I have been back from Mississippi for more than a week and I am still going through the pictures trying to make sense of it all.

On one hand is the emotional burden that comes with seeing the destruction 2.5 years after a disaster and knowing the Government has better things to do with its Money than fix this. 90% of all personal residential reconstruction is being done by volunteers.

On the other hand there is a bit of a hardened shell where I didn't have as much to cry about and more to do to keep my hands busy actually nailing board to board and seeing progress made. Do these calluses make me a harder person or more pragmatic?

Then on my feet is the knowledge that I took so many pictures and am burdened with the task of making it more interesting and sensible for my audience by hacking them down and filing them away in different categories to give a sense of a natural order. Showing them in small bundles that will keep interest and not burn out the short attention span that is the fact of modern human experience. Pretty pictures, ugly scenes, truth unpleasant and progress made. Its not Possible to walk into someones disaster and see it their way through their eyes. There is no way to convey that loss of all that is familiar and family heirlooms and lives that should never be forgotten. Statistics are dry and photos are flat. The smells and tastes are almost normal, sometimes wonderful, but in no way transferable.

I lost a long time pet just before going on this trip and that too is only partly dealt with before I got back to work as a "normal working stiff." My house is a mess from months of bone crushing lonely depression and my gut is showing I need to get in shape. I need a vacation just to deal with it but fear I would just spend it alone and wallow in self pity.

God grant me strength direction, perseverance and forgiveness for what I cannot or didn't do.



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Calibrating your monitor for viewing photographs correctly

The strip shows a range of greys from pure black to pure white. You should be able to see a clear difference between each shade of grey, ranging from pure black (left) and pure white (right).



Along the top of the strips are alternate patches of black and dark grey. If it looks solid black to you (look very carefully), your monitor's brightness setting is too low. Increase it until you can just perceive the difference between the grey and the black squares.

Pass this along to your journals, it will help new and old deviants view your work as it should be seen! (from =Sine-Fabula)