KittenBiscuits

For the newbies, you don’t want your footprint tarp sticking out from under your tent if you can help it. It will wick water under your tent (rain, dew). Even waterproof fabric can fail given too much water exposure.

I look at focus. Did they opt for wide or narrow apeture. Did they get the focus sharp or did the focus point accidentally fixate on something other than the subject.

I look at composition around the edge of the frame. A random branch or leaf unintentionally breaking the frame. Using something in the foreground intentionally as a frame is different. Crop out the unintentional distraction. Conversely, be aware of ears, hair, arms, hands, legs, feet, (and tails if applicable) getting cut off in the frame. Sometimes that’s a legitimate choice, sometimes it looks like an accident. Maybe better to capture the whole being and crop down later.

I look at white balance and color tone to see if it’s pleasing to me. This is highly subjective depending on the viewer.

I look for other compositional things like straight horizons, leading lines, rule of thirds. And if those rules were intentionally broken as a style choice or accidental.

I believe learners should try to follow compositional rules. Once you’ve mastered looking out for those things while minding your exposure time, apeture, ISO, and focus all at the same time when getting your shot, then you will get a feel for when you can break the rules for more impact and it still be a good photo.

I’m sorry you’re having nightmares about your bully. I had a work bully and still have occasional nightmares with them in it too. When I wake up, I tell that person (in my mind) to fuck off. I wish one of these would end up being lucid, so I can tell them in the dream itself. But this helps.

I’ve always thought of it as the brain defragging. That said, I have had a couple where I really felt like the deceased family member was dropping by to say hello. These feel different from the ones where they may appear as a character in my dream, like an extra in a movie. I’m not lucid for those.

Last week it was my mom’s birthday. I hadn’t dreamed of her in a while, but I do think of her daily so I don’t ascribe dreaming of her just because she was on my mind during the day. The night of her birthday she was in my dream.

When I get a family visit, it does tend to end up being a semi lucid dream. I know in the dream that this person is no longer living and this is a visit. But I can’t control the direction of the dream.

So in the dream, I’m aware I haven’t seen her in some time and am very happy to see her. She was also saying how much she has missed me, and was uncharacteristically clingy. Just wanting to cuddle. She knocked me down even to cuddle. She was a tiny woman and I am not.

Then on my other side, my cat that passed 2 years ago decided she wanted to come cuddle too. I didn’t dream of my mom’s calico (whom I also fostered for some years while mom went through a rough spot). This was my calico. Mom never met her. But there they both were visiting at the same time.

It. Felt. So. Good.

I was sad to wake up.

I’m a 3 season camper but that’s fall, winter, spring. I love winter camping but I also have a travel trailer. I have gone tent camping in sub-30°F weather. That was the nightly low, and the high was 50’s, so plenty comfy during the day, just had to bundle up good for the night. If you have a branded Nalgene bottle, you can fill it with hot (not too hot though) water and put that in your sleeping bag with you. Always have a beanie. I crochet so I’m never without one. Don’t wear any cotton (especially don’t wear cotton socks). “Cotton kills” as they say. Performance fabrics, wool, and layers layers layers. 2 layers of socks as well. And that will also help keep your feet from blistering if you go hiking.

For my first fire, I gave up caring about whether I can rough it and will use a starter log. It is so hard to get that first fire to really catch and not need constant tending. The rest of my fires I practice doing it the hard way after there’s a fresh bed of coals and half burnt wood from the previous day. Much easier to build up hot coals after that.

I keep losing my eyemasks. I started lightly tying a bandana around my eyes. It works great! I always have a bandana around. Not sure why they can manage to stay unlost but my eyemasks can’t. I look like I’m headed to the firing squad, lol, but I need it to be dark to sleep.

If you’re car camping or RVing, I started bringing my tree limb shears with me camping to cut up kindling from dead branches. So much faster and easier on the shoulder than a hatchet. If they’re small enough, breaking them over my knee is fine, but I sometimes find good thick ones and I can’t break that sucker down without a sharp tool.

Bring a bucket. Buckets are useful. I have 2 different collapsible kinds, but I also keep a good ol 5 gal paint bucket from the hardware store. It carries wood, water, is a trashcan, can be a seat, used to wash clothes or dishes, can be used as a toilet in an emergency (ideally with a trash bag liner and some kitty litter)…I love buckets.

Use a pill organizer to bring a variety of cooking spices in a tidy lightweight caddy.

Have a good first aid kit always.

Instructions unclear. Applied fire directly to forehead.

Plus you don’t have to even buy the manufacturer’s special ground tarp for your tent. I picked up a huuuge tarp at a yard sale for like $5. And cut a footprint-size piece for my tent and had oceans of tarp left over for other camping and household uses.

The OG minifig

You got me. It’s both, actually. I was kidding. And TIL sugar is no bueno for chinchillas.

It’s getting (or has been for some time) terrible on Reddit. Kids just narrating into their phones without taking a breath and clicking post without reading back over that text wall. I find this primarily in the paranormal subs that I read when I can’t fall asleep at night.

Sadface chinchilla. His frosted mini wheat is missing the frosting!