Get stoned?

I'm desperately trying to finish Project 365. Desperately. It has gotten really tough lately. I don't have any inspiration for taking pictures, but I'm really close to finishing. Only about a couple of months out from being done. This is the longest I've ever stuck with a project like this and I do really want to finish. But, I've also moved on to another project that I just like better right now. I'm fighting the urge to mesh the two, because I feel like (while I could do it without breaking any of my self-imposed rules) it's kind of cheating on Project 365. It would be sort of neglecting the initial purpose of Project 365 if I just started using my new fun project as a way to finish the old, tired and worn out project.

My dad wasn't really sure that I should share what I'm doing, but I don't think it's breaking any sort of law or ordinance or anything and there's no reason that I would get into trouble for it. I'm really just trying to make people laugh or smile. And who really sees this blog anyway? Just friends who probably would already know that I was doing this. So, I figured I'd use this blog as a way to keep track of my newest project. At any rate, I've taken to collecting rocks from under bluffs where roads cut through, cleaning them up, writing goofy phrases on them, and then sticking them out in public places for people to see and hopefully get a chuckle from. Idea was stolen from a flickr site of a British guy who did this sort of thing strictly on a beach in S. England. I'm willing to place them anywhere pretty much. Well, any where that it might serve the purpose I have of trying to make people smile more often. The kicker is that I don't want people to see me actually putting the rock down, so I've spent a lot of time the last week sort of staking out places and then bolting from a car with the stone in one hand and my camera in the other and then trying to place the stone and take the pictures as quickly/inconspicuously as possible. It's tricky, but also kind of fun. So the pictures are collages of two pictures apiece:
a) closeup of the stone itself
b) environment/area it was placed.
Plus, I'm putting text of the town or approximate town of placement, because I don't plan on re-visiting these stones to see if they stayed there or were taken or whatever. I just want a record of where I placed them. My first round of these is 10 stones that I've done and I've only placed three so far. I have one location that I've been staking out for days but people keep swarming around it and so it's still waiting for its new home. It might take a rather observant person to see any of them, but I want to at least give my little stones a chance to be seen and provide a giggle or at least a 'huh, that's kind of bizarre' kind of reaction. I plan to place these all over, when I travel, when others travel, etc. My dad promised to take some of them with him on his next trip to New Mexico, leaving a trail of my mouthy stones along the way. I love it.


This was the first one I placed and literally had me running across the parking lot with the rock in one hand and my camera in the other and then trying to look as non-chalant as possible while messing around in this rock median thing. (I plan to get much less self-conscious about this project as I get further along in it...or maybe just more sneaky.)





Now I have to go try to find something around my house to take a picture of for Project 365. Maybe another picture of the cat?....