Photo Friday – “Phantasmagoria”

Today’s Photo Friday is entitled: Phantasmagoria

chosen by: CordieB

WHAT?  You don’t know what Phantasmagoria is?    Well, I have used the word to describe wildly outrageous things, or incredibly bright colors and fabulous patterns all mixed together…that sort of thing.  As in “WOW!  That’s fantasmagorical!!”  I sort of thought it was a made up word.  But, I found out that it’s actually a real word with definititions, and everything!  It’s an awesome word, really.

 phan·tas·ma·go·ri·a  (fn-tzm-gôr-, -gr-)

1. a. A fantastic sequence of haphazardly associative imagery, as seen in dreams or fever.

     b. A constantly changing scene composed of numerous elements.

2. Fantastic imagery as represented in art. 

I can hardly believe it myself, but while thinking about what I might have in my existing photo inventory that might reflect the spirit of this word, this photo popped into my brain.  And it’s a photo that I don’t have to do a darn thing to!!!  Which is good, because I didn’t think I was going to have time to create something at all!  This picture was cropped out of another picture, but I’d cropped it last year, so it was allll ready to go.  No real effort required in the now!!

I took this picture last summer in London in an undergroundish sort of skate park/graffiti park.  It may look like three pictures edited into one, but it actual is a simple straightforward untouched photograph of three walls and their intersections.  The walls were all painted out by different artists but they come together in a way that I think is phantasmagorical!!

Here’s the original!  (I like the original, too, but the above photo has a trompe l’oeil feel to it, which I really like.)

I’ve had dreams that are a lot like this…

Please check out the other participants’ work.  I will add links as they become available. 

A Curious State of Affairs

Tall Chick’s Tales

Looking in the Mirror

And this is my last Photo Friday for a couple of months.  But as soon as I’m back from Africa, I hope to jump right back into the meme!  I have been creating posts that will publish intermittently in my absence.  So, even though I’ll be gone, my blog will update every so often, so check back!  One of the posts is a straight on close up of the middle pink wall in this picture.  Please feel free to continue to comment on my posts.  However, the comments won’t be approved until I come back! 

I’ll miss my blog, that’s for certain! 

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Fidel Weighs In…

One of the things I look at very closely when it comes to elections, is the endorsements that are given out by certain individuals and groups.

I’m especially fascinated to look at who the leaders of nations who are, shall I say, less than friendly to our nation choose to endorse.  Like North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba.

Well, Fidel Castro has endorsed Barak Obama, and done so with very high praise.

Somehow that just doesn’t make me feel all warm and fuzzy about Obama as our president.

I just wonder who Hugo Chavez and Kim Jong Il are endorsing…

Do YOU pay attention to the endorsements given out by such leaders?  Do they enter into your decision making process??

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Memorial Day, 2008

To those who have served, who will serve, and to the families of those who have fallen while serving their country, their countrymen, and me…

Thank you.

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Free Chinese Food!

But there’s a catch…

My  dad’s cousin, Laurel, after reading my previous post on my acrophobia, e-mailed me a set of pictures that sent a shiver up and down my spine and shudder throughout my body.  After a quick search I was able to locate a link to the same pictures online.

Now, I love Chinese food, but I don’t love ANYTHING enough to do this!  Where’s the helicopter pad, cuz that’s the only way I’d be eating at this restaurant!

Click HERE to see what lengths (or heights) some people will go to for a bargain! 

Check it out…let me know if you would do this!

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Photo Friday – “Emotion”

I am very late posting my entry for this week’s Photo Friday, but I have a good reason.  I had company from California here for the past few days and I wanted to spend my time with her.  Thanks for visiting Shawn!  It was a gooooood time!    Safe travels, my friend!

And so, without any further ado…

Today’s Photo Friday is entitled: Emotion

chosen by: Julie

Follow the links below for other entries (I will add links as entries come in!):

Tall chick tales 

 Idea jump! 

 Just for fun

 A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words

A Curious State of Affairs

It’s always “fun” to conquer, even if just a little bit, one’s fears, don’t you think?  I am quite the acrophobe.  I fear heights.  Not ALL heights mind you.  My fear of heights is rather specific.  I’m fine with being at the top of very tall buildings, I LOVE roller coasters and other rides that include heights, and I have no problem with flying (planes of ANY size and helicopters are all just fine with me).  I don’t even mind hiking upwards.  What bothers me are things like being on bridges, hiking DOWN, driving next to drop offs, snow skiing, that sort of thing.  I don’t like being in high places where there is, at least to me, a perceived or actual lack of control in the situation.  I can’t stand having people anywhere near me if I am standing in a place where they could startle me, or end up close behind me without my having seen them come up on me.  My fear is more of a fear of falling from any sort of height, even if from a small height.

I used to be able to climb trees, climb up onto roofs, and climb ladders without any problem whatsoever.  I was rather fearless, in fact.  But I was startled twice, once when I was 16 and once when I was in my twenties, which resulted in my developing fear.  The first startling occured when I was laying concrete blocks on a less than sturdy scaffolding on the second story of a building.  When I was deep in  concentration and hard at work, a guy reached up from the ground and grabbed my ankles and shook me.  And that was the start of it.  I got so fearful of heights that I had a problem using the second step of a stepladder!  I worked on desensitizing myself and was almost over my fear.  But then, at the top of the Hancock center in Chicago I got my second startling.  While I was deeply in thought and looking down, my brother came up behind me and shook my shoulders and gave me one of those “Bahahahahha” shouts in my ear.  I again spiraled into my old fear pattern.  And I’ve been working on overcoming it, or at least occasionally temporarily conquering it, since. 

Yesterday my visiting friend, Shawn, and I took a hike up to some abandoned train tracks and tunnels.  The hike up to the location was really more like a loose gravel scramble!  Staying well ahead of Shawn (for my mental sanity) we climbed quite a distance at a very steep incline on a very slippery slope and it wasn’t until we reached the top that I thought “Gee, I just HOPE I’m going to be able to get down!”.  Putting that thought aside until I HAD to deal with it, I threw myself into enjoying the view from “up there”.  And I carefully picked my way around the washed out areas along the trail.  With the sound of the highway and river far below us, we worked our way through each of five tunnels and enjoyed the rock formations, the plant life, the insects, the sky and the feeling of relative solitude that being far away from civilization invokes. 

My emotion is “exhilaration”. 

 

Lou and Shawn, a self-portrait in front of the entrance to one of the tunnels

I didn’t do a Rocky sort of dance when I arrived at the top, nor did I shout with glee.  But inside I had this exhilarated “Whew!!!  I am DOING this!” sort of response.

Shawn also has her own heights issues, so we were quite the pair.  When our hike had to be over as we had a reservation for some horsebacking riding and HAD to get going, we found our way back to where we climbed up, and boy, did it look even more steep and slippery from up there.  We pretty much just slid down on our backsides holding onto anything at all that would give us a sense of security!  We were dusty, filthy, hot and sweaty, and our hearts were pounding when we got to the bottom, but get to the bottom we did!  Yay us!!!

(I will have to conquer my fear to get back up to this location again, as there is a geocache hidden in one of those tunnels that I failed to locate this time around!)

If you fear heights/falling, you might want to (or maybe not!  I could hardly watch it!) check out this link e-mailed to me by a friend, and also seen on “A Curious State of Affairs”.  This gave me the biggest case of the willies I’ve had in a loooooong time! 

http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=1438490562

Please visit the links to the other participants work using the links at the beginning of this post and leave them a comment!

Friday 30th May : Title by CordieB: Phantasmagoria

Next Friday’s challenge will be my last for awhile.  I leave June First and won’t be home for two months!  Yikes!

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My Boots

More gettin’ ready for the summer…

Because I dread the thought of the blisters that new work boots would cause me, I have decided to eke one more year out of my old ones.  They’ve served me well the past two years and I think they’ll last through this summer as well, and even though they’re showing their age, they’re soft like “buttah” and fit my feet like a glove.  Besides, a good pair of work boots can cost beaucoup bucks, and frankly, I just don’t want to spend the money.  Trying to save it where I can!

Last night coaxed as much “Leather CPR” into them as I could get them to absorb.  I’ll do the same with them tonight.  I will need to get some new shoelaces though, as the old ones are fit only for the rubbish pile. 

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Whatever Happened to My Great Uncle Kenny’s Recipes??

My great Uncle Kenny was a baker.  His bakery was called “Oliver’s Bakery” and was in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  It still IS in Kenosha, actually.  When I asked him, my dad didn’t know what happened to his uncle’s recipes.

I can’t seem to find out just how he ever got into the bakery business.  Just like I don’t know how another great aunt and uncle got into the beekeeping/honey business.  Those are pretty unusual career choices.  (But then I also have a screen writer, a sweater maker, bed and breakfast owners, a pastor, publishers, a wood-worker, and a freight-forwarding/lawyer in the ranks as well, to name a few!!)

My dad and I took a side visit to the famous bakery when we were in town last week. 

Even though Racine (ten miles up the road) is the kringle capital of America, Oliver’s is sort of famous for ITS “kringles”, and I wanted to pick one up to take down to the friends I’d be staying with the next night down in Illinois.  I had a brief glimpse into my future as a baker recreating all the fabulous yummies that my uncle had created if only I could locate those long lost recipes!  I asked the ladies who were working there “whatever happened to my Great Uncle Kenny’s recipes?”.  And whattayaknow!  They knew!  Most of those recipes were in the back of the bakery, still in his original handwriting, and they are in use to this day!  When he sold the bakery the recipes went with it.  And when that buyer sold it, the recipes changed hands again.  So much for my new career as a famous master-baker!  Those recipes are lost to my family forever!    Well, unless we are the next owners, that is!

I’d sure like the recipe for those kringles, because they are the BEST I’ve ever had.  For their kringles, and for all their yummies in general, I am bestowing “Unpaid Product Endorsement” status on Oliver’s Bakery!

And guess what?  You, too, can nibble on a Blue Cheese (blueberry and cream cheese) kringle!  Oliver’s will ship one to you! 

Click HERE to visit Oliver’s Bakery…order up a yummy.  And tell them that Kenny Oliver’s great niece sent you! 

(You say you don’t know what a kringle is???  Read about the humble kringle HERE.)

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Food? or Fuel?

To be completely honest, I used to be ambivalent about the using of corn to create ethanol.  Make it, don’t make it.  Use it, don’t use.  I didn’t care.  But that was because I didn’t know a darn thing about it.

Take some corn, turn it into fuel, reduce the use of fossil fuels, right?  Simple! Cheap!  Renewable!

Well, now that I’ve taken exactly two minutes to look into ethanol production, I have quickly become non-ambivalent.  We need to stop making and burning ethanol up in our cars.

Why?

Well, I learned that it takes 21 pounds of corn to make a single gallon of ethanol.  TWENTY ONE pounds of corn to make a SINGLE gallon of the stuff (26.1 pounds according to another source!).  To fill the relatively small tank of my own Honda Accord that would conservatively take 351 pounds of corn.  To fill an SUV?  I am a little sick to think about how much corn that would take. 

I also never considered how much FOSSIL fuel it takes to plant, grow, harvest, distill, and transport the final ethanol product.  It takes a considerable amount.  It looks alot to me like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Having spent time in countries where people starve to death, and having seen babies and little kids with swollen bellies and hair discolored by malnutrition, it seems to me to be the height of waste to take food that could fill the stomach of starving person and put it my car so that I reduce my “carbon footprint” and feel better about myself for doing it.

Corn is the staple food in Zambia.  Wherever I went I saw corn drying on the tin roofs of houses.  I now wonder how 21 pounds of corn would look up on those roofs.  I wonder how many people 21 pounds of corn would feed, and for how long.  

 

In Haiti, they are eating dirt cookies, just to stave off hunger.  I don’t think there’s much nutritional value in a dirt cookie.  A dirt cookie might make you not feel as hungry, but it’s not going to keep you from starving.

Corn is a renewable resource, but individuals are not.  I’d think about dying babies everytime I put that fuel into my car.  Corn is not fuel.  It’s food. 

There are lots of other problems inherent in the widespread use of ethanol, like the health of our nation’s farmlands.  Instead of restating them all, just take a look at this webpage:  Ethanol from corn – burning both corn and oil.  If you’re a proponent of corn as fuel, this might make you rethink your position.

Even with all the very good reasons for not utilizing ethanol, at the heart of this issue for me is how would I EVER explain to a starving person that I was burning up FOOD in my car?  A starving person doesn’t care about my carbon footprint.  A starving person doesn’t care about whether the earth will be here for their grandchildren.  A starving person cares about whether THEY will be there tomorrow for their children, and whether their children will be there tomorrow for them.  

Our fuel needs to be their food. 

Surely we can do better than this.

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Photo Friday – “Doors, Doorways, & Entries”

Today’s Photo Friday is entitled:

“Doors, Doorways, & Entries″

 

I was out of town this week in Wisconsin and Illinois.  My father’s oldest brother passed away and I went back to be with my family and for the funeral.  I don’t get to see my midwest family often enough, and I very much enjoyed my time with them, despite the circumstances. 

Spring was in full glory back there.  It was like the Emerald City wherever you looked.  It was so beautiful I had to ask myself “Why don’t I live HERE?”.  But then I remembered that on one side of this gorgeous spring is a heinous winter, and on the other, an even more heinous summer – HOT and buggy! 

Camera in hand, I had this week’s challenge in my head wherever I went.  My dad (originally from Kenosha, WI) and I drove around town and I took pictures of all of the houses he he lived in when he lived there.  There are doors in most of those pictures, but nothing sang to me.  I also have a pretty cool picture of the door to a lighthouse, but it didn’t sing either.

I left Kenosha after breakfast one morning and decided to drive north to Racine (next town up Lake Michigan) to just wander around the city where my best friend, Connie, had lived when I met her.  I don’t know what I was expecting, but I ended up not staying long because I got really sad being there.  So I headed south to Chicago.  I love Chicago.  My plan was to roam around down there and then head over to my friend Kevin’s brother’s house where I would meet up with his parents and we’d all spend the evening together before leaving the following morning.  Kevin was in Vegas for work, so he couldn’t be there with us.    Anyhoo, as I was driving down to Chicago, I saw this coming up in the distance, so I grabbed my camera, turned it on, aimed it through the windshield, and shot this pic at about 80 mph!   

This sign always makes my heart beat fast because not too much farther down the road the skyline of Chicago starts to come in to view.  The city is vibrant, and busy, and noisy, and crammed with people.  And Kevin lives there.  And so, it’s always a place of fun and excitement for me. 

Only Kevin wasn’t there this time.  I drove around town and was amazed at how much it had changed and grown since last I was there.  But the more I looked, the more lonely I got. 

I don’t know what I was thinking, going to these places where Connie used to be, and Kevin wasn’t, right on the heels of a funeral.

But anyway, my picture is more of an “entry” than anything else…an entry into the best big city in America.

Please visit the other participants’ entries and check out their work!

Idea jump! & Just for fun & A Curious State of Affairs & Sky Windows 

 

Future Photo Friday titles:

Friday 23th May : Title by Julie: Emotion

Friday 30th May : Title by CordieB: Phantasmagoria

Friday 6th June : Title by Author: Diptychs

(or Triptychs if you prefer to use 3 images)

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A Funny Story About Chivalry

Last night in Illinois, I went out to dinner with friends…my friend Kevin’s mother, father, brother, and his brother’s two kids.  The brother (Kurt) gave me his hand to help me into the SUV to which I commented “chivalry is not dead!”.  His son, seven, asked me “what does that word mean”.  I told him that chivalry was when boys helped girls do things.  Shortly after that, Kurt said something rather off-color to which I responded “I was wrong, chivalry IS dead”.  We all laughed.  His son asked me “What does it mean that that word you said–meaning chivalry–is dead?”.  I explained in the best words I could to a seven year old.  He seemed to understand as he told me “sometimes I help my sister, so that word’s not dead”.  How CUTE is THAT???

Earlier that day, I had given his little sister, age five, a little purple penguin Peek-a-Pooh, like this one:

It’s about an inch tall and hangs from a thin yellow cord.  Now in the car, the two of them were struggling for control of said Peek-a-Pooh in the back seat.  It was getting loud!  Just as their dad had decided they were getting too rowdy and made them knock it off, brother managed to get the toy and it would appear from the timing that he had won the battle.  I heard sister’s quiet little voice from the back seat state very matter-of-factly…

“It’s dead”.

Apparently she ALSO grasped the meaning of chivalry and the state of chivalry in the back seat last night!

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“Self Portrait” – Photo Friday

Today’s Photo Friday is entitled: “Self Portrait″

Our challenge this week was to create a self portrait by utilizing one of the following gadgets!  Fun!

Hockneyizer  Create a unique photo collage in the style of the artist David Hockney Warholizer  Create an iconic pop photo! Inspired by Warhol’s famous paintings of Marilyn Monroe Framer  Choose from tons of unique frames to spice up a photo Motivator  Make your own inspirational, funny, parody, sports or other motivational self portraits Mosaic Maker  Make a mosaic Palette Generator  Automagically generate a harmonious color palette based on the colors in a photo – perfect for design work Lolcat Generator  This gadget will allow you to bring out your humerous side by adding a funny caption to any photo of yourself

This was a very well-timed challenge as I got my hair cut a couple of days ago.  My hair is pretty thick, and sort of curly.  I wanted it much shorter for my mission this summer.  Having it long is easy in that I can just pull it up and out of the way into a ponytail, but it’s time-consuming when it comes to keeping it clean since baths are done out of a bucket and getting cream rinse all out of all that hair takes too much water.  And frankly the heat in Florida combined with all that hair can really make a girl hot and uncomfortable. 

Joanne (my friend and stylist!) discussed my objectives:

• I need to be able to just wash, run my fingers through it, and go
• It needs to be long enough so that I can go for a couple of months without a trim and have it still look good
• I wanted it shorter in back, longer in front, and of a length where I could tuck it behind my ears

We looked at some pictures that had elements of what I was looking for, and then, out came the scissors!  Joanne went right to work cutting off a foot long ponytail that I hope to donate to Locks of Love.  It already looked cute! 

I love the final product.  I can wear it natural, or blow it out straight.  I had in mind to take a picture of the end result to use for this challenge.  I forgot my camera.  Joanne took some, but I can’t use those for this.  So I got out my cell phone and set up the shot, had Joanne hold the camera, and I hit the button.  I  had a second to get back into the frame before the picture would be taken, and I was absolutely cracking up.  I decided to use that picture.

HOWEVER, last night, no matter what I tried to do, I could not get onto the internet.  My connection was fine, there was nothing out of the ordinary, so I don’t know what the deal is.  SOOOOooo, even though it’s agains the rules of my company, I decided I’d just do it at work, which is where I am at…currently on lunchbreak.  I got my cell pic up onto Flickr okay and then created an account so I could use Hockney’s gadgets.

BUUUUUT, I couldn’t get any of the gadgets to work.  I think I’m blocked or something on this work computer.  Oh well, so, here’s my self portrait, but it is embarrassingly un-gadgetified for this challenge!

I have to clock back in.  I’ll be back to finish this up hopefully soon!

Later…

Yay!  My internet was working wonderfully when I got home from work today.  Ergo, I am now adding my REAL honest to goodness Hockneyized self portrait to this entry!  Woo Hoo!  Here you go! 

And a motivational poster, just for good measure…

Please don’t forget to check out the work of the other participants!

Sky Windows & Idea Jump! & A Curious State of Affairs & Looking In The Mirror

If I have missed any players, please leave a comment and let me know so that I can link to you.

Next week’s Photo Friday for 16th May has been chosen by CuriousC: 

“Doors, Doorways, & Entries…. to the soul, the house, a city, whatever…”

Future Photo Friday titles:

Friday 23th May : Title by Julie: Emotion

Friday 30th May : Title by CordieB: Phantasmagoria

Friday 6th June : Title by Author: Diptychs

(or Triptychs if you prefer to use 3 images)

 

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I Wish…

…that the talking heads on TV and radio would pronounced “YOUR” like “yore”, and not “yer” when saying things like:

“I agree with your analysis…”. 

Saying “yore analysis” sounds so much better than “yer analysis” which sounds exactly like “urinalysis” and I don’t want to hear about “urinalysis” when I’m trying to get election results and not lab results…

It bugs me.

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Help Me Choose!

I am thinking of entering a photo in a local photography contest.  The subject matter is “Pollenators” and we are to show them in the process of doing their thing.

I have a few pictures I am considering and would love your feedback!

There are three.  The third picture is simply a “brighter” version of the second.

Which do I enter?  Help me choose!!!! 

Or are none of them even good enough to enter.  Dunno!

Your thoughts?

(I took these pictures in my brother’s yard this past week in California…he has a most wonderful garden.  The entire southern wall of his home sports rose bushes – many taller than I – simply loaded with roses of many colors.  The bees on this day seemed partial to these vermillon blooms)

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Happy Birthday, Abner

Hey Abs,

Happy birthday!  Sorry you have to work today – even sorrier you’re stuck up in South Dakota.  Bad way to spend the first day of your “late 20′s”.  LOL! 

Much love, and let’s do Jack Quinn’s to celebrate when you get back!!

Yo Mama

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Dodger Blue!

Yesterday my niece Alaska got out the hair dye.  Her subject?  My niece Avalon.  Avie has dark hair so Alaska gave her some deep red highlights.  My nephew, their cousin, Mitchell, wanted in on the action.  He has blonde blonde blonde hair and wanted it blue.  His mom, my sister Whitney, okayed the color change…

First of all, look at the face.  Isn’t it perfection?  He is about the most gorgeous child I’ve ever seen.  Whitney took this picture with her cell phone and texted it to me.  I e-mailed her text from MY phone to my e-mail and then downloaded the picture.  Then I uploaded it on Flickr as I had to share it all with you.  (Don’t you just love technology and the internet???) 

Mitchell is six.  The hair color is semi-permanent!!  He plays baseball and is on the Dodger’s.  He has a game tomorrow where his new hair will be revealed.  Whitney warned him that it’s possible that some won’t find this new “do” as delightful as we do, but he was willing to take the chance! 

Whitney says this picture doesn’t really do the blue justice.  Better pictures with a “real” camera have been promised. 

I wish they would have done this when I was visiting!  I would have loved to see this in real life and in technicolor!

I wonder if his school has any rules about this sort of thing.  I know some schools do.  If his does, I see a buzz cut in this boy’s future! 

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“Religion” – Photo Friday

Today’s Photo Friday is entitled: “Religion″

I have lots of pictures for this particular entry. Why? Not because I had my choice of so many great photos and just couldn’t pick, or anything like that AT ALL! Nope. My pictures are a set of photos taken on a little walkabout I took through my old neighborhood in California this past week while visiting my family.

I had decided that I wanted to see if I could get a good picture of St. Matthew Greek Orthodox church which is about a half a mile from my brother’s house. We, my niece Avalon and I, set off one afternoon with our cameras in hand…she’s nine. My original plan was simply to take a picture of that particular church. About a tenth of a mile into our journey we walked past St. Andrew Episcopal Church:

and the idea hit me that I should share ALL of the churches I came across in our walkabout! Across from the Episcopal church is Nativity Catholic Church:

which is a particular neighborhood favorite of mine.

Almost to our intended destination I came across these lovely flowers which (to steal from last week’s challenge!) grew in lovely and unexpected juxtaposition to a fire hydrant:

And these fantastic morning glories winding their way up a telephone pole:

Finally we reach St. Matthew. It, like the other churches we’ve past, is situated in between homes on these old city streets:

We walked some more. Avalon, despite her youth, began to flag and wished to return home, so we headed off that direction, but before we reached the house, we passed the United Methodist Church:

the First Baptist Church:

AND finally, the First Samoan United Methodist Church:

Finally tally? SIX churches tucked into one small neighborhood, all passed while walking just a little bit over a mile…and only one of them has a parking lot!

Let’s just say this little part of town has got religion!

But where DOES everyone park??

It was a beeeeuuuuuutiful day!

Please take the time to visit the other participants’ entries!  I will post additional links as they come in

Sky Windows

A Curious State of Affairs 

Just For Fun

Looking in the Mirror

Idea jump!

Next week’s challenge comes to us from Jan of “A Curious State of Affairs” and it is “Self-Portrait”.  Click HERE to see the particulars!  It’s another FUN one!

One more picture, because what is a mini-adventure without one of my foot pictures?  Incomplete!  So, then, here it is!  A curb picture with a friendly reminder of where it ends up when you dump it!

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