iNaturalist

As I writer, I am constantly about making observations about the world around me. I usually take my camera with me when I go out to “observe.” You never known when that odd looking building or interesting looking person may end up in a bit of writing. The camera provides those necessary field notes.

This past weekend I signed up for a special project at my local natural history museum. They want to use patrons of the museum as amateur naturalists to map out the fauna and flora of the region. To do this, I signed up with iNaturalist, an online tool to facilitate the gathering of natural observations from all over the world. Click the logo to see:

On Sunday morning, I was surprised to find two common raccoons right outside my door. Unfortunately, I was not in a position to photograph them. Nevertheless, I made my observation on iNaturalist. The next day, I did have my camera in hand when I snapped these shots:

The cool thing about iNaturalist is that you do not need to know the type of animal or bird you observed. Just ask for help and someone will come along to identify the creature for you. This is how I discovered the identity of the Great Blue Heron and the Black Crowned Night Heron above.

I was also graced with seeing a pod of dolphin that morning as well. I did upload this picture but it is not clear enough for anyone to identify the species yet.

So as long as I am tramping about taking photos, I might as well contribute to the natural history data of my region.

Neat, huh?

LJG (c) 2013

Flexing My Typing Fingers

It seems like last autumn, winter and spring I was posting almost every day or at least several times a week.

Then for a while, I became so busy with other aspects of life that I didn’t have time or energy for creative pursuits. Now for the last few weeks, I have been doing a lot of pleasure reading as well as relaxing and recharging my interior batteries through meditation and walking.  The result of this recent little mental and creative vacation is that a couple of days ago, I decided to pull out of moth balls an unfinished novel that I started a couple of years ago during a NaNoWrimo.

The Novel is staring back at me from my monitor and beckoning for me to finish it.  I guess I’d better heed that call before the characters start invading my dreams and keeping me up all night.  Characters will do that, you know. 🙂

I hope to continue posting here at least once a week.   I will need to take some Artist’s Dates to stay charged up during this writing haul and maybe have something interesting for you here.

My thanks to those of you in my writing circle who have been encouraging me to get moving again and get published.

Evolution of a Geek-Girl

A Note from Miss Pelican:  Writer Jane Wolfinbarger has made an insightful analysis of her evolution as a “geek-girl.” I so totally get this that I had to reblog it. And check out Jane’s complete blog at http://janewwolfinbarger.wordpress.com/

Jane W. Wolfinbarger

I saw a video on Facebook today that I immediately identified with. I reposted it, and then started thinking and writing. Here’s the video, and the results of the thinking and writing.

**********

My first steps toward geekdom were small ones. I grew up in a small Southern town in the 1960’s and 70’s, and there really wasn’t a lot of fodder for geeks there at that time. Comic books, three channels on television (and an early bedtime) and a public library that ran to mainstream fiction were all I had at my disposal. Still, I showed potential early on; I spent weeks being a cat at age two, with a tail safety-pinned onto me (role-playing and cosplay, anyone?) until my dad brought home a kitten for me, and at age four, I had a fairy-tale character as an imaginary friend. (I reluctantly dismissed her when my mother questioned whether…

View original post 1,014 more words