As you can see from this picture, my new camera & lens is significantly larger then my previous one. And after only using the D200 for less then a week, I don’t know how I ever got along without it. Everything is designed to be able to access and change it quickly, in the dark, without moving my eyes from the viewfinder. It’s an absolute dream. I’m really looking forward to using it in next month’s “In The Loop“, since it’s going to (tentatively) be shot from a nearby homeless shelter - should lend to some interesting and powerful shots.

So, it seems like ever since I got the check, I’ve been spending roughly $500/day on.. I don’t really on what, exactly, but it’s been some quality stuff! An example of that quality stuff would be this pic of the tin of tea we purchased yesterday from Teavana. It’s a mix of 2 blends ; one is “Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls” and the other is “Roobios Tropica” - it smells (and tastes) simply amazing - I might just be going off coffee for awhile. I like it so much so that the same night I went and made a big order from Stash Tea - a coffee cup infuser and several hundred grams of fine tea - including Earl Grey (Learn about Earl Grey tea here!)!

Saturday was Bobstock, Mishka’s Father’s yearly celebration of the life and music of Bob Dylan. It was a great time with a lot of interesting people, made even more interesting since we brought the Wii along. So it was more like Celebrate the life and time of Bob Dylan…. and kick the crap out of each other in bowling & boxing. At least the kids had something to do!

During Bobstock I was talking to Mishka’s mother for a bit, she’s a wise over-achieving IT nerd like myself, and was lamenting to her about the current state of my life, how I’m at a crossroads and need to dedicate several years of college aside for my art and so on and so forth and she said “No you don’t, you simply need to get the information you’re missing”. That’s a simple statement, but damn it all, she’s right. So to help improve my photography, I’m trying to learn how to draw. On Sunday I picked up the book “How to Draw What You See” and a sketchpad and I seem to be picking it up. Though to be honest, my picture taking abilities have greatly increased, especially when you throw in the confidence boost that is carrying around a professional camera - it gives you more of that ‘I belong here’ cred that when combined with an NPPA badge affords you more access then you think you’d get. It’s a wonderful little secret I tend to exploit as much as possible!

I don’t know if I’ll ever photograph professionally, I have my writing and art to pursue in that vein, though I do think I’ll keep at it for the rest of my life.
Mishka graduates this year (For her second degree - overachiever like her mother) with her Interior Design degree. There’s a lot of places in the Twin Cities that she could go to, and I know she’ll do amazingly well - she’s found her niche, her calling, and it’ll net her cash. Hell, she completely amazes me with what she can accomplish in a day - like her new job, the first week, she’s already organizing events and talking to places to do co-op deals - she’ll go far. Hopefully, she’ll go far enough so that I can stop working IT full time some day and do it part time (Even though she says that even doing it part time, I’ll still make more money then her for a few more years hehe), then using the rest of it for writing, art, and photography. Hell, writing is already paying off.

I’m really starting to like how my life is panning out. I’m in love with a wonderful woman I’m sure I’ll marry (She doesn’t read the blog, and no one tip her off, eh, even though I think she knows), I’m contracting at a place the is paying me really well and where I really fit in, I’ve setup some personal goals for myself (save up money for a nice ring + wedding, then for a loft/house, then work on art skills), am working hard to broaden my abilities, and generally growing as a human being.

And sometimes, I wonder, if it is all thanks to a broken Maneki Neko.
A Maneki Neko, literally meaning ‘beckoning cat’, is a Japanese good luck symbol from the 1800s. It’s told that the cat holds one paw upwards, inviting money, good will, customers, etc into the owners world. I bought one. I had it on top of a CD tower for the longest time.

One night, the CD tower fell, probably due to the fault of Ebbie, my very real cat. And with it, the beckoning arm fell off as well. And after that, things started to happen.
Perhaps it was a sign that I no longer needed a lucky charm, I made my own. Maybe it was a sign from above telling me to get moving. Or maybe it is just a bad idea to put stuff on top of CD towers - either way, I’m doing better now.

Anyway, this post has taken me, literally, 4 hours to write - as I did it in between work assignments. And now I’ve totally lost my train of thought due to a little fire, so I’ll just end it here. Ciao!

Indeed, it is now mine, and it would be a deal at twice the price! Wii pics coming, but I’m to tired, friggin wisdom tooth got pulled yesterday and I’m still all blah =\

Who’d a thunk a few words about psychos could net ya some cash?

Now I’m not saying I got a fat check recently or anything, but when I get home today I’ll have a new Nintendo Wii bundle waiting for me, which I’ll have to come back and grab since I’ll need to unload my new camera and lenses!

YAR!

Everybody has a secret world inside of them. I mean everybody. All of the people in the whole world — no matter how dull and boring they are on the outside. Inside them they’ve all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds… Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe. –Neil Gaiman, Sandman

So the Geek Prom came and went this year. Me and Mishka have vowed to go to it every year now, and to work on some better costumes for next year! As it is, here’s some pictures to brighten your day!

Mishka behind the sign!

This is one of the winners of the “Spaz Dance” contest - look at how damn sweaty he was. It was a typical dance contest, dance until the judges tapped you out.

And this is one of said judges - yes, he does look a tad like the actor in the Starburst ‘Berries and Cream’ commercial - and he did a perfect imitation of it too.

Tunes were provide by ELno, a twin cities coverband of Electric Light Orchestra.

And when ELno were in the green room relaxing, the tunes were provided by this DJ. I can’t for the life of me remember his name, all I remember is he was chosen as the city pages reader’s choice best DJ for 2003,2004,2005,2006 and 2007. Go him!

Us by the dance floor. Yes, I gained some weight. 2 months of unemployment does that to a person, but I’m getting it back down thanks to NutriSystem and an exercise bike

Ah hell, just go here and few some of the ones I took whilst I was there.

 The geek prom was friggin awesome - there were some crazy costumes to be found and the ELO cover band, E.L.no, was excellent as well. I’ll post some pics later, all I gotta say is I know what my next shirt purchase is

And remember, the Fringe Festival is coming soon!

If you want to see me in action, I’ll be doing a photo shoot for Unknown Prophets June 16th at the Dinkytowner Cafe in Minneapolis - come see them, come see me, I’ll be the guy with the big glass. Good food, good friends, good music. It’s all there.

Just noticed that depending on the season, and how I’m feeling, my music tastes change - here’s the past year in music for me - what’s your past year look like?

Last Spring/Summer:

• The Sounds
• The Killers
• Modest Mouse
• Gogol Bordello

Last Fall:

• Unknown Prophets
• Paul Van Dyk
• Fatboy Slim
• NOFX
• Paul Oakenfold

Winter time:

• Spoon
• Imogen Heap
• Jeremy Messersmith
• Robert Plant
• Rufus Wainwright

And right now/lately I’ve been listening to:

• Hot Hot Heat (Listened to Goodnight Goodnight perhaps one to many times)
• Mason Jennings
• Eels
• The Sugarcubes
• The Killers…. again…..
• Joseph Arthur

What’s been on your playlist the last 12 months?

Oh, and apparently my World of Warcraft fetish might be a positive thing, there’s a good chance I’m going to be in a documentary this summer about geeks and the things that turn us on. It’s called tentatively Dorks, though I object over the title.

Geek Prom and farmer’s market tomorrow, huzzah!

Today I’ve begun my year long journey of chronicling everything I purchase that’s not consumable. That means the only thing I don’t photography is food, smokes, soda, etc. Though I may change my mind on that too.

First up:

Echo Used CDs and DVDs. Purchased Eels - Souljacker, The Sugar Cubes - Lifes to Good, Terminator 2: Extreme Edition, The Terminator, Carmen Electra, and 10 incense sticks. Purchase total: $47

Second stop:

Target. Purchased RISK ‘vintage’ edition, Night Guard mouth guard to help mishka stop grinding her teeth, and a generic multi-game Chess/Checkers/Backgammon game I’m going to use for a project I have.

Final stop today:

Unique Thrift Store. This is a huge one, 3 bags full.

• Many different articles of clothing for Mishka, mainly to be used as fabric for a project she has
• 4 records - Bob Dylan - Saved,  Pink Floyd - The Wall,  Billy Joel - The Stranger and one band called Communards
• 3 hand blown glass bowls for a project
• A gaudy necklace for Mishka for the geek prom
• An antique trophy which reads “Allan Jabu - First Place - Story Telling - 1971″
• An old hand massager that plugs into the wall, called the “Stim-U-Lax“
• 14 episodes of Star Trek, the original series, on beta cassette, for some as of yet unknown project
• Some metal thing, mainly for the mesh covering it

And thats that. All told it was around $150 in stuff, not to mention we went to eat at Osaka, quite possibly some of the finest sushi I’ve had in this area. That was another $75 including tip. But man, it was worth it. The California Rolls were to die for, and the Hibachi steak was perfect.