Say Green!

It's been a while since I've posted one of my famous 'shot's from my office window' pics, so I figure I'm due. Things are just popping green madness around here at the moment. Bright bright spring green. It was a dark and stormy all day, which made the green that much more vibrant.

My classroom is on the tenth floor of the library this term. It offers a great view of the weather barreling in off the Sea of Japan, which is just a few miles away, and at that height, the effects of any wild weather are more intense than on the ground. So it was around 10 o'clock this morning, with some ominousness on the horizon, that the wind suddenly slammed the building as if someone had flicked a switch. Shortly there after came lightning and thunder. I always like when we get a good storm during my class because I love storms for one thing, but it's also a chance to teach students the word 'thunder' ('kaminari' in Japanese) and 'lightning,' which I'm not sure how to say in Japanese. I also like polling students to see who else shares my severe weather fetish.

I've been contemplating starting a new blog recently. I intend to continue this blog, but I also want to branch out into something else. I've been toying with a few ideas. I briefly entertained a Red Sox blog, with commentary on each game, but frankly that seems like more work than I'm really interested in dealing with, and it's not all that original.

I'm also thinking about starting a Japanese version of Casey's Bean, which wouldn't be of much use to many of my current readers. But I think it would be a great way to work on my Japanese, and there are a few people out there who would be able to read it. As I envision it, I would make basically the same posts I do on this site, only in shoddy, mistake-laden Japanese. So that's another idea.

But the thing that has been sticking with me the most, though I haven't quite figured out how to do it, is to start a photo blog that will trace the passage of time. Basically, I want to find something that is dynamic, that always changes but does so slowly, and take a picture of it every day. I imagine this kind of blog would not be all that interesting at first, but would become more so as time goes by. So after a full year, for instance, people could scroll through the pictures and get an idea of how something changes.

There's one major hurdle with this idea: whatever I choose as my subject, it has to be something I have access to EVERY day. So I thought about one of the local rice paddies, or some other natural fixture in the area, but I spend a few weeks at a time in the States during the year, and even if I go away for a weekend then the goal of taking a picture every day is lost.

The only thing I've found I have access to every day, that fits the criteria of being in constant, slow change, is me. How interesting is that? Take a picture of myself every day? People will come from miles around to see that, namely my mother.

Anyway, the way I'm thinking of doing this, if I do it, is to take a picture of myself the moment I wake up every morning. The only commentary would be the time I wake up, and the location. I'd like to find another, more abstract thing to comment on as well, like the first word or thought that pops into my head, or the temperature, or some other random bit of information. Personally, I think it would be cool to be able to look back over a year to see how I have physically changed, but also where I've been, and the various frames of mind I have when I greet the day each morning. So while this might be pretty freakin boring to everyone, for me it would be pretty cool. So that's what I'm contemplating this evening.