Wow it's been a year already

Since planning the last festival, and boy did this one come with its challenges.  The weather did not cooperate at all, between flying umbrellas and then almost being impaled by one (that was fun), it turned out OK.  It most definitely could have been better but that is a discussion I don't want to get into.  Now the moment of truth, I'm no longer going to be a foot soldier for the festival, I'll be taking it over.  What am I getting myself into?  Can I do it, do I have the time or patience for it?  I have no idea, all I know is I will be asking my friends for help and support to get it done.  Some of you have already come out and told me that you will support me and believe I can do it, well it's time to find out if I can.

In another story I'm slightly becoming more and more tired of the dead end and lack of advancement for my job, so much so as to submit resumes and talk to friends about other employment opportunities.  And for the first time in my 27 year life, I've finally gotten a rejection letter, boy those are fun. Oh well I guess I'll keep looking, and asking around. Well I guess that's all for this mini update, until next time.

Started a new blog

To keep work stuff off this blog, or only the occasional story, I have decided to start a new blog.  Hopefully I can update it more frequently.

Check it out My adventures in accidental librarianship.

I might go out too much, or I need a better memory

So either my reputation precedes me or I have the worst memory of anyone I know.  I see a nice looking lady that I have absolutely no recollection of whatsoever, so I go and try to start a conversation, apparently this is the awkward moment where she knows who I am, we've talked before, and I do not remember a single second of it. At a local drinking establishment a friend wants to introduce me to a blond lady, I say whatever, she comes over he introduces me and she knows me.  How she knows me I'm not sure, but she knows my name, where I went to school and what I do for a living, all things that I do not know about her.  Also I would like to take this opportunity to ask my friends to stop calling me a slut, hell my sister has referred to me as that before and this is just odd.

I'm not sure what I can do about this, when I thought I went out too much I put myself on self-imposed sanctions to stay in more, I broke my own sanctions the same night.  But that was a fun night and well worth breaking my own rules. So I have decided to just keep rolling with the punches and embarrassment of not remembering people, it's what I'm good at. But at least I'm using my own name now.

Life is hectic, but some of that is my own doing.

Ahh the eternal struggle of having fun vs. working, and I need to find the proper balance between the two.  I've become friends with bar owners, which until you hang out with them you don't realize have no sense of time; to them the night starts at about 1-2 in the morning not winds down.  You can't continuously keep doing that when you have a 9-5 job and it not take a toll on you. I have been able to finish everything at work and still do more than I'm asked or should, I help out in my community via festivals, parties, community gardens, help friends with various tasks and what nots, and I still have fun on my own.  But what is this doing to me?

Can I really sleep 4 hours a night and keep going? Can I do this for 13 days in a row (my version of 13 days is so much less dramatic)? I had to take a break recently, not because my body was telling me to but my better sense was. I turned down a pass for free beer at a beer festival and for those that know me, know that is no small task.  I have ignored calls texts and messages after a certain time of day, this is less effective when it is a friend calling.  But what I was doing before really had no toll on my body and I did not suffer any job performance issues and no one even seemed to notice that I was lagging.  So seriously how long can one person go before it all catches up to them.

There are things I want to do, I'm angry that I started sailing so late in the sailing season, but that's only one thing. I've been too busy to pursue a passion of mine in photography and have been to busy with one of the side projects where I screwed up being able to sell certain photos at a store, when I yelled at the owner, oops.  But hopefully it all works out at the end, but right now I'm ending it because the guy in the coffee shop asking his ex why she dumped him is annoying me right now. So that's all for now.

Wow, blogs...are these things still around?

Not going to lie, I have been terribly busy.  The festival, photography, work, and my new hobby sailing.  The festival was one of the most successful festivals in it's thirty year history, this makes all of us feel good.  Even the city feels good about it, hell the city manager has given us a green light for anything we want to try to bring in people/money; so in October we're having a Fall Fest/Oktoberfest.

Photography has taken a backseat recently due to my hectic schedule, but I still have a chance to take some photos.  I've met a new gallery owner and he's interested in my stuff. 

Sailing, my one and only true get away from everything.  My phone stays off, I take no electronics and I get to get away from it all.  It's just the wind that carries you.  I'm not going to lie, the first time I went out I was scared out of my mind.  We went on a windy/gusty day where the boat was nearly sideways most of the time, but I loved it. I've been asked to join the race team, but the festival schedule prevented me from doing this, and there's no way in hell I'll be missing the team next year.  It's just pure unadulterated fun on the boat.  I only wish I could do it more.

Life is good and fun at the moment and I'm still flying high on the success of our festival, wait till next year though we plan on bigger and better.  We put this together in 8 weeks, now we have a year to plan it.  You think we did an awesome job this year??? You won't even believe what you'll see next time. So stay tuned for a good time.

ARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Why can't days be 30 or even 36 hours long? I need more time to do more things and to get more sleep.  Who do I write to about changing this?  Oh well, I know it can't change, damn you science! And yes my rambling continues, but I swear to you I am sane, for now.  Met up with an old friend recently it's fun to catch up, and met up with some good friends too.  Poker run was a smashing success, thank you to everyone who attended.  The festival fundraiser was fun, successful and a great time, again thanks to everyone, but you all totally got your money's worth on this one, and anyone who missed it, too bad but it was one hell of a party.  Now I have to go back to work, one of the 3 that I have right now.  But hey when you're in demand how can you complain?

Long time no update

So I've been really busy lately, between work, traveling for work, photography and planning a festival, and you know trying to have a social life, I don't have much extra time on my hands.  But I'm not going to complain I'm actually enjoying life.  My life is one real big whirlwind right now and I'm not quite sure where it's taking me, but I'm hanging on for the ride.  Not much to complain about other than the occasionally burn out days, I get hit every once in a while, from the lack of sleep, with a day that I'm completely tired and dead to the world.  The only good thing is this allows me to take naps during the day, something I have been completely unable to do for years. 

My incoherent babble on here is probably due to a lack of sleep, but I somehow restarted my workouts at 1am again, I know not the smartest thing, but I need to do it.  I have enjoyed losing weight over the past year and a half, but the major downside is that my pants and belts are too big, and I don't want to go shopping for new stuff.

So the work travel took me to New Orleans for free, and they even put me up in an executive suite at the Hilton, fancy. New Orleans is fun, until you get food poisoning, but I needed a good reason to go back, and dammit I would have come up with a reason anyways.  I'm thinking I might go back in January, maybe.  Also to all the people I have met the past two months, I apologize in advance that I will not remember your name, please do not be offended but I don't really remember anyone's name, and if I do manage to remember your name, you must really be special.  But just because you remember my name don't get mad that I have to ask for yours, I have an odd name that's easily remembered you don't, I meet a lot of people, apparently you don't...so stop whining! Alright enough with the incoherent babble, this was all the free time I had, my break's over, I'm out of coffee and I need to go back to work. Have fun everyone.

I'm just like all the other photographers...

...when we get bored we all take photos of the same things around here.  We call it urban exploration, that is just a nice way of saying we break into abandoned buildings.  It's fun we have to look for cops make a few sweeps around the building to check security and find an entrance point, and then hide bums' weapons.  Yes I did say hide the bums weapons, we only moved the knife under his mattress, we didn't steal it or throw it out, that would have been mean.  Abandoned buildings have the most broken glass you've ever seen, also there's an old high school with the most amount of chemistry labs I have ever seen. Detroit should have been the capital for chemists the way the school was designed.  But back to the broken glass, summers suck for urbex photography, and I normally wear jeans and boots, but wore shorts, and that explains the cut on my leg and arms.  Hopefully all the chemicals from the old chemistry room where it happened have disappeared by now.  I did learn to go with a friend and another photographer, and damn is photography a cut throat business, we don't share secrets or photo spots, and we hate it when others try and take the same photos we have, but the payoff of it is fantastic.  I'm actually happy that I got into photography, now back to the other side of photography the selling portion, and the most important part I learned is to stop caring about trying to sell photos and just take pictures of stuff I like.  Hell it's what got me to where people want photos, and dammit it is what I'm going to keep doing.

Urban exploration is interesting

I found out this weekend that from now on I should not do it alone.  Walking around the abandoned Packard plant in Detroit, I got a nice little surprise turning the corner into a vacated office space and I that nice little surprise is a big homeless guy in a hoodie.  And when I say surprise I mean I was scared shitless, said I'm sorry and got the f*ck out of that building, the only good thing was the guy was as scared as I was when he saw me.  I really don't want to be another story on the local news so I just might find someone who will go exploring with me, hell a few people even offered to go and now I'll give them a call.

In other news a damn facebook note has gotten way too much recognition and been shared about 1000 times too many.  I cannot take credit for writing the note but that still hasn't stopped me from getting friend requests and messages in my inbox.  To the right wing nut jobs thanks for asking me if I have no balls because I follow government laws.  Also because I went to a catholic school it does not mean that you and I should be friends or that I share the same values as you do, and if I support the health care reform legislation it does not mean that I believe in a lawless government as you suggested.  Now to the left wingers, seriously stop telling me you are like me, stop telling me because we are in the same profession we should be friends, and stop sharing that damn note!

My banter about myself again

St. Patty's Day weekend in Detroit is always fun, first it starts on Sunday for the St. Patty's Day Parade and absolute insanity in Corktown; and yes I do mean absolute insanity.  It was a fun time with some fun people and I took a few good photos.  The place was packed with people, maybe not so much along the parade route but definitely in the bars, at Nemo's you could not move unless of course you just pushed your way through and everyone else just started to follow you.

But here are some of the highlights of the parade:



















and the one I call "Help me Obi-wan Kenobi you're our only...holy hell what happened to you?"


After the parade I ended up at a friends bar and late night we decided to go venturing out and see the abandoned beauty of Detroit, first to an old mechanic shop and then up the 14 stories of Michigan Central Station.  That was an interesting trip I was told to do it without a flashlight at night, then to only use the flashlight when absolutely necessary.  This might explain why someone needed stitches but never got them.  I slipped on the roof over the grand hall and that explains the bruised knee in the morning and scraped elbow, it took a second to figure out where the blood on my jeans and coat came from but I was ok, so it was my friend's blood.

And then on Wed. St. Patrick's Day, had breakfast and then spent too much money at the Old Shillelagh in Detroit, then had lunch at the Detroit Beer Co.  Some friends went to take a nap and I headed back to Donovan's Pub for  a few more and to hang out with some interesting people.  I learned that Howard's nickname is Mandingo...I will end the story there.  Then up to meet up with some more friends for a night cap and TOTS!!!!

In other news I got published in the Metro Times for my photo "Before the North wall Fell." Here is a link to the article: Metro Times
and here's a link to the photo:


Well that's all I'm going to say for now, I do have other stories but some just aren't meant to be told on here.

The last post needs some explanation

So the search warrant was at work not for me, some sheriff's deputies came to get some information on a patron and I said we can't and won't give anything without a search warrant. I told them they can make a request for information but it won't necessarily be honored, so two days later they came back with a court ordered search warrant. Lovely. I get to deal with two deputies about technology who have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, so I have to dumb everything down and explain how things on computers work. The other tech was trying to do the same thing to them but alas if a person does not understand technology you cannot really explain it to them in a few minutes.

In other news I'm hopefully going to get published in the Metro Times. I sent some photos in and the Arts & Culture editor wants to use mine along with some other photographers photos in an upcoming issue. HELL YEAH! Now if only I could figure out a way of making some steady income from this photography thing it would be even better. I have a friend who's helping me meet and talk with different photographers so recently I have met a Free Press photographer, a really cool combat photographer who got back to the states not too long ago, and a bunch of local photographers. By the way Detroit has many interesting/weird things to photograph with our art crowd here, and once you get to know them you keep getting invited to weirder and weirder things. I love this city.

Also so much to look forward to the Blowout, the Muse Concert, St. Patty's Parade in Corktown, St. Patty's day all over metro Detroit and after all that hopefully some sleep, rest and relaxation...but who am I kidding, I won't get any of the latter.

This week has kinda sucked...

Car accident, search warrant, almost broke my finger, ipod dies, phone dies, today I f*cked up my knee. Bring it on, I'm still here and kicking. Hopefully it can only get better.

Recap of the past few days.

Paczki Day, horrible start great ending. I almost die in the morning in a nice accident on the highway to getting a few drinks and having fun in the afternoon into night. Unless you have experienced paczki day in Hamtramck you have nothing to talk about. So the almost dying part means spinning out on the highway and hitting the wall, thanks MI roads and your lack of salting!

So well that's not how the week started, on Monday it was a great day off from work to celebrating a friend's birthday at his bar. (how my liver is going to survive the rest of the week is beyond me) But his party was fun, and I can't remember a single time where I had an empty drink, great service from great staff having a great time with some truly fantastic people. So get home about 2:30, up by 6 to go start the paczki delivery system, after the second to last stop is where I had my adventure. But enough of that Paczki Day was fun as always and I swear I was sober the entire day ;-), I swear! The video of me dancing is of me sober, I dance like a drunk white guy when sober too so you have no basis in your argument.

I have to get up early the next day for an appointment with a doctor, but the joy is I get to sleep in on Thursday morning, and that's when the phone rang early. FML! I cannot blame my friend but today was not the day I wanted to go on a pre-dawn photo shoot, any other week I would love to go, but all it means is that I got an early start to the day and am completely running on fumes right now. But there is still a few days left in this week, and even though I almost broke my finger at work today, I really do want to see what else can happen this week.

Have fun everyone, remember life is short live without regrets.

Anger is my motivation

To the guy who looked at my photos a few months ago and told me in not so many words they sucked F*CK You, and thank you. It was you who made me go out and hone my "skills," it was you who led me to go take pictures of anything and everything. It was your stupid little words that were in the back of my head every time I took a photo. I realized I needed to improve and your damn "talk" did it for me. Failure is not an option for me, and because of who I am I will make damn sure to prove you wrong if you tell me I can't do something. I will do everything humanly possible to prove you wrong if you tell me I will fail. There is no real reason for this post other than to vent and remember me going through my photos with a prick who told me I'll never get anywhere with my photography. Now I have two offers for exhibits an invitation to join an art collective and having a hell of a time doing what I'm doing. So to you good sir who said I would fail thank you for the motivation I needed to prove you wrong.

Numbers apparently don't lie

So since I started to do more actual blogging and talking about myself the number of visitors has gone up...that's a little weird to me. I've said it before that I've lead a crazy few months up until now, and that's not only due to the opposite sex, but it is part of the reason. I'm taking a break from something else now, not only am I on hiatus from school, but from women right now too. One breaks my heart, one throws a plate at my head, some don't know my real name, and then there was the second to most recent one.

So I meet a cute, smart and hell even funny girl that I actually enjoy talking to, we hang out for almost 5 hours the first time and don't realize until we're getting kicked out because the establishment closes at 2AM. Wow, get her number and will talk to her tomorrow, we decide to go out again but this time close to her, so a small coffee shop on the east side of town (I'm beginning to hate the east side more and more) and after about 45 minutes there is a look of shock on her face, and lo and behold her current boyfriend walks through the door. Now I'm sitting there quite pissed off and the guy (who is smaller than me) walks up to me, and I calmy told him that I am too pissed off to be angry right now and if he does want to go outside I really don't care right now, but fair warning pent up anger is never a good thing. I walked out and he stayed behind, for what I don't know.

I then realized I can block a number from even coming through to my phone online and through the phone, so at least I don't have to care about that call. SO like I said, I'm on a break from women. Well since I did mention that that story was for the second to last one, the most recent one was one that a friend figured out on his own. When a friend is the one who can put two and two together it made me laugh, but girls who smoke are a turn off, I thought so before but now I know for sure. La di frickin da back to a boring existence.

Being a photographer is fun...

sometimes, that is. I love taking the pics, and recently began to love selling them too! Haha, that's right selling them now too, so far I've sold 1 photo, with one photo in the process of being sold. I needed my friend's advice on pricing, he told me to start high and work down, so I did. She wanted a framed 16x20 I told her a price of $400, she said how about $350, I told her sold! Yay for me, hell I would have been happy for $100, so anything else is a bonus. But getting up at 4:30AM after getting home at 2:00AM is not that much fun, although the payoff is great. Today I went out to go get photos of the Dequindre cut, and realized I need a new pair of gloves that gives me access to the camera buttons and dials. Why do I need new gloves, because my fingers turned purple and started to tingle, you know that small sensation like small needles, yeah that's what it was. I take my gloves off to take the pictures, and I don't realize my fingers are freezing until after I get the photo I want.

Now I can't keep a cohesive thought together, so back to the other photo, It's a 30x20 photo of the Minido falls, I have said that I will only print 25 of these large photos, and I have one hanging on my wall. Fun thing is the 30x20 will probably be sold for less than the 16x20 photo,but like my friend also told me sell to your audience. The photos for the local papers is beginning to get annoying, annoying as in you're giving me crap pay to go to crappy venues to see empty bars and not get my photos published. Also I really have no intentions to keep being sent to see a band that plays at 1:00AM on a weekday, I might jokingly say I can sleep when I die, but it is starting to catch up to me. To make matters worse I need to watch my mouth at these bars, especially when I make fun of my so-called employer's magazine in front of one of their writers...oops!

Oh yeah Happy New Year everyone, may this be the best year ever!

I'm an Artist...

...at least that's what other people are calling me. I donated some photos for a charity and they went over real well. A few people asked to meet the artist and the first time I was told someone wants to meet the artist and I looked around and realized that they wanted to meet me. Damn that felt good. I also found out that my photos were some of the most popular items in the raffle and people have already put them up in their house.

Top it off I showed some of my photos to an art collective and they asked if I was ready to have an exhibit, after I said no, they asked how soon I could be ready. So if you are reading this go through my photos and tell me which ones would be great for an exhibit, please. More news about the exhibit coming soon, maybe or you might just get an invite. Also I might be asking for help about pricing, because when someone asked me how much my 8X10 framed photos went for I said $50? and they were surprised by the price and said only? Is $50 too much for a framed 8X10, or are these weird suburbanites who would pay too much for a photo.

...WOW

So yeah, uhmmm not much to report on my side here, been having fun, hanging out everywhere and meeting new people. Nothing can cheer a guy up like being offered to be blown at a bar. How and why this happened is beyond me, but hey what the hell...right? Also great to know that employees at a certain bookstore thought I was cute but were not allowed by management to talk to me...Stupid management. But yay that's good to know too.

On a completely different topic I am beginning to hate the Salvation Army, partially because it's my fault but oh well. I learned my lesson never buy anything in advance, from here on out it's generic gifts and nothing else for almost everyone. I mean not spending too much money and special ordering stuff for anyone, especially when over $200 worth of stuff is valued at $5 by the Salvation Army. From here on out it's off the shelf anything.

And I'm really beginning to like work again, and am now being called the creative one. Working on an awesome grant proposal or a community wide art project, I feel so important driving around to meetings and talking to directors of stuff. I am doing this completely unprofessionally in shorts and a soccer jersey, but I semi-fill the artist look by doing this. Wish me luck, and now back to the phones to get more money and people involved...This is awesome!

I'm out of my funk

YAY!!!

It takes a kind word, a good friend, a great beer, or that quick glance from someone to make you feel good again. Or in my case it's doing something you didn't think you had in you and actually being a good guy about it. I am not going into the details of what happened (some of you know) but I did something to surprise myself last Monday night, and I have no regrets about it. Right now I'm living life to have fun and to see what happens. I'm OK again, I'm back to normal. I am also on a photography kick and I'm loving every minute of it. My photos are coming out OK in my opinion, still need to work on my technique and skills.

I realized I'm out of my funk by being called a brat at work again by my co-workers and finally being able to joke around and goof off again. My favorite part of last week was hearing a co-worker say "we can tell them we know Konrad," hahahaha, I know a lot of people and apparently get preferential treatment. I am totally OK with this, it's not what you know but who you know, I am a people person I talk to random people, this is how I was invited to some dude's BBQ waiting in line at the Secretary of State, or how I am going to be hooked up at an Arabic restaurant near Mike and Joyce's place, we should look into this. I find silences awkward and will break them up, sometimes that works well and at other times it backfires, but that still doesn't stop me.

Just remember kids I'm back to my old self for now, and I'm loving every minute of it.

What is wrong with Me?

So I'm on a path of self destruction and don't care enough to change it.

I've already had this conversation before, but what the hell I'm venting. I'm fighting the idea of whether or not I'm actually an asshole, bear with me for a moment as I explain my logic. There have been now two times in my life that I've been hurt by the opposite sex, the first time was not a great emotional attachment but she said something that completely f*cked me up. After that I went on a sort of douchebag/asshole trend that lasted some time. I ended up taking a break and returning to "normal." This is where I met most of my friends, and hear from everyone that Konrad is a nice guy, we all like him. I tend not to ever hang out with the people I met during douchebag days.

Well recently I've been back on the whole asshole road again, only this time I'm realizing it. The only thing that I don't know is am I an asshole or is it my defense mechanism to the world. I am doing things without thinking anymore, and stuff I would normally not do. The bar has become my sanctuary, and yesterday a friend told me we're only 25 we should have a substance abuse problem...NO WE SHOULDN'T, and why the hell would you tell me this? Now I'm not sure if I'm an asshole with periods of being nice, or a nice guy with a tendency to become an asshole.

Case in point last Wednesday, getting out of class a girl I went to undergrad with came up and talked to me (backstory I have turned her down at least a dozen times before), started talking to me and asked me if I want to go out. A reasonable response would have been, no I'm sorry I'm busy or something of the sort; My response during this whole asshole phase: Sorry 13 is not your lucky number, and I'm sorry I just don't find you attractive. Again I didn't realize what I said/did until after and it was too late. I've lost the filter in my head to stop me from saying/doing these types of things. The only saving grace I can think of is that I feel bad about these things later, not much of a saving grace though. So right now I'm trying to figure out who I really am, and maybe I should reinvent myself, because I don't know what the hell is wrong with me anymore.

In other news I'm back to eating once a day if at all, and still trying to work out at about 1 in the morning. Oh well.