Night 9,999 – January 31, 2010

An uneventful Sunday as I spent a lot of time studying “The Legend of Good Women” by Chaucer. Last year I decided to change my occupational direction and become a high school teacher. I intend to attend Villanova University this summer for an accelerated one year Masters in Education plus Teachers Certification program. In order to be eligible for this program I needed to take 6 college English courses. I’ve already completed four and I am taking Critical Reading and Chaucer as my final two this spring semester. It is a big change as I’m running my own business while I’m taking these courses. The challenge will increase this summer when I start school full time. I expect the reward to be satisfying and I intend to be working for the Philadelphia School District teaching high school in the fall of 2011.

Today’s photograph is my second submission to the Tyme Gallery Photography Expo X Juried Exhibition. The title is 52nd Street Sitting. This is another Holga toy camera photograph. I photographed this young lady in the 52nd and Market Street area of Philadelphia. I have a few good photographs of this area and I intent on taking more for a project called Fifty-Duce Philly. I expect everybody reading this blog to hold me to this.

Night 10,000 - January 30, 2010

I’ve decided to rededicate this blog and hopefully spend more time and effort on it. The truth is, I intend on spending more time and effort on my life and record it in this journal. So far, my life has been about 20,245 days and I figure I have at least 10,000 more days to live. Although the first two thirds of my life has been eventful and satisfying, it’s really only been eventful and satisfying to me. If I died today, I’m sure my family and some friends would be very sad, but I have done nothing to leave my mark on the world. I would be just a speck that lived and died. Hopefully this blog will help me perform the highly unlikely task of making some small difference during the last third of my life.

I will count the nights down backwards and record my thoughts, intentions, events, feelings and actions. This should help me stay focused on making my last 10,000 nights worthwhile. At the very least, I hope to improve my writing. I will also post one photograph a day. I don’t see 10,000 good photographs being a problem.

Today I entered 2 photographs in the Tyme Gallery Photography Expo X Juried Exhibition. This one is titled Urban Stillife. It was taken early one morning in an ally behind Sansom Street in Philadelphia. An inter city toy camera take on traditional still life photography. I’ll post the other photograph tomorrow. The jurors will make their decision by Monday, February 2 and I should get my rejection notice a few days later. Twenty-five dollars of drinking money…wasted.