Webcams for Insomniacs

Hello! Yes, can you see me? I can see you!

Do you like watching webcams? There was an exciting, almost Truman-Show-style moment earlier this week when, after weeks of complete inactivity (during which I was worried the people had actually moved away), human beings appeared (for the first time ever!) on the screen of the Sarasota Swimming Dogs webcam and looked into the camera and waved! I managed to grab a screen shot just after the wave. There was, momentarily, a sense of connection: me in rainy Hertfordshire, these guys in sunny Florida. The Sarasota Swimming Dogs webcam is one of my absolute favourites because it's on such a human scale -- most webcams just show matchstick-sized people coming and going indifferently. Here, if you catch them, the dogs come out to play:

The best time to see them is usually between around 3pm and 4pm UK time (more details on the webcam site).

I really love webcams -- but only ones with live streaming. It has to be a real-time picture with moving creatures on it -- preferably human but animals can be very engaging too. Or even jellyfish (really beautiful, actually):

Or how about microbes wriggling about?

 There seems to me to be a huge difference between a live feed and a still picture, however frequently it's updated. Even if you're only looking at trees and water, as soon as the wind begins to move through the leaves and the water to ripple, you're there. It is truly a window on the world.

One of my favourite webcam sites is the Mila I Beinni site in Iceland which has a number of cams trained on beautiful places in Iceland. The weather is so tumultuous that some of the cameras are often offline or clogged up with snow but I've seen some breathtaking mountain views, and the Blue Lagoon with its bobbing swimmers is always entertaining:

What would possess someone to set up webcams all over their home? Perhaps so they themselves can keep watch when not there. But there's something quite odd -- and fascinating -- about being able to see into this house:

 Here are some sweet animalcams (links in the captions):

nice aquarium

Penguinworld

Adorable schnauzer cam (this naughty one I caught doing a wee on the carpet)

This puppy never seems to sleep. The older dog must wish it did!

Yay! Goatcam!

These Shiba Inu puppies are also very sweet but their camera was offline when I was preparing this post. There are also some sleepy chinchillas here.
 What I really wanted to find were some artists at work -- there are quite a few webcams to be sought out, but of the ones I've found, either there was no artist to be seen or I really didn't like the look of what they were doing! But some links are here.

Enjoy your watching.

Good Things

Today I took a day's holiday on the spur of the moment. It feels like stolen time and is all the sweeter for not having been planned.

I'm catching up with my blog, so just doing a little post on things I've enjoyed recently.

image copyright the artist

I went with my daughter to see the John Stezaker exhibition at the Whitechapel a couple of weeks ago. We both found it very stimulating. Stezaker makes new images from old, combining old photos in ways that almost but not quite make new images -- the tension between the originals and the suggestion of a new image is quite disturbing to the brain and hence rather entertaining. I can't really use too many of his images but they are easily found online.

I Am Dina

     I also recently watched a rather wonderful Norwegian film, I Am Dina, which had me and the friends I saw it with screaming in horror at some points but which, overall, I very much enjoyed for its beautiful cinematography and crazy plot. Dina is an unfortunate child who accidentally causes her mother's death and, as a result, grows up with a strange attitude to both life and death. The film has an international cast including Gerard Depardieu and Christopher Eccleston -- perhaps not their finest performances, particularly the latter, who has to grapple with a very strange accent. Everyone speaks English in the film, some more jauntily accented than others. Unfortunately the DVD I'd bought had Dutch subtitles that I couldn't switch off, but it all added to the multilingual fun.

Dina gets married -- watch out Mr Dina

Continuing the Scandinavian theme, I'm addicted to Lykke Li's new album. It's just brilliant, specially the first three tracks.

Wounded Rhymes -- highly recommended

When I'm on my computer, I like to have a live webcam open in a browser window, so that if I'm waiting for something to print out or load, I can look through this little window into another part of the world. At the moment, I love the Mila site with its five live webcams of Iceland:

Above is Gullfoss. The difference it makes seeing the water actually moving and people coming and going is amazing. In fact today is the first time it hasn't been misty there for a while, so you can really see the water pounding down. It's brilliant.
     I also love the Blue Lagoon where you can watch people popping in and out of the steamy water all day long:

I'm sure there were loads of other nice things I was going to mention. I got a little sniff of spring yesterday and was very taken (who isn't?) by the gorgeous blossom, and also by these wonderful furry twigs:

Just finally to say that I am really enjoying getting ready for the postcard swap. I'm trying out things I've never done before and am finding that having a specific project and people to make things for is really making me stop wasting time and get moving. Some of my ideas are a bit wild and possibly a little bonkers but it's definitely making me think that I'll come back and try them again, perhaps on a larger scale, after the postcards have all been sent.