Found Alphabet - W

I was incredibly lucky to get this shot - one morning this moth was just sitting on my verandha and it stayed put while I got a camera extremely close to it to get this. I wish I'd had my SLR ready to go to get a much more detailed close-up but I'll consider myself lucky to have this one. The unedited shot below (you will have to click on it to expand to full size) shows the amazing texture of the moth's wing. This was as close as a zoom/distance combo could get me without losing focus.

I have some other Ws that I'm also very happy with but I just didn't know how to top the one above... and yes, the same moth was a back up U - it's quite the show-off... these were found on a walk around this area. I especially like the tree, it was tough deciding between that and the photo I chose to feature.

I realise I miscalculated yesterday so tomorrow there should be a morning and afternoon post (bonus).

Found Alphabet - V

A quick aside, somewhere in there while I wasn't paying attention my blog passed 50k views! Just a little excited. Thank you! On with the show...

Strictly speaking I mean to take photos sequentially... but this V was too good to leave behind. Technically it dates back to my holiday in November - this is the ceiling in one of the terminals of Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

I should be back with W tomorrow - a photo a day to the end of the year will see this alphabet done this year. Then I can work out which letters need a reshoot etc. and work on some kind of final project.

Found Alphabet - U

It's time to pick up the pace a bit to finish this up this year! This picture is from the veranda of a local bakery that makes shortbread that I don't buy very often - only because I'm going to wind up eating the whole packet in one sitting. I was very excited to find the second U below - it's the wing of a moth that I happened across. I thought at the time I'd found my W and was very excited to get a wing-close-up letter, but there was more than one hiding there.

Found Alphabet - T

At long last, T appears. I may attempt a reshoot of my favourite T but although the brick one below has some things going for it I love that this one isn't so flat and it's got a very strange sense of perspective that's kind of fun.

There were many chances to get electrical pole Ts but I did that back at F and I didn't want a repeat...

I hope I can pick up the pace to get this thing done this year...

I also spotted the most wonderful M in leftover wrought iron on an old stone fence while I was doing this. I may have to think very hard when it comes to deciding which ends up in the final piece of work once the alphabet is finished.

Library Shelving Entropy

If asked to give a layman's definition of the second law of thermodynamics I'd likely explain that in a closed system the level of disorder tends to increase over time. The common misuses of this theory asides, I offer libraries as a proof.

It starts innocuously enough. Two books are reversed on the shelf. Or one's lying down at the end of a row of books. A few days later six books have hopped to other bays of shelving and large gaps in the fiction collection have the whole thing looking dishevelled. When you go to put one of the bay-hoppers back where they belong you find two books that have made an epic journey from a collection on the other side of the building. Others have disappeared into the blackness behind other books and under furnishings where they can hide for weeks.

Before you know it: 

This, thankfully, is from Wikimedia Commons, not from my own camera.

The library I work in offers significantly lower levels of entropy (phew).

Any member of staff who has been handed the routine but sometimes mildly terrifying task of searching the notorious missing report or any of the other lists for materials that aren't where they were expected to be can confirm this to you.

Shelvers, shelf tidiers and shelf readers might fight the forces of entropy with great enthusiasm and persistence but the laws of physics can never be truly overcome.

Ebooks may offer a sort of salvation - but to look wider to the world of digital resources the work of entropy is plain to see.

Travel Journal - Phuket, Thailand (Part 1)

Sometimes when I travel I keep a journal. I recently took a week long trip to Phuket, Thailand and thought I'd share the journal this time. I've twitched it a bit here and there from my personal copy, but hopefully that makes it all the more interesting.

Found Alphabet - S

 

This S comes from Kuala Lumpur International Airport - I was in transit and spotted this on a a lamp in the cafe where I was enjoying a rather excellent teh tarik and some samosas.

The one below was meant to be my S, it's the pavement of a market area in Patong, Phuket. I waited for tuk tuks and market shoppers to get off it for a moment... but the angle and framing just aren't right. This is the best I can get it to be.

*grump*

On the upside my holiday was incredible and I'm working on writing up my travel journal.

Lessons from cycling

1. Take any opportunity to get out into a beautiful sunny afternoon 
2. Barossa 'Valley' should offer some hints about the terrain 
3. Flat to a car and flat to a bicycle are not the same thing
4. Turns out the climb with the greatest altitude gain might be the shallowest
5. Sometimes given exhaustion and an opportunity to give up I keep going anyway
6. It is okay to get off and walk if you need to but...
7. When you do get to the top of the hill the sense of accomplishment is wonderful 
8. When you look back and realise you achieved more than you thought you were capable of the feeling is pretty good too
9. Sometimes you may have to brake for livestock and wildlife 
10. Bicycle mechanics are amazing, as is the difference when you add 30psi and don't have a brake jammed against the wheel
11. If you stop cycling for several months, whatever your reasoning, walking and climbing the stairs at work will not make up for it

By the end of Autumn I will substantially improve my time and reduce the number of hills requiring contact between shoes and path.

Found Alphabet - R

If I regret anything about this letter, it's not having it found and photographed for International Talk Like a Pirate day. Because... ARRR!

I visited Port Pirie last weekend for a fundraising dinner and also went hiking with my sister at Mount Remarkable National Park where she spotted this R - really nicely defined. I'd love another chance to take this shot - maybe when wearing a fly net. The walk was lovely but that particular national park appears to have taken delivery of several cubic metres of flies. Standing still for more than a couple seconds dramatically increased the risk of inhaling a fly. *shudder*

The other R was spotted in Brisbane a while back - I do like it but wanted something taken more recently.

I'd suggest this should be the last difficult letter to find but I really want to avoid jinxing myself...

Twilight Sparkle colour scheme bracelet

Something new to show you today - this bracelet is the first of a set I'm making using colour schemes from My Little Pony : Friendship is Magic as a theme. I've been wanting to do some themed work and with such bold colour combinations I thought this might be a good candidate. While basic colours/themes are used I'm not trying to make these a highly accurate, just having a bit of fun with them.

This one uses the colour scheme of Twilight Sparkle.

I have a few other themes I'd like to work with too but I haven't really developed the ideas for those yet.

Now back to the workbench...