stormdog | Entries tagged with posicat

The text of the Papa John's gift card that Posicat sent me earlier (and that I just opened up in my email this morning) is great. "You can't just eat ramen, bleh, pizza's better! And its Sriracha compatible, I know, I've tested it extensively."

Posi is wonderful and I miss him a lot. I've been one to cry easily for a long time, but expressions of care like that make me tear up a little.

And after orientation today, I'm definitely getting some pizza! For now though, off to campus for a welcome meeting with the grad director and to look up some previous masters' theses I want to see.

Current Mood: loved

Huge thanks to

posicat, who took me out to see Tomorrowland as a graduation present. I enjoyed the movie tremendously. Even if I hadn't enjoyed the rest of the movie, it would have been worth it for the retro-futurist aesthetic and the scenes at the recreated '64 world's fair. Those were fantastic.

But the rest of the movie was pretty great too. I left wanting to be a part of making the world a better place.

It was really nice to be out and social with he and my girlfriend Danae, too. Seeing people in person is a very good thing.

Current Mood: happy

Posi and I both love looking at wind farms. Here's a view in the midst of the giant Fowler Ridge Wind Farm in northern Indiana. The farm consists of about 355 wind turbines generating around 600MW. I have more from this farm to post.

I wonder all the time, as I drive through wind farms, what the pioneer settlers of the land would have thought if they knew that, someday, there would be these monstrous pylons six or eight times the height of their houses, topped with immense fan blades, all spinning away as far as the eye can see. Such a strange concept to juxtapose with the old, abandoned farm buildings here and there, probably remaining from property consolidation due to automation and technological development. Those buildings make me nostalgic, inspiring thoughts of forgotten history and experiences in the shadow of these turbines.

Current Mood: creative

Posi and I are back from our Indiana trip. I'm pretty tired, so I'll edit pictures later. Probably not for a while, 'cause I'll be in Kenosha without access to my picture editing computer. But here's one for now.

This is from the now-defunct Central State Hospital of Indiana. Opened in the mid nineteenth century, the campus included many large brick buildings, including a Kirkbride, which a local road is named for. Posi has a picture of me posing with a street sign for Kirkbride Way; I couldn't resist! In fact, he was quite indulgent with my strange photography penchants.

Anyway, this tablet is on the wall of the pathology department.

Pathological Department Inscription - Central State Hospital

Current Mood: tired

I'm about to go off for the weekend with Posicat to see tourist kitsch in Indiana! I'm excited!

Once I get back, Miriam will be away at a conference, so I'm going to spend a week in Kenosha getting more stuff packed and organized. I also need to start researching some of the housing leads that

restoman gave me. Moving day will get here sooner than I expect...

Current Mood: excited

I'm really glad I drove down to visit Posicat yesterday; I haven't seen enough of him. Watching How to Train Your Dragon 2 on his 3D televsion was a novel experience. The last movie I saw in 3D, I think, was Captain Eo at Disneyworld when I was in elementary school.

We went out for food, too. He suggested Sweet Tomatoes, since there was soup I could eat. That turned out to be a great idea. I was down four pounds over the last few days due to not eating anything but pudding and yogurt. I had six bowls of soup, a big bowl of ice cream, chocolate milk, and a milkshake. Eating actual food felt *so* good. I was up five pounds over yesterday when I checked this morning.

Yeah, I still can't eat solid food very easily. It scrapes against the burned spot and hurts. A lot. But less then earlier. I didn't go to the campus clinic yesterday because it seemed better, but the progress is really slow. I have a neurology appointment tomorrow; I'll drop by my primary care doctor's office while I'm there and ask the staff what they think.

I'm way behind on day-to-day stuff. I'm still glad I spent yesterday with Posi instead of doing laundry or what-have-you. But today is a long day at school, with my evening gym class. I think I'll pick up my gym clothes at home after my afternoon class, then drop by Todd and Serin's place to check in on it. I'll read for an hour there, go to Yoga and Pilates, then get home for an early night. My medical appointment tomorrow is at 8 o' clock in the morning. *sighs*

There are workers outside the door to the archives. They are using loud machines to cut pipes, and playing loud music on a boombox. I don't begrudge them either; it's just kind of hard to concentrate on anything.

Current Mood: busy

I'm going to head back to work for the first time this year tomorrow, so I should probably get to bed. But I wanted to finish up another batch of images first.

These are from Crystal Lake Cave in Dubuque, a tourist attraction that

posicat and I dropped by last Summer. Our guide was wonderful; since traffic was low, she let us set up tripods and take as long as we wanted to with photos. Her patience allowed these to come out as well as they did.

(On a tangent, I've finally figured out, mostly, how to automate a watermark placement; you'll likely see it on most of my images from here on out. And I suppose it's now a lot easier to connect my LJ to my real name, huh? Oh well.)

More photos, as usual, ( behind the cut. )

I told the staff I'd send them a link when I got them posted. It's been a while, but they're finally done! I'll send them an email tomorrow.

Current Mood: artistic

Selected photos from Dubuque!

More, including a funicular railroad, a huge Victorian house, and a very unusual terra cotta cornerstone, behind ( the cut. )

And there are even more at my Flickr page, should you want to see them.

posicat is one of my favorite people. This is from the day in July last year that we departed for a photo and exploring trip to Savannah, Illinois.

I'm planning to see a bunch more of him, and several other folks like

serinthia, this coming year!

For now, I'm finally going to edit this set of pictures!

(I'm sorry I've been posting so many photos lately; It's where my head's at I guess.)

Posi and I Preparing to Depart for Savannah

---

It's an interesting process, choosing which pictures of me I post. I could choose only photos that I think are flattering. The problems with that are:

*My idea of what is flattering is not necessarily consistent with other
people's ideas.

*I like the idea of posting relatively candid photos of me, rather than posed and prepared-for ones. It makes me feel like maybe people see a little of what I "really" look like, whatever that may mean.

(I hope other people in my photos don't mind when I post them either, for that matter. For me, I just enjoy seeing my friends and people I care about. It makes me smile.)

In fact, the latter reason is part of why I'm doing the picture-a-day project I'm doing. I have one photo of my face per day (with a few days that I missed) since October of last year. If I can ever figure out how to make a movie out of them, I think the result will be really fun. And I'm planning to keep at it until, well, I die. I'm fascinated at the thought of a time-lapse of myself growing older. I just wish I'd started it sooner.

Current Mood: happy

My write-up of Medieval Times:

For Mark's birthday, a group of us got together for a visit to Medieval Times in Shcaumberg.

The show was technically impressive. Great lights and sound. Lots of action. The stage combat was a little bit unconvincing to me at times, but it was still fun to watch.

What weirded me out was the plot. It started out as a ren-fairesque chivalrous tournament. That was enjoyable. But at the end it devolved into a spectacle that reminded me of Roman gladiatorial combat. It became out-and-out blood sports, and I was uncomfortable watching it, and with the crowd's reactions to it.

There were some plot threads that were a bit difficult for me to follow as well, but I blame that on a combination of hearing difficulties and distraction with my camera.

Shooting the event was a lot of fun. I learned more about how to use my manual f2.8 135mm prime. There were many pretty horses and pretty men to keep pointing my camera at.

The food was plentiful and good. I was a little unsure about how much to tip servers, since I don't know whether they make tipped minimum wage or not, how many people they're serving, and how much work was going on behind the scenes.

Anyway, the whole thing was pretty fun. I don't need to go again, but I'm glad to have gone out and done something memorable for a friend's birthday.

I want hair like this horse's mane. Or at least a chance to brush it.

A few more ( behind the cut. )

Current Mood: awake

Birthday silliness with

posicat at Medieval Times. Pretty horses and pretty men. I'll write more about it at a time when I shouldn't have been asleep three hours ago.

Thanks for inviting me along, Posi!