abby vanduker, 20, oklahoma

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invisible children
charity: water
liberty in north korea

Former Philadelphia police Captain Ray Lewis was arrested Thursday in conjunction with the Occupy Wall Street protests.

It’s proved impossible for me to get this shot of former Philadelphia Police Cpt. Ray Lewis being arrested, anywhere. I was adamantly rebuffed by the Philadelphia Inquirer, NYT, local NY papers, and Newsweek, before even looking at the photograph. One of the only published photos of this paradoxical and intense event is located here at the NYC Observer.

ahomeboyslife / by: crosscrowdedrooms

Hiked for a bit this-afternoon. The weather through the days has been near perfect for northern Colorado in late October; reaching the mid-fifties and not too terrible windy aside from the occasional heavy gust down the mountain.

Great Grandma and I drove up from Greeley on Saturday morning after stopping in at Vern’s for my usual French toast, and my throat is finally healing. I wish I could afford to take a week off to fly up here every time I get another round of tonsillitis which is far too common anyhow.

Life up here is so terribly simple. Wake up early, put wood on the fire and pour a cup of coffee, step outside in the biting morning air to watch the deer and have a smoke, cook breakfast, snuggle up by the fire with a book (The Shining for me), have lunch at noon, spend the afternoon hiking or off-roading or picking up groceries at the local supermarket or splitting wood or shooting BBs (I put some in a can from 50m today!), cook and eat dinner with the family, wind down with another cup of coffee, maybe a glass of wine or beer and watching ball games on television, and slip under a heated blanket for sleep. and I love it, I couldn’t possibly imagine a better escape from the rest of the world.

xxxx

battleground, washington.
april 2011. 

as always, click through to view large.

meganmcisaac / by: meganmcisaac

making love with violence (by alexis mire)

It has been a painfully long time since a photograph made me feel much anything, at all…but this? this does.

sealegslegssea / by: sealegslegssea

“Put me on a plane, fly me to anywhere.”

blakeburgess / by: kls-deactivated20120522

This-afternoon I ventured into the boxes at the top of my closet I haven’t opened since I moved five years ago- and found my old ballet slippers from long ago, worn down and frayed from my four-year-old self.

Thank you, momma, for not tossing these in the garbage when I decided to quit. I will always cherish these in nostalgia and the loss of a small girl that believed in the world.

I wouldn’t expect you to understand, not for the shortest of moments. What I have been part of in the last two weeks is something that even I can not begin to be put into words, it’s well over my head, I believe it’s well over everyone’s head. I gave up on wrapping my mind around it long ago and just learned to accept it all as it is.

My best friend said it best: This is my family, this is true love. They are all I think about. I now know what the words “happy” and “love” mean and feel like, for the first time in my life I have no doubt that this is what they are. Anything I thought they were before, have been 100% completely disproved. This is real. This is so, so real.

Day 37: 6/2/10

I went to the grocery with my both of my parents for the first time in basically forever and actually enjoyed it. It may have been the nice employee that gave me as many samples of strawberry shortcake that I could carry, but I’m pretty sure it was the little things: the way my dad and I both load the check-out belt the same way, my mom’s insane coupon shopping (she saved $178, no lie), that they have finally accepted my vegetarianism and are learning to embrace it.

Days 32-36: I’ll have you know that photos for all of these days were taken, but I just cannot bring myself to share them. They’re just so horribly awful and really have absolutely nothing meaningful behind them whatsoever. Maybe someday I’ll share these four days just for the hell of it, but I just have no drive to at this time.

Day 10: 10/1/10

This Time Next Year at The Conservatory

Oh, show photos. How much I despise you. I clicked my shutter release five hundred and seventy eight times last night. I’m sure this, in the end of editing and sorting, will not be my favorite. I do like this one quite a bit though…the focus could be better.