My last essay (for the year) is in, and with only one exam, thursday week, to go, I’m glad to be seeing the last of uni for a while. I’m a little sick of the people, the attitudes, the institution. As a classmate said, “Let’s burn it to the ground.”

This is going to be the Summer of George Tyson. Just watch.

As I was working on finishing up my last essay for the year (done now, yay!!), this burnt sun glazed the trees outside and left a bright pattern on the wall behind me.

I love the quality of light. You can stand in it and it becomes you, it hugs you but you can’t touch it. I also think light is our best metaphor for beauty; just as beauty is a trick of the mind, light is a trick of the eye and is one of our greatest joys.

I’m hoping after the release of a new firmware update today from Apple, my MacBook random shutdown problems will be over. It was already pretty stable, but did have some issues awakening from safe sleep (which I’d really rather it didn’t go into). Others are reporting exactly the same situation: stable while awake, but trouble waking up. It seems that this has really done the trick (knock on wood).

I was desperately not looking forward to loosing my computer for another month.

In response to The Other Andrew’s photo and blog post, here is why you should not take a camera into the bathroom.

From 2003, taken in some random toilets in the Star City casino complex. If I may redeem myself just quickly, I had been running through the city for about 40 minutes (maybe it was more) in absolutely pounding rain. When we reached the casino complex, we somehow managed to gain entrance to one of the theatre foyers (which was deserted), and found the toilets to quickly dry off. My camera survived the rain (unfortunately, it seems) and so too did my evening.

In order to take a little break from my essay, which is shameful considering I’ve only written a tiny portion of it, I decided to journey back through my life. All the way back to 2003, when I got a digital camera. Now that Flickr wants me to pay again for their service, I’ve decided I’ll do a few photographic series presenting a series of images that are no longer available on my Flickr account, and talk a little about them. It’s also a way of talking myself into buying a new camera.

For my first series I though I’d talk about the annual christmas carols event I used to participate in.

I sang in the choir for about 4 or 5 years before the plug was pulled last year when no major sponsors came to the plate. While I was there, it grew from a choir of about 12 or 15 people to a large massed choir of over 50 singers. The last time it was held almost none of the original choir members remained (I think it was me, Greg and another guy, male wise) due to a new “Everyone Auditions” policy. When they didn’t get the guys they needed, I said I’d join in.

It hit it’s peak in about 2003, choir wise (the actual last event in 2004 had giant video messages and even B+ grade stars!). 2004 was a bit of a chore as the rest of the old men in the choir weren’t good musicians and did the choir detriment. 2003 was our best year, full of strong singers, and all funny and nice people. Even these two, Greg and Adam.

There weren’t many perks to the job. We didn’t get paid, didn’t get real seats to sit on, and we would spend extremely long rehearsal days getting toasted under the stage lights and intense December heat. It never failed to get me into the Christmas cheer singing all the carols. It really brought out the childlike joy in me every year, and it was always exciting to hit the stage to spend three hours in front of a huge crowd of families. We did, however, get to meet a few of the ’special guests’. I have no idea who these two are, but everyone was getting photos with them, so Greg and I thought why not!

Everyone knows who this fellow is.

I miss the Carols and the spirit everyone was in when working on them. I hope that some day they return, and maybe even have a bit of a “revival choir cast”.