M.I.A.

Dear readers,

I am sorry for my lack of updates in the past two weeks.  My life went quickly from trucking along to pressing the fast-forward button.  Time has been passing me by!  Usually that kind of activity is scheduled for December but I jumped ahead a bit here. Anyways, I know you’re still here and when I figure out a way to adequately describe how things have changed recently, I’ll get back to you.

Loxy

Things get worse before they get better

New Westminster, September 2009

In one week I’ll be jetting off to Toronto and New York. Outside of going to Portland in May, I haven’t really been anywhere since Edmonton last October. Even that Portland trip was just 5 days, not even enough to use any of my work-allocated vacation days.

I Phorgot!

How I feel about forgetting photo phriday, Vancouver, September 2008

So much for photo phriday!

Well, I’m two days late, but what the heck.  I’m doing it anyways. Photos taken Sept.1-7.

Gogol Bordello, Commodore, Sept. 2007

Friend's house, Vancouver, September 2008

Self portrait at work, Vancouver, September 2008

Wow, The first week of September is weak sauce.  Well, I know I took some good ones this year.

They get added to the mix in 2010.

In other photo news, I have been scouring used stores in the past days looking for a older SLR.  After tons of consideration, I bought one that I hadn’t googled first.  For 80 dollars I got the below camera…

This is what the camera looks like

…plus extra lenses, a case, and a flash. It’s a Konica Autoreflex T3, produced in the mid 70’s.  And I think it works.

At least that’s what I’m hoping, otherwise I have an $80+ credit at Richmond’s Value Village. Right now I’m counting down the minutes until I can go pick up the film and see if it worked.

The reason for this purchase is because I want to photograph New York in film. I’ll be there in three weeks for a few days.  I’ve been before, but this trip is almost exclusively to wander and document it.

That’s not the only photo project I am going to embark on.. what should I do?

One down, many to go

I scrolled through my photos and picked a random one. It has nothing to do with anything in this post.

It’s 11am. I have already worked a shift today.

How was day one? 

End of August, Start of something new

It’s just after midnight on a Sunday.  Being awake well into the evening, or morning, has been the norm for years.  I’m also used to working the weekends, but all that is a-changin’.

Busy bee

My last week has been unbelievably busy and the week ahead only seems worse.  It’s my own fault.  I blame the word, “Yes”.

My life after broadcasting

I recently tried to make a list of all the different places I’ve been employed and despite being in the workforce for just longer than a decade, my resume contains two dozen different jobs.

And my current one, as a reporter, has outlasted them all – coming in at just under 20 months.

In case exhaustion wasn’t enough…

Saturday night I made appearances at a couple events. But as I left my friend J’s house, I started to feel gross. I had a nice walk home with a friend that helped take my mind away from the rumbling in my stomach, but as soon I walked inside, I knew the bathroom is where I needed to be. I would end up getting about an hour of sleep on the cold hard floor beside my toilet.

El sleepo

These are my friends from work.  They are here to symbolize the sacrifices I make in my day to day life.  Tomorrow is day 5 of 6 in a row at work.  While that’s not so bad, I have to wake up at 3am tomorrow and be at work by 4am.  I’ve taken a sleeping pill that is very much kicking in.  At this point, my typing is frustratingly slow – just one of many failing motor skills.

I was hoping to think of topics I need to write, but instead I got pulled into an episode of Gossip Girl. It didn’t have the “WHAT!?” ending I expect from it.  But it was pretty good, as usual.

And now I should just let this pill do it’s job.  Otherwise, I know what happens when I don’t let myself sleep – things go a little crazy.

Odds that I get in a physical altercation with a streeter? 2 to 1

I’ve bumped this thread back up to the top to see if I can get some more reactions.
Originally posted Sunday, January 21st.

Last week, upon hearing of my re-entry into singledom, one of my friends described 3 steps of getting through a breakup (I promise that I’m almost off the breakup topic, in fact, I’m using this as a segue). First you go through Hurt, then Anger and finally Moving On. Right now, I’m somewhere between hurt and anger. The tears have stopped and as the post below shows, I look forward to whatever the future may hold.

That said, anger reared its ugly head today. We did our first “streeters” assignment. And since none of my classmates read this blog regularly (or tell me they do), I should preface what a streeter is. You know how tv news has short clips of people that they obviously nabbed on the street? And usually there’s an open ended question like, “what do you think about __current event__?”

That’s streeters.

They will likely be the bane of my existence.

In Edmonton, you’d have everyone and their dog wondering why you have a camera on a street corner. In Vancouver, people think that you want money to fulfill your daily crystal meth quota. Seriously. I’ve never had so many people who were walking slowly, look at me, say “sorry, I’m busy” and speed off. Come on, it’s Sunday. Where are you going? To see the Chronicles of Narnia?

At first it seemed like none of our techniques would work. The student angle, the serious news angle, the “we’re real friendly” angle… And while, I don’t mind the people who are rushing by and can’t be bothered to stop, it’s the speeder uppers who grasp onto their husbands/fathers/part-time lovers as if I’m coming at them with a machete.

I couldn’t help but say some choice words under my breath for quite a few people. In fact, the group members I was working with were fearful that I may, how you say, write a check that my fists can’t cash? I don’t know, I think the microphone looked pretty sturdy.

I’m a jackass.

But from the little I know about the industry I want to get into… that doesn’t seem to hinder career advancement.

Song of the moment: Left and Leaving – The Weakerthans