BlueCapra

Using Technology To Solve Problems and Create Solutions

Picture a day – Week of 01-08-12

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Here are the pictures from the previous week (Saturday, 01-07-2012 through Friday, 01-13-2012) for my Picture a day.  This week has been more difficult to make sure I am taking at least one picture every day and spending time on photography.  A few days this past week it was almost midnight before I took my first picture

I will be scheduling next week to ensure I can get into the habit of practicing for a specific length of time.  At night I do read photography books to learn more, but the best way to get better is by doing.  My main goal with this is to become a better photographer through practice and feedback.  Let me know how I am doing.  If you like these images, please share them (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pintrest…)

If you missed the previous week’s Picture a day, check them out (you can also find them on Flickr and Google+)

What time do you wake up?

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Clock on an old wallI work a lot.  I have a regular job and I am starting a business, Book Worm Laser & Design.  Over the past few days I have begun to ask myself if all this work is worth the effort?  How long am I going to work like this before I see some sort of payoff?  Am I working all these hours for a reason?

What time do you wake up?  In a recent blog post from Andy Traub, “Anything that motivates you to get up at 5am is healthy”, he discusses some of the reasons he wakes up early.  I don’t get up quite that early, but I am usually up by 5:30a.  Since I don’t get to bed until around 12:30a, I have been missing a lot of sleep (although I do sleep until 7:00a or so on the weekends, maybe a little later at times).  Am I being productive?

When I wake up at 5:30a, I get ready and go to my normal job.  We have a treadmill so I have been known to run on it for 15 – 30 minutes when I first get there.  Otherwise, I get started with my business at around 6:15a.   [Read more…]

Do you want to write a better blog?

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I am always trying to improve.  Generally, the more you learn and practice a skill, the better you get.  That only helps you to a point.  To get beyond that initial flood of improvement, you must practice in certain ways.  World class tennis players don’t just play a lot of tennis, they work on their skills individually and in a focused manner.  They may start out by hitting a bunch of forehand shots, then backhand, then serving.  Rarely do professional athletes just go out and play their sport and hope to improve.  They have coaches, they study, and they practice very specific skills.  How does that apply to our lives?

Most of us are not professional athletes but the way they practice and improve can be applied to the skills in our lives.  Do you have something in your life you’d like to do better?  I sure do.  I can’t focus on all of them at the same time, so at this time, I have decided to improve my writing and specifically, my blog.  I now have what I want to improve, so how do I actually improve?

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Picture a day – Week of 01-01-12

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Here are the pictures from the previous week (Saturday, 12-31-2011 through Friday, 01-06-2012) for my Picture a day.  Personally, my week starts on Sunday but since I post these on Saturday, I include the previous Saturday’s picture in this list.  Let me know what you think about the pictures.  My main goal with this is to become a better photographer through practice and feedback.

 

Welcome to the Muddy Creek Wetlands Management Area

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Muddy Creek Interpretive Nature Trail signDo you enjoy hiking?  Are you close to Mobile, AL (specifically, are you close to here)?  Why not give the Muddy Creek Wetlands Management Area a try.

My family and I have visited Muddy Creek several times within the past few months.  For the first 18 or so years of my life, I lived within 6 miles of this place but did not find out about it until this year.  Better late than never…

What is the Muddy Creek Wetlands Management Area?  According to the State Port Authority and the sign at the entrance:

This 200 acre tract is owned and managed by the Alabama State Port Authority as a natural area available to the public for hiking, wildlife observation, environmental education, and scientific research.

The mitigation area was established to mitigate, or make up for, unavoidable wetland impacts occurring on State Port Authority project sites

The forests and fields found here are being restored to a close approximation of their natural conditions through the removal of invasive exotic plants and the replanting of native species. A diligent monitoring program insures that exotic species do not re-invade while the new plant communities are becoming established.

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