aaron schwab

forever and ever.  ugh. i met up with Candice for coffee and cake at Matter of Taste today after we were done work and school respectively, and it was marvelous — except that “coffee” part. i seriously need to stick to tea like i’ve told myself i would (Matter of Taste has absolutely stellar jasmine green tea, so make a note of that.) caffeine is generally known for pepping people up, but for some reason, it just hits me like poison; i get all jittery and dizzy and physically fatigued whenever i have a coffee or — god forbid — an energy drink. it’s like i get the caffeine crash without the buzz first. yeah, no more. tea FTW.

in other news, this battlestation is fully operational my room is 100% green and my furniture is back in place (albeit shifted around slightly.) should be awesome to crash on a legit mattress tonight, especially considering how wiped i feel!

i did the second coat of wonderful green in my room today and, well … let’s just say i’m buying my dad takeout to do the third and final coat, because my skills with a paint roller are apparently on-par with those of a one-armed badger. so, that’s that! if all else fails and my green walls go completely to shit, i figure i can just cop out of it by painting them purple or something.

in other news, i’m currently on hour four of my 12-hour fast; i’m getting blood work done in the morning, and i can’t eat for 12 hours beforehand, which isn’t long at all, espcially since i’m going to be sleeping through most of them, but i’m hungry — and the kicker is, i know i wouldn’t be hungry right now if i could eat. damn good thing i loaded up on chinese food at the dinner table!

well, off to bed i go. after some photo correcting that is — i just finished editing 116 photos from friday’s ARC battle preliminary round and watermarking them with “ARC BOTB VI.” problem is, it’s the battle’s fourth year running. looks like a little homework may be in order for me, aye?

after several Phil’s outings resulting in monumental letdowns, tonight’s finally renewed a spark of hope in me for the little shithole. the music was actually fantastic tonight (Rancid, Beck, Brand New, Incubus, Taking Back Sunday and the obligatory Hot Chip and Death From Above 1979, off the top of my head), and the dance floor was, as we say, pumpin’. tonight was the Phil’s i remember from damn near every weekend in the summer, and i think i’ll give ‘er another few chances before i defect to Club Abstract or elsewhere. Kendra was a saint for being my taxi tonight, so props to her!

shooting round three of this year’s ARC battle last night was fun too, but i’m really not too pleased with the shots i managed to get. i borrowed a D100 and 12-24mm wideangle lens from Joe to do my shooting, and i noticed three issues with my shooting throughout the night (one or two of which are probably my fault):

noise. i do not like how the D100 shoots at higher ISOs at all. the D100 was Nikon’s first commercially-available amateur DSLR way back in 2002, and their sensors have apparently only gotten sharper with time, but anything i shot at ISO 800 or higher (which is where i shoot bands for the most part) was just loaded with noise. fortunately, this is why Photoshop — specifically the ability to heavily desaturate images — is a godsend.

focus. maybe it’s just my shitty aim, but even when my target was dead-center in the shot, i ran into a lot of issues with focus. some of it can probably be attributed to motion, though i shot with a flash at 1/125th or higher all night. once again, i’m willing to bet the D100’s noise exacerbated this situation; tons of “film” grain doesn’t really lend itself to a crisp image.

lighting. aside from the grudge i hold against the Schwaben Club’s red and blue stagelights, i simply couldn’t seem to get light from my flash where i wanted it. i was shooting with flash in hand on a sync cable; i almost always got ridiculously harsh shadows flying off of my subject, or, if i fired it straight up with the intent of bouncing light off the white ceiling, i usually just got a dark subject with a white spot above them. granted, it’s a flash and camera i’m not used to using, but i wouldn’t have thought i would’ve had this issue so consistently throughout the night. and did i mention i hate the D100’s noise?

all in all, a grand weekend so far! i’m putting the second (and possibly third) coats of green on my bedroom walls tomorrow, and it’ll feel nice being that much closer to being able to sleep in there again.

i ran into my good friend Craig on the college bus today and got into a rather interesting conversation with him. he works at a mall bookstore, and was telling me about a conversation he got into with a patron a while while ago over a book about how to read people’s mannerisms. after some questioning back and forth, Craig learned that this patron was a cop, which caused Craig to break off the conversation and work elsewhere in the store.

i was curious at first as to why Craig disliked police officers. after all, don’t the vast majority of police officers use their given authority responsibly, with only a small handful of bad apples abusing their power? i discovered that this is exactly Craig’s issue — though most police officers do far more good in their community than harm, it’s the fact that giving power and legal authority to those who will abuse it for personal gain that irks Craig (as it would most people, i’d imagine.)

Craig proposed that there be a method in place to police the police, so to speak, as to prevent any one officer from having too much legal control, but adding another tier of authority to the legal system only opens up more gateways for power to be used and abused, presumably leading to the addition of yet another layer to balance power. if said method of keeping the authorities in check is repeated ad nauseum, there is theoretically no end to the cycle.

instead of adding layer after layer of authority in attempts to balance pervious ones, i proposed a system of civilian policing — eliminate all levels of police enforcement, and simply give every law-abiding citizen a tube sock with an 8-ball in it. this would undoubtedly force people on the street to govern themselves and keep each other in line. after all, few things sound less pleasant than a solid crack in the back of the neck with an 8-ball inside a tube sock, eh?

genius.

school was its usual thursday of self-inflicted pandemonium, and i think i’m starting to figure out exactly why i dislike it so much. the notion of doing work i don’t want to do doesn’t bother me; it’s having no frigging clue where to start and what to do once i’m there. i can say with most certainty that this is something i’ve brought on myself, so i’m not looking to make any excuses about it — and i hope it doesn’t sound like a copout line when i say i suppose college just isn’t an environment that i seem to thrive in, as much as i wish it were some days. oh well; it’ll all be over soon, for better or for worse, then on to bigger and better things!

on another note (the pleasant one), i spent the evening lounging around with Cagney, which is something i’m becoming rather fond of doing. as obvious a statement as this may be to people who talk to me on a regular basis, i might as well say to my throngs of loyal readers, too, that i’ve become rather fond of Cagney herself! at the risk of blubbering on for ten straight minutes, i’ll just say that i’m glad Candice, bless the wonderful person she is, had the brilliant notion of introducing us. short, blonde, absolutely adorable, impeccable tastes in music — i’ve been very happy with making her acquaintence as of late!

but it’s late, and i have to be up for class in six hours or so, so i’ll cut this short for the night. i have an exciting weekend of shooting bands, painting, band practice and maybe a little random party action ahead of me. cheers!

… and then i got to do some work on one of these.

it truly saddens me to know what i’m missing out on by not having an HD display at home. holy shit.

not so much. but i did spend most of my day off today going to and coming from the doctor’s office!

long busrides are always an adventure — for example, i stood across from some kid on my hour-long ride on the 22 on the way back from the doctor who was writing stuff on the window condensation, including a giant “MARIJUANA” tag. hey, if you’re a fan of the herb, go nuts, i guess …

the 15 was half an hour late in carting me home, which gave me time to bond over wretched bus schedules with a guy who had impeccable fingernails (i’m talking french tips and everything. and i think he was wearing a little guyliner. hey, if it floats your boat!)

and then i decided to clear the driveway when i got home. i opted for the snowshovel and not the snowblower because i apparently forgot that a fuck-tonne of snow can fall in an extremely short period of time in the dead of a southern Ontario winter. plus i suppose my back muscles needed the exercise!

thus concludes my thrilling day. i finally get to work tomorrow, which is a two-level plus (i like my job and i like paychecks!)

and it was a monday. this doesn’t happen often at all.

i had a wonderful afternoon watching ridiculous BBC TV on DVD with Lili, and then a marvelous evening with Cagney — simply marvelous. and, aside from a doctor’s appointment, i have tomorrow off, complete with a long-overdue chat over coffee with Candice. this week is off to a great start!

the first coat of celery green (whatever the hell shade of green that is) is on my wall, and the results are only moderately disasterous; there’s only green on my ceiling in a couple spots! i definitely could’ve done worse. once that dries, i’ll get coat number two on and, if i procrastinate really badly, maybe i’ll have my new bed by then, too. woo!

our bet set in a long while, i must say! it’s amazing how your enjoyment while playing affects your performance. it’s all in being confident and having fun, and looking like a complete tool while you play (all the best bands do, after all!)

on a completely unrelated and pointless note, i had a soy green tea drink tonight that tasted like dirt and chalk, which can only mean it must’ve been healthy, because no one i know would put that past their lips for pleasure. ech.