I just discovered the art of Bernard Buffet today thanks to Fab.com. I spent some time browsing through his art on the internet and was really taken by his style. He created a lot of work during his lifetime and you can see changes to his style, but it remains very similar visually.
Check out his biography and take a look at his art. I don't think you will be dissappointed.
I have been very erratic with my posting lately. I just want to wish everyone a happy holiday season. I hope to get off to a good start in 2012.
Read more...I am in a major creative funk. I actually took a trip to Puerto Rico last week and did not even take my camera. I was only there for three days, but even as recently as last year I would have never gone without my camera.
In addition, it has been way too long since I wrote a blog post. I just have not had much to say that I think other people want to hear about. I have been so busy with soccer that I have not felt like blogging at all.
I am hoping that I can come out of my funk for the holidays as it is a great time to take photos. I love taking pictures of holiday lights and the winter landscape.
The Queen and I hiked to Half Dome a few weekends ago. It was a long, hard hike, but it was worth it.
The part of the hike up past Nevada Fall was tough, but beautiful. Even though it was late in the season, there was still water coming down the falls. We only saw a handful of people on this part of the hike because we left at five in the morning. There were no people at Vernal Fall, so we stopped to enjoy it for a minute or two.
Hiking on we passed Emerald Pool and Silver Apron and both were amazing. I didn't research why the rock in this area is silver, but it was cool. The hike up to the top of Nevada Fall was tough, but The Queen picked a great pace. We stopped often, but continued to make good time. After Nevada Fall we started to see more people, but there were still not very many people on the trail. At the point where the John Muir Trail joined our trail, the hike changed. The trail was then covered in sand.
At this point the hike was not as pretty and was not that difficult. It was just long. After passing the backpackers camp we came back to the Merced River again. The hike got more difficult and we made it back to some good scenery again.
Just before Sub Dome, we finally laid eyes on Half Dome and it looked intimidating. We stopped and took some photos before heading to Sub Dome. We could see people climbing the cables and even a hiker out on the diving board.
We made it to Sub Dome before a ranger was there. We got one last drink of water and headed up. It was steep with stairs leading up switchbacks. The Queen started to have a panic attack and finally stopped about a quarter of the way up. I slowly took her back down. While back at the base of Sub Dome the ranger finally made it and started checking permits. I hiked back down a ways to see if anyone needed our extra permits. I saw a few deer near the trail before heading back to Sub Dome.
Back on Sub Dome the stairs stop about half way up. At that point you just have to climb up the rock and make your own trail. I could see the cables, so I had a general idea of which way to go. I got near the base of the cables before eleven o'clock and took off my backpack to take some photos. I think at this point I knew I was not going any further. I just kept thinking about the show "I Shouldn't Be Alive". I wondered how The Queen would know if something bad happened to me. I thought about my sore finger joints and how that would hurt my efforts to climb the cables. I saw people struggling up and slipping down the cables. I put my backpack back on and headed back down Sub Dome defeated.
The hike back down to camp was easier, but it felt longer. There were several points where we could see Half Dome that we didn't see on the way up. We stopped at the Merced River so I could refill a water bottle. I sterilized the water and it tasted good and cool. Later in the hike it tasted a little fishy.
When we got close to Vernal Fall we ran into the crowds. It took us a long time to get back down to the bridge. By the time we got back to the road, we were exhausted.
We got back to camp before four and cracked open a few beers before taking showers. We had an early dinner at the Curry Village buffet and were asleep before eight.
It was a great experience and looking back at the photos I realized the cables were not as steep as they looked. I already told The Queen that I am going to do the hike again and make it all the way up the cables.
Michele Bachmann, the Tea Party favorite, made a comment to supporters in Florida this past weekend. She said that Hurricane Irene, which killed at least 40 people, and 5.8 magnitude east coast earthquake were God's way of telling US politicians to cut spending and fix the budget deficit. What?
I can't believe that someone with so much political clout can be so stupid. Do you really think that God cares so much about the budget deficit that he is willing to kill innocent people to get the message across? How can someone this dumb be so close to leading our country?
Michele and her husband own a Christian counseling center that, among other things, tries to convert gays to be heterosexuals. An undercover counseling session was filmed and aired on ABC News. The counselor actually says that God "designed" men's eyes to be attracted to women's breasts.
I am tired of all the politics in this country and the dumb people that continually support politicians that do not have any common sense. Michele Bachmann is such an idiot. Here is a link to some of her best quotes.
I have hit rock bottom creatively and intellectually. I just feel like I have lost a few steps. I feel overwhelmed. I feel uninterested.
At work I have realized that I would rather talk about problems than solve them. I have lost interest in most of what goes on. At home I have started running again in the morning and I feel great most days.
When I get home from work I usually cannot stop eating and I don't know why. I am at a weird point in my life and I don't know why or how to fix it. Maybe something is missing from my life. Maybe it is just the summer heat and the start of school. Maybe it is just the disappointment that I can't do what I want financially. Maybe...
The Queen and I have a full weekend of family activities. Tonight with her family and tomorrow with mine.
The Queen's aunt and uncle were very surprised tonight by a birthday party. They thought they were going to The Queen's parents' anniversary party.
Two years ago today I started this journey. I originally tried to post at least five times per week. I have not been able to maintain that schedule, but I am still posting semi-regularly. I will continue to post here as often as I can so I can continue my life journey.
Read more...My eyes have been opened to the problems within my company the last two months. I have been getting more involved in all aspects of the company and I do not like what I am seeing. I feel like I am overwhelmed by the number of changes that need to be made. I feel like I am powerless to make some of the changes and am encountering resistance with most of my recommendations. People fear change!
I keep debating how much I want to talk about with the owner of my company and how much I want to volunteer to take on myself. My work is suffering because of the number of items I am trying to juggle. I can't do this alone.
On a much better note, the family and I had a great time in Seattle over the Fourth of July. It was my third trip to the city and The Queen's second trip there. We were able to see a lot of the city and surrounding area. The only think on my list that we did not get to check off was a visit to the Hoh Rain Forrest. I really wanted to go, but it was just too far for this trip. Maybe on our next trip we can make a plan to visit for a few days.
Seattle made me realize again what is missing in the Central Valley. Other than the fact that I hate the heat here, there is no sense of community. I often wonder why my cities downtown does not have the things that other cities and towns I visit have. Don't get me wrong, our downtown is great and has a lot to offer. It is just missing things that would attract more people to the area.
The entire valley is way too conservative for my tastes. Everyone is afraid to do something quirky because of the people they might alienate. The great thing about a bigger city is that it doesn't matter if you turn some people off because there are enough people that will like what you are doing to support you.
I really loved the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. They have the famous troll under the Aurora Bridge, but they have a lot more to offer as well. There is a full sized rocket mounted on a building, a chocolate factory, a statue of Lenin and some dinosaur topiaries by the channel. It also has offices for Adobe, Getty Images and some other large offices. They claim they are the center of the universe and even have walking tour maps and funny signs posted around the area. They have created a community and I love it.
The Queen and I talked to our good friends about this and they agreed with us. They have not been to Seattle, but agreed that big cities have much more to offer. They even told us that they have contemplated moving to Portland, but that we were holding them back. They do not want to leave us. That made us feel good, but also got me thinking about a move to Portland as well. I have visited Portland once many years ago, but that was before it stated embracing technology and green industries. The city has changed for the better and I can't wait to visit again.
I want to start by saying happy birthday to The Queen. She is my best friend and a great mother to our children.
We went camping at Dinkey Creek this past weekend. I always going to this area and wonder why I don't more often. It is great to be in the mountains with creeks, rivers and a lake all nearby. It was also a refreshing change from the hot temperatures in the valley.
My only problem with camping with The Queen's family is that everything revolves around food, and lots of it. We had to take so much stuff with us, and most of it had to come back with us. We just take way too much stuff. Most of it never gets used or eaten, so we have to pack it back up when we leave.
I slept horribly for the two nights we were there, but it was still better than being home. I would gladly trade my good sleep for bad sleep if I could live in that area full time.
Tomorrow morning we are off to Seattle. I have been there twice before and really liked it the second time I visited. I can't wait to get there and show the girls all that the city has to offer. I have put together a pretty nice itinerary that takes all over the city, to the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park and on a ferry to one of the islands to hopefully see some whales.
I can't wait until tomorrow!
Candidates are now declaring their intentions to run for president in 2012. Millions and most likely billions of dollars are spent on elections every four years. It has made me think about the amount of money spent on elections in this country and what that money could be spent on.
I think we have to ask ourselves what makes more sense? We have found out this year that governments can be toppled by Twitter and Facebook. These social media websites are free to use, so why do candidates for the office of president of the most powerful nation in the world not grasp this technology and spend their campaign funds on something that will definately make our country a better place to live?
Many of these politicians who have announced their candidacy have fought against President Obama's healthcare plan and our budget and taxes. Everyone knows that our healthcare system needs reform. Everyone knows that the government has the potential to employ people that will shape the future of our country. We need good, quality teachers to teach our children so they can grow up to be leaders of the world. Budget cuts affect our ability to hire these qualified teachers, forcing our children into overcrowded classrooms that make it difficult to learn.
Our politicians need to stop being selfish. Our politicians need to embrace the technology that is changing the world. For as much as we consider our country the most wealthy, powerful nation in the world, we are still selfish and slow to change. We believe that nobody can tell us what to do. We do things the way they should be done. We cannot look at something that is successful in a third world country and make use of it here. We are better than that. I am tired of this type of thinking and call on our leaders to truly embrace change. I am asking them to stop spending money selfishly and start thinking about the greater good.
My fortieth year was a great one. I am very happy with my life at this point. I am not done growing, but I am satisfied with my progress.
As I begin my forty-first year, I need to contemplate my goals. I know I want to simplify my life. I want to remove the clutter from all aspects of my life. I read a blog post in which the author was attempting to limit his personal property to one hundred items. I thing that would be a difficult goal for me to achieve, but it is something to think about.
Another selfish goal is to travel to Europe next summer. I don't know if it will happen for sure, but it is my goal. And I feel like The Queen and I deserve it.
I also have a goal of dropping ten pounds before my brother gets married in September. I not only want to lose the ten pounds, but I want to get in much better shape. This is an attainable goal and is my top priority at this point. I have been getting healthier the last few years, so this is just the ultimate goal.
In my professional life I want to take more control of other aspects of my company. Up until about a month ago I was satisfied to sit back and let the other managers run their departments. I really got tied of watching them make mistakes over and over and began to work myself into our production and standards meetings. This is where I really feel like I can make a difference in the company and make people be responsible for their own work. I am tired of the excuses and can no longer sit back and allow the company to deteriorate.
If you remember your history, the Catholic church used to finance and thus control most scientific studies. Most of the advancements were actually made by members of the church. Because they financed these scientific studies, they edited the findings to support their view either literally or with threats.
I think most of us today have forgotten this lesson from history. Wealthy organizations controlling what we hear. Remember, the church believed that the Earth was the center of the universe. The church also believed that the Earth was flat.
A lot of money has been spent the last decade arguing with scientific findings from around the world. Global warming is a fact and it has been brought
on by man. Since the industrial revolution we have been polluting our planet without worrying about the consequences. It has now caught up with us!
I think most people have a problem understanding the term global warming. Especially when the weather may not be warmer today. For this reason, I prefer the term global climate change. All of the rain, flooding and tornados are proof that our weather patterns are changing. Just this week there was a tornado in Massachusetts and that is not common at all.
We need to open our eyes and stop believing all of the rhetoric being spread by wealthy corporations and the politicians and political groups they control. We need to make decisions for ourselves and our children and grandchildren. It is our responsibility and we cannot afford to make the minor changes that will solve this problem we currently face.
- Posted from my iPhone
I had a pretty good little Memorial Day today. I had to work, but that was my fault for scheduling a business trip without consulting The Queen.
I called my sales agency this morning and found out that Memorial Day is also a holiday in Puerto Rico. We still worked what we had planned for today, but it is funny that all three of us failed to realize it was a holiday when we planned this trip. When we got done with what we had scheduled, they took me out for some authentic Puerto Rican food. We ended up having a plantain soup for the first course, several types of fritters and plantains for an appetizer, mofongos for the meal and sangria during the entire meal.
Restaurante Raices in Caguas, PR makes authentic food that my friends said was what the mountain people ate long ago. I have to admit that there was not a lot of flavor in the food. The sangria was brought to the table in a beat up old aluminum pitcher and we were given little aluminum cups to drink from, kind of like what you think of the California miners using during the gold rush. They were primitive, but they kept the sangria cold.
I ate mofongos from my hotel restaurant when I was here last and they were just ok. The mofongos I had today were much better. They were served in a large wooden cup. The mashed plantains were coating the inside of the cup and the beef was inside with a dried plantain for garnish. The beef just melted in my mouth and the plantains tasted just right.
After eating I headed out on an adventure to find El Yunque, a rain forest in a national park. My rental GPS unit made me do circles for a while before getting me there two hours later. I had time to hike very fast up to a waterfall and back. I hope I got some great photos to show everyone a legitimate rain forest. It was pretty amazing. There was some bamboo, a lot of ferns and a lot of palms mixed in with some other trees and vines. At times i felt like Indiana Jones on a treasure hunt. The waterfall did not compare to those in Yosemite, but not many do.
I drove back to the hotel and took some photos of the view from my balcony, then ended the day with a run on a treadmill and a walk along the rocky coast outside my hotel. Like I said before, it was a nice little Memorial Day.
- Posted from my iPhone
The whole rapture thing that was supposed to happen in 1988 or 1994 or last Saturday or this October 21 is absolutely ridiculous. Without even starting the argument of religion and which one is the correct one, it has no basis whatsoever.
Harold Camping is an irresponsible individual who has just been looking to make a name for himself. He has raised a ton of money, all of which comes from people who believe what he preaches. Don't get me started with believing the rantings of a lunatic.
Many people gave their entire life savings and retirement funds to his cause. The money was used to post billboards all over the world. He finally responded on Sunday and stated, "I don't have any responsibility. I don't have any responsibility of anybody's life. I'm only teaching the Bible. I'm simply saying, 'This is what the Bible says.'" He also took no responsibility for what his followers did with their money and possessions stating, "We at Family Radio never tell anyone what [to] do with their possessions. That's totally between them and God."
You must always think about your words, especially if you are a public figure. There will be people who believe what you say with all their heart. You have to be responsible and make sure you are not misleading these people. Obviously Family Radio does not think this way and does not care about the listeners it has.
My company has been behind schedule in engineering and production for several years now. Up until recently, we have been able to pull together for the really important projects and complete them close to on time. Things have gotten much worse for about the last six months and I have lost all faith that we can even complete one project on schedule.
Things really came to a boiling point recently when one of our regional sales managers called me out of frustration. He said that he was told one date one day and the very next day he was told that project would be a month late. He was confused as to what changed in that twenty-four hour period. I had to admit that I did not know. I asked around and nobody had a good answer so we decided to have an emergency meeting of department managers to figure out what could be done from this point forward.
I put together a list of fourteen items that I thought should be done to fix the mess. When I handed out the list in the meeting, everyone there was surprised that I had gone through that much trouble. They acted like they were shocked that anyone would put that much time into fixing the problem.
There was a lively discussion in the meeting and the excuses started to fly from everyone. I had to speak up a few times and refocus everyone back on our customers. I explained that there is no good excuse to our customers and the first thing we need to do is stop accepting excuses. Everyone agreed, but the excuses kept flying.
We had a follow-up meeting a few days later and nothing was solved. There were more excuses and not solutions. That meeting wrapped up with them inviting me to their weekly production meetings. I told them that I did not know if I could handle sitting through them if they were like these last two meetings. They asked me to attend again and I agreed.
I have heard rumors about how bad the production meetings are for several years. I attended my first production meeting yesterday and I was not dissappointed. There was excuse after excuse given by everyone in attendance. Nobody wanted to commit to any dates and there were no solutions given to any problem. Everything was done verbally because our production schedule does not track enough items. It was difficult to follow and I asked if the production schedule could be expanded to include more items. I was told that there is another schedule that tracks those items. Someone even volunteered to show me where it was.
I have to admit that my company is in worse shape than I believed it to be. I feel like this is partially my fault for not getting involved earlier. While I have nothing to do with production at all, I am a vital member of the company and one of the leaders of the management team. I can't let things continue down the path we are currently on our the company may not exist in a few years.
I downloaded the app "Our Choice" by Al Gore. It is a book that includes full sized photos, interactive charts and videos. I guess then it is more than a book, but you can get a printed version of it.
I absolutely love the idea of this interactive book. I think this is a good example of what all books should be. It is perfect for reading on the iPad.
I started reading it before I even finished "The Art of Non-Conformity." I just could not wait to start it after I downloaded it. I really enjoyed watching "An Inconvenient Truth" so I was excited to read this book. So far I have not been disappointed. I have learned a great deal about what we are doing to the planet and why our weather patterns have started to change so drastically.
We need to stop denying the science and blaming other people and just take responsibility for our actions. The West can be a good example for the rest of the world and we can even satisfy our capitalist needs by creating better alternatives to our current energy sources and industrial practices. The developing world would have no other choice but to follow us or be left behind...again.
I finished reading The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau. I really liked this book, but I don't know how practical it is for me. I would love to sell all my stuff and just take off to someplace in the world where I could volunteer and help people. I would love to not have to work a "normal" work day. The problem is that I have bills to pay and people to support.
After I finished the book I started thinking about what my perfect day would be. I think it would be great to start my day at eight o'clock in the morning. Wake up and drop Meg off at school. Come home and do some sort of exercise. I would prefer if I lived in the mountains on a lake. It would be great to take a kayak out on the lake every morning. A good jog or hike would also be spectacular in the morning.
After returning home and taking a shower it would then be time to get to work with whatever I would be doing. This is the part that gets a little fuzzy for me. I don't know what I am passionate about. I know that I want to do something that I love so work does not feel like work. I have thought about becoming a professional photographer, but I don't know if that is my passion. I really enjoy it when I am doing it, but I go weeks without picking up my camera. I also don't particluarly enjoy photographing people, but maybe that is because I am not good at posing people.
I would then pick Meg up from school and help her with her homework. At that point I would either do some more work or other projects that I like to do. I would exercise again in the evening after an early dinner and go to bed about midnight.
I know I have a lot of holes to fill in this perfect day, but it is a start.
Every year Administrative Assistant's day rolls around before anyone in my company realizes it, except for the owner. He is always on top of it and he always gets every lady in the company flowers and possibly something else. Last year he took every lady in the company out to lunch in a limousine.
I am glad he remembers this day, but I am not happy that he includes every lady in the company. In a few departments there are ladies who have equals that are men and the men are not treated to any gift. In at least one department there is a lady who runs the show and has men who report to her. Those men are not given any gifts. These ladies are not administrative assistants.
Is it just the owner's old fashioned way of thinking. A male chauvinist attitude that makes him do this every year? Does he think of every lady in the workforce as being a secretary? I don't have the answer, but I know if it was me and I was a female engineer or manager I would be very upset to receive a gift on this day.
We had a female engineering intern last year who gladly went to lunch and accepted the flowers, but did question why she was included. Obviously she was a little insulted, just not enough to refuse the gifts. When is it under appreciated male employee day? I am still waiting for my gift!
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