Sing-a-long Friday
Monday Update
My midlife crisis is going brilliantly, thanks for asking.
I'm questioning my life, it's meaning, my choices to date, my job, what interests me, how I make my millions, how I spend them, what I eat, how I move, why I don't move, the many ways I might die and which one is most likely to be the outcome. I have these questions floating around in my head - some with a few post-it notes stuck to them with ideas of answers but mostly, I have way more questions, queries and qomplaints than I have anything else.
Of my over-turned apple cart I think I have about 10% of the apples back in place - so it's still a long way to go - that's given the idea that the fruit that have made it back into the cart will stay there - I don't necessarily think that's a given.
dSLR Camera Update
So it's borked. $400+ borked. The camera-fixing-man suggested I buy a new camera but that would mean $1500+ so I don't see the logic of that move. I like my camera - my clunky, old fashioned, hardly-any-features Nikon D70. I've mostly decided I'll just get it fixed - carry on with what I have and hope I get another six years out of it before it decides to drop a pin or bust a compression card or whatever it did to stop being very useful to me.
NaNoWriMo
It's National Novel Writing Month and yes, I'm doing it again. I say that like I've actually written a 50,000 word novel every year since 2002 when I first joined up for it. I've tried writing fiction, I've tried writing an autobiography when fiction didn't work for me - one year I even wrote nothing but explicite erotic 'literature' (available on request) but I've never completed the task and achieved the word-count goal.
Do I have more hope this year? Not at all. But hey - you can't win if you're not in, can you?
The saving grace of NaNoWriMo is, of course, quality isn't an issue. It's a month of writing - it's a month of writing every day - it's a month of teaching myself a modicom of discipline. Because writing, by all accounts, is more (?) about discipline than it is about talent. This year I have set my target of 2000 words per day - today I have written 1600 - with another burst anticipated later tonight. If I can get 6000 written I will have beaten my best effort and everything after that will be gravy!
Walking to Work
Our office is moving this weekend - to a location that is only about a 30 minute walk from my apartment, and across the road from one of my favourite bars.
How cool is that?
Given Melbourne's often frightfully gorgeous Spring and Summer mornings, I would like to start walking to work. Bye bye crowded trams; see you later back-pack wearing commuters; go fuck yourselves you in-the-doorway standing ingrates. I am on Shank's Pony!
In-your-facetime
Let's just call it that, okay? even though I don't have an iPhone 4.
I have forgotten if I mentioned to you that my sister and I started video correspondence earlier this year. We decided to each make a video - around 4 minutes long - and post it once per week. Generally, she takes early in the week and I have the later part of the week: she posts on a Tuesday, I'm supposed to post on a Friday.
We've made 60 videos. Let me say that again. We've.Made.60.Videos.
I can't express how great it is for me to see my sister's face and hear her talk about whatever she fancies talking about. We occasionally worry that we won't have anything to say but then admit even when we're sitting in the same room we always have something to say - from people who are visiting, to things we have seen to the crap in our coffee table - we always have something to say even when we think it's nothing.
Unfortunately for you, my sister is shy and so we post to a private channel but one day maybe, when she's more comfortable I may be able to share the URL with you.
I just wanted to tell you about it/update you on progress if I'd already told you about it.
Cameras
When cleaning out the old office we discovered a pristine Polaroid camera. It didn't even have fingerprints on it - as if it had never been used. I've seconded it to my file drawer to "keep it safe" and given the price of Polaroid 600 film I think it's pretty safe - who wants to pay $3 per photo in this day and age? well, okay, that'd be me - considering that's about how much each photo costs out of any of my nurmerous film cameras.
So I've tucked the lovely plastic Polaroid camera away for safe-keeping. I have a plan to buy film in the next couple of weeks and I'll let you know how the photos from this baby turn out.
Meanwhile, I bought a Lomo LC-A+. My desire for the wide-angled option means that I have both and LC-A and an LC-A+ and I couldn't be happier.
Lomos are Russian cameras which induce vivid and unpredictable colours due to their lens and body type - they sometimes leak light or cause vignetting around a photograph. The LC-A+ allows multiexposure of frames if that's what is wanted. The take 35mm film so the developing and purchasing of film is still easy as pie. I have yet to tram my film down to LabX to see the results but I am sure they will be exciting.
I'm trying out different films too to see how they react to the lovely Lomo lens. It's such a funky looking camera with it's googly-eyepiece screwed into the flash foot, it seems to be making new friends every time I take it out to use it in public.
thejamjar.com
I feel like I'm in physiotherapy. One step at a time - wondering if I'll ever be able to blog again "properly". I'm still fiddling around with things here on the site - that will continue over the coming months. It's not easy - I'm old and slow and a bit broken but I'll get there - or not.
But I've almost entered 2009's blog archives into the database. Once that's done I'll only have another 9 years to go.