Hindsight

I didn’t take any special steps or use any techniques when I took these pictures. The light seems poor – that seems to stick whenever I use this camera. I took the last picture yesterday. I took the other two a few months ago.

Most of the actual roll was destroyed – the door on the back of my ActionSampler was ajar just slightly one day (I always keep it in my backpack). Even though I won’t know what pictures were lost (it’s taken me months just to get through this roll), I was happy to see others make it through.

Yesterday, after I finished the roll (24 exposures), I gave my ActionSampler to Bob. I already had an ActionSampler Flash and didn’t need two cameras. He offered cash, and I didn’t know how to answer (it’s flimsy and cheap!). He then offered to buy me a few lunches in the future. I didn’t argue with that.

Last weekend I was with my friend at Wal Mart. They had mini tripods hanging by the gum and snacks near the checkout lines. It was hard to resist. At five dollars I picked one up.

I’ve only used it twice. I finally messed with a longer exposure time and came up with the image above. It’s my bedroom at night, obviously. The parking lot is visible outside. In the later hours the only light in the room comes from my laptop.

That’s where I am when I’m writing in this journal.

Palomar Airport is stationed right behind the studio at which I work. From my desk I can look out the window and see planes landing frequently.

Yesterday I arrived at work at half past two, afternoon; I was pulling a late shift until 3am. So my work hours were adjusted accordingly. Thankfully, some of us were told to go home at six (our usual, non-crunch time).

As I walked to my car, this time in a far lot, I noticed a “flying fortress” sort readying for take off. This week has been a landing zone for them, apparently.

It’s nice to see planes other than the usual Cessnas using the ‘port.

Wednesday the 28th marked the beginning of my “five day holiday”. Translation: not only do I not work Wednesday through Friday, but I actually don’t show up on Saturday and Sunday either. Working on the weekends has become something of the norm the last two months, be it Saturday or Sunday. Or both.

Five days is, without a doubt, not enough time to recover from a project that sucked the life out of me for two months. But it’s been a good breather.

Thursday was grand. I had a very important thing ™ to do in the afternoon and I met up with my friend in L.A. The yakitori-ya (Yakitori Shop) we went to had pretty bad service, but the Asahi and Umeshu toned things a bit. Soon after we hit a pub where I drank far too much. Enough to have a mild hangover the next day. I don’t remember having a hangover since last year. I’m not looking to practice it up again, though.

Thursday night was a good time.

On Friday I had a choice between “Kill Bill Vol. 2″ or “Man on Fire“. I decided to see something that neither I nor my friend had seen, so we went with the latter.

I will say that “Man on Fire” is a glutton for style. But I will also say that it does have substance. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely a huge tease and playground for optical effects, creative use of subtitling, so on and so forth. The intensity of the film reminded me of “Training Day”. Denzel Washington is perfect for the role, Dakota Fanning is fair and Marc Anthony… tried his best. Still, when all you’re really paying attention to is Denzel anyway, the rest gets some forgiveness.

It’s jarring how the film works. At times it throws frenetic images. Quick cuts and images overlapping each other at ludicrous speed. At others it becomes the slow, serious film. I saw myself trying to acclimate to the scizophrenia of style. In the end, though, I looked over to Kevin and said “That was good.”

I’ve figured myself out a little bit in terms of watching film. It has to do with the human element. You could well have the worst film ever. But if the the film has a good number of moving, emotionally convincing moments, I’m just ready to be sold. I’ve got to work on filtering that out and being more subjective with film as a whole, otherwise I will go nowhere with it.

Later Friday evening I met with more friends, had Chinese food and tagged along with them to a Starbucks. There I had my grande latte with five sugar packets (I like it sweet apparently). They chatted it up and sometimes I partook in the conversation. At other times I simply stared at my cup or tried to keep my head above troubles/misery. I was comfortable just being around them.

It’s Saturday evening now. I came back to Encinitas last night after coffee. Last weeks auctions yielded a decent amount. The timing could not be better: now that overtime at work is stabilizing to humane hours, the paycheck will get smaller. Auctioning is a decent and paced exercise for me. I don’t have a positive feedback rating of 238 for nothing.

What you just saw are all the packages I put together this morning and afternoon. What I thought would take just the morning hours worked its way into the afternoon as I wrangled other items for sale. At the same time, bidders who just won their auctions were sending me payments. So I was multitasking. Swap Meet in the Master Bedroom.

eBay can be quite an addictive chore. When bidders send me their payments, I find myself getting the items they won and packaging them with the best of care. I don’t slab crunk together and send it out. I want that woman in Natchitoches, Louisiana to enjoy her “The Pandora Directive & Tex Murphy: Overseer” PC CD-ROM, even if it’s a collector’s item for the shelf.

I am happy to know that Heather in Columbus, Ohio will be playing my neglected copy of Super Mario World for Game Boy Advance. Or that Harry will be the proud owner of a like new Sega Genesis system. Revision 3.

Yes, I somehow have a heart for the practice. Thank god for eBay.

I am not far from destroying the debt from one [of several] credit cards. Small steps, sir. Small steps.

I still have tomorrow, Sunday, before resuming the work deal. I am hoping to finally wrap up “My First DVD” project. This evening, iTunes is locked onto “Groove Salad” and I have no plans on changing stations for quite a bit.

I’ve had credit card debt since a college bookstore employee threw in some Citibank handouts along with my first textbooks. On and off I’ve used eBay to sell (and buy) things. Well, it is finally time to sell whatever I can.

There is a bit more than what is pictured above. A slew of auctions start off tomorrow at noon. I schedule them so that they will end during noontime on a weekend – when bidders are actually awake and browsing.

A lot of my crunk is a mass of collected games. Things dating far back into the PC and console areas. Lately I’ve felt no attachment to these items. And it’s time for all of them to go into the hands of new, prospective owners. I could use the money – in the last several months I’ve knocked off about two thousand dollars from my credit card debt. And it feels good. I never needed any of these things. The only things I need to keep are those games which I worked on or were given to me as gifts.

Less is more.

March came and went by so fast. I spent a lot of nights at work, pulling twelve-hour shifts with others. Last week I came into work at 10am and went back home 8am the next day. The industry I work in is sometimes too much for even me to handle. It puts a bit more perspective into daily life… when I wish I could spend more hours not working. I didn’t quite ask for the 24-hour bit.

I cannot say “it’s been a great month” or “I’ve been quite happy” as of late. Distant from that right now. Just distant. There has been quite a lot professionally and personally that passed in March. I am just very tired, to say the least. Tired in all aspects.

I have been working 12 hour shifts during the weekdays, worked today and will be working tomorrow for at least 8 hours or so. Such is the way of the industry I work in.

Pinback is a great band I discovered thanks to some MP3s my coworker gave me. I ended up buying two of their albums after hearing them. How is that for proof of purchase?

It’s been a very quiet and blue two months in the scheme of things. I’d like to recap all of the little positive things that might have transpired recently, but I’ll just let them fade for now. There are more important things to come.

Like a person who hasn’t been to the place he frequented every week, I return. But only briefly.

…I’ve been very busy.

At the moment I am working horrible hours. This evening was the first in the week that I’ve been home earlier than ten-thirty at night. We’re in “crunch time” at the studio and it looks to be this way into March. The nature of my job doesn’t allow me to talk about what I’m working on, but post mortem I will.

Things have still been the repitition of ups and downs. I choose not to post here as much, I have my outlets elsewhere now. I have done little outside of work. And while I would rather do more outside of work, I have to go with the [work]flow at the moment.

It’s been a solid month of introspection and reflection. I’ve said that before, sometime way far in the past. Another cycle I suppose.

More in time.