store the scooters. Oh ya, if they do open up the position again I'd have to wait till February. Well it's February and I hadn't heard from them, so I dropped them an email last week about prospects of employment mostly since I wanted to start looking for internships locally. Anyway, they were happy to hear back from me and I was told that they should be reopening the position very soon. The plan would be to go out there and do a proper interview and get a feel fro the place in about a month. Of course nothing is written in stone at the moment, I have no idea what they will pay me either. Ugh. Anyway, that's the job front.
Not much else going on in life, other then too much mediocre photography.
Knee: For the first time in a week it feels like it might have healed up. I'll see about starting to exercise again probably starring on Saturday.
Work: I'm still unemployed, but with prospects. I had applied for two jobs at the Portland Art Museum. I kind of knew I was under qualified for one and over qualified for the other. I heard back and PAM agreed with my findings. Ugh, the under qualified position was actually my local dream job (Curator of Photography), I suspect I'll need a second MA if I ever really want to land this sort of job. The other was working in PAM library as a page. Honestly I'm over qualified and as soon as I could find job I'd have left. I don't blame em. If anything I'll see about doing an internship this summer. But onto prospect #2.
Work pt II: So last November I was woken up at 8am by rather odd call. It was actually wrong number call. They asked for someone I used to work with in previous job and when I told em they had the wrong number they asked what number they had called. It turns out they were recruiter for animation study in Connecticut. And by Connecticut I mean this sliver of land jets into suburban NYC (Westchester). Anyway, they were in town and wanted me to come in and do an interview. So a day later I sit down with them and find out that they had been look for an archivist much earlier in the year. Unable to find one, they had closed the position. After going over my work history, they were pretty excited that I might be perfect should the position open up again. OK, so I just interviewed for a position that didn't really exist and I'd have to move to one place I'm really iffy about ever living in. Why? because I used to spend part of my summer's as kid in NYC and hated it. Actually I hated it mostly because I had to live with my dad. As an adult I've avoided entertainment work there for nearly 20 years. But after living in Portland for the last 3 years, NY actually looks inviting to me. I won't actually be living in Manhatton (too expensive anyway) since the location of the studio is out in the Burbs. I'd be in the Bronx area, but more likely White plains or Yonkers.
Down sides would be that I'd still need a car (the place is not on any train routs) and I have no idea how I can store the scooters. Oh ya, if they do open up the position again I'd have to wait till February. Well it's February and I hadn't heard from them, so I dropped them an email last week about prospects of employment mostly since I wanted to start looking for internships locally. Anyway, they were happy to hear back from me and I was told that they should be reopening the position very soon. The plan would be to go out there and do a proper interview and get a feel fro the place in about a month. Of course nothing is written in stone at the moment, I have no idea what they will pay me either. Ugh. Anyway, that's the job front.
Not much else going on in life, other then too much mediocre photography.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Very Possibly
I might, and that's a "might" have an up coming job interview.
Suburban NYC here I possibly come?
Suburban NYC here I possibly come?
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Zoo
Now it's been about 2 years since I last visited the local zoo, which wasn't that much fun. But since it's $2 Tuesday, I'm cheap, I wanted to snap a couple of photos and I'm bored, it seemed like it was high time for me to go back.
Now I knew to expect a lot of children so I thought I was ready for that. Well I wasn't. Lots of little kids, but also lots of not so little kids, who I would have expected should have still be at school, but oddly enough the $2 Tuesday zoo attracts lots of 8-16 year olds. Who would have known? I for one am not that fond of kids I suspect it's my rotten childhood, but honestly I tend not like being around kids.
ANyway, they as a whole were not really that bad, it was the adults among them that I think I had the most contempt for. What is up with people buying the largest possible strollers they can possible find, then not totting their kid in it? I think my favorite was some woman with a double wide stroller and her one kid in tow and expecting everyone else to get out of her way and open not one door, but double doors for her. I bet she parks the SUV well too. The last time I was at the local zoo, I saw by far so many bad tattoos that I gave up on getting anymore myself. Fortunately while i was sunny it wasn't that warm so I didn't have to see everyone in wife beaters like last time.
The exhibits: The last time I was at the zoo about 1 in 5 exhibits was closed, which sucked. This time, I'd have to say that 1 in 4 was closed, which sucks too. The amount of unfinished construction is astounding and a real turn off.
Picture taking: I forgot to pack the two rolls of 35mm film I pulled out of the fridge. Ugh, my mistake.
Animals: I like seeing wild animals i as close as you can get them to being in the wild. But to be honest, the closer you get them to being back in the wild, the easier it is for most of them to hide. As such, many natural exhibits tend to be small and as such the animals more often then naught hit me as really bored. It's rather self defeating I guess and who knows what the real answer to it is.
I got my $2 worth, but not much more.
Now I knew to expect a lot of children so I thought I was ready for that. Well I wasn't. Lots of little kids, but also lots of not so little kids, who I would have expected should have still be at school, but oddly enough the $2 Tuesday zoo attracts lots of 8-16 year olds. Who would have known? I for one am not that fond of kids I suspect it's my rotten childhood, but honestly I tend not like being around kids.
ANyway, they as a whole were not really that bad, it was the adults among them that I think I had the most contempt for. What is up with people buying the largest possible strollers they can possible find, then not totting their kid in it? I think my favorite was some woman with a double wide stroller and her one kid in tow and expecting everyone else to get out of her way and open not one door, but double doors for her. I bet she parks the SUV well too. The last time I was at the local zoo, I saw by far so many bad tattoos that I gave up on getting anymore myself. Fortunately while i was sunny it wasn't that warm so I didn't have to see everyone in wife beaters like last time.
The exhibits: The last time I was at the zoo about 1 in 5 exhibits was closed, which sucked. This time, I'd have to say that 1 in 4 was closed, which sucks too. The amount of unfinished construction is astounding and a real turn off.
Picture taking: I forgot to pack the two rolls of 35mm film I pulled out of the fridge. Ugh, my mistake.
Animals: I like seeing wild animals i as close as you can get them to being in the wild. But to be honest, the closer you get them to being back in the wild, the easier it is for most of them to hide. As such, many natural exhibits tend to be small and as such the animals more often then naught hit me as really bored. It's rather self defeating I guess and who knows what the real answer to it is.
I got my $2 worth, but not much more.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
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