photo lovers: salute!

In this digital age, everyone's a photographer. We have cameras on our phones, in our computers... so who's to say you're not a photographer?

ME.

Start reading over at tracijbrooks.wordpress.com to see the magnitude of photography - and my thoughts on every bit of it.

Friday Five

Didja miss me? I took last Friday off since it was the day after Christmas and all, but the extra week gave me time to compile this extremely difficult and selective list. As a disclaimer, I specifically did not use any entries from people I know personally, because favoritism is never pretty.

Top 5 Journal Entries (Not Mine)
I read a lot of blogs. But these are the five, brutally honest works that inspire me to keep writing in this journal and to keep attempting to find the words to express my thoughts. Please note the asterisk'd entries contain objectionable content, and a double asterisk implies extremely graphic content. You have been warned.

1. I Loved You - from Unknown
I don't remember how I found this entry, but it was so poignant that I felt the need to post it in Jewelness the first time I discovered it. There's just something about the perfect blend of stream-of-consciousness and emotion that created an entry I have never forgotten.

2. Not Everyone Can Be November, You Know - from lightsfallup
This entry, passed on to me by MoreToKnow (another of my favorite bloggers), immediately resounded with me because, well, it's about November. It thrilled me to see November finally getting its due (we always get the suckiest photos in calendars), and in one of the most abstract and poetic ways I've ever seen. The paragraph starting with "not everyone can be november, you know. not the way you mean it..." is one of two "lyrics" that I know I could tattoo on my body and be content the rest of my life.

3. *The Perfect Woman, Moments, The Glass - from VK's Empire of Dirt
VK is one of the bloggers I found through Roissy (who, though a misogynist and Kevin all over, is one of the most entertaining bloggers I've ever read), when VK hosted a week where a circle of bloggers wrote entires on "The Perfect Woman." This entry, though mildly explicit, shows such a vulnerable, emotional side of a man who is only a few steps below Roissy on the player scale, that it is worthy of this list.

4. **L - from (title withheld but a link here for the depraved)
Here's the best part of the entry, for those who aren't going to read the rest because of its double asterisk:
"And it’s not at that moment or this one that I feel L has been misused. It is that in this effort for connection, in this testing of bonds, we all are. Where there is need or want there is danger. We introduce ourselves to disappointment, time and time again. We create illusion and crash ourselves against it. "
Wow. For an entry about having sex with a single mother... that is perhaps the most profound statement I've ever heard. I feel like this writer, whoever he is, somehow sold his soul to the devil in exchange for sleeping with every woman under the sun, and somehow managed to find the impossible nuggets of truth that stick out of his writing like little diamonds.


5. Kindness and Abs. - from Matt Nathanson's Journal
So, this is not the quintessential Matty Nay blog I think of when I think of his blog (it's actually the one about Britney Spears playing basketball on the Ellen Degeneres show). But ever since he signed to Vanguard, his archives got hidden in the depths of the Internet, and this was the next best entry. If you ever hear me utter "Thank you, Mark Wahlberg," you now know why.

Friday Five

Here we go, with a slightly egotistical version of the Friday Five. For those of you who didn't read while I kept my old journal, jewelness, here is a smattering of entries that I, as a blogger, critic and human being happened to like.

My Top 5 Journal Entries

1. Covered in White Out - June 26, 2007

Just one of many entries about the asshole from Connecticut. This one makes the list, though, because though inspired by the boy situation, I think the entry itself spoke to a larger emotional issue that goes beyond my one time heartbreak.

2. I Can't Forget What Happened Here - January 22, 2006

This entry, obviously about my brother and his departure to college, rings true because it was sort of the culmination on my mini-series on the struggles of being his sister. I don't know if my parents ever knew how difficult it was (and sometimes, still is).

3. Photo Survey - October 11, 2005
I thought this was particularly amusing. Nothing deep, but we all need a break from the gut-wrenching entries.

4. The Process of Letting Go - July 20, 2003
Again, just one of many entries detailing my first painful fall into love. I wrote it after I went to prom.

5. You Don't Care A Bit - June 12, 2006
Of all the relationships, this one prompted (I think) the best writing. It went beyond journal entries and expanded into songs and poems as well. I suppose that means I should be grateful. I'm not.