Complete Transparency

I have often wondered what it would be like, to live life in complete transparency.

Hiding not one thought, not one idea, not one of the deep, dark secrets that we all have hidden away, deep down in our subconscious. Sharing them, free to float on the wind like small gray pigeons – beautiful as they fly, but each individually full of dirt and filth?

Would the world be a better place if they knew that I sometimes think mean things, really mean things, without even meaning to?

Would the world be a better place if they saw the sadness, depression and the incredible depths of pain and despair that sometimes wrack this mind?

In relationships people always talk about how it’s important to communicate – Would the world be a better place if it heard every single thought, doubt and indecision that gets filed away, each in their very own dark place?

Would the world be a better place with all the introspection, the self-doubt, the concerns and the worries?

Sure, there are the positives.

There is the love, the smiles, the warm memories… But those are often shared, especially during this high season of loving and sharing with others. We live our lives sharing all the warm fuzzyness, and shying away from revealing both sides of the coin.

Sometimes it’s for fear of rejection, sometimes it’s for fear of hurting others, sometimes it’s your own selfish pride that gets in the way.

So tell me this, dear readers…

Would you like to spend a week in my mind?

I don’t. 🙂

Fledgeling Photographer: 8mm Project

This project came about somewhat accidental.

A few weeks ago, I rented a Sigma 8mm/f3.5 Fish-eye lens from a local photo shop here in town. The idea was to actually play around with it more than I’d gotten to the month earlier, when I rented it for a single day.

Mmm, Ice Cream

One of the days I had the lens, was a deck-warming party at a friend of mines’ house. I had recently read about making time-lapse videos online, and decided to take advantage of the 180 degree field-of-view:

In addition to the ~350 images it took to make the video above, I took about 150 other still images as part of this experiment.

You can see the best picks by looking at my 8mm Project set on Flickr.

Daily posting

It occurs to me that I’m not doing too well on this whole post-one-blog-entry-every-day.

I think what happened, is what seems to happen with every committed project that I start.

I did 365 days of self-portraits. And after about 50 pictures, I lost my drive.

I did the daily blogging. And after less than a week, I lost my drive.

Ugh.

I wonder, sometimes, if the reason for my art-exploration failures, is because I am not surrounded by creativity. As a matter of fact, I’m surrounded by anti-creativity every day. Computers, predefined things, pigeonholed-ness, and lots else.

You can’t further one part of your being without immersing yourself in things that help enforce whatever you’re trying to grow.

Ach. Such a simple solution, and yet not-so-simple after all. I am comfortable in my job as a techie-robot-junkie.

Maybe I really should take a leap of faith – change to doing something different… doing something that interests me, instead of doing something that I’m good at.

I think this has been a realization-in-the-making for a long time. Now to pray that I’ll have the courage to jump when I see the opportunity.

I’ll keep you posted, folks.

What do you get…

When you combine the following:

  • 30-40 foot waves
  • a small ferry (that’s a car-carrying boat)
  • motor trouble
  • The semi-truck of doom

… Carnage:

Basically, a small ferry was on its way from Norway to the Faeroes, and ended up having motor trouble due to the height of the waves. (Waves too big, boat too small, propeller comes out of water when boat is on top of a wave) This led to some extra swinging around, which toppled the truck, and damaged some-160 cars.

Click the picture for the full story (in Norwegian.)

4:45

Sometimes I wonder what is going on.

Right now is one of those moments – it’s 4:45am, and I’m still awake, sitting around wondering what’s going on.

I monkeyed around with making another video, then I read in my Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card.

Then I got hungry and crawled out of bed.

Now I’m just hungry. And tired of being up all night.

My alarm will go off in 30 minutes.

I’m considering getting breakfast. Nothing like a 5am run to Kerby Lane to make things new and interesting, neh?

Neh – a phrase I just stole from the book… A sort of “Don’t cha think” combined with “No” Or just neh, similar to hehn.

Anyway, it’s now 4:48, and I should get dressed for breakfast.

Time Lapse

Earlier tonight we had a deck warming party at Peter’s place.

Earlier today I’d rented a 8mm fisheye lens, mostly to have something to play around with, photographically, this weekend.

It’s a fun little lens to mess with – it makes me want to buy the cheap(er) Pelang – the russian knock-off.

Anyway, as part of playing with the lens, I followed a tutorial I’d found online.

And without further ado, I present to you 28 minutes compressed into a few seconds:


Peter’s Deck Party by Dominic on Vimeo.