TheCreepyLurker

I get to have dinner with someone on this list every night.  I'm so lucky!  

ps it's hard to lurk from yourself

Art competition thread: 

I endorse this poll.

Here's a little more of a cheery photo.  The Little Lurker has a couple of these bins of little plastic bears.  They're a great learning tool that evolves from fine motor control development (picking up, transferring from one container to another, etc....), to color recognition, to counting.  During one of our play sessions she wandered off and left me to play with the bears.  I made a picture.    (yes, I followed ROY G BIV in my arrangement of colors because I'm a nerd like that) 

Take with my Pixel 2.  

Here's a simple photo of a lily from my Grandmother's garden.  I've captured a lot of photos from this particular garden of hers over the years.  She took so much pride in the care and detail she put into her gardens I was always in awe as they grew.  Sadly, my Grandmother passed away last month after a battle with ALS.  I'm so happy we got time with her in the weeks leading to her passing where I was able to take this and other photos from her gardens.  Not only do I have these photos and the many memories, I also have a row of hostas that came from her hosta garden.  She was so happy to be able to share them with my wife and I.  (hostas get too big and need to be split up as they grow)  

Taken with my Pixel 2.  

Ben has a badass pond.  Also, if anyone is in Ben's neighborhood, I found out where he keeps the good stuff...  Bring a boat. 

There is a correct answer to this question...

For those of you who do have kids, hit me up for an invite to the parents channel on slack.  

Back in 2014, Lake Superior froze over, allowing access to the Apostle Island Ice Caves.  It only happens once or twice a decade so, somewhat spur of the moment, we cut our Winter Adventure short and drove down the north shore and up the south shore of Superior.  It's about a half mile walk out on the ice to get to the caves which were wonderful.  Natural ice pillars 50 feet tall, waterfalls frozen for months as they cascade down to the lake, caves with icicles dangling down, and hoar frost coating everything.  

One particularly fun little cave also had a couple little chambers you could crawl around in.  The entrance was up 4-5 feet off the ice and was a narrow opening to get into.  But once in there, there was some really need erosion patterns and fun mosses growing on the rocks.  This image shows light coming in from the opening of the cave, through the first chamber and into a second.  It shone as a spotlight on the purple and green mosses that were growing there.  Fun stuff!  

I trust everyone has had a joyful holiday season.  Just wanted to share a quick photo from our Christmas tree this year from earlier in the week.  Taken with my phone so not the highest quality.  Get's the point across...  

Went for a walk for the first time in a while.  Just hit a regional park in my area.  Grabbed my camera, not expecting to find much.  It was mid-day, overcast, wet mushy snow, etc...  So I knew I'd be looking for the small details.  When I came around a corner, I found this nice little piece of grass that had fallen into the packed snow of the trail. 

Bonus picture in #photocorner! 

"Superior Beach" is a pebble beach on the north shore of Lake Superior in Tettegouche State Park.  It's a fun spot to check out in all seasons because it's usually pretty protected, with calm clear water, the beach, and a rocky point you can play around on to see the lake.  It is also really well known for a particular stack of stones that overlook the little bay.  Prior to 2010, it actually formed an arch with the cliff next two it but during a storm in 2010, the arch broke off and fell into the lake leaving the stack by itself.  

This was a really tough photo to take and honestly feel I went too far in processing it.  But with the harsh sun combined with the really shadowed rocks made it tough to capture in one image.  It's an HDR which I manually blended and then did some dodging and burning.  Again, I think it went too far and isn't exactly what we saw that morning any more, but it is a cool photo regardless.  

Bonus story in #photocorner!  

@Menhera, get in here and bring this thread back to life with me.   

During my winter adventures, we usually make a point to catch sunrise out in some frozen place.  We had nice cool weather and clear skies.  The clouds you can see over Lake Superior is "sea smoke".  Basically it's fog that forms overnight as the air temps drop below the water temps. The building on the left is a small fish cleaning shack.  

EDIT:  Tune into the #photocorner channel for a bonus picture.  

A number of years ago, my sister and her family lived in the suburbs of Chicago.  We decided to take a trip into the city and visited Millennium Park.  Lots of cool stuff to see and do around that area.  Not sure what this was, but it was really green and wide open so I decided to take a picture.    I think it's a concert hall thing at the far end and just a big grassy area for people to sit. 

6 hours ago, Nizam Adrienne said:

We were walking around a marina today and found probably close to 20 sea potatoes chilling in it.

Alright, I know this isn't a photo, but WTF is a sea potato?  

I was down in Dallas for work a few years ago.  Mrs. Lurker joined me for part of the trip and we spent some time wandering around Dallas and Fort Worth.  (Fort Worth was way better than Dallas fwiw.)  As we got to the evening, I wanted to find a place to take a sunset photo.  So I scoured the interwebs (Google Maps) for a place that would have a nice west facing view and landed on White Rock Lake on the North East side of Dallas.  This ended up being the most beautiful sunset I had ever seen.  The main sunset photo I shared earlier here.  But you'll note I referenced the afterglow as well.  I had packed up my camera and we were headed out when the clouds began to light up again.  I set my gear back up and captured this panoramic image.  

16 minutes ago, Micchan said:

Trying to keep the thread alive 

Then follow the rules.

@Micchan has officially destroyed this thread...  Of all people...  

Get us back on the right track, @Menhera.  

On 8/12/2019 at 4:34 PM, Benfro said:

I have recently crushed:

• Unbroken
• American Prison
• Crashed
• Educated
• Excellent Sheep
• Flash Boys

I sense a theme in these books with the exception of Unbroken.   

On 8/6/2019 at 6:29 AM, Benfro said:

I read so much nonfiction that I get made fun of. Good writing is hard to beat, and I learn so much!

Favorite selections?  

A couple I've enjoyed over the past couple years:  

• In the Kingdom of Ice
• Unbroken
• The River of Doubt
• Ghost Soldiers
• Denali's Howl
• Devil in the White City
• Touching the Void
• Island of the Lost

On 8/6/2019 at 6:28 AM, Benfro said:

I believe @nashnwo0 got an unfair draw.

But holding his own...  

Us other shards got stomped on by IC.  I'm impressed with Nash's showing.  

I'm a bit overdue and didn't search too hard to find something truly epic.  Instead you get a nice silhouette of my buddy taking a shot of peppermint schnapps at sunset, after a couple mile hike to a nice overlook on the Superior Hiking trail.  As a part of our annual winter adventure, we've gotten in the habit of bringing a small flask to share some schnapps at our destination.  One of these years we're going to bring a bigger flask...  4 oz just isn't enough for two of us.  

18 minutes ago, Infinite Citadel said:

@TheCreepyLurker how is #coupgoldy not the best meme ;_;

I have been putting more of my energy behind #coupschirm, sadly. It has proven more effective, however... 

Has anyone ever used a blade of grass to make a fun sound?  Hold your thumbs next to one another, fingernails facing you.  Place a blade of grass between the second and third knuckles and blow across it.  It'll cause the blade to vibrate and give off a squealing kind of noise.  You can open and close your hands to change the pitch as well.  

So after that brief tutorial, Mrs. Lurker and I were hanging out on a blanket in our backyard with the Little Lurker yesterday.  I was trying to teach this to the Mrs. while the little one crawled around on the blanket, treating the grass like lava and afraid to leave the blanket.  Finally I found the right piece of grass to make the noise after not having done it in years, and started making some noise.  Within seconds, the Little Lurker had broken down into a full meltdown complete with tears while she stared at me in terror.  

I opened my hands to show here it was just a blade of grass and she kind of calmed down.  She proceeded to grab the blade of grass and tear it into little pieces.

So last night, I was sitting in the rocking chair in the Little Lurker's room reading to her before bed.  Every night since before she was born we've read the book A Night Night Prayer to her.  She's familiar with the book and doesn't pay attention to it as much as she does other stories she hasn't heard before.  Last night was going about like every other night.  We read a couple books and then were finishing up with Night Night Prayer.  It's a simple set of rhymes that say goodnight to the sun, flowers, dog, etc...  At this point, I have the entire book committed to memory.  Which makes it nice for when we forget to bring it somewhere. 

At the end of the book there's a page that says night night to mommy.  After we read the rhyme, the Little Lurker leans forward and gives an "Eskimo Kiss" (rub noses) to the "mommy" pictured in the book.  Then she turns her head and rests her cheek on the "mommy's" shoulder for a few seconds.  I about burst into tears it was so cute.  

The next page says night night to daddy.  After we read the rhyme, she pulled the book closer to her and rested her forehead on the shoulder of the "daddy" pictured in the book.  Then she pulled it closer so her cheek rested on the daddy.  Tears welled up in my eyes and I gave her a big hug.  She's such a sweet little girl.