Analog Signals

The roundtrip from Seoul to Daejeon by KTX is about $40 USD. The train's median speed is 300 km/h. Each ride is precisely 58 minutes. In an ideal world, that would mean the distance from Seoul to Daejeon would be about 300 km. Factor in the 2 stops it makes at Chunan and Suwon, it'd give about 50 minutes of actual travel time and the distance is recalculated to 240 km. However, the actual distance is about 150 km. The differences come from the time it takes for the train to leave or enter its departing and arriving city, respectively. But the KTX schedule still holds, like a rock. Given the normal weather and technical safety inspection parameters, there would be no delay. No hold-ups and the KTX trains travel in their precise time schedule. As a regular passenger, averaging about 2 round-trips a month since coming to Korea this January, I can predict the time-intervals on train departure schedules given the time of the day and the day of the week relatively well. Once you become habituated to this train routine, it all becomes quite boring because it's predictable.

October 31, 2010. KTX train departing at 8:41 p.m. Daejeon to Seoul. Cart 14. Seat 5D.

I took this photo awhile back. Probably in April at Seoul Station. I was waiting for my train and I had a bit of free time. So I grabbed some Burger King and took some shots with my then-new-but-used Nikon FM2. I regretted the former decision, but was thrilled by the latter; and loved it even more after I had the film developed. It was my first film that I had developed in my life. And I was the author. It felt good. And it still feels good after several rolls. But what fascinates me more is that every time I develop the films I'm always amazed at the results. Most of the times, I'm amazed at the flaws in the pictures and how they lend to an unintended effect. Perhaps the lens was just a few inches out of focus, perhaps the sun glaring through the window panels caused discoloration, perhaps the film was defected with a spot; I don't know. But it's these small mistakes and unpredictability the analog camera lend itself to that makes it all the more interesting. It's devoid of auto-focus, zooms, exposure corrections, stabilization, and all the other features that guarantees consistency and predictability in the state-of-the-art DSLRs today. Well, they can be fun, too, and be useful especially for the professionals. But right now, personally, I could use some randomness and film cameras such as FM2 could just be the new fresh-kid-in-the-block. Less predictable. Less certain. But much more amusing.

Chance is always more interesting than the statistic.