Changes!

Photokapi has moved to:

http://photokapi.tumblr.com

For a while now Blogger has been bothering me. Like any pre-defined blogging site it's limited, and I've seen this page setup used about 10,000 times. My main issue with it is that the photos I post come up teensy eensy on the page, as if they're an afterthought. Plus with Congolese internet routed through Nigeria it takes me about 5 minutes to load one photo, during which time our unstable connection fluctuates and I lose everything.

So, I've moved the whole site over to Tumblr. Tumblr is also aggravatingly optionless in the details of its page setup but they have masses of pages to choose from, and my photos look HAWT. Large and vibrant and with a sexy black border. I couldn't resist. The upload rate is fast, the archive system is awesome, and Tumblr feels like the hipster of the blogging world--we all pretend we hate it but really all want to be it. My only enormous complaint is that I can't find a way to set up a comments section at the end of each post. I've pasted the links to comments on old blog posts but from now on there is no way to comment on anything I write. This almost broke the deal for me, as I believe the internet should be about dialogue and I love hearing people's reactions to my photos and writing. If anyone has any CSS code I can type in to my page setup to bring up a comment section I'd much appreciate it. In the meantime I've put my email address on the left-hand side of the new blog if anyone has questions or comments. I'm supposed to be teaching myself web design (I bought a Dreamweaver book and everything! ...and then forgot to pack it), but until then this is what I have to work with.

Part of the decision to move the site was because I am not leaving the Congo in three days. My job in the USA has been hit hard by the economy and they are unsure they can keep me on, so for financial, artistic and adventurous reasons, I have decided to stay here until the beginning of June. The economy is keeping me up at night--I hear stories of friends with college degrees, really talented incredible people, spending weeks or months searching for jobs, and as a fine art photography major with no mainstream marketable skills I'm terrified. When I first moved to Berkeley last July (before the economy slid downhill) it took me 8 weeks to find a job, and I have a good resume. I spent two year's worth of savings when I put down a deposit to rent a room, and I was borrowing money from my parents and applying to sleazy jobs as a bar waitress in pool bars (and I hate pool), or trying to convince potential employers that my goal in life was to sell organic baby clothing. The exhaustive blow to my finances and my ego are still fresh with me and I can't imagine going through that again. So I'm going to stay here until June and save a little money, then fly back to Berkeley for 3 weeks. In July I'm flying to upstate New York for a month to teach photography with my friend AJ, at a summer school for highly motivated high school artists. In the meantime, President Obama, I'd like you to put more funding towards the Arts so that come late July I'll be able to get a job to feed myself, and my cat, and be able to afford darkroom fees so that I can print my Graduate School admissions portfolio.

All of this stress around staying, going, jobs, options, responsibilities, my cat, my boyfriend, my photography, being seriously ill, and What I Want have been absorbing 90% of my mental energy lately, and I've felt this blog weaken. With the decision to stay in the Congo I've realized that I want to keep this blog going, in whatever way I can. So, from now on I will try my hardest to post AT LEAST a daily photo on the new site, if not a description or story. Hopefully I won't lose anyone on the way, though so far I only have evidence of Meghan, Colleen, Dan, Uncle Chris, AJ, Jess, my Maman, and Colette reading this blog so I could be overreacting. If there's anyone else out there, please change your RSS feeds and bookmarks to http://photokapi.tumblr.com.

See you on Tumblr! I have a new shiny colorful post waiting...