what's up and enjoyable these days?

hi
so i've been gone a while,
which unfortunately is how many of my entries start,
and so in predictable manner,
things are good, life is peachy, and all that,
im still working at an accounting software company,
learning more about my most hated subject in school than i ever thought possible,

things are delightful on the female front as well,
the source of delight is jenny,
many of you may have meet or heard of her previously over the years,
she's a friend of my friend matt,
we've dated briefly twice before,
but i guess the third times the charm,
rachel don't groan,

this fall i dated Yulia,
i was set up with her through a woman at work,
she was a 29 year old from russia,
it was fine for a bit but a pretty face only goes so far,
personality wise we were too different,
ironically many of jenny and my mutual friends would argue jenny and i are too similar,

Aaron to answer your question about socialized health care,
absolutely not,
i can't wait to discuss this with you after you cover it in a finance class,
basically i think that no one deserves health care for free,
it seems many people view it as a given birth right that everyone has,
i don't think people deserve to be taken care of for free,
there is a cost that comes from taking care of people,
i don't understand why people shouldn't be at least partially responsible for this cost,
i feel that if people are not at least partially responsible it leads to abuse of the system,
if people get a service for free they will be abusive and wasteful of the use of that service,
But if people are a little bit responsible for the cost of their health care,
they will invariably be more invested in their health,
surprisingly people aren't more concerned about their health,
since it can lead to so many problems and ultimately a shorter life,
But most importantly of all, financially it is by far more cost effective to have people partially responsible, and in essence insurance,
yes there are obvious problems with insurance companies, and the american insurance system,
but the basic underlying rules and laws of insurance are brilliant and logical and ridiculously financially effective, it keeps cost so much lower,
and i think that should be an important factor in any government program,
but especially any social program,
grouping people into so many subsets and categories allows everyone to pay the lowest possible cost for heath care than they would if they paid for only them self,
or most expensive of all, for everyone but the sickest, a universal health care system,

Originally i planned this entry to be solely about Saul,
Saul Williams,
i mentioned him to you over christmas aaron,
he is a poet, who starred in this movie slam that i think you would love,
his flow and delivery are amazing, but his use and structure of words is simply breathtaking


Someone posted the whole movie slam on you tube, here the the first of 12,


a clip from slam where he is in jail and being taunted and harassed by some other inmates and this is how he retaliates


Another clip from slam


Here he is from a radio interview that i thought was pretty interesting and he made some amazing points,


here is another amazing poem, this one about his father and religion




here is reciting a poem at an art and spirituality festival


and yet another one, but at least it's the last one,

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Another recent enjoyment has been peep show, its a british TV comedy,
that's very unique, different and executed hilariously,
one defining difference is that it is often shot from each charters exact point of view, and this allows the viewer to hear the thoughts of each character as they are showing that characters view point,
to view more peep show, and lots of other TV shows try
http://www14.alluc.org/alluc/




Oh also i don't think i ever mentioned that i stopped putting my photos on here and instead refer to my flickr page to view my some of my photography

yaohong

hi

I was just inspired to write a comment on some Asian Photography blog, i have included it here below. I write alot each day, often in computer/accounting jargon, i like it more than i would've thought, and i am better at it than Mrs. Nelson would have thought(she was my high school English teacher, i had her 3.5 out of 4 years, she challenged me and was my nemesis for quite some time but she somehow invigorated my interest in English and writing).

Things are grand, last weekend i was in San Fran, Berkeley, Oakland with my friends Marf and
E-Lease. I have wanted to visit them forever, and a few days before it worked out. On 8/24 i saw that none of my coworkers had asked for off over labor day weekend. On 8/25 my boss was on vacation so i couldn't ask him if i could have off. On 8/27 i asked my boss he said yes, i asked Mark, he said yes as well, i bought my tickets. On 8/30 i flew out, and arrived in san fran.

It was a fabulous trip~ biking around Berkeley, eating the best sushi i have ever had, playing video games with mark, walking san fran, eating at an old school German restaurant, searching for a photography bookstore in Japan Town (after the word in red is the letters "an" in white, for the Japanese colors), drinking in Buddha bar in china town, and eating Thai for dinner, wandering Napa Valley drinking our way though amazing vineyards, fighting a freeway of miniature ants, making cyanotypes, meeting a burning man, biking around Berkeley some more, and eating the best spaghetti and veal meatballs @ chez panisse.

Thanks again,

Mark & Elissa

Marf & E-Lease

M & E


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Creative Job vs. Professional Job

There are many things to consider, and everyone considers different things. i had a similar choice and these are some of the things i considered.

Which is easier?

~there are many benefits of having a job that you don't Hate, and i job that is less Grueling.

Which is more lucrative?

~Like it or not, Money is important. Money affects almost everything, and it is a source of major Worry, for everyone.

Which do you Enjoy more?

~Obviously important, but I think most people don’t consider enjoyment enough.

What job will be more Challenging?

~Significantly more important than people realize, if you can be great at your job in less than 5 years it probably isn’t challenging enough.

Which job has longer hours?

~The longer you spend working for someone else the less time you can be doing what you love.

Which job inspires more creativity?

~a tough question, because I have found my non-creative job often inspires much more desire and inspiration for creation than some job using creativity. I feel that being surround by an environment of logic and lack of creativity 8 hours a day invigorates my joy of creation.

For me, I choose to go the business route doing software support for some accounting software. It sounds horrible, i admit, but it has been a great choice for me. A day spent at a desk is easy, more lucrative, likely more challenging, shorter hours, and may likely inspire your creativity more than many of the other jobs you would have to do to supplement your creativity.

i’ll admit you may not enjoy it more than doing photography all day, but I don’t think that’s the only question to ask.

http://chngyaohong.com/blog/uncategorized/art-education/#comments

well

hi
how are you
i hope well
i am
in hi fi cafe
a block from my new place in bay view
also a block away is my new vehicle
a honda cr-v
it's wonderful
a bit nicer than my 94 explorer
everything has been a bit nicer lately
last weekend i was in DC
with a bunch of friends from lax
the weekend was perfect
as was copious amounts of libation
the beaches
the beach house
the skinny dipping
and most importantly the company
ta ta
for now

whimsically practical, abundantly repetitive, listening to the abscence of listening

hi, how are you?
i'm good,
Life is delightful,
things are finally moving, being, becoming,
job is wonderful,
my car and residence are soon the same,
simple things, practical things,
after being so fanciful for so long i feel the need for practicality,
i am bothered by the absence of it,

i don't mean to bemoan,
that was one of the many reasons i've been quiet,
as well as being 'putered out,
insufficient time,
interest,
desire,
disgust with the state of blogs,
specifically the lack of personal insight and abundance of repetition,
and antipathy for the current state of listening around me.

Here is an email we got today from a client, an extreme example, but an example nonetheless~
................................................................................................................................
Question:Hi this question is for my Client Dorner Inc.

She has used all of her elements and assigned the accounts to them now they need to add the need to be able to add for lack of better word a new element so that when they need to post the expense of an insurance deductible or other expense that they need to charge the job due to damage to on the job they want to be able to Split the insurance expense to the GL account for insurance and the out of pocket expenses To another account currently in Whensoft you only get to assign 1 GL account How can we do this so that we can track the expense on the job as well as to the correct GL accounts?
...............................................................................................................

I loved the opening, i'm glad she made sure we knew this was a question, since we only get questions. The lack of punctuation is a bold choice, the random capitalization, "they need to add the need to be able to add for lack of better word"= brilliant. The crystal clear explanation of her problem, and the fact that this came from a CPA(ccountant).

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Another recent love, Karl Pilkington











He is on the Ricky Gervais Podcast, they are downloadable from iTunes, or free if you aren't a moron. They are basically 30 min radio shows with Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and Karl Pilkington. There are also free ones on iTunes. Ricky and Steve are funny, quick, and witty~ but Karl is unknowingly hilarious~ the way he views things is very simplistic, annoyed, and curious. Here are some quotes:
;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:;:

• Don't chuck stuff about because you'll break it.
  • Karl's interpretation of the 'People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones' proverb.

• People who live in glass houses have to answer the door.
• Karl updates the famous proverb from above
  

• Were those presents the three kings brought Jesus for Christmas or his birthday?

• Don't be chucking that out you might need it later.
  • Karl's interpretation of Benjamin Franklin's "Waste not, want not."

• You don't have to do it straight away, but just do it before it gets really bad.
  • Another interpretation of a proverb, based on Franklin's "A stitch in time saves nine."

• I scored once, and that's only because I was being chased by a bee." Karl's most vivid memory of playing football at school.

• A little story told quickly.
  • Karl's definition of an analogy

• They go from building to building, just building.
• On builders

• You never see a black ghost, do you?

• Why didn't evolution give them genes to make them good at carpentry then, so they could build a ladder instead of growing long necks?
  • On the the evolution of the giraffe.

• Who's it for, at the end of the day?
  • Karl on marriage.

• Knowledge is almost annoying.

• Karl: "Even the bit that was important, right, when they were getting married, right, there wasn't enough chairs cos it was, y'know, all the family gets the chairs, don't they (Ricky: 'selfish...') so I was sort of stood at the back and that, watching, and er, I couldn't hear what was going on, cos a woman was breastfeeding her baby."
  
• Steve: 'But- what- How loud was this baby guzzling away that you couldn't hear what was going on?'
• Karl: 'It was slurping, and all that....'
• -On a friend's wedding.

Check it out please! )
I'll be disappointed if you don't~(

As i mentioned earlier i have been put off by the many blogs simply repeating things from other blogs. Whether it be photo blogs, news blogs, gossip blogs, even psychology blogs they are all doing less creating more copying. Annoying yet easier. Here are some things copied from psychology blogs;
-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;

Voters’ personality traits in presidential elections

Abstract

Personality measures of more than 6000 US electors on the Big Five Factors have been collected on the Web through a Web site designed to assess their personality. By means of structural equation modeling the impact of personality factors as well as of demographic variables, such as age and sex, on voting intentions on the forthcoming US presidential elections was investigated. Personality variables accounted for 16% of variance of voting intentions, while gender and age accounted for no more than 3%. High Agreeableness and Openness were predictive of intention to vote for Kerry, while all high Energy, Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability were predictive of intention to vote for Bush. Results are consistent with previous research conducted in a different country, using a different language.

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Action-Video-Game Experience Alters the Spatial Resolution of Vision

ABSTRACT—Playing action video games enhances several different aspects of visual processing; however, the mechanisms underlying this improvement remain unclear. Here we show that playing action video games can alter fundamental characteristics of the visual system, such as the spatial resolution of visual processing across the visual field. To determine the spatial resolution of visual processing, we measured the smallest distance a distractor could be from a target without compromising target identification. This approach exploits the fact that visual processing is hindered as distractors are brought close to the target, a phenomenon known as crowding. Compared with nonplayers, action-video-game players could tolerate smaller target-distractor distances. Thus, the spatial resolution of visual processing is enhanced in this population. Critically, similar effects were observed in non-video-game players who were trained on an action video game; this result verifies a causative relationship between video-game play and augmented spatial resolution.

'''''''''''''Mark - think this helps our photography?

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26 Reasons What You Think is Right is Wrong

A cognitive bias is something that our minds commonly do to distort our own view of reality. Here are the 26 most studied and widely accepted cognitive biases.

1. Bandwagon effect - the tendency to do (or believe) things because many other people do (or believe) the same. Related to groupthink, herd behaviour, and manias. Carl Jung pioneered the idea of the collective unconscious which is considered by Jungian psychologists to be responsible for this cognitive bias.
2. Bias blind spot - the tendency not to compensate for one’s own cognitive biases.
3. Choice-supportive bias - the tendency to remember one’s choices as better than they actually were.
4. Confirmation bias - the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions.
5. Congruence bias - the tendency to test hypotheses exclusively through direct testing.
6. Contrast effect - the enhancement or diminishment of a weight or other measurement when compared with recently observed contrasting object.
7. Déformation professionnelle - the tendency to look at things according to the conventions of one’s own profession, forgetting any broader point of view.
8. Disconfirmation bias - the tendency for people to extend critical scrutiny to information which contradicts their prior beliefs and uncritically accept information that is congruent with their prior beliefs.
9. Endowment effect - the tendency for people to value something more as soon as they own it.
10. Focusing effect - prediction bias occurring when people place too much importance on one aspect of an event; causes error in accurately predicting the utility of a future outcome.
11. Hyperbolic discounting - the tendency for people to have a stronger preference for more immediate payoffs relative to later payoffs, the closer to the present both payoffs are.
12. Illusion of control - the tendency for human beings to believe they can control or at least influence outcomes which they clearly cannot.
13. Impact bias - the tendency for people to overestimate the length or the intensity of the impact of future feeling states.
14. Information bias - the tendency to seek information even when it cannot affect action.
15. Loss aversion - the tendency for people to strongly prefer avoiding losses over acquiring gains (see also sunk cost effects)
16. Neglect of probability - the tendency to completely disregard probability when making a decision under uncertainty.
17. Mere exposure effect - the tendency for people to express undue liking for things merely because they are familiar with them.
18. Omission bias - The tendency to judge harmful actions as worse, or less moral, than equally harmful omissions (inactions).
19. Outcome bias - the tendency to judge a decision by its eventual outcome instead of based on the quality of the decision at the time it was made.
20. Planning fallacy - the tendency to underestimate task-completion times.
21. Post-purchase rationalization - the tendency to persuade oneself through rational argument that a purchase was a good value.
22. Pseudocertainty effect - the tendency to make risk-averse choices if the expected outcome is positive, but make risk-seeking choices to avoid negative outcomes.
23. Selective perception - the tendency for expectations to affect perception.
24. Status quo bias - the tendency for people to like things to stay relatively the same.
25. Von Restorff effect - the tendency for an item that “stands out like a sore thumb” to be more likely to be remembered than other items.
26. Zero-risk bias - preference for reducing a small risk to zero over a greater reduction in a larger risk.

Complete list of cognitive biases - Wikipedia

2 reasons to celebreate the impending holiday

i've not been busy blogging. sorry, truthfully, kinda. Work has been good, it's fun and interesting, i enjoy all the people i work with, and it seems to be working out well. Today i got my first set of business cards, and they interviewed me for a video they will show at our companies user conference next week here in Milwaukee. There will be 160 clients from 12 countries, the oddest place will be Qatar, and the farthest would be from Australia. i volunteered to be the company photographer, so i get to be down at the conference at the Pfister for most of next week taking pictures. Speaking of photography i have 4 photos in a show this weekend for the spring gallery night. i am pretty excited to finally be showing some work, but i know why i didn't do anything sooner ~ cause it is a surprising amount of work to get everything ready. i am actually surprisingly busy lately, my nights are filled with shit i need to do, and i'm actually having to start planning my time and scheduling things for various nights, which as you may know is quite foreign to me and goes against my nature and beliefs. All while maintaining my viewership for all the shitty shows i watch, Allah bless DVR. Oh yeah, back to the show my mind wanders so severely while writing these post you have no idea, my mind just races with things i think to write, then i contemplate whether i should write it down, then i do, then i fiddle with the grammar and syntax a bit, then i delete it because it is out of place, or usually because it seems arrogant and uninteresting, for example several times in this post i have written about then deleted some comments my boss made, she said i was extremely courteous, i say thank you after everything, in my emails and conversations with customers and coworkers i am are very formal and well-written and well-spoken. Previously it was just out-of-place and self-congratulatory but in this context of explaining my process i think it fits better. And i just realized this is very similar to my internal process when i am in a group and waiting to speak, i hem and haw whether i should say it, then i think about how to say it, then i wait for a good opportunity to say it, but those good opportunities rarely come, and i am left quiet. i feel rejuvenated writing, it is 2:45 now, and i desperately need to go to bed, but it feels better than i thought it would to write again, i was actually kinda procrastinating cause there is so much to write and so little time to write it. But next time, hopefully shortly, i can tell you about my recent night partying with two 40 year old married women.

Anyway, the exhibit runs during the Third Ward’s Gallery Night and Day, April 20-21, and is located in the Third Ward at the P&H Dye House, 320 E. Buffalo Street (2nd Floor, above VP Gallery). Opening reception: 5-9pm.