Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity

Back in Urbana after a workshop in the Netherlands. Fun+productive.

The fact remains that getting people right is not what living is all about anyway. It’s getting them wrong that is living, getting them wrong and wrong and wrong and then, on careful reconsideration, getting them wrong again. That’s how we known we’re alive: we’re wrong. Maybe the best thing would be to forget being right or wrong about people and just go along for the ride. But if you can do that – well, lucky you.
— American Pastoral, Philip Roth

The longer quote is below the fold.
Continue reading “Other people…”

See here.

Leafs: 0 Gravity: 1. Colorful pools of leafs cover the ground. Pretty. And then winter will come…:

It is amazing how a small technical lemma can simplify a mess into a plug and play easy presentation.

Good LaTeX ref online: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/. Seems equivalent to a good book. Time for book publishers to panic even more.

I just bought a new superzoom lens (the Tamron 18-270) since my old one stopped working. It has a pretty amazing range. Here is an example from today.

See the bus?

No? Let me zoom in:

(The picture was taken while standing in one place and only zooming in and out.)

Real photographers will tell you that such zoom lens are pathetic because they have high distortion etc. All true, but I find this zoom range to be exciting as far as enjoying photography.

Also, it is well documented that any discussion on the web concerning any lens converges on the conclusion, by real photographers, that one should buy three lenses instead of the pathethic single lens you were considering, and each one of these lenses costs at least 2000$. This does not imply that one should not spend money on good lens…

See the bus? No… Let me zoom in…

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The bus.

This is taken from the same location with full zoom.

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