Monday, March 10, 2008

Saturdays in SF

So I've been spending a large number of weekend days up in San Francisco. Does this mean something ....?

MMMM smelly smelly Jasmine. Yumm.

My parents, Shani, and I went here one time we were in SF. I've been dying to find it again, apparently it's right next to where Brian lives.

Sitting in the sun in a gay bar. I love the little fruits, they are too cute.

Night shots turned out to be a little more difficult than I thought they'd be. I also got my new 18mm-58mm (58mm threads btw Dave)

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Spring!


I love having flowering trees and bushes in my yard!

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Tattoo


So I've been wanting to get this tattoo for a long time. I always hesitated b/c sun's are kinda cliche' but fuck it, I like it, I want it so I got it! I totally love it and think its sweet, so cool points for me. Muaahaaaaa..

Friday, February 29, 2008

The Sun is Back


The Sun is back on my ride home. And I think I'm getting a Sun tatoo on Sunday. This was taken w/ the new DSLR that I'm getting. Yummy beast.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Friday, February 08, 2008

Here's Come The Conservative Liars

So Citizens United made a film bashing Hilary earlier last year, and now they are making one about Obama. This is from NYTimes.

Here's a quote:
“Obama is a completely clean slate,” said David Bossie, president of the group. “We will develop the image that we want the people to see. We’re doing the hard work of the research right now. The American people don’t know much about Obama, except that they like his speaking style.”

Wait a minute here, does anyone else see the logical fallacy from above? How can you 'develop and image that we want people to see' AND do 'the hard work of the research right now.' Isn't it supposed to be the research that tells you what image a person IS in actuality, rather than what you want people to see? Assholes. Oh yeah, and Anne Coulter is a great person to believe their opinions about people. You should see some of the shit she's said Link1 Link2.

Henry Cowell Redwoods



So we've been having lots of stormy weather this January. It's been awesome because we need the rain, and its not like having weather really is that bad here, you know sun is around the corner.

Matt and I went up to Henry Cowell Redwoods this weekend right as the weather was breaking up. So we got these great kinda dark/kinda sunny pictures this weekend. I find that HDR works fairly well in these situations as long as you don't spread the range out TOO much. I really like that the Gimp allows me to manipulate each layer of the HDR image, but it only has 3 picture inputs which totally blows. So I will take a composite of 5 pictures, and make 4 HDR images out of it and see which one I like the best, and I've also tried combining the HDRs into another HDR. That has some interesting results. Blah blah, anyway.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Goddess Quote

"I lay in bed for several minutes after awakening and admired her body: turned away from me, the classic curve of the back and hip and flank offering a geometry more beautiful and powerful than anything discovered by Euclid, the two dimples visible on the lower back, just above the heart-stopping widening of milk-white derriere, soft angles intersecting, the backs of full thighs somehow more sensual and solid than any aspect of male anatomy could hope to be."

-Dan Simmon's Hyperion

~I sometimes wish that I didn't appreciate things like that...~

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Utopic vs. Real World Systems

So Dave and I had been having a discussion about why people play the Game. He pretty much said that while it is a flawed system it does accomplish some hefty goals; namely helping girls to weed out the bad apples. So I thought about this and compared it w/ my own ideals (Utopic) to see what the differences are. Here's a copy of the email:

So I've been thinking more about our conversation last night and I've come to the conclusion that neither the Utopic System (US) that I want the world to use, nor the Real World System (RWS) are very good at protecting females from bad guys. The only differences are who they get fucked by in the end (fucked meaning royally, not just physically) and how many times they get fucked.

First off, an Asshole is defined as someone who is willing to take advantage of a person for any reason. This could be taking advantage of their trust, kindness, or love. It can be manipulating them for your own reasons. It can be many different things which all really add up to 'immoral'. So I guess an Asshole is someone who is willing to use someone for the own goals without considering the goals of the other person. (Kant's definition of immorality btw).

Secondly, US is a system where people don't play societal games and just accept each other at face value for who they are. There is no threating behavior to consider, no lying, or deception. You get what you see, and that is it. Take it or leave it. The RWS is a system that works on the principle of filtration of the sheer number of potential mates through a series of checks. These checks take the form of acceptance/denial behaviors on part of the female with respect to a particular action/verbalization by the male.

The US clearly has the Bad Apple Problem (BAP) that you pointed out last night. So I asked the question of type of Asshole that will be doing the fucking? Seems to me the Assholes who are willing to take advantage of a Good system for their own evil reasons. Since there is no real check involved, these guys can streak through and into a girl's heart where they can systematically destroy the person for the own sick reasons. How many times would they get fucked? Probably a lot considering the sheer number of total assholes in the world who would be more than willing to take advantage of an honest open system like this...

The RWS has the Player Problem (PP), this being that all an Asshole's gotta do is become a master of the RWS. This is in opposition to the previous system where the Asshole crossed the line by breaking the rules of the US. An Asshole can still play within the framework of the RWS, obey every fiteration criteria, and still never gravitate beyond Asshole. However, the moment a person breaks the rules incorporated in the US, they then become an Asshole at that moment. Furthermore, the filtration system can in inadvertently rule out possible quality mates (false negatives), as well as pick an Asshole who is a Player (false positives). Interestingly, Players are using the faith that women have in the RWS against them.

Finally we arrive at the crux of the reason that the RWS has been employed by females for so many years, and continues to be implemented today, what kind of Assholes are doing the fucking? Well here you have someone who has played by all the rules that were established and agreed upon, so at the end of the day, he can walk away saying, "You can call me an Asshole if you want, but just remember that you are the Retard who chose this Asshole." So, at least you aren't ending up with someone who blatantly broke the rules of the system to become an Asshole, you are only ending up with someone who was able to dupe you instead. The other, arguably, more important aspect is the sheer number of Assholes you'd sleep with is dramatically lower using a filtration system like RWS.

I think that the interesting thing about this dialog is the fact that both systems really do hinge on a woman's individual ability to judge a person's character. Using the US, the woman has to analyze based upon her own instincts alone, whether the guy is a BAP or not. Using the RWS, the woman has to use her instincts to decide if the guy is a PP or not. However, the fact that the sheer number of times that you are likely to get fucked, regardless of your own capacity as a judge of character is probably much lower if one employs the RWS.

The acronyms are for you Dave.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008