Story is now, defined by the focus of perception.

Story is a photo.

On day 1 at 0900 I watch Legendary’s Dune Pt.2 as loud as I want, bothering no one in the house or in the neighborhood. Furlough has its perks. 

I’m challenged by the film’s focus on the villains, the Harkonnens on Geidi Prime. Paused to consider, I am inspired and make a note of the concept in the Note app of my new iPhone 16 Pro Max.

I discover I can take the photo from the app. I focus on the TV screen with a tap on the line to reduce the exposure. I take the photo. I’ll manually edit the exposure and see what dynamic range the HEIC file can manage.

No edit option from this app. Disappointing. I remember when Apple made apps for artists.

 I’ll edit the story in the Photos app.

I get in the Photo app. Wait, when did Selfies and Live Photos become media types? 

Whatever, Story’s not in here though.

It’s been a while since I’ve been in the Utility Photos. I don’t remember a “Hidden” folder.

I think “Everything else must be fair game.” It’s a scary thought.

I recall Favorites, but the Receipts folder is new. 

Huh, here are two military property hand-receipts. “That’s not great” say’s the endpoint security part of my story.

I realize that these folders are for the apps.

I know Photos curates Photo Memories using these folders. It’s pretty sophisticated and a major incentive for adopting Apple icloud.

Maybe Siri can use the receipts to do my inventory? 

Unreleased OHARNG’s Mobility PSA, Part 1.

Be careful when corresponding with unknown contacts.l need to validate this contact.

Let’s see if someone’s messing around.

I’ve personally validated this communication using context clues and inquiry. But it is still a cyber vulnerability. This correspondent could easily be pretending to be SFC Sheets.

DoD SMS communications should only be conducted with validated contacts. My suggestion for NETCOM is that they develop an app that provides certificate validation for SMS communications.

Who am I? What am I going to do when I grow up? I have found these questions plaging me in recent years.

I am going to address them, now, in this time off during the furlough. I am going to capture what I have become. I am going to discover the story am i equipped to tell. Then I am going to move towards a life that will let me tell it.

My friend Josh reminded me who said it.

I had associated that with the Marine Corps Marksmanship Program. But I guess that was only after reading Catcher in the Rye.

I commit to moving my story onto the cloud. This begins with the transfer of decades of digital media from old drives to the cloud. 

I’ve taken to using my phone to document things at work and home. I intend document my moment of transition before the government turns back on. That is my deadline. It’s tight. I worked three weeks of the shut down. I only just got sent home. It should turn back on any day. I’m on the clock.

Yeesh! Where else do I need to turn off notifications.

Shit! I scroll through line after line of app notifications. I don’t come here often.

No, stack after stack of app notifications.

Does each app need individually turned off?

I like the Amazon notifications but…

It’s too much work. I give up trying to turn off notifications for the time being.

The value of being able to work on a clock is something I learned doing military journalism with the Ohio National Guard Public Affairs Office.

https://www.dvidshub.net/portfolio/1165388/george-davis

Imposing deadlines, building journalistic narratives and story editing are skills the PAO reinforced in me over the years.

For my thoughts on Dune and fictional story telling I go back to my Ohio University School of Film practices

I’ve been burning the midnight oil making notes in bed before and after sleep. Brainstorming from my near REM thoughts. This is working from your subconscious, says My buddy Laz.

While working from your phone I’ve discovered It’s important to take notes that are manageable. I started a single stream of conscious note at first, but when it came to editing, it was a problem. I now take short topic notes and utilize folders to organize by project and topic.

The photo called Story captured a moment from the beginning of my furlough. It documented the perception of a concept.

It is of the standby screen of my Phillips 4k Blu-ray disk player. The concept it inspired is that a film is a line in the dark, a story, illuminated by a creator’s lens of perception. I was thinking about the focus of Dune Pt. 2. 

The visual oil metaphor of the Harkonnen portrayal challenges me.  It is a different perspective on the story. I think that artists creating perspectives on stories is what film is all about. And all perspectives are different. But maybe the success of a story is its ability to attract different perspectives. And all those perspectives make a successful story glow with focus.

-insert SOF-

This is very much what I wanted to do as a young man. I wanted to make a story that glows with the attracted focus of many people. I have managed well enough over the years telling stories of advertisers, the National Guard, and other military organizations. But recently I have gotten away from it.

As I type, I use the suggested words from the text editor.

Am I writing or is it leading me?

They say that you are an adult when you perceive your own mortality. I’m not sure about my mortality, but I am more afraid now than I have ever been. I am afraid of the future, or rather I’m afraid of the future. 

I watch my son grow up with devices that dominate his attention. And I doubt their ability to make him a better person. I see him being manipulated. 

And then there is society. I deployed to Germany and was attached to US Army Europe in Africa in 2001. My first mission was to monitor social media for misinformation and disinformation regarding Nato VS Russian activities in eastern Europe and Ukraine. 

I fell in with the contractors who were hired to analyze our findings and helped them create an awareness campaign for the theater’s social media channels.

I received an Army Commendation and a Public Affairs graphic production award for this work.

I avoid social media now.