We got a negative scanner! I have a few rolls (and some more!) from the Bangkok trip, so I decided I would try my hand at scanning with these. They’re OK. I used a bad batch of film, though, for the Sprocket Rocket shots, so they turned out a little… yucky. In any case, it’s sort of oddly exciting to scan negatives. I can’t explain it, but I love it a lot. Enjoy the dumpage! I’ll be back with part 2. Fuji didn’t process my roll of slide film, so I’ll bring that over there tomorrow, with the LC-A+ roll I’m still working my way through. 3 shots left!

I’m also still getting the hand of the focal range of my LC-A+. STILL! I can’t seem to get used to it. Of course, my estimation is naturally shot, but even so, I EXPECT MORE FROM YOU, SELF.

More under the cut! I’m so excited. Next stop: developing my own prints! Continue reading LOMO DUMP: BANGKOK PART I….

When this month started, Sarie and I were talking and she asked me what I wanted to be, regardless of any conceivable obstacle, and I had answered: “To work for Penguin.” I was met with a look of disappointment—I mean, how unimaginative! So, I took the question to Twitter, out of curiosity, and I was surprised with the volume of answers I was met with (32!).

It also reminded me of one of my most favorite blogs/projects online, Backyard Bill. This is just from what I take from the structure of his posts, but essentially, he takes photos of interesting people, most of whom have interesting occupations and strong personal style. A lot live “alternative lifestyles,” by which I mean that they have occupations that are not very usual or typical. Certainly not pencil-pushing or number-crunching. One of the latest entries featured a jewelry maker, Philip Crangi.

What I like about this project a lot is that, aside from the striking photographs and some background information, it asks these people what they want to be when they grow up. Philip Crangi has some white whiskers already, and seems to have grown into his own person, but when he grows up he wants to be a jewelry designer (still), but he also wants to write science fiction.

This project and the question posed on Twitter both made me think about how a lot of people don’t really get their dream jobs. A lot of people, because of physical restrictions, their existing skill sets, or just the plain fact that that occupation is fictional, won’t be able to reach them at all, even if they tried really, really hard.

But, less depressingly, I thought about how you can kind of fall into a place you didn’t know you wanted to be in at first but can grow to love. I thought about how, even so much later in one’s life, even in old age, things move on and new possibilities can come streaming in. And that’s a calming thought for someone who has been going through a lot of questioning and worrying about the future, i.e. me.

I’ve posted all of the answers on Twitter here, if anyone was inclined to look. Pretty interesting, and varied, and some are pretty downright impossible, but they are futures fun to imagine nonetheless.

Marla was the only person who picked exactly what she already was.

My brother has such lofty aspirations.

The rest are under the cut.

Continue reading OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS/HAZARDOUS OCCUPATIONS….

I haven’t been to very many places in the Philippines. I have yet to visit Mindanao, as it stands. However, I am a big fan of a lot of the places in this archipelago, and when I meet one such place, I usually fall in love. Last May, I went to Bohol with my parents and brother, for the first time. I love the beach, but I rarely ever go, and I don’t really like parading around in a bikini when there are a lot of people around. (For obvious reasons.)

The resort we stayed in was located in a more or less untouched and remote part of Panglao Island, however, and I was a big fan of this isolation. I waded in the water, and read my book, free of silly, anxious thoughts about unimportant things. We also went to see Bohol’s famous sites, some of which were the tarsiers and the chocolate hills. One of my favorite places was a man-made mahogany forest. If I were a filmmaker, I would shoot a movie there. If I had money, I would probably build a house in the middle of the forest, away from the road.

We spent only a few days there, so I would really love to come back. It’s rare that I bond with a place, so I’m pretty excited for a possible return. The next time, I hope my sister (who was in Austria at the time of the trip) can see how beautiful it is for herself.

Continue reading I LOVE BOHOL….

I’d like to think that I can work independently of silly factors like how messy my room is. But, the truth is, I am neither as fortunate or put together. Sometimes, I like to blame it on ADHD, which I don’t really have. The truth is, I am just easily distracted and also quite messy, a combination of traits that resemble a metaphorical Molotov cocktail for, you know, my life.

In any case, this is the sorry state of my room as of 5:45 PM on this wonderful day, June 3rd:

It’s perfectly okay to be disgusted.

I’d like to think that I will spend the remaining hours of the day cleaning up, and chucking useless things into a garbage bag, and emerge gleaming and shining with a sheen of sweat, raring to go and do some Actual Work That Pays, but we all know better.

I’ll do my best, in any case. Sometimes, it just sounds good in my head, and then I give up midway and get distracted and do other things, like read bits of books, or sob to Friday Night Lights. Sometimes, I just kind of wander around the house, looking for something to eat.

Which maybe explains why I’m kinda fat, but that’s another story (that I’d rather not get into).

It’s been nearly a month since I came back from my Bangkok trip, which you all have heard of but not really heard about. Suffice to say, it was so much more than I expected it to be, and I got to experience and learn a lot of new things. I’d like to think that I grew up some, but I won’t get ahead of myself.

What I liked about my Bangkok trip was that it was sort of like seeing an old friend with a new pair of eyes. I’d been to Thailand twice before, and it never really made a big impression on me. I had gone to Phuket and Bangkok with my famiy, and though I have no nightmare stories to share, neither were particularly memorable trips. I have good memories of riding elephants and seeing a gibbon up close, and getting a tribal henna tattoo (no kidding), and spending time with my family on the beach, but that was it.

A lot of my friends have been raving about Bangkok, and I had no idea why. I had decided that it was not a great fit of a place for me and made no plans of ever returning. Karen was insistent on taking me along a trip she was going on with people I barely knew at the time. Although I felt no affinity with Bangkok, I decided to go along on the trip, anyway. Mainly, I loved going on trips out of the country with friends. I’d like to think that I knew to give Bangkok another chance, but I honestly didn’t really think about that. I just wanted to get away for a little while, and this seemed a good a time as any.

I’m glad I did it. Continue reading Old Places, New Eyes: Bangkok….