Travels Part 1: The Nationals in Virginia Beach

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During the past month I’ve been traveling like I have the money to afford it.  A week in Gettysburg (that I already covered) and three days at the yearly ReaderCon writer’s conference outside of Boston (that’s been covered so thoroughly on the ‘net that I won’t waste anyone’s time by recapping here).

Last weekend I nurtured my inner model builder and went to the IPMS National show in Virginia Beach.  It was my first Nationals, and I was mightily impressed.  The craftsmanship was amazing, some of the best models from kits and scratch-builds that I’ve ever seen.  I was stunned when the Weehawken took a silver medal in her category.  I was happy just to have my work on the table and seen with the other entries, but to win something was very gratifying.  I also spent a little money in the vendor room; picked up a big hunk of resin ironclad to keep Weehawken company on the shelf.

I’ve put some photos online here.  I apologize that some are a bit dark, I didn’t take time to correct the exposure on any of them (the ceilings were a bit high for my usual flash-bounce technique).

Storms

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stormeast.jpgTwo shots of the weather that rolled through earlier today.  I shot 4 gigs of photos trying to get the elusive shot of a lightning strike.  One of my life’s goals.  No such luck today, but I did catch these funky boiling clouds.

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Gettysburg, once more.

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Buford at SunsetThis past week I returned to Gettysburg and spent four days there and at Antietam taking tours, talking to historians, guides and rangers, and doing general research.  I stayed at my usual hotel on the site of General Lee’s headquarters during the battle.  Its proximity to the first day’s field on the west of town is very convenient since that’s the focus of my research.  To be within walking distance on a battlefield that is approximately 25 square miles is a huge bonus. This was my first real summer visit to the area, and I highly recommend it even though it was hot and humid.  The various summer programs going on throughout Gettysburg will keep anyone busy.  I was there four days and there were at least another four days worth of activities I wish I could have stayed around for. The tour guides and rangers were of great help while I was there, especially Joanne Lewis, who came in on her day off to give me a tour of the Gettysburg Day 1 field, Gerry Eak, who gave me a great tour of the town of Gettysburg itself, and Mannie Gentile, who gives a wonderful no-nonsense tour of the Antietam field.

I’ve posted some photos here.  Yeah, more sunset photos.  No matter where I go in the world it seems my camera ends up focusing on sunsets and clouds.

The Scale of New York

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BridgeKristen and I took our first walk across the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday.  You get a whole new appreciation for the structure walking it, much more so than seeing it from the shore or even driving over it.

The New York City Waterfalls exhibit is currently running. The most striking aspect of it, to me, is how insignificant the falls look in their setting.  I do not mean that in a bad way, they are quite impressive, and when you stand on the eastern side of the Brooklyn Bridge over the falls you get a real sense of their scale.  But what really struck me is that you have these four man-made, 90-100 foot tall structures cycling over 2 Fallmillion gallons of East River water every hour, and still the structures are dwarfed by their surroundings.

I read that the artist wanted the exhibit to be as much about the negative space as the structures themselves, and on that he truly succeeded.  The Brooklyn Bridge fall is impressive, but completely dwarfed by the Brooklyn Bridge column that it sits adjacent to.  It’s very fitting that a massive exhibit built by man to mimic nature is lost among a massive city built by man.

Empire

The First Day of the Rest of My… Week

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calendarA year ago I posted how I was quitting my full time job to work on my writing.  I did that, but as with most things in life, it didn’t turn out quite as I expected. No dramatic change to the life of a writer, starting a new life of art and such pursuits, leaving what was far behind.  The truth is, honestly, over that past year I’ve spent approximately half of that time working.  Working at my old place of employment, to be exact.  It turns out that short term project work is something they need, and something I much prefer to a 9-5 with no end in sight.  Take some time off, write, go back, earn some money, repeat as often as I can for as long as I can.

Yesterday was the first day “off” after a 3 month project. I have 8-10 weeks ahead of me to get some writing done. I’ve settled on a novel that will take place during the American Civil War, because the era and people fascinate me, and I want to test my theory that you can write any type of story in any type of setting/period and if the story is told well, the setting and genre should not matter.  I hope to get a good chunk of this project done over the next 10 weeks, but since I’ve decided to keep it historically accurate (in line with David McCullough’s statement that he “always strives to tell the truth”, which I completely agree with), I might spend the bulk of this time doing research for this project and a few others. Regardless, I’m spending the summer paying myself to write – not recommended for those who like to actually earn money – and I hope to keep to my daily regime a bit better than I have in the past.

Best Crustacean Guitar Solo. Ever.

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whizbang One of the great joys of New York City is the truly weird but excellent stuff you run across.  Last weekend Kristen and I saw “Jollyship the Whiz-Bang” in an off Broadway theater.  Excellent.  Sure, I’ve seen puppets swear and have sex before (Avenue Q), but the nautical theme and an evangelist crab added just that much more to this show.  I highly recommend catching it before they close next month.

Things that have occurred to me this week

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Voluntarily giving up reading for a week is harder than it sounds.

Had I stayed in the Navy, I would be eligible for retirement in two weeks.

Had I stayed in the Navy, I would be a completely different person than I am today.

People’s concepts of my freelancer/writer lifestyle are much cooler than the reality.

Regardless of those people’s concepts of my life being faulty, my life actually does rock right now and I’m damn happy.

Taking up jogging at 38 isn’t as hard as it sounds.

Spring (and rust) are in the air!

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bridge.jpgYet again we’ve gone from cold rainy weather to hot and sunny in no time at all. Spring seems to be something that now only exists for the pharmaceuticals to push allergy medication. But hey, it’s warm and sunny, so I don’t care.

After a long night drinking in Hoboken to celebrate Matt’s exodus to Brooklyn, Kristen and I walked over to Jersey City today and I snapped the above photo of a railroad overpass. As-is the photo was too sharp on the borders, so I plugged it onto a border filter and then tweaked it out a little more on my own. Shot with my Canon SD700is. I was too hung over to be dragging around the big Rebel today.

Catching up

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notfound.jpg I used to always wonder why my father, who was essentially a mechanic in his regular job, used to procrastinate when it came time to help me work on my car. Now that I’m a computer tech and I find myself with a crippled computer at home and no desire to work on anything electronic after a full day at the office, I finally understand.

That’s a long way of saying my computer’s busted, I’m waiting on a part to fix it, and until it shows up I’m just not interested in taking any extra steps to keep myself online and connected. Meh, I can use the break.

In the meantime, Matt was good enough to to post about Altered Fluid’s most recent early morning appearance on Hour of the Wolf a week ago, saving me the effort. Thanks, Matt!