After a whole lot of procrastination but mainly what I like to call taking a year off from everything, I’ve decided to revive the photo blog I set up on tumblr a couple of years back after my trip to Perú.
I managed to find a fairly minimalistic template that would display a large enough version of the photos I posted to fill up the screen of my 13″ Macbook. My goal is to post about a picture a day and nothing more. A photo, a title, if it has one, and a few tags. I’ll save this space for more detailed accounts. This won’t make my Flickr account obsolete but it will function like the ultimate repository of my photo catalog.
One of our biggest concerns prior to setting off on the Rickshaw Run last year was the availability of drinking water. It might have had something to do with us heading into uncharted territory (and possibly waters) in the far off world of India or maybe it was that one of the charities for which we were raising funds provides drinking water systems to villages in those same unfamiliar lands, I couldn’t say, but the thought of our rickshaw breaking down in some remote village in the middle of the Indian wilderness did not escape us. Initially, we wanted to purchase a steri pen (a ‘pen’ that uses ultraviolet light to purify water) but we opted for purifying water tablets which were far cheaper.
It’s been close to a year and I still haven’t touched the water tablets which I kept once Hiroki and I parted ways. (Which was right before I headed off onto other uncharted lands-at least that’s what I thought at the time.) I stopped brushing my teeth with bottled water at some point in Nepal but you won’t ever see me getting my water fix from the tap like I do did back in Miami. (Regardless of this, I’m sure there’s a raging war happening between who-knows-what parasites in the depths of my innards.)
As long as we remained in the vicinity of human presence, we had water available to us: unopened, plastic-seal-around-the-cap type potable water for a fairly cheap price. Cheap to us anyway. Most other people aren’t so lucky.
Enter the Water Project. An effort to solve the world’s drinking water problem using cheap and disposable nanotech filters that won’t pollute the environment:
This would have been a definite yes on my packing list (God knows how much money I’ve spent on bottled water since I’ve been on this side of the globe), although I don’t think the companies doing the bottling would be as receptive.
When news that Michael Jackson had suffered a heart attack hit the airwaves, I was sitting at a bus station in northern Peru waiting for what would be one of the worse 18 hour bus rides of my life. A seemingly delicious burger made my life miserable for 20 hours (the bus arrived to the station two hours late) and it took me out of commission for another 10 beyond that. This left me wide awake and at about 85% around 11pm the following night at my aunt’s place, just to find out the innerwebz was down. It would be another 4 hours before I was able to connect and noticed an inordinate amount of MJ videos popping up on facebook. It wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on.
It was a rare sense of disbelief that I felt then, coupled with a ton of other worries going through my mind, not to mention that I was physically debilitated, caused me not to give the news much thought. It sorta kept the reality of it at a distance. I happened to be in Peru at the time, which helped, and when I got back to the States, I chose to disconnect from the constant barrage of all that was Michael Jackson. (Up until Stevie Wonder’s tribute during MJ’s memorial.)
All this time, I really wished I’d thrown up a little something on the blog in remembrance of someone who’s music I grew up with. Luckily, I ran into this video of Mos Def performing a dope rendition of Billie Jean. I figured it would be a fitting, belated tribute.
I just got back from a 40 day trip to Peru in which I toted my trusty DSLR (a Canon Xti) along with two lenses (a wideangle and a prime). I lost count of how many photos I took but I’ve started up a photo blog on tumblr where I’ve been posting & plan to keep posting up these and any other photos that might come along from now til whenever.
I still have a ton of photos left from Cuzco, Arequipa, Lima and even Mancora, where I made a worthwhile effort to leave the camera on lockdown. I’ll definitely end up posting stuff from around Miami and anywhere else I may find myself (hopefully India in a couple of months).
It gets to be a big mess when you’re trying to keep so many things going at once: twitter, flickr, this blog, now tumblr and God knows whatever else I’ve got out there constantly having to keeping tabs on. I don’t think I’ll be canning this blog anytime soon, if anything, I wish I could post more often but for now, my spot @ tumblr will be fairly busy. Check it out:
The Institute for Human Continuity: Ensuring the end is just the beginning. For three decades the Institute of Human Continuity has brought together the world’s foremost scientists, politicians and business leaders to ensure the survival of humankind beyond 2012… creepy. LINK.
25 Random Things About Me: 1. I stopped doing these lists sometime before the turn of the century. NYT LINK.
White Dade made a short comeback on September last year. Who knew? LINK.
Christian Bales out on lil’ David on the way to the dentist. LINK.
6 ways to save on beer, wine and liquor -other than buying a home brewing kit. LINK.
Above, Dilbert encapsulates the dense atmosphere reigning at the J.O. Ever better than before.
My daily commute is a breeze and has been for the past two months. It’s a relief not being stuck on the Palmetto those extra 15 mins, but damn, can’t help but to feel bad for a lot of folks.
The first floor parking lot at work stays about half empty well past 9 a.m. It used to be that after 8:15 you’d have to drive up to the second level.
Everyone seems to be brown bagging lately.
I’ve never seen Publix so empty, ever. I used do grocery shopping late Wednesday or Thursday to avoid the crowds, but nowadays I can show up on any given night and I won’t even struggle to find a parking space. Inside, there’s lots of uncrowded isles.
The price for a beer @ Zeke’s went up a whole dollar. That’s $4 a pop. And that was back in October.
The barbershop around the corner keeps closing up shop about an hour early. The spot used to get a lot of traffic around that time. But my past few trips there, the place has been empty. Jesus, my barber, said it himself, “Tiempos dificiles.”
Not to mention all the people getting laid off all around. Friends. Family. Coworkers.
Carbonated water, yogurt, salt and dried mint, also known as Yogurtsoda. And I’d try it. It’s also the name of Mariam’s “new” blog, which focuses on the love for food and travel (sorta like what’s evoked by a name like buildings and food but with the execution). And I highly recommend it.
And speaking of long lived and quality in Miami, is tumiami blog the longest running (est. September 4th, 2004), active, constantly (and heavily) updated (not to mention bestest) Miami blog?
Blogging ain’t easy, and blogging something of quality with dedication, even less, that’s why my hat goes of to Alesh, and Rick, and Steve, and the tons of other bloggers who put in the time to update their blogs for my enjoyment. =] Lord knows I’ve tried, but in the 3.5ish years since I first began these interweb logs, my crowning achievement has been stringing together two 16-month streaks with at least one entry per month. (So far.)
You know it’s hard out here for a blogger. Specially when blogging doesn’t make that money for the rent. For most of us anyway. So yay for dedication.
But back to being critical about Miami’s blogosphere; CM might be gone, and SOTP,and Klotz, and Miami Vision, and Miamista (*sheds tear*), and yes even the dreaded Miami Metroblog, but the internets sure looks a lot different than when they got the ball rolling. Back when overloaded RSS feeds were strictly an NYC or LA thing, they got the ball rolling. Now, things are lovely. And will keep on getting lovelier (and prolly more terrifying all at once). But that’s how the internets goes.
So as others seem to take the helm of this blogging about Miami thing, Alesh goes on to More Blog About. And maybe one day I can decide what to dedicate my entire evenings to, or maybe even entire days. Interestingly enough, I was thinking/keep thinking about sticking with food and photography. Or something or other.
Posted by R. 
