An Excuse for a Photodump

I'm a big photography fan. I think it's an incredible medium, capable of freezing entire moments in time unlike any other human invention. 

While I wouldn't really count myself as an excellent picture taker (or excellent lexicon user!), I do tend to harbor a lot of happy feelings for all of my shots, especially kitchy ones. A friend and I once had a talk about how pictures aren't necessarily about capturing amazing shots, but more the memories they represent. Most of my favorite photos aren't the best ones - they're the weird few seconds that made me smile the most, or something completely random that caught my eye and made me laugh, or they're the ones that I use a crappy iPhone app to get. 

This is my favorite type of picture to take.

If you don't have Incredibooth, and you're on iOS, it's a pretty fun camera. Most people use it like you would a normal photobooth - a sequence of shots of themselves and other people making silly faces or trying to look all sexy. Unfortunately, the one person that I like looking silly with the most is on the other side of the country or planet from me usually, and my sexy face is pretty much...not... So I've reallocated this app as my go to panorama taker. Not ideal, for sure, but I always love how they come out, and that's sort of all that matters!

2012. Note how the first few are just ridiculous and I wasn't using it right at all. And then around San Francisco I get my shit together! We've got Yosemite, Grand Canyon, San Francisco, Harlow Lake, Lake Superior, Phil's, more Lake Superior, woods, Harlow Lake again, and another Phil's, all wrapped up in a neat little boxes.

2013. Lake Superior,  Lake Austin, Texas highway, Lake Austin, Yellow Dog River plains, Lake Superior, old abandoned mines, Lake Superior, Mskheta, Telavi, Prometheus caves, and the Black Sea. 

Anyway, this is the last photodump (if I'm friends with you on Facebook, I'm way sorry about the 145 pictures that I just uploaded and probably spammed your wall with!) for a while, as tomorrow I head back to Telavi and the land of tethering my 3G iPhone for internet.

It's also 2am and I really need to try to get back on a normal sleep schedule again, so I should probably do that.

And no, I'm not jetlagged.

Not a panorama at all, but a goofy bunch of memories. I got a red light ticket while living in California, and had to take a morning off of work to go to court and deal with it. I was annoyed about having to actually cough up the $400 for it, so I took a detour up to my favorite beach before I went in to work. So I'm on the beach, looking at the waves and freaking out about how I was going to pay this ticket when I got the silly idea to go running around the waves and try to get shots of them. So I did. For like a half an hour, it was back and forth in the surf with Incredibooth snapping away until I was satisfied with the amount of slides I got. It was a good way of forgetting about the massive amount of money I'd soon part with, as well as a wonderful little break before going in to work. I highly suggest it if you're ever feeling stressed or upset about something.

Why I Love Doctor Who

I've spent most of my life being a fan of some kind of science fiction series or another. I was one of those kids that never chose a side in the great Star Wars v. Star Trek debate because I loved (and still love) both of them. I mean, I will chew you a new one if you mess up and call one by the other ones name, but that's a different argument entirely. Farscape, Firefly, Babylon 5, Stargate, a short bout with Lexx, Dune, Aliens, Predator, all the countless one-offs of authors I figured I would try out and it just never worked. It's been a long, long time with science fiction, and it's all been awesome.

It's all space, and new planets, aliens, amazing technology, and humans doing every bit of it. Tiny, insignificant, stupid little humans amid all of this incredible stuff.

It makes sense, since it's our brainchild and whatnot, but still. I really like the thought of humans actually going out to the stars and doing all sorts of cool stuff. Especially in this day and age, when sciences in schools are suffering from budget cuts, as are the largest and most important agencies in the country, which are single handedly responsible for so many small daily things that make our lives better. I mean, where would this world be if we didn't have velcro? I certainly would never have had arguments with my mother in the Payless Shoe Store about what shoes I wanted, because I insisted upon the ones with the awesome velcro straps and she opposed my obvious fashionista choices. What kind of world would we live in if child and mother couldn't bicker about this important issue?

A terrible world. That's the one.

Humans play a role in each and every one of these aforementioned universes. We're ancillary in some cases, and pivotal in others. Normally our emotions get the best of us, and we're mocked for being small creatures, governed not by logic or any type of helpful thing, but our hearts. We also don't have any kind of interesting ability, like super strength, or psychic powers, so that kind of sucks. Earth is constantly getting fucked with, since we lack any kind of sound defense system, or widespread education to make sure that our population is actually informed enough to fight off some ruling power we don't agree with. They're all pretty accurate gripes with humanity, honestly.

The various sci-fi series I've been involved with have touched different parts of me - Star Wars was pure tech geekery and sparkly explosions and great music, Star Trek was the anthropologist that's always been buried in the deepest parts of my personality, Dune was the sheer complexity of the story. And it was with all of these beloved canons that I approached Doctor Who.

Naturally, given all of those in the back of my head, I hated it.

My family, for years, had told me I would love Doctor Who (the reboot). Unfortunately, I'm very stubborn. If someone tells me I will like something, I will usually approach it with an intent to NOT like it, just because. So my first passing of this show was met with my usual resistance, but I couldn't help but NOT like certain aspects of it. I particularly loved how the universe was saved several times by someone with goofy hair and Converse All-Stars. That really rung true with me.

However, aside from being stubborn, I also am not a huge fan of change, so when it was inevitable that we got a new Doctor, naturally I was both devastated and convinced that any new Doctor ever more would be subpar to my favorite one (if it makes any difference, I'm a Ten girl at heart). I actually spent weeks just being simultaneously sad and upset about the fact that some new floppy haired lanky Brit was running around calling himself "The Doctor" in MY Tardis. I was doubly upset when his companion wasn't as cool as my favorite one, because who could really top Rose?

I never even finished the series the first time through. I got halfway into the [at the time] latest season and then said fuck it and never revisited it. But it always stuck in the back of my mind. There was a part of Doctor Who that I really liked, and I couldn't really figure out what it was. I knew all the things that I hated - the really corny graphics and storylines; how it just felt like it was trying too hard always; the companions post Rose never seemed to quite fit as right as her (this goes back to my stupid opinion that anything after an original something is crap) - but I was never able to really put my finger on what it was that made me actually enjoy watching it. I felt both invested and indifferent simultaneously, and that was a very new feeling for me.

Since I've been home, and my family is all one big Whovian clan, we've been rewatching key episodes/seasons so I can get caught up in time for the Christmas special. As such, I've had a lot of time to rethink my opinion of the show, and I've come to a few important conclusions about it.

The first is that Doctor Who is actually awesome. As mentioned previously, I used to care that it was horribly cheesy and boasted effects that were straight out of the 70s. We can forget about the fucking Daleks and Cybermen, because they're echoes from a past age, and no one likes them, but they're still a part of this goofy universe. And that's really why I love it.

Doctor Who is goofy as shit.

It doesn't take itself seriously. It doesn't try to be anything else, because it can't be. At its best it's a story about a madman with a blue box, and at it's worst it's a story about a madman with a blue box. Either way, it's a story with a madman, his blue box and him traveling around in time with said box.

But what I've really come to appreciate are the undertones of episodes, and the unspoken themes that are carried out through the story arches in the seasons. Friendship, love, loyalty, loneliness, loss, hope, insignificance, importance. They're all pretty important and big issues, and somehow each episode makes you think of one, if not more, of these themes. They do so in really subtle ways, too, and that's why it's really awesome. The Doctor is the last of his race, and all of his actions are made with this fact in mind - that he is the last, and that ultimately he is alone. And that leads me to my favorite part of Doctor Who, which is the role humans have in it.

The Doctor is this ancient being who has seen and done a lot of messed up shit. He's constantly trying to come to terms with the fact that he's the last remaining member of his species, and that it was his own doing. Yet the only thing that keeps him in line and keeps him grounded is the human that he travels with. And sure, his companion is usually some super cute British girl (because god forbid The Doctor ever come to Upper Michigan and find me to go around the universe with, but I digress!), but the point still stands that his companions are smart, capable, and always provide him with some facet of an opinion he hadn't considered. Many times, they get mega noble (HA!!), or end up doing something reckless just because they care about him. The writers don't try to write out our human tendencies - instead they play them up. We're constantly doing idiotic things, especially for people we care about, whether they be physically insane or that of the emotional variety. And while many science fiction writers try to make humans sound more badass than we actually are, Doctor Who's writers kind of call bullshit on us and our stupid tendencies. They actually show us that it's ok to do certain things without knowing the outcome, or just trusting someone else, because at the end of the day you'll probably keep the universe from collapsing if you just shut up and do something you feel is right.

I dig that.

I also really love the character of The Doctor. I mean for starters his name is The Doctor. He fixes things with his technologically awesome screwdriver. He doesn't have a gun, or a crazy warship. He's got a time traveling police call box and this crappy screwdriver which can really only effectively lock doors and he still is able to save the world repeatedly. Call me stupid, but I like the idea of someone being able to problem solve without brute force. I like that he actually thinks and has to come up with solutions as opposed to besting his adversity through violence. Even Star Trek, which is arguably one of the most passive TV shows around (excepting of course the Dominion War and the last two seasons of Voyager), doesn't have the intellectual beef Doctor Who does.

I still miss my favorite combination of Doctor and companion (Ten and Rose), and I'm still sad a lot of times that I watch the show that I only got one season of them. However, Eleven is awesome, and Amy Pond has totally grown on me. She's snarky and smart and sassy, which are three things I always appreciate in a female protagonist. And Matt Smith is possibly one of the most adorably dorky guys on the planet, which is another thing I really appreciate.

And that's one thing that no other science fiction series has really been able to nail - the mega attractive guys. No clue what it is about scrawny, tall, smart dudes, but right now, between Doctor Who and Sherlock, Britain certainly knows what's up. Granted, the newest Doctor is way older than the previous two, so this statement doesn't hold true, but with Ten, Eleven and Sherlock they hit the nail on the head as far as internet fan girls are concerned.

And realistically, that's all that's fueling this whole post. Internet fan girldom. Also beer.

I've tried to not be one of THOSE girls, and I'm pretty successful at it most times. But considering a large portion of my life the last few days has been all Doctor Who all the time, and it for some reason has been really resonating with me, I figured I would let the whole world know how I felt about it.

Also, nothing interesting really happens in Upper Michigan, so why not write about Doctor Who?

Also, I need to stop updating this when beer.

The Upper Peninsula: An Abusive Relationship

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan (hereafter called the U.P.), is really one of the most beautiful places on Earth. It consists mainly of two colors: green and blue. In winter, you substitute green out for white, and blue for a slate-blue-grey. The only time it's not dichromatic like this is the fall, when it's an explosion of reds, oranges, and yellows. But the nice part of fall lasts about two weeks, so we won't really discuss it at this time. Instead, we will focus on the two primary seasons - the ones that account for most of the year.

Winter is a kick in the ass. It's beautiful, yes, but after about nine days of grey sky and it never really getting light, with no sign of the sun in sight, it gets old.

Summer, on the otherhand, is perfect. It's lush, vibrant, warm days with cool nights, pristine starry skies, and crystal clear lake water.

Evergreens and ferns, up on the Yellowdog Plains.

Sunset from Sunset Point.

Summer lulls you into this false sense of security. It tells you that it's great to live up here, and that everything is magical. It makes you forget about the months of drab bleakness, which hilariously take up about half of the year. But in summer you don't think about shoveling snow, or not seeing the sun for a week, or cold blustery wind that makes you wonder why you even got out of bed that morning. No. Summer makes you think you could stay in this amazing wonderland forever. That all of the prettiness is permanent (which, to be fair, winter is still pretty in it's own stark black and white way), and this euphoric feeling you have will carry over, come hell or high water.

Summer is when the U.P. buys you some flowers, and says "I'm sorry about the last seven months. I love you." It might even take you out for a nice dinner, and if you're very lucky you'll get a dance or two out of it. But then, after a short amount of time, Winter comes back. Winter storms (no pun intended!) through the door, yells at you about how you're worthless, and crap, and that you'll never feel good again. And Winter stays for months and months. It's lurking, every day, from November until late March, waiting to just kick you squarely in the face. It makes you question everything about your life - why you didn't go out and do something today, why you didn't get out of bed earlier to take advantage of the 8 hours of light, why you're constantly cold no matter how many layers of clothes you have on.

And despite all of that, I still look forward to winter in a really sick way. I've become trapped in an abusive relationship with this place. Even with my recent self diagnosis of Seasonal Affective Disorder (I say self diagnosed because after living in a place that has sun 360 days a year, it was very obvious that, after coming back to a location that's closer to the North Pole than the equator, the big glowy orb of happy was missing from the sky and that its absence had a direct correlation on my feeling like a human god damned being), which was alleviated by taking Vitamin D pills every day, I still don't mind it. Dealing with winter eventually means that summer happens, and summer here is as perfect as a slice of Heaven pie. And that seems to make it all worth it.

I never was bothered by winter when I was a kid. Winter meant sledding and snowboarding and snowball fights and forts. I remember longing for winter, actually. I'm not really sure when the change in my head happened, but it did. And no matter how much I tell myself that it's not as bad as I think it's going to be, the perpetual coldness I feel, even inside, takes its toll. But I'm starting to face it with a sort of grim resolve. Now, it's more of an inevitable. I can hate it all I want, but in the end, the Earth doesn't really give a shit, and winter is going to be all over our faces anyway. And granted, I haven't been here for a full winter in a long ass time, but considering I'm going to a place where winter is going to be a large part of my life, I figured I should probably make peace with it.

So here's to you, winter. You selfish jerkface. You cold hearted conglomeration of months that make me lethargic and crappy feeling. I can't wait to deal with you soon so that you can crush every iota of Jo-ness that is currently in my body and leave me an empty, shmerry, shell of a person.

Critter tracks up a tree behind the house.