You are currently browsing the archives for June, 2010.
One of my best friend, a guy from Texas, recently bought a dslr. This made us having long chat about photography (cool!)
Yesterday we talked about HDR and we end up with screen-sharing to see “action” to do for editing a picture.
During a test I was doing with a couple of random picture, that I had taken an year ago and considered “crappy”, I got this result:
Not an HDR at all, but I see something of intriguing in it.
At least, I think so.
27th May 2005. I went to buy a plant with daddy and I saw a nice orchid. I’ve always loved orchids and all bulb flowers but they are usually the most expensive ones, thus my parents usually avoided buying those.
I think that day daddy decided to buy that orchid because the following day was my 18th birthday. When we were paying our plants the lady owning the “flowers and plants shop” told me: “I want to just tell you that this plant probably won’t bloom the next year”.
For the following 4 years (till May 2009) it kept on blooming and showing her best flowers at the end of May.
It was always great, it was like “receiving” a present that brings hope.
This year 2 orchids didn’t bloom, one was even without leaves and we thought that probably mine was the dead orchid…
Few minutes ago I’ve gone out on the balcony to check if the clouds were rain clouds or not, and I saw an amazing show:
For the 6th year of its life, and the 5th time that it wasn’t supposed to bloom, my little orchid did it!
At the moment there are “just” two flower and the leaves seems not in their best shape, but it still rocks! 
That’s one of those little events that can cheer up me for a whole day ^_^
I had lunch with the webmaster on the port dock. I wanted to go there, close to the sea, for my birthday.
This sparrow was without a paw and standing on this gate, it seemed so “not feeling good” as it were in a cage.
The very first picture taken to Java that came the day of my birthday but not for me… not completely at least.
Amazing coincidences…
Even an hole in the wall (not made by the cat 
), created to set I-don’t-know-what in the house, can be a source of fun for a kitty.
I’ve finally set the tablet pc for picture editing, so that I can edit and publish pictures even from the Meeting of Rimini at the end of August. At least, that’s the program. I’ve no idea of what will happen in these months
The first time i read the words combination was on a webcam I bought for my first laptop… it had face tracking, it was something of new and amazing, and not always working.
In these days I had to take care of the little Java because my brother is sick and away from “his home”. This gave me the chance to observe her while playing (see yesterday post).
I realized she focuses completely on the ball or anything that is hanging and moving (my curls are her second choice to play with! That’s bad!). She keeps on doing it until there is an enough loud or “interesting” noise coming from another direction.
Even if the ball motions is random and so fast that I have problem in being able tracking it, little Java is always pointing that.
I’m not surprised. I know it’s normal for animals. I don’t think she has superpowers…
It just made me thinking about that “webcam cool feature”, smiling at about how “old” is “tracking”, and wondering if a cat could be (or had been) and inspirational point for creating a better “face tracking” feature.
Just thoughts.
Java loves hiding somewhere and paying attention to the ball that the webmaster moves very quickly to make her playing.
She then rises a little her back legs and goes for the attack!
After few seconds she quickly runs back to her “observational point” and keep on tacking the ball.
I’ve taken this picture in August 2008.
It recalls me of a Péguy’s book I bought recently. It makes me thinking especially of a part of the “Il portico del mistero della seconda virtù” (Italian title of that book) where he speaks about night… it’s a very long part (several pages),
Today I want to share the following lines I read while in a medical centre waiting room [gone there just for a blood test, nothing serious].
[…]
E io vi dico Rimandate a domani
Quelle preoccupazioni e quelle pene che oggi vi rodono
E oggi potrebbero divorarvi.
Rimandate a domani quei singhiozzi che vi soffocano
Quando vedete l’infelicità di oggi.
Qui singhiozzi che vi salgono e vi strangolano
Rimandate a domani quelle lacrime che vi riempiono gli occhi e la testa
Che v’inondano. Che vi cadono. Quelle lacrime che vi colano.
Perché da qui a domani, io , Dio, sarò forse passato.
[…]
La notte è luogo, la notte è l’essere in cui si riposa, in cui si ritira, in cui si raccoglie.
In cui rientra. E ne esce fresco. La notte è la mia più bella creazione.
I regret I don’t have the English version of this book (if there’s any). If/When I find it I’ll write the English lines instead of the Italians ones.
This really “crowded” orchid is a present I was given by the webmaster.
He gave me it saying “I’m sorry”, the day after we had a terrible argument. It was early June 2008.
We were both so upset and frustrated that probably we both thought we were going to break up.
A friend of mine, who lives in Texas, helped me to calm down and this made me finding the strength to overcome that problem.
This is the 3rd year the orchid is making flowers.
Till last year it did flower along a vertical branch, that died and it made growing this horizontal one. It’s probably due to the fact that the plant gets sun mainly from that direction.
I love this year “flowers configuration”, especially because there is JUST ONE orchid differently oriented (rotated of about 90 degree on the right).
It makes me smile because it seems it didn’t want to be hidden by other orchids and it’s seeking for more light.
On the right there is the “dead body” of my very first orchid that I bought for my 18th birthday and did flower for 5 years. It’s dead now.
That’s what I think when I look at this plants, the little story of the last years of my life.
A common life of a constant desire of eternal Love and Beauty.
It might be beautiful but it is terrible frail.
Meeting of Rimini 2010 update – We finally got 2 rooms in an Hotel I went whit family when I was 8 or so. Today the webmaster bought the tickets for the flight. Seems like I’m finally going there.
I had found an hotel that looked nice, good and enough cheap but…
I’ve noticed only today something that might be an REALLY NEGATIVE aspect. We still didn’t pay the rooms (at least, I think the webmaster didn’t pay) so we might have lost no money.
The actual problem is that it’s getting a little late to find a good place that doesn’t cost too much.
Once I was great in choosing places or things, now I badly fail even in this…
I wonder if there is any skill left in me.
Yeah, I’m so upset now that I seriously started thinking about giving up the idea going to the Meeting of Rimini 2010.
I want to hide under my blankets and sleep all the day long…
