Category Archives: Observations

Social Media

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Eight years ago I ditched social media and closed my accounts. There is nothing I miss about it. I’m relieved of not having to measure myself by the number of “likes” I get. I’m no longer forced to sort through content that is a deceptive mix of advertising. I like having a smaller sphere of social interactions. I’m naturally an introvert anyway.

Eight years ago was an election year, too. In the dozen of U.S. presidents that have reined during my lifetime, has any affected my day-to-day life? Not really. The choosing of a president is armchair quarterbacking. It’s religion. The politics that affect my day-to-day life are local. But it’s difficult to read any media source and escape the contest. It’s such a huge distraction and it goes on and on. Before the last presidential debate I thought, “has anyone not already made up their minds?”

I watched someone taking a “selfie” in front of an aspen grove that was changing color. I noted that the only reason anyone would take a picture of themselves is for their social media “stage”. That’s how I think of social media, trillions of personal sideshows all vying for attention. It’s such a trap.

The first few months away from social media was very difficult. It felt like I was like giving up a part of myself. But what part of me is gone? Maybe a little bit of ego. That’s not a bad thing. I’m not sure how useful ego is. And speaking of ego, the largest one in the world now owns one of the largest social media platforms.

Buckhorn Wash Rock-Art

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Maybe it’s obvious to others, but I was struck by an epiphany while pondering the Buckhorn Wash art-rock panel, with its many eras represented.

The epiphany was how the older stuff was universal, spiritual, other worldly. The stuff thousands of years later is more about the tribe: hunting and food. Another 1000 years later, it’s all about the individual who has nothing to offer other than his/her name and the date they were there; or the heart-shaped outline with two anonymous and banal names contained within. It’s shrunk from worldly, to tribe, to self. What will humans be like in another 1000 years?

Earlier era pictographs. I believe the serpent lines represent lightning.
Rain gods watering the earth?
My favorite is the second from the left.
Later era petroglyphs
Looks like one of the horned animals is on its back.

Touchstones

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Sometimes I just want things to be static and unchanging. During this crazy time of wearing masks, waiting in line to enter the grocery store and being more anti-social than usual, I find it comforting to get out into nature and visit the unchanging landscapes. Well, I should state that the landscapes are always changing, but in small, natural ways.

Frog pond

 

I went out this week and hiked the Odyssey trail (my own name for it since it doesn’t have an official name).  I was expecting small changes.  I was curious how the Champion stamp mill ruins survived another winter.  Big change. The huge jaw crusher had fallen through the wooden supports holding it up. It was not unexpected.  It was just a matter of when.

The pulley of the jaw crusher is still partially visible in the center after falling through the supporting deck.

 

View from Winter 2009

Then another change: someone with too much time on their hands moved the old school bus from where it had sat for decades near a mining camp, to a quarter mile away. I can’t fathom why this was done.  The new site is not very interesting.  Well I suppose it’s better than being pushed into the creek which was a lot closer.

The old school bus in its new location (actually it says Colorado State Forest Service on the side, so not school)

The next change was the aqueduct is no longer an aqueduct.

A pipeline has replaced the aqueduct.

The most disappointing change was a fir tree which was hundreds of years old succumbed to the winds of winter.  It was the oldest fir tree that I have seen in the wild.

This old fir tree was hundreds of years old. The diameter where the tree broke was 3.5 feet. It’s nearly 6 feet in diameter near the ground.

By the end of the hike I was feeling pretty unsettled with how much things had changed in a year. So much for those unchanging familiar landscapes.

It seemed like a longer than usual winter.  So much snow. So much work. So much bullshit. I had looked forward to camping in the Utah deserts, in the silence, the solitude, in the warmth. But a world pandemic got in the way of it, with lockdowns and a piling on of the work schedule. I’m grateful to be able to earn a living, many are not so lucky.  The pandemic will likely affect business eventually since what I do is connected to disposable income.  I imagine that some customers will no longer have disposable income.

Mourning cloak butterfly on an aspen trunk

I’m hoping to update more often, but who knows. I’m trying to get my photographic “work flow” established on the Linux desktop since I no longer use Windows.  I’ll be more likely to update if it’s easy to do so, and developing the photos has been a block in the recent past. I estimate I’ve taken somewhere around 40,000 photos in the last 20 years.  For Linux, I seem to be settling on Rapid Photo Downloader to get the photos into folders and RawTherapee to process the raw images.

Lichen on rust