Lucy, loosey.

      More photos from Braddock for today.  Above you'll see a picture of a friend we met in one of the houses.  We'll call her lucy.  We were shooting photos in a garage on a small alley when we heard footsteps coming towards the garage door.  I didn't think much of it until I saw a pair of work boots in the doorway behind Dana.  A moment of panic later we heard a woman's voice kindly asking, "What are y'all doin' in here?"  We explained that we were just taking photos, which satisfied her inquiry, and soon after we went on our way, but we were interrupted again a few steps down the road when lucy yelled to us, "Hey! Do y'all have 75 cents so I could get a loosey down at the gas station?" (A loosey is a single loose cigarette to those unfamiliar with the term).  I, of course, gave her the change and she then offered to show us into the upstairs of the garage we were formerly in.  We went up and got a few more photos, and soon came across a jar of quarters.  We didn't much care to take it from the abandoned house, but it didn't take long for us to figure out what to do with it.

Have a loose day.

A pale blue dot.

   
       I came across this video long ago, but just recently rediscovered it.  Carl Sagan had an always eloquent way of presenting our world to us, and his programs shaped a lot of my philosophy on life.  Watching this video puts everything in perspective for me, and if you're any kind of thinking being it should do something similar for you too.  It's hard to get worried about the little troubles of life when you think of where we actually are, and how lucky each of us is to even be given a chance to experience this place for the short time we have.  Get out and explore it!


       If you liked that short monologue, you should consider watching 'Cosmos', a TV series featuring Carl Sagan that was produced in the late seventies (it's available on netflix, hulu, and at least partially on youtube).  If you can watch the entirety of that series and still can come up with reasons to hate things in this world, then you're doing something wrong.


Have a day (it doesn't matter what kind, but just appreciate it).

Death. The great motivator.

        I found this video of the late Steve Jobs giving a speech at a graduation ceremony.  He touches on on all the points I've tried to make recently, although maybe a little more charismatically and a bit more concisely (and I thought I was doing a good job!).  Living for yourself, not worrying about making mistakes, having nothing to lose in the end.  If I'm not convincing enough for you, then maybe he will be, cause statistically you're probably reading this on something he made.