nostalgia breeds inspiration

after talking with melissa yesterday about darkrooms, pinhole cameras, and all other things nostalgically photographic, i realized that i've not been taking the time to actually enjoy my hobbies. there are so many things that i enjoy doing, but during the school year i get so caught up in research, papers, work, reading, and trying to find time to eat and sleep that i just don't have time to invest in my hobbies. sure, i'll take some time every once in a while to relax or take a breather from my work so i can be refreshed before the next big push...but that usually just means that i'll watch a movie or grab dinner with a friend. those are, of course, enjoyable activities as well...but there are just so many other things that i enjoy that i've not been making time for. and while that might still be the case next year...this is summer for crying out loud! i should be making the most of my free-time while it still exists.

so i've decided to start rekindling many of the activities that i find so much pleasure in. i've started listening to vinyls (thank you oz and your $2 used records) while working on puzzles again. i sit in my recliner and listen to garrison keillor while drinking a cup of tea or coffee (depending on if i'm listening to the saturday evening or sunday afternoon show). i sit outside in the mornings to drink my coffee. i've started sketching again. my sketches are pretty rough, but on occasion i'll do one that won't be completely horrible. but they are just sketches...so i'm ok with them looking bad. my conversation with melissa also led me to setting some goals for myself for the rest of the year.

1) i'm going to start doing more photography. i'm going to use my uncle's old film camera instead of my little sony cybershot so that i look less like a tourst and more like a photojournalist. but i've encountered a slight problem with the lid of the battery casing on that camera...so this goal might have to be put on hold for a short while.

2) i'm going to start sketching more. i've always enjoyed drawing, but i wouldn't exactly call my drawings "good." in fact...i probably wouldn't even call them "drawings." they are sketches. some of them turn out decent, and some of them are just attrocious. but i enjoy doing them, so who really cares how bad some of them turn out. besides, the more that i do them, the more that one of two things will happen: i'll either get better and start averaging more decent drawings; or i'll get used to the look of my sketches and like them for what they are. i'll start posting some of my sketches here as well. which leads me to my next goal...

3) i'm going to start blogging more. i know i've been saying this for a while now...but i really mean it. i'm going to continue with my efforts to photoblog, and with the addition of my wanting to sketch more i'm going to have more subject matter for blogging. i'd also like to do more just regular blogging. you know, the kind with words. as mentioned previously, it's been hard for me to find the balance of what to share. for many reasons, i don't want to be too personal or self-disclosing. but i also don't want my blog to be completely pointless. and i realized yesterday why that balance is a little tricky...i don't have a specific audience. there have been a number of emails (or chats) that i've written that i've thought to myself "this would make a decent blog. not too personal, not too pointless. witty with just a dash of insight, without appearing as if i'm trying to make an everyday occurence sound profound." but when i try to transfer the material to the blagosphere, there is something lost in translation. i realized yesterday that it's because when i write and email (chat) with someone, i know who i'm talking to. i know our conversational pattern. i know what will be found humorous and what will spark engaging conversation. i know what will elicit a "heh," a "hmm (curious version)," a "hmm (doubtful/disapproving version...though that doesn't quite exactly describe the 'hmm' being conveyed. it's hard to describe, but if you know what i'm talking about, then you know exactly what i'm talking about)," a "ha!...awesome," and a "*tfot*." even when i write papers for class, i know who my audience is. it is my sultry mistress, academia. but when sending my thoughts out into the void, i don't know who is going to stumble across them. and since my conversational patterns (though distinctly me) are slightly tailored to each individual, i have no rubric for speaking to no one and everyone at the same time. but as evidenced by this post...i hope to change that.

4) i'd like to start making use of photoshop, which means i'm going to have to familiarize myself with it and learn to use it first. but this could probably be considered a secondary goal.

so there you have it... 4 goals for me to work towards for the remainder of the year. i don't expect to spend all of my time accomplishing these goals. i just want to get in the habbit of doing them (as well as other hobbies) more often. but considering that heretofore the majority of these activities have been lying dormant, doing them at all will be doing them more often than what i used to.