That’s one Red Tree on a Bright Day!
I’m not sure what kind of tree this is, but it’s RED and it’s Spring!
Photography Show Opens May 7
Myself and three other photographers, eleven photos by me.
Show runs through August 29.
Wooly Worms
We called them Wooly Worms when we were kids. I’ve seen many Wooly Bear Caterpillars in the woods this Fall. Strange to see ‘bugs fresh’ this time of year, as it seems they should be active in Spring, rather than just before it gets cold.
Folklore / mythology states the the size of the Wooly Bears stripes are predictors of the coming winter.
This has been scientifically disproven.
Some interesting facts about the Wooly Bear:
- are the larval stage of the Isabella Tiger Moth (Pyrrharctia isabella).
- they hibernate over the winter, they are protected from freezing by an alcohol based ‘antifreeze’ (cryoprotectant) they produce and secrete into their body. They pupate and become moths the following Spring.
- when Wooly Bears are infected by an intestinal parasite, they consume the Senecio plant, which contains alkaloids that kills the parasitic fly eggs.
Watch out for the Wooly Worms this Fall!
Fall Milkweed @ ‘The Meadow’
Brighton, NY – November 2009 ©
Traveling to Indiana
I’ll be off line for a few days as I travel to Indiana to visit Family.
There is a slight chance I may post content from the road, but doubtful as I’m going to be in some remote areas that do not even have cell phone service.
Look for some new photographs made in the great midwest next week!
No Far Away
Space is the barrier to connections from far away. Long distance charges may still apply, but with more technological advancement, communication from one end of the globe is as or more common as talking over the backyard fence with your neighbor. ‘Far Away’ only matters in meteorological (it’s warm in Australia in December) and the Flesh (there’s no substitute for a real body warmth).
Myths memorized by shamans and repeated around campfires to wireless access anytime from anywhere resulting in the commonality of human communication. Conversely, the homogeneity of message has broken down, consume media from one political web site and another and you can experience near instant cognitive dissonance, one web sites truth is another sites lie.
Expansion of Device, Channels and User Behavior.
From old to new, our media choices are:
Newspapers, magazines, billboards, mailings, bumper stickers. Cell Phones, Telephones, Telephone answering systems, ATM’s, Online Banks, Digital Cameras, Video Cameras, Radios, Stereos, CD Players, Turntables, cassette decks, Gameboys, portable music players, portable TV’s, big screens in the home, DVDs in the car, GPS systems, Thumb Drives, DVD and CdR’s, Walkie talkies, Computer screens in fixed or mobile locations spilling out true multimedia experiences and don’t forget CB and HAM radios!
So with the variety of channels, our one single fleshy brain now has the old and new ways to consume and create content. In this time of Twittering and text messaging how quant is the handwritten letter? How outdated and musty is a photo album? How antique is a rotary phone?
Machines we use daily are a part of our body from first use. Natural, right, satisfying. The machines help us, or they can hurt us, sometimes very slowly and subtly. Or they can make us numb. Too many channels, too much data to ‘responsibly’ consume. Finding the one digital item that you know exists in the haystack of data on your computer or somewhere out there on the web could be a quick task, or could take hours.
Search through a heavy stack of 33 1/3 long playing records looking for the one song, place the vinyl on a turntable, clean the vinyl, drop the needle and enjoy…a five minute task that is swept away by the flick/click of an mp3 player with thousands of songs and videos ”at your fingertips!”
Button Power
The SEND button is thought bomb or Statement of Love.
What is more satisfying than the ability to ” Tell someone off?” Anonymously and with no real result. Put someone in place through a faceless tool. Lightning and thunder! Real life behavioral protocols are archaic, abandoned, and ignored. Posting instantaneous digital sucker punches to unsuspecting brains.
Reaction to email from an equal or underling:
- Receive the email and before opening it, you see who sent it at what time and perhaps a descriptive (innocuous?) subject. Depending on these factors, you may have already prejudged the message, most likely based on a previous interaction.
- You open he e-mail and before reading, mental inventory the length and structure, is it a ‘whole page’ or a quick red one sentence?
- Any ALL CAPS text?
- You as Mr. Or Ms., title or first / last name?
- After examining the package, see what inside:
- A list of orders,
- a request,
- a textual slap,
- a thank you note,
- a love note,
- or a total disregard for your ideas that smash your intellectual foundation?
Which ever the case, you respond if neccessary, using fuzzy kitten phrases, verbal bayonets, velvet wrapped bricks or honest true thoughts. While you’re composing- in the back of your mind is: ___Do you send it!?___ .
The message is composed, you lean back in your chair in satisfaction of the response the sender deserves. It’s ready to go, and you move the mouse over the SEND button. Ready to pull the trigger? Ready to drop the bomb? Once it flies, its forever out there. Never disappear; the reply may be ignored or irresponsible. Digital distance gives courage, insult with keyboard much safer than face to face. Crafty manipulators can bait the good via technology, and no matter how satisfying it may be to use an email as an intellectual cruise missile, do yourself a favor: Wait before you send. It may save your job and your face.
Remember the text could result in horrible repercussions or even worse, maybe your message is ignored…
Emotion and idea delivered through the digital box. Long distance lovers’ and haters reinforce feedback with text ooh, aah, hmm and chortle.
Us and Tech
We are citizens of a media culture who are constantly potentially distracted by ever increasing sources of information. Dozens of choices of how we receive data, from paper snail mail to wireless gadgets that keep us connected. Every year more hardware allows us more instantaneous contact with people, data and places.
How will our behavior evolve as more devices with faster feedback, quicker connectivity and larger screens become ubiquitous? What do these technological advances do to our interaction with time and place?
We have already begun to see a shift in how we interact with each other, how we view the world and our relationship to time. We can be ‘Friends’ with someone we never have met in person; we can make a photograph in a remote location and distribute it to a potential worldwide audience quickly and easily. Instant online transactions supersede days of letter carrier deliveries.
What drives the new ways of communicating? The allure of instant contact, anytime from anywhere. Call a friend on their cell phone; we still play the game “Guess where I am?” The connection may have static, but location could be Bolivia to Boston, Moscow to the Antilles. Location is flexible, friends/data/content are in a nearby time zone or half way across the world. When our friend is sleeping in Madagascar, our digital representatives will facilitate connecting later.