Gifts

To have free time is to have a gift. To have good health is to have a gift. I frequently squander my hard earned free time which makes me feel bad. I also feel bad waking up with swollen hands, sore wrists and forearms and not wanting to do anything with my day off except to go back to bed.

What a waste to lay there doing nothing except look out the window and watch the shadows wrap around the trees as the sun tracks across the sky. To doze off and wake up repeatedly and notice the changing light... sometimes it's cozy knowing I don't have to rush off anywhere, I don't have anything pressing to do and it is cold outside and I'm warm in bed with the dog near me on his own bed. He's a good sleeping companion, always up for a nap.

I tell myself I need to rest, catch up on sleep, to get well from the lingering cough I have from my last cold. But then I watch the day slip by, or wake up from a strange mishmash of dreams and wonder if it was worth it?

I'm no guitar hero

I got my Satriani cds out this morning and I've listened to all of them. I still like them as much as when I first got them. Yeah, this will inspire me to keep practicing my scales.. and then by the time I'm an old fart I'll be able to play okay. Right? Right?
And look at nanette since she's had her glossy makeover. Cute!
Complicate things much?
Time to get ready for another day at the factory. Shite! Today then tomorrow and I'll have a few days off. It wasn't supposed to be like this, I was supposed to have more time during the day to keep up with Aristoitle and do other things but so far that hasn't been happening. I'm slowly changing that though... I actually leave when I'm supposed to now instead of staying late and fixing my section. I finally learned the hard way that no one cares but me and that there is no point in knocking myself out to make things look good when it will get fuked up the next day.

Weds. 23rd

I've got some stories to tell, but right now it's time to get outside before the sun sets. In the mean time be happy knowing that if I were to be stranded on an island someplace I could crochet a fishing net from plant fibers and feed and clothe myself. That is all.

Tony vs. Paul - a stop motion film

Somewhere in my blog I have a link to this movie, and I found it again today while I was looking for something else. I think it is worth posting again.. so here it is.. I hope you like it. It took an enormous amount of physical work to make them look as though they are flying. Very clever!

Horsin' around

I made some new horse friends today. Here is a young colt I played with this afternoon. I had him follow me on the lead line, and moved him around with a gentle porcupine game, with lots of scratching and petting in between. He is quite sweet and very much a worrier, so I spent a lot of time kneeling down and letting him sniff my hair and my jacket. Having me down low like that really helped his confidence because each time I stood up and walked away he followed with less hesitation.



Here is his pasture-mate, a sweet filly who kept interrupting us by trying get in on the fun and games. Each time I would walk around the colt she would come up beside him and look over his back like this to see what I was doing. She would reach out and nuzzle my arm and head, smell my pockets and try to walk through the lead line her buddy was connected to. She is also the half sister to the little dude
Here you can see the mischievous one sticking her tongue out while the shy one looks on.
It was a beautiful day and I wish I had taken my camera with me.. luckily the cellphone camera saved the day with these few photos. I hope you had a good day too! :)

For your entertainment

Cool animation! The song is Ankle Injuries by Fugiya & Miyagi.



Here is the Fujiya & Miyagi web site.

Green Parrot

I bet you didn't know this, but parrots are into recycling and composting. Tyler can recycle 4 feet of packing paper into a cave/nest/playground and then compost it into tiny shredded bits while playing hide and seek. Who needs a paper shredder?

I made pizza for dinner tonight. Garlic and herb dough topped with a bruschetta topping because I didn't have any tomato sauce. Mushrooms, olives, red onion, marinated artichoke hearts, a few pepperoni, and shredded assiago, provolone, parmesan & fontina cheeses covering the whole thing like a winter blizzard.

My assistant, who doubles as a walking vacuum tells me I should take fewer photographs and add more pepperoni.
Melty goodness ready to be enjoyed with more wine. Mmmmmmm

These were sent to raymi for fil's birthday yesterday.

Slow days

My stat counter isn't showing much activity for the Flatland blog over the past few days. I guess everyone is out shopping till they drop, or working too hard at school & work to come by and read.

Nothing much to report here except it's my one year anniversary at work today. Whoop! What have I gotten besides a pay raise, and sleep deprivation? Sore wrists, epicondylitis, a few colds, and poor sleep habits. I guess the pay wins out in this equation where the other factors are negative. I wonder how long I'll last physically and mentally.

For your viewing pleasure I present to you Truck Pull fashion. Yes, I admit I went to a truck pull.. it wasn't my idea but I knew if I took my camera I'd have an okay time. I had an okay time. Along with all the grimy jeans, backwards baseball caps, endless spitting and a cigarette in nearly every hand there were the t-shirts. This one was better than most.

Here's what I'm going to do...

My friend once told me that I should consider selling my photographs to an online image gallery. I have been giving that idea some thought and have found a place to sign up with. I realized that I have a very diverse collection of images that many people could find useful.. and so why not try and sell some of these photographs? M has been telling me that I should do the same thing with my photographs, but you know how it is when you hear things from friends vs. hearing the same things from people who are close to you...


Can you tell what this is a picture of?

From Flatland Publications

WHITE BALANCE Magazine...A special publication for those photographers who can never seem to get a firm grasp of digital technology.

I was looking at someones photographs on Flickr this morning and in their photo set they had made a magazine cover using a picture of their cat. I didn't want to use the Flickr program so I went into Photoshop and designed my own magazine cover. Feel free to subscribe in the comments section.

"Arf, arf, arf, arf"

White fluffy stuff fell from the sky this morning, and Jack couldn't bark enough about how excited he was to see it (and eat it) again.


Ack.. it's in my eyes... blink, blink.