philosophy

ideas

I love stories–I love to tell them, to hear them, to think about them. Huge bonus points for stories told around a campfire or while having beers with good friends. That’s the majority of what goes up here on my blog, stories.

To me, storytelling is a pure and unique thing. It’s an act, but really it’s not acting at all; all stories are always stretched, but yet somehow within nearly every story is more truth than a old veteran mathematician can shake a stick at.

This isn’t storytelling though, this is a personal note; there won’t be a “this may or may not be” statements at the end.

A few quick and relevant facts:
-I believe in god; to label myself, “christian” fits best. Important note: Jesus wasn’t a Christian! Oh snap.
-If my faith was just a little bit less puny, I could tell a tree to walk and it would. I could probably levitate, too. Yeah-huh, levitate. But my faith is really, really really small, so I can’t do that stuff–but I think that’s ok for now.
-Jesus is important regardless of what one thinks of what he said. He changed the entire world for all foreseeable time in less time than Obama will have for his first term.

Note 1
Why the do we Christians always pray for bad things to not happen? From all I’ve seen and known, we predominately pray for bad things to not happen. Sure, we pray for good things, for safe travels and…wait…that’s actually praying for a bad thing to not happen. How about for financial stability–oh nevermind, that too. Dear god in heaven above, I pray that you would help my marriage continue strong and health–oh yup, there it is again. What about cancer? We always pray for cancer to be cured. Same thing again…but who am I to look at a man in the middle of life’s journey and tell him it’s silly to pray that his wife doesn’t die this weekend? I’m confused.

What’s a good thing to pray for then? What’s an honest and good thing to talk to god about?

Where’s my treasure, and where’s yours?

That’s what I’m going to pray for, for now.

Note #2 coming shortly.

other, stories

Today I rode through a little town in the middle of nowhere in a developing country in Central America on an old dirtbike, to my desk inside of a warehouse-building-turned-office.

other

PACKING/CLEANING/THROWING-STUFF-AWAY!

There are a few things I’ve been working on getting written these past few weeks and I may try to get one or two up before Tuesday. Maybe I’ll post one from Miami (layover on the way to Guatemala City)? Here’s a rough list:

1. The salvation of a century old Bohemian gypsy violin
2. Football (yes, I’m using USA-English here. Pigskin, first downs and hail mary passes, that football)
3. Old hearts breaking
4. The surreality of reality-setting-in
5. Batch of film pictures
6.  Three languages every soul speaks
7. Facebook, and more importantly why I won’t be using it for a while
8. Why math and music are legit and photography rarely is
9. Coffee-mug-problems
10. A bittersweet farewell letter to two bicycles
11. Why I believe what I believe about life, the universe and everything (that one’s a humdinger. I really want to git’er done though, it’s long overdue)
12. Stitched-up panoramic photos
13. The most powerful lesson I’ve ever learned from a coworker
14. My short lived MLS soccer career (well..um..not really. but kinda.)
(Edit: two more)
15. Film vs. Digital
16.  What it’s like to fly away from the city I’ve lived in for all of my 22 years (another humdinger)

Shoot, that list is longer than I thought it’d be (and there are yet more rough drafts laying around, too). Fourteen things–I’ll aim to finish them all by November. *crosses fingers*

ideas, other

It seems that in Western culture (well–Seattle culture, the only culture I’ve lived in) that us people–humans–we define ourselves by three main things, in varying proportions:

1. What we do (hobbies/sports maybe)
2. What we make/contribute (could be nine-to-five?)
3. What we own

I’m not sure what to think about that, more will follow. I have this knee jerk reaction that I’m either missing something, or that there’s some wrinkle in the way things work, and there should be something more to how folks..ah..well…are.

ideas

“There’s always that one guy [in the boxing club] who’s willin’ to run..willin’ to run hard. That guy’s gonna win.”
-Coach B.

Note: you don’t have to watch out for that guy if you are that guy.

ideas, photography

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be too; home is where the heart is.

Letting a thing be your treasure makes for a shabby home for the heart.

That’s something to not forget, especially when buying things.

Especially especially when buying things like a Nikon D200.

So..ah..on that note, I bought a Nikon D200.

Side note: it is unbelievably hard to not spend a lot of time looking at more stuff to buy right after buying a really, really really cool camera:

“Ah that lens isn’t all so expensive, considering I’ll be shooting for National Geographic as soon as they see some of my work and realize I’d be a positively stellar staff photographer. Heck, may as well spring for a Nikon 200mm/2.0 IS, one of their 17-35/2.8 deals and one or two of the Carl Zeiss primes, while I’m at it..just for the sake of being ready to travel to foreign exotic places and do crazy work at the moment that National Geographic calls. Oh gees, I hadn’t even thought about a tripod. Maybe I’ll look at those basalt fiber ones as soon as I finish picking out my flash setup…”