The world around us

I love noticing the simplicity of things. It’s funny how I never used to notice them before, but the act of taking a photograph of it, keeps it in your mind forever and one is able to relive it, to delve into it and to really absorb it in its entirety. I love the quietness of the moment, when one just notices and lives in that moment alone…not thinking or worrying about anything else. It’s funny how and why I’ve become so philosophical about taking and viewing photos, but it’s a wonderful feeling nevertheless.

I think I wrote earlier about how I injured my knee while on vacation. Well, I ignored it while I was there and on my return saw it grotesquely swollen decided to get some magnetic therapy. I’ve heard very good things of magnet therapy, and a lot of people I know swear by magnetic bracelets, but I had never experience it myself. Well, it was a good time to try it out and I found that I felt a lot better by the third day. It’s definitely not a scam sort of thing, there is a power in the magnet that does work, by attracting the iron in the blood and increasing blood circulation and so on. All in all, it was a treatment I would highly recommend.

Have you heard about a site called Blurb.com? It’s a site where you can publish your own books. It’s as simple as downloading the software, uploading the pictures into the templates that you have selected, formatting the look and feel as you please and then uploading it to the site, ready for you to publish away. I found out about it on flickr and decided to publish my own book of some of my photos. It was so thrilling to see my name in print! I made several mistakes though, though thankfully I did listen to Blurb when it advised me to order just one copy of my book as a test…well, it needed some changes, so it was a good thing I only got one in the first run.

Now, that I’ve done it a few times, I’m getting better at fine tuning the look that I want and hopefully this time, I will end up with exactly what I want. This is a really great idea, for creating a book of a vacation, a wedding, baby photos etc. There is a sort of permanence to it that I really like.

Lately, I have found that one needs to take into account all things that we use to push ourselves. Eating healthy is an obvious answer, but it’s much harder to actually put it into practice. Most people would benefit from taking something like Orovo which is a great way to supplement and give a boost to your immune system and take care of all your nutritional supplements. As Superfoods go, Orovo has made quite a name for itself on the market, but many are a bit wary of trying it. I say, that one must be open to these things, and try it out at least once. Well, actually, if you’re going to try it out, do it for a week or so to see if you find any difference and only then pass judgment. I’m all for it.

Now that I’ve decided to buy a new laptop, the next item on my list is a digital camera. I love the one I have right now, a Casio, which is super easy to use, very slim so that it fits into my pocket and extremely user-friendly. The thing that is making me want to change this camera is that it is only 5 mega pixels, and I feel that I need something that will allow me to enlarge my pictures to at least 8x11, without having lost any quality.

I have printed out several of my photos and the ones that require more sharpness or have lots of black in them, end up looking too grainy. So besides the research on a new laptop, I’ve also been spending time visiting camera shops and chit-chatting with photography experts about what a good transition camera would be. I say transition, since I do not want a professional or DSLR camera, at least for now. Hoping to get some resolution on this now.

Now that the lovely weather is here, I’m planning to change things around in the house. The summers are just so hot and long, that they seem to sap out all energy from you, till you don’t even want to think about doing any work or anything physical at all. Now, my plan of action is to get some new shades, some new bamboo shades to be more specific. I think they will work really well to combat the heat of the summer and since the winters are so pleasant, they will give a great tropical island look to the house. It’ll feel like vacation all the time! Not a bad idea, right?

Here’s a shot from my trip to Mussoorie in September. It was so nice to be in the hills again, and breathe in the fresh air, feel the cool breeze and take in amazing sights like this. I took about 300 photos in the 4 days we were there and this is one of my favorite ones from the trip. I love the morning sunshine on the roofs and the plains beyond are so clear. A few hours later they would be covered in a slight haze, so it is essential to get out early to get clear photos.

Ever since I hurt my knee walking in the hills in September, I have realized I must be more careful about the kind of shoes I buy. If I had something like these Dansko shoes, it probably would have been easier on my knee and I would not have had to have a swollen knee for the 15 days that I was limping around. Since I’ve never had any such problem before, I really didn’t think twice and just ignored the pain for the first 2-3 days, which was what made it a lot worse. Wearing the right pair of shoes, means that one’s body is more prepared to take on physical activity and that safeguards us from injury.

After a long break like the one I have had, it’s nice to get back to blogging and sharing my thoughts again. Sometimes one feels like there is not enough time to do everything in a day, right? We all have times like that, and often blogging gets sidetracked due to lack of time or energy. Interestingly, the thing is that it is in fact blogging that gives us some time to be still (in a way ) and think, to write down our thoughts, so understand them better, to think things through and so on.

When I first started blogging, it was so that I could be part of this new medium that I had heard about…none of my friends blogged back then….and it was a wonderful feeling to share things, to learn new things and read about someone who lives all the way across the world. Blogging got me noticed by people who offered me a job, a job that I still do, as a freelancer, a job that I love because I get to work at my own pace, wherever I am and a job that showed me what all I am capable of.

Hats off to blogging!

Some might say that this is not the right time to do shopping on a large scale. However, others would argue that there are some incredible sales and deals on that one mustn’t miss out on, and I tend to agree with this train of thought. There are a number of things that I’ve been wanting to buy and have been putting it off for some reason or the other, but it seems that it’s a great time to get all the things that I want on sale. The hard part has been to decide what I should buy first….the laptop, the camera, or the cell phone, and I think I have narrowed it down to getting the laptop first, since that is something that I use on a daily basis.

I went through a bunch of computer magazines to figure out what specifications would suit me and have found the one that I want on Buy.com, where I can get an HP Pavillion Notebook at an incredible price, much, much lower than what I can get at my local electronics store. Not only is this laptop one of the very best, it has a really good back up system and has been recommended to me by several computer savvy people. When it comes to technology, I really do think it’s important to take the advice of those who know more than you, those who are more aware of the advances, and those who can decipher it all for you into plan and simple English. With this new laptop, I will be able to concentrate more easily on taking on new projects without having to worry about the state of my machine.