“I meant,” said Ipslore bitterly, “what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?”
Death thought about it.
CATS, he said eventually. CATS ARE NICE.”

― Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

Because that’s what my life’s been lately.

I honestly can’t believe we’re nearing the end of February already. This week in particular was spent in a myriad of personal responsibilities that I’d been putting off because of work. Right now, it feels like I will never stop being busy.

This must be what it feels like to be an adult.

It’s Week 6 of 52 and I’ve already had it with self-portraits. Some days it feels like an exceedingly narcissistic and frivolous endeavor, other times like a challenge and learning process. How many ways can you photograph someone until it gets boring?

I for one get very tired of looking at myself . It’s not a question of low self esteem (or even too high self esteem) – I look like myself, if that makes any sense (don’t we all go through a phase in life when we don’t recognize the person in the mirror?). I guess I just need to find time to photograph other people, explore other personalities and life experiences. Alas, there are only so many hours in a day.

When I was in art school studying Photography, taking and sharing photographs of your cats was extremely frowned upon. There was an unspoken (and sometimes spoken) agreement that it was an amateur thing, and if you did it, you weren’t a real photographer.

My own opinion has always been that people who dismiss anything out of prejudice are usually not worth the bother. Besides, cats are awesome.

So here’s a new, ongoing project: The Cat Diaries.

I’ve been using Pinterest for a week now (you can visit my profile here). I have to say, even though it’s fun to use, I’m having a hard time deciding how useful it is, for me, at least. So far it feels very similar in focus to Tumblr, only easier to use (the “Pin It” button is convenient and elegant), better organized and more visually appealing. On the other hand, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of “pins” – and I only follow about half the number of users the site automatically recommended to me. I’ve come across people with dozens of boards, and more pins than artworks in the Louvre.

Still, I can see its usefulness as a virtual clipboard – no need for paper, ink or wall space anymore, unless you really want to.

As for me, I currently have four boards: Art & Exhibitions, for portraits of artists and images of exhibitions; Dream Home, for collecting interior design ideas; The Girly Tomboy, for style inspirations; and Visual Art, for artworks that catch my eye but which don’t quite fit with the theme I have for my Tumblr.

Check it out, and if you’re there, be sure to let me know.

It’s been the coldest weekend so far this winter. Even though in Porto we never get any extremes (going below zero is unusual), I still welcomed the opportunity to stay warm at home, not in the least because I seem to have caught the flu that’s been going around.

And what better way to feel warm and cozy than with a cat by your side?

Yesterday I decided it was time for me to clean up my social media presence. Not in terms of content – I only share whatever I’m comfortable everyone knowing – but in terms of the amount of websites I’m active in. It’s no secret that I’m a social media enthusiast – I’m even making it the focus of my research and Master’s thesis – so I tend to try every new thing that appeals to my many interests. Some, like Goodreads, Foodspotting, Tumblr or Flickr, I stick to and become active on, others end up not being such a great fit for me and I just don’t use them.

The thing is, I don’t always remember to deactivate or delete my accounts.

There’s nothing worse in the social media world than a dead account, specially when associated with a username others might want. Though that’s not the case for me since my name is not that usual, it’s still annoying when it happens. So I decided to go through all my accounts and delete any that I wasn’t using. Thing is, this turned out to be much more difficult than I imagined.

Some websites make it hard for you to find the “Delete” feature. This is annoying, but understandable, since you don’t want people to click it by accident and you probably feel the need to discourage them from trying to leave. But then there are those that require you to contact them by email asking for your account’s deletion. And as if that wasn’t annoying enough, there are others who require you to register on another site (usually a support site) so you can contact them and ask them to remove your account. And even worse, there are some that just don’t allow you to delete your account, for whatever reason.

I just don’t understand the logic behind this. What are these companies thinking? That if you make it difficult for people to leave, they’ll somehow start loving and using your product again? I found myself liking a website more whenever I found their “Delete Account” button, and even decided to give a couple of services one more shot only because they give you the option (bonus points if you’re cool and funny about it).

This reminds me of the time when I had to write a letter to my college’s dean asking for permission to leave Medical School. It was a formality, they said, but still compulsory. Quite puzzling. Or when my boyfriend had to make an international call to the UK to ask to deactivate his Matrix Online account (this makes sending an email not sound so bad after all).

In short, if you work in a startup or anything online that requires people to register so they can participate, please, do give your users the option to delete their accounts. It will make them feel respected and you’ll avoid having dead accounts scattered across your website. The internet says thanks.

P.S. My brother decided to also clean up his web fingerprint, read his take on the experience here.

January was a crazy month. I am a bit of a workaholic and I enjoy being busy, but there’s a limit for everything and I think I may have passed it this month. Once again this week’s photo wasn’t thought through and I even ended up using the same wallpaper for lack of time and creative energy, but at least it’s something.

I like that it looks a bit like I’m playing piano with keys made of light. Or maybe I’m seeing things.

Lots more posts coming this week, if life allows me. Excuse me while I go back to writing essays…

Anyway, I also read “As Extraordinárias Aventuras de Dog Mendonça e Pizzaboy II – Apocalipse” by Filipe Melo and Juan Cavia (pictured open in the image above – check out those colours!). It’s the second book in a Portuguese comic series, one of the few that actually achieved commercial success in Portugal (the market is small and struggling here, but the fans are passionate). I liked it, but didn’t love it. Still, I feel happy that books like these are getting published. I’ll be looking forward to the next one.

I started reading “Designing for the Social Web” by Joshua Porter. I’m still at the introduction, but I have high hopes for this one. Lately it seems that all the books about design or social media that I pick up end up being disappointments, so let’s hope this one is the exception.