my life, as far as i know.

i’m being pushed here. i’m reading email threads, hearing a lot of unrest, and feel things are escalating to new heights. i’m talking about the recent passing of proposition 8 in california. 

you know, being a generation-x‘er, i never imagined i would have to deal with something like this or feel this way. it was supposed to be my parents’ generation that fought the good fight for what they believed in. being the son of a boomer, i was supposed to ride on their laurels — i was supposed to be a part of a new generation that used its own tools and techniques to bring the world closer.. and now i find myself conflicted.

did i really just have a civil right taken away?

for the past many years, basically my entire life thus far, i have sat on the sidelines of political and civil issues. growing up where i did, i never experienced hardship, never understood prejudice, and never had to endure intolerance. on top of that, i’ve been a non-vocal minority this whole time.

and now i am nearing the point of snapping. it feels like things are escalating and i think now i want to become a part of it.

i’m pretty sure i know people who voted in favor of proposition 8. i think we all know at least one or two.

what if i had talked to them before the election?

what if i helped them realize what the prop meant to someone they knew?

would that have made a difference?

it really makes me wonder, if i should be more out and more vocal.

This is a digital snappy taken at lake aloha in the Sierra Nevadas.

This was part of a weekend trip with friends to South Lake Tahoe. I call it the “workout trip,” since the first day was lower body (a 16 mile hike) and the second day was core and upper body (kayaking on Lake Tahoe). Both were awesome, but I got a really bad sunburn on my feet!

There’s been an email thread discussion among my friends concerning sexual racism. It’s reminded me of an experience I had when I was in highschool concerning race.

It’s funny how time always makes edits in your memories. The farther in the past events are, the more different they become. Lately I’ve been reminiscing about my high school years, since many of my former classmates are popping up on Facebook. I grew up in a town I consider “pretty white.” That is to say, people are generally Caucasian and there is a small, barely visible minority. It’s strange, since our town of 12,000 residents was home to one of the largest Islamic centers in North America, and is a suburb of what was later called one of the fastest growing cities in the country. I remember when I was in 7th grade, there were a few black students but they were juniors and seniors at that point. But I digress.

When I was growing up, a majority of the state had a single utility company supplying its power. Their headquarters was in our town, on a massive lot in a very long building. I never knew anyone that worked there, nor had I been in an office building that large before. I was so curious what was inside, especially in their computer room. I convinced a friend of mine to go on a tour with me.

We both went up to the front lobby in the middle of the building and introduced ourselves. We explained our curiosity and they agreed to give us a tour. They found someone to escort us through the building. We were walked though their office and got a tour of their data center. My career went down that path, so by now I’ve seen so many server rooms of that vintage the exact details no longer matter.

I think what struck me most was the number of African-Americans working there. I knew nearby Indianapolis was more racially mixed (though not exactly integrated), but I never imaged such a level of diversity in my home town. I’d like to think none of the feelings I had that day were out of hate or racism, that my recollection hasn’t been sugarcoated by later experiences and accumulated wisdom. Thinking back on it this morning, to me it was a mix of shock and curiosity. That was my first big wake-up call, that my home town was just a fraction of a fraction of what the world had to offer.

I later attended college in Indiana, and that was the next major culture shock to me. I definitely remember once making the mistake of thinking that someone from Taiwan was “Thai”. Embarassing, now. But can you blame a white boy from a white town?

lomo saltado

Originally uploaded by Jason Schlachet

this dish, lomo saltado, is a dish i’ve cooked a few times. i made it for dinner tonight, for “monday night dinner,” a nearly weekly gathering of a few friends. this time i decided to add a little to what i’ve done before. this time, instead of chopped potato, i pre-made thick cut french fries to put in the dish. i also added quite a bit of heat (two cerrano chiles). the heat was great– not too crazy, but very present. along side this i served a chateau st jean 2004 malbec. equally spicy.. maybe a little too much? we cooled down with some grapes and pink lady apples before calling it a night.

sfflickrsocial-06-800

Originally uploaded by Jason Schlachet

two weeks ago i joined this month’s SFlickr Meet, a monthly flickr folk gathering. it was fun meeting other local flickr users. i brought my pentax 6×7 along to shoot some pics of the event on some ilford delta 3200.

photoset

over the weekend, ryan and i made the first move on a big project to reduce the amount of stuff we have.

our first phase was to get rid of all the packaging that comes with compact discs, audio and video. some disks has very little material while others had inserts, advertisements, slip cases, liner notes with lyrics, and bonus material. when it comes down to it, we buy these things for the music or the video. did i really need a plastic case with a single sheet of paper (with no useful information on it), with a cover? all that goes away and one compact disc goes into a large caselogic album.

one thing i did find, after going through my 400 discs, was this ticket stub. i went to the test for echo tour concert for rush. this ticket was inside the cd case for the album, a reminder that i had seen the artist perform this live at san jose arena (now hp pavillion.)

the reminder has been transcribed into a blog post at this point. when you’re ridding yourself of non-essential items, it’s things like this that make you pause.

last weekend i was in portland, oregon. ryan was attending a conference and i decided to tag along. i brought my pentax 6×7 and several rolls of portra 160vc. portland turned out to be a fresh, clean city that was easy to get around in.

this image is a picture of the portland center for the performing arts, the most iconic views of the city.

I’ve been kinda bummed lately, but OTHER PEOPLE ARE NOT HELPING.

At work, I’m standing in a short line in front of a cafeteria food station while the cooks are dancing around, making noise signals from one station to another, and burning items and messing up orders. I recently had something prepared incorrectly while I was the only one in line.

I went to a mall food court today for lunch, where I placed my order as one customer of many in a line that moved sequentially. They managed to somehow mess up the order of the dishes and I had to tell them whose plate belonged to which customer. I paid for my food but was still waiting for one last item. The girl behind the counter asked me IN SPANISH what I was waiting for.

Later today, hoping to get a predictable service, I went to a Starbucks in which the barista incorrectly prepared a Carmel Macchiato. I’m no barista, but I’ve had the drink enough times that I know how it is made. Shouldn’t someone employed by Starbucks know the procedure better than a customer? After all, I haven’t read the training manual. (Didn’t they just retrain 135,000 employees?) About three years ago I challenged a Starbucks employee who misconstructed a drink. They dug up an employee manual to confirm the procedure — and I was correct.

Maybe it’s not me. I feel that somehow (and lately), everybody is just not caring. I mean, is it difficult to warm a hamburger bun on a grill without completely charring it? Is it difficult to keep plates of food in order? What about following well known, published directions?

I know it is not my job to police, educate, and train the masses at large. But when I am dealing with stresses of my own and need some predictable, reliable services, where can I turn to? You do your job, and I’ll do mine.

well, it’s happening again two years later. our landlord is selling the property we’re in.

i already know what it feels like to have a bunch of random people walk through your place with their dirty shoes and their attitudes. . . .

but this time, our landlord didn’t give us the schedule in advance. i had to look it up myself, only to find our place will be open for 6 days out of the next 11, including even open houses.

:(

i’m sore, badly sunburned, and mentally exhausted. but i’ve had an interesting and productive weekend.

so i’m helping build this hen house.. well, it’s more of a chicken condo.

saturday, boman and i poured over books (including ones specifically covering the care and raising of urban chickens), and collaborated on the design of a hen house. a full featured structure, it will include two nesting boxes with easy access, a roosting bar, plenty of room for storage, and multiple windows and doors. doors for humans and chickens.

on sunday, we purchased all our materials and rented the necessary equipment. interestingly, spent roughly 1/7 the price of a pre-made chicken coop. before it got dark, we mananged to build a level floor, a back wall, and framed in the other three walls. we also did some preliminary yard work to prepare a flat area for the house to sit on.

we got some great ideas and help from the folks at discount builders in the mission district - that’s where we ended up buying our build materials. we rented an air compressor and two nail guns from action rental. one of the guns jammed badly, but with some careful disassembly, we managed to unjam it. that burned a good few hours of daylight.. but hey. these things happen.

so there you have it. us two computer nerds managed to start from a book and some ideas, to a framed structure large enough to stand up and move around in.

i’ve posted pictures in the urban chickens set in my flickr account. there are also pictures of the chickens from saturday breakfast.

IMG_2289.JPG
Originally uploaded by Jason Schlachet

on this long weekend the lot of us went to spices ii in the richmond. even after choosing less-spicy fare, this restaurant’s spices plagued me for a good twenty-four hours. i think i’ll pass on the next opportunity. i still find it amusing that popular chinese restaurants have such bad service. for example, as we sat down a waitress poured tea in front of me but a lot of it spilled onto the table and i jumped back. she looked at me, laid dropped a napkin down onto the mess, and walked off. she never poured tea for anybody else and never attended to the spilled tea. what is that?

on sunday, ryan and i decided on a late dinner at chez maman. we waited quite a while, but ended up talking with a couple outside the restaurant. they live down on indiana street, not far from us. they’re foodies too, with tastes similar to ours, so we had a good time trading tips.

monday was a bar-b-que at jonathan and adrian’s. the picture is our grillmaster for the day, galen. monday’s weather turned out to be glorious. we had yummy grilled greek fare and great company.

unfortunately for me, the day ended with me gouging a chunk of rubber off my front passenger-side tire. i misjudged the curb trying to park on folsom street. it’s hard to keep your cool when you do something stupid with a car full of friends. anyways, ya.. the brand new tire. it dampened my mood for the rest of the day, despite picking up a pair of new balance 992 shoes. those are comfy! i purchased new balance on the recommendation of the podiatrist i saw. got that task crossed off my list.

after such a social weekend, work feels like a different world again. i have lots of things to wortk on now: photo project, replace the tire (i’m afraid to drive on it), replace windshield (crack is growing again).. and with the new apple desktop coming, i’ll be upgrading the home networking to gigabit speeds.

today on my day off, i also got another significant task done. i went to a podiatrist.

i did a little research in finding on on san francisco. the financial district foot & ankle center came recommended. my experience there lived up to the reviews i saw. very strict scheduling (which i love), very friendly. they emailed me the new patient forms, which i brought with me 15 minutes before my scheduled appointment. the doctor was right on time and the session lasted just as long as they estimated.

doctor park made several observations about my feet, the way i walk, the way i put pressure on my feet, etc. she’s suggested two things for me. the first, is physical therapy to help correct my walking. the second is orthotics; they had enough time in the schedule to get the casting done today, so i will be able to pick them up in three weeks. the combination of the two should help me dramatically. she also suggested what kind of shoes i should be looking at for my particular feet. i’m very pleased overall with my appointment. i would definitely recommend their office.

i’m glad to get this rolling.. everybody’s been telling me i should get orthotics. literally, even my hair dresser has given me a hard time about it. at my next haircut i’ll tell bethany the good news :)

new bike. i’ve been slowly working up to riding regularly. last week i went on a couple short rides. this week, another more strenuous ride. today i biked up the pennsylvania ave hill, zig-zag down to 17th over to the UPS building (where they were cooking dinner on a large BBQ outside their warehouse), back down 16th to 3rd street then home.

i ended up finding an bianchi eros at a discount, since it was an ‘05 model, from the good folks at pacific bicycle.

so i have this credit card.. the APR is stuck at an insane percentage but their website is decent and the limit is high. i’ve used it for large purchases i pay off quickly and keep the card around for emergencies. though now i’m wanting to change it out for something slightly less insane.

i made one recent purchase on the card for $1136.11. i called yesterday to see if they could lower the APR but was told they “proactively” monitor accounts for offers and changes and couldn’t do anything for me over the phone. i was surprised, since my credit is at its highest score ever (according to their own website) and i’ve paid the card off in full for quite a while now. fine, i wanted to cancel my account. only my last transaction hadn’t posted yet…..

today it’s posted, so i called back. i was told there would be an “estimated close out” of $1170 and that paying the balance over the phone would cost $14.95. what?! first, it’s great to not even ask why i’m closing the account. second, not being able to realize my current balance is silly. and trying to squeeze a few more dollars out of me.. nasty. what a great way to say, “well screw you for leaving us!”

so i’m paying this card off in full right now online and will have to wait for that to clear. then i can call them a third time to close the account. i am really looking forward to it.

finally saw the movie sidways. sigh.

this weekend was very active.

we went bike shopping with john. ryan and i may buy bikes soon. looks like we’re both eyeing steel-frame road bikes. ryan’s eyes are on a surly. me? probably a bianchi.

at the suggestion of my coworker chris, i went down to santa clara early on sunday to check out an electronics surplus sale. i picked up a bunch of goodies, including a wire-wrap board labeled “tactical control and status”. i found some new items that would go well with this vintage-electronic series i’ve got going.

also managed to make a few open-houses, to re-wet our feet. one place we saw, the entryway reaked of urine and the place was not that great. on our way out, a car was coming down the alleyway but had to stop because there was a guy laying down on the street. and once we were on our way out of the alley? we noticed this place was just around the corner from 1015 folsom. ya, no on all accounts. no wonder it was listed cheaply. i dont think i’d even rent it.

sunday we returned to bike shops to mull things over, test ride some bianchi bikes, and discuss our thoughts. on the way home (wayyyy out of the way) we stopped by irving to shop for monday dinner. cooking indonesian again, new dishes (straits-inspired) this time.

some of my friends, and my mother too i think, laugh when i say this. but tonight, we have to clean our place. why? because our house cleaner is coming tomorrow. that’s right, we clean our place to prepare for the house cleaner.

let me put some context around that.

the individual who cleans for us came with recommendations from multiple friends of mine. i was at a place and time in life where i wanted to have someone clean for us. you know, stuff you don’t like doing.. like the bathroom, mopping the floors, etc. all the dusting.

on one hand, our cleaner is very anal-retentive. he cleans everything and leaves no item untouched. we come back to find things arranged neatly. maybe a day later we realize all our kitchen toys are sorted. or the vase full of corks is centered on the counter.

things like that. on the other hand, our cleaner is very picky. there are certain things, which he does not do. he does not do dishes or pick up our laundry. he won’t pick up all the photography toys if they are scattered about. he will certainly not clean graduated cylinders and stained development trays. he’s just not our parent.

which makes sense, if you think about. if i’ve disected a camera shutter on the table, would i even want someone messing with it? i should also be able to pick up after myself to some reasonable degree. who wants to deal with my dirty clothes? sure, there may be dirty surfaces in the house but he will approach them with the appropriate liquids, powders, and tools. there’s nothing between him and unclean other than the solution.

a few times we were slacking off in our pre-cleaning and it merited a firm message from him in email. i felt so bad because of it. he laid out very plainly what he does and does not do. and he said he was sorry, but that’s just the way [he] works. on another occasion, things got worse. he left another nastygram, more stern than the first. he basically quit on us because of it.

i will admit, we had crossed the line. we had moved from the place where we started subscribing to his services. the new place was smaller, more difficult to take the bus to, and was easier to mess up. for days, the dear john email he sent stayed in my thoughts. for much longer, actually. so much so, that after he eventually returned to service our place, we began our ritualistic pre-cleaning.

in preparation, we put everything away. we clear the floors. all the laundry is put where it belongs. all the toys are put back in their boxes or shelves. the wine bottles on the floor are put on shelves. all the photography equipment makes its way to the second bedroom. the burke and james camera is reset with all its accessories and tripod to its display mode. the desk is cleared of all mail and papers. all the empty containers are put in a bag for recycling. even the laptop is stowed in its bag with its cables.

i now live in a small, but measurable fear of our house cleaner. we have a schedule now, so we know when to expect him. and the day or two before his arrival, i get so stressed out and preoccupied with making sure our place is ready for him.

so that’s why we frantically clean before the house cleaner comes.

i have been on the lookout for ghost towns.

i decided to take a few days and go exploring. on wednesday i drove down to the town of barstow, california. all day today, thursday, i went around exploring. i took my car off-roading on some pretty ragged dirt roads. my car is filthy! it was so much fun.

i have my two big camers with me. on tuesday night i finished making a lens board adapter so i could fit technika style lens boards on my burke & james 8×10. i’m finding a couple of my 4×5 lenses have enough coverage for the larger format.

i’ve been shooting down here.. not so much, but having lots of fun. polaroids, 4×5, and 8×10. it is so hot and the days are so bright, my film is too fast for what i need.

oh, i came across a place called “Dunes”. it is about 5 miles out of town, west i think. i think, because the compass in my car doesn’t know where to point. anyways, there’s this big road-side sign that says Dunes. behind the sign is a couple short palm trees. behind the trees there is a driveway and 5 boarded up shelters. what is so weird about this, is it exactly what a nightmare i had looks like. i discovered the Dunes site last night, and when it was getting dark i actually got spooked. as in, i felt scared to stick around there.

i went back today to go shoot it. i got a shot of the sign, but the sun wasn’t right to shoot the shelters. i came back later in the day, but there was a guy there. i guess he lives there. i didn’t want to mess with someone living in an abandoned building, so i took off. that place really creeps me out.

i’m disappointed i didn’t shoot the buildings themselves. they really remind me of my nightmare. i have at least the sign.

i’ve learned today that you shouldn’t judge a building by its appearance. just because the place is sealed, completely wrecked, boarded up, or otherwise behind a fence, that doesn’t mean someone doesn’t live there. barstow and surrounding area is littered with such places. some places i would have guessed were long since abandoned, had it not been for vehicles parked out front.

anyways.. there’s a 60% chance of rain here tomorrow. i will head back north.

here’s my list from the trip so far:
- i need a hand-held gps device so i can mark locations and return to them. that, and tell what direction i’m headed!
- need the windshield replaced on my car. a rock hit it and made a big crack. the crack was growing about 1cm/hr on my way down.
- car dirty filty. washie washie.
- i need to make a new lens board adapter. this one won’t last, and i love having shorter lenses for 8×10. 4×5 seems small :)
- if jason goes to the desert, remind him to bring slower film.

this weekend was fun. i think.

here are some random bullet points:

- shot some portraits of ryan and made contact prints the following morning. i still have some sheets to develop, other poses i’m anxious to see.
- saw a concert up at the warfield. up because it’s north from home.
- talked to my director at work. formulating a response. he must know it already. i am both impressed and disappointed. but i think we both understand.
- realized i am quickly running out of rodinal :(
- local photo shops do not carry ilford delta in 8×10, but they do carry txp320 and it did REALLY well for portraits.
- enjoyed more “la lacie” beans from zimbabwe, my favorite ever.
- i’m in denial that a police officer wrote a fix-it ticket and put it on my car at 3 in the morning. both the ticket and i were soggy later that morning.

here are some non-bulleted points:

tomorrow is lunch with one of my favorite coworkers.
we have a good amount of wine that needs to be enjoyed
i have an embarassingly large supply of refridgerated delta 100 in 4×5.
i’m cooking peruvian food for dinner tomorrow.

i should make some resolutions.

and..

don’t forget..

every day is a special occasion.

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 ;-)