Back to business

So I was doing some reading online today and came across two different blogs (ref below) that explore the advantages and disadvantages of dating people who travel. Strangely enough, one of them was called "Don't date a girl who travels" and the other "Date a man who travels". That got me wondering, what is the difference? In one, the vision of an independent but wild woman is described as someone who can never be tied up. The male side, on the other hand, was quite sweet and explored the simplicity of the values of traveling people and how that can fit (or how you can fit) into this guy's lifestyle.

Are we that different?

Is it true that women who dare to explore the unexplored, who push the limits and who go on adventures, are destined to be alone?

What about men?
Do women adapt to a traveling man but not the other way around?

As a traveling person myself, I have seen my share fare of crazy traveling people. Some people just live for adventure, some people like it but at a more moderate level. So far, the people I know have managed to find someone special that marks them forever. The usual problem is that if both are traveling and meet at one point of their adventure and then continue, how will they meet again? As every relationship, this requires time and dedication. If there is someone special where the chemistry is just driving you nuts but chances are you won't see him/her again anytime soon, why not invest some time on facebook/email/phone and whatnot to keep that flame alive? Why not invest in that and pick up again where you left of?



Ref:
https://medium.com/better-humans/802c49b9141c
http://www.hereigoagainonmyown.com/date-a-man-who-travels/ 

What does it mean when you are surrounded by beautiful things, when the world is full of opportunities and you just can't move? In a time where Earth-like planets are being discovered (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130418140957.htm), where we push ourselves in understanding what is around us, but still we cannot understand ourselves. We hide our insecurities in work and late nights out, but how good is your poker face? The truth is, everyone is entitled to have insecurities and for some, even though they are arrogant and confident people on the outside, one day someone will come along that will take all that down. Why is that we are always subject to an outside object that can easily takes us down? Aren't we good enough?

If we can put a man on the moon, if we can cross oceans and discover continents, then we should be confident and very little should throw us down. It seems human beings like being appreciated so much that it becomes a weakness that eventually catches up. We let this transpire through our pets and our affection with animals. Often, people with socializing limitations quickly get attached to animals...Is it because they like us more than we like them? Is it because they are dependent on us for food and care? If so, why are there so many studies with animal testing? Where is the edge of caring and emotion? Perhaps we are too arrogant to think that caring for something is too different from being emotionally attached...

new link

Hey my people,

xspics.wp.com also works!

New blog

Hello everyone!
Not that you are so many to follow my blog :P

Anyone, since I keep trying to put photos in the blog and eblogger is not the best to do it, I've decided to create a new blog just dedicated to photography. My days out, my photo practice, everything like that will be posted in the new one.

Follow xspics.wordpress.com! (I will try to change the name!)

A sunny day in tromsø

The mørketid is gone and Tromsø begins to be full of light. The snow that is still around makes everything even brighter, including people! So I went out the other day for some photography practice, following the advice of my Master Yoda. It's amazing how the Sun affects us all. The energy is all around us and it's so much easier to get up in the morning! Give it a try, go outside and take photos, enjoy your day like nothing else matters. Alone or with a group of friends, being out makes you feel good, especially when you have clear skies and a warm light!
I did it and here is what I recorded from that wonderful day.
Can't wait for the Spring and Summer!!! Camping, trips to the mountains, fishing...it will be great!!!!

"Man skal nevne alle ting med sitt rette navn, og tørr man ikke det i virkeligheten, skal man kunne gjøre det i eventyret." Sitat fra H. C. Andersen.

Eventyr har alltid betydd mye for oss. I eventyret kan vi søke inn i en annen verden, samtidig som vi internaliserer den gode moralen som ligger i eventyrene. Et viktig virkemiddel i sosialisering og undervisning

Snow

Folding the earth in its mantle
Pure and undefiled,
Soft in its own clear whiteness
As the cheek of an innocent child,
The snow o'er the world is falling,
It floats upon the air,
Silent, yet ever restless,
As a child's hands crossed in prayer.

This world is a myst'ry of sorrow,
And dark with sin and woe;
Over its toil and sadness
Thy mantle of mercy throw.
Fold us about, protect us
In Thy garment, spotless white,
As the snow in its silent falling
Is shrouding the earth tonight.

by: Edith Willis Linn Forbes (1865-1945)

The trap of having a soul

I looked at the horizon, saw the distance sea and tried to keep looking forward because I couln't dare to look back. Behind me laid the memories, small pieces of the story of a life. In my soul there is an ocean where words in book seem to disappear, ink burring as they sink into the depths.

A cold breeze hit my skin and I felt the emptiness around me. There was the abyss.

I took a deep breath and I jumped, but not to fall into the deep but to push myself onwards in this swirl, this typhoon that is living in hope that past stays in history and the future remains a mystery. The present will always be a gift.

(Inspired by Critina Letrán http://ricon-desastre.blogspot.com/)

water IS life

Imagine yourself in a beautiful scenery of mountains and rivers, of beaches and sea, of places where everything seems to show where heaven meets the earth. Hear the sounds of leafs, of the wind blowing the sand or the trees, the sound of the waves crashing and of the rivers' flow. Somehow you feel at peace and you feel grateful for being part of this planet, of this land, of everything that surrounds you in that moment. You feel humble as you see the power of nature, and that is because nature does not need people to be creative. People however, need nature for creative inspiration, for food, for supplies that we aren't able to get anywhere else.

For a while now I have been hearing about the next world crisis, the next world war, that will not be around oil or gas, but water instead. Water, our most valuable asset, will be our ultimate destruction if we loose it.

Living in cold areas, occasionally the pipes freeze and you have no water for cleaning, cooking, showering, or any of our daily chores. Indeed, we are lucky. Not everyone has the privilege to have cleaning routines or fancy ways of cooking.

Today I saw a documentary that highlighted these issues. People are forced to live under a monopoly of interests around water, where they are clearly the victims and so are their following generations. Children and their parents are forced to choose between washing their clothes, cooking, or washing themselves so that they are able to work properly and stay away from social stigmas.

Ancient traditions required the dead to be thrown into the rivers as well as village discharges. The notion that water can recycle has been incorporated in people's minds and that knowledge has passed through generations, and it has blown out of proportion as the world's population keeps increasing. Water can only take so much, and after a threshold value of contamination it actually becomes polluted and harmful for human beings, animals, and plants.

Think twice before leaving your tap open; re-use water for watering the plans (mine get cold tea!) and think of ways to help other manage their own water supply.

Remember: No water, no life.

New year, new look, and new stories

And so a new chapter begins.

This year I will absolutely be more dedicated to this. I got some amazing inspiration from people around me that have mostly photography blogs. Photography is still a new thing in my life, but I am trying to commit to it. Although in Norway there are tonnes of people making wildlife photography, and have fantastic photos, that is not my goal. I want to tell stories through photos, I want to share a view of the world and that is why I write this blog. Since what I love the most is the sea, please don't think that is strange if I have many references to it, and the same goes for Norway.

So, after writing so many times "I", only one more thing is to be said; I am looking for the joy in life and that is what I want to show.

Here is a little treat from BBC. A short documentary that I found that clearly shows the conflicts between humans and animals and the way they have been dealt with.

Wild: Polar Bear Diary - the story from the other side of the ocean

('http://www.youtube.com/p/37F92A11576BCAA8?version=3&hl=en_US',)

Please try to keep up with me! your comments will be very welcome :)

Unexpected sightings

In the last few days I have been feeling very frustrated. No job, an undedicated boyfriend and barely any sun, can really get to you. So, in one of these days I just ran away. I went where no one could find me, relaxed alone and enjoyed the sounds of sea birds. When I came back, everything was the same and I still felt like escaping...There is a small island close to the house, and that was the place I chose to hide. While sitting on a rock, I found myself looking at the sea in search for something. It was very quiet and that is usually when you see harbour porpoises around here. So I stared and stared, enjoying the breeze and the sound of the water hitting the rocks, when suddenly I saw this black thing in the water. It was hard to be sure because the light reflected even shadows of small waves, but once I saw it for the second time I had no doubts. It was a mother with its calf and they were swimming through the fjord, just passing some small fish farm cages. They quickly disappeared, but a few minutes after there was a single habour porpoise in the same area. I was really happy. It truly made me smile, the first and last heart-felt smile of the day.

Photo practice

The day started with a beautiful light, full of great shadows that made a fantastic effect in the snow. I was lucky to find for the first time, tracks of an otter. Here, the otters slide in the snow and aim for the water. You can clearly see the swoop of the sliding and suddenly you see the marks of its paws! I also had the pleasure of seeing a perfectly marked print of an Elk (Alces alces) which usually go around scrapping the trees.

Roads here are full of warning signs to alert people for elks crossingthe road. Apparently, that happens very often! I saw it happening only once, but at that one time 4 elks showed up!

Vesterålen is full of wildlife and, although birds here don't sing much, you can have great close up encounters with fantastic animals!

Norway Wildlife

The first morning in Norway, just after you wake up, what do you think you can hear? Absolutely nothing...Well, maybe some magpies, but not all that crackle and mix of bird songs that I am used to hear in Lisbon. There, birds even sing at night! Here, not so much...you may be lucky enough to hear the white-tailed eagles, but when it comes to birds so far I haven't heard any special songs. Perhaps birds here spend less energy in singing and more energy in gathering food - that's my theory. But one thing that Norway has that not so many places have, is a great light. No matter which time of day it is, you can go outside and be dazzled with how fast it changes and wonderful everything looks, especially with tonnes of snow around you. So, that will be the plan for today - go out with my compact and practice nature photography, so that I can capture the best of this wonderful light, and hopefully some wildlife too! It is very often to look outside from the window and see an eagle just circling around followed by sea gulls! Apparently, sea gulls don't like eagles and chase them away from where maybe they have their young. Eagles are known here for also taking cats! So, don't leave your cat outside when you know there is an eagle around.

Tonight I will post some photos for you to comment on. I will try to go around and take photos at sunset, but usually here animals are most active at sunrise. Wish me luck!

Space dynamics

In viking lands it is very often that one feels dazzled by the beauties of nature. It is so different from the hussle and bussle of the city...You wake up in the morning and just feel purely amazed by your surroundings. Mountains, fjords, and all the wildlife that comes with it, just make a true nature lover feel at home. One of the things that still dazzles me are the northern lights. Visible only at high latitudes, these gorgeous events caused by Sun activity remain one of the wonders of nature.

I found this website that describes and updates solar activity:

http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/resources/blog.php

http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/mission/science/prediction.php

as you can see, solar flares have been very intense recently, and I hope I am outside when the northern lights happen.

Also, you may be able to find some other curious things up in the night sky

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.cfm?SciencePageID=47

the Cassini spacecraft has been going around Saturn and is going to pass through its largest moon - Titan - in 3 days! Curiously, one of the moons is called Pan :P

So, keep that in mind and don't forget to have your eyes in the sky when you go out at night!

It's just life...

There are days that you wake up in the morning, look outside and think - what am I doing here? How did I get here? What am I going to do?

Well, those are the questions that make you move forward. Of course, they bring lots of pain and despair, but when you get there, when you reach that point, it will all make sense. I don't mean like you should have daily doubts about yourself, which you shouldn't, but you should always try to push yourself further and still be happy with what you have.

I have been under this philosophical state of mind, where I get like this every single day, every single morning. That's what you get when you don't have a job - you think too much...You always wish for the best and try to keep yourself positive, but that's hard work! The world spins faster every time and you see yourself always going around and around with nowhere to go. How do you get out of this cicle? How do you break it? How do you make your dreams work when everything seems to be against you? When you make your choices for love, but they do not seem to favour your professional life? How do you move forward when everything goes around and remain untouchable?

Part of the answer is to watch british tv shows, get inspired, contact people, and always approach someone new with a smile on your face. You know what else helps? FRIENDS! yeah! of course!

Just try not to run out of money :P

Oh! and just so you know, my work with Fin Whales in the Bay of Biscay with be presented by me at the European Cetacean Conference in Cadiz in March!

Christmas

Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance - a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved. - Augusta E. Rundel

Merry Xmas everyone! May Santa reward you with lovely presents and a beautiful life, full of adventures and marine mammal sightings!

Migrations

"Animal migration is a phenomenon far grander and more patterned than animal movement. It represents collective travel with long-deferred rewards. It suggests premeditation and epic willfulness, codified as inherited instinct." (David Quammen, 2010.NG)

These fascinating seasonal movements are carried by a handful of species that have developed this Darwinian way to perpetuate themselves through the generations. Oriented by temperature, light, currents, or even magnetic fields, these animals have proved to be an example of evolution and a great source of knowledge, especially in changing environments.

Migratory patterns usually involve special behaviours of preparation and arrival, and require great allocations of energy. From vertical migrations of copepods to the great migration of the monarch butterfly, or of the sperm whale, what drives these animals is truly a sense of larger purpose. It is stamped on their genetic code and they only know the way to go as they are moving.

Let's take the example of sea turtles;

The loggerhead turtle swims to specific beaches around the world to lay its eggs. After all eggs are safe in a sand hole, the mother leaves and will only come back to the same place a few years later. The younglings are born without any parental control and go to the water as soon as they come out of the egg. When they enter the water, there is an immediate trigger that tells them where to go and eventually, when they are fully grown, they come back to the same beach where there were born.

The same goes for the monarch butterflies, which take several generations to get to Canada where they produce a super generation of monarch butterfly that alone will return to the place it all started - Mexico.

It is essential that we understand the importance of these species and their migratory behaviours. This is not a topic of general culture and basic knowledge of our surroundings. It can contribute for a better management of our habitats. In a changing environment, their sensory cues may be masked and thus, their migrations delayed or advanced. Also, the seasonal presence of these animals will contribute for a greater diversity in the receiving environment, thus reducing inbreeding and loss of genetic variation. Changes in migratory patterns should be seen as a warning to humans that there is a great change in the environment that could also affect us.

Migrations are a fascinating topic and are a great source of knowledge that, if put in good use, can improve the state of our ecosystems.

dreams...

Do you have dreams and hopes?Do you have plans for the future?Are those plans driven by love or career?

Since very young I had great hopes for my future. I am a scientist, a biologist, a student of life, but mostly, a student of marine life and hope I will always be one. I focused on marine mammal conservation and that is my truest, deepest dream; to work with whales, dolphins, seals, etc, until I am very old and cranky.

But sometimes...panic!!!!!!!!!!!

It's so hard to work on what you love, on what you have dreamed since you are little. There are so many tumbles in the way, so many obstacles that force you to stop and reconsider what you are doing and force you to make some choices.

But where does love come in all this?

I was once told that you can have only one of the two. If you choose career, you will never be fully dedicated to love; and if you choose love, you will never have a good evolution in your career.

That is b.s.

If you truly love someone, you are willing to give up anything for that other person, even risking your career. However, if the other person loves you back the same way, you choices can be made together to make your dreams come true. That's the way it should be for me.

Of course, your dreams shouldn't just be limited to the career, they should include a family, a house, a dog, anything you want and wish to have someday.

What do you think?Does having one thing compromises the other? Does it depend on the job or just on the person?

say no to finning!

Did you know that sharks are getting endangered?Do you have any idea why? Well, here's a hint: finning. For those who do not know it, finning is the cruel act of cutting the fins off sharks to sell in the asian market. Sharks' fins are quite valuable and hence, quite expensive! Usually, after cutting the fins of the sharks, fishermen throw the animals' carcass back into the water where they eventually die from asphyxia or from blood loss. Today I went to a small lecture about these things. It was mostly for children, but adults get the big picture...Unfortunately the current legislation is not enough to stop this practices and we need stronger measures to be taken. The fishing industry always gets its way around, or it has up to now. Here are some links for you guys to take a look at:

http://www.apece.pt/ - this one is only for Portugal and talks mostly about the initiatives this organisation has taken to protect sharks in Portugal.

http://www.ocean2012.eu/OCEAN2012 - this organisation concerns all fisheries' management issues in Europe.

http://www.sharkalliance.org/ - shark alliance in focused essentially on sharks too, but at a much wider scale.

You can also find them on facebook.

Remember to take action, don't sit around and wait from something good to come to you. You can make the change for a better protection of the world's greatest gift: nature.

I'm back!!

Dear readers,

I'm really sorry for being away for so long. Things have been going a bit crazy around here, but I will try to sum up everything and, of course, give you some nice pictures! For starters, I'm now back in Lisbon and I'm bored to death...For a while things didn't go so well in Norway, but most importantly, they ended well! I came to Lisbon on the 4th of September, but only after one week I had to go back and work some stuff out...After spending one week around the fjords, watching the northern lights and seeing the reflex of the stars in the water, I fell in love with Norway! Now that I am back, there is no day that goes by without me sending an email to get a job there. Two great jobs showed up in Scotland, with my wonderful sea creatures and I applied to them as well! Cross your fingers for me, will you? I keep waiting for positive replies, but so far nothing...It is really getting me down...especially today, that is pouring rain and all I wanted to do was to be in my own house, drinking a nice latte, and looking outside of my window and watching the rain in the fjords (it would even be better if there was a group of dolphins or whales passing by!). For now, all I can do is dream for that day to come...soon!Rainy days always give you this nostalgia...you feel like staying at home, watching a movie and getting a foot massage. It's a struggle when you need to go out... Anyway, now that it's darker and colder, my advice to everyone is just to enjoy the short moments you have with your loved ones, no matter where you are, and make it the best you can! I know that maybe you feel lazy and don't want to get out of bed, but you have to do something! To stop is to die! Remember, past is history, the future is a mystery, and today is a gift!!!

I hope you like my photos :)

Make some comments!