Unsolved mysteries

We've all been there. We do laundry, we fold laundry, we are short a sock. It's annoying and now we have to figure out what to do with the sock.

Well, tonight I did laundry and somehow managed to lose an entire pair of pants. I can't figure out what happened to them. They aren't in my house or the laundry bag, they didn't fall out on the way to and from the laundry room, and they aren't in the laundry room washer or dryer. 

How does one lose an entire pair of pants in the laundry? What kind of plausible explanation is there? I suppose it could have been a magic washer, but really, not plausible. Someone could have stolen them, but that just seems weird. Why would anyone want my pants?! Maybe the machines are scaling up? Is this some kind of protest of the machines? Is it phase one of their takeover of the world?

Seriously, it is just weird. And maybe they'll show up somewhere, but yeah. For the time being, they have vanished. So I guess if you find a random pair of grey dress pants, let me know.

The twilight zone that is a newsfeed

I don't have many apps on my phone, so mostly when I'm sitting around waiting with nothing else to do (or procrastinating, or I'm just bored) I'll check the newsfeed. And I gotta tell you, it is a very bizarre experience. Like, if it was a person, it would definitely have some kind of personality disorder. 

It's got updates on wars, on the weird reality that is the US now, Buzzfeed quizzes and lists, celebrity news gossip, and updates about sports, films, and TV shows. It's got the, "Hey, we found this story of someone whose relative or friend did something that made them furious and so instead of just dealing with it, they plastered it all over the internet" stories. It's got advice columns (I don't mind those as much, at least there is a specific person who is consulting, instead of all 8 billion people and their dogs). It's got the, "the planet is burning to the ground" and the "here is the latest science innovation" and "here's some cool thing someone dug up that rewrites history" and "Look at this cute animal interaction". 

A good chunk of that is arguably not even news, it's just the internet. Sorry, but a Buzzfeed quiz that promises me that if I pick my favorite 90s TV shows they can name my birth month (spoiler alert: they never can. Ever) just doesn't count as news. So, right from the get go there is a bit of a misnomer. It's an internet feed, but not a news feed. (Although, I guess even newspapers have puzzles and stuff, and an entertainment section, so maybe Buzzfeed quizzes are legit. And let's be honest, we all love taking a Buzzfeed quiz and feeling smug when their promise that they can do xyz thing if you take the quiz falls flat). 

But it's super, super bizarre that we have, on the one hand, very concerning stories about the Middle East and Ukraine and Sudan, and then two stories later, "Hey, Jeff Bezos got married and all the rich people in the world went, and can you believe what this person wore?" The two things don't seem to equate. Which, is in part my fault, because I browse all the stories, but even so. 

It is also this very real representation of the world. I don't know that we should all of us all the time only focus on the heavy and concerning stories. I don't think that's healthy, so in that sense, the newsfeed is maybe good. And even though it does feel wrong, bad things happen and I still have to go to work. (Also, there are positive things in the newsfeed, and that's good, because not all news sites might give you the things that will make you laugh). SO, it is also this really interesting reflection of reality in that sense. People are dying, but that dog making faces through the space between airline seats is hilarious and I am going to laugh. Heartache and joy can coexist in the same person. 

Really, if the newsfeed has a personality disorder, it's because society at large has a bit of a personality disorder. Which is probably normal, honestly. We just haven't had as easy access to such a visual representation of it before. I don't know that it's good or bad that a newsfeed is built that way. Mostly, it's just interesting.

But I do think maybe the world has lost its mind. 

Light

There are certain things that I like to photograph. Flowers are always nice and easy and beautiful. I like photographing water. And fire! Fire is fascinating to photograph. And I like playing around with light. Not the lighting settings on the camera, but light in the real world. I'm not good at it, but tonight I did have fun with it. 

It kind of started with the flag (which, is your basic slap-a-state-seal-on-a-navy-background-and-call-it-a-day flag, so the flat in and of itself is not super impressive). I liked how the light really hit the seal in the first one, and then about 25 steps later, you could see the whole flag kind of lit up by the sunset. 

This one isn't the greatest picture overall, but I liked how the light was hitting the tree trunks. Light does the same with buildings, and I like the effect. (Even if the photo isn't the best.)

Most of the time, the sunset wasn't this bright, but anytime it was coming through trees, it really exploded:

And in the evening, you get this nice glare off of windows, that changes as you move where you are in relation to the sun. 

And here's one NOT taken through tree limbs:

Sometimes I have to fight with the camera to get it to see what I see. It registers light differently. For example, on the automatic settings (minus the flash, which often blows things out in a weird way), it saw this: 

But I saw this: 

And I had to play around with the settings quite a bit to get this one right: 

 (The second one is what I saw.)

It does take practice, and I'm still learning how to get my camera to see what I see, how to get the light right. Purples are super hard. I still haven't nailed purple. 

The background colors in this picture aren't right at all, but I didn't have the right gear with me to make it work at that time of day. But it did capture the light playing on the leaves correctly. (I promise, the leaves are actually the same color without the light hitting them that way).

And this one is just for fun. I do it a lot at Christmas, light art. If you slow the shutter speed down a lot and move the camera, you get this effect. My nieces and nephews love it, and some of it does turn out looking really cool: 

Tell me a story

As I mentioned, I've been reading. Fun reading, still on my streak. I picked up the Hunger Games series, starting with the 2 most recent ones (which are prequels? That is how books work now) and now I'm almost done with the series. 

I've noticed in the last couple of years that many books seem like they are more political opinions or social stances very loosely wrapped in a plot. (Same is true of movies and tv shows, often). Now, it could just be marketing, because most of the time, that impression comes from the blurb on Amazon, which always, frankly, is incredibly preachy and condescending. Just reading a description of the plot, it becomes super obvious that there is a point the author (or the author of the blurb? I never know, because the blurb is so off-putting I never read the book. If the blurb is preachy, I'm definitely not going for the book) is trying to make: "Your differences are your strength", "Be the change you want to see", "America is [fill in the blank depending on your politics]".  Two sentences into the description, and you can already pick out what they want you to know. So, why read it? 

The beauty of reading is that it's a story. And I think telling a beautiful story (instead of a political position that dominates its characters and plot) moves people to see the world because of the story. All these books that are trying to shove a belief down your throat--they fail to change people because it's hard to connect with them. But a well told story doesn't even have to try hard to get people to change because it resonates so well.

The Hunger Games is a great example of this. You'd think as soon as the reaping is mentioned, Katniss would be screaming, "And it's so wrong, and evil, and we should rebel." And she doesn't. Because Collins isn't writing out the obvious. She's telling a story. She's telling us about a girl named Katniss, and what she thought and felt and makes her real. Collins isn't bludgeoning us (which you think you would feel bludgeoned, given the book's premise) with what is right and what is wrong and what we should all feel we have to do afterwards. She lets the story do that. We feel bludgeoned, but not by her politics or morality or social views. It's the premise of the Hunger Games that bludgeons us. How could someone ever come up with a system like that and think it is okay? We get to know lots of characters all with a variety of motivations, sometimes acting for a common goal but for very different reasons. 

I honestly couldn't tell you what Suzanne Collins thinks is the right approach. Does she think Gale is right? Katniss? Peeta? Haymitch? Does she agree with Snow in his book? And that is a beautiful thing. It's not a story about Suzanne Collins' views on people and power and morality. It's not a lecture. She's told a story and from that story, you walk away thinking about power, thinking about human behavior and societies and governments and whether war justifies doing horrible things and what is the greater good. Or maybe you think about trauma and poverty and inequality. Or maybe you think about how much you appreciate not being in a world like that, and what it means to be brave. But you get to decide what the message, or messages are. 

Those are the best books. The most influential books. Because you get to meet them on your terms, and you get to come back and every time, it will be new because you will be different and you will see something different in the story. Because you do the work, and when you do the work, that's when you grow. 

And that's why I love a good book.  

The glory days

On Friday, I came home from work and I read a book. It wasn't even non-fiction! And I just read and read until I was done, just like when I wasn't an adult with responsibilities. 

I probably should have been doing some adult thing, like laundry, or organizing, or cleaning, or something, because there's always something practical to do. And all day Saturday, I kept thinking I should be a productive adult, but instead I picked up another book and read (not til the end of the book though. I did do some adult things). 

It was delightful, and it was awesome to have a book that I didn't want to put down, and to just do a thing I enjoy but don't do often. 

Sometimes, you just gotta tell your grown-up self to take a break.

Not my style

It's not a great fashion moment for me. Shirts all have puffy sleeves, which I don't love because I have broad shoulders and I think puffy sleeves don't work. Shirts also have a shorter length these days, which is incredibly annoying. I don't want to show skin, and no one needs to see my skin. And pants--why can't we have straight-cut pockets? No, instead they are all angled or side pockets and if anyone has hips, they don't lay flat. Guess what I have?

Also, I'm not loving the color palette. There are so many colors, why do we only let people by clothes in 10 of them?

I get that styles change over time (and recycle). But why do ALL the pants have to have weird pockets? Why do ALL the shirts have to be the same cut? Why, why, why can't we have things in all the colors? 

Is that too much to ask? 

An abundance of green