Hi everyone! This is my first personal post that isn’t directly travel related, except that some travel is included. Enjoy a random panorama photo I took on Halloween of somewhere near Fort Payne, Alabama. Halloween itself was not much of a party day, except that me, my girlfriend Kendra, and friend James traveled to Scottsboro, Alabama to explore the Unclaimed Baggage store and then drove to see DeSoto Falls in Fort Payne. We didn’t feel too up to going out and partying on Halloween night amidst a pandemic.
Today is a pretty crazy day to make a post to catch up anyone who’s interested with my life. It’s election day! Feelings are tense, anxiety is high, and I think we all should take a deep breath. I hope everyone has voted by now, if not then I hope they get to the polls before their locations close today.
Quarantine life since March has been challenging. Being cooped up inside 24/7 like a modest citizen for nearly four full months before reaching out to friends again in small batches led to many complicated emotions and even physical tolls of exhaustion. While working from home and not having to commute or go out very much, I’ve had a lot of time to watch far too much Netflix and Hulu, but also read some pretty choice books! Here is a chronological list of what I’ve read so far this year:
- Can I Say by Travis Barker
- The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer
- The Road to Character by David Brooks
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Anne Shaffer
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- Stardust by Neil Gaiman
- Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
- Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman
- From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty
- The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven
- How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog by Chad Orzel
- The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
This may seem like an incongruent list, and largely it is. In truth there are multiple classics that I’ve only just now read in 2020. I have no idea how I had gotten away without reading some of those titles thus far in life, but alas I have. Currently I am reading a collection of short stories by H.P. Lovecraft, it felt relevant when I started reading it in October.
Before reading and television consumed much of my time, Kendra and I had traveled to The Netherlands and Italy at the tail end of February, shortly before Italy locked down completely. The entire trip was excellent and I’ve actually physically journaled about it which I will likely end up uploading later on. But for now I’m going to keep this brief. Enjoy a couple pics below:
Other updates include a new fuzzy member to the family! In June we received a sweet orange tabby cat (that wears no pants because he has white hind legs) whom I’ve named Leif, after Leif Erikson. He’s still under a year old, and we got him when he was barely 8 weeks old. We love him dearly despite his boundless energy and his affinity to attack our older cat, Rotten.
By July I’m sure you all remember the craze that was the comet NEOWISE. I drove away from the city and to find somewhere off the side of the road that didn’t have too much light pollution. On my drive, I found a place that had a few other guys looking around with cameras trying to spot it and take some astrophotography pictures. I parked near them and set up my gear alongside theirs. I didn’t have much luck with the lenses I was equipped with, but it was a great experience meeting those guys and learning how they shoot the night sky. I’ve ordered a new telescope that’s on backorder until January (!!!) because so many people took up astronomy and astrophotography during quarantine. I’m still friends with those guys now and we’ve met again to capture the night sky.
In August, Kendra and I had our first anniversary together and celebrated it by going to Mobile, Alabama and staying at the Malaga Inn. We safely explored downtown and all the seafood restaurants it had to offer, thoroughly enjoying oysters since we had been away from the beach for so long. We also checked out the Mobile Carnival Museum, Bellingrath Gardens, and spent time at the beach on Dauphin Island. Since going to high school in Mobile and not visiting very often, it was nice to be back in the area and walk around familiar places.
September and October collectively were pretty busy! I started working with the nonprofit that Kendra is currently in service to, Magic City Harvest, to help them create how-to videos for cooking fun dishes and making craft cocktails. I have linked their website and access to the videos I filmed and edited to my Videography Portfolio page above, but I will also link it again here.
In addition to that, some friends and I have begun filming a movie together for the fun and experience of it! It’s been a blast so far and I’ve learned a ton about video work and playing with sound and lighting. We’re still in production and have a few more scenes to shoot in November. Hopefully by next year we’ll have a decent completed project that we can present to a film festival and see what comes of it! We’ve all been talking about putting up our own IMDb pages, no matter the outcome.
A little over a week ago on the Sunday before Halloween, Kendra and I attended a (limited seating) showing of the original Phantom of the Opera silent film alongside an accompanying organ at the Alabama Theatre in downtown Birmingham. It was an amazing time and neat to feel like you’ve stepped back in time a bit. If you’ve ever visited Birmingham and missed the theatre’s astonishing architecture and artistic beauty, I implore that you return and visit it and catch a performance. Kendra and I in good spirits also visited a local pumpkin patch during the week and took a few fun pictures along the way.
And that’s about it! 2020 has largely been a bust, but typing out a few of the good things has helped my perspective I’d say. Here’s to hoping for a better year next year and that all the election discourse ends gracefully. See you next time!
TAYLOR ON EARTH 
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