Pictures of January

I've got some random photos from the last couple of weeks that don't all go together and don't really tell a story (or just don't tell a particularly interesting one), but I want to share. My friend Leo did an excellent 2011 in pictures blog entry, (you should look at it even if you don't know her, because it's just that good) so this is inspired by that, except that mine are kind of the leftover pictures that didn't make it into other entries.

1) Toy friends:



Taken at the campus Early Learning Center when I was riding with Jeannie while my car was broken.

2) Blurry:



The camera that I had for years and years and used to carry everywhere before I went digital. Mom and Dad bought it for me for Christmas sometime in the late 1980's.

3) Pinhole on campus:



I think it's odd how none of the flame, which is in the Torchbearer's outstretched hand, is captured by the pinhole. I've tried this angle before in lower light, but then you can't really see the statue. I will probably keep experimenting with it, though.



I think that motorcycle picture is just perfect. It looks exactly like I hoped it might when I took it, which means (I think) that I'm getting better with the pinhole camera.









I really like that the pinhole camera can take things that I see every day (like McClung Tower) and render them strange and new.

4) Remember when I bought that orange resin clock with the rocks inside?

I still like it.



5) Summer's over:



These have been sitting on top of my shelf since I stopped wearing contacts a year or two ago. It feels wrong to throw away perfectly good sunglasses, but I have no idea what I'm saving them for, unless I decide to try contacts again in a year or two.

I miss being able to openly stare at people from behind dark lenses.

6) Graffiti on campus:



I don't think evolution works that way.



Childhood will never die. What's kind of hilarious is that this cartoon probably wasn't even on the air anymore when the person who painted this was born.





Current events, in stencil.



And a scorpion to round out the collection.

I saw most of these around the entrance to the Art and Architecture Building that faces the pedestrian walkway, which in over five years on campus I have never actually used:



I guess I still need to get out of my office more.

7) Rare Pages III

Since I've never been to that particular entrance to the Art and Architecture Building, I didn't know that it also houses a sculpture:





"Rare Pages III" by Blane De St. Croix.

It's a collection of concrete tiles in a rack, and you can slide the tiles in and out to see each one:





The animals are all rare and endangered, which might explain why that tamarind looks so sad.





I did a little online research and found a link to the sculpture on the artist's website, which left me with two thoughts.

First, it's not quite in the same condition as it was when completed in 1992.

Second, I'm willing to bet that at least some of the animlas on the tiles have become extinct between 1992 and now, and that was a little depressing to consider.