Kayaking And Landscape Photography

For the fist time ever, went kayaking with the love of my life in the Lehigh River. To say I had a great time is an understatement.

One thing I was not expecting, was to learn that this new hobby has inspired me and opened another door on my photography journey. Never in my wildest dreams I would've ever thought about combining kayaking with taking landscape photos. 

I need to be extra careful carrying my camera gear, and shooting while kayaking. The last thing I need is dropping my camera gear deep in the water. 

This is my favorite picture from my first ever kayaking adventure in the Lehigh River in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The kayak selfie was taken with a cheap point-and-shoot Sony Cyber-shot DSC-530 digital camera. 

I really like the background scene on this image. Even though I wasn't happy with the original plain dull grey sky, I used a replacement composite sky using Adobe Photoshop Elements. Once I get more comfortable with the kayak basics, and gain more experience doing this kayaking thingy, I am going to try incorporate photographing landscapes into this new hobby. 

El Idioma Es La Identidad Nacional De Cada Pueblo

Me sorprende leer una noticia donde la congresista democrata Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dice que en el proyecto de status para Puerto Rico, cualquier requisito para cambiar la lengua oficial a Ingles seria "inaceptable".

La realidad es que ningun estado ha podido mantener su idioma al incorporarse a la union, ninguno. ¿Quien va a asegurar que Puerto Rico bajo la estadidad va a ser la excepcion? 

Cuando Hawaii fue obligado a ser anexado, ellos experimentaron un trauma historico resultando en un deterioro de salud, mayores tasas de mortalidad, confiscacion de tierras, perdida del idioma y perdida de identidad. 

La realidad es que despues de la anexion de Hawaii a los Estados Unidos, el idioma hawaiano fue oficialmente prohibido de la escuelas y el gobierno estatal. La persona que diga que Puerto Rico va a continuar hablando Español al pasar a ser estado esta mintiendo. 

Cuando visite Maui, Hawaii en el 2004, pude notar que se han establecido programas comunitarios para tratar de conectar a los jovenes hawaianos con su cultura, idioma e identidad nativa hawaiana. Solo hay que estudiar lo que ha ocurrido en las islas de Hawaii despues de la anexacion con los Estados Unidos, para predecir cual sera el futuro de Puerto Rico al pasar a ser estado, en cuanto a la perdida de nuestro idioma y nuestra perdida de identidad. El que diga lo contrario, le esta mintiendo al pueblo puertorriqueño.

Makeshift Memorials

Later today, two people are expected to be charged on the Saturday shooting that left 3 people dead in South Street Philadelphia Saturday. One suspect has been taken into custody. 14 people were hit by gunfire last Saturday.

In Philadelphia, 94 people have been shot in the last 10 days.  The Philadelphia Eagles are hosting a gun buyback at Lincoln Financial Field today. 

In the meantime, politicians are unable to reach a consensus to forge a bipartisan congressional response to recent mass shootings that could toughen federal gun laws. What are they waiting for? 

Top image courtesy of the Philadelphia Enquirer.

My Prediction On Televised Hearings About January 6

I am afraid that there is too much hype on the upcoming prime time Jan. 6 public hearings this coming Thursday.

And as always, the democrats will not be able to deliver. Unless they have a secret witness willing to testify live, or they present a video/audio recording of Trump disclosing his plan to overturn the 2020 election, methinks this is just too much hype.

I predict Thursday's public hearings will be a nothingburger.

Trashed My Entire Room

I booked a flight to sunny Puerto Rico for the love of my life and I for the second week of September. We don't need a passport to travel to Puerto Rico, but to make travel easier my COVID-19 Vaccination Card is in the same document holder with my passport.

I took my vaccination card and passport to our getaway three weeks ago; you never know when a restaurant is going to request proof of vaccination. Last night I spent hours looking for my passport, trashed my entire room while doing so trying to find it.

Apparently I seem to have misplaced it. Even called the hotel where we stayed, and the Fiesta Mexico restaurant where we gorged ourselves silly. I have copies of both documents on my cell phone, and my passport is about to expire next year, so I am not worried. But I prefer to have the original documents.

Not sure how it happened, but I found the documents holder with my COVID-19 Vaccination Card and the passport inside my toolbox this morning while looking for my motorcycle keys. How did it got there is a mystery to me.

Causa Para Arresto Al Alcalde Corrupto de Mayaguez

El flamante alcalde de mi pueblo Mayaguez, Jose "Pillito" Rodriguez, fue fichado hoy al encontrarse causa para arresto por malversacion de fondos publicos y negligencia del deber.

Como todo los otros corruptos, el dice que no renunciara a su cargo. La gerente de Finanzas del municipio de Mayaguez, Yahaira Valentin Andrades, tambien fue acusada por los mismos delitos con una fianza de $100,000 a cada uno.

Por suspuesto, el abogado del flamante abogado culpa a otras personas por el fraude de $9.8 millones, y jura que su cliente, que lleva casi 30 años en el poder fue engañado. Ahora, a ver si la gente en Mayaguez se espabila y le da el voto a un buen candidato que ayude a mejorar nuestro pueblo, y lo saque de ser un pueblo fantasma donde lo ha puesto este corrupto.