Single Frame Stories

Some traditions survive for thousands of years. Others last only a handful of generations. Storytelling is a tradition as old as humanity, with surviving cave paintings dating back 40,000 years. Our digital generation is creating what may prove to be new traditions of visual storytelling. If we survive another 40,000 years, perhaps some post-human will marvel at the dawn of this new era of democratized digital storytelling … from Instagram to Flickr; from YouTube to our little Single Frame Stories project.

That said, we’re going to take a break and put the Single Frame Stories Challenge on hold for the time being. Thanks to everyone who participated over the last year!

Challenge Gallery 53: Tradition

“Memories Made Here” by Sinjin Cooperstone

“Toussaint” by Melancholia L.

“Death of Tradition: My Great Grandfather was a Christian Scientist. He died after refusing treatment for appendicitis.” by Botgirl Questi

We all need a getaway once in a while. It doesn’t have to be a physical vacation. A book, an art project or a bubble bath can transport us  to a new state of mind and provide respite and recuperation. Unfortunately, the escape and self-nurturing strategies that serve us well in the usual course of life many not work in times of significant suffering. Experiences such as the unexpected death of a loved one or a life-threatening or debilitating illness can plunge us into a dark place that consumes any light we throw its way. When we cannot break free we must endure.

Before we get to our challenge gallery, the prompt for the next 2 weeks is “tradition” Make of it what you will. For this challenge, we will not be taking email submissions, so please submit your work to the Single Frame Stories Flickr Group.

Challenge Gallery 52: Getaway

by Rwahs

“Fleeing the SFS Paparazzi” by Michelle Hyacinth

“Close Call” by Sinjin Cooperstone

by Melancholia L.

“….. if I had wings” by Awesome fallen

by Felicity Francois

“Mark didn’t make his getaway completely unscathed.” by Botgirl Questi

by Botgirl Questi

It’s said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Intentions are all well and good, but your actions speak louder.

I fully intended to post this gallery last week. My intentions were good, even though you wouldn’t know it from my actions.

Please bear with us as both Botgirl and I find our footing after a couple of months of difficult times. It’s not our intentions to allow this project to fizzle out. It’s just hard to keep up right now. I’m working on making my intentions and actions look alittle more like each other.

Before we get to our challenge gallery, the prompt for the next 2 weeks, which is due by (and will be posted on 10/12), is “getaway.” Make of it what you will.

Challenge Gallery 51: Life and Death

“Schrodinger’s Cat” by Savoree_LeDesir

“To fly… if only for a moment” by Sinjin Cooperstone

by Michelle Hyacinth

“I took this series starting out for the Single frame stories # 51: Live and death.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer start of august so this is most on my mind thinking about this theme. As it concerns the body I wanted to let her be naked.
Water is live and the surface of the water is the threshold between this live and the other side, so I took all of the pictures half submerged.
The light on the water is the light of the soul – spirit.” by by Cherry Ravinelli/anandaheart resident

“Life and Death SFS: Sometimes the meaning is hidden within the box.
(I’ll give you a hint. There is something beating inside.)” by Southie Allen

by Rwahs

“Necromancer” by Melancholia Lilliehook

“No blood… No pain?: I know. Nobody saw it coming. They need to see the blood. If there’s no blood, there has to be no pain.” by Auryn Beom

“Certainty is Death. Life is only all the distressing questions that lead us to the end point.” by Auryn Beom

“Life brings Death….. Death brings Life (I and II) by Awesome fallen

“LIFE and DEATH……. inseparable couple.” by Awesome fallen

by Botgirl Questi

by Botgirl Questi

We apologize for being a bit late this week. Whiskey and I have both been wrestling with the deep uncertainty of life. A road trip with a new car ends up in a car-totaling accident with injury. The end of six months of treatment for a health issue lingers with an unanticipated month of very slow recovery. Events like these remind us of the profound unpredictable nature of life and death, health and illness, prosperity and poverty, sorrow and joy.

Truth is, as Buddha’s Five Remembrances describe:

We are of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.

We are of the nature to have ill health. There is no way to escape ill health.

We are of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.

All that is dear to us and everyone we love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.

Our actions are our only true belongings. We cannot escape the consequences of our actions. Our actions are the ground upon which we stand.

Before we get to our challenge gallery, the prompt for the next two weeks is, “Life and Death.” Make of it what you will.

Challenge Gallery 50: I Believe

by Auryn Beorn

“I Believe” by Caitlin Tobias

“I believe evil is present in our world…” by Sinjin Cooperstone

“and I believe hope is our greatest gift.” by Sinjin Cooperstone

“For Naught” by Savoree LeDesir

“Believe In Who You Are…” by Maci Restless

“Love is not a four letter word. Love is all of the letters of the alphabet, the words of every language, every story written across all time.” by Peep Sideshow Darkward

“I believe in Balance. Usually balance is not so hard. But sometimes it truly feels like dancing on a razor’s edge. And then maintaining balance becomes hard work. It means asking yourself difficult questions and often leads to making choices of what to keep and what to cut loose in order to restore or to maintain balance.” by Rwahs

“Yes, I do !” by Awesome fallen

“The Abduction” by Skye D.

“Dreams…… Soul whispers, Heart desires ……” by Awesome fallen

by Michelle Hyacinth

by Billy, aka Dondo Dollinger

“I can’t believe in all the supernatural stuff. Just everything else.” by Tura Brezoianu

“Do I believe in Fairy Tales?” by Awesome fallen

by Botgirl Questi

“Executing an Idea: We tend to accept every belief that pops into our head as the absolute truth. A visual pun on a healthy life practice.” by Botgirl Questi

You have a story in you.

Everyone does, even those who never find a way to tell theirs. Some stories are simple and clear, others are long and complicated, but we all have them. And I believe that they’re all important and worth telling.

Two of my favorite storytelling projects are This I Believe and StoryCorps. Both of these offer a way for every single person to wishes to tell their story and have it archived and displayed. Many of the stories submitted are shared on various NPR programs, where I hear them almost every day. I often visit the websites and listen to the recorded stories, and I marvel at how different each is, but how universal the themes are. Hearing these stories, even those that I can’t relate to at all, makes me feel less alone. And they encourage me to keep telling my own story.

Single Frame Stories is another small way to tell your story. We may never be as big as StoryCorps, but I feel that our stories are just as important.

Before we get to our challenge gallery, the prompt for the next two weeks is, “I Believe.” Make of it what you will.

Challenge Gallery 49: Running Scared

by Kristine Kristan

“it’s not easy being green” by Michelle Hyacinth

by Cad Lorakeet

“Veparella – Nightmare” by Savoree LeDesir

“The Pursuit” by Skye D.

“Have a nice day” by Sinjin Cooperstone

“…. Running scared ……” by Awesome fallen

“Sometimes It’s Easier To Run Away….” by Maci Restless

by Justin “Chivalrybean” Lowmaster

by Serendipity Haven

“No matter how fast I run, I can never seem to get away from me – Jackson Browne” by “Botgirl Questi

by “Botgirl Questi

Be sure to check out this post, which announced some changes to the SFS challenge. We’ll be posting challenge galleries every other week for now.

Our next challenge prompt will be a bit different. Instead of a single word, it’s a short phrase. As always, let the prompt inspire you, but it needn’t be a literal translation. The prompt can be used in your title, or not. It’s completely up to you.

Before we get to the challenge gallery, the prompt for the next gallery is, “running scared.” Make of it what you will.

Challenge Gallery 48: Stream

Streams of Consciousness: “I see that I’m a little piece in a big, big universe. And that makes things right.” (From Beasts of the Southern Wild) by Elle Couerblanc

“Stream of Consciousness” by Sinjin Cooperstone

“Stream” by Masha Runya

“The Stream” by Dondo Dollinger, aka Billy

by Justin “Chivalrybean” Lowmaster

“If it weren’t for the rocks in its bed, the stream would have no song.” (Carl Perkins) by Serendipity Haven

“You Never Step in the Same Stream Twice.” by Deoridhe Grimsdottir Quandry

“Beside the stream” by Sinjin Cooperstone

“Stream of Life” by Awesome fallen

“Music is My Way Of Life” by Maci Restless

“Shrug This” by Michelle Hyacinth

“The Day That I Die” by Dondo Dollinger, aka Billy

“Don’t Just Swim Against the Stream, Get Out and Walk Beside It” by Whiskey Monday

“immersion: ‘We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.’ – Marshall McLuhan” by Botgirl Questi

Things have been (more) hectic lately for both Botgirl and me, so I think I’m going to make things easier on us by making some changes to the Single Frame Stories Challenge. We are both fully invested in SFS still, it’s just been more difficult to get the blogs done in a timely manner (this is chiefly my own fault, as it’s my responsibility) and I dislike not giving each challenge the attention it deserves. So, a couple of changes:

• As of this week, SFS will be posted every other week. Challenges will now last 2 weeks, and the blog will be posted every other Saturday, early in the morning. We’ll see how this works, and we may switch back to weekly as our schedules allow.

• If you submit your photo via email, please size your photo so that it is 640 pixels on the longest side. This will help me, as I won’t need to resize your photo. If you’d like me to link a blog for you, please include it in each email, as I’m quite flaky and can’t keep up with everyone’s blogs every week.

Just for future reference, here are the other guidelines to follow when putting together a SFS submission:

To participate, add your image to our Flickr Group or email your image to SingleFrameStories@gmail.com. We’ll aggregate all the submissions and present them here every other Saturday. (If you submit images to the Flickr group, please specify the date/prompt of your image.)

Please include the following with your submission:

-Your name

-Your blog or website if you’d like it linked

-Your flickr name if you  have one

A few things of note:

• Images should be original work created by the person submitting the work. Respect the copyright of any source material that you use.

• Text, either on the image or included as caption, is limited to 140 characters. Text is optional.

• Images can be any medium you want to use, they needn’t be Second Life Images. Collage is perfectly acceptable, but again, respect copyright.

The prompts are just that, a prompt. A spark to light your imagination. Take it and create an image that tells a story.  Don’t just illustrate the word, build an entire story that we can see. Your title or caption can supplement your image, but the image should carry the caption, not the other way around.

I hope that his schedule will help, instead of hurt the challenge. Please feel free to submit as many stories as you like per prompt.

Thanks for your time each week, and for your incredible stories. The prompt continues to be “stream” until next Saturday. Make of it what you will.

This week we feature stories inspired by the challenge prompt, “original,” which was also the prompt over at 100 Word Stories. Some of our entries are accompanied by their 100 word stories. It wasn’t a requirement, simply a nudge to participate in both challenges.

Crap Mariner posts his podcast on Sunday mornings, so be sure to listen to the participants read their own stories tomorrow morning. Crap’s mental meanderings are just a happy bonus.

Before we get to our gallery, the prompt for next week is, “Stream.” Make of it what you will.

Challenge Gallery 47: Original

She’d been safe in the shelter of his arms, the cocoon of his protection. She’d wanted to stay that way forever, sunlight pouring through their windows, warmth moving throughout the day.

Until he could no longer be warmed, and arms grew too frail, too weak to remain about her waist. Until all that remained were his unwashed sheets, abandoned wrappings with a fading scent.

She wrapped herself within them, burrowed deep, lain still to let the sunlight bake her into something else. No warm safety for her transformation. No witness to her rebirth.

Painted in sunlight, she conjures the storm.

by Masha Runya

Original DNA of Meandra

My avatar got herself a DNA string, brain and pounding heart. It’s supposed to give a feeling of unique origin. But ‘original’ is a word we often abuse. It has this smell of magic, which turns every common person into something very special. Sure, we all are unique by DNA and in that way original. But being unique by DNA does not make us behave in the same sort of unique way. Who we are is how we learn to use that special self. But remember, most of that is being teached by others, which makes us just a copybot.

by Meandra

Sheila’s original recipe burgers were hugely successful – the succulent, juicy meals she served up turned fast food into fine dining. The recipe was, of course, a closely guarded secret and despite numerous cash offers from several giants of the food industry, it wasn’t for sale.

Despite her success, Sheila never sought the big time, selling her burgers from a mobile kitchen at the roadside. She’d stay for a while, never more than a few weeks in one place, then move on.

Oddly, the neighbourhood cats and dogs seemed to follow her – because there were never any about after she’d gone.

by Serendipity Haven

“…No matter What, I will never be an original Queen !” by Awesome fallen

“How original…” by Crap Mariner

“A True Original. A deeply artistic collage by a good friend of mine called Absinthe Wednesday. She’s a totally original artist, honest. Alternatively, I could say that the main image is located here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/whiskeymonday/8636660965/.” by Cad Lorakeet

“We all try to be original, but all we end up as are copies.” by Haisley

“Original (Not)” by Sinjin Cooperstone

“The Original Plan” by Maybe May

“Original and Deluxe Flavor” by Dioridhe Quandry

Original Ideas – Take Your Pick

“Where do you get your ideas?” they asked.
“How did you get so creative?” they wondered.
If only they knew how easy it is. Original ideas grow on trees. They can be plucked from the gnarled branches in bushels. Ideas are the fruit of the stubby trees of despair, euphoria, loneliness, and strife. These trees feed from the loamy soil of hardship, watered by the rays of a smile and fertilized by longing. For every idea that is picked, three more grow in its place.
Just pay no attention to the serpent, out on a limb.

by Whiskey Monday

“100% Original Profile.”

I recently came across someone who had copied my SL profile into her own. It made me take a good hard look at how important it is to be yourself, the only true original.

It also pissed me off.

by Whiskey Monday

I died again and it’s starting to bother me. I know it shouldn’t. We are taught that the Self is nothing more than identity and the continuity of our memory. So every time they restore an archived brain scan into one of my clones, it is the real I who awakens.

But what about the lost memory of each death? All gone. A sniper’s laser. A drone’s warhead. An enemy’s blade. Abandoned in the black hole between my last scan and the last breath of each incarnation. They who died are dead and gone. Irrecoverable. May we rest in peace.

by “Botgirl Questi

Both Botgirl and I have participated in Crap Mariner’s 100 Word Stories Challenge over the years, and it was that challenge that prompted our idea for Single Frame Stories.

This week both 100 Word Stories and our Single Frame Stories will feature the same challenge prompt, giving both challenges an opportunity to enhance their entries by participating in the other. For this week only, we’ll be lifting the 140 character text limit if you submit a 100 word story with your entry.

You can learn more about how to submit a 100 Word Story here. Crap records a podcast each Sunday featuring the week’s stories. Most folks record their own stories for Crap to add, but if you’re unable to record yours, he can do it for you.

If you write a story that goes with your Single Frame Stories entry, please add it to your Flickr photo or email it to singleframestories at gmail, along with your challenge entry for our gallery. We’ll feature them together here.

And so for both Single Frame Stories and next week’s 100 Word Stories, the prompt is, “Original.” Make of it what you will.

Challenge Gallery 46: Pot

“I am off to Vancouver next week…I will smoke one in honor of you all!” by Elle Couerblanc

by Sinjin Cooperstone

“Crack Pot” by Adaline May

“I wonder if there is catnip in this pot” by Derry McMahon

“130711 other side 02b” by Bear Silvershade

“The Wrong Kind of Pot… by Deoridhe Grimsdottir Quandry

“Music is My Dope” by Meandra

“The Pot” by Dondo Dollinger aka Billy

“The Escape” by Peep Sideshow

“A Little Teapot” by Whiskey Monday

“I’m Fucking Done Now” by Botgirl Questi

I suppose it was inevitable that I would be delayed getting this blog posted. Today’s challenge gallery was delayed, in both name and also by the flood in my basement. My fingers are wrinkly from bringing up ruined boxes of books, clothes and art supplies, so I won’t waste much time typing. I know you want to see the entries for this week, without any more delay.

But before we do, the challenge prompt for next week is, “Pot.” Make of it what you will.

Challenge Gallery 45: Delayed

“I delayed in expressing my deepest love and how they helped me become who I am today. Wherever they may be I hope they are hearing me right now” by Elle Couerblanc

by Sinjin Cooperstone

“Living alone now in SL I still always set a place for him, thinking him just delayed, rather than not coming. It’s easier to think about it that way.” by Gidge Uriza

“There has been some delay in services.” by Deoridhe Grimsdottir Quandry

“Not that I really need to do more shopping, but yeah, I totally do! So glad I’m not too late…what if they sold out???” by Derry McMahon

“Your clothing is still downloading but you can use SL as normal.” No, I bloody well cannot. by Cinnamon Ghoststar

by Dondo Dollinger, aka Billy

“Delayed by Shutter Speed” by Meandra

“Delayed, by Any Means Possible” by Serendipity Haven

by Whiskey Monday

“…of all the hardships a person had to face
none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting.” ― Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns” image by Botgirl Questi