Post Fengshen, Iran, and Crewdson

There's not much to do when it rains but to catch up on journaling.

Because of the close proximity of the typhoon Fengshen, last night was really rainy and windy. I woke up in the morning and made some pancakes because I’m out of oatmeal. They turned out good and are simple to make. The storm last night knocked out the power in my area. I wrote my journal on my computer until the battery died. The battery isn’t lasting all that long anymore. I checked the condition of it and my computer says to “Check Battery.” This usually means I need a new one. I can’t just walk down to the local Apple store.

Since I couldn’t really do anything in my room that required electricity, I walked to El Galleon where they have a generator. The Internet is still down at the resort from the modem having water damage. All I could do then was to journal and read the ten issues of JPG Magazine I downloaded off their website. As much as I love going on my computer, sometimes for no reason, I hate being on it for too long; it’s really draining and almost a little depressing.

For lunch, I at a sandwich and watched the news. I found out that a ferry in the Philippines has capsized which had 800 people aboard and there are people that were killed. When I got my vaccinations for the Philippines in the US, my doctor said there’s not much to worry about in terms of disease, but the biggest hazard, according to a US government warning, was actually ferry accidents! Hopefully, after this tragedy, they will be smarter about safety.

Maziar concerned about things back home.

I spent the evening at the Point bar with Maziar and the Asia Divers crew. Maziar has been in a lot of contact with his mom in Iran and I can tell something was concerning him. He told me that he must prematurely quit his Divemaster class and go back to Iran soon because of US/Isreali tensions, and Iran is now considered a “war zone.” The tensions between the countries has to do with Iran having a nuclear program, which Maziar believes, will be used in weapons and for terrorism.

Maziar has made it clear to me that the intent of the people of Iran are quite different from the actions of their government. Even in a democracy like in the US, this seems to be the case also; how many people really agree with what the president is doing? Maziar told me that when the US was attacked on Sept. 11th, the people of Iran held candles out in mourning of the US casualties. In response to this, the Iranian government attacked their own people for doing this. Governments suck.

After Point bar, I went home and cooked rice and eggs for dinner. While eating, I watched my favorite station out here—The National Geographic Channel. At 10 PM, I watched “Genius of Photography” which was okay. Coincidentally, the show first talked about a photographer that I just read about in issue 15 of JPG Magazine—Gregory Crewdson.

Crewdson creates a staged scene like a movie set and takes a picture of it with his large format 8x10 camera. Interestingly, he’s more of a director than a photographer because his director of photography takes the picture. Each of his pictures sells for $80,000 to $100,000 each and he sells 10 of them. Damn, I can do this.

- jason