7/365: Follow the stars

7/365: Follow the stars, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 7th

Another 'lazy' photograph. This is my hallway, which lacks good lighting, so I make up for it with Christmas lights. I got the IKEA stars under the tree. The hallway is painted blue and silver and there are disco balls made out of old CDs hanging from the ceiling, as well as a mosaic on the door. I like my hallway. :)

6/365: Bomb squad

6/365: Bomb squad, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 6th

Two boys climbed up this ruined wall to throw snowballs at the cars driving by. It's a favourite pastime for kids in the winter here, and a really stupid one at that. It's dangerous enough driving in the snow without having a snowball hit your windshield. But, you know, kids.

5/365: Headache

5/365: Headache, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 5th

Every project 365 has off-days. Today I woke up very early, caught a train, then went to see Avatar. A lack of sleep plus three hours in an IMAX watching a 3D movie gave me an incredible headache, so I'm afraid all I can manage today is this shot of my cat and my pizza.

4/365: The landing

4/365: The landing, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 4th

A strange purple light.


All right, not so strange. It was actually a dreadful toy I bought at the odds and ends market a couple of days before Christmas- it looks like an Evil Alien Overlord's sceptre, or at a stretch, a microphone, is made out of horrible plastic and has two buttons. The blue one turns on the lights and makes them spin. The red one...you don't want to press the red one. Because this is what happens if you do:

I pity all those people at the market who bought it like I did, as I don't think any of them were long exposure enthusiasts. Not because they bought a cheap and stupid toy for Christmas- of course not. I just can't imagine what their life must look like now that their children are in posession of this, I quote: "Musical Fantasy Light Spinning Ball (32 Pattern), Contains 10 colorful LED Light to create spectacular glowing fun for everyone! Hot New Spinning Light Toy has great visibility during the day or at night." End quote, discard packaging.

Visibility and audibility, oh yes. My grandmother was convinced the thing could burn your eyes out and make you go deaf.

But it does make a lovely alien spaceship.

3/365: Just us two

3/365: Just us two, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 3rd

The only recurring theme in my project 365 falls on January 3rd, when I take an obligatory self-portrait with Radesh. I started my first 365 soon after picking up Radesh and Garia from the shelter. Unfortunately that very New Year's eve I had to rush Garia to the vet, and they told me there was nothing I could do except save him a lot of pain and put him down. It was the worst New Year's ever, and two days later, Radesh and I were left all alone. I took a picture.

We're still together, and getting him to pose is still as difficult as the first time.

2007, 2008 and 2009, respectively:

2/365: Snow

2/365: Snow, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 2nd

There is snow everywhere. I asked my dad whether he recalled, like I did, that even fifteen-odd years ago winters used to be more regular, with snow always a given. He said, yes, but that perhaps our memories were tricking us into believing the 'days of yore' trope, each with our own childhood as a base for golden times gone by.

I'm not sure. I'm just glad we have proper snow this year instead of mud, even though I have to go buy some boots today.

365 for 2010- no, I will not stop talking about it.

How's that for impressive? And this is only last year, I have two more. At the end of this year, you will have one just like it!

Before I say anything more, here is a useful link to a  Day Number Calculator . January is easy, it's when you're six months in and can't figure out which two days you tagged with the same number by accident that you will be glad websites like that one exist.

Some of my friends have decided to join the fun. Here is a list of worthy 365 blogs:

• Marta (who is my sister and she's almost as cool as me)
  
• Chris (who is a pro photographer who needs to get off his butt)
  
• Bartek (who should do well in this project, being a man who stood in line twice for patience)
  
• Piotrek  (who doesn't own a camera and has instead decided to do 365 humorous drawings. Bonus if you speak Polish.) 
• Kat (whose project will no doubt be called 'The 365 days of Lincoln Schrock')
• Cem (whose photographic ambitions always guarantee a good show)
  

A special mention here for liquidgirl, with her insane formula-driven Sum of All Numbers p365:

∑(F,L)= ( L² - F² + F + L)/2
(365² - 1² + 365 + 1)/2 = 66,795

I'll have to see it to believe it. This girl is crazy. I don't even know her, but I just had to link this.

If you're hungry for more, check out the project 365 thread on the Photojojo forums, lots of great links there.

Project 365 2010- don't forget to start!

You lazy bums, you promised! Where are the photos?

I just phoned up my sister (whose 365 blog I will link to once she starts one, and whose lovely photos I link to meanwhile) to remind her. The fact of the matter is it is January 1st, and if you don't start today, you will find it much harder to start tomorrow. People are odd creatures. They like milestones. They like clean slates, fresh starts, new beginnings, laundered underwear. January 2nd is rubbish. January 1st, ho, now, there's a date that commands respect!

Go take that picture before you fudge up your chance of a clean streak on the very first day.

Me being the party-hater that I am,  I spent New Year's Eve chillin' (oh and how) on a bridge over the Vistula, waiting for the city to provide a memorable firework display and praying the fog would not spoil it. The fog obliged but the city did not, and so I have only a mediocre photograph to mark the beginning of my Project 365 2010. No matter. It is symbolic, it was taken precisely at midnight, and it will do.

Happy New Year, everybody. And comment with links to your 365s, please, so that I can follow you.

What I made for Christmas

Well, there are another seven days until the end of Christmas, but at least the gift-giving moment is over and I can post some pictures of what I've achieved.

Some of you may remember this nightlight I made a while back:

It lives in my mother's kitchen now, but for Christmas, I made the following:

A Cracow on Christmas themed nightlight for my grandparents. They have lived in Cracow all their life, just steps from the wonderful St. Mary's Basilica and I know there are few things in the world they love more than their beautiful city.

The nightlight is a huge improvement on the one with the ship, not only because of the materials I used but because of the experience I gained making the first light.

All of my nightlights so far are powered by two AA batteries. The lights are LEDs, so they are safe as far as heat is concerned and I expect them to last a very long time. As the shopkeep at the electricity store down the street said (to save on explanations, I told him I would be making a doll's house): "Oh, the kid will be bored with that house long before those LEDs burn out."

Well, I hope not. ;)

If you click on the photos, you will go to Flickr where you can see larger sizes and a whole set dedicated to what I've done in the nightlight world so far.

The reason I call them nightlights (and I think I need a better name) is because they can function as such. The LEDS are bright enough to light up a dark room, but not so bright that they disperse the darkness completely. My original idea was that people could put them on a child's dresser, and they could look at the scene before falling asleep. Something for good dreams...

Another gift I made was this apartment block for my sister:

It is made out of an empty wine-box, as the more perceptive drinkers have probably noticed.;) I like recycling. And there is a trick to it. When you press the doorbell, the windows light up, and when you look through the windows...

...you will see little people.




The box is wooden, but everything inside except for the occasional scrap fabric curtain is made out of paper. Like in the Cracow scene, every single little person and piece of furniture are hand drawn and painted.

I have two more houses like this in the making, back in Lodz, I can't wait to get my hands on them again. They will be a lot nicer than this first one- again I have learned which materials are best and how to put everything together properly.


As before, the whole thing takes two AA batteries, and replacement is fairly easy. The lights are LEDs. I love LEDs. They're so handy and so efficient.

Like I said, I painted the people and furniture myself, but some of the wallpaper is actually origami paper...I was never any good at making anything but cranes, and I had a packet which I'd received as a gift lying in my paper box for a good few years.

This, dear friends, is why I never throw anything out! All sorts of scraps and odds and ends have found their way into these nightlights. The windowsills on the house, for example, are made out of cat food tins. Oh, yes. I wash all my cans and save them, they are extremely useful, if only for holding my various pens, pencils, and markers.

I made two more nightlights like these, but I will save them for another post. One of them has still not been delivered to the person I made it for, and on the off-chance that this person reads my blog, I wouldn't want the surprise spoiled.

A good post, I think, to end the year with.

I know there aren't many of you reading this at this point, but I wish you all a wonderful New Year, with lots of creative and fruitful endeavours. And if you're just the lazy sort and happy with that, then I wish you what we in Poland call 'holy peace', and that is to say, the cherished lack of excessive noise and unnerving distractions which can normally drive one to curse at the skies.

Have a good 2010, everybody. Oh, and don't forget, January 1st is the PERFECT time to start your 365 Photos Project! I will be posting mine on this blog starting the day after tomorrow, so don't let me make you jealous. ;)

Do siego roku! May the New Year truly be New!

New still very happy today sleep tomorrow where more photos!

Today I used a little app on Facebook which pulls and counts the Top Ten words you use in your status updates.

The result made me laugh:

1):new - used 13 times
2):still - used 12 times
3):very - used 11 times
4):happy - used 11 times
5):today - used 10 times
6):sleep - used 9 times
7):tomorrow - used 9 times
8):where - used 9 times
9):more - used 8 times
10):photos - used 8 times

Anyone who knows me knows this is exactly what my life is about. Sleep today, photos tomorrow.

:)