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It took me a total of 8 shots standing in the middle of a packed cross section on the hectic Champs Elysees avenue in Paris until I was satisfied with a photo that best represented being in the presence of the enormous Arc de Triomphe.
Added to the pressure was the reality the not all of us visit Paris, so this moment was significant, rare and it wasn’t something I wanted to screw up. The complete amount of other things that begged to be photographed in the area were endless and quite frankly overwhelming, so deciding how to approach my subject before framing the shot was priority. (Photograph by Jorge Quinteros)
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Apple Tablet: The Concept UI →
The basis behind all the hype surrounding the long-rumored Mac Tablet stems from Steve Jobs’ cancellation of the Newton PDA line upon his return to Apple, so of course everyone’s captivated in seeing if something alone the same lines will be reintroduced and what it will look like and what it’s main purpose will be.
In the mean time, it’s always a treat admiring people’s concept of the tablet and Louis Harboe’s UI for the mythical device is no exception.
The past two days I’ve put together a mockup of the “homescreen” by combining Snow Leopards UI with the iPhone OS. I also used the rumored information along with some of my own predictions.
Interesting thing about Apple is that they always manage to introduce the opposite of what we generally expect from them. -
Finding That Sweet Spot →
Having read Chris Guillebeau’s eBook, 279 Days to Overnight Success, I learned that blogging can be a very demanding craft especially if your ambition is to generate some money with it and also that there really is no such thing as overnight success.
Most of what’s mentioned in the eBook I’ve come acrossed elsewhere but this one is perhaps the best written on the topic and it’s always refreshing reading up on the fundamentals of how to achieve more with something that you enjoy doing; in this case blogging.
Out of the 79 pages of valuable information, this passage by far stood out the most for me because I think everyone that blogs seeks to find that happy medium:
Naturally, you can’t get paid for everything you love, but there is usually a sweet spot of convergence between what you love and what people want to pay for. Clay Collins illustrates this concept well with the following diagram:
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Cameron’s Avatar ★ ★ ★ ★★
With all the well-deserved success and admiration that Avatar has attracted since it’s release, I can’t think of anything else that hasn’t been said about the film other than it’s the one movie I think we’ve all dreamt about seeing and which has a world we’ve all wished about visiting.
It’s by far James Cameron’s finest pieces of work and although I’ll be one of the many to grab a Blu-Ray copy, seeing it in theatre is an experience you should not miss out on regardless of how big your Hi-Def TV is. Even the 3D-glasses supplied were a considerable upgrade from the tradition paper and plastic ones so I kept them as a souvenir.
The most exhausting part of the movie is trying to make sense of what’s consider “effects” because the technology is so deeply ingrained that I had no idea where the discipline began or ended. It’s just sheer brilliance that has set a new bar in the industry.
One of the criticisms I’ve been reading about the film has to do with it’s plot. While it may come across as simplistic and familiar, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a story that you’ve been acquainted with because the difference will be in that one was well told and that’s the case with Avatar. It doesn’t just grab you visually but emotionally as well.
Zoe Saldana was the complete and absolute star for me. Her interpretation of Neytiri was fantastic, profounding and I’ll go as far to say that her Zoe’s attractiveness was very well translated to her character. Beautiful green eyes, great facial structure and lips but apparently there’s others that think much more highly of her which makes my statement seem less weird.
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The Presence of Spanish
It’s sometimes difficult to avoid a cultural assumption if we have no idea we are making one. For example, the assumption that a Hispanic should be fluent in Spanish for both written and spoken is an expected trait but as the rate of Hispanics who are raised in the United States rises, so does the likelihood that their skills may not be as sharp as you may assume.
Learning The Language
Growing up, Spanish was the predominant language at home largely because that’s all my parents knew and spoke at the time. The English learning portion eventually took care of itself once my brother and I attended school and although the idea of having to juggle two languages may have seemed overwhelming, in hindsight I value the experience and realize that I would not have wanted an alternate upbringing.
The added fluency in the language came more from the yearly summer vacations we took visiting my family in El Salvador. At one point, we enjoyed our stay so much that our parents arranged for us to move with them, where we eventually attended school for 5 years and had front row exposure to what has become the foundation in how we seamlessly shift between both languages when speaking or writing it.
Some Just Don’t
When I come across Hispanics that don’t speak Spanish, the answer to my question of “why” is the same one many other monolingual Hispanics will give you: “My parents didn’t teach me”.
Some can speak but can’t write it, some can speak but not effectively, some can understand it but respond with a mixture of English and Spanish or otherwise known as Spanglish. Either way, at least coming from the people that I know personally, the number of those who manage both languages very well is low.
Random Hispanics that come up to me at work intially start off the interaction speaking English and when I see that there’s a struggle on their part, I reply in Spanish and there’s nothing more gratifying than seeing the sight of relief on their face when they know that I can. These are the moments when in my mind I thank my parents for providing me with the ingredient that makes me who I am now.
The Need to Know Both
I’ve always found interest in believing that the things that come natural to us are the ones we’ve never had to put extra effort in learning. Of course that’s not the reality of things because the confidence we’ve created for ourselves for knowing something is deeply atrributed on the practice we’ve put into it.
Being bilingual and having a multicultural mentality is now more than ever a valued attribute for anyone not just because of the competitive job market or the easier communication aspect when traveling but for me personally because when you’re passionate about your ethnicity, your knowledge of the native language should be something to be waved also and not just the flag.
Of course all this is dependent upon how you’re raised and I was fortunate enough to be exposed to both worlds. My wife was raised in a predominately English speaking environment which generally tends to be the case when you’re a second-generation child, so her fluency in the language is not as fully developed but I like to think that it has improved since we’ve been together. There’s times when I just speak to her in Spanish just to get her practicing more.
We don’t have kids yet but we’ve already had the conversation in that they will gain an equal exposure to Spanish as much as they will to English.
Although there might be a few, I like to think that the reason some Hispanics don’t speak the language is not because of them being ashamed of their culture but more just a result of it and based on the multi-cultural experience I had growing up, I would never want to take away from my children a privilege that is rightfully theirs already, which is knowing Spanish.
