Definitely feeling better today. The bridges are charred wood at the bottom of a river now and golly if the sky ain’t bluer despite the smoke. Lose some stress and life gets better.
Worked at a new studio yesterday all the way over in Arlington Heights. Don’t ask me why they put a commercial photography studio in Arlington Heights – it doesn’t make any sense to me either. But it was a good shoot, an enjoyable day, and it’s another check that will be coming my way in the next month or so.
I believe it’s time to start practicing some fairly heavy-duty self control and actually start making progress towards getting to Japan instead of sitting in my room, wasting my money, and generally feeling frustrated with where I am. Yeah, I’m frustrated, but wallowing in it isn’t going to get me anywhere.
First casualty of this will be magazines. I am an information addict. To that end, I am also a periodical junkie. Cheap, easy to get, and chock full of stuff to fill my head with. Well, cheap unless you’re like me and go to a book store and spend $90 at a time on magazines that you’ll have forgotten about a week later. I’ll stick with books, divert the saved money to my credit card debt and computer debt, and get my information fix from library books.
Also going to make myself really start studying Japanese again, this time in earnest. It’s a skill I’m desperately going to need. I know I’ve said I’ll probably just end up having to force-learn a shitload of stuff when I get there. I will – there’s no question of that – but why make it any harder than necessary? I mean hell, if I need to know about 2,000 Kanji and their variations before I can achieve basic literacy in Japanese, I shouldn’t be wasting my time like this.
I’ve got things to accomplish, people, and the clock she is a ticking.
I’m in an odd, bitter but motivated sort of mood right now. Well, at least upbeat with a little bitterness thrown in for spice.
I really want to try to start to do actual published work with other people. I’m thinking mostly of collaborative stuff with writers, designers, other photographers, etc. Anything will do, though. I need some publications under my belt. In the US or internationally. If anyone knows of any good resources I should be following or has any projects they’d like me to work on, PLEASE let me know.
And now I’ve got a phone call to make and some food to eat. Check back later tonight for pictures of sake and ramblings on green tea.
