white man long time not blog

Finally got A-qualified at work which means I am fully qualified to do a job I got hired for 1 year ago.  The job description is something I don't care to go into considering there is a probability of others reading this which approaches zero.  Since the last blog entry, the following events happened ( not necessarily in order):

I went approximately 100 yards underground in the Shenandoah Caves of Virginia and it looks like this

Shenendoah Caverns, VA

in one part and like this

Shenendoah Caverns, VA

in another.  The adventure was tepid but not without its mild thrills.  Underground can be a fun place to be and is where many people should be.  During my time in Virginia I was able to visit a person who is underground now,  but used to live above ground in this house

Monticello Charlottesville, VA

for a period of time which took place before I was conscious.  A also go engaged to this girl

Jade at Philz Coffee San Francisco, CA

who is currently in Thailand but will be arriving here

Palisades Seattle, WA

shortly.  Well that is that as they say.  More ipod uploads with literal descriptions to come.  

Four months in Virginia

I've spent the last four months in Norfolk, VA attending Radiological Control School as a physical science technician.  A few things of note have happened while I've been here all of which I will summarize in titled paragraphs.

Norfolk, VA  from my apartment.

My first Migraine 


   This came during a school day after a night of very little sleep.  Strobing bolts of light suddenly streaked across my right eye and I couldn't focus on anything.  I couldn't read a single word and faces melted out of focus.  Once that stopped the pain and nausea started.  In short it freaked me out because I immediately diagnosed it as an inoperable brain tumor.  It left me with sleep anxiety for the next few months.  I associated the migraine with lack of sleep and so began obsessing about the time I spent sleeping.  Have to get at least eight hours. The more I obsessed the less sleep I got.  I haven't had a migraine since and I'm beginning to sleep better again.

My first Virginia 2nd Amendment-phile

  One of my favorite Daily Show sketches is about open-carriers, that's grown men that walk around with a side arms as they go about their daily business (check out the sketch by clicking on the link at the bottom).  I was at my favorite local coffee shop (Fairgrounds Coffee Co.) in Norfolk, VA and a early middle aged man with a 1950's crew cut, a beer gut, and shipyard mustache walked in with a holstered pistol and two clips.  Ultimately, I'm cool with it.  If we want to have abortions, gay marriage, and desegregated schools we have to  let the right-wingers have their guns.  Taking away their guns is like declawing a cat and throwing him into the wild.  In order to make it to church, browse at Home Depo, and attend Tea Party Protests safely they must be armed to the teeth. www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon.../open-carrier-discrimination

My First 32nd Birthday

   Fairly self-explanatory here.  I fee no more mature or wise than I did when I was 22, or 12, or 2, or -10.  

Publish Post

I suck at stick and other unintended puns

I'm learning to drive manual which means I'm temporarily driving retarded.  Stalling out at stop signs, revving the engine unintentionally, and grinding the heavenly fuck out of my clutch.  This is the price I'm paying to drive a new black Volkswagen Beetle.  Its so damn nerve racking stopping at crowded intersections and hoping you can get our of first gear with out stalling.  I'm kind of glad Jade isn't here for the process of this humiliating...process.  One good thing about my new car is that it keeps me from extraneous driving.  That means I stay home because I'm afraid of crashing while trying to come out of first gear.

While I was not at Comicon or Waxing Night Photography

As the title might (and in fact does) imply, I did not go to Comicon.  There was no angle in it.  Expensive to get in (45.00 per day), only open until 7:00 pm (leaving only 3 hours), and a hassle to get to Seattle.  Its this droning "nay-saying" that is transforming me into a 85 year old 31 yr old.  It needs to stop.  Now if not sooner.  I need to plan well and follow through well.  Money anxiety often keeps me from enjoying things while I simultaneously work for the man [if you don't mind I will periodically refer to visual aids in order to avoid writing more than is necessary].   Maybe I will make it over there tomorrow.  If it is any consolation to me, I will be wandering around tonight taking pictures of the things that I've been wanting to take pictures of at night.  Things like

Grand Street of Pullman, WA

  
and things like

Another street of Pullman, WA

and so it goes.  I'm all about the night - I don't go in for all that day shit.  I like moving lights and dissolving images.  I like how the dark swallows things up.  Anyway, I'm going to take some more pictures of the aforementioned effects in the vicinity of my house.  There is a moss-filled wooded area near my house that looks old and evil in that order.  I must photograph it.  The day has not yielded the best photography as of late.  Its mostly because I'm obsessed with minutia and  urban decay.  The execution of this interest is less impressive than the theory.  Take this photo for instance:

worn pay phones across from Pike Place Seattle, WA

The day kind of ruins it because everybody sees things like this in the day.  Its like flipping through a family photo album of someone you don't know.  The scenery looks familiar but who the fuck cares.  Low light allows people to project.  In that respect night photos are Rorschach ink blots or something pretentious like that.  As long as I'm dealing with the day (and the night for that matter) urban decay is always interesting to me.  Not in a political hand-ringing way - its purely aesthetic.  Modern ruins are fun to look at like this 

Abandoned Apartment Building on Capital Hill Seattle, WA

Well, thats quite enough of my preaching.  The point is:  instead of going to Comicon I will be making more of these...which I think we can all agree is less interesting than going to Comicon.

  

Pictures of Alleys in Seattle

I always find myself photographing urban decay.  When in Seattle the alleys draw me in and I inexorably end up documenting these gaps between buildings.  These places are where degenerates go to mug, bums go to die, and garbage go to...throw away.  Alleys symbolize shady places in the infrastructure; unmonitored and unattended. For every roll of film I shoot at least 10 out of a 24 exposure roll go towards alleys and the things in them.  Usually I wait for a person to walk through the alley.  This always gives the picture a forced implication of sadness.  No real incite here its just something I'm drawn to.

One of many dark dim alleys of Seattle 

Drove to a Coffee Shop in Bainbridge Island

I've penetrated the financial barrier and came out the other side of the tax bracket: Bainbridge Island, home of the parlor room socialist.  I like it here and I don't know how I deal with the cognitive dissonance this fact must bring.  Everything about this place is done in the form of independent specialized boutiques.  The coffee shops, the clothing shops, the ledger shops, the grocery stores - they're all locally owned, operated, and supplied.  The people here are rich enough to bring in giant chain franchises and rich enough to keep them out.  But, there is no free lunch as they say.  The money has to come from somewhere.  They make it off the island and use it to keep it off the island.  Now that is cognitive dissonance.  Every man here looks as though he's steped out of a J-Crew catalogue.  Theres a certain hubris of wealth here where the affluent treat poverty as a fashion style, an extension of their wardrobe.
With all that said, I like it here.  The people are intellectually leaning and their politics ironically liberal.  There is a laid back tone set in this place, one that implies a sentiment for family and free time.  The tables of this coffee shop are covered in brown butcher paper with a cup full of worn crowns.  Graphiti, it seems, has been assimilated.  Its the age old arms race of counter culture.  You rebel and they include.  Move outside the definition and they expand it.  You punch them and they hug you.

Too tired to sleep

I hate those paradoxical effects of sleep deprivation where your body can't get into the zone and keeps rejecting the rem.  Lately I've been inundated with radiation math problems at work.  My mind is starting to balance equations that aren't there.  Its like the so-called "Tetris effect" except  I'm placing imaginary equal signs between peoples' heads.   Fences look like square root signs and the road is a Cartesian coordinate system.  But all is as well as it can be with Jade gone.

There are these two ladies sitting next to me that keep slamming their palms on the table every time they laugh.  I'm trying to indicate that this displeases me without interacting with them.  This is difficult to do.  I'm thinking of putting on a morality play/ mime show to get my point across.  However, I'm am fairly excited for open -mike night to begin.  These commuter coffee shops do have something to offer.