Day Ninety-One: Brazil

I went to dinner with Kim and Cory at Gloria's, followed by coffee and dessert at Cafe Brazil, where this picture was taken. It was a fun night, even though I got incredibly sleepy before 10 pm (way early!).

Day Ninety: Geometry

Unrelated to this photo, I want to note that I finally gave in to my curiosity and got a copy of Twilight. How bad could it really be, I kept thinking, and why do so many otherwise smart people I know insist on reading it? I'm about 200 pages into it so far and now I know how bad it could be--it is laughably bad--but I still don't understand how it has become the phenomenon that it is.

Here are some samples from the text to illustrate how hilariously bad the writing can be. During one of Bella's adoring glances at Edward, she describes him by saying,

I noticed that he wore no jacket himself, just a light gray knit V-neck shirt with long sleeves. Again, the fabric clung to his perfectly muscled chest. It was a colossal tribute to his face that it kept my eyes away from his body.

Later, when he touches her hair, she says, "My heart spluttered hyperactively." I laughed aloud at both of these.

It's not quite bad enough to stop reading, though, so I'll at least finish this first book. I kind of feel obligated to finish it, not just because I very rarely choose not to finish books and movies once I've started them but also because of the effort it took me to get my copy of it. I had to go to five separate stores before I could find a copy. It was like the universe was trying to prevent me from reading it.

Day Eighty-Nine: Screen

I had big plans for today in terms of getting stuff done, but instead I find myself just sitting around alternately playing with my camera and Photoshop and reading a few pages from books here and there. So much for using this day wisely. At least I can try to enjoy it instead.

Philosophy of Photography

In Neal Stephenson's Anathem, Stephenson has one character say,

Nothing is more important than that you see and love the beauty that is right in front of you, or else you will have no defense against the ugliness that will hem you in and come at you in so many ways.

I've been thinking about my photography recently and what I am trying to do as a photographer (besides entertain and improve myself). A central theme in my Project 365 is a focus on the everyday things that surround us, whether natural or man-made objects, and finding new ways to see them. I believe that too often people overlook the beauty that surrounds them because it is always there and because it is so easy to overlook. I like the idea of using photography to highlight that beauty.

It goes beyond beauty, though. I'm also interested in using my photography project as a means of paying attention to the details of life that surround me, of being present wherever I am, and of really noticing my surroundings instead of letting it all pass me by.

Stephenson's statement adds significantly to the approach to photography I've already outlined by also arguing that this attention to "the beauty that is right in front of you" can serve as a kind of protection from the ugly parts of life. I have long felt this about literature and music; it only makes sense that the same basic logic should apply to photography.

Day Eighty-Eight: Buckeye Liquor

I am just fascinated by this sign every time I drive by it going to or from Cory's house. It will likely make another appearance in my Project 365 set since this isn't quite what I wanted to do with it. I'd been waiting for a nice sunny day to stop and take pictures of it, but when I took pictures this time the sun wasn't high enough in the sky yet. So I'll try again another time.

Day Eighty-Seven: Radioactive Bunny

This partially peeled sticker was on the bathroom mirror at the Elbow Room in Dallas, where my brother and I went to have a few drinks after an less-than-satisfactory experience at Gloria's for dinner.

I also found this lovely bit of graffiti on the bathroom wall:

Day Eighty-Six: The Wombat Approaches

I like wombats.

Day Eighty-Five: Dust

“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

~Jack London

“That which you create in beauty and goodness and truth lives on for all time to come. Don't spend your life accumulating material objects that will only turn to dust and ashes.”

~Denis Waitley

Day Eighty-Four: Lite Brite

Okay, so this isn't an actual Lite Brite in the photo, but I love the way the colors and spacing of the lights look like the Lite Brite I had when I was a kid. I kind of wish I still had it.

Day Eighty-Three: Screw

Cory and I drove back home from San Antonio after another great breakfast with his friends there. It was a good drive home, followed by a great evening. We saw Milk, which I highly recommend, and then had a fabulous dinner at Maggiano's.

Day Eighty-Two: Dude Pyramid

Cory and I drove to San Antonio Saturday night to hang out on Sunday with a couple of his friend who were in town from D.C. We had some wonderful breakfast and then spent the afternoon playing games (Race for the Galaxy and Carcassonne). These are the little dudes from Carcassonne performing a pyramid between uses. We also went to a bar to play pool later and then finished the evening with some Taco Cabana and more gaming.

It was an awesome day.

Day Eighty-One: Pine Cone

You can live for years next door to a big pine tree, honored to have so venerable a neighbor, even when it sheds needles all over your flowers or wakes you, dropping big cones onto your deck at still of night.

~Denise Levertov

I have always loved pine trees. I grew up with them in Arkansas, East Texas, and northwest Louisiana. Pine cones and pine needles were a regular part of my childhood (especially in East Texas, at my grandparent's house) and easily worked their way into the games my brother and I played. There are a few around where I live now, but I live in the city, so it's very different from the way I shared space with pine trees as a child. I don't know that I could live in the country at this point in my life (I do love the city and even wish I lived in a bigger city), but I miss having trees around.

Day Eighty: Nozzle

Filling up my gas tank isn't nearly as painful as it was a few months ago, but I still hate to do it. I wish I could live in a city where public transportation was common and easy and I didn't need a car.

Day Seventy-Nine: With a little bit of luck

It was much less cold today than it was earlier this week, but it was incredibly humid and foggy. Walking to school, I felt like I was swimming through the air and visibility was seriously impaired. Plus, by the time I got back home, my hair looked crazy.

Day Seventy-Eight: Revelation

Today was a wonderful day. Not only did I not have freaky nightmares last night and so woke up feeling much more relaxed than usual, but I got some work done around the house early this morning and then got to spend the whole day with Cory. We spent most of the day just, you know, lounging around, but we also managed to have lunch and watch Juno. Such a good movie.

Day Seventy-Seven: Flower in Winter

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.”

~Buddha

I took a few other pictures I liked today that represent what winter in Texas looks like. Basically, it just looks gray and maybe a tiny bit icy occasionally.

Day Seventy-Six: Reaching Out

Man, it got cold today! It was in the 60s and 70s yesterday and I stayed inside all day, missing it. Today it's in the 20s (and windy!) and I had to walk to school and back. If I'd thought ahead, I would've made that walk yesterday and avoided the frozen ears and nose. Oh well.

Simple

Flawless light in a darkening air
Alone...and shining there
Love will not elude you
Love is simple

I worship this tenacity
And the beautiful struggle we’re in
Love will not elude us
Love is simple

Be sure to know that
All in love
Is ours
And love, as a philosophy,
Is simple

I am calm in oblivion
As calm, as I ever have been
Love will not elude me
Love is simple

Be sure to know that
All in love
Is ours...
Is ours...

That all in love
Is ours

And love, as a philosophy,
Is simple...
And ours...

I adore k. d. lang's voice and I really like the lyrics of this song. They serve as a nice counter to the common conception of love (especially romantic love) as necessarily dramatic, complicated, and painful. Of course, difficulties do arise when dealing with another human being and their needs and desires. Humans are complex creatures and no two are alike. But while I know that love isn't always easy (it certainly can be a "beautiful struggle"), I refuse to believe that it has to be painful to be real.

I've done difficult love, melodramatic love, starstruck love. Like most of us, I was raised on this version of love. But I want a love that doesn't include pain as a central component and that isn't based on overcoming what keeps us apart (whether those things are bound up in external circumstances or in conflicting personalities). I want a love that has at its core something positive: not just physical attraction, but also common interests, shared humor and values, respect and admiration for one another, and, only after all of that is there, a willingness to work together toward the betterment of both parties.

It's taken me a long time to reach this point, but I don't think that a healthy, happy love is too much to ask for. In fact, I think it's within my grasp.

Day Seventy-Five: If I Could Rearrange the Alphabet...

You know that pickup line? "If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put you and I together." It occurred to me today, and not for the first time, while looking at my keyboard that the QWERTY keyboard already puts U and I together. I wonder if that could be worked into a suitably bad pickup line?


No one's ever tried to use this line on me before. The best bad pickup line I've ever gotten was the following, said to me in a very smoky bar (best heard with the accompanying accent, but this will have to do): "Hey baby, you smell good." I was so shocked by this that I couldn't even attempt to be polite. I just turned to him and said, "I smell like cigarette smoke. I've been here for several hours." That pretty much stopped him in his tracks. He continued to sit next to me at the bar for a few minutes, occasionally looking my direction as if he were trying to come up with some way to salvage the situation, but as I continued to ignore him, he went quietly away and left me to continue talking to the bartender (who I was dating at the time).

Day Seventy-Four: Absolutes

A mature person is one who is does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably.

~Eleanor Roosevelt

Day Seventy-Three: Shift

I spent a busy day baking in preparation for two parties over the weekend and was left with only enough time to take a photo on the way to Cory's house.

Coming Soon

Okay, so I haven't actually written much for the blog lately, opting instead for just keeping up with my daily photography posts. It's been a very full last few weeks, complete with upheavals in my personal life (a break-up and then a new boyfriend!) and end-of-semester stress. Things should be calming down a little bit in the near future, though, and I hope to be back with some new posts that go beyond Project 365 entries and some new additions to my etsy shop.

Check back soon!

Day Seventy-Two: Old School

This is my office phone at school. It's practically an antique at this point. I mean, it not only has these old-fashioned buttons, but it also has a handset that rests in a cradle, and a cord! In my normal, everyday life, it's easy to forget that we ever relied on phones that looked like this and that couldn't be carried around with us at all times. But the ubiquity of cellphones is still relatively new, after all. When I was a kid, we had this kind of phone at home in the kitchen and, in my mom's bedroom, we had a rotary phone (you know, where you literally dial the number).

Day Seventy-One: Button

I needed to replace the buttons on my gloves and found these in my mom's old button tub. Pretty cool, huh?

Day Seventy: At Rest

It got cold today! Well, cold for Texas. And it was sudden. It was really warm yesterday and fairly mild when I left my apartment to walk to school, but by the time I was ready to head home it was quite cold and very windy. I was not prepared, having left my coat and scarf at home, but I managed to make it home without freezing to death (though my nose and ears were mighty close to frozen).

Here are a few other photos I took today before it got too cold to fiddle around outside with the camera.

Day Sixty-Nine: Yellow

Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And everything you do,
Yeah, they were all yellow.

I came along,
I wrote a song for you,
And all the things you do,
And it was called "Yellow."

So then I took my turn,
Oh what a thing to have done,
And it was all "Yellow."

Your skin
Oh yeah, your skin and bones,
Turn into something beautiful,
You know, you know I love you so,
You know I love you so.

I swam across,
I jumped across for you,
Oh what a thing to do.

Cos you were all "Yellow,"
I drew a line,
I drew a line for you,
Oh what a thing to do,
And it was all "Yellow."

Your skin,
Oh yeah your skin and bones,
Turn into something beautiful,
And you know for you,
I'd bleed myself dry for you,
I'd bleed myself dry.

It's true, look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine for you,
Look how they shine.

Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And all the things that you do.

~Coldplay

Day Sixty-Eight: Streamers

Pink and yellow streamers on a wooden stake marking ... something or other in the lot next to my apartments. I mostly laid around in bed today, eating and reading, so this isn't exactly representative of my day.

Day Sixty-Seven: Berries

Cory and I went for a leisurely hike instead of going to see The Dark Knight as we'd originally planned. It was a lovely day and I'm really glad we got to go hiking instead of sitting in a dark movie theater (even though I did really want to see that movie again).

Day Sixty-Six: Rouge

These are some of my favorite colors. Actually, more accurately, I don't have true favorite colors, but these have characteristics of colors I love: vivid, saturated, practically blinding.

Day Sixty-Five: Belly Up

Gracie was being extra cute while I graded in the morning, so I had to take a bunch of pictures of her. I liked this one best.

Day Sixty-Four: Seven

This has been my favorite number since I was 7 years old. When I was 7 years old and my brother was 4 I decided that 4 and 7 were the best numbers (followed closely by 11) and I have yet to be convinced otherwise.

Day Sixty-Three: Lemon

I had dinner tonight at Banana Leaf (yummy Thai!) with Rebecca, a friend from out of town. Here's my lemon slice that I removed from my water. I don't know why restaurants insist on putting lemon in my water. I don't even bother to ask them not to any more because they always do it anyway.

Day Sixty-Two: Intense Cat Is Intense

This is the best shot Sophie would let me get of her today.

Day Sixty-One: Wipers

So sleepy. I'm spending today resting up so I can spend tomorrow grading.

Day Sixty: Seeds

This was taken in a peaceful moment before another busy, social day got started. I went to Dallas to go shopping with Cory and some of his friends. After shopping we had Thai food and then a bit of a break before Cory and I went out with one of my friends from out of town, my brother, and a whole gang of people my brother brought along to dinner.

Today and tomorrow will be much more sedate, thankfully. Hopefully that will give me a chance to rest and fight off the sickness I can feel approaching.

Day Fifty-Nine: Wishbone

Another busy day. Breakfast with Cory, followed by a trip home to feed the kitties, then back to Dallas and out to Mesquite to meet some new people. Then all the way back to Arlington spend the evening with Kim and Sandi. It was a fun day, but I am going to need a break from social activities soon.

Day Fifty-Eight: Old Favorites

For Thanksgiving it was either a picture of my shoe or a picture of me looking sad. It turned out to be a good day, but it didn't start off too well. The plans I had with my brother fell through, I didn't hear back from some people I tried to connect with, and I had a mild hangover from the previous night out. But then I went out to Cory's family's house, where I not only got to meet his family but had some yummy pie and played games for a little while. And then after the family thing, Cory and I had a private music-listening party. He played me Tool's Lateralus and I played him The Mountain Goats' The Sunset Tree. It eventually did turn into a pretty darn good day.

Day Fifty-Seven: The Luckiest

Despite still feeling sad about the breakup with Stephen and despite feeling kind of swamped by school, I am very happy these days. I feel downright lucky, in fact. Not only do I have a collection of wonderful friends (even if they are hard to keep up with sometimes) and a job that I truly love doing (most of the time), but I am really happy with recent developments in my personal life.

Day Fifty-Six: Tilt

For those of you who have been following my kitty's progress over the last few days, I got to bring her home today. She's still not eating on her own, so I have to forcefeed her and give her medicines for a while, but at least she's home. In fact, she's sitting on me right now. :-)

Day Fifty-Five: Abandoned

Cory and I went exploring in my neighborhood and found this abandoned house. We only went in a couple of rooms because the others were dark and I was afraid, but it was pretty cool. The floor was covered in trash, glasses, leaves, dirt, and even a couple of folders full of choral music.

Day FIfty-Four: Dock

I went geocaching with Cory, Scott, and Lisa. This was near one site that turned out to be really creepy.

Day Fifty-Three: Mr. Butt Snuffer

I found this lovely ashtray while exploring my neighborhood. I just love "Mr. Butt Snuffer." So charming.

Day Fifty-Two: Cornered

Today's was a blind shot snapped between running errands, doing laundry, visiting Sophie at the vet, baking (pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips!) and getting far too little sleep. I intend to try for a better one tomorrow.

Day Fifty-One: November Train

It was such a busy day. I very nearly forgot to take a photo at all, but fortunately I got bored waiting for the train to pass and then remembered that I had my camera with me.