a peek inside the fishbowl

“I have a photo project,” she said.
“What kind of photo project?” asked the other.
“One photo every day.”
She snorted. “Yeah, like THAT’S never been done before.”
“I know it’s been done before, but I don’t care. This is my own thing.”
“TRA LA LA. Bor-ing. How is this different from the other million photo-a-day projects out there?”
“Well, first of all, I’m taking the photos with my iPhone.”
“YAWN.”
“And I’m using a polaroid filter on each one to give it a dreamy retro kind of look. I love the irony, the instant digital photo posing as the instant polaroid of years gone by … ”
“Sigh.”
“AND I’m going to take one photo every day for as long as I can.”
“Well good luck, I guess.”
“What do you mean I GUESS?”
“Your project is going to fail because (a) you are going to lose interest and (b) it’s not going to stand out. You haven’t told me what makes this project unique.”
“Unique?”
“Yes! You need to get noticed.”
“I don’t need to get noticed.”
“So why bother?”
“Why? This is just for me. I am doing this for myself.”
“So why brag about it?”
“I’m not bragging!”
“Oh yes you are. LOOKIT ME LOOKIT ME AND NOW CREE_AY_TIV I am! If this was only for YOU you wouldn’t tell anyone. You’d keep it in a drawer and leave it at that.”
“Haven’t you heard the expression, dance as if no one is watching? Well, I’m dancing. Besides, there’s a difference between sharing with friends and BRAGGING. I am pretty sure there’s a handful of people out there who might be interested. What’s wrong with telling them about it?”
“What’s wrong? Well, once people start following your progress it will change everything. You will approach your photos differently, more carefully, and it will change your outcome. Awareness taints. It won’t be pure because it will stop being about you, it will become about satisfying your audience. For example, what if you knew someone was looking through your photos and was aiming to give you a book deal? You would alter your output. Admit it, YOU ARE DOING THIS FOR A BOOK DEAL.”
“To be honest this could never be a published piece, the photos aren’t exactly high-res and -”
“Oh stop avoiding the question.”
“I’m not avoiding the question. If I thought this was going to wind up one someone’s coffee table it would be different, you’re right. And I like it the way it is, no pressure. Think about the difference between a blog post and a published piece. The blog posts pour out of me and are largely unedited. But I put a lot more time and energy into work I’m hired to do. These daily photos are blog posts, not fine-tuned pieces destined for other purposes.”
“Alright already. Gawd. You do tend to go on about things. So it’s one photo a day?”
“Yes, well, no. It’s more than just a photo. Each one is somehow meaningful. Each has some kind of significance. Each one is a moment in time, captured in this format along with a short caption.”
“If this is about the image, why are you making more work for yourself with captions?”
“I thought about it and I realized my photos lose meaning very quickly if there is no text attached to them. Have you ever found a photo but can’t identify the people in it? That’s why I’m adding captions. This is a visual diary of sorts, but it only logs a single moment or thought or experience each day. It’s an autobiography with a whole lot of pages torn out.”
“Alright then smartypants, it’s your own thing, and you’re dancing, and you don’t care yadda yadda. Let’s just get started.”
“I already have.”

The canal is closed! There’ll be no more skating this year. We’re a little sad about that, but looking back on Winterlude we are happy that this was the year we decided to do something new (for us) and check out the action at Jacques Cartier park in Gatineau.

We went on Family Day. This was the scene:

There was a lot of fun stuff for families. Take, for example, the ice maze:

… and of course, the ice slides. I like the wide ones, which are great because we can all slide down at once. The girls went down alone a couple of times too:

The line-ups looked daunting, but they really weren’t too bad:

Inner tube sliding was fun too:

… but what goes down must come back up again:

I really liked the snow sculptures. They are massive:

And we saw some of the urban cozies organized by Spins & Needles :

… in a word: HILARIOUS.

Soon it was time to head back to the car. We had to park at the National Gallery (after an unsuccessful attempt to find parking in the Museum of Civilization and the whole of Gatineau). No big deal, it’s a pretty walk, with much to take in:

All in all, a pretty good day. Reminds me how much I love this town, and what great a place it is for families.

Did you ever read Blubber, by Judy Blume?

From what I recall (keeping in mind that I read this story about 25 years ago) the story is generally about the social dynamics of a group of fifth graders, and how one girl (the one who was cruelly nicknamed Blubber) deals with it.

This is where I first heard about the Slam Book. It’s a blank book (or page) that gets passed around the class and everyone writes what they really think of you – anonymously of course. I did this with a small group of friends in fourth grade.

What a weird idea, I mean, didn’t anyone consider that handwriting can be recognized?

On one hand the slam book idea is totally awful and mean, yet on the other hand, if you could remove the vitriol or hatred from the equation, I wonder if it would be valuable to find out if others perceive you in some way that could be altered or softened.

I have a specific situation in mind here. In seventh grade one of the girls in my school told me I was a snob. This is not something I dwell on but I have never forgotten her words.

I was shocked anyone would think I was a snob. I was shocked that anyone even bothered spending the time thinking or talking about me. I was shocked because I was just a regular, shy person and was deeply hurt that my behaviour was being interpreted so wrongly. I knew I wasn’t a snob, why couldn’t the people on my periphery know that too?

You’re probably wondering where this is coming from. Ms.D had an interesting take on it in a recent interview.

So my question to you is this: would you like to know what people think of you or is it better to stay in the dark?

(I’m not even going to touch the modern-day culture of BLOGS. If you have a blog you’ve undoubtedly received an anonymous comment or email telling you what someone REALLY THINKS of you. Not much different from a slam book, is it?)