Story

It seems as if all of the most childish and supposedly innocent things are the most twisted. One of the most twisted is the kids game Twister. It seems so innocent, but it actually is a perverse and awkward game unlike any other. Hidden under the guise of childhood innocence, it is deviously deceptive in its twisted ways. Case and point, need I say more? Yes, I do. The main problem about this game is it’s total lack of boundary space. There is no such thing as personal space in this game, with arms and legs crossing and criss-crossing across numerous people. Nothing is sacred. ...

At Natural Bridges State Park in California there is a spectacular little lagoon that looks like the ground it is so filled with mosses. The entire water is green and looks solid enough to walk on even though there are ducks swimming in it. Life seems to spring from it, with long stretching reeds that reach outward like arms and old logs reposing in the green water. There is something about this green lagoon that is eerie and beautiful, maybe it is the illusion, or maybe it is just the presence of life all around. I hope to go back very soon and see it again.

Many people when they see my creeper photos either think it is totally strange or very interesting. One of the questions I get most often is what if they see you taking the picture? For most people, I take every possible precaution to make sure they don’t see. If they do see me there is a special tactic I imploy to sooth their suspicion. If you notice you have been spotted, don’t run away in fear of being called out. Most people will not call you out, so keep it cool and they will just give you a weird look then walk away. People are not very confrontational and if you keep it cool nothing will happen. Most people assume they are being paranoid and don’t do anything about it. Occasionally though, they will call you out. So if a person seems a little peeved here is my strategy. Still, do not run away. Stay put and then put your camera up again like you are going to take another photo and wait till the are out of the frame and take a new photo. Make a real spectacle of what you are doing and make it as apparent as possible that your intent for that picture was not the person. Once they see you do this, they will not do anything about it because they assume that you were taking a picture of what is behind them and they just happen to be in the shot. They never think they they are the shot. So, disaster averted and the world does not end. If those don’t work, then run. However, with children I let them see that I am taking their picture. Like this little girl, children make some of the most amazing eye contact with strangers and in that moment of eye contact is a connection like you are peering into their life. Their eyes, like this little girls beautiful blue eyes, become a window into who they are. Even though I will never know who these kids become, for just a single moment it feels like I do know. ...

This picture is at Pictured Rocks National Park in Northern Michigan. In a place of such pristine beauty, were the sandstone rock walls stand like monoliths looming over Lake Superior, there is wonder in everything. Most people would expect a picture of these cliffs, but my favorite shot when I was there, was not of the towering monoliths or the emerald green waters, but of the forest hidden behind it all. People will tell you where to find the most beautiful sights in places like this, but the real beauty is found in the unspoken places. Down the little untreaded paths were no ranger or tour guide will lead you. It is up to you to discover it and keep the little wonder a secret in your heart. Find your own beauty, mine lies in the forest. Where the trees are white as snow and the ground is red with fallen leaves and pines. This is were I find beauty, in the unsuspected place.

For my friends seventeenth birthday we went paint balling at a paintball course over the hill. I had never done this before but it was loads of fun. It had been pouring so the course was totally muddy and I was slipping everywhere as we were running around trying not to get shot. We were on the Jeep course which had a bunch of playground pieces and a Jeep in the center of the course. We were divided up into teams and had to get ready for the fight. ...

Bobbing for apples is one of the funniest games to watch ever. Watching people vainly dunk their heads in water and try to scrounge out an apple is pretty entertaining. That being so, this games is really only entertaining when you can stand back and watch the people getting soaked and frustrated. When it is your turn, it is no longer a laughing matter. The duality of bobbing for apples, fun to watch and torture the people doing it, annoying and frustrating when you are being watched and tortured as you try to bob for an apple. ...

This post has been a long time coming, my shout out of the day today is Philomena! She is one of the coolest people in the world, she even has her own talk show at school called Phridays with Phil. Yes, she is that cool. She sticks with me even in my strangest of times, and loves Rocky Horror as much as me, which is quite a feat, believe me. She has sat with me in Spanish for about the past three years and has gotten me through the full IB years and many golf sessions. Yes, Philomena child, you are a wonderful person and I love you!! See you in Spanish 🙂

To those of you who have not seen Rocky Horror Picture Show, SHAME ON YOU This post probably won’t make any sense because only die-hard fans of Rocky Horror can truly understand other die-hard fans. If you think you understand this post because you watched the Rocky Horror episode of Glee, and that is the only reason you have ever heard of Rocky Horror Picture Show, SHAME ON YOU MORE. Don’t tell me you get Rocky Horror because you saw weird people on T.V. singing along to the words, it is nowhere near the same thing. Take Glee, add more transvestites, more crudeness, nudity and make up, then, and only then, can we maybe start to talk. Let me explain first the long months of hoping and planing that went into us doing this. I have been dying to see the midnight showing ever since I first became a die-hard fan of Rocky Horror. Going to this made my life in unexplainable ways. We didn’t get to go to the Rocky Horror Picture Show on Friday but we were able to get tickets for the Saturday night show which was a huge relief. We were so close to not getting in at all, I would have been heart-broken. But we got in and saw it at last. Failure avoided. ...

Driving through the Arizona deserts and the flatlands around Utah, we found a little turquoise stand amongst precariously perched rock pilings. There were also the remains of an old adobe house, it had no roof, no floors, nothing except for a turquoise framed door and window. This was one of my favorite places that we stopped at during our road trip. It felt like an entirely different world. A place of red sand, monstrous rock pilings, and windows within windows that let us look into this strange alien place. There is something haunting in this forgotten building and the lonely doorway left behind. Looking through those windows you can see the world the way it once was, before grand cities or electronics. Just the simplicity of nature. ...