Logging On

  I'm back after spending what was by choice, the last seven days with no time on the internet or email. Did I miss it? Absolutely not! It's shocking just how much noise the internet now generates. How much it clouds your mind even when you spending far less time on it compared to the average person, a person obsessed over the tiny screen that's glued to their hand for most of the day...and night. Minutes add up when surfing the web, no matter if you want them to or not. You're at the mercy of algorithms, paywalls, click bate, and notifications. But mostly distractions.

  The only way to experience this Zen like experience is to completely unplug for at least a week. You might actually save what's left of your sanity and become productive. Not todays version of faux productivity,  you will actually accomplish things more quickly, more thoroughly, and with more clarity. Because it's impossible to search the web without being bombarded with ad after ad...and cat videos, before you quickly forget what you were looking for anyway. I hear people actually say out loud (what was I doing again). I use to find it funny but it has become pathetic. The internet driven by social media is now an out of control addiction.

  Of course there are those who will claim B.S., but those are todays masses who are in denial, whom I see on the street, on the subway, and in the stores everyday who have the attention span to their surroundings that mimic a late stage dementia patient or a slow dull child. These are also the iZombies who claim they're not on the internet, social media or their phones very often, but every time their phone goes "ding", or whatever annoying notification sounds they have set to determine theirs from others, they scramble to their tiny screens so fast that Ivan Pavlov and his dog would be envious. 

  The first thing to happen after I pulled the plug was that I began to read more physical books and listen to more physical music sources. In my studio I have my stereo and cassette tape collection, while in the living room is all my Jazz on vinyl. No paid music streaming services and no YouTube with their endless inserted commercials. Your mind also returns to a state before the internet when it was possible to think more freely, openly, and without the mind-controlling prejudice. This also helps to create more, take more peaceful walks, and to meditate.

                              

  The second thing was that I began questioning returning to this blog. When I began this blog several years ago I was receiving up to a couple hundred views per post, but now I'm lucky if it's a couple dozen. And that's most likely because my wife is sharing it someplace ( I don't ask where ). If not, my posts would have a couple people at most reading it. I'm not caught up on numbers, something people are obsessed with today. Like it's your virtual ranking in life that somehow transfers to your real one.

  I began this blog as an alternative to social media and as a kind of diary for myself, but if I become the only one looking at it, I would much rather keep a physical diary, log, or field notes, which is something that I already do. I kept a very large diary during my Devil's Pool project. After each day there I would write down notes, thoughts and inserted a couple of photos. This is something I regret not doing for all my projects.

                               

  My other form of keeping a diary is audio. A little over five months ago I purchased a voice recorder and a bunch of recordable CDs. Every night I record the days events and at the end of the month they are burned to CDs. Initially I wanted to record to cassette tapes but my cassette deck does not have a microphone input and the cost of blank cassettes is gotten out of hand. While not my ideal choice, I'm not unhappy with this compromise.

                               

  A concern of mine was getting the daily news without the internet. The news on TV today, especially the local news is entirely too much fluff, and half stories require you to go the internet in search of the whole story. Neither is ideal, and news hidden behind a paywall makes it even worse. My solution to this was to read physical newspapers but finding them has gotten more difficult. I usually luck out at the diner where newspapers are left behind by older customers. I’ll read anything that’s there. Even though the Philadelphia Inquirer is only a shadow of its former self it's still better than what's being broadcasted today. As par for the course, I just found out the grocery store across the street from me will no longer be selling newspapers.

                            

With a clearer head my walks got better and I began to see things again in my neighborhood. A neighborhood that has pissed me off lately because of online stories of unfitting new building developments, and trend based food options. The Village and Garden District of Chestnut Hill is becoming like everyplace else and it's bad enough that I see it happening with my own eyes, I did not also need to keep reading about it on line. So with this calamity cut in half I began walking around with the Fuji XT4 again taking photos for my "Suburbs In The City" portfolio. Something that I haven't done in a year. Hopefully it's something I can continue doing before the neighborhood becomes like every other one.

    While I was in the mood for color I started editing some of my color photos taken with the now 24 year old 4 megapixel Canon G2 camera. It's long process to choose those photos that I wish to print for my small 5x7" albums, but it's rewarding watching them come together. The different color album covers feature a drawing I made of the Canon G2 camera. Each album holds 24 prints.

 My slowest project is the photographing of grocery shopping lists found at the ACME supermarket across the street from my house. I'm lucky if I find a shopping list every two weeks but over the last week I've found two. I think it has to do with my increased time walking. But I have little doubt that it will take more than a couple of years to find fifty of them. I photograph the receipts right where they're found on the parking lot or sidewalk. I do regret not picking them up after they're photographed and placing them in a scrap album. A recent blog post explained why it's important to photograph these.

Manic, Manic, Manic.

With less digital things filling the gaps between me and my photography I find myself on a tear. All I want to do is take and print photos. And the only thing stopping me form having hundreds of filled portfolio albums is the funding to create them and the space to keep them, but mostly it's the funding.

   My return to taking photos in the subway is occupying most of my attention right now. I feel the subway is stuck in the middle of completely falling apart and undergoing great change that will ruin it for people like me. The process of building the portfolio is being done without the need to post the photos on social media and waiting for others approval. My photos only have to satisfy me.

Speaking of the subway, this week I laid out my 47th zine. This zine will feature photos taken in the subway from 2014 to 2017. They are being printed and assembled as I'm typing this and the first batch should arrive in a week. 

As I've said many times before, I do not own a smartphone, and my tablet stays at home where it belongs. I don't want to be bothered when I'm out, and I don't want the distraction of a digital device tethered to me. I do take a lot of notes when I'm out and every backpack, camera bag, messenger bag, and jacket pocket has a note pad or composition book.

Overall I found this experiment a success. And in the future, I see myself dedicating the second week of every month to logging off from the internet and email. There is no benefit or need to be logged in, aware, informed, amused, or being accessible every minute of every day.

Right now I'm writing down ideas that will greatly limit the time I will spend online. I'm even making changes to my real world life such as the hours that I keep. I've never been an early morning person and always a nighthawk. But I'm well aware that the days, and nights, of me waking at noon, and staying up until 4am are over.

Over the last year I gave a legitimate effort to getting up early, but it just didn't work out. My insomnia would kick in and I became sluggish by 11am. The idea of getting up while it's still dark out seems highly unnecessary to the life I'm leading and it frankly just isn't for me. So I began the slow shift of sleeping an hour later and staying up an hour later, and there's a strong possibility that one hour could be turned into two. 

There are more changes coming.