It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane. It’s a Flying Worm!

How can something so easy seem so hard?

When this exercise was first presented, I had no idea how to wrap my mind around it. I’m still not so sure about it. I want to be shorn of the dreaded sheep label, but the semester is young, and I find myself anxious to see how others interpreted this assignment.

Anyhow, on the afternoon of class, as I lay in the grass my eyes were too singed by the sun to see anything. I lay with my eyes squinted shut and tried to take in the experience with my other senses. But with eyeballs scorched and assignment panic setting in, I couldn’t focus and decided to call it a day.

Later in the week I decided to try again. My sister has a quiet backyard with a hammock. I stretched out with nothing to see but a window of sky between my two trees supports. As the clouds passed, nothing stood out, just peaceful drifting shapes slowly gliding by. Then one formation caught my eye. A stretch of clouds had the shape of a worm, with a big upright head and smile. I chuckled at the thought, but it made me think about my first semester in New Media and the first time I heard of the concept of a “worm’s eye view.” And here I was, from the worm’s eye perspective, looking up at a worm that had the bird’s eye view. Interesting, well maybe not so much, but ironic, surely. And maybe there’s some symbolic “seeing sideways” lesson in there. Who says a worm can’t enjoy an aerial view? Hell, maybe my flying worm cloud is up there exacting revenge on the early birds. Can’t prove it’s not!

So, I would’ve taken a picture if I had a camera on me. I did think to myself, I’ll keep my eyes out and will surely see another at least “wormlike” arrangement of clouds in the sky at some point. Ha! I’ll be searching the skies for the rest of my life to ever catch another worm cloud.

Well, I decided to make my own picture for illustration purposes. It’s a little silly and a little sucky. I need to brush up on my Photoshoppin’, but my need for cloud creation skillz is next to zero. But enough disclaimers...
Behold, the flying worm!