Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Random Reflections and Recollections

Until I can get to writing a better, more meaningful post, here's something to bore you in the meantime.

One of my former coworkers told me, "I wasted 20 years at a job...young man, don't go get a job; get yourself a career!"
Although you can define your career, your career also defines you, so choose wisely.

I know there was something else I wanted to write that I thought of earlier, but like so many other things, I can't remember what it was...perhaps it'll come back to me later.
Update - I think I just remembered it:
"A fool and his money are quick to part", the proverb goes. Therefore, a rich fool is quick to part with lots of money. But where did the fool get his money to begin with?

I have many concepts and themes in mind that I want to develop in both photographs and words, but I don't want to show them until I'm confident that the results are at least somewhat satisfactory - at least most of the time, I am not going to produce a pathetic excuse for art just for the sake of delivering a message I want to convey; not only would I be embarrassed about my work, I don't think such a half-baked attempt would impart the same emotional impact (or at least make people think as deeply) as one done well. After all, like one of my Flickr friends (and one of my biggest photographic inspirations), Rob Woodcox said here, "One of my goals in photography is to make people think and inspire change." That's something I'd like to be able to do as well.

I find it fairly disappointing that although there was an amazing thunderstorm with lightning that was really clear for quite a bit of the time and forked across the sky, I wasn't able to get any good photos (it's actually still going on right now); I don't know how I'd be able to do it unless I had a camera with good high ISO capabilities (mine won't go above 1600) and a faster lens...I tried it on a tripod, but the lightning always seemed to be where the camera wasn't pointed at, and the shutter speed was too slow, and... *sigh*

The door again:
The Door of the Unknown


Some swordfighting photos with me with strange expressions:








My little brother isn't a photographer, which explains the blurry photos (which I tweaked somewhat)...
If you were under the impression that I am a tall, dark, handsome, cool guy, you are sadly mistaken. Sorry to disappoint you. ;)

That's enough boredom for one post; I'll let you go to regain your sanity.

4 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Love the career quote/advice, and it's a good question about the fool's money... unless he inherited it from his dead daddy warbucks. Where is that beautiful door? That picture you posted earlier is just amazing... and is the little girl one of your sisters? I adore that photo... it has such a magical feel to it! Lol/awesome at your sword fighting pictures :D! You look like you're gonna kill him in the third one, and your expression in the fourth one from the bottom totally cracked me up :D. As for your self depreciating comment at the end, some purely objective observations; you are not short, you're darker than me, you're not even remotely unattractive, have decidedly awesome hair, and non objectively, I'm probably gonna think you're a generally cool person regardless of whether or not your humble nature allows you to agree :D. DEAL WITH IT! ;) lol. And swords are awesome-my favorite part of the book I'm currently reading, Rot and Ruin, is that Tom, a totally kick ass older brother, wields a katana (oh, and this is after a zombie apocalypse!) :D.

Miah said...

Ok, which one are you in the pictures?
And as for the not tall, dark, handsome comment: I can't argue very well because I don't remember seeing a clear picture of you, but I do think you're pretty cool :)

Maximillian said...

Elizabeth,
That thought occurred to me as well (think Paris Hilton or another heir or heiress, right?).

The little girl is one of my sisters (the oldest sister in my family; she turned ten today)...I do kind of like that photo, although I wish I'd remembered that she was wearing a watch and told her to take it off since it messes up the whole feel of the photo (just like my alarm clock does in this one - 20/20 hindsight); her wristwatch is much more obvious in some of the other photos I took at that time. I'm glad you like it - others seemed to as well and say it reminded them of The Secret Garden or a fairytale. :) The door is in the courtyard of a building adjacent to the building our church rents for its church building, and there's a park there as well.

Yeah, so much for the emotionless ninja. ;) I'm never aware I have funny expressions like those until I see photos of me afterwards. Although it might look like I'm good at sword/stick fighting, I'm not, and Lucas (my "little" brother) is actually several inches taller now, is a little bit stronger, and has more stamina as well (I'm clearly not a "tough guy")...I always get too tired and have to rest when swordfighting like that. Maybe I'll get a video of that sometime and upload it if it isn't too cheesy.

I'm not short? 5'7" isn't as short as one friend of mine who's 4'11", but I still think it puts me on the small side - how tall are you again?

Not remotely unattractive? Haha.
Thanks for the compliments. My hair is a point of contention with my parents and me; they like it very short, but I really don't like it like that.
I think I have a fairly objective and accurate estimation of myself in many areas; when some have said things like "You don't give yourself enough credit", I think I do and am just telling the truth since I don't think I'm as good as someone thinks at something (whether or not I'm good-looking is different, since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say).
But thanks again for the kind words. :)

Very nice, very nice. :D
Wielding weapons in pairs looks cool (swords might make sense; guns, not unless you have superhuman abilities or are trying to cover two targets simultaneously or something), and sometime I want to try the "sword in one hand; gun in the other" thing Morpheus did in The Matrix Reloaded (although I've only watched the first movie of the trilogy, I watched the freeway scene from that film on YouTube - it's pretty cool...The Matrix has some of the coolest special effects ever, and they actually make sense since the Matrix is a virtual world like a video game).
I'd rather have an AA-12 as a primary weapon against zombies though, and have some other guns and swords as backup. :D

Maximillian said...

Riah,
I'm the short guy with two swords (they're actually bokkens made of polypropylene, but they'll still leave welts and bruises that can be fairly painful and last a good while, depending on how hard your opponent hits you...).

Haha, thanks. :)
Since I now know what you look like (but not Lys), I'll probably return the favor and post a clear (and recent) self-portrait soon. Here are some I took earlier this year, though:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fightforthelight/sets/72157625041681779/