In Florida for January

My dad used to tell me, "as much as you read, I don't understand how your spelling can be so bad." Januaray Feburary March April May June July August September October November December Doesn't look that bad to me. What's reading got to do with spelling anyway? I'm self conscious about my words, spelling, writing and communication in general. Especially now that how you choose to communicate and to whom on different scales. I initially misspelled 'January'in the title up there. It bugged me but I couldn't place my mind on the part that was messed up. Firefox doesn't grab the text in blogger title boxes just the main body down here.

Anyways, I'm in Florida for the month. No naked tho. I'm caring for my grandfather. He's got stage 4 Parkinson's and I volunteered to take a shift. I was really scared about this trip. I'm still feeling things out. Tho i've crossed a couple of my self psyche out lines and am fine. Firstly there is the whole i don't trust myself with the care of anything. Ie. I burn water and kill plants with neglect. 4 Days in and meds have been mostly on schedule. It's the spacing and meal times (accounting for protein absorption; hello alcohol server training?) that make the math difficult. Then there's the driving. Anyone who knows me for real knows that I don't have a license and am quite terrified of driving. This was true until December 28th. I got my real live drivers license. Not sure how but, like the boy said whatever i did it worked, and i should keep doing it every time i drive. Apparently being scared of your own driving makes you a not so bad driver. Enough so that the kinda attractive tester person smiles at you and gives your papers to the registrar lady skipping the pass/fail baskets. (Which really confused me) Then there's how many people have dark places in their lives and generally these are associations with events or people or personal choices. Florida is my literal and figurative dark place. I love Florida and it has many beautiful memories. I love the trees; the old arching Live Oaks draped in tangles of Spanish moss. (ironically an alien parasite) I love the water; the rivers are my inspiration for so many dreams and thoughts. The springs are magic places. (road trip idea: skinny dipping in as many springs as we can find in a week. Takers... anyone?) I love the history of the state. I love the food and the diversity. (for such a small state hells yeah) Actually the people here are depressing. Crazy and bigoted and horrible to each other and themselves. Which is a great lead in to why i hate florida and will only ever visit. But bleh not here, now.

My dad took care of my grandmother the last 4 years of her life. She had Alzheimer's and Parkinson's together which made the two nearly impossible to treat effectively. Basically we lived in the woods so no one else could hear her. I helped if i could mostly i couldn't. Mostly i was just there. Nobody should ever have to witness complete insanity. Especially in a loved one. I'm pretty sure that was my worst nightmare, so that would mean my new worst nightmare would be reliving that in anyway with anyone else. Thankfully, my granddad is completely here, now, and whole in that regard. My selfish thoughts there quieted.

So what gives? why all this babbling? Because there is no boy here with me to be my ongoing thought sounding board. I'm getting bottled up with a need to spill forth words. Words just aimlessly scattered about annoy me so I have to organize them into little lines and put periods at the end of most of them to stop the lines. I used to do this on paper in a book with pretty pictures made from things i found. I've been moving around too much to properly collect and the things i have been collecting are bigger and more 3-d than they used to be. I write letters and never send them. I write letters and delete them immediately after finishing them. I don't have anyone I wish to write to at the moment. I don't have anyone I want to talk to about something that i can't . .. Hm that's a bit of a lie. It was pointed out recently to me that having this space for self expression (and reflection even) is an enviable fact. I've been typing up these trains of thought on the hard drive of my new isty bitsy on the go laptop. Sadly there is MAC filtering on the wireless here and no one seems to remember how to add a new computer to the network. Or even the router's password. (been changed from default already tried k thnx)So I am using a sorta communal laptop perched in the living room. (I'm going through boob withdrawal) I may get some paste in bits from those other recent evening rambles. Basically tune out for the rest of the month since unless something pops up in my inbox no more photos. I guess I could put fotos of other people in here. No editing software so i'm loath to put any of my recent snaps up even. All you get is words!!!

Cirque du Soleil Favorites

In thanks and inspiration to iMonstrosity's post earlier today (yesterday now) I'm sharing the two acts i've found in my internet rambles to be ... well... the most sensual and damn sexy circus acts ever. Really check out her post. The Aerial Straps from Varekai are number 3 on my list.

Life is Great

It really is. Especially when I get to work with photographers like Steve. His motto for his photographic adventures matches my own attitude: "If we're not having fun, we're doing something wrong."


After posing for Rob/ Nihilus a bit back in VA then moving out here, I thought that was the end of playing nude in front of a camera. I had tons of ideas and fanciful notions about shoots, but no serious modeling thoughts. I don't so much want to model as I want to play. That's what this is for me, playtime. This doesn't mean I don't want to/won't play hard and dirty. That said I prefer to "work" only with photographers who share this sentiment. Life Is Great Images definitely does. We first talked about working on some experiments with underwater nudes months before we could set our schedules in accord. When we finally got the chance, our shoots were very much learning experiences in what does not work for under water photography. The water does funny things to light, movement, and colors. We knew this and were actually counting on it both as a challenge and as a hearty helping of "Ooh that looks nice." Not many of these came out as workable images. In my editing I tried to highlight or exaggerate what I liked about them. So, the amount of photoshop used may cause nausea in anyone reading this who feels as tho an image should be left alone. We've worked together many times since and on several ideas. Each session continues to be a learning experience. It's really the process and the company I'm after tho. A few of my favorite images have been from a session when he came out to the new apartment the Boy and I are currently living in. Before we moved any furniture in; the place needed a photo shoot. I am in love with the deep windowsills. (as were the cats) I swear I'm not exaggerating when I say they're a little over a foot deep. We've got em covered in plastic and heavily draped now with the -10 F degree weather and snow.



He has opened his house to myself and the boy many times. His adorable corgi seems to enjoy our visits as much as we do. He knows how to melt a girls heart that dog. This last shot was from a really crack of dawn early day. (Which gave us gorgeous light.) I had gone out there to meet another photographer and it worked out that they both shot me in a field. (lolz) I tried to focus on doing things with my hands and arms that shoot. I'll have more from it up later.



Ok I lied that wasn't the last image. This one, from our last shoot is it I swear.

All images in this post were taken by and are Copy Write owned by: Life Is Great Images
Editing was by myself, blueriverdream except for that very last one there.

Nonsense

So things are back to normal around here. Sorta.

We've been off on adventures. We had a wedding to attend in Scotland and to get there and back again took some crazy travel scheduling. We traveled straight for 4 days. Did a shoot in NY during our stop over/ airport switch there. Had nearly every single flight as a red-eye. Stayed in a Hostel in London. Which in many ways was a highlight of the trip. I would highly recommend it to anyone between the ages or 18-35. It's the Astor Victoria and from talking to the fellow travelers there, is one of the cheapest true hostels left. Everything is self service, which in our age and budget bracket is awesome because it means you're not paying for services you either won't be utilizing or don't need.

The wedding was near Inverness, on Loch Ness in the Urquhart Castle ruins. It was a traditional Scottish wedding, sorta. Traditional in attire with kilts and sporans on the men. Other than that I've no idea how much of the form was formality for tradition or formality to show off. The bride's father was a professional wedding photographer. So of course, he did the whole thing himself. I was in awe of the bride. I'd been to weddings before, and met her before. But she was just astoundingly radiant. Lucky groom.


We had some weirdness with our flights so ended up on a 14 hour bus ride back down to London. There was a very, very short visit with my godfather and his family. Too short. But really good to meet the girls.

Then back to the States. We visited in VA for a few days. I ran around a bit with a couple friends and my brother. (all separate) I did manage to steal off into the woods of a park in the neighborhood I used to live in for a few photos.There was good drinks that day as well! And kittens! And an X-files commercial! And Rob and I need more shooting time. Definitely! And port!

Came back to the cats and work for a few days then ran off to Yellowstone. But that's another story. I need to post this otherwise it will never see light of day.

Crunchyroll - how to get your Asian fix

So like any good druggie, I am constantly in search of a reliable source. And like any drug the good stuff is rarely legal. When it is it probably shouldn't be. I jones after all things Asian.

I confess. I have an addiction.

Today while doing my usual search on IMDB (new horror movie coming out this summer didn't I see that in Korean or Japanese a few years back?) I'm sure ya'll have heard of J-horror due to the whole Ring franchise. Well Korea does horror better, more subtle. K-horror: next in the alphabet of horror to be remade for American audiences. The search I do is a wikipedia style following of links. From directors and producers, to writers, to actors; I search for movies that I might be interested in. It sucks doing this on IMDB because unless it was a HUGE hit then their info is limited and incomplete. Rarely do they have trailers or plot descriptions. Then when I find something promising I go to YouTube and search for a trailer. Then if I find a trailer and it still sounds good I go to the Piratebay and search for a torrent.

Netflix would be good too I bet. I don't like their endless strings attached deal. I like to be able to watch a movie on my time under my own supervision.

Right so if I find a torrent with English subs then I download it. After one day to a week I get to watch my movie, depending on seeders. (I don't care about dubs, I need to read lips or text and foreign languages rule out lips. Plus the dialog blends into the music sooo much better when I don't have to filter out words. )

Bleh this sucks.

Today I found Crunchyroll. http://www.crunchyroll.com/

They are awesome. It's basically like YouTube minus the personal crap. It streams live. I get to watch my movies, anime, whatever now! All subed (so far). It really makes the "Otaku" in me happy. And if you're looking for something then their wiki is great. It's Wikiroll http://wiki.crunchyroll.com/Main_Page Here it's like a database of everything on the main site. Pick from Anime, Drama, Music, ect. then pick your country of interest. The rest is alphabetical.

If you wanna see things Big, or in a higher quality you gotta donate. I think it's way worth it. I found several movies I've wanted to re-watch, and a whole slew of horror to get jumpy with.

Since the shut down of so many anime torrent sites and then TVlinks.uk (same week as Oinks pink palace r.i.p.), this is the best thing since shrimp chips and mochi.