Such excitement before nine!

Indeed. Progress yesterday on backing up image files, the month of September finished, August next on the list for today and maybe tomorrow. Lots and lots of DVD's. This, of course, has led me to peek at some of the older files to see what condition they're in, where they are, what it's going to take to get them in line. Boy, but some of them aren't very good. Some few yes, I'm proud of them, they kept me shooting, but again, boy-howdy are most of them bad. Well, instructive in their contribution to my learning process. I can still shoot bad, it's in the blood, but mostly it's bad because they didn't work the way I'd hoped, not because I was totally without a clue.

You've still got lighting among many others to learn. You're really bad in the studio.

Yes, but in a different way. I can take pictures in a studio that work well enough, it's just there's a whole lot more territory there I need to learn if shooting in a studio is actually in my blood. I've pretty much decided it isn't. Not this year, not where this head of mine is at.

As mentioned, the image backup and adding them to a database project progresses. I have something called a network drive coming, a stand alone unit with its own operating system that manages three terabytes of storage. Two copies of everything, one disk fails, the other survives. It cost half what my stand alone one terabyte drive cost some few years ago. I should have bought something smaller back then, saved the money, but I have to admit this process of falling prices and better function continues to be interesting to see. This way I'll have duplicate backups of all my images on DVD, but also have the images online and accessible for years to come unless I keep shooting piles of pictures like an idiot. Even then, piles of pictures unimagined can be added to whatever comes along later in hardware at an even better price.

You appear to have more money than brains and I know you don't have all that much money. Buy this, buy that. We're in a recession here, hang up your wallet!

At my age it's a race between the bank account and the coffin. Hard to say, on any given day, who's ahead.

To be young and just starting out in this century has got to be a gas: the toys, the toys; so many ways to go, so many choices! They're here and there and everywhere! I've often thought about my century, the Twentieth Century, the unimaginable progress they made then, and realize now this century is going to make it look anemic. All forms of human interaction are going to change, to evolve (he said with absolute confidence, the economy in shambles, wars on every front). Hell, people are going to live decades longer, this DNA business hasn't even started yet. Computers: still in their infancy. Cameras! Oh god, cameras! Hup, hup, hup...!

Stop now, please.

I'm not sure where that came from. This “feeling better” business, it's slippery, makes noise, drives many people up the wall. (Hup, hup.)

Later. A decent walk this morning, getting home just after noon. A camera over to the farmer's market, of course, my heart not really in it. Not sure why. There's a commitment required for this street photography business and I'm far enough into it to understand what's needed, but not far enough, evidently, to make the necessary step. Maybe that's part of what Minerva is projecting for the coming year: getting off one's duff and doing what's important. Is street photography important, bucko? Well, if it is, then....

A walk along Lakeshore noting another store going out of business. Their shelves were almost empty. Another photograph outside of Peet's. I hope they're doing this half in fun for the adventure and experience, but there were bills and coins in one of the violin cases and they're, well, playing for change. Is it appropriate to put this one up on artandlife? Is it appropriate here?

Another cup of coffee at my usual café, coffee and a plain toasted bagel, not really needing the bagel, but feeling guilty taking up a table for just coffee alone. My morning café is struggling along with everyone else. A picture through the fence separating their tables from the sidewalk. It turned out better than I'd hoped. Then again a walk back to the apartment passing the young woman hunched over texting. This is what I mean by not taking that last step, making that final commitment. A better photographer would have moved and taken some chances to get a good, rather than an extremely ordinary picture. We'll see. I'm talking about it for some reason, maybe there's movement of some kind on the way. Can't be sure.

So otherwise what? A good walk, another cup of coffee, a picture through a window, another bird watcher noticed after saying day before yesterday I'd not noticed any bird watchers in the past along this urban bird sanctuary lake. I'm probably not paying attention. You can't pay attention to everything. I don't think.

An afternoon ahead. There are things I'm looking forward to getting done.