Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Evening



Heliophagous Celestial Dog

This cloud reminded me of Chinese lion-dogs.  So maybe it wasn't trying to devour the Sun so much as to just hold it in its mouth or under its paw or something.


Related Posts:  Dog Head CloudMonster Could Not Swallow The Sun

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Oddly Even

I was having lunch at my favorite Thai restaurant when I happened to look out the window and see this cloud sticking out at an oblique angle:


I noticed the unusually straight edge -- as if sliced with a straight razor -- immediately.  Strangely-shaped clouds happen to be one of my favorite subjects, so I grabbed my camera and --afraid of losing the shot -- took this image through the window (hence the rather grimy detail).


The perfectly straight edge is even more striking when the image is tilted 90 degrees so the cloud and the power line form a 'V'.  Maybe the eye is accustomed to recognizing the shape of the letter.



Related Posts:  Strange Shape in the CloudsAgain, OrderA Cloud Found!

Two Daimones




Sunday, January 20, 2013

An Amusing And Touching Dream

This morning I dreamt that this fiery dragon-cloud from 2010


came back.  I was just walking along, and I looked up and there it was.  But it was in the bright sun of the day, not in the evening, and the dragon was 'flipped', facing right, so it looked more like this:


plus it was tipped so that its new orientation was more of a proper flying-forward position rather than one of falling or rising.  Right away I took out my camera and took a number of shots to document this wonderful, rare phenomenon for this blog^.
I must say, the theme of returning to one's origins after a long period away or being found after being lost, is one that touches me deeply.  I have often fantasized a novel that begins with the protagonist entering a room and saying "Hello" to someone, beginning a long complicated series of events, then the plot coming full circle and ending with the protagonist again entering a room and saying "Hello" to the same person.

Related Posts:  The Dragon CloudDinocloud ReturnsLost-and-Found Cloud  

Friday, January 18, 2013

An Accidental Perfect Fit

Just amblin' along on my afternoon walk, looking at this and gazing at that, when I came across this graceful curlicue on the sidewalk, composed half of a stain and half of a stalk.  Looks rather musical, like an F-clef or a sound hole on a violin.  It also reminds me of a sea horse.  Or it could be a bean sprout.  It could also be a snake or a spermatozoon, or a bunch of other things.  But always pretty.


Snail Face

I just thought it would be rather humorous to shoot a snail from this angle.  But then, I made a discovery -- a snail's mouth resembles a cat's mouth.

ALSO LOOKS A LOT LIKE A TASTY LITTLE ABALONEMmm...




*CAT PHOTO COURTESY OF THE INTERNET

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Urban Cave Art II

Found in a Downey, California parking lot:  Giraffe and Giraffe Huntress (with Spear).

AN AMAZON WITH A REALLY, REALLY  LONG SPEAR

Related Post:   Urban Cave Art IUrban Fossil IUrban Fossil IIDevil On The FloorThe Religiosity of HadrosaursGiant's Handprint, Wet Blue Bunny

Monday, January 14, 2013

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

A Good Year For Shooting Hummingbirds

That is, for a guy trying to catch them in mid-flight with his pocket camera, randomly and without any special preparations or equipment.  I found two more nice shots from 2012.



Sunday, January 6, 2013

Another Random Floating Object

Still another 'RFO' (^^) from 2012 -- it was a windy day in March and I just happened to look up and see this whatsis fluttering across the gap between two high-rises, from right to left.  To see it in the full shots you'll need to expand the photos and look hard in the horizontal middle third band.  Makes me wonder what we don't see happening up there every day, just because we don't happen to look up at just the right moment.


 
 
Here are the details from each shot (plastic bag again?  Check here and here).


A few years ago at work there was a drill for emergency evacuation.  Everyone filed out in orderly fashion and congregated at designated areas away from the building.  While we were all milling around doing nothing in particular, I happened to look up, and I saw a tiny, bright spot steadily moving across the sky.  As I watched its progress I soon became aware of another, similar spot trailing it, some distance behind the first object but in the same path.  As far as I could tell, their movements were absolutely regular, and the distance between them never changed.  My thought at the time was that they were low-orbit satellites -- but now that I think about it, satellites wouldn't be so close together;  it's more likely that they were special, extremely high-altitude aircraft, probably military.

Anyway, the point is that I pointed them out to the people immediately around me, and to my surprise none of them showed any interest at all.  You would think people would be very interested in such novelties... but then again, maybe not.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Peek

Another of the 2012 photos.  This one I actually intended to post at the time, but something else took priority, and then another something else after that, etc., and  eventually I lost track of it.  Anyway, nine months later, here it is.


Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Could Be A Glitch In The Matrix

I'm sure more than a few of us ordinary folks -- not just professional philosophers -- must have toyed with the notion that the world may not be as solid and objectively 'real' as we feel it to be.  Religious authorities, internet pundits, and the mentally disturbed have all asked such related questions as:  #1. If we are but thoughts in a dreaming god's mind, what would happen to us when he wakes?;  #2. What if the life someone thinks they are living is a fantasy conjured up by a sick brain, and in reality that person is shut away in a cell in an asylum?;  #3. Will that 7-11 still be there when I turn the corner and can't see it any more?

I was checking out unused photographs from the past year to see if I might still want to post some of them, when I came across the image below.  It first caught my eye because of the EXIT sign rather humorously pointing away vaguely, but it also looked odd for some reason -- then I realized why:  somehow the sign seems to be casting a shallow shadow onto the sky, as if the sky were a flat backdrop immediately behind it.  Is it some kind of speed blur?  But in that case I have no idea why the writing is perfectly sharp, and only the trailing edge of the sign would have the blur after it.  Maybe it really is a shadow..?^

Maybe the sign is a special 'Matrix-proof' artifact, placed there by a secret underground cell of 'awake' ones, and it should be taken literally.

Matrix engineers, you've been caught napping!

PROOF THAT THE WORLD IS A STAGE SET