google street view of the corner of ursulines and chartres shows that (as is the case with everything in the french quarter) the colors are the same, and the tree is still there.
7.21.2016
blue shutters
revisiting an old favorite for a touch of color and dynamic range. this one is from new orleans french quarter, february 1999. i'm out very early, sun just coming up. walked quickly to ursulines and chartres to visit the old french colonial ursulines convent. it is closed, and there is not much to photograph from the outside. i turn around to leave, and see this across the street. [fuji velvia at iso 40] i should rescan and re-process this slide, but this original scan made for a limited edition print is workable with modern image processing tools.
google street view of the corner of ursulines and chartres shows that (as is the case with everything in the french quarter) the colors are the same, and the tree is still there.
google street view of the corner of ursulines and chartres shows that (as is the case with everything in the french quarter) the colors are the same, and the tree is still there.
6.16.2016
overturned
of light and
white water
eyesgleaming stones
I have become
a river running
to you
and time
the canoe
overturned
george swede [from "I want to lasso time"]
to you
and time
the canoe
overturned
george swede [from "I want to lasso time"]
6.08.2016
recently noted thoughts
imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but continuous flattery, however sincere, is extremely irritating. -- me
"People are very protective about the "things they know" especially if they've had to fight hard to get that information. The greater the effort, the harder it is to let it go." -- Kim Taylor
"If we were all given by magic the power to read each other’s thoughts, I suppose the first effect would be almost all friendships would be dissolved; the second effect, however, might be excellent, for a world without any friends would be felt to be intolerable, and we should learn to like each other without needing a veil of illusion to conceal from ourselves that we did not think each other absolutely perfect.” ― Bertrand Russell, ["The Conquest of Happiness"]
"There is a vast gulf between impossible, and impossible to imagine" -- sherlock ["elementary"]
"In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted." -- bertrand russell
"Each closure is an awakening, and every awakening settles something. This state of affairs defines organization of energy." -- John Dewey ["art as experience"]
"To come to a place with preconceived notions and expectations of what you will get from it, is a very dangerous thing. Because you might actually succeed in accomplishing exactly what you came there to find." -- guy tal
"Form follows function doesn't mean all objects have to look the same." -- Tonfisk [Finnish design company web page]
"There are at least six or seven individual apps all buried inside the guts of iTunes whimpering to get out. It is a perfect example of how not to write an application, and if someone were to release an app like this today, we’d laugh at it and it’d die of shame." -- chuq von rospach
"You live a life, Sherlock. if you're not a fool, it changes you." -- morland holmes ["elementary"]
"People are very protective about the "things they know" especially if they've had to fight hard to get that information. The greater the effort, the harder it is to let it go." -- Kim Taylor
"If we were all given by magic the power to read each other’s thoughts, I suppose the first effect would be almost all friendships would be dissolved; the second effect, however, might be excellent, for a world without any friends would be felt to be intolerable, and we should learn to like each other without needing a veil of illusion to conceal from ourselves that we did not think each other absolutely perfect.” ― Bertrand Russell, ["The Conquest of Happiness"]
"There is a vast gulf between impossible, and impossible to imagine" -- sherlock ["elementary"]
"Each closure is an awakening, and every awakening settles something. This state of affairs defines organization of energy." -- John Dewey ["art as experience"]
"To come to a place with preconceived notions and expectations of what you will get from it, is a very dangerous thing. Because you might actually succeed in accomplishing exactly what you came there to find." -- guy tal
"Form follows function doesn't mean all objects have to look the same." -- Tonfisk [Finnish design company web page]
"There are at least six or seven individual apps all buried inside the guts of iTunes whimpering to get out. It is a perfect example of how not to write an application, and if someone were to release an app like this today, we’d laugh at it and it’d die of shame." -- chuq von rospach
"You live a life, Sherlock. if you're not a fool, it changes you." -- morland holmes ["elementary"]
4.27.2016
scalzi's tweets on Hugo puppy mess
[from @scalzi on twitter]
Going to do a series of tweets relating to the Hugos, but I'll be quick and there will be a kitten pic at the end. Okay? Okay.
1. Reading commentary on my reaction to the Puppy bullshit this year and some folks are upset I'm not reacting the way they think I should.
2. Specifically, they seem to be upset that I'm suggesting the Pup slating stuff that would be nominated anyway isn't a genius strategy...
3. ... and that essentially in cases like that the attempted puppy co-op should be entirely ignored. This is apparently AGAINST THE RULES.
4. So, basically, it's "Waaaaaah! You're not playing this game like you're supposed too! Why can't you see this is the end of days!"
5. My response to this is, a) who made you the boss of me, b) who cares what you think, c) I'm not obliged to follow anyone's playbook.
6. It's doesn't take genius to stuff a ballot box. Nor does co-opting people for your scheme mean people have to respond the way you want.
7. And this really isn't a crisis or a clash of worldviews. It's, simply, having to deal with opportunistic assholes. Again.
8. How do you deal with opportunistic assholes? In this case, by shrugging about their MASTER PLAN and do what you, not they, want.
9. The most exasperating thing of all this Hugo shit is people pretending this is about anything other than jerks and trolls being jerks...
10. ... or opportunists being opportunistic. I'm not inclined to give them any more importance than that. And that bugs them. Good!
11. So, yeah. If you're upset because I'm NOT DOING HUGO OUTRAGE RIGHT, or whatever, well, just suck on that. It's not your call.
12. Rant done. Compensatory kitten picture coming up in just a second.
As promised: Kittens!
Going to do a series of tweets relating to the Hugos, but I'll be quick and there will be a kitten pic at the end. Okay? Okay.
1. Reading commentary on my reaction to the Puppy bullshit this year and some folks are upset I'm not reacting the way they think I should.
2. Specifically, they seem to be upset that I'm suggesting the Pup slating stuff that would be nominated anyway isn't a genius strategy...
3. ... and that essentially in cases like that the attempted puppy co-op should be entirely ignored. This is apparently AGAINST THE RULES.
4. So, basically, it's "Waaaaaah! You're not playing this game like you're supposed too! Why can't you see this is the end of days!"
5. My response to this is, a) who made you the boss of me, b) who cares what you think, c) I'm not obliged to follow anyone's playbook.
6. It's doesn't take genius to stuff a ballot box. Nor does co-opting people for your scheme mean people have to respond the way you want.
7. And this really isn't a crisis or a clash of worldviews. It's, simply, having to deal with opportunistic assholes. Again.
8. How do you deal with opportunistic assholes? In this case, by shrugging about their MASTER PLAN and do what you, not they, want.
9. The most exasperating thing of all this Hugo shit is people pretending this is about anything other than jerks and trolls being jerks...
10. ... or opportunists being opportunistic. I'm not inclined to give them any more importance than that. And that bugs them. Good!
11. So, yeah. If you're upset because I'm NOT DOING HUGO OUTRAGE RIGHT, or whatever, well, just suck on that. It's not your call.
12. Rant done. Compensatory kitten picture coming up in just a second.
As promised: Kittens!
[photo by john scalzi]
3.01.2016
recently noted thoughts
"When subject matter is forced to fit into preconceived patterns, there can be no freshness of vision. Following rules of composition can only lead to a tedious repetition of pictorial cliches." ~Edward Weston
"donald trump views the truth like this lemur views the supreme court vacancy. i don't care about that in any way, please f***off, i have a banana." -- john oliver
"Democracy embodies justice, free discussion embodies rationality, and it is only through justice and rationality that an issue can be found from the dangers with which modern war is threatening the human race" -- bertrand russell ["a scientist's plea for democracy", 1947]
"trump personifies everything the rest of the world despises about America: casual racism, crass materialism, relentless self-aggrandizement, vulgarity on an epic scale. the fact that so many Republicans are comfortable with the thought of this monumentally unqualified man in the Oval Office shows how warped the party has become." -- paul thomas [the new zealand herald]
"One cannot express something compelling, interesting or inspiring without first having something compelling, interesting or inspiring to express. And so, in pursuit of expressive work, one also becomes motivated to seek those things that are worth expressing: meaningful experiences, complex thoughts, powerful emotions, and useful or interesting knowledge." -- guy tal
"In a world with boundless opportunities for amusement, it's detestable that anyone would choose to get thrills from killing others who ask for nothing from life but the chance to remain alive." -- sir roger moore
"Let’s be honest; blazing skies at sunrise and sunset, wide-angle near-far compositions, etc., while often spectacularly beautiful, have become the photographic equivalent of fast food: momentarily satisfying, requiring little creative effort, and lacking any characteristics to distinguish the sensibilities and expressive powers of their creator from those of a million others." -- guy tal
"there is a very big difference between styling and design. design is about being perceptive of the contemporary culture and creating the future. styling is about borrowing from history." -- karim rashid
“I've always thought tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune.”
[Lois McMaster Bujold, "Shards of Honour"]
"we owe nearly everything to others. generations are also generators. the point of the fruit is the tree, and the point of the tree is the fruit." -- kevin ashton ["how to fly a horse"]
"METAPHOR STEW: Trump is a karma tsunami, the long-imagined chickens of decades of race-baiting and rich-worshiping coming home to roost." -- lolgop [twitter]
after exhausting both
principle and reason
the ancient "not one thing"
that knows not
the bright moonlight.
-- musashi [at nagoya]
lovecraft!? h.p. lovecraft?
lovely lyrical name, isn't it, for such a troubled mind.
-- the librarians
"As an astronaut I spacewalked 220 miles above the Earth. Floating alongside the International Space Station, I watched hurricanes cartwheel across oceans, the Amazon snake its way to the sea through a brilliant green carpet of forest, and gigantic nighttime thunderstorms flash and flare for hundreds of miles along the Equator." -- piers j sellers
haskell: Primarily a CV decoration language. Code is typically written to be admired rather than compiled; this is technically known as the "lazy execution model." -- verity stob
the ordinary reader -- the ordinary audience -- is a barren conceit.
it guarantees a shared mediocrity.
don't preconceive the reader's limitations.
they'll become your own. -- verlyn klinkenborg ["several short sentences about writing"]
"has there ever been a critic of sam harris who is not been accused of misrepresenting him? this is a literal question!"-- cenk uygur
"I happen to be, at this very moment, purposefully misunderstanding Richard Dawkins as a way to generate clicks on some bloggers’ page[s], and so are all of the other mindless hivemind sockpuppets controlled by the aforementioned nameless bloggers." -- consciousness razor
1.20.2016
three cranes tsuba (sketch)
following is a partial illustrator/inkscape rendering of a sukashi tsuba design, based on existing japanese designs. [i happen to own edo-era examples of this design, with three and four cranes] if you are interested in piercing your own tsuba, or would like three cranes in a circular formation for some other purpose, here it is. Unlike some of the tsubas I have seen, the cranes here are perfectly organized. [triangles and lines are there to let me understand the placement of the components] I left it incomplete but with sufficient detail. you still need to organize the lines as they merge into each other, compete the design of kozuka hitsu-ana, nakago hitsu-ana and kogai hitsu-ana and so on. exercise for the serious designer.
copyright, cc attribution, share-alike.
three cranes tsuba
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