9.22.2009

i have recently (re)discovered that the simple act of taking your motorcycle out can elevate your mood for the rest of the day.  i haven't been riding lately for a few reasons.  1) i don't have anywhere to go.  2) i don't have gas money 3) i don't want to get stranded.
yesterday, i took ole brownie out for the first time in quite awhile, and it was awesome.  unfortunately, i stuck to the city limits of ro-town, but it was still good.  riding in rotterdam is fine, but you have to stop CONSTANTLY.  there are traffic lights and draw bridges and other things that force you to stop EVERYWHERE.  if you could ride continuously for more than 20 feet, you would consider yourself lucky.  seriously though, i'm only exaggerating a little.

best,
jim

9.08.2009

this past weekend i went to the noorderlicht photo festival in groningen.  i went there not only because i am a photography enthusiast, but also because one of my images is in a show there.  in general it was a good experience, but i felt kind of weird being there.  first of all, the noorderlicht gallery was generous enough to offer us a hotel room so we could stay overnight.  this was surprising to me since i am such a small part of the show, but i gladly accepted.  when we got to groningen, we checked in, and then went about looking for photo festival people and activities.  that proved to be sort of difficult.  we went to the galleries where things were happening, but i never encountered anyone who was in charge, and i felt like i was in a ghost world watching things happen in the living world around me.  the main exhibit hall was a church, and it was densely populated with fancy photo people with festival badges and the large groups of photo buddies they were hanging around with.  marleen and i were just kind of walking around trying to look at pictures.  we decided to skip out on the festival dinner and get dinner by ourselves because it would have been too awkward to try to ease into the cool kid photo clubhouse.
i'm glad we did that.
after dinner and a lengthy walk around groningen we went back the hotel for a sound sleep.  in the morning there was a package with a festival badge and all kinds of useful festival information at my door.  i really wish i had gotten this package when i checked in.  i think it would have made things a lot easier for me, and i would not have felt so much like an alien.  so…  day two was a little better.  i had my badge, i saw lots of pictures, i got a free catalogue of the show, and felt a little better about everything in the world.  then i went home.

best,
jim

9.07.2009


Baby Tooth, originally uploaded by jimturbert.

this is a picture of the baby tooth that i recently i mentioned had come loose in my head. there was not an adult tooth to replace it, so the baby tooth never fell out. i know it looks nasty, but keep in mind that a baby tooth is not designed to last until its host is 33 years old. this one tried very hard to do that, and dentists helped it to last as long as it could. now, i have 27 teeth instead of 28, and a big gap where my upper left 2nd pre-molar should be. fortunately, this gap isn't overly noticeable, but i'd still like to get an implant at some point. for now i'm going to see how it goes without the tooth. chewing can be strange without a tooth there, but it doesn't hurt, and it hasn't prevented me from eating anything yet. i'll keep you posted.

best,
jim

9.04.2009

I would like to take this moment to mourn the loss of my in ear headphones. Today I put them in my ears only to discover that the left channel no longer works. I mourn because they were expensive, but mostly because now I find myself using the Apple headphones that came with the iPhone. The Apple headphones are far inferior to my dearly departed Shure in-ears (I don't remember the model name), and  are tinny in comparison. It almost hurt to listen at first. I have a pair of nice big muffy Sony headphones with a long ass curly cord.  They sound great, but they aren't very good for running with.   I'd have to tuck a meter of cord into my pants, and constantly hold the damn things so they would bounce off my head.  Of course, I'd also have to ring the sweat out of the ear muffs after each run as well.  I'm going to have to suck it up until I can afford another pair of quality in-ear sound isolating headphones.  That makes me sad.
For those of you who are happy with your iPhone/iPod headphones, DO NOT BUY A BETTER PAIR or you will be sad when they break.  Ignorance is bliss.

Sincerely,
Jim