Joyas Volardores

In this essay, the prompt isn't clear. There's no defined point to us as readers; we're just left to infer from implications. In the beginning, it starts out very literally describing a hummingbird, and then zeros in on its heart. From there the writer jumps to and from various creatures' hearts, with facts otherwise thought pointless. "We all churn inside." as a quote stood out to me. The writer quickly turned a somewhat objective piece into something more symbolic, perhaps more personal to us. 

The biggest impact the essay had on me was in the last paragraph, which seemed to happen as well to my classmates. The point goes on as that we fear a harrowed heart, that the heart is open always, that you can brick up your heart, but it'll always be kind of crushed. The truth rings out in these words; there's an end to happiness, there's an end to suffering, and there's an end to everything we feel in our hearts, no matter how deep down. But still, we all churn inside.

In reverse, your heart can seemingly crack by the good things or nostalgia. "A child's apple breath," referring to the innocence of those young. This in particular can even display that we all sort of miss the days when we were younger, not so much exposed to the terrible and the gloom of the world. There are infinite ways a heart can be damaged. As much as someone tries to ignore the love they feel or the brokenness they experience, a heart is a heart.

The sentence of the last paragraph, which seems to hit home for most people, is "So much held in a heart in a lifetime." Most could tell immediately that the conclusion of this essay wouldn't be about breeds of hummingbirds. The paper is wrapped up by teeth-clenching portrayals of scenarios similar to readers', perhaps meant to devilishly break one's heart.

Neil Gaiman Writing Prompt

A lot of curiousity was sparked by this quote. Maybe a lot of people wouldn't know what to say to this. It struck me as philosophical, obviously, and a lot of this I've thought of myself. On a scale smaller than people dying, I've seen posts on sites saying things like "Why do we need to know algebra? Why can't we be taught to learn how to do our taxes or what a mortgage is?" This is just one example of what we as students aren't being taught at school, though.

One thing I think is important to learn is how to have compassion and empathy for others. In my experience, it's essential to be considerate of others and what they could be feeling or going through. There are skills that can help this, like being observant and open-minded. Even being a little more reserved than usual when expressing opinions and criticizing. If you really try and put yourself in someone else's shoes, you can be a lot better off and respectful.

The Waste Land

To me, the documentary The Wasteland was pretty interesting. The most intriguing thing I saw was just how they do their everyday jobs. While we hear the word job we don't typically think of people picking through garbage on a regular basis; but the thing that seriously caught my attention was the different views the the pickers had on their jobs. Some said that they hated it, which could be understandable -- but I feel like no one watching the film said it because they're afraid of offending someone. But, on the other hand, some people do enjoy it. I don't remember specifically who, but I do remember the varied opinions. I don't think I would like doing the work, but I guess if I lived in a situation like that any job would be better than no job. This is hard to put into words. I guess what I'm trying to get across is that I wonder why some of the Gramacho workers could be so cheerful, when we, as the audience, are opposed to suck work (to say the least.)

I found this in my draft's so I'm not responsible for any stupid mistakes from a month ago

Delicate

I've always thought painting has been sort of a delicate process; even more since I tried watercoloring the other day. It's harder than it looks.

Color

Some Mexican figurines I found in my brother's room. (I know the window's kind of gross, he's been at college for a while.)

Outdoor Subject-Hunting

The other day when we went outside I took some pretty generic outdoorsy-type photos, some of which I eventually deleted. Still among them are two pictures of the sky. Also, there's a picture of  a miniature paint-chipped plastic fence which I found sort of hysterical for some reason. Lastly, a picture of the bushes from behind a brick wall.

Satire Article

On Sunday, March 3rd, an angry alpha wolf was convicted of allegedly walking out on his starving wolf pack. It started early that morning, when he came back empty-pawed after supposedly being out “hunting” for three days. Anonymous sources from neighboring groups stated that the male was seen acting suspiciously -- sulking around the mulberry bush, sleeping behind weeds, wandering to the edge of the forest, and the like. When he returned without any prey for his starving alpha female and pups, they were furious. In the candid picture above, you can see the female wolf nipping the leg of her partner in angry, dazed by hunger. “Her pups were squealing in fear,” says a shocked reporter, “it was terrifying. I thought they were dying.” The three pups were taken into custody after the incident. The whereabouts of the adult mates are unknown. “It was scary. This shouldn’t happen to any kind of parents,” says Carla, age 12, in Missouri. Updates on the story will follow at 6.

Symbol-Searching and Pigeon Racing

While skimming through the categories of the big picture, I found a lot that were interesting in general, or ones that told intriguing stories, or ones that were just pleasing to the eye. But this one, entitled "Britain's Pigeon Fanciers," or as I described it, "the one with the pigeons," really stood out to me. I don't know exactly why. It's no big event or iconic photo.  But it was interesting, intriguing, and pleasing to the eye. The color scheme, from the yellowy green in the back to the blue-gray front, is what really caught my attention while I was scrolling through. I suggest you high-res it; it makes it much more powerful. But, on a more delicate level, it's plain cute. Without reading about it, it really makes a statement. A bunch of birds lined up in similar cages? I don't know about you, but that kind of made me want to find out what this was. (By the way, you can find the link to the story here.) And then I was looking through all the pictures. They're all stunning, really. Most are high-quality, color-balanced, and well-taken (and received) photos. For example, if you scroll down a bit at the link you'll see an impressively-outlined bird.

 I think it's kind of ironic that this picture stood out to me. I tend to like stranger animals. But pigeons? The scummy food-foraging birds at the cafes at zoos? But really, they're beautiful. The pictures are phenomenally shot, specifically those of them racing or first being released from their 
cages. The stunning birds were judged and flown, some to victory.

I don't feel like I have an interest in doing anything like this sometime soon, mind you. But this picture really just grasped my attention. Another is this picture of a bull overlooking his or her former stockyard. Besides being powerful and deep on a symbol-ly level, it's just a well-taken shot and makes you think a little.

So to go back to the birds, obviously they're in the photo. It looks like a man either judging or racing his own bird is wandering the cages. At first glance, I'm sure most people notice the colors, but some may not even notice the birds in their cages. I feel like it's so detailed that I can't see everything, like I'm missing something important.

The links are all there, I think, and I strongly suggest you click them and look at the rest of the pigeon photos. (Come on, they're cute.)

Looking In

"looking in"
This is a picture of my room through the just-open door. I liked the glow of the lights and how it gives a warm feeling.

"texture"
This is a picture of my dog's fur.

"underneath"
I put my phone underneath my foot and took a picture of in my house.