A columnist in my local paper read somewhere that it's estimated that the average person takes 10 digital pictures a day.
I'm so glad that I've never been one with a "get a picture" mentality. Such obligations makes one miss the enjoyment of the moment that they're trying so hard to preserve. Rock star Alice Cooper has complained about how annoying it is to be doing a concert and have all the fans with their cell phones in the air, trying to record the concert. Why can't they just simply listen and enjoy the concert NOW, rather than their primary purpose be trying to preserve it for later?
It's said that taking a picture of one's meal before eating it is a "thing" now. Fine, but... does one ever really go back and look at those? Isn't the next meal that's coming really what matters most in the realm of food and eating?
It was a blessing that I grew up with a father who had the cameras and video recorder before they were common for the average household. He was always wanting to get a picture or orchestrate a video, which was really annoying as a child. Once, we children were watching a dinosaur movie from the 1950s, where one of the main characters was obsessed with getting pictures of the frightening creatures. Never mind that some hapless island native just got eaten alive -- were his cameras still intact? We kids burst out laughing at that. "Just like Dad."
So, I learned not to like the "get a picture" hassle and often, even when it's so easy with a cell phone, it doesn't even occur to me to try to get a picture of something. I like enjoying the wondrous moments that life has to offer at the moment that it's happening. Grab one's camera at the risk of missing it.
Work is in a great place right now. Plenty to do but nothing with any sense of urgency. And room for more. A month ago, I got a call from a client who I'd done a few hours of work for way back in 2008. He'd kept my card, and though the contact information on it was obsolete, he bothered looking me up. That was flattering, but I don't think it's ever going to turn into real work. I know human nature, and I've been doing this a long time. When someone says, "I'll get you a log-on to my bank next week", "or I'm going to get all my paperwork together this weekend", and it doesn't happen... the writing is on the wall. I've learned that continually asking, "Did you get your stuff together?" or some such just results in more excuses about why it hasn't gotten done yet, as well as another promise of "will get to it next week". Which doesn't mean anything more than it did before. So, I don't press very hard on follow-up, once it's apparent that the the crisis is over for the would-be client once they've actually reached the point of contacting someone like me. Now there isn't a crisis of "I need to call someone", so they aren't further motivated to get anything done concerning their taxes or bookkeeping.
The second season of "Yellowstone" -- the only modern TV series I've been interested in, in recent years -- is supposed to start airing June 15th. I've been wanting to go back and re-watch the first season, and got through half the episodes last night. Am enjoying it more, with knowing how various characters end up relating to various events. Plus, I've learned to turn up my TV volume to the highest point. I've caught a lot more lines which previously eluded me. Someone on social media had commented last year that they thought the characters mumbled a lot, because they had a hard time catching all their dialogue. I also found transcripts, so I can verify that I heard what I thought I heard. Just weird that it's the only program where I've had to turn up my TV volume to its highest point. Why is that?
Eager to write, but don't have a specific plot in mind for the next "Adventure" story. I reviewed a list of ideas I keep for possible plotlines and thought I might do a story that includes them all, but that doesn't seem likely. And none of those brief ideas is enough to sustain a complete story. I have written one scene but I don't know if I'll keep it. I've also got some other ideas that I'm letting gel a bit.
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