This journal idea is wicked. I suppose mine will be some sort of mix of all my UE art project ideas, exploration logs, and travel planning. Here's whats up with me right now.

Upon returning from OPEX, I've had a few revelations.

1. I'd rather be traveling and exploring. Even though I have a good job, stable living environment, and pretty much everything I need, I'd give it up in a second to be living in a camper and traveling around North America. Going to OPEX was somehow a kick in the ass for me. It made me realize that yes, you can travel all over the place and explore. You just need to be motivated enough to do it. I realized that I could probably take a year off work, after saving up some cash, and travel. I could interview other explorers and photograph the places they explore. I could put together a book that, while it might not be a best seller, a lot of people would appreciate. This, to me, seems a whole hell of a lot better than working at the Gap.

2. I have too much stuff. In order to travel around, I'm going to have to get rid of all this crap I have. Store it, sell it, give it away, whatever. As long as its gone.

3. I spend too much money. In order to do this, I'm going to have to save everything I can. I, at one point in my life, lived on a commune, and it seems like when all I have was a tent, some clothes, my camera and a car, I was much happier. From now on, I will not buy any more stuff.

4. I've always said I can do anything I want to if I put my mind to it, and this seems like a good way to prove it. This journal will be helpful because it will keep me motivated and give me a place to tell people how things are going. You can never beat the support of your peers.

So, these are my thoughts for the past week. As you can probably tell I'm pretty serious about this, and my goal is that eventually, after something like OPEX, I won't have to go home and back to the Gap and think about how I'd rather be doing other things. I'd really like to hear any ideas anyone might have about all this, so PM if you have anything to say. I'm also pretty serious about the book thing, because I cant see undertaking a year of travel without some sort of creative goal to achieve. Maybe if anyone is interested in giving me a place to crash for a few days and being in my book, they could also PM me.
Obviously this is just the beginning of much planning and saving on my part, but every trip, as you all know, has to start somewhere. That's part of the fun.

Today I went and worked as a photo assistant, which is something I've taken up doing recently. Pays ok, and its easy as hell, so its a good time. The people are also generally pretty cool. While I was at the train station waiting to pick up some model, I had some thoughts about the whole trip. I've decided I'd like to interview maybe 40 people over the course of the year. I'd like each person to show me one place in their area that has particular meaning to them. I'd like to interview them at that place, if all possible. I;ve got some other ideas kicking around right now too, but i'll prolly put them up later tonight when I get home. It's Tuesday! Open Mic at the Cubbyhole! Yay!

Yeah, and I'm back from open mic. This awful woman sang (yes, amazon) and I was forced to go try and roof the building across the street to get away. It was a failed attempt, but I did learn how to open the garage door. Anyway, I'm too damn tired to say much right now except that I am going to be selling my photography in a tattoo shop now, which is something that just came up tonight. Hopefully I'll sell some stuff! Also, I had an interesting discussion about how to get a cheap camper with some folks there, so thats looking good. I went to the bank after working today and dumped a bunch of money into savings. I wonder how much it costs to travel for a year? I was thinking that reasonably, with working at gap, assisting a few times a month, the money I make from selling my art, and selling off a bunch of crap I have, I should be able to have about 25,000 by next june. I think that should be a pretty darn good start.

In other news, I've landed the cover of an art magazine in my area, which should generate my some exposure (no pun intended) and web traffic. This wont happen for a few months tho, which is good because I don't have too much free time right now. I also did some research on grants, and it seems a project like the one I'm planning is eligible for quite a few. Mostly, tho, they dont start accepting apps until november. This will give me some time to pick out what I really want to apply for and write all the essays and stuff associated with them. If anyone has any experience with that, drop me a line! I've gotten a few PM's from people interested in this project, and it looks like soon enough I'll be able to plan out some sort of route. I'm going to get a map up here when I have enough stops planned. enough for now.

Some trip stuff from today:

Got a check for a pic from the web site. Yay! Plan on spending tomorrow matting, framing and then exploring. Did some errands today including visiting the bank to get the balance of my car loan. I plan to sell my car, which is new and decent, and using that money to buy a small winnie or the like, and also a beater car I can drive for a year until I leave. My step brother is awesome at things like that, so it's on his plate to sell the car, find another one, and find a camper. He seems all excited about this and taking that on, so I think that should work out fine. He's awesome for helping me out! He makes a lot of money doing this car swapping thing online, so its no big deal for him. Thats good news and a relief on my part. It should happen sooner rather than later, probably within the next two months. I called about getting a license to drive the camper, and I guess it depends how many feet it is as to whether or not I need to get a reclassified license. I plan on getting as little a camper as I can get to make parking easier and save on gas, so that should be ok. My uncle, who is a mechanic, will let me keep it at his place once I get it, and fix anything wrong with it so it will be reliable and not break. This is all good news. I priced out storage units, and then my friend told me to just put everything I dont get rid of into her attic, so that solves that problem. The next step is to call my ebay addicted friend, and ask her to start selling some stuff of value I have, like a depression glass collection, a bunch of dvds, things of that like. Im going to go do that right now. My dad agreed to take my car payments over for two years, so basically he'll be indirectly paying for the camper, kinda. This seems to all be working out pretty well...

Also, ive gotten some PM's from people who are interested in the book and letting me crash for a while at their places. When things are more organized, probably in a few months, I'm going to post something in the main board so it will be more visible. Until then, Keep PM's coming!

So I just got back from Harlem Valley. I was in the mood to be on a roof. Its been kind of a weird day altogether, and I'm pretty beat. I found out that the "security guard" there is just some 20-something guy, and had a very nice conversation with him. Basically, He said pretty much that he'll pretend he doesnt see me when I stop in. I like that in security. They've only had security on the complex for about three months, because apparently some kid got his leg stuck in a window trying to kick it in. Freakin idiot. Ug. Anyway, off to sleep. More later.

click to view

edit:added pic

I spent today recovering from last nights HV run, and matting and framing some artwork to be mailed out. Psx came over and helped, and we spent a lot of time talking about the trip. I've written a project outline, which I intend to post here and in the main forum very soon. Things are coming along fine.

Yeah, im a rat hole chick. Thanks noah

anyway...

the last two days...I went and got a personal loan to pay off my car loan to sell the car lien free. Yay! I made a sample page for the book, or im making one, and got rob dobi to agree to meet up so I can get another sample interview to send with a query letter to publishers. I wrote said query letter, which is boring because its like a high school paper...this this this this. blah. The sample page is much more fun. I got myself a tape recorder. not too exciting, but something I need all the same. I looked at campers online for a looong time. all this is dull dull shit. The upside is people are being really awesome about letting me crash at their places, which is good. I conned my friend into selling all my junk on ebay. this is also good. I had a really good conversation with my friend pete about the whole thing. Also good. Everything is cool. So, progress is happenning. Exploring tomorrow, gonna get that panorama from HV's roof that we want.

I made this, too.

Today I went to a psych. I was supposed to go with a friend, but it didnt work out, so I ended up going solo. I forgot how much I like to explore alone. I went to a building I really like, and I got some great shots. When you're alone you dont really have to worry about anyone waiting for you to stop setting up shots, or people walking through your shots, or any of that...so its just...nice. I think i'm going to make it a habit to explore alone more often. I always bitch that psx is the only one around here who will go consistently, but I think I should just suck it up and do my own thing. I certainly shoot better that way anyhow.

In trip news...I looked at some campers, got the loan thing the rest of the way figured out (should have known by today, but then the bank I applied for it with was retarded, and so I applied at a different bank altogether, and now I'll know tomorrow.) I also called a record dealer. Looks like I'm gonna hve to give up my records to help fund this thing, which really sucks, but there's not much I can do about that. All for now.

hey all

Been hectic here the past two days. My great grandmother died, so I'm leaving now to go to Rhode Island for two days or so. She was 103, so we were kind of expecting it. It's still sad and all, but she had a really good, fun, long life. Im in an OK state of mind about it.

Anyway, nothing much to report. Took a friend roofing last night. It's becoming a post-open-mic-tuesday thing. We had a really good time. For some reason, conversation is better on a roof. Noticed that there are some new open windows in yet another building on the complex. I think that the new "security guard" is more into exploring the place than protecting it. I scared the hell out of some guy who was there running, too. I was waiting for my friend to meet me, innocently sitting in the dark near one of the buildings, and he ran by just as I was getting up. I think he must have thought I was crazy. He jumped about ten feet in the air. Synlight has some new photos on it, if anyone cares to check it out.