I went to Harvard
You know, today. 🙂 But doesn’t that sound cool? Here is how I spent the rest of my day off in Boston. With pictures! ‘Cause I remembered my camera! And then I used it! (A crucial second step that I often forget.) I just reviewed every picture I took today (215, thank you very much), deleted the blurry ones, and there is no way in hell I’m posting them all here, even assuming any of you wanted to see them. I’ll show you a smattering. (Good word.)
First, after my run, I went to the aquarium (for several hours) and saw ALL of the fishes, the penguins, the sharks, the jellyfish, and an IMAX movie that taught me way more than I wanted to know about the mating habits of cuttlefish, which, despite how they look, are not squids.
Cuttlefish, not squid. In Atlanta, I heard a woman tell her kid, "They're called cuttlefish 'cause they like to cuddle." The kid was grossed out by the idea.
My penguin pictures aren’t so great, but I did get a good one of a clownfish. EVERYone recognizes Nemo now. In every language. I kept hearing, “Blah blah foreign language, maybe French, then some Swedish or Dutch or something NEMO!” So here’s Nemo:
I’ve got lots more, and lots of stuff about today, but I need to get ready for tomorrow and come back to this. I’ll leave you with my attempts at self-portraits from throughout the day. Clearly, I need to practice this.
1st attempt. Lesson: My sunglasses are reflective. Take them off first. But at least I got the aquarium in the background and my whole head in the frame.
2nd attempt. Lesson: Put something interesting behind me. I was at the sea lion exhibit. Why are they not in the picture? I'm not even facing the right way to include them.
3rd attempt. Lesson: Timing. That's the end of a sting ray behind me. Could have been the whole thing. No idea why the picture is so grainy.
Attempt #4. Lesson: Don't hold the camera above my head and tilt down. That's quite the lovely picture of the ground you have there. Also, again with the reflective sunglasses.
5th attempt. (You'd think I'd have given up by now.) Got the harbor this time, but it kinda looks like I'm stalking that couple at the table. Lesson: Don't take pictures of other people surreptitiously if I meant to take one of myself. (Only do that when I'm going to make fun of them.) Also, please please please get my whole head in the frame.
6th try. Not massively improved. At least my head is in the picture. I'm at Harvard, not that you can tell by any landmarks.
Last try, back in the hotel room. I can barely manage, after four tries, to look at the camera when I'm in front of a mirror. How does Dooce manage this? I tried putting the camera to one side or lower down so it wouldn't be visible, but I couldn't manage that AND get my eyes pointing in the right direction at the same time. HARD!
Who needs self portraits, anyway?