obsess/repossess
Seppo said some time ago that I have an obsessive personality. Which, I have to admit, was pretty shocking for me to hear, because I had no inkling of this. I mean, I am so disorganzed, so I assumed I couldn’t be this way. But I thought about it, and he’s right. When I like something, I find out everything I can about it. I spend hours scouring the web about it. I poke and prod at it incessantly for weeks or months at a time. If it’s a new author, I will devour all the books written by her/him. If it’s a new tv show, I will TiVo and watch every episode I can and read about it on www.televisionwithoutpity.com. If it’s a dog breed, I will read every training tip I can get my hands on. If it’s a trip to Paris, I will read about every arrondissement until I find the perfect location to plan around. If it’s a blog, I will play with several templates before I find the one I like. If it’s a new project, I will tweak every little part of it that I know in order to understand it in its entirety. If it’s a sandwich, I will rearrange it until every bite is uniform in thickness and layers.
And if it’s an egg sandwich, I will make it perfectly square.
Er… Anyway.
So the newest thing is www.picasa.com + www.flickr.com. I mean, it’s magical. I’m finding photos that I don’t even remember taking. I’m posting them far more often that I do with my crappy php photo program (which sucks — don’t use phpGraphy!), so I can actually share them with the people I want to. There are privacy settings, so I don’t have to worry about some creep on the internet collecting pics of my awesome adorable nieces. Picasa and Flickr are really inspiring me to learn more about how I can take better pics. I can see my friends’ pics, and they are so much brighter and sharper and just plain old more pleasant to view than mine, and I want to learn how to make mine like theirs. I am interested in documenting little daily tidbits that I will look back on many years from now, just like I do with my blogger entries every so often. These little photos and entries trigger some great memories that were hidden somewhere that I had forgotten about.
eta: I corrected the spelling of “repossess”. Heh.
It’s amazing how fast you use up disk space once you start finding all your photos. And then you start with video…
Ah, yes. Obsessive personalities, a trait I know very well. Like you, if I decide I’m into something, I will research it until I have learned just about everything there is to know about the subject. When we went to New Orleans, we only stayed in two hotels, but I can tell you everything about every other hotel in the area because I made it my business to know such things. Sometimes it’s a trait I love because I tend to look pretty well-informed about the things I like, but at other times, it’s a burden. I’m trying to get better at photography but I know if I start reading the message boards and buying books that once I go down that path, it’ll consume me. Everything in moderation, I guess?
– Becky
“obsess” is a lot better than “stalker” …
… which is what it says on my rap sheet.
A_B