Too many things

My maternal grandparents are moving, and as anyone that has ever moved will tell you, you quickly realize you've got way more possessions than originally thought. Most of it is made up of things that we haven't used in years, sometimes decades even. Nostalgia and general laziness is one heck of a hindrance to decluttering, isn't it. 

Of course, my grandparents had no choice but to discard as many items as possible so to not have to waste effort bringing them over to the new place. While I myself am not moving anytime soon, I think it'd be prudent for me to take a hard look at all the stuff I've got and throw away the things I simply don't use or need. You always think you'll need something later on, but years go by and that item is still in its original position, never been touched. 

Time for a bit of spring cleaning, then. 

Summer already

It was an unusual oppressively hot day in San Francisco, right up there into the 90s. Of course, being denizens more used to weather in the 50s, low 90s is practically apocalyptic on the hotness scale. My car's automatic climate control was going bonkers in its feeble attempt to normalize the temperature to a solid 70 when the car has been sitting outside in the blazing sun for a good five hours. Protest loudly, the fans did. 

Of course, it isn't all bad - far from it. Summer-like weather means the lovely ladies are in their gorgeous dresses and short outfits. The perks of working at a college campus: the views were specially lovely today. 

Drove 600 miles in a weekend

I'm still here thinking about what a blast this past weekend was. Traveling is really one of the best ways to spend your money and free time. It's such a huge world out there; it's almost a responsibility to go see it. 

Driving 600+ miles took a tole on the car, though this time I'm lucky to come out of it without needing to replace the windshield (I had to on the previous road trip). If there's one thing you should do for your beloved automobile, it's to keep it consistently waxed so that debris and gunk won't stick to the paint. After the trip north, the front end of my car met quite a lot of insect causalities but a single pass of the pressure washer wand took care of it easily. 

Photoshop layers are fascinating

Photoshop layers are powerful tools, but some of you folks need to stop going overboard with that stuff. Much like the previous fad of HDR/tone-map everything (so glad that's over), utilizing layers to heavily manipulate an image is proliferating like crazy - especially in Internet automotive photography. Those shots end up looking more like purely digital creations rather than captures off an actual camera. 

I'm not against using layers entirely; they're lovely tools, after all. I just think a photographer should use layers in the correct manner. (There was a proper method of implementing the HDR technique, too, but that was largely ignored.)

For me, photographs are best made using a camera body with a quality sensor, excellent glass in front of it, and just slight corrections in post. It's all got to look realistic. Leave the abstract colorations and fantastical representations to instagram.  

Reading one book per month

I was once told that one should read at least one book per month. Doesn't matter what sort of book it is, be it fiction or non-fiction, story or self-help. 

Of course, we're all so preoccupied with our screens and mobile devices these days, so who's got time to read anything substantial? Even on the Internet, long-form is largely dead. It's so much easier and faster for the ADD generation to parse through sordid lists and pictures instead of reading page after page of actual words. 

It's no coincidence grammar and word usage has absolutely gone to shit. English is and can be a very artful language, but you simply don't see it much anymore. It irritates me greatly when I see slang or colloquial terms enter into what people consider journalistic pieces of writing.

Step away from the iPad, and pick up a book. Unless you're like me and you use the Kindle app on your iPad, then by all means - as you were. 

Gas prices are too damn high

Just yesterday I spend more than $60 dollars on a tank of gas, which is out of the norm of the usual mid $50s. Not sure what the heck is going on, but man are gas prices crazy lately in the Bay Area. I know refineries are switching from winter blend to the summer stuff, but does it really take that long? Prices have been at an elevated level for a couple of weeks now. 

It was one of those good writing days for me, where it only took me a few hours to punch out 1,600 words. Of course, I'm merely blogging for my own enjoyment so revisions and editing isn't as intensive as if I were writing professional for an entity. Still, just as in life, you've got your good days, and your worse days. There's nothing more frustrating than staring at the screen, struggling to get the proper sentences out of your head.  

Being frugal is tough

I think I should blink more carefully from now on because on a particularly forceful blink yesterday I absolutely destroyed one of my contact lenses. Fragile little things. It hurt the entire time I was at work. 

I've return to super miser mode a few months ago and it's nice to see my monthly spending going back to a level not seen since I was saving up on the downpayment of my current car. Still not completely sure just exactly what I am saving up for but let's just say it's rather comforting to have something on stash, instead of blowing it on car parts and electronics like I tend to do. 

Problem is, the everyday world bombards you constantly with adverts and subtle hints to entice you to part ways with your hard earned cash. It's really tough to resist at times. No wonder consumer debt is so incredibly high and savings rate so damn low in America. Heck, the economy's heath is largely predicated on us spending all we've got. Pretty insane when you think about it.