Edwin Soto's Blog

Oh hey there, Ash Wednesday… I didn’t even see you coming!  What do you mean it was on the calendar? Wow, I didn’t even notice. Sorry.

I became Catholic on my own accord at 15 years old. I went to church religiously [ha!], and joined RCIA and did my communion shortly after.  Since then I go through spells of dedication and then spells of laziness.  Before the age of 15, I was plenty versed on the Christian Bible and Jesus’ trials throughout Lent.  When I became Catholic, it was the first time that I started to understand Jesus’ role in my life and my religious beliefs, and for once, Lent.

I apologize if I start to offend either non-Catholics, or heck, practicing Catholics for that matter – but I feel like I’ve needed to say this for a long time: giving up chocolate is not Lenten sacrifice.  At least, not for an adult. If I were 11, I could see how that would be a big deal. Don’t get me wrong, there are bigger fish to fry and I don’t sit here and pretend like I’m perfect by any means – until today I hadn’t gone to church in 3 months. I just somehow doubt that when Jesus was going through the most difficult times in His life, he was thinking “I hope when they remember this moment, they’ll give up eating candy for 40 days”.

From wikipedia: Lent is a time of sacrifice for Jesus. The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial.

So for me, this is Lent. The self sacrificing, loving, repenting, and preparation of Easter. So before you decide that giving up chocolate is enough… I hope that there’s some self reflection involved.

I’m not perfect, and this Lenten season, I’ll be ensuring that I talk to God for (at least) 40 days. I’ve been self sacrificing and repenting since I became a Vegan – I need to continue to let it drive me to be thankful for the life I have, my health, my family, His love, and all the things He created. At first it was giving up meat and dairy as a sacrifice, but He has shown me through abstaining from these things, I was giving back to Him. Giving love back to His world. It becomes a bit clearer every day what my role is on His Earth. I want to become a better person and “giving up” meat and dairy is a good way to start to give back. It’s made me remember that deep down inside I want to be a better Dad, husband, colleague, supervisor, but mostly a better human being.

I pray that I can learn how to strive to do that over the next 40 days.

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Ever since, well – what I’m labeling as my “coming out” post, I have had some of the most interesting conversations with individuals.  I’ve found that with every minute I talk about my new eating habits, I actually get people to listen. People have questions, and I don’t have all the answers, but I do have 4 weeks of personal experience. In some circles I’ve been straggling around with, I’d be practically an expert in Animal-less eating. (more…)

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I never thought that I would be sharing this with the general public as such a topic can be considered somewhat personal for me.  You should know that I don’t really believe in New Year’s resolutions since we all know how a day like today (Feb 1st) is usually the day when people realize they’ve already given up on them. I do believe in “don’t make excuses” type of attitude as a way to live your everyday life. I think that if you want to do something, don’t let anything stop you. For those of you looking to lose some weight or get into exercise, keep a healthy diet, or heck, pick up the guitar, ask yourself what’s stopping you.  Ok now with that out of the way, allow me to share with you the journey I’ve been on over the past couple of months. (more…)

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I swear there’s a table under here somewhere. The theme was SLOPPY. I’m fairly certain this does it justice.

The adjustments were plenty, I was going for a vintage look. Additionally, at the request of my wife, I blurred her signature somewhere…. Can you spot it?

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Today’s theme was WATER. This theme was announced in the morning by Doug. When I read today’s theme, I happen to be boiling eggs! What’s cooler than bubbles? NOTHING! That’s what!

This is the natural shot, I liked it that much.

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Today’s theme was LIFE. It’s not that often that you get to see a rainbow. But how often is it that you get to see a rainbow that goes end to end? This may have been my first. I had about 2 minutes to take as many shots as I could, before it started to disappear.

There’s only a small bit of cropping and some light adjustments so that you can make it out.

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No specific theme today, just a few shots of my must have morning cup(s) of Joe. Everyone knows how much I love to brew my own coffee (especially a French Pressed cup of Starbucks’ Gold Coast). This is my favorite mug that I own and I love the original Starbucks Siren on it.

For this one, I’m not going to link the flickr photo. There were 2 pictures that I loved so much that made it difficult to decide. Instead I’ll post both of them here (and the ‘winner’ on flickr). So instead enjoy both of these pictures equally. If you really want to know, just head over to the 365 day link.

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My buddy Krystal was over to kill zombies non-stop all night tonight and about 11:20pm I was able to snap this photo portrait of her. We took several shots, but then she when giggly and I think the best shots of her were of her smile. Don’t you?

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This was a late theme decision of “Playing by the rules”

The bobble head was a gift from Ken. Being a Phillies fan, when the bobble head’s bat broke, he gave Jose Reyes this non-regulation bat.

Since then it has graced my desk every day.

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Today’s theme was travel. This one is little bit more like space travel, but hey whaddaya want from me!? I had all of these ideas, but it turned out to be a very busy day and here I am after midnight trying to sneak it in (forgive me?).

So here’s EJ’s whiteboard with all of the planets in marker. He’s especially interested in astronomy. You can even see Saturn’s rings there at the bottom.Not a lot of digital adjusting, just some white balancing (everything in my house is freaking fluorescent) but this is mostly a natural shot.

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