Street Art

One of the things I like about living in a city (even better if it is as large as London) is the mix of people. Of course cities are sometimes full crime amongst other bad things but I always prefer to look at the positive things when it comes to human beings. And it is cities where you are most likely to find street art. On Friday night I was coming back home and found this ‘intriguing’ piece of street art (apologies for the quality of the picture).

What? Don’t you think this is art? Look pal, this is a blog and I checked it in Wiki (follow the link to see some cool pieces from all around the world): this certainly falls in the definition of street art and for me that suffices. No, seriously, if there is a composition that is intentional and tries to communicate messages/feelings or generates them in the witness that in my books is street art.

I particularly like those that are spontaneous like this picture below. It was last winter, it had snowed heavily and I went out to take pictures at the same places I go usually around but with the snow giving them a different spin.

After the inspiration I received from the “Chair in the Canal”, I produced my bit of street art that same afternoon in the Victoria Park (well actually just took the photo of the “Left Buggy”).

I also like the somewhat less spontaneous. By the way, you don’t need to be in such a large city to come across street art. I found this grafitti (the translation from the Spanish is “Where are we going to that we are not getting there?”) in the stunning Cuenca, Ecuador.

Do you like street art? I would love to hear your stories about it.

Optimist

There is a scene towards the end (if I remember correctly) of My Own Private Idaho (LINK) that I find very telling regarding the human nature. In this scene, the character played so awesomely by River Phoenix collapses due to his condition of narcolepsy (LINK) in the middle of a country road. A truck stops by and the two guys that descend from it steal from him his rucksack and shoes. Then a car stops and the guy picks River Phoenix to take him in search for help (it appears).

However, when it comes to humanity I am always with optimists’ side. I know that everyday there are a large number of developments against this optimism. But there are also always positive developments. And it makes me good when I witness them. No matter how small.

I took this photo with my mobile last week. I guess a child lost his school sweater and someone, instead of stealing / keeping it for himself, left it hanging on the railings in case the owner came for it later. The same thing happened to me a few years ago (I dropped one of my scooter gloves) and found it on the railings just like that school sweater. I was grateful. Little things that make sharing this large home called world better.

Are you with us, the optimists as well? Have you witnessed something nice recently?

HTML is a piece of cake: I’m happy!

In the last couple of days, I was trying to round up a couple of posts for this blog but couldn’t find the finishing touches that I was looking for. So then, I decided to entertain myself playing with the template. And boy, did I have fun!!! When you start playing around with Blogger’s templates, codes of HTML and CSS it can be a very absorbing, engrossing and most of the time frustrating experience. Most of the time because I think I got there in the end.

With the help from some friends (amogst others tips-for-new-blogger.blogspot.com), I began by adding a menu navbar. Then, I gained confidence and dived into that wonderful world behind ‘Edit HTML’ (who would have thought it a few days ago!). The template was starting to look more like something I like (please remember there is noting more relative/subjective than tastes). But thanks to this excellent post by jacqsbloggertips.blogspot.com I could add the final touches (for now!) by writing the codes myself in the CSS section. Unbelievable. I don’t need a lot to be happy!

                                                      (http://onemoremonkey.com/index.php)

I started this blog a few days ago just trying to communicate and exchange ideas with people with similar interests to mine, always with the idea of keeping on learning new things. I haven’t interacted so far (hopefully that will come) but I am glad I already learnt so much.

You wouldn’t think this is the most beautiful blog design around. But for me, it’s. And you know why? Because I (sort of) created it!

Any experiences daring to approach HTML? Have you tweaked your blog?

Autumn has arrived

In the last few days, I really felt that autumn has arrived. Which was probably reasonable when you are coming back from work and the scene from the bus stop looks like this:

And I’ve been remembering the song “The Great Beyond” by REM. I can’t quite explain why it reminds me of autumn. I remember I discovered it some years ago in the tube going to the airport to pick up this girl I was really into at the time who I haven’t seen for a couple of months.

Enjoy!