Location Taken: Niagara Falls, New York
Time Taken: December 2009
The world is still beautiful.
Just always remember that. And take a chance to enjoy any reminders.
The smallest beauties can be the strongest.
Location Taken: Savage, Maryland
Time Taken: August 2010
How do extroverts do it?! And why?!
I mean, sure, hanging out with people for hours can be fun, but oh my goodness is it tiring. And it definitely eats time.
Why do people spend so much time bemoaning that they’re not hanging out with people? There’s so much else out there, like books and video games and just wandering around nature! And yet, so many people sit around being bored and lonely, it seems…
Ah well, yet another thing I doubt I will ever fully understand. Introverted brains are just wired differently.
Location Taken: Chicago, Illinois
Time Taken: February 2008
Some days I don’t feel like being contemplative or even inquisitive.
Some days I just want to watch the world go by, in all its varied tones.
This may potentially be a little more interesting of an endeavor if I bothered to leave my home when this mood struck.
A train ride. That sounds lovely right now…
Location Taken: Frankfort, Michigan
Time Taken: May 2008
I’ve long had a mixed relationship with garden plants.
First thing to know, my Mom loves gardening. She’s got a large one full of all sorts of plants, and taught me much of what she knows. (Mostly by making me help her, but still.) I’ve been to garden stores many a time and can tell you the merits of many a plant.
However, I personally don’t care for gardening. I dislike grubbing around in the dirt and laying mulch and all the little chores that go with it. I also actually don’t care for flowers that much. I acknowledge their artistic beauty and move on.
I have all this knowledge and little desire to use it. Tragic, really.
But, as yet another twist, I occasionally buy house plants. Really resilient ones, because I don’t care for all those watering chores. They usually last a few years before too many times of my forgetting to water them adds up. Then I’ll go plant-less for a bit, before picking up another one.
I’m currently plant-less. Didn’t kill off my last ones, just didn’t have room to bring them along when I moved. I left them with my Mom. Perhaps she’ll plant them.
And now I’m getting the urge to once again buy a plant or two. Maybe an herb, cilantro probably, keep it in the kitchen…
But no, I shouldn’t. Herbs are delicate, I’d just kill it… But still…
Location Taken: Chicago, Illinois
Time Taken: April 2008
There’s an interesting optical illusion out there called the Spinning Dancer. Follow that link to see it in action.
Now that you’ve done that, tell me, which direction is the dancer spinning? Clockwise? Counter-clockwise?
How about both?
The illusion is carefully crafted so that it works whether you’re seeing it spin one way or the other. Your brain tends to latch on to one orientation, but it is possible to swap between them. Here’s a set of images, one the base image and two showing how the legs are moving given each spin orientation. Just look at either one and then to the base and you’ll be seeing the base spinning that direction.
It’s caused by a combination of a black silhouette meaning we can only see the outline of the dancer and our brain’s internal image processors turning the humanesque shape into a full three-dimensional image of a dancer inside our heads. The poor little brain can’t fully parse out that there are two viable options, and just picks one to make things easier.