Jodag.NET

So, I take a bit of pride or at least I did in some of my photos.  I’ve long been jealous of Vu’s photos, though I’ll be damned if I can find anything on his site that just showcases anything but his portraits, which are great but nothing I’m really interested in.  his candids and nature shots were what originally inspired me to buy a SLR camera and look at the world through a lens.

Galen Rowell and his fabulous Mountain Light gallery in Bishop kept me going with huge displays of stunning photos from around the world, though concentrating on the Sierra Nevada.  Going out to go backpacking with any number of people over the years has given me alot of opportunitiies to take pictures; most crap, some average and some maybe even okay.

I got an email from an old friend who just kind of reminded me how much I suck.  He gets paid to fly around in helicopters and take pictures and his pictures are stunning.  I could be wrong but as far as I know photography is a relatively new pursuit for Egood, as in the last four years, much like it is for me.  But looking at his work makes me feel like Sgt. Scholten squaring off against a drunk junior NCO…

Eric Good makes me want to sell my camera gear and buy crayons.  What an increditble asshole photographer.

Now it’s getting ridiculous. I got a fifth overdraft charge, and just had to take a screenshot of this so that in 10 years when I’m playing golf with Bill Gates and the Sultan of Brunei, I can look back and laugh. Or maybe I’ll hire someone to laugh for me.

Here’s the screenshot and I’m an idiot.

I set a new personal record today. Being right around the holidays is a cool time to set records, especially records like this. I was hit with not one, not two, not three, but four overdraft charges today by my bank, Wamu. Each one is 30 dollars. 30×4=120 dollars in fees in one day.

What’s Christmas without a little eggnog and overdraft?

Happy Holidays to all my little fans out there.

I’ve got poison oak again for the first time since 2004. This time, after hearing about Jared’s troubles with the oak and the drugs (steroids) doctors prescribed for it I went to the doctor for some meds. If you’re unaware, I despise poison oak with a passion of a thousand suns. Between the oak and sunburns I can’t decide which I’d rather die from but they are basically my worst nightmares.

Anyway, yeah steroids are neat. I can feel a surge of sustained energy about 1/2 an hour after taking them. It’s something of a rush. I might have to hold on to a few of them in case I do the old Baker To Vegas run this year. So that’s about it. I just wanted to put in a little note about the oak so I remember it in the future. Much like I remember the 2004 oak episode.

That’s about it. Welcome to 2007, if I can keep this trend up I won’t get any more oak until 2010.

That crack isn’t supposed to be there, nope it sure isn’t. The problem with fixing or repairing something old and beat up, is the part that is replaced/repaired is great, but the remaining old and beatup parts now face that much more stress/pressure/strain though so tend to fail.

As I was driving back from the Sierra, my truck starts to shake and shimmy. Internally, I was thinking, “please be the road, please be the road” As I continued driving and the shaking didn’t go away my heart sunk. I pulled over and looked around my truck to see what the problem was and I saw that crack, as well as a few quarts of tranny fluid sprayed all over the undercarriage. At that point I was still over a hundred miles away from home. That’s the point when I realized just how alone I am in this world as well.

I had no one I could call to get a ride. I’ve lived in Socal for about 14 years now, but the area I live now is a couple hours north of where I lived for most of those 14 years. I was stuck, alone, in the middle of nowhere and no way to get home. I have no family to call for help, unless I’m in Georgia or Illinois, I have one or two friends around here but that’s it. When they are unavailable, I’m SOL.

Long story short, I limped my truck home at about 45 mph.

Now I’m home and more cognizant than ever of how alone I am. As well as being infuriated by the fact that I dropped so much money into that truck and am stuck with nothing more than a very large paperweight that I can neither afford to repair or replace

Truck summary, recap and update. During August, I had the truck running and available on the following days:

1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 22, 23, 31. That’s 8 days out of 31, an uptime of almost 26%.

Yes, it’s been back in the shop since the driveline fell out last week. Thankfully when it fell out it managed to crack the transfer case so it cost even more to fix. The good news is that they are going to replace my headlights for free.

1st trip to shop this month total = 3200

New windshield = 200

New cd player/XM radio = 300

2nd trip to shop = 3600

Total for month = 7300.

Jesus, if I had known that’s what it was going to cost I would have obviously traded it in the first time it died. But now, when I pick it up later today it will be like new… except it’s not. Looking at the bright side of this, at least I’m saving money on gas when it’s broken down.

Here’s a tangent, someone stole the phone lines in Gorman (my “town”) for the copper in them sometime yesterday. So, all the residents (~24) and business have had no phone service since yesterday. Only in Gorman does this kind of shit happen, seriously wtf?

I have something I need to get off my chest. Stand up for something you believe in. Stand up for everything you believe in. Stand up for those you believe in. Stand up with those you believe in. Don’t say something that you don’t believe just to appease someone. Don’t compromise your principles, ideals or beliefs just to make things easier for yourself.

If you don’t stand up for those things you believe in, why bother having those things as principles in the first place. Compromise without reason is cowardice.

This has been a shitty week, thankfully there’s only about 13 hours of it left. I can’t describe everything that is wrong in here, because it is after all a public journal. Anyone reading this knows enough about me to know that I don’t give out personal info easily if at all, but as far as stuff that I can and will discuss:

1) Sunburn, on my scalp, feet and ankles. I fucking hate sunburns because they are so easy to avoid and I know that I get them supereasy… so it’s really fucking stupid for me not to protect myself against them.

2) Poison Oak on my foreams and misc other places. 2nd on my hatred list is Poison oak, because again I’m super-susceptible to it and I know it. FUCK.

3) Backed my truck into a tree. Enough said about that I suppose.

I hope Vu would be proud of me for using the sidelighting correctly in this shot to emphasize the (new) textures of the tailgate. At least I’m learning more about photographic technique eh?

4) Tons of other shit that went down this week.

5) This is the last weekend I have off in August and it was largely wasted by me doing absolutely nothing exciting, new, or exploratory. That’s not like me, and I just have to blame it on 4.

Why am I so whiny lately?

I really dislike the timechange we just went through.  I dislike it every damn year as a matter of fact, the main reason I don’t like it is because when I get home from work it’s either dusk or dark.  I don’t leave work late anymore either, so it’s not like this is my fault.  The sun just goes down too early, so it’s too dark and cold to bike or swim which leaves me with running.

For me running is about as enjoyable as getting punched in the face.  To follow this very loose logic train backwards, this daylight savings nonsense is about as fun as getting punched in the face.

Of all the seasons, I love winter the most, but working indoors while the sun is out just sucks because the sun’s only up for about 10 hours, when you factor in the 1/2 hour commute and 1 hour lunch, my entire quota of daylight is being absorbed by work. 

Really negative update today, but like I said I really don’t like the time change.