managing stress in a fast-paced world

What is this number? It is the amount I have spent on camera equipment over the past 3 years. Still the one single most expensive item is the camera body which started it all. I’m starting to think that my 3 year old Canon D60 is nearing the end of its useful life… I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a Canon 1Ds, even the Mark II version which is $8,000 I think. The one fact of reality which keeps stopping me is that I don’t make any real money to offset the high costs of this hobby. Sure I’ve got alot of nice photos and I’m sure people enjoy the pictures I take for them, I really need to take that next step. I’ve got grand plans to turn this into something big, to roll around in zillions of dollars, taking a day or two off and starting to enjoy life again. It’s good to have dreams right? Even if they are really out there?

The office admin came around and asked, “Are those fishing poles in your car?”

I’ve got like 8 poles in the back of my car from last weekends fishing trip. We didn’t catch much, it rained alot and we got a little wet, it was actually ok out there though. We heard some thunder and I headed back out to the car for my umbrella. I almost caught a big rock crab, it was hanging on and then it fell off as I was reeling it up, it looked big too! Here’s a picture from the pier looking south.

At work one of my co-workers gave notice today, I’m not really surprised, but I am surprised that there isn’t another job lined up yet. But I’m sure it’s for the best.

I’m listening to Gwen Stefani at work now, the song is called Serious. I think it’s from the newest album.

This show reminds me so much about my road trip with Nelson, maybe not so much the people and places, but definately the experiences. The things that happen to two people who spend time together and go out there to see what there is to see. In case some of you don’t know what I’m talking about there’s a website here.

I finished watching the short series a couple of weeks ago and I really enjoyed it. I want to go again, sadly I think it really is a once in a lifetime kind of thing. Looking back and watching this show, we didn’t plan very well for our trip, we cut corners and didn’t take advantage of what we could have done.

today is employee appreciation day… and to think I almost called in sick this morning. Anyways, Tom and Laura just came by and I guess I’m the only regular employee here this morning. I had a Krispy Kreme donut and some orange juice, now my stomach is feeling funny again. I’ll be back in a bit.

I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve been feeling hot the past two days. It’s not that hot or warm outside, maybe 70’s or so but I feel like I’m about to breakout into a sweat. My office has always been a little warm, we even opened a windows and it’s still hot, like there is bad air circulation.

Anyways, I think I’ve made my point. Getting into work late sucks because I have to still work my hours and then leave later too. On the brighter side, my workload hasn’t increased too much, and I made a pretty good sized dent into the list of things I was supposed to do. I’m happy for that.

I called in sick today and just rested most of the day, I’ve got alot of work to do, so I logged in and checked my mail. I saw that my workload was pretty big, a long list of things to do, almost a bit daunting. I’m almost dreading going back to work tomorrow, it’s probably not as bad as I’m making it out to be, hopefully it’ll seem more manageable tomorrow after I start.

A few months ago I saw Allen at St. John’s in Sunnyvale, then again last night I went to St. Johns for dinner and saw Allen again. Allen is an old friend from high school, we actually spent alot of time in college together before we each went our separate ways. I have many fond memories of hanging out with Allen, he was always a nice guy. I randomly see him all the time, sometimes at the supermarket, at St. Johns, stuff like that.

Yesterday he was with Gordon and Kenny, now Gordon I havn’t seen since we graduated in 1995, damn, that’s was 10 years ago! When we saw each other, his first response was, “damn, how are you?”

My last purchase came today, a Bogen 055MF3 Tripod. I have to say that this tripod was everything I expected. It’s funny how much someone can worry about a purchase when they didn’t get a chance to touch and feel it somehow before buying it. That’s pretty much the big blow to mail ordering things I guess.

Anyways, I’m going to have to take it easy on the shopping, it was a bit crazy over the past 3 months.

The weekend flys by way too quickly. Saturday I went shopping with Mike at Sportsmart and Walmart, bought a cheap fishing pole and a fishing cooler to keep fish in. I felt sick later in the day, probably from sleeping without a blanket the night before.

Sunday I felt better, I went out to gather some supplies and then finished up changing the oil in my car. Headed home to help my brother fix his car too, then came home and cleaned up before going to Greg’s birthday party. It was fun to hang around with everyone, I didn’t stay long. Probably a little down from the cold.

Greg’s 13th Birthday

This song was in parts of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search… I usually don’t like a song so much that I feel I need to let others know, but this song is really good.

It’s by Duran Duran, the lyrics are below.

Child, don’t you worry
It’s enough your growing up in such a hurry
Brings you down, the news they sell ya
To put in your mind that all mankind is a failure

But nobody knows
What’s gonna happen tomorrow
We try not to show
How frightened we are

If you love me, I’ll protect you, however I can
You’ve got to believe
It’ll be alright in the end
You’ve got to believe
It’ll be alright again

Fighting because we’re so close
There are times we punish those who we need the most
Though we can’t wait for a saviour
Only got ourselves to blame for this behaviour

But nobody knows, noboby knows
What’s gonna happen tomorrow
We try not to show
How frightened we are

Would seem lonely
If you were the only
star in the night?

You’ve got to believe
It’ll be alright in the end
You’ve got to believe
It’ll be alright again

And nobody knows
What’s gonna happen tomorrow, nobody knows.
So don’t let go
Now we’ve come this far

Hold my hand please
Understand me
You’re never alone

We’ve got to believe
It’ll be alright in the end, nobody knows
You’ve got to believe
It’ll be alright my friend
So don’t let go

And yes we believe
It’ll be alright again
So don’t let go