Facing the truth

I'm not the only blogger in my family. My cousin, Sharon, is also contributing on blogspot (myartisticinsanity.blogspot.com) although I have to admit, she has a much better work ethic than I do. Today, she reached out to her cousins on Facebook for a photo for a facial recognition project she is working on.

Self portrait, no arm.

Now, unlike today's generation, who like to take photos of themselves everywhere (we went to a Green Day concert where a group of teens spent hours taking photos featuring everyone but the band), I detest having my picture taken. The glut of pix on sites like Facebook, taken from arms length and often focusing on the arm, are narcissistic and, frankly, often silly. I understand the concept of taking photos to commemorate an event, I just don't consider everyday living an event. Do I really want to see your picture driving, having lunch or standing in a line? They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I guess these people are blabbermouths (now, there's an old school line for you!).

Jess's photo of me. Hairy!

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. I took a photo for Sharon showcasing my wrinkles, grey hair and body fat. She is going to try and merge the photos of the cousins to see where our similarities are and compare them to pix of my mother, aunts and grandmother. 

Me + Roxie. Lookalikes?

Well, I think (and I could be wrong) that I look more like my dog, Roxie, (or my cousin, Ken, but I'll let Sharon sort that out) than my Mom. So, I figured I'd take a shot with my dog. After several unsuccessful attempts (you try holding a squirmy poodle and getting a sharp focus), I got my son's girlfriend, Jess, to take a shot. I think I can see a resemblance. Then, we decided to get my son, Ben, in the photo since he has the same hair as Roxie and I. 

The problem is, any time you try to get more than 2 people in a shot, it's almost impossible to get a good image of all 3 at once. Especially when one of them (in this case, the dog) doesn't want to cooperate. Then the cat decided to distract the dog. Of course, half of the shots are blurry but the progression tells a kind of story so I thought I'd throw them in my blog. Just so you get the big picture, Roxie is about 2ft. tall, I am 5'5" and Ben is 6'5". There might be extra height thrown in because it was a rainy day and the hair had more "lift" than usual. Sometimes I feel like that guy in the Head and Shoulders commercial.

Roxie goofing around, looking at Catastrophe, me talking (typical), the final shot!

 Anyway, in place of flowers, here we are in all our blonde and curly haired glory. Enjoy!