The summer is in full swing now and with three days left before holidays, I am determined to at get some sort of tan this summer. On that note, I will be cutting back all internet use to the bare-bones until after labour day. I will only be using the net for email, school and necessary searches/work. No RSS Feeds, Blogs, Google News, CBC, NY Times - I might even cut out Pitchfork!
Before I stop blogging for a few weeks, I'll give a quick update on things going on with me or catching my attention. Here goes the categorical list:
Music
Best Album of the Summer (so far): The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
The third album from the Vancouver "indie super group" (whatever that amounts to) is more of the same hook filled singable rock-pop as their last two albums. The Pornographers are not breaking any new ground or making any sort of statement, but that is not the intent.
If you want to listen to perfect indie power pop that your OC watching friends will fall in love with as well, this is where it is at. Technically this album isn't out yet (hello bit torrent!) which means I have until next week to buy tickets to the band's September 23rd show before it sells out over the hype that I'm guessing will come with this release.
Runner Up: Sufjan Stevens - Illoinois
If you are one of my music buddies, I'm sure that you've heard of this album one way or another. I don't need to rant about the 50 States project, the Christian influence, the ridiculously long song titles, the Superman misprint or the sold out show that I couldn't get into. Don't bug me about that last one. For the rest of the points get un-informed ass onto google if need be. Highly recommended.
Books
Not much to report on the literary front. Here are the four books that I have recently purchased and skimmed through which should get read this summer (all of them are easy reads):
Life
Busy, busy, busy. That sums things up. You know you have a problem when you are afraid of not being able to work on all of your pet projects for your only week of true vacation, a week without any school or paid employment. I think this has a lot to do with me filling up my spare time a bit too well. Here's what's been taking up the time
imagineACTION / The ONE Event
I've committed to working with Ryan to do all of the marketing, PR, web building, design, branding, poster-making and advertising for a large concert to be held in South Surrey in October. There could be endless work to do on this if I wanted to, all pro-bono. I'm passionate for the cause, which I'll elaborate some other time, but I can't help but feel like the work is distracting me from my own for-profit endeavors.
Other than that I'm enjoying the work despite the oh-so stressful September deadline for most of the work. For now, check out the teaser site that we put up at oneiscoming.com. Just don't let on to anyone that you know what one is...that's the fun part of it right now.
Business
Ug. What was I thinking time-wise that starting up a business this summer would be a good idea time wise? I have a to-dos sitting in my iCal that are over a month overdue. Simple things like finish off the eBay Consignment Website, list that stupid Garth Brooks Poster, catch up on two month old accounting, advertise in my neighborhood or even give a business card to that nice old lady at the Salvation Army Thrift Shop.
I guess that is what happens when you have other deadlines that have hard end dates as well as other people depending on you. I've made the choice to throw my own projects to the wayside. I guess I'll have to stand by my decisions, but I'm still hoping to pull the whole eBay side of things out of the red this fall. Just maybe September will be enough of a slacker month at school that I can grind out a profit.
Photography
I didn't do much hobby photography this summer, although I did get the chance to shoot Lisa and Mark's wedding a week and a half ago. There were a few little glitches, which I was expecting, but no deal breakers or catastrophes. Lets just say that film is a trusty but costly alternative to a Digital SLR that needs mid-day charging. I also learnt a lot by flying by the seat of my pants while trying to look mildly-proffesional. I should have a link to a gallery of shots up sometime in the future, maybe even breaking my self imposed blogging abstinence. For now, here is of what I learnt in retrospect:
- Have a thorough shot list.
- Know who is who as much as possible.
- Go fully digital if possible. Bring extra batteries and flash cards.
- Sometimes the best lens for a situation is a two decade old manual focus 50mm lens.
- Don't succumb to the pressures of boredom when doing group shots. Also, know your poses and groupings beforehand so you can get in and get out.
- Beware of bride and groom fatigue and don't let that get in the way of getting a lot of personal and fun shots.
- It doesn't need to be said, but Black and White is classy.
School
In the last two days I've all of the sudden gotten really excited for my fourth and final year at school. I am taking a full load of interesting classes with what should be an outstanding group of professors, according to Rate My Professor. My first semester is made up of a sociology course where The Communist Manifesto is required reading, upper level classes on Photography and Interactive art, a class on Canadian Cinema and a Philosophy of Literature course.
Second semester is more standard fair but features a racy class on sexuality and gender taught by a prof named Becki Ross. I've heard great things about the class, some of which may be explained by her bio. To quote:
[Becki] is working on a book-length study of female burlesque and striptease in postwar Vancouver, 1945-1980, and another book of essays on queer culture in the 21st century entitled, Shaken & Stirred. [...] Becki's hobbies include mucking about at the cabin with her partner Tracy, curling, golfing, reading Canadian fiction, and yoga.
The reviews of her class have all been outstanding, so I'm looking forward to a challenging and enthralling time.
One final thing I noticed today about the sociology department at school is the humor on the class numbering. The Sex class is SOCI 369 and the environment class is SOCI 420. Go figure.
And Finally My Geek Side...
Besides falling in love with Moleskin notebooks, the wonders of Bluetooth integration, Quicksilver and Getting Things Done to deal with the obvious backlog of work, I have been following a few productivity blogs for tips. Here are a few articles that caught my interest, mainly culled from links or content from 43 Folders and To-Done:
- David Allen's "list of lists" that you may want to use to stay on top of your world. I find these very useful myself, especially the books to read, music to listen to and important numbers.
- The benefits of plain text files to organize next actions (beware!: VERY, VERY geeky content!).
- A nice looking DIY Hipster PDA I think that I might have to look into a system like this for September. Either this, or a moleskin / index card based system capture system. Yes, I know I am talking crazy talk to the GTD laymen. For the second time this post, remember google my friends.
- How I learned to stop worrying and love my schedule was a good read for me as I try to make iCal work very hard for me, being the glue that holds a lot of my life together. By the way, 10 gold stars to anyone else who recognizes the pop-culture tribute that is that article title. If you are a FVCH alumni, think Media Studies...
This post is definitely the longest that I have posted in a long time, so I hope one of the few (although growing, according to my stats) number of people who check this site out find something of interest. It feels good to sum up most of what my life is up to into a single post, my fingers haven't typed this fast until the due date of my last term paper! Hopefully getting everything unloaded out of my brain and onto paper will help me relax during my vacations to Osoyoos and Oregon.
Good riddance inter-web!
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