Snagging is free. Credit is appreciated. Comments are loved.

I see I thought yesterday was Thursday and posted a "Throwback Thursday" post. So for today have a post from my "list of things to be posted"





Snagging is free. Credit is appreciated. Comments are loved.

Ecco (here it is), from the Latin ecce or eccum, is about presenting a person, thing, or idea and inviting you to perceive it at the very moment it appears.

___________________________________________________________________________________

It's coming.

The darkness.

A summer sunset.

End-of-the-day rays of sunlight filter through thick cloud and caress my face as I sit in the car with the windows down, filling me with a short lived feeling of warmth, before the cloud sweeps past, briefly blocking the dissipating light.

The golden, pink and peach splashes that painted the sky are slowly but surely evaporating.

The afternoon bleeding into evening.

Night waiting patiently around the corner to kill the last remains of the day.

In the still August air I light a cigarette, inhaling the toxins before breathing them back out and watching as the curling smoke poisoned the air around me.

Carbon monoxide mingling with oxygen and nitrogen.

Evening has always been my least favorite part of a day.

Something about it, and watching the sun dip below the horizon has always felt like a loss of hope.

It's always been intertwined with death.

(Ever since the day I learned what mortality is, as I witnessed a bird get shot and plummet, backlit by a setting sun when I was three. A hell of a first memory).

When I learned that the earth's natural state was darkness, that made sense to me.

It still does, literally and metaphorically.

Neither can exist without the other.

Both offer solace in their own ways, yet neither are completely safe.

There can be no light without darkness, no darkness without light.

That is something I have grown to recognize in everything.

Including myself.

Metaphorically, the darkness that dwells in my mind and my memories, my dark side so to speak, is something I can't escape from.

Those things are along for the ride with the light parts, whether I like it or not.

It's just that I'm tired now.

I grew tired of running from them and myself a long time ago, and chose awareness instead, because unlike some people I've known, I've never really mastered the art of denial.

I've always had a debilitating fear of void like spaces, and I can't sleep without some light.

On the other hand though, I love the night.

Everything feels magical, being awake and active during the night always feels like being part of another world.

At night, guards are let down, instincts are acted upon.

Everything is infinite.

Or feels it.

Until the sun rises, dawn melts into day and the light returns.

The same light that can be a smokescreen for me.

An illusion of comfort meant to render us unaware of the visible shadows and shady corners that lengthen steadily as the hour grows later and races towards the inevitable.

(When I remember how the bird dropped, a dead weight, the thing that stands out most in my mind's eye is the blazing sun at its hottest as it dipped closer to the horizon casting light on the way the bullet tore through the bird's body).


Despite my fear of those void like spaces, the sense of apprehension they bring, the dark of the night can be an ironically cathartic hiding place for those who are cognizant of thing they sometimes wish they weren't.

A dog barks in the distance, its haunting echo pulling me out of my thoughts.

With the sun's retreat, the street is beginning to come alive again since I wandered off into the maze that is my mind.

I cast a glance towards the sky, which is now devoid of color.

It's a moonless night.

(Just like the night I was born).

It's here.

"Now it's dark," I think and my eyes meet my own in the rear view mirror,

___________________________________________________________________________________

non-fiction

I'm part Italian, so I was excited to see the prompt for this week. I wanted to tackle it both literally and re symbolism. This is a memory of me watching a sunset in someone's car during a seriously horrible time of my life.

"Now it's dark." is a quote from one of my favorite movies, Blue Velvet (1986), directed by the legendary David Lynch. It is a line repeated by an antagonist and its meaning is that of being comfortable with the darkness in yourself. This resonated with me from when I saw it. Obviously I refer to memories of trauma and PTSD here and that is how it resonated with me, whereas the movie antagonist definitely had some worse issues lol, but the point is the same.

I was indeed born on a moonless night. Forever envious of those born under a full moon!

Two Doctor Who companion outfits for your delectation and delight! Outfits selected by a mixture of ones I, personally, like; lists on the internet; and a certain random element.


( Outfits below the Cut )

Vote for your favourite of these costumes. Use whatever criteria you please - most practical, most outrageously spacey, most of its decade!

Voting will remain open for at least a week, possibly longer!

Costume Bracket Masterlist

Images are a mixture of my own screencaps, screencaps from Lost in Time Graphics, PCJ's Whoniverse Gallery, and random Google searches.

Title: "Miles From Nowhere"
Artist: magnavox_23
Character/Pairing: Daniel Jackson
Rating: G

Happy Daniel Jackson's 60th birthday, everyone! July 8th, 1965 our intrepid, stalwart, and dashing archaeologist was born to travel the stars and find a commonality in spirit and hope in all. Whilst living the greatest love story of all time with his retired General hubby... *g*

I'd like to think he is still attached to the Stargate program in some capacity, perhaps the SGC is now based out of Atlantis, and maybe not completely under US control anymore (they learned their lessons with Kinsey, no kings/goa'ulds/yadda), somewhere on Earth, or out amongst the stars...

Anyone else feeling a little... dated? >.<

Because of all the mix-ups with permits and so on, we were offered an additional "free" activity. We picked a trip to the Polccoyo rainbow mountain area. It turned out that there are two rainbow mountains in Peru of which Vinicunca is the more spectacular, touristy, and better known. Different mineral compositions in the soil - particularly copper - cause the geological layers exposed in rainbow mountains to reveal stripes of bright colours. Our guide for the day, Olmer, was obviously from the Polccoyo area and felt very passionately about it. He explained that it was being opened up to tourists in a bid to stave off a proposed investment from a Canadian mining company who wanted to establish a copper mine in the area.

It was beautiful and remote and while there were two or three parties of tourists, it was easy to feel alone in the landscape. B. and I were a bit dubious that it could both retain its character and generate enough income to hold off the allure of mining company big bucks.

( Photos )

The road up to Palccoyo went along multiple switch-backs from tarmac to dirt track, and past alfalfa farmers on the lower slopes (the alfalfa feeds the guinea pigs which are a local speciality - if you are interested they taste a bit like duck) to alpaca farmers on the higher slopes (alpaca is genuinely nice meat, quite lamby but more restrained). On the way back down I tried to photograph alpaca from the taxi resulting in a lot of blurry photos of alpaca of which these are the best.

( Photos from the taxi )

Barely. I've been "meh" for the past 2 years. Lost a few jobs and suffered literal loss. My girlfriend Julie passed away last year and a few months later my cat Jellybean died.

I was in the hospital last August for diabetic reasons and a few infections and almost died myself. After that life got worse. Kinda wish I DID perish. I'm here for some dumb reason or another. Not sure why. Things aren't getting better AT ALL. can't even find a job. No data entry jobs due to AI and I gave up my graphic design career option since AI is taking over THAT, too. So...I'm just existing. For my 2 cats and husband Walter. we're doing..."meh"

I've managed to reach Chapter 5 in my book. I've written about 15,000 words or more. I'm still writing at the moment but at least I know now I'm capable. I'm going to keep writing until it's ingrained in my soul. I'll be on chapter 6 in a little bit. I plan on reaching Chapter 30, I want a novel, not a novella.

We start the season with Jack O'Neill inside the Daniel Jackson...*bg* where he tinkers with tech, learns all the things, and is Generally almost a wry spark. Back in his body, and expressing his daddyness, Jack finds himself to be The Man™, with Daniel as his trusty advisor, confidant and sidepiece kick. As is the way of things, Daniel quickly goes missing offworld, gets kidnapped a few times onworld, on a spaceship, and online... before dying once once? more before the Ancients dump his nakedness right under Jack's nose, as it were. The season ends with some superfluous fishing, as Jack has already (insert your own jokes about bottom fishing, chumming and fingerlings, etc... why am I doing all the work? *g*)


An icon per episode of Season 8 that both characters were in plus some extras... <3

I am planning to do another set for their appearances together in seasons 6, 9 & 10, Continuum, as well as SGA and SGU, I just need to find screencaps for the later two, if those still exists online.

I've no memory of reading this at all. The back makes it sound both interesting and memorable - a retired brigadier stumbling upon shenanigans from WW2 recruiting the sixth Doctor for help. Richards and Cole are both solid Doctor Who authors who I rate but none of it stirs a memory.

We had a "free" day in Cusco, but there were some suggestions of activities that our guide could organise for us. Two other people in the group were interested in seeing the Moray Ruins and the Salt Mines of Maras and we were happy to tag along and make the excursion cheaper.

Moray was the first Inca Plant laboratory we encountered. As noted previously, it wasn't quite clear to us why it earned the status of laboratory.

( Pictures under the Cut )

The Salt Mines are not actually mines, but a salt extraction plant that predates the arrival of the Spanish and which are still worked today. Mineral rich water from the mountains comes in and fills clay lined pools. The water then evaporates and the salt is collected. They are owned by 300 families and there were people working them - flattening the clay lining - when we visited. I bought salt.

( Photos under the Cut )