sell stock with me

i’ve come up with a plan for making extra money: selling stock photography. i applied on istock and they accepted me, which i honestly didn’t think they would. my confidence in the quality of my sample photos diminished significantly over the course of my application. the next hurdle is getting my photos approved. it seems they have some pretty intense standards, so we’ll see.

on saturday nikki and i rode bikes all around downtown, and i started building my stock portfolio. she assumed the role of creative consultant, giving me ideas on what to shoot. we went to the farmer’s market, lurked around taking pictures and pretending to be tourists, then rode around the north end looking for yard sales and checking alleys for trash picking.

she showed me this amazing house that i’d never seen before, it’s covered in art and just oozes awesome…looks like it might be a commune.

we went to the hollywood market (my first time there) then to the co-op, where nikki tried sushi for the first time and we both bought fantastic “wheat meat” veggie roasts, along with lots of other treats.

it was a tough bastard of a slog back home, in the hot afternoon sun with full tummyboxes. she rode the streaming strumpet, whom i recently covered in green glitter:

one of the nice things about hanging out with nikki is that she accepts the responsibility of explaining my odd behavior to people. here i am wandering around a gas station, taking pictures of a pay phone, gas pumps, a yard sale sign, and some interesting textures i found on the ground…and i wouldn’t even think to explain myself. “she’s not actually crazy, she’s just taking stock photography.” only one of those statements was true, but both were appreciated.

saturday night was my very last shift at joann fabrics and crafts. it was hard leaving, after 2.5 years, i felt pretty nostalgic…eric gave me a going away card that most of my coworkers wrote sweet little notes on. i’m going to miss working with just about all of them. on the plus side, i no longer have to deal with corporate bullshit or nasty customers.

today the editor where i work offered me a story to write, about the altered toy project. i’m quite excited about it. i’m going to make a few toys to donate, too—although, the fact that they’re all being donated to the children’s home makes things difficult. my instinct is to construct some very disturbing toys, but for political reasons that may not be a good plan.