Came across a new (to me) blog yesterday, called My Super-Charged Life, all about living life to the fullest. So far the content is pretty interesting like this article on doing the right thing.

Have a big decision to make? Follow these tips and you can be pretty sure you make the right choice, be it career, school, relationships, whatever.

1. Know your core values - Know what you believe in.
2. Take a clear look at the situation - Separate emotion from facts.
3. Trust your gut - Listen to your conscience.
4. Do the right thing
5. Stick to your guns - Stand by your principles.
6. Prepare for the consequences and expect resistance
7. Review your actions - Learn from situation.

My photographic pursuits have long been neglected. My enthusiasm was revived a couple months ago with a gift from my uncle who has been a photographer for decades until he retired from his photo studio some years ago. Turns out he still has tons of old equipment, including a couple medium format cameras that he has no plans of using again. So lucky me. I received among some other stuff two Mamiya camera - an RB67 like the one shown on the left and a C330 TLR like the one shown below.

A quick search on the net brought up the instruction manuals for both. It seems they both still work fine, so I just need to get some 120 film and get to shooting.

Of course, once I shoot this film I will need to be able to develop it. So that provided some additional motivation to get cracking on my home darkroom setup. That project is still underway. The space has been identified but the major obstacles are light-proofing the room adequately and ventilating it all while allowing it to be “dismantled” for normal use during the day. With any luck I will get this setup organized in the next few weeks. Looking forward to being back in the darkroom. Yay!!

This great article over on the BBC’s website about disabled people, their lives and experiences, looks at the phenomenon of sign names in the deaf community.

It seems that finger spelling someone’s name everytime becomes tedious and once someone is “deemed worthy” they are usually given a sign name. It’s a nick name of sorts that could be drawn from:

• an aspect of your personality, such as talking all the time
• something to do with your appearance, like wearing a lot of earrings or jewellery
• a play on your name, like Angel for someone called ‘Angela’
• a hobby or a job – such as playing a certain sport all the time, or being into drama or photography

Made me think, because it could get really interesting if we did just give people we know this sort of nickname. The difference is that one’s sign name may not be a “nice” one. I think of people I would name: ‘Longface’, ‘Showoff’, ‘Frizzy hair’.

Heh heh. Of course, I worry a little about the name I might get. Hopefully as innocent as ‘Freckles’.

Wow! People may really just be born to be couch potatoes! Such is the possible results from recent studies with mice.

It seems they have found genetic indicators that may affect the level of activity the subject is inclined to participate in. This has some serious implications on the health and fitness industry which has for decades proclaimed that everyone can just do it. It may help to explain why some people, despite knowing just how could exercise could be for them, and realizing they need to increase their activity level, just can’t seem to get started.

Now us lazy folks have an excuse.

Of course, on a scary note, can you imagine genetic screening for laziness?

I had an interesting conversation today with someone about how to deal with people from your past, more specifically people who have hurt you.

His feeling was that you have no further dealings with them, though you may (once they are forgiven) get to a point where you can say hi and bye. My theory is that so long as you cannot interact normally with that person, your “relationship” with them will always be about the past. They will always be “that” person that did you wrong which is why you cannot speak to them or be around them.

I think that at some point when you are past the hurt and the anger, you have to put that aside and give yourself a chance to re-evaluate whether this person can add value to your life. If they cannot then go ahead and nix any future relationship. If they can however, take your time and slowly let them be a part of your life again.