Location Taken: Olympic National Park, Washington
Time Taken: June 2008
I love the jewel-tones of these starfish.
They love all these potential treats hanging out on this rock.
The potential treats, I mean, shellfish love their hard shells that are making it really tough for the starfish to eat them.
There’s just love all around, isn’t there?
Location Taken: Ruby Beach, Olympic National Park, Washington
Time Taken: July 2008
Sometimes I really dislike it when I see a photo that demands to be posted that day without giving me an accompanying idea for the writing section. On the one hand, I don’t spend half an hour scanning through photos trying to find one I have an idea for, but on the other hand, I end up writing paragraphs like this, followed by whatever random babble my brain scrounges up to say about the photo.
This piece has a lot of the elements I really like in landscapes. There’s a large rock, for one thing. You may have noticed my fondness for such things over the hundreds of posts I’ve written. There’s also a nice fog in the background, and it’s even one that’s not obscuring half the scenery like you get if you try to take the photo within the fog. And there’s trees and clouds and a beach, all of which are real classics in nature photography. Since they’re nature and what not.
Yup, definitely random babble.
Location Taken: Columbia River, Washington side
Time Taken: June 2008
It’s been a long time since I’ve been somewhere I can stand up high and look down at the scenery below. I think the last time was at Yellowstone National Park, more than a year ago.
…I really haven’t gone many places this last year. Been trying to save money and what not. No wonder I’m starting to get a touch of wanderlust again…
Still, even with some of the stiff competition of beautiful places I’ve been (my Mom has a real talent for finding the best scenic spots), the Columbia River gorge definitely wins for best river view. And I’ve been in some rather lovely places along the Mississippi, Ohio, Fraser, and a host of other magnificent rivers scattered across the continent.
…It doesn’t help that I’m centered on the East Coast. There’s some pretty stuff here, and we do have a mountain range, but it’s either heavily forested or heavily populated. And the mountains are ancient, worn down into smooth curves over the eons. It doesn’t make for the best panoramic views, unless you’re one for cities. And well, I’m not a city girl at all.
It’s no wonder the vast majority of my photos are of places far from my home. That’s where the fantastic views are…
Location Taken: Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland
Time Taken: July 2012
I’ve spent much of the last day just sitting at my computer, watching some anime, and working on a cross-stitch pattern. And before you ask, yes, the anime is in Japanese with English Subtitles, no, I don’t know more than basic sentences in Japanese, and yes, I can read fast enough to keep up with the show and work on my project at the same time.
I’ve done cross-stitch as a hobby for many years, on and off. Every so often I’ll get the urge to pick up needle and thread again and will go the the craft store, pick out a pattern, and get stitching. I’ve only finished a handful of projects. I have none on display. But I still enjoy it.
There’s something very compelling about working on creating artwork very slowly, assembling it piece by piece as you go. There’s a real sense of accomplishment that comes from looking at a piece and knowing how many tens or hundreds of hours went into it. It’s a big contrast with how I do most of my other art, putting it together in only a few hours, or with my photos, a couple seconds at most.
And yet, I struggle with my “true” art, making a piece here and there at very sporadic intervals, never returning to half-finished projects. But I keep stitching away on this piece, perhaps taking months-long breaks here and there, but well, I’m still working on it, aren’t I?
Location Taken: Savage, Maryland
Time Taken: April 2012
Sometimes it just feels like my memory’s falling apart. I mean, I realized just the other day that I have yet to deposit my final paycheck for the Renn Fest work! It’s been more than two weeks since I got it, you’d think at some point I’d have thought “hey, I can get more money if I just wander over to that place and hand them this piece of paper!” but no, it’s still just hanging out in my purse waiting for me to be functional during the hours banks are actually open.
It’d be a lot easier being nocturnal if more places were open 24 hours a day. Or at least for more than eight hours a day that happen to coincide perfectly with the hours you are asleep…
I picked up a whole slew of memory issues as part of the nervous breakdown I had at the end of college. I think it’s supposed to be a defense mechanism. After all, you can’t stress yourself into another breakdown if you can’t even remember what you’re supposed to be stressing about. So things like “apply for jobs!” and “pay your bills” and “be an adult” just kinda slip through the cracks without notice, leaving me happily unaware. At least until the creditors start calling asking for money you don’t have, but hey…
It doesn’t help that I don’t truly believe in money. It’s one of those collective figments of imagination we’ve developed, like political borders and societal codes. And well, my brain puts little value in making that number in my bank account go up, since it’s so difficult to do compared to all the other fictional currencies I mess around with. I keep trying to think of ways to apply the money-making skills I’ve learned from games to the real world, but haven’t gotten very far. Something about having to actually interact with other people so they give me some pieces of paper that they claim will increase my high score – I mean, my bank account balance. If it was possible to make money with absolutely no interaction with anyone else, I’d be all over that!
Well, if I could remember to keep up with it, that is.
