Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2, 1/100 sec, ISO1000 “Fresh Bread” Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！Good evening!
Today Mariko made some amazing food… as you can see from the photo above she did some baking. The rolls looks amazing, don’t they? And she also baked a loaf of bread for kids’ sandwiches. The bread tastes so good, and Mariko uses fresh ingredients and of course there are no preservatives.. the best bread ever!
And for dinner, she prepared the kids’ favorite… Pasta Carbonara. Plus figs wrapped in prosciutto, and a wonderful salad of grilled romaine lettuce and baby tomatoes. I helped by grilling the greens. 😆 As I have mentioned in previous posts, Mariko treats us so well with all the delicious food.
Ironically, today I started a water-fast so I couldn’t taste any of the goodies. I think normally it would be really difficult to resist, but fasting gives you a sense of empowerment over food. Still, with today’s dinner I did feel a bit of temptation, but I will look forward to eating when my fast ends, although I am not sure how long I will go for this time.
In other news, today was the first day of school for the kids and it was pretty much back to the routine as if summer break never happened. Life is just moving very quickly it seems.
Today’s photo is of the delicious salads my friend Mikey and I enjoyed for lunch at Salata. When we get together, Salata is one of the top choices! I think it’s still a little odd that a salad can be so delicious.
Like many people, I grew up eating a lot of meat, and salad was just something that you ate before the main course. But now I believe that we are conditioned by Big Food into eating that way… I guess for my entire life we’ve had ads and food industry-influenced government telling us what foods are “good” for us, how much of it we need to eat, and when we need to eat.
It’s difficult to see things any other way if that’s all you’ve been exposed to. Other lifestyles can seem weird, unhealthy, or just plain wrong. That’s why I think you need to shake things up… for instance traveling to different countries or living abroad can really open your mind. Learning about other cultures and actually being immersed in them makes you question a lot of things.
I tend to look at people who have traveled extensively, or lived abroad, differently than those who have lived in the same place their whole lives. I really feel like they have a broader way of looking at the world. Of course this is not always the case, but there’s something to be said of first-hand experience and forming opinions based on direct experience, rather than forming a worldview based on mainstream news.
So, back to the salad… I am grateful that my friend Mikey suggested this lunch. It was a new experience for me, something I would never have considered, but one that I found I enjoy quite a bit! What else should I try?
I mentioned in a previous post that I had fasted (drinking only water, black coffee, and tea) for multiple days, 72-hours being the longest stretch without calories. That experience opened my eyes up to how we’ve been taught to depend on our 3 meals a day, and how it is not necessary to follow this lifestyle. It’s actually quite easy to skip a meal or two, and there are health benefits to extended water-fasts. But we’ve been taught that we need to eat. Constantly. That hunger is bad… we’ve also been taught that hunger=starvation. But hunger is not starvation at all.
Most of us have plenty of fat to keep us out of starvation for weeks. It sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But when you have done an extended fast, you realize that we don’t actually need to eat as much as we are told we need to. During a long fast, you actually lose the craving for junk/unhealthy foods and you can look at that craving from a detached point of view. Big Food has designed our diets to keep us craving high-fat, high-salt, and sugary foods. A water-fast will give you greater clarity about this. And you will recognize that there is a lifestyle where in which you are not dependent on Big Food’s guidelines.
Talk about a different point of view!!! I know most people will think it is crazy to go without food for 3 days, but have they tried it? I think if you do, you will have a broader view of eating, and how strong we can be mentally.
Wow, that was a bit of a ramble, wasn’t it? Anyways, I encourage anyone to look into water-fasting, and try to broaden your minds too! It’s seriously one of the best things I have ever done for myself in my life.
If you’ve read this far… thank you thank you thank you! 😄
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/500 sec, ISO400 “Waiting” Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！Hi, how’s it going?
Today’s photo is of a man waiting outside the martial arts studio. I assume he is waiting for his child to finish his class. I was in the area after finishing dinner, and was strolling around to get to the Pokestops that were nearby. Are you all playing Pokemon GO as well? I am playing it once in a while, but it is hard because the game runs so poorly on my phone. It’s frustrating and I give up many times because it just lags and then freezes. 😩
For the past few days, I’ve been fasting… meaning I have only had water, tea, and black coffee. It’s called a water fast and there are a lot of benefits to doing it. I wanted to go a bit longer than 3 days, but I think it’s good to just do a short fast before taking on longer ones. I’ve done 24-hour, and 36-hour fasts before, but the 72-hour was my longest to date! I felt fantastic after the first day and the fasts always reset my outlook on life (and food) for the better. It also gives the body a chance to heal itself, and the results for me are nicer skin, and my sore neck feels a lot better. I recommend you all do some research into water fasting… it’s a life-changer!
My first meal back from the fast was a nice bowl of Vietnamese Pho. The broth was so delicious and the veggies and noodles were excellent as well. After fasting, your sense of taste and smell are heightened so the meal was amazing. In all honesty, it probably wasn’t the best pho in the area, but today it sure tasted like it!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/950 sec, ISO400 “Saying Hi” Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！Hello, how’s it going?
Well, I didn’t expect to take another cloud photo for today’s snapshot, but as I was doing the dishes this evening, this beautiful cumulus specimen appeared over the trees to say hello. I couldn’t pass up the chance, so I shut off the water, grabbed my camera which was in the other room, then came back to the kitchen to take four photos of the cloud. I liked this one the best, and deleted the other three.
I am a big proponent of only keeping the best version of a series of photos if possible. In this case, the other three were simply different views of the same scene, some farther away from the window, and some closer. The photo above was the image that I felt was framed the best by the window, so it became the “keeper” and the other three got the “X” (marked for deletion).
I’ve heard people say that you should never delete any of your photos. Storage is cheap, after all. It doesn’t cost anything extra to keep every single photo you take, right? While this may be true, I personally found that I was paying the price in speed. The large amount of images was bloating my Lightroom catalog and slowing things down.
Conversely, by only keeping one photo from a series of images, my Lightroom catalog is lighter and more responsive. Plus there’s less visual clutter when I scroll through the catalog, or when I browse my images online at photos.google.com. I can scan quickly. I don’t have to wade though a bunch of mediocre versions of the same subject (and believe me when I say that I capture a TON of mediocre images!).
For me, it’s important to cull the photos soon after Iimport them into Lightroom or copy them to my computer. (I even try to delete photos before that in-camera) The quicker I get rid of those photos, the less time they have to make an imprint in my mind. I believe everything takes a portion of the brain’s attention, even a tiny bit of my subconscious. So, once the photos cease to exist, it frees that part of my brain’s hard drive, as well as my computer’s hard drive. At least that is what I believe. 😌
When I first began culling my photos, it wasn’t easy to delete photos. Yes, I was a digital hoarder at the time! But one thing that helped me was to imagine that my Lightroom catalog was a slideshow that I would be presenting to an audience. Would I want to show them 4 pictures of the same cloud? No way. They would get bored (and annoyed) quickly. I would pick the best photo to show them, and respect their time and attention. So why wouldn’t I treat myself with the same respect?
Once I got comfortable with culling quickly, it became easy, and it actually became fun! Making decisions and not looking back or regretting my actions gave me a sense of control. It won’t change the world, but it did affect the way I felt. Plus, once you start decluttering, it just snowballs and it feels great!
Okay, I seem to have rambled on a bit (again). So, back to the photo at hand…
For the Lightroom edit, it was similar to my previous post’s photo, with the addition of selective white balance. I gave the cloud a warmer tone, and the sky a cooler tone. That’s it! I’d estimate that I spent about 4 minutes in Lightroom before exporting.
I hope you had a nice day today. Let’s have a great Friday to close out the work week!
As always, if you have a comment or question, let me know.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/100 sec, ISO1250 Cedar Park, 2016
こんばんは！Greetings humans! 👽
As you can see from today’s photo, I’m “enjoying” the new exercise bike. It’s actually pretty good, although my legs are so weak. I get tired after only 10 minutes! I guess the energy drink I had wasn’t conducive to burning calories but I thought it was delicious. 🍺
I mentioned in my previous post that I wanted to try to wake up early and exercise before getting ready for work. Yeah, that didn’t happen. I am taking advantage of the fact that I don’t need to wake up the kids (Spring Break) and make breakfast for them. So I can sleep in! I will enjoy this week as well. 😜
But seriously, we read that if you can exercise more in your 40s, you’ll have a much healthier brain in your 60s. I don’t know if it is true or not, but it is good motivation to get active, which has other benefits. Plus, it’s fun to exercise. And then I can also enjoy yummy foods more, right?
Well, I am going to try to sleep early to counteract the daylight savings adjustment. Talk to you again!
おやすみなさい！
-B
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I use a Fujifilm X-series camera for most of the photos on this site and my Instagram. Why not pick one up for yourself?
