It’s been an interesting half-day, I must admit. Before today I had been slightly disappointed with my so-called vacation. The weather sucked with a non-stop back to back drizzle fest, I caught a head-cold midweek, and spending more time with my slightly neurotic mother than was comfortable added up to be lackluster at best. It wasn’t until this morning when I woke up to the sounds of songbirds and the feeling of a cool breeze blowing over the mountains, through the window, and onto my face that time stood still long enough for me to understand why I came up here. Like the grand finale of a fireworks show, I was waiting and waiting for something magical to happen all week, and right up to the last possible moment of me calling it quits, did the magic happen. The smell of breakfast downstairs, along with high-contrast shadows of trees filtering through the windows lead to quite possibly one of the most relaxing mornings I’ve experienced so far. Hell, even my Mom acted normal.

The drive to the airport was filled with cool morning air, winding curves, and a sense of calm as I stared out the passenger window at the rushing trees and highway signage. At that moment I realized how the previous week didn’t matter anymore. I had finally gotten what I came for: a sense of pure relaxation and zen. Instead of taking 5-6 days, I received the entire package in a matter of hours. Even now, as I type this entry, I feel a sense of accomplishment and calmness one expects from a week off.

Hell, I’m even looking forward to coming back home.

Right now I’m trying to think of something else to put into this post but I’m hitting a wall made of writers blocks and the need for sleep. I’m still waiting for a clear night to go out and take some starfield time lapse shots.

Oh well. Tomorrow, I guess.

To be in the small town in which I did a lot of growing up always is a bittersweet adventure. I am immediately  overwhelmed with the staggering amount of familiarity this place has, then awash with the memories of what caused my need for exodus, and finished with a sense of calm and peace in understanding why my parents decided to move here. It’s beautiful here. It’s calm and relaxing. It’s …normal.

And yes, I never thought I’d ever say that about this little town, but it’s true.

Sure, a new storefront has shown up here and there. Some new restaurant has taken place of an old one. And I think I saw some building I’ve never seen before, but none of that matters. What matters is that if you scratch the freshly painted layer of this town, you still find the simple things that have always made this place what I’ll always call “home”. There’s the old coffee shop filled with locals, the familiar brick buildings that you can still make out in old turn-of-the-century photos, and even though the old diner has been replaced by some asian/mexican/whatever fusion eatery, you can still feel the old wood floors creak and spot the ornate tin crown molding when you step inside.

It’s been said you can never go back home, but with Sylva, I feel like that rule can be bent a little.

I vow to post once per day while I’m up here. I swear.

Today’s events involved tooling around Asheville in search for a good meal. Breakfast was the first thing on my mind so my mother and I headed to the Early Girl Eatery on Wall St where I had a tasty omelet stuffed with mushrooms, bacon, and their local cheese. Washed down with a tall glass of organic chocolate milk and I was ready to take a few photos for which I have made a new flickr gallery. Headed to one of the (now growing) beer stores in the area and purchased a few ales that look to be tasty enough to photograph. I will add their consumption to the low list of things I have planned this week along with nothing but relaxation and the quiet life.

That is until one of my family members has a computer issue…

I am very pleased with the dynamic light whatever system that the new D90 has. I was expecting some harsh shadows mixed with overblown highlights on some of the shots, but the wünderfeature took care of things quite well and produced a respectable photo. Color me impressed.

I was also loaned a Manfrotto tripod by Matt for my upcoming trip to NC, which has further doomed my wallet into buying more camera gear. *sigh*

…this is a pretty sweet camera. The quality is brilliant, the low-light noise is near non-existent, and the pictures come out as sharp as I want.

I want to make a resolution to myself to take more people shots. While still-life is fun to shoot, there is a certain thrill to snapping portraits of people both known and random. The good thing about living in St Petersburg is that if I need a subject, I just need to get a pocket full of change and head down to the hobo-centric downtown areas. Hrm…maybe I should also pack some pepper spray and a shank as well.

Either way, I’m looking forward to taking more photos with this camera.

Oh lord, what a Pandora’s box I hath opened. I have been bitten by the photography bug once again and have decided to purchase something I really didn’t need…but wanted anyway. Keeping myself in the Nikon family, I bought a new D90 as you can see by my blatantly stolen image above.

Am I happy with this purchase? Yes. Am I happy with the price? Probably not, but I’m a cheap bastard anyway. I figured that photography is one of those hobbies I’ve had for quite some time and now that I have the time and resources to devote towards a hobby, why not in the art of light projection?

My hope if that I do not go pennyless after purchasing a wide variety of photography gear. But hey, if I do, at least I’ll be a homeless hobo with a fucking sweet photo setup.

So this is another “I’ve changed the website” post. I think this time I’ve come to grips that I just don’t have the ability to keep a site like this updated at the level I had hoped to. Maybe it’s because I reach a critical mass of “shit I want/need to talk about” every six months that makes me spend a day clearing out my head of the rattling ideas, get frustrated over the layout of this webpage, and then spend a few more days revamping everything that suddenly voids my mind of anything thoughtful to say after the whole process. As a result, I have decided to go as minimal as I can. None of this fancy-dancy graphical layout/custom design crap. I’m keeping it zen, baby! In order to obtain said zen, I have decided to just put two things on my page(s): Words, and a photo. That’s it. Nothing more not nothing less.

How long will it work? Well, that’s the beauty. Unlike other changes, I’m fully going into this with the notion that it’s going to be weeks if not a month between posts. I’m OK with this idea. This place to me will be like a hidden room in my house. I do not plan to spend every day here, just when I have the need to.

Hey, not like anyone reads this anyway.

Another 4th of July, another excuse to blow things up while drinking heavily and consuming mass amounts of grilled meat. Mmm…Meat. Tonight’s meal consists of avocado-cheddar-bacon burgers, Canadian beer (how un-American!), and Dutch apple pie.

Long and short of it all: I came back from Canada. Hung out at home for a while. Threw away all of my old stuff. Got new stuff (thanks IKEA). Worked for a bit. Was sent to a different place in Canada (Cape Breton, NS) for 3 weeks. During my travels, my Grandmother died and my Dad had a heart attack. I’m currently in NC helping out the family sort out all of this weirdness.

Oh yeah, somewhere in between all of that, I started a company with a friend and we’re currently making applications for the iPhone. And we’re getting PAID, too.

I think that covers it all. Needless to say, life has been a little hectic in the past month (when most of the above took place). Time has taken a turn for the slow as all of this madness unfurled at a glacial pace. In the past 4 weeks alone I’ve discovered other-worldly beauties of the great white north while simultaneously discovering feelings of panic and mourning. As a result, I felt as if I at least should document something here on this little site that no one reads anymore.

Which makes me wonder… Who DOES read this? I can’t imagine I have much of a fan base outside of the occasional Google spider and lost web traveler. I guess if anyone ever decided to google my name they *might* stumble upon this site. I guess I’ve always wanted there to be someone out there who reads this to understand a shred of what I put up here. Of course I understand that the words YOU are reading right now are but a mere shadow of what I really mean/feel/want to come across. So, how about we make a deal. If you are reading this post right now, I want you to email (zach at bugbbq dot com) me, twitter (http://twitter.com/bugbbq) me, AIM (boogbbq) me. Any time. Any place. I’ll always be right here. For you. Whoever YOU are.

On a side note, I’d like to dedicate a paragraph or two towards my current position on this here planet. As I mentioned above, I’m back in my childhood home of Webster, NC. I keep forgetting just how nice it is here. Quiet, cool, and beautiful scenery. Makes me wonder about why I left this place if each time I come up (or in my recent case, down from Canada) all I think about is the natural beauty of everything. But then the small things start to surface that make me appreciate my decision to leave NC. If I had never left this area, I would have never been able to travel the world the way I have. I would never have been able to experience hurricane parties. Things like Cuban food, really good cigars, in-n-out burgers, German engineering, geocaching, and smashing good cricket would be alien things, something to be read about but never experienced. If I had stayed in the mountains, I’d never be able to talk about wild taxi rides in the heart of Mumbai, India. And while I will never claim myself better than any other person, I do feel for anyone that I might have known from this small town in western North Carolina that never really left this place.

I guess you have to stand outside of what you consider home to really understand what you have and don’t have. I’m thankful that I took the opportuinity (and in some cases, had the opportunity forced upon me) to go outside of my comfort zone and see a glimpse of what this world has to offer. There’s a lot of great things here in what I call home, but there are far more interesting things outside.

And that’s where I’ll be. Outside. 

I’ll take pictures along the way.