Neonna Loretta Micarelli - Monthly Smiles with Daddy: Year 1 (2023-2024)

 

My daughter Neonna recently had her 2nd birthday. She has been smiling since she was a newborn, & she brings a smile to the face of everyone she meets. I started taking pics of us every month to follow our happy journey, and this video documents her first year of smiles. 

 

Neonna is a bright, shiny soul who is full of light. We thought that after my son Paulie, who is a ball of energy, that maybe she would be the mellow one... yeah, that was some wishful thinking! Although she is definitely not as much of a maniac as my son, she is still a wild child in her own way.

Her first word was "Da-Da" 💖 & now she is starting to talk, pretending to have conversations in babble language on her play phone. She's a strong little girl, running around trying to keep up with her big brother, and also beating the crap out of him when he inevitably crosses the line and pisses her off. She's very active- she's dribbling soccer balls, has an impressive throwing arm, climbs on everything & loves swinging like a monkey on rings or the trapeze! 

She's also super-strong-minded, and is already a sassy force to be reckoned with. When she points her finger and says to me "No, Daddy!" I feel like I'm dealing with a teenager already. We gave her the nickname "Gromulus the Gremlin" for whenever she gets into goblin mode, which can be very crazy. She calls herself "Ya-Ya", which I guess is her trying to pronounce "Neonna". Everybody thinks it's hilarious & we all call her Ya-Ya now.

Maybe Neonna will have a creative nature like me; she already points out & says colors and loves to draw (scribble). The thing that really blows my mind is how she already has a sense of humor, before she can really talk. How do kids know what is funny & how to be funny?? It's a weird thing, but amazing to observe. 

My wife and I feel so blessed to have this beautiful little girl in our life. We just look at her in awe, and ask each other how we created such a perfect being. I have continued this fun project into year 2, so I will post that video soon. 

Here is a link to the photo album, where I hope to continue to add pics of me & my sweet little pumpkin:

 Neonna Loretta Micarelli - Monthly Smiles with Daddy
by Paul Micarelli 

Poconos 2024

 Micarelli Family Nature Photo
Paul, Neonna, Paulie, Loretta

This summer, we had our annual family vacation in the Poconos, Pa. We have been going there to one lake house or another for many, many years. As a kid, it was my parents, my brothers, sister, & me going on vacation asva family. As we got older, spouses & kids have also joined in the week of vacation relaxation. My son Paulie has been there once before, and this was my 1 yr. old daughter Neonna's first big trip. 

It's a whole new dimension now, going on family trips as a dad. It is such an amazing and utterly exhausting experience. Despite Loretta & I never feeling like we are able to truly relax & unwind, it is still a lot of fun. It's great to see my kids playing with their cousins, and everyone still enjoying time together. This year was special because Neonna had just begun to walk! She was taking a few steps in the week before we left, & she really starting getting around while up in the mountains. My son also first started walking during a week in the Poconos, so I was joking that "it must be the high altitude!"

Anyway, we spend a few days hanging out by the lake, boating, swimming, and sitting by campfires. We took Paulie & Neonna's first real hike, seen above. It's nice to be in nature and forget about responsibilities (besides the kids) for a bit. I'm glad we are exposing my kids to the beauty of the natural world & giving them that appreciation. Here's the photo album from the trip, & I'll post some below:

Micarelli Pocono Vacation 2024

 

 

 

 

 

Neonna Loretta Micarelli's 1st Birthday!

 

My daughter Neonna Loretta Micarelli turned one year old, and we had a wonderful party with many family & friends to celebrate the milestone.

Photo Album:
Neonna Loretta Micarelli 1st Birthday

Neonna is my perfect little pumpkin! She is an absolute joy from the time she wakes up in the morning, with a big grin on her face. 😄  Her presence is a blessing, bringing a smiles to the faces of everyone she meets. She is already funny and cracks me up, without being able to talk. She is active and strong, like her big brother Paul Giuseppe. Loretta & I just look at her sweet face and cannot believe it. We are so happy to celebrate such a beautiful, wonderful spirit this & every day!

 

Unfortunately, on her birthday our usually happy & smiley little angel was not feeling well... teething & nap-deprived, in the brutal heat. The poor baby was miserable, would not sleep, & did not want to be put down. She still had a very special day, with many family & friends coming out to celebrate her first year of life. 

 

Paul (me) with Neonna, Paulie, & Loretta

 

As the day went on, she started feeling better, & I took her over to the kiddie pool and sprinkled her with water to cool her off. She finally started walking around and smiling again. Neonna has recently begun to walk, so she was getting around the party on her own two feet. Paulie was still relying on a walker on his 1st birthday (even if he did literally burn holes in his little Converse All Stars from scooting around on a concrete patio).

Although it was stressing us out not knowing how sick she was (because a baby can't tell you anything), parenting is always stressful. We were just deeply grateful that we were able to celebrate her turning one & to have her in our lives. I always knew I wanted to be a father, but it is completely overwhelming to really consider the awesome responsibility of raising a child. My wife and I started our family later in life, so we have the maturity to appreciate the wonder of manifesting a new human life into the world.

Neonna is such a pure & beautiful little soul. I hope & dream that she has a blessed life, full of happiness and fulfillment. I hope I'm around long enough to watch her & Paulie grow through the important stages of their lives and continue to enjoy their presence every day.

Summer of Bugs

 This summer, I was able to take a lot of nature photography, especially macro close-ups of insects & spiders. Being able to zoom into the intricate details of these creatures gives you a deeper appreciation of their amazing complexity.

Nature Photography
by Paul Micarelli

This post is a roundup of photos I've taken of interesting creatures in my backyard. (I try to use my finger for scale whenever possible.)

First up is this little jumping spider that was staring at me as I snapped his pic:

Here are some alien-like macro shots of a kaytdid. Thankfully, I'm part of a local Facebook nature photography group, so they are a big help in identifying some of this wildlife. Otherwise, I would've thought this was just some kind of grasshopper:

 

Have you ever seen a katydid breathing? Now you have:

The next photos are actually post-mortem of what I was later informed was a cicada killer wasp. I was in the yard with my 3-year old son & it started buzzing around our heads. So, I took Paulie up to the porch, tracked it down, & sprayed it. I'd already been stung by multiple bees & wasps this summer, and this one looked it could definitely hurt one of us. I watched it fly across the yard & drop. I went over to the dead wasp & decided that it was pretty insane-looking, so I might as well get some photography of its physical features. 

Well, I caught a lot of shit from people in the nature photography group, because I had killed it. It actually cause a bit of a debate among the members who were defending me vs. the wasp defenders. Lol. I found out that cicada killer males put on a false show of aggression & actually are not super-dangerous. Although I don't want to kill any kind of life if I can help it, I truly felt that this wasp was a threat. I don't feel bad about taking out a wasp to prevent my son from possibly getting injured. Despite it's potential threat level, it's details were definitely fascinating:

Here's another really tiny spider, that was in a web on the leaves of a hibiscus plant. It was so small, I couldn't even pick up fine details with my macro lens:

This little green fella turned out to be a juniper stink bug. I knew it was shaped like a stink bug, but thought it was a small beetle or something. I'm used to the ugly brown stinkbugs.

 

Finally, this alien-like praying mantis was waiting for my family on our back door, as we came home from a Labor Day party yesterday. It was about 4-6 inches long. My wife refused to open the door until I got it the hell away from there.

Black Racer Snake

 

I was taking my son Paulie over to a big tree in our yard to catch some insects for his bug collecting kit, & we saw this guy chilling on the tree trunk. It wasn't really moving at all, so I got some closeups.

Nature Photography
by Paul Micarelli 

 

 

Psycho-Branding: "Twitter" to "X"

"twitter icons covering elon musk's face"
-Images: Stable Diffusion AI Software
-Prompts & Curating: Paul Micarelli

@AC.Artificial.Creativity

* Full Disclaimer*: I do not have a Twitter account, nor do I really give a shit about Twitter as a social media platform. 

Of course, I've read plenty of people's tweets, mostly related to politics or current events, but mostly I would be interested in the user comments of each post. Since Elon Musk made the 'Big Brain' move to hide comments unless your logged in, I don't even bother clicking on any links to tweets anymore.

Still, it is interesting to see how Elon has been running this company head-first into the ground. It has been a definitive example of what many have suspected- that he's kind of a dipshit, who thinks he's the smartest guy in the room because he was born ridiculously wealthy & made good investments off the hard work and research of others. He is probably never told "No Elon, that's a really stupid fucking idea." It's glaringly obvious that he's a skin-thinned egomaniac, as well. I know you can't be a total invalid & be a billionaire, so he obviously has a certain level of competency. The image of a "tech genius" has been pretty well shattered, though- especially since taking over Twitter. He makes monumentally bad decisions, and the latest news about Twitter's re-branding is my field of design & branding, so I felt compelled to speak on it.

ARS TECHINCA:

Musk rushes out new Twitter logo—
it’s just an X that someone tweeted at him

To me, this is just an absolutely insane marketing / branding decision. Words like "tweet" & "follow" are now being used as common verbs because they've become so widespread, & Twitter's unique branding was originally carefully crafted by a team of experts... but yeah, Elon thinks it's a brilliant idea to completely change the identity of the platform into the uninspiring - "X". If he thinks this is edgy or cool, he's dead wrong- because it's pretty much the most lame & stupid goddamn approach imaginable. It's like he never got past the 1990's "X-Treme!" trend. I know people with big ideas have been laughed at before, but this is so comically bad it's almost like he's doing it just to troll everyone. Besides throwing away a well-established name & brand, he's replacing it with a symbol that's near universal in the tech world for "close application" or "stop process". It's also a symbol for death in many cultures. Oh, and don't forget the porn connotations!

Besides the negative, hostile symbolism, it's also super-awkward to use. He wants tweets to be called "exes" now? So, people are supposed to say, "Did you see so-and-so politician or celebrity's 'x' about that topic?" How are people supposed to search for something from the site with such a basic & general name? Ugh, it's just so, so dumb in so many ways...

 

Apparently, Elon's dream that he can't let go of is to turn "X.com" into a multi-purpose digital platform that covers all the bases - social media, banking, news, etc. What his dumb ass doesn't realize, is that if he can't even keep one of the most popular communication sites in the world minimally profitable, he sure as hell isn't going to be able to completely re-brand it into a successful multi-purpose platform!

When I was reading this news, I couldn't believe how asinine this idea was. You couldn't make up a worse solution if you tried. It's like "How to Destroy Your Company Brand 101" with Professor Musk. As I stated in the beginning of this post, I didn't even want to bother with a Twitter account, anyway. Thanks to Elon's shenanigans, I'll definitely be sure to stay off whatever horrible iteration of the platform he comes up with in the future.

Paul Giuseppe - Jedi or Sith?

It's crazy how busy it gets when you have children... Working full time & having a toddler sucks all the time from my day, but I'm grateful to have such a full life. 

I realized I haven't posted in a month, so I thought I'd share a proud dad moment. 

Anyone who knows me or has followed this blog knows I'm a lifelong Star Wars fan. Recently, right around Star Wars Day (May 4th) my son Paulie took his "first step into a larger world".

First of all, I made the mistake of bringing home an electronic Darth Vader bank from my parents' house. 

You push a button and Vader lights up, talks, & moves while blasting The Imperial March. Well, my son has become completely obsessed with this thing. He has already worn out 3 sets of batteries from activating it over & over (....& over & over) again. Sometimes he'll push the button 20+ times in a row. My poor wife is so sick of it, she's ready to Force choke someone out. I never thought I would need a break from hearing The Imperial March, but here we are...

He was playing the thing so damn much, I had to give him a Darth Vader action figure just so that he would leave the bank alone & eat dinner.

Now, he loves watching videos with Vader from the films or Star Wars Kids animations. He also says "Vay-er" in the car until I play The Imperial March through the stereo.

Since he has seen clips of lightsaber duels, I've begun his Jedi padawan training - with an intro to lightsaber combat. He seems to prefer the Jedi lightsabers, while I use the double-edged Darth Maul one. So, even though he is enthralled by The Dark Lord of the Sith, he prefers Jedi weapons. He's a strong little guy, so he wields the toy swords pretty handily.

Really, his first exposure to Star Wars was Yoda & Grogu "Baby Yoda". He still loves these characters, mimicking my imitation of Yoda's laugh "Hmmm-hmm-hmm" & continuously watching the Lego Star Wars video of Grogu in the snow to the point where he knows each part of it. His grandmother gave him a Baby Yoda doll that he was carrying around all day today.

I made another big mistake of showing him a Darth Vader case in his closet, that's full of Star Wars figures, that I was saving for when he is old enough to play with them. Now, he goes to his closet, pointing up to the case & saying "Vay-er" until I take it down. I'm letting him look through them and play with them, but putting them back so he doesn't lose them.

So being such a huge Star Wars fan, it's pretty cool that my son loves it so much already. It's fun to watch video clips online with him, and I can't wait until he's old enough to watch the movies & series with me. Hopefully he embraces the Light Side, and doesn't follow Vader into the ways of the Sith...

Paul Giuseppe Micarelli - 1st Birthday Party

The invitation I created for the birthday party, featuring my wild little son!

 

I haven't posted a lot here recently, since I work full time and spend a lot of my free time with my son, who just had his 1st birthday! Being a father is an awesome experience, and I am blessed that Paulie is healthy, smart, and already funny (even though he can't talk)!

A year ago, his birth was simultaneously the most traumatic & beautiful experience of my life. My wife and I planned on a natural home birth, but we found ourselves in a medical emergency when the baby's umbilical cord became prolapsed (pushed over his head) after Loretta's water forcefully broke. I wrote about our story shortly after:

Paul Giuseppe Micarelli - Born 6-13-20!

Having a child born during the COVID pandemic and social upheaval has really been a strange & difficult circumstance. The challenges surrounding Paul Giuseppe's birth have given us a deep, profound appreciation for his presence in our lives.

As I see him developing, I'm enjoying him more & more! He already has a little personality and cracks everyone up with his smile and funny sounds, like his dramatic laugh & grunts when doing something strenuous. Paulie is stubborn, persistent, and rough, but also very sweet and happy. He loves to play and is so curious- he is fascinated by mechanical things like clasps, buttons, and hinges. Currently, he is obsessed with wireless speakers, so I got him a little one for his birthday that is rugged enough to endure his rough handling & drool.

Here are some of the nicknames we've given him:
Lil' Rascal  • Meatball Head • Plumpkin • The Milk Goblin • Peanut • Squeaky Skadattles • Scoots • Uncle Fusster • Crank Sinatra • Lil' C-Blocker • Pig Boy • Little Mr. Fidgewidge

I've made up a character for him that I use to entertain my sister's kids... pretending he is an emperor as I carry him around & they must obey his bidding:

"Caesar Paulgustus"

I am writing this mostly for him, as a record that hopefully he gets to see someday, the same way my grandfather Joseph Micarelli recorded his experiences that I'm now able to appreciate.

Photo Album:

Paul Giuseppe Micarelli - 1st Birthday June 2021

I've also taken some video of his big day & edited together:

Every day during my morning meditation, I pray that my son lives a long, happy, & healthy life, and that Loretta & I get to see him grow up to be a fulfilled adult. I am grateful for his presence in my life and hope his light shines into the world.

Photopea- Free Online Image Editor

As a graphic designer, I've used Adobe products for most of my career- mainly Photoshop & Illustrator.

Almost 2 years ago, I somewhat unexpectedly got laid off from my graphic design position at a small local studio, where I had been working for over 15 years.  As I collected unemployment, I began to build up two of my own businesses: Paul Micarelli Design & Fantasy Photos.

Obviously, being on a tight budget meant that I wasn't really looking to pay the monthly subscription costs that Adobe now requires. As I was looking for open source or free alternatives for image editing software & vector graphics, I was already familiar with GIMP, which I use for my Fantasy Photos business on my laptop to do simple photo editing.

I also found Affinity Designer, which combines many of the features of both Photoshop & Illustrator into one program. There was a one-time fee to buy the software that was less than $100, so after testing it for the free trial, I purchased it. It has been my main graphic program ever since, with about 90% of the functions I need on a daily basis for my design work.

However, despite it's versatility, there are alot of editing features in Photoshop that Affinity Designer is missing. GIMP is useful, but the interface and tools can be cumbersome.

Recently on Reddit I came across a comment thread about a free online photo editor called Photopea, created by sole developer Ivan Kutskir.

Photopea

I gave it a shot & it is really an awesome program. It has many of the features used in Photoshop that are either missing in Affinity Designer, or are a pain in the ass to use in GIMP. The only downside is that you need to be online to use it, but when I'm at my desk working, I'm always online anyway- so it's not that big of a deal. (After just looking at a support thread, I found out that once you load Photopea into the browser, you can actually use it offline.)

I'm not going to get into all the features, but I'm just going to say that it's the closest thing to a free version of Photoshop that I've found, and I'm starting to use it alot. I was just using it today to create animated GIF banners, which is not possible or feasible in the other programs.

If you are a designer, photo editor, or creative professional looking for a Photoshop alternative, I would highly recommend checking out this free, yet powerful, photo software.

Large Praying Mantis

Outside my back door, I saw these 2 big praying mantises (male & female?) crawling up the siding. The slats of siding are about 5 inches, so it was around that long.

After I got up close to take photos, one of them flew right by my face, & that was the end of the photo session!

I had been having run-ins with these interesting insects for a few weeks, but these are the only photos good enough to post to my nature album.

Nature Photography

by Paul Micarelli

Large Walking Stick

I saw this big walking stick climbing up the side of my house & got some closeup photos of it for my online nature album.

Nature Photography

by Paul Micarelli

I thought it was cool that its body was brown, but the legs were green- mimicking new shoots coming out of a branch.

Big Hungry Spider

I saw this fat spider in his web by the front porch light, waiting for a meal. So, I decided to get my macro lens and get a closeup shot of it, in all it's awesome detail, to add to my album of nature photos.

Nature Photography

by Paul Micarelli

The next night, it was still there in the same spot- but this time it had caught a daddy long legs, or harvestman. It was preying on the unfortunate creature's body, as its spindly legs were wrapped up in the webbing.

I saw the silhouette of the spider & it's victim in the porch light and thought it looked pretty creepy, like something out of a horror movie.

Spider Capturing a Beetle

Here's another nature video, from the recent vacation with my family at Big Bass Lake, in the Poconos, PA. My nephews spotted this spider wrapping up a beetle in its web, as the unfortunate beetle desperately tried to get out of the clutches of the relentless arachnid.

I left the original audio, since there's some pretty funny conversation going on in the background, including us all cheering on the beetle, when we thought it was actually going to escape.

Spider Capturing a Beetle

Video & Editing by Paul Micarelli

Poconos Northern Water Snake

This (non-venomous) Northern Water Snake swam by the dock regularly during my family's vacation at Big Bass Lake in the Poconos, PA.

It seemed to magically appear every time someone would talk about it!

I also took some video as he swam by the shore by the dock:

Poconos Northern Water Snake

 Filmed & Edited by Paul Micarelli

Big Paul's Adventures in History VIII

I have a lot of photos of my Dad sleeping in many different chairs, on many different occasions.  

Before his retirement last year, he worked hard in the food retail business all his life. When he would get a chance to sit down & relax, it usually turns into a snoozefest. Family events or holidays inevitably become napping opportunities for the big guy.

My old friend Dan J. gave me the idea- to have pictures of my Dad sleeping right through important times in history. I thought this idea was hysterical, & created this series of "snapshots" showing Big Paul experiencing historic events, in his own special way.

This is the eighth set of of "History Adventures," as he sleeps his way through the most important events in history.

To commemorate my Dad's birthday & Father's Day, I made the 3 new History Adventures below.

Click the link to see the whole series:

 "Big Paul's

Adventures in History"

 

"Big Paul's Adventures in History"
Death of Julius Caesar 

"Et tu, Paul?" 

My Dad sleeps through the assassination of Caesar 

during the Ides of March.

 

  

"Big Paul's Adventures in History"
John & Yoko Bed-In

"Et tu, Paul?" 

John Lennon's pleas for world peace 

are drowned out by Big Paul's snoring.

 

 "Big Paul's Adventures in History"

Eagles Win Super Bowl

Even the collective cheers of Philadelphia fans 

and a win by his favorite team 

are not enough to wake this football fan from his slumber.