01/31/02

The next SF Bay Area Lomo Crawl is scheduled for February 9th, 2002. We're meeting at Cafe Prague, 548 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, at 4:00pm. It would be lovely to see you all there.

Here's a map of the location. It's a Czech pub, but alas Milos Forman will be unable to join us.

01/28/02

Oy vey, it's cold.

01/21/02

You see some weird things in supermarkets.

When you're bored, you'll shoot anything.

Some people reckon I'm sick.

But I think I'm just lonely.

It would seem that the Lomo has found fame in the local newspaper for the Silicon Valley. An article (now a dead link) appeared in the San Jose Mercury Times yesterday, Sunday 20th January. Allegedly, we're part of a "quirky, hard-to-describe culture". Cool.

01/20/02

Go and see Amélie. It's fantastic.

01/12/02

This is more like the kind of news we like to see. So the kid smoked some spliff and had a beer or two like any teenager his age, and he gets sent to a "drug rehabilitation" clinic. Talk about over-reacting. It's nice to see the Royal Family are still so in touch with reality.

I was going to go out this evening and do some night shots, but it's too darn cold out there, and there's scary things that can pounce on you in the dark.

01/08/02

Excellent. Eight days into the new year and I think I've already seen the worst film of 2002 - Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. What a load of dross. Overlong, monotonous, an empty special-effects bonanza with no soul and no substance. I checked for critics reviews and could only find one professional critic who was prepared to slag off the movie in some way. Though I wouldn't normally, Alexander Walker of the London Evening Standard, I salute you. Ever imagine a video game where you pop the CD-ROM into your machine/console, and then it just plays for 3 long, long, oh so fucking long hours, and you can't do anything to influence or direct the action? This movie is like that. A "visual feast" it may be - too bad I felt bulimic after watching it.

01/07/02

Well, you know how much I love the Lomo, but I'm really growing fond of the little Olympus XA4 these days. I've posted up a bunch of new pictures today. The lens on this camera is so sharp and captures color really well. Its ability for close focus is a boon too. The lens is very wide though, so for medium-distance shots there's often a need for cropping, but seeing as it performs well in low light as well as in brightness, it has started to become my very favorite camera to keep with me at all times. I'm no landscape expert, but I do like the way this came out.

01/06/02

I wholly support this petition, but like George Constanza, I feel that I have no hand. No hand at all.

01/05/02

I really ought to get off my ass and go take some more pictures. This is supposed to be a photo site goddammit!

Today our carpets got steam-cleaned and I went out to San Mateo and bought some cheap clothes from TJ-Maxx. Frankly, with a life this exciting, who the hell needs photography anyway?

01/04/02

My new Lomo arrived today! Woohoo! Now I don't feel so naked anymore. It's a 1992 one, direct from the Ukraine. It appears to be in immaculate condition and very clean. Seeing as this one was bought off eBay as a 'used' model, it actually seems cleaner and fresher than the old 1991 one (RIP) which I purchased 'as new' and unopened direct from Russia. Perhaps in Ukraine they look after their Lomos even better. The true test will come when I get my next roll developed, but it looks as if the shutter and light meter are operating well so far. Fingers crossed.

01/03/02

My christmas treat to myself was a DVD player. I felt it was about time I got into the Nineties and went digital. It's a pretty funky machine by the looks of things, and was dirt cheap on Amazon. They delivered it in 18 hours. No shit. I ordered it on a Wednesday afternoon at 3pm and it arrived at my workplace on Thursday at 9am. That's what I call good service. Of course I immediately purchased The Matrix on DVD because it's the law.

Oh, I've just been reminded that it's no longer the Nineties. Damn. I'm always late getting into this new fangled technology malarkey.

01/02/02

Ooh... new month, new year. How exciting. No, really. So very exciting. It is. Honestly.

The holiday season was uneventful and quiet, just the way I like it. I spent some time over Christmas with some fellow ex-pats, which was nice. The guy who does this site was also there. I'd always wondered who thought up that idea... now I know. I also saw an old friend from my school days in the UK whom I hadn't seen for years. So all in all, it was a pleasant time, and work was suitably tranquil too.

Of course, I had to go and contract a miserable cold, plus it didn't stop raining for what seemed like weeks on end.