Saturday, April 30, 2005
No PhotoShop or other effects used (except to black out some dust specks.) Hint: it's a scan, and an old Smiths CD is involved. Click for full size.
Ehh, maybe it's better just the way I found it on the beach:
~
4/30/2005 09:34:00 PM
Widget, attempting to steal the spotlight from an angry Jimmy Stewart (in the background), hops into my lap and shows me his own tough-guy look.
(Click the photo to see the full-size image, if you're so inclined.)
~
4/30/2005 01:46:00 PM
Monday, April 25, 2005
The thigh bone's connected to the...
...wait, it's just a stick. No doubt my neighbors think I'm nuts when I pick up things like this off the road.
~
4/25/2005 05:42:00 PM
Sunday, April 24, 2005
April 24th in Ohio and a wet snow is falling, nearly blizzarding in some areas and leaving several inches on the ground, reminding me of photos I took last February...
A frozen Lake Erie viewed from out on the ice a kilometer offshore... A long walk back with no sound but the wind, reminding me what it is to be an animal again, just me and the cold and my body burning like kindling to stay warm, nothing to see or feel but my footsteps, the ice below and the sky above, all blending at the horizon in peaceful blue and white... My mind, peaceful blue and white...
(Click pics for full-size images.)
Then, back on the beach, the "plate tectonics" of frozen ice sheets, ten inches thick and pummelled ashore by waves, have created astonishing six- to eight-foot-high sculptures of sand and ice and snow...
It's cold. But it's beautiful.
~
4/24/2005 08:04:00 PM
Saturday, April 23, 2005
In an attempt to update this 'blog more often as well as take it less seriously, I present to you a brief "conversation" between myself and my dear friend Teresa, an artist, writer and web-designer from New Orleans now living with her very cool husband Vangelis in Greece:
Teresa:
Just an observation: I am definitely a "morning person", in the sense that this is when I am most creative, most able to solve problems, and just altogether sharper and "on point".Me:
The problem is, I have so many different things that I would like to apply that dawn-tinged brilliance towards. I always have CSS/web site troubles that need untangling. I belong to a a couple or few community sites to which I would like to offer something of some value... or sometimes, just something at all. I would like to pursue some short story and/or poetry stuff that has gone by the wayside in recent years. And I just totally enjoy designing pages and doing digital art stuff, and... I'm really best at, and inspired to do, all this in the morning.
And this summation just blithely leaves aside certain other closely held obsessions, such as some beloved puzzles and games, creative research, inspired surfing, and other things that make me happy. And yet, of course, it would also be an extra-excellent idea to spend this time on whatever real-life practical problems happen to be the plague-of-the-moment in my corner.
So, *deep sigh* I'm always feeling either guilty, resentful, or wistful in terms of how I actually do end up spending my short morning currency. Mostly "guilty".
It may seem overstating things a bit to ascribe so much difference-importance to this particular (roughly) four-(maybe five)-hour period, but, please... trust me; If I were writing this 13 hours ago, it all would have been crystal-clear, and very elegantly stated.
I, personally, am nocturnal like my spirit totems ;-) , giving me the advantage of late-night inspiration AND alcohol, since you presumably don't drink in the a.m. But wait, you have coffee in the a.m.... And better coffee than I have, since you're in Greece... And my words oft art jumbled after a couple Scotches. Damn! I art foiled. You wins.Wow. Guess we all feel guilt-tripped by "responsibility" and lack of time, eh? But Life really is too short...
I'm always feeling either guilty, mostly *guilty*, too though, and this drunken (drubken?) guilt-monster (mobster?) needs a hefty spanking. Life is too short as it is.
It should be noted that this was not an actual conversation, but a 'blog entry from Teresa's new journal (WOOHOO!) and a comment from me in response. Note the use of the Internet cliché joke "drubk" followed by the corresponding wordplay of "monster" and "mobster" that totally redeems the use of said cliché... sort of. Maybe. Maybe not.
G'night.
~
4/23/2005 10:02:00 PM
Thursday, April 14, 2005
Springtime
A tiny acorn
Of great value
~
(Photo by me.)
4/14/2005 03:45:00 PM
Monday, April 11, 2005
The trail of an opossum, revealed in a light layer of wet snow over mud, is a fleeting, impermanent fossil for lucky eyes:
Here is the print of its left front hand with the left rear paw below it. The opossum was ambling lazily, its weight shifting from side-to-side. If it were trotting in a hurry, the prints would most likely overlap.
Note that the rear paw has a "big toe" that is practically an opposable thumb. The thumb is clawless, though the other digits are not:
The opossum is North America's only marsupial, a slow-moving creature with a snout so long it appears to be made of putty stretched ridiculously by someone pulling on its little pink nose. Americans often characterise them as "mean," but opossums just want to be left alone. An opossum's defense mechanism is to freeze when threatened and hope to go unnoticed, a wispy light grey ghost in the snow or brush. This particular possum and I have met more than once, stared into each others' eyes from a meter's scant distance, then parted company unruffled to return to our respective business.
I watched nervously once as one of my cats, having slipped outside, spent the night walking quietly amidst two adult skunks and two adult raccoons, with seven baby 'coons and skunks between them. The opossum made an appearance as well, and they all peacefully ate sunflower seeds or groused for worms and grubs while my cat sniffed and observed, tolerating and ignoring each other in their communal feast.
In the end, it was considerably more amicable than the average holiday dinner with my relatives.
~
(Photos by me.)
4/11/2005 04:51:00 PM
Saturday, April 09, 2005
Photo by me, tracks by [can you guess what animal?]
4/09/2005 10:33:00 AM
Monday, April 04, 2005
4/04/2005 05:32:00 PM
Silent midnight...
Cattails...
Sway to the sound of the moon.
4/04/2005 05:30:00 PM
