LOOK I HAVE IDEAS

I have a grandpa who is a pretty badass kind of guy. Throughout my life he has told me stories of his life, all of which were quite interesting-- possibly because he is an amazing story teller. Due to both personal interest and academic interest I've decided to interview him.

Sadly, I regret to say that I don't have a specific topic picked out. My grandpa has suffered a stroke and he's short term memory is shot, making it difficult to hold a conversation with him. While his earlier memories are perfectly fine, it will be difficult to get him to stay focused. Because of that I don't want to narrow my focus too much, in case he decides that he doesn't find the subject interesting.

But here are my vague ideas of what I am planning on asking him, and hopefully one will pan out.

Idea Number One:
My grandpa was in the Vietnam War. I always thought wars were interesting, especially from a first person perspective. Reading about the most recent war in the papers and watching it on television--it's nothing compared to being told first hand what happened. I haven't heard a lot of stories from the war from my grandpa, but I can see clearly emotion that is never portrayed by a news reporter.

Idea Number Two:
My grandpa has told me few stories of the industries he has worked in. They are much different than what they are now, the most notable change for me being the safety codes.

Idea Number Three:
Farming! Farming was one of my grandpa's dearest passions when he was younger. He talks about that often.

Idea Number Four:
Just generally the changing of the rules in society. I've heard quite a few good stories of my grandpa kicking ass and taken names, not necessarily on a legal level. While my grandpa always did things to help people out, I'm not so sure today's society would see it that way. It would be interesting to look into those changes.



Alright, I'm done making your eyes bleed. Thank you for the read!

Find It

 Sometimes, we lose things. 

 

Small things are easy to forget. 

A missing pen? I can replace it. 

A missing paper? I have more. 

It is not always worth the effort for small things to be found. 

Replacement is not always the first thought when we lose

 something important—it sometimes cannot be an option at all.

 The level of importance affects how we pursue the issue of a 

missing item or feeling. A small need is all it takes—

a small need can leave a hole in your heart.

Nearby is where we start.

Friends, family. Familiar territory is the safest route to take,

though not always the easiest. Admitting that something is lost is a 

difficult first step to say to oneself, nonetheless everyone else. 

But if it means finding the lost, it is worth it.

Worth a try, at least. 

So the journey begins! 

Where could it have gone? 

What could have happened to it? Did I lose it? 

Or did it leave? 

Where? Where? Why? 

This path cannot be easy. Many things can block the way, 

but nothing that diligence and focus cannot get you through. 

But for one second of doubt, one mistake, and you crash.

 Doubt never really goes away. Slowing you down and 

hindering you, it just waits for you to give in.

 It could very well stop you completely. 

Giving up is not an option. 

If you are not willing to make the journey to find it, it does not deserve to be found by you. 

Faith and desire will keep you moving. It is important to find what you have lost.

 Stand up. Keep moving.

There is no weakness in asking for help. 

Even the friendliest of sources can be intimidating. 

The doubt returns to tell you that no one can help, 

why would anyone help, 

how can you succeed if you ask for help?

Ask anyway.

There are still kind spirits out there.

We do not always find what we are looking for. It can be taxing and giving up is sometimes just easier. Sometimes it is the answer. Why bother?

Why? 

Because we need to face our monsters. 

Maybe it cannot be found. 

Maybe it was never really yours to be begin with—just something you deluded yourself into believing you had. Maybe it is something you have yet to find.

Face it. Fight it.

Find it.

I'll Find You// Essay Draft

Finding things takes effort. It is a journey that we have all taken.

First, there is the realization that something is missing. Sometimes it takes a while for us to see something that is missing—other times, it does not take more than minute. When this something becomes a part of our everyday life, it is easy to forget that it is there. That is, of course, until it is gone. Other instances, it takes a need of said lost thing to realize that it is indeed lost. There does not have to be a large sign when it goes missing. That small need is all it takes. Even the smallest thing of importance can leave a hole in your heart.

So we search for it. Asking around in our own minds—where could it have gone? What could have happened to it? Did I lose it? …Or did it leave? For something so important, shallow answers are clueless. To lose something that is a part of you will take effort to find and we have to go deeper.

Giving up is not an option. If you are not willing to journey to find it, it does not deserve to be found by you.  

Of course, the path to the lost is not an easy one. Speed bumps and walls block the way. Diligence and focus will get you through. You cannot doubt yourself for a second. For a split second of doubt is a crash. You are hindered from then on. That doubt is always with you, that doubt will slow you down. Should you give in, it will stop you completely.

But faith and desire will keep you moving. It is important to find what you have lost. Stand up. Keep moving.

There is no weakness in asking for help. Even the friendliest of sources can be intimidating. The doubt returns to tell you that it is a pointless journey, that no one can help, that you are not strong enough to do this should you ask for help. The latter is often true. Face this head on, or you may find yourself going in the wrong direction.

We do not always find what we are looking for. If it does not come easily, we give up. If it is not waiting for us, we do not care. If it left, why should we seek it out? Why should we even bother?

Why? Because we need it to face our monsters. Perhaps it cannot be found. Maybe it was never there to begin with—something you deluded yourself into believing that you had. Maybe it is something you have yet to learn.

Face it. Fight it.

Find it.

I'll Find You

 

All different in the same way

http://www.fulltable.com/vts/f/fbm/e.htm

Business men! The make the world go round, whether we like it or not. They are the people who get things done, they are the people who control more than one person should, they are the people who wear nothing but suits.

Fortune's Businessmen photo series focuses, clearly, on men dressed professionally, clearly in positions of power. Different kinds of power, in fact. One looks like a judge, another like a senator of some sort, and one who even looks like a crime boss. Each have possibly very different careers and areas of expertise, but they all of things in common. They get things done, they have power, and they wear suits.

Each of these men are very different and yet very the same. For one, you can see the faces of all the men and they are all centered in the photos. At least everything from the waste up is visible. To me it almost feels like the photographer was trying to imply that they are the same. It's ridiculous! It would be a shorter list to name the things they don't have in common.  A main difference I would like to point out (next to the fact that they aren't the same person over and over again, I swear) they are all in different places. Inside, outside, in a vehicle, leaving a vehicle-- no two are in the same place. To me it points out that they are all doing different things. They have different responsibilities and lives.

Without meaning to, I assumed that the first six pictures of the men (as they were the first ones that I could see on my screen)  were all doing 'good' things. I naturally assume that everyone does things with the purest intentions, including politics, which these men seem to be. I realize this is a rather naive way of thinking, but I still think it. That is, until I saw the last photo centered towards the bottom. This man is the one, as I mentioned earlier, who seems like a crime boss. It's probably the hat that makes me think that way. Realize that the man could very well be on the 'evil' side of power, I remembered all the similarities I saw through the pictures and my position on the other changed. Perhaps they weren't men trying their best to help others. Maybe that was the point the photographer was trying to make.

I thought it was a very creative way of presenting the photos. The first six within sight and the last one out of sight, just waiting for you to scroll down. I quite enjoyed how it was arranged, and if I were being honest I would have to say the way that the photos were arranged affected how I saw them the most. If they were in a different order or perhaps in a straight line I would have read them differently at a glance. I can tell a lot of thought when into how they were laid about and that affects the meaning a lot. I'll have to note that for my own photo series.

little things

little guardian

Few people know this, but I am a cat person. And by ‘few people’ I mean everyone who knows me. And by ‘cat person’ I mean I love cats to a point that I’m relatively certain everyone who knows me likely thinks that one day I will be a crazy old lady living with twenty cats.

And I am okay with that. Perhaps this is why they think that.

That would be the original reason that I chose to write on the picture above. I figured writing about something I find appeasing to both my eye and my interests would be easy enough. However, after about three different attempts at describing the photo I’ve decided to start over with this. It seems with each time I try to analyze this adorable picture I come up with different feelings, different ways of seeing the photo. Definite conclusions, at this point, are impossible. But as I’ve come to realize, it is quite difficult to look at something the same way twice when you look at it from a more technical aspect.

The piece is titled ‘little guardian’ and I saw the picture quite differently before I knew the name. I simply thought it was a cute picture of a kitten warming himself in the sun. After discovering the title, I found that it laughable. After all, how can a small young kitten guard anything? But the more and more I thought about it, and the more I looked at the picture with the title in mind, and the more I saw the small kitten as a guardian, I began to realize something about the cat in the large windowsill. With the heavy expression, the little kitten seemed overwhelmed or aged. Perhaps it was the soft light that caught the subject’s fur, or maybe how tiny he seems compared to the windowsill, but a simple glance at the picture and my eyes are drawn to the cat that seemed tired and weak.

The soft shape of the cat is really the only part of the photo that is curved in a definite way. The windowsill frames the subject with hard, straight lines. The background is out of focus and blurry, yet also has straight horizontal lines. Strangely enough, despite the cat being the softest and curviest point in the image, he seems to be a little ridged, cold even.

It raises questions. Why is the small cat sitting there, looking tired? Why did the artist decide to title the piece ‘little guardian’? What is he guarding really? There are many things about this picture that brings out the curiosity in me, but besides the interesting thoughts on the picture, it also tells me how influence a title can be to a photo. I cannot see the cat as anything other than a guardian now.

That being said, I am glad I view the photo the way I do now. I would have never thought the cat as a guardian on my own but now that I do I find it quite fitting and so much more interesting. 

Tuesday Photos

because we share a life by fangedfem

losing colors by saligia

little guardian . by m0thyyku

Cold by Jokerup

All photos were found on deviantart. 

Contrast

‘A picture is worth a thousand words’. This cliché phrase always comes to my mind whenever I am asked to observe a photo. However, upon staring at the Plantation’s Overseer for a few minutes, I can easily come up with a single word that describes just about everything in the picture and that word is ‘contrast’.

Black and white photos are very focused on contrast. There is a very clear line between the darkness and the lightness in this picture. Nearly everything in the bottom right and up towards the top right is light while everything towards the left is darker.  

Now using the word contrast I do not just mean to describe just the picture but also the subject. It is clear to me that the white elephant in this picture is the fact that the ‘plantation overseer’ is more than likely the old white man in the picture and the darker skinned younger men are his slaves. At least, at first that is what I thought but staring a little longer at the expressions I don’t find it as likely. Of course, as the picture was taken in the later 1930’s, it is to be assumed that my first assumption is right. However, judging by the rather relaxed look on the younger men, I’m not so sure. Which brings up another contrasting element to the picture—the younger men look quite relaxed and rather bored, while the older man looks one of two things: incredulous or angry. I find that the ‘are you serious’ sort of look fits the old man better. I can only imagine what the man to the left is saying to the white man.

I try to find the good in people and perhaps that trait in me is affecting how I view this picture but as it is I find that the man hiding in the left side of the picture is the ‘bad guy’ so to say. Naturally it would be assumed that the older man was the bad guy, what with having slaves and being the boss and such, but I just can’t see it that way. I see him more of the grumpy old man who treats his help fairly but with an iron fist. There is nothing wrong with that. That guy to the left though, he looks pretty suspicious to me. The fact that the workers are so chill makes me want to trust the old man and the fact that the old man looks rather grumpy at the business-looking man makes me want to distrust him.

Of course, I could be very wrong. It very well could be what it looks like at a glance but if I were being completely honest, I like my version better. 

Why I Write

Writing has always been something that I was relativity good at. I am not vain enough to say that I am the best writer there is and I know better than to call myself great at it. Next to drawing, though, writing is probably the only thing I can do with confidence.

However being good at something is not enough reason to do it in my book. I know plenty of people who are good at tasks but despise them all the same. I, on the other hand, enjoy writing greatly. Half because it is something that you cannot imitate. With things such as math, the product will always be the same. Two plus two will always equal two. But when you write, two plus two equals whatever you want it to be because it is what you choose for it to be, and chances are no other person can come up with what you do. While writing does have laws just like math, they are much easier to work with to create something new. They are more like guidelines anyway.The other half of writing that draws me in is the creative aspect. Writing gives you the ability to create something beautiful out of nothing. Just like a paintbrush, a keyboard has the ability to make something that inspires others to feel a broad range of emotion. I cannot count the number of times a piece of writing has made me upset or has inspired me to act or persuaded me to see things differently.

Writing is something that a lot of people see as an annoying task that is, well, just that. A task. It is not something fun to do for them. I see things a little differently. I do enjoy writing and when it can be something that has the potential to be powerful and meaningful, the real question is why wouldn't I write?