The world is a great big beautiful place. For those of you who have been running around all week, here are some pretties for you. My brain is mostly fried from work so the thing with the words on the screen isn’t working too well. I provide pictures. I took these a few days ago about town.
After all. A picture is worth a thousand words.
May 13, 2010: Two dried roses in front of a Moulin Rouge movie poster in my bedroom. Photoshopped for brightness, but the contrast and color is natural. Blurriness courtesy of constant sneezing.
Inspired by the 05-02-2010: 15:00 Lens project, I am going to start taking a photo of the day. I would prefer to be able to take photos at the exact same time every day, but no such luck I’m afraid, with an inconsistent work schedule. So a photo of the day it will be. It’ll fill in where my header photo is and I’ll see if I can’t make it do some mad-skills caption thing that won’t interfere with my block-quotes on the quotation of the day.
This post is kind of a test to see if my skills are mad enough.
This is going to sound weird, but we’re currently having a conversation in my Age of Enlightenment about the political correctness of language. A very neutral conversation, I promise. I think Tynesha could sit in this conversation and not be offended (though I’m sure she would have something to say). It’s interesting, how words go in and out. I’ve always had the problem where I don’t know what to say because I don’t know which is technically the politically correct term. “Black” or “African-American” (yes, I’m smart enough to know that “negro” and “nigger” is off-limits)? We weren’t talking about race, though. We were talking about gender and sexuality. And my professor brought it up.
The language of the world changes so quickly and so easily. Is it okay to call somebody “gay” still, or is it considered “homosexual”? And can you use the work “gay” to describe joy? I use “gaiety” in my writing all the time- is that okay? I don’t want to offend people, that’s for sure, but sometimes I just don’t know where to take things. I guess it’s person to person.
I have this acquaintance. They are transsexual and I don’t know whether to call him/her/it… well… him, her, or it. It’s incredibly confusing. That’s where the title comes from. My professor mentioned that you can now take what is, inoffensively, called “Queer Studies”. A student asked if you could major in Queerology, and the class laughed awkwardly. It’s a good question, though. Our world is certainly much different than it was thirty years ago.
In other news, outside of gender language confusion, I searched “Harry Potter” on WordPress and I came across this really fantastic set of photographs done by an artist named Lissy Elle. The image at the beginning of this post is from that set (which is, I understand, still in progress). I think they’re brilliant; so much so I had to include it. I’m looking through another of her photography sets as I type, and I think she’s brilliant. Definitely worth a look. She has a brilliant and beautiful imagination. I think she’s using a lot of Photoshop, but I still think it’s all brilliant and beautiful, and I approve. And it’s definitely not all Photoshop. She takes a lot of pictures of herself. I keep looking at them and I’m trying to figure out how she does it. … I guess knowing what the trick was would make the magic go away.
I’m making herself stop looking at the photographs. They’re so amazing and I can’t properly appreciate them at the moment. They make me want to grab a friend and just do a set of amazing photos of them. Maybe different friends, all at different times. I think that would be a fun thing to do this summer.
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Health Report: This morning I decided to go to breakfast and started binge eating. I ate a huge bowl of Cheerios with 2% milk, then I went and got two sausage patties and a bagel with cream cheese. I was feeling so grossed out with myself I only ate half the bagel and one sausage patty. So- desire to binge = bad; my brain and body refusing to eat all the food I have gathered = good. Also, when I went to get my Fluff-a-nutter this afternoon, I got SunChips, but then traded them for a Strawberry Nutri-Grain Bar. Same amount of calories, but there’s more good stuff in the Nutri-Grain Bar. Go me.
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Random Squee: I saw the coolest bike today. It’s ’57 Chevy mint toothpaste green and has a cute basket attached to it. It’s so delightfully retro and makes me incredibly happy. It’s the second time I’ve seen this bike, and it may’ve made my day both times.
Feathers & Fangs 