Photography Rising, Boulder, RockBand

I bit the bullet and bought everything I need to do strobist work last weekend. I spent an obscene amount of money buying flashes, remote triggers, umbrellas, and light stands, and a lot of my spare time this weekend was spent reading the strobist website linked above, learning lighting 101. I'm going to try and read lighting 102 before my gear gets here, which it should Tuesday or Wednesday, I hope. (As to the cost, it's all tax deductible for me. I sold some photos last year, and I plan to sell a lot more this year.)

I'm not sure why I'm suddenly interested in photography again, but it probably has something to do with the fact that the trees are budding and the air is warming (and that Timprov is posting neat photos, too). Sarah says that every spring, I start wanting to migrate--always asking to go to Boulder, taking weekend trips. There's some truth to that, because we went to Boulder on Saturday (where I bought a little of my supplies, but I won't ever do that again. Man, camera stores are a ripoff). Sarah discovered a new weird brand of cosmetics where everything is handmade and using natural ingredients. And we had a fantastic dinner at Foolish Craig's, probably our favorite Boulder restaurant. Then we drove home in the snow.

Throughout the weekend, I put a lot of time into drums on RockBand. I defeated the easy setting and am now getting my ass handed to me on the medium difficulty setting. The kick pedal comes in a hell of a lot more often on medium, and with weird double-taps often, which is hard for me to coordinate with my hands. I can feel my coordination improving, and it's such a weird sensation when the beat of a song clicks about halfway through and you start playing it mostly flawlessly. I really love it--I need to get some friends over to play it with me more often. The full band experience is a real blast.

No writing of note. I'm not spending enough time thinking about it. I'm still working on the freelance project as much as I can, bouncing ideas back to the client. I'm really impressing even myself with the work I'm doing on this one. I can't wait to show it off to all of you. I did a beer label last week for a coworker too, and it turned out pretty good. I've started really branching out into Illustrator, which I have put off for far too long.

I could make a full time job of improving my art/design/photography skills. I could do the same with writing. The problem I have is learning how to balance the interests. I sometimes feel like I have a switch that has a "photography and design" and a "writing" setting, and it can only be on one or the other.

How do you artist writers handle the two worlds? Do you feel the same dichotomy? When you're interested in one, you're less interested in the other? Or am I just really weird.