my life, as far as i know.

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this is ryan’s new $40 bike.

we’re getting ready for the playa.

this past weekend, ryan and i bought two bikes. we stripped and cleaned them. i’m still working on mine.. but ryan got his completely painted and reassembled. i was able to fix the front and rear deraileurs! today we replaced the brake pads and adjusted the breaks. now we have a perfectly working bike. i should finish mine up next weekend.

we’ve also nailed down many essentials for the playa:

• tent
• sleeping bags
• head lamps
• goggles
• bikes (almost done)
• reservation for van

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when i was starting to wonder about bringing a 4×5 to burning man, i decided to try getting a junker lens to bring. i ended up snatching a 7 1/2″ ilex paragon anastigmat in a non-working acme #3 shutter. for $20. i received the set and took the shutter apart and got it working. now it works on all speeds and i have a dirt cheap lens. i cleaned it up while it was apart, so it even looks great. the only thing it’s missing is a retaining ring.. which i can solve later (or borrow from my 12″ meyer, which has a newer acme/ilex #3.

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just a negative scan for now. the scan of another negative was so wonky, making something viewable out of it was beyond my photoshop skills. i will try to get either the other sheets developed, or these sheets contact-printed so i have something better. but i am hopeful. this one turned out as i imagined.

that’s me with my beloved burke and james 8×10, 12″ carl meyer apo-process, f/64 @ 1sec.

it’s pemmican!

today i was contacted by a guy named adam. he started school at purdue university and was there for only one year. he lived in wiley hall and spent time in the computer lab downstairs.

the interesting thing (besides the fact that he now does sound work on major hollywood pictures) is that he remembers me and the little interaction we had in 1994. he looked me up and tracked down my AIM screen name and got in touch with me. i wished i had remembered him better - but he knew the guys i met and befriended that year. and me helping him out with vi.

it’s neat to run into people that way. we both live in california now, though 500 miles apart. we might have exchanged as many words today than we did back then ;-)

seeing if i can make something of vox.com ..

i had to postpone the lighting class i was going to take. the reason? there were 500,000 people in downtown and i didn’t want to drive. but now i realized the next class i changed to is the day before i leave for burning man. i might as well rent a studio, rent a softbox and single monolight, bring a book, and learn myself.

housecleaning today. cancelling accounts: myspace, gmail.

am i just getting old and crochety, or is the world wide web sucking more and more?

google knows who you talk to (gmail, gtalk). they (i don’t say “it” because there are people behind the interface) know what goes on in your life (blogger). they know what you buy (google, frugal). they know when you’re doing it (gcalendar). now with the gdisk beta (beta is completely deprecated now), you can even hand them the rest of any personal data you had. if they have their way, they’ll even know where you physicall are (city wifi).

i want little to do with it, to be honest. years ago i applied for a job at google, even coming in with a personal reference at google (this is before the IPO days). i wasn’t google material. i recently got a coldcall from a recruiter. but now the company seems to f’ing evil to me, that i brushed it off. i know several google employees now, and i wince whenever they say words that didn’t use to begin with the letter ‘g’.

enough. i cancelled my gmail account. google insisted that i supply an alternate email address, which seems to contradict my intentions. fortunately, i was able to completely delete myself off their system. somehow i doubt it is actually gone.

isn’t one of there beliefs that there’s no need to delete anything, ever?

everybody’s heard don’t be evil, but who is buying it? they’ve already proven the definition is elastic. and i’m sure they’re this greatest potential source of evil on the internet now.

and.. myspace. i’m not an exhibishonist or a drama magnet or a hopeful independent artist. so i have no place on myspace. that, and i don’t like random people trying to push their wares on me because i’m a local. the clever thing about myspace, is it turns their users into spammers.

i’d delete myself off imeem, but i CAN’T. i asked and they couldn’t either. go web 2.0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tague is right. in a few generations, kids won’t know what privacy is.

livejournal turned on a new “feature” which cost me about 15 minutes searching online, only to find the name of it in their source code. then i could search for the option on their website.

speaking of “why don’t you get it that less-is-more”, back to work tomorrow. i wasted today getting to the courts only to find out my group of potential jurors was dismissed. why didn’t they update their website — i checked it yesterday after 4:30.

dinner with tague.

boreaux: chateau robin des moines 2003, plus fruits, dates, bread, cheeses (stinky for tague, mild for me)
dessert: sori del rey moscato d’asti
with a bar of venezuelan dark chocolate.

it’s been a while. we had a nice chat over yummies. we should do that again.

i was just getting out of my car at a gas station when this guy approached me asking for gas money. he had to get to sacramento. he was near this car with a boman and two small kids in the back, and another thuggy guy. i wished to myself that i hadn’t left my car windows open.

i refused politely and he kept standing closer and closer. he said he would just pull in after me and use the pump when i was done. i said i had no cash and couldn’t help him, since i was in a hurry to get somewhere.

he persisted, trying to take the nozzle from the gas pump, but backed off slightly when i asked him to give me some room. his words were getting more and more slangy, and i was getting increasingly intimidated and scared.

finally i said i would go to the office and put money on another pump for him. he took that as me calling the police and i didn’t need to do that. i tried to tell him that i was going to help him. my gas tank filled and i finished up at the pump. i offered to have him walk with me to the station attendant.

he started walking there, when i walked up to his car where the woman had just pulled up. she looked tired. i asked if she needed gas and she said yes, so i said to wait there while i put money on the pump she pulled up to. i tried to keep an eye on my car with its windows open, wondering if his friend was going to steal something from my car, or damage it.

i quickly went inside, with the guy already there and proceeded to put $5 on pump number four, with my credit card. the attended saw what was going on and kept reaffirming what i wanted. i wasn’t sure what to do except to just get on with it. i figured, five dollars is not much. and putting it on credit, he wouldn’t likely be able to get a cash return for it.. at that point it would be between him, his friend (who just came in), and the attendant. i just wanted to pay $5 to escape unharmed.

so i paid, signed, shook hands, and walked quickly back to my car. the guy and his friend stayed in the attendant station, probably trying to figure out how to get cash. on my way back to my car, i told the woman i put $5 on the pump and she thanked me. as i pulled away, i saw her get out of the car and look towards the station, where the men were still inside.

it’s been a while since i felt that i was in danger, and i hope it’s a long while before i feel that way again.

tonight i received in the post a reducing back for my burke and james camera. i had to shoot something. i happen to have lots of corks around.. :)

shot this with a 19″ artar wide open (f/11, two stops more than the meter said), about 30″ of bellows draw. kitchen towell over the lens.. lift up.. *pop* on the flash.. lower down. now i need to make a lens board adapter so i can use my 4×5 lenses easily on this bad boy.

i’ve definitely had better negs and scans. but a friend wanted a print of this image, so i gave pictopia a try. considering the scan, the print is not bad. fuji crystal archive, glossy, 11×14. i had them include a white border around, to match the white background around the rough edge of the scan.

i think this print is getting signed and mailed out soon.

this is cell phone camera pic #1000.

that’s me holding two bottles of wine waiting for the 22 bus. to celebrate the red, white, and blue our friends jonathan and adrian decided to initiate the blue, white, and red and cook a fabulous french meal! how could i not bring some tasty bordeaux?

when i got a cell phone that had a built in camera i decided to collect lots of images. i take pictures of places i go, things i see on my commutes or walks, people i hang out with, and food i eat. they are a quick snapshot of my life.

after 15 months, i’ve taken, uploaded, renamed, and thumbnailed 1000 of them. that’s an average of 2.2 per day.

i still enjoy watching “phonepic tv” to recall and think about what i’ve been up to.

i live at the bottom of 22nd street. on the other side of the hill is bottom of the hill, this cool bar that constantly shows live music.

tonight was
ryan auffenberg, keith varon, and kiff (above).

everybody was great, especially the headliner, kiff. the bar is cool and the drinks were good. it was a great way to end the week. as a bonus, it’s even a short walk home!