March 8th, 2009
The Road Warrior
The thirty days beginning from the end of February are a challenge in displacement endurance. Three locations, five days of skiing over a nine-day period, roughly thirty-hours on buses. Tuesday I head to Los Angeles for a business trip. Two weeks later I’m in San Francisco for another. Fortunately I’ve come into use of a laptop notebook that weighs less than nine pounds and has a battery life of more than five minutes. Mind maps, Visual Assist, blog entries. It’s interesting to think how what seems so convenient and state-of-the-art now will be laughable in a decade’s time.
The downside of all this travelling is a virtual freeze on artistic development. There has been little writing, and virtually no photographic advancements made in the last eighty days, save for a one day darkroom course I took last month. I made a wiki for what I’ve learned, but I have to use a discount coupon by Saturday for another session.
My visa expires at the end of May, but I think I will continue to get more than my money’s worth on my re-entry permit before then. Six unbroken years in Japan. Six. So much work, so many trips, so few regrets. Life is rich, and so are the possibilities… for a road warrior.
