Picked up a Blackberry Curve yesterday. I've been over due for a new phone but I finally did something about it yesterday. I had been looking at the T-mobile Wing but after playing with the Curve for a bit it won me over. I loved my old Blackberry 7100 and I loved my T-mobile MDA which was pretty much a Wing just a bit older.
Blackberry has improved their devices a lot since I had my 7100. Pretty much all the complaints I had about their devices and zazzed them up a bit as well. I wanted to voice dial and caller assigned ring tones and now I've got them, as well as a camera and WiFi and the ability to make calls over wireless networks. The holster now sucks but I'll just get a new one today. I also need a memory card too.
But the Curve is awesome so far.
I may have over done it a bit on Sunday.
After meeting Tara at the Edgefield with Chris, Jana for dinner we (Chris, Jana and I) headed back to Chris' place got to bed around 10 on Saturday night. We got up at 6:15am to get dressed and ready for and drive to Downtown Portland for the Race for the Cure.
After the race Chris went to find Jana and then come back and meet up with the rest of the group again. After waiting for 30+ min I said screw that noise and went to find the rest of the group again who had left to get free stuff, found Chris and Jana later and proceeded to do the 5k walk.
So after the walk we drug our selfs to Elmer's in Vancouver and then back to Chris' place for naps. After my nap and a shower I went to play Ultimate down at Dunniway park before starting my trek home.
It's Tuesday and my calfs are still very sore.
Yesterday evening around 6:30 I was heading East on a fairly major street. The sun was in such a place it was quite difficult to see what the traffic light was signaling. I didn't notice until I was feet away from the line and had a big white SUV crossing directly in front of me that the light was in fact red...
I firmly and quickly hit the breaks while I was heading directly for the side of the SUV I noticed the look on the driver who had what I am guessing was a terrified and or panicked look on her face, which looked pretty goofy really, possibly an attempt to brace/shield from impact her free arm. I was still moving forwards physics said no to stopping in time and I was getting closer to the side of the white mammoth. So I turned to the right, my tires only protested by making a slight screech.
It was over. I turned around and made a right back on to the road of which I had been on moments before and continued along my merry little way. I realized a couple moments later that the whole ordeal hardly phased me. I didn't get the "wholly fuck that was scary shit and I coulda died or been hurt" adrenaline rush that I'm fairly sure the driver of the sport utility vehicle had. Which makes the whole thing seem like just another drive...
Slowly I'm coming to another photographic realization. If I am going to to take some of the photos that I'm realizing that want to be taking. I am going to have to create them. The degree of creation may vary from image to image. But I will have to become more active.
As of now I'm a pretty passive photographer. I mostly move around to see if there is something I like and then snap away. Many of my friends pay little to no mind to the camera in my hands. A few will will mug/vogue/smile/pose when the they find they are the target. While these can be fun and make for some decent candid photos from time to time it's still not quite what I want to get.
If I'm going to get some of the shots I want I'm going to have to create them. I'll have to ask people to do things, to hold still, to do that again, move shoulders, look over there, turn, move over here or there, to pose. This is all very strange to me. Nearly entirely opposite from my current method of moving around and/or waiting. I'm just going to have to find a way and some people to make these things happen with so I can become more comfortable with creating an image rather than finding one.
I've got a few theories as to why I work how I work but those are neither here nor there.
Went to Oktoberfest on Saturday with Chris and Jana. We met up with a hand full of other friends and ran into to some more friends that hung out with us too. As with the brew fest a couple months back Jana was kind enough to be our designated driver. So she was also given my Nikon L4 to take pictures as she saw fit...
I looked at them today and realized the last time the camera was used was at the brew fest and before that it was Chris' birthday. I'm thinking about sticking a label on it or getting a sharpie out and writing drunk cam or something on it as it seems the only times it gets used anymore is when people are drinking... a lot...
Note: I took a look and the camera has been used for a non drinking event. I took about 5 pictures with it at the cascade run off in July....
The server I was having difficulty with last week has been reborn with a newish process, newish ram, newish board. Newish but not new, but new compared to the seven year old hardware I had in there before. We think the drive controller in the old system decided it hated drives and started to kill drives as even after replacing a drive on the old system we saw the same problems then putting the replaced drive into the new system we again saw the same errors and the new drive had been working fine prior to install.
I just finished the rest of the reconfiguration of the machine. I'm sure I've still got a few things to do here and there but everything important is up and going at this point. Perhaps even better than before, perhaps not.
So I've got to buy my self a new drive today after work. Then see what I can recover from the failing drive. Then proceed to installing the drive then an OS to it.
I think I'm also going to think about some sort of disaster recovery plan and backup scheme for just such occasions such as this. Which I may spend some time thinking about and working on today.
There was a Hot Air Balloon floating about. So I ran back to my car and grabbed my camera and snapped a bunch of shots of it floating about. I've uploaded a few of the better ones to flickr.
Looks like it could be fun.
Yakuza Moon arrived on Saturday. I read it yesterday. Short and simple read really. Wasn't really sure what to expect but I liked it well enough. I've never really read anything that was autobiographical or this kind of non-fiction really. I think the fact that this is real and happened to the writer is what compelled me to keep reading. I'd had planned on spanning the read over a couple days but I kept picking it back up so and finished it in just one day because of this. I'm sure it could be done in a single sitting by most readers as I am a fairly slow reader...
Flickr has been flaky on me pretty much all week. Lame! Apparently one of their "shards" is pretty busted and while I don't have conformation that my account or data lives on that shard I'm fairly certain it is cause my photo stream is pretty messed up. All my sets go missing, my groups go missing, more hiccups than a wes craven movie could scare out of someone. LAME! and to think I pay for this crap.
So I've spent most of the summer running in the evenings. I go to a fairly well used running trail near my house. I've been running off and on since I was around twelve making it about thirteen years of running behind me. Not that makes me any more an expert than anyone else it's just something that I do and have done and will most likely keep doing for a while to come.
One of the things most runners have to do is share some space often a sidewalk, a trail or a track with other runners, walkers, dogs, dog doo doo, dog walkers, cats, cat doo doo, kids, couples, bikes, berry pickers and various other obstacles like road/trail/sidewalk construction... All this is pretty much just fine by me. One of the things that annoys me most is when the fellow runners moving the opposite direction don't return a greeting. I often just do a slight head nod/dip as we pass. Many times they will nod back, smile, say hi or hello, others open a hand mid swing of arm to do what is a runners wave and any combination there of. When someone doesn't return a greeting I often think something like, JERK! or SNOB! in my head, sometimes just under my breath.
I figure all the runners on the trails/tracks have at the very least one thing in common with all the other people running on the trail. So I guess in my mind it's almost like a club.
One of the things I have noticed is the female runners are often worse about responding to the greeting than the males. While I'm sure they have no shortage of people checking them out and shouting/yelling things at them while they run, I am just saying hello, hell I'm not even SAYING anything I'm nodding. I'm not checking anyone out, I'm not asking for drinks or dinner and a movie. I'm busy running. But not too busy to make room on the trail to pass and acknowledge someone. It's only a friendly gesture nothing more nothing to be threatened by.
Anybody who is running gets a greeting, I often try for a second greeting if I see the person again on my run. People moving in the same direction who pass me or get passed by me no greeting as that would require turning around to do so. Serious looking walkers get a greeting.
I wonder if the non greeters are newer runners. Other times it's fairly obvious they are just jerks.
Don't be a jerk on the trail. Say hi. Wave. Nod. All take minimal amounts of energy. I know you see me coming.
So the new ipods are out. Makes me want to see if i can track down a 2nd gen nano to use for running and other events that the 80gig ipod is too big/heavy for or I'm simply too cautions to take it with me. I could get a shuffle but I want play lists and more control than the shuffle can offer, what can I say I'm a control freak. Anyways I don't think I'm gonna be getting a nano soonish as I need to get more clothes and stuff instead.
I saw an article that mentioned Yakuza Moon an autobiographical type book from a Gangster's Daughter. I've had a mild curiosity about the Yakuza for a while now so I thought what the hell and ordered it.
So I'm not going to purchase any new photographic equipment during the month of September. The last purchase I made with late august with my mid August check. It seems the last few months I've been a bit too enthusiastic about getting new gear.
So it's time to just use the gear and make the best of what I have for a while. After all it's not like I'm getting paid to take pictures so sinking so much money into it is a bit harder to justify to my self. But I would like to make money at it some how at some point in time.
My passport arrived in the mail sometime between Thursday and now. I wasn't supposed to expect it until early to mid October. But it's here in all its Navy Blueness with a horrible and shiny picture of my self on the inside along with all sorts of information about me and an RFID chip and a notice stating there are sensitive electronics in the document blah blah blah... Near as I can tell it's in the front cover ans really bright light is visible though the back cover where the front blocks light entirely and it's the same material so the only obvious thing to me that would really keep the light from passing would be an extra layer or two...
Today the Twin Tunnels in Hood River which amounted to about an 7-8mile walk/hike.
Took a few photos at Oregon gardens and the Twin Tunnels, I've put a few of them up. I'll see if there are any others worth posting tomorrow or Tuesday after I get home.