J. Jason Lazarus Blog

4/7/2005 - Wow - even I can amaze myself. I’ve managed to actually do something to my website that I said I was going to do! Although this is far from all of the great pictures I got off of these four rolls (3 with Heather, 1 with Rebecca) I’ve decided to start by putting these up. Heather’s pictures were of several different themes - this quasi-Indian theme being one of them.
Best thing about the picture I believe is that the lighting managed to give her this fuzzy glow that is very remenesent of 1920’s DW Griffith movies as well as other movies of the time. Rebecca’s shot shows stark realism that you can rarely capture on film - plain and simple and yet I really do like it. Give me a ring and tell me what you think.
Other than that, been bumbling around work doing odd jobs again today - continuing the slow process of going through junk that should’ve been thrown away a decade ago and judge each bit of junk’s usefulness to the department… every day my office is getting neater and neater… soon there’s not going to be anything in here! I started decorating my
office finally - got some of my photography on the door now - makes for a little improvement over the overall stark-whiteness of everything.
Something I didn’t mention in the last few weeks is that we purchased the expansion pack for Simcity 4 - “Rush Hour” - although it at first looked like it was going to be a completely lame expansion pack it apparently significantly aleviates some of the bugs or hurdles there were in place to keep you from actually building a large city. Where before a city of 36,000 was about my limit, I’m currently touting a 194,000 large city. It also adds a lot of additional transportation options that make traffic issues disappear - yes, ok, ok, i know I’m a nerd. You really don’t have to tell me. Fact is, this expansion has managed to put new life in a game that I had rarely taken off the shelf since my initial 6-month playing spree back in… 2003..? ya. Now I’m actually additicted to the game because even though some things are easier, managing skills actually are key in this version of the game which does make it more challenging. Anyways, I’m additcted.
I managed to buy Final Fantasy 1 & 2: Dawn of Souls for my DS finally after whimpering that I wanted it for months on end. Can’t beat the used price of $24.99 for a GBA game… Seems like I’m actually gaming more than I have in years but seriously - it takes up less than 3 hours a day usually. Ya… usually… lol

4/6/2005 - So I’ve come to the conclusion that my rant here is pretty PC… at least from the standpoint that I refuse to really confront any of the serious issues in my life on just a public medium. Maybe that’s because I realize exactly how much I don’t want people confronting me on my most personal issues - from my marriage to friends to work - although in person I know exactly how personal I am, continuously concerning myself with letting out exactly everything on my mind. That brings the suggestion that maybe I’m just paranoid that letting my guts be exposed in such a public medium leaves me open for much more scrutiny than I should be left open to - maybe I don’t want to deal with the reprocussions of people finding out that I actually do talk behind their back when in fact, such behavior is almost certain and why people are shocked to find out their best friends are doing it astounds me. I don’t know - maybe my overreaction of blogging personal issues may be unwarranted - maybe in this digital age people expect to read your blog and find their name mentioned in a blaze of obcenities. Maybe… I know I don’t and I’m more technologically minded than most people i know.
These past few weeks have actually been pretty uneventful - enjoying the weekends with Deanna and company (my friends) and working my weeks away - no real complaints here. Maybe that’s why I haven’t written in a while because truly nothing earthshattering has been happening. I’m starting to rent movies more and more often due to ETZ Video. Keith, a guy I know from back in the day at the old Southside, owns it and manages to carry his own (as well as others) eclectic tastes in movies as well as the standards. I’ve been getting back into those old habits I used to have - picking up a movie that *looks* interesting and watching it without hearing about it first and I’ve managed to come up with a few winners. Hopefully, although I doubt it’ll happen, I’ll be able to update my reviews extensively. Ya, I don’t hold out much hope for it either, I know you guys don’t.
I’ve decided to do a lot of odd jobs at work this week - mainly cleaning up crap that should’ve been cleaned up years ago. Got a lot of things working more efficently and looking a lot better and I’m pretty proud of myself. Moved the file server in my office - don’t know how long that’s going to last. Those bloddy X-serves are freaking loud! Speaking of work related stuff, my summer class has managed to already attract 12 students - pretty darn good especially seeing that there’s still about 7 weeks to register. I’m really looking forward to teaching and doing these labs this semester has really brushed up my skills as well as my desire to really get back into photography. My next big buy looks like it’s going to be a new camera. Nothing that fancy - in fact, still a 35mm - no darn digital yet. I’m fine with my point-and-shoot digital Cannon Elph even if it’s only 2 megapixel. Deanna keeps trying to convince me that I need to save up for a nice digital but seriously, I don’t like digital. As much of a computer geek I am, wet photography has a soul that digital will never have.
As well as other things I’m hoping to buy in the next six months while continuing to save and trying to find a summer job is… a Mac Mini. Geesh I mean seriously you can’t get more cute than that. Get a monitor switch, set it on top of my PC and make the beast jealous that it isn’t that small. But as I consider buying another computer I realize that right now we’ve got three computers - two others sitting in storage that could easily be resurrected. Um… do I really need another one? Is cute value pulling that much clout in this purchase decision?
And then there’s the Sony PSP. Damn sexy is pushing much of the clout in the decision, not to mention the fact that I want to ring some CEO’s neck over at Nintendo (just joking) for not coming out with more games for my Nintendo DS. I mean seriously, PSP has more launch titles than DS has games after 6 months of being on the market. WTF is up with that? I feel like asking Nintendo why they didn’t just call the DS “Virtual Boy 2″. Ya, all you gamers out there are laughing while all you normal people aren’t. Eh, deal.
Um…what else… working on photography… HOPEFULLY I’ll get some of it up this week, though, I said that last week…and ya…um… deal with it. Anyways, I should upload this and at least appease those few of my friends that have nothing better to do than check my damn page every day. HA! Losers. j/k!