Long time, no post

Since I was writing pretty much all of last semester, I didn't really feel that I had much of anything to post here. Now that the summer has reached its peak, and I have been shooting some stuff, I feel mildly compelled to go ahead and start posting again. My connection might be a little iffy at times, mostly because I'm up in the great wilderness of Alasaka, but I'll do what I can.

Just a short thing for now, more to come, promise.

Donnelly Dome, the 4000-foot geologic intrusion near Fort Greely, the military where I'm staying. I've made the minor determination to climb it at least twice a week. So far, so good.

Chana came up with me for the first week of the trip before she started work. As you can see, my little sister seemed to get along with her pretty well ... this was at a local hang out called The Bluff about 12 miles outside of Delta Junction, the local town.

More later, ciao till then!

Other portraits

The article ran a week ago, and I've been busy and out of town, so I'm just now posting the rest of the portraits. These aren't the ones that ran, by the way, but the ones I took, cropped even tighter, monotoned, and did some little tweaks.

The article was about various religions that have been moving in the Birmingham area. The article (which is unfortunately not online) ran A1 and jumped inside which is where the photos ran. None of these were revolutionary, but there are a few that I really like.

Because I'll be gone

Going against my normal protocol and posting something a little early here, mostly in apologies that I'll be away from my computer (and work) until this Thursday. Yep, I gotta work on Turkey Day -- sucks, huh? Anyway, as it was observed this morning by the Ed and another Editor, I don't whine. Ever. Maybe I should.

Anyway, against protocol, I'm posting this little tidbit from the series of portraits that'll be running on Sunday. When I won't be here. Sigh. I'll get someone else to hold me a copy of the paper, make sure there's one waiting when I get back.

I changed this to B&W before I got on my little kick, by the way.

So there'll be more later, but for now, I'm gonna head on home to see the much-loved family, euthanize some trees, and maybe eat some guilt-tainted turkey. 'Cause I know I'm gonna catch hell for having to work until Christmas Eve.

Oddly enough, I took some portraits of one Mister Scrooge this morning -- we got along quite easily.

Ciao, y'all.

ERaarg.

My car is being a pain. Something about the clutch. Not making my day pleasant. At least I have a few days to work on it, though.

Anyway, finished up the round of portraits today with a Vietnamese family. We met at their church, upended a table, plugged in a light, and started out. The writer talked to the mother and father, but the little girl (dear God, so adorable) wanted so badly to be in the photos that I said we could do a few family portraits, too. Honestly, I'll put one in, but I don't think it'll run.

Here's a close-up of the little one. Her mom said she's seven -- "and a half!" little'un pointed out.

You know, every now and then I see a small family with some adorable little one and ... eh, never mind.

Oh, by the by ...

If anybody knows of something really cool to do and/or see in Alabama or thereabouts, lemme know. I've got a ridiculous amount of downtime this weekend and will most likely be itching to do something, anything, just as long as it's relatively active.

Just shout.

Waiting, waiting

I find myself immensely uncomfortable with media/press rooms. I don't know why. I walk into a media room, and there's one or two dozen or more folks inside at their laptops and cameras, looking over things and occasionally sharing with one another something. And I just feel the perspiration on my lower back and brow and just sort of find some place to seat myself and set up and what not -- never really know what to do, where to go, what to say, et cetera.

Today's no different -- still sucks. I'm at the University of Alabama, hanging around until the open practice starts at 2:30 P.M. and then it's over to Fan Day, and then back in here to edit and transmit, which'll be fine. Better than right now, at least: trying to find something to occupy my time other than mindlessly surfing the web. Already set up PhotoMechanic, I know how to run the galleries and FTP ... I even wrote directions to my aunt and uncle's place, since the Girl will be joining me there for the Mongo Tribal Gathering next weekend.

I think I should rewrite them, though -- something a little sillier, perhaps. ... hell, I've got an hour, and it shouldn't take too long.

Sigh -- I'm fine with the doctor's office, but I'm uncomfortable in media rooms? I'm a little weird ...

This part sort of sucks

Yeah, so the internship is going well -- I'm learning (or at least, I hope I am) and I'm enjoying the experience so far. But I'm still friendless. I like the people I work with, but that's not the same as having someone I can call and say, "hey, I'm not doing anything tonight, so you wanna hang out?" This hanging out with the friend-of-an-uncle thing is looking a little bleaker each time it comes up. The last time, there was mention of things becoming "mayhem" if I joined her and her crew and her boyfriend showed up. ... I mean, what the hell? Sounds like a great way to meet ... hi, I'm Jake, and that guy wielding the barstool must be your boyfriend ...

It's weird -- I go out and meet a dozen people in a day, talk to them, get their names, their numbers, and find out what they do, or why they are who they are, or what makes them special, and then I shake their hand and they go their way and I go mine. I go back to the office and eventually "home" though I don't really feel that my little apartment is a home just yet, and I'm alone.

I've gone down two lonely roads in the past couple months. The first was the move from Athens to Calhoun, from a half dozen roommates and friends to two friends from high school who had obviously decided I wasn't worth their time. But I had my family there, at least for the latter half of my time there. I had my dogs. And Chana was only an hour or so away. Now I've gone from Calhoun to Birmingham, and from having my family and dogs to having nothing waiting for me at home.

I called Chana tonight to talk because I hadn't talked to her since earlier this week. She was hanging out with her friends. I felt a little strained talking to her because I miss her and I'm feel quite alone out here, but neither she nor anybody else can do anything about it. And it honestly makes me angry and frustrated, with being sad coming as an aftertaste. I can meet people like nothing when it comes to my job, but I have no idea (or, as yet, time) how to do it otherwise.

Yeah, this is just part of moving somewhere new.

Yeah, it'll pass.

But it's a bitch all the same.

From the weekend til now

So the weekend was nice. Saw "The Incredible Hulk" with my parents on Friday night in Cartersville, got an AJC (we're suffering from our lack of newsprint since our subscription ran out), and got dinner at the new Fuddruckers in town, which happened to have an extremely cute girl behind the counter. Who was more than a little annoyed by the family of three who appeared and delayed their leaving the store by ten minutes.

Saturday started out slow -- puttered around the house and yard, yadayada, then drove to Chattanooga to check out a used bookstore, then drove to Trenton, Ga./Rising Fawn, Al., to join Aunt Bob and Unka Jerry to go to a big hippie gathering/art council/pot luck dinner/drum circle/general debauch on top of the mountains about twenty minutes away. Mostly folks from my parents' generation, and the two girls who were about my age didn't seem too inviting and I wasn't really looking to be especially cordial with anyone, despite the encouragement from various members of the party to take the initiative. I think they're just worried about their Artsy Sapien species dying off and are encouraging breeding. Besides, I find myself attracted to very go-getter-girls, not the come-get-me-girls. It's no fun if I'm the only one in the chase. It's also ... eh, never mind. If you want to know my thoughts on dating and relationships and what not, figure it out. Or ask me.

Got good and sauced for a while, enjoyed the fire, drummed a good bit, talked alternative energies with a guy named Bill who reminded me of some good family members, listened to Mary talk about New York, and to Bob about Istanbul (not Constantinople, which is nobody's business but the Turks, apparently), and to some random guy about West Virginia jokes.

"So we ended up outside and I pulled my razor and I would have cut him good if I'd'a been able to find some place to plug it in."

The next morning, Bob was quite hungover and Jerry and I were just tired out from the night. I hadn't drank that much or stayed up that late in a very long time -- outta practice, which makes me a sad excuse for a college student. Late, late breakfast, then some Bill Hicks with Jerry, and then digging with Bob in the dirt to retrieve some nice looking potatoes. Never dug for potatoes before -- both a learning experience and a good deal of fun.

Oh, shit -- I'm leaving for Birmingham on Saturday. It's just sort of sneaking up on me.
No more dogs ...
No more "real" bed ...
No more frie- ... actually, scratch that, the friends I had around here don't seem too interesting in hanging out ...
No more parents being supportive and loving ... well, not readily available, at least ...
No more knowing exactly where I'm going by feel ...
No more running at Ooky in the evenings ...
No more seeing people I knew in high school but never really liked ... well, maybe, we'll see ...
No more not worrying about bills ...
No more relaxed job at the paper where everything's basically optional ...
No more small town ...
No more yardwork ...
No more ... well, Calhoun ...
...sigh... No more Chana, I guess, at least, not just an hour away ...

Well.

Muumil

That's as close as I can get in English to the Arabic pronunciation for "bored." I'm at work, and I did some running around this morning, but nothing really panned out -- the tennis camp for early this morning got pushed back a week, the Mohawk grant for the Coosa Valley Technical College Literacy Council was a five-minute, in-and-shake-and-smile-and-out affair, and today wasn't a good day to do a video piece on the New Echota historic site, apparently. So, by noon, pretty much everything had fallen down, gone boom.

I even went out on a whim to shoot a soccer camp, but they were already getting ready to call it a morning. I might have something for later -- a local abandoned plant of some kind near my house that is getting torn down very slowly by, like, two crews of guys. But there might be some legal ramification BS if I go shoot ... but hell with 'em, I'll probably do it anyway. So, yeah, boring day. Not much going on.

Makes me wish the local Kiwanis Club would start a turf war with the Calhoun Optimists.

Oh, and here's something for those of us who enjoy kidding ourselves into believing that the world is not the world we think it is. Just another little site devoted to public delusions, this time specifically for those who enjoy zombie movies.

On an up side, my family went ahead and bought another used car, a Mazda Protege, older model, 5-speed manual, gets about 33 miles to the gallon if you're nice to it, with working air conditioning and radio. The parental figures are refering to it as "Jake's car" though I'm fairly well convinced that it would be better served as "Dad's car" since he drives so much during the week. I've been justifying their rationale with the thought that I'll be on my own in Birmingham, and will be paying for everything and won't be mooching off them for anything. Thus, they still save money.

Yeah, I have a guilty complex when it comes to my parents. Started back when they offered me an extra cookie when I was three. Never got over it.

Screw it, I'm outta here.

Awkward ...

I imagine this is what it feels like to run into the girl from a month-and-a-half ago, the one-night stand, after having tried to avoid her and having not returned her phone calls. Sure, there are excuses, but none of them are really worthy of being spoken. Or true, for that matter.

So let me recap the last few months:

-Weekend Workshop: Very cool, lots of fun, very busy, met some really nice folks in the business, including one Walt Stricklin, who offered me an internship with the Birmingham News in Birmingham, Alabama.

-Got a 6-month Internship: Again, very cool. Again, with the B-ham News. I'll start on June 30th, and I'm headed down to 'Bama to check out some possible accommodations tomorrow with Chana. Who is, by the by, quite pissed that I'm "leaving her forever." She knows I'm not actually leaving forever, and that I'll be back in Athens come January, but she's still not too happy.

-Got 2 B's, 2 A's: Big surprise, the same grades I always get.

-Completed a Final Project for JOUR5990 (in 20 hours): I was sick at the beginning of the week, finally felt well enough to get some work done on Thursday morning, spent most of the day dealing with class stuff/bureaucratic BS/gathering materials, and editing and created this between the hours of midnight and 5:30 am Friday morning. I didn't sleep, and the day was long and funny. In the "haha" sense. Everything was amusing.

-Had to Drop Out of the Rome Internship: I really wanted to do both, but Jim Alred at the Rome News-Tribune felt that seven weeks at his wouldn't be enough. Sigh ... I still feel guilty about it, and I got some (seemingly) joking ribbing from Billy Weeks of the Chattanooga Times-Free Press, but most folks have just said, "hey, that's business." Still, sorry Jim.

-Picked up a 3 Week "Internship" at the Calhoun Times: Initially, I was just offering myself and my little camera up for some freelancing, but they called me a week later (as I was about to take Chana hiking) and asked me to come in for a meeting. Before I really knew what was going on, they were hiring me on for at least 20 hours a week with their GPA internship money. So, cool, I'll have another internship for my resume, and they're paying me. Gnarly. So far, I've been to a meet-and-greet with some local officials (shot stills for print), toured the local jail (stills for print and an online gallery), watched high school cheerleaders babysit little girls (stills for print and gallery), met most of the local Kiwanis Club (...uhm, we ate lunch together), and drove to Fairmount to watch them replant the park (stills for print and gallery, and video for the 'net). I'm none too happy about the online gallery the Times uses, but hey, small town newspaper, whatever.

That's been the most of it. Folks got back from Alaska with stories and pictures and whatnot, but I've mostly filled my time with yardwork, reading, running one of the dogs and moving my crap out of Athens.

Whoo -- not so awkward now. So, uh, can I buy you a drink? ...

I'm a sucker

I am a sucker for dogs. I grew up as part of a pack, a strange mixture of an Alpha (merit of being bipedal) and just a pup. My dogs are my family. When I was born, there were six -- that's the fewest my family has ever had. We peaked at thirteen or fourteen (it's hard to keep track) a few years ago, and now we're back down to nine as the older ones die off -- Maxi, Teddy Bear, Patch, Roady, and Bert.

Dan Pelle of spokesmanreview.com did this piece.

Excuse me, there's something in my eye.

~J

Holiday

So I'm finally back and settled in from my long winter's break, communicational awareness washing back over me with a rush of tingly static and sensory wonder. I had pretty much no connection back at my parents' place, aside from the occasional trip to Krystal's, the only joint around with free wireless. So here's a summary of the majesty -- in nine photos (I would have made it ten, but couldn't find an appropriate 10th) -- that was my boring break.

Alek's graduation.

Hanging out with Drew and Liz.

Being mauled by ugly beasts at my parents' place.

Making a trip into the "big city" of Rome, Ga., to go to the bookstore; my family in the background.

Walking some of our dogs in the logging area next to the house.

A critical failure of a trip to downtown Calhoun, which is not as much of a "main street city" as it claims. Obviously.

Familial trip to the Pigeon Mountain WMA (aka, the Pocket).

Charleston for New Years (at the Battery).

Some of my old friends from S.C. on the beach in Charleston.

Now that I'm back, expect more posts, more frequently. Ciao for now -- class soon.

~J