February Thoughts

Josh Lawton pointed out to me that I haven't been blogging a whole lot lately. He's right.

February was a very busy month. My birthday is in February and other things have come up: job searching, school, job searching, stringing for the Met and now, working nights at Craig.

I had a great birthday, with my kids and their respective spouses/significant others taking me to my favorite place to eat, the Morrison Inn. Margaritas and Mexican food are some of my most favorite things, right up there with popcorn and movie trailers. Katie's present to me was a blank journal that we would each write in and pass it back and forth. A great gift if you're in a place in your life where you're documenting and outlining your life. That's exactly where I am at this point.

The job search is brutal. I've never had to work so hard to get a job. I've been focusing on federal jobs, but I've widened my net and have even applied for jobs that couldn't even begin to pay for food let alone for rent. At first I thought I'd continue to work at Craig as a supplement to my income, but now I see it's going to be a necessity. I would have been hard pressed to leave Craig anyway, I have too many friends and a sense of familiarity which is important to me in fast changing times. I just wish the cafeteria would bring back the Chicken Almond Rice casserole, but for now, I'll content myself with eating their Hot Wings.

I have some good classes and most are online. My most favorite has to be the one I started last week, Doug Bell's Portfolio Presentation class. Not to say that the others aren't interesting, they are. Teachers are using Wikis more as teaching tools and they're a valuable tool to be familiar with. But Doug's class brings a chance to talk about journalism and create ideas on how to move forward into writing and photography in this changing market.

Anyone who notices my daily pictures noticed that my old TV and cable box are gone. In its place is a piece of crap Dynex flat screen TV with a low quality remote that works only if you hit it against a hard surface. I changed the batteries in the remote, moved the TV to get better reception but to no avail. If I'm going to watch fewer channels, at least the remote should work. Think carefully before making such drastic changes as giving up your cable and old TV.

My favorite image for February is the one from the inside of the car wash when the water was dripping down the windshield. My least favorite is the one with the cigarettes. Man, am I going to get a lecture from my kids.