So, I recently re-read 1984. I guess I read it before, but I feel like I never had. I appreciated it much more this time around and, frankly, it depressed me much more this time.

I'm amazed how long ago this was written and how frighteningly possible most of the concepts in this work feel.

Three steps. Physically break you, intellectually break you, then spiritually break you. And that's only a very small portion of the population - enough to keep an entity in power indefinitely.

Ugh.

What's worse is the reason I don't think the scenario can happen in real life: profit motive. I think humans are generally too selfish. Once an elite gain power, they will not want to give it up. The elite of 1984 essentially surrender their power to the Party since the survival of the Party trumps the survival of any individual party member, even Inner Party members, apparently.

I just don't think a group of people with power would build a jail cell around themselves and doom themselves. Once they taste the power enough to have that opportunity, they will not relenquish.

So, yeah... pure evil will be avoided by relying on human selfishness.

Happy Times!!

In reality, Emily, this is just for me. To scribble. 

I feel slippery these days. Not in an oily or wet-seal-walking-on-polished-marble-floor sort of way, but rather in a metaphorical hard-to-get-hold-of way. There are tremors that suggest plates are shifting deep under the surface and I lack the instrumentation to track the movement of the continents or to predict where they will settle until the next shift.

I'm not the type to freak out about such things, which is good, because I also have little tolerance for drama, even within the confines of my own mind. But still, sometimes, like when I'm surfing the web on a thursday night in my boxers and undershirt on the couch in my room by the bed under the fan upstairs in my apartment, I can't help but wonder who I'm going to be next month. Have the plates shifted imperceptibly only to settle again, or will there be more tangible results?

We'll see, I suppose.

I would also like to take this moment to express my profound disilliusionment with Hollywood. Yeah, I know, it's silly, but I somehow thought that it might be fun to read the Bourne Ultimatum before I go see the movie. The first major character in the book died in the first movie! After poking around wikipedia, I have come to the conclusion that about the only holdovers from book to movie were character names and general titles. Stories, character development, major plot elements were all lost on the way to the silver screen. Sad, too, because I like the movies and I heard the books are good, but I'm not going to read them now.  

Every once in a while, I get asked to shoot something cool. Wakeboarding, for example.

So my interesting cheerleader friends asked me to shoot some wakeboarding this weekend.

You know how drug dealers aren't supposed to use their own dope?

Similarly, I should not try to participate in activities I'm shooting. Not even "just for the hell of it" and especially if said activity requires any athleticism. 

Then end.

I find it personally entertaining to look back on my actions and motivations sometimes. Typically only the stuff floating on the surface... digging to deep seems like digging for trouble. But I'm staring it something pretty obvious today. Twice recently, I've gotten a temporary, but powerful, boost in personal motivation. What's funny as that neither of these events has (yet) lead to any imediate or foreseeable direct impact.

Fine and dandy, but where do we find the profundity? Nothing came of either event, right?

False.

Black Bear.

(sorry, got side tracked - watch The Office)

But seriously, false. Something very real and nearly tangible has come of it.

To borrow from the recent major sporting event, I was just sort of hanging out in the starting gates. Chillin'. Eatin' a carrot or two now and then. Some oats. Gettin' fat. Not really appreciating the fact that the 'BANG' followed by a blank soaring through the sky could air at any moment.

I should prepare myself. I should be diligent. I should know where the finish line is and, most of all, I should care if I get there... and less importantly that I should get there first.

See, I feel like the combination of these two metaphorical kicks in the butt has actually been the start of a race for me. Furthermore, I find myself off and running. While I'll probably lose this race (though it ain't over yet), there will be others and I do certainly hope I'll be more lucid and prepared... next time the shot is fired.

So Jessica and I will be leaving for Florida in just a couple hours!

Beach: Here I come!

You all enjoy yourselves the rest of this week and watch here for updates if you care about that sort of thing :)

Above is a photo from the GT Cheerleading Friends and Family night, which was last night (Monday April 2). The photos I took weren't the best, but anyway... it was fun. This was a practice run for the squad and also a chance for folks who can't get away to Daytona Beach, where the competition is, to see the show.

I, however, am going to Daytona Beach tomorrow! For those that don't know... I spent a good bit of my formative years in the area and still have old friends and family in the area. It is nice to go down there to familiar faces and familiar surroundings for a vacation and what better time to go than when there are hundreds (thousands?) of cheerleaders in town?

It should be a good time!

I had never flown on a small plane, only large commercial jets. Our King Air C90B was designed to carry 2 pilots and maybe 6 passengers. It was far from a luxury plane, but it was very comfortable for the length of the flight.

It takes something like 4 hours to drive from Atlanta to Waycross, so the state charters a plane for the day. Taking the plane reduces that to something like an hour... or less. This saves approximately 2.5-3 hours per person per leg of the trip, for a total of 5-6 hours per person on the flight. This accounted to something like 25-30 man hours in this case with 5 passengers. Easy to see how the finances work out in favor of chartering the plane.

I actually finished my work very quickly. It wasn't a large facility, so I did my walkthrough and moved on. I even did my site visit report while I was waiting for others to conclude their meeting. In the mean-time, I shot some boredom shots:

On the left here is my shadow. I'm never the best model, but I'm always available. I love that about me. Such a willing subject. This photo symbolizes how I felt fenced in by my situation... completely bored with no way of reaching interesting activity. Not really. That's just some bs I just thought of.  On the right is just an unposed still-life that I saw and committed to silicon.

Anyway, eventually the meetings were over and we could make our way back to the plane to go home. I was desperately parched, though I don't know why. I had something like 3 giant glasses of sweet tea at lunch, but it did not satisfy my burning desire, come 3 pm, for liquid refreshment. To my delight, the little airport in Waycross, GA happened to have one of my favorite refreshments: Coca-Cola in a glass bottle.

Anyway, the coke picture there was taken as I was running to the airplane to return to Atlanta. I had been warned that the afternoon flight would be a lot bumpier than the way down, which was smooth flying. I'm glad they warned me! It wasn't too bad and I didn't lose my coke or my lunch by any stretch. Actually it was a bit of a rush... not so different than a roller coaster!

The end.

I had completely lost my patience with winter.

Hopefully, now that the weather has warmed,

I'll get out and take more photos.

Warm weather and photography

just make me happy.

(the preceding was not a serious attempt at prose)