What Chuck Does

Week Dump

I need to decompress a little from the last couple of days. Let me recount. Backwards.

Work is busy. Really busy. I used to at least have a few spare moments here and there to post but as it stands I barely have enough time to eat lunch. That and sometimes I have to work nights and weekends. You do what you have to do to get things done but it also means I need some time at the end of the day to decompress.

Last week I caught a cold on Sunday/Monday and had to take Tuesday and 1/2 of Wednesday off. Even though I was home, I still worked throughout the day to get stuff done.

I’ve been unmotivated to lift weights lately. Being sick doesn’t help. Being at the end of one cycle (cutting) and another (muscle-building) doesn’t help either. I’ve got to decide when I want to end my 6-Pack-Challenge and begin the 300-Challenge. Right now I’m stuck in the middle and really not doing either well.

Yesterday I instructed at the track for a High Performance Driving Event (HPDE) for the first time in more than a year. It was great being at the track even though I was just instructing as a passenger.

Over the weekend I went to the gym with Larry and Johnny and then played Rock Band 2 at Larry’s with my friends. Going to Larry’s house is almost always also a heavy night of drinking. 10 shots in 90 minutes is pretty steep. Luckily that was the brunt of drinking.

I have been having dreams about surfing over the last couple of weeks. It’s pretty surreal but surfing is the only sport that I dream about fairly regularly. Albert and I hit Bolsa Chica on a 2-4’ day with about 2,000 seagulls. The water smelled unusually fishy that day. Waves were clean but walled up. Caught a few decent waves and it was just good getting back into the water.

I’ve still been post-processing my pictures from the honeymoon, the Aquarium of the Pacific and also some unrelated previous pictures. Post-processing is a world of its own and it’s taking me a lot of time learning Photoshop and how to achieve certain effects with Photoshop. For example, I’ve been curious to recreate an effect that Dave Hill (a famous photographer) is known for. This has led to the aquisition of a Photoshop plug-in called LucisArt. Here’s an example:

My goal is to finish processing the honeymoon and Aquarium pictures, and also upload our studio photos from our engagement/wedding shoot online. I’d like to be able to send my friends and family a link from the honeymoon pictures as well.