washing away

as i stated in the previous blog, two weekends ago i went up in a plane over terrebonne, lafourche, and plaquemines parishes. i saw the bayous, the barrier islands, port fourchon, grand isle, and port sulphur. for those of you who have never visited south louisiana and are unaware of the situation we are facing down here, i will briefly enlighten you. (and for those of you who didn't pay attention in school or ... well, anywhere else... feel free to listen up too).

our gulf coast is in the process of losing our wetlands at an alarming rate. places where people used to be able to ride their horses must now be reached by boat (or by swimming, if you're up to it). the rich culture of south louisiana is in danger of dying out. many efforts are being made to salvage what is left of the wetlands and to create an environment where nature can take its course and rebuild itself.

it is UNBELIEVABLE how many people in the united states have no clue what is going on down here. hurricane katrina's effects on new orleans shed some light on our problem, but very few people truly understand the real problem. me and matt went to see the "hurricane on the bayou" imax film in new orleans a few months ago and a lady next to us said "wow. i had no idea that the wetlands were so useful in protecting the cities from storms". the sad part is that she's not the only one. also.. many people who do know what is going on down here think that levees are the answer. levees aren't the only answer. there are many variables that factor into this equation. i would strongly advise everyone who reads this to further educate themselves on our situation. you will be surprised at what you find out.

here are some photos i took while i was up in the plane:


this is the fishing community of cocodrie. if you look along the left-hand side of the highway you can see LUMCON (louisiana universities marine consortium). if you are seeing this area for the first time from the air... i imagine you are surprised at how little land there really is (just as i was surprised). and for those of you who know the area, you know from experience that you really can't tell from the ground that there is that much water surrounding everything.

here's a view of the pilot flying over the marshes just beyond cocodrie.

this is wine island which is a portion of the barrier island chain (notice the outline of rocks. it wasn't all that long ago that the land was out past those rocks). the chain of islands at one time was connected, but in recent years, daily erosion and hurricanes have contributed to their massive landloss. these islands are the first line of defense when it comes to storms. if the wetlands and barrier islands hadn't existed during hurricanes katrina and rita, i can't imagine how much worse the damage would have been.

this is a photo of the west end of timbalier island, another part of the barrier island chain.

this is port fourchon. the rock jetties off the coast are to help prevent coastal erosion.

this is the grand isle bridge... as you can see, there isn't much land here.

this is a photo of fort livingston on grand terre island which you can see from the tip of grand isle (a louisiana state park). barataria pass separates the two.

and here is a shot of port sulphur in plaquemines parish. when flying over port sulphur, if you looked close enough, you could see the superdome. it was actually kind of neat. i bet not many people realize that just outside of new orleans is marshland. but it's true.

and of course.... a self portrait.

hope you enjoyed the photos and maybe even learned a thing or two. you can click here to check out my wetlands myspace page (it's got a plethera of links and more photos)... if that doesn't work... or if you'd like to check it frequently, i have a very convenient link off in the right hand column of my blog.. along with all the other awesome links you should check out.

also, if you haven't seen matt's aerial slideshow of lower terrebonne parish from when we went up in a helicopter last july, click here. he's also got a few other galleries including a "hurricane rita: then/now" gallery that you might check out. just click here.

(when you get a minute, you really should check those out... he's got some... eh... eh.... alright... he's got some great stuff so go check it out)

alright. well, peace, love, and jelly donuts.
goodnight all :o)

mother of all worms

saturday morning i was scheduled to go with a group of high school kids up in a plane for their world geography class. but my retarded self left my trunk popped all night and couldn't start my car (killed my battery)... good thing matt was at my house. he offered to bring me to the airport and drop taylor off at my mom's for me (thanks matt). oh, and on a side note... he and taylor apparently had a discussion about how they were going to plan a trip to chuck e. cheese without me "no mom's allowed" is what i was told she said. the plane ride was awesome... a great way to spend a saturday morning (i'll post photos from the flight in my next blog).

when i got back, since i was car-less, i hung out at my mom & dad's house for a good part of the day. they were working out in the yard, so taylor killed some time by digging in the dirt for creatures. i went inside and got her a cup of water mixed with laundry detergent and poured it on some piles of dirt for her... to try to draw up some bugs and worms. (this is one of those things where i have no clue the science behind it, but this is what we did when i was a kid, so this is what i know to do). in fact, my mom even said "i don't remember the kids ever doing that, but if she remembers doing it, i guess they did". um.. yeah, that's definitely one thing i've learned being a parent is that kids remember EVERYTHING. it's quite a thing.

here's a photo of taylor holding one of her (in her words) "mother of all worms". the red ice chest was full of worms and snails and junk... she later made me take the ice chest home and free the creatures in our yard. so that was interesting. oh, and while taylor was digging for worms, i helped my dad put up that white fence behind taylor. i'm quite handy if i do say so myself.


on tuesday we had our third soccer practice. taylor fell down more times than i have fingers, and came to us fussing that people keep pushing her... so, i told her that's what you're supposed to do and to just not push with her hands. of everything i told her during soccer practice, THAT is what she remembered. she got on the field and started knocking other kids out of the way with every part of her body she could think of..... even used her hands a couple times (well, i really didn't expect her to pick up on everything i said).. i felt a little bad about telling her to push the other kids.. but seriously, that IS what you're supposed to do..... sort of. but i was expecting her to be more "five year old girl" about it and not all "grown woman with pms" about it. here's a photo i grabbed while out there... no clue if taylor caused this, but from the fact that she's on the ground too, i'd say there's a pretty good chance...


oh, and i finally got my sportsshooter page up and running so if you'd like to check it out, you can click this link www.sportsshooter.com/mistymac

bad bowling and pee wee soccer

so it's been a while since i posted anything, and to my devoted and not-so devoted fans, and others of you who have no idea who i am, but googled "awesome" and stumbled on my blog... i apologize. i will try harder to post faster and more frequent. i sort of promise.

so recently i've had a craving to try something new. so, instead of having a sex change, i went with the more obvious... i shaved my head. oh, no wait.. that's brittney spears. wow, i really need to stop confusing us. anyway.. so i've decided to start painting. i took a trip to michael's last week and gathered up the cheapest painting supplies i could find (i really wouldn't be able to tell the difference anyway) and tried my hand at painting on canvas. it's pretty neat actually. i even tried that "mad at the world so i'm going to slap my brush against the canvas and see what happens" technique, but i guess you really have to be angry for that to work because it really didn't do anything for me. the first painting consisted of me drawing a line down the middle of the canvas, and well, i know this is not a term many of you are comfortable with, but.... "sharing" with matt. he painted his masterpiece on the right hand side and i on the left. and, as a matter of fact, i really like these... matt thinks we should do more like them, and i agree. plus, with him being a famous flaming baton juggler here in america and me being all famous in japan... i really think they'll appeal to a broader audience. plus, if you don't like one half, just cover that eye... look at the other half. hard to argue with me, if i do say so myself.

you can check out the first painting we did here at mattstamey.com which i have solely named "jelly donut" (for no reason other than the fact that it's the first thing i felt i wanted to name it. matt doesn't really agree with the name, so next week it may be called "jelly donut and kung pow" or something like that.

taylor also has been painting some masterpieces lately. plus, she creates masterpieces on her skin and clothes too.... and sometimes the table. here is the first of her series, which i have no idea what the name is:

this is the second painting i did, which i call "bad bowling" because, well.... that's what happened that night. i came home in an unpleasant mood from my horrible last game of bowling monday night during league, and i relaxed by making this:

which is hanging on my wall by my bedroom along with the painting me and matt made wednesday night while watching "borat" (and no, i wouldn't exactly classify the movie as inspiration...... for anything). i have yet to give this painting a name, and i think since i named the first one, i'll let matt have the option of naming this one, or re-naming the first one (but it'll still be "jelly donut" to me). so, here's the most recent addition to our "photographer paint art" collection:






now, aside from our new painting hobby, we've got something else new going on. tuesday was taylor's first day playing soccer at the local ymca. this is her first time involved in a sport or team activity outside of preschool, so i'm pretty excited for her. plus, the socks are freaking awesome. also, one of her friends kambria who used to go to nursery with her (and, ironically, used to take beatings from taylor and vice versa....on a daily basis) is on her soccer team. so she's really happy about that. plus, i think she's catching on to the whole "dribbling" the ball thing... i'm always a little afraid when she tries something new, but i think she'll do just fine. here's a few shots i grabbed today of her practicing (they don't have their shirts yet, but i am indeed hoping for orange).





taylor dribbling the soccer ball through cones (supposed to teach her to use both her feet)... aren't the socks awesome?!

taylor giving her friend kambria a hug. they haven't seen each other in a long time before tuesday and are really happy to be back together.

one of the drills they did was to try and kick the soccerball down the field and try to get it past a "defender" (one of the other kids on the team). here, taylor tries to stop kambria from kicking the ball into the net.

i'm excited to see what this experience is going to do for her.
but for now, i think it's time for another painting.

word.