7:57 PM Your (very expensive) car says a lot about you as dating material:
Bentley Continental GT says: I have money and will shower you with gifts and attention
Maybach says: Gazillionaire
Aston Martin DB9 says: hip, cool guy
Porsche says: 55-year old going through a midlife crisis
Ferrari says: little dick
Dodge Viper says: off-the-beaten-path
Mercedes SL55 AMG and Jaguar XKR say: I have money but I’m still practical
Cadillac Escalade and Range Rover say: rugged hunter
Prius says: I care about the environment
8:02 AM In quantum physics, observing an element or particle potentially changes it.
What about photographers who travel to far-off lands and photograph indigenous people? Does observing them change them? Just this morning, in the March ’09 issue of American Photo, I saw the photo above of women picking tea. The woman in focus is staring straight at the camera, which made me wonder how she felt about being photographed. Did she go home and think about it? About who will see the photo, what potential publicity she might receive from it, etc.
Speaking of photography, my new hometown’s big neighbor, Denver, is America’s camera-friendliest city.
According to this award-winning documentary about “Big brother” and involuntary monitoring of people, Google stores all searches ever conducted over its networks – unlike most of its competitors.
What’s more disturbing, however, concerns their Gmail service (which I use). Since they offer practically unlimited space, most people keep all their e-mail messages. That means Google has all those e-mail messages at its disposal at any time. If and ever a user deletes an e-mail, Google still keeps it on their end, up to two months or more.
The scariest part, though, is that Google has acquired exemption from a privacy bill in California so that it can sell, if it so chooses, its users’ personal information down the road.
AOL, by comparison, doesn’t store web searches or instant messages, but it stores (unread) e-mails. E-mails that have been read are stored for 2 days.
11:57 PM According to this article, about 2% of bloggers are making a successful living off blogging. There are now almost as many paid bloggers as lawyers in the U.S. Interesting points:
3 out of 4 bloggers are college-educated
Most are white males with above-average incomes
It takes about 100,000 unique visitors a month to generate $75k annual income
As a result of the increase in bloggers, the numbers of journalists has declined
Note: Comments about the original article, which was published on WSJ Online, are skeptical, especially on that figure of 100k unique visitors equating to $75k annual income.
2:45 PM I’ve been watching Rescue Me on Hulu lately, starting from Season 1. The show is hilarious. The guys are all macho men but they’re likable. Some memorable lines I’ve heard on the show:
“Skyscraper with tits” (referring to really tall woman)
“Incredible Hulk with tits” (female bodybuilders)
“My sperm are like ants, they can carry more than their own weight…they can push through others’ sperm”
A dog named Asshole
“She gives blowjobs?”
“She’s Jewish!”
“So?”
“We all know Jew broads give great blowjobs.”
8:08 AM Last night I had the distinct displeasure of watching half of the worst television show I have ever seen – at least what’s retained in my memory. And I only watched half of it because I couldn’t stand seeing another second of it. The show I’m talking about is a certain Family Guy, and the particular episode I’m referring to is embedded below in its full glory.
Now I know you can’t judge a person’s taste or personality from a single show they may like to watch, but I really am going to think twice now about people who actually watch and enjoy this show.
Last night I went biking for three hours at a really beautiful trail called Picture Rock, about a half hour from here. I wish I had my camera because the scenery and weather were absolutely perfect for picture-taking.
I climbed and climbed and climbed…stopped…took in the view…rode on a few more yards…turned around…and came all the way back down.
Elevation map for Picture Rock trail, Lyons, CO
I made it as far as the scenic outlook, which apparently is more than 5.5 miles one way. I had no sense of time while I was out there. I left the trail parking lot at around 4:45 PM and arrived back at the car at 8:03 PM. The timing was perfect, because there was just enough light out for me to find my way back. The weather couldn’t have been better; it wasn’t hot, it wasn’t cold, it wasn’t too windy or stuffy or anything at all. Just perfect.
Poetry class I'm not one for forced analysis, because I took a poetry reading class once and spent most of the time thinking to myself What the fuck what are you talking about?×0
Equal law If we're all equal under the law then why are we so deferential toward lawmakers and judges?×0
Real wish I want to be smarter than the stories in my head.×0
Now reading I'm reading/listening to a lot of books/audiobooks simultaneously right now. Variety is good...right?×0
Seduce Seduce is a nice word, but the concept is not the most natural to me. I'm made uncomfortable by the fact that it so easily transfers responsibility to the other person.×0