Mass centralization

For the first time in several years, arguably since before I left for college, all of my stuff, my material possessions, are located in one place. Moving from New York was stressful but ultimately positive and cathartic, and I am going to enjoy the process of consolidating and minimizing my life. My next step: get my motorcycle insured and registered at the DMV! I've got some trips to take...

Here is a photo that I took of a restaurant on Cape Cod:

The silent song

I went to the doctor today. The doctor was new to me, but he had obviously been doing his job for a long time because his office was very humble. He had a good bedside manner and I was relieved when he told me that I was in good health. I told him: "Thanks for the external validation," and he laughed.

Here's a picture of a cool tree from two streets over. I suspect it has been in this town longer than the doctor.

Move along

Today was a productive day. I woke up and cleaned my room and some other parts of the house, and then headed outside where I braved scorching heat and humidity to paint the gas tank on my motorcycle. This is my second attempt at painting this, and I hope it goes better than the first. The key to a good paint job is good surface preparation, latex or neoprene gloves (to prevent oil on your hands from touching the surface), several light coats, and a light sanding between coats. I decided to paint the gas tank a dark metallic blue, which is fitting because blue is usually the color of Suzuki racing bikes. Everyone can dream!

I also got a chance to hang out with my friend Sean who I haven't seen in several months. We went to the beach and flew kites and skipped stones, although I only have photographic proof of the first activity. I'm stilling lugging my new camera around everywhere I go, and I have made an impression on most of the people who have seen it. Life certainly looks different through the viewfinder! I'm ordering chemicals this week so that I can begin to develop photos on my own. This will save money (definitely) and put me in control of the whole process (potentially).

I'm also going to include some photos of my weekend on the lake with a few friends. The boat is a "testament to American excess", but it was really fun to ride in and I wasn't paying for the fuel which was an extra bonus.

I can't take my eyes off of you

One of the things that I miss, well perhaps miss is the wrong word (yes, it definitely is), more like intrigued at the appearance or in this case disappearance of, is music. I use to listen to so much music. Maybe its a generational thing. Or perhaps its just growing up. I've moved through too many computers, and my Windows Music Player library became a smaller iTunes library became a smaller playlist on my mp3 player became a smaller playlist on my smartphone became listening to Pandora became listening to the occasional music video on YouTube.

I'm not too sure what happened. I've moved music from something I "own" to something I "use". At the same time, I've increased the amount of music that I play and create myself. All of this together doesn't sound like a bad thing at all, but I still feel like there is something missing and when I listen to my old songs I am hit by a wave of nostalgia.

In other news, I have decided to take some time this summer to learn more about photography. I was inspired to pick up a cheap film SLR camera from Amazon and experiment with taking pictures using manual controls. My first three rolls of film turned out pretty well. Which sounds self-serving. Suffice it to say that I was impressed with the results I was able to achieve with relatively modest equipment. And by modest, I mean a $20 camera with some cheap Fuji film. Getting someone to develop it was the hard part, but Walgreens has proved to be a time machine of sorts. I'm also looking into buying the chemicals and equipment to develop film on my own which save a lot of money (90%) as well as provide an intriguing level of control and creativity over the whole process. Plus, its fun to learn something new. Here's some of the photos I took over the last week: