Anita's Notebook » pictures

What Story Would You Tattoo On Yourself?

Anita — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:01:34 +0000

Saw this picture over on Pinterest and it really made me think,

It’s a tattoo that someone had done on their arm of something from the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. The tattoo is of the carvings of the two trees, crown, gate arch, etc on the door to the doom-filled domain of Moria.

Obviously something about that part of the Lord Of The Rings story made such an impression on that person that they had this large tattoo done to permanently bind it to them. I wish I could ask that person what it was and if they’re going to have more LOTR tattoos done.

Seeing this picture made me wonder what kind of story-based tattoo I would get if I were to do something like that. The first stories that popped into my mind were something from Ender’s Game or Ender’s Shadow, two of my favorite books.

But then I then I thought about the author of those books…Orson Scott Card.

Long story short Orson Scott Card (amongst other things) is quite the homophobe and thinks that equality for gay people means the ‘end of democracy in America’.

Er, hmm. I’m thinking a tattoo of something by him might burn my skin from all the transferred bigotry so never mind on that one 0_o.

Back to the drawing board I guess, I’m not sure what kind of story tattoo I’d get. What do you think …what kind of story tattoo would you get and would it matter to you who the author was?

Sledding, Pizza, And A Cabin In Alaska (A Story In Pictures)

Anita — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 02:59:23 +0000

It was well into the afternoon by the time Jennifer and I finally made it out of town. We had stopped by a grocery store for some last minute supplies and got stuck in line behind some lady with a bad check that just would not walk away from her two item purchase.

I mean seriously crazy woman, how many times does the same check have to be run before it’s obvious that it’s not going to work? Anyways lol…

Where where we? Oh yeah, heading out of town the roads were pretty icy but not unmanageable. All the same I was happy not to have to drive.

Jennifer did all the driving so I was free to take some pictures. I’d never been out this way during the winter and it was cool to see a different side of this landscape.

Some waterfalls still ran with icy cold water, some were already frozen solid. Later on I saw a man and a woman with buckets under the waterfalls collecting the water and hauling it back to their truck.

The road skirts the mountains next to the constantly shifting waters of the Turnagain Arm.

Beautiful but deadly. A walk out there would probably be fatal, as the mud would suck you in and the tides come in pretty fast.

No mud at the sledding spot though, nothing but fluffy snow all around…perfect for sledding.

Everybody knew they had to get their game faces on…

…and get a running start because it was going to be quite a climb to the top…

See that top peak with the two sets of double black diamonds (er, double double diamonds)? Yeah that’s where our launching spot was.

Okay I may have exaggerated a little :D, but the hill was pretty high up.

The top of the hill had some pretty views of the mountains and water.

After getting to the top of the hill we “admired the view” i.e. caught our breath from such a steep climb. Then a couple of pictures in case we died on the way down lol…

Jennifer and I ;).

Fallon and Brenda, Fallon got a sudden attack of the giggles.

Jennifer was the first to try the hill, there seemed to be a lot of bumpy spots so we weren’t sure how it’d go.

I didn’t get any pics of this part because I switched over to video, will probably post the video later but here’s how it went:

Jennifer flew down the hill, hit a bump, wiped out, and then jumped back on to fly down the last part. Brenda shot like a bullet screaming the whole way and landed in a big patch of snow that splashed up like it was water lol.

And Fallon…

saw how much fun everybody was having and didn’t want to wait for the sled to come back up so she just used her snowpants as a sled.

I think we were out there for about an hour just giggling and alternately shooting down the hill or wiping out halfway.

The only problem with sledding in that kind of snow is that you get caked in ice after a while.

Any longer and we might have started to look like snowmen, it was time for pizza.

Deep blue mountains juxtapose against this little strip mall in the middle of nowhere. The souvenir shop is aptly named The Tourist Trap, during the summer there’s about oh I’d say a million or so RV’s parked outside of this place.

We picked up some freshly made pizza at the local pizza joint and drove it all back to the cabin…

The cabin is a nice little place run by a couple who lives next door.

I didn’t know much about it going in other than it had electricity and wi-fi that may or may not work. Not that the wi-fi was strictly necessary since my phone had full internet coverage in the area.

I mean seriously I expect that in a couple years to be able to hike out to the middle of the wilderness and check my email anywhere along the way.

It was a good looking cabin with beautiful windows.

The inside of the cabin was nice and cozy with a lot of amenities. Definitely more than I’m used to getting in a cabin by far and maybe just a touch too much for my taste, but it was perfect for this situation.

Strange thing about these snowshoes, they didn’t actually look to be a matching set. I was really wishing for some sort of book or something that explained the history of the cabin and some of the things there, but maybe there was and I missed it somehow.

It had a nice kitchen with ample places for us all to plug in our cell phones lol.

Brenda said that Vincent Doran is the guy that built the cabin way back when.

At the back of the cabin is a sturdy ladder that goes up to the sleeping area.

Fallon had limitless energy and could fly up the stairs and down again without barely any effort.

D’oh! I knocked my head into that beam in the middle of the night while sitting up to adjust the blankets.

The owners did well in utilizing the small space upstairs fitting two beds, a couple of end tables, and still ample space to walk around.

This giant window made the upstairs seem much bigger too.

Apparently this box contains a ladder that’s supposed to be used in case there’s a fire and you’re stuck in the loft area. However somebody would probably burn to death before they could squeeze in there and back out again with the box o’ ladder, just sayin.

Looking down on to the living room and Jennifer relaxing with a nice magazine and the fire crackling in the background.

“I’m a polar bear!” she exclaimed.

There was a guest book with lots of interesting entries by people from all over the world talking about their stay. I liked the pictures the best though, like this one of some sort of mutant dinosaur bird attacking the cabin.

“Mine’s better!” Ha.

Some people even left photos, like this baffling picture of a kangaroo standing in front of a Christmas tree. Australia? But that only explains some of it lol.

All in all an excellent trip. It was lots of fun, exciting and relaxing in just the right amounts, thanks to Brenda and Fallon for inviting us out there!

The Danger Of The Looming Wolf

Anita — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 07:59:08 +0000

(via Visualizeus)

I’ve seen a ton of pictures illustrating the Little Red Riding Hood story lately but this is one of my favorites so far.

I love how the artist articulated the wolf looming in the woods, the danger he poses is everywhere and nowhere at once. Also love how Little Red Riding Hood is skipping into the woods with pigtails up, not a care in the world …yet.

It’s interesting to think that some of the oldest versions of this story didn’t include the happy ending that we’re all so familiar with. In those old versions after Little Red Riding Hood is eaten by the wolf there is no nearby woodcutter to come and rescue her nor is she able to outsmart the wolf and run away.

Instead the wolf eats her and…that’s it, that’s the end. A harsh story for what was often a very harsh world back then. But as the world changed so did the story and the danger of the looming wolf was transformed along with it.

The Story Of Major Tom Told In Pictures

Anita — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 07:59:14 +0000

Ground control to Major Tom
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on.

You might remember the song Space Oddity by David Bowie, it was a sort of trippy song that told the story of Tom, a man who was sent on an ill-fated mission into outer space. Best listened to while drawing deep from a nice joint no doubt.

Well someone recently made a picture book based on Space Oddity. The illustrator of the book, Andrew Kolb, explained the project with ‘Have you ever been soo inspired that you simply want to create?’

Here’s a sample of some of the pictures from the book:

Cool huh? You can download the whole book in PDF form from this link if you want to see the rest: http://www.mediafire.com/?j0zczbm666a6lkh

The Soldier In The Doorway

Anita — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 07:59:02 +0000

I’ve been fascinated with this picture ever since I saw it a few years ago while trying to find pictures of soldiers serving in Whittier, Alaska during World War Two.

It turned out not to be a picture from Whittier, though it was taken somewhere else in Alaska during the same time period (maybe Nome?). But instead of moving on to the next picture in the search results I found myself sitting there wondering about this one, there was just something really striking about the soldier in the doorway.

He’s looking into the camera with such a charged look, makes me wonder what he was thinking and going through at the time.

On one hand it seems to be a look of pure misery, like someone who’s having a bad time and definitely does not want to be there. Maybe he was far from home and the look is a begrudging endurance of a bitter cold winter that he wasn’t used to. But on the other hand there is a strong element of defiance to his look as well.

Kneeling in the doorway he’s feeding a dog from one of his k-ration cans, transforming what was probably the same ol’ unpalatable processed meat he’d had a million times before into something that would at least make the some living creature happy that day.

That’s what I get from the picture anyways lol, what kind of story do you see? There’s no doubt tons of different stories that could be seen in this one snapshot depending on who you ask. I wish I could ask him directly though that’s for sure but I’ll have to settle for guessing at what his real story was.

Backyard Summer Theatre

Anita — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 07:59:18 +0000

I like this picture a lot and I think it’s a really cool idea, a nice way to do a lazy summer get together where you watch movies and eat popcorn late into the evening.

However I feel like this is probably one of those things that works much better in magazine pictures than in real life lol.

I could be wrong though. Actually I’d love to be wrong …who wants to give it a try this summer and set this up in their backyard? I’ll bring the popcorn ;).

For Some, Easter Is A Time Of Terror…

Anita — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 21:54:14 +0000

Happy Easter everyone ;).

Morguefile: Free Pictures To Help Tell Your Story

Anita — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 07:59:17 +0000

(picture by gordonwd)

Big shoutout to all the people that contribute to morguefile.com, the site where I get many of the pictures for Beginning.

Morguefile is a place where you can find lots of free pictures with practically no strings attached, you can use or modify them or whatever for pretty much any purpose you want.

The site was named after a term used by people in a wide variety of fields like criminal investigation, reporting, comic book illustrating, etc for folders that contained old pictures and notes which might be useful again in the future.

What I like a lot about the pictures at Morguefile is that they aren’t cookie cutter stock photos that have had all the soul sucked out of them. The pictures there are varied and have depth, which helps me tell the stories I want to here on this blog.

If you have a blog or do creative work with pictures then I definitely recommend checking it out:

http://www.morguefile.com/

Unusual And Creative Bookshelves

Anita — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 14:30:50 +0000

For some reason I’ve been coming across a lot of pictures of unusual bookshelves lately.

I don’t know if it’s just chance or if it’s a new trend or what, but it’s definitely neat to see all the different ways that people are re-inventing the traditional bookshelf.

(via Weheartit)

This is the picture that made me want to write a blog post about creative bookshelves. If you put up this bookshelf in your living room it would definitely be the thing that everybody’s eyes would go to right away and a conversation piece, it’s just so different.

(via Vectroave)

Here’s one that’s simple in design but is very unusual. Another picture of the same bookshelf shows this guy casually walking on the inside circle reading a book as it moves along. It’s an interesting and pretty art piece but not practical for sure, especially if you have small children or pets around the house that could be injured by it.

(via Make)

Some people say this bookshelf looks sad, but to me it looks like it barfed up a bunch of books. Either way it’s a cool design.

(via Visualizeus)

Great use of space and the books are arranged nicely too. Those stairs look pretty dangerous though…

(via Ellfhouse)

This one’s really weird and different. I like it though, I wouldn’t necessarily put it in my own house but I think it’s cool how there’s a sense of movement to it.

The Dancers Among Us

Anita — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:59:14 +0000

Ran across a really great set of pictures this week. It’s a project called Dancers Among Us and the pictures basically show dancers doing normal everyday things but…differently.

I absolutely love the retelling of mundane day to day actions like riding an escalator or sitting on a bench in such a fun and creative way. I wish I could see such interesting stuff when I’m out doing some boring errand or something.

Sometimes the best part of the pictures are the reactions of the people in the crowd, like this guy:

Check out the awesome set of Dancers Among Us pictures at Fubiz, I bet you’ll smile :).