Monologue

Empty screen, eyelessly staring at me. Flickering cursor, taunting me with my indecisiveness. One flash, two flashes, three. It’s almost — almost — as if I can hear my word processor say ‘you will never write a solid story today, there is no way you have anything to share’. It wouldn’t be a lie; how can I say something of interest 365 days in a row? I don’t experience enough interesting things to be able to do that. Would this project require an update every week then yes, maybe I’d be able to

My loops are getting bigger and bigger. Every outing in the same direction ends up being further than the previous one. A good development! Today after work, I drove off in the wrong direction again, to expand on my previous outing [/i-drove-off-in-the-wrong-direction-on-purpose/]. Taking an extra left where I would’ve called it quits last time. Then feeling good and adding another left turn where turning right meant returning home. A wonderful little loop of (checks Strava data) almost 17km tha

Looking around social media I see people living their best lives. Traveling, going out for drinks, barbecues with friends; though it’s mostly the traveling that sparks my jealousy. I want to go out and see those places as well. Why don’t I? Is it because I can’t? That’s not true at all, I can go whenever I please. Though not with the frequency I see some people doing on the internet. Then I think: what is it that I see? Highlights, snippets, glimpses. Not the whole picture, at least. It can’t

Okay this is going to sound a little pretentious (or maybe even a lot) but as of late I’m starting to see myself more and more as a documentarian. A person who’s job it is to document and register for times to come. A person who preserves the future for the present (not coincidentally that’s how I’ve currently formulated my mission statement). I don’t claim to be any good at it (yet) but I do aim to have this be the way I leave my mark on the world. Perhaps that isn’t much, but it’s honest work.

I cycled 25k to revisit all three locations of The Silence Around [https://mitchellens.ink/the-silence-around] this afternoon. I figured that while I have this Final Cut Pro trial, I might as well create some more videos. So I shot a bunch of clips on all the locations so I can use that as B-roll while I deliver a piece to camera again. I get home, a little tired but content, and sit down in front of the camera. I speak about 10 minutes of incoherent sentences and decide it’s maybe better to tr

I love dark mode on my website. I love all 246 posts in my journal. I love that writing compliments taking photos. I love photography. I love looking at photos I’ve taken on past trips. I love the thought of soon going on adventure again. I love making stuff for myself. I love being able to wear a hat with my own logo on it. I love that I do everything myself. I love that I can wake up and decide what to do everyday. I love that I’ve chosen to work part-time. I love de lens.

Good news. Great news, even! The lovely folks of WPPOOL have helped me refine the look of the dark mode on my website. I now consider it good enough to enable it for all visitors! Perhaps there’ll be some tinkering with it, of course there will be tinkering, and the results will be even more stunning. But I digress. You can now enjoy my amazing stories at night with a little more piece for your eyes. As a bonus (a big bonus!) photos look amazing in dark mode as well. The get a real pop that eve

Wash away the strain with the rain that’s steadily falling from the sky. A day filled with things to ponder is a day weighing heavy on the mind. A good stroll still is the best strategy to remedy such situations. A second outside to make up for every minute inside. A simple solution that we turn too not often enough. I wonder. When will it be enough.

To be perfectly honest, I am a little over writing Monologues every day. I’m sure I’m being misguided but I feel like I’ve gained from daily writing what there was to gain. I really want to focus on writing longer more in-depth pieces now. This will also help to increase the frequency of my newsletter and I want to write longer think pieces for my blog. Pieces that is are more thought out than these daily updates. Stories that can gain some actual momentum and provoke some thought with other peo

We’ve had the two cutest little Chihuahuas staying at our place this afternoon. Though the cats did not agree on the cute part. The moment we set foot, or paw, into the door it was raised backs and big tails galore. The two Chihuahuas didn’t seem to mind that much, though you could also tell they’ve been welcomed more hospitable in the past. From that moment on I could not sit another step without the smallest of the two Chihuahuas following me through the house. The other one withdrew himsel

Look at what Craig Mod wrote in his recent issue of Ridgeline [https://craigmod.com/ridgeline/125/]: “For me, this re-centering of life around the now is novel. Pre-pandemic I was always six to eighteen months out, rarely in the moment. But now the now is all we can depend on. It’s been sobering, and in some ways, a positive (or at least a reminder).” I’m pulling it out of its context now (and the context is good!) but that doesn’t matter for the message he conveys. Living in the now is so imp

8:14 AM I’m waking up on thinking those couple of beers last night don’t seem like such a good idea now. ‘I will do whatever I need to do and then I chill out for the rest of the day’, I think to myself knowing full well that I’ll probably still end up doing stuff in the afternoon. 8:50 AM I get my bike from storage and put on Nuit d’Afrique [https://open.spotify.com/track/52BukmtmPa67Zeu4ExkFR5?si=UzMleqXgR52R1KeAuc-bFQ&dl_branch=1] which I’ve listened to countless times but is still [https:/

Somebody slid into my mailbox the other day asking about using images from my archive. Interesting. I was just watching a video by Dan Milnor [https://youtu.be/nUR7FaZxJXk] in which he mentions people living on their archives, simply by licensing images to people. Hmmm… It just so happens to be that I’ve focused the past year on building my online archive and that’s starting to take shape nicely. There’s a structure in the galleries that’s easy to navigate and it slowly gets more body as time p

Just an idea that requires some further though: black and white photography is the purest medium in the world. I’m not sure if that claim is true but it feels true right now. Photography is, in my opinion, already a very objective medium. Of course you can choose what to show and what not but whatever you do show is a pure registration. The camera doesn’t lie. It’s an unbiased device. This is unlike writing which inherently forces you to find words to describe a thing. Which means there’s alwa

Okay okay I’m already backtracking on my claims from yesterday [/dark-mode-why-are-you-teasing-me/]. Dark mode is beautiful but also a pain to set up. Such a pain! This web development thing isn’t my cup of tea. I’m a photographer for Pete’s sake! I’m parking that project for now as it takes up too much time for now. That’s not always an issue but when it jeopardizes other improvements it definitely becomes one. One of the things I worked on instead was picking out a Top 10 of my Monologues so

Dark mode on the web. It’s almost a basic necessity these days. Most of the bigger websites have it and therefore my tiny one shall have it too. There’s just one problem: the implementation is far from straightforward. I purchased a plug-in that is supposed to work well with my theme. I followed the steps to set it up properly. Despite my efforts, it still looks utterly broken. Nowhere near the level I’m comfortable with displaying to the public. This will take some tinkering to get right again

Back to YouTube it is. I gave it a try a few months ago but soon relinquished. Now I return to deliver a piece to camera about One Two One [https://mitchellens.ink/one-two-one]. I figured it’s nice to have a recording of myself talking about the project, while also providing people a way to see the project. You know, since there’s only one copy of the book. I wanted to do the video in English as well, since all my other communication is in English too. The only reason I haven’t done so before,