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.

My new baby is a new Macbook Pro. I love it like any proud papa would with their newborn.

Decided to go with the top-range model with the 2.8gHz processor so I can squeeze in a little futureproof juice. I must say that I’m happy with the decision because this thing is a screamer. Photoshop runs like a champ, OS X moves smoother than butter dripping off a hot biscuit, and the all-glass LCD is quite possibly one of the most dramatic displays I’ve ever seen on a notebook. Needless to say, it’s my flagship computer. My poor Dell, which used to spend its days constantly whirring away, has now been living a much quiter life in shutdown purgatory.

I must admit, it has been a few years since I’ve owned a Mac. Having to relearn things that were so basic a handful of years ago was quite a humbling experience. But, like the old cliche says, it’s like riding a bicycle. Working for Dell has gotten me used to the Tao of Windows, so the once-common notion of installing applications by simply dragging them from the install media to the Applications folder seemed very odd and alien to me.

But ever since getting my 30% less packaging material in the mail, I’ve just felt…more creative. The artistic side in me has gotten a shot in the arm. Where once I had a small amount of dread and routine everytime I opened up Photoshop.exe, I now get a small spark of excitement when opening Photoshop.app. It’s comforting to know that I no longer have to gamble on whether my Wacom tablet is going to work properly when I use it. I can open iTunes without having to sacrifice a goat. Most excellent.

Overall, I’m glad I dropped the coin on this beautiful machine. It’s so….sleek. So…solid.