Day 363 - Jenn's Candles

View out Jenn's window tonight. She enjoys having candles in the window as she studies. Of course, she'll have the light on, but I liked this view with the overhead light off and just candle power burning. I remember my college days and the long nights going to classes and even later nights studying. I worked full time during the day and finished off going to night school  Try working 40+ hours a week and taking a full load of 12-15 hours. It was tough, but glad I persevered. I did take some light semesters with 6-9 hours. I just didn't want to extend things so I was able to have some loaded down semesters.

I think the hardest thing was walking uphill both ways in blizzards here in Houston ;)

Actually the hardest thing was staying awake driving home every night.

Day 362 - Waterfall

Waterfall display at the Woodlands Mall tonight. We had some fine dining at the food court: lasagna. Then off to watch The King's Speech. I'd forgotten how many youth are out at the Mall without supervision. No real big problems, but well, I'd forgotten how immature they can be. Seems that mall security is just a baby sitting service.

Day 361 - Burnt Orange

Interesting color tonight as sunset arrives. We stopped at the cleaners tonight and I tried to get this silhouette and the colorful sky. I only took two images today and this is the better of the two. In some ways I feel I'm sneaking into the finish line of this project. I've found the last few months that I've used my small point and shoot for something like 90% of the images. When I use my Nikon D200 I take images in raw format and run it through Photoshop. I think my energy levels are low and I've convinced my self this is the easier way. Or maybe I've issued myself a challenge to see what kind of images I can take with the small camera. And it is a challenge at time when the lighting is lees than perfect. I also find I minimize the use of flash -- I don't like the way it looks on this smaller camera. OK, for better pics of people it's better, but trying to get a quality image that I want the flash seems to be too strong. Maybe some soft of analogy to wanting to see things as they really are without artificial light. Or people without their false pretenses. At times I've blinded myself to others ill-intentions. Even today I struggle really believing someone didn't have my best interests at heart. Time and distance seems to make these times clearer. At times I with to go back and "make it right". But that means I give in and the other never recognizing or admitting anything untoward.  I think that is the innocence of youth giving way to the cynicism of adulthood.  How to keep some of the playful, youthful innocence and yet appear to be a mature adult? Not sure, but I think some become unfeeling, dulling their conscience. Those are they that scare me the most because the can do evil things. At the minimum they can hurt you and not care and even lie about it. Oh, you recognize some of this? That's called reality or the real world. (And I'm not talking reality TV.) I've seen enough. And no, it doesn't scratch the surface of many of your experiences of those we read of and see in the news. I think that without a belief in God or a Supreme Being, this life would be extremely difficult to bear. 

Day 360 - O-Kay...

Looking up during lunch today I was blasted with the geometric design. I've toned down the background to emphasize the shape. And I would've missed it had I not glanced up just before leaving. Somethings that are bold and in plain sight are missed as being too obvious. Kinda reminds me of the political climate of correctness in our country today.

Day 359 - Fractured Images

Looking up through a vertical slit of a skylight I caught this image. Reminds me somehow of a fractured image. Seems fitting as sometimes I try to figure out all the pieces of my life. Some things seem to fit well and others...well let's say that one day I'll figure some of it out. Or perhaps I'll discover that some things that seemed important for some reason really don't matter after all. It's amazing looking back through the hazy filter of time. How many things have I forgotten? How many things that were imperative of an almost utmost criticality even now have no presence on my conscious or sub-conscious wanderings. Well, I'm not sure what I just said, but there is a feeling of things lost from a more innocent age. We all grow up (or so we're told) and yet what part of your youth can you retain keeping that vibrant essence that helps prevent a withering of your soul. You can read that last sentence as "grumpy old guy". Well, this project is winding down. This is the last week. The journey has been interesting and I hope some of the images I've presented were enjoyable at times, intriguing at others, and hopefully never boring.At times I've tried to take a mundane simple subject and present it from a different angle or perspective. It works at times and others it just seems to be another image where I pointed the camera and clicked.

Day 358 - Globe

This is a reflection from the floor showing the underside of a globe display at work. You can't see it, but there are four video screens displaying company indoctrination clips, umm I mean informative bits about the company and safety. Actually some of the clips are quite informative about various part of the global company from offshore oil rigs to wetlands.

Day 357 - Maths

Maths. 

This book is the 1960 printing about Complex Variables that I'm reading. Had a bit of fun with the symbolism. This whole concept about "imaginary" numbers is fascinating. Of course, "imaginary" was probably the wrong word to have used, but the early geeks didn't know what else to make of the square root of negative one.

And just for the record, I love math, but this book is very, very, very dry and I'm not talking about the moth ball filled box I found it in...