⌘ Reminder of the Season
From the final edition of W N P:
⌘ Reminder of the Season
for the children of Gaza, and Ukraine, and
all the other disrupted places in the world
Be happy.
There is too little happiness
In the world today.
Be blissfully happy
Enjoying family and friends.
But don’t be blissfully ignorant.
Be reminded that,
While you enjoy the niceties
Of your first world celebrations,
There is a third world out there,
A world where there are people
Who are more like you
Than you realize,
Who scrape by on scant food,
Huddle together for warmth,
And hide in fear
Of forces they can never
Dream of controlling.
Be happy.
Revel in the peace
And spiritual comfort
Of your home, you
Bastion against the
Dark and the snow,
And the winter’s
Wailing winds outside.
But recognize that
Much of the world now
Knows little of peace,
And that millions
Of refugees must
Spend this season
Sheltering in place,
In shattered cities,
Or in squalid camps or
Bolt-holes that offer
Little real shelter from
The bombs and the bullets,
The tanks and the missiles,
The cold and disease
And starvation.
Be happy.
Sing songs of joy,
Songs of merriment,
Songs of times long gone
Or merry gentlemen,
And hope that your singing
And the sound of laughter
Will keep your troubles
Far away. Miles away.
But know that there are
Thousands of adults,
And thousands of children,
Wishing only for silence.
Whose dark nights are filled
With the flash of explosions
And with the screaming
Of the last sound
That they will ever hear,
The screaming of
Projectiles plummeting
To earth, and the screams
Of their loved ones,
Watching the lives
Of their families
Ripped from their hands.
So be happy,
And appreciate that
There is too little happiness
In the world today.
Be blissfully happy
And hold your children tight.
But don’t be blissfully ignorant.
And when you wake up
Tomorrow, don’t sit idly by.
Raise a voice for the voiceless.
Give them a chance,
However so slender,
At a life, and maybe, someday,
If the fates allow,
A little happiness of their own.
--Steve Spanoudis
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Beautiful Images, Part I
Today we are diving deep into the photo archives, to the original Beautiful Images collection created when the site when public in 1994. These are all images taken in the 1980's and 1990's using film cameras.
They were printed, then scanned at high resolution, but unfortunately when we moved from an (unofficial) site on a corporate server to https://theotherpages.org on a public server, images were highly compressed and reduced to save bandwidth. Here are some of those original images, (mostly) resurrected using Topaz Gigapixel and a few other tools. Not perfect, but surprisingly good all things considered. --Steve
- The Clematis is from my former home in Lexington, Kentucky
- The towers and steeples of Prague was taken by Amy Shipman
- The Snow Tunnel is one I took as my spouse and I escaped Yosemite after a HEAVY April snowfall (snow chains required)
- The eastern rim of the Grand Canyon in sunset, was taken by Teresa Bzdyk.
-Jama Masjid Mosque in Agra, India was taken by Jim Rioux.
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Beautiful Images, Part II
Another Deep Dive into the photo archives, to the original Beautiful Images collection created when the site when public in 1994. These are images taken in the 80's and 90's using film cameras.
They were originally printed, then scanned at high resolution, but unfortunately when we moved from an (unofficial) corporate server to https://theotherpages.org on a public server, the images were highly reduced to save bandwidth. Here are some of those original images, (mostly) resurrected using Topaz Gigapixel and a few other tools. Not perfect, but surprisingly good all things considered. --Steve
- Sculpture, Hammersmith Gardens, Newport Rhode Island, by Louis Spanoudis
- Azaleas inside the Conservatory at Eden Park, Cincinnati, Ohio, by Steve Spanoudis
- Sunset, east arm of Grand Traverse Bay, Michigan, by Louis Spanoudis
- Inside Colone Cathedral. Colone Germany, by Steve Spanoudis
- The Nylon Pool, a submerged sand bar adjacent to Bucco Reef, Tobago, West Indies, by Steve Spanoudis
#photography#photo#theotherpages#travel#nature#garden
#sunset#germany#Michigan#tobago#trinidadandtobago#hammersmithgardens#colognecathedral
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Beautiful Images, Part III
Our third Deep Dive into the photo archives, to the original Beautiful Images collection created when the site when public in 1994. These are images taken in the 80's and 90's using film cameras.
They were originally printed, then scanned at high resolution, but unfortunately when we moved from an (unofficial) corporate server to https://theotherpages.org on a public server, the images were highly reduced to save bandwidth. Here are some of those original images, (mostly) resurrected using Topaz Gigapixel and a few other tools. Not perfect, but surprisingly good all things considered. --Steve
- Catamaran Sail and sky, Traverse Bay, Michigan, US, by Steve Spanoudis
- Middle and Lower Yosemite Falls, Yosemite N.P., California, US, by Steve Spanoudis
- Cecile Lake, Ritter Range, California, US, by Amy Shipman
- Rock formations, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, by Teresa Bzdyk
- Old Fashioned Pink Shrub Rose, by Steve Spanoudis
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A reminder for those in the U.S. that there is no better season to start reading Roger and Phoebe. Available on Kindle Vella. If you haven't read a Vella serial before, you'll get enough tokens to read the entire series for free. It's written in short episodes that are easy to read on any mobile device. Also, be forewarned, this one is not rated G.
--Steve
#kindle#kindlebooks#vella#kindlevella#theotherpages#rogerandphoebe#Halloween#adventure#adventurestory#lovestory#roadtrip#progressivepunk#music#books#reading#stories#urbanfantasy#series#serial
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Cerulea, Episodes 1 & 2
OK. The first two episodes of Cerulea, my latest online serial, are up on Kindle Vella and available for reading. I think I've got the voice right. As E.L Doctorow said, once you have the voice, everything else falls into place. Or so I hope. Enjoy. More to follow.
An urban (suburban?) fantasy about life interrupted. Cerulea must navigate the not-so-ordinary hurdles life throws at her after both parents disappear. She has two brothers to look after, three riddles to solve, college planning and high school graduation coming up, a girlfriend who wants to get more serious, and a an absurd number of unexpected dangers suddenly complicating life. Fortunately, she has (more than) a few skills and lessons from her parents to fall back on. She'll need them all.
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Dragonfly in a Phosphorescent World
Today's Dose of Unreality. Created using MidJourney AI with post in PSP and Topaz.
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Cerulea and the Meaning of Everything
OK, so we have a new working title, the first episode is processing on Kindle Vella, and the second episode is ready to submit. "Cerulea and the Meaning of Everything," (formerly "Stars and Alligators").
And MidJourney and I have come to agreement on a first-pass portrait of our new antiheroine after less than thirty iterations. This is a project that has been percolating in the background for several years. As for the outline . . . well, we'll see where it goes from here.
Stay tuned.
--Steve
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Liking the Skin You're In
Today's Visit to The Other Pages Archives: Green Iguana, Key Biscayne FL, October 2006,
from https://images.theotherpages.org with some post enhancements for clarity.
"An iguana is an animal you have a hard time making an emotional attachment to - though it makes a fascinating photo subject. This is one of a pair I took shots of on the Key Biscayne causeway off Miami, early one October morning. I liked the emerald shades of green, the amazing detail brought out by the bright sunlight, and the calm, sentinel-like expression on the iguana's face. --Steve"
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Resting Place
Today's Visit to The Other Pages Archives: Hammock and Leaves:
Dublin, OH, July 2006,
from https://images.theotherpages.org with some post enhancements for clarity.
"Bright Green leaves from a Silver Maple resting on twisted blue-green hammock ropes above a summer lawn. From Linda's back yard. It reminds me a little of an M.C. Escher drawing.
--Steve"
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