Hi there!

I'm an amateur photographer (obviously; I also tend to have the WRONG camera with me...) of insects and flowering plants native to the northwest corner of Louisiana, near the borders of Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.

Why do I photograph insects? Have you ever really taken the time to get down on the level of an insect? To look it in the eye? They are intelligent creatures, as aware of themselves as your pet dog or cat and twice as beautiful.

It's my hope that when you see these creatures through my lens, you'll begin to understand that they aren't just nuisances to be swatted, squashed, and shooed.

Thanks so much for stopping by. If you happen to be into Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic or Naruto (and other anime/manga), my fan fiction account is =VernaJast.

Lene



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Note: All insect photos can be used on deviantART as stock photos for other works IF you leave a note on the photo letting me know and if you credit me in the author notes. I want to see what you do, and these photos required time in the heat, mud, ants, and cold to get. All other photos/deviations are my art and cannot be used. Some of my photos have defined Creative Commons licenses to govern off-deviantART use. Thanks!

So I failed miserably at keeping up with this account. And yet I've passed the 6 year mark and didn't actually stop to notice. *sigh* My life is always changing and this year is no different. I thought 27 was the year that would be my best. Everyone told me so.

Let ME tell YOU: Age 27 has sucked.

I want to be 19 again. Or I want to skip ahead to 29. Something.

In any case, nothing calms me like photographing nature, and so I hope these few pictures will help to calm you, too. I plan to move to San Francisco, CA soon, and I'm a little sad that there won't be the same fauna and flora to capture like this, but I think the Mission Blue Butterflies and other new creatures and plants will be just as rewarding to photograph. I certainly hope they make for better behaved subjects.

My life is going in many directions. I hope you'll stick with me through it all.

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For my friend Dylan Yo!, a fanatic of Bob Dylan's writing and an excellent poet I once had the pleasure of knowing.

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

Bonjour!

Well, it looks like I'm going to stay active here for at least another year. My fanfic account's in full swing and I'm happily subscribed for another year over there. This account, poor neglected thing that it is, has just gotten a big update. And expect more. I plan to do more paintings and, of course, continue photographing the fauna and flora around me. Basically, the non-fan pieces I do will go here.

I've considered deleting my old journal entries. There are so few and they start back in 2003. I was a completely different person back then. Hm. I guess, for now, they stay.

Also, I'm learning French. Slowly. Very. In my shoutbox on =VernaJast. I'm bad, but I keep trying, haha.

I'm just rambling here, so I'll stop. Because I don't know what to write and because the journals are making me sentimental.

Lene.

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So, where have I been? Writing Knights of the Old Republic fan fiction. Sheesh. As if I need to add 'Star Wars' to the list of geeky things I like. It's okay, though. I don't care.

I check this account roughly every two weeks, so my apologies if it takes a while to get to you.

My work around the 'net:

KFM
(my main fic location).

LiveJournal
(Just the place where I stash my slashy M/M fan fiction).
[new address]

Flickr: [link]
(flora and fauna and a bit of Harry Potter).

Oh, and for those from KFM, I'm Verna Jast.

My fan art/fic account:

My friend's mother died last night. While I was at the skating rink with my daughter at a birthday party. I was numb when I heard it. Then I called my husband and told him. When I said it out loud, heard the words coming out of my mouth in my voice, I broke. I cried. In my cubicle, in my silent office, where ten people work without a sound.













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These people are DEFINITELY worth visiting. I know I'm probably leaving some really great people out and I will add them as I go. I am very proud to list you all.

Well, I uploaded a bunch of stuff tonight. Things I've been meaning to upload for weeks. I have dial-up still, so it takes a lot of time to upload anything. At lunch tomorrow (today, it's 1:00 AM) I'll post comments on all of your work, especially people I've never met and all of my friends' new works. My friend's mother, about whom I rant on and on, is not expected to live more than a week and a half. I visited her in the hospital Saturday, and it was not her. Not the person I remember. I think our laws against assisted suicide are ludicrous. I don't want to live like that. I'd rather go out in a morphine dream.

I hope everyone in a slump, is surfacing, slowly but surely. Good morning.

Lene

{Please view previous entries for my friends list. I'm really tired, tonight.}