Kettle? This is the pot calling.

From Bush's Veteran's Day speech:

"The murderous ideology of the Islamic radicals is the great challenge of our new century. Yet in many ways, this fight resembles the struggle against communism in the last century. Like the ideology of communism, Islamic radicalism is elitist, led by a self-appointed vanguard that presumes to speak for the Muslim masses. Bin Laden says his own role is to tell Muslims, "what is good for them and what is not." And what this man who grew up in wealth and privilege considers good for poor Muslims is that they become killers and suicide bombers. He assures them that this road -- that this is the road to paradise -- though he never offers to go along for the ride."

Just as a little intellectual exercise, let's see how difficult it would be to make this paragraph sound like it's referring to Bush...

"The murderous ideology of the [right-wing] radicals is the great challenge of our new century. Yet in many ways, this fight resembles the struggle against communism in the last century. Like the ideology of communism, [right-wing] radicalism is elitist, led by a self-appointed vanguard that presumes to speak for the [American] masses. [Bush] says his own role is to tell [Americans], "what is good for them and what is not." And what this man who grew up in wealth and privilege considers good for poor [Americans] is that they become killers.... He assures them that this road -- that this is the road to [freedom and democracy] -- though he never offers to go along for the ride."

Would you know the difference?

Weirdest. Dream. Ever.

The pope was sitting on my bed with me and my friends, offering me painkillers, and joking about "Buddha, save me!", "I'm burning [in hell]!" This was just before he toppled backward off the bed from laughing. Don't worry, though, he didn't hurt himself.

Math update

92% on my midterm - woo!

Oh-kay...

Anna, Anna, Anna...

She does have amazing skin, though.

Eep, it's been over a week since I posted anything! Not that I have anything important to say today, either...

I used to consider myself fairly good at math. I like it, I have a good feel for numbers, I thought I might try to fit a math degree in with the computer science one I'm working on. That is, until I took stats. Damn stats. I came this close to failing the final in that class, even though I went into it with about a 90 average. Suddenly the prospect of taking even the three or four other math classes that are required for my current program became a lot scarier.

I guess I didn't really understand just how different separate branches of mathematics are, though. I have a friend with a math degree, and whenever I would ask him to tutor me, he'd say sure, as long as it wasn't stats. I didn't get how you could take a whole class on the intricacies of e = mc² and not be able to work basic statistics problems.

This semester, I reluctantly signed up for a math class because there weren't any CS classes that worked with my schedule. And I am loving it! The hell? It's about logic and proving mathematical statements, which I now remember finding intensely satisfying in grade 10 geometry. Today, we received our second assignment, which is due next Tuesday. My favourite tv show was on tonight, and instead of watching it, I worked on my assignment. Clearly, I love proofs. And, equally clearly, I am a geek.

Oh, also, I am very proud of myself for two reasons today. I got a 90% on my first math assignment, and I fixed my new (used) camera lens all by myself. I just bought it two weeks ago, and had been using it all weekend for an assignment for the camera class I'm taking. It worked fine for about 80 million pictures, but right at the end, the metering didn't seem to recognize a change in aperture while in manual mode. If I switched to shutter priority, it worked fine. Since I just spent $225 that I don't have on this lens, which I bought on consignment (read: 7 day warranty), I was a little worried. But, I am genius. Also, cleaning the contacts can do wonders.

Robert Kennedy, Jr.

I would vote for this man. He understands what is wrong with both major parties, and recognizes the reasoning behind the White House's tactics for what it is: fascism.

The box said daylight

Because I'm cheap and lazy, I try to come up with alternative, $2 solutions to $500 problems commonly experienced in photography. Oddly enough, they don't usually work.

For example, there often just isn't enough natural light to create the effect that I want. If I use my on-camera flash, I end up with a completely different effect, a flat and harsh snapshot instead of a photo with subtle lighting and depth. If I turn on an artificial light, it affects the colour in the picture (yellow with incandescent, green with fluorescent). The accepted solution would be to use photography-specific lighting, such as a separate flash and/or freestanding lights and reflectors, but that would cost money and sounds very awkward.

So I was shopping in Superstore the other day, and I came across these incandescent bulbs with a blue coating. The box claimed that the colour of light they gave off was in the daylight range. Ah hah, I said. I can put these bulbs in a lamp to give myself spot or supplemental fill lighting, and everything will be good. I can take pictures of my cats at night to my heart's content.

Well, I'm here to tell you that even though the naked eye is fooled, film is not. The pictures came out still noticeably yellow, if less so than before. But I'm an optimist. I'm thinking about trying out an aquarium grow light next.

Gear

Yesterday, because I completely can't afford it, I bought a new lens for my camera, and I am so excited! The lens is a Pentax-FA SMC 28-200 3.8-5.6 AL(IF) with hood, which is not the fastest, but it's ok. My camera is a Pentax SF-1. I've really been wanting to get a telephoto lens because I'm starting another photography class tonight. Not that I'll necessarily take any better pictures than I did before, but at least I won't be able to blame it on the gear anymore.

If I take any good pictures, I'll try to post them here, but I'm warning you, they'll probably be cat portraits.