this is a busy month for me, getting ready to move across the country to be close to family again, just in time for the holidays… one of those things that happens in life that one could either dread or look forward to with excitement, and i’m still in the middle, with the only dread coming because of all the friends i’ll be leaving behind, even though i’m sure i’ll be able to see them again.

but longing isn’t enough sometimes, and needs outweigh the wants.

creatively, i think that a new city will be just what i need… i feel a sort of creative stalemate with much of what i’ve been doing lately, and it’s time for a change. new faces, new places, new streets to roam. familiar faces will be there too, finally being close to family again for the first time in years, and that will be a comfort i’m sure through the expected cold winter ahead.

what’s left to be done?

mostly packing, consolidating, getting rid of the old so i can move and acquire anew. saying goodbyes… this will be tough, especially on me, as that’s never been something i’m any good at. goodbyes like this are always temporary, and should be said with that in mind, but somehow i never can.

one of the weirdest pieces of the transition for me is slowly but surely removing all my portland-related subscriptions in my RSS reader and twitter account – people, businesses, organizations and news feeds i used to follow zealously for their juicy bits of local information, no longer are relevant to me. now i just wonder what i will find to replace them with in my new hometown.

-h

Updating...

this summer has passed quickly, too quickly… the new season of white shirt, philosopher is well underway – in fact only 6 strips remain before the season ends mid-september. i’ve been on the fence on whether or not to continue writing the comic, and if i do continue, how is a big question, as i’d like to eventually get an actual artist to draw the strips, but that could just be a pipe dream. anyhow, new haikus are also being posted semi-regularly via twitter, and i’ve finished a short film this summer which i have yet to decide what to do with(in regards to how i release it). i’m contemplating/plotting some more video haikus, and releasing a collection of those along with the new short could be fun. i’ve also got more than enough haikus to publish a paperback compilation, but that’s a ways off at least also.

Read the rest of this entry »

last night on the daily show, i was pleasantly surprised by what i saw. finally a taste of real, actual journalism in american mainstream media, even if it was an easy target like jim cramer and cnbc.

to be honest, a lot has been made of this “feud”, but i thought the show last night was hardly a fight, even though stewart was clearly playing hardball with cramer. i’ve seen a lot of media reports today claiming stewart skewered, eviscerated, killed, etc. but that’s not the point of the interview, is it?

if you haven’t seen the full, unedited interview, the clips are embedded below(clips 2 and 3 below the fold), and you can see what i mean by that. while stewart clearly takes cramer to task for his own statements and actions, he also makes it clear that “this song ain’t about you” and that his real target is CNBC – an entire news organization that has cornered itself into irrelevance by NOT blowing the whistle and NOT seeing the warning signs. what they’ve done is a great disservice to the public, and truly is as stewart says “criminal at worst”.

ultimately, it comes down to this: journalism is, or at least should be about finding the truth and exposing it, seeking justice for the good of all – the common people as well as society at large. by its very nature, good journalism is often a david vs. goliath fight, to expose corruption at even the highest levels and not just distribute information and sound bites from CEOs and political figures. while that is almost all that we’ve come to expect from our mainstream news organizations, it’s also what the folks at the daily show have not been doing – they may corner their show into relative obscurity by making easy targets of political figures with their punchlines, but as it is now, the entire crew on that show is also proving themselves unsurpassed at researching and disseminating the truth behind the sound bites, exposing corruption, deception, hypocrisies and omissions. this interview should serve as an example of analytic reporting for those in the media, that truth can be found and brought to light, with or without punchlines.

-h
ps: clips 2 and 3 below… also, notice you won’t find anything about last night’s interview on CNBC’s website
Read the rest of this entry »

since i haven’t been posting here too much, i thought i’d pop in to give everyone some news. unfortunately, there’s not much to tell, really, except that if you’re looking at this on my website, you’re looking at a new layout. it’s simplistic, and should be more accessible for older browsers and quicker for everyone overall. 

in case you couldn’t tell, i haven’t been taking new photos, and i haven’t been writing much at all lately. mostly, i got bored with photography, and completely outclassed, and i wasn’t really having fun with it anymore. as for writing, well, i haven’t been bored with it, i’ve just been preoccupied mentally with other things. 

i do have a pet project i’m working on that has little to do with either of those things, but i won’t be announcing it here until it’s ready. if you follow my RSS feed here or follow me on twitter, you’ll see it soon, i hope. 

Read the rest of this entry »