(no subject)

Let's see. Friday evening, I took a nice walk down to the lake shore with Michelle. We debated the wisdom of walking down past the Southport Beachouse and onto the sand when the park seemed likely to be closed, but proceeded anyway. I'm glad we did, as we ended up lying down on the flat rocks that ring the beach and looking up at the sky, far from any street lamps or other illumination, watching the stars. I think I might even have seen the Milky Way, though I'm not sure it was quite that dark (there were still some lights several hundred yards away) and I don't know the sky well enough to know where to look for the Milky Way.

We talked a bit about the everyday facts of knowledge that have been lost in history. How before there were such things as streetlights, everyone would have known what the sky looked like very well. The stars would have been a much bigger part of people's lives, for so many thousands of years. And now, I suspect a lot of people hardly ever think about them.

We walked north all the way to the south end of the marina, then back to the house. I, who have not done this much walking since my trip to DC, was starting to get pretty tired by then, but we made it safely back. Both the exercise and the conversation were thoroughly enjoyable. Thanks Michelle!

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Yesterday, I drove down to meetup with posicat and nova_wolf in Grayslake, then the three of us journeyed to anarchist_nomad's place, with tybis following along in his own car. We stopped at Garden Fresh Market on the way there and the group decided on baklava as a good party gift for me to buy for the the communal table.

I'm so glad I went to the gathering. I'm also very glad to see how well I mange social situations lately. Though at first I was worried that I'd be nervous and have a hard time talking to people as I have traditionally had in the past, quite the opposite was true. I integrated seamlessly into the killer-death-supermutant-foursquare game that was happening, ducking in and out of the fray for the occasional cup of water and yummy tidbit.

After that, I chatted with Nomad for a while, as he grilled burgers, about what's been going on in my life and my future plans. He was fully encouraging of my plans to go back to school, and again suggested I come out to visit him in the UK. Nomad is a genuinely warm and affectionate person, and as we talked it was almost as though we'd seen each other just last week.

I went into the house and joined in a conversation with unclevlad and a couple other people (who slowly broke off the group, probably to go sit at the bonfire) that covered things like the role of religion in secular governments, the scalability of socialism, or empowerment of workers and their personal investment in their businesses. For the most part, I was quiet as I listened and considered, but I had a few things to add myself.

In fact, I sat and talked long enough that Posi and Nova came to get me to get on the road. It would have been nice to sit by the fire for a while, or even try the firewalking that happens there annually, but all is well. Maybe next year!

As I was leaving, I made sure to tell people how nice it was to talk to them, and that I really hope to have more chances to do the same. For a long time, I've somehow kept myself at the periphery; not been good at getting to know people in much depth. I feel, or at least hope, that that's one of the many things in my life that is in the process of change at the moment. I often find myself sitting off to the side for half an hour or forty-five minutes at the start of a party, waiting to get comfortable with the environment and noise and people. I didn't do that this time. Instead, I just floated naturally between groups and enjoyed myself. I definitely want to do more of that, at parties, conventions, or wherever I find myself these days.

(no subject)

I was going to connect with infintysquared to work on some music stuff today, but he's run away to join the carnival! He's working on setting things up there now, so perhaps later today.

In the meantime, I'm going to work on getting some pictures together for my grandfather, as he seems to think that they're nice enough to try doing something like making money with. I'm flattered that he things so and wants to utilize the people he knows to do something like that for me. For my part, it'll be an excuse to get some of my pictures together that I really like, and to go visit my grandfather, grandmother, aunt, and uncle!

Here's the first one, which I found as I copied some pictures onto my primary backup drive. This is from a trip posicat and I took into Chicago to photograph the Fountain of Time and pick up nova_wolf from the greyhound station. We had extra time, so I suggested shooting the Canal Street railroad bridge, my favorite movable bridge in Chicago. While on the Canal street car bridge, I spontaneously ducked down, set my camera up at the side of the road grating, and shot this. I really like it.


Canal Street Bridge Decking at Sunset

© 2010 Stormdog

(no subject)

Though this is one of my favorite urbex shots I've yet taken, somehow I never posted it anywhere. Maybe it's because I intended to go back and redo it better. And I still will; but I want to share what I have already.

I got this one printed out 3' by 2' when Office Max was having a really good sale on large prints. I framed and hung it, and I'm more than happy with the quality of the print. I can't imagine ever needing more than 8 megapixels in a camera. When would I print bigger than that?


Bones of Giants

© Stormdog 2009


I still haven't been back here with my new lens. It's on my list of things to do this Summer.

Wheels or other circles that are broken by the frame of the image are one of my favorite visual elements. I put them in my pictures whenever I can. I don't know what it is about them; maybe it helps tie my little slice of the place into what lies beyond the view of the camera. They're visually satisfying to me.

(no subject)

Here's another picture for the set for my grandfather. This is the Old St. Louis County courthouse.

This building has a lot of history. Some of the Dred Scott trials and hearings happened here, and long ago, slaves were auctioned on the courthouse steps in property disbursement cases. It was a strange feeling, standing on those steps.


Old St. Louis Courthouse Rotunda

© Stormdog 2009


Sounds like I'm going out for anniversary ice cream with the lovely and talented (I'm sure her entries in the state fair are going to be awesome!) moiracoon tonight!