little words

Whilst out having brunch with my parents a few days ago, the guy taking our order said to me: And what will you have, ma’am?

Someone called me ma’am. It’ll all downhill from here.

No one else might care but I think it’s exciting: my name in a comic book.

I got an email from the company I bought my travel insurance for my trip in September, offering me 10% off another policy. It’s not a huge saving ($8) but it’s better than nothing.

I should be super excited about this trip seeing it’s only three months away but I’m not. I had already planned everything for my first trip but this time the only thing I’ve organised is my flights to L.A. I dunno… I shouldn’t be leaving the planning to the last minute like this. I have flights to and from Seattle to buy but I’m finding it very hard to get motivated to organise anything. I’ve already decided to do a bus trip from L.A to the Bay Area to visit Steve and that’s going to take a whole day but I still haven’t arranged anything with that either. However, I don’t know if I actually can.

Zero motivation to do anything. Don’t know what’s wrong with me. Sigh.

Silence is golden | Reflection | Into the blue

Today was such a beautiful day I decided it would be a waste to spend it inside. So out I went with my trusty beloved camera and took some shots. Took me a while to get my eye in and I seemed to be mostly attracted to shapes which didn’t really work as photos but perhaps I can use them as textures for other things. Still, I did get three photos I was happy with so I think that’s a pretty good result.

I’m really digging Reflection. Docklands isn’t my favourite place in Melbourne but who ever designed the car parks came up with some fantastic concepts.

I’m trying to get my creative mojo back. Things have been a bit tough for me recently and taking photos/being creative always makes me feel better because I feel like I’ve achieved something. I haven’t been getting a lot of comments on my photos recently but I’m getting a steady amount of views which is nice. Besides, my photography is only going to improve if I keep plugging away at it. It was very bad of me to put my camera down and not pick it up for months.

Why?

Because I just bought…

The last few weeks haven’t been the best for me so I decided I deserved a treat. And it is almost xmas. But it’s not all about pleasing my ID because I’ll be paying it off over the next two months. Two months waiting for my latest Tim Sale pretty. Sigh. Money is going to be unbelievably tight but I’ll just have to be more careful about what I squander, I mean, spend my disposable income on in the next few months.

I wonder if I ask nicely enough if he’ll ink it for me.

All that remains #1 | All that remains #2 | All that remains #3

Found this collection of bones abandoned in the gutter whilst walking home from my friends’ place. The bones were wired together which suggests that until recently they belonged to someone. I’m pleased with how they came out. I think the depth of field is really good, especially on the first one.

Bones aren’t something I’d normally photograph but the way these ones were arranged and the fact they’d been abandoned by someone made them cry out to photographed.

I’ve had this up on my redbubble folio for awhile now and I’m still really pleased with it. For once, the depth of field and the lighting are spot on and your eye is drawn to the centre of the photo as it should be. Lightroom helps with the post-production but I know it’s a good photo without it.

It’s a reminder of all the things I love: comic books, my American peeps, illustration, the joy that’s in creating a piece of art and that on occasion I’ve got it in me to take a great photo.

I went to see Burn After Reading with a friend and as the credits rolled I turned to him and said “That park that Linda meets her guys? I’ve been there! I’ve walked on that very path. It’s the one you walk through to get from the Washington Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial”. Heh. I’m one of those people, relating everything they see back to their travels.

But I was super-excited. It was the first time I’ve ever had that experience.

Aksimet
I finally got sick of wading through spam comments so I thought it’d give it a whirl. It’s a plugin that’s suggested by WordPress and it’s free so I figured why not? At first I thought it wasn’t working because a few spam comments slipped through but now it’s working brilliantly. Just deleted 25 spam comments in one go. And I’m not getting the emails that come along with bastards trawling my blog. Hoorah!

Who Killed Amanda Palmer?
I’m not a huge Dresden Dolls fan but I’m totally infatuated with Amanda Palmer’s first solo album. I read Neil Gaiman’s blog and he mentioned Ms Palmer several times, enough that I got interested. He’s writing the text for a book of photos she’s putting out that ties in with the album and I think I may just have to get it. Words can’t express how much I love this album. She’s a brilliant piano player and her voice is wonderful. Plus I recently discovered there’s a video for my favourite song, Ampersand (it’s the third one down).

I have an itinerary!!

How exciting is that? The planning has already commenced. Guess I’m getting no xmas presents this year. But I’m fine with that - money is all good (preferably American). The funny thing is that the flights are the same as the ones I was on for Baltimore. Heh.

I can’t wait. It’s going to come around so quickly this time. I’m putting in my leave request tomorrow.

*shakes head* I can’t believe I’m doing this but it’s going to be awesome!

I told myself I wasn’t going to do this but I’ve decided to go to Seattle next year for the Emerald City ComicCon. It’s the location for next year’s forum meet and it was killing me to think I wouldn’t be there. So I decided I should be there. Got enough money on my credit card to buy flights to Los Angeles and I’ve found flights that are on sale so why the hell not?

I’ve decided I’d rather have the debt and the brilliant experience I know it’ll be than to stay here and regret not going. Debts can be repaid, experiences can’t be lived once the time passed.

It’s felt like something has been missing since I got back. I’ve had nothing to look forward to and plan for. I didn’t realise how much I was looking forward to it and how much I did think about it. Now I know. The whole traveling experience is so fantastic I wish I could do it more often. I thought I’d be all blase and flippant about it but it really has changed my perception of… everything really.

So yeah, once more I’m off. It’s going to be brilliant. I can’t wait to see Seattle and all my friends.