EP306: Writing a Weekly Journal — Ricoh GR21 21mm f3.5 with Ilford Pan 400

Roll 306, and another one with the GR21.

Camera: Ricoh GR21 21mm f3.5
Film: Ilford Pan 400 black-and-white film
Developed & scanned: DEP Lab 2025/12/3

Sometimes I help my son, who’s in second grade, with his homework. Recently he had to write a weekly journal entry but had no idea where to start. I thought, “A weekly journal? Come on, your dad’s great at this! I can easily write a thousand words without even trying.” So I started asking him questions like these:

“What did you do this weekend?”
“How did that make you feel?”
“Why do you think it made you feel that way?”

I’d take his answer to one question and use it to ask the next.

I’m strongly against giving children the answers to their homework. I wouldn’t even give them a “general direction,” because finding that direction is the hardest and most important part of thinking. But it’s so easy for parents to supply one—and end up controlling it. A child wants to draw but doesn’t know what to draw, so a parent blurts out, “How about drawing this or that?” The child gets stuck inside that frame, and it becomes harder for an original idea to emerge.

Lately I’ve spent a lot of time taking stock of my life. Financially, I’ve calculated that my total debt is NT$1.77 million. It’s slowly coming down, but I won’t finish paying it off for another 12 years, in 2038. By then I’ll be 52, my son will be 19, and my mom will be 77.

My dad died of a brainstem stroke when he was 56. I often use his age as a measure of my own time. I turn 40 this year, in 2026. If I were to die at 56 too, I’d have 16 years left. Once I faced that hypothetical, I realized how short life is. Some things suddenly mattered much more, while others mattered much less.

#1
Waiting to pick someone up at Taoyuan Airport. Bought a Coke to stay awake.

#2
Buying coffee to stay awake.

#3
I really do like the iPhone Air.

#4
It takes some creativity to make a condom ad like this.

#5
I passed an auto repair shop with an astonishing pile of stuff out front. How do they find anything? Then again, maybe they have their own system.

#6
I seem to be seeing more Honda Super Cubs lately, but motorcycles are really expensive these days.

#7
Saw the light.

#8
Out on my bike.

#9
I’m glad there’s a small hill near home where I can ride now and then. I still miss the days when I went on a long ride every week, though.

#10
I can never remember what place I’m looking at from this angle.

#11
For this kind of landscape, 21mm is still too wide. A 35mm or 50mm lens would have been just right.

#12
The owner of this territory.

#13
Taking this photo with a rather risky reliance on friction.

#14
The frame isn’t touching anything. Only the front of the saddle is holding the bike up.

#15
Film really struggles with contrast this high.

#16
I should take more ordinary photos with the GR21—because that’s what most people will actually get when they own one.

#17
I wanted to photograph something in the distance, but the GR21 is terrible at that. Can we stop saying wide-angle lenses are great for landscapes? All I got was the weeds right in front of me.

#18
This is a restroom. I have a feeling there are plenty of surprises inside.

#19
My road bike is a 2017 Giant TCR Advanced 2. Somehow it’s nearly ten years old already.

#20
As a kid, I thought nothing tasted better than freshly pressed sugarcane juice. Looking at this photo, I can almost smell the sugarcane.

#21
My son joined a caster board club at school, so now he knows how to ride one. That morning, I ran while he rode his board, and we went out to exercise together.