Finally...

So at last, my new computer! I know that it is just a thing, but it does become part of me, mostly because it is my window to the world, and a tie to a few people. It does make the world a bit smaller.

It snowed last night again, causing one of my friends to say, "Good, I won't get out of my routine of shoveling every Friday night!" My phone said it was cloudy with flurries this morning, but my eyes saw a different world than what the MSP weather station predicted. These are nothing great, but I had to blog something, didn't I?

11111, or, 1/11/11

It has been a month since I last blogged--way too long for me, though I suspect that the few who read this minded the interlude all that much. What can I say? A broken computer, the holidays, work, life, etc, all contributed. As did a bit of laziness, I suppose.

But I am back at it. School has started more or less smoothly, much of what is going on at school I am can or at least I am accepting/ignoring, I get my new computer in a few days, and I have kicked myself in the tukas so that I will not be lazy.

I suppose I am not feeling that badly because I don't and haven't had all that much to say. Or if I have had things to say, they aren't all that worth repeating or writing down. But my close friend Jay challenged me to a mini photo contest on landscapes, and I am trying on that score. He had a great head start, as he was in the Southwest for two weeks while I was stuck in the cold and snowy Midwest. At least I have entrees in the contest, albeit weak ones as I have not been that inspired. Still, these are the landscapes of my life. They are from my house, of my house, or near my house. I am intrigued by the cube of a barbershop which is less than 125 feet from where I park my car. Several of these are from my deck. The sign is from the Ace Bar and Grill which is across the street from me, and confirms that it is the land of Lutefisk. My living room, my space, has changed a bit in the year I have been here. It isn't any cleaner, but it is warmer, in many ways.

More soon

A Cold Neighborhood

For those of you without internet or the Weather Channel, Minnesota and Wisconsin have been socked in with a major snowstorm. They are already calling it "THE BLIZZARD OF 2010!" on the local news channels. That this is the only blizzard so far of the whole year makes that understandable, if still a bit overstated. But that is easy for me to say. St Cloud "only" got about 8 inches, and the wind is "only" blowing about 30 MPH around here. South and southwest of here received up to 20 inches of snow.

So it wasn't a day for a long drive but it was worth going through the park, the same one that was pictured last week. These pictures show better visibility than there actually was. It was (and is) a real live blizzard. I am glad I am in for the night in a warm apartment with good smells coming from the kitchen. Every now and then, I peek out the window to watch the wind whip the snow into unmanageable drifts.

On a sad note, I have to note the demise of a good friend of this past year and a half or so. Above is a picture of my Macbook, the tool used to post almost all of these blogs these past months. Since then I have saved almost 15,000 photos that I shot this past year on this computer, and written almost 300 blog posts with this computer. It slipped through my cold hands and slippery down coat yesterday, and fell on concrete. It was after a crappy, crappy day at work, and I was almost in tears. And I would have been if I hadn't discovered that although the screen is totally toast, it does still work with an external monitor. Talk about small favors, but it does seem that the real value of things, just like the value of life, is the memories, or in this case, the memory of a still functioning hard drive.

What makes a neighborhood a home...

In the next few weeks I am going to take some photos of my "local," the bar adjacent to my home. It's not that I head there immediately after work, but it is a warm, nearby place to hang out.

Can you believe it snowed in Minnesota?

It did indeed snow. Not that much, but enough to make it worthwhile to carry a camera around for a bit this morning. Actually, these photos are interesting to me, though probably not to most others, as they do show a bit about the thought process that goes on to "make" a photo.

I have noticed this interestingly shaped birch tree before and drive past it every morning on my way to work. I had envisioned, or imagined how I would photograph this tree, and the photo of the branch with the house in the background is pretty close to that vision. What I didn't imagine was the "view" the other way. The shot of the branch and the blue Studebaker truck is the result of simply looking a different way at a "subject" that I thought I saw every day. It's not high art, but it is a mildly interesting photo.

The photos of the trees show a similar process. I liked the more distant shot of the large oak, and it did sort of work out. But then I looked up and saw the tree that was right above me, and the two other photos showed up. Again, I am not sure if any of these are even printable or worth all that much, but they accomplish several things. First, they do show the results of a Minnesota winter storm. And these photos also show a tiny bit of the process that happens when I wander about with a camera.

Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace

Unless you are living next to this house....

Eau Claire Gothic

I made it to Eau Claire this weekend for a bit and got to relive some old memories and create some new, great memories. I saw this off of Water Street and was struck by the view.

More north

It was a different day today, with low hanging clouds and a dark and at times a dramatic sky. The lake reflected the sky's mood, though when the sun popped out for a few moments, it made a floating patch of ice almost glow. There are Tetzloff Christmas trees from Birch Tree Farms, too.

Up North...

Just a few photos from "up north." While the weather was less than ideal last night, today it was stellar, and perfect for a walk along the Amicon River. The dark sky was from a squall that was heading inland from the lake.

Identity

The other day a funny thing happened to me. I was leaving my office suite for a meeting and was, as usual, a moment or two late. As I was steaming down the hallway towards the meeting, I heard someone behind me bellow, "Dean! Dean! Dean!" After about the fifth time, I realized that the person wasn't looking to stop someone named Dean but rather was trying to call the Dean. In this case, the dean was not Dean but the dean was me.

I laughed out loud while waiting for the student, who just wanted the dean's signature on a form. But in the the past few days it has made me think of identity and name calling. My name is Jason, and seldom do I ever mention an honorific or earned title like dean or doctor or professor or even "mister." So it did surprise me to hear me called like a cow for dinner as "dean."

It did me think about titles and identity. Do I need to be called dean to be a dean, or professor instead of Jason to be a professor? I am not sure. Titles do define the relationship though I do feel that is for the better and for the worse. Maybe lines do need to be tightly drawn, and you do need to be the dean or doctor or pastor or mister or Ms or whatever just so that relationship is clear, defined, and that it becomes harder to cross that line. Maybe I would be more sure of myself or more certain of my role and of boundaries if if I kept that title in front of my name and in front of relationships, however defined.

I have rationalized my stance, correctly or not, in this way. If I need to wear a suit or for that matter, use a title to have people recognize that I am the dean and that I need and deserve the respect and those lines of deference or distance, than I might be in trouble already. It seems a ready escape to say, not unlike many of our parents, it is so/do this because I am the Mom/Dad/teacher/dean.

So I answer my phone with "this is Jason," and while I might list my title on my email tag, I think that I remain "Jason" for the most part. I will continue to be a bit surprised when people chase me down the hall trying to get "Dean" to stop. And I think that this is largely a good thing.

morning sky

I know that these photos are late and out of sequence but it was a magnificent morning sky a few weeks ago. These were taken with a $100 Nikon point and shoot, which just further confirms how great the sky was on that morning.

Leica photos

In 1977, I was in New York City for a UN study trip with my church. I was way too young to appreciate all that the city had to offer, but I was a big enough photo geek to appreciate that at that time, the city probably had more camera stores than any other city in the world. When I was there, I tried to go to as many as possible with the goal of buying a Leica. That I didn't know how to use one and did not have any real idea of all there was to the Leica line didn't stop me on this quest.

I kind of think its like your first car, and how you remember all the details, and the memory of that camera has stayed with me. It was a Leica IIIa with a serial number of about 175,000, and it came with an Elmar 50 mm lens. It was $225, which was a problem since I only had $200 to spend. After I came back the third or fourth time to moon or pine over the camera, the guy said OK, I'll sell it for $200--I think mostly to keep me from coming back and bugging him.

In the years since then, I guess I have owned 50 different Leicas, but they come and go, you know. I have looked for a Leica similar to that first one, but never found one that had the right serial number or they were too much money for a camera that would mostly sit on a shelf. Then, one showed up for pretty much the same amount that I paid 30+ years ago and I snapped it up.

How fun, and on a recent snowy morning, I took it out for a test drive and shot my first roll of 35mm film in years. These photos are not high art by any means, but it is pretty cool to even get photos from a 75 year old camera and lens. The process involved to actually focus a camera, correctly set the shutter speed and lens opening, and hold it still enough to get a sharp photo was fun. Who needs that auto exposure, auto focus, image stabilization stuff? If nothing else, it confirms that all these years later, I am still basically a camera geek.