I know I swore off Food I Made photographs but this is a little different

This is a miniature public thank you to my dad on his birthday.

He has probably inadvertantly passed on a great many things to me (my mom has, too, naturally). One of the more trivial things I long aspired to pick up was his ability to nonchalantly throw together a plate of literally perfect scrambled eggs. Weird and potentially uninteresting yet true.

This isn't terribly signficant in the scope of things I could thank him for or mention at all. But it just occurred to me this morning.

Happy birthday to my dad, and thank you for unknowingly teaching me how to make a pretty delicious plate of food.

it was an accidental monument

For some reason this board had the same ink on it from 2009 to last Sunday. Spring 2009, when I was putting in the final throes of biochem studies and creeping round the corner to a long spring/summer/fall of job hunting. Recording my running times on the board and seeing this fellow who brought me coffee in the mornings and went on long bike rides and grilled vegetables for us in the evenings (it worked out).

I wasn't exactly attached to the writing on my white board... I just kind of forgot about it and kept moving it from place to place with me. And now I've erased it and I'm studying... the same things. Again.

I promise I'm not trying to be majestic. It was just a monument to the recent past that took me by surprise when it was unearthed. It kind of reminds me of this project... (which I'm not entirely uninterested in emulating, at least tangentially) but I'm unwilling to do an accompanying self portrait.

That's all. Be well.

What Has Been Up (According to My Phone)

This is the Jori History of the last month according to my phone. It tells of the most important things, I guess (If I had a fancier phone, they'd be fancier images. As it is, they're pretty rough. Forgive me.)

Anyway. This is a tour of my last day of work (commemorative Western blot) (it's GAPDH, in case you're curious), moving my brother in with us, moving ourselves hundreds of miles, acclimating our dog to the journey, toasting the Grand One Year at our favorite burger/shake joint, Tiberius's first canine houseguest (and unrequited love), and exploring the new territory Jori/Jeremy style. The snake and bikes-in-Jeep photos warrant their own narrative, trust me.

Welcome to carpet, Tiberius

Where the whole room is your blanket.

I could post about our 500+ mile move, or about any of a number of timely things, but now that I've been a Stay At Home Jori for two whole weeks, all I can think of are about nine different posts exclusively about my dog, who is currently without his collar and thus: Stealth Puppy.

titanic

This was a post I wrote a couple weeks ago and accidentally left in draft mode, so it's a bit late. Sorry! 

There are probably rules against shooting food in black and white, but as my brother and Jeremy both pointed out, actual Titanic pictures would have had no choice.

Anyway. Special thanks to Corbin (a lifelong studier of the ship and its sinking) for inviting us to join him for a first class multi-course lunch, complete with hors d'oeuvres and Titanic/iceberg shaped ice, on the hundredth anniversary of the tragedy.... which suddenly sounds morbid, but it wasn't. He made food that they actually served on the Titanic! And made it one hundred percent vegetarian! Cheers to him.

On a separate, but more important note: who would like to make me these and deliver them to my lab? Slightly chilled, please.

goodnight

Jeremy brought me a pretty accurate teaching skeleton one day. Such a good surprise.


Happy Saturday. Or... caturday, for those who observe it.

Friday

This image is representative of this day.

i'm really sorry

I had to go to the mall again today, and I took my camera to get some maybe non-lazy shots of my day. My very dead batteried camera, that is. It had precisely enough energy left to light-meter a single shot, and that was it. No shutter. No farewell, no warning.

So it is now quietly recharging. Which is what I'm about to do, too! How's that for a transition!

Clothes shopping would be so much easier if transporters and replicators existed already. Get on that, pre-Trek science.

In the meantime: soft bed and a deep breath for a Little Engine That Could sort of Friday.

I often get Tuesdays and Wednesdays mixed up

This is only a slightly different view of the kitchen, which I posted first in this endeavor. Where breakfast and/or coffee happens. Where Tiberius leaves his bone and sits semi-patiently outdoors until it is thrown.

Who wants to have a sushi makin/MarioKart night? Because it's Kevin's (and Roommate's daughter's and Lada Gaga's?) birthday, and this day made me remember/want those things.

WHAT

WOULD YOU RATHER: (this is a boring one)
-have a job that makes you work extraordinarily hard, long hours (repetitive 12-18 hour days) for certain times of the year, but gives you ample breaks between
OR
-have a job that keeps very regular hours, all year long?

I was going to ask Jeremy, because it so obviously pertains to a teacher/coach & research technician relationship,  but he is quietly reading in the other room, apparently uninterested in the particular supernatural show I have playing in here.

So lucky him. Instead of a dull Would You Rather, he gets to hear about ancient Albanian legends. I mean when this show is over.

general spring-timery

This image is not really very todayful. Let's focus on the Tim Burtonish tree on the side there.

Unrelated Supernatural Phenomenon of the Day: Our house emanates a current specifically attractive to crane flies. I mean, the evidence is leaning that way.

jeeps

So my filter is dirty? Or injured? Something's wrong, and it better be the filter. Filters are maybe a little more affordable to replace than lenses.

Onward. Today was what Jeremy calls Topless Sunday, which means the top and doors were off of his Jeep so we went a-drivin'.

overexposed

Not a cloud in the sky today, for the first time in a while. I would add a much to my dismay to that, but it was too nice. I planted seeds. I sat on my porch for a long time. Jeremy grilled and fired up the fire pit and Corbin even stopped in. Not that those are things for specifically non-cloudy days, but it was so outdoorsful... no, she can't complain.

I also had the pleasure of visiting my... niece and nephew dogs? Tiberius's cousins? My brother-in-law's family's dogs. There.

Too bad my head shadow barged into this shot.

the darkroom

Ever since the I developed my first Western blot in the darkroom at my current job, there's been a creepy little box of sharp things on the counter. Today I finally took my camera in there to document it.

I also took Ghost Jori photos, because the Westerns themselves were turning out horribly. Stay tuned to see if I end up posting those.

weary jack

he's not always weary, though. don't worry.

Made of forks and bolts.

Made by my dad, the artist.

happy birthday, bach

Today I came home to a Happy Birthday, Bach cookie. Last Friday I came home to a fresh loaf (loaf) of sourdough bread and two professional cupcakes. I don't think I can ever not live in the same city as my brother.

Facts of the Night:

1. Jeremy and I couldn't remember why we stopped watching Fringe. Tonight we remembered. It had to do with a long, heated argument about string theory, basically. We're moving past it.

2. Tiberius's favorite new game is to hide his toys under a giant blanket and then wrestle the blanket to the death. He also enjoys moping by the back door and complaining that we won't let him play in the mud.

In case you were curious.

currently on deck

figure 1

This is kind of a lie. This is what has landed on my bedside bookshelf, not necessarily my On Deck reading list. It should at least give a pretty strong hint as to where I am headed, though. At 9 pm.

Scientific fact of the night: The number of unsuccessful experiments that I produce in a day is inversely proportional to my desire to stay awake and/or produce worthwhile photography. I don't know if that makes sense. But the amount of effort that went into today's image is dramatically obvious by the edge of my bed, seen at the far left of Figure 1 (above). That doesn't make much sense, either. Key Point: Bed time.

Currently listening to: Interpol and Radiohead, mostly.

currently reading:

I don't even want to talk about how much thought went into shooting this book. I'm not kidding. I shot it too many times in too many settings, and now I don't even care. Finally I just checked the lighting and called it. You even get a complimentary inexplicable vacuum in the background. 

The point of this one is this: I used to be nearly religious about updating my Read Books list. Upon completion of any book, I'd add it to the list. If I didn't finish it for whatever reason, its title sat in waiting until I could legitimately call it Read. I don't know why, but it was important.

But then Tiberius (also pictured, big surprise)... accidentally relieved himself on Reading Lolita in Tehran when I was ten pages from its end, and then for reasons I won't list here (out of concern for time, not privacy) I held off on the epilogue of American Gods for several months. Then I worked on Recommendeds, then a re-read jag, and with the two unfinished books, I was mildly stressed/confused about the List. 

Anyway. I'll cut discussion of the List to a minimum, because I get the idea I'm not making much sense. But this is what I'm reading now, and it's a worthy bit of history, I think. 

And for posterity: other books I've read since I updated the sidebar (which used to reflect my list):

Reading Lolita in Tehran (Azar Nafisi) (minus ten pages)

American Gods (Neil Gaiman)

The Passage (Justin Cronin) 

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer (Siddhartha Mukhurjee) (READ IT)

Diary (Palahniuk)

Fight Club (Palahniuk)

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007 (Eggers/SUFJAN)

How We Are Hungry (minus a chapter) (Eggers)

And then The Devil in the White City? Pretty sure there are some missing pieces... And we'll all pretend that doesn't bother me at all. 

for shame

Yesterday, round the other side of the lake. This day... she was not productive.

storm

So maybe trees should go on my That's Enough list now, too. But like the puppy, I'm very fond of trees and their naked branches, etc etc.

Anyway. Dark clouds have been lurking/trudging through the sky all day and it was a very good day for noticing the outdoors. I did so at one of my favorite old bike trails, though sadly not with my bike yet.

work dishes

This photograph bores me beyond comprehension, especially on a Friday night. I am gritting my teeth trying not to post a Tiberius photo, and I can't remember why I swore off of them.

snapshot

Right, then. The new rule is that photographs henceforth may not contain that chair.

Or probably my own livingroom at all. I am trying to encourage myself to work a little harder at this project but the main focus today has been sleep and how quickly I can get back to it.

If we were doing Mood Photography the photograph today would be of a slug. I feel as productive as a slug.

I know this has Too Gray Syndrome, but the skies today also had Too Gray Syndrome

Which is exactly the way I like it, though it makes staying at work a little more antsy. These clouds today were better suited, I think, for a bike ride and library books.

Fun Fact: I think my library card has lapsed into delinquency again because of a less than 50 cent fine. That fact isn't fun at all.

The point, though, is that this is our Fish Bones Tree.

SORRY

Sorry, everyone.

I am actively working at not making this a The Daily Tiberius site, but I am choosing to view this as more of a portraiture study in melancholy than yet another shot exploiting the puppy's complex emotions.

He just gets so dramatic every morning when Jeremy leaves and he notices I'm intending to leave, too.

Evidence

So, I had my first few March photographs auto-post, because I went back to Atlanta to visit Meredith. And I am just now writing about it because it has taken me this long to clean off my desk to have a clear surface on which to take this picture.

Anyway. Rachelle and I used to collect evidence now and then, and I still kind of do, from time to time. It might border on Hoarderism but that's not the point.

Atlanta evidence:

• Map to Dallas airport
• Dallas parking stub
• Kroger Allergy Relief (embracing my heritage by getting allergies while away)
• Receipts (Ginger cats and hanging out with Meredith's crowd)
• Boarding documents
• Chopstick (Thai lunch)
• Chip (representing all of the guacamole and false-hummus dip Meredith made for me) (so much) 
• Broken glass (representing most honorable porch sitting during a thunder storm)
• Empty Starbucks card (representing traditional airport breakfast)

I also encountered the best black bean burger of my entire life, for the record.

I highly recommend having a Meredith in Atlanta to visit. Such a fine host in a fine, treeful city filled with too many fine establishments and worthy diversions.

And these are the only pictures I took while I was actually there. They're phone pictures of Dallas, a fast cat, Modern Family on the porch, and leaving.

March is for Black & White: A Non Explanation

I attempted to explain this begrudgingly, because despite my best efforts, the explanation annoys me. Since I am publicly displaying the process, I thought I'd at least try. But every attempt winds up more irritating or obnoxious than the previous.

Most importantly, this is not about showcasing meticulously selected/edited/favored images. Hopefully that's obvious?

I just sort of made up some rules and started shooting. And thus far, I've been obedient. 

Maybe I'll be more articulate later. 

ISO 1600

Here's to grainy Saturdays. And rainy Saturdays.

You can tell I shoot from the couch far too often.

goodnight, week

So. This is as ill-framed cheating as cheating can be, but I haven't exactly explained what I'm doing yet, so I suppose disclaimers can be kept to a minimum.
This has been a full-grown workweek, and it's time to put it to rest. And I can think of no better way than a Beatlesful night and dark, clean house (cheers to Jeremy, on that one), and a chill puppy to see this week out.
Oh, and wholehearted hope for a quiet, restful (or adventurous or legendary or productive, whatever you're into) weekend à tous. 

the boy with the yogurt stained nose

Gross, huh?
He was so confident that he'd gotten away with that particular heist.

7.

A pretty satisfying night for porch sitting, I think.

Happy Birthday to My Brother

I can't have today not be a Corbin photograph.
They were watching cat videos on You Tube.

graysville

This is not at all the one I'd planned to put up today. But I have a thing for roots and scarred white trees... so... There's some roots. And a scarred white tree.

effective advertising

there is, as with so many things, a longer story to go with this. but not for now.
for now: every time I drive to Dallas, I wind up interested in ham sandwiches. which I haven't eaten in many years, but apparently (every time) this one-of-several-of-a-kind sign makes me seriously consider them, even if for a minute. seriously.