A certain well meaning friend recently sent me a few photography blogs and commented on how nice they were.
Truly, they WERE amazing...which...being in the semi-melancholy mood I'm in right now....made me altogether depressed as to the mundane-ness of my current photography level.
The photog-lady's oodling over her marvelous camera model reminded me of something. I left the former camera in bad hands, and since it's demise, we were given a brand spanking new-and-improved amazing camera. I looked it up, and it is the best point-and-shoot camera of its kind. High megapixels, great zoom...but its a point-and-shoot....meant for families...and dogs....and babies... (ie. not professional picture taking). I also realized that I have not really formed much of an attachment to this camera...which is partly because of newness and partly because of my inhibitions....
So, I looked around and found the camera I think I'd like to have. I would like to try it out and get a feel for it in the store, though to see if it would actually suit me....
http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/digital-cameras/pentax-k200d_reviews.html
However, I would like to warn you that I plan on aggressively pursuing our relationship, and seeing how it will develop.....(hehe...pun intended)
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Between the words
Since it was assigned for school, I am reading the acclaimed book "Reading Between the Lines" by Gene Veith. Although it is monotonous/repetitious and has miniscule print, I am mining a couple gems from it.
For instance: What is the meaning of words like obscene, and vulgar, and profane?
Literally, obscene means "off stage" or "out of scene". Though I hadn't thought about it before, he points out that in Greek Drama, certain actions and things would not take place on stage "for fear of violating decorum"...specifically "presenting violence".
He says:
"Why this reticence? The Greeks were hardly prudish or moralistic. The reason was a sound aesthetic one. When the audience is enthralled by a dramatic action, involved in the characters and their dilemmas, the spectacle of overt violence literally breaks the aesthetic mood... The delicate evocation of vicarious experience is disrupted by grisly special effects..."
"The Greeks did not shy away from dealing with sexuality or violence. Oedipus Rex deals with incest, patricide, self-mutilation, and suicide. It somehow manages to deal with such scarifying topics while maintaining taste, dignity, and a serious moral tone... By maintaining decorum, by presenting the character's actions and anguish in language of exalted poetry, but never explicitly presenting the horrors onstage. Obscenity is not only a moral fault; as the Greeks understood, it is also an artistic fault. Insensitivity to aesthetic decorum is perhaps one of the worst weaknesses of contemporary literature."
"As writers [fail] to appeal to [their audience's] aesthetic pleasure, the intrinsic limitations of the imagination cheapens their work. Characters become coarsened and stereotyped... The result will be superficial characters such as are found everywhere in today's literature... Such one-dimensional and predictable characters inhibit realism, complexity, and sophisticated aesthetic effects. As the reader's threshold of stimulation keeps getting higher, writers...must always be going beyond earlier boundaries."
Vulgar literally means "the common people". He says:
"...the implication is that the lower classes exhibit behavior and conversation that cultivated people would avoid... Notice that in the original sense of the word, vulgarity is embarrassing not so much to the hearers but to the speaker. Someone who is vulgar reveals poor education and a subservient social position.
Profane comes from Latin meaning "outside the temple".
"If something were profane--that is, ceremonially unclean--it would not be allowed inside the Temple...it is the opposite of sacred. In the present context, profanity violates what is holy... Profanity is not a matter of language alone. Blashphemy...is an extreme case of profanity."
For instance: What is the meaning of words like obscene, and vulgar, and profane?
Literally, obscene means "off stage" or "out of scene". Though I hadn't thought about it before, he points out that in Greek Drama, certain actions and things would not take place on stage "for fear of violating decorum"...specifically "presenting violence".
He says:
"Why this reticence? The Greeks were hardly prudish or moralistic. The reason was a sound aesthetic one. When the audience is enthralled by a dramatic action, involved in the characters and their dilemmas, the spectacle of overt violence literally breaks the aesthetic mood... The delicate evocation of vicarious experience is disrupted by grisly special effects..."
"The Greeks did not shy away from dealing with sexuality or violence. Oedipus Rex deals with incest, patricide, self-mutilation, and suicide. It somehow manages to deal with such scarifying topics while maintaining taste, dignity, and a serious moral tone... By maintaining decorum, by presenting the character's actions and anguish in language of exalted poetry, but never explicitly presenting the horrors onstage. Obscenity is not only a moral fault; as the Greeks understood, it is also an artistic fault. Insensitivity to aesthetic decorum is perhaps one of the worst weaknesses of contemporary literature."
"As writers [fail] to appeal to [their audience's] aesthetic pleasure, the intrinsic limitations of the imagination cheapens their work. Characters become coarsened and stereotyped... The result will be superficial characters such as are found everywhere in today's literature... Such one-dimensional and predictable characters inhibit realism, complexity, and sophisticated aesthetic effects. As the reader's threshold of stimulation keeps getting higher, writers...must always be going beyond earlier boundaries."
Vulgar literally means "the common people". He says:
"...the implication is that the lower classes exhibit behavior and conversation that cultivated people would avoid... Notice that in the original sense of the word, vulgarity is embarrassing not so much to the hearers but to the speaker. Someone who is vulgar reveals poor education and a subservient social position.
Profane comes from Latin meaning "outside the temple".
"If something were profane--that is, ceremonially unclean--it would not be allowed inside the Temple...it is the opposite of sacred. In the present context, profanity violates what is holy... Profanity is not a matter of language alone. Blashphemy...is an extreme case of profanity."
"...Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things."
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Federal Immunity
Federal immunity was given to a Mexican drug smuggler.
Why?
He agreed to testify against two American border patrol agents, and they are now in jail for 12 and 15 years resectively.
Mr. Bush has done nothing, though he has been repeatedly pressed and lobbied.
Neither McCain nor Obama care one iota about our borders....they don't even TALK about it on thier campaign! They will definitely not do anything.
Watch this Lou Dobbs interview, comment, and tell everyone you know.
Why?
He agreed to testify against two American border patrol agents, and they are now in jail for 12 and 15 years resectively.
Mr. Bush has done nothing, though he has been repeatedly pressed and lobbied.
Neither McCain nor Obama care one iota about our borders....they don't even TALK about it on thier campaign! They will definitely not do anything.
Watch this Lou Dobbs interview, comment, and tell everyone you know.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Go Ask
"...I don't pretend to be be so wise, I only know, He touched my eyes and I will never be the same..."
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Timely....
"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just."
— President Abraham Lincoln
Monday, September 08, 2008
Winter
Think post is not about winter in the literal sense. It is about a new, godless documentary which not only trumpets the Biblical roles for men and women as the best and most economically viable...but the ONLY way for humankind to survive on the planet.
Do you know that children are present in only 32% of American homes?
The Demographic Winter is made from an entirely scientific and statistical vewipoint. It does not take in the effects of socialist and communist government controls on economy, and it assumes that the elderly must be supported by the state, and therefore by the people who pay taxes to the state.
A reveiw from the New American states:
Demographic Winter tackles five main reasons for the drop in fertility: the sexual revolution, prosperity, the divorce revolution, inaccurate assumptions, and women working. Its social science data bears out tradition, embodying what G.K. Chesterton called “that forgotten branch of psychology” — common sense.
Demographic Winter mentions the pill, which has reduced unwanted pregnancies among married women by 70 percent; promiscuity, which affords men sexual gratification without commitment; reluctance to have children when there is the possibility one’s spouse won’t be around in a few years; and career-driven women having few children; along with other factors. Demographic Winter also touches on materialism and immaturity, which make people reluctant to assume the responsibilities of parenthood.
Do you know that children are present in only 32% of American homes?
The Demographic Winter is made from an entirely scientific and statistical vewipoint. It does not take in the effects of socialist and communist government controls on economy, and it assumes that the elderly must be supported by the state, and therefore by the people who pay taxes to the state.
A reveiw from the New American states:
Demographic Winter tackles five main reasons for the drop in fertility: the sexual revolution, prosperity, the divorce revolution, inaccurate assumptions, and women working. Its social science data bears out tradition, embodying what G.K. Chesterton called “that forgotten branch of psychology” — common sense.
Demographic Winter mentions the pill, which has reduced unwanted pregnancies among married women by 70 percent; promiscuity, which affords men sexual gratification without commitment; reluctance to have children when there is the possibility one’s spouse won’t be around in a few years; and career-driven women having few children; along with other factors. Demographic Winter also touches on materialism and immaturity, which make people reluctant to assume the responsibilities of parenthood.
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