He also gave me a bunch of expired Velvia 50 slide film and I'm really curious to see what it looks like.  One roll sells for about $13 and from what I've seen it's probably worth it.  The vivid colors and picture sharpness are incredible.  I'm sure I'll get some interesting results since it expired in 2000.  I'll post some photos when I use a roll.

I came across Ken Rockwell's website which has tons of great content.  He's reminded me of why I love shooting film so much.  I love the simplicity of it.  My camera has two controls that need to change per shot: lens focus and shutter speed.  That's it.  There's no charger to carry around, no memory cards to become corrupt, no computer needed.  And I love that I have to wait a week or so before I get to see the results.

Anyway, I'll be taking a couple of rolls of film this next week at campmeeting and we'll see how they turn out!

Here's my solution: let it fall apart.  The bailout is simply trying to buy back this lifestyle so that we can all go back to living our comfortable lives.  I don't really get how a nation can be trillions of dollars in debt.  Who are we indebted to?  All I know is printing more money can't be good for the plunging value of the dollar.  If we keep putting bandaids on the system it will eventually explode in much graver ways than it might right now.

These words from Chelsea's grandfather offer a needed perspective through all of this:

I was born in 1934, in the midst of the depression. My father worked for an oil company (Humble Oil and Refining Company, which is now Exxon-Mobile), so we had enough to live on, but we drove the same car all through WW II;  gasoline and tires were rationed, so we didn’t drive except when we had to.  I got one new pair of blue jeans every year.  It cost a quarter to go to the movie-matinee on Saturday afternoon.  Nobody had any money to spend, but it was a good time to be alive unless you lost a family-member in the war.

It is a lot different now. People just throw pennies down on the sidewalk.  Everybody has money for every electronic gadget they want.  Every young couple buys whatever they want on credit, including houses and cars, instead of saving for many, many years, like they did when I was young.  Nobody wants to go back, but I believe the old times and ways were better for the soul.

Please excuse my ramblings because I am no economist, these are just my observations.  It really doesn't seem that bad to me.  Maybe instead of throwing more money around trying to fix our lifestyle of throwing money around, we should slowly adjust to living within our means.  Seems like it could work.

Silent Night [mp3]
Download audio file (Silent%20Night.mp3)

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel [mp3]
Download audio file (01 O Come O Come Emmanuel.mp3)

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas [mp3]
Download audio file (02 Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.mp3)

The Christmas Song [mp3]
Download audio file (03 The Christmas Song.mp3)

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen [mp3]
Download audio file (04 God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.mp3)

A couple of months ago Chelsea's grandmother handed this to me (whatever for, I don't know).  Maybe it was a foreshadowing of my recent haircut, minus the flirting.

One year ago, today, I was in Chicago with Sammy visiting our good friend Brandon O’Brien.   It was my 22nd birthday and I wished that it wasn’t.  I don’t usually like to be given extra attention, but I especially didn’t on this particular day.  It was one of those days where the littlest things drive you nuts.  Nonetheless, Sammy and I set out to make something of the day.  We found ourselves at a cold Lake Michigan and Sammy suggested a birthday swim.  I reluctantly got in with the handful of other loonies braving the frigid water.  Not necessarily what I would have chosen to do, but now I can look back on it with fondness.

When something’s supposed to be special, I tend to get too caught up in it being so that I overlook its specialness.   Though I do have tons of wonderful memories that are invitingly summoned to mind, I can’t help but think of how many things I miss or how much greater some of these memories could have been.  This has been added to the list of things that I need to work on.  Good thing I’m still less than a quarter century old.

There was a period of time where my titles were just the date. I believe I was a more thoughtful blogger back in those days because I wasn't wasting my energies attempting to summarize my scattered thoughts in 5 words. For a while I would just use the title of whatever song was in my head (typically Simon & Garfunkel). I was really just trying to make people think that I came up with a beautifully poetic phrase that perfectly summarized the content of my post.

All that to say I might do away with titles. But then I would have to blog better and more frequently. We'll see what comes of this..