Day One Hundred and Fifty-One: Go with the Flow

Well, I meant to give you something a little different today, but this quick snapshot of the Kansas River (just below the dam) caught a lot of action:

In the foreground a fishing boat is anchored against the current of the river, with two anglers standing in anticipation of their next big catch, following their lines downstream.

Above them, two kayakers relax for a moment on a bank of rocks while the rest of their party paddles eastward.

And on the opposite side of the river more fishermen see what they can pull out of the murky water from their primo spot on shore.

On this Sunday evening it seemed like everybody else was going with the flow - why should my picture of the day be any different!

Day One Hundred and Fifty: Summer Days

There are few things better than

Cold margaritas sweating

In the warm summer sun

And sounds of children splashing

And laughter

Among the company of good friends.

Day One Hundred and Forty Nine: Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign....

It's hard to miss the construction taking place on the KU campus this summer.

While the University of Kansas remains open for business this summer, many of the familiar walkways, drives, and buildings are blocked off, torn up, and closed for renovation.

It's hard to look in any direction and not see road-construction orange, although some places - like Potter's Lake - are as green as ever.

Below are some various shots of campus (how I spent my first day of summer vacation), taken from one corner of campus (translation: more to come!).

Click on any picture below to see the full view. Things to be on the lookout for:

• A tempting tube-slide outside of Wescoe Hall
  
  
• The Chi Omega fountain revisited (Emily's very first pic-of-the-day!)
  
  
• The new(ish) Korean War Memorial
  
  
• The castle-like Snow Hall (where I earned most of my math degree)
  
  
• A fun guy at Potter's Lake (oops, make that fungi)
  
  
• My dad's former (leaky) office in Bailey Hall, and
  
  
• A new(ish) sign that has been popping up around campus as of late (besides "Road Closed Ahead," that is...)

Enjoy! And click to enlarge:

Day One Hundred and Forty-Eight: First Flight

A few days ago I posted a picture from Wisconsin of a robin's nest with four blue eggs waiting to hatch.

Now we fast forward several weeks (or head 500 miles south to a slightly warmer climate) to find three healthy nestlings hanging out with mama robin in the tree outside my house.

These robins are very near their first flight, and so I have drawn up a little air-travel itinerary for them:

First Flight Airlines: Travel Itinerary Welcome to First Flight Air! We hope to make your first time flying go as smoothly as possible. One thing we ask is that all minors (under the age of 10 days) be accompanied by an adult. ...If this is not possible, a responsible sibling will do. ...This way we hope to eliminate any cause for alarm. If you are feeling hungry, a meal will be provided for you. ...Our meals are personally selected from only the finest grounds. ...And delivered right to your seat. ...In fact, right to your beak! If at any time you feel chilly, a blanket will be provided for your comfort. ...we want you to feel as cozy as possible. There is plenty of room to stand up and stretch... ...so don't get your feathers in a ruffle! If you need anything else, just call! ...After all, here at First Flight Air we are one close family. ...And we always encourage you to spread your wings and fly!

Day One Hundred and Forty-Seven: Light, Camera, Action!

Yesterday I practiced a little flashlight art. Today I continued the experimenting with a makeshift pendulum, a pitch black room, and a little bit of gravity.

Here are the results:




The idea for this pendulum art came from a website with photos taken by Scott A. Ensminger.

On his site he describes a more sophisticated process than my own (hanging a small flashlight and thread from a tack on the ceiling) for created these images - and he also has some more intricate photos!

The bottom-right picture for today was created by hanging the pendulum from a decelerating ceiling fan. The other "ceiling fan photos" didn't turn out as well as the simple pendulum pics - maybe room for a little more experimentation here.

If you have a camera that allows a long exposure time (these were 25 seconds each), give it a try! Every initial swing of the pendulum will give a new pattern.

Day One Hundred and Forty-Six: Light Reading

When it's close to midnight and there is still no picture for the day, it's time to muscle up some creativity.

Here - using a tripod, a long exposure, a flashlight, a some "air" cursive - is my best effort for today...and a little bit of "light reading" for you:

Even though this idea was an original one for me at the time, a quick Google search revealed that I was not the first person to try "flashlight art."

Although I'm currently mad at the Internet for pointing out the unoriginality of my "brilliant" idea, I did pick up a few pointers that should lead to some interesting results in my next go 'round.

...And unless I have any other bright ideas, that will be tomorrow!

Day One Hundred and Forty-Five: Out of the Blue

In the back yard of my parents' house there is a pond, large enough to be shared by neighbors on its four surrounding city streets.

And in the middle of the pond is an ever-mutating clump of mud and vegetation affectionately known as "the bog."

And in the middle of this bog - where I have stood from time to time (though more commonly in the winter months when the pond, and bog, are frozen) - comes a blue heron in search of a meal.

This great bird almost seems out of place - too exotic for our boggy little pond. Nonetheless, it faithfully appears, stands stoicly in search of food, then gracefully glides off to the next promising pond or lake in the neighborhood.

Here is a more artistic rendering* of the great blue heron in flight:

*Photographer's note: Artistic Rendering is code for, "the picture was too blurry to show otherwise!"

Day One Hundred and Forty-Four: Familiar Faces

What does a retired employee of the federal government responsible for monitoring the condition and availablilty of water resources for the upper midwest do in his free time?

Well, if you're like my new friend Tom, you try your hand at something you love, like free-hand sketching. And you pick a great place to do it, like the Como Lake Pavilion, on a great day to be outdoors, like today.

I happened to meet Tom this evening while visiting Como Lake to hear the gospel-esque stylings of Wild Honey and the Locusts, the music group for which my dad is a former bassist.

Just outside the concert pavilion, Tom was busy sketching passers-by, spending several minutes on a particular figure, then turning to a fresh page in his sketchbook and beginning again with a brand new subject.

He explains that drawing is like other skills - if you don't use it often enough, you start to lose it. And though he says it has been nearly a month since he last used his sketching talents, here as he studies Emily and Audrey - another new friend from the evening - he appears to be very proficient at the craft.

Thank you, Audrey, for nudging Tom to do these sketches. And thank you, Tom, for making them!

Oh, and in case you're wondering what this water researcher has to say about the Land of 10,000 Lakes: don't be fooled! Minnesota may have a plethora of lakes (over 15,000, in fact), but the amount of "usable" water is not so bountiful!

So don't leave the water running, and be quick with those showers.

Better yet, grab a bar of soap and go jump in a lake!

Day One Hundred and Forty-Three: All In One Basket

Here are some things you may or may not know about robins:

Dick Grayson, a member of the Flying Graysons acrobat team, was first taken under Batman's wing in April of 1940, under the crimefighting guise of Robin, the Boy Wonder.

In 1948 Burt Baskins and Irv Robins created their 31st ice cream flavor, chocolate mint, and the Baskin-Robins franchise began (in fact, one of our favorite bloggers used to scoop ice cream for the chain!).

In 1958 Bobby Day flew up to #2 on the Billboard Top 100 list with the song "Rockin' Robin." Tweet, tweet!

Female robins build nests out of mud and twigs and typically fill them with 2 to 4 eggs. Nests are usually at least 5 feet off the ground, and out of the way of nature's potentially harmful elements.

In lieu of a suitable tree branch, the top of an old stepladder leaning against the wall of a house with a large overhang will do just fine:

In two weeks or less these newly laid eggs will hatch and Mama Robin will have herself four little "nestlings."

Two weeks after that the babies will have grown feathers and will be ready to fly the coop, graduating to the label of "fledgling."

From there they can expect to live a happy, fruit-and-worm-ful six-years (longer, if they can avoid predators, malnourishment, and recently polished sliding glass doors).

The color of robin eggs is so unique that is has its own name...but this is not the first time robin's egg blue has made its way onto our posts.

I had another picture lined up for today's post, but this colorful arrangement of eggs was just too good to sit on!

---

Thanks for the info:
http://web.mac.com/wildlifeweb/Robin-Facts/
http://www.baskinrobbins.com/About/OurHistory.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Grayson

Day One Hundred and Forty-Two: On the Road Again

Emily and I are hitting the road again for a weekend trip up to Minnesconsin to visit my family.

Here is a shot taken from the passenger seat of my car as it rolled on up I-35 through Missouri (thanks for driving, Emily!).

Day One Hundred and Forty-One: Emerald City

The fountain sculpture looks like something straight out of the Lollipop Guild, but this isn't Oz.

Nonetheless, this view of the Lawrence visitor's center and train depot brings to mind that technicolor land just a rainbow's stretch away from another Kansas town. (Granted this is mostly due to the green tint I applied to the otherwise desaturated spotlit scene.)

Being from Kansas - but spending a significant part of my youth in another state - I was on the receiving end of a lot of "guess you're not in Kansas anymore!" jokes.

There really was no comeback to these pointed interjections. I didn't feel that wowing each jokester with my embarrassingly deep knowledge of the Wizard of Oz would yield quite the "zing" I was looking for: "Actually, the correct line that Dorothy delivers upon her entrance to Oz is 'Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more.'"

Then again, stating the obvious never seemed to do much in my defense, either: "No, I am not in Kansas, thanks for noticing."

In the end, I just learned to embrace my "inner Oz" and go along with the ribbing. It was all in good fun. Plus if it ever really tugged at my nerves, I could always imagine a wayward house falling on top of my assailant as he walked home later that day - oh, the irony!

Regarding today's picture, if you look closely at the night sky you will see a swoop of light that looks like it might be a hair in the camera lens.

In fact this is the light reflecting off one of the several bats that was circling above the visitor's center. It's hardly a flying monkey...but then again we're not in Oz any more.

Day One Hundred and Forty: My Own Personal Rorschach

What do you see when you look at this ultra-contrasted, ink-blottish picture?

A flower? A mushroom? A friendly alien? Something else?

I should mention that I am indeed not a licensed psychologist, nor am I aware of the proper, objective methods of scoring an ink-blot test.

So lest you go diagnosing yourself with flower envy, alien envy, or any other type of envy, let me just say that this shape is something so familiar to me that I can only imagine it being what it is - the back end of my dog Farley.

Now, before you jump to wondering what kind of psychological issues I must have for being so well aquainted with my dog's hindquarters, I will explain that one of the things that makes Farley so "Farley" (translation: a unique and somewhat odd dog) is his habit of lying down on his stomach with his feet splayed outwards behind him.

(Click on the image above to see the original picture of Farley being Farley.)

And how does one properly attain this position of extreme comfort and hip dysplasion? The proper method seems to be: one full turn in the counter-clockwise direction, followed by a sudden drop to the ground (known as the "Farley flop") and a slight half-crawl with all parts moving forward except the toes of your back feet.

Unfortunately I don't think I'm flexible enough to copycat my dog on this one.

I guess I have Farley envy.

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Nine: Bright Before Us Like a Flame

A plaque on City Hall reads: "We have tomorrow bright before us like a flame." On the lawn directly in front of these words stands this statue, simply named, "Flame."

The statue - which another plaque describes as a gift "from the people of Lawrence" - is an interconnected series of rotating wisps of metal that - not unlike real flames - moves and shapes itself with the wind.

In fact, standing underneath the statue for about 5 minutes snapping pictures (and ducking out of the way every now and then), I don't think I ever saw the same alignment of parts twice as the statue shifted in the steady breeze.

As my dad pointed out to me while discussing Lawrence and photography one day, the inspiration for the statue and the author of the quote on City Hall is the early 20th century poet Langston Hughes.

Though he was born in Missouri, Hughes spent most of his first thirteen years as a resident of Lawrence, KS. After leaving Lawrence he jumped around various other places in the eastern half of the US, and even lived briefly in Paris.

Eventually Hughes settled down in Harlem where he found time to write and became an inspiring force behind the Harlem Renaissance.

Lawrence is proud of Langston Hughes, and various sites around town bear his name. Residents look fondly on Hughes' literary works, especially those that call to mind his early years in Lawrence.

The entire poem, "Youth," reads:

We have tomorrow
Bright before us
Like a flame.

Yesterday
A night-gone thing,
A sun-down name.

And dawn-today
Broad arch above the road we came.

We march!

(taken from http://www.continuinged.ku.edu/hughes/files_city/legacy.html)

South Park: Season Two (Part 2 of 4)

South Park has sprung to life! Warm weather and clear blue skies shining down on rows of fresh flowers and greenery all around have given the downtown Lawrence park many new and fascinating layers of color.

On this pleasant spring day babies, puppies, walkers, bicyclists and strollers all seemed to cross paths at once.

The colorless winter has passed through Time's door.

Leafless and lifeless the trees are no more.

Bright bursts of green until fall brings new shades,

And winter returns, and all again fades.

---

(remember season one?)

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Eight: Monochromaticity

Not much to say about this one. I found the "monochromatic" setting on the digital camera, then found a subject that had a lot of light/dark contrast...voilá!

This is one of the few pictures that I have not adjusted at all (color, contrast, cropping, etc.) before posting. Wish they were all this easy!

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Seven: All Miked Up

Meet Mike (and Sneaks the snake).

Oh sure, we could talk about how graduation is a time for students to "shed their skin" as they begin life after college.

Or how these "asp"iring graduates are ready to "rattle" a few cages out in the real world.

But lest you recoil in disgust at me tipping the scales to an all time low in snake puns, let's just say that for my friend Mike, law school is history.

Or is that hissssss-tory? (I couldn't resist.)

When you've just successfully completed the rigors of law school, like Mike, and are at the start of what is bound to be a productive and rewarding career, not much can scare you - least of all Sneaks, the friendly resident boa constrictor.

Nonetheless, I was surprised when Mike volunteered to don his snake-adorned mortarboard - and I was ready with the camera! (Emily, who earlier in the day snapped a great shot of the graduates' walk down the hill, waited anxiously in another room, hoping to keep Sneaks out of sight and out of mind until he was safely back in his cage).

Congratulations, Mike! Thanks for your sense of humor, and good luck in Texas!

And to everybody, thanks for not throwing a hisssss-y fit about another snake picture!

Special Edition: Lightning Strikes Twice!

One of the more challenging shots for the amateur photographer to capture is a bolt of lightning. It requires being in the right place at the right time - with your camera, of course.

It's something I've been trying to for years, and forget about using a bottle - capturing lightning on film is about as hard as it gets for this amateur!

I've tried snapping pictures of the sky as soon as a flash of lightning appears, but my trigger finger is never fast enough. I've tried setting up a tripod on stormy nights and using long exposures in hopes of capturing a bolt within the time the shutter is open, but with no success.

So when Emily suggested using her camera to try and take pictures from the passenger seat of her car of the lightning that was streaking across the sky, I thought my chances of success were so low it wasn't even worth reaching into the back seat for the camera bag.

But it's a good thing she suggested it, because...SUCCESS!! Here is my first-ever photograph of lightning:


Here are some "flash facts" about lightning from National Geographic:

• Lightning bolts can be as long as 5 miles.


• They can raise the air temperature by 50,000°F.


• The earth is struck by an average of 100 lightning bolds per second.


• The odds of you being hit by lightning in your lifetime are 1 in 3000.


• If your hair starts rising during an electrical storm, get inside!


• Ligtning bolts carry a hundred million electrical volts.


• The number of watts equals the number of volts times the number of amps (math fact!).


• Jigowatt, as it was used in Back to the Future, is actually spelled gigawatt and is equal to 1 billion watts. jigo...what?


• Doc Brown's first successful test of the time-traveling DeLorean occurred at 1:21 a.m - precisely the same number of jigowatts needed to send Marty McFly back to 1985. That's heavy, Doc!
  

These last few facts came not from National Geographic, but another scientifically aimed web site: Futurepedia...everything you want to know - and more - about the movie Back to the Future!

And on this night, lightning happened to strike twice:

In the future I hope to capture some shots of lightning with surrounding scenery - a city skyline, a country road, or whatever else I can find if I'm in the right place at the right time.

But back here in good ol' 2009, I can't be too picky. I got my first successful shot of lightning, and the future looks bright!

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Six: Caught in the Act

Part three of my "sneaky creatures" series features a squirrel who is not afraid to help himself to a little food that isn't his...even with a bird waiting patiently for him to finish dining on his morning meal.

Squirrels can live to be 10 to 12 years of age, and each week consume about two pounds of food. The typical meal consists of nuts and acorns - maybe some berries and mushrooms - and other tasty morsels that can be found around the yard.

In the fall months squirrels can have their fill of the acorns and such that are popping off of the trees. But in the spring certain foods can be harder to come by, and it may become necessary to "rob the cookie jar" at the expense of some hungry and slightly inconvenienced birds.

Eventually this squirrel had its fill and waddled off with a bloated tummy, but this time he was definitely caught in the act.

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Five: What Makes You Tick

Today continues my theme of sneaky creatures from around the yard. I found this little guy (seen here in a compilation of multiple exposures) climbing up the back of my neck while I was working today.

He had yet to bury his head in my skin, so I did what any rational person would do: I sealed him in an envelope and brought him home so I could take his picture.

This little blood-sucker probably hopped on Farley or me at the dog park hoping we would be gracious hosts.

Most of the time I love hosting guests. I am less gracious with guests of the parasitic nature. You can consider this picture his memorial.

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Four: Sneaky Snake

This sneaky little guy was waiting for me in the everygreen bush outside my front door when I got home today:

The garter snake is common to Kansas (though less common to me when dangling from shrubbery).

I don't know who was more startled - the snake when the flash from my camera went off, or me when the snake instantaneously untangled himself and catapulted from the bush, quickly slithering his way through the front yard...

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Three: On Bended Knee - A Blog Entry in Three Acts

Act I: That Fateful Night

That Night, December 1998: Pete's college buddy Vance invites him to play a game of pick-up basketball at his church.

Later That Night, December 1998: Vance can't make it. Pete decides not to go.

Moments Later, December 1998: Pete goes to play basketball anyway.

One Hour Later, December 1998: Pete notices the gym floor is not wood, but synthetic tile. Pete thinks nothing of it.

Fifteen Minutes After That, December 1998: Pete thinks something of it, after he slips on a wet spot and slides awkwardly to the ground, hurting his right knee in the process.

The Rest of That Night, December 1998: Pete writhes in pain (or at least "semi-discomfort"), waiting for 8 a.m. when the student health center will open.

8:30 a.m., The Next Day: Pete is stylin' in a full-length leg brace. He is easily mistaken as a zombie extra from the movie Night of the Living Dead as he walks around campus unable to bend his right knee.

The Rest of December 1998: Doctors on two separate occassions take x-rays - but not MRIs - of Pete's knee, telling him no surgery is required and the partial muscle tear will heal with time.

1999 - 2002: Pete doesn't know it, but the doctors were wrong.

Act II - Cause for Action...Eventually

August 2002: Pete's 3-on-3 basketball team hoops it up in the Sunflower State Games. Pete leaves early to perform two original songs in the Country Music Showdown at Coyote's Dance Hall (in both events Pete has fun and puts on a good show, but fails to advance to the next round).

The Next Morning, August 2002: Pete wakes up and cannot bend his right knee. That's weird.

Soon After That, August 2002: Pete meets with a new doctor, who recommends an MRI.

The Day Before Labor Day Weekend, August 2002: Pete goes in for an MRI - results will take a few days to process.

Labor Day Weekend, August 2002: Pete travels to Colorado with a group from the St. Lawrence Center and, while there, attempts to climb his first 14er, Longs Peak.

The Day After Labor Day Weekend, August 2002: Pete gets the MRI results. Pete has a torn ACL. Pete now realizes climbing a 14er days before might not have been the brightest idea - but in the long run he's glad he did it.

Act III - Surgery

December 2002: Pete finishes his four-month long student teaching experience and can finally have knee surgery with sufficient time to recover.

Surgery Day, December 2002: Pete's right leg is shaved. That, also, is weird.

Moments Later On Surgery Day, December 2002: Pete is handed a pen with which to "sign" his right knee, indicating that it - and not the left knee - is the one to be operated on. Pete is at once comforted and discomforted by this.

One Hour Later On Surgery Day, December 2002: Pete is off to dreamland while the doctor cuts his knee open.

Two Hours Later Than Expected Post Surgery, December 2002: Pete finally wakes up. Guess he needed the rest!

January 2003: Pete slowly recovers - not so much from surgery, but more from the shock of seeing industrial-sized staples zig-zagging up and down his extremely bloated knee after unwrapping his bandages for the first time!

Six Years Thereafter: Pete enjoys a worry-free, athletic lifestyle, to which he has become accustomed.

Epilogue: Ghosts of Christmases Past

January 2009: Pete notices a funny - not in a good way - feeling in his right knee....They're baa-aack!

May 13, 2009: Convinced it will not go away, stubborn Pete makes his way to the doctor (after some pushing from girlfriend Emily). Doctor takes x-rays - this time an MRI is not possible because of the metal screws in Pete's knee from the previous surgery. Doctor diagnoses a "torn meniscus" and recommends outpatient surgery. Pete is all over that - let's get it done, Doc!

Before He Leaves The Doctor's Office, May 13, 2009: Pete asks for a copy of his x-ray to use for his picture of the day. Doctor obliges. Pete posts the picture - and readies himself for surgery in three weeks with hopes of a quick recovery.

After Writing This Entry, May 13, 2009: Pete is tired of referring to himself in the third person. I tell myself I'll stop doing that immediately.

Day One Hundred and Thirty-Two: Shadow Play, Part 3

Those that know me know the importance of music in my life. In Shadow Play, Part 1 I talked about what led me to choose the clarinet as my main band instrument (conclusion: I don't know).

One thing was clear in high school: the clarinet didn't make enough noise.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure there were plenty of times that people would have considered the sounds coming out of my clarinet "noise" and not "music." We're talking volume, here. I wanted to make some real NOISE!

Having a dad who is a lifelong trumpet player (and therefore having access not only to a trumpet, but also to a trumpet teacher), I thought I could muscle up enough chops to at least leave my mark at a few pep rallies.

But it turns out my years of woodwind experience had given me strong lips but a relatively weak gut as far as brass playing goes.

I didn't master the trumpet in high school, but I'd like to think that I've learned and practiced enough now that - if it came down to it - I might be able to carry a tune, and you might even recognize it.

Here my shadow is being cast across a painting that Emily brought back for me on her recent trip to New Orleans - home of some great trumpeters!

Recognizable or not, at least I'm making NOISE!- er, music.

:)

Day One Hundred and Thirty-One: Silver Linings, Part 2

Today was a day that did not leave me with much time for the camera.

Between playing catch-up with work and sleep (not at the same time) and catching up with friends, midnight rolled around more quickly than I anticipated and I did not have a picture!

I walked outside and saw the southeast sky filled with contrast of light and dark, as tufts of clouds pushed their way over a full moon.

I tried to capture the contrast as best I could. The light of the moon lining the clouds in the night makes this image a good compliment to the previous silver linings I found during the daytime about a month ago: Silver Linings, Part 1.

Day One Hundred and Thirty: Comfort of Home

I love traveling, I love spending time with family, and I love being home in Minnesota. But after a few days on the road, a few nights on the couch, and a few hundred miles on the car, there's nothing like the comfort of my own bed.

This shot was taken with a 25-second time exposure to capture the various stages of getting into bed: 5 seconds of the bed alone; 10 seconds of a prayer of thanks for a safe journey (I usually spend a little more time than that on prayer); and 10 seconds in the bed.

The pillow that you see "through" me in the right corner of the room is the same pillow that you see "through" me on the bed - it moved halfway through the time-elapse, as did I.

As for the light shining down on me while I pray, well, I'd like to say that halo follows me wherever I go - but that was just luck-of-the-picture.

Just as well, I'd imagine that beam of light would get rather annoying in movie theaters and all...

Day One Hundred and Twenty-Nine: With a Cherry On Top

Like the Stone Arch Bridge, another distinguishable and photographable icon in the Twin Cities is the cherry and the spoon (or more formally Spoonbridge and Cherry), a centerpiece of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

The "posterized" picture above playfully shows Emily picking the cherry off the top of her melting ice cream cone - but in reality it would take more than two fingers to lift the 1,200 pound cherry.

A 5,800 pound spoon might do the trick, though.

This sculpture is definitely a fun one to photograph, and many people find creative ways to do so (as we were taking this picture another group snapped a shot of a person pretending to bite the cherry off of the spoon).

I'd like to think that we were the first to bring waffle cones and vanilla ice cream in a cooler to the park, scoop up a fresh cone right there in the sculpture garden, and then move around the sculpture until we found an angle that worked perfectly (while the ice cream dripped over Emily's hands in the warm sun)...but I'd be willing to bet that crazier and more creative shots than that have been taken here.

We'll keep looking for fun shots like this to bring to you as the quest for creativity and uniqueness continues!

(here is the original, pre-posterized version of today's pic -
click to enlarge)