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"Sometimes just a smile on our face can help to
make this world a better place."
~ Robert Alan
cherry blossoms from Yokohama (Japan)
Regan (younger bro), was "bored" on the couch of his girlfriends mothers house. I was there taking pictures for his gf's mom, and while I was waiting I amuse myself with taking pictures of him. He's on the couch, bored, won't smile, just looks over at me. LOL. Picture turned out well imo, but the expression on his face is so funny to me!
Sometimes the little details of the Disney Parks can make for unique pictures. At this extreme angle, even a street sign becomes just a tad more interesting.
i can't distinguish the difference between belong alone and being lonely.
one would naturally think that they are the same, but they aren't.
why do we need permission to be alone, in order to avoid being lonely?
for some reason, i thought this summer would be raging, would be boiling with excitement and recklessness and people. but of course, it hasn't gone that way - instead, it is reading, it is writing. it is thinking. it is alone and quite and still. it's repeatedly running my fingertips over the same edges in my house.
i can't help but feel like this way of life is exactly what i need, though it may not be what i want.
i need to embrace it, i need to learn how to live this way. i can't run around relying on the comfort of others.
i was never good at comforting myself, i always looked to my friends and family for that.
i sit and think about the gaps that people have left, and i never even once thought that i could fill their spaces on my own.
i don't need replacements, i just need myself.
RECETA
Ingredientes:
- 2 pimientos rojo y amarillo
- 350 g de carne molida
- 1/2 cebolla
- 1 huevo
- 50 g de queso parmesano rallado
- Sal y pimieta
Preparación:
1. Cortar en anillos los pimientos, reservar puntas.
2. Cortar la cebollay el resto de los pimientos en cuadritos.
3. Mezclar la carne, la verduras y el huevo. sal y pimienta.
4. Rellenar los pimientos.
5. En un sartén antiadherente poner los pimientos por ambos lados hasta dorar.
5. Llevar al horno a 180ºC por 30-40 min hasta que la carne esté cocida.
6. Sacar poner queso rallado encima y volver al horno hasta que el queso esté dorado. Servir.
################
RECIPE
Ingredients:
- 2 red and yellow peppers
- 350 g ground beef
1/2 onion
- 1 egg
- 50 g grated Parmesan cheese
- Salt and pimieta
preparation:
1. Cut the peppers into rings, reserve tips.
2. Cut the onion and the rest of the peppers into small squares.
3. Mix the meat, vegetables and egg ,salt and pepper.
4. Fill the peppers.
5. In a non-stick skillet put the peppers on both sides until golden brown.
5. Bake at 180ºC for 30-40 minutes until the meat is cooked.
6. Remove grated cheese on top and return to the oven until the cheese is golden brown. To serve.
so I sent flickr some angry emails about desaturating my images. but it wasn't their fault. it was mine. I've been working in a different color profile and need to convert my images. sorry flickr! anyway, I'm replacing every image I've uploaded since June 14th.
Poquito sometimes has an anxious look on his face. He's a rescue, and sometimes I think he's still afraid I might desert him. (I wouldn't, of course).
The couple had a themed wedding "Night at the Oscars"...they'd wanted the photos around the base of the bottom tier and the topper was bride and groom honeybees (their surname is Hannie).
I suggested the stencilled tiers as they wanted it to be elegant, but also fit the theme and their special requests for the cake. (I didn't love the bee idea for the top, but sometimes you just have to do what your client requests!).
Red V top tier, Chocolate middle tier, Vanilla bottom tier. Fresh roses, edible print photos, royal icing stencil work.
For the full experience click the link
I had just gotten out of the shower..began wiping away the accumulated steam from the mirror...and I noticed a certain something about myself..almost as if I didn't recognize myself for a minute. Have you ever looked in the mirror at yourself...I mean really looked...and couldn't help but feel like you were looking at a stranger?
So that got me thinking..about me and how I think I am perceived to other people..There are many 'qualities' I possess that anyone who really knows me will certainly attest to...and it is obvious to all that know of me that I am a few things..I hold a few titles I guess you could say..I'm a mother (first, always!), I am a soon to be ex wife (woo-hoo!), a crafter of many things, I adore photography, I am a huge dog lover...etc etc...But those things about me are merely branches on my tree..They don't say who I really am..although I am not sure what else really does some times..and I find myself wondering if I even like to be in specific categories...definitely not the wife one...If I have realized that after many years of wedded bliss (hell)..that I am not cut out to be a wife..when my kids move out on their own, I will not have the daily parenting responsibilities I have now...I enjoy all types of animals and not just of the canine persuasion....so in return then do all of these things now take away from who I am? Of course not..so those things about me, those 'titles' do not define me...just small bits of my life and how I have lived it...I guess I can only hope to begin to realize more about me as a whole and not just think that I am the subcategories....and once again take a look at myself in the mirror and realize that I am in fact not such a mystery anymore....
Canon 400mm DO IS, Canon 7D, Canon 1.4x II
Mallard_Anas platyrhynchos
Ecology
The Mallard inhabits most wetlands, including parks, small ponds and rivers, and usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing; there are reports of it eating frogs.[2] It usually nests on a river bank, but not always near water. It is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and will form large flocks, which are known as a sord.[6]
[edit] Breeding behavior
Mallards form pairs only until the female lays eggs, at which time she is left by the male. The clutch is 8–13 eggs, which are incubated for 27–28 days to hatching with 50–60 days to fledgling. The ducklings are precocial, and can swim and feed themselves on insects as soon as they hatch, although they stay near the female for protection.
When they pair off with mating partners, often one or several drakes will end up "left out". This group will sometimes target an isolated female duck — chasing, pestering and pecking at her until she weakens (a phenomenon referred to by researchers as rape flight), at which point each male will take turns copulating with the female. Male Mallards will also occasionally chase other males in the same way. (In one documented case, a male Mallard copulated with another male he was chasing after said male had been killed when he flew into a glass window.)[7]
[edit] Ancestor of domestic ducks
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) is the ancestor of almost all of the varieties of domestic ducks. Domestic ducks belong to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae. The wild Mallard and Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) are believed to be the ancestors of all domestic ducks.[3][4]
[edit] Genetic pollution, hybridization and systematics
The last male Mariana Mallard.
The release of feral Mallard Ducks in areas where they are not native sometimes creates problems through interbreeding with indigenous waterfowl. These non-migratory Mallards interbreed with indigenous wild ducks from local populations of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring. Complete hybridization of various species of wild ducks gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl. The wild Mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domesticated and feral populations.[3][4][8][9][10]
Mallards frequently interbreed with their closest relatives in the genus Anas, such as the American Black Duck, and also with species more distantly related, for example the Northern Pintail, leading to various hybrids that may be fully fertile. This is quite unusual among different species, and apparently has its reasons in the fact that the Mallard evolved very rapidly and not too long ago, during the Late Pleistocene only. The distinct lineages of this radiation are usually kept separate due to non-overlapping ranges and behavioral cues, but are still not fully genetically incompatible. Mallards and their domesticated conspecifics are, of course, also fully interfertile.
The Mallard is considered an invasive species in New Zealand. There, and elsewhere, Mallards are spreading with increasing urbanization and hybridizing with local relatives.[11] Over time, a continuum of hybrids ranging between almost typical examples of either species will develop; the speciation process beginning to reverse itself.[12] This has created conservation concerns for relatives of the Mallard, such as the Hawaiian Duck,[13] the A. s. superciliosa subspecies of the Pacific Black Duck,[14] the American Black Duck,[15] the Florida Duck,[16] Meller's Duck,[17] the Yellow-billed Duck,[12] and the Mexican Duck,[18] in the latter case even leading to a dispute whether these birds should be considered a species[19] (and thus entitled to more conservation research and funding) or included in the mallard.
Like elsewhere worldwide the alien Mallards are also causing severe “genetic pollution” of South Africa’s biodiversity by breeding with endemic ducks. The hybrids of Mallard and the Yellow-billed Duck are fertile and can produce more hybrid offspring. If this continues, only hybrids will occur and in the long term this will result in the extinction of various indigenous waterfowl. The Mallard duck can cross breed with 63 other species and is posing a severe threat to the genetic integrity of indigenous waterfowl. Mallards and their hybrids compete with indigenous birds for resources such as food, nest sites and roosting sites.[10]
On the other hand, the Chinese Spotbill is currently introgressing into the Mallard populations of the Primorsky Krai, possibly due to habitat changes from global warming.[20] The Mariana Mallard was a resident allopatric population - in most respects a good species - apparently initially derived from Mallard × Pacific Black Duck hybrids;[21] unfortunately, it became extinct in the 1980s. In addition, feral domestic ducks interbreeding with Mallards have led to a size increase - especially in drakes - in most Mallards in urban areas. Rape flights between normal-sized females and such stronger males are liable to end with the female being drowned by the males' combined weight.
It was generally assumed that as the spectacular nuptial plumage of Mallard drakes is obviously the result of sexual selection - most species in the mallard group being sexually monomorphic -, hybrid matings would preferentially take place between females of monomorphic relatives and Mallard drakes instead of the other way around. But this generalization was found to be incorrect.[22]
Note that it is not the hybridization itself that causes most conservation concerns. The Laysan Duck is an insular relative of the Mallard with a very small and fluctuating population. Mallards sometimes arrive on its island home during migration, and can be expected to occasionally have remained and hybridized with Laysan Ducks as long as these species exist. But these hybrids are less well adapted to the peculiar ecological conditions of Laysan Island than the local ducks, and thus have lower fitness, and furthermore, there were - apart from a brief time in the early 20th century when the Laysan Duck was almost extinct - always much more Laysan Ducks than stray Mallards. Thus, in this case, the hybrid lineages would rapidly fail.
In the cases mentioned above, however, ecological changes and hunting have led to a decline of local species; for example, the New Zealand Gray Duck's population declined drastically due to overhunting in the mid-20th century (Williams & Basse 2006). In the Hawaiian Duck, it seems that hybrid offspring are less well-adapted to native habitat and that utilizing them in reintroduction projects makes these less than successful.[23] In conclusion, the crucial point underlying the problems of Mallards "hybridizing away" relatives is far less a consequence of Mallards spreading, but of local ducks declining; allopatric speciation and isolating behavior have produced today's diversity of Mallard-like ducks despite the fact that in most if not all of these populations, hybridization must always have occurred to some extent. Given time and a population of sufficient size exists, natural selection ought to suppress harmful allele combinations to a negligible level.
The aforementioned confounds analysis of the evolution considerably. Analyses of good samples of mtDNA sequences give the confusing picture[24] one expects from a wide-ranging species that has evolved probably not much earlier than the Plio-/Pleistocene boundary, around 2 mya. Mallards appear to be closer to their Indo-Pacific relatives than to their American ones judging from biogeography. Considering mtDNA D-loop sequence data,[25] they may have evolved more probably than not in the general area of Siberia; mallard bones rather abruptly appear in food remains of ancient humans and other deposits of fossil bones in Europe, without a good candidate for a local predecessor species. The large ice age paleosubspecies which made up at least the European and W Asian populations during the Pleistocene has been named Anas platyrhynchos palaeoboschas.
As expected, haplotypes typical of American Mallard relatives and Spotbills can be found in Mallards around the Bering Sea.[26] Interestingly, the Aleutian Islands turned out to hold a population of Mallards that appear to be evolving towards a good subspecies as gene flow with other populations is very limited.[25] This unexpected result suggests that reevaluation of the Greenland, Iceland, and NE Canada populations according to molecular and morphological characters is warranted.
Sometimes the snow comes down in June
Sometimes the sun goes around the moon
I see the passion in your eyes
Sometimes it's all a big surprise
'Cause there was a time when all I did was wish
You'd tell me this was love
It's not the way I hoped, or how I planned
But somehow it's enough
But now we're standing face to face
Isn't this world a crazy place?
Just when I thought a chance had passed
You go and save the best for last
All of the nights you came to me
'Cause some silly girl had set you free
You wondered how you'd make it through
I wondered what was wrong with you
'Cause how could you give your love to someone else
And share your dreams with me
Sometimes the very thing you're looking for
Is the one thing you can't see
But now we're standing face to face
Isn't this world a crazy place?
Just when I thought a chance had passed
You go and save the best for last
- Save The Best For Last, by Vanessa Williams
sometimes you're the only ones there and sometimes you have to turn on the lights as you go. I did not know that this light switch was behind a two-headed sheep, until it was too late.
We had to rush out to HD late the other night to buy faucets for our new vanity. The next day, when the plumber was installing everything, it turned out that one of the handles on one of the faucets wasn't working. He didn't want to dismantle the whole thing for me to return and suggested I call HD to replace just that one part. I snorted (to myself), but called anyway and got someone named Dan who told me to come in right away and he would give me the new part. Huh? This must be the HD in the parallel happy universe that I had called instead of the one down the road from us.
I drove over, certain no one would have ever heard or seen a Dan there. But there he was, looking exactly like he sounded on the phone - bushy beard, big hands and a belly sloping hugely under the orange apron. And sure enough, he opened up a brand new box, took out the part I needed and gave it to me. When I told him how much I appreciated his help because it saved me several (expensive) hours of the plumber's time, he said, "honey, I understand. I'm a plumber myself and we ain't cheap."
He can call me honey any time he wants.
I compiled these thumbnails of av_producer / Ron Diorio for a discussion topic at Flickr MFA. Here is my quote from that topic -- which will explain why I like Ron's work so much:
"For me you have certainly invoked "the very real." I see in your photostream the viewpoint of a documentarian and a sociologist. Perhaps I see this view because I lived in NYC for twenty years and I recognize in your images the familiar reminders of: the emotional grittiness of life lived as a human being in a large city; the looming, overpowering geometrical forms of structures; the sometimes sad, sometimes vibrant neon-lit colors. But most especially familiar is the stark quality of aloneness and separation that is present in a lot of your images. In a lot of ways -- with your dark colors and sometimes amorphous forms -- I feel that you have achieved a multi-faceted mapping of the sociolgical landscape of the human psyche. Although there is not a lot of joy invoked (understatement), (and I am usually a sucker for joyfullness), you have represented some other deeper truths of the human condition that have touched my heart. (And tears can cleanse and purify.)"
"Just wanted to give a hint (below) at what treasures one can find in your photostream. Please note that the individual thumbnails do not link anywhere except back to the multi-thumbnail image in my photostream. The link below will get you to av_producer's photostream:"
Bereits aus der Frühgeschichte der Menschen gibt es Hinweise darauf, dass die Menschen glaubten und fürchteten, die Toten könnten zurückkehren und möglicherweise den Lebenden Leid antun. Unter anderem wurden in verschiedenen Kulturen Gräber vorgefunden, in denen die Leichen Verstorbener gefesselt waren. Allerdings ist teilweise unklar, ob dies eine Sonderbehandlung oder sogar Hinrichtung für Verbrecher war.
Noch bis ins 18. Jahrhundert herrschte auch in der mitteleuropäischen Bevölkerung große Angst vor der Wiederkehr Verstorbener. So war eine Aufgabe der Totenwache, einen vermeintlichen Verstorbenen zu erschlagen, wenn er sich von dem Totenbett erheben sollte. Dies kam durchaus vor, denn die Methoden, den Tod festzustellen, waren unzuverlässiger als heute.
Die Figur beziehungsweise der Name Zombie zog in die Kulturerzeugnisse der Vereinigten Staaten ein, während Haiti von 1915 bis 1934 unter US-amerikanischer Besatzung stand. Der aus dem Kreolischen (zombi = Gespenst, Totengeist) herrührende Begriff Zombie wurde in den 1920er Jahren vor allem durch US-amerikanische Kinofilme und Comics populär, als das Phänomen des Scheintodes noch kaum ins Bewusstsein der Allgemeinheit eingedrungen war. Nach einer Definition des französischen Ethnologen Michel Leiris sind Zombies „Individuen, die man künstlich in einen Scheintodzustand versetzt, beerdigt, dann wieder ausgegraben und geweckt hat und die infolgedessen folgsam wie Lasttiere sind, da sie ja gutgläubig annehmen müssen, dass sie tot sind.“
Der Ethnobotaniker Wade Davis entdeckte 1982 auf seiner Reise durch Haiti, dass das dabei zur Anwendung kommende Zombie-Gift unter anderem das hochtoxische Tetrodotoxin enthält, und führte die Zombifikation von Menschen darauf zurück. Während Terence Hines vermutet hat, Davis sei einem Hoax aufgesessen, konnte der Autor Natias Neutert als „ethnologischer Detektiv“ die Vermutung von Leiris aus den 1930er Jahren 1994 durch folgenden Befund bestätigen: „Zombie-Gift: Im wesentlichen geraspelte Menschenknochen, zum Sieden gebrachte Krötensekrete und Bestandteile des Fou-fou, eines Kugelfisches, dessen Ovarien hochgiftiges Tetrodotoxin enthalten. Zehn Milligramm davon genügen, einen Menschen ins Jenseits zu befördern. Eine sehr viel geringere Dosis führt den Zustand des Scheintods herbei: Der Atem des Opfers geht nicht mehr, das Herz steht still, die Muskulatur ist gelähmt, sämtliche Stoffwechselfunktionen sind herabgesetzt — bis ganz nah an den klinischen Tod.“ Einleuchtend ist die weit verbreitete Idee, das Zombie-Gift werde mit Juckpulver vermischt auf die Haut des Opfers geblasen, sodass es beim Kratzen durch die dabei entstehenden Wunden aufgenommen wird und in die Blutbahn gelangt. Das Gift ruft rasch die beschriebenen krankheitsähnlichen Symptome hervor, an denen das Opfer scheinbar stirbt — ein Glaube, in dem sowohl die Gemeinde als auch das Opfer selbst befangen ist, solange mangelnde Aufgeklärtheit dies begünstigt. Nach Ansicht des Anthropologen Littlewood und des Neurologen Douyon, die mehrere „Zombies“ detailliert untersuchen konnten, handelt es sich in etlichen Fällen auch um herumirrende, psychisch kranke oder debile Fremde, die sich nicht zurechtzufinden wissen und daher oft fälschlicherweise als vermeintlich Verstorbene identifiziert werden.
Bereits aus der Frühgeschichte der Menschen gibt es Hinweise darauf, dass die Menschen glaubten und fürchteten, die Toten könnten zurückkehren und möglicherweise den Lebenden Leid antun. Unter anderem wurden in verschiedenen Kulturen Gräber vorgefunden, in denen die Leichen Verstorbener gefesselt waren. Allerdings ist teilweise unklar, ob dies eine Sonderbehandlung oder sogar Hinrichtung für Verbrecher war.
Noch bis ins 18. Jahrhundert herrschte auch in der mitteleuropäischen Bevölkerung große Angst vor der Wiederkehr Verstorbener. So war eine Aufgabe der Totenwache, einen vermeintlichen Verstorbenen zu erschlagen, wenn er sich von dem Totenbett erheben sollte. Dies kam durchaus vor, denn die Methoden, den Tod festzustellen, waren unzuverlässiger als heute.
Die Figur beziehungsweise der Name Zombie zog in die Kulturerzeugnisse der Vereinigten Staaten ein, während Haiti von 1915 bis 1934 unter US-amerikanischer Besatzung stand. Der aus dem Kreolischen (zombi = Gespenst, Totengeist) herrührende Begriff Zombie wurde in den 1920er Jahren vor allem durch US-amerikanische Kinofilme und Comics populär, als das Phänomen des Scheintodes noch kaum ins Bewusstsein der Allgemeinheit eingedrungen war. Nach einer Definition des französischen Ethnologen Michel Leiris sind Zombies „Individuen, die man künstlich in einen Scheintodzustand versetzt, beerdigt, dann wieder ausgegraben und geweckt hat und die infolgedessen folgsam wie Lasttiere sind, da sie ja gutgläubig annehmen müssen, dass sie tot sind.“
Der Ethnobotaniker Wade Davis entdeckte 1982 auf seiner Reise durch Haiti, dass das dabei zur Anwendung kommende Zombie-Gift unter anderem das hochtoxische Tetrodotoxin enthält, und führte die Zombifikation von Menschen darauf zurück. Während Terence Hines vermutet hat, Davis sei einem Hoax aufgesessen, konnte der Autor Natias Neutert als „ethnologischer Detektiv“ die Vermutung von Leiris aus den 1930er Jahren 1994 durch folgenden Befund bestätigen: „Zombie-Gift: Im wesentlichen geraspelte Menschenknochen, zum Sieden gebrachte Krötensekrete und Bestandteile des Fou-fou, eines Kugelfisches, dessen Ovarien hochgiftiges Tetrodotoxin enthalten. Zehn Milligramm davon genügen, einen Menschen ins Jenseits zu befördern. Eine sehr viel geringere Dosis führt den Zustand des Scheintods herbei: Der Atem des Opfers geht nicht mehr, das Herz steht still, die Muskulatur ist gelähmt, sämtliche Stoffwechselfunktionen sind herabgesetzt — bis ganz nah an den klinischen Tod.“ Einleuchtend ist die weit verbreitete Idee, das Zombie-Gift werde mit Juckpulver vermischt auf die Haut des Opfers geblasen, sodass es beim Kratzen durch die dabei entstehenden Wunden aufgenommen wird und in die Blutbahn gelangt. Das Gift ruft rasch die beschriebenen krankheitsähnlichen Symptome hervor, an denen das Opfer scheinbar stirbt — ein Glaube, in dem sowohl die Gemeinde als auch das Opfer selbst befangen ist, solange mangelnde Aufgeklärtheit dies begünstigt. Nach Ansicht des Anthropologen Littlewood und des Neurologen Douyon, die mehrere „Zombies“ detailliert untersuchen konnten, handelt es sich in etlichen Fällen auch um herumirrende, psychisch kranke oder debile Fremde, die sich nicht zurechtzufinden wissen und daher oft fälschlicherweise als vermeintlich Verstorbene identifiziert werden.
The course of duty sometimes brings me to strange places. In this case Aurillac, the existance of which I had no preceding awareness. Initially only as a intermediate hop between Castres, where I did the stuff I do for a living, and Paris. Unfortunately, a few moments after landing a fireman arrived, and looking upward to the plane with this weary look. This, initially, was not abnormal. French fireman look after everything, and on these tiny airfields it isn't thst surprising they take care of security. However, this guy kept looking, with a face that looked grimmer every minute. After a while, he disappeared, only to returned with a collegue who also had this knowing look. Next, the pilot's compartment opened up, and two unhappy looking pilots came out. One of them appeared eventually next to the fireman. A small discussion ensued.
*** result*** four hours later, after all sandwiches were finished, a roar announced the arrival of another ATR 42 which brought us to Paris. The original craft remained on the tarmac with ladders and worried looking technicians all over it. I still wonder what happened...