Is this sensation, this idea that windows down, music up, singing loud can make me happy just influenced by movies? Is it society that tells me this is supposed to feel good, not my actual experiences?

I don’t think so. With the sun shining and the fresh air rushing around us, our spirits soar. And music has deep connections to our emotions, which work to soothe, solve, energize, and divert. Plus, it’s just fun.

Participating in NaBloPoMo on my main blog last month renewed my interest in blogging and reminded how much I really enjoy it. And that made me commit to my photoblog again. It got a fancy new coat of paint, a new URL, and new life.

In order to build my skill, I’ve been practicing a lot, but I look for inspiration too. I’ve started to become more active on Flickr, and I subscribe to several photoblogs’ RSS feeds. Plus, I’m looking forward to a photo shooting day with Sarah, who is a pretty darn good photographer.

I would love a dSLR, but right now, that isn’t justifiable. So I’ve decided that I want to take pictures that surprise people when they find out it was taken on a point-and-shoot. Besides, I can learn a lot without being distracted by shutter speeds and f-stop settings.

I already wrote about enjoying thunderstorms, but this subset of those window-rumbling displays of nature deserves its own place on my list.

Lightning just blows my mind. It’s one of those beautiful/destructive forces, just like ice storms.

I like lightning because it is beautiful/powerful. It lights up the sky in an impressive display of electrical amazingness. But that same stroke of lightning can explode transformer, sending thousands into darkness.

Another aspect of lightning that makes me enjoy seeing it more is that if you blink, you miss it. This rarity makes it special, too.

Image Source.

Snow on Kugelbrunnen

I don’t know that living in Missouri is good for my love of snow. We’ve already had two beautiful snow storms here this winter already! Now, I haven’t been able to enjoy any of this German snow from my skiis, but we did build a killer snow man on our back porch from the same snow covers the Kugelbrunnen in that picture (Kugelbrunnen means–you guessed it–”ball fountain”). Stay tuned to my other blog for the story of Pickle the Snowman. We took some great pictures.

So why does snow make me happy?

I absolutely love the cleanliness of a fresh snow. It just makes the world look new, bright, and fresh.

Snow mutes all the sounds in the world, and I almost feel like we’re alone in this beautiful wonderland.

Most of the time, snow falls softly, smoothly, calmly. As it wraps the world in fresh whiteness, it reminds us that we need to slow down, enjoy the important parts of life.

My favorites are the big bubbles. The little bubbles are okay, but the big bubbles are softer to my fingertips, and I like the way they feel.

I’m not saying I don’t like the smaller bubbles–their sound is really nice–but they are sometimes hard to pop and I always end up squeezing my fingers together too hard so that my fingertips get sore. What fun is a pointless activity like popping bubble wrap if it gives you sore fingers? I thought you’d agree.

Sometimes, I like to just wring the bubble wrap like a towel. This makes a barrage of popping noises, like Rice Krispies, but the down-side is that your toy is all played out in a few seconds. It’s like lighting a string of firecrackers.

When I’m thinking or just really bored, I like to pop each bubble individually, listening to the sound and seeing how I can change the tone. This is more like un-stringing a pack of a hundred Black Cats and lighting one, tossing it. Lighting another, tossing it.

The sad part is that I have never captured this on film, so I can’t share exactly what it is that I am talking about, although I trust you can imagine. I will definitely update this post with a picture when I do capture it, but until then, you’ll have to see it with your mind’s eye.

Number 46 is more than non-verbal communication. It’s more than getting a feeling of what a person might be thinking. Sometimes, you look at someone, look right in their eyes, and you know exactly what they are thinking.