Schelander

Thus the Title

jonschelander — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:21:40 +0000

The title of my overall blog is Schelander: An Occasional Thought, and it’s obvious by the gap between this post and the last that the last part of the title is an understatement. I’m finally catching up with life, so I thought I’d put an update here for anyone who might come across it.

To start, I am married now. As of August 23rd, my bachelor days are over, and I am very happy. The wedding day was beautiful; perfect weather for a wedding in a garden. The number of people who came was small, but that was good because it made it very intimate. Some people sat on chairs, and others sat on quilts on the ground. Our reception was on the patio above the gardens, where we served lots of desserts. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and Kelly and I enjoyed our photo shoot with our excellent photographer (Christa Butler) after the ceremony. We honeymooned on the shores of Lake Superior, where again it was beautiful weather. Sunny and 70′s the whole time! We dipped out toes in the water, hiked some of the nearby trails, and played lots of Cribbage. In other words, it was perfect.

I am also employed now. I have two part-time jobs, one at Dunn Brothers Coffee and the other at Target Portrait Studio. I applied for the portrait studio job because I thought it would be nice to get some experience photographing people, since I’ve mostly worked with landscapes, animals, and inanimate objects. Also, I could get health insurance through this job even though it’s only part-time. However, I am finding that I did not completely think through it, and I am now realizing that this is not the kind of “portraits” I had envisioned. I do want to learn to photograph people in interesting and artful ways, but the portrait studio is mostly mothers bringing in small children that usually don’t want to be there. I observed a sitting so far (a sitting is a photo session) and the photographer used a squeaky toy and made lots of shrill buzzing sounds to try to get a baby to smile. Not my style. But I’ll stick with it for a bit and see if there are better sittings that are along the lines of what I was hoping for. It could’ve been one bad one, and the rest will at least be a little better. The Dunn Brothers Coffee job is fantastic. I’m having so much fun learning all the drinks, and serving people who are calm and relaxed and who enjoy being there, as opposed to my days at McDonald’s where most people were unpleasant to serve. I’m still searching for a full-time job in the fields I’m interested in and that I’ve studied in college (video production, web design, graphic design, photography), but so far no luck. Such a great job market I and my fellow graduates have inherited…

So, anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to. We’re also starting to look for apartments now. We’ve been staying with Kelly’s parents, and they’ve been great about that, but it would just be nice to have a place of our own.

I don’t know when I’ll update this again, but I’m certainly not going to promise anything soon.

Busy busy busy.

-Jon

I do believe that magazine has shrunk in proportion with the collective wallet

jonschelander — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:06:32 +0000

You hear it all the time and everywhere: our economy sucks. Although the initial shock of its decline has somewhat subsided, it’s still a very strong reality for people like me who are trying to obtain a job and not pick out curtains to match the cardboard. It also is a very strong reality for many failing businesses, including magazines. I recieved my latest copy of Paste today, and it is quite different in appearance. Rather than its usual dimensions, it shrunk to about half its size! To try and save some money here and there. they are taking measures to still provide a quality product while assuring its subscribers it will be around for a while longer. This new miniature magazine still has a lot of content, though, which is great. And they still provide the 20 free songs with each issue, which is important to me and my musical growth. They’ve even changed that part recently, though, and have stopped sending CDs and now offer digital downloads–saves money and the environment!

The other magazine I subscribe to that has had to cut back recently is GOOD. I love this magazine, so I was sad to hear they were going from bi-monthly to quarterly. However, they are also taking the internet approach to this problem in a strong way and publishing a lot of articles and updates online. Another excellent way to save money and the environment. I do love having a physical copy of a magazine, though, so I’m glad they aren’t internet only. However, it’s fantastic that they understand the direction things are moving and were able to make a pretty seamless transition to the web. I imagine it’s nearly impossible anymore to start up a magazine without a strong web presence.

I definitely recommend you check these magazines out, partly selfishly because I want them to stay in business and partly because I think they are quality magazines that many of you would enjoy. Plus they aren’t that expensive.

“Excuse me, sir, you are lame.” “Oh, no, I can walk quite well, thank you.”

jonschelander — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:18:14 +0000

I hate being the judge of my own material. I’m working on a video now for an office at my alma mater, and because I’m entirely on my own, I’m having trouble judging the quality of what I’ve shot. I’m usually way too hard on myself, but sometimes I’m not so sure that’s true. My cousin applied and was accepted for selling photos through iStock, a stock photography site. He thought I had a good chance of getting in and suggested I apply, which I did a couple of years ago and was promptly denied. Well fine, I was just an amateur photographer then. I decided I should try again the other day, now that I’ve had multiple photography classes and (I feel) I have a good grip on what good photography is. Denied again. I’m allowed to submit 3 new photos for consideration again in 3 days. I don’t know if I want to, though. How much rejection can someone take before they just have to admit that they aren’t that good?

There is something to be said about the difference between stock photography and artistic photography, though. Or at least enough to be said to make myself feel better about my abilities. Stock photography is supposed to be specific and generic at the same time. Specific enough to apply to a certain theme, but generic enough to be used to illustrate a variety of messages within that theme. It’s also supposed to be very clean with no harsh shadows and all kinds of other rules. Artistic photography gets to bend these rules a bit more, and sometimes have a much more specific message. Sometimes harsh shadows represent a certain feeling. And if the message relates in some way to chaos, I don’t see that being a clean image. But it still all has to be purposeful.

While I’ve always thought myself to be a bit more of a loner, I’m seeing now that I work much better in a small team setting. Bouncing ideas off of others and getting fresh takes on things definitely have their benefits. As far as the stock photography thing goes, I might see if I can figure out how to shoot photos that fit what they’re looking for. It would be nice to potentially have a little side income.

Should you find yourself with nothing to do, just tweet

jonschelander — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:14:23 +0000

I am recovering today from a night of unbelievable excitement. I say that partly tongue-in-cheek, and partly for rizzle. Last night, I found myself staring at my computer screen at 2am, and suddenly having a strong desire to just go somewhere. Anywhere. So I discovered the perfect excuse to travel at such hours: I was out of toothpaste, and clearly I needed to go to Walmart to pick some up. I almost passed this up, though, until I had the brilliant idea of live-tweeting my trip to Walmart and back! For those not familiar with the language of the social network called Twitter, live-tweeting is the regular updating of one’s Twitter account with information about whatever event they are talking about. So for me, this meant at each stop light along the way, a quick update on the progress of events for my Walmart-run.

You can stop judging me now. I know, it’s ridiculous, but at the same time…sort of awesome right? No? Well, whatever. It helped me pass the time. And while I arguably could have passed the time better by sleeping, I was glad I didn’t because when I returned to Upland, I got to experience one of the most incredible things. Hopefully by now, you have heard of the noise being made in Iran over the elections that were probably rigged, and the rioting that ensued. Somehow, a lot of this went uncovered by the major news networks, and the community of Twitter picked up where they failed. Tons of people were tweeting with the #iranelections tag to help keep everyone updated on what was going on, as well as with the #cnnfail tag to let the major news network know that the people were disappointed. I think last night is where Twitter proved itself to be something more than just another social network for catching up with people you haven’t seen in decades and stalking people you could never talk to in real life.

So I feel like I was part of history last night as I re-tweeted important links and helped keep the #iranelections and #cnnfail hash tags alive. It’s exciting. Most of all, though, I hope things get worked out in Iran. That was the purpose behind the Twitter madness last night, after all.

Upland, you vortex you

jonschelander — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 06:13:31 +0000

It’s summer again, but this time I’m not trying to find the best way to make a quick buck over 3 months before heading back to school where I can squander it all on late-night food runs and the Walmart $5 movie bin. No, this time I’m an adult. I’ve graduated from college, and now I must forge my way forward in this world, brandishing my diploma in one hand and resume in the other. Funny I should find myself back in Upland, the cornfield my alma mater calls home, a week after I graduate. And when I say “funny,” it’s because it’s really too depressing to think about seriously. I’m pretty sure Upland has some sort of force that sucks people back in, sometimes unknowingly. I could be stuck here for the rest of my life. And to further illustrate this point, today my car decided it was tired of carrying around a crucial piece of its structure called an idler pulley. As I was entering Upland after a trip all the way from Chicago, it just dropped off. I first noticed it when I heard a rattling sound followed by a clang of metal hitting and rolling across the road. I second noticed it when I went to turn around and the steering wheel wouldn’t move without a considerable amount of force. As soon as I got back, Upland had its way with me. It’s like it punished me for ever leaving and then ensured I couldn’t go anywhere again for a while. Kind of creepy if you ask me.

I should note, after all this complaining, that I am fortunate to have a job for this first month out of college. With getting married in August, any income is welcome. I am looking forward to moving on, though. That is, if Upland will let me.