Sunrise

by Jon Sullivan - 2023-02-09 - Status

<<<<< previous blog         next blog >>>>>        album containing this post's photo

A continuing quest here in Oregon is a sunrise photo. Months of trying and failing.

One of the elusive quests I've had here in Oregon is getting epic sunrise photos. I keep seeing great photos on the Internet others have taken. And then I spend a bunch of time tracking down where the photo was taken. And then plan out a weekend for it. Then get up at 3am and drive out into the dark to be there for the full thing. And then, over and over, I end up standing in the freezing cold with my tripod and a bunch of photo gear draped all over me like Steve Martin in The Jerk while a sunrise doesn't happen at all. So...... many of my weekends start at 3am with me driving to an epic location for a sunrise, and then freezing my ass off as the clouds turn out to be too thick so no sunrise, or no clouds so no sunrise, or, as the universe taunts me, the conditions are great but still no sunrise.

I can see many sunrises if I peek out on work days. Everyone else gets great sunrise photos. Sure enough, I just looked out. Great sunrise happening with some wild cloud effects I've never seen before. But no place to get a good shot from my apartment complex.

It's like a box of chocolates. You never know what you'll get. Other than frostbite and paranoia over standing in the dark in high crime areas at 6am.

It doesn't matter. I am in my happy place. Chasing moments. Having adventures. Finding interesting light. Creating happy photos. Going to beautiful places.

It's always a risk. Risk of wasted time, stolen gear, driving off the road. You go to the place, roll the dice, and hope nature does it's part. Which, for most of my Oregon weekends, it does not. It's a gamble, but an unavoidable one. The alternative would be to not go out and play it safe. Sleep in on Saturday morning, putter around the apartment, and find a sure bet to waste the day on like video games. Or.... these days.... not waste it but spend the whole weekend working on AWS certs and new technologies. Somehow online classes lack the visceral thrill and adventure I've come to crave.

This is the dilemma I find myself with these days. Chase adventure, in this land of adventure. Or be a responsible adult and do homework. It's not really a choice. I have to grow into the new technologies. Blockchain, kubernetes, microservices and containers, DevOps is dead long live DevSecOps, AI, ISO/IEC 9126, wtf Python and vanilla C, TypeScript, Rust...... Endless. And the hook I've hung my entire career on, PHP, is fading away. Being an adult about it is going to be hard. Perhaps harder in a magical land where adventures call. Lots of choices and gambles. Even if I spend the next few months studying diligently, there is always the rather dangerous gamble of picking the wrong tech to focus on. Balance. That seems to be the theme these days.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." - Henry David Thoreau

<<<<< previous blog         next blog >>>>>
Michael Kindig
2023-02-09 19:19:48 : “Reality is what it is, not what you want it to be.” — Frank Zappa

Jon Sullivan
2023-02-10 06:49:14 : I used to think that. As I've aged my interpretation of what is rational and capital R Real has expanded a lot. A lot of things I previously would have forcefully argued to be objective now seem more subjective. Or perhaps it might be better said that you can often take seemingly objective things and bend them to your subjective will. I suspect a lot of it is tied up in quandaries about determinism and free will.

Sign-In With Google To Leave a Comment:
<<<<< previous blog         next blog >>>>>
News
Eugene weather
75.43 degrees F, Clear (clear sky)
Min: 72.25 ,Max: 78.8 ,Humidity: 35, Wind: 4.61
Eugene, OR - Best Restaurants
Eugene, OR - Things to do
Eugene, OR - Fish reports
Oregon road conditions
Recent Posts
- Jon is not crazy
    The crazy is gone. Now we tidy up after the mess two years of crazy has left behind. Or Not.
- New Jon vs
    I was caught off guard by the folks disappointed that I was moving on from "New Jon" posts.
- Thanksgiving menu plan
    Time passes fast in Oregon. Seems too early to start Thanksgiving planning. It's not.
- Are we there yet?
    Let's back it up a bit. The last couple years have been so odd that it often feels disconnected from reality.
- Jon is a hippie
    After 40 years of rejecting anything hippie, 60s culture, jam band, or related, I find myself getting back on the bus.
- Wake up dead
    My intention was to go to the GBB Fest VII concert with friends. Then reality dissolved, and I soared through strange new dimensions.
- Short takes
    Random thoughts since I'm feeling too lazy to make a long post, but too eager to hear the sound of my own voice.
Food I Cooked
Old School Blogroll
kottke.org
Home of fine hypertext products.
MetaFilter
A community weblog.
A Chicken Is Not Pillage
You forgot his exclamation point! It defines him. He put it there for a reason, to show how in! your! face! he is.
jessamyn.com
abada abada - twenty years of jessamyn
Matt Haughey
A Whole Lotta Nothing
dooce
Heater, Mother Of Lance
Anil Dash
A blog about making culture. Since 1999.
Some Bits
Nelson's weblog
Everlasting Blort
proud member of the reality-based community
Whatever
This machine mocks fascists
Scripting News
It's even worse than it appears.
Flutterby
Short attention spans in a world full of flowers
mimi smartypants
Seriously, though: what's with the penguins?
Montreal City Weblog
Stupid Evil Bastard
What the fuck is wrong with you people?
Idle Words
brevity is for the weak
Making Light
Say what you mean. Bear witness. Iterate.
wilwheaton.net
50,000 Monkeys at 50,000 Typewriters Can't Be Wrong
Justin Hall
Growing & breaking down since 1994
Mike the Mad Biologist
Helping idiots who desperately need my assistance by calling them fucking morons since 2004
jwz
MSSV
AKMA’s Random Thoughts
Ruminations about hermeneutics, theology, theory, politics, ecclesiastical life… and exercise.
things magazine
An occasional weblog about objects, collections and discoveries
Miscellaneous Heathen
Hold to the now, the here, through which all future plunges to the past.
kimberussell.com
where it's always Virgo Season
Cockeyed
Recent Trips
Getting it ready for you.