Picture of the Day
A Portrait of Basil-Fly

My picture for Yesterday is a portrait of ME! (Can you see the resemblance?)



I forgot to upload this yesterday. Although I scanned it yesterday I was up until about midnight doing homework, and didn't get a chance to upload it.

I believe that the little purple blob is my beard. The circles around my eyes are not from staying up too late at night all the time. I think those are my glasses. Anyway, it is nice to be so skinney. :)

And the little artist:

This marvelous little portrait was drawn by my little friend (my big friend James' daughter) Charissa.



She's becoming quite the artist, and I'm flattered to have become her study. I remember with fondness when my own daughter was cranking out amusing stick figure portraits of dad.

Regards,

Basilfly

Wandering into my past...

I like to spend lent wandering into my past. (There shall be more on this topic, as the days go by, I'm sure of it.)

One place of my past is The City...

I love The City. I miss The City.

I used to live in Freemont - spent about four years living there...
Before that I lived on Queen Anne for about two or three years...
Before that I lived on Phinney Ridge - only a few blocks down from Greenwood.

I was about half way between the Woodland Park Zoo and Greenwood. So, I used to walk to the zoo whenever I felt like it. I got myself a pass, and just went there and wandered. I probably spent 20 or 30 days out of my year wandering through the zoo. I would sit there outside the animals cages and write poetry, take photos... and wander some more.

I also used to walk to Greenwood from where I lived, and wander through antique shops and thrift stores. I couldn't afford to buy either antiques or thrifts in those days. I went to the Fred Meyer there whenever I needed home improvements (a roll of masking tape, some contact paper, a few screws, a few nails to put pictures on the wall - oh, my how live has changed.. home improvements are different now: cans of paint, tiles for the floor, sheetrock, plywood, 2 by 4s) and the big Safeway (I cannot recall, but I seem to remember that it was the closest grocery store, and where I bought my groceries.)

I used to be a crazy guy: I'd buy about 8 bags of groceries and then walk home with them - four bags in each hand. (Plastic, of course.) The cute little bag girl at the store might say: "Can I take those to your car for you?" Oh, yes, indeed, you sure can! It's about 10 blocks from here and doesn't run any more, but I'd love to have the company, sweet thing.

For some reason they never carried my bags to my car for me.

Anyway, I made it to Greenwood again Saturday night.



I miss The City, but I wouldn't want to live there with my family. I guess I'm insecure now, and would rather live with my family in the suburbs where we don't have crime (to speak of). Drunkness is something that happens on a casual basis, among family friends at parties and get togethers - in quiet, simple, and controlled circumstances - no longer something that shakes the streets like a ripple of fear. And you don't have to be too afraid of strangers... you can say hi to them when they walk by and they won't swear at you or ask you if you want to buy weed, or want a "date".

I miss The City, but it really isn't "the place" for me anymore.

~ Basilfly

The world out my window might look like this:



On the other hand, it may look like this:



To me, it looks like this:

In the Land Of Giants

A brief work of fiction


I spent the first half of my life living among giants. Of course, I'm only 17, so that might not seem all too bad to you. Eight and a half years? "What's eight and a half years?" you ask.

Well, like I say, it's half my life. And it isn't much fun sometimes living among giants. Take Papa for instance. He's the Head Giant. Don't ask me how he got such a name, but the name itself is so much like him: Big, Robust, Gigantic, Papa. See what I mean? I look up at Papa through a fierce bushy beard. They tell me he's bald, but I almost never see the top of his head, so I couldn't tell you for sure. Everywhere Papa goes the earth shakes, the boards beneath him creak, the whole house trembles. Don't get me wrong, I like him alright, and he's never done anything to hurt me, but it just gets scary sometimes living around someone so Big.

Then there's Mum. Just Mum, that's what we call her. She's a giantess too, but not nearly as formidable as Papa. No bushy beard there, just gigantic footsteps (watch your toes) that make the floor rumble as she passes by.

As far as I'm concerned we Little Ones get too accustomed to living among giants. We take it for granted that we live in a gigantic world, and so all we want is to become a giant too some day. As if that was the goal of life: becoming a giant. Well, I've decided I'm not going to let that happen to me. I'm going to keep on being a Little One as long as I can, and there is no way you can stop me. Maybe I will be tall, but I'll always be a Little One inside - never truly a giant. No, giantism isn't for me.

The Giant:



Photo taken by the Little One.

~basilfly

Basil's new digital camera

Well, I've gotten myself a new digital camera. I had a little idea that I would start posting a picture a day. ("A picture a day, that's all we ask.") After all, I've got tons of unused space at verious web sites, and if I fill that up, I've got a web server running here at home I can stick things on.

So, to inaugurate the season, here she is folks.

My Little Angel



That's all for now...

basilfly

So it turns out that I am:

Hey, that's no fair. I thought I was going to turn out to be Luke Skywalker

Regards,
Basil

I am happy to see Steve (Yes, that's a picture of Steve) is blogging once again. I enjoyed his vacation pix - but really Steve, get yourself a cheap image editor so you can post more, but smaller pictures. Actually they were okay for me, I like all that detail on a picture. But get yourself a cheap (free?) image editor!

Anyway, because I was curious I went to this place below and found out I'm Marianne Dashwood. I don't know what that means. I've never read Jane Austen, and the movies I've seen just blended in with all the background junk in my head - not a single memorable moment for me folks.

Take the Quiz here!

Regards!
BasilFly