The Mind Dynamic, College, and Cars

This is a rather long post because I have to make up for simply not being able to make consistent updates lately. After working 18 hours this past weekend I feel as though I just never left school (as I work at school). Anyway, rewind to last Friday the 2nd.

My exhibit is totally set up! :)

It took awhile, but I got 11 of my photos printed (at Costco) and framed (by me) and hung at the café. It's great. If I could remember AA batteries (or my D60) one of these days I'll post photos of the setup. I do have a car...sometimes. When next I can get over there, I'll be hanging some more 8x10s up and photographing the exhibit itself. Below is the poster for my exhibit; click it for the full size.



The exhibit will actually be there for several months, I hope. :) I can print nearly unlimited 8x10s on laser paper (great quality) and, time allowing, frame them as well. That all depends on demand. I'll be rotating the photos out and hopefully selling some. If you are in the Philadelphia area or know a photography appreciator who is, please come check it out. The prints are for sale. Details are in the guestbook (the image below is the cover). E-mailing is the best way to reach me.



The café is located at 1 West Avenue, Wayne Pennsylvania. It is across the street from the SEPTA R5 Wayne station and the Great American Pub. The café closes at 3 PM weekdays except Friday, when it's open 'til 11. They're great people; I know them and that's how I got this all set up. Food's good and so's the coffee...

-

Dickinson college visited my school yesterday. It was great. The meeting turned into a one-on-one conversation between the admissions representative and me. I love the school. I gave her a flyer for my exhibit and a copy of the school paper (I wrote the front page article) to add to the "portfolio" I'm building with the school. I've all but finished my essays, filled out 90% of the Common App online, and only need to submit my essay to Pitt and supplement to Haverford to be done with this whole college thing! Yippee...

-

Also, as part of an ongoing story, I still do not have a car. No one will e-mail me back. If you know someone who's selling an 80's-era Mercedes diesel let me know. If you even know someone who has one, let me know. Mercedes is ideal, but I can do Volvo if necessary. My price range is not relevant because of my somewhat narrow stipulations (at least, compared to most first-time buyers). The car needs to at least run...and have working windows. There's a pet peeve of mine. At any rate, I really want an old diesel sedan/wagon and I guess I'll have to explain THAT one in the future...

The Law

It is improper for the law of the government or other local legislative authority to interfere in the affairs of two consenting persons, or to regulate the actions of one person, except when those actions cause unnecessary or avoidable harm or damage to another person or group of persons.

Note - 9/11, Forums, and School

In this brief note, I'd like to ask that we all remember the shocking attacks on American soil that occurred eight years ago today. In light of the events following the attacks on the World Trade Center (and ongoing the last eight years), I believe we all ought to realize there are some things around which we should gather, as a nation, and stand united against those who oppose us and what we stand for.

I was nine years old at the time of the attack, and remember sitting in my fourth grade class early in the morning when my teacher came into the room, sat down on a chair in front of our desks, and asked us if we knew what it meant when something was "hijacked." I believe there was a strong element of the "loss of innocence" in that moment, the same kind of concept William Golding emulated in Lord of the Flies and JD Salinger in Catcher in the Rye. I remember watching footage of people jumping out of buildings, reruns of planes hitting the towers, and an endless stream of people going through the debris. For several days afterward, that's what was on the news, and although my memory of it is hazy, I know it happened and I know the effect it had on my nine-year-old self.

--

Changing gears quite a bit, my forums are back up and running. I closed them back in late May because no one was posting (which in retrospect was a silly way to try and make people post more). I'd like it very much if people new and old were to go and post there. I don't really know what kind of discussion ought to be had there, on the whole, but there are sections for political debate, music discussion, and general chat. Read this post to get the whole story on the re-starting of my forums.

--

School started again, I love it, and I'm thrilled with my schedule. Some rare days I don't have class until noon and other days I'm done with classes at 1:30. I set up my computer in the multimedia lab and have my workstation all set up - awesome. There are a bunch of iMacs in there (24 of them) and they've all got the full student-licensed version of CS3...they have Final Cut too, so I'll see what I can and can't do with that.

Anyway, that's the blog-note. In the near future, I can't promise any new images (at least not anything dramatic). Sorry. If I upload anything, it'll be from awhile ago and I'll have just edited it in my free time, most likely.

-J.B

Routine of Life

Last blog post of the summer!

On that note, I can't wait for school to start...it starts tomorrow. I'll be a senior, which is surreal and awesome and a little intimidating.

At any rate, it's been a crazy hectic week. I've been working a lot recently at the theatre; everyone else decided to go on vacation, but I got that out of the way the week prior, so now I'm back and available to work...it's a lot of fun, and not even that much hard work. Perhaps it's made that much more enjoyable by the fact my girlfriend is working with me. I run the sound mixer and she works spotlight. It's a good deal...

As a photographer, I'm oddly fascinated with the theatrical lights we use and have so so many of up in the catwalk. I'll have to post scraps or something. It's insane. I'd love to be able to make some kind of crazy huge lens out of one. A guy can dream. :D

I don't actually know if that would be possible. I'd have to rig an adapter for Nikon's F-mount, which is probably against a lot of patent laws and would forbid me from profiting off any images I'd make with such a lens. Oh well.

All of my recent pictures have been (somewhat chronologically) from my vacation in South Carolina. I'm currently working on a huge backlog - this is what happens when you have an 8GB memory card and never empty it or even bother to remember what you've uploaded, what you've backed up, and what pictures are just sitting on the card...ugh. I'm almost done though. I'm just trying to find something to make this last day of summer last and be worth it.

My next bunch of pictures will be miscellaneous shots from South Carolina and plenty from my trip on our boat yesterday. It was a nice Labor Day (there was no one at the marina whatsoever) and Sabrina and I got a bunch of cool pictures. Now the question is who took what...

-

For a long time now, I've been trying to get my photography displayed at a local coffee house or something of the sort. There's one I frequent at which photography is displayed; just yesterday I talked for about 45 minutes with the person who co-ordinates all that. He is the head of a local camera club I knew nothing about. While I have no intention of joining (as it would conflict majorly with school), I was thrilled when he informed me that my work is comparable, if not better, than some of the work the professionals there are turning out. I'd never received critique from a professional before - that meant a lot.

I'll definitely keep an update on this exhibit, when, where, how much, etc. I'm probably gonna be printing my 12x18s at Costco for $3 apiece - I know that much. :P

The title of this journal reflects my recent boredom with summer. Yeah, it flew by...June was China, July was two weeks of sitting in my room doing nothing (fun :)) and visiting colleges and going to OC and the Poconos, and August was a lot of relaxing, being bored, fixing computers, and going to SC. But I'm ready for a routine now. I need something to keep me sane. I'm looking forward to the school year. I recently got my i-ADHD under control and can't wait to find out how my treatment will affect my grades in school. I am more alert, attentive, awake, energetic, personable, friendly even. It's great. I'm happy. The only issue is the side effects - I'm somewhat more short-tempered and a lot more edgy (but the latter is probably just the coffee). We'll see how senior year goes.

Fingers crossed.

Last first day of school ever tomorrow.