So don’t act surprised if I decide to disappear.
And pay no attention to what I have mentioned here.
What a selfish display for a girl as humane and dear.
I should have known this was going to happen.

I’ll try to take a toss away photo and play. This is an example of that.

(click for larger view)

What I really enjoy is the closer inspection of the lights, to see the dust fragments on my sensor. A little chaos in the beauty I think. This is from Natalie’s photoshoot from 2008.

• It’s Too Sunny Out Here
  
• Original Photoshoot on Flickr

(a repost from facebook)

1. I’m not really a fan of web surveys/polls. I never fill out “your 8 things about your top 8″ or “how slutty are you” and so on. I think I got burned out on them by thespark.com, a website that formerly had the best personality quizzes on the internet. But since several people have tagged me in this extremely important quiz that has personally destroyed about 250 million dollars worth of productivity nationwide…I’m going to fill it out. I’d wager to say at least one of these will make you uncomfortable. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

2. I am absolutely obsessed with planes and flying, not in the standard sense of wanting to be a pilot, but with crashes and disasters. Man was not meant to fly. I love to travel. This can be a problem. I’m a wreck when it comes to flying. I’ve had plenty of bad things happen to me when flying that probably conditioned me to this obsession, including…

3. Being on a plane struck by lightning. When I got dumped by my then girlfriend in London (4) I was, needless to say, anxious to get back to the states. Problem. I bought this $163 roundtrip ticket from Chicago to London in 2000 on priceline, which refused to changes the terms of the flight. So I was there another nine days. My flight was overbooked, so they offered me a first class seat on a plane an hour later. As the flight ascended through the clouds, boom. I was pretty sure that would have been a really cruel way to die.

5. But I’m probably more afraid of being buried alive. I think that’s what I worry about the most. That or drowning, which I hear could be worse. But knowing my luck, I’d be the guy on the ground that gets killed by a fly-by plane crash.

6. I’ve lived in seven cities in eight years. (Chicago, Champaign, Boise, Portland, Tucson, San Diego and now Milwaukee)

7. I am obsessed with the idea of being able to slam-dunk a basketball. I at one point was able to dunk volleyball, but never a regulation basketball. To me, that is grace and power at once. I am 5’8. I am white. I am hopeless.

8. I had a batting average in little league of .730. To this day it probably remains the most significant athletic accomplishment I’ve had. It also happened 16 years ago. To say I am in the twilight of my athletic career is an understatement.

9. I genuinely love sports, following sports, and questioning what it means to be a fan in a day and age where as Bill Simmons said, “you’re essentially rooting for laundry.” I support (in order of passion) Boise St. Football, Chicago Bulls, Chicago White Sox, San Antonio Spurs, Pittsburgh Steelers and when they were still a franchise, the Seattle Supersonics. Fuck Clay Bennett and Howard Schultz.

10. Did I mention I really don’t enjoy sharing personal information? I’ve gotten more private as I’ve gotten older. I don’t mind telling people things in the course of conversation, but to blatantly talk about myself is challenging (see #1)

11. I’m not socially anxious as much as I used to be, but I think being on the radio lends itself to a “you’re always on stage” mentality that you have to be very cautious with what you say. As a result you over think things and get nervous. Now, I just feel pretty comfortable with my flaws and hope they don’t land me on the front page of an internet gossip site. Maybe an alt weekly.

12. I’ve read so much long form material on the internet I feel like I read more than when I plowed through books. My ADHD (13) prevents me from really being able to just absorb one piece of material. I love reading the New Yorker online. I also think newspaper companies are high when they said, “people will miss the tactile sensation of readingOH SHUT UP WITH YOUR TACTILENESS. I hated reading a paper. I enjoy staring a light bulb (essentially) and being able to pull every newspaper in the country down on an RSS feed (that incidentally can be filled with duplicate ap reports.) (14) Also, I love the idea of a newspaper, I just wish they’d face reality and try to monetize they content they gave away for free.

15. Worth mentioning I’m addicted to the internet. Panic breaks out in the radio station when our web goes down. It’s worth mentioning that you are probably addicted too. It’s ok. Put the LOLcatz down.

16. I got on the internet in 1986 when my parents signed up for Prodigy. The online service. I had what was then called an “online journal” from 1998 until 2003. They are now called blogs. And like most blogs, mine was complete drivel.

17. My first radio show as when I was 16. I was working at WLUW and obviously still in high school. It is the second longest commitment in my life besides being alive. That being said, I have no interest in being defined by my job. Who does, really? Unless you’re the president. Or Bono.

18. High school was a Roman Catholic seminary. Yeah. I went to a seminary. I like to say I recreationally considered the priesthood. My spiritual beliefs are a little silly, based purely on my mood, but reasonably lie between pantheism, deism, and agnosticism. Either way, I feel comfortable I didn’t join the priesthood. But I did learn Latin (19) and by Latin I mean I learned the Our Father (Pater Noster) and some basic vocabulary. I also passed on Spanish, which might have benefited me in Tucson and San Diego, alas.

20. I’ve bought prescription drugs in Nogales. Potentially with several of you reading this.

21. I can’t whistle or blow bubbles. (the clown)

22.My parents have been in the medical field for over 70 years combined. They are some of the toughest, yet warmest people I know.

23.I take pictures. It makes me extremely happy. I’d like to do it professionally at some point.
6 X 4 = 24.

25. I tend to be too much of a devil’s advocate and not enough of an advocate. It’s an uncertain world we live in and it becomes easy to not trust anything or anyone. For me it’s hard to find things to believe in. I think that’s why doing this 25 random things is healthy for me. Thanks for reading, cheers.

(my grasp of wordpress is still limited…lost revisions and the like. hopefully this will work now)

Like a bunch of you, I felt 2008 sucked. I’ve been trying to pinpoint why for a few weeks now.

Got Fired! (right before the holiday season)
Unemployed for part of the year
Moved across the country
Left a bunch of my friends behind
Friendships were/are tested
Fatigued from a seven year election news cycle
Scared by an Economy
Turning 30! next year

Some things that sucked indeed.

On the bright side…

I made it to 2008.
Fucked around for six months in San Diego
Visited San Francisco
Messed with everyone’s head.
Took a cross country road trip
Working with my best friend
Close to my family again
Close to Chicago again
Like Milwaukee
Work for a great company
The best revenge is living well
Played basketball 4 – 5 days a week for six months
Took about 10,000 photos

I took less photos towards the end of the year, but still felt I had a productive run.  These are some of my favorite photos from the year, from earliest to latest.

This is San Diego at dusk.  It’s January. Can you tell?  I can’t. I hate you San Diego.

Georgia Aquarium. I have been to Atlanta a handful of times.  It is jokingly referred to by Jacent and Michelle as “where kallao’s ex girlfriends live” I have never lived there. The women I dated did not live there when I was in a relationship with them. I have no real reason for posting this photo other than I wanted to tell you that story  because I find it so unusual. This could potentially mean my ex-wife will be from there as well. I visited in January of 2008 and yes, saw all of them.

I took a lot of portraits, but I had the most fun with Keely. I think she’s so extremely bright and witty it’s a crime she’s not in entertainment. Now that I’ve said this, she will point to this constantly as an arguement as to why she should be an entertainer. I apologize in advance. She’s also sassy and it worked to our advantage in the photoshoot. MJ did a nice job as usual as the assistant. I was rusty from portraits, but there were a few that came out well. I think this is one of those.

Annika (sp?) was out of control. I had a string of three child portrait sessions in five months. For someone who has no interest in child rearing, I spent a lot of time taking photos of kids.  Balboa Park is usually pretty good for this stuff. Jen, the mother, was awesome and these photos worked out well. MJ assisted, as usual.

This is my favorite photo I took last year. This is Darwin. Darwin is jumping off a swing (while wearing a cape) at sunset. Away we go.

I tried to take phots for disconnected salon, but they mostly sucked.  I liked this treatment though. As you can tell, I only own a fisheye lens and a 50mm prime. I rigged a few interesting strobe bounces to make it work.

Taking portraits of an amazing photographer? That’ll get you nervous. I remember seeing this location when I visited my friend Jen’s new condo downtown. I knew it was paydirt. It was also extremely warm. So we were all sweaty. MJ assisted on this photoshoot and I couldn’t have gotten half of the shots without her and Natalie’s expertise. I’d call it a group effort.  There are cool photos from outside, but this makes me happy about finding an interesting shot and making it work. Plus the experience gained me a friend, someone whose guidance extended photography.

Garett Stenson is brilliant. He is one of the finest people in this country. (This is finer than you or I are). I find the way his mind, along with that of his best friend Benjamin Diggles,  one of the most fascinating things I’ve ever encountered.  They’re also genuinely good people, which only makes them more…annoying. Evilbackwards is their home. They formerly made the finest wallets known to man. This is a picture of Garett, while at the offices of DB Clay. I’d wanted to take photos of their operation for a while. When I took a trip to Portland, I did just that. Graham, one of their friends is an amazing photographer (they are all talented, it’s depressing) and had taken dozens, if not hundreds of great photos of Garett. I took the opportunity to try something different. Garett works hard. Extremely hard. I wanted to show the wear his work had taken on him. He is young but if you look closely, you can see his maturity and experience.

I still love New Orleans. When I knew I was moving to Milwaukee, it was an easy route to get there. Drive though Tucson, Austin, New Orleans and St Louis.  It was a longer drive but well worth it. I enjoyed going with my friend Lara as opposed to driving by myself.  It was a chance to be a foodie, indulge in hotel snobbery and see all sorts of amazing things.  Easily the most fun I had all year. I think I had just stuffed myself silly with doughnuts.

St Louis at sunset. The arch does all the work here.

Trent Reznor. Nine Inch Nails at Lollapolooza. I took photos of my favorite band in my hometown from the side of the stage. I am very lucky. Remind me of that I complain about something, kay?

Brittany is gorgeous. She also knows me better than pretty much anyone short of my family. This fact scares the hell out of me. Tommie, who I rave about, assisted and we came up with some good shots. I think I could do better under different circumstances.  But don’t we all say that? I’d be hard pressed to have a better photo than this one, though. Stunning. Surprisingly, I’d never taken photos of her before…one would be forgiven if they confused her for the oft-shot Jillian. I think Brittany’s grandfather did too once, so no bigs.

This is my clock tower friend. It’s the biggest in the world and only three blocks from me. It makes me happy. This photo isn’t spectacular but I like the lines. I’m tired of writing as you can tell.