The requirement to blog is not present in everyones life but lately is has become a fun and enjoyable part of our everyday life. Our creation (mostly my wife’s creation), Delicious WordFlux has been the driving factor of this requirement. Delicious WordFlux has also fostered a need to cook delicious food and to document and enjoy life. I mostly just enjoy the food and help out with the technical side of the blog .

I am very proud of this blog as it shows off our talents and drives us to do more. Just like the picture above of the “Padrão dos Descobrimentos” which represents an idealized view of exploration, the blog drives us to go beyond what we would normally do in everyday in the pursuit of more ambitious goals.

On the other hand, my blog is place to come when I have something to say, It is for the documentation of things going on around me. Like I say it is “just for the love of it”. Its not suppose to be a journal or a complete archive but rather a snap shot of time.

So I come today to try out a new workflow for blogging. I have heard that you can write a blog post in MS Word, then directly copy and paste it to the wordpress editor. The hyperlinks will be preserved and the pictures will automagically upload.  So, I’m going to try it.

UPDATE: I tried it and now I’m typing in the WordPress editor. The process went well as I am comfortable writing in MS word. The only issue I has was with the images. I had to upload them directly to the site though the normal channels. The links however remained in place and after saving the draft, I was able to edit the post to my liking.

This post has reminded me of the only Calvin and Hobbes comic I ever read in the newspaper. The strip was published on New Year’s Eve in 1995 and was the last one ever published. I cut this comic out of the paper that day and had it framed for my office. It shows the enduring optimism spirit I enjoy so much in life.

Time is passing quickly these days. So much to do, so little time. But, having a lot to do is not a bad thing! Not at all, being bored is worse (not worst).

This picture is from a photo I took back in 2009 in Cascais. It was one of the first times I had gone out with the sole intent to photograph. I remember the moment when it was taken specifically because I was telling myself to take my camera out of my backpack and shoot something. This was the first thing I saw. SO when I needed a subject to practice on, this picture came to mind. My intent was to make a photo look like a painting. Not sure if I accomplished it but there it is. I like it, maybe not for the content but for the memory. Art for Art sake, that’s why this picture was taken.

Perhaps this is a better example of a photo I made look like a painting

Back from the winter wonderland of the north, we have made it though Christmas and looking forward to 2011.

Since, the last post many things have happened. As soon as I got back from the trip we rushed to find a new place to live. One month to find a new house is not easy, and with few suitable option this was stressful. At the last-minute, a nice condo came on the market and we pounced on it.

The space coast is treating us well. We are more settled in now that we know we’ll be here for at least a little while.  Enough so that we even got to take a vacation. 1500 miles of driving took us to 3 states including being snowed into a mountain cabin for a few days.

The time was well spent in a new environment. It made me appreciate a warm meal again and the comfort of a 4 star hotel (which is where we spent the following 2 days celebrating our anniversary).

After returning Christmas was upon us, actually we celebrated minus the gifts this year. Warning the family early allowed us not to have to worry about gifts and just enjoy our family and friends.

Although, I have to say that I do enjoy giving and receiving presents, its nice to take a year off every now and then. All this vacation and non-gift giving has me obsessing about cameras again. I’m wanting a new Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens but what we want and what we need are two different stories.

Two weeks of business travel has left me ready to return home. I miss my family but have enjoyed my trip. I trying to pass the time on the plane.  This blog is like a journal and this is a time I want to remember.

 

The time in Boulder has let me have some time to reflect on what’s going on. The last 8 months have been very focused on work and moving and settling down to our new life. These weeks have given me time to step back review the progress.

I’ve realized that I actually enjoy the variety of my work. Spending years and years on the exact some goal seems tedious at this point. I like solving multiple problems everyday.

Also I  missed my family very much.  I want to be with them everyday and not miss anything. They need me too, so I think a life of business travel would get very tedious very fast.

As for my last post, I feel a little more room and not as bound.

Boulder has some very nice weather. The summer in Florida this year wad brutal. It was so hot going outside was uncomfortable. It does get much colder and snow but the humidity is bearable at least. Well its something to think about moving forward.

Summer is here and time is marching along. The morning and afternoons are less hectic now that we have moved closer to work. There is more time to enjoy life and that means spending more time at home and less on the road. More time for living, planning our future and taking care of business.

Like the place I visited this morning, the road ahead seems very straight and narrow from here.

Is that a good thing? Well in some ways it is because the direction is determined but there isn’t much wiggle room. We are trying everything we can to loosen up the grip but our fingers are turning white at the tip because we are gripping the wheel so hard. At least the scenery along the way is good.

The time to catch a new ride because we are not turning back now.

The winter was cold but that is over now. The flowers of spring on showing and the weather is warm. Spreading his wing this great blue heron enjoys the warm rays of the sun and is a metaphor for making it though the long winter.

The summer is on it’s way and will arrive before we know it. Let’s enjoy this time as it is a good time to be spreading our wings.

In the past I was taking most of my photos in the evening as this fit my schedule. But lately my schedule has changed and I have had a chance to take some photos before dawn. Granted, I don’t have a lot of time, so mostly I just shoot what I see on my way to work. On the days when its clear and cool like in early January, the light is crisp. This time of morning not many people are around in stark contrast to the evenings so I get some time to capture the light and do a little thinking in the quiet part of the day.

With most of the east coast snowed in and Florida nice and sunny, we decided to get out of the house of this lovely Sunday afternoon.

Today we went out to Clermont, Fl to have a look around.

I had heard that the hills of the area were beautiful and perfect for a scenic drive.

Of course I brought my camera and when we happened upon this nice little spot both of us decided to stop and take some pictures.

We have developed somewhat of a Spanish moss obsession as it seems to be everywhere we go these days. Spanish moss is a strange grey plant with leaves that resemble hair and it prefers to grow on other trees. Apparently it gets some of its nutrients from the host tree and thus prefers trees that provide this nutrition. Spanish moss grows in humid places and is common to most parts of the south eastern United States.

Spanish moss gets its name from a legend that says that the hair of a Spanish woman was cut to prevent her and her husband from wanting to move onto land owned by the native Indians. The hair was thrown into the trees and continued to grow all through out the land.

The scene was a bridge overlooking Cypress Cove, on the east side of Lake Minnehaha. I made this panorama towards the end of the shoot and it shows well the cove.

Cypress Pano

Photography is a little harder now with the baby. We had to park down the road a bit for safety reasons and go one at a time. Someone has to stay with the baby.

We took lots of photos but this one turned out being my favorite.

It almost didn’t make it to the editing floor but I decided to throw it in at the last min. When I added this sepia filter in Lightroom the photo seemed to really stand out from the rest.

It reminds me of a really old photograph but I also like the composition with the tree in the foreground almost framing the small house. The picture has a lot of texture in the foreground and good details around the base of the tree. I see a few distracting elements on the right side I could have removed but this is how I framed it so I leave it for now.

Just found out there was a new version of wordpress for the iPhone, so I just had to make a test post.

I am interested in the picture functions as I like to host all my blog pictures on flickr but there is no native integration for using this method.

So my work around is to upload the photo to wordpress.com temporarlly and the add the proper flickr links later on.

Ok, so this is just supposed to be a quick update so I snaped a quick pick of our Christmas tree and the oranges we bought on our trip to Clermont today.

Drove the family over to Titusville for a shuttle launch today. The little one won’t remember much but me and the wife enjoyed ourselves.

Next launch, I won’t be doing any camera work, I want to enjoy the launch and not be pre-occupied with the camera.