Thread: Some random scribblings

Well I'm sorry I can't appease your poetic taste, Shift.

Originally Posted by Shift

I despise reading most others' writing and poetry...

Fixed
Although I don't think I've ever read yours so I must reserve judgment.

While we're on poetry.. My grandmother (1886 - 1977) was a poet, and about 20 years ago, one of my brothers was able to track down copies of all her known output via one of our aunts and sent it to me. By now, my grandmothers' descendants number well over 100 as she had 4 daughters and 2 sons.

So this got me thinking, what about the poets who have no family? No descendants to pass their work down to? This was prolly early 90's, I was never much for dating my stuff.

A poet died
His words were tucked away
His life, his love, his memory
A tombstone, name and date

A shoebox on an attic shelf
I lift the dusty lid
Beneath uncaring rafters
His dead words once more live

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Meet the American Pika. He's a relative of the rabbit, and he lives at high rocky elevations in the American West. He's also cute as hell. I offered him 5 bucks to pose for me, but he said he has no use for our currency, asking instead that if any eagles or other birds of prey might be about that I give him and his buddies a heads up.





MoS is totally gay for this picture.

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Yes, yes I totally am.

But I'm going to kill you for oversharpening it when you resized.

That picture of the glacial lake? Expletive amazing! And the poem about dead poets...deep and evocative of pondering.

Originally Posted by Man of Steel

But I'm going to kill you for oversharpening it when you resized.

Oh boo hoo.

You only noticed at all because I sent you un-futzed original. I only applied the unsharp mask with a radius of 3 and an amount of maybe 0.35.. you think I'm gonna stick a professional camera/lens in a backpack, especially one with 65 pounds of other shit in it? In short, and I say this with great love and respect, bite me.

[edit]
Here's the same thing, sharpened per your specifications, and dammit, you're right Photoshop DOES sharpen a lot better than Gimp.





But you're still an ass-hatter.

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Originally Posted by Shift

I despise reading others' writing and poetry because it either quite simply sucks, or even if it's good just doesn't do it for me. I am incredibly picky. But,

I loved reading yours.

Thanks Shift!

I hope I didn't over-sharpen my words.

:::Gives MoS a dirty look:::

See? No more noise or artifacts.


You know I love you like an uncle, Flav.

A story in 4 photos:













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That's awesome, almost unreal. How far apart in time did you take the photos?

It almost looks like the seasons.

Let's see..

the 1st was 9-7-2003 @ 18:40 (the previous evening)
The 2nd was 9-8-2003 @ 16:05 (storm comes rolling in)
The 3rd was 9-8-2003 @ 18:19 (thickest fog I've even seen, 10 minutes later, the picture would have been pointless.)
The 4th was 9-9-2003 @ 10:21 (next morning after a night of rain, snow, sleet, hail, wind and lightning. Had the temperature not been hanging around freezing, but a bit lower, estimate would have been 18 inches of snow.

Incidentally the spot for burying Kiza is probably a couple miles further up the basin, away from the lakes.

Here's another perspective on the location of the camp. You can see the glacial stream emptying into the upper of the 2 Titcomb lakes, with Summer Ice Lake tucked in behind and 500 feet higher to the left of the peak known as "The Buttress". The camp we would be at several days after this photo was taken (from a 12,000 foot gap on a ridge on a shoulder of Fremont Peak separating Indian Basin and Titcomb Basin) would be to the near side of the glacial stream, several hundred yards upstream and blocked from view by the ridge itself. The lakes and camp lie at 10,700 feet, so I'm 1,300 feet above for this shot. The areas of white are not snow cover, but rather glaciers.

I wish the sky would have been more compelling for this shot, but the cloud cover (only slight hints of blue in thin spots in the cloud cover) and lighting conditions that took away the sky probably gave me a few things I couldn't have captured under better sky photography conditions. And yes, the lakes up there really do appear to the eye in that insanely gorgeous color when viewed from higher up.



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No bites on the last one? Shit. Tough crowd.

Filed under "what in the hell is this thing?"




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Seneca Lake in moonlight:




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Closer to home, Big Creek at the far eastern end of the Smokies is known for having insanely emerald green water at some of the deeper holes. This one, Midnight Hole, is the jewel of Big Creek.




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And the way I like to see it:




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Oh my goodness, Dan! Who knew we had a superb photographer hiding out in the shadows! I love them, I love so many of them that it'd be tedious to point out which ones I loved.

Great work!

The winter of 2003-2004 was rough for me. I've hinted at the ordeal to a few of you, but it's not something that I talk about unless there's a very good reason for me to bring it up. When things are bad, no matter how bad, I still believe they will get better. It's just been long enough for me to look back without being sucked back.

This one is brand new since I put it together just now, It's unpolished and needs work, but I like it.

The folly of despair
No sight of simple truth
Life does cruel things to us
But life drifts on, carrying us past
Lest we dwell too long with pain

But what of our season of pain?
Does it linger here too long?
Heartbreak may be out-lived
Though never quite out-run

And the sun slips low into the sky
Through Winter Solstice days
In vain to warm our frozen world
But higher each new day

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Impressive for such a shit talker

Your poems that I read are very good and have a great flow. The pics are amazing as well; I absolutely love post #40, it is so serene and dream like...

Good job ol' chap!

Thanks Xoxy! And Thanks dod.. uh, I think! From one shit talker to another.

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This is obligatory, so I might as well get it out of the way.

This is Patty, she's 8, and she's a big baby at 100+ pounds. Half Black Lab/Half Rottweiller, she's still got a bit of her brown yet to shed out from Winter, by Fall she's jet black all over.



This is Allie, she's also 8, and is a total shit. I'm talking absolute shit. She doesn't care one bit either. Her attitude is, "Yea, I'm bad, and you're happy to see me!" Allie has to be the most symmetrical tuxedo cat I've ever seen.



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This is me and my buddy Robert at the top of Grassy Ridge Bald (elevation 6,189 feet), a few miles on the other side of the Carvers Gap parking area from Roan Mountain. Robert is a bit of a character... well, actually, quite a character. Robert keeps quite a gut for a hiker, possibly due to the fact that he thinks nothing of lugging a full case (24) of beer as far as 20 miles on his back just so, as he puts it, "I can get a good drunk on". One can remind him that liquor is more compact, but he won't hear it. The man loves his beer.

This was my sig picture for the longest time, but I had to cut some of it off to fit the sig.




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More from the Smokies... I love this place.




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