Chris

Flickr Extinguished

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I am on a roll when it comes to de-bullshitting my life lately. I have been a Flickr photo account user since 2005 and have been through the ups, downs, acquisitions and no more. I simply do not see the value in another photo host with little to no social engagement with other photographers.

Besides, I’d rather grow my platforms than sharecrop someone else’s land and make them money.

This Or That

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I do life in varying ways to keep from going stale.

I’ll input as much as I can for a while by agreeing to everything, meet everyone, go everywhere. Then I’ll output for a while by saying no to everything, and just focus on what I want to do like shoot, read or write.

I’ve done the domestic life for a long time. You know, with a house, car, dog, furniture, stocked kitchen, and everything else that comes with them. Then I’ll give it all away, or lose it until I’m back to the essentials.

And I’ll do them both to their extremes.

It’s fun to push the boundaries and explore the edges to see what I can do. For a time, I was interested in pursuing a normal life. But there are enough people doing that. More growth and discovery seems to happen when I’m uncomfortable and challenged.

People think it’s strange and ask why I feel the need to be so all-or-nothing. They ask why I don’t just find the middle ground. But I am not most people.

There is something fun and fulfilling about experiencing these extremes. Knowing I can live in these different scenarios is more honest and relaxing to me.

Priority Shift

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It is fast approaching that time of year again. November is designated as National Novel Writing Month with their stated goal being 50,000 words a month into a novel. I love the concept but it isn’t practical for me so of course I’ll be hacking this.

Now that I am pivoting focus from photography to writing these next few months, it’ll probably go extreme. The intent is to crank out a couple of short stories, while finish plotting out the bigger ones. There may even be more frequent content here and in my personal journal as well.

I thought about the importance of my commitment to post here daily but nope, enjoying the process is more important than a stringent schedule. 

But then too I get frustrated with being a single-focused individual. I also want to grab the camera or write code but what has priority for me? What has more value?

Once I realize that one value is more important to me than another, I have to ask if I am living accordingly.  

What’s more important to me? Learning or creating? Expand or focus?

Once I work that out I may yet go extreme with it. “All in” as they say and optimize my life around it and let go of almost everything else. And then change it up after that.

Hibernation

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2019 was a great year for my portrait photography. There are so many creative, beautiful people out there and it was great to work with them but I need a break.

I’m hanging up the camera for portrait photography to focus on personal photography and reorganizing organizing my archives and portfolio.

I’m really looking forward to focus on writing. The days will be getting shorter and colder but I’ll be inside cranking out those words.

Un-Linked

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This past week I had an email from LinkedIn, the online professional networking website about a position I held. Someone was disputing my tenure there. Well, that prompted me to correct the mistake. Oops, I failed to update my last day there.

Well, that prompted me to say that after thirteen years of LinkedIn it was time to delete that account. Poof. Gone, just like that.

Ahh.

Balance

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I don’t know why I have this rebellious side of me, I really don’t. I don’t mean to be so contrarian but it happens. I want to be opposite of my surroundings some times.

The strong-willed, overachievers bring out the lazy side of me. People I know who are slackers bring out the best in me. If people prefer colors, I tend to go with black or grey.

I’ll root for the underdog, seek a balance to offset the other side and swim upstream. We’re taught to not be this way. We aren’t to react that way. I’m supposed to be the same but I form my own opinions thank you very much.

What motivates me is knowing that there is something out there that is the opposite of what I want.

If I see selfishness it tends to make me more generous. If someone is freaking out, I choose to remain calm. If I observe someone who is wasting their talent it motivates me to keep practicing. Competition makes me better after all. Knowing a friend who doesn’t take care of themselves encourages me to get healthier. and so on and so on.

It’s been a balance of better to worse so far. Why fight it?

Test My Theories

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I need to make personal growth a priority. This means I plan a life away from the safe zone and do it. And when I decide that creativity is a priority than I need to plan a peaceful place without obstacles so I can just create.

But I need to get these ideas of personal growth and creativity out of my head and into the real world.

There is a big difference between theory and application.

If it turns out to be a mistake so be it. I’ll know it was a mistake instead of just a theory.

In Appreciation Of Web 1.0

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I used to enjoy the internet. There was a time when it was something to be explored (Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser was aptly named but poorly executed, by the way.) Back then there were standards and protocols but still the wild frontier. The www was creative, decentralized from corporate greed and educational. Now? I cannot stand most of what’s out there.

Corporate greed has taken over news sources turning them into deceptive ways to make money by selling your information. Good luck trying to find an article. The advertising is so pervasive it actually hinders the website performance.

Very rarely do I visit web sites, preferring the information come to me instead thanks to the old RSS feed protocols. Currently I am using Feedly, a service that aggregates my desired websites and sends them to my feed reader. Topics I care about, nothing else. Do you know how refreshing this is? Try it.

I don’t care for social media anymore, either. There is way too much noise, hype, and drama.

Bloggers have fancied themselves as unpaid journalists and come up with all sorts of marketing schemes. Usually involving gaudy advertising, e-mail newsletters and “buy my e-books!” It makes me want to avoid the internet completely.

There is so much noise and not enough signal out there.

And then I thought about what I do like.

My website is really nice. It is my own little corner of the web that is out there for anyone to see. But honestly it is probably only two people right now, myself and my child. Hopefully they will look back and gain some perspective from Dad.

I highly recommend setting up your own website. You control everything with no restrictions and no censorship.

I also highly recommend setting up your own private email address. Only family and chosen friends use it. It is very rarely used, sure, thanks to video and text messaging but it is available when all else fails.

I never give this private email to anyone except family and friends.

I don’t use Gmail, preferring to use MS Outlook instead and I let it collect my e-bills, news and the junk. The people you really care about will use the new one, so you won’t need to check the throwaway mail much anymore.

It feels good to have a notification mean something again. When you get a few emails and know that they are really for you. Or, if you don’t get any notifications, then nothing you really care about has arrived so no need to check.

Most days I don’t look at the web. I just go photograph something, write, text friends, call friends, and check email. That’s enough.