Gotta Catch 'Em All

I've found that most of the people I know have their own way of capturing the world around them. Every day I see people take photos, write, paint, sew, play music, etc.

I feel like these are ways to hold close the beautiful and interesting things around you. It turns the moments, the light, the texture of the world and makes it physical. Archive-able. Sharable. You could say that it's a legacy of things you think about and notice. The part of your personality and aesthetic you wish to pass along, or at least record.



Walking around with something that I can capture the world around me with helps too. I feel like it sometimes it makes me more observant. It's like a little voice in my bag saying, "Look at that! Look at this!" I look for the things that inspire me. On a bad day, having that reminder to look for things I admire or that fiddle with my brain helps to reaffirm my satisfaction with my life and the world.



And at other times, it's handy for wonderful (and I mean that most literally) things I happen upon purely by accident.



And sometimes it's good for being selfish. Capturing to have for always. This piece of the world and of time to hold and think about. Sometimes something has texture that makes me want to rub my eyeballs on it. Sometimes a moment feels like a sound, or a set of words. Sometimes I want to wrap myself in soft things, pretty things, turn myself into a shape. Sometimes I want to put things that have survived human history under a glass jar to ogle, to appreciate, to mock.

I personally do this for vanity and selfishness and hedonism. I like reading the things that I write (sometimes) and looking at the photos I take, because (if I'm successful) they evoke in me the emotions I had when I wrote or photographed. Maybe it's because I'm a control freak and I like setting up my own stimuli.

Others might want to send a message straight into the retina. Make pupils contract. Make sphincters tighten. Make hearts beat and neck hairs stand on end. Sometimes they want people to be outraged, to be sympathetic, to be sad, to be joyful. Essentially sometimes they want people to care about something. These are worthy causes, especially if there's something important to say with these snippets of the world.

I don't really do that yet. Gotta work my way up to it, i guess.

Rule: Capture something of the world at least once for yourself or others.

World Peace

...if everyone took a bite at the same time.

I'm utterly convinced that if all people took a bite of one of the following foods at the same time, we could end all wars. (All foods would adjust for allergies/meat/egg substitution, of course)

- Peanut butter + nilla wafer + banana

- Hollandaise sauce on english muffin

- Popcorn, then a sip of Coca Cola

- Sprinkles (seriously, have you ever just bitten into a spoonful of colorful sprinkles?)

- Garlic mashed potatoes

- Lava cake

- Risotto with lots of parmesan and/or fontina

I'm just happy thinking about these.


Rule: Come up with a list of world peace foods. Try to keep components/ingredients on hand at all times. Toss into the mouths of any grumpy people or unwelcome intruders.

Take sexy photos

...of stuff you love.

Today, a package arrive for my boss, and inside it was some stuff for him, and a little green-gold gem for me. Olive oil! A lovely present. I took it home and immediately admired it's clean, perfume-inspired labeling, but rustic, shapely packaging. I imagined the silky goodness inside. Putting it in my cupboard, I realized that the other olive oils I had were packaged beautifully and looked scrumptious as well! I decided to have a sexy photo shoot with them!

Forcin' it.

Yeah, they say you shouldn't force it. You can blow a gasket and whatnot. However, in the case of writing, to make a habit of writing helps, and to make a habit, sometimes you have to force it. So this is me, writing for the sake of writing. Squirting it out, for me and for you: my loving and loyal audience. Hunkering down and pushing out a few words. Squatting on the internet and bombing some prose onto this blog. Yeah you wanted that image in your head, I know it.

Rule: Force yourself to form those habits you know will be good for you or make you happy in the long run.

Next week, hopefully I will be posting on my new strange decorating/entertaining style. It doesn't have anything to do with forcing pellets, I promise.