I'm more than a little bit sad today but I decided to at least push out one of these blogs...or actually 1.5 blogs...
(I did get a little bit cheered up later and I'll explain that in a bit. )
I was going to do them all and was editing a ton of pics when Photoshop crashed, leaving me with only the half dozen edits I had already saved and another 50+ unsaved and gone.
So... just this.
First, .5 blog...
I was going to just make two trips this year and take it easy. But after this weekend of being all alone and a bit depressed that all of my kindest decisions have come back to bite me, I've decided to just travel more. A lot more. And bring friends with me possibly! I originally was going to save some time and resource to have enough of both to make an impromptu trip but instead I'm just going to do this plan below:
7/4 - Anime Expo here locally...maybe hang with some new gal friends, both of which I'm kinda excited to hang with. Odds of going: 100%
7/9 - Mayhem Fest to see Megadeth and Testament! I'm bringing a local cutie, purely a platonic thing, a GGS thing if you will, to see our mutually loved band MD...I met up with her at Big 4 and have chatted with her locally at a gaming store while playing Magic. Odds of going: 90%.
7/21 - San Diego ComicCon, unlike last year where I went almost every day and spent a small fortune, I might just go one day this year. Usually I would go to this show to see Kemper and I also have another sorta IRL GGS girl who is the wife of a colleague at work...but I'm not sure if I'll make it. Odds of going: 25%
7/29 - Baltimore, Otakon...I want to go meet up with all of my SG GGSers from the East Coast, you gals know who you are! ...and just maybe, I might bring a surprise guest with me, hehe. Odds of going: 95%.
9/14 - NYC, Big 4!!! I'm going to try to bring myself and possibly a couple of other girls, the ones I'm supposedly meeting with at AX, and if I can get all of the costs together, make the plane trip out to NYC! Odds of going: 80%.
If you're one of the people I've asked/invited to travel with me or I'm traveling to YOU, you'll already know.
Anyways, should be a blast.
Oh and this beautiful song is stuck in my head...90s.
***********************************************************************************************************
The Butterfly Blog
This is the oldest blog in the queue so FIFO (First In First Out).
Ok so any of you who know me know that I've been in a funk for months. Well sometimes at work, it gets to me as there are various triggers. I developed a way to cope by walking around outside...and I sort of rediscovered just how nice the flora around our buildings are in terms of a botanical sense.
Normally I love looking for insects including little grass hoppers, lady bugs and praying mantises...especially the latter...plus lots of sun-basking lizards doing lil pushups, haha.
Well, about a couple of months ago, where this blog starts, I started to notice...fuzzy caterpillars! First there was one and then later lots. Here's a sample pic I snagged off the internet.
Once I not only started to notice a lot of them but...they started climbing up walls and stuff...odd behavior until I realized they were metamorphosing.
It was fun trying to figure out what type of butterfly these came from. Turns out I was pleasantly surprised...Mourning Cloak butterfly.
I took notice of one caterpillar that just seemed to go up a bare wall and hang there...well, next day:
The chrysalis is pretty...the top black fuzzy thing is the other skin of the head of the former butterfly now turned pupae. Don't let the sharp-looking spines scare you! The these guys are soft and non-poisonous. They creep along in a very soft and cute way too. BTW the word "chrysalis" makes me think of a certain person, with a bit of emotion. 
Anyways at first I saw one chrysalis, then another...so then I spent the next couple of weeks just hunting around for more...I spotted one, then two and then suddenly it was like up to 40 of them, all over the place. The idea of having a whole ton of butterflies all around when you walk by is just way too romantic in an innocent way.
Then one day, some started to "hatch."
The one on the left already opened, the one on the right is still waiting...
But here's the problem...The butterflies are dying right out of the pods...
So I resolved myself to see if I can spot any that pop out and seemed to be just languishing on the ground. The next day I find this one on the ground:
He's very suicidal, he keeps trying to hang and keeps falling off...I think the initial fall might have cracked his thorax.
I try to get him to some bushes, away from the building wall where there's no plant life in sight.
So I got him on to a branch. He's chilling. The next day I find him still bouncing around in the dirt. Then the next, next day, I don't see him anymore. I hope he flew off but I think he didn't.
So then a few days pass and I'm looking for any butterflies that made it. I spot only one but am unable to capture it on camera as this species is a very powerful flier. Just one.
And then a few more days and I find yet another butterfly, a smaller and skinnier one, flapping around on the ground.
I try to coax it into my hand so that I can get him to a bush, and not just be on the hard blacktop where the nearest flora is like more than 10 feet away or 4 feet up. He winds up crawling all over my hand, flapping hard all of the time. It's a bit of a challenge to keep him from falling off!
Anyways, I got him to a bush and hoped he made it. Not sure if you can see but he was quite a bit skinnier than the previous one I found.
Later on, I found this egg that fell out of a nest. Couldn't help but feel that it's current state was metaphorically very similar to some of my dreams right now. Just a shell of a dead thing that once had so much potential.
Another week passes. Now there are about five butterflies flying around and this makes me a bit more pleased. While trying to capture at least one in flight, I find this grasshopper.
And later after that, I finally manage to catch a butterfly just napping on a stem...a nice healthy one.
By now, I counted over a dozen Mourning Cloaks fluttering around in the sun. Just about all of the chrysalises have popped.
And of this writing, they're all gone again...hopefully everyone found a mate so that next season, I'll see even more fuzzies!
- R
.><.
PS - I may keep adding to this blog or simply make a new one...not sure yet...but a preview...Big 4!
(I did get a little bit cheered up later and I'll explain that in a bit. )
I was going to do them all and was editing a ton of pics when Photoshop crashed, leaving me with only the half dozen edits I had already saved and another 50+ unsaved and gone.
So... just this.
First, .5 blog...
I was going to just make two trips this year and take it easy. But after this weekend of being all alone and a bit depressed that all of my kindest decisions have come back to bite me, I've decided to just travel more. A lot more. And bring friends with me possibly! I originally was going to save some time and resource to have enough of both to make an impromptu trip but instead I'm just going to do this plan below:
7/4 - Anime Expo here locally...maybe hang with some new gal friends, both of which I'm kinda excited to hang with. Odds of going: 100%
7/9 - Mayhem Fest to see Megadeth and Testament! I'm bringing a local cutie, purely a platonic thing, a GGS thing if you will, to see our mutually loved band MD...I met up with her at Big 4 and have chatted with her locally at a gaming store while playing Magic. Odds of going: 90%.
7/21 - San Diego ComicCon, unlike last year where I went almost every day and spent a small fortune, I might just go one day this year. Usually I would go to this show to see Kemper and I also have another sorta IRL GGS girl who is the wife of a colleague at work...but I'm not sure if I'll make it. Odds of going: 25%
7/29 - Baltimore, Otakon...I want to go meet up with all of my SG GGSers from the East Coast, you gals know who you are! ...and just maybe, I might bring a surprise guest with me, hehe. Odds of going: 95%.
9/14 - NYC, Big 4!!! I'm going to try to bring myself and possibly a couple of other girls, the ones I'm supposedly meeting with at AX, and if I can get all of the costs together, make the plane trip out to NYC! Odds of going: 80%.
If you're one of the people I've asked/invited to travel with me or I'm traveling to YOU, you'll already know.
Anyways, should be a blast.
Oh and this beautiful song is stuck in my head...90s.
***********************************************************************************************************
The Butterfly Blog
This is the oldest blog in the queue so FIFO (First In First Out).
Ok so any of you who know me know that I've been in a funk for months. Well sometimes at work, it gets to me as there are various triggers. I developed a way to cope by walking around outside...and I sort of rediscovered just how nice the flora around our buildings are in terms of a botanical sense.
Normally I love looking for insects including little grass hoppers, lady bugs and praying mantises...especially the latter...plus lots of sun-basking lizards doing lil pushups, haha.
Well, about a couple of months ago, where this blog starts, I started to notice...fuzzy caterpillars! First there was one and then later lots. Here's a sample pic I snagged off the internet.
Once I not only started to notice a lot of them but...they started climbing up walls and stuff...odd behavior until I realized they were metamorphosing.
It was fun trying to figure out what type of butterfly these came from. Turns out I was pleasantly surprised...Mourning Cloak butterfly.
I took notice of one caterpillar that just seemed to go up a bare wall and hang there...well, next day:
The chrysalis is pretty...the top black fuzzy thing is the other skin of the head of the former butterfly now turned pupae. Don't let the sharp-looking spines scare you! The these guys are soft and non-poisonous. They creep along in a very soft and cute way too. BTW the word "chrysalis" makes me think of a certain person, with a bit of emotion.
Anyways at first I saw one chrysalis, then another...so then I spent the next couple of weeks just hunting around for more...I spotted one, then two and then suddenly it was like up to 40 of them, all over the place. The idea of having a whole ton of butterflies all around when you walk by is just way too romantic in an innocent way.
Then one day, some started to "hatch."
The one on the left already opened, the one on the right is still waiting...
But here's the problem...The butterflies are dying right out of the pods...
So I resolved myself to see if I can spot any that pop out and seemed to be just languishing on the ground. The next day I find this one on the ground:
He's very suicidal, he keeps trying to hang and keeps falling off...I think the initial fall might have cracked his thorax.
I try to get him to some bushes, away from the building wall where there's no plant life in sight.
So I got him on to a branch. He's chilling. The next day I find him still bouncing around in the dirt. Then the next, next day, I don't see him anymore. I hope he flew off but I think he didn't.
So then a few days pass and I'm looking for any butterflies that made it. I spot only one but am unable to capture it on camera as this species is a very powerful flier. Just one.
And then a few more days and I find yet another butterfly, a smaller and skinnier one, flapping around on the ground.
I try to coax it into my hand so that I can get him to a bush, and not just be on the hard blacktop where the nearest flora is like more than 10 feet away or 4 feet up. He winds up crawling all over my hand, flapping hard all of the time. It's a bit of a challenge to keep him from falling off!
Anyways, I got him to a bush and hoped he made it. Not sure if you can see but he was quite a bit skinnier than the previous one I found.
Later on, I found this egg that fell out of a nest. Couldn't help but feel that it's current state was metaphorically very similar to some of my dreams right now. Just a shell of a dead thing that once had so much potential.
Another week passes. Now there are about five butterflies flying around and this makes me a bit more pleased. While trying to capture at least one in flight, I find this grasshopper.
And later after that, I finally manage to catch a butterfly just napping on a stem...a nice healthy one.
By now, I counted over a dozen Mourning Cloaks fluttering around in the sun. Just about all of the chrysalises have popped.
And of this writing, they're all gone again...hopefully everyone found a mate so that next season, I'll see even more fuzzies!
- R
.><.
PS - I may keep adding to this blog or simply make a new one...not sure yet...but a preview...Big 4!
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
comixbookgurl:
because? 
trekka:
My point exactly. Glad you agree.