Nate’s Notes- Learning Is Fun…You Didn’t Hear It From Me!

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Amanda

Yes, I know I’ve talked about the amazingness of trains before. What? Like you’ve never talked about something you love over and over and over??? Where do you think I learned it?? Yea, I’m here to tell you that big people definitely tell the same stories over and over and over. So, yea…trains.

This weekend Momma, Daddy, me and, oh yea, Lyla went to Sacramento. Sacramento is….is…the Captain, no…yea, Captain City of California….or something like that. We even got to stay in a different house that had soooo many bedrooms, and up and down closet ride, and a swimming pool. On the car ride there, Momma started in on her “Nate- we get to learn new things” speech. She’s always talking about how learning is so much fun. Remember how I said big people repeat themselves? Well, I’ve only heard this speech, like, a hundred-eleventy-five times in my short life of 23 months. So, she was about 3 sentences in before I decided to shut that down. I took a nap.

When I woke up we were in Sacramento, and Daddy even looked excited. Momma gathered us, did a weird clap/jump maneuver, and said, “Okay- let’s go learn! Yay! So much fun!”. How can so much dorkiness live in one person? I often ask myself that as I stare at Momma. Then I looked past her to…trains. A whole building full of them, and even more behind the building. Well, no one told me trains were involved!! Pshaw. It’s possible I missed that part of the speech while I napped.

It got better. We RODE a train! Some nice people talked to us on the train about…you guessed it: trains! As we rode along the river, I heard so much stuff, letting it sink into my growing brain. Did you know that trains are used to move people and things from town to town? Did you know that a train runs every single minute of the year? Did you know that the average train weighs more than ten elephants? Elephants are HUGE!!! Did you know that, if the weather is snowy outside, you may not hear a train’s whistle? What’s snow??

I was sad when we got back to the station, and it’s possible I freaked out a little. Can you blame me? I loved it. I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to learn more! Wait…Momma was right! Learning is fun. Oh man…learning IS fun!! Shhh. Don’t tell her or Daddy I said that. But you should look at the train pictures!

Nate’s Notes: Full Hearts

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Amanda

Momma usually takes her camera everywhere so she can take pictures for work. I just learned that, by the way: Daddy works away from home and Momma works at home or when we go on field adventures. I’m not sure which is cooler. Anyway, a couple of days ago, we went to what felt like a big party. There were tents, balloons, music, food and lots of people. Seemed like the perfect place for Momma to embarrass us with her crazy picture taking shenanigans. I’ll let you sit down before I tell you this next part. Sitting yet? Okay- she didn’t bring her camera…on purpose…like, for reals.

I’ll let that sink in. Yea…my super-camera-freak Momma did NOT bring her camera to this party thing. Missed opportunity if you ask me. But no one asked me. I, however, did ask in increasing volume as we were leaving the house, “Momma, Momma, Mom, Mommy… camma? Camma?” But they just rushed me and Baby Lyla into the car and away we went. Okay. I tried.

When we got there it was pretty fun to see all the tents and balloons and hear the music. Look at the cool pictures Momma could get with those balloons! There were banners everywhere, but I couldn’t read the words. People kept saying “Relay for Life” though, whatever that means. We started walking…around and around and around the track. We walked with me in the stroller, with me pushing the stroller, with me running away from Momma and Daddy, with me running with Momma, with me on Daddy’s back, we walked. We just went around and around. I didn’t mind because I’m really fast. I just kept going and saying, “Nate weely fast. Nate weely fast!”

While I was showing off my super-hero-in-the-making super fast skills, Momma and Daddy started talking. They were super serious. How can anyone be serious with balloons and music around??? I heard them say they were both glad we had left the cameras home so we could just focus on this moment. They said they felt peace to be here today and just remember people they loved that aren’t here anymore because they got sick. Momma said she was honored to walk, happy to help fight this sickness, and excited to see friends who were sick be hopeful. They got quiet and both started crying a little. That made me get quiet. They were holding hands, so I grabbed their hands. That made Momma cry more. She told me her heart was very full. Ummm…like my tummy? Does that mean we weren’t eating lunch?

Momma said she wished we could walk the whole 24 hours, to walk until it hurt and walk some more because it was like nothing the sick people had gone through. I could tell this meant a lot to both Momma and Daddy so I gave them hugs. They said they were so happy because 2 years ago, when they walked the whole 24 hours at Relay, when it was all over, I was born and their lives became better, their hearts fuller. And that, they said, helped heal the sadness of lost loved ones.

RSWL: Virtual Travel

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Amanda

This week’s Random Stuff We Like entry is about traveling around the country and world without ever leaving home! Our Transmogrifier team loves to travel. We all have that spirit of adventure, that need to discover and learn. My thirst to travel and explore has been fostered since before I can remember! My grandpa traveled the world in his later years, always bringing us postcards, books, coins (eh-hem…Tim), and many many stories from each country. My parents showed us the states on numerous summer road trips.

Our team at The Transmogrifier doesn’t travel to the same places or at the same time. So when one journey ends that isn’t mine, I eagerly await the pictures on the website, ready to “visit” places I’ve never been to before. When silence finally comes in my house, I have been known to grab a beer and some popcorn and begin perusing the images, immersing myself in the adventures I see and imagine.

This is most easily done in the Cities Gallery on the Imagery website. Here I can dream of being on the Amalfi coast in Italy, wander among the castles of Scotland, walk in history from Jacksonville, Oregon to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Georgetown, Washington DC; I can explore the beauty of Hanoi, Vietnam and the rising power of Dubai, UAE; I can discover Albania; I can walk through Pisa, Florence and Rome; Get the picture? (Ha ha).

I encourage you- no, I challenge you to visit one of the places in our Cities Gallery. See what there is to discover. Learn about the destination. And do it all from your home. Virtual travel: explore the world. We love it and you will too!

*Note: Check back often because we are constantly adding new images, cities and countries to this gallery!

Nate’s Notes: Lions, Tigers, and…Tea?

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Amanda

So I got to pull an adventure paper out of our tin, you know, that whole Drawing Game thing where you never actually get to draw. Anyway…I pulled the paper and ran. Who doesn’t like a game of chase? After Momma caught me and gave me that look…she took the paper and smiled really big. I smiled back and waited…and waited…and….waited. Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! I started jumping up and down and running in circles in the kitchen. The waiting was driving me crazy…or at least that seemed like a good reason to act crazy.

Then she told me: The San Francisco Zoo and Japanese Tea Gardens!! Lions and tigers and bears oh my!!! And the zoo train! “Twain! Twain! Twain!” I shouted. I’m not ashamed to admit I may have spit a little bit…and drooled too when I shouted train. Come on, like you’ve never gotten that excited!?! Don’t judge me people.

Yea, so after 2 more nights sleeping in my big boy bed, we get to go to the zoo and ride the train and see the elephants and pet the goats and and and… Whew. I’m so excited I just peed my pants!!! Again…you are going to judge me??? A toddler in potty training??? C’mon!!!

Oh yea, and we have to take pictures. Lots of pictures. Always lots of pictures. Pictures of this…pictures of that. But we’ll be at the zoo so I don’t care how Momma acts! She’ll just blend in with the animals and stuff.

Wait, what’s a “Tea Garden”? Do we just go drink tea? But I’m not allowed to drink tea. Oh goodness. Hmmm…oh well, I get to go to the zoo!

TMG Philosophy: Words

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Amanda

Words. They are everywhere. Spoken and unspoken. Words mean something different to different people. When I say “no” to my toddler son I am very clear about what I mean. On the other hand, to him, “no” means “yes, do whatever it is you are doing even more! Actually, add another inappropriate action as well!”. When someone says “rusty” to me, I get excited and think it must be beautiful. Show me the rust! To someone else, “rusty” might have a negative connotation, meaning dilapidated, junky, unworthy of notice or even dangerous. When someone hears that part of my work is photography, they assume that the websites are just a bunch of pretty pictures. Well, they are kind of right! But our websites are more than just pretty pictures.

Our team at The Transmogrifier loves words. All of our images have keywords and descriptions attached to them. We get to look at an image and come up with as many descriptive and informative words as possible. We pride ourselves on these words being accurate. Our team wants users to count on these words being accurate. Our goal is to not only provide inspiration to other creative people with our images, but also to inform others with our images, giving background and interesting information on each photo. With over 50,000 combined images on our Textures website and Imagery website…each with keywords and descriptions attached to them…well, that’s a lot of words.

Without words I wouldn’t be writing this, and you wouldn’t be reading this. You might even be wondering how many more words I’ll use to get to the end! Words can give us strength. Words can undermine our strength. Words can change our days. Words can change our lives. Words inform, educate, and entertain. Words incite emotions and encourage action.

I’ll use just a few more words to ask for your action. We are proud of the work we’ve built and the culture of quality and variety we are creating in our network of websites. We are humbled by the support and encouragement of our families. Now we need you to use your words and tell anyone and everyone you know about our work, the websites and this blog. Words are powerful. Word-of-mouth is influential. Please share yours. (377 words not including this word count!)

*Perhaps this was a borderline non-philosophical entry.

Nate’s Notes: The Things I Do For Love

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Amanda

If you would have told me that I’d be dragged out of my bed before the sun woke up, be thrown in a car seat and watching a fanatical woman run around outside a McDonalds in Nowhere, Nevada…I wouldn’t have believed you. If you would have told me that woman would be taking pictures of statues, the flag, the sunrise and the ground…I would have started to get scared. If you would have told me that woman was my Momma…well, I would have been scared because that is my life.

As I sat there that early morning, watching my crazy Momma kneel down just feet from the drive-thru lane so she could get a better angle on the bear statue, I closed my eyes. I closed my eyes hoping I could go back to that warm yet lumpy hotel bed. I closed my eyes hoping that when I opened them she wouldn’t be acting so silly. I closed my eyes hoping her next move would be to come back to the car, put the camera down and behave sensibly. I mean, who jumps out of a car after ordering her baby’s oatmeal and orange juice, on a barely light morning, in the middle of almost nowhere to take pictures???

Just so you know, there were cars behind us. Just so you know, I was slightly concerned. Just so you know, people were watching, even pointing. I’m used to the stares and funny expressions of passersby. But usually I’m on her back to save the day and distract people with my charm. I’ve even added, “move along”…and “we walking…we walking” to my phrases. I sat helpless though, strapped in the car seat for like the twenty-eleventh hundred mile. When I opened my eyes, instead of returning to the car, I saw my Momma had actually climbed on top of the baby bear to get a close up picture of some deer animal with really big things coming out of its head. I, of course, slapped my forehead and tried to cover Lyla’s eyes. This was mistaken as misbehaving and earned me a glare from Daddy. I think I heard the woman at the window ask, “Is that woman climbing the statues?” Oh man. Welcome to my life.

Some kind of deer with really big things that come out of its head.

As I resigned myself to this life, I watched my Momma. She was so focused. She was unaware of people staring…or she didn’t care. She was even smiling a little. She was happy. And that made me happy. I could actually tell that she loved what she was doing. Not like she loves me and Lyla…but pretty close! As I watched my Momma that morning, I actually loved her just a little bit more for running around crazy like that. The things I do for love…really aren’t so bad.

RSWL: National Parks

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Amanda

Okay, the past few RSWL entries have admittedly been related to my recent road trip…and this one is no different! I still have some residual fuel from that adventure! If you read Nate’s Notes, you may remember we stopped at a few National Parks, National Monuments, and National Historic Sites on our journey to and from Minnesota. We LOVE, not just like, National Parks.

It’s August! You may wonder what August has to do with National Parks. Well, it just so happens the National Park Service turns 97 on August 25th! Since 1916, the American people have entrusted the National Park Service with the care of their National Parks. That’s 97 years of protecting land, preserving local history, celebrating local heritage, and creating close-to-home opportunities for kids and families to get outside, be active, and have fun. Together with volunteers and park partners, the National Park Service safeguards more than 400 places to share their stories with more than 275 million visitors every year.

Death Valley National Park

Yellowstone National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park

Since we here at The Transmogrifier are kind of number obsessed (i.e. how many photos can we take, how many photos can we upload in a day, how many brick textures can we amass…), I thought I’d break down the National Park Service by some numbers.

11,700,000,000 visitors
121,603,193 objects in museum collections
97,417,260 volunteer hours
84,000,000 acres of land
4,502,644 acres of oceans, lakes, reservoirs
2,482,104 volunteers
85,049 miles of perennial rivers and streams
68,561 archeological sites
43,162 miles of shoreline
27,000 historic structures
2,461 national historic landmarks
582 national natural landmarks
400 endangered species
401 national parks
49 national heritage areas
1 mission: The National Park Service cares for special places saved by the American people so that all may experience our heritage.

Preserving history, protecting nature, and creating opportunities for people of all ages to learn isn’t just some “Random Stuff We Like”. It’s something we are extremely passionate about. It’s something we support on every level. Seriously. That’s why our team decided to offer our images for free to National Parks, as well as State Parks, Non-Profit Museums and any other Non-Profit Organization whose purpose is to educate people about history or nature and preserve it. That’s how much we believe in supporting these organizations. Seriously.

Have you checked out our Gallery of National Park images? We have 16 of the 401 represented so far. Never fear, we aren’t even close to done visiting, photographing and uploading our Nation’s parks and landmarks.

So, bet you can’t guess where I’ll be with my family on August 25^th! Any guesses? I’ll give you a hint: It starts with “National” and ends in “Park”…and sounds like “Yosemite”. **Big Smile**

Sources: wikipedia.org & nps.gov

Nate’s Notes: When I Grow Up I Want to Be…

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Amanda

Seriously? You already expect me to have an answer to that? You do realize I’m not even 2 right? And as far as I can see, people who are 10 times my age still haven’t grown up…so, yea. Don’t expect an answer from me today on that. Pfff. Societal pressures are just too much sometimes. Can’t a kid just be a kid anymore?

Okay, so I don’t have an answer for what I want to be when I grow up, but I’ve decided that taking pictures isn’t such a horrible option. Yep, I admit it. Watching Momma and Daddy capture moments of time and preserve things as they are isn’t so bad. Course I’m not supposed to look at it that way at my age. Besides, the best part is the camera.

Future Photographer?

Seeing a Whole New World

I’m not talking about the sorry excuses that Momma and Daddy have tried to pass off as a camera. Those silly plastic ones. Mere toys. On our road trip, I got to use real cameras. Oh my. It’s cool because you can look at mountain. Then you can look through the camera and see something different. You can focus on just the grass in the corner. You can focus on the clouds above the mountain. You can focus on the rocks on the mountain. I understand now what Momma means when she says she gets to see a different world through her camera. And when it’s all done, when you’re looking at your picture, you feel happy. You feel like someone just gave you a juice drink, a new toy car AND offered to read you a book. You feel content, like when Momma or Daddy hold you in a big hug. You feel excited like when you haven’t seen your monkey stuffed animal in a while and then find it under your bed.

So, yea. I think I will be taking many many eleventeen pictures when I grow up. It’s a super cool thing. Now, where’s that camera…

TMG Philosophy: Kindness

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Amanda

Sometimes it feels like kindness, especially that between strangers, is becoming rare, harder to find. Sadly, it seem random kindness is the unexpected, the surprise in your day. Yet, how many of us need that boost, that pleasant shock to lift our spirits? Once in a while, that moment of kindness comes and encourages us or changes our perspective …or, if we are fortunate, both.

It was on a recent field adventure with my family that I experienced both. We headed up the Northern California coast to Fort Ross on a beautiful, blue-sky, summer day. I didn’t see the beauty though. I was too busy focusing on the list of negatives I had chosen to worry about that day. With a pounding headache, an upsetting conversation from the day before still processing in my head, an overwhelming list of things to accomplish in the next few days, and a doctor appointment I was anxious about I was anything but focused on the beauty outside. Every turn on the twisty highway annoyed me, threatening to make me sick. Every noise from the babies in the back seat sounded more like whining and grated in my ears. Every tense minute that went by found me more and more uptight.

It was a day where people’s smiles seemed like smirks and their “hellos” seemed to have attitude. Or maybe that was just when I looked in the mirror…It was a day where the gorgeous sun was too bright and bothersome. I knew that being around me on this day was anything but pleasant, but apologies weren’t coming all too soon. I was digging my grumpy heels in. We were about 45 minutes into the hike and the walk inside Fort Ross when we came to one of the last buildings. I was relieved that we would finally be out of this place and on our way home.

As we entered the building that obviously was a workshop, gunsmith and artillery supply, I started taking photos as quickly as possible to move along. The baby I was wearing was getting heavy and my patience was almost gone. The stupid bars around everything made it hard to get a decent photo. Stupid bars. One of the volunteers, Harold, tried to engage me by asking about the pictures I was taking. He only made me grit my teeth more. I’m ashamed to say I was probably quite rude to Harold. That didn’t phase him though! He continued to share about the Fort, the history and the artillery. Any other day I would have been intrigued, would have engaged, for there was no doubt his passion and knowledge was infectious. I just happened to be immune today. Or stubborn.

I was getting ready for one last attempt, digging deep in my arsenal to brush off Harold when he pulled out his own weapon: kindness. He looked around and then told us to come closer. After suspiciously agreeing, I realized he was allowing us to come on the other side of the stupid bars, behind the sign that said, “NO ENTRY”. He was bending the rules so I could take better pictures. An act of kindness I surely didn’t deserve. In that moment, I felt my harsh walls shatter under his kindness.

Behind the Bars

A Shot of Kindness

The rest of the afternoon, I noticed that bluer than blue sky and how it complimented the warm grasses dancing in the wind. I noticed the amazing craftsmanship in each building, could almost hear the soldiers and traders that walked at the Fort in times past. I smelled the salt air, the eucalyptus trees and hugged my babies. I appreciated my husband for taking time for this field photo adventure and for putting up with me the first half of the day. Most of all, I thought of Harold and smiled. He had encouraged me, had reached me like nothing had been able to that day. And he had done it with such a simple, easy gesture of kindness.

Nates Notes: All Good Things Come to An End

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Amanda

Well, we FINALLY made it home. I think I’m mostly happy about it. Momma went over the numbers when we got home, and kept saying, “All good things come to an end, Nate.” Okay. I guess that is what I feel like when my favorite train show is over. But why would she say that about the trip?

So here are the numbers. We drove 5,125 miles from home, across that crazy map to Minnesota and back home. 86 hours of driving- might as well have been a trillion-million-eleventy-four as far as I am concerned. 16: the number of times Momma yelled, “Stop! I want to take that picture!!!”. 3 toy cars lost to the open road. 5 stops due to planned pooping (score for Nate) thus allowing me to run in slow motion while yelling, “freeeeeeee!”. 5,962 pictures taken by Momma and Daddy. 221 of the pictures were just of me and baby Lyla. 6 pictures taken BY me. Those are the BEST ones. In my opinion, there aren’t enough pictures with the blurry effect on the websites. Nobody asks me though.

Moving on… 12 car naps, 11 tunnels, 10 states, 9 books read, 8 hotels, 7 tantrums (guess who), 6 McDonalds stops (the horror), 5 early morning starts before 7am, 4 light and drum shows, 3 National Monument stops, 2 amazing nights in a pool… and 1 prison (besides the ever-present car seat).

The number of times we laughed- so many I can’t count that high yet. Yep, I guess all good things do come to an end.

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