I'm a square. Can you dig that?

When it comes to photography, I love the square. I don't know what it is about square images but personally I've always preferred the 1:1 format over the various rectangular formats provided by digital and film. Years ago with 120 or 126 people happily snapped dozens of square images and pasted them into albums. What makes the ratio of the Hassleblad and Rolleiflex inferior to today's standard of 4:3?

So why are there so few modern cameras that can shoot this format? I really don't know. Most of the classic oil on canvas paintings are rectangular. I guess it could be that our eyes do see at a slightly panoramic image but why should we blindly go around copying nature? I thought part of the point of art was to break from what is natural and common and create something pleasing. Since I am not a documentary photographer I don't want to merely make a copy of what I see, I want to express how I feel about what I see.

Perhaps the square is just too unnatural to our eyes. Do we see its symmetry and gawk? I can't claim to be smart enough to know the answer to that. but I know I want to compose more square images. Is that so bad?

Gas and the silly things we do to save a penny

So as I just get back from gassing up on my lunch break I realized something. My trip odometer read 1.0 miles from the Sunoco station where I get my gas. This morning I drove by a Shell station priced at 4.059 for regular unleaded which I decided to pass on by opting to instead make a separate trip on my lunch break to the local Sunoco to fuel up at 4.029

So I filled my tank with about 7 gallons of unleaded which will last me for about 4-5 days on the road average at an average of around 32-34mpg depending on various factors. I started to think about this and realized that my cost per mile isn't all that much, all things considered, at around 12 and a half cents per mile. That means my little trip to Sunoco cost me a quarter. Had I bought the gas at Shell on my way home I would have paid about 21 cents more (3 cents per gallon for 7 gallons) meaning a net savings of $0.03!

Granted, this is all anecdotal of course but it does remind me of how my grandmother used to say that people spend dimes to save pennies or something like that. It's still a wash as even if I bought gas 100 times a year it would still be less than a case of soda or a coffee at Starbucks but it is something to make you think.

Damn I'm old!

A lot has happened since my last post. The biggest events would have to be that I am now in a relationship and the second being that I am now a quarter century old. It has been quite the month and in many ways, I guess, a lot of growing up has occurred.

At the end of August I was a bit down about the whole life change sequence. I was changing jobs and despite going up in the pay bracket I still felt like I was leaving my entire world behind. Yet here I am, two months later and getting back into living.

One of those big steps into adulthood is breaking me of one of my worst habits: clutter. I have always had an untidy streak in my past and this goes back to my childhood. In fact, somewhere my mom has a picture of me fast asleep in a pile of toys. It just never seemed to bother me all that much and when it did, I simply ignored it thinking it would get better when I had my own room (or my own house.) Yet after acquiring over 1,300 DVDs in the last 7 years and over 300 NES games, enough was enough.

So what is the next step. Well so far I've tossed a few things and sold some others. I have a long way to go before I can call the room clean. I'm sure Peter Walsh and Linda Koopersmith want to come over and kick my ass but I'm a work in progress and plan to change.

More to come.

Back to school no more

Here is a day that I always knew was coming and even after my graduation this last May just did not seem real. It wasn't until I walked through Target seeing all the kids with their parents buying pencils, pens and notebooks and college students buying toasters and hot plates that it all sank in. There will never againbe a "back to school" time for me.

Sure I may have kids some day and will have to trek out for all the back to school sales. Heck, I may even go to grad school at some point and yet even that won't be the same. Granted, I was never big on buying new notebooks and pens but it still feels as if almost the final nail in the childhood coffin has been nailed for me. The final nails, of course, be when I get married and have kids.

Perhaps it's because I spent so long at college getting myself straightened out that when I finally found what I want to do and made some friends it was all over. I did not waste my college years by any means. I would never trade them for anything and the friends that I have made I hope will continue on forever even though I know that most of them have moved far away, never to return to the little spot in the valley.

I think this is all because I am not getting the job here at the college but instead have moved on to a much bigger job. This of course means that I will not see certain people on a daily basis like I used to although I may stop down at the college for a visit now and then.