distance apart

distance apart

last night's election was incredible.  i just hope that the tide of change keeps moving, keeps gathering momentum.  as high as this nation is feeling right now, we have so much potential for falling hard.  i just wish that the change in political attitude had impacted the ballot referendums.  at least three measures passed limiting gay rights, making today rather bitter-sweet.  now i'm just waiting for the results on california's prop 8.  i just don't understand how so many people can be comfortable with treating 10% of the population as second-class citizens.  we are unequal under the law.

of flight

of flight

 

 i've noticed a pattern here recently.  there's post after post of photos without writing.  and despite the old "picture's worth a thousand words" adage, the thousand words conveyed usually say more about the audience than the author.  i'm going to work on remembering to add text more often.

i work on the 18th floor of a boxy office building in downtown atlanta.  though not the tallest building around, we usually have a pretty clear view of the city from up here.  today though, the fog is so thick we can only just make out the buildings closest to us.  and even they fade quickly into grey space when the eye moves past their leading edge.  the cold always creeps in through our windows, but the fog makes it seem colder than usual.  it's fitting for october though.  i do wish i'd brought my camera today. 

revisiting

revisiting

my step-brother, andrew, loves to skate.  his socks never even stand a chance.

this is him just about to kick everyone's ass at wii sports.

 

 

 

Oops.

baxter has just realized he hopped into a room occupied  by kf's two cats

glows like glass

kf and i went to the atlanta botanical gardens this past weekend.  with the fall flowers in bloom, it really was beautiful. 

i have an extra day off this weekend!  and with the recent gas scarcity that's hit atlanta, i'm thinking about taking my extra day to find a bike.  it'd save me about two tanks of gas a month i think, (assuming that it's sunny most days and i don't start somehow compensating by driving more during the week).  i'd still drive to work since the blocks around my building aren't safe to travel through alone after dark.  but i could bike to most other places i go, especially on the weekends.  with three day weekends, it really adds up.  and money aside, i loved riding my bike as a kid.

(she's got) flare

 

bangbang

my itunes doesn't seem to want to update to the latest version.  so no new music for me today.  guess i'll tackle it again tonight.  

today's been moving at a snails pace.

i think it may be time to get organized again.  i've been misplacing things lately.

head first

tshtshtsh

 

captivity journal- day 3:

human won't stop pointing a contraption at me and making it click.  i suspect it's some sort of torture device.

 

bruce-the-cat was recently adopted by kf.  he was extremely skittish for the first few days before settling down.

apparitions of a(part)

 

my nephew's little wooden train set.  it's been his favorite toy for the past two years, but it won't remain so for much longer.  in two more years he'll be walking himself to the bus stop. by then he'll be sensitive to, and inundated with, ads for the latest and greatest technology inspired toy.  but that wooden train set is his current favorite because of the world he's imagined for it.  i hope he never forgets how to do that.

 

my earliest memory was watching the lights on my father's external dial-up modem.  his earliest memory may be watching a video on his grandfather's iphone.

basket

saved up for rainy days

after(math)

things lately have been like a series of summer storms. bright skies suddenly smeared by dark clouds and torrential downpour, then bright again just as fast. it's mostly good, but not knowing what to expect is starting to get to me. it's not that i need absolute, unchanging stability, just some level of balance would be nice. and it's tough to ask everyone to hold still-but-not-too-still. maybe i'm just craving a temporary change of pace.
work's also become mind-numbingly boring. it happens to most people, i suppose, but it's still an awful feeling. and this economy doesn't exactly favor changing jobs right now so i'll stay put until the forecast changes. at least it's only boring. it could be worse.

be my own

my room mate makes coffee every day. she has her own grinder and specialty brewers. between the two of us, we probably down about 40 cups each week. our kitchen counter forever looks like a starbucks just exploded.

measured edge

this weekend i carried my camera with me everywhere but it wasn't until i got home that i actually started shooting.

there were ridiculous amounts of rain.

i have minor surgery on monday. i'm more nervous than i thought i'd be, more worried than i feel the surgery actually warrants. it's not the surgery itself so much as the recovery that's upsetting. at least i have a few days off from work, right?

smallest reducable part

there is no ghost in the machine, no concentrated physical part that retains the human essential.

through alleyways

without reason, i'm feeling a little lost today. but there's a new website on the horizon! i can build it (hopefully)! i have (purchased) the technology.

jupiter

open this please.

in times of drought

unhurried and with trepidation

somewhere between

something blue

dressed up for her prom

if you need me

i'll come running.

hazards of sleeplessness

sleep is always at a premium around here.

it's worth missing this time, i think.

i can not stop listening to sonia leigh's 'poem from the ocean floor'.

kilted

kilted, originally uploaded by getawayplans.

allaround

allaround, originally uploaded by getawayplans.

reaching

reaching, originally uploaded by getawayplans.

out of spring

out of spring, originally uploaded by getawayplans.

probable side effects

probable side effects, originally uploaded by getawayplans.

atlanta was hit by tornadoes last night. i'm fine. everyone i know is fine. downtown, however, is trashed. it's like a bomb went off. the windows in my office building started shattering while my coworkers were still at their desks last night (and like the rest of downtown, my office is trashed). but everyone was fine. i was really incredibly fortunate to be home already when the storms came through.
but at 5am, there were 10 missed calls from my parents on the cell. i should really stop leaving that thing on silent.

faster

faster, originally uploaded by getawayplans.

there's so much to say that it's all crowding at the gate. a traffic jam of thoughts. multi-thought pile-up on synapse 1-all. take alternate route if available.

i worry about the economy, the jobless rate, foreclosures, and the fast-falling dollar. i worry about my clients- how they'll provide for their families, afford their medications, make it through the next week (much less the next month). where will they go when the sheriff sale is over? i worry after my friends- how they'll keep holding up against the preassures of academia, get through the existential crisis that is our twenties, and avoid the pull of eternal cynicism? i worry about myself- the decisions i make, my shoulder, my relationship with my family, and my bank account. am i just fooling myself here? am i being too selfish?
i think the saying goes that if you aren't worried, you aren't paying attention.

then i go see J. the door closes and for a few hours, everything else falls away. i smile so hard my face hurts and J doesn't seem to mind that i'm a dork 85.7% of the time. J pretty much hung the moon. i can't prove it yet, but i'm close.

it’s 1.47am and I cannot sleep

it’s 1.47am and I cannot sleep, originally uploaded by getawayplans.

i think everyone on my f'list has a song that changed the way they see the world around them. or maybe something they listen to when they need reality to make a little more sense. it really doesn't have to be a song. it could be a book or painting or play, (or even just seeing some stranger's kid jump in a rain puddle while you drink coffee across the street). the song (or story, whathaveyou), translates for us some small sliver of unmitigated truth through the beige static of living. and the impact is something lasting. we take it with us and use it to help frame our experiences going forward.

i think it's just that kind of impact that effected this shot. i'm not sure it really translates on film though. and when i try to explain it, it always comes out trite and woefully incomplete.

last thing, it would be fantastic if we could get an accurate delegate count for the democrat's primary. i'm pulling for obama because i think he's unbeatable against mccain. i don't care what anyone says about clinton's "machine", it's been falling pretty flat so far. also, i just like obama's politics better. OH! and romney's little "vote for a democrat = vote for terrorism" speech at cpac was total bullshit. i wanted to punch my tv. it's like they can't give a logical arguement for half of their issues, so they have to revert to strawmen and ad hominem attacks. then again, i guess that's par for the course. whatever. i'll update later about my voting-on-super-tuesday-drama.

never dissever

never dissever, originally uploaded by getawayplans.

sometimes things in life just come together. photography, for me, is apparently one of those things. i've been hired for two more shoots and commissioned for a small architectural series. just out of thin air. i'm both delighted and surprised by these jobs though. i can't explain it. it's not like i'm advertising, (or even handing out business cards). it's just a few people who found my site, liked my work, and told their friends.

in other news, i really kind of desperately need to get my breaks fixed. this squeak-squealing thing is unpleasant.
i also get to pick up my new phone this week, probably tomorrow. my current cell was supposed to be just a temporary fix, a few weeks tops. but that turned into almost two years. it's basically a paperweight that makes calls (sometimes). i'm looking forward to some modicum of reliability, (also a phone i'm not mortified to take out in public).

tomorrow should be busy. i'm hiking with friends out to an abandoned water-treatment plant in the morning, (for photos). it should be excellent. the place is all overgrown and covered in graffiti. the old cistern walls are crumbling and the buildings are leaning (if they're still standing at all). then in the afternoon, there's an amnesty international rally for darfur refugees. i promised to document it for a local temple that's participating.

last thing, i really don't believe kerviel could have taken $7billion from SocGen on his own. he's not savvy enough. i certainly don't believe the guy made those bids to offset huge gains he'd made previously and still took exactly nothing for his personal benefit. it's stealing money to put it back. it defies logic. honestly, i think the poor guy's been framed.

on a short leash in a dirty yard

have my doubts, originally uploaded by getawayplans.

my shoulder's killing me, but i get sushi tonight and possibly snow tomorrow. i live in atlanta and it only snows here once every few years. so snow is still awesome and enchanting.
ice, on the other hand, not so much. it sleeted a bit on wednesday. the tree by our front door split and hit the roommate's car. if i hadn't parked on the street, my car would have been demolished. i call it a stroke of luck, (but not to the roommate's face).

thankyou

thankyou, originally uploaded by getawayplans.

break's over and i'm back at work. also deeply in need of more coffee. there's new music on my ipod, new photos on my camera, and 2 new bookings ahead of me. honestly, i can not complain, not even if i wanted to.

speaking of coffee, i've noticed recently that the regular-employment of choice for struggling or unsigned musicians in the area seems to be starbucks barista. really, this is the case for every starbucks i frequent. i can see the appeal. the early (and flexible?) hours don't detract from late night music-making (i can't decide if that's a euphemism or just awkwardly worded. we'll see). plus, the massive amounts of available caffeine make work plausible on 3 hours of sleep (though certainly not always possible).

now, interestingly enough, this doesn't seem to be the case for non-starbucks cafes. little independent coffee shops in the area are generally staffed by students. i can't decide if it's coincidence or if there's something about s'bux that's especially appealing for musicians.

i wonder if they've ever had a fan show up before. would that be weird? "Your show last night was AWESOME! I listen to your myspace all day! Oh, um, can you make that extra hot?". and then after putting up with that, they're a bad tipper? or, much worse, embarrassingly obsessed and start showing up constantly?

a friend was a stripper in college. she had a problem with a rather ardently affectionate client 'accidentally' bumping into her at her favorite book store during the day. one of the clerks clued her in that he was just coming in every morning and parking it until she arrived. creepy? you betcha. she quit not long after.

at any rate, look up! that's a my brother.