la vida es una tombola

» Art of simplicity--in photography and life

“Simplicity is the most important concept in photography.”

I was agreeing with most of what he was writing until I got to this:

“Men can think about only one thing at once. We think far more deeply than women, which is why we can invent computers, automobiles, calculus, nuclear weapons and spaceships that fly us to the moon, but unlike women, we still can only think about one thing at a time. We may be able to flip between sipping a beer and watching the game, but it’s still only one thing at any one instant.
When Sir Isaac Newton invented calculus, he concentrated on it for 24 hours straight to get to the bottom of it. That’s deep thought.

While out shooting, if we bring more than one lens, more than one camera or more than one kind of film, we now are constantly distracting ourselves thinking “what if I tried the other lens?,” “should I change ISO?” or “I think I need to go back to the car and get the big lens.”“

To which I say, oh really now. Men invented all those things because they think more deeply? Which you deduced from what, the fact that women can think of more things at once and the assumption that both genders must have the same mental power? I think you are over simplifying things. Ha! See what I did there?

Also, from those paragraphs on, I got the feeling he was saying that only men are photographers, which of course, annoyed me.

Oh, and p.s. LEIBNIZ.

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There is some crazy good photoshop going on at nic cage as everyone, and maybe the fact that his face fits so well in so many places will help me understand how it is this man keeps making so many movies.

Lincoln here is one of my favorites.

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A few weeks ago (the day after Christmas actually), Paul and I drove from Portland to Seattle to visit my half-sister Kristin and her family. After a delicious dinner, it was time for the kids to have their bedtime snack and Matthew (age 4) was dragging his feet to finish his glass of milk. His stomach was full, he said. Paul tried to encourage him by telling him how great a nice cold glass of milk was to the stomach, and Kristin told Paul that actually Matthew was drinking hemp milk. And Paul may think otherwise if he had to finish a whole glass of hemp milk.

Neither I nor Paul had ever heard of hemp milk before so a few nights ago we picked some up from Sun Harvest. Partially out of curiosity and partially out of solidarity with the little guy. I had braced myself for something awful, and let me report that hemp milk isn’t all that bad. Actually, I like it, and despite Paul’s face in the photo, he likes it too. Hemp milk reminds me of atole blanco*. I realize this isn’t the most useful reference I could give, but it’s the closest thing I can think of. Atole blanco is essentially boiled corn meal, sometimes sweetened with piloncillo, which yes, doesn’t sound terribly appetizing. My cousin told me it’s an acquired taste and essentially declared me a true Mexican when I liked it on first sip.

Anyway, back to the hemp milk. It’s good. If someone said, here, let me get you a glass of milk and poured you this, well then you probably wouldn’t like it. But as long as you aren’t expecting cow milk, this should taste good. Nutritionally, it doesn’t have the same amount of protein as regular milk, 2g versus 8g per cup. There’s less saturated fat, but more total fat. But a serving of hemp milk does provide 40% of the RDA of calcium and according to that link, regular milk only provides 29%. I know if one’s lactose intolerant it’s a moot point how hemp milk stacks up against cow milk, but it stills seems like a fine thing to drink even if you can consume cow’s milk.

*link is to the page in spanish for atole on wikipedia, the english page doesn’t mention atole blanco at all.

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I hope this isn’t what my kisses look like

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I’m really liking The Awl’s end of decade series of posts, “the end of the 00s,” how it’s not just people making lists and already making sweeping generalizations about what the decade was really all about, but instead has a good mix of personal observations, memories and random opinions.

In some posts, people mention that they were in the 10th grade ten years ago, or that they were 15, and I think to myself, man, how young are they! And now they are in a position to write for The Awl? And I stop and count back how old I am now (26) and how they are pretty much my same age and I’m hit with a murky mixture of deep sadness and hope, and sometimes I can’t discern one from the other which actually pretty much sums up 2009 for me.

Anyway, two of my favorite posts: Ten Years of Best PIcture Suck rails against the disappointments in the Academy Awards. I will get behind anything that says that Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind are pretty awful. And don’t get me started on the awards for Best Actor. ugh.

And then on the flip side, Why Did We Not Appreciate 2007, a list of great/enjoyed movies of 2007, subtitled, a list of movies for Chia to netflix.

I really am looking forward to 2010.

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socialcyclingatx:(via cyclop)

comb the hair back and add a tattoo, and really, not much else has changed.

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Yesterday Paul and I went to the Oregon coast.

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hoppzor:

I just got 14 different types of cookies from a cookie exchange.

I officially have DIABEETUS.

My first thought upon seeing this photo was “oh my, that cat looks just like Wilford Brimley.

And then I image searched “Wilford Brimley” and I see, oh, that was the point. And now I want oatmeal.

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Rimskys bathroom

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Best triangular wrapping ever

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