Chonky Boi

The sun was out for my walk to lunch yesterday and so were the squirrels and I’m so glad I brought the E-M1X with the 12-200mm zoom. I think I got some bangers.

The upper monochrome image is a JPEG straight out of camera, while the color pic is processed from the RAW and slightly cropped for composition.

On the Micro Four Thirds sensor, with its 2X crop factor, that's the equivalent of a 400mm lens on a full-frame camera. You're not going to get these sorts of photos with a cell phone.

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Meme Dump...

Old Man Winter

Last night was just a dusting of snow here in Indy. It's on the rooftops but mostly melted on pavement, although any wet side streets that aren't salted are gonna freeze over as the temps keep plunging. It's supposed to get down to 12°F tonight.

It's tomorrow that's gonna get sporty. We're inside a huge area of cold air centered over southern Quebec, and there's a stream of Pacific moisture headed east across the country, and Indianapolis is right in the middle of its path. They're calling for four to seven inches of snow along the axis that passes through Naptown.

At least we're on the snowy side of things. South of us folks are gonna get schlonged by an ice storm.

They say there's a day for everyone...

Well, actually I have no idea if they say that or not, but it sounds good.

Anyway, there's apparently a day for me, because January 2nd is World Introvert Day!

Now I think I'll go read a book quietly someplace.

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Okay, maybe we really are living in a simulation...

...because I gotta tell you, the screenwriters are really phoning it in this season.

Idiocracy was not supposed to be a documentary...

Discourse around college has gotten incredibly dumb these days.

Grade inflation and degree inflation created an expectation that everyone was going to attend 13th-16th grades. A typical BA became nothing more than a certificate that proved the bearer could show up on time and complete assigned tasks for four years, and hence became a requisite for most white collar or management positions.

This caused backlash. It started out sensible, with the Mike Rowes of the world pointing out that there were lots of skilled trades at which a person could make a quite decent living, did not require a degree, and were desperate for new hires.

But because everything has to be weirdly hyperpartisan, this gradually turned into weirdos like Glenn Beck ranting about how nobody should ever do something so woke as let their kids get a diploma. This had predictable results.

Of course because partisanship itself has become heavily-gendered, this has resulted in a world where overall college enrollment has become 60/40 women and men. And any time someplace gets too many women in it, guys start worrying about cooties, which is leading us to the inevitable "Fellas, is it gay to get an education?" which was a plot twist I did not see coming, I gotta tell you.

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Tab Clearing...

• I did not know that the Eastman Kodak company operated internally on the 13-month calendar from 1928 to 1969. Since each month has 28 days and each quarter 91 days, it's a very pragmatic calendar for accounting purposes.


• Paypal redux?


• Is mindlessly consuming social media physically bad for your brain?

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Current Vibe Memes

This is not what they mean...

...when they say to start the new year off with a bang.

Apparently Sumdood drove a truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. Very little info out yet. At least one TV reporter has said he hopped out of the truck and started shooting, but nobody else has reported that.

I'm keeping the 72-hour rule in mind here.

7:45 AM EST UPDATE: Police spokesperson said 10 dead, 35 wounded. Suspect opened fire on officers, wounding two. IEDs found in vehicle.

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