Journal entries in 'Dear Diary' for February, 2006

Yesterday at the Girl Scouts meeting, Natalia and her friend Anna Sofia were "Junior Aides" — they were in charge of teaching a class of Brownies about Girl Scouts around the world. One of the things they had to do was teach them a song or story from a different country, and a few days earlier she asked if I knew any. I told her that actually I did — there was a song about a bunny we learned in Japanese class called 'Usagi Usagi.' I agreed to come to the meeting and teach the girls the song, and Natalia brought a picture book I brought her from Japan that had pictures of bunnies in it. Mami came to help out, and she took some pictures while I taught them the song.

The kids picked up the song pretty fast, especially considering they're like six years old. They didn't really get the melody right, but it's difficult since it uses a scale that is uncommon in Western music. I remember my Japanese class practicing the song over and over before we got it down, so the fact that six-year-olds learned it at all is quite impressive. It was also very cute to see these tiny little kids singing about bunnies hopping.

Ever since I first got into Dream Theater back in 1992, I've longed for them to play a concert in Puerto Rico. I remember writing a letter to the band when I was 14 begging them to come down. Finally last night they granted my wish. I guess maybe my letter fell victim to Puerto Rico's notoriosly slow postal service.

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Almost every day as I'm going about my day I see settings and situations that appeal to me, and I'd love to stop and take a photo. Often it's just a shared expression between strangers or a chance alignment of unrelated objects, and since I'm usually in my car at the time, it goes unrecorded.

But occasionally I'll see something that I really want to capture, and I'm not in a hurry so I could easily stop to take it, but it's in an area I don't trust. Partly I'm concerned for my wellbeing of course, but it's mostly the expense of my equipment that tends to make me wary of wandering around in such places, which means that I end up missing lots of shots I'd have loved to get.

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I got back from Clemson a few hours ago. I took two days off from work and flew up for Meg's birthday, and Andrés drove down from Orangeburg where he's interning. As expected, it was a really fun weekend. I've just finished posting all the digital photos I took, but I actually used the Holga much more than the digital camera, and I've still got five rolls and two sheets of film to develop. Those will be posted over the coming days.

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Today I shot and developed my first large format photo. It's not a terribly interesting image — just a shot of the backyard — but I was pretty sure the film was ruined, so I didn't want to put too much effort into it. Surprisingly, it's actually quite decent.

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Back around the beginning of January, I was at the local photo lab/camera store, and I asked if they had any used large format cameras. They actually had several, although most were in the $3-4000 range. One, however, was an old Graphlex Crown Graphic, which was closer to my price range. It wasn't exactly what I was looking for (this camera was designed for newspapermen back in the '40s, so it's oriented more towards being used quickly rather than creatively), but they only wanted $300 for it, whereas the one I really want, a Shen-Hao, would cost around $1000 to get started with. The Crown Graphic had a cracked ground glass (the viewing screen you use to focus the image), which costs about $50 to replace, but they said they'd include that in the price. Still, in the end I decided I wasn't ready to spend even $300, so I put it from my mind.

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When I was a kid I used to watch Chip 'n' Dale, Rescue Rangers religiously. It was on at 5pm, and I was mad when the bus ride home from school took too long and I didn't make it back in time to watch the show.

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Last night I was driving to work when I felt something on my right index finger. I tried to brush it off with my thumb, but it didn't immediately come off. I could feel it moving around, so I realized it must be some sort of insect. I started to do one of those reflexive limb shakes you do when you realize there's an insect crawling on you. The quick motion must have frightened it, though, and I felt a sting. As I realized my visitor was in fact something hostile like a bee or a wasp, my shake evolved into flailing my hand around in a combination of panic and pain.

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