Friday Night Photos Year End Edition
Happy Friday everyone. I hope everybody is doing well. Post any photos, memes, or music you like.
The Sun is setting on another year
Reflection back on 2023 I don't think anybody is going to remember it as a great year.
More war, more homeless, more income inequality, more eco disasters, more addiction, more suicide. Lets throw in facilitating a genocide while we're at it. It's enough to make your head spin.
Sometimes all you want to do is fly away and leave it all behind.
Spend some time sitting on a beach in paradise numbing your brain on Mai Tai's while you escape the real world.
But when you return from paradise the real world is still there waiting for you.
Things look bleak but the sun is rising on a new year and hope springs eternal.
I'm praying smarter heads will prevail and right this ship of fools we're all passengers on.
If only I had a crystal ball to know what the new year has in store for us. Well, that and next weeks winning lottery numbers.
Wishing everybody a happy and healthy New Year.
Comments
Hi Social
I love your storybook reflections and wishes for the new year. I especially enjoyed the white wings of peace, and you peering into your crystal ball.
I thank you for your warm and steady presence here, and I wish everyone light and strength, and many enjoyable moments in the new year.
The real meditation is how you live your life - Jon Kabat-Zinn
On New Years day I try to keep in mind this thought I heard a few years ago - do something that day that reflects what you would like the new year to reinforce. Life-affirming thoughts and communication with loved ones are on my agenda.
A very fragrant mix of climbing rose, carnation, and gardenia …
Maybe this year will bring the technology to include the fragrance with the image ; ).
Hi, Janis
Beautiful images of the flowers and leaves. The leaves look like they might be from a Cana Lily. I hope you have many enjoyable moments in the new year, too. Thanks for the Ellington/Coltrane selection.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
Thank you Social
Yes, the leaves resemble canna leaves. They are the leaves of white ginger, growing directly behind the canna. The variety of canna that I have are coloured and look like this ...
I wish you and yours all the best
Hi Janis
Oye amiga,
Beautiful photos, as always, ms artiste.
Most excellent images. I'll just have to think the scents for now. But your photo certainly helps that process. So far the digital scent idea sounded good in science fiction, looked good on paper, and I'm sure millions have been spent on the pipe dream, but I don't see how they can make it work. Scents and fragrances are not like colors where with three primaries you can make almost anything. Would love to be proven wrong. They might be able to get a few or some sorta here and there, with just a few basics? It will be very limited at best. Imagine what those refill cartridges will cost! 
Hope all is well! Take care!
Countin' on all to have good ones!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
I thought the fragrance
might come naturally through the ether/ethereal, but maybe the imagination is even better ; ).
Did you ever read the novel Perfume?
Oye Isabel ...
Hi Janis
Oye Janis!
GREAT song! I loved it.
No I never read Perfume. I was always weak on novel reading. Is it about scents I presume?
I live with what I call a 'scent queen' though. ms d has spent over a couple decades as a candle maker studying scents. There are what seems a couple hundred bottles here... and a scent expert. Which ain't me. When she asks me what I think of a scent, I always tell her "I don't smell very good".
Thanks for the great tune!
be well!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Why am I not surprised you live with a scent queen!
I'm sure she adds to the delicacy of senses in nature you experience.
"Hope springs eternal"
.
Here’s hoping that the new year brings some wonderful surprises and humanity finds its humanity and stops the never ending wars. I think that the war experiment from the last 2,000 years has shown that it was never the answer.
Beautiful photos again. I love your reflections…
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Hi, snoopy
We humans like to think we're intelligent. I think a review of our history might say otherwise. Heck, even a dog is intelligent enough to know not to shit where it sleeps. Us humans, not so much.
I hope you and Sam have a great new year.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
Hi pixelators
Hi all, Hey SP!
Outstanding images SP! Fantastic photos! Good thoughts to go with them too.
This is a Wooly Bear caterpillar. Well, after they emerge as the beautiful beastie they are as adults. There are I think over 250 species of Tiger Moths in No. Am. All have 'wooly bear' caterpillars, many black, some yellow, and many black at distal thirds with red in the middle. They can be very difficult to tell apart. This pic was one ms d caught in a jar and so taken through the glass before it was repatriated to the great outdoors.
This is a half-dozen of the ruffian neer-do-wells that built the Design Acoustics D-12 speaker, the dodecahedron with speakers on every face, no screws or nails, that Stereo Review in 75 or 76 called the best sounding speaker made in America. Mr. smiley on left and I were co-foreman of the cabinet shop.
When you encountered a group of questionables such as this in the mid 70's, the one you probably really needed to know, would be ID'able by having a suspicious brown paper bag in hand, and silly grin.
moi in 1976 at age 21
Have great ones all!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Hi dystopian
The life and transformation of insects are a perfect inspiration for the new year. Thank you.
Thank you also for the vintage photos, they're priceless. I will look for one to send in return.
...
Me, 23-24, after snorkling around the limestone cliffs and perfectly clear waters of Jamaica.
Hi again
WEEWOW! ~ What an awesome picture. What a cute young lady you were. You look like great fun! Thank YOU very much for that! Isn't it neat to add a puzzle piece?
love, peace and happiness be with you
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
It's very neat
Thank you for the inspiration and all you contribute to the beauty and appreciation of nature and humanity.
Other than your hair
you haven't changed a bit. So nice to put a face to your wonderful personality.
Yours truly front row center age 23
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
Ooh, Social, thank you
You represent, front and centre, the year of moustaches and beards. Unlike the two to either side of you, your stance is far more open.
The gentlemen standing beside me
are body guards. When you're the captain of a pirate ship everybody is gunning to replace you. You always need a couple of trusted shipmates who have your back.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
You don't look like a pirate!
What was your loot?
The loot was life long memories
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
another forklift?
Hey SP!
Great pic! Probably gonna be a while before we have another week here with TWO photos that have forklifts in them?
Thanks for both of your pix this week! I know you better now.
vaya con dios amigo!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
It's an Allis-Chalmers forklift
We had a half dozen of them onboard ship. They were a good dependable forklift.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
Great smile
Hope we all have something to smile about in the coming year.
cheers!
Cheers Q
I wish you many smiles in return ; ).
smiles
Yeah Capt.!
Isn't that a beautiful smile? It put one on my face.
smooth sailin'!
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Hi, dystopian
Mostly we get the black Wooly Bears around here. I saw a whole bunch last year but I haven't seen any this year. I've never heard of Design Acoustics speakers but they must have been good to get recognized as the best sounding speaker in America.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
Design Acoustics
Mornin'...
Here is a pic: I just grabbed a screenshot.
Here is the 1 min. vid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IXZQd0DTfs
I always told them to take at least an inch of the grilles to show more wood since the grills were oversized covering the tweeters and mids. They did not need to be that big. You shoulda seen the Rosewood ones, OMG! These are too close together. They sounded best hung from ceiling in a very large room. They were $800 a pair, in '75. I would absolutely put them up against Infinity 2000A's. Which was the key competitor at the time in sound. The thing with them was there was no tunneling of high frequencies as you get with tweeters, because there were 7 of them pointing in every direction (Peerless). Highs were the same no matter where you measured in the room. This was the hurdle it crossed and problem it solved. Tweeters tunnel. George the owner was a key player in the development of the talking Barbie for Mattel. A genius sound engineer.
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Those are some wild looking speakers
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
What beauties!
I'd trade my speakers for those any day. They look as if they were designed after alien spacecraft or geodesic domes. I love the styles from that era.
Thats not a three finger bag
more like five.
Thanks for the photo and happy New Year.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Thanks for the great pix, SP
That last one looks Escherish. But he was a charcoal artist mostly.
Have a great New Year.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Hi, earthling1
M C was a great graphic artist. I can't even draw a respectable stick figure.
Have a happy New Year.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
A short 2023 In Review
This year represented a milestone that had no business being reached...:
...there was a purge in Paradise that demands further answers...:
...and some of you are now expected to take these two seriously:
OPPENHEIMER *ahem* blew me away, and revived my flagging hopes for the movie industry...:
..but Jim Carrey's decided to retire now (with his final movie being the decidedly underwhelming Sonic The Hedgehog sequel). WTH, dude, you actually think you've overstayed your welcome? You know Patrick Stewart once said meeting actors who'd retired was "like encountering Martians" (and not in a good way), right?? We NEED you!!!:
A certain long-deferred dream moved abruptly from sagging and festering, to EXPLODING:
...and Achenar sealed its role as the Greater Evil:
Baby Boomers lost their last opportunity for closure:
In my personal life, however, I happened to have a better than average year, because I got to go to Japan! I don't happen to have any accessible photos of my own to share, but I will say I went here, where we had a personal private guide we made good friends with (I was able to speak frankly to him and a few others about life in the Empire of Lies)...:
...and here, an underground fountain at the heart of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, for all those who died asking for water (These days, if the gift shops at the train station are any indication, Hiroshima seems to be really into maple products):
Snappy dressing is almost the norm there:
I saw Andean condors up close at the Ueno Zoo, a personal highlight:
...and I met a cat who looked like this:
Of course, some things are still best left to professionals!:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/dave-barry-year-in-review-2023-w...
In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.
Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!
Hi, Moonbat
Thanks for the memes, photos and thoughts on this year. I predict Dottie Weisenflanker will announce her candidacy for president by February. Hope you had a memorable trip to Japan.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.
Thank you all for the ABFAB photos, tunes,
and informative comments this year.
I actually look pretty well preserved for my age, but I hate having my image taken. Always have, always will. Here's to 2024 for what it's worth. Hubster and I will have the usual black-eyed peas, ham and cornbread, New Years Day. It's supposed to bring good luck which I doubt. However, it does taste good. Enjoy, stay safe and well, everyone. Signing off from the nice and cool (for a change) Sandbar Peninsula. 
Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
Hi, orlbucfan
I know how you feel about not liking your picture taken. I don't like my picture taken either (yes, I'm a camera shy photographer). It's one of the reasons I very rarely do any people photography.
Enjoy your lucky meal and have a happy New Year on the sandbar.
I woke up this morning determined to drink less, eat right, and exercise.
But that was four hours ago when I was younger and full of hope.