The gentleman who pulled over to ask what I was taking pictures of was VERY confused when I held this up on my palm, smiled real big, and exclaimed ‘TENTACLES!’ with a maniacal gleam in my eye.

This level of frankness and unvarnished enthusiasm is part of my ongoing project to:

a) answer exactly the question that was asked
b) do the stuff I like doing as long as it’s not hurting anyone else
c) not apologize for things that don’t need to be apologized for
d) not over explain things to strangers

Now I’ll be honest, this is often surprisingly difficult to do (it goes against several decades of social conditioning to not apologize for existing and not justify what you’re doing and not try to convince others it’s ok for you to be where you are). But it generally works out pretty well in the end.

Folks who get upset by that approach aren’t gonna click with me, so it’s best to end those conversations early. And folks I’m likely to get along with seem to find it endearing. So really, it works out well for everyone involved.

Highly recommend. See if you can get through a day that way, I bet you’ll like it!