I'm not dead! Just busy.

When I decided to take some time off to help me rest my eyes before the post-processing part of the project, I thought a month or two would do the trick. By October I could resume things and it would all go smoothly.

But I forgot to consider some important things, namely school, the elections and what those things in conjunction do to my ability to focus. However the good thing is during this time I've done something I haven't done in a while, I picked up my film camera. I've started taking 35mm shots again, and I've been working on a film production at school. The result of this is I'm starting to become energized again. I'm once again taking photos and films because I *want* to. Because I can't resist trying to capture the world and tell a story without words. And this is truly exciting for me.

When September came the first thing I wanted to do was drop the camera, drop the questions and avoid anything organized. Now I'm once again finding excitement in meeting new people, taking new photos and embracing the experiences that come with it.

So what am I doing now? At this minute, procrastinating on a paper. But in general I'm remembering the excitement of the idea that drove me to begin the project. Which is what I wanted to achieve from a break. With that in mind I'm pretty sure as soon as finals are done you're going to see a lot more from me. Until then, thanks for your patience and I hope you'll stick around to see where this ends up when it is finally finished!

The adventure continues...

Over 248 days have passed.
And my backlog is still atrocious though I've not missed a day. And as of this weekend, I can call Edward Lucas of the Economist by the preferred nickname of Laser Brain.

And the number of CF cards in my pile to upload keeps increasing as every time I run out of memory while continuing to lack time, I buy another 4gb and keep shooting. As a result the photos seen on my other blog are almost entirely film as those aren't as effected by the backlog. Though my computer is running out of space, my shelf still has room- though lets be honest it also needs to be organized.

I just returned from the World Affairs Council conference at Asilomar and as a result I'm no longer preparing for it. Which means more time- and hopefully this will translate into greater productivity. We shall see though.

The joy of this project is even if there's a backlog here, so long as I'm actively meeting people and shooting photos during the daily interaction the spice is not lost on my side.
Thus as always the adventure continues...

Song(s) of the Week:
Coyotes by Jason Mraz
Make it Mine by Jason Mraz
(both of which have not been released yet but I've been listening to them on his myspace - and if you've got time I'd urge you to hear them too.)

Back in Inaction

You’d think things would change? Or you would if you were me and an optimistic pessimist. I hope things get better, expect they’ll get worse, and am shocked at either result. It’s been nearly a week and a half. Since then, not much new has happened as far as the backlog is concerned. But on my side things have gotten a bit worse. My sleep debt has gotten dangerously bad, to the point I’ve had to ask a coworker to drive me home. After 13 hours of sleep total last week, I assumed, “It’ll get better. I’ll pass out the moment I get a chance to and things will improve. I’ll have time to do everything that was neglected, and things shall resume.” But alas, a bout with insomnia is winning, my classes have not happily vanished, and deadlines still loom on the horizon.

Additionally little things irk me, like the fact that every time I open the document where I’ve save the interviews, it changes the margins. Somewhere a few days in, generally around Day 6, the inch at the top becomes three or four, and the bottom margin increases to five or six inches. Thus every time I open the document to begin typing, I find myself cursing the computer as I reset everything so each day fits neatly on one page. This problem is a rather silly thing to be irked over, however the time it takes would be enough to type an interview or two, and often that’s all the time I have when I come to the computer. Or by the time I reformat I’m distracted by another item on the never ending to do list, and I end up not typing anything of relevance. Like this post.
Alas. I’ll hope for change, but first I’ll hope for sleep.

I just finished day 188. And I’ve not yet missed a day (knock on wood)

Song of the week:
I’m a Loser - the Beatles

Day 3 - Jeff, Geoff and Rina

In three days, I've kept to the goal; although there is the slight problem of I'm exhausted from other activities and thus posting here hasn't happened and my notes are rather freehand chicken scratch. I need to get more organized quickly before being disorganized becomes a chronic pattern that lasts the whole project length. This weekend I've shot over 3,000 photos between various wedding events, a film shoot, and of course this project had a handful. I'm pretty sure I like a lot of the shots, but I'm thinking I need to make a return to film for a while in order to get back to valuing every shot more and getting the quality over quantity thing back. I should have a real post including Q/A and photos soon.