Day 58: Real Close Robin

2026-04-05

Hello! I wonder if I should make this the wallpaper to my laptop; I've been using the sunset wallpaper for almost a year now. If I ever share my desktop screen to classmates and friends, I'm sure to get a reaction. All the better.

I had more than five really cool photos lined up this week, but they all got corrupted while exporting from my editing software yesterday, so that threw me for a loop(!) I'll redo the edits; I kept a backup of the raw file, and it shouldn't take me too long to add them to the queue.

A few days ago, I said that I had a close-up shot from the Lancaster Market, but didn't want to share it because I wasn't happy with how it looked. But that leaves the three shot rule incomplete — and we can't have that! — so here's a completely different example of a close up shot. You can see the little furs on the robin, it's great.

The one time I went to a university garden, it was empty. The flowers were about to bloom, but it was cloudy and neither tourist nor local cares about thin branches and sprouts. Neither do I, so I was about to pass by, until a robin stopped on a branch near me.

I have about thirty photos of this same robin, each getting the tiniest bit closer; this is the closest I ever got before it flew away, and it's pretty dang close.

A peek behind the curtain: I have a text file on my computer labeled "Ideas Board" where I jot down interesting topics worth writing about, or interesting things on the Internet that I want to share. That text file has reached over 3,000 words and it's growing faster than I can pull ideas from it. This is a good thing! They're all extraordinary ideas and they make you feel good about human creativity.

With one exception. The Beatles have legendary and iconic status in pop culture, but I've listened to so many of their songs (it really was "just a phase") and I've come to the conclusion that a lot of it is bad. Not just subjectively bad, like the weird Wild Honey Pie that I can't believe belongs in the same album as the beautiful Blackbird, but the songs that no one should give any respect to, like Why Don't We Do It in the Road? (also from the same album and a track that my school principal played loud for a class, unintentionally, until I nudged him to switch the track) and Run For Your Life (where a narrator threatens their girlfriend with murder and domination if they think of leaving). Just listen to their compilation album and that's good enough.

Cheers,
David