Greetings Citizens. Barrett and I had a good time out shooting on the north end of the Great Salt Lake. We went out around Locomotive Springs. I'm not sure either of us made a memorable image but the weather was nice and we enjoyed ourselves.

Today I joined Hubba and Dave for the Aggie vs Aggie game. We lost to a team which hadn't beaten a Division I opponent in over two seasons. That's how good we are. After the game we watched the end of the BYU vs Utes game on the tele before heading over to Wingers for, what else?, wings. One of my students was working there and she took good care of us.

Tomorrow I'd like to make a few more Platinum/Palladium prints and get some ready to add gum over the top. There's another one up there that I am going to put a layer of diluted cyanotype chemistry over the top of too.

Greetings Citizens. Thanksgiving was fun. I went to Dave & Linda's house. They had the whole dang family over. There were 30 people, at least. Tons of food and great company. I stayed until about 11 PM. I rode Heidi out there and it was 21 degrees on the ride home. Very invigorating!

Tomorrow, me & Barrett are heading out to Locomotive Springs to make pretty pictures. He's scouting for locations for his thesis show and I'm looking to make an image I like for a change.

Greetings Citizens. I am very curious to see how many of my students show up this morning. With Thanksgiving Break beginning on Wednesday, I expect many of the kids will have taken an extra day (or two) of vacation. They have had the last few days to catch up and do redo's, if necessary. Craig is going to show them how to make Carbon Prints on Monday.

Jon has acquiesced in transferring over the domain name. It brings to an end the ugly decline of a friendship. I am sure I am as much to blame as he is. He's a good guy and I wish him the best of luck in his endeavors. We share the same passion for Photography but our personalities didn't quite mesh, I guess.

I'm excited to see what MK can do with the site. She's going to set it up so that even an idiot (read me) can add new images. Who knows how long it will take for the new version of pinholeman.net to get up & running. I imagine it will be after the semester ends. But MK is an overachiever so it may be up quicker than that.

Today, I am hoping to get the valves adjusted on Heidi. I'll change the oil too. I'm thinking if I don't get it done today, that foul weather will set in and it won't get done 'til Spring. After that I'd like to make some Pt/Pd prints. And speaking of prints, I think we're exchanging prints for a print trade I was invited to join. I was the only photographer invited. I made 20 kallitypes of a dead dog and a gnome out on Rozel Point.

Greetings Citizens. Yesterday I had some friends over to watch some football. Dave brought his infamous cabbage salsa and Barrett brought some normal stuff too. We even talked Hubba into buying a cherry pie for dessert. Me? I made a meatloaf for sandwiches. It was all pretty good. The company was great as was the football game between Denver & San Diego.

I tried to contact Jon yesterday. He hung up on me before I could even say "Hello". I was sort of hoping to square things up and move on but it don't look like it will happen. I was also interested in getting control of pinholeman.net. That's my webpage and he has rights to the name. I've offered to buy the rights but, again, he's not talking... one way or the other. He has said in the past that I have never offered him a dime but that's not true. When he stayed at my home in Salem, he said he wanted a bunch of my work. I offered it freely but he wouldn't take it. Now I am trying to move on and get a new web page up and he won't cooperate. It's a shame how this whole thing has ended up really. But we have another name to use so we'll move forward.

I'm meeting Craig this morning to go get some supplies for the lab before class. We need bottles and what-not for the darkroom and the bid sale begins today. Hopefully, we can get some new speakers for the darkroom too.

My new Mac book should be arriving soon. I'm going to need it for my Early Photo History class. I'll be able to get rid of the insanely slow iMac I have in my office currently.

This evening, I'm hoping to get a bio done for the Sitka Art Camp. Maybe even get the classes sorted out.

Greetings Citizens. Today is the 99th Apple Cup in-state rivalry between my beloved Washington State University Cougars and the vile & pompous dawgs from the University of Washington. We're playing for a bowl game, they aren't. And as good fortune would have it, the game is going to be televised on Fox Sports so I'll be able to watch it. I've got my WSU paraphernalia all laid out and ready to go.

I'm helping Marcia make some space in her apartment by taking a couch that her daughter Amy is giving her. I don't have much space in my apartment but I needed another piece of furniture to sit on. When guests come over now they get the "good chair" and I sit on a wooden one. After today, there will be a soft spot for everyone.

I'm helping Hubba load a few bales of hay for his goat later today. Then we'll watch #1 vs #2 on the TV. I think Ohio will win but Michigan is no slouch.

Go Cougs!

Greetings Citizens. Well, my attempts to lose weight and eat a little better are starting to become habit. I've been having to write down what I eat & how much. It seems to be getting easier. In fact, I think I've lost some weight! My pants seem to be fitting a little bit looser.

Some of my advanced kids are worried about their grades. Absences & a lack of trying are the culprits though they try to blame me. Students with eight recorded absences feel it is me who is being unrealistic. Well, they got their chance to voice their opinion yesterday because we filled out evaluations after our critic of the platinum/palladium work. They did some very nice stuff. One thing that makes me happier than all get-out is that I have somehow succeeded in getting the kids to realize the importance of making work that drives them to excel and to find their own vision. Of course not every student has jumped on the bandwagon but the ones who have appear to be pretty happy with what they are making and are happy to be putting in the time to make it look good.

Greetings Citizens. Today I did the unthinkable. I told an advanced student her work was s*&#. I feel horrible for it. She was making excuses as to why she wasn't turning in quality work and my terrible words slipped out before I could stop myself. The quality of her work has been lacking, that's for sure, but her imagery and seeing are fine. In reality, I think she has quite a bit of talent but she just doesn't apply herself as much as she should. But that is no excuse for me. When I was a young and ambitious lad, I wanted to be a photographer. There was a class at The Evergreen State College that I wanted to take. You had to show your work to get in. Well, I had some color images that were processed at the Photo-Mat and placed in magnetic photo albums plus a photo of Ian Anderson at a Jethro Tull concert. The guy looked at my work for 5 minutes and told me it, "was a pile of s&*$"! Well, I cried all the way back to my dorm room and didn't show anyone another image for years. I still find it hard to show people my work (especially gallery owners). Later, when I knew I wanted to teach Photography, I swore to myself that I'd never say such words to one of my students. And now I've done it and I can't forgive myself.

Greetings Citizens. Just got back from Hubba's house. Me & Dave watched the Sunday Night Football Game there. (Chicago kicked holy butt)! We had some sandwiches and soup. And cherry cobbler for dessert. I ate too much!

Friday night and all day Saturday, me and some students went to the regional SPE convention. Utah State wasn't even listed as a school with a photography program! Chucky's name badge had "from a school not listed as having a photo program," which was great. He got a few looks. We all had great fun (some more than others) and a couple of students had the opportunity to show their work to some other people and get some fresh feedback. Peter Goin was a featured speaker and my friend, Tracey Longly-Cook had a show in one of the local galleries. All-in-all, it was a worthwhile adventure. I also made some anti-graffiti images (after blowing off the keynote speaker). I t was late and I needed to use a tripod. But I was amazed at how well the images turned out for it being so late in the evening. Digital has its advantages.

I also got offered a summer job here. I am excited to have the opportunity to expand my teaching through the summer. I always like teaching at The Workshops and this will be a similar situation, except it will be with middle-school & high school kids. I think it will be great fun & I'll get to see Big Mike and Val again. What the world holds for me after that I can only guess since the future is a funny thing.

Greetings Citizens. Little to report. My blood pressure is still through the roof and they have increased the dosage of the medicine I'm taking. Hopefully that will help. I've been trying to eat better and take smaller portions. Can't say I am successful on that front but I am trying.

Helped Hubba today by towing his Jeep to the shop. He hasn't started it up in two years!

One of my students went to Hawaii last week. She was nice enough to bring back some Kona coffee for me. Yummy. Can't wait until morning.

The alt-kids are working on platinum prints. Next week, we'll lay some gum over the top of some of them. Maybe some cyanotype chemistry too. Hell, we might even put gum over cyanotypes!

Greetings Citizens. Went to Bruce's playoff game last night. Watched a veteran official miss more calls than I would have dreamed possible. What irks me is that I know other officials (OK, myself included) who would have done a much better job. But so it goes.

Afterwards, we went and watched the Aggie hockey team fall to Colorado State. Hubba and Dave were there. Hubba had got me a complimentary ticket and we talked the ticket taker into letting Bruce in for free. It's funny but I don't think I've paid to get into a sporting event (besides Cougar football) in years. We talked about Bruce's game and the local Skyview game, which went on for three hours. When the Aggie game was over, me and Dave went and had a burger.

This morning I went up to campus to check out the photo entries for the Undergraduate Show. There was lots of fine work including some nice images from my students. Mary Kay, after learning how to make platinum prints on Thursday, made some digital negatives and made for prints for the show. They looked awesome! She got the Pt/Pd curve off of Dan Burkholder's webpage. You can get the curve here.

Then I went to the football game. Hawaii throttled us. Most of the fans had left by halftime. I met Dave there and we decided to watch the Sunday night NFL game at his house tomorrow. So, it'll be me and him plus Hubba.

Made a simple meal tonight for dinner and made a point of keeping the food portions under control. I've been having to count carbohydrates this week. It's been so much fun I don't know what to do.