Sunday GIForama: Nature

what say the Mooz? (2.00 / 12)

time...it seems to move so slowly until that day, when it doesn't.

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by: dear occupant @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 15:14:10 PM UTC

Animated GIFs... (2.00 / 8)

...are always such fun (even though I'm not a big fan of insect close-ups!).

My favorite has to be the one of earth cracking. Looks just like a time-lapse of brownies baking. I need breakfast pronto! ;-)

There are, in every age, new errors to be rectified, and new prejudices to be opposed. ~Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

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by: slksfca @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 16:19:55 PM UTC

hah, a large tray of them (2.00 / 8)

with a little parsley as a garnish..very elegant.
of course now you've made me hungry. :-)

time...it seems to move so slowly until that day, when it doesn't.

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by: dear occupant @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 16:53:36 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

LOL (2.00 / 7)

Remember when parsley was THE garnish for, like, EVERYTHING? ;-)

p.s. I got so hungry I had to go down the street to buy a giant muffin at the bakery. And that is YOUR fault. ;-p

There are, in every age, new errors to be rectified, and new prejudices to be opposed. ~Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

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by: slksfca @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 17:02:45 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

yes i do, promoted by the parsley lobby no doubt. (2.00 / 8)

heh, i just raided the fridge too, so we're even!

time...it seems to move so slowly until that day, when it doesn't.

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by: dear occupant @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 17:10:24 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

oh and i agree about the insects, (2.00 / 7)

it's a little uncomfortable. viewing them at a distance is fine with me though, near my person, hhmm not so much. :-/

time...it seems to move so slowly until that day, when it doesn't.

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by: dear occupant @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 17:15:00 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

wahh... (2.00 / 8)

so when I was a kid, a project that my dad and I did together was raise blackswallow caterpillars...

what do they eat?  well, I found them on the parsley leaves in the garden so I fed them parsley... and then had to walk to the supermarket for more since they wiped out my small little patch of it since I was plucking fresh leaves daily.

Umm.. then what does their poop smell like?  Concentrated parsley!!!!

so.  since then.  me and parsley = NO WAY!

;-)

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by: kishik @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 17:16:31 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

geez, that would have done it for me on parsley too K. (2.00 / 6)

and then the indignity of having to BUY the PARSLEY to feed the caterpillars, oh, the humanity! ;-}

time...it seems to move so slowly until that day, when it doesn't.

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by: dear occupant @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 17:22:13 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

of course in the end... (2.00 / 4)

we both got to release the butterfly (only one grew big enough to pupate).  That was reward enough!!

But really, it did make me not want to eat parsley ever again... smelling parsley reminds me of caterpillar poop... which from a big caterpillar is quite sizable!!  =^O

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by: kishik @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 20:24:33 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

well i have to admit K, this is the first time (2.00 / 4)

i've thought extensively about caterpillar poop, i guess it is an issue if you've got that many and the smell is that powerful. seems to me their digestive system isn't terribly complex given what when in, was so similar to what came out.

i guess on the bright side losing your appetite for parsley is a small loss, imagine if they ate your chocolate cake. now that i could not forgive! :-D

time...it seems to move so slowly until that day, when it doesn't.

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by: dear occupant @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 21:02:24 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

LOL... (2.00 / 4)

I seem to have that effect... being descriptive about the parsley smelling caterpillar poop!!!  LOL

I guess I coulda dried out the poops, reconsistitute in chicken noodle soup???  hee hee...

Now the black swallowtail caterpillars I collect at the end of the fall into winter are those eating the last greens in the garden - that's the fennel.

They'll feast on fennel, dill and parsley, but they do prefer the wide broad leaves of parsley over the needle thin leaves of dill and fennel.

So ya... I go about looking for parsley either in the supermarket again or look for some parsley in a pot so I can pluck fresh leaves every day to feed them.

Last year I collected soooo many caterpillars!!!

here... the caterpillar on the right... poop alert at the tail end!!!!

;-)

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by: kishik @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 21:28:40 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

oh i remember those, they were all over (2.00 / 4)

the broadleaf shrubs. the yellow fuzzy caterpillars were the most common and then occasionaly we would find huge fuzzy caterpillars, i think they were called Tomatoe caterpillars, green with some red colored fuzz.

oh i hated those only 'cause one crawled on me when i was rooting around in the old mans garden down the street, scared the heck out of me!

time...it seems to move so slowly until that day, when it doesn't.

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by: dear occupant @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 21:49:38 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

here's one... (2.00 / 4)

shot... where it it shed it's final molt as a caterpillar to chrysalis

 

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by: kishik @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 22:01:43 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

and then eventually (2.00 / 3)

will look like this...

until Spring when it emerges and becomes this!

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by: kishik @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 22:08:13 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

wow, those are great pics K. (2.00 / 3)

very nice hobby you have, good for your garden, great for the environment and butterfly population. good on you.

oh and i used to catch those in Helman's mayonaisse jars and yes i would always let them go. do you have any preying mantis?

my mom had one trained to come to the kitchen window every morning for the lettuce leaves she left it. every single morning. there was a $50 fine back then if you purposely killed a preying mantis.

time...it seems to move so slowly until that day, when it doesn't.

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by: dear occupant @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 22:24:52 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Well ah do declayuh (2.00 / 8)

I took a break from working on my own post about gifs and here you are! Luckily mine takes an entirely different approach. Hard to pick a favorite among the above, but I think I'm going with the fox-hound nez a nez.

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by: ursoklevar @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 17:12:34 PM UTC

yer kiddin' right? a diary on GIFs too? (2.00 / 6)

well, i'll be looking forward to that then, ursoklevar.

i saved it for near the end but i LOVE the fox closeup. i'm very detail oriented, notice every little thing all the time. that one feels so real to me, every hair and the image in the eye, really good work there.  

and i have to admit to the last one too.

time...it seems to move so slowly until that day, when it doesn't.

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by: dear occupant @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 17:32:47 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Don't want to be in "competition" with yours. (2.00 / 6)

Whaddaya think? Should I wait until tomorrow to post mine? I'm easy.

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by: ursoklevar @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 17:40:43 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

competition? no such thing. (2.00 / 6)

please post it ursoklevar, we'll have fun.

time...it seems to move so slowly until that day, when it doesn't.

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by: dear occupant @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 17:43:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Comin right up n/t (2.00 / 5)

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by: ursoklevar @ Sun Feb 10, 2013 at 17:44:42 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I'm late, as always (2.00 / 5)

Loved the fox and the lady bug. Thanks for taking the time to teach me something. 8-)

"Hair on fire complicates the decision of how to deal with the knot in your knickers while clutching your pearls with both hands." ~ wordsinthewind

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by: Khloe @ Mon Feb 11, 2013 at 02:44:42 AM UTC

your very welcome Khloe and (2.00 / 3)

it's hard not to just keep staring at that fox, at least for me. they are such elusive animals it's probably the closest i'll ever get to seeing one that close up.

my wife who teaches at Northwestern actually spied one on campus last fall and snapped a few pics from a distance. i've lived in Chicago for over 25 years and that's the first fox sighting i'd heard of, lots of coyotes though.

time...it seems to move so slowly until that day, when it doesn't.

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by: dear occupant @ Mon Feb 11, 2013 at 08:00:38 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Cool gifs. (2.00 / 3)

I think there are tools for creating gifs automatically using some of the photoshop-like products. I have built a few for my own purposes using geek tools and the one thing I can say is that they are incredibly tedious (each frame must be manually created ... like as kids when we would create "animation" by drawing something on a sketchpad on multiple pages and flipping the pages). However they are also extremely rewarding when you see what you can create.

I have had it in my mind for some time to do a diary about how to build them and may yet get to it.  

Words have meaning. Our words will reflect what is in our souls.

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by: JanF @ Mon Feb 11, 2013 at 10:27:11 AM UTC

About 10 years ago, (2.00 / 4)

I took a Photoshop class. One of the projects was that I had to create a GIF using photoshop. I'll have to see if I can find that one...

No matter where you go, there you are...

Buckaroo Banzai

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by: trs @ Mon Feb 11, 2013 at 11:08:16 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

that would be cool trs. (2.00 / 3)

as i said to J i would like to try and create one, maybe a very simple GIF at first. maybe we could have a saturday seminar for those who are interested.

time...it seems to move so slowly until that day, when it doesn't.

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by: dear occupant @ Mon Feb 11, 2013 at 14:39:20 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

J i stumbled upon a GIF hosting site (2.00 / 3)

of a designer/programmer from Belgrade where some of these GIFs came from and he says he's done tens of thousands of his own. he's adding soundtracks too and he has several pages devoted to explaining just how he built his GIFs.

so yes, tedious seems to be the appropriate word but i think a diary possibly de-mystifying the steps for us not so geeks would be awesome. i'd try a simple one.

the ones i posted in this diary are beautiful, pretty straight forward though. the GIFs i really like, that speak to me the most are mostly black and white, taken from old movies or pictures or even animated classic paintings. very powerful imagery and as i said in my intro, evocative.

time...it seems to move so slowly until that day, when it doesn't.

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by: dear occupant @ Mon Feb 11, 2013 at 11:12:29 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I did a custom gif for a diary series last year and it took me several hours. (2.00 / 2)

Although most of the time was spent remembering how to use the tools that I had used a few years before. Old age, you know.

My hesitation about doing a diary on it was that I am not an expert: I am just Someone Who Has Done It One Way. Very often if you post a diary explaining how you do something, it is visited by those who want to tell you that you are both wrong and stupid. I suspect that such a diary would not be received that way here but I have to let my PTSD settle a bit before I test out that theory.  

Words have meaning. Our words will reflect what is in our souls.

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by: JanF @ Mon Feb 11, 2013 at 11:48:50 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

yeah, i relate. (2.00 / 3)

i made the mistake of reading through a few orange diaries yesterday i thought might be 'neutral', there isn't a damn thing that isn't challenged in someway over there. it's just exhausting.

i truly doubt you will get a reaction like that here but scars take time to heal, believe me i understand.

time...it seems to move so slowly until that day, when it doesn't.

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by: dear occupant @ Mon Feb 11, 2013 at 14:34:52 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

We have a family of red fox (2.00 / 4)

living in my area along the river. They are fast little critters. By the time I get my camera up, they are gone. Maybe in the spring, I'll take another chance at finding one of them and asking for a photo.  

"Hair on fire complicates the decision of how to deal with the knot in your knickers while clutching your pearls with both hands." ~ wordsinthewind

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by: Khloe @ Mon Feb 11, 2013 at 12:35:23 PM UTC

my wife happens to be a good photographer (2.00 / 3)

and she only managed to snap 2 before it was gone and not very good ones either, just enough evidence to back up her claim. :-)

time...it seems to move so slowly until that day, when it doesn't.

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by: dear occupant @ Mon Feb 11, 2013 at 14:42:49 PM UTC

[ Parent ]