It Doesn’t Average Out

In the past few years, I have noticed something while driving. It has become quite more more prominent now than in my past few years of experience. Perhaps I pay more attention to it or I purposefully notice it occur more, but either way it’s happening. People will drive 40 MPH in a 45 MPH zone, and when we reach a 55 MPH zone they suddenly speed up to 60 MPH. This irritates me to no end because I will pass them in the 45 zone for going so slow, only to be passed by them in the 55 because they’re suddenly going so fast.

This happens to me without fail every single time I drive home. A car will be going slower causing a bit of traffic behind them. As soon as all those cars (myself included) pass them, they’ll buzz by a few minutes later, speeding past everyone so they can lead the pack. Of course, they almost always subsequently slow down again, and the process repeats over and over again. I don’t quite understand why this keeps happening. It’s also not really limited to one demographic, because I constantly seen men, women, young, and old do this. The icing on the cake is when these same people pass everyone and then slam on their brakes to turn.

Am I the only one who experiences this issue? It would to happen to me every once in a while a few years ago, but now it seems like it happens way too often to be just a coincidence. Perhaps I’m a magnet for this type of behavior? Maybe I’m just attracting the slow down speed up, pass then get passed kind of people on my drive home each day? Are they teaching this averaged out tactic in driver’s education classes? How is this explained in Common Core?

Costumes: Captain Jack Sparrow

Some personal projects take a little while to put together, while others take years. This is one that took years. After I finished my TDK Joker, I noticed that a lot of people who were doing costumes also had Jack Sparrow outfits up their billowy rum soaked pirate sleeves. That kind of peaked my interest, as I wanted to expand my costuming horizons a bit with another large project. Over the course of the next three years or so, I started and subsequently “finished’ my Captain Jack Sparrow outfit, and had some great experiences along the way.

A2Z Photography

I was fortunate with this costume because I got several higher priced (and hard to find) items for relatively cheap. On one occasion I scored a set of three items for $350, which would have ran well over $1000 otherwise. Another time I purchased a pair of lightly used CA Boots for $100, which would have been several hundred dollars new. On other occasions people just flat out gave me things, like my vest from Mellissa Ebbe (who is now on Face/Off!), or some of my belt accessories which came from a costumer who decided he was done with trying to get his costume together. I was very fortunate to have so many friends in the hobby who helped out like this, as these connections also allowed me to purchase several items from the original sources, so not only was the costume accurate, but the items were from the very people that produced them for the film.

A2Z Photography

Eventually, when the costume was about done, I ended up doing a speech around Halloween at my community college in the outfit. This was pretty much the beginning of a new chapter in my life, as it would lead to many subsequent events. One of these experiences was that I got cast as the lead in Pirates to the Rescue!, a childrens’ show written by David Quinn, which was Kaskaskia College’s main stage play. This was my first acting experience. I can vividly remember hearing Quinn say “Oh, you’ll only have like 3 or 4 lines!”, but I’m pretty sure the final count was between 150-160. This would lead to many great things in my life that I would have never expected.

A2Z Photography

During this time, I was also featured on TLC’s television program Big Tiny, which was about my friend Brad Jordan and his sister. I was also hired by Macy’s to promote their fragrance department, all because I was Captain Jack Sparrow (they also thought Quinn was my manager). Eventually, I would also win several awards for acting at Kaskaskia College, including Best Actor, Director’s Choice, and the Alumni Award for two years running. I would also receive a theater scholarship, which paid for my tuition in full for two years.

A2Z Photography

This costume really brought me numerous and amazing opportunities, and it was always a blast to wear. Many people helped me out along the way, and it is always something that I am super thankful for. The opportunities and relationships that arose because of this costume have also been really rewarding. I would have never expected the simple concept of wanting to do a costume to have ever led to so many wonderful experiences or amazing people. It truly has been an awesome journey, all thanks to Captain Jack Sparrow!

A2Z Photography

 

Everything is a Problem

For quite some time now my friends and I have been saying “everything is a problem”. It’s kind of like our catch phrase or slogan. Why? Because we usually (and typically) encounter a problem with just about everything we do. From minor choices to important tasks, I experience issues on a daily basis and I’m not really for sure why.

Recently, I considered taking count of these issues. I would not add any weight to the problems, I would simply count how many disagreements, issues, or troublesome events I encounter on a daily basis. Car trouble? 1 point. Disagreement? 1 point. People standing still while an automatic door waits for someone to make a move and no one will take initiative to walk forward as humans naturally do ? 1 point. And yes, that did in fact happen.

I didn’t really have the ambition to do this just yet, as I was still kind of contemplating the whole topic overall. I was also partially nervous to find out how many problems happen to me on a daily basis. This subject did get me thinking though. Why do I have so many problems each day? Why can’t things go off without a hitch? And why am I asking so many questions in this blog? Well, another question I had, was how many problems on average do people encounter each day. I had assumed it would be around 20. I think this is about how many I have on a normal day, and that’s reasonable, I think.

The answer, which surprised me, is a measly 9. I learned this in one of my first classes this semester, Conflict and Communication (take a stab at why I chose to take that course). Surprisingly, within this class, one of the assignments is to log each time we encounter conflict in our lives. Here is my opportunity to commit to my problem log, it has presented itself! I’ve already been considering doing this very thing, and now I have a purpose to do so.

After leaving the class, I began to consider the topic again. How long would it take to encounter the next issue? What would it be? Why are there more questions in this blog? Well, I got my answer fairly quickly. Upon arrival at Dierberg’s, just 35 minutes after leaving class, and despite having done this very thing several times, the woman at the deli wouldn’t let me chose chicken bites as a side dish.