Nothing like grabbing a fast food burger because you just don’t feel like cooking. That’s been me more than it should be lately. Because they’re open when I need them to be.
Shot with Hipstamatic.
Category: Uncategorized
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One of the lens that comes in the Ztylus lens kit is a fish eye lens. Fish eye lens are a little on the weird end of photography, I find. It gives you an really interesting picture in certain situations, but its application is so limited. How many landscapes of selfies can you really see in a fish eye view before you go “Okay, enough already, I get it, the world is bendy.”That said, I had to try the fish eye at least once. I knew the picture I wanted to capture, it was more a question about whether the fish eye lens would make it look cool or just kind of goofy. I walked along a path at work today until I came to a group of trees, pointed the camera straight up, and snapped.
I gave the picture some post-processing in Snapseed to make it more moody. I think it turned out, for the most part okay. I don’t know how often I’ll use the fish eye lens, but once in a while, it’s fun.
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I’m still playing around with the new lens kit from Ztylus. This is a shot with the wide angle lens, taken at the new music hall at the Joy of Music Program (JOMP) in Worcester. The new music hall is absolutely beautiful and the sound is great. The lens is also nice, providing a much better picture than the one I have from CamRah. I may post a review of the lens kit after I get the chance to use it some more, but for now I’m just enjoying playing around. -
Dear Victoria’s Secret:
What the hell’s the matter with you? You should know better.
You know what, maybe I should back up, provide a little context as to why I’m so angry with you. Let’s start with your most recent catalog. Something that was pointed out to me by a friend from high school, Leanne, on Facebook. Something I, sadly, wouldn’t have thought to look for. But I’m not the market for this catalog, am I, so why would I give a crap? Well, I do. I have daughters, so I care quite a bit.
Here’s a snapshot of the lacy thing on the back cover:
Notice anything funny (and I’m not talking funny haha) about this picture? No?Let’s zoom in, shall we:
See it yet? Still no? Are you really that blind, or are you just being obtuse? Okay, let me outline it for you:
See it now? Compare it to the picture just before this one. Notice how this model’s underwear seems to extend out beyond the end of her hips? How the underwear is just magically floating out there in space? See it now?So, I ask again: what the hell is wrong with you? Why would you think this kind of thing is okay?
Let me lay some foundation here. I’m not a body shamer. I think that people are the shape that they are, that it’s none of my business, and that’s that. Some of us work to change our shape because we don’t like it (that would be me right now, trying to lose all the holiday weight I put on). Some of us don’t care what our shape is. Some of us are larger and that’s just the way our body is, and some of us are rail thin, again because that’s the way our body is. I’m not about to start shaming a VS model for being too skinny, because I know nothing about her or her body. I don’t even know her name. Maybe she starves herself to make it into the pages of the catalog, living on Diet Coke and cigarettes. Maybe she works out eight days a week and eats well and her body is the fruit of those labors. Maybe she has the metabolism of a high school football player, eating Big Macs everyday and losing weight in the process. Doesn’t matter what her situation is cause it’s none of my business.
What IS my business is the blatant Photoshopping you’ve done on a catalog that comes into my home. When I (or in this case, my wife) invite you into our home, I expect you to behave in a manner that is polite and respectable. You’re digitally shaving off part of this girl’s body is not polite. It’s unbelievably rude. It shows incredibly disrespect for the human body. And it’s dangerous.
I have a twelve year old daughter. She’s too young for most of your stuff, thankfully, but she does like the Pink line you sell. Sweatshirts, comfy pajamas, stuff like that. Sure, I get that. Who doesn’t like comfy pajamas. She doesn’t look through the catalogs, it’s not her thing. She could care less about sexy lacy things at this point, and I’m more grateful for that than I can express. I’m completely unprepared for the day when sexy underwear becomes her thing. At that point I may lock her away in a tower, hire a contractor to dig a moat, and rent a dragon.
Except, what happens when she DOES start to look through the catalogs for those things? When she see these girls, who are made to look rail thin, simply because you want to sell more of a sheer lacy cover thing? God forbid she thinks this image is something to emulate. The last thing she, or any girl, needs is an eating disorder because of something she saw in a catalog. There is plenty of evidence that things that glorify “thinness” are a contributing factor to body image issues. Don’t believe me? Review this link, and notice the third category from the top.
Or maybe it’s even more insidious. Maybe you know and you simply don’t care. Maybe you have inventory to move and gross margins to hit and shareholders to report to. That would be even more inexcusable.
As a concerned, and irate, parent of daughters, I’m challenging you to fix this. How about you produce a catalog of VS girls in their underwear with NO photo editing at all? How about you let us see that these girls have paunches, cellulite, moles, birthmarks, and no gap between their thighs? How about you show the world what real women look like, apologize for your crassness, and make a statement that it doesn’t matter what you look like, that as long as you’re comfortable in your own skin, you’re beautiful? That would be a catalog I think we all would appreciate.
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Have yourselves a merry little Christmas, everyone.
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“As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
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November is, apparently, Men’s Health Awareness Month. Okay, that’s actually not a thing. What is a thing is two separate, independent movements to try and bring awareness to men’s health issues. One is called Movember, the other is No-Shave November. Each of them are an attempt to bring a great attention to men’s health issues.Movember is a broad movement that highlights men’s issues of all kinds issues, from cancer to mental health to couch potato-ism. It started in 2003 in Australia by a couple of friends as an effort to bring back the mustache, a style trend they felt was disappearing among men. Given the success of using the mustaches as a conversation starter, they decided to step it up a notch, and in 2004, they established it as a fundraising vehicle for prostate cancer research. Since then it was gone on to become an enormous success, raising awareness for a broad range of issues. Since starting up in 2003, they’ve raised $649 million worldwide.
No-Shave November highlights cancer specifically. It is a family-run charity organization that really came together as a formal movement about six years ago. It was started as a way to highlight cancer awareness, given the patriarch of the family passed away from colon cancer. It, like Movember, is trying to raise money through donations to be passed along to organizations like the American Cancer Society. And technically speaking, it’s not just a men’s health aware movement, as women can participate too, hairy legs and all. So to call it a men’s health awareness organization is a little disingenuous, but only a little. I mean, the logo has a silhouetted picture of a guy with stylish facial hair, after all.The thing that both of these have in common is the attempt to increase awareness by showing one of the most masculine defining features a man can have: facial hair.
Each of these have their own rules. Movember is specific to mustaches. They encourage you to grow your mustache, starting with a cleanly shaved face on November 1st, and letting it grow until November 30th. However, you must limit your growth to your upper lip. Absolutely no beards allowed.No-Shave November doesn’t really care whether you grow a mustache, a beard, a goatee, a fu mancho, or let your cheek whisker grow out like a Klingon. Just as long as you hang up the razor for some part of your face.
I read about these a few days ago, but only really decided to commit to the awareness yesterday. The thing is, I like shaving. I know lots of people who don’t but I’m not one of them. Shaving is such a part of my morning routine, I feel a little out of sorts whenever I don’t shave. Several months ago, I switched over from my Gillete Mach Whatever-Number-They’re-Up-To to a safety razor. The reason? Because shaving with a safety razor is bad-ass, that’s why.
Well, maybe that’s not the complete reason.
Shaving with a safety razor doesn’t allow you to just hack away at your face to get it done and move on. It requires a certain technique, along with a little patience and practice. I actually find it to be very calming and relaxing because you have to move slower and with caution.
Several months ago, I stumbled on an article on shaving on the Art of Manliness site. (For those not familiar with the Art of Manliness, I recommend you check it out.) I was trying to find a better way to deal with razor burn around my neck. The article was entitled “How To Shave Like Your Grandpa.” I couldn’t resist reading the rest. It basically explained how to shave using a safety razor, and why it’s so much better to do so. From saving money on razors (the blades cost about $1.00 each and last 1-2 weeks), to the way it helps avoid razor burn, the article was a great introduction to shaving with a safety razor.
Then I remembered that my grandfather used to have a safety razor, and that I have it somewhere in a collection of things I received after he passed away. I always wondered how it worked and the Art of Manliness article clarified that.
Like I said, shaving in the morning is a big part of my routine, and my morning feels like incomplete without it. But here’s the thing: my grandfather passed away from cancer at the age of 67. When you’re a 13 year old kid, you don’t have a sense of age. Everybody older than 18 is ancient. I’m in my forties now. My folks turn 67 next year. That’s the same age as my grandfather was when he died. Now that I’m in my forties, I have a much clear sense of time and holy moly, 67 is way too young to succumb to cancer.
So I’m growing a bread for November. I will probably shave it off when December 1st rolls around. A beard makes me look a lot older than I’d like. It’s where all the gray is hiding. I don’t mind a vacation week’s worth of stubble, but I like my smooth face. However, this year, to bring awareness to men’s health, I’m letting it grow. What I would have spent in shaving supplies for the month will go to one of these organizations (haven’t decide on which one yet).
Men: get yourselves checked out. Get your physicals if you haven’t had one this
year. Mine comes up at the end of November, so it’s perfect timing for me. Get whatever cancer screenings you need for your age. If you’re feeling sad or depressed, go talk to somebody. Start flossing. (You do not, and you know it.) If your butt has sprouted roots into the couch, pry yourself up. Eat less calories if you need to. Eat more veggies (everybody needs to). Go for walks. Go for a run. Go for anything that gets the blood pumping. Make sure you’re around in a few years. For youreself and your family.And to show that your taking all this seriously, get hairy.
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Happy Halloween everybody!Now go door to door begging for candy.
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Ahhhhhh, vacation. Nothing else like it. Especially when all you have to do is get up, roll out of bed, and roll yourself onto the beach.
Every year, for about a week in the summer, we go up to Wells Beach, Maine. It is one of our favorite places to go, ever. The sun, the sand, the fried food, the ocean breeze…
Yeah. It was awesome.
You want the proof? See below.
Once you get to Wells, you have to drive a mile down, what else, Mile Rd, in order to get to the hotel. It’s a beautiful view of marshlands on either side of the road that fill to the brim with water during high tide, and empty down to sand and mud during low tide.
The view from the balcony at the resort where we stay is nothing but ocean and clouds and sun.
After dinner that first night, we went to the end of the spit of land that Well Beach is a part of. There’s a harbor at the end where, on the harbor-side, I taught my girls how to skid stone.
When the sun comes up in the morning, it’s hard not to feel the sheer raw beauty of nature all the way through your bones.
My younger daughter and I went for a walk that morning. She perched on one of the quarter-slot viewer to get a better view of the beach, waves, and sunrise.
Breakfast that morning was a healthy dose of sugar, courtesy of Congdon’s Doughnuts. What’s funny is that we realized two days later that the word “doughnuts” was spelled wrong on the box, and it took an eleven year old to point it out to us.
At a beach, you never know what kind of cars you’ll see. On this trip, we saw what could be described as the Griswold’s Family Truckster…
…as well as a car straight out of a ZZ Top video.
Because half of the fun of a vacation is eating all the food you normally wouldn’t, we hit Mike’s Clam Shack for dinner. My younger daughter ordered her first lobster. I’ve always found lobster to be overrated, but she loved it.
And because what dinner isn’t complete without dessert, it was time for ice cream at the Scoop Deck.
At night, as the parking lot emptied out, you’re left with a feeling of satisfaction, simply watching the evening crowd mosey up to the windows at Forbes for ice cream or frapps, as the sun sets and the sodium lights come on.
The next day was forecasted to rain, and rain it did. But before the rain started, we went for another walk on the beach. The fog coming in from the ocean drifted slowly and swallowed whatever it touched.
The breeze was chilly without the sun to warm you, and so we ambled along the beach in new sweatshirts.
We stumbled across a sandcastle that had survived the evening high tide.
The sky that morning was simply amazing.
That day saw us spend a lot of time indoors. Summer reading was caught up, some TV was watched, but later in the afternoon, during a break in the rain, we went to the beach again to stretch our legs. It was there that we found a large group of rather bored seagulls, who began to take a great interest in my daughter.
Every year when we go, the trip doesn’t feel complete unless we go see “the lighthouse”. And so, on Wednesday, we drove down to York and out to the point where you can walk to the edge of the rocks and see the Nubble Lighthouse.
It’s not a beach, so you typically don’t think about swimming when you’re visiting the lighthouse, but that’s not to say that you can’t go in the water. That point was proven to us as a set of three scuba divers emerged from the deep.
While we were sitting there, enjoying the view, we watched as a fog bank rolled its way toward us. It would eventually devour the large house in this picture, completely obscuring it from view.
Walking around downtown York is fun, especially if you have money to burn. There is always Goldenrod’s which is famous for its candy, especially the salt water taffy. It’s also almost always a zoo to get in and out of.
There’s palm readings, if you’re so inclined.
And there’s a popcorn place that specializes in unique flavors of popcorn. This was one of our selections, and damned if it didn’t taste like buffalo wings.
The following day, we made a return trip to the Scoop Deck with our friends, who were headed home that day. The ice cream was still fantastic. Perhaps, just as fun, are the signed they have in the and around the shop. For example, they have (somehow) the old Wells Beach sign that used to sit out on US1.
Then there are the rules for the ice cream shop…
…and the extras if you’re carrying a little something extra.
The afternoon brought us back to the beach, with the mile high sky above.
The sea chickens are a bold group, having long grown used to the presence of foolish humans who might throw them a bread crust or two.
There were kites to be seen…
…and shells to be collected.
Then came the last morning, which dawned magnificently in the east.
It was yet another phenomenal trip that had us sad to leave, but eager to return next year for more.
boring villain in the pantheon of Star Wars movies, Darth Maul. He looked like the devil himself, and turned out to have one line in TPM. With nothing to ground us as to why we should invest emotional energy into this character, he was the Sith equivalent of a special effect without a storyline: a pretty boring thing.
of Star Wars literature
Scott Lyerly 