[all I know to do]

Yesterday whilst getting getting a lift from my sister
and recounting tales of the recent wedding that I
photographed and she commented that she was
happy that I was still keeping one foot in the photography
side of things. And that got me thinking. Photography
is pretty much all I know to do at times. It is my main
skill and what most [if not all] people associate me with.

For me to live my life and not be doing something photographic is
strange to me.

It’s just not going to happen.

And in a couple of weeks [or next week, I'll check my diary] I’m
photographing my old photogrpahy tutor’s stepson’s wedding.
Now to add a little history, my old photography has kept in
contact with me even though college was years ago and gives
my weddings to photograph and work in general and has said,
and I quote

“This is Richard, one of my old students. And he takes
photographs better than I do”

Which to hear from your old tutor is pretty amazing. As you
probably know I have been doing photography since about
the age of Seven. But it was at college that I started to
pursue it. And Mike is a big part of that. Now I’m known as
‘Photo’ by many and like I said before alot of people know me
by photography. Doing anything else would be strange.

Oh and on that point I am going to be working on a
website soon for my photography. And maybe other
aspects of my creative life, like for instance my writing
and so on.

And one more point, and this is mainly for Savannah
[yourownpersonalmonster], I’ve decided to make that
book up and when it’s done I’ll put a link up. Gonna have
to make some new material up for it though.

[quote]

Someone just said to me on the phone;

“Those who talk passionately about what
they love usually get on in life”

These words are seeming to stick.
They were said to my by a man at City Of Westminster
College when I called up about possible work experience
[which they don't do] but he was really helpful in pointing
alternatives for me to try and other possible routes.

I will be a photography teacher.
This is fact.

[one day I will own this city]

We’ll get married in the morning.
So if it doesn’t work out we wouldn’t have wasted the day.

[facebook status of the decade?]

Richard Anthony Morris Ok, so part of me wants to know why people feel the need to ‘Like’ status updates that are either people having a shit time of it or the ones that are a flat out question, it’s stupid. For example ‘Random Name is having a really bad week’ or ‘Random Name is wondering if anyone knows where to by super glue?’ is not something to ‘Like’. God that’s fucking stupid. If somebody asks a question or is having a rough time, answer the question or see if they’re OK. You dumb fuck! Fucks sake.

/rant

That was from a while back on Facebook where I got annoyed because somebody ‘liked’ a status that showed that the person was having a rough time of things. I just felt the need to yell about it for some reason. To be honest, this has been sitting in my drafts for some time. Glad to publish it.

[it all started with a newspaper | part one]

My life at the moment and pretty much every
major thing that has happened in my life in recent
years is the result of my popping into my sisters
office and some unknown reason reading the
newspaper in 2005.

Now, back then this was pretty much an unknown thing,
me randonly popping into my sisters for one and reading
a newspaper for the other. Anyways whilst looking through
this paper I saw a job advertisement for a photogrpaher.

Now, although the job was based in Maidstone,
the interview was in Bromley. I had never been
to Bromley before so getting there was a bit of a
hassle [three very specific trains, on specific
routes, a lot more awkward than the route I later
figured out].

So I went for the interview and pretty knew there was no way I
was getting the job, they wanted somebody who was available
all the time and I was still at college. Ah well, but looking back
I do wonder how things would have been if I had got that job.

But anyway, I digress, upon leaving the interview
I had decided to have a walk around Bromley, seeing
as it was new and during my walk I happened upon
the Market Square branch of Jessops [a popular
photographic retailer] and thought that it would
do no harm to hand in a C.V to the shop.

This would turn out to be one of those of handed decisions that
would affect my whole life because, as it goes, I got an interview.

Which I failed.

And to be honest I was kind of glad, it took two hours to get to
work and the journey seemed long and arduous to tell you the
truth. I really wasn’t up to it, every day.

Although a job at Jessops would have been much
better [and interesting that working at Mothercare]
and would have helped me as well seeming that at
the time I was studying Photography at college so
the money off things would have been awesome.

It was then that I was told that my C.V had been forwarded to the
other branch of Jessops that was based in Bromley, only this one
was inside the Glades  a shopping centre that I had missed upon
my first visit to the town [just so's you know Jessops has shops
all over the country and that interview went as such,

Nash - "So you're Richard then"
Me - "Yes"
Nash - "So what's your shirt size then?"

One of the shortest interviews on record I am sure [about as sure
as I am that these things are rarely recorded]. So I left Mothercare
and started to work for Jessops and thats when things got
interesting.

A photo of me just after I started at Jessops, I would have
been about 18 or so years old.

I’ll continue this story from time to time, writing it all in one go was
quite daunting. So make do with just this bit at the moment, which
to be honest you should have figured from the title of the post.

Hopefully this will be the start of me using my blog again
and hopefully that’ll mean using Flickr, Tumblr, twitter
and all the other sites I’ve been ignoring.

[french to english]

I was on Facebook the other day, which to be honest has been
taking up a disproportionate amount of my spare time. When
I came across a status update that was written in French.

Intrigued I copied the sentence and put it into an online  translator.

And was actually moved by the phrase that came up. Why this
was I am sure, but I thought I would place it here.

Original French Text
pense que sa veste est une nuance de bleu parfait

English Translation
think that his jacket is a perfect shade of blue

[quick thought that I had]

Sometimes, there are so many clouds in front of
you that you forget that there is bright blue sky
on the other side.

Don’t you think?
Ah well, it’s just a thought that I had.

[1001 lessons in love and still none the wiser]

Life, is supposedly made up of lessons. Which
people generally called ‘Life lessons’. Now a
life lesson is supposed to arise from every
major experience in your life [some people
also believe even the tiny things are also
life lessons, but we're going to stick to the
big stuff]. From every triumph and every
defeat, we, as people, are supposed to take
what we can from it and learn all that we
can.

Like for instance, going down a dark alley and
getting in a bit trouble, tells you to not to go
down dark alleys anymore, or having your heart
messed around with should show you how to be
able to recognise and avoid certain types of people
and the situations that they can bring, and so on
and so on.

But the thing about learning from the
mistakes you make in your life, it somehow
insinuates that you will suddenly [at some
undefined moment in your life] start living
mistake free. But, I have yet to see this
happen.

The reason for this blog stems from a drunken
conversation I had with my friend Simpson,
during which we discussed many things but
one of the topics that I continued to think about
the next morning [totally hangover free] was
that we had discussed how tired we were with
all these life lessons and just wanted things to
hurry and start properly without all the
messing around of having to have your head
[and your heart] messed around with.

The both of us had had enough [in
temperament  and quantity] of all these
life lessons that came along and trying
to figure exactly what it was that they
were ‘supposedly’ trying to teach us and
whether it was a different lesson every
time. Or whether we were just making
the same mistakes.

Maybe we were hoping for too much? You know?

It’s that old saying isn’t it? ‘Everything
happens for a reason’ and that ‘Good things
happen to those who wait’. These sayings
although widely used and antique in their
own sense are wrong. They just leave you
there accepting all the crap that happens
to you and waiting for something amazing
to just waltz into your life.

But as we all know, that just doesn’t happen.
It’s pretty shitty to be honest. Because
from what I’ve seen with the people around
me, the things that they want to just appear
out of the sky, were right in front of them the
whole time.

[so]

It’s my Jessops leaving do  on Sunday.
Having it at the Laughing Buddha in
Bexleyheath. And you know what I am
gonna get completely wasted. I’m not
being funny either.

I haven’t drank a drop of alcohol since about the
29th of May this year. So as Simpson said,

“If there’s an excuse to drink, then your own
leaving do has got to be one of them”

And she’s right. So if you get a random text
or phone call from me on Sunday night, best
to ignore it :]

["it's ok to show weakness you know"]

“it’s ok to show weakness you know”

Drunken words from a close friend
of mine that still ring around in my
head. She’s probably forgotten she said
them.

[denying them romance]

A few things….

So, recently I decided to give up on girls,
now when I say that I don’t mean that
I’m giving up on my female friends. But
I am giving up on girls in the romance
sense.

I mean no offence when I say this, but
all you ladies are crazy. When it concerns
the romantic side of things. Nothing
seems to be straightforward is that makes
sense, communicating with women seems
to be a series of traps and trick questions.
But when you’re [just] friends with them
everything is straightforward. Probably
the reason I always used to fall for my
female friends. Hmmm…

I have also given up on drinking, now
it can be said that my previous alcohol
consumption was a tad bit high, some
have even pondered that I may have been
running away from something but I
was always too drunk to over-analyse, ha.

So basically I have given up two of the
things that either took up my time or
pre-occupied my mind.And the odd thing
as a side product I’m eating better and
less as well.

This is a short blog I know but there is
not that much to update on. Buttt I
did just watch and episode of Scrubs on
Comedy Central and almost forgot that
this quote existed:

“Nothing In This World That’s Worth Having Comes Easy”

[now the tops of buildings, I can see them too]

useless and lonely

[no boat nor bridge, or crucifix can hold me back]

Today, at work, my friend Andrew
and I were standing about on the
shop floor. It was a quiet time, where
there were no customers and little
to do.

So obviously we fill the time with light
hearted conversation. During which he
turned to me and said

“It must be fun to be you”

“How so” I replied

“To not have a care in the world”

To which I replied with a quick remark
of something or other and carried on
with the day, but like most things that
people say to me recently it does not
sink in straight away. It waits in the
back of my brain for a few hours and
then hits me full force in the face whilst
my mind maybe contemplating other
menial things.

If we were to look at another example of
how my mind is slow but powerful. I was
walking around Bluewater Shopping Center
last Tuesday where I happened to happen
upon a friend of mine. I asked if I could join
and she said yes. Now as we were walking
around and I was doing my usual habit of
trying to fit as much information about as
much as possible in the little time that I had.

About fifteen minutes into this, whilst she
was sitting enjoying a cigarette she looked up
and said;

“Richard? Does it scare you that we’re adults?”

“Not at all Steve, it’s an adventure” is all that
I could come out with. But whilst I was on the
bus ride home. It started to sink in. I’m an adult
now, does this mean that the fun is over? That
the time spent absent mindedly was wasted?

Not at all, although since that conversation
it has scared me slightly to realise that I’ll
soon be 22 [22? fuck]. I’ve got a plan, as loose
as it is, I have a plan. Come the middle of August
and that when I’ll start the travels. Europe will
become my bitch. Till then I have to stop the
travels otherwise I’ll be stranded.

It’s annoying that Steve can still get into my
head, haha.

[what you could have done]

Standing at work.

“Richard?”

“Yeah”

“How much did you holiday
cost you?”

“Um, flights, hotel and what not,
about £171″

“Wow, think what you could have
done with that money?”

“Yeah, I did it”

=]

Coversation between me and my boss.
[My part of the conversation in bold]

Jessops Bluewater
19th January 2009

[octopus]

“An octopus has got three
hearts. Three hearts! You
can break its heart and it’ll
still love you twice more”

Billy Connely