Tombofsoldier

Just got in, last minute a camping spot in Yosmite. Last minute means 2 weeks in advance when it's a place booked a year in advance for cabins and such, and fills up in one day for virtually every spot. And maybe I'll be going back there just a week later to Camp Mather, a high mountain summer camp... or maybe not.

But I accomplished something! It feels good after failures concerning my movie script. Now I just need a new camera to go with it. Fortunately my mom decided she'd give me a pile of old comics she found. Including a number of first run Superboys. Extra cash and possibly a new camera here I come! So hopefully look for a huge pile of photos or two from me next month. And uhhh... some platitude about believing in yourself. Let's try "Never give up, never surrender!" That sounds good.

Balloooon. Balloon. Balloon ballooon balloooooooning. There's got to be a shorter way to say "I went in a hot air balloon." Like a verb for it. But just try to say it out loud. Ballooning. It just sounds silly. But I guess that's ok because it's awesome, pictures incoming.

Well it wasn't a failure, but my trip to Samuel P. Taylor park wasn't a success either. Not one useable picture. Ruined the one amazing shot with seemingly impossibly lighting conditions, others by not getting the right exposure, and that stupid bayer filter error!

For those that don't know cameras work similar to our eyes, each pixel is covered in a little color filter so it only receives red, green, or blue light. These are then combined together to get color! Unfortunately the color sometimes isn't combined right, like when you shoot branches against a blue sky and can get a blue fringe eating away at your branches, bleh.

On top of it all my dog managed to injure herself. Now she's hobbling around with a hurt leg, I can't see anything so its probably just twisted. Still, ugh. It was nice to visit the park though, camping there is still fantastically relaxing and even though I've not been there in years memories still come up. And the hike itself was nice enough, if rather unspectacular.

Ohwell, not a failure and not a success. So an unsuccess and an unfailure.

Looking back through all my old pictures... it's weird to see. To remember, to think "really, has it been that long. I did that. I remember doing that. It was just like yesterday." So many of our memories never flicker, never dim, seem as clear and bright and vivid and more alive even than what we had for breakfast this morning. Sometimes it seems impossible that such should have taken place weeks, months, years, even decades ago.

Got back from a decent trip to King's Canyon National Park in California, the US. While there are some nice waterfalls and spectacularly large mountains and canyons, the parks layout leaves something to be desired. Driving 30 miles around twisty cliffside roads to get to another place in the park can look great sometimes, but take quite a while and isn't what I expected from something like a camping trip. Not to mention that the trails, when they are there, are barely maintained and require a purchasable ($11.95) map to even find half the time.

On top of it all, spot fires seem incredibly common. I trekked through more drifts of ash than I've ever seen, evidence of a bush fire there, a tree on fire here. It wasn't pleasant to walk through, and made it seem like the entire park was half ready to be set ablaze entirely and at any moment. So not the funnest trip, I'd recommend the wonderful Yosemite Valley or even lesser known areas like Muir Woods and Burney falls for anyone wanting to see California's wilderness.

Still, almost two hundred pictures were taken! They'll take a while to sort through, but that's part of the fun anyway