I am more then a little surprised to see that there has been a constant, if tiny, stream of people viewing the site in the… wow, more then a year since my last post. I am considering picking this up again, if for no other reaosn then to have a place to rant occassionally. Not sure if that appeals to anyone but we shall see.
More to come!
One week into my blog, and I have discovered something. Moderate improvements in the quality and purpose of blog posts produces big changes in terms of the time commitment necessary. Don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying writing Step Lightly, and am optimistic about it. But I am falling behind! Yes, already.
I have five posts planned for this week though, and hopefully next weekend can build up my buffer a little.
I’m testing out the idea of a personal, pencil and paper journal, so expect posts to be erratic in the near future. More on that soon.
Tonight, as I was looking through Facebook, I realized something: most people take terrible pictures. Think about it, if someone you know takes pictures at a bar get together, what will they be of? I’d bet over ninety percent will be people, and only people. Closeups on faces, period.
Now, there are certainly some times when people pictures make sense. Proms, wedding, etc., need at least one set of good, full body pictures to demonstrate the beautiful attire of the occasion.
There are many cases, as well, where pictures of people with things make good sense. Vacation photos in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or grandma about to blow out the candles on her 100th birthday cake, absolutely. Gold.
However, stick a bunch of people in a room with nothing specific to celebrate and a couple cameras, and by and large you will get closeups of faces. Over and over again.
What do I think people should take pictures of? I don’t know. Wait for something exciting to happen. Take photos of the surroundings, maybe? The drinks? I just would like to avoid the following situation:
“Oh cool, photos, what are they of?”
“Here is Jess, and Steven, and Jess and Steve, and Chris, and Jess and Chris…”
Well, you get the idea.
Sorry everyone! Party tonight, will do double duty tomorrow!
I am not going to express my views on gay marriage today, I only want to make a quick note of something which has always bothered me.
I often hear people opposed to gay marriage saying they don’t want the government to award marriages to gay people because it threatens the sanctity of the religious institution of marriage. Alright, I can accept that. I wont say it’s a great way to win converts to your church, but faith is what it is. If marriage is a religious institution, and the religion offering it believes it should be between a man and a woman, then fine.
In that case, though, the government should stop awarding any marriages at all. Here’s why.
We have (should have) a strict divide between church and state, and for good reason. The state needs to represent the interests of everyone, while a church needs to represent the interests of just a portion of the population. To allow a church to dictate law is to oppress many to the beliefs of a few, and create laws founded not in in political theory but in faith based (non-rational) arguments.
So one of two things should happen. First choice, the sort of marriage you get from the government (a legal status conferring certain privileges) and the kind you get from a church (ordained by God) are different, in which case religious views on homosexuality shouldn’t matter to government policy. The government would make a decision based on how to run the state to produce the most benefit to the most people. (In our case, this would probably mean that anyone could marry anyone, since all people are afforded equal consideration under the law.) Second choice, marriage can be a purely religious rite, in which case the government can’t marry anyone. All government-only marriages are civil unions, and it’s up to individual couples to find a church to endorse their marriage.
Honestly, I don’t have much preference between these ideas. I would just like us to choose one of them, since our current policy is inconsistent with the way our government is organized. Frankly, trying to skirt the issue by offering “civil unions,” in essence second class marriages, to homosexual couples is just petty. Its effectively saying “We don’t want to admit it isn’t our business, so we’re letting you get legally married, but not really, and you sure can’t act like it.”
Hopefully the near future will bring a more reasonable policy one way or the other.
Well, I am one week in to my school year, and so far the biggest feeling I have is exhaustion. Late nights, really working my brain for the first time in a long time, and today trying to work on some of my old writing have all taken their toll on me. So tonight I am keeping this short.
Luckily, tomorrow is a day of rest. Yay! Goodnight.
By the way, the Threadless design fell through. Here’s to my next attempt!
Okay, I know they’re not everyone’s favorite subjects, but here are some links. This is somewhat for my own sake so I don’t lose the links.
http://myfootprint.org/
If I ate a little more local food (one quarter of my diet), cut back on trash, biked more, and switched t more efficient devices, I could drop from 26 acres to 21 acres. It’ a start.
http://sustainablog.blogspot.com/
http://www.ronnybrook.com/site_new/home_start.html
And finally, just to freak out my girlfriend…
http://www.menessentials.com/oxid.php/sid/x/shp/oxbaseshop/cl/info/tpl/straight_razors.tpl
All for now!
I realized today that I haven’t written in a week. I am very sorry, I intend to do better. As it stands, I have a portfolio review for admission to the Fine Arts program tomorrow on top of a critique for my photography final. I’m exhausted and busy out of my mind. So i ask anyone desperately waiting for me to return to wait. I’ll try to post details tomorrow about how my review goes and something more substantial in the next few days.
Hello all!
I feel bad about not posting for a long time, so I wanted to say I was still alive. I spent a massive amount of time in the darkroom last week (was awesome! like twenty hours), but this week should be a lot easier.
Besides that, not much going on. Busy busy with last minute red tape stuff. Including trying to apply to become a Bachelor of Fine Arts Major. Huzzah!
All for now.
