i don’t think there’s a picture that better encapsulates Beaker. via wikipedia.

there are certain times when wordpress really raises my ire to a fever pitch. this is one of those times.

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while not straying too far into the details of my personal life, i will let everyone know that i moved into a new apartment for the winter. not breaking my boundaries, it’s a mere 6 blocks from my old place, which drops me back into my old stomping grounds of Whittier, of which i claimed in the name of troy when i moved to minneapolis 5 years ago.

i’m aquiring 1.5 roomates with this move, which is a welcome edition. Mara, the resident that is actually around, is beyond cool and chill. throw into the mix her year studying at culinary school, and the fact that she finds me amusing, and you have the perfect makings for a new friend [knock on wood].

i’m also stealing internet from someone. i hope they stick around for my tenure there [knock on wood to the max]

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i’m not that mad at wordpress anymore.

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Beached from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

this is an example of a process called “tilt shift” done by some photographers. “why do they look so small?” you ask, well, here’s the science behind it-

the archetypal camera lense is 35mm. if you use a wide lens (we’ll say, a 15mm) you will have a massive deapth of field (something along the lines of 2.4 feet to ∞). when you zoom in on a subject, the depth of field (distance in focus) shortens, meaning the background and foreground (perhaps only a few feet infont and behind the subject, respectively) will be blurry and awesome. (i’m choosing to omit f-stops and their affect on DoF for simplicitys sake; though, if want an explanation on that, just buy katy kessler, matt blum, or myself a cup of coffee and either of us will explain everything from lens explain everything from apertures to circles of confusion).

we, as a media-centric society have been conditioned to take a shallow depth of field as something that has been photographed from far away, or something very small that’s been photographed from somewhat close. (even if you haven’t been aware of this until now, you’ve been raised this way. congrats.) enter the tilt shift. now, what tilt shifting does is create that short depth of field effect on a very wide lens, where we are not used to seeing it. (with what technology? well, it’s a few things. the effect is the result of lenses that cost more than your car plus some selective gaussian blurring, a great subject, and you’ve got it).

the end result takes a very wide angle shot with a HUGE subject matter, and adds an effect that for over a hundred years has been exculisve to a certain type of lens, to make us believe that we are watching playskool figures.

it’s all very, very cool.

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i’m 50% mad and 50% confused at wordpress. it’s like an old friend who’s become and enemy or something.

The Life and Accomplishments of Malcolm Fantasmagee III from troy zimmerman on Vimeo.

i own too much shit.

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there’s a point during a move where i, and perhaps others (though, no ones related with me on this yet), begin to second guess pretty much everything i’m doing with my life: “why am i moving? i was fine here. what am i doing this for?” it seems like a lot of worry and work to fix something that wasn’t entirely broken. i should add that there isn’t something that specifically sprouts this thought, it’s more just an independent wave that rushes over you about halfway through the move (in my case). it might be simply from exhaustion of physical labor or continually disappointing yourself with the amount of useless shit you’ve acquired and the proper disposal/relinquishment of said shit, but for me it’s a matter of comfort and security.

i enjoy having a place to come home to. a corner to throw my bag, a bed to toss my hoodie on, a chair to read in. it never rejects you and will always drop everything it’s doing simply to answer your beck and call. you invest time in it, you decorate it, you make memories in it. it’s yours. for a time…

perhaps the frustration of moving is the abandonment of that space. a friend of mine, John Burgess, has always talked and trumpeted about how his memory is affected by space and vice versa (or whatever). he’ll enter an old apartment or old room, and immediately be juiced with the feeling and memory of the time he was there. he can also think of a time and most of what comes back to him is the space that time took place in. most people associate smell with memory, though i personally fall back on music, but i think we all share in John’s instance that a certain room or building or road or what have you can crank up the nostalgia something fierce. we don’t want to leave that space. it’s safe there. “up yours, change. i’ve been here before, and everything worked out just dandy.”

it’s a threshold that we must cross when shifting our lives any measure of distance. if we didn’t, we’d stall out and become old cat ladies. or worse, it would start to affect us in ways that we can’t perceive. your persona and character is just a hodgepodge of what we surround ourselves with, if you will. not material possessions, but the WHAT of our lives. if you dislike the space you choose to root your life in, then it’s going to affect you.

fortunately, we all have the choice to change that space whenever we want. it’s just getting over that hump of the decision you made months ago that seems like such a mistake right now.

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the amount of hope coursing through this country’s veins right now is very inspiring. maybe that’s all we needed.

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i am stalking chuck.