New month new competition. I liked DDark's entry for the May competition a lot, even so for me it wasn't that well fitting for the theme lighting. So Inspired by his pic I decided to make PATTERN the new theme.

I hope there will be as good entries as in last month. Have fun in finding some nice patterns in interesting light.


Rules are as usual :
Photos must be taken during this month (after theme is announced) and posted before voting starts
Photos must be taken by the posting member
Photos must be taken with a camera phone
Users post only one photo per entry
Users can change the entry only once
Users must name the phone they used (and software if not stock)
Post processing is allowed but you have to say what you did
3 days voting period starts on June 27th at 20:00 UTC and ends on the evening of June 30st

I'll start with a new job next month, so I'm probably quite busy the next weeks. Therefore I post my entry for the competition quite early this time. Here it is:



cropped (quite heavily) with gimp. Sony Xperia X.

you already got your hands on new macpro?

Oh come on how did you know?
Yes indeed, the new mac pro, best mac ever...

Ok, I'm early this time since I got a pretty nice shot already.

It's an Aloe Vera cactus. Taken with my Nokia N9 stock. Rotated 90 degrees as I couldn't get the lens & focus in the right place without some acrobatics.



By the way that plant is indeed the one from which the famous beauty product ingredient aloe vera is extracted. Extraction is easy: just cut with a knife along the sides and the cut part will lift off like a lid. Underneath you'll find a transparent slimy looking matter which is the raw aloe vera itself.

How wrong I remembered the rest as pointed out in the response. I better delete it so I don't spread disinformation as pointed out. I just verified from my girlfriend and the effects are all positive.

Cacti are succulents, but succulents are not necessarily cacti. Aloe are succulents, but not cacti. Allow me to do a bit of quote sniping:

Aloe isn't very potent at all, it's just very mildly toxic (when ingested) succulent tissue. You'd have to eat an entire plant to feel sick from the toxins, and you'd already be sick from the leafy taste long before you'd finished eating the plant anyway.

That's not how it works. When beauty products, food, medicine, etc, contain 'extracts' of something, that doesn't mean that they took the thing in its entirety, took a little bit of it and put it in the product, what it means is that they took only the 'good stuff' and got rid of everything else, and then mixed a little bit of that good stuff into the product. As such, there is no 'dilution' in the sense that you speak of, but 'extraction'. To give an example, if a yoghurt contains 'carotene extract' to give it an orange colour, it doesn't mean they blended a bunch of carrots and pumpkins and put some chunks in the yoghurt, they simply extracted the carotene responsible for the orange colour and got rid of the carrots and pumpkins (which, without the carotene, aren't orange). Once extracted, the link with what it was extracted from is really only used for marketing purposes (or anti-marketing purposes). By the way, a failure to understand this, the interplay between general biology, chemistry, physics and genetics, is one of the main reasons why people are afraid of GMOs.

It doesn't, in fact one of the use cases for applying Aloe vera to the skin is to lessen the pain of (sun)burns. It would be quite counterproductive if it did exactly the opposite.

Regardless, there is no real scientific evidence that Aloe has any beneficial effects at all, whether applied to the skin or ingested. The drinks they make with chunks of Aloe in them taste pretty good, though.

This is not to say that there are no plants with medicinal or otherwise beneficial properties. For example, Chelidonium majus is really potent in dealing with warts. Instead of going to the doctor's to freeze them, you can simply apply a few dabs of the plant's sap on a wart and it'll kill the wart dead. Depending on which continent you live on, you probably know it as "that plant with the orange sap that stains everything". Extracts from the plant are also used in medicine to treat cancer and HIV.

Cacti or not, to "bee"... Have to think, just vote or participate... Or, not fun vs. Great Fun!

Two weeks ago I ran in rain with my N900 and the camera stopped working. It showed the icons on screen but showed nothing through lens. And blessn900 crashed on start. Now it suddenly came back to life! Have been thinking of shooting patterns. Yesterday came 22 years married and didn't remember it as it has been for 22 years. I see a pattern here but not sure how to capture it on a picture. Maybe my wife's dissappointed face could do.

Hahahahahahahahhahhaahhahaahahahaaaaa

gadzooks!...Maemish.
Now THAT was fabulous.
Please do take a picture...
It would serve as a reminder to the rest of us guys...

And really ...
it isn't that us males don't love madly and deeply our ladies...
it is just that we see the method and priorities for expressing it ...differently from women.

Is it so important for you to be right on top of dates when they come now and again...
or whether it is more important for you to be right on top of doing your best by her every single day of your life...

Maemish...
Been here a couple times...
Hell ...I have been in far more delicate and complex situations and know how to fix them so they never happened.
So I know exactly what you need to do to make the problem...not even be a problem at all.

Time it.
MAKE SURE the phone rings for her from the weekend spa - getaway for you both ...doing their requisite "courtesy call" to remind and confirm your room.
MAKE SURE the receptionist is completely aware of the situation and is willing to fib on your behalf saying you reserved this weekend months in advance.
That way your bases are covered.

I suggest finding a quiet place to call and book it as soon as possible.

Then when she gets off the phone ...
Just say..."Sorry darling, I couldn't say anything for fear of spoiling the surprise, I couldn't book it any sooner for our anniversary.."

It works, erases all grief immediately, and is worth every penny for that.
(not to mention the get-away-weekend-spa sex is always a perk for the marriage )

Ate in Thai restaurant which tasted awesome and then to movies to watch Bohemian Rapshody, which was awesome too. The evening I then watched by myself Australia Border Patrol series. And we didn't argue at all (well a different opinion how much candies should cost which I eat and wife doesn't).