Days 5 and 6: Wellesley, MA

Friday, I wasn't feeling the best, and didn't really see anything inspirational in the least, so y'all get 2 pictures from today!

I don't need to walk around in circles

Kevin and I were walking around Wellesley this afternoon, and we came upon this tree. The tree itself wasn't very interesting, but the fact that someone had enough time on their hands (ok, feet) to mark out a perfect circle with their shoeprints was somewhat puzzling. Also, slightly dizzying.

Tree shadow

Kevin pointed out this really cool shadow as we walked between some buildings. The sun was starting to take a sharp angle in the western part of the sky, projecting this perfect silhouette of the tree and the lamp post on the wall.

Bonus pic: Kevin by the tracks

Okay, so this isn't strictly a pic of the day, but I snapped this pic of Kevin while he was sitting, waiting for me to finish taking pictures of the shadows on the walls. I love when the perfect composition presents itself effortlessly. I'm usually not that good at taking portrait-style photos, but I love the way this one came out.

Day 4: Glitter

I found myself completely uninspired while at work today, so I asked Kevin to challenge me, give me a word, and I'd go outside, take a walk, and find something to snap a photo of in 10 minutes. The word he gave me was...

Glitter

This is the kind of picture that happens when I'm feeling uninspired, and my camera batteries keep dying. I think it crosses over the realm of artistic and starts just being weird... but the bubbles look really cool, anyway, if you click and view it bigger.

Day 3: Open and closed

Open and Closed

Walking back from lunch, I spotted the first flower of the season blooming in the middle of a half-dead grassy patch, lit by the warm sun. On my way home, I walked past the same grassy patch, and couldn't resist looking for the flower again. I was surprised to see it had closed up, being in the shade.

I see myself in this innocuous little flower. Opened up to the world, colorful and cheerful when things are bright, but closed off into myself when things turn a little darker and cooler. But there will always be another day. Even if the next day is still dark, cool and wet, there will eventually be another bright day coming.

Day 2: Dude, where's my bike?

Is it still a unicycle if it doesn't have a frame?

I wonder how awesome the bike must have been to take it, sans front wheel. Or perhaps the owner lost the key to his/her lock. But, who would pass up the perfect opportunity to use a Sawzall? Powertools are fun, yo!

Day 1: Chinese Lantern

What exactly is "Picture of the day"?
Inspired by Russell Davies' blog entry on how to be more interesting and Photojojo's Project 365, I'm going to be taking a picture a day, and posting it here.

What do I hope to accomplish?
Truthfully, I'm not sure. A scrapbook of fleeting moments and objects in my life, I suppose. For now, the picture-taking will be more unfocused, to try to get in the swing of things, but I do believe that it will become more focused as time goes on. I can see a couple of different focuses developing: an exercise in only being able to take one picture a day, and learning to make it count; or an exercise in seeking out or creating the picture that best sums up that day, whether emotionally or physically.

Without further ado, I give you Day 1 of "Picture of the day".

Chinese Lantern

It was a grey, dreary day, not even raining hard enough to be interesting. Everything in Harvard Square was bland and monochromatic, except for the red "Tomato Light" lanterns bobbing and swaying from the lamp posts. They were hung up for Chinese New Year over a month ago, and they're showing the wear and tear. Still, on a day like today, it's the only thing of beauty around.

First order of business: new design!

What kind of a creative geek would I be if I didn't ditch the premade Blogger template and replace it with a little bit of my own flavah? So this isn't exactly the cutting edge of exciting design - but for an information portal like a blog, I've often found that simpler is better. Of course, that doesn't mean that tweaks and updates won't be forthcoming - quite the opposite, in fact. It's late, and my eyes are burning.

The nifty pixel background was created with the help of this Photoshop pixel patterns tutorial, and some of my color inspiration came from the somewhat tongue-in-cheek Web 2.0 color palette for Photoshop (the light background color is supposedly "Techcrunch Aqua").

The obligatory intro post

From Wikipedia:

A geek is an individual who is fascinated by knowledge and imagination, usually electronic or virtual in nature.

Creativity (or creativeness) is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing ideas or concepts.

Creativity and geekiness are not mutually exclusive. Contrary to the stereotype of the fact-focused, ultra-logical geek, today's geek is more well-rounded and socially adept than ever before, thanks to the proliferation of information and inspiration on the Internet.

This is the blog of a member of the new generation of geeks. I spend all day at work sitting at the computer, coding. My mind is wandering elsewhere, wondering what the weather will be like this weekend and whether I can find somewhere interesting to take pictures. Thinking about my website, and wishing that my web design skills were up to par, and wondering how I can fix that. Wondering just how long it's been since I picked up a crochet hook and worked on the blanket I started crocheting last year (answer: since about two weeks after I started it).

What am I hoping for by starting this blog? Fame? Fortune? A lifetime supply of cheese? At the very least, I want to share my creative endeavors and inspirations with others, and I hope that someone out there finds it interesting, helpful and inspiring.