In Focus

It's so stressful!!

2011-08-19T00:28:00.000-04:00

Sometimes college just feels like a big scam to make money off of students... I have a lot of appreciation for AB-Tech for providing an inexpensive college education but some of the books they choose are outrageously expensive. I had a lot of trouble just paying for tuition this semester even with the payment plan and now I have like three books to buy. This makes me really stressed out, especially when paired with the fact that I'm trying to remember when all the homework I have is due for each of the four classes I have. I'm also really disappointed in the students I have class with. I don't know many of them very well yet as you can imagine so this is probably pretty shallow of me but the general portion of my classes seems to be composed of people that aren't very "down to earth". There will be no more art classes for me which generally equals less cool classmates, no offense to anyone but no one can take the place of art students. My teachers are all generally pretty cool with the exception of one who I will not mention for fear of them reading this blog. I did find out that I'm most likely going to be able to get the lab monitor position I have so badly wanted! It seems I will be working there from 9 until 12 when I have my World Civ II class, my one and only class for Friday. Super excited to start improving my abilities as a potter!

Worries

2011-07-28T13:53:00.000-04:00

I've been worrying a bit lately about this up coming semester. I've got a Math, English, World History 2, Geology and "success and study skills" class. I have been at AB-Tech for close to four years! Why the hell do I need a success and study skills class?? That class doesn't even deserve to be capitalized... I'm looking forward to my English and History class, I like writing and history. Hopefully this English class will improve my writing. I decided to go reminisce on my first few blog posts a few minutes ago... I was terrible! back then. I really hope I'm better now, I'm not so sure though.
Ever since my bicycle accident I have been hassling the driver's insurance company to repair my bike and for medical coverage. They told me they sent a check for my bike about a week ago but as of today I didn't get it! I was getting pretty pissed, shouldn't take that long to deal with this shit. Well, I also received a lot of mail from lawyers wanting to represent me over this accident and I ended up finding that insurance check hidden among the lawyers' letters which I likely had a few days ago. I was so relieved after finding that. It must have gotten mixed up the day that I got 5+ pieces of mail from lawyers, it's been ridiculous, those lawyers are on top of shit when it goes down! I'm nearly done paying people back for helping me buy my bike. So excited to have money, money that I owe to no one!

Fist of iron, car of plastic.

2011-07-19T00:19:00.002-04:00

About a week ago I bought a road bicycle! One of my good friends, Ryan is really into bicycle racing and he had a lot of influence on my decision to get a road bike. I also wanted a bike for commuting so it wasn't purely of his influence. I found a really good deal on Craigslist, $650 but I managed to get it down to $600, I was quite excited about that. It's made by Fuji. It's red and black and beautiful. I have been considering getting into racing myself but I have yet to make much of a commitment towards that goal.
I've never had a bike this nice before and I have very little experience riding on the road and so I was also somewhat naive when I first started riding. This became extremely apparent as I was crashing into a car less than a week ago. I have been trying to get more comfortable at going faster and so I found myself flying down Victoria Rd going about 20-25 mph which is about the speed limit there although cars always go a good deal faster on it. As I was headed from downtown going towards ABTech I saw this white car on my right pull up ahead of me at a stop sign on a side street looking to turn left, coming my direction. I of course thought little of this as I had the right of way since he had a stop sign and I could easily make it past him without having to worry about him pulling out since I was so close. As I drew nearer, maybe 60-70 ft away, I saw that he was an older guy, maybe about 70, which sowed seeds of doubt into my mind... I should have heeded those thoughts. I was about 30 feet away when I started to see signs of him pulling out... right in front me! I thought I was done for. I've never been in a bicycle accident but I never imagined it turning out very well for the cyclist. Between my braking and him mover further out in the lane I managed to avoid the majority of his car, at least the majority of my body avoided most of his car. I glanced off the side of his car after my fist left a sizable dent on the rear left side of the car near the tail light. I then proceeded to veer off into a nice soft grassy hill, narrowly clearing a stop sign. The guy was nice enough to stop, I would half expect most people nowadays to just drive off but he came to make sure I was ok, etc. Apparently he didn't see me... I believed him. But really! if you're at a stop sign looking to see if the way is clear aren't you going to beware of any object hurtling toward you at high speeds?! Hopefully he will be in the future, lest he wants a matching dent on the other side of his car. The worst part has been his insurance company... This is my first instance where I've had to deal with an insurance company and I'm not keen on it. The repairs to my bike were a whooping $67.40!!! so much money right?! (insert sarcasm here) and so far the insurance has been investigating the case... for over 6 days now! They heard my story and now they are in the process, from the last I heard (5 days ago), of talking to the man I hit, the insured. My question is why has it taken them so long? I'm calling them tomorrow. I had to front the money for my bike so I could continue to ride it and I'm ready to be reimbursed... There will be hell to pay!!!

Screw the media

2011-06-27T01:40:00.001-04:00

It's been a little over a month since I last posted anything. I feel like that's sort of sad but I wish I had more to say. I shot a wedding three weekends ago and that turned out great! I thought the pictures came out better than any of my past wedding experiences and it was all the better that it was for one of my friends. Unfortunately I'm not very progressive about getting my photography business up and running so all my work comes just from happenstance and whenever my friends need a photographer. My favorite thing about shooting weddings has to be really good free food. At least most the time it's really good, the other part of the time it's just free which is also good!

I went to go to ABtech the other day since I had some business there regarding art, etc. I ended up speaking with Sharon the art director and I mentioned that I was looking forward to working as the lab monitor as the semester starts back up in August. Before I haven't been able to be the monitor as I didn't receive financial aid but as of a few days ago I applied for FAFSA so hopefully that will work out for me. It would really be a godsend to be lab monitor because there's only one ceramics class as opposed to the four we had last semester (due to art cuts). So because of that I wouldn't have had a chance to practice pottery at all at college anyways. If I get the position I'll get paid for it though! I'm sort of ready for school to start again. Ready to get through all this bullshit at ABtech, been there far too long.

I was curious the other day about the ongoing nuclear situation in Japan as our media doesn't cover any of it anymore... It's amazing how as soon as the media stops covering something it might as well not even exist. The nuclear problem in Fukushima and all over Japan however DOES still exist. Almost four months after the earthquake and tsunami there's still very little progress on actually fixing the problem and from what I've read they just plan on cementing the nuclear reactor inside of what will be a nuclear tomb. I read the the fuel rods may not be cool enough to remove from the reactor until 100 years from now. I just don't understand why nuclear seems like a good idea to our leaders... Makes me feel depressed all over again as I did on March 11th and the days following.

New ventures

2011-05-24T03:58:00.000-04:00

I've been drawing a fair amount lately trying to get back into the swing of it since it's been like 3 years since I last drew some Manga. I originally started watching Naruto Shippuden again once school ended and caught up to the newest episode so now I'm just waiting week-by-week until new episodes come out. It's so hard to wait... Haha. So once I got all caught up I decided to star drawing some new characters and also a few from Naruto, so I started with Naruto as my first and only subject so far from the show. Cue example of work... (Google is currently incapable of uploading images). I looked for some videos of people drawing manga on youtube and it was really amazing! Quite humbling. I would really like to get a Wacom tablet now which would be great for drawing and would help me edit photos as well.

Lately I've also really wanted to write a novel. This notion probably arose due to my reading the Lord of the Rings which I'm glad I started about a week ago. I have no idea where to start in this venture but I've been doing a bit of research on it. Unfortunately when I was growing up I never really read many books, I did lots of research on various things or reading of the news online but not much from novels or other similar mediums. Due to this I'm not so well educated on the structure of a novel but since I've decided I'd like to write something I've been paying a lot more attention to how J.R.R. Tolkien writes as I continue reading LOTR.

Photography has sort of taken a back seat to other parts of my life probably because I'm not out and about as much as I was during the spring semester. I bought a new lens somewhat recently which I have enjoyed a lot and it inspired me to buy a newer camera lol, so glad I could be inspired to buy something so expensive so easily. So I'm weighing the benefits of buying a new camera and selling my old one, purchasing a Wacom tablet or building a Windows machine which would be far more powerful than my current Macbook pro. Time will tell I suppose.

My Summers ambitions

2011-05-11T00:14:00.000-04:00

Summer has arrived again and like most summers I don't really have any plans but hopefully something interesting will happen soon. I'm quite enthralled by pottery thus I would love to work on pottery all summer. I just need to find somewhere I can accomplish this at. I've already checked Odyssey Ceramics which is the biggest pottery studio in Asheville. At Odyssey you can take classes and they offer positions to enthusiastic potters such as myself. I originally tried applying for a summer residency which they only have two openings for and would have netted me a number of benefits such as 24 hour access to the studio but they already found two people... That was really depressing to hear, I was so looking forward to it. So now I'm trying to find something similar, I want to be able to work in the studio all day and start seriously producing and bettering myself. I've considered apprenticing with a potter but I've heard that's hit or miss. Sometimes you find people where you can create a lot of stuff with and other times you just do exactly as they say and just wedge a lot of clay, etc. I was also hoping to just have the studio experience so I could work freely without any creative restrictions set upon me.
I'm really bored... I fear this summer might continue on like this. That would sadden me. I bought the Lord of the rings trilogy not long ago after I had read the Hobbit for my first time. It was during the Spring semester and finals so I didn't really have time to read it. Since then I started watching anime and got really into it and now I'm to the point where I'm just waiting for more episodes to be released from Japan. It would seem now is an excellent time to read LOTR but I'm feeling anime, even though I was all about LOTR a few weeks ago... I'm SOOO confused.

2011-04-17T15:01:00.002-04:00

Over the past week I've enjoyed spring break, maybe more than I ever had, probably due to my taking bio this semester. I've hung out with a lot of good friends, played a lot hacky-sack in some really nice weather and I was able to experience some of HATCH, although not as much as I'd have liked.

Climbing Tengudake in Nagano, Japan

Alley of downtown Asheville

I ordered a large roll of wide format printing paper for my old boss from Ritz to split between us. We got to hang out at his house for a bit and we made a few 12x18's, good times, made me super excited for the upcoming AB-Tech art show. Feeling pretty confident about my work but trying not to feel too cocky, I have a tendency towards being falsely sure of myself.

Friends and snow at a middle school in West Asheville.

I have to now decide which of these four photographs to submit, I'm leaning towards the photo to the left and the photo at the very top. I also really like the bird above, it's a hard choice. On a side note, I've grown really frustrated with Google's photo interface while trying to insert these photos here... it's not very well thought out.

Shot Eastwards while the sun was setting, reflection from off my neighbors window through my own.

I went to a reception at a photography gallery downtown the other day and got a lot of inspiration for my art both as a photographer and potter. I saw a few photographers who I knew and it was interesting talking to them about what photography meant to them and different ways to look at an image. In the not too distant past I was not very excited about photography like I once was back in the day but being with so many artists and discussing what our art meant to each other helped relight the fire.

Honor

2011-03-23T02:37:00.000-04:00

It's been interesting watching how all of the events related to Japan and Libya have played out the last couple of days. For about 7-8 days everything was about Japan and the nuclear reactors, now I hardly see anything about that but I keep hearing about the air strikes in Libya by the Allied forces and the controversies over it. It's interesting to see how the media deals with news, interesting, but not unexpected. I'm still thinking about Japan, I still want to go and help if I can. For right now I don't foresee a way to get over there. Oil prices are still high from what's going on in the Middle East which is having a strong effect on the price of an airplane ticket. Even if I were able to procure a ticket I would still have to weigh whether the health side effects of possibly being near radiation is worth it... I'm not sure I'm going to choose to buy a ticket to radiation though. I'm still waiting to see how things progress but Japan's government sure hasn't helped in assuring me that things are under control or that the government is being honest and straightforward with their citizens. I have a feeling that the atomic situation is a bit more than we're led to believe, at least the Japanese are led to believe. Everyone in the US seems to be sold on Cali, Hawaii and Alaska's plume of radiation killing everything, fear gets the better of us I suppose though. Buying Iodine tablets doesn't prevent against all sorts of radiation and in most cases is not a benefit to your health to take too many or any if not necessary. What people here don't get is that the concentration of radiation across the Pacific in Japan is much more serious than any radioactive materials we might have gotten here. My thoughts turn to the workers inside the nuclear plants trying to gain a firm grasp on the situation so no one else gets hurt. Such dedication to a people and a nation, I wouldn't expect less from the Japanese. This whole catastrophe has been handled by the Japanese in the most respectable of ways. If anything like this happened in the US you'd see all sorts of people stealing and disputes arising between people. For a nation which thinks so much of itself we sure don't know how to cooperate with each other during dire times. I shouldn't speak quite so harshly of Americans, we did manage to pull together during 9/11, that was the first time I had ever felt proud to be an American and proud of our nation. If we could only manage to carry ourselves in such a honorable manner all the time.

Hopes and prayers...

2011-03-14T01:50:00.000-04:00

It's completely irrational but I'm so aggravated... Aggravated about everything that's happening in Japan. The earthquake, tsunami and now the chance that there could be a nuclear disaster... Completely frustrating. I want so badly to help Japan, not just to donate money to the red cross or something like that, I want to be there, I want to help them recover, and as a photographer, to document everything that has happened. I had before decided against going to Japan because of financial matters but now if I'm able to then I will for sure, I'm trying to find ways that might aid me in achieving this goal. I spoke with both my friends Hossan and Haseyan yesterday. Hossan is living in Nagano with his wife Chie, far from the danger of the earthquakes and tsunami, although Chie's family lives in Sendai, one of the hardest hit regions of Japan. I was quite relieved to hear from Hossan that Chie's family is ok! Hossan mentioned to me that he would like to contact Haseyan if at all possible because Haseyan is now in San Diego and difficult to contact from Japan. Hossan is trying to figure out what he should do to help with recovery in the most effected regions of Northern Japan which is why Haseyan could be of great aid to him. Haseyan has traveled to Sri Lanka to help them recover from their deadly tsunami in 2004 and he also has quite a bit of experience building and volunteering elsewhere. I spoke to Haseyan later that night, he seemed very calm and collected about it all, much more relaxed than I feel. I'm not sure if he was or is now aware of how many died or of the great damage caused yet. I hope with so much of my heart that Japan can recover from this and that people in Japan find some sort of relief from the hopes and prayers from the international community and the unaffected areas of Japan.

Perfection

2011-03-10T00:52:00.000-05:00

I often times have difficulty feeling satisfied with my art whether it be drawing, ceramics, painting or photography. I always feel like it's not good enough, never fulfilled or if I am it's only for a short time. It makes me feel sort of depressed sometimes because I definitely feel that my ability at art, sort of what I'm best at, reflects who I am, it's my identity. I feel this way even though my friends and family both enjoy what I do. That leads me to a new subject. Does one practice art for themselves or for others. I can only speak for myself but I'm not sure I would have as much drive to do it if I knew that people weren't going to appreciate it afterwords. I suppose that for me it's a source of expression but would we feel a need to express ourselves if there were no one to express our feelings to? I would guess not. I feel like there are a lot of artists that I look up to that seem to put on a facade of doing art exclusively for themselves. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's not a facade, maybe I'm just not in that place in my life where I can feel completely comfortable making art for myself, without the judgment from people on the outside. As humans we are so social that I cannot think that there are any artists that would not be effected in some way by their social group. It's a difficult question to answer.

War! What is it good for?!

2011-03-08T01:09:00.000-05:00

Ever since I became interested in becoming a photographer I've known that photojournalism is what I wanted to do. I took my first photography class in the spring of 2008, since then I have worked at a camera shop, shot 3 weddings, won 1st place in photography at my schools art show and a student purchase by my school, Asheville Buncombe Tech. I'm very grateful that all this has happened to me but at the same time I feel as though I have strayed from the path of the photojournalist. When I first began shooting I was actually making photographs that were reminiscent, in certain ways, to some of my favorite photographers' shots. That was back when I shot black and white film, when I had absolutely no idea how to operate a camera and I was just flying by the seat of pants, so to speak. I'm not sure how it happened but since that time I feel I have regressed in a sense. Although now I'm far more knowledgeable about my art and have acquired a decent set of equipment, I seem to be lacking the certain spirit or enthusiasm to shoot in a photo-journalistic way. It's not that I don't like photojournalism anymore, just that I feel so far away from it at the moment. When I invested into my digital camera I loved it! I still love it, but I feel like I betrayed my true passion after I began to shoot with a digital camera. I think it is time to relearn my craft...

Recently I have been researching photojournalism, specifically war-photojournalism. As I think more and more about it I wonder to myself why I want to do a job which involves so much violence. I can't say that I have an answer to give you regarding that... All I can say is that I feel like it's an important part of dealing with war in a positive way, someone has to photograph those areas which others don't dare to cover. Currently in Northern Africa there's a great deal of turmoil over political leaders. Both the governments of Egypt and Tunisia have already gave way to popular protests by the people in which their leaders stepped down with little violence. Libya is dealing with a great deal of violence, Gaddafi, the past revolutionary turned leader of Libya refuses to relinquish rule leading to a great deal of fighting. I find irony in the fact that he was once a revolutionary and now his people revolt.. haha. The whole situation makes me feel like I want to be over there where I could hopefully make a difference. So many people talk about the huge difference photographs from Vietnam played and I want to be part of the driving force that enforces that change. I think that the media is so full of bullshit right now and I'm not inferring that once I become a journalist that there wont be all the bullshit but maybe I could start my own new agency, something private run off of a blog or something similar. If anyone's interested one of my inspirations is a guy named Dan Eldon, he was a photojournalist and a very interesting person who seemed to enjoy life. The phrase "Dance like no one is watching" seems to be how he lived his life. It's extremely unfortunate but he was killed by a very angry mob in Africa as he and a few other journalists arrived on the scene of a US ordered bombing. All but one of the journalists were stoned to death... the other escaped. I have many photojournalists I admire but Dan Eldon was a person who's life philosophy is extremely admirable. If anyone is interesting in learning more about him, his family published two books, The Journey is the Destination and Dan Eldon: The Art of Life.
I started to feel like I was reporting for PBS or something as I got further into this blog entry haha.

Why do I gotta title this?

2011-02-09T01:23:00.000-05:00

As usual this blog has experienced a shortage of posts. There's been no point in blogging lately, not about mundane things like school and such. However, my friend Kumi at Canadian farm in Nagano, Japan emailed me the other day. She said that Haseyan, the owner of Canadian farm, is in San Diego building a traditional Japanese style house and that I should go visit him. I'm not sure if anyone who reads this knows where I live but I live in North Carolina, completely opposite side of the US from San Diego. Even though there is such a great distance the idea still lingered on my mind... I'm thinking now that I'll ditch school for a week and go to San Diego. I found a pretty cheap plane ticket, only like $252, not too bad. I have no idea how everything is going to happen but that's the next thing I'm going to work on.

Lately I have had a bit of a resurgence in photography. I'm taking a photography class which hasn't benefited me at all but apart from that I have been walking around downtown during the last few weeks when the temperature was nice, up in the 60ies! I ended up running into a few photographers that inspired me to start shooting more often so that's what I'm working on doing. This picture was of a homeless guy I ran into. I asked him for his picture and he asked me for some change... I didn't like the idea of paying for a shot but he probably needs the money so, yeah, the picture turned out well. Unfortunately I didn't get his name. If I get to go to Cali I'm going to have a great time shooting out there, lots of new scenery. Hopefully some rockin' food too!

2011-01-17T00:37:00.002-05:00

It occurred to me earlier today that I very thoroughly enjoyed this past fall semester and that during that semester I didn't give the semester as much credit as it was due.
Classes such as art history which were such a drag to me because of the incessant need to write essays, but of course in hind sight I think of the class fondly and with much joy. It was amazing learning about all of the great artists, who weren't necessarily aware of it, but were recording moments in history which otherwise wouldn't known to us. This also led me and my class mates to ask, "when is an artist, an artist?", as I was taking Art history 1, which covers the beginning of time until the renaissance. Up until and even after Jesus' time is still riddled with speculation. From what we can tell it seems many of the first craftsman were making totems, tools for rituals or cave drawings which were often times purely associated with survival rather than artistic appreciation as Michelangelo's Sistine chapel is. So for me it was an interesting journey between art history 1 and my world civ 1 class which basically followed art history 1 with the exception of when we dipped into China.
There were many opportunities for me to exam various religions like Manichaeism, for example, which I knew nothing of prior to my history classes. Along with learning of religion through history I also gained a better perspective on religion first hand after getting into a heated skirmish with a past friend. Although that situation never came to a positive fruition, from my perspective, I appreciated the experience and it allowed for self reflection which I couldn't have gained through other means.
As I've matured more I have learned that every experience, including school, which although seems like a barrier now, is another step on life's journey. It's not about seeing things as individualistic but rather as a whole in which every experience is valid in complementing ways.

2011-01-04T01:46:00.001-05:00

It's been quite a while since I last wrote. Since then school has ended. Winter break has begun. And, now winter break slowly draws to an end. There were many good times had, many a kayak raced down a snow covered hill, a fair share of photos taken that require my attention and too many good friends and moments lost to the past and their respective universities. It's a very strange feeling to think we're in the year 2011 and that 2010 is gone, along with the world cup, the winter Olympics and all the hard work that was put into the last two semesters.

I will return to my community college this spring. My brother who is four years younger than me will also be there which will be cool and I have a few classes with good friends. My grades have steadily become better as I have become more focused on school and my ultimate goal, Japan.

When I read about Japan from peoples blogs or from some of my lucky friends who reside there right now, it makes me miss it so much. The magic I know of Japan comes back if only for a teasing moment. Then I'm left with sadness and a renewed focus to achieve my dreams. My last trip feels like a fleeting memory, surreal. Almost as if it were a perfect dream, in which none of the bad things I experienced are acknowledged as negative and everything positive shows through like a warm ray of sunshine. I know in my mind that of course there exist the negatives as well as the positives but I still can't help thinking about it... There may be a slight possibility that I'll have the chance to go this spring or early summer but I wont know until later in the new year. I'm caught between very much enjoying school and all the information that exists for me to absorb and wanting to go to Japan where I will have much less discipline to study on my own. I have a lot of interest in studying in Japan but as I have found it seems you need to know quite a bit of Japanese although there are classes taught in English. However I don't think many of the art classes I would be interested in studying would be available in English.

I'm just waiting for the new year and hopefully a prosperous new year at that to bring me closer to Japan and completing my bachelors.

Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays!

Also, if anyone still reads my blog, leave a comment stating what you would most like to achieve in 2011 if you weren't restricted by anything.

Up until now.. 短期大学

2010-11-17T01:05:00.001-05:00

ひさしぶり！
The day of turkey carnage is fast approaching, as is the finale of the fall semester and although I would rather not be going to Abtech, this semester has flown by with little negativity towards many of my classes or teachers. Up until now I have been writing essays upon various historical events in Art history 1 which seem to have very little to do with art... I appreciate the fact that most history especially in the beginning of time and on to 1300-1500 CE is mostly made up from the art of the time but the assignments I'm meant to write on seem somewhat distant from the topic.

I'm taking three other classes and apart from public speaking I have greatly enjoyed them! Ceramics has been an amazing class and venture into another form of expression. As we have began to throw pots (use the throwing wheel) I have been very frustrated but also very satisfied with myself. I've found the practice of throwing a somewhat zen art, at least when trying to center the clay which you so strongly want to become something cool in the end. It's like raising a child every time you try and center, build up into your cylinder and form the shape, except there's a very high rate of straying from the correct shape you the potter, parent of your clay child, want. If this analogy were true it would explain why new generations are the way they are... More to the point, while centering clay it's almost as if you must be centered spiritually, mentally and physically, a workout which is hard to find otherwise. I have signed up for Ceramics 2 for the spring semester which should hopefully lead to my being more competent as a potter and a greater amount of patience in art.

I'm also studying World history 1 which is pretty much exactly like Art history 1 up until World history went to China and Art history went to Greece. That added a bit of complexity to keeping civilizations apart from each other. After all we all know the Great wall of ~~China~~ Mesopotamia and the Pantheon in India... That's just an illustration to clarify to you how my mind has been operating over the past few months. World history is especially interesting because of my teacher, we found ourselves watching two midgets wrestling at one point on the projector...

Alas... we arrive at Public speaking. Oh Public speaking.. how I loathe thee. In actuality though it's more a love hate relationship between Public speaking and myself. I feel like even though I hate giving speeches that it's very educational but having to fill out a critique sheet for each of my class mates (13) X 4 speeches gets to be quite annoying. I look forward to our upcoming impromptu speech in which we're giving a random topic to speak on, sounds interesting! 面白いね。

また

2010-07-29T03:13:00.000-04:00

Over the summer not too much has changed or happened to me. I have been able to go on a quite a few trips within the US to places like NYC, SC, NJ which has been a lot of fun. The best of those trips was to Charleston with my best friend and a bunch of other friends over a 3 night period of humidity and really hot days, sort of reminded me of Tokyo.
Other than traveling I've been working and playing far too much computer games.
The Fall semester at Abtech starts around the 17th and I'm pretty excited about that, finally something to keep me busy, hopefully not too much lol. I'm excited about my ceramics class and being able to make art that is practical. Ever tried drinking soup out of an oil painting? I didn't care for the taste.. I also want to become good at ceramics because it's very popular among the Japanese.
I've been trying to keep up to date on my Japanese too, it's still really hard for me since I have so few people to practice with. Thanks to the internet because without it I would have that many less Japanese to chat with.
I really miss Japan! Hoping my photography will help me bring in more income for my future ventures to the land of Mt Fuji.

At a loss

2010-05-15T03:07:00.000-04:00

Wondering what I should do now that the school year is over. I have been looking at taking summer classes but I'm not sure whether I missed sign-ups or not, I wouldn't mind either way, class or not. I have been school free for 2 days now and I've pretty much just played video games for most of it... To be fair it's because I got an invitation from Blizzard to play the Beta of Starcraft II but still, what a waste of time. I should be drawing and painting and expanding my knowledge of stuff, like Japanese! Without the linear path that school provides it's hard to get motivated though. The grass is always greener on the other side though I suppose...
I'm still missing my friends in Japan as I always do but I feel like this warm weather coming back is helping to revive the feelings I had from my trip last summer. The fact that one of my friends is in Japan for 9 months doesn't help make me feel any less envious either. Everyone is beginning to travel which makes me so sad because I have no ability to get anywhere this summer =/.
Hopefully making this prequel movie of an original movie that my friends and I did last summer will help make things more interesting. If anyone is interested in watching our rather silly but still entertaining movie, it's called "Shootout" and it's on Youtube. The prequel is going to be about a character in Shootout and how he does something... not really sure of the entire script at the moment but we actually have a script this time! Yay for that..
I apologize if this post was a waste of anyone's time, I don't feel like there's much body here.

The semester coming to a close

2010-05-11T03:16:00.000-04:00

It always seems like school semesters last forever until you get to the end and then I wonder where it all went. Generally I cannot stand Spring semesters because of the gloom that looms for months until finally nature springs to life at the very end. It's so hard to feel motivated while life looks so dead during the winter. When spring finally comes it's such a great source of energy and positive thinking, such a switch from the past months.
Even though I cannot stand spring semesters this was an exceptional beginning to the year. I got my first job since I had got back from Japan about a month before I started school and it was great to have money again. Having my job also meant I was having to pay for school supplies too... quite the trade-off. Art supplies aren't exactly cheap and I was privileged enough this semester to have to buy large expensive text books or LETB for my art history and psych classes. My third class wasn't much better because it was a 3d design class which meant everything was built from something I had to buy each time we had a new assignment. Bass wood, sculpey, wire, aluminum foil, matte board and 2 and 3 ply papers to build silly boxes that only serve to encroach upon my room yet I find myself incapable of throwing them out. I cannot understand how anyone can destroy something that they (figuratively) gave life to, abortion of art...
learned quite a bit this year, I found that so many subjects piked my interest. I am especially intrigued by astronomy and the fact that within our existence both atoms and entire universes coexist together. It's a thought that cannot even be put into context but let me give you an idea, just one galaxy can be up to 1000-10,000 parsecs, a parsec is 19 trillion miles... that is enormous. Multiply 19 trillion by 1000-10,000 and then understand that billions of galaxies lye within each universe. It's literally a mind blowing thing to contemplate. I wish that our government and all other governments had more money to devote to furthering space programs.
I have been debating for a while whether I wanted to go to summer school, it's not really something I want to do but I DO want to finish school fast so I think it's a good decision. I had also entertained the thought of going to Japan again briefly after I received an email from a friend in Japan. Logistically I could not figure out how a trip to Japan over the summer would work so with that in mind and the all too appealing alternative of summer school *much sarcasm intended* I chose the latter. I haven't decided exactly which classes I'm going to take but I had considered another psych class which would fulfill a requirement of sorts for my associate in fine arts degree. I also need to retake public speaking to fix my grade on that, something I dread with all of my heart.
I have been thinking for a while that it would be nice to have a second job on weekdays to create a bit of extra income. I would really like to try and save around $2000 this summer but I think that would probably be a bit difficult. I'm looking at buying either a camera which would completely fulfill my camera needs or a nice lens, both of which are over $2400... I have never spent that much money all at once before but I would like the experience.
Lately I have been thinking that instead of getting a bachelors degree in photography I would get one in Japanese because I foresee more job opportunities and it would nearly make me a shoe-in for the JET program. Skill in photography is much more dependent upon a strong portfolio than which degree you have unless you wish to teach in which case you'd require a masters anyways. I would enjoy teaching photography I think and I would still be able to get my masters in photography after having a bachelors in Japanese which might be a course I pursue in the distant future.
Unfortunately it is very early in the morning, 3:13am, as I write this and I should be getting to bed so I can be fresh for my psychology finals tomorrow. またね！

A galaxy of knowledge awaits...

2010-03-07T01:25:00.000-05:00

My semester this year has led me down quite a few different paths of learning one way or another. Psychology, art history, astronomy... all of those things are something that if you asked me a year ago I would have said I had no interest in! Can you believe that?! Not interested in the fact that I can study the way people behave and think in psychology... or art history! Michelangelo painted upon the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, depictions of religious theme, bodies painted as though he sculpted them into the chapel itself. Astronomy, how can our existence range from microscopic bacteria to galaxies that can span 10,000 parsecs (1 parsec for every 19 trillion miles.) trillion miles. The knowledge that there is someone else out there. If just one galaxy is 1,000-10,000 parsecs then imagine how large the universe is, multiple galaxies within every universe... It's not even possible to fathom the size of that.
I haven't been able to take an astronomy class yet but it will definitely be one of my next classes now. So far I have just been learning from wikipedia which has been quite intimidating with all the astronomical jargon they use. Jargon is a huge reason I haven't been interested in many of these now amazing subjects!

One of my friends who is going for an associates in arts suggested because I'm an artist type that I should take physics and astronomy for my two sciences and she got me really excited about learning both of those. Then I looked at the required science classes I need for my associates in fine arts and I only have to take one science... so it's between astronomy and physics. I hate that I have to choose, they're both extremely interesting.

Sigh-sauce

2010-03-01T01:20:00.000-05:00

School has been driving me absolutely nuts the last few weeks... It's not that I have had a LOT of work but it's just that I haven't been getting it done like I should be. I'm making grades that are acceptable for myself but my parents keep saying, "You can get an A instead of a B on that if you work harder." I know that but I don't want to work my ass off on school work, I need more me time without worries. So far I have just had "me" time where I should have been doing school work which makes me worry about it... =( I would like to pick my psychology grade up to an A from it's current B status because I really enjoy psychology. So far I have an A in design 2 and B's in psych and art history. I'm happy with it but I'm currently behind, as I write this I should have had my two essays done for their due date tomorrow (3/1). They aren't done though and that's why I have had a B in my art history class, because every essay I've turned in has been late! haha... crazy shit.

Building a life from 3 ply paper

2010-02-25T03:11:00.000-05:00

I have been working on my grand scheme lately and arrived at a decision. That decision is to probably do the rest of my time at ABtech (Asheville Buncombe technical college) and then go to WCU (Western Carolina university) and finish my last 2 years for a bachelors in photography! The whole time I'll be at Western I want to not only focus on photography but also Japanese because my "grand scheme" is to go be a JET in Japan (Japanese Exchange Teacher). So I have to figure out if I could learn more Japanese at WCU by finishing my 2 years at ABtech or not finishing there and then using the credits I still need for Japanese courses. I have to stop by Western at some point, just gotta find the time =/. I have been trying to figure out where in Japan I'd like to teach and there are too many places haha. Fukuoka, Tokyo, my beloved Nagano or maybe some place like Hokkaido. Pick up snowboarding or something if I was in Hokkaido.

I'm still trying to work on my career as a photographer and most recently a wedding photographer. Almost finished editing all the pictures I shot from my last and first wedding ever shot! That's great news cause I really dislike editing... If I could choose I would have an editor and I would just shoot the pics and let him/her deal with editing it. Takes too much of my time to deal with tweaking pictures, the art in photography is of capturing the moment not changing it after the fact.

School so far has been challenging and fun, I've been making some solid B's in two of my classes and A's in my design class which has been nice. Surprisingly though the only class where I didn't turn something in on time where I had been previously doing excellent was design 2... I hated the project I had been/still am working on and it was due last monday =(. It's my inner artist procrastinator saying "You don't need to do that right now! go play video games and eventually everything will work out the way you want!" but alas my lack of a project wasn't forgotten by my teacher so, there goes my hopes of an A on that one. It's otherwise been a fun class that has bent my brain in numerous ways, I am now a master of creating boxes, spheres, tetrahedrons, icosahedrons, octahedrons... pretty much any sort of "hedron" you want just name it! I'm ready to build my future house out of 3 ply paper like the rest of my projects have been lol.

My first wedding "_"

2010-02-23T01:38:00.000-05:00

Shot my first wedding today... it's some serious stuff lol. I was lucky because I got to start off shooting a friends wedding but I wasn't quite aware of how much running I'd be doing. I couldn't figure out who was more stressed out, me, the bride or the brides mom. I shot around 600 or 700 shots at the event which started for me at 2:00 and I got to leave at 8:00. I arrived at 2 with the bride to get all those great shots of her getting her hair done although those shots are the least attractive ones of a bride who is stressed about the upcoming life changing event. I found shooting the groom, groomsmen and brides maids the most fun although it seems women in general become more stressed than men when concerned with weddings. Shooting the groom and groomsmen was what made it fun and less stressful, they are stress free just having a good time helping each other with their ties and such, CAUSE IT'S A WEDDING and that's what they are for... good times. The location that the ceremony was held was on the east side of a large mountain which meant no romantic sunset = /, It also meant bad lighting for me when it became dusk. I found that I was more prepared for poor lighting than I had though but even so when the sun went down everything became very orange and yucky = ( from the incandescent light reflecting off of the yellowish wooden ceiling.

I think I came out with some decent shots but, truthfully, I haven't even looked through all the images yet, too much school stuff to do that right now. Gotta get some sleep tonight for a psych test tomorrow, my second of 4... or 5 tests... To bed now!!!

Wake up to a new world

2010-02-14T02:45:00.000-05:00

Everyday I wake up and think about Japan hundreds of times a day. Most of the time I just think about all the fun times I've had and what might be possible concerning Japan and myself in the future. Of late I have felt more focused upon going to school so that I may one day reach Japan with a degree that I'm proud of and be able to teach future Japanese youth. This has been my goal for a long time but I haven't always had the inspiration to accomplish these things.

I made a new Japanese friend over the internet within the last few days and she inspires me because she tries very hard to learn English. She wants to come and study at a university in the United States and I want to go and study at a university in Japan. I started watching a Japanese TV show called "My Boss My Hero" the other day and, although it sounds silly, I feel more inspired by watching Japanese television shows. I don't know what about Japan I like so much but Japanese television has it lol.

I want to teach Japanese youth about all the things that I see from my perspective, not just from MY perspective but from a perspective outside of Japan, and not just show Japanese but all people a more worldly way of seeing. I wish everyone had a little more worldly way of seeing because it would open our world up to a peace and understanding that's not even fathomable. Ignorance is the downfall of our world's people.

I am normally someone who acts like he knows everything but it's just an unconscious front I use to cover my lack of knowledge, I feel like I should know more. I am just beginning to learn about all the amazing things all over the world and I'm humbled by them. For a long time I haven't had my eyes upon what the world truly offers to us all. I now see the potential of it all.

The plan...

2010-01-19T01:12:00.002-05:00

Lately I have thought very little of traditional education... or getting a typical education. I still have a deep love of Japan and it's amazing culture. I'm trying to channel that love into incentive for me to get a four year degree so I can teach English there in a few years. I find that sort of ironic because the school I want to go to is Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) which is a pretty expensive school. I wont be able to get in without some SERIOUS scholarships. I want to study documentary photography or photojournalism rather, the kicker is that after I graduate I don't even plan on doing anything with that degree but to instead head to Japan to chill with my friends and hopefully get into the whole teaching thing.

If I could have it my way and the world excepted this kind of thought I would just travel around the world and gain an understanding of all these amazing cultures. You don't get jobs based on how many countries you've been to though and you certainly don't get the kind of money to do that without a job... I guess there's something to knowing your basic English, math, history, etc but what could be more educational than travel??? I do like history by the way but I have yet to meet anyone who can teach it in an interesting way.

Which way is my way?

2009-12-15T03:08:00.001-05:00

I've found little to write about the past few months. I have done hardly anything to speak of since I've returned from Japan. I got a job about two weeks ago, it's my first paying job since I was laid-off by Ritz camera in April. I am interning at a local newspaper which has been interesting although I don't always feel as though it's necessary, some of the things I shoot for them, and I have found it progressively harder and harder to find interesting events to shoot. If you asked me a year ago what I was doing with my photography I'd tell you that I'm trying to become a wedding photographer, but I haven't even shot a wedding yet. I did get paid $30 for a cd of ballroom dance shots a week ago which was quite gratifying.

I can't really tell if I'm looking at things in a pessimistic way or just seeing reality. All I've done in the past few months is fool around on the computer or play video games as I let my responsibilities slip away along with what feels like my life. I miss my friends in other countries and my friends who are off at college and at the same time I'm wishing I was them without the responsibilities that currently loom in my mind.

Spending too much time at home leaves you somewhat lost, dazed and completely unmotivated.

A piece of paper with words written upon it, that's how I feel. I don't know what the words say or what the writer intends to write next. Maybe that has something to do with why I haven't had inspiration to write.

I did come to realize something about myself which I am thankful for. I've realized that I had always looked at my hopeful relationships as "I really like this person" and then sex pops into my head. I ended up scaring myself from the idea of thinking about sex when I think whether I like this person or not. Because of this I happened upon the thought that I don't want to have sexual relations even if the chance arose until I know for sure that I care about this person in the appropriate way. I feel that I understand how I work better as well, I like to move into everything I do slowly and it's the same with relationships although this whole time I've thought I want to get into a relationship NOW.

Learn some more Japanese with Joshua

2009-08-01T05:31:00.001-04:00

This is my last list of Japanese I have for you before I get back to the states.

kyoku - song
dake - only
fufu - couple (husband/wife/married)
okusan - wife
karera - they
dannasan - husband
shitemasu - I know
shitteru - do you know?
kekkon - wedding
mainichi - everyday
subete - all (like zenbu but more polite)
iitenki - good weather
waruitenki - bad weather
okyaku - customer
misete okudasai - can I see please
noboru - climb
kori - ice
hana - flower
doushiyou - what should I do?
nanka/nanika - sort of/kind of
sunderu - living
sumu - live
koishi - homesick
natsukashi - nostalgic
kumosu - spiderweb
kumo - spider
ohagi - mochi w/ sesame seeds = awesome
otabe - anko inside thin mochi casing with cinnamon
kaizoku - pirate
kemuri - smoke
hiake - sunburn
nemui - sleepy
chikuso - damnit
kuso - shit
uso - no way/ bullshit
zou - elephant
yushoku - dinner
yakuza - japanese gang
tombo - dragonfly
ototoi - the day before yesterday/two days ago
mata ashita - till tomorrow
choshido - what's up?
hara heta - I'm hungry
ureshii - happy
umai - taste good (similar to oishii)
kaichidentou - flash light
yokoso - welcome
sukareta - tired
tadashii - correct
niteru - similar
hageshi ame - heavy rain
takusan - too much

The Fuji plight

2009-07-31T04:01:00.000-04:00

July, 30th

One of my fears when I came to Japan was that I wouldn't be able to record everything that happened in the form of a blog. Turns out I was exactly right. My blog sort of stopped around week 1 although I do have spotty blog posts ready to be posted relating to single days I thought were worthy to write about right then. I had really hoped to blog about most of the stuff I did, though there was so much I did and because of that I hadn't time enough to write them all down.

Today marks my 6th day left in Japan. I'm both sad and over joyed about the fact that I'll be leaving Canadian farm, all it's oddities and all the misunderstandings that were had there. I'll be heading into Tokyo with my friend Derek on the 2nd who I met at Canadian farm. It's pretty ironic that we're both leaving Japan on the same day with the same airlines even at the same time yet we aren't on the same flight. It would have been a much more comfortable flight if we were traveling together but I guess coincidence wasn't strong enough this time, maybe next trip.

As I write this I'm in the car with Yuuki, Aya, Travis and Derek, we're heading to Fuji san. The big plan is to start our climb at 11:30 at night and arrive at the top at 4:00 in the morning to watch the sun rise over Japan. We're being a little rebellious in doing this considering that the weather reports have foretold rain the past week. As long as the top of fuji isn't all clouds I'll be happy since it's not very interesting looking at pictures within a cloud. I'm not currently very optimistic about my chance at good pictures but even If I come out with a nice group picture I'll be good. Anyways, Fuji san is 3700 meters which is I don't know how many feet but it's alot, maybe 11,000'. Haseyan expects us to be back sometime around lunch on Friday. That's what I told him anyways. I hope our attempt at Fuji works out with little to no rain but that seems like alot to ask for considering the circumstances.

Japanese with Joshua: part 2

2009-07-16T23:13:00.000-04:00

hotaru - firefly/lightening bug

kora wa sageru iidesuka - is it okay if I take that?

shitsureishimasu - excuse me (polite)

daigaku - university, college

donata - who (polite)

dare - who

kasa - umbrella

keitai - cell phone

tokei - watch

kagi - key

shimbun - newspaper

hon - book

nan ji made desuka - what time do they close?

mo ichi do onegaishimasu - one more time please

kono, sono, ano - this, that, there, respectively.

kono - this. used when referring to something that's not physical, "I like this song"

yubinkyoku - post office

ginko - bank

supa - supermarket

hiru-yasumi - lunch break

yasumi - break

hiru - afternoon

asa gohan - breakfast

asa - morning

gohan - meal/rice

eiga - movie

irasshaimase - may I help you?/ welcome

____ mita? - have you seen _____? example, have you seen Joshua?

pasokon - personal computer

eigo - english

jisho - dictionary

dochi ga ii desuka? - which way is good?

dochi ga hayai desuka? which was is fast?

suru - do

watashi wa mosugu onsen ni ikimasu - I'm going to the onsen soon.

onsen e ikimashyo - want to go to onsen?

karasu no gyouzui - crow's bath

suki - like it

daisuki - love it

shiteru - do you know?

gurai - about

atarashi - new

wazato - on purpose/delebritely

momo - peach

kome - rice

asoka - I see

Meeting "Aussie meat"

2009-07-16T09:11:00.002-04:00

I've been learning more about life here at Canadian farms and making a decent amount of mistakes along the way. My cell phone hasn't been helpful as a cell phone or even an alarm... you wouldn't think that would be too hard to mess up huh? I accidentally got up an hour passed everyone else one morning since my cell phone can't correctly tell time and missed breakfast because of it. I felt like a jackass waking up that late and not even helping with breakfast or anything. I'm not trusting my cell phone anymore, my internal clock I find works better.

Bokemaru still doesn't like me but that's not stopping me. I'll keep on trying to befriend him till I leave. He doesn't like almonds or cranberries. I need to get some better snacks that picky dogs might also enjoy.

I'm pretty sure but not positive that Matt, my first Aussie friend got to Canadian farms on the 16th, 4 days after me. First time I saw Matt he was decked out in a camouflaged jacket with a large straw hat and tall rain boots. He looked pretty serious about WWOOFing minus the large straw hat which look kind of silly. It was really nice having Matt there because I finally had someone who was a native English speaker that I could get my thoughts out onto which feels so nice after a few days of no one understanding what you actually mean. Matt turned out to be a great friend and also shared many of my interests. He taught English in Hokkaido for a year and a half I think. It was interesting learning from his past teaching experiences and all the other things he's done. He's been counting all the different onsens he's been to and he's up to 60ish I think which is quite a few. I have, since meeting Matt, taken more of an interest in Australia. Hopefully I can go visit Australia sometime and hang out with my "mates" again. Sohei and I have become pretty good friends. We play chess pretty often which is almost always a good game yet he beats me nearly everytime. Our record is something like 12 games him, 3 games me lol.

Learning Japanese with Joshua

2009-07-05T21:07:00.001-04:00

These are all words that I have used around here and seem to be pretty practical. Well maybe they're practical, I don't think many people will be talking about sweet potatoes in Japanese though.

kochira koso yoroshiku onegaishimasu - Nice to meet you (said when leaving)
sochira koso - you too (more polite then anata mo)
kochira koso - me too (more polite then watashi mo)
masugu - straight (left, right, straight)
tambo - rice field
hatake - field
zenbu - all, everything
sentou - hotbath
onsen - natural hot spring
majide - really?, are you serious? (slang only used by people under 40 yrs)
satsumaimo - sweet potato
mecha mecha - very very (like totemo but a younger word.)
doko kara kimashitaka? - where are you from?
omizu kudasai - water please
sumimasen ocha kudasai - excuse me tea please
kakkoi - cool
____ wa itsu modette kimasuka - when will ____ come back?
denwa okashite kurimasuka - can I borrow your phone please
dakara - so, cause
tanoshii - fun
okashi - funny
chigao - different
onaji - the same
hi wo tsukete kudasai - please make a fire
mata ai mashyou - see you again

2009-07-05T11:08:00.002-04:00

June, 13th>

I spent a lot of my first week in Canadian Farms just trying to learn how things are done and made a decent amount of mistakes along the way. First thing I think was Bokemaru (Bo-K-Mah-Ru), he's the dog around here, I'm not a stranger to dogs so I knew not to be too friendly with a new dog. My caution came in handy when Bokemaru tried to bite me after I'd called his name lol. He's a small dog about the size of my dog Milo but he's got some "shyness" issues, that's what they tell me anyways. My goal for before I leave Japan is to befriend the Bokemeister.

Some of my other goals are learning Japanese while I'm here and making a lot of new friends and contacts. Learning Japanese so far has been pretty interesting and at times not so easy... most the time not so easy. I've made quite a few good friends so far. I hope that they can come and visit me when I get back to the states. I'm starting to miss some of the food we have in the states that they either don't have here or they do have but isn't as good as the real thing like pizza for example, don't eat it here. Of course sushi, udon, rice, sweet potatoes (I prefer Japanese sweet potatoes now), various kinds of pickled things and so many more foods are way better here. Things in Japan haven't changed too much that I can tell, still have all the bizarre things I loved the first time only now I understand things better. There are these hilarious Boss commercials with Tommy Lee Jones in them for whatever reason. Boss is a kind of drink made by Suntory.

The first work I had at Canadian Farms was sweeping up maple seeds which seemed like it would take forever especially since a few hundred new ones fell everyday. Turned out it didn't take forever and now there are no more maple seeds falling. At some point during the week Haseyan and I went to the rice paddy and we planted edamame along the edge of the water. It amazing to see how fast the plants grow. I feel like they're my children except they don't speak, are green and are fantastic to eat. That's awesome since kids are easier when they don't talk, green is my favorite color and I love to eat. Anyways... yeah I've been very impressed by the power of plants and rain. It's rained everyday I've been here so far which also explains the growth of our plants. When it rains we can't work in the field which means after a few days of rain we have to do some serious weeding.

July, 5th. If I don't get to bed now I wont have energy enough to go hoe weeds tomorrow so sayonara.

2009-06-26T18:45:00.002-04:00

June, 12th

While I was at Kaedenoki we all sat and ate some curry of which I've eaten soooooo much of. I love curry. Excellent with rice and we have plenty of rice. I'm pretty sure on average we eat curry here about 3-5 times a week lol. I know there was a 6-7 day streak of eating curry everyday about a week ago. After we finished our curry Haseyan asked me If I liked onsen and if I wanted to go. I love onsen. The onsen is a Japanese natural hot spring where everyone is naked. There is a bath for each gender and at some onsen they have co-ed onsens. On our way to the onsen Haseyan asked me which state I was from, I told him North Carolina and he said that there were two Americans at Canadian farm right now that he thought were from NC. I thought that was a pretty interesting coincidence. Haseyan wanted to stop at Canadian farms before we went to onsen so that's what we did. It was about 8:30 at night by the time we got there so it was really hard to tell what everything looked like. We went into the dinning room and I met everyone. There were the two Americans, John and Johnny, Nozomi, Yasuko and Eriko. Tonight was John and Johnnies last night so we ate a cake that Eriko san made. Before too long it was late and we had no more time for onsen but it was cool since I got to get to know some new people. I appreciated runnig into some native speaker since I don't have to explain myself to them. I feel like I've learned a lot about communication thus far since I've had to do it in two languages.

June, 29th. From now on I plan to blog in weekly increments because I've gotten so far behind and there are so many things I do here at Canadian farms.

Meeting new friends.

2009-06-25T11:01:00.001-04:00

June, 12th cont.

Getting on the bus was sad for me but I was also ready to get out of the heat of Shinjuku and onto an air conditioned bus. As the bus was pulling out I noticed that Natsuko san stayed to see me off which I thought was really nice. She took a few pictures of me on the bus as we were leaving. Natsuko san and the rest of her family made me feel so at home. On the bus from Shinjuku to Chino I thought about a few different things like how much I'll miss living with Kosuke's family like I had the last few days and whether I was going to enjoy my two month stay at Canadian farms as much as I might enjoy Jiyugaoka. I wasn't looking forward to having to work in Japan for two months.

I was glad to have those Meiji chocolates that Hatsuko san gave me during that bus ride since I had little other food excluding the 8 pounds of almonds and cranberries I was transporting. About an hour before reaching Chino we took a 15 min. break at a rest spot which was basically a small super market. When I came to Japan 4 years ago we stopped at this same spot and it was pretty cool to be there again 4 years later. Everyone got back on the bus after collecting all the snacks they needed and relieving themselves in the highly advanced Japanese restrooms otherwise known as "toire" pronounced, tou-ee-ray. It turned out that the bus got to Chuoda-Chino, where I need to go, about 25 min. early. Very cool. Now I just needed to foot-it to Hotel Chino which I was told was 5 mins. away if walking. I had no idea where this place was but I saw this tall building with the katakana, "Ho", "Te" and "Ru" which means Hotel (hoteru) on it and figured that was a good start. As I rounded the building I saw a sign in English saying "Hotel Chino". I had to wait about 25-30 mins. before Hossan got there but I got to just chill which is something I didn't really have time for before. Hossan arrived right when I was told he would, with a few mins. to spare. He speaks English pretty well. (June, 25th, I've realized that Hossan has a Canadian accent when he speaks English which is kind of interesting. One of the common phrases he says is, "Cool, ey?".) Hossan and I had quite a few different conversations on the way to Kaedenoki (the second of Haseyan's restaurant). I found out that he cycled across Australia which is pretty crazy. Apparently he had a few bad experiences in the US like walking out the door only to hear gunshots and getting harassed by some sort of gang or something. We finally got to Kaedenoki, I could tell it was Haseyan's immediately from the woodsy feel and contrast to everything "normal". After a few calls to Haseyan, rice crackers and sips of Aquarius later Haseyan and Sohei got here. It was awesome meeting Sohei for the first time and seeing Haseyan again. I'm a lot taller then I used to be. Haseyan used to look like a giant to me but now I'm the tallest one here.

I think that's it for tonight but I hope you enjoyed it =) , June, 25th.

Goodbye my friend

2009-06-22T09:52:00.001-04:00

June, 12th

My last day in Jiyugaoka was a kind of solemn occasion. Kosuke had to leave for school at 7:00 AM to get to school at 9:00 AM and I really only woke up early enough to literally just say hear him say "bye Joshua"... I said "bye" and that was it. I was a really disappointed that our last goodbye was such an unfriendly occasion but I guess the language barrier can't really be helped. Getting up for breakfast was equally strange because it was just me eating alone while Natsuko san bundled newspapers she was going to deliver. I felt kind of left in the dust as though I didn't matter as the rest of every ones lives continued. I had hoped to meet Kosuke again ever since I first made friends with him four years ago and it felt very one sided on our parting.

Natsuko and I were about to head out on a journey to ultimately get me a bus in Shinjuku to Nagano but their were many things to do before that. Hauling my luggage down from the 2nd floor felt more difficult then getting up in the first place. When I finally got down the perilous Japanese made anti-American stairs I made sure to thank Kosuke's grandparents a second time. Hatsuko san handed me a present that she said to eat on the bus to Nagano which turned out to be Meiji chocolates (very similar to Hershey chocolate). I asked them If I could take their picture before I left but I didn't get a clear response so I just left it at photographing the outside of their house.

After transferring from bus to bus, making a stop at a Japanese bank and hoping trains we got to Shinjuku where we searched for Tokyo tower where the Nikon plaza is on the 28th floor. As we were walking to Tokyo tower we past this discount electronics shop where there was this one older Japanese guy smoking. You'd think whatever some dude smoking, but this white dude came out of the electronics shop who apparently worked there and told the Japanese guy "not to smoke here" while using his index fingers to make a "no good" sign. I thought this was terribly funny considering that some white guy was telling a Japanese guy in Japan not to smoke while speaking Japanese. That is off topic though. Back on topic, I knew that I would enjoy being there but didn't realize exactly how cool it would be. I basically had every lens and camera body that I'd ever want to buy in front of me and the best part was I could use them. Let me tell you getting to hold an $8,000 camera body with a $2,000 lens on the end of it is pretty damn awesome. Needless to say I felt kind of annoyed with my camera afterwards because it just doesn't focus as fast or have as many focus points or shoot as fast... I could keep going but I'd become depressed. I discovered this super cool telescope thingy that I can't remember the correct name for. I've been losing the names of many different things lately because of these new Japanese words. Anyways this telescopemabob could see super far away. Unfortunately I don't have a good way of explaining how far but just know it was FAR. After leaving Tokyo tower we went to the bus station in Shinjuku for my 2:45 hour bus ride to Chuoda Chino where I was told I'd meet "Hossan" at 5:30 at Hotel Chino. Real quick let me fill you in on how crazy good Japanese transportation is. You often read train schedules that say they arrive at the station at 2:10 for example but then it says arrives at 2:37... Why in the world would they say 2:37??? why not a 2:35 or 2:40? It's because when they say 2:37 they mean they'll arrive at 2:37 lol. It's crazy, I've never gotten anywhere late. You either get somewhere on time or earlier, very efficient.

June 22nd, It's really late and I need to sleep but I'll post some more tomorrow hopefully.

University

2009-06-14T19:01:00.001-04:00

June, 11

It was my second day in Jiyugaoka, Tokyo with Kosuke and his family and I decided to go to his University which is an hour and a half away by the way. We left from his house at 11:00 in the morning and walked for probably 20 mins to Jiyugaoka station. The neighborhood in Jiyugaoka is really cool, small streets, lots of flowers and just a nice looking area. Tokyo seems to be such a convenient area to bike in... I wish I had a bike now. Anyways, we got to the station, I bought a ticket. Kosuke used his Net pass (Metro pass?). Seems to be a cheap way to travel though I don't exactly understand it. While we were on the train Kosuke explained to me that his friends were crazy. I didn't know what he meant by that till I met them but they were really cool and glad to meet me as I was glad to meet them. I think we took 3 different trains and two different tickets to get to his college and spent about ¥400 doing it. Kosuke and I were walking down some stairs from the train station when a pretty Japanese girl started talking to him about something and she turned out to be his friend, Masumi. We ran into a few other friends of his before class. Kosuke's first class was a plant cell class I decided to use that time to explore his college and grab some food. I went to the cafeteria and wondered through the line looking at the food, prices and tried to decipher the kanji with no luck. I ended up get katsu, tofu (tofu W/fish flakes and scallions) and rice. All three of those things cost me a total of ¥390, that's really cheap. I knew that both katsu and tofu were normally served with sauce but I didn't know the word for "sauce" (It wasn't till later that I learned that the word for sauce is sauce)... plus I'm not able to read anything but Hiragana. Not too much is spelled with Hiragana and if it is it's mixed with Kanji which is very hard (muzukashi). After my rather tasteless meal I walked around Kosuke's campus until his class was over. I met him in front of this one building surrounded by Japanese that were previously ignoring me that turned to be his friends and introduced themselves to me. I really like his friends their all pretty cool people and It was cool that they were so willing to get to know me. Trying to remember all their names was not easy then and because I'm writing this entry 3-4 days late I remember even fewer of them. Everyone had a 10 minute break before english class. Most of Kosuke's friends seemed to be asking about me or talking to me directly. Kosuke's English class was pretty interesting. One kid was studying his electronic dictionary, another was playing Gameboy advance and others were talking to each other all while the lecture was going on. I think the teacher knew that people did all this but he didn't really seem to care. I don't know if that means he's not interested in the success of his students or just that they're repeated trouble makers. There were a select few people that had to read from this one book in English and when it came Kosuke's turn he told me to read it in very broken english but I understood him. As I started to read it to the class the students started laughing as they heard clear english minus the Japanese accent. I didn't really understand what was going on but it seemed as though that wasn't cool but you couldn't really tell from the teacher. The students thought it was hilarious though. Kosuke had to read it anyways. After class we hung out with Kosuke's friends for about 2-3 hours at his university. Masumi san from earlier approached me and started to talk to me as Kosuke was chatting with his other friends. Her English was really good I thought. After a while another of Masumi's friends came over and became the third in our group. After about 30 minutes in the hall we decided to go outside and we ran into even more of his friends. I now had 4 girls asking me questions about various things like who I thought the most attractive guy of the male group was. I thought it was a bit strange but I thought it would be Kosuke. Turns out Kosuke is very popular so my answer was correct I guess. Apparently he's very popular with the girls. One of the girls asked me who I thought the most attractive of the girls were. This became very awkward as I didn't want to offend anyone. I decided to go with "I think so many of the Japanese girls I've seen are pretty so it's really hard to choose"... Anyways It was really fun talking to them and making new friends. It started to get dark and the four people left including Kosuke and I decided to go home. After the second train Masumi went one way and we went the other. As Kosuke and I were walking home after the hour and a 1/2 train ride we stopped by a convenient store of which Japan has plenty of. I got some sweet potato yokan which was pretty good.

June, 14th, I gotta get going and help with breakfast now.

Japanzess, part II

2009-06-14T19:00:00.001-04:00

June, 10th.

I met Kosuke at Jiyugaoka station and we used his net pass to take a bus to his house which was about 10 minutes away by bus. We walked from the bus stop to his house with me following in a very tired state after traversing all Japan had to throw at me. I saw a woman up ahead who was waving at us and she turned out to be his mother, Natsuko. His grandmother (Obaasan) , Hatsuko was also waiting outside for out arrival. After being greeted by Natsuko and Hatsuko respectively in the most welcoming manor I could ask for we went inside to set down my luggage. After getting in the door I took my shoes off and was introduced to Ojiisan Takahashi (grandfather). First thing he said to me was "You are welcome in my home" I very much appreciated hearing that especially from the eldest in the family. It really hit me while carrying my huge check in bag up the stairs how little space there is in Tokyo. Once I set everything down I met the 2nd to last member of the family, Sakiko, Kosuke's sister. Sakiko went to Australia when she was 16 or 17, I never found out which and learned quite a bit of english. It was comforting to know that I had a translator for my first few days. For the next few hours I sat at their table snacking a bit, talking with Sakiko and showing some of my photography. After dinner Kosuke and I went down to the convenient store to get some ice cream and Yokan! When we got back I met Kosuke's dad (Otosan), Isao san. He was just as nice as everyone else in the family except he seemed kind of tired from work that night so we didn't talk too much. Kosuke and I watched Japan play someone in a soccer match I wasn't able to figure out their opponents name. We also watched the Yomiuri Giants play the Softbank Hawks in a game of Yakyu (Baseball).

To mention a little bit more about Kosuke's family, Takahashi san was an English teacher for about 40 years. Hatsuko san teaches art in Ginza from what I understand. Natsuko san works at a bakery and delivers newspapers part time. Isao san works at a home for the elderly. Sakiko works for Olympus which is super cool, I didn't expect I would meet anyone who worked for a camera company while I was in Japan let alone my friends sister. Kosuke goes to NUBS, Nippon University of Bioresearch and something else with an S.

Japanzess

2009-06-11T10:51:00.005-04:00

June, 10th

I decided not to make a separate blog but to instead use this one since I can't think of a good name. Here's how things happened from Atlanta airport and on,

I realized as I was boarding the plane how much I hate flying and then I realized I quoted Obi-wan Kenobi... in my mind. Pretty cool. The flight however was not pretty cool and while I was checking in to the airport and having all my luggage scanned, strip searched, hosed down, etc a man came up to me and said, "she dropped your computer..." me, "oh really?!". If there's one thing you don't do it's drop a $2,000 piece of equipment, especially when it's MINE. I just noticed later today that the screen leans to the left I believe and that isn't good. I'd like to say I gave her a stern talking to but that's not really my style especially when trying to catch a plane. The flight was boring just like it was last time except there were better movies this time.

I had been pretty nervous about not being able to get through customs and all that but everything went smoothly. Tip for people, always check what they want to hear on the form you get on the plane it makes getting into a country far easier. Extra tip, don't say that you have bombs or weapons... bad idea trust me (I have a friend who proved this point...). So all-in-all getting through the airport was easy it was just the fact that not many people spoke my language that threw me for a bit of a loop. I made the mistake of assuming getting from Narita airport to Jiyugaoka in Tokyo would be simple... I was proven wrong. I felt like I was in basic training with all the stuff I was lugging around. Trying to figure out the Japanese transportation system while avoiding getting run over by people who actually knew where they were going and doing it all after a 13 hour plane ride after sleeping for 3 hours previously really sucked. The very first train I got on went from Narita to Nippori. I didn't realize it but only cars 2-7 are non-smoking cars, the one I was in I soon found out to be a smoking car. I was asked to show my tickets to a train worker and apparently I got on the wrong train or was just missing a ticket since he kept telling me I need a 2nd ticket. He let me get off at Nippori where I had to go to Shibuya which is one of the busiest stations in Japan. I was lucky because on the escalator I ran into an American (I assume) and a english speaking Japanese man and they helped me get a ticket to Shibuya. Keep in mind the whole time I was riding these trains I was wondering how in the world I would contact my hosts since my cellphone didn't work, even after I was told it would by Verizon. That created lots of stress. I finally arrived in Jiyugaoka and was walking around on the train platform wondering what I should do. I decided a bench and a drink would be good to help clear my head and think my options through thoroughly. With my cellphone out of service all I had left was my beloved macbook and skype, thank the heavens for skype. In a moment of extreme faith and no other options I flipped my pasokon (personal computer) open and got some wi-fi by some miracle. Everything is encrypted there, makes it a little harder to get internet. So anywho, I got Wi-fi, checked my email to see if I got mail from my host family and I did. I then used the phone number I got from the email to call their home, using skype of course, and arranged for someone to pick me up. Within 15 minutes Kosuke, my friend from 4 years ago, found me and we went to his home in Jiyugaoka.

That's the end of the story for now. I'm tired.

It's all gone. No, we have no cameras...

2009-05-27T00:35:00.005-04:00

Friday (22nd) we finished liquidating all of the store. Because we did such a great job, the liquidator we were working with decided to take us out to lunch which was greatly appreciated. My favorite thing in the world is food and going out to eat is my favorite activity I think lol. I've never gone through the liquidation process before so it was fairly interesting and over all a good experience even though I lost my job. I don't think I'd be leaving for Japan in two weeks if I had not had to deal with losing my job honestly. Because I was forced to make a decision on whether I wanted to get a lame job over the summer or go to Japan things became pretty clear as to what needed to happen. I've gotten off topic forgive me. I mean to talk about liquidating and what happened. You deal with some pretty interesting people when liquidating. Here's a list of stupid things,

1. Guy comes in to apply for a job at the store that says, "70%-90% off, everything must go!, Going out of business"... I don't think words are necessary here.

2. Woman gets pissed off because she realized we were liquidating after she had her prints done by us which for some reason meant that we did a worse job??? She seemed to think that we didn't care about our printing anymore because of the liquidation. None of us understood her logic.

3. Woman asks me if we have photography vest for her film and such. "no we don't have anything like that." her, "do you know where I could get anything like that?" No, I'm not sure. I would just get a vest at an outdoors store and put film in it..." she got mad at me because we didn't have the vest for her to buy after 6 weeks of liquidation... Evidently I didn't understand what her question was because she kept repeating, "you don't understand" She never explained herself any further. She stormed out of the store saying "Now I know why my daughter doesn't like coming here." (well it's probably cause you raised her to be a biatch just like you.) I would have liked to have said that.

After we had sold everything from the store and came back the next day to clean things up and throw crap away we had more interesting customers,

4. The gate is down but not locked. Dan is the only person there and he's on two phones trying to figure out what to do about payroll because our manager wasn't there to sign our time sheets and he needed to fax them in that day. Some dude opens up the gate, walks in and asks him while he's on the phone if we're closing.... the store is COMPLETELY empty! no products anywhere.

5. Later that day I came in to clean and help with things. The gate is down. Some guy walks up to the gate and says, "So you guys are closed huh?" Dan, "yeah..." "Do you have any cameras left?" Dan, "Nope..." What the HELL?! Why in the world would we have cameras left? Oh yeah we've been hiding them in the back lemme go get you one.

I have taken away from this experience that just as soon as you thought you've seen it all you'll see something even dumber then that. So remember to never underestimate the stupidity of people. And that is the moral of the story.

Ritz camera: Ghost town of the mall

2009-05-16T01:19:00.005-04:00

Holy crap man the store is sooo empty. I'm constantly amazed by the crap our customers find to purchase for themselves. What would we do without these bargain shoppers? Loose our jobs probably. Wait, we're already loosing our jobs. If I'm lucky we'll have enough customers to prolong our demise until my next paycheck. I'm really enjoying the lack of lab activities on account of the lab machines being packed up in what appears to be saran wrap... not sure about that. I also take joy in telling our customers our lab is packed up/closed and we're not able to develope their film. It may sound synical but I'm just not a big fan of developing film. We have these nice chairs previously used for our customers at the print bar (which isn't there anymore) currently behind the counter, I like to set my computer up on a shelf under the counter and watch a movie or two while taking advantage of our new seating. Good fun. Oh! and we finally got a sign that says "only 10 days left!" we haven't hung it yet. I take this as a good sign because it atleast tells me we're not closing before 10 days lol. I was about to forget the most hilarious part about working at a store going through liquidation. Signs all over the place (Big red signs 3' x 12' that read Store closing sale.) explaining how we're closing our store. Customer comes in, spends about 15 mins looking around and says, "are you guys closing?" me, "yeah... see the big red sign that says 'closing sale'?" him/her, "ohhh so are you guys moving or closing?" me, "no we're closing." him/her, " oh that's too bad I wish you guys were staying open." "yeah me too...". Good times though. Lots of interesting stories. Our clock is missing... it's really bothering me.

It's about 24 days till I go to Japan. That is sooo soon... I'm pretty nervous about going back but at the same time so excited about it. It feels really surreal to think I'm going back since it's been almost exactly 4 years. I'm going to miss my friends, dogs, cats and family quite a bit when I go. I feel like I have this sugar coated dillusion of what Japan will be like and I'm afraid I'm going to be let down.

I have made some really cool friends this semester and I'm kind of sad that I have to leave them for the whole summer. My best friend is graduating from high school right after I leave and his birthday is the day after that, what horrible timing on my part. I'm hoping I can still hang out with people after I get back before school starts for the fall semester.

Recap on things

2009-05-14T01:27:00.002-04:00

I haven't updated my blog much it all lately but I will start back up soon. I'll cover a few things that went on in the absence of my writings. Ritz camera, the place I work at is closing which means I'm out a job. Started taking computer art at Abtech (community college) got B's on first 4 assignments, dropped class because I couldn't handle the speed of the class and gained a teacher I can't stand through it. yay.... I wiggled my way through printmaking without producing anything that was acceptable to me and getting a B+ I think... not sure yet. My art teacher has something against posting grades... I've met some really cool people this semester and got aggrevated with the same dumbasses that seem to inhabit Abtech. That pretty much covers the things that went on within the last few months.

When I heard that our store was closing I was not particularly saddened or happy that work was ending but in a state of disbelief as to how it happened and why us. I am so thankful for the push that life gave me when I had come to realize I'd be jobless soon and that if I didn't do something I would just be squandering my summer and money away in the hunt for a job. So my plan is to go to Japan! So I started contacting my good friends in Japan and arranged for a place to stay. So since my grand decision to go to Japan I've bought the plane ticket, read up on Japanese transportation and figured out it doesn't make as much sense as it seems it should, Stolen hours from a friend at work, asked many questions of my Japanese friends and spent too much money on things that have nothing to do with Japan... note to self, stop spending money.

I spoke to my good friend from Japan today for the very first time in 4 years and even though we had kept in contact over the years through email there's nothing quite like actually talking to them for the first time in years to bring back the memories. It's a little less then 1 month until my dream of the past 4 years finally reaches the light of reality. I'm ready to live in the midst of my dreams...

Lost friend

2009-03-25T00:03:00.002-04:00

Facebook and other online communities are quite amazing. I can't count how many people I have found through it that I wouldn't have normally even thought about. Today I found one of my best friends from back in the day when we were in 3rd and 4th grade. We used to carpool with each other back we went to school together so we got used to being with each other a lot almost like brothers would. I had a chat with him tonight over facebook and couldn't believe that I had found one of my good friends from long ago and at the same time had no idea what to say to someone that I knew that well. I really want to meet him again but I am somewhat weary about how I'll feel about my long lost friend after 8 years of no contact. My first impressions based on photos and and what he's spoke about with me makes me think that we've both changed very much from when we were friends. I hope we can meet soon and find that we're both still great friends... I'm just not sure if that will come to be or not.

2009-03-14T21:14:00.003-04:00

BBBLLLLLAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH......... Ok *sigh* that's out now. I haven't felt like I have the time to blog or that I had anything to blog about for a while. I don't think I have anyone reading this except for John now which is cool but somewhat lacking... but hey when I'm older and wondering what the hell I was thinking I can come back to my blog! and rediscover the genius of my logic. Until then I'm going to have try and make things interesting.

Almost a week ago my mom and friends held a service for a friend of theirs that died, I was the photographer. During the reception I was running around taking pictures and eating cookies until I approached by a friend of my mom's and someone that I enjoy talking to as well. We started talking about photography which involved him asking me questions about it. He owns some land in Panama and evidently panama has some strange laws for immigration so you have to have so much money invested to live there. So Joe is trying to get a co-op of people to pool a large amount of money together so a group of contributers can go live there. At some point in the conversation he asked me if I had a passport, I said yes and started to wonder at why he would ask me that. Turns out he needs a photographer to take some real estate pictures in Panama and his photographer doesn't have a passport... (laughs maniacally) he proceed to ask ME if I wanted to do it. I wanted to say "hell yeah" but felt that "Of course I want to" would have been adequate. Joe, "It would be a free plane ticket, All expenses paid and you'll get paid too" Me, "... wow... that sounds awesome, I'm in." So that's where I am right now with that. All I know is it happens around June and it will be around 7-10 days long. I'm really excited to go to another new country. I will have been to Asia and Central America after this. Pretty cool.

I need to still fit Japan in somewhere because I feel like if I don't go now It wont happen for a while. Maybe this trip will help promote myself as a photographer and help with my income but we'll see. If I can just afford a plane ticket for Japan I think that would be a huge step in getting there.

Don't forget to name your layers!

2009-01-28T23:51:00.007-05:00

Picture from my trip to Japan; I'm in the middle, friend Joshua to the left and friend on right met through trip.

I'm trying to save my money this time for a new camera because my old camera, old meaning 4 months, is not quite good enough for handling the kind of pictures I'll be taking at the first wedding I will have ever done which is in march. So at the moment I'm trying to figure out how much equipment I can buy/borrow for this upcoming wedding. I know you probably are thinking, "Joshua why are you spending all your money as soon as you get enough to buy some new gadget?"... maybe you're thinking that who knows, but I see these things such as my macbook pro, lenses and this new camera as investments that will pay for themselves in the long run and yes they are also some of my favorite toys.

I'm trying to figure out my next trip to Japan somewhere in this equation as well and I fear it will be in the backseat for a while since I'm college age and have no solid source of money. Because I have no major source of money I am going to try and get into this wedding photography stuff more and hopefully I will at some point be good enough to be able to pay for my trip in just one shoot... that's my dream anyways. Every job I have ever had, the first thought that crosses my mind is, "finally I can get back to Japan and visit all my friends and of course make many more good ones" but life doesn't work in such a way and of all the average jobs I have worked I have never had a chance to make anywhere near enough to pay for a plane ticket and 2-3 months of expenses. I know that Japan is meant to be though because I have dreams of Japan and being there speaking legit Japanese with real Japanese people, even a dream where I woke up in tears from meeting my old friends from Japan.

*sigh* So much to do. I am trying to get my grades and all good enough to go to Savannah college of art and design in Georgia. My best friend is looking at going there too for video which would be quite exciting for both of us to be there, we'll see how that pans out. My best friend who also shares my name, Joshua, has already been there and says it's amazing as in 2-3 monitors hooked up to a mac pro for the serious videographer. I want to see what they have for photographers and am currently planning on visiting at the end of the semester.

I think I'm out of words. I didn't think I had anything to say when I started writing this... Wrong!

Hookah Joe's!

2009-01-17T19:49:00.004-05:00

Myself and a friend went out shooting at this Asheville rocks thing and I just thought this was somewhat amusing seeing security next the words hookah and I like the balance of the picture.

Snow delay is a delay on life...

2009-01-14T12:13:00.003-05:00

It snowed last night only to about an inch and now I'm sitting here waiting for class to start because of the delay that one inch caused. On top of that my boss called me earlier to tell me I should come in 30 minutes after my class ends but because of the one hour delay I'm going to have to call him back and tell him I wont be able to get there till 7:30. *sigh* This snow thing is messing everything up.

2009-01-14T00:51:00.002-05:00

Oh man... It's finally 2009 and so comes a new semester of college. I had my first printmaking class today which sounds like it will be an awesome class. I got to hear what everyone who is taking the class is about which was interesting. I also got to meet my computer art teacher. I have heard really good things about him and lots of really bad things but of those things he is said to teach good material so I guess that helps lol. Almost every semester I have ever taken at Abtech I meet someone who is either Japanese, is interested in going to Japan as much as me or has been, and this semester is no different. I'm quite excited about my classes I think this semester will be the one I get a grasp on photoshop in which is going to be rockin'.

I got my second wave of classes tomorrow so I better get to bed. I'll try and update more often then the normal has been. In the mean time check out the band Ratatat if you like cool beats and stuff.

The new year and good thoughts...

2009-01-01T19:51:00.004-05:00

I spent my new years eve exercising my right to kill friends in halo until it was time to watch the ball drop in NYC. As friends grew increasingly impatient of the somewhat normal sight of time square, Bill and Hillary Clinton they decided to break out the Nerf shotgun for target practice. As small foam bullets hit the television screen I wondered if the targets of those bullets had ever wondered if anyone had ever done this before.

I wonder if the new year will turn out to be any different then the year before, will anyone improve based off the less then smart decisions they made in '08 or do something that will effect the world in a positive manner. I hope to become a photographer for this reason, to better the world in whatever way I can whether that is giving a bride photos of the special day that everyone looks forward to or promoting world peace by risking life and limb out in the field. I seek the chance to do something extraordinary, with the support of my friends I will get there... one day.

I hope we can all add something to this "new" year that will aid us on our journey to happiness.

Asheville!

2008-12-11T10:08:00.002-05:00

I was racing from within the city of Asheville heading west. Trying to find a spot to shoot a building free sunset shot in a city is not all that easy unless your on top of a building I suppose but I knew no buildings that I could perch my lens upon. This is the shot I ended up getting... see anything strange? I hope not. There used to be 4 telephone wires criss-crossing the picture. I also split the picture like so for a class project.

Anger management

2008-12-07T21:35:00.005-05:00

A tall man around his sixties wearing a wool jacket who looked as if he was some bigshot rich retiree walked in to Ritz the other day. I approached him to offer my assistance which the man accepted explaining to me his need for new batteries. I brought him over to our battery stand and showed him some rechargeable AA's, "These batteries will work for your camera although they are not the same brand" the man took the batteries from my hand and slammed them down on the counter and yelled "Damn it! I just want some batteries that will work for my camera I bought my camera here just give me some that will work. Don't show me any that wont work!" "Easy man, you don't have to get so mad" I said to the irate customer. "These batteries will work, all I said was they were a different brand not that they weren't AA's. He got me fired up enough that adrenalin started to pulse through me because I feared he might hit me if I was not careful. He proceeded to call me a brainless fool after I explained to him that the difference in brand had nothing to do with whether the batteries in question would work for his camera. "just tell me how much they are!" is what he ordered next as if trying to cover up his lack of self control. I have never been forced to deal with someone who was so intolerable. I had to force the thought of hitting him way down in my mind because he was really pushing me to the edge and of all the things I hate most it's people that are rude. So instead of hitting him I just said "Excuse me?! where do you get off treating me like that?"... that's all I could really do. I was quite shaken up by this incident, so much so that I explained what happened to the innocent customer that was there waiting just so that I could vent (bad idea by the way).

Advice to everyone else, never be the slightest bit timid around customers because they will get the crazy idea that you don't know what your talking about. I always find myself saying something in contrast to what I had just said which confuses the hell out of people and makes them think I am clueless. I'm just trying NOT to anger people but beating around the bush isn't the way to do it... *sigh* life is difficult.

Blogging again

2008-11-28T00:58:00.003-05:00

Today was the day that most Americans look forward to known as thanksgiving (turkey day)or maybe the day of the Superbowl either way you see it it involves great food and plenty of it. I can't think of too much in a calendar year that I look forward to then the day of the turkey. For some reason I can't think of much to say today, probably too much food lol but I will post more often as long as I have someone that will read my blog.

Tomorrow which is black Friday is going to be some crazy shit because of all the awesome sales that will be happening at the mall and surrounding area. I go into to work at 1 pm till 9 pm but my manager has to be there at 5 am till 10 pm... I would shoot myself lol. I have no idea why I have not posted any pictures yet considering I call myself a photographer. I'm going to post some pics up tomorrow I think. If anyone has any advice to make this blog more interesting I would love to hear it since I don't feel like it's interesting enough. please be as honest as you feel comfortable with.

Have a great one!

Too many lenses? Is it possible?

2008-11-21T01:23:00.003-05:00

So I have not published anything for about 19 days since it does not seem like I have any readers. I'm enjoying working at Ritz and am learning alot from everyone there. At my Japanese class today my teachers wife gave me her dads old 35mm Nikon EM and two lenses for it and a stray Minolta lens that doesn't seem to fit which I find to be strange considering it was in the same box. But it has been pretty crazy recently with me recieving lenses from people. Dan at Ritz gave me a 50mm 2.8 which is pretty cool and then yesterday I bought 55-200 with VR for $100 bucks which was a great deal and then today I got free lenses and a film camera so I'm definitely happy. I'm somewhat concerned that the lenses I got today are messed up or maybe/hopefully just need some serious cleaning.

I'm still trying to save up for my mactop but It Is proving to be really difficult to save money since I have been buying food in the mall for lunch almost everyday. I'm making an effort to bring food to work from now on but It gets boring and less tasty to do that all the time. I got to talk to Logan both yesterday and today which was really awesome and I'm really glad I still have that relationship with him. I'm trying to figure out how I can fit all my friends into my schedule for when they come back from college but It's proving to be hard because i work so much.

November has come

2008-11-02T02:38:00.002-05:00

what happened to October? I learned some stuff today at Ritz, I'm on my way to photographic excellence! I have now decided that I want a either a large format or medium format camera I can't remember which one it is. These are the kind of cameras that look super old and have an accordion sort of look, you might recognize them as portrait cameras, the ones you put your head under. I have a 35mm camera that was not working until tonight when I accidentally fixed it. *sigh* I have the worst luck with 35mm cameras, they used to say I had a curse in my film photography class. I would always be over exposing, my camera would just stop working, it wouldn't be uncommon for me to leak light onto my undeveloped film, stuff like that.

Talk to everyone later.

Hallows Eve

2008-11-01T01:07:00.002-04:00

So today I got to hand out candy to little kids in the mall while working at ritz. I have not had to do any actual work yet at the camera shop. Hmmm I found a photography magazine on a counter so I started to flip through it and I found a section on fine art nudes, lets just say I didn't mind this section hehe. I developed a roll of film I had sitting in my room for the last few months. There is a process of developing called cross processing and it mixes/randomizes colors that I used for this roll and it ended up looking really cool, it gave a 60ies old color film look. I'll post some examples sometime.

I didn't end up trick-r-treating but I did have dinner with my friend Joshua and his friends. He dressed up like a rockstar but ended up looking like a model lol. We went back to his friends house after we ate and just hung out... I shot A LOT of pictures, especially of Joshua. Joshua's girlfriend dyed his hair green which was pretty cool and definitely made him look more like a model.

I'll post more later.

Making the sale

2008-10-30T21:57:00.003-04:00

I totally forgot to mention I'm going to be working with that group of people I went to NY with again. This time we're going to Fayetteville, NC to shoot more team soccer pictures. I'm interested to see how the pay will differ, or the amount of business we get rather.

I was at Best buy today and I was checking out the cameras, surprise! lol. Anyway I saw this store associate helping this guy who was wanting to get into photography so I started to move over that way so I could join the conversation (I love talking photography). I ended up pretty much selling a camera to this guy even though I did not work there... weird huh, I work at a camera shop and I helped influence him to buy a Nikon D90 which is the camera I was talking about my last blog. I had a great time talking to him. I like being able to help new people learn more about things especially WoW and photography lol. I have my second day at Ritz tomorrow for an 8 hour shift and then I'm going to go hang with my friends and maybe trick-r-treat I don't know yet. I am excited about tomorrow, I plan on learning more about the other cameras tomorrow and making some prints.

Oh! and how could I forget, I made an A+ today on my photography assignment.

Good times at the moment... yup. I hope everyone is doing well and has a great Halloween!

Ideal first day

2008-10-30T00:43:00.003-04:00

Today was my first day at Ritz camera. I only worked 4 hours, learned a small bit and watched anime lol. Patrick, one of the other guys that works there brought his macbook pro and a dvd box of a show called Witchblade. Talk about skimpy clothing, buttless chaps on women that have gynormous breasts that looked like as soon as they swung a punch, gravity would kick in and topple them to the ground. They had some pretty killer thighs though so that makes up for the perverted breasts/ fighting style.

I was behind the counter with my boss who is a really cool guy if not a little perverted, and I asked him if I could check out a new camera that nikon released a month ago. He said "you work here you can look at whatever you want" that's like letting a kid run through a toy store with $100 bucks. So I checked out this new Nikon D90 which has HD movie capabilities that is the first of it's kind along with it's 12.3 mp and great ISO range. I really want to buy it! but there are so many things I want it's so hard to order them into a list. A macbook is definitely my high prioity item right now though. I also found out that I get %40 off prints I make and If it's only a few prints It's free... what an awesome job! lol.

*sigh* I'm still missing my friends that are off at college. At the beginning of the semester I walked into the Hemlock building which was where I had film photography last semester just to remember the smell in that building... I of course didn't realise while it was happening that I was having my best/most fun semester last spring. This semester has been fairly lame so far apart from the jobs I have been getting which I'm very thankful for.

Go Obama! I still haven't voted, I really need to do that.

Zombies!!! and Sarah Palin, coincidence?... maybe

2008-10-26T13:28:00.004-04:00

What do you get when you combine Sarah Palin, zombies and protesters? well I'm hoping some pretty good pictures. Today Sarah Palin will be at the civic center having a rally I guess. I have heard their will be lots of zombies walking around downtown. Apparently the zombies that will be downtown today notified secret service just so it wouldn't turn into a zombie massacre I suppose. I'm looking forward to protestors since I don't have any protestor pics yet.

I'll post something later on today with pics maybe. Check out my flickr account here, http://www.flickr.com/photos/25732535@N08/?saved=1 hope you like'em =)

Where's your head at?!

2008-10-24T00:19:00.002-04:00

At the beginning of yesterday I had a somewhat stronger resolve then I normally do to get my assignment done for my DP class that I had today. So I didn't got to class yesterday, pretty much got dropped off at school and hung out for a few hours until I found someone who wanted to walk downtown with me. I shot lots of stuff DT and found some friends which was pretty awesome, I ate at Mamacitas which is a pretty kick ass restaurant. Anyway I got all my pictures shot went back home mixed and matched my photos to the reqs for the assignment and stayed up too late while doing it. I was pretty excited about getting an assignment in on time and the fact that I had no reason to be ashamed as I walked into class.

I was having a pretty cool dream about something... Hmmm nope I can't remember what it was. I woke up and literally my first words were "fuck!"... I slept 5 mins into my class. Whooosh! out went my dreams of having an acceptable day. *sigh*. At the end of class my teacher asked me if I dropped my other class (photo appreciation) which she teaches. I'm glad she asked me because it gave me a chance to explain to her how I have been feeling about school lately. Oh! and I procrastinate... yeah I know it was news to me too. I'm pissed off that I haven't put more into school now that I have my new found resolve that hopefully stays with me for at least a few more months lol. I suppose I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do...

I have butter in my pocket right now... not in a weird way though.

Crazier then a coconut

2008-10-13T15:28:00.000-04:00

So last Thursday, 10/9/08 I left with 4 other photographers to Long island, NY in search of a fame... or at least some eleven year old girls soccer team pic, but that's beside the point. I will now explain the trip in immense detail. Just joking. There were two different trips planned, one to NY and one to CT. I was going on the NY trip. After we had left the warehouse where the company, Sidelinesnapshots is located we drove for about an hour, got food and went across the street to get gas. As we were pumping gas we noticed that a liquid was streaming out from under the van. Will, the manager on the trip bent down and saw that it was gas leaking from a pipe in the van. We all immediately started to run away in terror but we were not fast enough, the van blew up and we were all killed... We called up Jerry the owner after I got my pally friend to rez us and cast blessing of wisdom on us. Jerry was already distressed because the driver of the CT trip had gotten a speeding ticket already. He told us to go to the airport and rent something there. There weren't many big cars there but after about a two hours of sitting around they got something big enough for us. A ford expedition which is a pretty nice car. We ended up leaving to NY at about 3 in the afternoon and got into Maryland late that night. When I awoke the next morning I got meself some pre-shaped eggs and a bagel with some Philadelphia cream cheese, I don't know why they had Philadelphian cream cheese in Maryland but, whatever works. We all got into the car and got into NYC in a few hours. That was one of the most tempting experiences I may have ever had. I was forced to get some drive by shots because we couldn't stop and shoot at all. When we arrived in Long island I was kind of depressed to be in such a suburban area. The motel we stayed in was one of the most ghetto places I have ever stayed in. After we tested all our equipment Will informed Cacey and I about what we would be doing all tomorrow. I heard about %85 of it and retained about %40 of it which ended up being painfully clear at the end of the next day when we had to sort through all my crap that wasn't listed right. Hit alt+F4 to hear about the next day...

That wont work on macs though... damn flawless computers with your "No virus reputation". Saturday 10/11/08 We got up at 5:45 am and took off to our own individual set of fields which took about and hour in total to get everybody to their own sites. My goal was a difficult one, to be more assertive then a New yorker, not something to be taken lightly. I found out that I like New yorkers and that people around here in Asheville are on the dull side. All day I ran around and harassed coaches in the hopes that I could photograph their teams. I photographed almost everybody and then some more that weren't scheduled to be there. I messed up on the documentation part of the job and because of that everyone had to stay up way later then they should have because I had to track down all the stray information I neglected to get on site. We got about 6 hours of sleep maybe less that night. After we got to the fields the next morning we had all our sample posters, one for each team and I went around handing them out to the most leader like soccer mom of them all. Before they left they'd give them back to me and pay for their order. Will came back around after it got dark and picked everybody up as we hastily made our way to meet the site director before we left. While Will was speaking with the site director we were hurrying to repack the car in it's jumbled state. I learned that packing a car was a lot like playing tetris. Our journey was a long one going through Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia and somewhere in Delaware all the way to the small town of Asheville. I have figured out that when trips are 14 hours long I would prefer their destinations to be Japan or somewhere out of the country, although I love NYC.

I'm looking forward to making some more money off this job though. It's definitely a great chance to make some good money.

New york? Long island? When do we leave?

2008-10-08T19:04:00.000-04:00

Last night I was checking craigslist for lenses and photography jobs. I immediately saw that there was need for sports photographers so I started checking it out, it said NO experience required which I thought was strange and then I saw ALL expenses paid! omg that's an awesome deal and to top that the next sentence was "trip to long island, NY" holy crap! A free trip to NY and I get paid for it?! wow... So I sent this guy an email and he replied to it today giving me his phone number for more information. I called him and apparently we're doing team photos for soccer and I get a base pay of $150 and %5 commision off whatever I sell so I should come out of it with a few hundred for a free week of shooting.

I'm going to rendevouz with them at 10:00 am tomorrow. I hope this helps my financial situation by a significant amount because I'm saving for a Mactop as Adam calls it. I'm going to be back on monday and probably wont be able to update this till then. Oh! and I got the job at Rits photography! (crowd cheers) anyway...

I hope this works out well and hopefully I'll get a chance to get over to Manhatten. I like Manhatten alot and my uncle lives there, plus there's a great hotdog place called grays papaya a few blocks away on broadway.

Well... I can't think of anything else to say... I will cover everything that happend in NY hopefully on the monday I get back but it will probably be tuesday till then I hope everything goes well for everyone.

Breaking news... Obama comes to town and I have no internet!

2008-10-07T09:32:00.000-04:00

Alright so I'm going to do quite a bit of recapping. Saturday was my birthday and I turned 18. I went to go get a haircut from a barber and it was the first barber cut I have ever gotten that I liked afterwards. My photographer friend picked me up from my house and we went to go take some pictures of his friend in his band. They were a pretty good band so we stayed till the next one, so this big guy with a bald head and a leather jacket and tattoos all over his arms steps up on the stage and his drummer sets up and they begin to soft rock... very anti climactic. We left after their first song and returned to my house. I thanked my friend for taking me and the drink he bought me and then he left. No one was at home so I started to fix some food and of course as I'm fixing the food I get a call from my mom asking if I want to eat at an asian buffet for my birthday dinner, I said yes. While we were at dinner we saw an old friend from when I was in third grade. After dinner I went to a play my best friend was operating the concession stand for. I got there really late. Once the play was over I went back to his house and only a few mins after we got home my friend decided we should go get some ice cream at dairy queen. So we got into the car and went to dairy queen but alas! it was closed (iprobably didn't use alas in the correct manner but bear with me) so we went to ingles across the road only to find out they were closed... an then from the darkness of the night someone hollered "go to super wal-mart" so we did. We got a 1lb bag of twizzlers acommpanied by dark chocolate klondike bars, Yum. We ate our junk food, played a zombie game and went to sleep so we could wake the next day for the Obama rally the next day at Asheville high.

The next day (Sunday)we woke up at 8:30 am only because when my frined set the alarm to 8 last night he didn't realize he had set it to 8 pm... not am. So we got a late start to a long day. We got out of the house at around 9:30 and arrived at Asheville high at 9:45 and then got in the big ass line of more then 5000 people! The speech that was going to be given that day was at 2:00 pm so we were there waiting for about four and a half hours because politicians apperantely don't like to be on time. Suddenly the crowed starts to cheer as a black man enters the football field from behind a curtain and photographers rush to shoot as many pictues as they can before their pictures are blocked by heads bobbing up and people with point and shoots raise their cameras in desperation while I sit back with my 200mm telephoto lens shooting away only wishing that I was about a food taller. But no cigar the black man that everyone had so hoped would be Obama was only that, a black man in a suit. After the crowd had been fooled numerous extra times the real Obama stepped out of a blue curtain above the field and shook hands with an ROTC person and began his decline to his podium shaking hands with close to everyone on the isle where he walked. I was in the crowd about 125 feet away from him waiting for his head to emerge from the sea of people so that I could start wailing on my shutter button trying to get the picture that no one else had. I had gotten all the pictures I wanted and there was a man in back of me with a Nikon D40 just as me who asked me if I would shoot some pictures for him because heads probably mine were in the way. So I did and I think I started to shoot too many because only about 30 seconds after he had given me his camera he asked for it back lol. I just hope I got some good shots. The rally ended and my friend and I went home, ate and relaxed. later on the night I was showing his parents a technique called HDR were you take three of the same photo each with different exposures and combine them to make a very dramatic scene. As I was doing this I went to look at one of my friends profiles as an example and the first pciture he had up was of him shacking Obamas hand... I was so jealous. I vow that next time I have the chance to photograph a potential president I will get there much earlier to get the "shot". That night I put a post on craigslist saying that I wanted to be an apprentice to a wedding photographer I hope I get a reply soon.

Monday, October 6th. I got a reply to my post on craigslist via cell phone from some dude named Armando we spoke for a few mins and then he said he had to go and could he call me back? I said yes. He never called me back, hopefully he'll call me today (tuesday Oct 7th). I went by Ritz, the store I'm trying to get a job at to ask about a lens I had a question about. The manager was there so I asked him my question about the lens and we spoke about the Obama rally that happend yesterday. Once conversation subsided he told me that he would like to give me a job and that he just needed to go through a few interviews of other people so that he could say he looked at other people not just me. So it sounds like I'll get the job but he hasnt fully commited to it yet.

I still have no internet today. I'm only able to type this up because I'm at the mac lab at ABtech. lol Sorry if it was too long Adam, assuming your the only one reading this.

The day before

2008-10-04T01:19:00.000-04:00

I had a great day today. I went in to work at toys-r-us at 10am and worked till 3pm then proceeded to call my manager to make sure I could get off right then or if I should stay longer. She said that before I signed out to come to the computer room so she could talk to me about something. Haha boy that was interesting... I walk in the room and there's the two managers that work today sitting together in the computer room which is highly unusual. I sat down on the only other chair in the room and they continued to say "Joshua I'm sorry but, we're going to have to let you go..." as surprising as it might sound I didn't feel worried or anything I just said "ok" lol. I was on a 90 day probation period until they decided if they wanted me or not... I don't think they did lol. They fired me because I wasn't meeting their quotas for credit cards, batteries, buyers protecting plans and such. I have been trying to get a job at a photography store called Ritz for about a week but tracking down the manager has been hard and now I can immediately start working if I get the job. The whole experience was quite rewarding and relieving actually because I had been thinking about putting my notice in and this happend to be a much more expedient process then working the two weeks lol.

On a lighter note I found out that I am going to be shooting pictures with one of my friends at some sort of a music festival and we have press passes! Tomorrow will be the first day that I have ever had a press pass. Oh! and my birthday is tomorrow! yay! I'm going to be 18! I seriously doubt turning 18 will change anything but... I can vote now... that's sort of cool, I don't think that I like any of the politician's right now though.

I don't care too much for people who aren't honest...

Late to life today

2008-10-02T00:41:00.000-04:00

I really can't think of anything I did today that I did on time... well... yeah being on time is not all that fun.

My tennis class that I was suppose to be on time to today (because I over slept last class) I just barely made even though I woke up in time... I need to figure why I'm so bad at arriving early. During my photo appreciation class I got back to class after our break fifteen mins after class resumed.

It was planned between myself and my friend for her to pick me up today from ABTech so we could hang downtown but she got off work early and couldn't pick me up. I had to walk downtown to meet her after my class got out and when I got there I called her more then five times and never did she answer... I swear friends aren't to be trusted sometimes I don't know why, but my friends don't seem to put as much importance as I do on our friendship, but what can you do about it? After I got in touch with her I found out that she was sleeping... Do I even need to say anything here. We eventually met and ate together at a Barleys pizza. She had just recently broke up with her boyfriend and she was feeling down so I bought us a pizza to split. She only ate one piece, now doesn't it seem like she might maybe mention she wasn't that hungry before I bought a pizza that was big enough for two-three hungry people?

So after we departed I still had six slices of pizza with me before I fed some to our hobo population while at the bus station (more like getting hit up for food by hobos. I will never walk around with leftovers again). I ran into someone from my tennis class (Molly) at the bus station and we spoke for a while. I was waiting for a bus to my house that I later found out wouldn't come till the next day. Molly had decided to walk to where she worked and was going to take shelter there because it was cold, till her bus arrived so I walked with her and had fun getting to know her better. Anyways I had a great day. It was pretty damn cold today though.

I'm sure it will be a hindrance to me not being on time to things, but hey why fix it now when I can do it later right?