Two Posts In Two Days? He Must Be Bored!

Look, oh look. Another post.

I'm doing more batching today that I didn't get done yesterday because the computers kept crashing. Damn Macs...

An old Mac is a bad Mac.

I've been in the mood a lot recently to work on my portfolio and get some prints made but I just haven't the time. I also want to get my website back online and add a lot of new images to my Flickr account. I also want: to finish detailing my new car, play some Halo, organize my music, file a bunch of paperwork, redo my budget, sell some stuff on eBay, do a couple of photo shoots, do some advertising for ISP, etc.

There's a lot I want to do.

It always seems that I'm working or busy with something else. I need to get my life into a place where I know where I'm going and what I'm doing, but it's a little chaotic right now. I think one of the first major steps will be getting everything finalized here at work. I think that once it slows down and I don't have 5,000 things to do, I'll be able (mentally) to focus on personal things. Once I get there, I can start planning out the next couple of months as far as how I want to use my time, spend (or not spend) my money, and a whole load of other stuff.

But I'm not complaining. I'm happy! Really, I am. I'm happier then I've ever been, I just feel exhausted some days (again, mentally). The OCD likes to kick in which doesn't help with all the busyness.

Blah.

Still batching. I have two more batches to run after these two. I've already had two crashes today as well.

At Work... and Batching

One of the things that sucks about working on a mass photo edit is te batch times. A large edit can take up to two to three hours to batch. Now, imagine that I have three orders to batch and you can just about see where I'm going with this.

It only take about 10 minutes or so to set up the batch. I'm running two computers which leaves me with nothing that I can do. There is obviously more work to do, but these batches have to get done today, and they may be the only thing that gets done.

And just now one of the computers crashed, so I have to start over on that batch. I wouldn't mind it at all if it was the only thing I had to do, but I've got about 20 other jobs on my list and it kind of feels like I'm just wasting time here.

Boo...

I could clean the studio or the office, but both are in fairly good shape as it is. This is why I'm blogging; because I can't do much of anything else.

There is a post coming soon that will appear before this one about some things that I have yet to talk about, so look for that in the next couple of days (it's about my new car).

Spinning in my chair is kinda fun...

A Post... NO WAY!!!

Since I'm batching a whole bunch of photos right now at work, I thought I'd take this time and write a little in this long forgotten blog of mine.

I've been meaning to write some things for a while now, but where is the time? That seems to be the thing right now in my life; I'm too friggin' busy. A lot has been going on, so much so that I don't think I can remember it all.

The biggest thing, well, ALMOST the biggest thing ;o) ... I got a new car! I know... FINALLY. I know all you people out there were Winona haters, but she was a good car to me. Sure, she had problems. A LOT of problems, but she got me from point "A" to point "B" almost always. I have to thank her for that. She is gone now, but not fogotten.

I'd like everyone to meet Donut (before the "blue spider"... wink wink, nudge nudge). This is my new car! w00t! He's a 1998 Honda CR-V LX. The history on this guy is that he had one previous owner who took pretty good care of him; regular mantinence, garage kept, low mileage, and so on. The original tag was $9,995.00 but I was able to talk them down to $7,700.00. I put $1,500.00 down and my monthly payments end up around $190.00. Not too bad. The car is in great shape and drives amazingly well. I've never had a car this nice.

I'm in the process of restoring the paint job to near perfect condition. It's not a hard process, but it takes a little time, and cooperating weather. I got the hood done in a little over an hour, but the entire process for the car could take about 4 or 5 hours. You can really tell the difference when you get up close. The feeling is also a big indicator. The "before" feels a little bit like sand-paper and the restored surface feels like glass. It's pretty amazing.

So far most of the miles driven on the new car have been to work and back. I plan on getting some road trips in soon. We went to Indy this past Sunday, watched some football, and had a cookout of sorts. It was a good time and gave me a chance to unwind a little from work and being in Lafayette.

New Laptop

w00t!

We bought ourselves a laptop. $400.00. Not bad. Selling my Powerbook if anyone is interested.

The new laptop is used, but not really. That's why it was so cheap. It's pretty fast and will fit our needs.

More later...

Blogging To Blog About Stuff

I should be in the shower getting ready for work, but instead I figured I'd give everyone an update out there.

Let's see...

I am working full-time now (and by full-time, I mean more like 50 hours a week, give or take). It feel good to actually have a job to go to everyday. I'm doing something that I enjoy and I'm making money. There's a LOT of work to be done, that's for sure, but the more that I'm doing it, the more I'm learning how to manage my workflow and get things done. I like that.

The apartment is still not unpacked yet, but by the time I get home and settled, it's like 9:00 and I'm not motivated to get anything done. I'm going to have this weekend to get some work done, so we'll see how much unpacking I can get done.

My car is dying... actually, it's more like she's dead but zombified. She's moving around and everything, but the first chance she would get she'd eat your brain. Poor Winona isn't going to last much longer, but now that I have a full-time job, I can afford a new car! Well, not really a NEW car, but something nicer then what I have. The guy I'm working for has some contacts in the auto industry and is having them seek me something out. I'm in the market for a newer, used Honda Civic. I've seen a couple online that I'm looking into and my payments would only be like $100-150 a month, which isn't too bad. The insurance might be my online problem though...

We went and saw Nickel Creek last night. Let's just say it was freakin' awesome! They really know how to put on a show. They played for a good two and a half hours. The encore was about 45 minutes as is. Whew! After the show, we got some autographs and talked to a couple of the members of the band. If you get a chance, you should take a listen. They're really good and know how to use humor in their music as well. You can't beat a band who knows how to make fun of itself.

I'm going to end there because I'm sure there is a lot more to say, but like I said, I need to get ready for work.

Some Kind of Title... Or Something

I thought I should update while I have a free minute. Things are going well but I'm still busy as ever. In fact, I'm going to be even more busy in the coming weeks. If you thought it was hard getting a hold of me now, wait until then.

I still have a little bit of moving left; pretty much just my stuff that is left at Robin's house. I think I'm going to start going over there after I leave work and grab a couple of things everyday this week. It was our goal to be done by the 23rd and I think it's possible but I need to get moving on getting my stuff.

I'm in the process of doing a couple of things, both work and personal related. Keep checking back for details as soon as I'm further along. I will tell you that is involves my photography work. I still trying to figure out what I want to do with my website, but for now it's going to remain a placeholder.

I am going to have a big update to my Flickr account soon, at least in the next couple of days. I haven't dumped my pictures off my cell phone in a good while. I'm also going to start putting up bits of my work on there. Well, maybe not the final pieces, but "process" pieces. I don't know yet, we'll see (that's one of the things I'm working on).

Kind of backtracking, but I wanted to say that the new apartment is looking good. We still have a few things to get and a few things to unpack, but it's really taking shape. It's starting to feel like home...

I like that...

How Things Are Going

Just a quick update while I have a few minutes before work...

We're moved into the new apartment (well, for the most part). It's really nice! It's large and we have a lot of space (although the living room is a bit of a challenge). There are still a few more large things to get moved of mine, plus we are going to be buying a few things too. We have set a deadline for getting the place completely done; that date being September 23rd.

It's out goal to have everything done by then. This weekend will be a good time to get most of that done. I've been working a lot this week; going in early and getting home late. Not a whole lot of time to get things done.

Next week should be slower which will give me time to unpack. We haven't had any major problems with the place yet; so that's good.

Work has been interesting. I've been doing a lot of different things and my list keeps getting longer. I'm learning a lot and that's good for me. We are trying to an education program up and running by November. This is going to give me a chance to keep teaching without the need to be a Purdue. Plus, I'm in charge of the syllabus; I'm teaching photography the way photography should be taught.

w00t!

EDIT:

I'll have before and after pictures of the new apartment soon, probably on Flickr. Keep checking back.