Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent into the dark place where it leads - Erica Jong

Hopefully everyone has them. You know, those silly things you indulge yourself with that are frivolous and maybe not so good for you. But heck, everyone needs a little self-pampering from time to time, right? Right?! Here are a few of mine…

Have you ever have a day that turns out to be just *exhausting* and leaves you wondering why the hell you bother? With me it’s often not one thing, but a combination of things that build up to the point that I just don’t want to deal with it. I just want to scream at people to go away and leave me alone.

So there I am trying to rest and recover from my quick road trip out to the Olympic National Park, when up pops an e-mail from Marianna. She and Leesa were planning on going down to Pike Place Market for a photo safari. Was I interested? Of course! Besides it was only going to be a short trip because they wanted to avoid traffic from the football game. Riiight… short trip. Hah!

I *needed* this last trip. I didn’t realize how much until I was on the road. I haven’t ridden as much this summer as I did last year. No particular reason, just busy I suppose. I can tell it’s had an effect.

I went to out to dinner with my friend Mike this evening. His wife was out of town and with time on his hands, we decided to visit a favorite little cafe, The Lockspot, for halibut and chips. As we’re both avid photographer, we decided to walk just next door and visit the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, better known locally as the Ballard Locks.

I take a lot of personality-type tests. Most of them suggest that I’m a problem solver. I like to understand how things work, at least conceptually. So when I run into something I can’t grok, it gnaws at me. I may be able to set it aside for a while but I know it will come back around and I’ll find myself worrying at the problem again and again.

I love Tuesdays. Tuesday is the day of the week that dawns fresh with new possibilities and opportunities. Wait, you know what I’m talking about don’t you? In the music industry, Tuesday is generally the day that new albums drop. For me, Tuesday is the day I’m hopping on iTunes and other music sites to see what new treasures I’ll be loading up on my various MP3 players.

I like to think of myself as a the kind of guy that faces life head on, that doesn’t avoid hard decisions, a realist. Turns out I’ve been lying to myself. Hard to believe isn’t it? Let me give you an example. I recently started playing World of Warcraft again. I’m enjoying it, a lot. Part of it is the challenge of overcoming virtual, in-game obstacles. Then again there is the social aspect, I know quite a few people that play. But honestly, I find that I identify with my little on-screen avatar way too much lately.

I dragged Marianna out for a photo tour of West Seattle this past Saturday. I thought she needed to be reminded of some of the things she was excited about when she first started planning her move to Seattle. I offered to show her some of my favorite photo spots in the south end.

I love it when a favorite band releases a new album and it’s even better than I hoped. Pinback’s new album Autumn of the Seraphs is now available and its fantastic… I’ve been listening to it off and on all day! Pinback is a hard band to describe to the uninitiated. Their sound is somewhat unique. Technically they’re an “indie rock band” but that label really fails to adequately capture them. Over the course of four full-length albums they’ve developed a smooth and silky sound that combines elements of rock, pop and jazz into a blend all their own.