fey \FAY\

adjective
1. Possessing or displaying a strange and otherworldly aspect or quality; magical or fairylike; elfin.
2. Having power to see into the future; visionary; clairvoyant.
3. Appearing slightly crazy, as if under a spell; touched.


Yesterday Mere and I were exploring downtown Blowing Rock, and came across this little hidden alleyway with some neat overhanging vines and lanterns. After I did some enhancing in Photoshop, it definitely has a magical or "elfin" feel to it.

exigency \EK-suh-jun-see; ig-ZIJ-un-see\

noun
1. The quality or state of requiring immediate aid or action; urgency.
2. A case demanding immediate action or remedy; a pressing or urgent situation.
3. That which is demanded or required in a particular situation -- usually used in the plural.


This is not today's word, but one that I missed on Sunday. I figured I'd go back and do this one, and give myself 24 hours to think about each word from here on out. This is a shot of the road that leads to the Blowing Rock Hospital.

pernicious \pur-NISH-us\

adjective
Highly injurious; deadly; destructive; exceedingly harmful.

Didn't spend much time on this today. I'm sure I could've taken a much better photo for this word, but today the majority of my time was spent packing (and unpacking, then repacking).

Repost

I put these pictures up along with a bunch of others on the 9th, but after looking at them again, I wanted to go back to the raw versions and re-edit them. They came out looking too dark and I felt like I lost a lot of detail because of it, and they're two of my favorites so I wanted to do them justice.

stolid \STOL-id\

adjective
Having or revealing little emotion or sensibility; not easily excited.


I took this photo just a litte after we got the new camera, and I'm pretty sure I caught him mid-sentence. The result was one of the best "genius" faces ever captured in a photo. That's an "I'm not excited" face if I've ever seen one.

Sorry, Rick. Take comfort in knowing that very few people ever look at this, and I do have photos of you in some extra vintage ski-wear.

querulous \KWER-uh-luhs; -yuh\

adjective
1. Apt to find fault; habitually complaining.
2. Expressing complaint; fretful; whining.


I'm no good with the words that try to describe an emotion or an attitude. We complain a lot about our water. Every day, there is either no water at all when you try to take a shower, or its great at first and reduces to a trickle after a minute or two. It's been going on for months. They haven't tried to fix it. Can't wait to move.

unctuous \UNGK-choo-us\

adjective
1. Of the nature or quality of an unguent or ointment; fatty; oily; greasy.
2. Having a smooth, greasy feel, as certain minerals.
3. Insincerely or excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech; marked by a false or smug earnestness or agreeableness.


I had a really hard time coming up with an idea for today's word. I drove around to various parking lots in town trying to find a nice greasy looking oil puddle, but no luck. People maintain their cars too well these days, I guess. So, with the little time available to work on this today I had to settle for a simple Oil/Water/Food coloring mix. Meh.

abnegate \AB-nih-gayt\

transitive verb
1. To refuse or deny oneself; to reject; to renounce.
2. To give up (rights, claims, etc.); to surrender; to relinquish.


I read a news story today about a tenth grade class that tried to go one week without the use of any electronic devices. No TV, no iPod, no cellphone, etc. You can read the full story here. Needless to say, they didn't do so well, but it makes you wonder just how dependent you have become on technology. For example, our microwave recently blew up. In the grand scheme of things I suppose microwaves are a relatively new invention, but you don't realize how much you use one until it fries itself instead of the thing you're hoping to reheat one day.

Anyway, the story made me want to turn off the TV and go sit on the porch with a book, so that's what I'm about to do, and I'm not even going to take my iPod along.

odium \OH-dee-uhm\

noun
1. Intense hatred or dislike; loathing; abhorrence.
2. The state or fact of being intensely hated as the result of some despicable action.
3. Disgrace or discredit attaching to something hated or repugnant.


This is my first "Word of the Day" post, and it's a double doozey. For those of you that don't know, our apartment building has turned into a seriously trashy place thanks to our 1st class neighbors. To quote Obi-Wan Kanobi, "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." There are 8 apartments in the building, and of those 8 only 3 are occupied by decent, normal people. As a result, the entirity of the parking lot, stairs, sidewalk, grass, etc is constantly covered by beer cans and bottles, gargantuan amounts of cigarette butts, and other various and sundry pieces of trash. Luckily we only have to tough it out for 10 more days, but it has been a nightmare. If you look closely at that ballpoint pen, you'll note the rental company's logo on it. Do you think they do anything about it? Of course not. Also, If you'll look closely at the Ford Explorer in the background, you'll see my 2nd subject in this photo.

Word of the Day

I've decided to try and make (at least) 1 new post each and every day, inspired by the Word of the Day from www.dictionary.com. I can't take credit for the idea, my friend Josh, (aka Prez JK for those of you who ever tuned into WASU for his radio broadcasts) gave me the idea. I figure it will be a great way for me to work on being more creative with my photos, and buff up my vocabulary. First post coming very soon.

Update: I feel bad about not giving props to the guy that (I assume) came up with this idea in the first place. His name is Robert Fisher, and his blog is devoted entirely to this idea, and he's way better at it than me from what I can tell. If you're interested, you can check out his blog here. I feel somewhat bad for ripping off his idea, but since I maybe have 5 people that ever look at this thing, I doubt he will mind too much.

Boone: The Farewell Tour

Two weeks from today, Mere and I will no longer be Boone residents. Today we went out to take some photos since its one of the last chances we'll have to do so together. We had a great day, and I got some great shots.

This one is actually two different photos, stitched together in Photoshop.

One of my favorites of the day.


How beautiful is she?

Now, our primary reason for heading out to campus was to get some photos of this awesome hand painted wall downtown, but we also found some "good" graffiti at one of the tunnels under River's Street. Ready for some color?

Love the silhouettes in this one.



Awesome.

Make a Splash

A fast shutter speed can catch a water droplet.

POW!

Photoshop is phun.

Why I Love Photoshop

This is a photo I took on April 7th during a freak snowstorm here in Boone. It was in no way planned out, I was just walking through campus with Mere and I wanted to get a good picture that showed how hard it was snowing. The raw photo is nothing that impressive:


But with a little photoshopping, it's become one of my favorite photos I've taken so far:


Note: You can click any of my images to view a larger size. I resize all images I post to around 800x600.

Madeline Riley

A few of my favorite photos of my favorite niece.