What did they call “bottle brush” trees back before bottles and glass and brushes had been invented?
Author Archives: momdude
No Context For You – May 01st
For those of you not celebrating MayDay in proper Jonathan Coulton style, or for those of you who have been all day and now need something calming to wind down with, I give you an abstract of sorts:
This image is safe for work, unlike Jonathan’s masterpiece.
Filed under Photography
Stained Glass – April 30th
One more for the road – let’s finish April on an upbeat note, with something beautiful.
A couple of weeks ago the world watched in horror as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris burned. The next morning, despite all of the terrible damage, I and millions of others around the world were gratified to see how much was saved, including the giant rose stained glass window.
I’ve never been to Notre Dame and I regret missing the opportunity. However, I have been to other cities in Europe and I have seen other cathedrals.
For reasons we don’t need to go into here I’m not a church goer, but I do love art, architecture, and things of magnificent beauty. There are many things on this planet that fit that criteria. Included in my list would be cathedrals, and in particular, their stained glass windows.
In 2006 I had the opportunity to visit Prague, and my experiences there made it one of my favorite cities. A special treat was a few hours spent spent touring the Prague Cathedral.
So while I can’t share pictures of Notre Dame, I can share a third set of pictures of the stained glass windows from Prague. (See the previous two days’ posts for the first two sets.)
Filed under Art, Photography, Travel
2192 Days
2192 days
2286 articles published
5576 photos/images
50 videos
5 audio files
1999 comments (c’mon, someone be the 2,000th!)
The prize for the most comments, by well over a factor of three, is Jemima Pett. Thank you for the input, feedback, and conversation! (Wendy, you’re in second place.)
The article that received the most comments? They Crossed A Line, a screed about some truly ignorant and horrible astronomy in a Hallmark Christmas movie.
The article that’s received the most views? Still a bit of a surprise to me, but it’s the pictures I posted from the Military Aviation Museum in Pungo, VA, with 575 views. (I notice when I search the site to create that link the “birthday” articles at “730 Days” and “1096 Days” also come up, so this may be a positive feedback loop I’ve just given another shove to.) Second is the article about First Landing State Park in Virginia (522 views), with a P-51 engine replacement being third (504 views).
I find it funny to see that the only “Flash Fiction” I see in the top fifty or so is the one titled “Gigantic Honkin’ Nipple Clamps.” I do miss the weekly flash fiction exercise that Chuck Wendig used to run. Also, I had figured that people were reading that Flash Fiction more than the others because of the title, and it very well might be. But I just re-read it and it’s not half bad.
Most of the articles in the Top Posts are older, having had some time to build up a number of views over time. I’m pleased to see one quite recent in there as well – “My Battery Is Low And It’s Getting Dark.”
Looking through those 5576 photos & images, there are probably several hundred (I’m not going to spend the time counting) “images” from phone screen shots and a handful of images from the Internet when something or the other caught my attention. But at least 90% of those 5576 images are pictures I’ve taken.
Space. Airplanes. Critters. Travels. Clouds. Sunsets. Flowers. Lizards. Christmas lights. Fireworks. And whatever other stupid shit catches my eye.
I always hope for greatness, but some days I have to settle for not being boring. Thanks to all of you for following along, no matter where I am on that spectrum.
Filed under Writing
Stained Glass – April 29th
Let’s finish April on an upbeat note, with something beautiful.
A couple of weeks ago the world watched in horror as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris burned. The next morning, despite all of the terrible damage, I and millions of others around the world were gratified to see how much was saved, including the giant rose stained glass window.
I’ve never been to Notre Dame and I regret missing the opportunity. However, I have been to other cities in Europe and I have seen other cathedrals.
For reasons we don’t need to go into here I’m not a church goer, but I do love art, architecture, and things of magnificent beauty. There are many things on this planet that fit that criteria. Included in my list would be cathedrals, and in particular, their stained glass windows.
In 2006 I had the opportunity to visit Prague, and my experiences there made it one of my favorite cities. A special treat was a few hours spent spent touring the Prague Cathedral.
So while I can’t share pictures of Notre Dame, I can share pictures of the stained glass windows from Prague.
There’s a very “Game of Thrones” look to that silhouette…
Filed under Art, Photography, Travel
Stained Glass – April 28th
Let’s finish April on an upbeat note, with something beautiful.
A couple of weeks ago the world watched in horror as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris burned. The next morning, despite all of the terrible damage, I and millions of others around the world were gratified to see how much was saved, including the giant rose stained glass window.
I’ve never been to Notre Dame and I regret missing the opportunity. However, I have been to other cities in Europe and I have seen other cathedrals.
For reasons we don’t need to go into here I’m not a church goer, but I do love art, architecture, and things of magnificent beauty. There are many things on this planet that fit that criteria. Included in my list would be cathedrals, and in particular, their stained glass windows.
In 2006 I had the opportunity to visit Prague, and my experiences there made it one of my favorite cities. A special treat was a few hours spent spent touring the Prague Cathedral.
So while I can’t share pictures of Notre Dame, I can share pictures of the stained glass windows from Prague.
Filed under Art, Photography, Travel
Stunning Revelations
No, not the ones in Game of Thrones. (I know, Aria getting what she wants, if you know what I mean, right?)
I’ve occasionally bemoaned missing a day’s post – let’s take it as a given that I’m ever so slightly psychotic and anal and go from there, shall we? And I’m trying to to bitch about it, it only happens once a year or so on average, so quit being slightly psychotic and anal, all right? An excellent plan!
I knew that I had missed posting on the 24th, but I let it slide. No elevated blood pressure. No angst.
I – am – a – calm – pool…
Then something caught my eye today. I apparently missed posting on the 12th and the 18th as well, and I was 100% blissfully ignorant of it?!
I – AM – A – FREAKIN’ – CALM – POOL – DAMN – IT!!
At this point it’s not really that I missed posting three times in a two-week period (gee, phrasing it that way doesn’t help, does it?), it’s that I missed the first warning sign, and the second. Which immediately begs the point…
How many other warning signs am I missing?
Breathe. In. Out. Use that Apple Watch thingie to focus on my breathing and while I’m at it, please stop cussing out the Apple Watch thingie. Besides, I doubt it’s physically possible for it to do that since it doesn’t have that orifice. Just sayin’…
Be calm. Listen to some music. What do I like? What’s my go-to music for being calm. What do I listen to about twice a week just to make me happy and calm me down?
“Hamilton.”
Wait, it’s been how many weeks since I listened to “Hamilton”?
I – AM – A – FREAKIN’ – CALM – POOL – DAMN – IT!! (“Calm pool” bursts into flames…)
Filed under Deep Thoughts
More Puppies Needed
For no apparent reason, I recommend that offices, especially offices experiencing very high stress, shorthanded, please-dear-god-let-me-just-survive-to-Friday-night types of weeks should have substantially more puppies running around.
Particularly little Jack Russell Terrier type puppies, who figure out that the office is basically a loop and start running laps at just under light speed from the accounting office toward the kitchen, through the conference room, out by the finance director’s office, then back down to accounting over and over and over and over and over…
And then collapsing into a sleepy heap with their fluffy toy.
Even in a PDGLMJSTFN week, you can end Friday with a smile, despite it all.
More puppies!!!
Filed under Dogs
Cursed With Self-Awareness
“The world is made for people who aren’t cursed with self-awareness.” – Annie Savoy, “Bull Durham”
There are so, so, SO many excellent quotes from this movie, quotes for every occasion. In trying to put my finger on my current mood (and sort out the mood from the exhaustion) being in the midst of this week/month/year, this one came to mind.
I have a great deal of admiration for those who can be at the center of the whirlwind, a hundred bazillion crises flying around them like bullets in the biggest firefight in history, and they remain focused, calm (or at least, not panicked, which may be the same thing), and functional.
I have very little admiration but a fair amount of envy (which is a sin, and not one I’m proud of in this moment) for those in the center of the whirlwind who remain “calm” because they have no freaking idea what’s going on.
There was an old cartoon (Loony Tunes? I can’t find it now) where a bulldog is babysitting a toddler. The crawling toddler goes from one dangerous, life-threatening, ludicrous situation after another while the dog desperately tries to keep up and keep the baby safe, all the while being pummeled and smashed himself. Through traffic. Onto girders being hoisted up onto a skyscraper construction site. And so on.
That’s what I’m talking about. Maybe those people are lucky, maybe they’re truly clueless, maybe they’re “blessed.” Whatever. They wander through the whirlwind and come out the other side without a scratch or a hair out of place and probably an extra $20 bill stuffed into a loose pocket for good measure. Meanwhile, I’m fighting to get through and find shelter, dodging every bit of SPFX debris from “Twister” – yes, including the cow.
It is who I am.
It still sucks some times.
How’s your week going?
Filed under Deep Thoughts
No Context For You – April 23rd
Some days that whole “reality” thing seems a little bit less … “real.”
Is it that we can’t hold on to it as well those days, or that we don’t want to? Is it slipping from our fingers or are we dropping it like a hot potato?
What we have vs. what we want.
The lack of sleep isn’t helping.
Filed under Art, Deep Thoughts, Photography
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 