Too much of a good thing

Hey there.  Remember that photo cult I got kidnapped by last year?  Y’know, the one where they brandished red hot pokers at my nipples and swore to shove Cheetos up my nose if I didn’t take a picture.  Every.  Single.  Day.  Of.  The.  Year.  Remember that? 


(Ahhhh, good times.) 


Well, I did it.  I survived.  I completed the whole project and then frantically made a hasty, scream-filled escape, and hid, sobbing, in my closet with my sweater pulled over my head as soon the cult looked the other way. 


(Okay, not really.  But it kind of feels like that.)


Now that I’ve been plopped out the back end of the project, I realize what a freaking ridiculous undertaking it was.  Sure, maybe it sounds simple enough to take a measly little picture once a day for a whole year—pffft!—how painless, right?  But it isn’t.  No.  You see, the cult headquarters (aka the official site where you upload your daily 365 pictures) is…. well…. a wee bit more complicated than that. 


Let me explain….


When I first joined their cult, things were all hunky-dory, kumbaya, hakuna matata, and shit like that.  I was learning a lot—I mean, A LOT—about my cameras, Photoshop, Picmonkey, and digital photography in general, and I was enjoying the journey.  I was having fun.  But it didn’t take me long to notice the nasty undercurrent lurking beneath it all. 


Man, people are competitive there.  It’s like Thunderdome!  I mean, if someone posts a picture of…. ohh…. I dunno…. say, a bowl of Skittles, for example, the others on the site would all ohh and ahh at first, but then run off like thieves and post their own pictures of bowls of Skittles too with captions saying ‘Look!  Look at ME!  Look how much awesomer MY Skittles picture is!’ and soon there would be hundreds of near-identical pictures of Skittles floating around, each topped with a heaping helping of attitude. 


And then the bickering and bitch-slapping would erupt.  Over pictures.  Of Skittles. Oy.


I never realized how much fighting a handful of non-Paparazzi produced pictures could whip up.  It really started to get to me.  I stopped interacting with the other cult members months ago and just kind of kept on posting my pictures there late at night once every few weeks, hoping not to be noticed.  In all honesty, I’m glad it’s finished. 


Frankly, there are days you just don’t feel like taking a picture, okay?  There are days you are just too busy to take a picture of anything more than a half-assed snapshot of whatever crap you bump into.  And there are days you just want to take pictures without being judged.  That’s what it all boiled down to for me.  I realized about half-way through it that producing a photograph worthy of judging every (!) single (!) day (!) for (!) a (!) whole (!) year (!) is just unnecessarily stressful.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, there were times I loved the project and enjoyed the heck out of it…. but, all in all, I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew.


But anyway….


The project is now complete—yes, I finished it; I didn’t quit—but I’m waaaayyyyyyyyyyy behind on posting the pictures here.  In fact, it appears the last time I updated you on the project was October. 


(October?)


(Really?)


Well, crap.  I suppose I should really get on that.  Like, now.  Here we go….



Day 288 (2012-10-14) ~  I got this spooky Halloween banner in the mail from my awesome friend, Callista. I hung it up on the wide window above our backdoor for Halloween and I loved it.





Day 289 (2012-10-15) ~  This was one of the local high schools back on October 15th. The walkway was soooooooo gorgeous with the trees all covered in orange and yellow Autumn leaves.





Day 290 (2012-10-16) ~  I saw some Halloween skulls on sticks in the ground while I was out walking on some errands and I thought they might look exceptionally creepy with Picmonkey's Ghostly filter.  Oh, yeah.  Definitely creepy.





Day 291 (2012-10-17) ~  Yeah.  It rained this night.  IN.  THE.  HOUSE.  It even warped the wood trim above our backdoor.  It’s times like these when I wish I was still a renter.  Grrrr.





Day 292 (2012-10-18) ~  And this is how the cacti grow in Chicago.





Day 293 (2012-10-19) ~  I saw this wee, little dude guarding a car in a dark parking garage and he made me giggle.





Day 294 (2012-10-20) ~  Wednesday was busy, busy, busy making clay puppets for another stop-motion movie she had in the works.  This was one of her latest clay buddies.  In fact, this puppet right here earned her $2,000 in a film contest—but you’ll have to wait a couple of posts for the rest of that particular story.  (Sorry!)





Day 295 (2012-10-21) ~  Another retro Strawberry Shortcake doll that I have in our den.  This is Apricot.  I have no idea why she's just named after a fruit when all the others are named after desserts though. (????)  Kind of odd, huh?





Day 296 (2012-10-22) ~  And this is what it looks like from the third floor balcony when some construction crews show up at 8am and dig big holes in the sidewalk and block off the only two exits out of the building (besides the back alley).  No warning.  No notice.  Just—BOOM!—you’ve got no front doors until further notice, suckers.  Grrr.





Day 297 (2012-10-23) ~  Wednesday saw this Jack Skellington fondant cake sculpture in the front window of a local bakery and she about fainted from joy right there on the sidewalk.  Her 16th birthday party was a couple of days after Halloween, so we ordered her a Jack sculpture for her cake.





Day 298 (2012-10-24) ~  Our pumpkins were waiting on the deck, ready to be carved for Halloween night.  (ACK!!  A slight cheat on this picture.  It was taken on the 25th, not the 24th. Whoopsie!)





Day 299 (2012-10-25) ~  Ooooooooooooh!  I love this one!  This is what it looked like on my walk to meet Scope after work on October 25th.  Halloween was definitely in the air!





Day 300 (2012-10-26) ~   Okay, there was a lot of stuff going on this particular week, so I missed a couple of days by accident.  Fortunately, Scope, Wednesday, and I went to an incredible blown glass gallery, so I have lots of pics to make up for it.  Like this one.  (Taken on the 27th, not the 26th.)





Day 301 (2012-10-27) ~  Another shot from the blown glass gallery. This one is called "Scene of Japan #59" by Hiroshi Yamano.  The fish was soooooooooo realistic!  Just amazing.





Day 302 (2012-10-28) ~  Another shot from the blown glass gallery. There was no artist's name on this one, as it was an unlabeled bowl on a desk in the back office.  I love the colors all back-lit in the sunshine like that, all bright and rainbow-y!  (Taken on the 27th, not the 28th. Sorry!)





Day 303 (2012-10-29) ~  Another shot from the back office at the blown glass gallery I visited on the 27th.  This one wasn't labeled either, so I have no idea who the artist is.  I loved the three white apples propped in front of the book like that.  If you look closely, you can see the images of white apple blossoms on the apples.  Wow.  (Taken the 27th, not the 29th.  Whoopsie!)





Day 304 (2012-10-30) ~  We carved our pumpkins on the night of the 29th, but this one of Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas really dried out and shriveled up overnight, so we had to light it a day early before it caved in on itself.





(If you want to see all the previous Project 365 posts, click HERE.)  The rest of the project is coming soon!






© Coracabana