Jan
1
Venture Brothers Season 4 Speculation
I love vacation time- it gives me a breather to catch up with random silliness and stuff.
For those of you who have not seen it, The Venture Brothers is highly recommended, especially if you fit in that age bracket young enough to remember Jonny Quest reruns, but not old enough to take the actual episodes all that seriously.
Today’s post deals with one subject at hand- how season 3 ends, and some speculation about what awaits in season 4. So don’t click ‘read more’ unless you’re all caught up at this point.
Dec
19
Some In-Flight Turbulence at The New School
I work at The New School, a liberal arts university in Manhattan comprised of eight separate schools unified as one university. Arguably the most famous of them is the Parsons School of Design. There has been some controversy of late- basically at time of writing what has happened so far in a super-condensed form:
- The newly hired provost Joe Westphal left his position after roughly three months on the job. Mr. Bob Kerrey, the university president announced that he would assume the role of interim provost until one could be found.
- The full-time faculty held a meeting and voted no confidence in Mr. Kerrey along with James Murtha, the executive VP.
- A flurry of communications between the two parties, mostly through third party media worsened and escalated the situation to some degree.
- Mr. Kerrey then met the faculty face to face in a meeting that was off limits to students (presumably for the sake of airing out grievances on a straightforward manner and not to involve student issues).
- Some students then occupied the cafeteria and neighboring study facility at the “GF” building on 65 Fifth Avenue.
- A video was released of a small fracas between one member of TNS security and a student. This happened around noon on 18 Dec 2008, into the second day of the student occupation.
- Bob Kerrey canceled the student senate meeting which was due to have met in that very building on 8PM that night.
- Students occupied some parts of the ‘main’ building at 55 West 13th Street for a period of several hours starting from roughly 10PM on 18 Dec 2008.
- At some point near midnight, Bob Kerrey left the 55 West 13th street building and was chased down the street by a large group of student protesters to his apartment building a few blocks away.
- The students who occupied the 55 West 13th eventually left early in the morning of the 19th after some of their demands were met. The students holed up in 65 Fifth Avenue are still there.
If you’re a parent and you’re reading this, I just wanted to express some of my opinions about the situation so far. If you’re a parent of a New School student, thank you for putting your trust in the school and its staff. I’m not a faculty member, and what I do for the university is akin to that of a ‘digital janitor’. There are a lot of dedicated and hard working staff trying to make sure that students get the best services and support that we can provide.
Dec
3
Bounce It Off My Head
Dec
2
Overrated Battery Capacity & Other Gotchas
When shopping for some new loose AA rechargeable batteries I found myself bemused by the number of vendors that lie a little bit or flat out lie about what their cells can do in order to generate some more sales. Surprised? Not really. I guess in some way Captain Obvious should have been shouting in my ear ‘DUH!!!’… but then again I might just be a bit too idealistic.
Having had some experience with original equipment vendors, and being that it is indeed shopping season, I felt like spreading some tips for those out look for rechargeable cells and packs as well.
Nov
21
Let American Automakers Go Bankrupt
They want in on a share of the bailout money? Heck no. Let GM, Chrysler, and Ford go down.
A combination of factors have led the the invariable decline of the American automotive industry.
My opinions as just another freaking observer on this? Keep reading if you’re so inclined…
Nov
20
Smoothie Sale
Yeah. This is how i feel right about now.
Nov
19
Don’t Use Crappy Memory Cards
I was shooting a Kunqu Chinese opera some time ago and was at one point shadowed by someone using a nice midrange DSLR. He was copying my angles and at times I could hear the autofocus motor of his lens whining as it was right next to my head. It was also apparent that he was trying to shoot as many frames as possible by the way his shutter was machine gunning off a few shots… and then left to agonizingly wait as his camera’s storage buffer were being written to the camera’s memory card. I could hear him silently cursing under his breath. Was it at me?
Nov
14
Black and White Photos Equal Death?
Apologies in advance for what is a thinly disguised rant, but I originally wrote this when I was upset. However after looking back on it, I still find it reasonably appropriate and have posted it here with minimal edits.
I have to occasionally deal with odd outbursts from the Unreasonably Stubborn Man who is a relative that will remain unnamed. It does not matter who he (or she) even is, as that is not particularly important. In the past I just sort of let these things go but recently my attitude on things have changed. You could say that my ignorance tolerance level of took a nosedive, and this time things got interestingly stupid.
Nov
11
Canon 1D Mk.III Versus Canon SX110
This will be a bit of an ongoing comparison between one of Canon’s pro-level cameras (the 1D) and a convenient point-and-shoot camera that was purchased on a binge at a bankruptcy sale of a large retailer- the Canon SX110.
This is not meant to be a joke. It’s part of my way to try and be a better all-around photographer and get used to equipment from both professional and casual shooter territory. I’ll be posting more of these types of comparisons as time permits. It’s actually rather fun and isn’t meant to be a put down for the more expensive camera- and definitely not a situation where a rinkydink point-and-shoot is being fed to a tiger den.
Nov
10
Pixel Peeping Absurdity – Brand vs. Brand Color Rendition
I’m generally for the practice of pixel peeping, as long as it is done in moderation. In case you don’t know what pixel peeping entails, it’s real simple and roughly goes along these steps:
- Get two or more cameras that you want to compare. Let’s use one that you love, and one that you hate.
- Pick a subject to photograph, preferably a still life or something that won’t move much or change colors between shots.
- Set one camera up on a tripod, and take a shot.
- Set up the other camera to replace the first, using the same settings, and take a shot.
- Load the images from both cameras to your computer.
- Zoom into one section with high detail and compare the hell out of both images side by side.
- Linger around at step 6 or repeat EVERYTHING until you feel that the camera you love and always wanted to ‘win’ all along gets better results than the other one that you hate.
Okay, i’m being a bit sarcastic. But seriously, this is how pixel peeping usually ends up happening.
It’s not that pixel peeping isn’t without its merits, but if you have taken more pictures of $20 bills taped to a wall compared with actually interesting subject matter, you have chosen the wrong hobby. Perhaps chainsaw juggling would be a more suitable endeavor instead.