Wow, I missed 3 days this week 🙁
Week 15 – 365 Photo Challenge
I missed 2 days again, but really liked the first image, where my girl is looking through the window, it looks even better on Black & White.
Still Busy
Last week was still very busy, and I belive that it will continue this way for a while. Our tiny group at work has been put in the spotlight, and thus there is a lot of things going on.
Again I missed a day on my 365 Challenge, but I carry on. I’m posting this on a Monday rather than Friday, but I carry on. There is no need to stop due to increased work or obligation; just recognize that there will be ebbs in our time.
Get Back Up
What a crazy week it has been! I’ve been in 6Sigma training for the 4th week and last one. I’ve been really struggling with trying to fit all aspects of my life, so the lowest priorities tend to fall out. This week, I only wrote once on the FamMijangos.com blog, and failed to take 2 pictures during the week.
I thought that at any time I failed to take pictures I would just give up the whole project, but I like taking these images. I’m not great, but I do believe I’ve been getting better. Very far from having a style, but I’m starting to prefer a few things over others. Definitely struggle taking pictures of people, I’m not good at looking at the details so faces move or give up on an image. I do like landscapes, urban landscapes, some architecture, and just random things I find as I walk on the streets. I wish I could be better at journalistic images.
Feeling the Crunch
This week I’ve felt how the demands of life have influenced my ability to write and take pictures. My mind has been preoccupied with statistics and projects so I’ve been more eager to do that than to write. But I’m still able to write, and I guess the crunch pushes me to photo edit and write faster.
Last night I spoke with my dad and he was telling me about his childhood. He was telling me that all these images from when he was younger are all coming back to him, and he is writing more. He also feels sad for the things he can’t remember.
This is the reason I write on the blog, to make sure that we remember those things that are going on in our lives. That small window to the world is also the way we record our lives and who we are choosing to be remembered.
Update 10: On Writing
From this point on, I will not include which Update I’m doing, it has been 10 weeks of posting, and you and I understand that this is happening, consistently. This consistency is what has really stretched me this year. 10 Weeks, 3 posts per week (2 on the Main Site and 1 here) very consistently.
My mind keeps coming back to this post from Gina Trapani about her new rules of blogging. I too put new rules at that time—Just Write. This year I’ve also put in a goal to write more often, flexing the muscle; and I’ve used this particular space to just fill it with my thought of the week. A Meta Blog for FamMijangos.com
Had it not been for this setup, I don’t think I would have written some of the posts. Having that deadline is just moves you to think of your week, the experiences, that might even seem trivial are the ones that shape you.
I see things differently, they make me to pause and reflect how I understand them. I find myself being somewhat in a reminiscent state. Are my reactions based strictly on what I see or are they linked to things from my past. This week I wrote on my girl’s love for tying her stuffed animals with blankets, and how I love to help her with that. I went back to the time I was in Scouts and my love of knots.
I enjoy writing about these things, not long posts, not the 1,000 word description of a vacation which I want to do; but are not the most enjoyable. I’ve found that posts between 200 and 300 words are enjoyable, deep enough, and fast enough to write.
Check out the new template for the 365 Photo Challenge:
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.
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.
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.
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.
Update 5: On Good Times and Bad Times
This week I published the post “Un procedimiento impresionante“(An Impressive Procedure), which tells our experience with TAC (Trans-Abdominal Cerclage), where the uterus, with a baby inside, is taken out and the upper part of the cervix stitched to prevent the baby coming early.
I debated whether we should publish that or not, was it TMI or was it just reality. Looking at FamMijangos.com you would think that our family is always happy, no trial, just fun times. I don’t want that, I also don’t want to be a pity party, but I want to maintain that balance.
I saw this week a post on 71toes.com, and the author also struggled with that reality. She even has a page (keeping it real) with a list of post of examples of not so happy times. So I do see that others are struggling with these types of decisions.
I do think that there are things that you shouldn’t share to the public, but I do want to have a balanced output of our family dynamics. What do you think it’s the right balance?
And here are the pictures of the week:
Update 4: On Kaizen and The Collect App
Back on the saddle again, posted 2 posts this weeks on FamMijangos.com. It feels good to stay on course, I also noticed that I was faster at editing images and writing, I was surprised that I wrote almost 500 words in an hour.
So going back to my original post on Kaizen, this is exactly what I wanted. I wanted to improve, and the only way is by practicing. I want to share our family adventures, and I want to do it well, and I guess I want to write it faster too.
Another thing that I found this week was The Collect App, several websites said that the App was a great help when doing the 365 Photo Challenges. It has been a great motivator to see my images, one by one start filling up my calendar (I’ll share the calendar at the end).
Another thing that happended yesterday, with regards to this Challenge was that it was around 9pm. I had forgoten to take a picture and just didn’t feel like it. But I didn’t want to break the stretch, so I just put my phone and took a picture infront of the mirror. It was so simple, yet it boosted my confidence that I can do this challenge, even if I only take dumb pictures like that. So today I’m happy, and see th images bellow.
365 Photo Challenge
