e X p L o R e

I won’t even be sharing thoughts about prescribed glasses nor soft lenses used for vision correction. The kind of ‘seeing aids’ here is not necessarily mentioned for changing whatever things that look blurry into clear sight, but a particular thing that will help us see a better world, an item that will explore more out of a simple thing that never considered special before, an action done as result of exaggerating what is actually needed to be seen by naked eyes.

A side of me wants to yell to everyone, telling them to spoil themselves with a great camera, great lenses and explore this mother nature in order to capture things that catch their interests. I am just an amateur, who happened to find the glorious joy that photography brings. Thanks for my husband who was so stingy in letting me borrow his newly-bought nikon D80 back in Februari 2007.

At that very same day, my heart got burnt with envy that I decided to get myself my own dslr. A canon 400D along with the kit lens 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 and a portrait lens 50mm f/1.8. Some maintenance kit bought as recommended such as UV filters as protection for the lenses, a micro fiber (soft clothes to cleans lens), jumbo blower (to blow away dust from lens) and a waterproof lowepro bag.

My first objects were my kids. The innocent non-judging perfect first objects. Kids always look good in their every angle, every action and every moment. BUT, by then I realized, when you take pictures of people, of things, of whatever it is, then for sure you are NOT in the pictures. Sigh. I have always been in the pictures, i needed to get used to it.

Photography [fә'tɒgrәfi] is the process and art of recording pictures by means of capturing light on a light-sensitive medium, such as a film or an electronic sensor. Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects expose a sensitive silver halide based chemical or electronic medium during a timed exposure, usually through a photographic lens in a device known as a camera that also stores the resulting information chemically or electronically.

-wikipedia-

Photography has many uses for business, science, art and pleasure.

Being in love with travelling as I consider it my most private of pleasures, I thought I’d pass on some of the lessons learned during my trips. This love-affair began as I realized it has become one of my basic needs, as nourishment to my soul, a deep passion I always crave for. By then I made an oath to myself, never will I let one year pass without travelling. It tremendously enriches my life, impossible to replace by any other activities like neither reading books nor watching documentary movies. As Samuel Johnson once said,

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, is to see them as they are.

Some things I’ve learned …

1. Travelling requires time, energy, money and companion(s). Prepare for the best time available, shape up your stamina, intend to save some money and choose your favorite person to travel with.
2. Take millions of pictures, no need for a camcorder. What’s the need to capture moving objects while you can enjoy them live and save the memory in your head instead? Mostly, a vacation video is seen only once, as for the next time it gets boring and too lame.
3. Great accomodation is a must.  A great accomodation effects the whole vacation. What could be better, that after a long day walk, you get yourself in the warm tub, a nice powerful shower afterward, dry yourself in a thick towel, relax your tired muscles in a comfy room and sleeping on a really cozy bed with puffy pillows?
4. Identify each trip with a particular song and a scent. This might sound funny, but I do this. I have a ‘theme song’ for any trip I’ve made, along with the scent of perfume that I used during the trip. The natural way of how our mind flashback to a specific memory each time a song or a scent is sensed, inspire me to do this in my own way.
5. Don’t bother to visit the same place more than once. I know it’s a much better way to visit new places, but I guarantee it will add new and different experiences to you. Just see the place from a whole different point of view, then you’ll be surprised.

Below I will share what Paulo Coelho wrote in his magnificent compilation book of life stories, called  “Like The Flowing River”. He advised us on how to enjoy travelling more lively.  With a bit of my own editing, please enjoy his insights ….

Travelling Differently

1. Avoid museums. This might seem to be absurd advice, but if you are in a foreign city, isn’t it far more interesting to go in search of the present than the past?
2. Hang out in bars. Bars don’t mean discotheques here, but the places where ordinary people go, have a drink, ponder the weather, and are always ready for a chat. If someone strikes up a conversation, however silly, join in. You can also enjoy the flow of people coming in-out the bars in their local attitudes.
3. Be open. The best tour guide is someone who lives in the place, knows everything about it, is proud of his or her city, but does not work for any agency. Go out in the street, choose the person you want to talk to, then ask where the train station or the City Hall is. If nothing comes out of it, try someone else - guaranteed that by the end of the day you’ll have found yourself an excellent companion.
4. Try to travel alone - or if you are married - with your spouse. It will be a harder work, no one will be there taking care of you, but only this way can you truly leave your own country behind.
5. Don’t compare. Don’t compare anything - prices, standards of hygiene, quality of life, means of transport, nothing! You are not travelling in order to prove that you have a better life than other people. Your aim is to find out how other people live, what they can teach you, how they deal with reality and with the extraordinary.
6. Understand that everyone understands you. Even if you don’t speak the language, don’t be afraid, you will always find support, guidance and useful advice.  Just make sure you have the hotel card in your pocket and - if the worst comes to the worst - flag down a taxi and show the card to the driver.
7. Don’t buy too much. Spend your money on things you won’t need to carry: tickets to a good play, restaurants, trips. Nowadays, with the global economy and the internet, you can buy anything you want without having to pay excess baggage.
8. Don’t try to see the world in a month. It is far better to stay in a city for four or five days than to visit five cities in a week. A city is like a capricious woman: she takes time to be seduced and to reveal herself completely.
9. A journey is an adventure. Go to the landmarks of the city you visit, but wander the streets too, explore alleyways, experience the freedom of looking for something, in which if you find it, you can be sure it will change your life.

The traveler is active; he goes strenuously in search of people, of adventures, of experiences. The tourist is passive; he expects interesting things to happen to him. He goes “sight-seeing.”

- Daniel J. Boorstin -

It was believed by Hegel and Marx that the evolution of human societies has an end when mankind had achieved a form of society that satisfied its deepest and most fundamental longings. A society where there would be no further progress in the development of underlying principles and institutions. By then, it would be considered as The End of History, where the term of history described as a single, coherent and evolutionary process. (In this process there is a development of human societies from simple tribal ones based on slavery and subsistence agriculture, through various theocracies, monarchies, and feudal aristocracies, up through modern liberal democracy and technologically driven capitalism).

Then, will the history of mankind eventually lead the greater part of humanity to liberal democracy? Yes, indeed for two separate reasons; one has to do with economics and the other has to do with what is termed as “struggle for recognition”. Nowadays, the liberal principles in economies –the free market- have spread and have succeeded in producing levels of material prosperity, both in industrially developed countries and in countries that had been. But this is not sufficient to lead for the phenomenon of liberal democracy itself. In many cases, authoritarian states are capable of producing rates of economic growth but unachievable in democratic societies. It happens because to recover the whole man is not only from his economic side; a man wants to be recognized.

As standards of living increase, as populations become more cosmopolitan and better educated, people demand not simply more wealth but recognition for their status.

As Plato described in the Republic, there were three parts to the soul, a desiring part, a reasoning part and a part he called thymos, a part of the soul that arises the propensity to feel self-esteem. Desire and reason are together sufficient to explain a large part of economic more generally. But they cannot explain the striving for liberal democracy, which ultimately arises from thymos, the part of the soul that demands recognition.

And this will only be accomplished in a liberal democracy in which the inherently unequal recognition of masters and slaves (the outcome of the battle to be recognized in the beginning of history), is replaced by universal and reciprocal recognition, where every citizen recognizes the dignity and humanity of every other citizen, and where that dignity is recognized in turn by the state through the granting of rights. Hegel saw rights as ends in human beings, because what truly satisfies a man is not so much material prosperity as recognition of their status and dignity. In particular, he wants to be recognized as a human being, that is, as a human being with certain worth of dignity. Hegel asserted that history comes to an end because the longing that had driven the historical process –the struggle for recognition- has now been satisfied in a society characterized by universal and reciprocal recognition.

*as a resume of the book “The End of History and The Last Man” by Francis Fukuyama*

Speaking of  the truth about men,

The reason men are attracted to one woman and not another, largely because of the way that one woman makes them FEEL. And NOT because of what qualities each person and the relationship has.

ATTRACTION and CONNECTION have their own “logic.”

A man is attracted to a woman and wants to be with her, and only her, because of the way he FEELS when he’s around her. And not for any other reason. Not even if the women is the most loving, caring, sweet, generous, and intelligent woman in the world.

It means the emotional experiences that a man has when he’s around a woman, are the single most powerful reasons why he either wants a long-term relationship or doesn’t.

It DOESN’T mean that a man wants to be with a woman because he VALUES a relationship and having true love in his life. Or that a woman can be so good to a man and do so many loving and generous things for him that he recognizes the LOGICAL value of staying with her and makes the “right” decision.

Feelings and emotions have their own logic, which has NOTHING to do with what makes “sense” or what is “fair.” By creating a deep level of “emotional attraction”, you will lead to a lasting relationship.

“So how do you make a man FEEL when he’s around you? What are the conscious and subconscious emotional reactions and responses he’s likely to be having with you?”

A woman who can communicate to a man on a deeper level that she’s AWARE and IN CONTROL of her own experience and emotional state will make
a man feel INTENSE ATTRACTION for her on that same emotional level.

She’s an “emotionally attractive” woman, which can tell a man all kinds of things about her, BEYOND the PHYSICAL ATTRACTION and interest he might have.

On the other hand…

Women who DON’T have a handle on these things have quite a different effect on men . These women can still usually make men feel PHYSICAL ATTRACTION… but they often set off all kinds of conscious and subconscious “warning signs” in a man’s mind.

Signals that then become FEELINGS and EMOTIONS inside the man that tell him to RUN. And under no circumstance that he would attach his emotional experience to hers. Never.

Based from experience, what will happen if a man doesn’t deal with his own fears about women and relationships?

DISASTER.

I’m talking withdrawal, break-ups, cheating, lying, and the list goes on.

But if a guy takes the time and develops the “emotional maturity” to think about the negative and limiting fears HE HAS about women and relationships, he will find a healthy level of AWARENESS and CONTROL around these.

Then this is the kind of guy that women will “naturally” be drawn to and enjoy being with. But, the first step for a woman to create this “kind of man” is to accept that MEN DON’T MAKE SENSE.

Why?

Because EMOTIONS of  a man don’t follow a logical or rational path. It is the kind of attraction and desire in a man that goes BEYOND PHYSICAL ATTRACTION. And as a woman, we must be aware to create this EMOTIONAL ATTRACTION continue endlessly, in order to keep our man stick with us. That simple.