Twas the Season . . .

This year's Christmas was a mixed bag so to say. Family and friends in Portland was good, riding down the coast of Oregon in a storm was another. Add to it that two packages of crap went missing in the mail right before Xmass hasn't helped. And of course who ever I am dealing with about said missing packages has been less then helpful.

On to the new years!

Hope all is good with you too.

Post Birthday

So my birthday was the other night and I spent that time either at work or trying my hand at some photography in the park with a bunch of strobes. Oddly enough I was happy with the day and night, despite being alone for my big 43 years on this planet.

What is wrong with me?
I've generally not been enjoying being alone a new city as a whole, but their are still too many times that I still prefer to be alone is why I ask.

On another note and another complaint of sorts. I tend be able to paruze the craiglist photo section and found myself very lucky to have quickly found a deal. A 70's era 50mm Summericron (f2.0) collapsible lens for $300. After not hearing back about it yesterday, I gave up on the score, but this morning I got an email back from the person selling it saying it was still for sale. Of course he wanted $400 for it now, so I offered $350 in cash. He emailed back to say OK. The down at this point was that he lives outside of SF, so I'd have to wait till after work to go home and pick my car and drive out to his place. I could smell disaster since no deal is complete till money is exchanged and the product is in your hand and of course at 5pm I got an email saying he sold it for $450 to someone who called him and made him take the extra $100. Thanks buddy, thanks for wasting my time. At least he didn't tell me once I showed up with cash in hand. Ugh.

Other then that, life is fine. My last rowing lesson is tomorrow and i'm looking forward to having my instructor (whoes my mom's age) out paddle me backwards for an hour!

Connections

I was asked this week what was my idea of a connection?

MY answer: Connections for me starts with illicit combination of chemistry and values. They always mix differently for me depending on me and who I'm mixing with, but in the end I want more. Of course too much spark means too much combustion and a quick fire to smoldering err.. OK, no more bad metaphors here. I'll blame them on all the bad food I ate while driving cross country. Anyways, connections do involve some chemistry for me, some shared values, but also some non shared values as it always brings growth and similar thought.

Dating: Yes, been doing it since moving. So far I can't really say I've found the above. Was coming close, but that ended earlier this week. Tried a new bus stop too, and while it was nice it wasn't a romantic type of connection for me. Then again I'm looking for friendship too, so at least I found some that this week.

Anyway, nothing to see or hear here. Move along!

At the Moment

My back hurts and I don't know why. I woke up early on Saturday morning with some light pain in the lower back area. It wasn't real painful or anything like that, just slight comfortableness. Over the course of the last two days it has grown. I'm now ache and find it painful to sit down and get back up. It's been about 20 years since I've felt this type of pain. Again not debilitating but still pain. I haven't even been lifting anything to cause said pain. Ugh

Pleasure Reading

So, it's been way too long since I did any real pleasure based reading. Before starting grad school I had a done a lot, then grad school + work meant none. Even after finishing up grad school nearly a year ago now, I've stuck to non-fiction information based reading. Mostly history based material or technical manuals. Over the last 2 weeks that has changed. I finally kicked myself and started on one fantasy based series and bunch of graphic novels. All good pulpy stuff.

Breakfast

So an old friend of mine blew threw SF on Friday, he and his family were off to see him race in King Ridge GranFondo 2011, a semi local bike race up a 9000 foot hill... err mountain to be exact. It was all last minute, but we met for breakfast across the street from his hotel. I think it's been nearly 2 years since I last saw him. Funniest guy I know. Had me stitches the entire time. Always good to laugh with friends.



OK, my cryptic last post. Basically something work related and has turned to the good at this point. Can't give details, but I have about 6 more weeks added to my contract at this point. Which is always good.

Things . . .

. . . are in flux again. I'll know more next week.

On the good side, two of my coworkers got hitched on Friday in a fun themed night of macabre, bat winged pinata's and fun. I'd post photos, but we're giving those to newlyweds to distribute.

The weekend was OK, with my knee starting to act up and keeping me from doing much hiking. I did do a bit of reading, but I feel I'm not getting out that much.

Wasted Weekend?

Work kind of got in the way of life this weekend. I had to stay late Friday and help set up the temporary projector and sound system. It screwed up my plans for Friday night. Saturday I had to come in for 2-5 hours of work. It was 5ish, with mainly lots of small problems occuring with the new to us projector/sound system/computer. At 1ish the sound system went down and I had a bitch of a time getting it back up. I ended up needing help, more help then I should have and delayed letting the director OK the theater. Ugh, I feel bad about this and really think I should have handle this better then I did.

Today was day of me trying to catch up on weekend stuff. lots of laundry, cleaning and trip to the library. Oh and haircut.

Ugh, I hope things go better this week

Smile

As always a nice smile at the right moment goes a long ways.
Now if I'd only stop smirking.

Labor Day Weekend

Friday: My buddy Mickey was in town to see his girlfriend (who moved up here a couple of weeks ago for grad school) and I arranged to meet them after work for an art walk around western edges of Oakland. This was fun and painful at the same time. My knee was acting up, so the entire evening was spent hobbling around and by 11pm I was actually in quite a bit if pain. I really hated being a stick in the mud so to say, I probably wasn't but with the pain, plus skipping dinner and then lugging all my bag around I don't think I was best company. Not bad company, just not on my A game to so say. I can't say that I cared for a lot of the art I saw either, I don't know if it's that I can't relate too well to some of the work, but when it comes to new artist work I rarely find myself really connecting as a whole. It's hit and miss in some respects, some of it was just bad. We did have some fun at the expense of artists in one gallery that was specializing in art that was basically car art. The restored cars were really quite nice, but all the art on the walls was horrid. Really really horid crap that was mostly done via crappily done photoshop filters. Another place had some fairly nice hats, expensive for what they were in my opinion, but some of the hats were quite nice. Anyway I got home around midnight and had to ice up my knee to get the pain down so I could sleep.

Saturday: Morning was spent mainly iceing up my knee again then doing my weekly grocery shopping. I hit a new place called the Berkeley Bowl (I should say new as in new to me). Kind of an upscale market, but not. I was hoping to find something herbal remedy for my knee problems which I did, but I also hit Trader Joes on the way back and picked up rest of my shopping list. My afternoon was spent either resting my knee or doing more work on kitchen. Oh, and throwing more stuff out. I still have too much crap and emptied 3 more boxes. The herbal stuff helped calm down my knee (as well as ibuprophin would have, which is nice since I'd like to keep my kidney's in good shape in the long run) and I slept rather well too.

Sunday: This was going to be very busy day. I had a late brunch date with some one I had met on OK Cupid planned. The screwed up knee was of course a problem, so my morning was spent cleaning myself up and icing up my knee. I was really looking forward to meeting this gal oddly enough. Enough so that I reread her profile and our emails taking as many notes as I could so I knew what I could ask at the brunch. Anyway, I've done the whole internet based dating off an on before. Mostly to mixed results. I tend not to get too excited at first because not having actually met the person I've been emailing there's no way to gauge chemistry what so ever. I'd say that 80% of the women I've met this way tend to think were nice and all, but that I really never thought we had any real chemistry and have made perfectly good friend material. In the other 20% or so there's been some chemistry, good chemistry and some bad too. Now add to it that I've actively noted dated in over a year due mostly to family commitments, school and lack of much of a future (IE- I find it's hard for me to want to date when I don't have future and by future I mean I'm unemployed). SO my main worry going into this was how bad are my social skills these days! Anyway the date went well as whole. I started it off badly by shaking hands instead of a hug (I could tell, I kind of blew things). This wasn't killer for the date since it lasted 2 and half hours. The chemistry seemed decent the entire time, but I think I let her do most of the talking. I was probably slightly too honest in some ways too, but I prefer to be honest about my baggage. I know, it's a turn off, but it's honest stuff and she should find this stuff out before getting involved with me if you ask me. Anyway, 2 and half hours later we had to end the date since both of us had plans for the afternoon. Anyway, my afternoon had me traveling down to San Jose for a friend's birthday BBQ. 10 hours later I made it home ready to pass out. In the future no more Jaegermiester for me. I really don't need potent cough medication. On the otherhand I now want my own private pizza oven.

Monday: More apartment work, my kitchen is now about half painted. A trip to Target for stuff was also inorder, I forget to get an extension cord. Ugh, could use it too. I did pick up some shower curton rods so I can hang up wet clothing in my bathroom (remember, I have washer now). So some win, some loss and my apartment could still use more work. Actually I'm really coming to the assumption that my apartment is never ever going to be nice. It's just going to be no matter what I do with it, painted, not painted, with art up, without out art work up, it's just going to be an old apartment. Oh well, I hope this isn't an lose, but a I should be happy with what i have since it really isn't "bad" thing?

Anyway, happy labour day, I'm currently watching Louie CK and I'm mildly amused that's he's perfectly correct in his assessment of the 40 year old guy. I am that guy and fairly happy to be. Well other then coming on my cat's face after drinking milk. OK, you want get that reference, but it was funny. Thank you Louie SC.

So Far

Since moving to Berkeley nearly a month ago:

1) Apartment wasn't cleaned by the owner. The kitchen was pretty gross, even after a several scrubs I couldn't get all the white walls, umm white. The paint work was pretty bad too with much of the hardware partially painted white. After a week or so I made the decision to repaint the kitchen. I'm still at it since there's a lot of trim and I'm trying clean all the hardware.

2) Parking, so in order to park in neighborhood I have Berkeley parking permit. So week one I found out I couldn't get a resident parking permit for my neighborhood in Berkley because my car isn't registered in California. OK, so after spending the week moving my car every two hours and after moving in I found some of my paperwork and spent at most an hour at the DMV to find out that I needed more of my paperwork, smog check and VIN verification.

Great, so today I did the following:
Oil change (it needed it and it insured I'd pass my smog check) - $56 btw.
Smog check
- $89
DMV & VIN check
- $190

So fast forward to 4pm, I've already spent an hour at the Berkeley City hall waiting and they are closing up shop at 4pm when my number is called. "Did you know that they printed your address wrong on your registration?" Huh? "Ya, they wrote Grand instead of Grant for your address." Umm, I have other forms of ID that prove my residence is on Grant. "Ya, we can't help you. You'll need to get the DMV to correct this." "Oh ya, can I sell you a temporary parking permit while you get this straightened out?"

So back to DMV this morning and after waiting in small line I tell them my tale of the address is wrong and City of berkeley won't let me get a parking permit based on that single letter being wrong.
DMV - Um, um, shit. Since this was processed yesturday it locks your info for 2-4 days and we can't make any changes.
Me - Umm, I start a new job on Monday and my ability to come back and get this straightend out kind of drops to zero since I won't have any sick time or work leave for 3 months.
DMV - Shit.
Me - is their a supervisor you or I could talk to about this?
DMV - YES!

An hour later they were able to find my original paperwork (since it wasn't fully processed) and I got the changes I needed. City of Berkeley was happy too.

I'm fairly official again and tickets as of yet.

3) Work: So far their isn't much actual work for me to do. No real tools and no screening room. Shooting is slow at this point too. This should change in the next month or two. Or at least I hope they do.

4)So after a nice trip on BART yesterday and getting home I found out that my water had been turned off. Technically speaking my landlord was suppose to pick up this bill, but never set anything up. Ugh. Of course since it's 7pm they are closed. I try resetting up everything via the internet and only failure is my option. So shower last night, nor was able to wash dishes. Dummy me also flushed the toilet with use of a #1. On the good side, my cleaning room isn't on same plumbing, so I've been able to get water (and thus refill the toilet for further use) and I can laundry. Of course this morning the water company tells me they can't get my water running till Monday. Oh, this will be a great weekend!

Berkeley

I'm here and setting shit up.
The move went very easily as a whole, though Uhaul screwed me on the pick up location. We were still able to get the truck, get back to the homestead and load the 26' truck. Only down side was that I had told everyone not load anything from back left corner of the garage. Well about an hour or two in my middle sister has riffled threw all my elder sister's stuff and mine and loaded them in the truck. Oy vay, what am I going to do with the extra 6- 12 boxes?

Anyway, it was 3ish in the afternoon and made the decision to leave. A quick trip back to Uhaul for the trailer and my element is loaded up and east I go, leaving family and Portland. Hell I was leaving Oregon too, taking the back way down. I headed east so I could skirt Mt Hood and then see eastern Oregon. My plan was hit Bend (which I've visited before) and then travel south. Well some how I missed bend and 10-11ish that night I finally got my bearings that I was near Crater lake. I pulled into 3 different motels as I didn't want to miss Crater lake, but all were full. I ended up traveling farther south and was outside Upper Klamath lake for the night. Much like my trip to Oakland, I some how picked the world's worst motel to stay in. The next morning was bright and beautiful and I was heading south, I made my way through Klamath falls in the morning and hit Weed a lot faster then I expected. The rest of the drive was kind of blur as I've driven it before and really bores me to know end.

The drive into the bay area was without any problems, other then trying to find a place to park the truck/trailer. My hood is pretty tight to begin with and also requires permits for long term parking. I had to park about 2 miles away by some local school. Arriving at my new to me apartment was rather uneventful, except the place was filthy as it the owner never cleaned it. Unloading the next day went fairly easily too, but when I had to take the truck back to the trailer, I found some asshole had parked infront of the trailer. So an hour later and my back aching, I was able to manhandle the full trailer out enough so I could reattach it to the truck. I would note, the entire side of the street was empty except my element and this trailer and asshole had to just park in front if it. After 3 days back I'm reminded of how fucked californians are when it comes to driving (and parking).

Anyway, I just got internet finally set up and I still need to unpack and do loads of cleaning. Ugh. Oh ya, the shower stopped up.

One More Week

Till I'm out of Portland and down in the bay area. Anxiety is setting in and I'm prepping for the move. I'm probably about 80% packed, but am aware that I'm missing stuff too. What I mean by that is when last I moved, I used the opportunity to clean and clear myself of a bunch of stuff that I knew I wouldn't need. Well now that I'll be living alone again, I'll need some of that stuff again. And even with the big clean out, I still own way more shit then I really want or need. I'll be leaving some stuff here, but I hope to have it out of the way since my family will be taking care of this stuff.

And my anxiety grows. I know what I need to do, and when to do it, but the wait plus literally abandoning Portland is still hitting me. What will the bay area really have in store for me>?

Holy Shit!

I just accepted a job down in the Bay Area working on a film. Start date is mid August for me. 9-12 months of work too. WOO HOO!

Sleep

It would appear I only need 4 hours a night. Or at least 4 hours of sleep last night was enough. Unless of course you count how much caffeine and sugar I'm on right now. Then I might be wrong, oh so very wrong.

Working It Out

So for 2 days a week I catalog student art work for a local art college. Currently I'm cataloging the work grad student who for me, has no editing skills what so ever. Most MFA thesis's have had 5-25 photos/art work to catalog. This person included nearly 200 photos of her thesis work, many of them are nearly repeats too. Many are not the right orientation and most are not needed and some are simply bad photos. I think I could edit this down to about 30 as a whole and it would show her work very well. How does one complete an MFA and not have decent editing skills? Hell, I don't even have a BFA and could do this. Ugh.

The Big Idea

Since working on Coraline I've had the idea of mating an old school optical printer with high end DSLR to create a inexpensive way of making 2k input for preserving films. Yesterday, I found out it's already been done and done better then I could have done it. It's not cheap, but instead of a DSLR, they went with scanner/back that can handle 3fps. Ugh. Good idea, but too little too late I guess?

Today

Ia m bored. Actually I've been bored for about 15 months now, so maybe today isn't that much different then any other days these days. I'm still getting paid not to work and am waiting to start a potential job down in SF. Potential means they still haven't formally said "we hired you" nor given me a start date. Last I heard, they changed the job description of the position and asked me to submit some photo work. I'm bored with my photo work as a whole too. My photos feel banal to me these days.

Nothing seems to catching my eye that much or my mind, let alone my heart too. I've been reading, but nothing that note worthy. Currently it's a biography on Robert Capa. It reads very cliche ridden, the author really wants to put it down in the record that Capa was at some point a Commie. Boring if you ask me. An eastern eurpeoan jew who covered the republicans in Spain during the 30's, like duh, what else would he have been? Anyway, here's some snap shot photos I've been a shooting.

Spring Scoot 17: Almost Legal

Easter: CB&KSC

I hate UPS

They are over priced.
They are slow.
They take for ever to deliver a package.
They are more then often late with said package (beyond due date).

Fuck UPS

Missed the Boat

It looks like I missed the boat on that Pixar deal. I talked to that friend of mine on the production and it sounds like they did most of their hiring before Xmass, when I wasn't available to be hired (stupid grad school). I guess I need to simply keep casting longer nets out in my given field. I hate not having a job.

Grrrrrrrmmmmmm

I'm super irritable today. I just told a friend of mine in my own dumb way that he's being an ass and to get the point. Of course this started an even stupider argument about how big an ass I'm being for calling him out. of course I'm being an ass, but a proportional ass. Of course this is mostly my fault for being irritable and not checking my mouth so to say. But honestly the friend in question is being a complete ass and I'd prefer to keep my trap shut.

Still Sick

A week later and I'm still sick, but add a bit of green phlegm to the equation. Other then passing on my upper resporitory problems to a bunch of dumbasses this last week, it has sucked to be sick. I am sick of being sick.

Cough Cough Cough

This weekend I went to a red neck convention. This was really odd timing, in part because I have a upper respiratory infection and the Gifford shooting.
My nephew has been wanting a .22 rifle for a while, so I thought as a bday present I'd find him a used one. On the way over to the convention I heard about the shooting. Upon arriving it was apparent that no one seemed to know about the shooting, especially as their was the normal load of right wing dumbness going on. Fortunately for me, I had a hard time finding what I was looking for and had a chance to spread my URI very widely, as I made sure to touch every firearm I could and do as much uncovered coughing as possible. I also made sure not to wash my hands after I needed to use the restroom.

I tend to believe in fairly open interpretation of the 2nd amendment, but I fucking hate the NRA and all the bullshit they surround themselves with. Fucktards.

Sick

Phlegm throat and lots of coughing, plus the required stuffed up nose.
I hate this, I hate this and I really hate this.