Digital Picture @ MindSay

I am totally enjoying my new / used digital cam I got from the pawn shop! I decided to take my camera to U of H today so I could take some pictures of the campus before class. Just bear with me guys. I'll probably be taking a lot of pictures until the novelty wears out. :P

Here are a couple of shots of one of my most favorite places on campus: the Reflection Pool.  They've expanded it since my undergrad days.

My next favorite sight on campus is also new. Two of these bad boys flank the Ezekiel Cullen Building.  This building is where all of the real stuff happens. You enroll here and you deal with all of your financial aid matters here. This is one of the first buildings you get acquainted with when you go to school here.  Ten years ago when I was an undergrad, these guys didn't guard...er...flank the building.

He guards the right of the building.

She guards the left.

Nothing says "Welcome Students" like two menacing cougars who look ready to tear out your throat.

"Where's my tuition!!!!!"

And finally a picture of me in the Honors Lounge as I waited for class to begin.

I wanted to take a picture of this area on campus where a group of trees are growing horizontally. They kind of form a circle. It reminds me of an enchanted forest where you'd see faeries and gnomes. I didn't take the picture this time because it would require me to get off on a stop that is further from my class.  It was hot today and I got winded walking to class. I did however manage to make it farther  than usual on my journey to class before I got winded and sweaty. Baby steps folks...baby steps.  I'll just have to take the picture of the trees when it gets less hot or when I get less fat -- whichever one comes first. In Houston you never know! :P

Well, staying at home is getting depressing and going to work is just as depressing considering I'm moving and closing up shop, so I took a lovely rest at Schmeeckle Nature Reserve tonight. Next to this text is a new picture of me. I wanted to show those interested how long my hair is and just how much of a cute fatty I am!  Of course after looking at this picture for awhile, I noticed that the way I'm kneeling, with my black poncho flowing out over my knees makes me look bigger than I am -- but only I would notice that!

Behind me there were some deer running around but it was too dark to incorporate them into the picture (if I had a better resolution camera maybe I would've captured them, that would've been way cool). I hate my digital camera because the resolution of the pictures is very low and images sometimes show up fuzzy, but at least it affords me the chance to take some photos and put them on the computer as soon as I get into the lab.

I haven't walked through Schmeeckle in a long while.  When I lived in the Village Apartments (a complex just a block away from the reserve) it was my favorite haunt and one of the places where I passed my first spirit quest.  In ten years the trees have gotten bigger there and the wetlands have gotten thicker as well.  Despite years of drunk college students and finding the occasional beer can that can spoil your mood as you walk through the wilderness, Schmeekle is still alive and full of spirits.  I used to take students on tours through the woods there during this time of year and tell ghost stories.  As far as I know, only one student died there in the little man made lake near the apartments (a tragic result of skinny dipping while drunk after bartime).

Besides telling ghost stories, I loved to tell Fairy tales and one of the best places to tell a fairy tale is to climb up Fairy Hill. Few people know about this area of Schmeekle but those who do have finally put up some stones so that you climb up easier. It was here that every Midsummer my friends and I would leave offerings and prayer bags. Ribbons from previous offerings can still be seen in some of the branches of the trees nearby but even during a sunlit day, it's very dark on top of the hill (as can be seen by these photos):

I just took these today and it's amazing how dark they turned up compared to this photo, taken at the same time, just next to the hill:

My favorite kind of tree are Willows...

In the last picture above is this big wooden thing (I can't remember what it's called) that you can test your strength by climbing up the flat side. I took these in the part of Schmeeckle Reserve that has lots of places for people to do aggressive workouts. Here's a closer shot of the building and the willow tree next to it.

If I had more time today, I would've taken more photos of the area and I think I'll do that tomorrow earlier in the day when there's more light.  So I'll just leave you with this last little picture of fall leaves at dusk...

And this picture of a ghostly orb taken in the backroom of my emptying store (it's just above the posters on the back wall -- at first I thought it was a reflection but I didn't use a flash when I took this picture!):

Ever experience that creepy feeling whenever you enter a room that you know you shouldn't be creeped out to enter but for some reason you do?  This was what I felt whenever I entered this room.  It's just a floor below the place where a guy hung himself 20 years ago...  Even though my digital camera is cheap, it picks up these little orbs far more easily than a regular camera.

I need to go ghost hunting!

soccer pictures SUCKED. i waited in the heat for over an hour to have a disgusting looking picture taken. and because it was windy my bangs blew up. so we know who had an ugly picture. anyways. i saw a lot of people there that i havn't seen in a long time. but i didn't talk to them, no, i just saw them.

if scars tell stories, my body has a book for you to read.

well my air conditioning officially doesn't work which officially sucks. you know, i was going to make this a nice long blog. but, i don't think i can stay in my room and stand the heat long enough. oh well.

love&hope for cool.