Update 9: Points of Friction

Yesterday I picked up my car from the shop after being down for a few days due to trouble with my power steering. Turns out that the return line had a leak, and it exacerbated after the deep freeze we had these past weeks. The leak was caused by the line coming free from a pin and being in constant friction with another metal in the chassis.

094 - Points of friction

As I looked at it, and being mad that the friction caused me to replace the whole line and paid for someone to spend a few hours putting it on, I thought about other things that could be causing friction in my life. Working for an engine manufacturer I know that friction is what you always want to avoid. Metal on metal friction can cause so many problems. So looking back, there so many times that I have let friction into my relationships.

Knowing that love is the balm that heals and also prevents these frictions; we choose not to be encircled by it; and thus have those friction points. We might think that having a well oiled machine that runs smooth is not exiting, there is no fun in that. Certainly an engine with sparks flying and fire spewing from the exhaust might look exiting; but how long will it last?

This post might be deeper than I intended, but just wanted to share my thoughts as I pondered on the events of this week.

365 Photo Challenge

I’m amazed that I have been able to do this, and continue doing so. February is almost over and I’m happy to share the results.

February 2015

February 20, 2015

Update 8: Instagram to Twitter via IFTTT.com

Yesterday, I posted image # 50 on my 365 photo challenge, wow so much. I really don’t think I’m close to being a good photographer, but I find myself looking for opportunities, and I know I have to have my camera close.

Today I want to share something I did, that changed how I share things on Instagram. This whole year I’ve been using Instagram a whole lot more, it is where I’m publishing this 365 Day Challenge, I’ve also started following more people and it has been really interesting.

So I haven’t really shared the images outside of Instagram, it wasn’t compelling. I had shared some images in the past on facebook, but that was it. A few days I go I shared an image on twitter, I thought that i would be good for me to share this experience of the 365 Day Photo Challenge with my twitter followers. Then yesterday I saw my post, and it was not what I wanted.

I wanted to share the image, not a link. I had remembered that my brother had mentioned that he used IFTTT.com (IF This Then That) to send all his Instagram images to twitter, at that time I didn’t want to send my images to twitter, so it really didn’t register. Even today, I don’t think I want to send all my Instagram images to twitter, but I do want to send all the images in this challenge to twitter.

I opened my IFTTT.com account, where I use their system to back up all my posts from this and other blogs to evernote, like a journal. So I picked the right channels that I wanted to use and created this recipe:

It was so easy, I picked the recipe to only be triggered when I post with the tag #ciuan365 which is the main tag I’m using. Then post the caption as a tweet, and create an image with the Instagram image. Boom! See the result:

This is what I really wanted, thanks IFTTT, you made me happy. Putting the internet to work for you.

365 Photo Challenge

February 13, 2015

Update 7: Reporting, Documenting or Sharing?

I am getting used to the 3 posts weekly (2 in FamMijangos.com and 1 here), yet every time I sit down to write I struggle with the voice of what I am writing about.

Pirate School Post Take for instance this post on an outing with my daughter. It was an event put on by the city. I look at my images and start narrating what happened; and then I think: “Am I a reporter?” Since I don’t think I want to be a reporter, I change my voice, now I’m recording history! Isn’t that what I want that blog to be, a family history? But I struggle with that voice too, because even though I want to open that window to the public, I also owe the readers a window to my thoughts and feelings.

Now I’m talking about feelings, being a dad and seeing my daughter have fun; happiness, fun and youth slipping away. I don’t want the blog to be too sappy, too much introspection; it is not my journal, but close to it. I don’t want to pour all my heart, I think there are things that are personal and I do write those in my journal (although often enough).

I guess we need a bit of everything, enough context to understand the feelings, and enough feelings for things to matter.

So those are my struggles when I write, the lens or lenses that I think about as I write those posts. I do report a bit, sometimes the opening paragraph, sometimes I document (trips, restaurant, adventures) and sometimes I just share my thoughts and feelings. I guess we need a bit of everything, enough context to understand the feelings, and enough feelings for things to matter.

365 Photo Challenge

I’m still going, almost a month and a half! The last photo this week was #43, so 43 days of opening my camera for this purpose. As you can see, not everyone is great, but I’m learning, and thinking about what I want to photograph. Hopefully by the time the baby comes, I’ll be a lot better.

February 6, 2015

Update 6: Use of Video

This week, not really planning for it, my posts on FamMijangos.com where primarily videos. I haven’t been very successful with videos, first I don’t have a good recording device and second, I’m always in terrible lighting conditions. This week one of the videos also had poor sound, so I know I am beyond help.

In spite of all these conditions, the posts did pretty well. It helps that both feature a cute 4 year old, singing and dancing. It’s just so weird for me to post bad material, and people like them. I guess is goes back to having a meaningful message, and people can forgive the medium.

Readers are not expecting professional videos, with perfect lighting and high resolution. They are content with me allowing, an otherwise closed, door into our family. In 20 years, it won’t matter to my children that the quality was bad, but rather that it is available.

I am learning to forgive myself more, I shouldn’t expect perfect material, it should be the best I can; but not to limit my output due to quality. The value is in opening those doors, hopefully by doing so I will get better.

Again, my objective is for FamMijangos.com to be a record of our family’s history, the most important part is not perfect quality, but continuity. So I will continue to work on my imperfection, someday I’ll produce better videos, for now readers will have to bear with me.

365 Photo Challenge

So I completed the first month, 31 days of picking up a camera and shooting. Here is January, and the 7 pictures for this week (Friday Jan 29 – Thursday Feb 5).