paul habeeb. blog.

My family leaves for Seattle next week.

July 2007: Seattle/Portland
November 2007: New York City
December 2007 - January 2008: Spain
June - July 2008: Switzerland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Denmark; or Korea
Summer 2009: Wherever my internship is
Summer 2010/2011:Korea, if I didn’t go in 2008; year depends on when friends leave military
Whenever it is safe: Lebanon
Other places to consider: Japan, China, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Peru, anywhere in Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Australia; basically, the whole world

How am I going to afford all this?

My drive to work, at 480%.

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First, read the Auteur theory article. Then, head over to Fellini, followed by Italian neorealism.

It was yesterday that the first of my friends got married. Not even a year older than me, Jason Allison, not quite six months engaged to Catherine Nelson, embarked on the biggest adventure of his life to date. I do not imagine there will be another wedding among my crowd for some time; none of us have relationships serious enough to consider marriage this early in our short lives. I would surmise that all of us will have at least three years, if not more, added to our life before we gather under for a similar circumstance.

My life during my senior year of high school, in video form.

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In the five weeks I’ve been living in my parent’s home, my activities have consisted of only seven things: eating, sleeping, working, reading, writing, watching movies, and taking photographs. I haven’t been doing much, and that is precisely the way I want it.

Lately I have been writing a script for a mockumentary of the making of Judah Goes To College. I don’t want to give away too many details, but in the film I will be playing a controlling director and the cast of Judah Goes to College will be playing extreme versions of themselves. I have already spoken with a few of the cast members and they are up for it, so hopefully I’ll finish the script within the week and we can start and end filming before July.

On July 4, my family is flying to Seattle for two weeks. We haven’t had a real vacation together since 2001, so the trip will be a nice break from life for all of us. We plan on staying in a house southwest of Seattle for 9 days and spending the rest traveling and visiting friends in Oregon and other places in the northwest. I think the trip will be great; much better than if we had gone to Florida or California.

Last night I got 현우’s car from Paul Kim, and as we were driving around we began to talk about Korea and flying. I have always planned to go back and either live there or visit, but since my trip in December I have not really had an overwhelming urge to return within the next couple of years. However, talking with Paul last night dug that desire out of me. I also was talking to Rebekah about her trip to China this week which only intensified my longing to go back. If my family was not going to Seattle this summer, I would probably save up my pennies and fly there in August. Two vacations in one summer would be too expensive and too extravagant for my pocketbook.

Another reason I have decided to quell my urge to return to Korea is because 송이 is attending NYU this fall, and I have definitively decided to visit her during the gap when I am on Thanksgiving break, but she is not. I have practically booked my tickets for November 16 to November 20, but since it is only June and she has not set foot on the campus yet I am going to wait a few months.

I chose to write this entry to pass the time while the film I developed earlier was drying, and I think it may be dry now, so I am going to end this entry with a quote:

How awful, the first time it felt impossible and the world around me was no longer wonderful. I can’t give back your influence, perspective is hard to undo; thank you for the experience. Here’s some anxiety to keep you company as you waste your energy, trying to build your legacy. Tell me what more can a man do then eat drink and enjoy his toil? I want to be casual, but taking it easy is too stressful. Anticipation nowadays looks a lot more like anxious. Time killed away our imaginations: we used to escape into fantasies and fairy tales. Now we medicate. How do you feel?

Here are some updated stats on the 20D. Old stats here.

• Days with 20D: 175 (December 12, 2006 to June 4, 2007)
• Months with 20D: 8 days shy of 6 months
• Photos taken: 10211
• First photo taken: IMG_8609
• Latest photo taken: IMG_8820
• Average photos taken per day: 58
• Average photos taken per month: 1702
• Gigabytes of photos taken: 57.73 GB
• Number of times the 4 GB memory card has been filled up: 14.4

I have reached the point in photography where I feel strange if I go a few days without taking a picture. I’ve been trying to keep myself busy, but it is so easy to vegetate in summer.