This is Extraordinarily COOL

This is the Gates of Hell. And they're located in Turkmenistan.







It's a 328 feet wide hole in the Karakum Desert that's been burning since 1971. 38 years. Continually.

The gas hole was caused by a Soviet Drilling Rig that punctured a massive underground natural gas cavern in 1971. Poisonous fumes began to leak from the hole, so the Soviets set it alight. It hasn't stopped burning since then.

You can find out more about the Darvaza Gas Crater here , in the Atlas Obscura (an incredibly interesting website and definitely worth the look)

Apparently, there's also similar craters in Germany and my home state of Pennsylvania, but they're not as picturesque as this one. The one in Germany however, has been burning since 1688!

Photo Inspiration: In Which Alannah Discovers That There's Actually a Park Where She Lives

I went to my local state park a couple of days ago (I know, my summer has been so exciting so far-Not). But it was kinda fun, and I did get to take some nice pictures. Trees, a lake, the usual park-ish things.

These were taken with my cell phone camera, because my real, and rather expensive, camera hates me and is no longer working (something's wrong with the battery).

This is a totally unrelated sidenote, but I can't seem to get the song Morningstar by AFI out of my head. As a result I'm playing it over and over and over and over (you get the idea) again. Anyone else know/like this song?

Happy 4th of July!!

Cascades of Ice

Some of you have already seen this up on my deviantart page but I thought I'd post this pic here for two reasons:

1: People seem to actually like it, and/or think it looks cool

2: It's Springtime! So I thought I'd post this picture as a sort of farewell gesture to all things wintry, icy, and cold (ie. Most of the things that make me miserable)

I actually took this picture in a parking lot! I know it looks like I trekked out to some rocky cliff in the middle of winter to take it, but this cropping of rocks was at the end of a mall parking lot. Despite being a 14 year old girl, I find that I actually prefer nature like this most of the time to the often too crowded, boring mall I live near.

In other news:

The Bamboozle Festival is this Saturday! And I still haven't gotten tickets. What am I thinking?

I'm going to be posting a review for a cool book called Generation Dead which I just finished reading and should be reaching a bookstore near you,