Definitively, Which is Appreciated

I’ve turned a corner with this app, Seek.  At the outset I used the app occasionally to identify something I was eager to learn about.  Now I am constantly photographing things which I already know the name of, a squirrel, the pansies in the hanging plant holder which already have the card saying “pansies” inside, because it has inexplicably become important to me to get a higher number identifications, as this somehow reflects well on me in the eyes of the app.  I get new badges, hit new levels and while I could be slaying dragons or aliens, at least I am increasing my awareness of life around me.

The app however, can be a frustrating coach.  It doesn’t do bark well.  Forget about the trees for now.  Hopefully leaves will make a difference.  Birds are rarely close enough and plenty of times you squat over a particular plant and twist and turn like an idiot, trying to game the apps intelligence, “do you want me to zoom in or give you contextual background?", to no avail.  But when it identifies a species it does so definitively, which is appreciated. 

A deer is walking across my backyard.  Where there is one, there will be more and sure enough, there’s a doe and two fawns, chewing up the bushes as they go.  I reach for Seek, of course.  I know these are “deer.”  The app gets close and says they are North American deer.  That’s nice.  Give me a positive identification.  I zoom in but now the fur is pixilated.  The doe proceeds off into to the shade.  “What kind of fucking North American deer are these?" The deer are only thirty feet away, but I’m looking through a window and it’s no good.  I consider and resist the urge to go out on the porch to continue an attempt from there.

Later, there is a wasp on the outside of my window.  I’m up immediately and press the camera close.  We can’t get beyond "the family hornets and wasps.”  This would be my third “insect" but once again I am unsuccessful and the wasp flies off.  Still, photographing the common can be edifying.  I can now say with deputized authority, that those aren’t just squirrels outside, those are Eastern Grey Squirrels. 

Tuesday, 4/28/20