Multi Medium

UCSD Color Photoblogging

Three color photos in a row. Amazing, right?

July 31st, 2012 at 07:39am Posted by Eli

Monday Media Blogging

If Star Wars were a TV show…

July 30th, 2012 at 11:43am Posted by Eli

And Yet Even Still More UCSD B&W Photoblogging

And I haven’t even gotten to the crazy library yet.

July 30th, 2012 at 07:34am Posted by Eli

Friday Quote & Bulldog Blogging

This week’s quote is from Olaf Stapledon’s Star Maker:

We should not for a moment consider even our best-established knowledge of existence as true. It is awareness only of the colors that our own vision paints on the film of one bubble in one strand of foam on the ocean of being.

And, of course, there’ll be other people’s bulldogs…

Bizarre.

July 27th, 2012 at 12:41pm Posted by Eli

And Yet Still More B&W UCSD Photoblogging

Like I said, there will be a lot of this…

July 27th, 2012 at 08:00am Posted by Eli

Question For The Day

How come no one ever complains that letting anyone own a gun undermines the institution of gun ownership?

July 25th, 2012 at 11:19am Posted by Eli

Return Of UCSD B&W Parking Garage Photoblogging

I honestly have no idea what kind of path I was following…

July 25th, 2012 at 07:28am Posted by Eli

Is There A Stupidity Committee We Could Put Bachmann On?

Of course I don’t really expect Boehner to remove one of his own caucus members from the House Intelligence Committee for such a teensy-weensy infraction as calling people Islamist infiltrators based on ridiculously flimsy evidence, but saying “I don’t know that that’s related at all” is going a bit too far.

It’s not just that Bachmann is temperamentally unsuited to have a seat on such an important committee, but the fact that she can’t tell fact from fiction, or Muslim from terrorist.  How is that level of delusional incompetence anything but a hindrance to the committee’s responsibilities?

July 24th, 2012 at 05:43pm Posted by Eli

UCSD I-Almost-Posted-All-Of-These-In-Color Photoblogging

It really was a lovely blue sky (as seen in the second shot), but I just think the composition is cleaner in black & white. I’m trying to be a little more conscious of pics where the color is needed to properly delineate the shapes, but I don’t think that was the case here.

July 24th, 2012 at 07:01am Posted by Eli

More Monday Media Blogging

Why was I not aware of this???

Also I am totally filing away all of those dance moves for later.

July 23rd, 2012 at 06:41pm Posted by Eli

Monday Media Blogging

For those of you experiencing Game Of Thrones withdrawal…

(Second video probably not entirely safe for work; also do not watch if you haven’t started the series yet but plan to)

July 23rd, 2012 at 11:23am Posted by Eli

B&W UCSD Hospital Photoblogging

If memory serves, I believe this is the on-campus hospital or medical center, or something along those lines.

July 23rd, 2012 at 07:21am Posted by Eli

Wanker Of The Day

Former (recalled) AZ state senator Russell Pearce, blaming CO theatergoers for being too lame and chickenshit to take down a madman with four guns and full body armor:

What a heart breaking story. Had someone been prepared and armed they could have stopped this “bad” man from most of this tragedy. He was two and three feet away from folks, I understand he had to stop and reload. Where were the men of flight 93???? Someone should have stopped this man. Someone could have stopped this man. Lives were lost because of a bad man, not because he had a weapon, but because noone was prepared to stop it. Had they been prepared to save their lives or lives of others, lives would have been saved.

All that was needed is one Courages/Brave man prepared mentally or otherwise to stop this it could have been done.

Yeah, I’m sure it’s just that easy.  And the Flight 93 comparison is terrible: The passengers had a lot more time to plan their actions (i.e., no one was actively shooting at them), their vision wasn’t obscured by darkness and teargas.  Stay classy, Mr. Pearce.

July 22nd, 2012 at 06:37pm Posted by Eli

B&W UCSD Parking Garage Photoblogging

Even UCSD’s parking garages are photogenic…

July 22nd, 2012 at 11:42am Posted by Eli

Even More True Now

So, in addition to somehow connecting the tragic movie theater shooting to “the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs” (really???), Tea Party Genius Louie Gohmert (R-TX) is also frustrated that there weren’t more guns at the Century 16:

It does make me wonder, with all those people in the theater, was there nobody that was carrying a gun that could have stopped this guy more quickly?

Yes, what a shame.  Because a whole bunch of people with guns in a panicky darkened movie theater surely would have improved the situation.

This is what I wrote after the VA Tech shootings over five years ago, and it’s still true:

More likely they’d be so amped up with fear and adrenaline and macho that they’d get themselves killed trying to be the hero, or shoot some innocent bystander because they “thought he had a gun,” or because he fit some rumored description of the shooter, or maybe because he was another wannabe hero shooting at an innocent bystander.  Tragedy Plus Guns does not actually equal Less Tragedy.

This is a window into the right wing’s juvenile fantasy world, where they like to imagine themselves in the role of the Courageous American Hero who saves the day.  But, of course that would be dangerous, so the next best thing is to try to create the conditions for such heroism, so that they may bask in its reflected glory (See Also: How We Got Into Operation Iraqi Fuckup).  Enabling the hero is almost as good as being the hero, and a lot safer!

It’s okay to fantasize about being a hero who wins the game or saves the day, but just because you see those scenarios play out in the movies and on TV, real life is much more chaotic and confusing, especially when you’re in a dark, crowded space full of tear gas.  And even if some would-be hero in the audience does get lucky, the shooter is probably still going to kill a few people before he gets taken down.  So instead of trying to create some kind of hit-or-miss self-correcting Wild West system, wouldn’t it be better to just make it harder for people – especially dangerously disturbed people – get guns in the first place?

July 20th, 2012 at 05:54pm Posted by Eli

Even More UCSD Building Photoblogging

Still just starting out, really. The campus is not small, and I covered most of it.

July 20th, 2012 at 11:33am Posted by Eli

Friday Quote & Cat Blogging

This week’s quote is from Danny DeVito’s very dark comedy, The War Of The Roses:

I should have seen her toes in the pit of my crotch as a cry for help.

And, of course, there’ll be other people’s cats in space…

Me-ow.

July 20th, 2012 at 07:50am Posted by Eli

I KNEW It Was Dangerous!

Truncated Comcast OnDemand synopsis of Don’t Look Up:

An evil force on the set makes a horror film all too real for a filmmaker and his crew after they unwittingly disco…

Let that be a warning to you all.

1 comment July 19th, 2012 at 05:40pm Posted by Eli

More UCSD B&W Building Photoblogging

Who among us does not love B&W UCSD buildings?

July 19th, 2012 at 07:08am Posted by Eli

Wait… What?

What’s wrong with this picture?

Investigators for an Arizona [Sheriff Joe Arpaio's] volunteer posse have declared that President Barack Obama’s birth certificate is definitely fraudulent.

(…)

Mike Zullo, the posse’s chief investigator, said numeric codes on certain parts of the birth certificate indicate that those parts weren’t filled out, yet those sections asking for the race of Obama’s father and his field of work or study were completed.

Zullo said investigators previously didn’t know the meaning of codes but they were explained by a 95-year-old former state worker who signed the president’s birth certificate.

Sooo… Their conclusion that Obama’s birth certificate is fake is based on information from THE GUY WHO SIGNED IT???

July 18th, 2012 at 06:27pm Posted by Eli

UCSD B&W Buildings & Trashcan Photoblogging

Yes, I still take pictures of trashcans to spite my high school photo teacher.

July 18th, 2012 at 11:16am Posted by Eli

Washington State Moves To Drive Republicans Crazy

Considering how much they hate anything that makes voting (or, as they call it, “voter fraud”) easier, this must give them conniptions.

Washington state has commissioned a Facebook app to provide another avenue for its residents to register to vote. Officials will soon post the software, developed by local company Microsoft, on the Secretary of State’s page and allow users to like it in order to spread the word. Once it’s ready, residents looking at using it will need to allow Facebook access to their personal info and provide a driver’s license number or state ID number, which the social network will use to put them on the voter rolls….

OMG everyone’s joke Facebook pages will be voting now!  It’s the end of democracy as we know it!

July 18th, 2012 at 07:05am Posted by Eli

We Get Skywriters

What I saw on my way home today…

July 17th, 2012 at 07:01pm Posted by Eli

UCSD B&W Building Photoblogging

All the same building, really.  There may be a lot of that…

July 17th, 2012 at 07:13am Posted by Eli

Monday Media Blogging

Useful advice you can use:

You’ll thank me someday.

1 comment July 16th, 2012 at 11:48am Posted by Eli

More UCSD Photoblogging

Get used to it, we’re going to be here for a while.

July 16th, 2012 at 07:41am Posted by Eli

Sunday Mr. Deity Blogging

Mr. Deity appears to be kinda scared of Christopher Hitchens…

July 15th, 2012 at 02:49pm Posted by Eli

Great Moments In Spin

Apparently retiring is just like going on the disabled list in baseball.

[Meet The Press's David] GREGORY: He was still financially linked to Bain. And of course, a lot his fortune is due to his time with Bain. Even when he was on leave, does he stand by the business decisions that were made by the firm he created?

[Romney campaign adviser Ed] GILLESPIE: He actually retired retroactively at that point. He ended up not going back to the firm after his time in Salt Lake City. So he was actually retired from Bain.

Brilliant!  Ed Gillespie, I salute you.

(h/t Woody)

July 15th, 2012 at 11:16am Posted by Eli

UCSD B&W Shadow Photoblogging

Still just kind of easing my way into the campus at this point.

July 13th, 2012 at 11:32am Posted by Eli

Friday Quote & Cat Blogging

This week’s quote is from the teen zombie comedy, My Boyfriend’s Back:

It’s not her fault! She was taken in by his wily decaying ways.

And, of course, there’ll be other people’s kittens…

Squeaky! And climby!

July 13th, 2012 at 07:22am Posted by Eli