Photography and More!

AHA! I almost forgot, but right before I was going to shut my computer down for the night, I realized I hadn’t posted my day 6 photo!

Here it is:

You may wonder what’s so significant about a pair of ratty old pink Chuck Taylor high tops. Well, I’ll tell you:

1) It took me over a year to find them

2) I have worn them all over the country: Minneapolis, MN (obviously); Seattle, Washington; Washington, DC; New York, New York; St. Louis, MO; Tulsa, OK; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

3) Even though they take like, 5 minutes to put on, I love them.

In the harried business of our lives, we often forget what’s important, and my primary goal is to be able to remind myself what is important as the year unfolds.  As such, I am going to take this second to last evening of 2010 to reflect on what I need to focus on in the chaos and business of the day to day to keep myself overall happy and the pace of progress going forward.

Photography:

Everyone who knows me knows what a passion this is for me; yet I haven’t to embraced it with every part of my being the way that I should.  This year, I am going to take more photos of people, I am going to make money with my craft, and I am going to eat at home more so that I have money for fim and to buy a digital single lens reflex camera.

To keep my passion burning bright, I am going to shoot, at minimum, one roll of film each week.

I will also stop being so shy.  I will ask friends, family and the occasional stranger if I can snap photos of them; the only way I am going to get better is if I practice.

Many of you have heard my promises of making photography a bigger part of my life a lot of times for many years; as I announce it from the virtual rooftop in this blog, please, please help me keep this promise to myself.  Ask me meddling questions about when I took my last photo and so on.

Make more friends:

The aforementioned shyness makes it a challenge, but it’s something I need to do.

Take better care of myself:

Pretty straightforward.  Go to the chiropractor, get haircuts before my locks drive me mad.  Style my hair, wear nicer clothes.

Give myself the same grace I give others:

Getting the occasional C or D on a test is not the end of the road in a class for others, and it isn’t for me either.

If I trip and fall, maybe it really was because someone left something where they shouldn’t have.

If I’ve misplaced something, maybe it was because I was doing too much at once.

Update my blog in words and photos weekly:

A new week does not necessarily bring about new things to say, but seldom does a week pass without a moment worth capturing on film or a memory card.  And if I’m wrong, well, maybe I ought to change that.  Life is to be lived, not to be muddled through. Seriously, something semi-momentous should be happening every week, or else I am not doing something correctly.

It’s not often that I take a photo I think is kinda cool and later discover a “Where’s Waldo” of treasures: a bright pink bob wig, multiple metallic purple skulls, dancing skeletons, bicycles… click for the full size to see all of the odds and ends that make this photo interesting.

Joshua Radin at Pantages Theater September 2009

I broke the news on Facebook and Twitter: barring some kind of unforseen financial or health disaster, I am going to New Zealand for Spring Semester 2011.  That means I need to earn more money than I am presently, and quickly, so it’s time for me to dust off some of the life skills I’ve had on the shelf to earn money.

Namely, photography.

If you need an event or casual event photographer, please think of me first.  I also have experience with concert photography, and my resume includes, but is not limited to: Hanson, Jason Mraz, and Joshua Radin.

Seriously, think about it: have you ever had a party where you wish you had someone to document the event because everyone else was busy running around and living life instead of taking an appropriate amount of time to record the memories to tangible form?

Contact me, tell me what your photography needs are, and we’ll work out a price.

I also scrapbook and make cards.

If you have something white to get a stain out of, Arm and Hammer whitening toothpaste is where it’s at.

To protect the dignity of a certain kitty who shares my living space, I will avoid details. But I will say this: where harsh, conventional cleaners failed in epic ways, the toothpaste won.

Just put it on the dry surface, let it sit for a little while and *poof* the stain is gone. It’s like magic.

I think it works on colorfast surfaces, too, but I can’t personally endorse that- so try at your own risk.

I’ve had these photos on my computer for a while, and I gather it is about time to put them online.  I mean, what goes together better than blogs and insomnia?  Very little, if you ask me.

Please keep in mind that this is not representative of my normal work; they’re just some shots that I took with the aforementioned $4 disposable camera from Target while I was having fun without worrying about the outcome.  Something every artist needs to do once in a while.  (Click on the photo for a larger version.)

Skyscrapers and liquor stores!

Looking up at the skyline from within Downtown

An annoyed kitty…

I had a President Obama bobblehead.  Then one day when I went to press “snooze” on my alarm, it went flying off my bookshelf and onto the floor.  It was a sad day.  This photo made its way into this blog post as a sort of memorial.

I like this photo almost entirely for the shadow.

It has come to my attention that as a fledgling journalist, there is really no excuse for me to not be keeping a blog.  Deep down, I know this.  The problem being, I don’t feel like I often have newsworthy stuff in my life.  Sure, it’s newsworthy to me, but can I expect many people to care that I found a job (in a bookstore!) or that I hope I don’t have to take my cat to the vet?

Sure, my friends and family may, but it’s not very interesting to the world at large.

I have writer’s block because I have nothing to say.  Sure, I have opinions, but I’m hesitant to put much in the way of that out in the world for fear of damaging my ability to appear unbiased in the future.  The last need is to lose a job (or not get a job) because someone digs through an old blog and finds out how I feel about  immigration reform.

So as it is, I think the theme of this blog will vary day to day: food, photography and travel with the occasional every day antidote for when my life is interesting enough to warrant it.  It gets me writing and shows future employers that I’m disciplined enough to sit down and write on a regular basis.

Last week, the three biggest things in my life that I spent my time on came to an end.

School, newspaper and work.  Four if you count bussing to and from school every day.

I was in a panic over how bored I thought I would be.  All of these things that absorbed so much of my time, energy and brain space not tapering off, but flat out ending.  Anyone who knows me knows that I can be a bit of an, *ahem* busy body, which puts my concerns into perspective.

Good news: so far, it’s been a refreshing surprise.

I will use today as an example.

I slept last night better than I had slept since spring semester started.  I woke up refreshed at 11:30, spent time with Chester, and caught a bus to Southdale where window shopped for Father’s Day presents and met a friend to see a movie.

After the movie, I applied for a job and went grocery shopping.  When I got home, I made dinner.

And that brings us to the present tense.  As I type this blog, I have homemade baked macaroni and cheese waiting for me to enjoy, and after I do, I will clean the kitchen and watch the Daily Show and Scrubs without feeling guilty about either while thinking about all of the other stuff that I should be doing.

Tomorrow I’m going to my brother-in-law’s store for a few hours.

More time with friends and my cat, home cooked meals and relaxation peppered with job hunting.

Panic averted.  I think I’m going to be okay, even if I do miss my former fellow newspaper compadres, co-workers and fellow students.

I can look forward to more of this and other delicious things!

Years ago I heard my oldest sister, Tricia, say something about how you have to appreciate the little joys in life because you can’t wait around for the really big, exciting stuff to happen to find reasons to enjoy life.

Something about that sentiment clicked.

It’s the smaller stuff that makes life truly enjoyable on a day-to-day basis: finding a $5 bill in the deep recesses of your pockets, discovering a new favorite beverage at a coffee shop, getting done with work or school half an hour early on a beautiful day, a surprise e-mail from a friend, hearing your favorite busker play his trumpet Downtown.. I could go on and on.

Sometimes it’s not just the smaller things in life that make it enjoyable.

Often those little joys and victories, those precious rays of sunshine are what keeps us forging on while we’re entrenched in emotional, personal and/or career based chaos.  When we don’t know how we’re going to make it through the day or week, realizing our frequent beverage buyer club card is full and that we get a free cup of coffee might be that little push we need to get going so we get to experience the next big exciting thing with our mental health intact.

The small milestones and victories are essential to recognize, too.  Learning a new word in a foreign language we’ve been studying, or finishing a spreadsheet that’s essential for a project we’re working on.

Such moments in life are all around us.  The way I look at it we can embrace them and cherish them, or we can spend a whole lot more time being unhappy than we have to.

So go out, experience the world in all of its glory, live life and recognize the little things to get you through.

This song is a recurring theme in my life and has reminded me of the importance of the so called “little” victories time and time again.  The song is great, but my favorite part of the video is the beginning where he’s smile-singing.  You just can’t fake that, and it makes me think that the song implies a huge part of his life philosophy, too.

I am a huge advocate of small, unexpected gestures of kindness.  Sometimes they come exactly when we’re totally worn down and defeated and remind us that there’s kindness and warmth in the world.  I’m proud to say I’ve been on the receiving end of those small gestures and that they’ve reminded me that while sometimes individuals can be jerks, humanity is usually pretty decent with the occasional highlight.

In an effort to not forget those moments that made my day, I’m going to share some of them in this blog entry.

The ice cream coupon

Back when I was first fired from Best Buy, I was at the grocery store with one of my roommates at the time to get a few staples and a copy of the Sunday paper to look through the want ads. In the ice cream aisle, I declared “you know what, I can’t really afford it, but I need ice cream.”

As I went to open the ice cream cooler, a woman walked up to me and said “wait, I have something for you.”  I was worried she was a religious solicitor and initially thought “oh great, exactly what I need today of all days.”

Instead, she handed me a coupon for a free pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.

It was the perfect pick me up for the day, and gave me a much needed morale boost.

Surprise transfer

One day I was waiting at the bus stop, happy to be headed home instead of at an impromptu gathering that I had no desire to go to.  A woman got off a bus and handed me her transfer, just for the sake of sharing.  I had the bus fare, but it was a happy surprise to save $1.75.

A literal pick me up

Once upon a time, I had a job at the MSP airport that involved a crappy commute, didn’t challenge me other than emotionally and that bored me to tears but, alas, it paid the bills.  Kind of.  On this particular day, I slept until the last possible second and only had hightop Chuck Taylors at my immediate disposal for shoes. Dangerous combination.

I made a call to not lace them up all the way to save a precious two minutes to (hopefully) make the bus that would have gotten me to a connecting bus to get me to work on time.  The walk to the next bus would have taken me all of fifteen minutes, but it was fifteen minutes I didn’t have.

I ran out the door, rounded the corner with my half unlaced shoes just in time to see my bus leave depart from the stop from a block away.

A woman sitting in her car waiting for friends she was giving a ride took notice of my dejection, stood up, got out of her car and offered me a ride to the bus stop seven blocks away.  I know you aren’t supposed to accept rides from strangers, but this was a kind looking woman in her early forties waiting to give her blind friends a ride to appointments.

My gut feeling was good, and that is always right.

She drove me to the bus stop, I got to make idle chit-chat with three kind strangers, I made my connecting bus and got to work on time.

That is an example not only of how a small gesture can make a huge difference, but a lesson in following gut instincts about someone being trustworthy.

Tissues

The morning I found out my granpda died, I was quietly emotional.  On the bus ride to meet a friend for lunch, a kind, aware emotionally aware older man sitting in the seat ahead of me leaned back and silently handed me a travel pack of tissues.  The simple fact that a complete stranger took notice of me being sad and did something kind for me in response lifted my mood.

I’m not telling you these stories just to tell them, or to relish about the times when a kind stranger has made my day better through a simple but very meaningful act and reestablished my faith in humanity. Also take notice that none of these gestures required money.

I’m also telling them as evidence that these kind things really do happen, and to say that I hope you’ve been on the receiving end of these acts, or have had someone to make you laugh when you desperately needed it.

I also hope that you can be that kind stranger to someone someday, because if there’s one thing this world could use, it’s more positivity.

And you don’t need a massive movement to contribute to a greater good.