CourtneyP

Today I got my Google shwag that I won last week at the Online Tonight party.

(clicky for larger)

The rundown: coated mousepad, CD wallet, Google Gum (“the flavor you’ve been searching for”… wokka wokka), a long sleeved t-shirt (an adult Medium, but I still swim in it), pen, notebook, and 2 sheets of weather-proof stickers. w00t! Good stuff.

I never win anything. This was a pleasant surprise!

Today, in my photo history class, we were briefly discussing the long-debated subject of photography as an art.

In the early 20th century, more and more people were using cameras. The common man had access to cameras, like George Eastman’s brownie. Photographs were mainly a document… to capture scenes, landscapes, objects. But now, people were starting to express themselves through photography. We were seeing found objects from new perspectives. Photo montages rose in popularity.

But was this art? Many debated (and some still do) that photography was just a form of documenting. If it resembled art, it was only in the eye of the beholder, because the photograph was only a form of expression from the person who created the image.

IMHO, I think that’s enough justification for a photograph to be considered art.

What do you think? Is photography really an art? Is it mechanics or science or documentation? I think it’s all of the above.

And I’m gonna continue shooting pictures as long as I can.

Today, 14 January 2003, is the first official Bloggin’ Lovefest!

Robyn has come up with a wonderful idea… to share the bloggin’ love. The concept is simple: choose a blog you love and tell the rest of the blogiverse about it in 1,500 words or less. We’ve had enough finger pointing, pouting, and trolling in our blogs as of late (or as Robyn puts it, “it seems like the whole world wide web is on the rag right now”). C’mon, feel the love!

I would like to introduce you all to Eric.

Eric’s blog, Balance in Motion, contains a lot of content much like my own… Macs, photography, the outdoors, geek culture, and of course, daily random thoughts. Only he does it in a much more articulate way than me. Must be that Stanford education. I often feel smarter after reading a typical Eric post. Either that, or just plain confused, heh.

Take, for example, this recent entry:

so … if you say “the metaphor has broken down,” you have created an implied metaphor, no? namely, comparing a metaphor to a machine. so it’s a metaphor involving a metaphor, or meta-metaphor.

it turns out, according to Webster, that the etymology of “metaphor” carries us to the Greek “metapherein,” meaning to transfer. “pherein” itself means to bear. extrapolating forward, you might say that “phor” on its own should bear the same semantics if used in English.

hence, since the sentence “the metaphor has broken down” itself bears a meta-metaphor, the utterance could be called a meta-metaphor-phor.

hm. i need help.

See what I mean? I had to re-read that many times over to finally get it. Isn’t it great?

Eric takes beautiful photographs. Check out his gallery, if you don’t believe me. I tend to live vicariously through his pictures of the great outdoors.

A minor, but otherwise essential fact is that Eric also has great taste in music and film. Oh, and *terrific* taste in coffee.

Whose blog do ya love, baby? Participate in the Bloggin’ Lovefest, too!

My one year blogiversary came and went silently last week! I guess the first week of the year is a horrible week to have a blogiversary, because of the craziness that is usually going on at that time.

Anyways, it’s been a great year. I don’t think it woulda been the same without blogging. I had been keeping an online journal before 6 January 2002, but I really became a part of the blogosphere once I started using MT. I was a little late in jumping on the bandwagon, but I’m glad I did it anyways!

I got to know (and love) many great people through blogging, and made some new friends… and who doesn’t like new friends?

I attended blog meetups, attended events and parties with bloggers, and made terrific memories in the process. I really am looking forward to meeting more bloggers this year, and soon!

It’s been a hell of a year, and I ain’t goin’ away anytime soon. Blogaritas for everyone!

Yup, I’m late in the game in recapping the busy day that was Wednesday.

What can I say that wasn’t already said by the others?

Wednesday was your humble correspondent’s Big Day™ at MacWorld. I arrived in The City around noon, hoping to grab some lunch with my boss from the Hawaii job, who was in town for MWSF. Hmm, no such luck, since he only had 45 minutes between conferences and was feeling rushed. No problem, since I grabbed a horrendously overpriced spinach salad at a nearby diner. Ever notice how inflated the food prices are in the direct vicinity of these conventions? Jeebus.

Anyways, I met up with Mike on the Expo floor, near the massive Apple booth. Within minutes, we were spontaneously joined by Eric… what were the chances of that happening at such a large gathering? I wandered the floor for quite a while, killed some time at a few booths. Later on, Eric and I decided on the nearby Chevy’s for dinner, which we felt kinda guilty about. I feel like such a bad local… gotta reprahzent the local businesses and all (man, we really shoulda found Shalimar, huh, Nala?).

Afterwards, Mike and I were off to Gordon Biersch on the Embarcadero for the Online Tonight listener appreciation party. We were a tad early, but we showed up in the middle of the Firewire Plugfest (yes, we exhausted *every* joke possible about the name of that party). Three quarters of a beer later, we were off to tour the city in a motorized cable car, complete with blaring music, strobe lights and *ahem* “la-sers”.

Ah, it was a pure out geekfest. Gotta love it! I finally got to meet up with Gretchen and Chris after missing out on this past weekend’s Disco party… and fortunately, they had Lori and Jake in tow. Four gnomes for the price of two! Throw in the MacSlash crew and a handful of other techies, and we were set. A disco on wheels, cases of chilled beer, wine, and geeks… what more could you ask for?

I won some sort of prize in the drawing at the end of the night, but I wasn’t paying enough attention to what it was. I guess I’ll find out in a few days from the Google Guy.

Oh, and the Expo itself? I almost forgot. That was the least of my fun