Visions: Load'o'fur

Did you know that if you take a picture of a mostly white cat a little bit too close or with the sun shining just so, they'll glow?

"Bean shines like the sun"

Yup. That is indeed my cat, and I take a lot of pictures of her... and when I upload them to the computer, I save the files under ... interesting names. Then promptly forget I've done so. Also, her name is Princess (I named her when I was little), but I call her my Bean or just 'Bean'

"Bean is very, very close"

I like macro shots. I find that they put things in this light that you rarely get to see, if because you don't look at it at that particular angle/proximity or if, like myself, you can't see things when they're that close (my eyes simply won't focus). It just manages to make ordinary things look extraordinarily different and, occasionally, amazing.

"Bean is tucked in"

My cat likes to snuggle under covers and get into those squeekably cute positions. Which is why I tend to take so many pictures of her. I have a folder on my computer for pictures of her. Just her.

"Bean gives the look"

She starts to not like being photographed so much, though. One thing I love about my precious Bean is that her reactions seem very human-like --- she gives The Look better than some people that I know. And also, she photographs really well. ...sometimes.

"Bean is a space kitteh"

---that word is pronounced with a loud last syllable, by the way. "Kitt-EH!" with the "EH!" pronounced like the classic Canadian interjection. We do say eh, by the way. All the time.
My cat puts up with so much. This was last Easter, and she was an astronaut because I wanted to see if she'd put up with me long enough for me to take a picture. As well, that's my hand in the background. I'd lost my balance and was trying to regain it without frightening her.

~Godspede

PS: I apologize for the time-stamps. I've grown to hate them (*looks at picture* *twitches*) so I've disabled them, but the older picture still have them. Sadly.

Visions: Pink Gorillas

It's funny how a life-sized, giant, pink gorilla can bring so much joy into children's hearts. This one happened to be named Galileo and was sort of the mascot of our Vacation Bible School program at my church. Well, a miniature, green, puppet version of him was the mascot, and for our evening program my friend got to dress up as a pink version of him and give the kids hugs. The costume was extremely hot, apparently, so it's a good thing she didn't have to do much dancing.

Watching her dance made me laugh... I just couldn't help it. It looked so weird for some reason. I guess I'm just not used to seeing giant pink animals boogie down. How odd.

~Godspede

Muses: VBS

Helping out at my church's Vacation Bible School this last week reminded me of a few things, like how me plus dancing will inevitably result in mistakes and some sort of clumsy disaster. But it also managed to remind me of something else.

Each day at VBS we focused on a different Bible story. They were neat this year: whereas they usually focus on Jesus and his ministry, this year they focused on stories like Elijah listening for "the still, small voice of God" to quote part of the gorilla's dialogue... things that we don't usually touch on, but that still carry a good strong message. And one of the days it focused on how God is always near us even when we can't feel his presence, just like the stars are always in the sky even when they aren't visible (the theme was outer space).
That one was unexpected, because usually things that reach out to children don't touch on the darker feelings of being alone; they stick with the love and peace and happiness... much more accessible to the younger audience. But the opening lyrics to one of the songs was "Like a star who's lost it's light/I was fading in the night/Wondering if someone even cared/". It continued on to say, though, "Then I heard a good friend say/'Let Jesus change your life today./He's waiting; come to him in prayer...'"  Unexpected, but touching and well-handled.
After an opening session of singing and a skit, the kids would go off and rotate through three stations that all followed the particular theme of the day: crafts, games, and Bible storytime. The storytime station was cool, 'cause they would act out parts of the bible stories. But on Friday, a couple of their key "actors" weren't able to make it. So my friends and I had to fill in for them. They were minor parts, and I actually had the fewest lines---I would say the minor part, but the character I was playing was Jesus so I can't call him minor with a clear conscience. The other two parts were Cleopas and the "other disciple". And the story was Jesus' resurrection, when he walks with the disciples and asks them about what's been happening, then leaves them... and after he leaves, the disciples realize who, exactly, they'd just been hanging out with. Their Lord and Saviour, risen from the dead! The women had been right! He was back!

Hearing this story being told through the ecstatic styles of my friends who nailed the exhilaration of those disciples, I got goosebumplies. I love being reminded time and time again of that wonderful news, that he came back to life. It's so uplifting, so cheering, that it makes my heart soar to the heavens. And I commented to one of the other leaders afterwards: I can never hear that story too many times. It never grows old, and every time it seems to make me grin like a fool.

~Godspede

Visions: Heaven

  Once again at camp, I was lying in my bedroom talking to my best friend. She gets distracted by all things doing with the sky, since it turns into these pretty shades of orange, pink then purple as the sun sets. Coupled with the reflecting power of the lake, it paints quite a beautiful picture.
One evening she forced me to look out with her (as someone who practically lives out there during the summer and who has trouble feeling happy 24/7, sunsets have mostly lost their magic with me). I sighed and obliged, sitting up and looking out... then I blinked and practically did a double-take.
What I saw out the window was, as I could best describe it, Heaven shining down on us. I was thrilled and took a picture, and for once my camera co-operated and didn't pull anything funny on me, as it's so apt to do.


~Godspede

Visions: Q-tips

At my camp, we have two docks: one is on the left of our property, and one is on the right. These two docks provided a secure swimming space for my siblings and I when we were younger and now for my parent's grandkids. They also trap in the beach sand my dad has had brought in, keeping it from being pushed away by the ebbing waves. The left one, pictured above, prevents the ice in winter and spring from damaging our much nicer main dock. This dock, as a result, gets heavily damaged when the ice starts to shift. It was so badly damaged that my dad had to repair it.
My dad works with fiberglass often, so he used fiberglass rings to add structure to our docks. The fiberglass ring at the very tip of the left dock actually was pushed far to the right by the ice, so rather than push it back my dad added one to the other side and built around it. He spent several days nailing the wood around the rings, making it look rather lovely, then placed some boards at the end to get the look of the dock and sat down for a break.

DAD: *Stares at dock* *looks at it in disbelief* "...my dock... it looks like a Q-tip. I've built a giant Q-tip."

ME: "...well, look at it as a... a huge.... *Slowly* thermometer?"

DAD: *Raises an eyebrow* *looks back at dock* ".... a giant Q-tip...."


~Godspede

New Section

So... drumroll please...

DUN DADA DAAAAH!!

I'm going to start a new catagory!!

This may be quite ambitious of me, but what I'm aiming to do is update this thing weekly. The post will be a picture that I've taken along with my reason for taking them. I love photography, and I find that more often then not what adds the beauty to the picture are those reasons behind it. You know, exactly why the picture was taken. So this is what I'll aim to do... and it will be the post after this one, ergo the one above this one.

~Godspede