When I Was Little

We used to kill bugs using a can of WD40 and a lighter... instant flamethrower. Though the wisdom of doing that may be questionable, it sure was fun. There's a bug flying around my apartment now and I find myself wishing that I didn't have this pesky "maturity" thing in the way as I try to decide how to deal with him.

I'm definitely not one who usually longs to go backwards, but I miss those days.

Look Out

We have oxygenated water available in our Lausanne office, now. If possible, it will make me even smarter.

I predict that, within a week, I will be able to remember which direction I was going when I went into the store.

Vibrate

I should have paid more attention in marketing classes.

I've had several people in the last week come up and say, "hey, I saw your pictures - why aren't you doing this professionally?" One was a colleague who said I was really wasting my time in what I'm doing now. I've never been so flattered to be told that I shouldn't be working where I am. Not that that happens frequently... I'm sure you know what I mean.

I'm not sure, though, how to get to that next step. Some things are clear:

• I will not do portraits of children at Walmart
• I won't accept the hours and mobility that are needed to be a real photojournalist - besides, my desire to portray a slightly idealized world (the one I live in, actually), rather than absolute reality would get me in trouble there
• I will not sell pictures of kittens

Past that, though, it's much more murky. How do I make a living at this? Weddings? Maybe. Portraits? I'd love to, but that's going to be a fairly small market for the kind of work I want to do. "Art"? Well, that would be fantastic, but I'm not at all sure about how to get started.

Other than taking the pictures.


So here's the thing. When we were in Prague on the Saturday, and I saw that there was a little bit of sunshine, and had seen a bazillion people out the night before so KNEW that the streets would be full, I was excited.

Very, very excited.

And once I got out there... had my music going, had my camera in my hands, and started to make pictures (which is what photographers call it, and a slightly more intentional term than "taking" pictures, I think), I was ecstatic. I was almost dancing. I had a huge smile on. I wanted to sing, to run around, to somehow let everyone around me feel the way that I was feeling.

In some ways, it seems rather unnatural to be this excited about anything that doesn't involve beef, getting kissed, or A BRAND NEW CAR! But that's the way it is for me: it makes me feel alive, makes me vibrate, brings out beauty and hope and wonder all around me.

Part of me thinks it would almost be wrong to be able to get paid for that.


So I'm not sure what's next... start entering contests, I guess. Figure out what kind of market exists, especially in Calgary, where I'll be living soon. Make some good, large prints to get a better idea of how my pictures are working off of a PC screen. See if I can get in touch with other people who do this, and do it well.

If you have any ideas, I'm open.

But even now, I'm still smiling. It's just beautiful.

Running

I went again today. It's been a while, and even though I've lost a lot from last time I went, it felt good. And it gave me time to think:

Things I like about running:

• Feeling good (eventually)
• Looking great (more or less immediately, but some of that may be psychological)
• Being able to do stuff like carry the little chick around without getting tired
• Feeling like my shoes were a fiscally sound investment
• Good excuse to carbo-load - hello, spaghetti carbonara!
  

Things I don't like about running:

• Sweating
• Not being able to sing
• That point where it feels like someone is trying to separate your rib cage from the rest of you with a dull, rusty knife
• Sweating in my clothes
• Being far from a shower while sweating

Yeah, I guess that about sums it up. Down with sweating, but three cheers for fitness!

Fun At Work

We did some values brainstorming yesterday at work - thinking about what's important for our company to move forward, and how we're actually doing in the things that we claim are our values now.

I loved it.

First of all, I am all over any kind of strategic, high-level, conceptual discussion like this... something that centers around the "why". I'm not sure how valued our input will be, but I love to give it.

But it was fun to make it work, too. Our regional manager introduced the workshop, which had a series of exercises and discussions designed to elicit the feedback from the group members. Then she said she'd leave it to us to organize ourselves and get it done. I was pretty curious to see what would happen... you get enough consultants in a room and things are bound to get interesting.

Now I'm not a guy who pushes my way into a leadership role, but I'm pretty happy to take it when it seems right. And this was a perfect fit for me... to keep the discussions on track, to clarify the points for people who had some trouble with the language (very few of my colleagues are native English-speakers, but the workshop and exercises were all in English), to manage the time, and to challenge the participants to get the best responses we could. Well, it wasn't long until I found myself taking it on... and I had a great time. It was cool, too, to have my colleagues thanking me after for making it work, for helping them to do something to the best of their abilities. I love that.

It's days like that that make me want to keep going back to work. I mean, there's also the fact that they keep putting money into my bank account on the 25th of the month. But days like this really help.

Cool.

I Am A Political Activist

Okay, I'm not really. But I did have my first picture published, in an AIDS-awareness advent calendar put out by the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance.

You can see it here.

So, I wasn't completely aware that it was an AIDS-related calendar when I agreed to let them use the picture. Actually, I was just kind of stoked that someone had noticed and liked it enough to want to publish it. I guess, though, that it's good that it's being used to draw attention to something important.

I use the word "publish" loosely, in the sense that someone is putting my picture on paper and making it available... the monetary aspects that one may associate with publication don't really come into play, but I do know that the creative designer makes a killer raspberry trifle, and I'm hoping that will become part of the equation at some point.

Anyways, I'm pretty excited about December, now: especially the 4th. Hooray!

I Should Have Used Butter While Getting My Hair Cut

Turns out that olive oil and Brussels sprouts is a bad combination. Unbelievably bad, really. I thought it would be a bit healthier than butter and give the flavor a little boost, but it was just wrong.



Time for some audience participation, and maybe the chance for me to avoid another hideous kitchen incident like this. Have you ever tried something that really seemed like it should work, but really didn't?



In other news, I officially love getting my hair cut. Okay, every once in a while it doesn't quite work out, but I'm usually happy with how it looks after. And I think I could spend a good portion of my day just getting it washed. It puts me in such a good mood, I even talked to the girl cutting it today.

That may not sound strange, but my conversational French is... well, enough to stop most conversations. And I haven't found many of the girls at the place I go who speak English. So, I usually just kind of keep quiet, say "oui, c'est bon" when they look hopeful and ask me something, and "non, je ne pense pas" when they look doubtful and ask me something. It usually pans out okay.

So while I was getting my hair washed today, the girl asked me something I didn't understand. Plus, I was facing away from her, so I couldn't tell which response to use. Time to 'fess up.

"Desolé," I said, "j'ai pas compris; je ne parle pas tres bien français". And that's a pretty hefty understatement, even for me.

She seemed okay with that, and things continued without me either getting scalded, dyed crazy-German-lady red (a very special color not found anywhere in nature, but which, it seems, goes very well with cropped hair, glasses with a string hanging from them, and dangly earrings), or shaved bald. Hooray! That's my entire hair-cutting check-list. Mission accomplished. Almost.

"Qu'est ce que votre langue maternelle?" she asked.

"Anglais" I said. I figured that about explained it. She shrugged, and continued.

Turns out she didn't figure her French was very good either. She was Spanish, and also spoke Portuguese (she had lived for a while in Brazil, and maybe Portugal... I mean maybe I'm-not-sure, not maybe she-didn't-know).

Why is it that no one takes me seriously when I say my French is bad? My colleagues are under the amusing (and somewhat dangerous) impression that I understand everything they say, no matter what I tell them. And when things go horribly wrong - as they are bound to do when you combine banks, software, lunch and a language I don't speak - they seem to believe I'm just playing a joke on them.

"Don't worry," they tell new people who are just meeting me. "He understands everything."

"No," I say, "I actually don't. I didn't even understand your name."

And then they all laugh. It's really fun.

Anyways, she went on (in French) to tell me about, I think, much of the last 10 years or so of her life, what it was like to live in Brazil, what the pronunciation differences are between Spanish and Portuguese (hello! I'm the one who's still stuck on French, remember? I need two more languages in the mix like I need a bigger forehead), and how English people never learn French. Even the ones who live here. Not much I can come back with on that front, is there? I just agreed.

Except when she looked concerned.

In any case, it was a pretty good cut, and she was kind enough to rinse it after, which keeps me from feeling itchy (or looking really, really bad in my black shirt - and not the kind of bad that means "cool", either, just the way your grandparents mean it).

I think I'll go back. I just need to learn to say "what kinds of snacks do they have in Brazil, and do you have any with you?" first.