Shawn Lankton Online

Merry Christmas! Today I spent Christmas with my Dad, still in Phoenix. I captured some of the Christmas magic in these pictures… They remind me a bit of 70′s style holiday commercials.Weather here in the desert was less than festive during the day. Seventy degrees with hot sun and beautiful blue skies seemed a bit tropical. However, as the sun set things cooled down to a frosty Arizona forty. For some PM entertainment, we went to a party hosted by one of my Dad’s oldest friends.
Much to my surprise and delight this was a Brazilian party (The wife of the host is Brazilian, and so a lot of the guests were). Now for those of you who don’t know… Brazilian parties are always full of fun, friendliness, music, and good times. We heard some amazing guitar playing and made some great friends. I love Christmas.

First, I would like to say that I made it home safely… I’m fine totally ok, and back in Atlanta.

Now onto the story. Friday I left Siemens for the last time. The day was filled with goodbyes which were all pretty hard. I met so many great people at Siemens and am sure to miss all of them. Some of my closest friends even walked me out to my car and waved until I drove out of sight. What amazing people!

A little choked up, I started driving with my destination for that evening being Farifax, Virginia. Here I would meet up with another friend and ex-Siemens intern. Saying goodbye to Princeton traffic wasn’t nearly as hard as saying goodbye to my friends. As the night turned dark, I began to become aware of my drowsiness. Two nights of packing into the wee hours of the morning had taken something out of me.

Then something bad happened… I don’t explicitly remember the events leading up to this, but I vividly remember the moment when I became aware of a car that was way too close to my front bumper and going way slower than me. I can only assume I had been in a road-daze, or asleep. Instantly awake now, and with adrenaline pumping, I slammed on the brakes and began to swerve out of the way. I managed, to some extent, to avoid catastrophe, but unfortunately I hit the other car’s back right side with my left front side…

Then the fun began. I’m not sure what happened to the other car at this point, but I began spinning down the interstate. One or two revolutions on the pavement, one in the grass, and one more on the pavement left me resting somewhere near the shoulder. I pulled off the road and checked my pulse. Decidedly faster than normal, but still alive. No scrapes, no bruises… totally fine.

I got out of the car and looked around. One flat tire, one large dent, one muffler which has been ripped off of the exhaust. The other car was pulled over a few yards behind me. She was fine too (although she was pretty pissed!) And her car just had a dent in the panel of impact.

When the cops came, they pulled the cruiser up so as to give me some light. While they wrote the ticket, I removed the muffler, tied my exhaust back up so it didn’t drag the ground, and changed my tire for the (full sized, thanks BMW) spare.

The cops came back and gave me a ticket for careless driving (no argument here!) and told me I could be on my way. To my great surprise, the car was totally fine (although a lot louder than before). The rest of the drive to Farifax was made heavily red-bulled and without incident. I arrived a bit late, but alive.

I shared a very nice dinner with my friend Andrew and ‘crashed’ on his couch. The next day I slept way in (instead of leaving early as planned), and got on the road around 12:30. Again, with plenty of red-bull in the blood stream I made the final 10 hour drive back with no further collisions. Welcome Home Shawn! Tomorrow I leave again to fly to Phoenix. Expect more updates from the road.

My time in Princeton is coming to an end… 36 hours from now I’ll be on the road. At this moment, the whirlwind of farewells, packing, and finishing my work is tossing me around and causing some angst. I only slept briefly last night, and I fear that the same fate will come again this evening. These last days have been wonderful though.Fantastic farewell parties in Princeton were filled with all of my good friends here. There were some sad goodbyes, some goofy pictures, and some good times. I made my final trip to NYC where I met my roomates friends on whose couch I made my home almost every week for the past 7 months. They took me out for a vegan dinner. Isn’t that sweet? (I’ll be back soon kids!)

Now I’m almost packed with only one night left to spend in Princeton. A goodbye dinner with my roommate, goodbye drinks with a few close friends from Siemens, more packing, maybe the chance to visit a few more friends… oh yeah, and very little sleep.

I feel like I’m in the first eye-wall of this storm. The calm center will be the long drive home to reflect on the fantastic friends I’ve made, the amazing things I’ve done, and the rest of the storm, which is rapidly approaching.

Last weekend I spent Saturday and Sunday in New York. Saturday was spent ice skating in Central Park and dancing at an 80′s dance club (The Pyramid Club). On Sunday Naomi and I went to take some pictures near the Brooklyn Bridge. She is a “real” photographer. She has a “real” camera and “real” talent. I on the other hand have a whole lot of “fakin’ it” and a nice little point and shoot.

(Golden Swift)

(Brickadelic)
Regardless, I took some shots that I like. Later that day we met my friend Maggie and took the Staten Island Ferry in order to get some free entertainment and nice views of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan Island. We got both… Behold.

(Water Laser)

(The Left Eye of Liberty)
All of these shots have been ‘worked on’ in Photoshop, but, hey… Half the work of a “real” photographer is in the darkroom anyway, right? These photographs make me feel somewhat like a serious photographer. I like them… hopefully you do too.

I’ve been driving around for the last two months with one working, half-blown-out speaker in my car. Today I decided to put an end to it. I bought two 5.25″ Panasonic speakers for $49.95. I know, I know… they are cheap. But my head unit isn’t great, and all I really want is to hear what is going on, not be blown away by the bass. By the way, owners of E30 style BMW’s. Replacing your speakers (back speakers at least) is soooooo easy… Don’t pay someone to do it for you. You just unscrew the cover and poof. Speakers removed.
Now that those old speakers are out of there lets take a look at them. Can you guess which one is the new one and which one is more than 20 years old? After marveling at speaker technology improvements for a few moments, you can screw the new one in exactly the place the old one was.
The final result is… working sound from both speakers! The new “system” sounds pretty good, even though its only the back speakers right now. But, this is a huge improvement for the small investment. Eventually, I’d like to replace the front speakers and put in a better head unit. Right now I’ll take things one step at a time.