My analog blog

I showed up late to the Pownce party and crouched into the back of the line. Since there was not much else to do, I started to write something down in my notebook, which I’ve been carrying around since my iPhone replaced my Palm T|X.

(Isn’t it ironic that we used to be able to beam people our contact information and now, seven years in the future, we have to resort to pen/paper, or a phone call/exchange. Technology, why hast thou abandoned me?)

A friend, further up in the line, made the comment, “Terry Chay is writing in his analog blog.”

“Pownce Launch Party” by magerleagues

Yeah, it’s a moleskine. Don’t shoot me.

Then ensued some Q&A about what I write down in there?

Answer: really boring stuff like shopping lists, task lists, an occasional outline for a blog entry I’ll never write…

So if you ever see me writing in “my analog blog,” you know it’s nothing interesting.

[More pownce after the jump]Continue reading →

Posted on January 19, 2008 by tychay 15

Sex talk

Someone asked me today if I plan on attending the Sex Worker’s Art Show which will be hitting San Francisco tomorrow.

The answer is no because I’m working all weekend, I just added it to my upcoming because I thought maybe others might be interested in it. But in all honesty, I’m just an introverted conservative at heart and I’m just too shy. Heck, I feel uncomfortable walking home at night.

The book, which is an analogy of stories from strippers to internet models and phone sex operators, sounds very interesting…

Working Sex: Sex Workers Write About a Changing Industry . I’ll be sure to buy this book after I get all my Amazon Affiliate rebates collected in one place.

See if the tour will be near you.

[More randomness after the jump]Continue reading →

Posted on January 19, 2008 by tychay 8

The editing we live

I stopped by the Lensbaby booth at Macworld and was talking to a rep there.

He let me mess with his Canon XTi and Lensbaby 2.0. Since I’ve systematically destroyed all my cameras, it has been a long while. When my hands grabbed the camera, it was electric—my hands were made for an SLR, my eyes were made to be behind the viewfinder. I snapped a couple of photos.

A lensbaby is a cheap lens that turns your expensive dSLR into a really cheap lomographic camera.

He then asked me a question he had been pestered with that day, “Why don’t you just use photoshop to do the same thing the lensbaby does?”

[My answer after the jump]Continue reading →

Posted on January 17, 2008 by tychay 8

…surrounded by reality

At dinner the other day, A— quoted someone saying:

“San Francisco. 14 square miles surrounded by reality.”

I thought that was rather clever as I seem to like a slight self-effacement now and again. I bothered to look up the full reference. It turns out the quote was by our very own Mayor McDreamy and he really said:

“San Francisco, a wacky wonderful place, a place of dreamers and doers. I think someone described San Francisco as ‘49 square miles surrounded by reality.’ I kind of like that.
—Mayor Gavin Newsom, Speech at the Sierra Summit

I guess they didn’t have Google in San Francisco in 2005, because Gavin is quoting a saying about Madison, Wisconsin—the Left Coast of Wisconsin.

Sometimes, reality is a big old let down.

Parting shot. I love this city.

Posted on January 13, 2008 by tychay 3

The purpose of pr0n

In the early 90’s, random dot stereograms made really popular geek posters.

I haven’t a clue what this really looks like. click here to view larger. You can view more and get other stereogram paraphernalia here.

To view them, you had to unfocus your eyes a bit and then stare at infinity. I could never do this so I never saw the fucking giraffes, giraffes fucking, or whatever that others claimed they saw. This caused me to develop quite an elaborate conspiracy theory around the Magic Eye corporation.

When I walk to work, I have this insanely long internal monolog. During a twelve minute walk, I create at least one blog entry I’ll never write and come up with three clever turns of phrases of which maybe I’ll remember one of them in the future and someone will say, “I’ll quote you on that”—but they won’t and we’ll forget it together forever.

However, if you stuck one of those posters in front of me right then, my eyes are so unfocused, I’d probably be able to see the fucking giraffe fucking and finally dispel a conspiracy theory of my youth.

[The Blog Post Who Lived. After the jump.]Continue reading →

Posted on January 8, 2008 by tychay 6

Every so often you need to be reminded

(For my cousin Alex who asked I blog more often about politics.)

On Obama’s Iowa win:

“Hope could give way to fear once again. But, for tonight at least, it holds a mirror up to the face of America, and we can look at ourselves with pride.…It’s the kind of country we’ve always imagined ourselves being — even if in the last seven years we fell horribly short: a young country, an optimistic country, a forward-looking country, a country not afraid to take risks or to dream big.”
—Ariana Huffington, “Obama Wins Iowa: Why Everyone Has a Reason to Celebrate Tonight”

I mentioned before that I chose the category “religion and politics” because I am a strong believer in the separation of Church and State in the body politic, but never in ourselves.

Our morals inform every decision.

[Fear and Morals, Death and Triumphalism, Silence and Responsibility after the jump]Continue reading →

Posted on January 4, 2008 by tychay 3

Camera purchasing advice

I shoot Nikon.

Shooting its brother
North Beach, San Francisco, California

Leica M8, Cosina-Voightlander Nokton 35mm/1.2
1/22sec @ f/2, iso 160, 35mm (47mm)

That doesn’t mean you should shoot it also.

After remembering how camera brand religious wars are waged, I am reminded of this outdated article I wrote—not really that outdated.

Basically in it I point out that, yes, there are differences in camera brands. They’re differences, not “betters.” Or…

“Photons don’t care what logo is on the front of your camera.”

A camera purchase is ultimately a personal decision. The best camera to buy is the camera that speaks to you, not someone else:

“Who is behind the lens? The shutter button only accepts one finger at a time.”

They’re not taking the photo, you are. Grow a pair; make a choice—it’s your choice, not theirs.

And remember, no matter what camera you chose, a camera you’d carry is its most important feature. My favorite saying:

“The best camera to have is the one you have on you.”

…and that advice never will be outdated.

Geez, all these aphorisms make me feel like the Poor Richard of photography. 😉

My Leica gang sign
Gallery Lounge, South of Market, San Francisco, California

Leica M8, Cosina-Voightlander Nokton 35mm/1.2
1/10sec, iso 640, 35mm (47mm)

At a party recenty, someone said, “You’re that guy with the expensive camera.” So I guess I put the “poor” in “Poor Richard.”

Posted on January 2, 2008 by tychay 4

Why I win photography arguments

…because I have facts on my side.

Here is a typical exchange:

Scoble: You put a 24 mm on my camera [Canon 5D] and it’s a 24mm. Put it on a [Nikon] D80, for instance, and it becomes something like a 28mm. (link)

Me: You’re smoking something. A 24mm on a D80 is still a 24mm. The FIELD OF VIEW is like a 36mm on your 5D. (link) The issue you are alluding to with wide angles being better on “full frame cameras” is related to something called retrofocal design. (link)

Scoble: …this shot wouldn’t be the same. (link TRUE). Look at that shot and see the guy to the left? He wouldn’t be there if I was using a non-full-frame sensor camera. (link FALSE)

[An explanation after the jump.]Continue reading →

Posted on January 1, 2008 by tychay 8

My supermodel moment

Just heard something about me that was completely ridiculous and, at the same time, very funny. (I only wish it were true.)

To set the record straight:
> Due to the ergodic hypothesis, social entropy, and a weird lensing effect, it may have appeared at that particular moment that the male-female ratio in my vicinity suffered a slight and short-lived population inversion.

Dave says that everyone eventually has their “supermodel moment” and I guess whatever caused that person to say that comment about me was mine.

We’ll give you something hot to photograph
Slide, Union Square, San Francisco, California

Nikon D70, Nikkor 12-24mm f/4G, SB-800, Ultimate Light Box
1/20 sec @ f/4, iso 1250, 12mm (18mm)

I was photographing an event and asked these pretty girls if they wouldn’t mind me taking their picture. After I did, two of them said they’d give me something really worth photographing, which they did multiple times.

This photo appeared on my Facebook feed and Plaxo Pulse, and incidents like this is how rumors about me get started.

Not that I’m complaining!

Posted on December 30, 2007 by tychay 9

Have you hugged your engineer?

I was browsing through Facebook and I ran across Andrew Mager’s profile photo again. This time it was taken at the CNET holiday party.

I’ve been saying for a while now that I’m just going to compile all of his Facebook profile photos into a book and make bank. But I had to blog this one, which gives you an idea of what I’m talking about:

You can see the original photo here.

Besides, Andrew Mager, the people in the photo are Jessica Dolcourt, Caroline McCarthy, and Erica Ogg—all writers at CNET Networks in SF.

I took one look at this and wanted to tell Libby and Linda that they should use this photo for CNET’s recruiting material, this way they’ll have no trouble hiring engineers. 😀 This reminds me that a little birdy told me that they’re looking for a PHP architect.

[more random thoughts after the jump]Continue reading →

Posted on December 14, 2007 by tychay 12

The Woodwork

You tell that other boy, not to touch the woodwork