Yet another blog

Hummingbird

I lost count of how many times I've tried to take one single photograph of a hummingbird.

They're fast, they come and back in a blink, so it is nearly impossible.

It was quite an exercise... about 1h and a couple blurred shots, but I did it! Loved it.

This one has the miniature effect from my new camera Canon 600D - which makes it even more special.

Enjoy.

Generosity

Her dog died today, and when she was told that he closed his eyes to sleep and that he would never wake up again because he would be upstairs with "Papai do Céu", she said she would ask her magician friend to use his magic wand. And the magic wand would make him open his eyes again and so he would come back home. Because yes, he can stay with Papai do Céu, but she wants him at home with her.

But she won't ask her friend to do it today because she has to go out, so her dog can spend sometime upstairs, but tomorrow he will come back home.

So generous.

My latest findings on the Internet

The Internet is so huge that you can find any useless thing you can thing about. But sometimes the useless becomes handy. Problem is when you get dozen useless things with just one handy feature each. You know what I mean?

That's pretty much what the mashup world brings to our screens, but it is also one thing we would not live without. Have you imagined yourself without TripAdvisor or any similar site that allows you to sign in with your X profile than post it to your blog/microblog linking to another account you have which will help you keep up to date with that another account with the latest news and so on so forth? Exactly.

So, that's what I've been digging about on this huge sea of 1's and 0's. Lots of useless things, one or another cool stuff and many ideas. Too bad I don't have the time to make it happen - perhaps you can?

TripIt
It is nice, but still has a lot of room for improvement. I like the fact that I can just forward the email I receive from my travel agency with a link to a site in which I can find all my travel itinerary and their system scans all the info and puts on a trip file for me. Then it keeps track of the flights and other things for me, sends me SMS and email upon changes, and what I like the most about it: allows me to save a file to import all the data to my Outlook - or publish it so that I can add an internet calendar to my Outlook as well. And that allows me to keep my phone up to date with my trip schedule and my regular appointments from my calendar. Seems complicated, but believe me, it helped me a lot and made my life a bit easier.
I would still add a few functionalities though (of course):

• Mashup with travel content sites such as TripAdvisor - I don't think they're competitors. One gices you advises on your trips (UGC) and the other makes it easier for you to organize the whole thing. Tripadvisor sucks on organizing things...
  
• Allow me to perform some actions using my frequent flyer account - since it is there and I can consult my balance and history, why not allow me to request credit based on the flight details I have added on my trips?
  
• Integrate with my travel agency - I would love just to point the dates, cities and preferences of hotel and then would like to receive all the cost estimations for approval. I know I could do that on TripAdvisor, for example (see, another reason for integration), but in my case having the company's travel agency sorting all these details for me is easier and saves a lot of time. Then I would just go and select/approve my choices and voilá! The trip file is created.
  
• Application for Symbian phones. What's with iPhone that ANY company wants to have an app on it? It is just design and buzz. If you really want to think on your consumer, open the app portfolio to all platforms. Did you know that there are more users using Symbian OS than iPhones in the world? Do you want to achieve only the iPhone consumers because they are so called "alpha"? Come on!
  
• Integration with other sites such as Flickr. That's what I like about Dopplr. You add the content about your trip - such as a review of a restaurant, for example, then you add a picture that is on
  Flickr and voilá. Everybody sees it. But the thing is: you don't actually upload the photo twice. You just add a machine tag on Flickr and Dopplr does the dirty work for you.

Humm. I guess I mentioned most of the things I wanted in this post just talking about TripIt. It is really cool to be all connected with everything we have in the virtual world.

I'm going on a business trip next Sunday and for the very first time, instead of making an Excel sheet with all my flights and hotel details so that my parents could have it in case of an emergency, I just gave them access on my TripIt. One day I'll have an assistant that will make all my travel arrangements and she will add all the details there. I'll just check everything on my phone - or receive the SMSs asking me to check-in, with the instructions to get to the hotel and so on.

I wonder what I am going to do with my free time if I won't waste it doing things I do now... humm creating new stuff as I said in the beginning of this post? Nah... Guess I'll still liaise on you for that.

Later.

Tistu, o menino do dedo verde

Tistu (or Tistou, in French), originally uploaded by GiPereira.

This was one of the first books I've ever read. I remember it so well I can feel the texture of the pages in my fingers.

My dad gave it to me... I saw the package standing somewhere in the house and wonder what it would be. I was 5 or 6 - yes, learned to read really young out of my own curiosity - and was getting bored reading Mauricio de Souza's comic books. I still like Mauricio's work, but for a kid seeking for words, the gibis are not that interesting.

Anyway, one day I got the package and asked my dad what was that for... he did something with his eyebrow and said "It's for you... forgot to give you".

Daaang! I unwrapped the book immediately and started to read.
I probably spent 2 weeks reading the book - not bad for such young - and in the end the book was full of highlights of the words I had to look up at the dictionary. Oh, man! I thought I knew the words... but there were so many of them I didn't really know... But still was a good accomplishment.

So, this photo immediately reminds me of Tistu because anything touched by him would grow plants and flowers afterward. And he changed his dad's point of view about life and work. He did a lot for unknown people, not seeking for reward or recognition whatsoever.

It is a beautiful book. Nice reading for a kid. I just hope mine have the chance to read something like that one day. My copy of Tistu unfortunately is no longer available.. I've read it so many times, that the book doesn't exist anymore... lost the pages, then the cover, then the rest of the pages... and now I just don't know where to find what is left of it.

If you like, try the links bellow:
Cantinho da Leitura: Tistu, o menino do dedo verde
Tistou les pouces verts

São Paulo

DSC00369, originally uploaded by GiPereira.

São Paulo is a giant concrete building forest.

There was a time when you could see a line behind the buildings where everything was green - a leftover of Mata Atlântica or the start of the country side depending the way you look.

Nowadays you just see more buildings.
Even the trees from the city parks are hard to be found.

Is this the city we want our children to be grown in the not so long future?