I caught a cold, got blamed for 20K in ad revenue being lost, prepared for and cooked Thanksgiving Dinner for the Kitcher side of The Family, saw the new Harry Potter flick in IMAX, shot three rolls of color film for a black and white photography class (and even got stopped by the police while doing it) and again found the deep and primal satisfaction of triangle choking someone. Lastly I shit fire all last night.
As far as work goes, generally things tend to shake out like this -- something goes wrong that I have no idea about and is someone else's fault or mistake and then get blamed for it. For a while I think I am about to get canned for it and then the powers that be seem to realize that there are larger issues at play and the issue, while not forgotten, gets dropped. Until the next thing happens. My hope is that I can get some enterprise level monitoring tools going that will help alleviate this type of crapola from hitting multiple fans and be a nice feather in my technical cap. Of course, this is something I want to do, but is at odds with the part of me that wants out of technology and into something more creative like...well like photography.
Speaking of which, my B&W class has me shooting color film for an assignment. The assignment is to take shots "looking down". We then bring in the shots and the Prof. and the rest of the class cull through the roll or two to arrive at 3 to 5 keepers. The idea is to get exposed to editing your work and to experience the freedom of operating within a constraint. I shot one roll earlier in the week and two rolls yesterday. I thought of driving around but settled on a walk down the rail trail right near my condo. On the way to the trail I stopped where Rt. 119 crosses the Saw Mill River to take a couple of shots looking down from the bridge. About two minutes into me setting up I hear the whoop whoop whoop of a cop car right behind me but don't pay any attention, figuring it must be them pulling someone over. Then I hear "Hi there." over the loudspeaker and this gets my attention. There is indeed a cop right there behind me and she kindly and curiously asks me -- "Uh whatcha doing there?" I explain its for an assignment at school and she asked what school and I just gave her my license. Of course, these days the police get a little antsy when they see some guy taking pictures of a water way, bridge, and transcontinental AT&T cable all at once. In a way I was glad she stopped me and asked all the right questions. Nice to know people are out there paying attention.
Of course, I had to be spotted when all this went down. It turns out Clarisa and my cousin Jody drove by as I was being questioned / detained. We joked later about just how great it would have been if they would have stopped and said something like, "Oh man are we glad you stopped this guy-- he's been creeping us out for the past few weeks. He's been at every bridge."
Overall though, the class is going very well. Of course, I tend to think my shots are kind of inferior but that's just me being insecure and competitive. Honestly, my shots are not the best in the class, but then again, the guy I am comparing myself to seems to have a lot more time on his hands and more experience and better access to things to shoot. Me, I'm older, I'm working, and I'm inexperienced. The only way I'll ever get better is to keep shooting and keep learning, especially from the people that are more experienced. The course catalogue for next semester arrived - I think I'll take another class, if not two.
As for Thanksgiving - it really went off without a hitch. Well, there was the part where the roasted garlic paste I made for the roasted garlic mashed potatoes turned into a bit of a garlic cement but that was no big deal deal - I just made plain 'ol perfect mashed potatoes instead. The turkey was brined over night for 8 hours in a nice mix of salt and brown sugar and cinnamon sticks and then stuffed with some lemon halves, rosemary, thyme and cinnamon sticks. No basting. No stuffing inside the bird. Instead I fired that bird of at 500 degrees for 30 minutes to brown it and then took it out, covered the breast with a triangle of tinfoil, stuck a meat thermometer in it and then put it back in at 350 degrees until the breast temperature hit 161. Man, it all worked just like Alton Brown said it would.
Later on that night I chatted with my cousin Will for a bit about BJJ. He's a big pro wrestling fan but I really thought he should see what BJJ is about. So we went into the bedroom and I showed him a few basics of keeping someone in guard and how to triangle them. Of course the lesson turned into a little bit of a match and family started rolling in to see what was going on. My dad laughed his ass off and my aunts joked that sort of activity between family members was illegal. And lets face it, wrapping your legs around another guy takes a ton of confidence. BJJ is not something for those who shy away from close physical contact. Its fun as hell though and it was fun to triangle young Will and show him a kimura and americana and a guillotine. Fun fun fun.
Not everything is fun though.
In a little while I'll get ready to go to Madeline Rizzo's wake. I'll shower, shave, press my shirt and put my suit and tie on and drive down to New Jersey to pay my respects and show my support for the Rizzo's. It's what we do. It's what we must do.
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