Asparagus anyone?

Made some Asparagus yesterday, thought I'd share some with you. For those who like asparagus, they're on sale at Publix for $1.59/lb. They are usually around $3.50/lb.

Recipe? Sure! It's pretty simple...

You need:
Around a pound of Asparagus
4 cloves of Garlic - chopped
Fresh ground black pepper
2 tsp Extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1/2 a lemon

They are safe!

The fishies look pretty ok now!!! They are not upside down floating at the top of the tank anymore. They still seem a little sluggish and the Daddy Fish still wants to hang out at the top of the tank but they are both right side up and don't seem like they are half-dead anymore.

I did it again.....

Around 15 years ago, I killed my best friend's fishies. He had asked me to feed them while he and his family were out of town for a week. Being the irresponsible guy I was then, I completely neglected it, remembering about it only 3 days later, going to his house to find his two black goldfishes floating dead in his aquarium. I still remember the sight and the sinking feeling deep inside, knowing that I was responsible for their death, that it was my neglect that starved them to death. No amount of regret would bring them back. My buddy forgave me but I don't think he ever forgot about it. I don't think he ever kept any fishies ever since.

Fast forward 15 years, we had two fishies that I got as a birthday present for our son in December of 2007. "Daddy fish" and "Baby fish" is what he called them. I have been taking care of them pretty decently. I have put off cleaning the tank for almost a month a few times but never have starved them.

Early Morning light...

Early morning light is just beautiful. The angle of the light source also adds a lot of perspective to the pictures.

In this case, it's just a random building with glass windows. However, the color of the morning sunlight provides the glow and the angle of the light source blended with the palm trees provide the gobos which liven up this random building in downtown Safety Harbor.

Convergence...

On my way home from work this evening, the sky seemed magical - the colors were blue, white and orange in the far, the clouds were broken up into tiny little pieces of cotton candy and they all seemed to be going somewhere...far into the sea. They were converging to some focal point..as if they were going home to their mother ship.

I wanted to go to the top of our parking lot and snap some pics but there were too many people leaving the building and I shyed off from doing so. This pic was taken from my car at a stoplight, while waiting for the signal to go green. I think it came out pretty well especially given the fact that one of my eyes were at the signal, one at the rear view mirror and this one looking through the viewfinder...

Another stop on my way home just to click a quick pic of the setting sun and the converging clouds...

Time for a shower...

Just a few feet away from the Safety Harbor Marina is this small little park in this small little town. I think it's called the Memorial Park. It has a war memorial honoring the veterans of the various wars. I don't have the accurate details so will need to look it up and update this post at a later date.

This park has a small walking trail, a few benches, a couple of shelters and this - a nice little fountain in the center of the park.

I have also heard that Safety Harbor Marina is a vantage point for viewing the space shuttle or rocket launches from Kennedy Space center. Next time they have an evening lauch during a weekend, I might come here with my camera and tripod...just for fun.

A bird in the hand is worth how many in the water?

This one is from the same marina. There were quite a few birds flying around but this one was busy basking in the morning glory - beautiful weather, heavenly sunlight, cool but not cold water....oooh. This is the best time of the year to be in Florida. November through March is so very beautiful around here. This more than makes up for the 4 months of muggy summer and news channels filled with hurricane trackers.

Early morning reflections

Went out on a early morning photo drive this weekend. The plan was to leave before sunrise and get some pics of the rising sun. However, due to the recent DST change, sunrise time was miscalculated and I left the house almost an hour into the day.

I did not take too many pics, may be around 45; out of which around 10 have come out good (yes, relatively good, good on my scale, good compared to the 35 others, good enough for me to post on here). The two posted here made the cut.

I spent a good 2 hours driving around. This was my first stop - the marina in downtown Safety Harbor. This is a small little town among the other small little towns around here. There are around 10 small little towns in this 15 mile radius - Safety Harbor is one of them. They have a nice fireworks display here every July 4th. This place gets so very crowded at that time - cars and people all around you. Last time I was here for the event, it took us 2 hours to get out of downtown Safety Harbor, as opposed to 5 minutes today.

I might post a few more pics of the next couple of photo-stops I made on this trip soon...

Where no man has gone before....

I turn left...
I enter the door...
I find things cleaner...
I find something funky...
I notice something missing....
I see vending machines...
I wonder where I am...
I gasp and look around....
I find no one and breathe a sigh...
I backtrack my steps..
I get out the door....
I turn right...
I enter the door...
I am in familiar territory...
Oooooh....I relieve myself...
Mission accomplished!
I detoured through a place...
Where no man has gone before...
Or choose to admit they have.

When you're happy and you know it...

You breathe more...

You smile more....

You don't need a reason....

You see good around you...

You like watching the gloomy skies...

Your station plays all the good songs on Pandora...

You giggle like a girl when you read something funny...

You drive slower...

You park at the farthest end of the lot and walk...

You see new ponds and plants you want to come back to...

You see the curlew pecking for bugs in the grass...

You leave the blog post open ended....(to be continued....)

These are a few of my favorite things....

A laptop outdated that just keeps on going...
Scratched up Blackberry that's constantly buzzing...
The time shifting magic a Tivo that brings...
These a few of my favorite things.


My Laptop - I have probably gone through around 20 laptops in the last 10 years but am yet to buy one of my own. This is something I have gotten so used to - whether it's a laptop or a desktop. I've had one for over half of my living years. I cannot imagine living without one. I'm not an early adopter when it comes to electronics - The desktop (that I bought) is older than my first-born but it's still going strong. I'll probably have it with me for at least a couple more years.

I've never been that lucky with laptops though. I have had crashed hard disks in at least 5 of my laptops so far. It can probably be attributed to my not-so-gentle handling.


My Blackberry - Two years ago, I did not have one. Two years ago, I did not see the need for one. It will be exactly two years in December since I've had this blackberry. It's like one of those things that you can live without until you start living with.I love carrying it with me. I'm addicted to the crackberry - It is my morning alarm, it is my personal navigator, it's been a lifesaver in boring meetings that I've found a fatal attraction to. IPhone appeals to me but I won't carry one until one lands on my table.

DVR (and the DVR remote) - What can I say about this one. Never had one, never thought I'd find a use for one, never found the value in spending money on one. Last year, I was offered one for free with no monthly fees. I whatthehecked and took them on the offer. Now, I cannot imagine not having one (again one of those things...). I can hardly watch anything live anymore unless it's on those 'no commercial' channels. 99%  of my viewing has been time shifted - starting to watch 10 minutes into the program or watching a day/week/month old episode of Good Eats.

If I was stuck on a deserted island, what are the three things I would like to take with me? Well, now you know - a Laptop without power (Did I mention that my laptop battery lasts 20 minutes when unplugged?), a DVR without a TV and a Blackberry without coverage!

Nice long walk...

(Another pic from the same park, cropped for a better perspective)

Are long walks a thing of the past? I remember going on long walks with my dear buddy during the college days. We used to roam aimlessly for hours, just walking, talking, eating....just walking. It used to be quite peaceful.
These days, I hardly walk without purpose anymore. If I were to chart my walking profile, it would probably look something like this:

I used to bike (motorbike) around a lot. Many times just aimlessly; sucking in the open air and the bugs, suspended particles, unburnt oil fumes and at times water from the rain. Never did I fall ill due to the varieties of exotic alien particles entering my body.
These days, the pollen in Jan/Feb manage to bring me to tears.

I used to xyz a lot too. However, these days, I only abc.

What does this mean? Things have changed for the bad? Have they changed for the good?

Well, neither - things have changed, priorities have changed, there's a stark contrast in what I did then and what I do now. However, the person in me is probably still the same, just evolving over time...

All I know, is that I will be walking down the path...raring to know what's at the next bend...

The Reflecting Tree - part ii

...Today, I had 30 minutes to kill. I usually have these 30 minutes to kill around the same time every Tuesday and Friday. However, today was a bit different from the last time I visited this place....

...Today, I had my 18-55 lens with me (as opposed to the 35mm prime the last time)

...Today, I had a circular polarizer on the lens

...Today, It was 5:30 PM standard time in November (as opposed to 5:30 PM EDT in August or September the last time I was here). It was 20-30 minutes before sunset

...Today, I wish I had a tripod on me

...Today, the sky was overcast - not white, not dark but gray clouds.

...Today, the picture came out much better than the last one. Still room for improvement, but some things are definitely better - a lot less gray, much crisper reflection, a little more saturation

...Today, I felt kinda labored taking this picture. May be it was a one-off event.

...Today, I took this picture so that I can post it here. Most other pics I've posted on here, I have taken because I wanted to take them. (Not sure if it matters...just an observation)

What's wrong with this photo???

Well, firstly, it's not plumb. One might argue that it could be easily fixed post capture. However, there is no room at the top or the bottom for straightening. So either the tree or the reflection or both will get cropped if I try to straighten it.

Secondly, it's very gray and bland. I should've used a better white balance. Again, not something that cannot be tweaked...but why do something later that you could've done while capturing?

Thirdly, I couldn't have picked a worse time of the day or day of the week. It was around 5:30 in the summer. The sky wasn't cloudy and the sun was out casting a white sky in the background.

Fourthly, may be using a telephoto lens might have given it some perspective but all I had is a 35mm which is kinda bland for these kinds of pictures. I'm not sure about this one though.

Fifthly, color saturation is weak. It just looks gloomly - the grass could have been greener, the water could have been bluer, the sky could have been....well...anything but a blanket of grayish white.

Here's what I plan to do. I'll be going back to this same spot in the next couple of weeks, taking at least 5 more with more or less the same composition - A tree and it's reflection. I'll attempt to do it at different times of the day and different days of the week (from a weather standpoint).

After I have my 5-6 pics, I'll post them all together and we can see which one stands out the most.