Ghini

I'm no longer running a burn. It died. I'm handling it's affairs and notifying next of kin.

There's a lot to talk about how it happened, and why, but the reality is, we wandered into things with good intentions, and left disgusted.

My stuff leaves for Burning Man in one week.

I leave for Burning Man in two weeks.

I am excited, and underprepared.

Life is pretty much tipped towards awesome these days.

Good:

• Good at my job.  Still like doing it.  Boss loves me.  Might get a raise this summer.  They're sending me to LA for a week in May


• Got made the photo lead for Euphoria.  My friends got made Effigy leads.  I really love working for the organization.


• Still love shooting photos.  I've got a few regular collaborators who I make awesome art with on a regular basis.  Friends are sending models my way all the time.  Friends of friends I've never met are asking to shoot with me.


• I like my roommates and their pets.


• My cousin is coming to visit.

Bad:

• Money is tight.  Car needs scheduled maintenance.  Cats are overdue for vet visits.  House could use thousands of dollars in work.  Heat pump is crappy and dying, and it will cost something like $5k for a new one.


• Still single as always.


• I seem to be drifing away from some of my oldest freinds.

So most days I'm quite happy.  None of my problems are unfixable.  I'm good.

I've got another case of "Life is about to get really interesting for a good long time."

In ten days I'm off to Burning Man. For the first time, I'll be trying out to be a Black Rock Ranger. If I get accepted, it's a big step towards becoming part of the event, and changing the way I think about Burns. Here in the Southeast, I'm the guy who runs a large and popular theme camp, known for being generally awesome. I gladly take any praise thrown my way, but I'm always trying to make it clear that I'm a figurehead. I organize several groups that do their own thing, and do it very well. I try hard to keep everyone in the loop and working well together. It works well and it makes me happy. Out there, I'm a much smaller fish in a much, MUCH larger pond. It's a lot of pressure off me, but I feel like I should be helping more. So I took the Atlanta Ranger training class and I'm signed up for a trial shift on the playa. If I make it, I'll be Ranger Shadow Ink and i'll be out on playa patrol, helping burners in need.

I'll be bringing eight virgins to the playa, and six friends I've camped with before. It's going to be an interesting time.

As soon as I get back, I start planning for Alchemy.

As soon as Alchemy is over, I play a fire breathing bridge troll the month of October. I guess I'll sleep in the winter...

This past weekend I went to Euphoria and had a wonderful time. My camp, Camp SCIENCE! brought a bunch of people and their associated ideas and we got a lot of love for what we did. My roommates brought a camp called Bartertown with a full fighting ring, including an electrified fence that fried hippies all weekend.

Summer is here, and I am trying to plan it. I need to fix up a lot of thing around my house, organize my life, my things, and my plans for the future. I also want to do all the photoshoots. I have a few unique ones lined up.

I haven't been going to the gym in months, and that needs to be fixed too. First I sprained my ankle, then I sprained it again, then I got poison ivy, then I was just lazy. The ankle is better, the itching is fading, but the lazy is still here.

I'm in the process of planning for Burning Man now. I don't have a ticket, but I expect I will get one. I've requested off three full weeks, so I can even drive there and back if I want. We shall see how that goes.

I always say I'm going to post more here, then I fail to do so. I read every day, but lately it seems to be so much effort to come up with more than a sentence or two to say, which gets sent to Google+ and Facebook.

Ever heard the old chinese curse "may you live in interesting times?" Well, I work in interesting times. Last summer we got a new chair (bosses boss) of the school. She's pretty smart, but does have a bit of a "last minute" strategy for doing things. Last month she needed something RIGHT NOW at 8am and I wasn't at my desk. The Chair, her assistant and the rest of the front office staff all freaked out. I've got a sleep disorder that makes it difficult for me to fall asleep before 2am, so I've been coming in at 10am since I started here 4.75 years ago. I was at home, awake and getting ready when I got the call from my boss. I had the stuff they wanted ready in about 2 minutes, but the Chair was pissed she didn't have me directly in front of her, so she made my boss set my hours to be 8am-5pm.

To get to work at 8am, I need to wake up at 7am. Since I still don't fall asleep until 2-3am, this means I'm getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night. As the week progresses, I'm getting dumber and dumber. By Friday afternoons I'm downright retarded.

The HR lady is helping me file paperwork under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to get everything straightened out. Both of my immediate bosses don't have a problem with it, but they don't want to incur the wrath of their boss.

In non-work related matters, life is pretty awesome. I road tripped for the week from Christmas to New Years. I saw an abandoned hospital, an old friend from high school, my awesome cousins, and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones (twice!).

Today I registered for tickets for Burning Man. Next month I head to Vegas to perform my 12th wedding. In my spare time I still take lots of pictures. I really want to redo my website to highlight my new photography, but after building websites all day, when I get home, I just want to be lazy and be a ninja in Skyrim.

Last Friday a good friend of mine who I work with told me he was leaving after nine years here.

Today my boss told me he was leaving to go be the VP of IT at Gwinnett College.

The new Chair of our school starts on Friday. My boss will be meeting with her to find out what her plans our for the department. In a perfect world, she will keep things as they are and hire a replacement for my boss. Preferably one of my two friends who work here.

In a worst case scenario, she will decide to close down our IT department and pay the campus IT department to run everything.

Some pretty awesome stuff happened this week too, but I'll save that for later.

Mt brother said he may be moving out, as soon as two weeks from now. Faced with the potential loss of 1/3rd of my mortgage money, I had to cancel my lease on my studio. I still have it for two months so I'm shooting all I can until then.

I should know in a few weeks if my brother is leaving, and if I need a new roommate.

So I am now the proud owner (leaser?) of a photography studio. By photography studio I mean "big room with plenty of space and high ceilings." It's at The B Complex.

It's costing me a lot of money. Money that as a grown up, I should be using to pay off debts. But I'm not. Right now, shooting is the thing that makes me happiest. There are so many people I've wanted to shoot, but haven't had the space to do it. There are a million ideas I've had that I always thought would be perfect if only I had the space to shoot them in. I've looked back over a ton of stuff I shot years ago, and I find myself wanting to shoot those people again.

I don't know how long I can justify spending the money I am, but for now, it's worth every penny. If I wasn't spending this money on this, i'd be spending it on therapy.

Also, I've had several people offer to pose, but say things like "I don't have tattoos" or "I'm not a woman" or "I won't pose naked." It seems I have gotten known for one specific type of shoot. So to the untattooed, the clothed and the male: I'd love to shoot you as well. Really, I want to shoot everybody. Though if you are a naked tattooed woman, you get to jump to the head of the line. :)

Rolled my change tonight: $130 in quarters, $35 in dimes, $10 in nickels, $6.50 in pennies, $10 in dollar coins and 7 euros.