Painful Marshmellows

"Stay" -Training a Dog.

2008-06-02T22:32:29Z

Have you ever noticed that when training a dog you use commands. Sit, Stay Shake, Attack and so on. I'd like to look deeper into the "stay" command. The master says stay and the dog stays. Why does the dog stay? Dogs are hyper animals and it must be so hard for them to stay. It is not in their nature to stay. Then why does a dog do it? Because the dog trusts the master. The dog will not have to stay forever and when the stay command is replaced with "Go Ahead" there is much more to gain than if the dog did not stay.

After today I am waiting for the go ahead.

Beezley Burn Pictures

2008-04-29T04:25:41Z

The pictures for the Beezley Burn can be found at the links below. I will have personalized panoramas from The Burn coming soon as well. Keep an eye out for those.

Beezley Burn Short Track
Beezley Burn XC Race

Also, be sure to watch the Forums for more updates. Visit them now, click here.

Open for business!

2008-04-29T04:21:06Z

Greetings Family and Friends! Justin is back in business!

This weekend I shot the Beezley Burn in Ephrata, WA. I had a great time, took lots of pictures, got to talk to a lot of people and even paid for the trip. I went through 250 business cards during the 2 day event. I shot just about 800 pictures and was able to have them all posted the same day. For the first time I even offered prints on location! I've very happy with the results of this weekend. Today alone I have had over 300 hits on my website. I very much look forward to what tomorrow brings.

I am filling up my summer with other events to shoot as well. I got 8 or 9 bike races, a wedding, Ski to Sea in Bellingham, and who knows what else. I've got some big ideas to Silver Streak Studios. One of the first things I'd like to do is start hiring other photographers. I want all my customers to have plenty of pictures to choose from and to never miss a shot. I also want to give other photographers a chance to make their hobby something that can also pay for itself.

Now that I am starting to make some profit, I will be investing in more marketing. Business cards are not enough any more. As much as I'd like to there is no way I can go out there and shake hands with every one at an event. I will be getting shirts, banner and of course the long awaited car print.

My customers should also look forward to some new services as well. Silver Streak Studios does more than just event photos. We do marketing, graphic design, portraits, and much more. I am working on partnering with local companies to start offering tShirt services, and on-site printing for events.

Thank you very much for your support!

On a mission.

2008-02-25T05:09:49Z

Once again I found a new way to challenge myself when it comes to travel and I think for the first time I have failed. Today's mission was:

1) Get out of a 3 hour shift at Sears.
2) Drive to Seattle on Lacey (the bike).
3) Meet up with Lacey (the girl).
4) Have dinner with Lacey (the girl).
5) Drive back on Lacey (the bike).

Step one was accomplished. Sears wasn't busy and they said I could go for a drive.
I made it all the way down to Marysville. By the time I got there I was shivering and I could tell I would not have made it back before sunset. I turned around, stopped in Burlington to eat and warm up and then drove the rest of the way home.

I was able to answer a lot of questions I had about driving Lacey on the freeway however. I've found that Lacey is able to go 60mph even on all of the hills I had to pass. It was more difficult to go 70mph most of the time on the other hand. The times I was able to reach the 70 mark was when a larger vehicle would "cut me off" and I was able to draft them. If they passed me leaving plenty of space, I was unable to catch the draft. Once I get in the drafting stage I am able to cut the throttle to about half rather than full and still push 70mph and could probably even reach 80mph if the vehicle in front of me was going that fast and second, if I thought it would be even remotely safe.

I've also found that I do not want to be on my bike when it is windy. Just from the air currents of the other vehicles passing, I've found that it would be very scary to ride on a windy day.

I've been warned by several people about rain and how hard it is to drive in the rain. I would still like to give it a try.

So I now have 300 miles on my bike. The dealership told me I need to come back for the free 300 mile check up once I hit 300 miles. I have a few things that need to be taken a look at too. The brakes squeak, after my 100mile drive today something started making a high pitched grinding noise around 20-35mph, and a little hose fell out of my engine the other day. It looks like an overflow tube, but I don't think things should be falling out of my bike already.

I've figured out how to use the MP3 player. The dealership told me I could plug an ipod into it, but when I did that it just charged and locked the ipod so I was unable to play music. That sucks, right? Yes and no... I figured out that the bike actually has a mp3 player in it which means I just have to supply the music on some sort of usb drive. This means I could plug in a flash drive OR I could even get a 80 GB usb harddrive, fill it with songs and just plug it in. The downside is that there is no display and there for no way to know what song I am playing and the only way to find a song is by pressing the next button until I get to it.

So to conclude this mission summery, I must say the goal was a failure, yet the knowledge gained from it is worth much more. I will have to complete the mission another time when I have the proper gear or when it warms up.

Next mission: Get a picture of me on my bike. This sounds like a mission for Kyle!

New Toy

2008-02-24T07:07:26Z

Ok, I call it a toy, but really, it is a tool. It is a means of transportation. I got a motorcycle! It is a China brand that most people have not heard of. It is a QLink Legacy 250 or "Lacey the Legacy." I bought it on Wednesday and when I drove it off the lot it had 8 miles on it. 3.5 days later it has 120 miles on it. I love this bike! Why did a get a bike you ask? Well, mostly to save money. Heres the scoop:

I paid $3680 for my Dorango. I put 10,000 miles on it. The transmission started falling apart on me and it would have cost between 2-3 grand to get it fixed along with the other problems it was having. So it only lasted me 6 months and I needed to get rid of it. It was also only getting 10 miles to the gallon this last month. Some might think that getting the Dorango was a bad idea to start with, but I must disagree.

The list price on my bike was $3700. When all the fees and taxes were done with it would have cost me $4100. I traded my car in for this bike. So how much did I have to pay for the bike? Well, they did a straight trade. Because it was a trade, there was no tax. They wanted me to pay the documentation fee and licensing fee, but I told them I only had 15 dollars and I was saving it for food until my next paycheck. I told them I would have to come back next week to get it. Sales people don't like the "Let me sleep on it" thing, so they said they would cover it. I left the dealership not paying a cent. I even borrowed a helmet and goggles from them until payday on Tuesday.

So I actually made a couple hundred off of the Dorango and getting the bike saved me about $3000 in repairs. How else does it save me?

Over 6 months I put 10,000 miles on the Dorango. That is about 1700 miles a month. I am going to assume that is how much I will be putting on the bike as well. Lets compare!

Miles per Gallon
George: 30mpg
Doug: 10mpg
Lacey: 70mpg

How many gallons per month (at 1700 miles/month)
George: 56 Gallons
Doug: 170 Gallons
Lacey: 24 Gallons

How much insurance is:
George: $86/month
Doug: $202/month
Lacey: $29/month

How much would I be spending on gas monthly ($3.00/gallon):
George: $168
Doug: $510
Lacey: $72

Total Annual Costs (gas+insurance):
George: $3048
Doug: $8544
Lacey: $1212

Seeing how I am making about $19000 a year, it is very important for me to save that money. If I drove the 112 miles these past 3 days in Doug, it would have cost me about $35 when it actually only cost me about $5.

Change

2008-02-16T08:21:49Z

So I'm looking back at when I worked two jobs in Ephrata totaling about 60-70 hours a week. For some reason it worked really well for me. Maybe because I had nothing else to do or it was just easy work. Now I'm working two jobs totaling about 50-60 hours a week depending on the busyness. I am finding it tiring yet when I do have free time, I am never really sure what to do with it. I guess I need to start up one of my projects again. I think I've gone all winter without taking any pretty pictures. Monday is my first day off since I started my new job at Logos. I think I will use that day to go for a walk and take some pictures. I wish I could go for a drive, but I can't. It's been so long since I've done that.

I'm going to bed. I'll update more later.

Portrait Sales

2008-01-28T05:23:29Z

I am a numbers guy. I love running the numbers. So here is what I've figured out the past couple days.

First of all, in the past 2-3 months or however long I've been working there, I have made almost $15,000 in sales. The studio in the past year has made about $280,000. Good to know for when I open my own studio.

In the past 4 weeks...

I still have the highest sales average. Mine is $102.94/sitting. The studio's sales average is $80.28/sitting. Other than my average, the next highest is my managers at $81.04/sitting. So from these numbers, you would assume I just sell more, right? Actually no. The studio on average sells .24 more sheets than I do per sitting. The studio on average sells 1.74 more collages than I do per sitting which are big money makers. I I am 18% less likely to charge a sitting fee than the studio. I am, however, 10% more likely to sell my customers a membership but thats only $5 more per sitting.

So if all these are so much lower than the studio's average, why do I have such a high sales average?

The answer! I sell more collections and CDs than everyone else. Ok, well that was easy. But wait, there is more.

When figuring a employee's value you can't just factor in sales. Lets take a look at the profit margin on the things I sell best.

Collections:

If you look at the collections that are offered at SPS, you will find out that it is cheaper to just get them sheet by sheet! But the collections come with a minimum of 8 (depending on the collection) standard enhancements. Enhancements cost 7 dollars for the customer yet costs the company nothing. So if you do the math, the profit margin on collections are HUGE!

CDs:

CDs by them self start at $99.99 for the first one. The Full CD costs $119.99 by its self. SPS orders blank CDs in bulk and costs them less than $1 each. Again, HUGE profit margin.

But now you are asking me how I possibly sell a CD of images for $99.99. I don't. If someone is interested in the CD, I actually get them to spend a minimum of $139.99. Its a sales technique called "selling up" If a customer buys $99.99 in portraits (which is the cost of our basic collection), I will sell them the basic CD for just $29.99 ($39.99 for the full CD) and as you can see, that is a HUGE savings for the customer.

Wait a sec, spending $30 more is saving? If you are a good sales person it is.

So selling a collection sells the CD and selling the CD sells the collection. So what I do is I figure out if they what prints of digital copies. From there I word things a little differently (depending on what they want) so they feel the best deal would be to get both, in turn spending more money.

Now you may be saying that this is sneaky and wrong of me, but I must disagree. While I am selling them these, I quote them exactly how much its going to cost including tax. It helps to memorize that. I don't use a calculator while doing it unless things are complicated. Quoting exact prices rather than getting a calculator shows that you are confident about what you are doing. The one time getting a calculator helps is when they start to feel like you are just a sales person. I want all my customers to feel that I am their friend and want them to have the best deal possible. To do that, all you have to say is, "Hold on one second, I am going to get a calculator and figure out what would be better for you. I want to make sure you are getting the best deal you can!"

Being a good sales person is key to making a good sale.

Looking at the rest of the numbers on these studio reports, It appears that I am a better salesman than I am a photographer. Customers are 125% more likely to buy the bonus sheets the lab sends if they are not taken by me.

Kinda makes me sad, but thats ok. I wouldn't mind getting into sales.

A New Year Update.

2008-01-17T07:01:22Z

So a friend asked me how I was doing so far this year and typed a long message to him so I figured I might as well use some of it for an update.

I'm still working at Sears. Its still fun but they have cut my hours down to 11 a week because we are so slow and on top of that I've had some big bills thrown at me lately. I am what I like to call "Financially Screwed" right now. I could use some prayer in that area.

But other than money I would say things are going really well for me. Full Circle, the high school winter camp at my church, was last weekend and it was George's (the youth pastor) last time teaching for NW. He taught about feet. It went amazingly well and Saturday night you could see God moving in the kids after George's lesson. It was sad for everyone to say good bye, but I think the transition from George to Greg (intrum) went really well. It was Greg's first night running Hangtime and I think he did a good job even though he did not do a lesson (Small Groups) and ran too late for worship time.

I have my own small group now. Its a fairly good mix of people but I think I have something in common with all of them. At Full Circle we would have a little meeting time in my car, all 8 of us. A few of the guys in my group are the techie type and all of them I could see spending my free time with.

I've started looking for a new job, or a second one if it is only part time. I'm number one on the hire list at Kinkos, but they are too slow to take on another employee right now. The manager told me to keep checking in. I am going to be applying as a tech support at Logos Bible Software later this week. I've heard they pay well, have good hours, and even benefits. If I am unable to get a nice job soon, I will start working at McDonald's. People keep telling me that it's a bad idea but the way I see it is that working there will pay the bills, and its not something I will care too much to keep if I find a better job.

And on to some very good news. L&I called me this morning and they would like to send me to a plastic/hand surgeon to work on my had. They are also letting me go to the doctor of my normal doctor's recommendation which means I don't have to worry about getting some crappy L&I doctor. Keith recommended a hand doctor here in town to me so now I just have to get my doctor in Ephrata to recommend this hand specialist to L&I to do work on me. I very much look forward to getting my hand de-gnarled.

To all a good night.

December Update

2007-12-16T22:19:32Z

I guess I could update...

Things are going well at work. My average sales fluctuates daily, but seems I am still the top salesman when it comes to the rolling 4 week average. Been learning a lot of things about running a studio and find each day a new challenge. I've figured out new ways to make kids laugh and turns out they work for the adults as well.

Aside from work I've been helping out at my church. I'm staff for the highschool group and in a few weeks I'll be getting my own small group. The youth pastor is moving to Puyallup in January and all the staff are going to have to step things up a notch.

I've also been helping with a photography class at Sehome High School. Anytime I have the mid-day shift off, I try to head on over there. Once the holidays pass and things at work slow down, I I am going to try to help with the class every Tuesday if I am able to get the time off.

For Christmas I am going to try to make it to Sandpoint. I've asked for the 24th or the 26th off, but I'm not sure if I'll get it. Even if I were to get the later half of the 24th off and the morning of the 26th off, I would give the drive a shot.

Doug, my Dorango is still running fine. I've found a few things I am not all that happy about, but nothing to pressing. Part of my pay check will be going to the Fix Dorango Doug Fund. Most recently I've replaced the belt. Turns out the one I had on was the wrong belt. Also, thanks to Sears, I found out that a repair I paid for in Mississippi only got half way done (stealing $150 from me). So if you ever find ourself driving down south, don't take your car to a southern mechanic.

I have a date on Tuesday. Its my day off and I will be spending the evening with a girl I went to high school with at dinner and a movie. We will see how that goes.

Speaking of food, I get lunch at the food court every day. My favorite is Orange Julius. My Wallet's favorite is also Orange Julius. Every one knows me there and I get a special deal when I order. Even if there is a line, they will look at me in the back of the line with a "what do you want" face and I just have to put up some fingers. They know my usual and can get started on it right away. My usual is a "Surprise Me Special." By holding up one finger, I get one of them, two fingers, two of them and so on. When they ring me up they take the number of items and multiply it by $0.92. After tax it ends up being $1 dollar for each item. If I just got a drink every day for the rest of the year, the "Dollar Deal" as the call it, will save me over $75. It really pays to be friendly. :)

Well, I am going to get ready for work now. Later guys!

Commission?

2007-11-27T07:43:50Z

Through-out the years I always had the thought that commission was an evil thing. But today I figured out that it is not.

At work I am a Sales Person and a Photographer. The photography stuff I can do. That is why I am getting into that business. I didn't really think too much about the sales side of the job until I started working at Sears. Now that I've gotten to do a little bit of sales, I am figuring out that it is not all that hard for me to get some one to buy something they do not want or will not need. There are a few ways to do that, but I'm keeping that to myself.

This past week my manager ran the sales reports and found that I have the highest sales average per sitting (PRS) in the studio. What does that mean? It means when people come in and get their pictures done, I sell more than anyone else in the studio. My average PRS right now is $124.00 The next highest is $106.00. That means on average I bring in $14 more per sitting that any one else. I usually have about a 6 hour shift. In that much time I can get through about 9 sittings. I usually work 6 days a week. Thats 54 sittings a week. If you run the numbers, I am bringing in $756 more a week than any one else in the studio. Thats $3024 more a month.

You would think that means good things for me, wouldn't you? Well, I am rewarded. If I am a good sales person, I get wear color rather than the normal Black/White/Tan dress code.

But seriously, After making that much more a month for the company and only get paid minimum wage?

Little things like this just remind me why I am working at Sears. Its to figure out how I will and will not run my own business.

My employees will be paid minimum as well, BUT if they do well and sell, they will be rewarded with a bonus.

I like Balloons.

2007-10-21T01:19:29Z

Guess what I did today!?

I'll give you a hint!

I took pictures of Hot Air Balloons!!
Guess what else I did today!?

I flew in a Hot Air Balloon!

I'll have some good panos posted in a few days.

Homecoming in Natchez

2007-10-14T05:09:59Z

So homecoming was a little interesting, but enjoyable. For dinner I set up a table on the Mississippi River water front in Vidalia (where I took the bridge picture). It had a table cloth, fine platery, and wine glasses all set up. We had pizza. Leah, my date, had Hawaiian pizza for the first time. While we were eating a cop drove by, stopped, rolled down the window and said, "Now I like that! That there has class." He then drove down a little ways from us and kicked some people out of the park for loitering.

The dance was interesting. First, my date was 5 years younger than I, but we were going as friends, so that was fine, just different. I was probably the oldest attendee there however. I was the tallest person there for sure. Took a while for Leah to get the beat or whatever, but after a while we started having a pretty good time together.

Anyways, its been a long day and tomorrow should be just as long. I am having people over for lunch tomorrow after church. I'm cooking and I don't even have anything ready yet. I guess they will just have to wait for me to chop everything.

I need to sleep.

Quick update!

2007-10-13T15:54:10Z

Ok, So I really want to post a full update, but I do not have time today.

Last Sunday I was asked to Homecoming. Tonight is the night. I am so unprepared, but I will pull something amazing off at the last minute. I'll tell more about it tomorrow if I have time.

I am coming back to Washington. I will be moving to Bellingham. No, I don't have a job yet, but I am going to find one.

I'll arrive in Spokane the morning of October 28th. Looks like I will be staying there for a week. I will probably take a trip to Ephrata part of that week.

I am very excited about my business. A lot of ideas are coming to me lately (so many I haven't had time to write them all down) and I am very excited to see how they will work out. When I get back to Bellingham I plan on setting up my corporation and getting everything rolling.

Hopefully by the time I start driving back, I will have a new addition to my car.

Denied

2007-10-06T02:58:20Z

"Hi Justin… As much as I appreciate your wanting to do this, we already have a photographer that covers our event and we let her do it in exchange for publicity photos. She then sells her photos on her web site just as you do, but she’s been doing this in trade with us for the past 5 years and she asked for exclusivity and we granted it. I went to your site and your work is really beautiful. Best of luck… "

I've been Rejected, Denied, and Saddened.

Well... I think that settles it. I do not want to stay here. I've been looking forward to this event a month before I moved here and I was just told no.

Some might say that I should not give up so quickly, and get back up on the horse, but this horse does not want me on it. This horse has been bucking me off since I got here. It's time for me to give up on this place.

I'm moving back.

NOT Junk Mail.

2007-10-05T05:41:24Z

Yesterday I checked my mail and I had received a walmart card as a late birthday gift and a money order for an old savings account that my mom closed. Good day for mail. When I got home from work, I found my downstairs neighbor sitting on the sets outside. She was locked out and was waiting for her mom to get there to help her out. I would have invited her in to my place to have a seat, but I don't have any seats yet. So I went up and got out my pie I made and cut 2 slices and put them on a paper plate and pulled out 2 plastic forks. I got down there just as her mom was arriving and offered the pie. They sure were excited.

Today when I checked my mail, I found a card. She wrote me a thank you card. :) It made my day. Not only that, but I also found a 3 foot long tube. MY PRINTS CAME! This is the start of my gallery. Although I would love to hang them up in my living room, I would like it even better if I came home from work tomorrow without them. Tomorrow I will be trying to sell them. Lakeside Ford, City of Vidalia, and Riverpark Medical are all my prospects that I am going to visit tomorrow. I also updated the prices of my panoramas on my website. The total amount of profits possible really make me happy.

I am also getting a sample of this wonder material that goes on your walls. If I deem the sample worthy, I will be buying a 7'x14' print of my bridge pano to put on my wall (wallpaper).If it looks nice, I will start marketing that.

I also got a bracelet in the mail today from Ben Bridge Jewelry. I went to "The Festival of Gems" the last week I was in Washington, but they ran out by the time I got there, so they told me they would mail it to me. They just not got around to sending it out to me. It looks ok, not the best, but I think it will make a special girl happy one day.

Now I MUST sleep.

Art Studio

2007-10-01T03:18:51Z

I've always wanted an art studio to showcase my photos.

My friends also keep telling me I need to furnish my living room.

One problem about the art studio: Money. I can't afford a place to hang my art.

Problem with furnishing my living room: I don't know if I am going to be sticking around here or not.

Solution to both problems: My living room is going to become my art studio.

I am ordering prints of my Panoramas. The ones I think are worthy of selling, I will actually be printing out 2 copies of each. That way if I do sell them, I can keep the second hanging in my studio. You might ask where I could get the money for this, but I can get 2 panoramas printed for $35. If I could sell one of them for $100-$200, they would pay for themselves in no time.

I've done work with the mayor of Vidalia, LA. He also is in the process of building a welcome center on river. Currently this building has nothing hanging on the walls inside. I feel that it is my duty to fill those blank walls. I also feel that I should get paid for this duty. Soon as my pictures of the bridge get in, I am going to meet with the mayor and see what he thinks of my idea. I would think it would be pretty easy to sell his own city to him. :)

GREP-able

2007-09-30T00:48:08Z

There is a Unix command line utility called GREP. I'm not going to go into all of what it is capableble of, but it basically is a utility for reading and filtering text out of files. It's a complex version of the Windows Search utility.

But the point of this post is not to educate you on the Unix command line. The point of this post is to get my point across. I'm not doing a very good job however. Maybe this is pointless to try to explain it...

I've heard it said that you can't GREP dead trees.

Remember, GREP = Search, dead trees = Paper.

I'm going to be taking some of my older journal (my paper journal) entries that are not to personal and be putting them in my LJ so that if I were to die while my house burns down one night, my stories and inspirations would not be lost. Like I said, you can't GREP dead trees.

Misslou Bridge

2007-09-29T22:44:59Z

Took me 2.5 hours to make it, but here it is!

Welcome "Home"

2007-09-29T20:33:11Z

Today I went out and started taking pictures of the area around me. I don't really like it here and I don't think there is much that is photo-worthy but I went to the one place that I knew was. I went to the Misslou Bridge. I have to drive across this bridge every day and I think its the prettiest place I've seen since I got here. The pictures of the bridge are going to take some time to put together, so check these out for now.

I always laugh when I drive by this sign. It says "Welcome to Mississippi. It's like coming home!"

Why is it like coming home? I don't think its like coming home.

This is a shot of driving across the bridge. It looks like it goes on forever.

I've made some new friends. Here is Taylor, Sarah and I in my house.

In my free time when I am not hanging with the locals, I often find myself talking on the phone with my friends in Washington. This is me talking to Liz.

I'll start working on the bridge pictures now. Come back soon!

RAIN!

2007-09-25T22:22:46Z

I'm not sure I've ever seen it rain this hard before. The streets of Natchez are flooded, The bridge was struck by lightning while I was on it, the thunderous rumble wont stop, I'm afraid the power will go out while I am writing this.

Mississippi update

2007-09-02T03:19:24Z

I know some of you are waiting for this, so here it goes...

Things are going well down here. I've been working hard and keeping busy all the time. Brent has tought me a few new things and I've tought him a few new things. I am currently setting up one of his sites with remote imaging of computers. This will save him hours of his time so he will have more time to find more sales. Cool.

I bought a car. Its name is Doug the Dorango. There is a picture below. I also got a place to live. I will be moving into it some time next week. It is month to month so if I decided I need to leave, I just have to give 30 days notice.

I've made a few new friends from church. I went to a football game last night with them and we may end up doing something tomorrow together.

Here are some pictures:

Pro Photographer Website!

2007-09-02T03:13:06Z

Well, I've had my website up for some time now but I finally got around to getting some work done on it. Check this out: photos.kooyphoto.com

I am still working on it, but It is getting there. If you have any suggestions, send me a message at my new email address: Justin[at]kooyphoto.com

I've also set the site up so that if I get any more photographers working with me I will easily be able to integrate their page into the main page and give them their own email as well (hint hint KYLE and EMILY). Even if its not event pictures, get some pictures up there because I am bringing in the traffic. If you guys are on the page, you will be able to get some exposure even if I am doing all the work getting the traffic.

As soon as things get rolling, I am also planning on taking up a friend on the offer she gave me to set up my business as an s-corp.

Summer Camp and related stuff.

2007-08-21T20:23:52Z

I was staff for a middle school summer camp a few weeks ago. It was a lot of fun and I think I got more out of it than I did the HS camp I did earlier this summer.

I was Kitchen Staff and that means I had to cook for 64 students. Not only that but I was also the go for guy. I had the church credit card the whole time and I would take several trips to the store if needed.

One of the students got sick and because of reasons I will not mention, the parents would/could not pick him up. I drove him all the way Sumas and then drove back. I left Wenatchee at sunset and got back at sunrise. It totaled 10 hours of driving. The crazy part is that I kept going. I helped out the rest of the day with cooking and other events planned. Despite being tired, missing out on the staff jetski time and putting 800 miles on my car in 4 days, I must say I had a really good time. I want to do youth ministry.

I've talked about this before, but after I moved to Ephrata things changed a bit for me. This summer I feel that everything that I forgot I wanted while I was in Ephrata came back to me. Tomorrow I leave for Mississippi. I'm not sure if I am doing the right thing or not, but regardless, I bought the ticket and made a commitment to my uncle. I will have to see how things go once I get there. Yesterday morning I also applied for a new job (yes, another). The job I applied for doesn't usually hire until March, so I will have some time to figure things out. I applied for a job in Antarctica. Yes, I've done that before, but this time it is different. I submitted my updated resume (rather than my pre-graduation resume) and I also marked that not only am I interested in computer work but I also included Publications/Graphic Design (not likely to happen) and Facilities. Facilities can mean a wide variety of things including just cleaning toilets. I am very hopeful.

I have to give credit to one of my friends for helping me out a lot through all of this. Up until this summer I didn't really consider her very close to me, but we started talking and she is so encouraging no matter what. I really want her to know how much I appreciate her.

I must go. George is getting fixed today and I have a few things to do before he is disabled. I am really happy I sold him to Luke because he is actually going to keep him running.

Good bye Washington!

Summer Update/Plans

2007-07-29T05:24:43Z

Today: Went bowling with my dad. I beat him at the trivia, but he got me on the pins.

Tomorrow: Fix my car.

Wednesday: I am having dinner with a friend. the rest of the week I am just working.

Friday: My last day working for the Ephrata School District.

August 4th: Pack up, move to Bellingham. Get a cake.

August 5th:
9:00am Church, Josh Ward is coming!
3:00pm My party at Will's old house!

August 8th: Celebration of Gems, Bellis Fair Mall.

August 9th: Splash Summer Camp.

August 13th: Get back from Camp.

August 22nd: Leave for MS.

August 23rd: Get to MS.

Moving

2007-06-30T18:07:49Z

I am moving again... Destination: Advanced Micro Technologies, Natchez, Mississippi.

My moving history: In the 20 years I've been alive I have moved 13 times. Thats as good as moving every 1 year and 6 months.

My school history: In the 20 years I've been alive I have been to 13 different schools. Again, that is a new school every 1 year 6 months.

Wow

When will I return to Washington you ask? I don't know. Ask me again in 1 year and 6 months.

I plan on being there by the 15th of August. I will either be driving or flying. My last day of work with the school district is August 3rd.

KooyPhoto.com will be moving as well. Very sad indeed. The last bike race I took pictures of rolled in $100 after the first week of the pictures being up. My business is doing well.

Farewell!

Justin Kooy