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Well, Who Knows? I had lunch out in the real world for the first time today at Huynh Restaurant in downtown Oakland. The first time I'd eaten at a restaurant since April 5th just before the operation, and, it was, well, OK. I ordered a chicken dish, small pieces of chicken sauted in a tasty sauce with white rice on the side. I was able to cut the chicken into very small pieces and get them down with some of the rice while the rest of the table talked about art and life and ocean transportation. I believe I got most of the food into my mouth without smearing too much onto my lips and nose because the people sitting across from me didn't avert their eyes or throw up on the table.
The IT manager for the Middle East was at our headquarters for some sort of
meeting and we had lunch with him today, a kind of "get to know the folks
This is why, he went on, you don't get the very best talent working in Saudi Arabia. He, for one, couldn't live there because at least for starters his wife would leave him and take the children. We all nodded. Wives have a second sense about these matters.
I've run a couple of black and white photographs that I shot
After I posted this entry to my journal I received an invitation to join Archipelago. All I can say is thank you. Thank you. |
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in the field" thing. An interesting guy. He's stationed in Dubai, evidently
a fairly cosmopolitan country without the rules and regulations so dear to
the hearts of the countries surrounding. He told a
story about visiting Saudi Arabia and driving across the city with his host.
"Let's go by the chop center", said his host. Chop center? Maybe a complex
of Chinese restaurants thought our manager, but what the hell, he was the
guest, sure, why not? The "chop center" (and I could be remembering this
wrong, but it was "chop" something.) was a large area with a raised stage
like structure in the middle. This is where they punished their local
scofflaws by "chopping" off their hands and their heads depending on the
seriousness of their crime.
Friday at the night photography class. The exposures were all over the
block and maybe I should have shot more of them, but they are a
start and I'm relatively happy. This is the first time I've used
Kodak TMX-100 black and white film (I usually use TMY-400) and I'm
interested in seeing how they look and how the contrast and grain
structure compares with the faster film. I think my efforts for a
first time out were kind of funky, but a spark was struck and I'm
going to do more of these if only in my back yard. The color slides
I shot Saturday night are due back tomorrow and if I'm lucky I'll
get one or two of the Golden Gate Bridge and the moon gleaming off
the bay in front of San Francisco. Not sure I want to go back there
in that wind and I'm not sure I want to be bumping around by myself
in the dark, but, well, who knows?