Mars Is Overrated: How to Go Camping in Namibia
You want to unplug, completely. You want to spend time in a place that feels like another planet, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by empty space. You want to see fascinating alien creatures, but not the kind that can eat you (at least, not without taking many, many tiny bites). You don’t like mosquitoes. You enjoy feeling like you’re cooking slowly in a dry oven during the day—a convection oven, with a breeze. You like cozying up in the chill of the night under the starriest sky you’ll ever see. In other words, Mars sounds pretty neat. Oh, except…
Keep reading
Sign Figures Part Two: Trips
As I mentioned in the previous post on Slips, the key difference between a Slip and a Trip (based on my informal survey of sign figures) is that you slip backward and trip forward. Slips are far more common than Trips, but there’s still more than enough in this category to keep my attention. Let’s start with one of the most common figures. Even though this one repeats often, there’s a surprising amount of variation. Even in these four examples (and granted, one was printed on paper and stretched oddly), look at the shape of the feet! I also like…
Keep reading
Sign Figures Part One: Slips
I’ve been taking pictures of warning signs, particularly ones with stick figures, for a long time, and I’ve accumulated enough at this point that I think it’s time to share. I’m starting with one of the biggest categories, Slips. At first I focused on the text of warning signs, because I love how the same warning for the same reason is written completely differently in different cultures. After a while, though, I started to notice more and more variety in the stick figures, which is the focus of this series. To be clear: I don’t think injuries are funny, and…
Keep readingSomething went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Photo Log
Embeds are broken, visit https://www.instagram.com/shastified/
Why the bathrooms?
When I started traveling back in early 2017, a good friend asked me to post something to Instagram each time I arrived in a new place, so she’d know I was safe. “It can be anything” she said. “Just take a picture of the first thing you see.”
The next day I was chatting with my cousin and mentioned this conversation. “If you take a picture of the first thing you see whenever you get to a new place, you’ll be posting a lot of pictures of airport bathrooms” he laughed. “…that’s perfect” I replied. “I’m going to collect pictures of toilets everywhere I go!” And here we are.
Shastified, Continued 