Landscapes and Textures

I don't know whether to consider myself primarily a nature photographer, but it always seems like my nature shots come out better than my people shots, my action shots, or any other shots I happen to have shot. Maybe I've got an eye for it, or maybe nature is just better looking than everything else.

Going through the reams of pictures I took over the last two weeks in Montana and Wyoming, these are the ones that drew my attention first. I didn't step on them too hard...just some cropping for composition, and a little color correction and sharpening where needed. I'll put up sets of people and critters soon too, and maybe, if I'm feeling super ambitions, I might even hack together a video montage of our night at the Cody rodeo which I'm planning to call "Farm Animals: 25, Humans: 0."

Aidel Maidel, one of my imaginary friends, has tagged me with something called the Eight Things Meme. Apparently, unlike cooties, there is no cure for this nor can I invoke "backsies," so I am therefore compelled to tell you the following:

"Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog."

I was born on either the last or second to last day of the Chinese Year of the Dragon. Wikipedia isn't quite sure which. I normally put no faith in things like this, except dragons are super cool, much cooler than rabbits or oxen, so I'm willing to cop to my dragonhood. Plus, I *am* kind of despotic. Oh, and my element is "wood." Heh heh. Heh heh heh. Wood.

I am a giant lardass. I have not always been a giant lardass, but now I am one. I weigh almost twice what my wife weighs, which is why our house is tilted and I have satellites.

I attend church with some regularity, which is really pretty bizarre, considering that I do not have an even slightly supernatural world view (well, except for dragons, see above). I like the people, and I like a lot of the activities. It's a Unitarian Universalist church, which, I've learned, is a a punch line to a lot of jokes, mostly by Garrison Keillor. I can't really wrap my brain around calling myself a UU, so I just say I belong to First Parish in Lexington. Burg. Shire. Don't leave me comments asking what UUs believe, because I don't know, except to say "anything they damn well please." I'm a card-carrying science-loving monkey-descended atheist, and the UUs don't seem to mind, so maybe you can use that as a starting point.

I used to write a lot of political stuff on this web page, but I've run out of steam. I feel like writing mean things about Bush is like taping a kick-me sign to the back of a special needs kid, and the folks who haven't figured that out yet never will, so there's really no point.

I'm typing this on a computer I built. One thing I've figured out in adulthood is that there's no point in not doing what you want to do, no matter how nerdy it is. Fuck it. Hear that? No? You know why? Because my homemade computer is totally freaking silent, like a dead ninja wearing hush puppies in a walk-in freezer five miles away.

I never thought I'd be a big family guy. I was hesitant to get married, hesitant to have , and now it's so central to my shtick that I can't imagine life any other way. I will cry like a when my leave. Maybe I'll try to get a job at one of their colleges so I can hang with them. That should go over great with everyone concerned.

I'm not sure you can call it a philosophy, but I've got this notion that your life rests on three pillars: where you are, who you're with, and what you do. If you've got two of those nailed, you're doing OK. If you've got all three, you're styling.

My daughter brought me some papers from school about the fifth grade instrumental music program. The trombone is such the obvious answer. I can't imagine why she's resisting, even after I played her a medley of the sweetest Oingo Boingo and ska trombone solos I could find. I may just have to get myself a trombone so I can show her how much it would rock.

There. I'm tagging Filtering Craig, Kiddicus, so he'll post something, DJ Jazzy Jenn, The Erin Formerly Known as Estella, Kamikaze Scott Break, Jody the Dumptruck Driver, Jarataur, and Sally.

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