Harrisburg Ghost Town (photo review)
The photo is very nice to view. The wreck was once an automobile and we can see enough to recognize what it must have looked like. The holes on the side may be bullet holes or some other abuse but are interesting. The damage makes the frame look very interesting. One views the various areas trying to imagine what has been removed, missing and what it would have originally looked like with all parts together. The headlights appear as two eyes and the front as an ugly mouth as many old autos did. The position of the camera is good. We can see the subject beginning with the front details and what the rest of the auto body looks like and also some of the location background. The background has no significant details but helps draw attention to the auto and put its location in perspective. The sky pushes the eye toward the land (by lack of anything interesting to view). The hills push the eye downward toward the car. The back of the car by nature pushes the eye toward the front and the front facade of the car is the most interesting part of the scene to view and becomes the center of the attention. The colors of the photo are okay and don’t clash. The sky slightly clashes but is minimized in the photo which is great. The grass on the right side of the car is clutter and should not be there. The green clashes with the desert scene and elements distracting the eye. The photo is good.
The source of the photograph is: http://ca.myphotoscout.com/2009/04/14/how-to-photograph-harrisburg-ghost-town/
*This post belongs to this week’s edition of Photo Reviews by Cush blog and published early in World of Cush also.
Do the Crazy People Own San Francisco! (mylife)
I was walking down the street when I heard a commotion and looked toward the street. Someone was running and stopped to give both fingers to the bus driver. Whatever had happened on the bus, he had got off and sabotaged the electric cables on the back of the bus. The driver was apparently afraid to get out. He started to drive slowly (on batteries) breaking tree branches and dragging them in the street until he finally stopped. The driver got out putting on his gloves and checking around carefully. That was the last of the show and I didn’t see after. I assume he fixed the cable and that was that. That is not a very common incident in San Francisco but is not unusual either. The big cities have lots of irregularities that never go away and are never acknowledged in the media. Anybody who follows San Francisco by reading the papers, Internet or the television is getting a distorted view of life. San Francisco maybe as bad as cities such as LA and NY but only if you can experience SF as a real city. The practical things that keeps San Francisco going is that people experience life in their own personal vacuums. The problems of the city are there but only affect those who are not separated from them. The media coverage of San Francisco is from this personal, private and unreal perspective. That is what SF has to sell anyway. If SF is treated as NY or LA in the media by removing the filters and appearing naked as is, there will be a huge urge to live in the suburbs and commute to SF for work. The illusion is what keeps San Francisco going and makes it appear a paradise. It also makes people in other big cities mad because SF is as bad as theirs but they cannot lie about their cities as we do. I guess this goes with SF culture. People are naturally able to be one type of person and pretend to be another type in San Francisco.
*This post belongs to this week’s edition of My Life as a Cush blog and published early in World of Cush also.
Pier 7 San Francisco (photo review)
Pier 7 may or may not be a familiar site to locals and visitors but looks as the photo does. The position of the camera is unusual and works quite well. The fact that no humans are present make it easier to make a good photo of the pier also. The black and white helps if the photo can be printed larger and the sharpness is enough to study all little details. Everything present in the photo has fine details worth viewing closeby that are emphasized greatly by black and white. The lamps appear surreal but don’t necessarily help because everything appears very well lighted. If shadows were present, the lamps would appear magical and somehow not part of the photo. The skyline is great. Ferry building being the climb of the tall buildings and ends in TransAmerica building. The directions are slightly distracting. The row of lamps lead from here to far distance and do does the walkway. The background buildings lead the eye from Ferry clocktower to TransAmerica. The TransAmerica is not contained within the row of lamps and looks out of frame. That confuses the eye as far as what the photo is saying. The benches look nice and so is the floor but provide different details that the story of skyline from Ferry to TransAmerica or the story of the magical lamps from here to TransAmerica. One cannot tell which is the subject for most attention to dig into the details. The photo is about details because of the use of black and white and a hierarchy of subjects or visual elements is needed so one can feel what deserves closer study. The elements are great but each leads the eye in a separate direction. One easy solution would be to shoot the same subject from slightly different position of the camera and see the final photos. A few steps over would put the person between the rows of lamps and benches. The exact same photo would happen but TransAmerica would fall between the row of lamps and photo would be visually very strong. Photo is still very good because of details to study.
The source of the photograph is: http://ca.myphotoscout.com/2009/02/23/how-to-photograph-san-franciscos-pier-7/
*This post belongs to this week’s edition of Photo Reviews by Cush blog and published early in World of Cush also.
Is that What Happened with Yelp? (Reflection)
I read a good blog post about how social media can do a good deal of harm when marketing a weak brand. Strong brands benefit from most forms of marketing and social media has worked well for them because social media operates as word of mouth does. Word of mouth goes from person to person with testimonials of the good that the product or service has done. A strong brand has the good qualities built-in and whomever experiences it as a product or service is likely to have good things to say to others in person or online. That has worked well for many companies. The new generation of Americans prefer to receive information via Internet and social media. They do things as the people before them did but instead of listening to friends and others’ testimonials, they take these off the Internet. A strong brand reaches these younger people by being online. A weak brand has inherent problems and if people are to experience and talk about the brand not all word of mouth will be good. This situation is multiplied on the Internet because word of mouth in social media can be traced. If a weak brand is to have lots of good word of mouth, but in many people’s experiences fails to be as good, they will be curious and can follow how the excessive praise was generated. This can be harmful to the brand because qualifies as lying. A very good example is Yelp and its promotion of lousy restaurants. The complaints about the lack of partiality in Yelp reviews seem to never end. Shouldn’t there be a way to control the flawed review systems and the damage they do daily?
*This post belongs to this week’s edition of Writing by Cush blog and published early in World of Cush also.
Which Celebrity is an Evil Entity and Not Human? (Reflection)
I watched a short funny clip online “Keanu Reeves is immortal.” Apparently Keanu Reeves looks like several people who have lived in the ages before and makes for a good gag. It is actually a great marketing attention-getter to bring him in the media though for a quick view. It is however true that Reeves looks almost exactly as he did ages ago when he was a teenager in the movies. Some people do not age or as my past reading tells me not all skins are created equal. The lighter skins have a tendency to get wrinkled much faster and the darker the skin the less likely to be wrinkled. East Asians are not much of an exception. They don’t grow facial hair and don’t show age. Does that make them immortal? I don’t think so. I remember a story of an employee in a government agency who had not aged over a period of 20 years. I was told people were afraid of him because he looked exactly as he had decades earlier and he was a white guy destined for skin aging. They thought he was some kind of evil being in human form. I guess a person’s personality adds to the appearances before forming weird opinions. Is Keanu Reeves an evil being in human form? I don’t think so but have a better one. I have heard this more than once that Arnold Schwarznegger may not be whole human. I heard not many records of his past exist and he cannot be hypnotized supposedly because he has no unconscious mind! His authenticity has been questioned by gypsies and psychics also. I think he is worth investigating because our government was infiltrated by questionable entities: Him and George W. Bush but I still think Keanu Reeves is human and likes publicity.
*This post belongs to this week’s edition of Writing by Cush blog and published early in World of Cush also.
365 Ways to Boost Your Brain Power (book review)
I enjoyed reading this book and will recommend it to many as a good little book that will change their lives. Brain is a very important organ (muscle) and is ignored as being there. Humans naturally just live their lives. The sedentary lifestyle has had many tolls on human body and naturally an interest in general health has developed. People used to be healthier before living in the cities. They may have got sick and had accidents and injuries but did not have many of the problems we have by living in the modern cities. Pollution and chemicals have done tremendous damage also. Humans need to take extreme good care of their bodies to live a troublefree life. The brain is part of the body that will get less help than the rest. It is by nature hidden and its many functions are not conscious to get noticed. The denizens of the modern cities need to be taught solid lessons on the care of the brain. A good program of exercise and diet will do a great deal of good for the brain. The book is pocket size and is written in very small chapters of about 200 words each. The topics are great and make you want to read the details. I enjoyed the book though much of it I already knew by general knowledge of nutrition and exercise or had read in other texts. I strongly recommend this book and am sure similar texts are available that will help save many lives.
*This post belongs to this week’s edition of Reviews by Cush blog and published early in World of Cush also.
Will the Price of a University Brand Ever Stop Rising? (short piece)
UC students went on rampage after the fee hikes. Why would the university costs go up so much so often? Why does it really happen besides the obvious explanations? How about inflation? Officially inflation has been extremely low for many years but unofficially whatever has genuine value has a tendency to rise in value with no stops. Real estate has been one example and gold reminds us every now and then. How about education? American education is slightly different than most countries though has strong similarities.
A university education of the modern sense is supposed to achieve two objectives: One is to teach the language of a discipline (what is known as education) and the other is to socialize the students. It is universally known in the US that the former is hardly achieved. A bachelor degree is not a good credential though many deem it final. Technically, one is supposed to receive a bachelor degree to learn the language of a discipline before seeking graduate studies. Bachelor without graduate school has no value. I had a friend once from Germany and she told me in Germany one finishes bachelor but won’t receive the degree until one completes the masters. Then both degrees are awarded. Bachelor is not enough to practice a discipline by nature though in America it is thought as very valuable and final and US is one of the few countries that has a German university system! What the better schools do achieve in US is socialization. One learns to live in the society or a place in the society depending on where one is socialized to live. The person who enters a good school shares a great deal of time with a community of people who have many doors open to them not because of the quality of their education and their academic achievement but because that school socializes the students the way is desired.
Why would it be such a big deal to attend one school though not getting that much better an education than a less known and cheaper school? The brand is the answer. Each famous and established school in US is recognized as a brand. The name of the school or specific college marks the graduate. A brand by definition is a promise. Once one buys a pair of shoes of Nike brand, one expects everything that brand is known for and usually receives in the case of a good brand. Education works the same way in the US. One can attend USC and receive a degree in washing windows or painting graffiti on street walls as one’s discipline of study. This person still has an excellent chance of choice position in the society because of the time spent in USC. The label (or brand) USC immediately puts this person in a separate class. USC means the bearer of the label has been through very specific activities and experiences that have socialized this person to respond to life situations in specific ways. The graduate of such school may not have much of an education that is of marketable or intellectual value but still has succeeded at experiential learning of life for a graduate of USC. The society has reserved positions and places of choice for such person. All this person has to have is the mark of (the beast? no that is a bible joke) USC or UC Berkeley or another college.
Why would it make sense for a university education at a choice school to cost huge amounts more on regular intervals? The same thing happens at other schools but is never that much and not as harshly received. The university that is known to brand its graduates offers an experiential path that takes several years and whomever crosses the finish line will bear the brand. That brand is extremely valuable because everything in the inflated American society has lost and is losing huge value daily. The few valuable things that are left, such as real estate or very good jobs, are extremely valuable compared to the worth of the currency. The value of a choice UC campus education can jump 200% in one academic year and the number of applicants for that school will be staggering. Why is that? The money has no value and everyone instinctly knows something of TRUE value has to be grabbed before everything is gone. The speed of decline has been increasing and the price of valuables can go up though hardly ever come down. UCB bachelor degree may not be any better than a similar degree at a state school but the latter has no brand to wear. The graduate school is what makes these schools world class and then who cares? The 50000 kids on UCB campus want those coveted reserved jobs and social positions and not an EDUCATION.
*This post belongs to this week’s edition of Writing by Cush blog and published early in World of Cush also.
Seaport Village (photo review)
This photo has many good details and would have been much stronger if more highlights were present. The water and the reflection of the lights look okay though more lights reflected would have been better recognized. The street lamps and their reflections lead to the tall buildings and work well. The brightness of everything in the street is good but is not enough to balance the photo against the huge darker shadow areas. The boat looks good by color, and the position pointing to the land. Almost everything guides the eye to the point at the end of the row of lamps and that works well. The tower on the right is a huge distraction. It is well lighted showing details which would be great but overwhelms the hotel towers which are weak in bright lights in the background. It also draws attention from the boat making it dim and less significant. The Same photo could have been very strong if the camera moved closer to the photo. The tower would either disappear out of the frame or become part of the very bright street. The street by nature of this new camera position would take up more space in the frame thus increasing the area of highlights. The balance would be a strong photo of about 1/4th highlights and the rest dark but the details would be very pleasant to view. The three people sitting on the wall help greatly by sizing everything and putting humans in the scene. Their direction of view distracts because the center of the photo is at the very end of that street and they are looking into the open waters but their presence makes the photo much stronger. This is a good photo especially if enlarged. The highlight areas will look much brighter once the photo is larger.
The source of the photograph is: http://ca.myphotoscout.com/2009/07/23/how-to-photograph-san-diego-seaport-village/
*This post belongs to this week’s edition of Photo Reviews by Cush blog and published early in World of Cush also.
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