FB, lifestyle and dementia

A little bit of a background/intro, a high school friend sent these 20 tips to do to add to brain health [I don't know why to us her high school batchmates - maybe because we graduated 35 years ago?]; and below are my responses:

I guess I do almost half of these on Facebook... bwahahahaaa.... Thanks Neng!

Seriously, being on email and FB gives me more opportunities to socialize more [albeit online or virtually], especially with friends and acquaintances that are overseas and interstate.

1. Join clubs - FB is sort of a Club, isn't it? Plus I got plenty of Yahoo Groups...

2. Have a hobby or two - FB and blogging, and the occasional photography.

3. Practice writing - Try typing updates/comments using your non-dominant hand/fingers using a teeny tiny cell/mobile phone keypad!

4. Take dance lessons - Ok, I am watching "Dance your Ass Off" and "Dancing with the Stars"; does that count? Plus, on our new TFC: ASAP and Wowowee...

5. Gardening - Well...errr... I think I do that when I take snaps of flowers, leaves... etc.???

6. Walking daily - I definitely do that - from the house to my car and from the car to my work building... ohhh... plus I do walk to the shops to buy my morning coffee AND back! Seriously I do take the stairs but I guess that is not enough.

7. Read and write daily - Need I say more? FB and emails.... surely these counts!

8. Start knitting - Ok, I am stumped... this suggest using both hands to work out both sides of the brain... would typing on normal keyboards AS WELL as typing on those tiny cell/mobile keypads count?

9. Learn a new language - Ok... no sweat... sms/txt talk is a new language. Plus I got this FB buddy [Jovit, you know this is you! Thanks bud, got me going again with my Spanish!] who usually post in Spanish and sometimes in Latin [I kid you not, just add me to your FB and I'll show you! Nosebleed daw.]. And plus those who post/update one another in various Pinoy dialects.

10. Play board games - Ok, I still refuses to accept invite to play Mafia Wars, FarmVille, Mind Jolt, etc. Maybe I should eh? But I do play Spider Solitaire, two suits!

11. Take classes throughout your lifetime - Blog hopping, email forwards, FB updates - if those aren't real life classes, what is? Not to mention Googling and Wiki looky...

12. Listen to classical [and other] music - I got MP3 but not iPod, but my radio is blaring the whole day, tuned to my fav radio station.

13. Learn a musical instrument - Ok, now I need to look for an app online for my hand-me-down Nokia E71, failing that I need to upgrade to an iPhone!

14. Travel - Now, we are talking. I love to travel - most of the time in this virtual world of TV, books and other reading materials and on the net. Occasionally I do get to travel for REAL. I know, a trip to the grocery and mall doesn't count! BUT it could and should; doesn't it?

15. Pray - Ok... mmmm... I think I've done quite a few - especially those who doesn't add me on FB or leave comments on my blog. Plus that difficult photo shots that I really wanted.

16. Learn to meditate - aum...aum... seriously I need to take some time off blogging, FB, emailing, TV, etc. Maybe a quiet time somewhere... communing with nature - with my camera perhaps.

17. Get enough sleep - Now, there's a problem... I am getting old and am wanting to prolong my time by not sleeping!

18. Eat more foods with Omega-3 - Ok, food I love... no problem there.

19. Eat more fruits and vegetables - More food, again no problem with that. Does a schooner of beer counts? Or a glass of wine? They are made from fruit and vegetables you know!

20. Finally - Eat at least one meal a day with family and friends. With a big family and friends, that is not a problem. Actually I am doing that for the last couple of weeks, almost every week there's a birthday in the family, invite from friends and acquiantances for birthdays, anniversaries, etc. even wakes! Again food is not a problem with me, much less eating and enjoying the company of friends and relatives - why do you think I am on FB and Geni?

BB revolution: a remnant message on a hand-me-down phone

" Steps to the train station platform." Nokia E65

"Fellow BB users... I have seen the light and want to bathe in its goodness...

I said to myself today "I can be in the dark no longer for the shadows that hung over the analogue vs 5110 days will surely come to pass again.

I can no longer stand and wait for the other boys to tell me what the live footy scores are on the weekend, I can no longer bare not seeing these scandalous photos of Charles ala Lindsay Lohan self-shots..."

I look at my phone on each of these occasion and the only words I can muster is an incoherent babble "What is this, this what? I can not jiggy with this sh1t!!"

So like a faithful adolescent suicide bomber, I come to join the revolution!

Kind regards,

Gerald"

Winter leaves '09

"Everybody's a photographer these days..."

Samsung F480 mobile phone camera: F/2.83 - brightness -30, contrast +40.

"How often have you heard that lately?

It's a digital age for a digital page.

Log on; blog on; its dog eat dog on -this planet of photography. [Which doesn't have to!]

If it's so available, so common, and apparently so easy, does that mean everyone can be good at it?

Do good tools make good work, or is it the eye behind the mind that is really speaking through the picture in front of us?

What are you saying?

Did you say it first?

Are you saying what someone else said before in a new and refined way?

Are you saying the same old shit as everyone else?

Are you saying nothing, just watching the wheels go around and around?

When you go to places that no one has seen, it opens your eyes.

When you open your eyes to places that people always go, you see a place that is always there but its new again.

When you stare at your computer all day - what does it really do for you?

Get out of your house and go on an adventure.

Shoot film.

Shoot digital.

Shoot yourself.

Shoot something.

[This magazine is printed on PAPER.]

Hopefully it inspires you to take and make some photos of your own."

Words: Mike O'Meally, p12 [Sorry Mike I have to steal these words... so true and so apt!]

State of mind

Sometimes my state of mind reflects my book/magazine purchases... I found these in my local bookstore's sale bin; while not necessarily the latest prints might be good to excellent reads:

Chasing Cool: Standing Out in Today's Cluttered Marketplace by Noah Kerner & Gene Pressman

Indonesia: Countries of the World series [I was eyeing the Morocco one, but someone beat me to it!]

And my favourite find; which I paid full price: Monster Children issue 23.

Aside from Chasing Cool, the other two has lots of pictures... now you know why these reflect my present state of mind/mine! I love gawking at images....

Life of Staff

Sydney Night Life

Kayna and John

Been reading my daily dose of MX... a free paper popular with train citizens...

"Night antics caught on camera by photo collective Hobo Gestapo, a group of friends dedicated to taking snaps of Sydney after dark. And the concept has now gone global"

Carlito said "It started as just a few of us running around Sydney and photographing nightlife and concerts and now it's become a complete documentary chronicle of Sydney."

The collective has expanded to other cities, and there are nine photographers in Melbourne, Brisbane, Paris and New York. "All of our photographers know each other in some way, they're all friends of friends of friends," adds the 25 year old Carlito.

All photos are uploaded as a series on their website: "We like people being able to access our work and it fits in with our belief with copyright... We want people to be able to use our work for free."

Also see Wrigley's website: http://www.5gum.com.au/

Some words/info quoted from MX article by Henry Budd. The photo is mine.

Let me in!

Taken when I attended one of my grandson's first day in school. This toddler looks like she wanted to start school early... can't blame her - with all the fun activities happening around her.

I actually love to shoot candid pictures, mostly of relatives and kids. Partly to record the moment, for I know how fast kids grow and I am sure they appreciate photograps when they were so innocent looking and cuter!

Monkeying around

Just love the antics and the bright red colour background of these kids, who happen to be my grandkids...

Waiting for coffee...

A study on built-in colour swap feature on a Canon IXUS 860 IS, hand held, available light: F/2.8, 1/60 sec.

P 62, par 5 - O Alquimista!

":that there was a language in the world that everyone understood...

"It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose,

"and as part of a search for something believed in and desired."

"When you want something, all the universe conspires to help you achieve it..." - an old King.

St Mary's on scaffolding

Morning walk

On the way to an early morning walk at my local park... a bit cold but not too cold. The scene reminds me of pine trees in Baguio.

[Hand held, available light, a bit of cropping: Canon EOS 450D - F/16 @1/45 sec.]

On the way to...: Hunter Valley Vineyards

On the way to...: Hunter Valley Vineyards

Sign of spring

Taken with my old and trusty Olympus digicam - FE220 [F/3.5, 1/800 sec, focal length 7.4mm] taken last March 2008 at the Hunter Valley NSW. No post manipulation or cropping - no flash, just available light.

This is a favourite hand held shot, really close up of these bees savouring the nectar off these stigma or filaments gathering on the petal. This is actually late summer and not spring [down under this hemisphere!]. But it does evoke spring... I am just harking for this cold weather to go away... and to cycle this weather back to warmer clime!

Here is the original post.

I love this guy...

Photo by Clark Little [as if I can take a photo like this!]. More pictures here.

I meant Clark Little, Hawaiian local, surfer and photographer.

My son-in-law, Charlie; who knew I love photography sent me this email [I am sure it is in the email circuit now...] of several photos of Clark Little, taken mostly on the north shore [Waimea Bay] of the island of Oahu.

This guy loves surfing, and also his wife; who wanted a "nice piece of art" to decorate a wall. Clark grabbed a camera and took some shots while surfing and the rest is history... as we would say.

Here's a Good Morning America interview:

I'll settle for diamonds...

Yes, I didn't win the AU$106 million or so Oz Lotto prize... hence I am back [instead of my ghost writer!], and I am settling for Rob Thomas' "Her Diamonds" from his latest album - "cradlesong"




Rob Thomas Music