15.10.07
    You missed the tree frogs and this guy, a Northwestern Salamander (Ambystoma gracile). A whole lot of ivy was removed and the weather was gorgeous. A little environmental remediation can go a long way. There, I've done my bit for blog action day, I'm too tired to write more, but environmental topics are no stranger to this site.

10.10.07
    This week marks one year at my current job. I know it seems like longer to you, but I’ve been on campus for seven years now, just doing different things. Lately I’m being reminded of what it was like when I first started; the feel of things, the energy. It’s good that the initial excitement hasn’t worn off, and I’m glad to be continuing on, despite days like today.
    There have been suggestions that people consistently have bad days of the week at work. I’m not a fan of the idea, first because it seems irrational, and secondly, if you believe it, then you set yourself up for having bad days. However, the last string of Wednesdays have been out to get me. Today started like last Wednesday, getting to work and having to clean minute spots off the sensor of one of the cameras. I don’t want to name names, so we’ll just call it a Canon EOS 1Ds MarkII. The camera has the tendency to spontaneously develop spots which mar every image, and can only be cleaned by using combinations of brushes, fluids, and non-abrasive wipes on plastic wands to swipe the sensor. The sensor is recessed deep within the camera body and surrounded by what seems to be a tunnel of sandpaper and protruding screws. Every bit of lint or dust generated in the process requires further cleaning, and in the meantime, nothing can get done and my assistant stands around.
    An hour later I was back to shooting the large, awkward, and shiny items that no one else wanted to do. One such item was a large wooden puppet that moved with a complex series of pulleys in a jack-in-the-box type action. Of course, to photograph it in the raised position, we had to lie it down on its back. This is what we were doing when the arm fell off. In our defense, it was attached by an old, already torn piece of leather, which on the other side, had been long replaced by a new piece and two bits of elastic. This event required filling in a report on what happened and two of our conservators came down to asses the situation. This took time.
    It was getting close to the end of the day and I was trying to complete shots for several objects, I had one view of them and I was photographing another, moving the lights to more evenly illuminate the object. I was lowering one of our lights, the lamp being right next to my right ear. This is when the flash bulb blew in what was the single loudest noise I have ever heard in my life. Our flash units are connected to power packs that look like double car batteries, when we happen to discharge our two units simultaneously, the drain on the building’s power is extended and audible. That was the amount of energy behind the event. The noise drew in staff from adjacent areas wondering what happened and visitors gawked through the glass with more interest than usual. When the ringing in my head stopped I recall answering people’s questions and kind of numbly standing around, while my supervisor had the presence of mind to turn off the power. This ended my shooting for the day.
    The setup was left to cool, disassembled, inspected, reassembled, and miraculously worked like nothing happened in the first place. I deleted my partial shots and left only to meet system-wide Skytrain delays, but by that point, I couldn’t have cared less.

08.10.07
    I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t a conscious effort. Perhaps it was the presence of guests from Asia that led to the über-traditional potluck thanksgiving meal we had today: turkey, stuffing, yams and potatoes, roasted seasonal vegetables, green salad, cornbread, pumpkin pie. I mean put me in a pilgrim hat and call me neo-colonial. The usual fare ends up being an interesting mash of Martha’s Vineyard and Southeast Asia; stuffing alongside white rice, yams next to bok choy in oyster sauce, turkey accompanied with a sambal belacan. The bananafest seems to have won out this year, but hey, there’s always Christmas.

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