I have been traveling back and forth between Nebraska, Colorado and Indiana for the last two weeks. Rather than bore you with the details I have condensed everything down to the always popular list format. Here goes…

Traveling Music
More Adventurous by Rilo Kiley
This is the new favorite of mine. Great songwriting and lovely female voice. It is what I hoped Neko Case would sound like when I looked her up based on her work with the New Pornographers.

Traffic and Weather by Fountains of Wayne
These guys never write a bad pop song - perfect driving music.

Cassadaga by Bright Eyes
Maybe it will grow on me like his other stuff has. Cool album art comes with a decoder, so don’t buy this one on iTunes.

Reading
JPG Magazine
My first issue after I finally got a subscription. The best photography magazine available. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and it is produced by passionate contributors. Love it.

How To Become a Marketing Superstar by Jeffrey J. Fox
Pretty obvious stuff here. Nothing cutting edge. It is a quick read, though, and might make a good starter book for anyone oblivious to marketing. In other words, buy it for clients who are clueless about marketing.

Designing Pornotopia by Rick Poynor
I have been struggling my way through this one for a while and finally finished it. It is a bunch of essays by Rick Poynor loosely connected to the use (appropriate or not) of sexual images in modern times. Great at times. Mundane at others. I haven’t decided if it is worth a full review on Be A Design Group or not.

Driving
A transmission fluid leak took our Honda Odyssey out of commission days before our first trip to Nebraska. The transmission needed to be replaced, but luckly it was covered by warranty. I take back the bad things I said about our local Honda dealership.

In Indiana I got a Mazda 3 for my rental car. I want one. Compared to my old Tercel it is lighning fast. Nice stereo system, well designed interior. I would have to do some research before I pulled the trigger, but you can bet I will be looking into it next time I am in the market for a car.

Photography
I took about 50gb worth of photos of RVs. Gruelling work that I am glad to have behind me. For fun I saw an Ansel Adams show and ran a roll through my new toy: a Yashica Electro 35. Watch for posts on my photo blog in the near future if you care about any of that.

Watched
This was the week of catching up on garbage movies. I saw Ghost Rider at the cheap theatre in Mishawaka. It might have been worth the $1.50 I paid, but not a penny more. At the hotel I caught Anaconda, Terminator 3 and Chronicles of Riddick. Enough said.

Probably the best thing I have seen lately is Heroes which I have been watching on NBC’s website. They have every episode on their site so people like me who have been living in a hole can catch up.

So that’s what I have been up to the last couple weeks. Hopefully I can get on a regular posting schedule one of these days, but no promises.

I was thinking about my son as I traveled through Indiana last week. Since I posted about his smoke alarm fascination a couple months ago, Rian hasn’t passed a fire extinguisher, smoke alarm, or emergency sprinkler without a comment. “What’s that daddy?” It is amazing how many fire related objects there are that I never really notice.

Isn’t it interesting how our brains are able to filter what does and doesn’t catch our attention? My trip to Indiana was for a photo shoot for RV’s. Before I started doing work for this RV company I never really noticed RV’s. Now I watch for certain RV brands and know more RV trivia than is probably healthy. You probably had a similar experience when you bought your car and realized how many gray Honda Odyssey’s (or whatever you purchased) there are on the road.

The same thing happened when I started studying design. I started noticing logos, fonts, ads, signs - it was like a switch in my brain was flipped on. When I started to take photography seriously my filter for visual clutter got turned off. The urban clutter of signs, lights, power lines, trees that my brain previously filtered out of my vision became huge obstacles that I could no longer ignore because they ruined my pictures.

As I write this I have been sitting in an airport for about an hour watching people. There is a guy in a suit that must be older than he looks. I watched him sneak glances at the blonde next to me with the long stockings, short skirt, and fake eyelashes. There is a girl behind me who reminds me of somebody I used to know. The guy at the counter has great customer service skills. These are the visible people. Now I scan the room again and force myself to see who has slipped by my radar. It is impossible to pay attention to everybody, so how does my brain decide what to pay attention to and what to ignore? Is there any pattern to it? I don’t have an answer to that question, but I think that making an effort to recognize our biases and filters is a healthy habit to get into. I just hope that my boy grows out of the smoke alarm phase!