Life As I See It

     Just cleared another $1800 bucks on stuff I hadn’t used in a long time. This was the last of the big stuff, now I’ve got a bunch of little things, odds and ends left over. This latest set will go mostly towards Egypt, but it will also allow me to buy things for people for Christmas:-) 

Well, it’s the same blog, but it looks different now. Let me know what you think, is it better, worse, or you don’t care?

Isaac

     Well, I only had 1 student show up at the darkroom today. It was the 13 year old, luckily she brought some decent negs and was able to get a couple of decent prints out tonight. God am I out of practice with printing, I actually had trouble telling her how long to print her picture when I looked at her test strip. Oh well, everything came out pretty good…

     I had a thought while watching the latest episode, and it involves the French New Wave. No really… Ever see Breathless (A Bout de Souffle)? The story is that when Goddard submitted the film to the distributers, it was impossibly long, like 5 hours or something. The distributors said forget it, you need to trim it down to 2 hours. Goddard wouldn’t have any of it, every scene was critical. The distributors wouldn’t relent, so Goddard said fine, he would cut out all of the unimportant stuff. What got cut was all the in-between stuff like walking across rooms, transitions, and all the other regular actions that you’d expect in a film. What this gave him was what came to be known as jumpcuts, and it really put the film world on its ear. Turns out that once you got used to it, you didn’t have any trouble following the plot at all. 

    It’s amazing what you can learn by playing sounds on
an instrument. I was practicng some arppegiated chords last night nd I
was struck by the difference between minor and major chords. Yes, I
knew about them before, and I could even identify major or minor by ear
(not that I can identify the actual chord mind you), but playing them
one note at a time really brought something to my attention. The chords
sound completely different, even if you only change one note. When I
play an E minor chord and a C/e, the only difference is the addition of
a C instead of a B in the 4 note arpeggiated chord. Even though one
note was changed, all of them sound different to the ear, or rather
their relationship changes. It’s very similar to contrasting colors,
blue looks much bluer against yellow even if the hue hasn’t changed. I
can’t wait till I can play some actual music… It looks like I’m going
to cut off my guitar lessons. I just don’t have the time, monday is my
only day to do anything. I’m gong to try to continue to play and
improve. I’ve noticed an improvement over the past month and a half. I
can now sit down and play the Lorilei Waltz without a problem. It used
to vex me to no end. It’s nice to see that kind of improvement, it
gives me some confidence…

Isaac

I’ve put some more “Never Heard Great songs” up on the website. Don’t be afraid to suggest some more! I don’t know if the rest of you really understand how this stuff haunts me. Being a music historian/geek can be quite trying… I was frozen with paralysis trying to decide between Franz Ferdnand’s first album or the best of the Bobby Fuller Four. Franz won out by a whisker, but I’m still haunted by what I could be missing… Why? The same freaking reason I own the best of Paul Revere and he Raiders and The Beau Brummels’ first album (their second one will be mine as well, oh yes it will…). It’s a curse I tell you…

Isaac

    I have been doing nothing but eat the last two
weeks. Halloween was a bad scene, way too much candy here at the house,
and then people brought their extra candy in to work. Today some reps
bought us dougnuts and pizza. Yes, I know I don’t have to eat it just
because it’s there, but I am very weak when I’m bored and there’s food
sitting there. I managed to avoid the pizza today, not because I was
good, but because they ordered stuff I didn’t like… Since Butler and
Dad are having thanksgiving a week early (to accomodate my stepsister),
it looked like I was going to have two thanksgiving dinners this month.
Well, it turns out that mom wants to have thanksgiving a week after to
accomodate her brother and wife. That means we may have a smallish
thanksgiving on the actual day, and then a full fledged one the next
week. And then December rolls around and it’s nonstop eating… I’m
doomed…

Isaac

    Groan, I get back and it turns out that he’s leaving
the next day. He’s the only one there I can actually talk to. Now I’m
stuck with the assorted idiots and assholes that are left. There are a
few good ones there, but mostly they drive me nuts either from a
personal or professional standpoint. SIGH, I’ll miss you Richard, but
congrats on escaping!

Isaac

    Well, I finally got my new computer. A fully tricked
out Mac Mini. It’s about three times faster than my FrankenMac, and it
makes a world of difference. Even my wireless keyboard responds better!
Plus, it’s so tiny and quiet! I’m very happy with it, it’s nice to have
a real desktop computer again, maybe I’ll do more writing now that I
don’t have to use my laptop for all of my website stuff. We’ll see…

Isaac

    I come not to praise him, but to bury him… I have
mixed feelings, this is the guy my mother left my father for. I lived
with him for a year or two and mom almost married him. People seemed to
like him quite a bit, but I never got past the drinking and the
subsequent boorish behaviour. I still feel bad about leaving my brother
to live in that house when he was only 12 or 13. I distinctly remember
mom telling me that Dick could grow on me. “Yeah, just like cancer” was
my reply. Of course that was what killed him… Karma is can bite you
in the ass like that… Looking back, I probably was too hung up on him
not being my father to ever really give him any sort of chance. If
there’s one thing I’ve learned in the time since then, it’s that every
one has problems. At the time I had no problems judging him, now I see
that he was doing what he could. Being human is a tough thing when
dealing with a cynical know it all who was trying to deal with his
parents’ divorce. SIGH, rest easy Dick, here’s to hoping that all
that’s behind you now…

Isaac