"Scary Mary"

I always thought that there was nothing fun or lovable about Mary Poppins. So I like this video remix-trailer.

Pentax K10D

I've praised Nikon's current DSLR cameras a lot, and with good reason. But they all still lack an essential feature which is gaining popularity: built-in anti-camera-shake capability, meaning you don't have to buy special lenses to have the camera help you in the fight against shaken pictures.
But Pentax is finally coming in very strong in the digital market with the new Pentax K10D, and that one has it. My first serious camera was an ME-Super, which I still love, so I hope Pentax will do really well with this camera.
(Oh, and like the ME-Super, it is just gorgeous, I like the look of it better than Nikon's and Canon's models.)

Ashley Olsen

Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen, famous since they were babies on Full House, are reportedly worth something like $200,000,000. Each. This, amongst other things, is from films from their own production company.
Does this make them worthwhile artists? I guess not. But on the other hand, does their main-stream appeal make them scorn-worthy? I don't think so either. Who are we to judge what "worth" is? If a Mary-Kate/Ashley film has changed the life of a teenage girl, who are we to call it "fluff"? How many people have you changed the life of?
Everything does not have to be Schindlers List. There is such a thing as just feeling good for an hour or two.

Opinions are like @$$holes

Any clod can have the facts, but having opinions is an art.
-- Charles McCabe, San Francisco Chronicle

I suspect this was meant to be humorous somehow. What I know is that it's about as wrong as can be. Go into any pub, and any clod you ask there will have the most amazing opinions on everything, but very little facts indeed.

In fact the interesting thing is that the really uninformed people often have no clue whatsoever what you are talking about, but they will have formed an instant opinion based on something they were reminded of when you spoke! (About which they also know next to nothing.)

Loneliness

A reader wants a discussion on how people survive divorce.
Qouth the raven: "To me, there's nothing worse than being alone..."

Well... I've been living alone and celibate for the bulk of my life. Sure, occasionally there can be a pang of loneliness. But I really don't think it is very important. (And I know people living with others have the same problems, some of them much more than me.)

Many people will protest: "What do you mean? Surely there is nothing more important than love?"

That's true, but love between only two people is "special love" (as A Course In Miracles call it), and it is just severely limited. It is just a tiny, tiny bit of Everything. And if it seems fantastically important to you, you are already in trouble, no matter if you "have" somebody or not.

WordNet

I found an online dictionary which has a much simpler interface than others, and sometimes has words others don't. (Example: the delightful English word "pillock".) WordNet.

Windows Vista wins warm welcome, uh, verily

David Pogue writes:
Windows Vista is not, as the Web’s chorus of caustic critics claim, [woa, can you say "alliteration"? - Eolake] little more than a warmed-over Windows XP. Its more intelligent navigation and more powerful file-manipulation tools provide you with greater efficiency from Day 1.
That’s not to say, however, that Vista is worth standing in line for on Jan. 30. Moving to Vista means hunting for updated drivers for your printer, audio card and so on, not to mention troubleshooting incompatible programs.

... Hunting for updated drivers? Is he serious? I've use a Mac for twelve years now, and I don't think I've ever had to hunt for new drivers just because I updated the system. And I can't remember the last time I had to update software because of the system. (Except for changing between the old OS and OS X a few years back.)

Update: Lucid referred to this comic.

Quik Pod

This is one of those inventions which are either really silly or highly useful, history will tell.

Gary Renard

Review of The Disappearance of the Universe.
Interview with the author Gary Renard.

Jimmy Neon

If $28,000 is more than you had planned on spending over Christmas (see earlier post), how about a piece from another friend of mine who also uses Domai pictures for inspiration, Jimmy Neon.
(He uses a different kind of neon, for indoors use, so his works are much more affordable.)

"Diana" sculpture

Got $28,000 burning a hole in your pocket?* Got a dear friend who has a life-sized bronze nude on his Christmas wish list? You're in luck! You won't find any better than this, seriously. But you gotta hurry, deadline is Dec 15!

* Actually, the Diana sculpture is 40% off this week for Domai visitors. (Or visitors from this blog, I'm sure.)

Sure, these are not knick-knacks and as such rather luxury items, but actually Victor and I have sold several large sculptures before, and many small ones.

"Pain erasers"

These are hand-massage hard rubber balls (the purple one is softer) from Momentum98. I like them a lot. They call them "pain erasers". I'm not sure how they live up to that moniker since I don't actually have problems with my hands, but the massage feels good, and the spikes "hurt so good".

They are 5 centimeters (2 inches) across if you include the spikes. Fit nicely in a hand.

Edward Munch

Me, I use Google dozens of times every day, but some may not, so I point out their logo today, have you seen it? Gotta love that. Humor and art. Edward Munch's birthday.

Photos 2006

Many photos I made this year were not collected on my home site. Now they are.

And so are the old photos posted recently.

Aaaand mixed art of 2006

A luminous Quality

And old friend and veteran photographer once commented on "The Light" or "Luminosity" being a defining quality of good photography.
I think he is very right... but what do we mean by that? All photos have light, so what's the difference?
How do we define that quality of the light which makes some pictures stand out?

Trees and Spire

For thirty years I've been fascinated by pictures looking at something through something else. I think this is one of the better I've done.

Chaos/Order

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Note: when I was a young innocent amateur photographer, I was very enamoured with wide-angle lenses, especially super-wide. I think it was because of the dramatic effect. Now I find to my surprise that when working with my super-zoom, I take most of the pictures at the long end. (Very long too, 300mm equivalent. It would be very hard to take handheld pictures with it was it not for the built-in image stabilization.) I find that this can give tight, orderly compositions, and at the same time see things that we just don't notice in normal life because they are too far away, and we are distracted by all the near things.
(Looking at this picture now, I am amazed to realize that the far buildings here are so far away from where I was standing that it would take me like five minutes to walk there.)