Losing a Little Steam

Dome at Night
Originally uploaded by lacadaz

I feel a little defeated tonight. I'm pretty sure tomorrow my streak of a hundred view's a day on flickr will come to an end. Tonight my new zoom lens came in the mail. A dark and stormy night is not necessarily the best time to check out a zoom lens. I'm still learning what it can and can't do. I managed to put up six pictures from tonight. The dome was probably the best of them. I'm off to bed. Right now. I need to start playing catch-up with my sleep. Besides I'll want to try to get an hour or two of light before tomorrow's regional meeting.

Bag of Anything $1

Bag of Anything
Originally uploaded by lacadaz

A couple of days ago I was walking past a deli across the street from the back side of the BoA building when I saw this sign in the window. Bag of Anything $1. It may be the most ingenious marketing slogan I've ever encountered. I mean if any place I normally shopped started doing "Bag of Anything $1" I guarantee you I would never set foot inside a competitor's store.

I Went to Coit Tower This Morning

Library
Originally uploaded by lacadaz

Well, my attempts to bring balance back to my life failed today. Yes I managed to clean the bathroom and fix my mother's computer but they actually took far less time than I anticipated. What I did spend my day on was going up to Coit Tower and taking pictures of the murals. And of course the afternoon to clean, tag and upload the images. Still obsessed. I wonder how it's going to be when I get that new lens at the end of the week.

Maybe I'm Not a Photographer After All

Tonight I had to go back to the store after I was almost all the way home to take care of an alarm issue. I found myself on an outbound evening 41. This is not a usual bus for me. I got on at Hyde Street to a packed coach. After a couple of stops I managed to find a seat near the front. Across the aisle from me was an active young woman who was intently reading. The book she was reading was very thick and I noticed that she was coming up on the end of it. She had maybe 50 pages to go. The book was War and Peace. 

I myself have not yet gotten around to tackling that particular classic. But I couldn't help marveling that she was reaching that most perfect time when a truly great book begins it's conclusion. Her face betrayed that very thing. Brows furrowed in a combination of empathy, horror and wonderment all at the same time. The fact is that what she was projecting at that moment was much deeper than anything I could describe. 

The thing is I really didn't have to. I was wearing my new camera around my neck. It was powered on and set for an auto exposure right under my jacket. She was so engrossed in the Tolstoy that she may not have even noticed it. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't bring myself to even possibly risk breaking that spell she was under. There is still that part of me that sees taking pictures as a form of stealing. And there is part of me that is still far more married to the written word. 

One Week

So I've had my new camera for a week now. It has been a bit of a life changing experience for me. I've been carrying around the camera every time I set foot out of my apartment. I've managed to take a different route home each night from work to get exposed to different scenes. Now I've just got to incorporate that back into a more regular routine. Tomorrow I need to get restore a little bit of balance back to my life. I do love new obsessions but I've got to restore a little more productivity to the other aspects of my life. 

My W-2 Arrived Tonight

My W-2 arrived in the mail today. I had my taxes filed within 10 minutes of walking into my apartment. As I had already pretty much spent part of the refund already I should not have been thinking about what else to buy with it. Yea, right. Within the hour I had sent B&H Photo a little slice of that future check from the government. By the end of the week you should be seeing the effect of a 55-200 mm zoom lens with built in vibration reduction. My photography obsession continues unabated. Tonight's contributions were from my commute. A couple of shots in the morning from the bus ride and some shadowy exposures from the walk from Van Ness to my apartment. 

Up Early Again

So I woke up this morning at a quarter to four and couldn't get back to sleep. Around six I just said to heck with it, got up and dressed and went out to take some more pictures. I guess this is the good thing about getting the photography bug–it's getting me out of my apartment more. Hell last night I got off the bus 10 blocks early just to walk through Chinatown to take some pictures as the stores were closing up. When I sat out this morning I was hoping that this storm would have more wind than rain. Not quite. I ended up getting pretty damp while walking around looking for shots of San Francisco in the rain. It wasn't too bad of a walk though and I ended up getting warm again at the Peet's in the Ferry Building. As usual the fruits of my labors made their way to my flickr site. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacadaz/

Lightroom Kicks iPhoto Out of My Workflow

I lost one of the main reasons to use iPhoto over Lightroom this morning when I found a good flickr up-loader for it.  So now I'm tagging my photos and using the tools in Lightroom to do all my post-production work. I remain enamored with my camera. Tonight in the rain I got off the bus in North Beach and took pictures of Stockton Street shutting down for the night. I have passed this scene countless times on the bus but tonight was different for me. I ventured out more into the world. This is a fantastic byproduct of my new hobby. I've taken a load of pictures every day since I picked it up on Saturday night. Today was my most popular day on flickr. In fact since I bought this camera I haven't had less than a hundred frame views. I'm feeling pretty darn good about that to tell you the truth. 

Photo Obsession

So I've been spending more time on flickr than ever before. I joined a couple of San Francisco groups and have been sending some of my new snaps their way. By far the most interesting is Guess Where SF. The idea is to guess the location of whatever picture of the city is posted. I can see how this can become addictive and a useful kick in the pants to get out and walk the city with my camera. On the one hand it makes me want to try to find more unique locations. On the other hand it makes me try to identify more unique locations. I put up a picture of the Sunday school gates at the Christian Science Church at Franklin and California. Somebody figured it out and posted in seven minutes. I'm pretty impressed with the group so far. It has the most active members I've encountered on flickr. The picture I posted yesterday already has 84 views. I'm not telling where it is yet and no one has guessed yet. 

I'm also lurking around some other photography sites. The language on these sites is so different from what I'm used to on the net. Mostly I read news and politics and tech. You can't read more than two comments on any of those subjects without someone getting their blood pressure cranked up. People are actually encouraging to other people's opinions and art. I can't believe it's the same internet. 

Lion Sex

Along with the newer pictures that I've been uploading to flickr were the zoo pictures from last April that I thought I had lost during a software upgrade. I remembered that I had made a gallery on my old .mac blog. So I went and rescued them and put up a set on flickr. In a matter of hours the pictures of the Lions having sex had already gotten more views than all but two of all the pictures I had ever uploaded. I guess sex sells. Even lion sex. Anyway here is the foreplay picture, you'll have to go to flickr to get the juicy stuff. 

A Night with My New Camera

I'm not sure how long my posts are all going to be me gushing about how much I love my new camera. At least this one and maybe even one more. I've taken several hundred pictures since I brought it home and have gone out of my way to hit areas I know are good for photography. Anyway here is the last one I took on my way home from work tonight. I'm pushing the flickr link out there again because I've put a little more into my page including updating the map portion so you can click and see exactly where I took the shot on yahoo maps. 

lacadaz on flickr

A Day With My New Camera

I had an inventory to do early this morning but I brought along my camera. I took some pictures on the way to work. I took some pictures while running an errand for work down to the Wharf. I took some pictures along The Embarcadero. I took some pictures on my way home. I took some pictures on my afternoon walk down Powell to Market Street. All in all I took about 200 pictures. I could not be more pleased with my purchase. I kept the camera on nearly all day. I snapped whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I didn't even get the battery readout to budge from full all day. I still had room and power to shoot another 200 pictures. 

I'm definitely still learning the ins and out of this camera but I was very satisfied with the results. With all the pictures I'm sure to be taking I've switched back to Lightroom and am then adding only my absolute favorites to iPhoto. I managed to process 20 pictures and upload them to my flickr account. Take a peak if you are so inclined. 

lacadaz on flickr

Tomorrow's Should be a Vivid Post

Well I finally did it. Tonight I snuck into Circuit City as they were shutting the doors and bought my first real camera. I should be asleep right now as I have an early morning inventory. Instead I'm trying to will the battery to charge so I can actually try out my new Nikon. I've got the afternoon off after that inventory so hopefully by tomorrow night I'll be putting some new pictures up on flickr. 

My Cold is Back

I spent the day walking and taking the bus all over the north side of the city. I had to move stuff between five different stores in anticipation of inventory this weekend. This would have been fine except for the fact that my cold pretty much came back yesterday. Walking all over hell and gone and forgetting to eat all day was not a very good idea. I'm going to blow my nose now and try to get some sleep. Tomorrow's I've got some more of the same except that we'll have some good business going to. I'm afraid it's going to be a long couple of days for me. 

If Only They Could Blame the Writers Strike

So I blew off Macworld and went across the street to the Metreon and caught a movie. I saw the sequel to National Treasure. I'm not sure but I think it was called National Treasure II: Unbelievable Scenarios. It wasn't a bad plot. The acting wasn't bad either. Well no the acting was actually on the not good side of things. But it was this script that just did me in. They kept running into complications like characters are supposed to. The only problem was that each character would then come up with the most elaborate and idiotic way to do everything. I keep wanting to like these movies. I love all that conspiracy bullshit and what the hell I like Nicolas Cage and Jon Voight well enough. It's just that these scripts are so utterly void of any sign of intelligent life. God, I can hardly wait for the Indiana Jones movie. Inndeeeyy!!!

I Was Wrong About the Keynote

Turns out there is no iAir in a can. What there is, is the Macbook Air the newest and most portable Apple has ever put out. Sure I want one but it's one of those things that wouldn't change my life all that much. The iPhone changed the way I did things. My present computers did too. The Macbook Air would be nice to own but I wouldn't want to sign the check to pay for it. 

Now the Time Capsule is a different story. I'm getting myself one of those. I'll wait for it though. To tell you the truth I'm thinking more about a new camera with my tax refund. That's been my plan for the last year and I didn't see anything new from Apple to change my mind about that. 

Last Minute, Fearless Keynote Predictions

The tag line of this year's MacWorld is "There is Something in the Air". Conventional wisdom is pointing to an ultra portable MacBook or a delivery upgrade for the iPhone. I'm going to go completely off the page on this one. Last night I kept waking up thinking about that phrase. I tried to put myself in the shoes of The Steve. For starters I've got a bunch of rabid fans. The iPhone proved that they would pay a premium to replace what has really become a need in modern life. If I had a captured audience what would be the ideal goods to sell–what are the most basic needs of humans? That's when I realized that there was no puzzle to this year's motto. The answer is right there in the copy. If I could corner a market it would be on air. Air and water. Then maybe food and oil, but first air and water. What does this have to do with technology? I'm betting it's all in the delivery system. It's not all about air quality, it's about how you breathe it. 

Christmas Eve

Well, the real Christmas Eve is upon us. We're only 9 hours away the Macworld keynote speech. I'll be asleep for most of that time anyway. 

Twas the night before macworld

and all along cyberspace not a peripheral was stirring 

not even a mighty mouse.   

Counting Counting Counting

Today wasn't quite what I was hoping for to break out of my funk. I had planned for a quick inventory this morning as I was well prepped. I had a nice productive little afternoon of my own planned out. But then someone else's inventory fell apart. Guess who ended up getting their back. Next thing I know my day is gone. I'm hoping for a little better of a day tomorrow.

Streaks

I don't feel much like writing tonight. Like most days before inventory my thoughts were dominated by work and the store. I had to force myself to write in my journal tonight and now I'm here forcing myself to post on my blog. To tell you the truth I wouldn't even think of it if I wasn't working on two good streaks of writing in both formats every day. So the question of the night is, is it better to write something trite and weak just to be writing or is it better to write your way out of a day's funk? I'm going to lean toward doing the writing. Interesting or not it is still a chronicle of a particular state of mind. Besides you can never be completely sure of the value or lack thereof until you've put the words to paper (or screen). I guess I could say the same for taking pictures. If you don't click the shutter you have no idea if you have a picture or not.  

Our Talents and Our Perceptions

I watched "The Agony and the Ecstasy" tonight. I hadn't seen it in a great many years. Decades probably. I'm pretty sure I had read it sometime my in my Freshman year of high school. It fit right into what I've been thinking about lately. Over the last couple of days I've put some pictures up on flickr. Some of them I like very much. You could even say that I'm proud of them. Tonight my photostream views on flickr passed a thousand. All of this served to remind me of the fact that I generally approve of my photography far more than I do of my writing. That despite the fact that I would probably strongly consider trading my eyesight for being a talented writer. Watching Michelangelo struggle with his talent as a painter while his heart lay in marble seemed fitting somehow tonight. Of course he had that whole greatest artist that ever lived going for him. 

I have an ex whose blog I read secretly. I've gathered from her writing that she has the opposite problem from mine. She longs for the visual arts but has this incredible aptitude for the written word. I would love to write as truly and clearly as she does but I don't think she has any idea of just how inspiring her writing is. 

I'm not going to stop writing. And I'm not going to stop thinking that someday I may produce something that I can be proud of. And I'm not going to stop taking pictures. 

More pictures

Art at Pier 39
Originally uploaded by lacadaz

I put the rest of the pictures I took yesterday up on my flickr account.

Speaking of pictures I watched two movies for the first time tonight that I'd been trying to get around to. I watched Troy and 300. They were both about Greeks but mostly they were both about war. 300 was the better of the two movies. Mainly because although Troy was filled with heros it came up short on the heroic motivation department. Mostly it was war for the sake of war all around. Kinda like a proto-Rudy Giuliani.

Took Some Pictures Today

I had an errand to run this afternoon at the wharf. I took my camera with me and before I went home I set myself up in the plaza in front of the Ferry building and took some pictures of the people coming in and out. I switched sides of The Embarcadero to get a couple of different perspectives. I don't know if it was the grey day that did it but when I came home and started working on the day's photos I found I liked all of the people shots in black and white. I've got some other pictures to put up, I'll try to do that tomorrow. Anyway, check them out on my flickr page or it looks like the tumblr feed picked them all up too. 

Not Quite Right

Well, I listened a little too much to the tracking polls and got caught up in a little bit of Obamamania. In typical fashion for me just when I'm thinking about switching allegiances because of electability questions my first choice comes roaring back. Hillary is going to end up beating Obama and Romney is suffering his second straight loss to a different opponent. Romney is on the ropes and the "front runner" in the Republican field still hasn't been able to break 10%. I was disappointed that Ron Paul didn't beat Giuliani. Still not a bad showing from the libertarian side of the party. I think that New Hampshire was probably his last shot to show off. Paul has got some money in the bank so he's not about to disappear but his chances to break into the top three are pretty much over. 

New Hampshire

Last night I got into my first political fight of the season. It made me feel horrible and reminded me that I had promised not to pay too much attention to this presidential race. Yea, I'm doing a good job keeping that promise. Anyway that fight plus the results in Iowa and what's going to happen in New Hampshire have got me taking a new look at Barack Obama. I've always liked him but I lean a little more towards the center and the Clinton candidacy. But I'm finding more and more that I'm alone in the center with that attitude. Iowa got me looking at an electoral map again. Obama makes the Republican's unable to take the south for granted. They will have to spend time and money there. Not so if Hillary is the candidate. Barack wins some midwestern states that Hillary will have some trouble competing in. I am still hoping that they join forces it's just that now I'm wondering who I really want at the top of the ticket. 

Anyway this was supposed to be about New Hampshire so here are my predictions now that the polls have opened. 

Democrats

1. Obama
2. Clinton
3. Edwards
4. Richardson

Republicans

1. McCain
2. Romney
3. Huckabee
4. Paul
5. Giuliani
6. Thompson

We'll take a look in 24 hours and see how I did. 

Cure for the Blahs

I've had the blahs for a couple of days now. The weather is on the dreary side and I've been having trouble getting any kind of groove going. Tonight I turned to an ancient cure. RKO's own counter to the depression, Astaire and Rogers. I watched Shall We Dance with dinner and now I've got Top Hat on. It's helping chase the blahs away.

I Really Don't Know What to Write Tonight

I've been trying to post every day. Tonight feels like one of those times that I probably shouldn't. Nothing is coming to mind about the storm, or the coming Macworld events, or the New Hampshire primary. I'm sure there is something in there on all these subjects they just don't seem to be coming to the surface tonight. I was thinking about maybe starting a website named www.anybodybutrudy08.com but that is for another day.

Riding out the Storm

They tell me a bad one ripped through the Bay Area today. I heard a little bit of it. But I was ensconced at home on my computer for most of the day. Meanwhile a million people in Northern California lost power, nearly eight inches of rain fell in the Santa Cruz mountains, 101 got closed for five hours, and 100 mile an hour gusts were recorded in the east bay. For a little while I was feeling bad about not really enjoying my first day off since Christmas while working on a project all day. Reading about the storm is giving me a pretty good, "it could have been worse" feeling. I'm ready to pull the plug on today though. I'm going to finish this up and crawl into bed with my book and read till I fall asleep. 

The Iowa Caucuses

So my pledge to stay out of the political mess so much in the new year was tested by tonight's Iowa Caucuses. The pundits are going to be all over this one for awhile but here is my limited take. 

First I think a 3% showing in any state from the supposed front runner is pathetic. Whether or not Rudy Giuliani spent dollar one or even set foot in the state you would expect someone that is trying to carry the banner for the party to show better than that. Compared with the overall turnout and excitement generated on the Democratic side makes me feel pretty confident about throwing Iowa in the blue column if Giuliani gets the nomination. 

Second, I'm not buying into the Clinton on the ropes theories. Obama is from a neighboring state. He's supposed to do well and Edward's might as well have changed his mailing address to Iowa for all the time he's spent there since the 2004 election. Unlike Rudy, Clinton may have finished out of the top two but she did so with nearly 30% of the vote. She's still got money and momentum. I'll reevaluate if she does poorly in New Hampshire but I'm still calling her the candidate to beat. 

Speaking of New Hampshire Romney needs to show up big time in New Hampshire because not only did he spend a lot of time and energy in Iowa for a second place finish it looks like he's not going to knock anybody out. Thompson and McCain finishing in a dead heat for third place is probably enough to keep them going for at least a couple of more states. And there is no way that Ron Paul with his twenty million dollars and army of fanatic supporters is going away anytime soon. So the Republican's remain divided with six candidates splitting up the ticket for the foreseeable future. It sounds like I'm probably writing about politics again on Saturday. 

I Heard a Rumor that I don't Quite Believe

I may be getting the next two days off! I still don't quite believe it. I've been at the store every day for the last two weeks except for Christmas. All but one of those open to close alone. While it hasn't been too bad I'm starting to dream about selling sunglasses. That's not a good sign. That's not a restful way to spend my off hours. Yesterday was good. I had two packets of sugar in the raw in my tea but other than that slight deviation on the sugar I was true to my new year's resolutions. I even started a book. I was going through my unread books with Colleen and when she heard that I had a copy of The Neverending Story she insisted I start there. It seems like a good story to get back to the basic's of reading books again. I forgot how useful reading myself to sleep is too. Of course there are those times when the book just takes over your mind and you force yourself to stay up just to find out what happens next. It will probably be a wash in the end. 

Happy New Year

So like a billion other blogs and journals and napkin scribbles today, my topic is going to be the new year and what I plan to do, get done or avoid doing altogether. 

First the Do's 

• Write in my Journal Every Day
• Publish something everyday (most likely here but no promises)
• Use a GTD method to actually get things done
• Read at least one book a month (Aiming low but I haven't really finished a book since I moved here)
• Eat more at Home/Cook some real food from scratch
• Keep more accurate calendar's of my life

And the Get Done's

• Write a play (even if I hate it)
• Write an-autobiography (I'm pretty sure I'm going to hate that)
• Copy all my handwritten journals onto iCal
• Kiss a girl (I actually have one in mind)
• Clear my balance sheets of debt
• Free all the Antelope's (yea this one's in code)

Avoid's

• Corn Syrup 
• Negative Current events (hardest one on the list)
• Negative thoughts about other people (except for the FUD Scum)
• Negative thoughts about me
• Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (and the pond scum that breed it)

Some of these are already close to habits. December was a banner month for writing for me. I wrote in my journal every day and I averaged over 800 words a day. I posted 31 times to this blog only missing one calendar day. I started another blog altogether to act as a bulletin board which leaves this as a place to be more personally creative on. That is I'm less likely to share this space with the cool links, fun pictures and strange pictures that make up my internet surfing.