Michele on the Road: on Travel, Photography and Life

Have you ever realized how many times in a day you hear/say the word hate? Isn’t it too much?
I think it definitely is.

I’m not saying it should be abolished, only it should be used when there’s real need for it.
Indeed, most of the times you’d be better of with “I can’t understand it”, “I’m not really into it” and generally something expressing disagreement or lack of understanding, instead of “I hate it!”.
Usually, you don’t hate something, you don’t understand it. Yet sometimes you just hate it… ;)

I think words such as cunt, piss, fuck, cocksucker, tits, shit and motherfucker aren’t any worst than improperly used hate.

P.S.
You’ll still be able to find several posts containing the word hate in my archive.

P.P.S.
This post generated out of pure boredom…

On Saturday I tried to print my first B&W photo ever.
Let me tell you it was kind of a mystical experience.

The results weren’t bad, but not even perfect — I’m aware it’s something that needs great amounts of patience and dedication.
But the whole point was seeing the image materialize on the white paper under a bland red light and reliving the moment in which the photo was taken: what I’d thought was special, how I’d visualized it and how I’d expected the photo to be.

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Before the end of 2005 I released Noted 1.0 because I wanted to move on and start to develop the next release.

I’ve been receiving quite a few feature requests, most asking for some sort of categorization, a few asking for a way to store different kind of media.
So I was challenged as to how to develop these features.

Categorization could either be done with a pseudo-folder structure or with color coding.
The former especially good if I decided to add support for different kind of media, the latter better for a clutter-free app which handles plain notes.
Personally, I think I prefer color coding: a plain list of notes each with a different color. But users decided, through a survey on MacUpdate, they preferred the pseudo-folder categorization.

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In a few hours 2005 will be over and we’ll be wandering through 2006. But how was my 2005?

Overall, it hasn’t been one the greatest years in my life. I’ve done and achieved personal goals, but I’ve also made lots of errors.
Of course I’ve learnt from these errors, but they’re still there hurting me every now and then.

2006 Resolutions

I’d like to fix what I’ve broken in my personal life during 2005 and hopefully come out better than what I expected.
I’d want to take my photographic skills to the next level: start printing my photos, maybe publish a book through Lulu and who knows, maybe organize an exhibition, too.
Another thing I’d like to do is starting something nice on the web. And when I say something nice I mean a web application that might gather some attention — and hopefully praise, too — through which I might manage to make few bucks… ;)
Oh, and I should start to take university more seriously!

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Some time ago, I was talking with Scaruffo about photography and whether it is art or not.
He said photography is not art simply because it’s photography. Instead, it’s a mean which can be used to produce art. So it’s the subject that’s art, not photography.

In my humble opinion he is wrong. Indeed, I think the subject is a mean and the photograph is the piece of art.
And the explanation to this can be very simple: a picture conveys emotions, it can express a message and, as you might know, a photo is worth one thousand words.

I don’t think photographing means stealing reality. Reality in ways is fictitious and the act of stopping it into a frame make it something real.
Plus, it’s not simply choosing an existing subject, it’s about creating something unique: the angle, exposition, cropping, etc. Each photo is different from another, even if a photographer photograph the same subject in two different occasions.
So each photo is a unique piece. A unique piece of art.

A photo can make me feel as a painting can do. This is why photography should not be considered less artistic than painting.
There are bland photos, as there are bland paintings. There are profound paintings as there are profound photos.

The artistry in a photo is not all in the subject. Indeed painting for century was what photography is now: it portrayed reality. And the painter interpreted the real world as much as a photographer does.

To me photography it’s one of the finest forms of art available.

Note to Scaruffo’s assistants: if you want to answer in name of Scaruffo himself, but don’t want to bother writing the comment in English, write it in Italian and I’ll then translate it for everybody to read.

Update: read what Scaruffo has to say about this.

Again, it’s that time of the year in which a good fad-follower blogger have to post a list summarizing the best in the past year.

So here’s my list. Read the rest of this entry »

To hold nine Stars in my hands.

It’s everything I want.

Since I was a little kid, I’ve been obsessed by many habits and thoughts.
For example, I usually eat things three by three — if they allow for it, like pasta, chips or cherries. And in many other situations I’m obsessed with the number 3: I scratch my head 3 times, I cough 3 times and try to do 3 steps — or multiples of it — when I want to go somewhere.

Another thing that obsess me, is water: I can’t drink water that has been left out of the fridge, or has been poured for more than a few minutes. It stinks!
I know it’s not true, indeed it takes a couple of days for it to start stinking, but I can’t help it. And when I have to drink it, I’m a bit disgusted.
And I know how this may sound stupid because most of the people on Earth have to drink stinky — and poisonous — water, but I’m obsessed.

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Remember me talking about developing a Mac OS X app?
Now, it’s time to release it!

The app is noted and it has its own website — at the moment it’s still pretty plain.
It’s a simple note taking application: one note opened at a time, automatic saving each time you open a new note and not much more.

At the moment, it’s still in alpha stage, that means it has bugs. And that’s why I’m releasing it: you’ll help me find and fix those bugs!

Now download it — you can make a donation, too, if you feel so :D — and tell me what you think.
And if you’d like to suggest new features, please, do so by leaving a comment or sending me an email.

Last Sunday and Monday, in Italy, we had to vote on a poll to turn down parts of a stupid law on artificial insemination.
For the poll to be valid, at least 50% of those who can vote should have voted, unfortunately only about 25% voted.

The poll was made of 4 parts addressing 4 parts of the law:

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