field trip - Kramer Junction, CA

Over the Memorial Day Weekend the lapidary group had a trip out to the Kramer Junction area between Mojave and Barstow. On the collecting list were dendritic agate, opalite, bits of petrified bog, onyx, and more agates like last time. In the middle of the day we stopped to view petroglyphs in a little canyon in I don't even know where - the last town we passed through before hitting back country was Hinkley, and hours and hours of driving up and down boulder-covered hills, dry lake beds and dusty, scrubby desert made me lose all sense of time and urgency.

Our first stop was Opal Mountain, to look for common opal in a range of milky-white to amber, to a dark honey color. Here I got to get extensive use out of my rock hammer for the first time, and I had a lot of fun looking for veins of opal and smashing at the surrounding rhyolite to free my finds. But after a while I slowed down to explore the rest of my surroundings. I noticed gem-like hues of lichen coating small rock/dirt outcroppings and regarded them as vast, microscopic alien worlds. I saw a cute little fishhook cactus with a bunch of pups and got pricked a few times admiring the bunch! I got lazy about taking pictures for most of this trip... When your center of balance is always slightly compromised by a rock bag/camera bag on pebbly surfaces that essentially act like a ball bearings-strewn landscape you really just want to be careful while having fun exploring, and then the camera kind of gets pushed to the side...!

 

We hit another agate field, viewed petroglyphs, and made the long dusty trek back to camp, where I parted ways with the other members and floored it back to LA, to see a good old friend I haven't seen in about a year and a half. The drive home was beautiful - there's a spot on the I-15 S that cuts through some mountains, and as the sun goes down, the mountains are dark and silhouetted; as you turn the curve and breeze downhill you get blasted with light, and I get this strange feeling of contentment at having had a full day of adventure that is then backed with an immediate desire to drive off and go on to the next adventure. I think of Bilbo Baggins saying "I want to see mountains again, mountains, Gandalf!" and I feel the same way, but I want to see mountains, forests, canyons, and other cities!

 
My haul this time was modest, but no complaints. Above, you see big chunks of agate that I would like to throw into the rock tumbler the next time I have a chance, as well as a few chips of honey opal. I found two dendritic agates, nothing impressive, but was happy to find more greenish specimens of agate, striped, translucent, milky and all. I only made it for 1/3 of the trip, but it was a great way to start the long weekend.

instagram

I was really opposed to joining Instagram when I finally got a smartphone over a year ago for all the reasons that, if I repeat now, just make me as insufferable and obnoxious as any soapboxer on Facebook shouting their opinion (though we're all entitled to our opinions!), but to get down to the crux of it I didn't really see the appeal of (A) yet another microblogging platform, and (B) another extreme way to attention whore/humblebrag/blatantly brag about your goings-on. But now, having been an Instagram user for about five months, my opinions have shifted a bit. Given who you follow, I see it more now as seeing the world through other peoples' eyes, which I guess anybody would say "DUH" to. Unfortunately I chose to regard this app negatively before giving it a chance, which is just a character flaw on my part. Better late than never they say.

Something that saddens me though is when I see a lapse of updates on a blog, only to investigate and realize that said blogger has been so busy with real life that updating has understandably slowed, but the effortlessness and ease of Instagram smoothly bridges that gap one faces with the clunkiness of blogging and the time it usually requires. I get it though, and (drumroll) perhaps I've been guilty of turning to Instagram instead of my blog lately too. But in my case I don't have hundreds or thousands of readers wondering what I must be doing!


And obviously, Instagram is fun. It brings people together (cheesy I know) - one of my best friends who has been off of Facebook for years had been on Instagram instead, so upon joining I feel that extra step of closeness that e-mailing kind of lacks! And another friend I made on the Internet asked me, a day or two after I joined, if I use Instagram, so we became friends there, too! :X


There have been tons of contemporary studies (none of which I can link you to) on the psychological effects of Facebook in that frequenting the site often invokes feelings of inadequacy/jealousy/all those terrible angsty feelings of being un-included, or not doing something fun/amazing like that person on your friends list, and overall makes you really dissatisfied with your own life/accomplishments. That's the worst of what happens I guess. For me I just feel a little wistful that the people I would really like to hear more updates from have wised up and rarely say/post anything on Facebook, or have abandoned it entirely! Inevitably I've been pulling farther away from Facebook, and realized that Instagram is a good stand-in, because when it's just pared down to pictures/hashtags, there's slightly less annoyingness present in users' posts (still on the fence about that statement).

This is really kind of an annoying entry in that I've been discussing a subject that has been diced and angled to pieces...and I apologize for it, but at least, true to the form and function of the application I'm talking about - you, the viewer, can let the words fade to the background and simply look at the pictures instead. 

And because I hate things without context/sources:

1. The Wiltern Theater (beautiful Art Deco building) & glowing hen&chick succulents (I filched one!)

2. An evening spent bike riding with my sister - RIDE OR DIE, and risky self-portraiture habits.

3. Last month was all about mint - plucking armfuls of it, drying it out, and storing it in glass jars for forthcoming weeks of mint tea, just like my grandma loves to do!

4. Documenting things at work, and a shot of Alcatraz from a friend who visited SF and sent me shots of the city coupled with quotes from the Rock, so good.

5. I've been going to lots of music shows too...this was Maps & Atlases at the Echo (!!!) and I never tire of seeing them. Then another shadow selfie that I snapped when I saw the proportion of shadow to light, that I liked.

Even though I've seemingly made my peace with Instagram, here's to hoping there's less of these kinds of posts and more...regular blog type of things on their way.