uncle mike in knoxville's photostream  

I've spent 25 years in a cubicle helping grad students with the data analysis on their thesis or dissertation research. Wandering around with a digital camera has replaced wandering around with a fishing rod as the impetus to get myself out and about on weekends. My apartment and my office are about five blocks apart and I truly hate to travel so all of my pictures are taken in an area of maybe two square miles. Luckily this small area includes a river, two creeks, and a botanical garden along with the University campus and surrounding neighborhood. Actually I just wander around taking the same handful of pictures over and over. What the hell, it gets me off the couch. Julio Cortazar says in his story Blowup that carrying a camera obligates one to pay attention to one's surroundings. It does help a little to keep me from stewing on what went wrong yesterday or fretting about what might go wrong tomorrow. Keeps me a little more focused, if you will forgive the pun.