The merits of camera phones

1. I’d always held the opinion that the camera on these new fangled mobile phones is next to useless. Low resolution, bugger all storage capacity, tiny lens — the only thing they’d be useful for is perving on cute girls in public (which motorola capitalised on in a recent ad campaign featuring a girl taking self portraits on the bonnet of a parked car). My opinion hasn’t changed, but after a few days with my new Z600 I discovered just how much fun they are to use.

2. Kodak moments are often fleeting, and being able to impulsively snap away without having to wait precious minutes for the camera to power up provides a sense of freedom unparalleled in the realm of digital cameras. Sure, you could prepare by having the camera on and ready, but then you lose part of that moment — you go from “yeah, that was cool, and I got it on film (or should that be bits? silicon?)” to “yeah, finally got that shot”. It’s just not the same.

3. And the low resolution actually enhances that moment. A big, bright, clear photo requires no effort from the viewer — keep the eyes open long enough for the brain to register the image and move on. But a small grainy photo invites the brain to plug in the missing details — the expression on people’s faces obscured due to low lighting, the smells, the sounds; the atmosphere of that moment. The difference between looking at a moment, or being in a moment.

4. To me, it is the difference between living and working.

5. There is something wickedly exhilarating about taking these tiny shitty images as documentation of life. I wouldn’t dream of using a phone camera to takes images for my professional work, so this for me serves as differentiation from Graphic Designer to Human Being. I can do what I’m good at, but not seem as though my life and my work are one and the same. Sure, they are inseparably intertwined, but I don’t feel my work should wholly define who I am. My life is a lot less polished, and much more grainy, than my work.

…

6. I am currently listening to The Vines singing a tribute to marijuana, and I am disturbed.

Knock knock knocking to sell Heaven’s Door

1. *bzzzzt*

Hello?

Oh, hello. We’re doing some bible work in the area …

*click*

2. I didn’t realise God had a door-to-door sales department. For 5 easy payments of $49.95 you too can have eternal life — but that’s not all! You also get a license to be obnoxious to your fellow man! With the license you can assert your Moral Superiority™ upon the lesser humans 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! At home, at work or in public!

*shudder*

It’s getting uncomfortably hot now.

It’s February damnit, there’s only three weeks to go before summer is over — so why are we getting 38 degree days now? I’m over it. I love summer and all, but I’m over waking up on sweaty sheets, and malfunctioning computers because it’s so hot. I can feel the vibrations of the fan on my desk through my fingertips on the keyboard, and it’s not pleasant. O-ver summer!

The job hunt is going. It’s stalled a little in the past week, with the MoS meeting last friday. I guess it was unrealistic to expect a job from them on the basis of one project, and it really makes no sense for them to do so, but I really was hoping for it. They really liked the prototype, and they’re much more interested in nursing it along under the radar, which means we’re gonna be getting more freelance work which is good. I could really do with the extra money! I really need to get in touch with the RACNSW people as well to present my project to them, and maybe get some exposure that way. Nothin’ strokes the ego better than to see your own work plastered all over the streets of your city.

And this has got to be the funniest prank I’d ever seen!