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dorianegraye · 7 years ago

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Jily X Wolfstar

@alohcmoras request with a twist 🎉✨

sorry it took so long😭😭

ok so what if the Marauders studied in Beauxbatons instead of Hogwarts?

I mean, James, Sirius, Peter and Remus are far away from obedient students, so their first priority will still be Hogwarts

But when Remus’ parents had to move to France because his father’s boss decided to transfer him to the French Ministry of Magic during their 3rd year, Remus has to leave Hogwarts to attend Beauxbatons

Sirius would yell,”WE’RE COMING WITH YOU MOONY!” and James would agree and Peter would clap

Eventually Remus gave in to his friends’ begging, and it became his turn to beg his father

When the news of the Marauders leaving spread throughout the school, not many expressed it but they all know that they would miss them terribly

The boys saw that James was spending more and more time with Lily, being much less of a show-off during the last month before the holidays

Remus knew that his best friend would miss Lily Evans badly and needless to say, the kind werewolf felt extremely guilty

So he straight up told James one day that he could stay if he wanted to, but he merely replied with, “I’d be lost without my fellow Marauders”

GRYFFIN-HUG

The four mischief makers eventually found themselves in the Pyrenees in the middle of August

“Ugh!! Look at the uniforms Moony! They make us look like some kind of goodie-goodie two shoes!�� “I happen to like the design, Sirius.” “Thank Godric I brought my leather jackets, at least I can be myself on weekends!”

Never mind the uniforms, the boys couldn’t believe that they had to take flying carriages led by pathetic white horses you find in fairy tales (Sirius’ words) to get into the castle, leaving Wormtail into a fit of nerves

But neither can deny that behind the fog, the creamy white castle looked absolutely magnificent

And they were absolutely stunned by the dining hall

It looked like a friggin ballroom

And it was huge

A grand staircase dominated the back of the room, with corridors stretching to unknown hallways on the stairway’s either side

The wall behind it bore blue wallpaper imprinted with flowers that looked like they were really blooming (MAGIC!), the Beauxbatons sign hanging proudly on the wall

There was a small golden stage in front of the staircase, and their were three long tables in front of it, not unlike the one at Hogwarts, except they have these elegant carvings on those soothingly—not blaring, mind you— white wood. Remus was practically bouncing at the artwork so he didn’t catch Sirius staring

The school was quite thoughtful, there were seats at the side of the hall so the newcomers didn’t have to stand at the side while they wait for their sorting

The ceiling was not disappointing either

It was way higher up than the one at Hogwarts

It was built flat, but with a few charms, the ceiling took the shape of caving upwards, much like a temple’s

The night sky that was twinkling with stars became more and more visible as the turrent like ceiling stretched further upwards

It was as if the students were having an Astronomy lesson and using a gigantic telescope

So it was no surprise that the boys were practically gaping at the ceiling, forgetting their too-tight new robes and staring all the way as they reached their seats in the front row

To their disgust, the house they were sorted into by shooting a silver arrow across the room burst into the colour green, and they only breathed a great sigh of relief when their peers told them that Bellefeuille was, in fact, the house of bravery

In the following week, the Marauders found that everything in Beauxbatons was better than expected

The school was big, there were Wood Nymphs dancing around, singing sweetly every time they had meals at the dining hall, and the girls were unsurprisingly, very pretty, according to a bashful Peter Pettigrew, who timidly admitted such a thought. There was even an extra Quidditch match within each house in November, which made Sirius and James squeal like babies

The only two things that weren’t as good was that there were no risky places that could kill you (unless you count the Quidditch stadium that was only about 15% smaller than the World Cup Stadium, in which you would totally break your neck if you fell off from your broom during a Quidditch match) and the headmistress

For some stupid reason, she despised boys

And to make matters worse, Headmistress Dochar (A/N: that means biased) had to teach the subject the boys hated and sucked at the most—Potions

Potions was the most important subject apart from DADA in Beauxbatons, so lessons were frequent and the recipes were complicated

After two weeks of continuous bullying by the Head, Sirus and James finally leapt up from their seats one lesson and openly yelled at the prejudiced woman, ignoring the pleading looks from Wormtail and Moony and the startled faces of the Beauxbatons boys

That earned them 3 weeks’ worth of detention from insulting the one with the largest power within the school

However, the Beauxbatons boys couldn’t help but shoot the Marauders admiring looks every time they passed by since they were the first to stand up to the harsh Headmistress and they soon became the newest celebrities of the school

To double their luck, a young Ms Bellerose replaced the originally dull teacher in DADA in about December

She was the playful type that always got students out from the claws of the Headmistress

And needless to say, she immediately grew fond of the boys’ mischievous personalities

She told them that she would like to start a project on a magical device that could show the location of everyone in Beauxbatons during the Christmas holidays when all four of the boys stayed on the school campus

Remus immediately came up with the idea of a map, and offered to make the map to show the location of people in different magical schools

Sirius had never been prouder

Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, Prongs and Vulpis (A/N: Vulpis is fox in Latin), are proud to present to you, the Marauders Map

From then on, their DADA professor became more of their fellow adventurer than a teacher. And by March, they had discovered two secret passageways—one towards the highest tower in Beauxbatons, which had a very nice balcony for them to smoke and chill, the other was towards a little street that sold delicious food at the foot of the mountain. Messrs Vulpis seldomly hung out with them since she was still a professor no matter what, but they had great fun every time they did

It was during their fifth year, before the winter hols, after they lit the librarian’s chair on fire, when things started to get even more interesting

The school decided to open up to other wizarding schools by implanting a pen pal project

“YASSSSS THIS WORLD IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!” The boys literally threw a party when they learned that they were assigned with Hogwarts students so that they could catch up on everything that was now happening in their old school

And because of sheer, dumb luck, James was assigned to none other than Lily bloody Evans

Prongs was basically sweating all over when he received the news, afraid that things had changed between them because he had tried contacting her tons of times and she hadn’t responded at all

She claimed that she was busy with schoolwork while Peter bluntly informed it was probably because she was upset with Prongs leaving school or finding another guy to pay attention to

When James arrived back at school from the hols, he received Lily’s reply and was fuming more than ever when he saw that most of the content was about Severus Snape

Turns out Peter got it right

Prongs spent a whole day ranting on and on about how slimy Snivellus Snape was to touch his precious little redhead when he was

The letter he sent afterwards was too aggressive and it made matters worse

He didn’t talk to the Marauders for a whole day after he received Lily’s rant about how he would never be better than Severus Snape

His friends understood him more than anyone else, and knew that he wouldn’t shut them out no matter what, so when James returned from the Black Lake that night with bloodshot eyes, he found his fellow Marauders sitting there waiting

His tears soaked Peter’s jacket as he sobbed and sobbed and sobbed that night

Moony, Wormtail and Padfoot had never seen their friend so vulnerable

The following Sunday, Sirius and Remus spent their whole day in the common room thinking up plans for their friend and the boy in question didn’t show it, but he couldn’t be more grateful

The loudest high-five in history was created by Moony and Padfoot when James received a reply the next week, the Marauders could basically see Lily smile when they read the letter replying to James’ overly-enthusiastic description of Quidditch matches, Professor Bellerose and the Marauders Map

Sirius and Remus’ plans got better and better in every letter

They witnessed their friend falling hard and fast over again, unaware that they were also falling deep deep deep when they plotted and planned

Peter was having the time of his life watching James using every trick in the book to woo Lily Evans and hearing Moony and Padfoot ramble on and on about each other whenever the other wasn’t there

Everything was going along the flow. Apart from having a professor just as mischievous as them, it was just like old times, only better

Things, unfortunately, went downhill when the calendars flipped to the month of April

Girls had actually started fawning over Sirius, some flirted and some went as far as stalking or throwing themselves at him

It was no surprise, the disowned Black had naturally gorgeous looks

But that didn’t stop anger and jealousy bubbling inside Remus’ chest whenever he saw anyone, let alone a girl (well, aside from James and Peter) touch his darling Sirius Black, although he was in denial of such emotions

The change in their relationship was abrupt and obvious

They still huddled together to plan, for the sake of Prongs, but Remus always disagreed with Sirius on purpose, even if the idea was wonderful

Padfoot himself didn’t know what went wrong with the boy he loved so much, (but he didn’t know it at the time, did he?) and was actually hurt every time Remus started a war with him and never stayed to cuddle with him in the common room anymore

Remus could only stare when Marsha Earl, the most eager of Sirius’ “admirers”, asked Padfoot out openly in the dining hall, both blushing furiously

He lost his appetite immediately when he felt like he was being stabbed in the heart

He left the hall abruptly, terrified that Sirius had such an effect on him, too caught up in his emotions to notice his friends staring after him, with Sirius boring the deepest holes into his back

He didn’t care when he learned that Sirius didn’t agree to the French beauty’s invitation the next day. He stayed as far away from Padfoot as possible, not wanting to get hurt again.

James and Peter both felt really bad whenever Remus joked playfully around them but stayed completely silent around Sirius

James secretly told Lily about the situation in his letters to her, and she replied that she would bet anything that they were in love

He called her bollocks, but Lily’s little challenge was far from the most of his worries

Peter reported quietly to Prongs one day that the girl population were trying harder than ever to get Sirius to like them, and the poor black-haired boy was now having to deal with their constant fawning 24/7

Remus’ behaviour towards Sirius had escalated from ignorance to yelling at each other, calling each other names and sometimes even fighting like they were born enemies

Padfoot had erupted in Potions class once about how pathetic Remus was when he started an argument with Sirius over some stupid herbs that lasted 15 minutes

Peter swore he could hear Remus sniffling in his sleep that night

“Hey Moony, you ok?” “Y…yes, I’m totally fine” “I don’t think so mate, wanna talk about it?” No response

At the end of the month, Remus, panicking as he did every time he was soon to reach the full moon, trembled even more as he approached James and Peter and told them not to tag Sirius along when he transformed this time

The two were shocked as hell, and yelled at him to spill what in the name of Merlin was going on between Sirius and him, a question they had been dying to ask for months

Remus merely shook his head and looked at them with sorrowful and pleading eyes, begging them to listen to him in his own ways

James would have jumped back hollering and rushing towards Sirius if it weren’t for his self-control—he had never seen Remus so broken

Prongs and Wormtail couldn’t bear the thought of their best friend undergoing his transformation alone, so they gave in and everything went according to Remus’ plans

Only it didn’t, the pain the werewolf went through this time was doubled, dare I say, tripled without Sirius’ soothing wet nose of his Animagus form and forehead kisses after the tormenting morphing

Matters became worse when Remus learned that James had spilt the beans that he drugged Sirius that night so he could stay in his dormitory and not follow them to the Whomping Willow

The pain on the werewolf’s body grew more painful when he saw Marsha Earl skipping joyfully into the hospital wing to visit her friend and squealed that Sirius had finally agreed on going out with her the day after

“Sirius!” “Yes, Peter?” “You sure you wanna go out with that Earl girl?” “Of course, she’s gorgeous enough!” “You’re gonna ignore the fact that Remus’ hospital stay had lengthened into 2 weeks after your date today blurted the new out in the hospital wing?”

Padfoot ignored Wormtail and sauntered out the Bellefeuille common room with Marsha, though his heart was aching all over when his friend told him the truth that he had been avoiding with all his might

Marsha was extremely sweet and they could’ve great fun in the Three Broomsticks if Peter words weren’t ringing in Sirius’ head the whole time

So while Marsha was busy partying at said bar, Sirius slipped away at 5 pm, desperate to visit his old best friend

Moony was asleep in the hospital wing when he visited

But he was definitely not sound asleep since he was trembling madly

At the sight before him, Sirius shakenly walked towards the bed and got down on one knee

“Remus, Remus, Moons…please don’t shut me out again…” the voice that came out was hoarse

Remus’ eyes flew open, for he could recognize Sirius’ voice anywhere

“So,” The werewolf’s mouth pulled into a tight smile despite the pain his heart was going through, “enjoyed your date?”

“I mean, I just want you to be happy Pads, you don’t have to care for me, I love you, you know..” “Shut up.”

The two pairs of lips that have been aching to connect crashed together, stronger than a hurricane and firmer than an earthquake shaking the Earth

“He loves me…” was all that was on Sirius’ mind when he pulled at Remus’ bottom lip, coaxing a groan out of both of them

The kiss was an energy-drainer, and the two had no choice but to pull away to gasp for air

“I’m,” kiss “so,” kiss “so sorry Sirius,” long kiss “me too Moony,” they dived back into their own sea

“Can anyone, anyone at all, PLEASE explain to me what the fuckity fuck is happening!?” James bellowed loud enough for the whole dining hall to hear after Remus somehow miraculously healed all at once yesterday, earning himself lots of shushing from the forever graceful girls and professors. (except for Bellerose, of course)

However, the boys were staring at the pair that had just entered the hall, too alarmed to curse

In walked Remus and Sirius, in all their glory, whispering into each other’s ears like they had made up and went a level higher than best friends over a sodding day, which both James and Peter were sure they didn’t meet, like they haven’t for two weeks

The girls, noticing the expressions of the boys, turned towards the couple. Some of Sirius admirers, especially Marsha, went beet red

“Too bad for you mate,” Sirius smirked as he plopped down next to James, pulling Remus down with him, “Evans’ too smart for your own good, she won her little bet fair and square.”

One kiss to the werewolf’s forehead was all it took to confirm the black-haired boy’s statement, and all the boys who had, like Lily, betted with their friends that the pair was bound to get together soon, erupted into cheers

The two Bellefeuilles in question merely tolled their eyes and shook their heads

The school soon accepted the gay couple like any other couple, Professor Bellerose being the largest supporter of them all

During the hols, James sneaked Lily into the Beauxbatons school grounds, chilling on the balcony that the boys loved so much, their long-distance relationship firmer than ever

Messrs Vulpis tagged along once, and she and Lily immediately became the best of friends

Peter blushed as red as a tomato when Lily, ever the accurate match-maker whispered to all the Marauders in the dining hall during the Christmas hols that Peter had a crush on the pretty Marsha Earl, which was quite ironic since he always taunted her for getting in the way of Sirius and Remus’ relationship

The Marauders all persuaded him to ask her out, and he made the excuse of not knowing how to kiss

The consequences after such a statement was disastrous—Moony and Padfoot snogged in both public and private more than ever, saying that they were teaching their ol’ pal Peter how to display affection

In the end, Peter’s single status was also thrown out of the window, and Marsha, now officially Peter’s girlfriend, joined their little balcony gang

And because of the blonde, Wormtail didn’t turn to the Dark Arts, remaining a loyal friend after graduation

Padfoot practically squealing like a baby was an understatement, he was clinging on his husband and sobbing joyful tears when Harry James Potter was born to this world

When Harry turned 11 and it was time to choose which school he should go to, Mr and Mrs Pettigrew merely smiled at each other while Marsha bounced their baby daughter Aquila on her lap, smiles which spoke volumes

Sirius and Remus started arguing, an alarming contrast to the Pettigrew family. Padfoot kept hollering that Harry should go to Hogwarts and Remus trying to glare daggers at his husband (but to no avail) and repeating his statement that Beauxbatons was the best choice

The rest of the people in the room, including Harry and a 2-year-old Aquila, could only watch the two quarrel like 5-year-olds

Harry found himself on the platform 9 ¾ though, despite his Uncle Moony, Uncle Wormtail and Aunt Marsha’s protests

“Of course I’d like to study in the place where Uncle Moony and Padfoot fell in love,” he had said, grinning mischievously, “but Hogwarts is the place it all started, ain’t it?”

ϟ as usual, pls pls pls DO NOT REPOST, I spent three weeks or four writing this so plzz don’t break my heart. Thank you so much to those who’ve read this k baii ϟ

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thecoroutfitters · 7 years ago

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Written by Guest Contributor on The Prepper Journal.

Editor’s Note: Another guest submission from Zac Martin. The subject of Ham communications has been touched upon in the past, once from Pat Henry – Should You Get a HAM Radio License or Hide from the Government? back in 2013 and once from R. Ann Parris – Radio Silence, Communications Without Electronics in March of this year. This article should help in your decision on which path to take, or not take.

To be more specific, this article will tell you how to pass the Technician license exam, which is where you’ll want to start if you’re a beginner. I just finished taking my exam and I passed on the first try. I figured this would be a good chance to expand on what it takes to pass the Tech exam and what do you need to know about it to avoid any surprises.

There are three classes of HAM radio licenses available to civilians: Technician, General, and Extra. Technician is going to be where you want to start, with the other licenses being good ideas a little down the road after a little bit more practice.

The Technician license exam will have 35 questions, you can miss 9. Miss any more than that and you’re going to end up having to take the exam again. However, with the right study tips, passing on the first attempt shouldn’t be a problem. I did quite a bit of researching and studying prior to the exam, and here are the tools that I found the most helpful:

1) Hamstudy.org Fashcards– I studied from several different HAM exam prep websites, but I found this one to be the best. Not only do the flash cards on this site cover all 426 questions from the question bank that your test will pull from, but they let you know the reasoning behind each correct answer as well.

As you miss questions in the flash cards, they’ll cycle back through the stack and you’ll find yourself being asked the same question multiple times throughout your studying to help ensure that you know the correct way to answer the questions that you missed.

The website even keeps a visible graph open for you at all times showing you what percentage of questions from each submodule that you’re getting correct. Should you notice that you’re scoring low on a particular submodule then you can specifically request to only be given flashcards from that specific section, allowing you to really hammer down on what it is that you’re missing.

Over time, the website will let you know what your overall grade is. By test day, my overall grade on the website was an 81%. I ended up with an 80% on the actual licensing exam, so I’d say that the website will give you a pretty clear view of where you stand on things.

2) Hamstudy.org Practice Tests – This is the other cool part of hamstudy.org, the practice tests look exactly like the actual test will. They have 35 questions, and they pull questions from all of the different sub modules that the exam will draw from. After you finish the test and submit it, your grade will appear and you will be able to go back and see what you missed, what the correct answer was, and why. I found it to be incredibly helpful, and it really helped me to know what to expect from the exam.

As a result, when the exam was placed in front of me I had absolutely zero test anxiety. I already knew what the thing was going to look like and I felt confident with my having studied over every potential question from the question bank that there was. A good chunk of this confidence came from having taken these practice tests multiple times.

3) Dan Romanchik’s Free Study Guide – Though it is a lot of pages (40+ to be exact), I printed off the entire free exam prep e-book and read it through multiple times prior to taking the exam. This thing is worth its weight in gold. I actually recommend taking this step first. It will help you to ensure that you are prepared for hamstudy.org’s practice questions.

This free e-book will also tell you the formulas that you are going to need to know for the exam. Fortunately, there’s really only two that you need to know from Ohm’s Law E=IR, and P=EI. If you know those two equations, you’ll be good for most of the math problems.

You can find the e-book at this link: https://www.kb6nu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2014-no-nonsense-tech-study-guide-v20.pdf

4) Memorize the different bands – I didn’t see these anywhere within the free study guide, but found that if you don’t know them, you’re going to miss quite a few questions on the exam. You just straight up have to memorize these. I just wrote them all down in a little notebook that I’m constantly carrying with me, and would occasionally glance at them while I was at work.

10 meters = 29.600MHz 6 meters = 52.525MHz 2 meters = 146.52MHz 1.25 meters = 223.50MHz 70cm = 446.00MHz 33cm = 906.50MHz 23cm = 1294.50MHz

5) Ask around to see if there are other HAMs in your area – Initially I had been looking all over online to see where the closest testing center would be to me. The closest one I found was several weeks in the future and about a two-hour drive from where I live. Not ideal, I wanted to quickly study the material and move on my merry way, but I planned to make a day trip out of it.

HAM radio came up in conversation while at work though, and by talking with people there I discovered that there was actually a local club in my town that was able to test me and within just a couple of days. That would mean I wouldn’t have to stress for multiple weeks before taking the exam. I was familiar with Parkinson’s Law, stating that work expands to take up the time that we give it, so I knew that if I set a deadline of two weeks that would give me plenty of time to prepare while simultaneously ensuring I don’t wait until the last minute.

Anyways, thanks to that conversation at work I discovered that there were actually several local testing centers that I could have taken the exam at that didn’t show up on the official American Radio Relay League, ARRL website. When I showed up to take my exam I notified the proctor that they weren’t popping up online, and they mentioned that they had been having trouble with that for quite some time. I suppose that’s a fairly common problem, because from what the proctor told me there were several other testing sites in my area that I could have gone to, and not a single one of those sites was popping up on the ARRL website either.

So, if you know a local HAM ask them where you can test at as it just may save you a good chunk of change in gas money.

So what did I do to Prepare?

I studied for two weeks for maybe 30 minutes every day or so. If engineering, physics, and electronics come easy to you, then you may be able to get by with less time. I’m terrible at and foreign to them, so that’s what it took me.

I spent the first week reading through the free e-book and highlighting what I thought was important. It was pretty content heavy, so just about the whole thing ended up yellow for me. You may say that’s not really productive, but it allowed me time to slowly think over what I had just read, and helped me to sift through a lot of word fluff when I would refer to the page later on.

I spent the second week taking hamstudy.org’s practice tests and flashcards. I started on Day 8. I sat my butt down for a solid 1.5 hours as I went through all 426 flash cards for the test. As mentioned before, the website keeps a tab running for you showing not only what percentage of the questions that you’ve seen, but what your grade is by that point as well. My score was abysmally low at this point. I was most definitely learning, but the knowledge was still marinating in my head and needed a bit more practice.

On days 9-14 I spent about 30 minutes every night going through flash cards and then taking 2 practice tests while my wife watched Hallmark Christmas movies. I was sitting by her on the couch and able to take a quick break if she had any questions, so this really didn’t force me to be present-yet-absent while I studied.

By the time test day came around, I showed up and paid my $15 cash in exact change (they may not have change otherwise) and sat down to a pencil and paper test. I ended up missing 6 and passing my exam about 20 minutes from when I started. Honestly, you could probably finish it even quicker than that if electronics is something that comes easily to you. I’m pretty terrible at that stuff, so if I can pass it, I know you can too.

After you pass the exam, the proctor will give you your licensing ticket. That doesn’t mean that you can go home and get on the radio that night though. You’ll have to wait several days for your name and call sign to finally be listed on the official website. Only then can you begin to broadcast over the radio using your call sign.

Mine hasn’t been posted yet, but I’ve been told it takes about a week or two. If you follow the above steps, I’m fairly confident that you’ll be able to pass this thing on the first try. As I mentioned before, I’m terrible with this type of material. It by no means come easily to me. But I do feel that I am good at studying, and by that, I mean I can sit down and force myself to go over flashcards for a confusing-to-me subject.

If I can do it, you can do it.

Follow the tips, peacefully take the test, and maybe someday we’ll talk over the radio together!

The post How to Pass the HAM Radio Exam appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

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ryanellisphoto · 6 years ago

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#155 — Saturday, March 26th, 2019 — Ryan Ellis Photography - Detroit Street Photography Session #155 — Nikon Nikkor Ai-S 35mm f/2 (ca. 1982-3)

Photograph or Flight Response Tested - Roy R. Rowlands - Flags Hart Plaza - Brush Street Study - Homeless Goat - Two Tents Equal A Fifth - Homeless Man Pitches At Tigers Stadium - Spring Loaded - Selfie By Hudson Site - Lines Looking Up And Lines Looking Down - Greektown Worm Moon Rising - Greektown After Morning Twilight - Greektown Homeless Man - Knowledge Is Power - Library Vs. School - David Bosco Willis - The Man With Three First Names - Happy Lass In Downtown - Self-Professed G.O.A.T. Meets Goat - Diptych - Triptych

Arrived @ 7:15 AM

Departed @ 3:30 PM

1,036 photos (and also 18 videos) taken in 8¼ hours with 56 “keepers” among them, rendering a pauper’s percentage with just a 5.4% “success” rate at a king-size pace of 121.88 shots per hour (I desire the most at least to achieve a 10% “success” rate and 100 shots per hour).

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PREFACE: A few years ago, I saw a CL listing for a camera gear lot that appeared to be from the non-Ai-era of Nikon’s camera line history. Included in this lot was a “Saligar” 35mm f/2.8 (ca. 1964) lens. The owner of it told me that if super glue had been invented in the early sixties, when he accidentally dropped the lens, he would have fastened it back together with that, but, instead, it was held together by masking tape. This same man in a past life headed the crash test dummy department at GM in the 1980′s, making his living by developing the safest cars possible (quite honorable). The lens makes issues with the shutter. It puts odd shadows across images. I would use it artistically if I could predict and/or control the obscurations better. This lens has taken some fantastic shots, but the mechanical pain of having to disconnect and reconnect it all the time keep it low on my roster. :—:— A couple years ago, I bought a Nikkor-S 35mm f/2.8 (ca. 1964) lens from a mysterious French woman in Royal Oak. I had the price readjusted when I examined it, finding hundreds of scratches on the front element glass. The lens blew out brighter parts and seemed a bit dull in the focus. I thought the thing might be useful for artistic, niche things, but it is only good for video some of the time and for photography hardly any of the time. :—:— This week, I found a Nikkor Ai-S 35mm f/2 (ca. 1982/3) lens used on CL and sprung for it. I wish the story of this second lens purchase were more interesting, but believer’s bias is no better than bias because of reality. :—:— I read on Ken Rockwell’s website that this particular lens was a trouble regarding lens flare and barrel distortion. I never shot a good 35mm lens, so this was my chance to shoot a good one yet be disappointed somewhat unavoidably by its persistent flaws in spite of all other circumstances being the veriest operative. :—:— I wanted to see how today might go with this newest (to me) 35mm lens.

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PATH TAKEN:

Greektown - It was 26° F with low winds outside when I arrived in Detroit. “Tergiversate” is a word that many times aptly describes me. I do it often. I did it often upon my arrival in Greektown. Saturdays (my habitual Detroit street photography day), I frequently get street side only to return to my vehicle for something I forgot. This happened about three (or [sadly] more) times when I arrived. I love the old pastor’s explanation as to why David brought with him five smooth stones from the river when there was just one Goliath of Gath to vanquish—in case Goliath had four brothers with him when David arrived to defeat Israel’s anthropic Apollyon. Likewise, when I go out shooting, I take only what I need—as well as more in case I need it as well (my incurable optimism and hopeless hoping binds me to such measures). All that said, I unhappily admit I felt a bit dazed in my focus; I felt early on the weight of the world upon me. I thought, “what am I doing here?” I was sad that I have had these three years (all my time doing photography seriously) of famine in my photographic pursuits, profits-wise. I hoped to crush the proverbial skull at Golgotha with the cross I bore upon its placement atop the mount of sorrow I climbed today (to slightly borrow another preacher’s extra-biblical tale). :—:— I am awful at posing folks. That is something I wish to learn by observing folks far, far better than myself at posing others doing just that. When I take a people shot, I take the shot. Haha. I have no instructions for the subject(s), though I tell groups to gather nearer to one another for my final shot. A homeless man approached me asking me to take his picture. He was insistent that I would do that, so I did. I did not know he was homeless until a few shots in, because he told me as much as most do, which is to say that he talked of his need to find a job and some money. He even said that he wanted me to photograph his struggle as a homeless man. With that, he laid on the ground and closed his eyes as if to sleep. I warily proceeded photographing him in this and other poses. Finally, I gave him my card with instructions on how to get the best shots, should he find himself with a phone or online, and I told him all that I knew regarding getting help and getting employment. I really need to learn what proper local resources there are for the homeless. I meet and converse with maybe a half-dozen or more every week.

Brush Street - Trying to do something novel in order to write off my woes, I turned left on Monroe Street before it exited Greektown (instead of following it up to Campus Martius Park). I thought the light made the scene I saw look nice, so I took a three-shot burst of it (I shot bracketed with a third of a stop between shots to minimize the need to edit out bad lighting in post-processing). Thinking of my study of the RenCen video from a couple months back ( https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq51gEvn25a/ ), I continued this three-shot burst of the same scene of Brush Street until I ended up inside of the RenCen itself! Mayhaps, I might make this into a mini-movie with music underneath on my ‘gram!

East Larned Street - I admit I have not the keenest eye for distortion. This lens I shot with today (Nikkor 35mm f/2 [ca 1982-3]) was put down by Ken Rockwell for having pretty bad distortion (it makes straight lines look curved as the image moves from the center to the edges). This annoyance was pronounced when I shot the brand new Plum Market’s dining room from outside. I could not satisfactorily get straight lines on the edges of my very boxy composition.

Spirit of Detroit Plaza - I struck up a conversation with a man carrying a large backpack with Iraq-War-style U.S. camouflage patterned throughout its sections. I jokingly asked if he had brought everything he needed, and he laughed and replied, “No, I do not have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!” I replied, “Some folks are deathly allergic to nuts, so maybe that was a good thing!” He said, “Well, I am not, so I would still take the sandwich!” :—:— From here, we went back and forth in conversation. I asked if he had served in the military, and he said that he came from a family with several sisters, and because he was the only man amongst his siblings, he was told and also decided to not serve in the military in order to carry on his family name. He added that he had several family members that had served. His father was a marine. His uncle served too (and others). He said that he was a firearms instructor and taught many current and former military folks over the years. He was an older gentleman, in his middle years by my estimation, so I asked if he was from Detroit. He said he was born and raised here and only spent a little while elsewhere. With that answer given, I asked if he remembered the 1967 Race Riots in Detroit. He said yes and gave a bird’s eye view recollection of it but confessed he was quite young when it happened. I asked him about Dan Gilbert and Mile Ilitch. He had broadly favorable thoughts on the former and selected favorable thoughts on the latter. I gave him my card, and he told me something I have heard hundreds tell me: “I will contact you!” He caught his bus, and I went on my own merry way as well.

Hart Plaza - A couple weeks ago, I emailed the office of the mayor of Detroit to file a formal (as much as I could find online at least) complaint that the American flags in the plaza were shredded at the ends or worse (and in dire need of respectful retirement and replacement). Upon sending the request, I received an automated response that I would get a reply within forty-eight hours. Remember, this is the city of Detroit—I never received a response. That said, the flags were all removed today (that is one step closer to a proper replacement). With or without my cue (perhaps, the flags are on a schedule [at least this is what Roy suggested when we later met up]), the government-perpetuated blight was partially fixed. I noticed that the Canadian flag across the Detroit River still flies (and is in immaculate condition as ever). Next, the city needs to raise up brand new American flags. That is not something I will file another formal complaint about, unless Memorial Day comes and goes with no U.S. flags in the plaza. :—:— Ken Rockwell’s review of the Nikkor 35mm f/2 lens (ais) was that it had bad lens flare, so, with the sun still rising and quite visible in the sky, I tested this assertion myself. There was a good bit of flare. I will hopefully make a lens review video with the shots and footage from today. It was pretty bad flare, but I could also see the artistic merits of using it at times. I guess if one was doing a paid gig that required a perfect representation of the world through the lens, the flare would be a huge issue. Fortunately (perhaps) for me, I am doing street photography in this context, and the flare is just wabi-sabi. :—:— In coursing through the different apertures in video mode on my camera (in order to see if the lens flare was helped or hurt depending on the aperture’s given width), I found that the sunstars that the lens made were just exquisite. Hahaha. I found it so funny that this lens that Mr. Rockwell said was not ever (if one wanted good results photographically) to be pointed at the sun was pretty bang-up precisely when it was pointed at the sun when stopped down. True, the flare was bad, but if you could get past that aesthetically, the sun looked marvelous! :—:— I filmed and did a time-lapse of the sun rising over the Detroit River. I was too impatient to wait for the sun to leave the frame, so I got it halving itself on the top of the composition by the end of the time-lapse that I took. It is a good thing I ducked out early, because I had my usual eleven AM meetup to make with Roy, and it was already nearly nine AM when I finally exited the plaza.

Campus Martius Park

Woodward Avenue (northeast side of the street) - Inspired by the change in my habitual path earlier (when I took Brush Street all the way to the RenCen), I decided to walk on the less-interesting side of Woodward Avenue all the way up to the Fisher Building (well, that was my ultimate plan at least).

The Hudson Site - Here I will admit it: I include self-portraits in my “top ten” shots often even if there may be an eleventh or twelfth shot in my own rankings that is better, because I want to not be forgotten as the person behind the work you experience here and elsewhere. Maybe the victors write the history. Well, the author certainly writes the history either way (though sometimes at the edge of a sword). I take my prerogative as the author, editor, and publisher of my own work to refer back to myself when it is not plain horrible-looking. :—:— The irony about this is that I strive to have a journalistic cleanness and honesty to my shots and write-ups (editorial opinions here and there notwithstanding). I do not edit my photos, except to straighten horizons and maybe crop slightly into the meat of the composition. This might be an excuse from one without photoshop or the like on his computer, but I also like the challenge of getting a photo right the first time. It keeps me striving for perfection (I hope in a healthy way).

Comerica Park - Keeping with my otherly path today, I turned right onto Adams Street from Woodward Avenue, headed in the direction of Comerica Park. I thought the angle of the sun at that time of the day made the park look lovely, and like a parched, lone vagabond traversing a desert and seeing an oasis (or at least the supposed image of one), I walked toward the park in search of my next picture. The light looked not as good up close as it did from further away (it was but a mirage of a good shot after all). I might have gotten the shot after all had I a longer lens on me or if I was willing to crop the shot taken with my Nikkor 35mm f/2 (ca. 1982/3) lens, but I decided to get super low to the ground (one of my favorite perspectives of all) and make the park look epic. The shots I got were not as inspiring as hoped, so I turned left onto Witherell Street (which runs directly along the side of the Detroit MLB stadium). :—:— Earlier in the day, I photographed a homeless man that I did not initially know was homeless. He asked to be pictured, and that is what I did. As I walked in the direction of Woodward Avenue (heading through the double parking lot for handicap folks), I spied a pair of tents illegally set up in the road that split the two handicap parking lots. The tents were placed atop manholes that leaked excess hot steam that was meant to heat buildings. There were other manholes leaking steam near the tents, and the sun lit the plumes a golden-whitish hue that was marvelous to behold alongside the bright colors of the tents. As I passed by the first tent, I saw a homeless man peak his head out from its entrance, and I jokingly asked if he was camping out already for Black Friday’s deals. He glared at me and said something hateful under his breath. :—:— It is my rule to not photograph someone when they are in an underhanded position, because I would not want the same done to me. It is the Golden Rule put to action, and I commend all photographers to follow it. Having had the rude awakening last week to seeing a homeless woman counting a wad of cash in big bills that amounted by its size to probably more than I make in a week at my day job, I was a bit wary of empathizing with the excuses the homeless made for their oftentimes (anecdotally-speaking) blatant disregard for the rule of law and basic decency and courtesy besides. I decided to break my own rule and photograph the tents at Tiger’s Stadium. My DSLR (Nikon D800) is not a quiet shooter, and so the clicks in three-shot bursts did not maintain a scene deprived of a person for long, as the homeless man rushed out of one of his tents and started shouting at me invectives for daring to photograph his broad-daylight, lawbreaking campsite. I did not say a word but kept shooting, thinking of the three-thousand-year-old proverb that a soft word turns away wrath. The man was clearly on something, because he worked himself (albeit with a clumsy gait) into a froth of anger and made physical threats against me. I was twenty-feet away crouched low to the ground taking pictures of this scene. I figured that if he rushed me, I could get out in a snap. :—:— The man went into his tent and came out with something in his hand. Before I knew it, he threw it at me, trying to hit me. It was a half-eaten orange. I retorted, “that was perfectly good food, man! Why are you wasting food?” I thought about leaving or staying (the classic fight or flight, or in my case, photograph or flight). I decided in a split second to stay. The man went back into his tent and ramped up his verbal threats as well as his threatening posture. Then, he wound up and threw a sandwich in a sandwich bag at me. It loudly thudded when it hit the ground right next to me. He was drunk, and so he missed. I had already made my point that he had wasted food. I saw the sandwich bag next to me, and I considered that it was probably a direct gift from a kind stranger to him. He did not care about that. He only cared about privacy in the middle of a major city (a contradiction in terms). I talk to homeless folks every week. One question I often ask is, “where are you staying?” Many answer, “Under a bridge” or “under a [public structure].” If this man wanted peace and quiet, camping in the middle of a parking lot in a busy side of town (and with two tents just for his single self!) was not a fitting decision. I thought later of this drunken vagrant: “Two tents equal a fifth,” because only the drunks among the homeless that I see are so ambitiously stupid. I said no grievous words to this homeless man, but I had grievous thoughts (borrowing from last week’s hypocritical spectacle). My presence was to him grievous, so, in keeping with the second half of the aforementioned three-thousand-year-old proverb, I fear I stirred up his anger and brought upon myself what befell me (and it could have been worse [I could have been hurt, and/or my gear could have been damaged]). :—:— One way or the other, I adore the triptych that resulted from this experience. It is a homeless man “pitching” in front of the major league baseball stadium in Detroit! I would love to hear from a baseball expert if his form was proper.

Woodward Avenue (northeast side of the street) - Forcing myself to stay on a different path than usual, I walked on the less-interesting side of Woodward Avenue.

Detroit Institute of Art - I clearly do not visit this art museum enough. I have not walked through it since last fall, when I went with my good pal, miss S.C. :—:— As proof of my lack of familiarity with this spot, I accidentally mistook the fountain in the front for a staircase, since it went up by steps. Hahahaha. I did not realize the error of my ways until I want almost to the top. I saw that there was a huge gap, and it only then struck me that it was a turned-off (for the cold season) fountain! No one said you had to have common sense to be a photographer. I just point and shoot what looks interesting to me, and sometimes I even think about what I am shooting! Haha. Photography is a little more than seeing and snapping, but only a little. Once all the distractions of knowing why you are doing what you are doing are assuaged, all you are left with is the meeting of preparation and opportunity (should you will to make something of your abundance [and hopefully with humility, grace, and thankfulness]).

Detroit Public Library

WSU Department of Mortuary Science - It did not smell like anything outside of this building, but the winds were low, and the temperature was no higher than 32° F outside.

The Fisher Building - I made it to the Fisher! I admit that (to me) the Nikkor 35mm f/2 (ca. 1982/3) lens is not the best for architectural photography. I had more pleasure shooting with my Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 (ca. 1971) lens that I did with the 35mm lens. It was just too zoom-y for me. Haha. That reminds me of a story I heard about Monty Python alum and thereafter director extraordinaire (on his own), Terry Gilliam. Mr. Gilliam is admittedly an odd fellow (see his body of work for proof). There is one area, where he and I may have pretty close similarities. The man prefers ultra-wide lenses for everything, and he considers a normal lens to be a “zoom” for him. I have to say that I like to get super close to my subjects, and so an ultra-wide is my friend. My 24mm lens is my go-to most weeks in the city (along with my Nikkor 55mm f/1.2 [ca. 1971] [these are my standard camera body companions on my outings]). :—:— Though I desired to use a 24mm or wider outside and inside the Fisher Building, I persisted with the 35mm (even though I brought along [and never used] my 55mm lens in a small camera bag on my side), because today was a day to review this lens, and I was going to use it even when it was not the best choice (as much as I could muster). Once inside the building, I found the folks at the front desk much more hospitable than the ones that occupied it a couple weeks prior

Woodward Avenue (southwest to northeast side of street)

East Warren Avenue - Instead of taking Mack Avenue from Woodward Avenue, I took a lesser-known path to Milano Bakery that ushered me past the DMC (Detroit Medical Center), which is the great hospital in Detroit (in my opinion). One day, I will find a neat angle with which to photograph it. Until then, I put my path near its perimeter and gaze at it with a discriminating eye.

St Antoine Street - A couple weeks back, I joked about the “Knowledge Is Power” phrase engraved into the Vermont marble on the edifice of the Detroit Public Library on Woodward Avenue (in light of the names on either side of the engraving). Well, I took a picture of that phrase at the library, and I saw it again at a school’s marquee, so I photographed it as well. I wonder if they put the phrase there for its own sake or as a nod to the Detroit Public Library (the library would not be a very long bus trip from the school, so perhaps the kids had just visited that same library [who knows?]). The diptych is on my “top ten” shots of the day.

Mack Avenue

Milano Bakery - Somehow, I arrived several minutes before Roy did. I used that edge in temporalness to walk up the long (on foot) parking lot to the end, where my security guard pal was parked and on patrol. I used the length of that walk to go back through my camera to find the three shots of the homeless man pitching at Comerica Park (the baseball stadium). We talked about this and that for a couple minutes, and then, I showed my friend the shots. At about that time, Roy pulled up and parked his red Mercedes convertible in the lot, and he walked up to the car to begin talking to the man as well, butting out my part of the conversation. The man is my elder, so I kept quiet and let him get out his complaints about life. He stopped a hair’s length from saying he wanted to off himself; he was in a mood. The security guard tried to paint a picture of rainbows and butterflies, stressing the good in life to instead focus on, but Roy brushed off his tenderness, doubling down on his assurance of his own awful life (and doing so in a dismissive, yet rattled, way). This should have portended a red flag in my mind, but I ignored the signal, focusing on the Roy I was used to dealing with (slightly less-acerbic than that [haha]). :—:— I showed Roy the future triptych of the homeless man chucking the sandwich at me, and he blew up at me in intense fury. We parted with the security guard and started walking in to the bakery. A few steps into our departure, a woman called out to us in the parking lot. She walked up to us and asked if we knew how to get to the pawn shop. Roy, wanting to be the know-it-all said he knew how to get there, but it was clear he was bloviating. Sensing the confusion, the security guard left this vehicle and walked up. “Do you mean Zimmerman’s?” the guard asked. “Yes! That’s the one!” the lady said. Roy butted in again, interrupting the security guard now that he had a place of reference. The guard was endlessly patient with this action, and he let Roy interrupt him again and again. Roy was determined to make himself useful as a power play. Haha. I just stood and watched in bemusement, hoping for a chance to give the guard some backup, should he get uncomfortable with the disrespect. The woman thanked the three of us (I just stood there and contributed nothing, but she was set in her heart to be universally generous), and we once more set out to span the lot to enter the bakery. :—:— Once inside, I plugged in my camera battery charger and my phone charger (in one outlet! [I use an Aluratech USB charger {sadly now discontinued} that leeches power from a plug to charge a device]). Set up and ready to go for a nice, long shoot-the-breeze conversation, I found myself dodging verbal volleys of invectives from a viper I thought was my “dear friend.” :—:— Roy used up the entire time at the bakery to hurl insults and accusations at me (all on account of the picture). He called the photo degrading. He called me disgraceful. And that is about the end of the non-explicit section of his tirade. I should have walked away, but Roy is my friend, and I wanted to get to the bottom of why he was so angry at me. I defended myself, yes, which likely sustained his wrath by giving him an opponent, but I did so in astonished pity for the man. His walls are tall and broad and thick and barbed at the edges—there was no getting through to the guy. I think of the pair of three-thousand-year-old proverbs “reprove a fool, and he will remit from his ways” and “do not reprove a fool, lest he attack you.” I think the contradictory advice from the same author is meant to say that you do not know how correction of another will result. You may be decimated by them, or you may, thankfully, get through to them. I took the chance that my friend was having a bad day (as he had begun the day exclaiming), and I went ahead in reproving him, as a friend. :—:— Maybe the biggest thing that kept me glued to my seat was the fact that I figured no one else would have stayed there through all the insults. To be a difference-maker, maybe one has to be different himself, so I set out to be the exception to his expected end (hoping all the while that I was not feeding abusive tendencies in his heart). :—:— Instead of walking away (I made the excuse in my mind that I wanted to let my camera battery charge yet longer), I finally told Roy, “You have made your point. There is nothing more that I need to hear from you,” and we both sat in profound silence for a long time. I checked the international headlines, reading several news articles as Roy stared through the window to the outside business in the city in his own outworking of quietude. :—:— I have been quoting proverbs from Proverbs in this write-up. The Bible is the greatest book of all time; I know that, because I went to a splendiferous school. It was small (including myself, there were fourteen kids in my graduating class), and it was strict (I joke it was like the movie “Footloose” [which I have never seen but loosely understand] for thirteen years), but it was very good. I credit it with any sort of brain function that goes on behind my babbling. Well, as Providence would have it, after many minutes of this silence, I heard, “Ryan?” Hahaha. Last week, I heard that from my pal, Devin. This week, I heard it from an alumna from my high school. I looked, and it was her and her mother, who was also our third-grade teacher. What a coincidence, and what timing! We got up and hugged and chatted for a hot second. It was a glorious reuniting, but I was uncomfortable because of what just happened with Roy. I kept wondering if they had heard our back and forth. I was embarrassed either way, because I did not go on to conquer the world, as many of my classmates have from our tiny but ambitious school. The two were doing well, and my schoolmate had had a son. I wish them the best. :—:— When we parted to return to our respective tables, I explained to Roy who the folks were, and I added, “Shall we make peace?” Roy stared at me, and I said, “You have said your peace, and there is nothing more to say.” He took this as a completionist’s challenge, and he proceeded to say racist things between curse words lobbed at me. Again, I thought about walking away, but this time it would have been in front of two people that knew me half of my present time on earth. Those folks knew me well. They knew me as a child. I grew up with them, and here I was, carousing (by the looks of it) with a thoroughly vulgar character. I probably do not respect myself enough (I do not respect myself enough). I stayed and faced the onslaught of evil from Roy’s lips. In retrospect, I should have left, but I made excuses and sat through the persecution needlessly. There should be a line in the sand in my heart. I should name my price in the beginning, dignity-wise. I had not considered my own honor enough when I let him continue without my exiting. I regret that. :—:— Roy was not interested in going to the oriental supermarket, suggesting the middle eastern one instead. I agreed, and I said goodbye to my old friends as I left.

Dearborn Fresh Supermarket - We rode in Roy’s red Mercedes convertible to the grocery store in Dearborn. On the way, I thought about exiting the vehicle at every stop. I thought about never talking to the dude again. I have a huge heart, but that should (if being healthy with oneself) be balanced by a huge sense of self-worth, which I need to work on developing in these areas of personal intrusion (I had too many bad characters reinforce the weakness I still feel). We walked around a bit before sitting in the dining area in the back. Roy’s acid tongue was in full force. I will stop here in my description of the events with Roy. There was a lot said by the man that is far beyond publication for reasons not even hinted at thusfar.

Greektown - Freedom! I was dropped off here, and I was on my own! I could breathe the polluted Detroit air in peace!

Donald “Sunn” Anderson’s Street Art Stand

David Bosco Willis’ Street Sax Spot - I asked my sax pal (with “three first names”) if he had gotten a rental saxophone to replace his broken one. He said no. He told me he had fixed the thing himself! :—:— In asking how he was able to repair the instrument, he decided to educate me in the origin of the saxophone. As he was explaining how Adolphe Sax invented it (hence the name) and how the mechanics of the instrument worked, a passerby finished his sentence! I laughed and exclaimed, “How many times does an expert walk by as you are having a conversation?” Continuing the lesson on the history of the saxophone, my pal David explained the history of the saxophone coming into its own and started being used as a more standout element in music. This was ten-seconds after the interruption, and a second man finished David’s sentence! I exclaimed once more, “This is amazing! Where are these people coming from? Band practice from their orchestra?” David and I laughed. The lesson continued. David was talking about his way of playing the saxophone, and then, a lady interrupted us, saying, “Why are you not playing your saxophone?” Then she turned to me and said, “It’s you! You are distracting him!” Hahaha. I laughed and apologized and said, “He will play his saxophone very soon!” Before parting, as David picked up and played his sax, I stayed a while longer, taking photos from many angles of Mr. Willis. One of those shots made this week’s “top ten.”

The Broadway (and Shoes) - That this place is closed is a sad thing.

The Belt

David Klein Gallery - Today was a three-o’clock final-day-of-the-exhibition gathering that including Andrew Kreiger, one of the three featured artists. I gave Mr. Kreiger my card and said hello to everyone. I thanked the nice folks that worked there for telling me about the street photography contest that they emailed me about over a week ago, and I added that I was having trouble picking my “top ten” (I always do ten, don’t I? Haha) for the contest. The gallery director told me I should go with my gut over what my friends suggested. I agreed. :—:— I am not the biggest schmoozer, so I left before the gathering kicked up. I would have sat in a corner otherwise the whole time awkwardly. I do not want to be a bump on a log nor a bother, but perhaps that can be remedied one day. I just need a better angle from which to approach these gatherings.

Woodward Avenue (southwest side of street)

The Hudson Site - I saw my hip-hop pal, “Shadow Klan” plying his trade to passersby. I exclaimed his name loudly, and we hugged. We chatted a bit, and I started photographing the man. I showed him the portrait and animated GIF that I took and made from seeing him last week. I said that I needed to get him in front of a more interesting backdrop to make an even better animated GIF. With that explanation received, he and I started looking for an interesting spot very near by to do this next GIF. We landed on being just in front of my favorite cafe in Detroit.

Urban Bean Co. - This is my favorite cafe in Detroit. Mr. “Shadow Klan” and I worked off one another as we found a rhythm between the camera and the character. I got him in front of the park, and I stood still and low, letting him go in and out of camera and go in and out of focus. It was magical. I look forward to making more of these every time I see him. We could have enough content for a sweet music video one day!

Campus Martius Park - Automatically interesting: a man with a goat in the middle of a major city. I have photographed this man before at DEMF 2018. I told him to send me a message to see his shots I took of him. I found it challenging to get the goat up close in focus manually focusing at f/2, and I was too stubborn to try for a narrower aperture. Haha. I failed to get an up-close shot of just the goat’s face, but I got a neat shot of a security guard (who explained that because he and his friends deemed him the Greatest Of All Time [G.O.A.T.], he had to stop and get a photo with the goat [”the G.O.A.T. with the goat”]). That shot is in my “top ten” as well. This serendipity made for a beautiful end to the day. It is good to end on a high note, and this seemed like mine!

Greektown

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WHAT WENT ON ON THIS DAY OUT IN DETROIT?

I shot with a new (to me) lens, the Nikkor Ai-S 35mm f/2 (ca. 1982/3). This was a pleasure (mostly) to use. The sun flare is apparent, as is the barrel distortion. This lens is not absolutely perfect, but it is still lots of fun to use. I love the f/2 maximum aperture for its low-light chops and bokeh fall-off. It magnifies my photographic modus. :—:— I photographed a triptych of a homeless man throwing a sandwich in a sandwich bag at me. I did not get hurt. I left right after. The man was deranged. I think this triptych can live on, though. I see some power in the triple-image I took. We will see over time, I suppose. :—:— I had a bad time with my friend, Roy. He was a grumpy oaf. The move is just a stressful time for Roy, and I wanted to be the light I hope I am in his life. His life has lots of darkness, and there is more oxygen in the air for the guy when I am around I think. :—:— It is always noteworthy to bump into a noteworthy (diligently, quite-successfully-working) artist. Andrew Kreiger was making an appearance at the David Klein Gallery for the last day of an exhibit there that among two other internationally-recognized artists, had his own work on display there. I always ponder if there is anything different about them or everything different about them (or something in between) from the rest of folks. I take pictures; I do not make images or shapes from scratch. I cannot understand (at this point) the mindset to create like these folks do. Going to the gallery to think on this (I hope) helps. :—:— I saw a goat in the heart of Downtown Detroit. I have seen this goat before. Its owner went to DEMF in 2018, and I photographed him and his goat (I called the shot, “Millennial Bohemian,” because that is just what the man appears to be going for [probably without conscious effort]).

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⋰B⋰U⋰Z⋰Z⋰W⋰O⋰R⋰D⋰S⋰

“Inside baseball” locations and concepts talked about in this Detroit Street Photography Session —

● Cotton Ball - This is my secret weapon on a cold day. A little piece torn off a cotton ball in each ear seems to keep my ears warmer and pain-free (provided I am also wearing a winter hat over the ears as well. I cannot recommend this enough. Yeah, it reduces my hearing, but I talk louder with them, so maybe I am heard better? Hahaha. I hope it is not obnoxious.

● RenCen - This is a nickname for the Renaissance Center (I would wager most Detroiters that know the presently-tallest building in Detroit’s name as this are also unable to spell the word “renaissance” without spellcheck or autocorrect aiding them). Then again, I just as much think most Millennials that know the current popular name of their own generation cannot spell the word “Millennial” without spellcheck or autocorrect aiding them. Is this more akin to a fish not knowing it is wet or to a bakeshop owner not knowing that the numbers on his toaster at home correspond to time (minutes) and not temperature?

● Plum Market - I heard years ago that of all of America’s major cities, Detroit had the least rats and mice in it (New York had the most at the time). The explanation for this aside from how barren the city is of people (compared to most major cities) was that there were no, or only a couple, grocery stores in the city, thus greatly reducing the ready, year-round food supply for the rodents. The Plum Market is an upscale grocer that just opened up on Woodward Avenue and East Larned Street in the heart of downtown across from the Spirit of Detroit Plaza (not far from Hart Plaza, which is where the city of Detroit itself was founded about three-hundred-and-eighteen years ago. I welcome the fresh produce. I shun the presumed coming influx of rats.

● Ken Rockwell - This man is the paterfamilias of online lens (and camera) reviews. He is detailed and fair and personally experienced and knowledgable in the industry as well as the art of photography. For one such as myself that uses and seeks “new” (to me) old glass, his website is a constant companion to my journey with photography. Should he not outlive me, I will be sad the day his site ends its updates. No one else does what he does as well and honorably as he does it. Maybe right-brained folks (which are many of the creatives that do photography) are given to more drama than most, but I have never heard a bad word about this man. He is trustworthy. His body of work will be sought and sourced by amateurs (on up to professionals) for as long as the internet (and whatever else down the line arrives) exists, I predict.

● Wabi-sabi - I despise woo-woo concepts. Taking the eastern mysticism angle out (which is there for those gullible-enough to even entertain it), this is the concept of finding beauty amidst (in fact on account of) imperfection.

● Sunstar - Imagine an adolescent’s crayon drawing of a diurnal outdoor scene in the summer with a clear sky. The sun would look (perhaps) like a yellow circle with an orange, jagged (saw blade-shaped) outline around its end. Minus the color, this is what a sunstar loosely resembles. So, yes, that was a pretty accurate drawing many kids (including yourself, possibly) produced after all (if you are looking at the sun through many stopped down lenses [not all produce this effect]).

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If you like what I do, consider supporting me on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/seedetroitlikeido

Check out my YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmWGEXMZfJn5tutCOgK_dtg

I have a Twitter that has unique content from the rest of my social media accounts:

https://twitter.com/prayforryan

I have an Instagram that I am proud of. It has neat write-ups for my different works that also appear on my YT versions of the same videos. It also has photos and videos that appear nowhere else:

https://www.instagram.com/rellish3214/

✦ If you ever have any questions, feel free to email me. I am here for you. Email: [email protected]

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| [X] |

_.==.__.“”“”“.______n__

d __ _____.-’ ’-. ________b

| [__] /.”“”“.\ _ D800 |

| // /” “\ \_) |

| \ \__/ // |

| Nikon `.__.’/ |

\====== `-..-’ =======/

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thewebofslime · 6 years ago

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8 Historic Cases That Show The FBI And CIA Were Out Of Control Long Before Russiagate Date: March 27, 2019Leave a comment share 0 0 0 0 Photo Credit To Sgt. Audrey Hayes By Jon Miltimore and Carey Wedler The survival of liberty depends on skepticism of government power—and make no mistake, that includes President Trump. Conservatives tend to have two bad habits. First, they’re prone to viewing the past through a nostalgic lens. Second, they tend to instinctively give law enforcement the benefit of the doubt. These tendencies help explain why conservatives for decades have been able to overlook the many abuses—constitutional, legal, and moral—of US intelligence agencies. Unlike some more seasoned media, conservatives have appeared genuinely shocked by revelations of the Trump-Russia saga: abuse of FISA warrants, classified leaks from top FBI brass, corruption, campaign moles, and an apparent plot to remove an elected president through undemocratic (and likely extra-constitutional) means. These revelations are unique in that they have become highly public and involve a sitting president. However, an examination of the history of US intelligence agencies reveals government bureaucrats were out of control long before the 2016 presidential election. 1. That Time the CIA Considered Bombing Miami and Blaming It on Castro It’s no secret that the US government sought to assassinate Fidel Castro for years. Less well known, however, was that part of their regime-change plot included a plan to blow up Miami and sinking a boat-full of innocent Cubans. The plan, which was revealed in 2017 when the National Archives declassified 2,800 documents from the JFK era, was a collaborative effort that included the CIA, the State Department, the Department of Defense, and other federal agencies that sought to brainstorm strategies to topple Castro and sow unrest within Cuba. One of those plans included Operation Northwoods, submitted to the CIA by General Lyman Lemnitzer on behalf of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It summarized nine “pretexts” the CIA and US government could employ to justify military intervention in Cuba. One of the official CIA documents shows officials musing about staging a terror campaign (“real or simulated”) and blaming it on Cuban refugees. “We could develop a Cuban Communist terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington,” the Operation Mongoose document says. “The terror campaign could be pointed at Cubans refugees seeking haven in the United States. We could sink a boatload of Cubans en route to Florida (real or simulated.) We could foster attempts on lives of Cuban refugees in the United States… Exploding a few plastic bombs in carefully chosen spots. Ultimately, the broader Mongoose effort failed to remove Castro from power or effectively establish an infiltration within Cuba, though the CIA did engage in several sabotage operations. Mongoose was suspended and ultimately discontinued amid the Cuban Missile Crisis. 2. In 2014 the CIA Was Caught Red-Handed Spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee In the summer of 2014, the CIA’s inspector general concluded that the CIA had “improperly” spied on US Senate staffers who were researching the agency’s black history of torture. As the New York Times reported: “An internal investigation by the C.I.A. has found that its officers penetrated a computer network used by the Senate Intelligence Committee in preparing its damning report on the C.I.A.’s detention and interrogation program. And that’s not the worst part. The Times goes on to note that CIA officers didn’t just read the emails of the Senate investigators. They also sent “a criminal referral to the Justice Department based on false information.” John Brennan, CIA director from 2013-2017, insisted during Senate hearings these were “very limited inappropriate actions” and that “the actions of the CIA were reasonable.” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) disagreed. “That’s not what the Inspector General [concluded],” Wyden said. “When you’re talking about spying on a committee responsible for overseeing your agency, in my view that undermines the very checks and balances that protect our democracy, and it’s unacceptable in a free society. And your compatriots in all your sister agencies agree with that.” Brennan, who publicly lied about the episode, was not punished and even retained his security clearance until Aug. 15, 2018. 3. The FBI’s “Suicide Letter” to MLK and His Wife Before he had a day named in his honor and a monument on the National Mall, the government viewed Martin Luther King Jr. very much as a threat. In fact, his message of peace, love, equality, and civil disobedience had the FBI so scared that agents actually sent King and his wife a package containing a strange letter and tape recording. It contained details of the civil rights activist’s sexual indiscretions and encouraged him to kill himself. In 1961, the FBI learned that Stanley Levison, a known “Red,” had become a close advisor to King. The following year, Bobby Kennedy approved wiretaps on Levison’s home and office, surveillance that would eventually expand. It turns out that J. Edgar Hoover stumbled on to MLK’s busy sex life while investigating King. “Hoover found out very little about any Communist subterfuge,” wrote Yale historian Beverly Gage in the New York Times in 2014, “but he did begin to learn about King’s extramarital sex life….” The FBI apparently had no scruples about using the information to try to bring King down. James Comey, Gage writes, used to keep a copy of the King wiretap request on his desk “as a reminder of the bureau’s capacity to do wrong.” 4. The CIA Forced Prisoners to Participate in Mind Control Experiments in the 1950s If you’ve never heard of Project MKUltra, you might find it hard to believe. Also known as “the CIA Mind Control Program,” the effort was launched by the agency in 1953. The program used drug experiments on humans, oftentimes on prisoners who were tested against their will or in exchange for early release. The experiments were undertaken so CIA agents could better understand how to extract information from enemies during interrogations. Here is a description from the History Channel: “MK-Ultra’s “mind control” experiments generally centered around behavior modification via electro-shock therapy, hypnosis, polygraphs, radiation, and a variety of drugs, toxins, and chemicals. These experiments relied on a range of test subjects: some who freely volunteered, some who volunteered under coercion, and some who had absolutely no idea they were involved in a sweeping defense research program. From mentally-impaired boys at a state school, to American soldiers, to “sexual psychopaths” at a state hospital, MK-Ultra’s programs often preyed on the most vulnerable members of society. The CIA considered prisoners especially good subjects, as they were willing to give consent in exchange for extra recreation time or commuted sentences. Whitey Bulger, a former organized crime boss, wrote of his experience as an inmate test subject in MK-Ultra. “Eight convicts in a panic and paranoid state,” Bulger said of the 1957 tests at the Atlanta penitentiary where he was serving time. “Total loss of appetite. Hallucinating. The room would change shape. Hours of paranoia and feeling violent. We experienced horrible periods of living nightmares and even blood coming out of the walls. Guys turning to skeletons in front of me. I saw a camera change into the head of a dog. I felt like I was going insane.” How was any of this legal? Well, it wasn’t, which is why the CIA understood it had to be concealed from the American public at all costs. “Precautions must be taken not only to protect operations from exposure to enemy forces but also to conceal these activities from the American public in general,” wrote a CIA auditor. “The knowledge that the agency is engaging in unethical and illicit activities would have serious repercussions in political and diplomatic circles.” 5. The FBI’s Systemic Forensic Fraud in Crime Labs In the early 1990s, Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, an attorney and chemist who worked at the FBI as a Supervisory Special Agent, noticed troubling practices in the in the bureau’s Investigation Laboratory. There were “alterations of reports, alterations of evidence, folks testifying outside their areas of expertise in courts of law,” said Whitehurst. “[Really] what was going on was human rights violations. We have a right to fair trials in this country… And that’s not what was going on at the FBI lab.” In 1994, he blew the whistle on the “systemic forensic fraud” he witnessed. Nothing happened. So he took his case to the Department of Justice. The FBI didn’t like that. Whitehurst was eventually chased out of the Bureau, but not before winning a $1.16 million settlement. Unfortunately, however, the wheels of justice turn slowly at the Bureau. “It wasn’t until ten years later that Whitehurst was finally vindicated,” notes the National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund note, “when a scathing 500+ page study of the lab by the Justice Department Inspector General, Michael Bromwich, concluded major reforms were required in the lab.” But by then, an untold number of people had been convicted with the help of tainted evidence—evidence the DOJ knew was tainted. “In 2012 the Washington Post published an extensive review of the FBI and DOJ failures to properly review the cases impacted by the FBI lab scandal, based on Whitehurst’s research. As a result, the DOJ agreed to conduct yet another review of hair cases in collaboration with the Innocence Project and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). • 3,000 cases were identified by the government that had used microscopic hair analysis from FBI examiners. • 500 have been reviewed as of March 2015. • 268 included pro-prosecution testimony from FBI examiners. • 257 (96 percent) contained erroneous statements from “FBI experts”. At least 35 of these cases involved convicted criminals who received the death penalty, according to the National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund. 6. Operation Midnight Climax: Drugging Unsuspecting Johns and Filming their Interactions with Prostitutes In the 1950s and early 1960s, the CIA admitted to operating a “bawdy house” in a San Francisco apartment where “unsuspecting citizens were lured… for the CIA’s drug experiments,” according to a local news story report documented by the agency. “Private citizens were taken to the bordello by $100 prostitutes and drugged without their knowledge, usually with LSD,” the San Francisco Examiner reported in 1977 after the CIA admitted to the operation. Agents sat behind a two-way mirror and filmed the interactions between the drugged men and prostitutes. Then-CIA director Stansfield Turner suggested the operation was intended to understand how drugs could potentially be used against the American people, though he called the experiments “abhorrent” and acknowledged it was “inexplicable” that the CIA would do this without the subjects’ consent. He insisted the agency had ceased the experiments 12 years prior. In a 1977 Senate testimony, CIA agents said the purpose of the experiments was to “learn about thought control and sexual behavior,” the Examinernoted. 7. The FBI Has Routinely Staged Acts of Terrorism In the wake of 9/11, the FBI has, on numerous occasions, targeted unstable and mentally ill individuals, sending informants to bait them into committing terror attacks. Before these individuals can actually carry out the attack, however, the Bureau intervenes, presenting the foiled plot to the public as a successfully thwarted attack. In 2011, journalist Glenn Greenwald summarized several examples of this deceitful tactic: [T]he FBI subjected 19-year-old Somali-American Mohamed Osman Mohamud to months of encouragement, support and money and convinced him to detonate a bomb at a crowded Christmas event in Portland, Oregon, only to arrest him at the last moment and then issue a Press Release boasting of its success. In late 2009, the FBI persuaded and enabled Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year old Jordanian citizen, to place a fake bomb at a Dallas skyscraper and separately convinced Farooque Ahmed, a 34-year-old naturalized American citizen born in Pakistan, to bomb the Washington Metro. 8. The CIA’s Media Manipulation Campaigns From the agency’s earliest days, it has attempted to control the flow of information to the public. In his book Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA, former New York Times journalist Tim Weiner documented how much influence the agency’s first civilian director, Allen Dulles, had among major media companies: “Dulles kept in close touch with the men who ran The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the nation’s leading weekly magazines. He could pick up the phone and edit a breaking story, make sure an irritating foreign correspondent was yanked from the field, or hire the services of men such as Time’s Berlin bureau chief and Newsweek’s man in Tokyo. Weiner noted, “It was second nature for Dulles to plant stories in the press. American newsrooms were dominated by veterans of the government’s wartime propaganda branch, the Office of War Information.” During his time at the agency, Dulles “built a public-relations and propaganda machine that came to include more than fifty news organizations, a dozen publishing houses, and personal pledges of support from men such as Axel Springer, West Germany’s most powerful press baron.” In 1977, Carl Bernstein further exposed the CIA’s efforts to influence news organization in an article for Rolling Stone in which he revealed that “more than 400 American journalists…in the past twenty?five years have secretly carried out assignments for the Central Intelligence Agency, according to documents on file at CIA headquarters.” The Lesson Amid the media and political establishment’s ongoing, frenzied coverage of Russia-gate, Americans are eager to pin guilt on the president have shown a willingness to trust the CIA and FBI without question despite numerous past and present reasons to be skeptical of their conclusions. Considering the CIA’s long history of intervening in other countries’ elections and governments, it is particularly ironic that their claims of Russia’s meddling in the US’ democracy are taken at face value. Nor is the corruption and deceit limited to the FBI and CIA. Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lied to lawmakers and the public in 2013 when he claimed NSA did not collect any type of data on “millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.” He was caught red-handed months later when whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the extent of the agency’s mass surveillance operations. The survival of liberty depends on skepticism of government power—and make no mistake, that includes President Trump. But in light of these federal agencies’ chronic tendency to engage in behavior wholly inconsistent with American values, the same distrust must be applied to the institutions that claim to shed light on abuses by unpopular leaders.

#TheWebOfSlime

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northcarolinaprelawland-blog · 7 years ago

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What Does It Take To Get In To America?

Kelly Ziyu Xia, North Carolina State University Class of 2020

March 5, 2018

Immigration is a hot topic in the air, especially now. From refugees, to illegal immigrants, to our first lady Melania Trump, most people have some strong feelings towards the immigrants. Just recently, people started questioning how did Melania Trump immigrate to US with the “Einstein visa” before she even was famous from being a model. What does it take to get into America? Why can’t people immigrate here legally? Or why do some people have to immigrate here?

According to the American Immigration Council, US let about a million people immigrate into the country, legally, every year. The immigration visa types are divided into four categories: Family Based Immigration, Employment Based Immigration, Refugees and Asylees, and Other Forms of Humanitarian Relief. The immigration process in general is a long process, depends on the country you’re from and your education level, social status, and wealth. In another word, the more Nobel Prizes or money you have, the easier for you to immigrate to the United States. The Per-Country Ceilings is the limit on how many immigrants can come to the United States from any one country so that no any immigrant group is dominating the immigration pattern in the the United States.

So take a step back, how exactly can I be a citizen of the United States? US Federal immigration law requires individuals living in the US with a Green Card for at least 5 years. But, it could take up to 10 or 15 years just waiting to get a Green Card, which grants the indefinite stay in the United States. During the time waiting for the Green Card, a visa may be issued for individuals to stay in the US for a short period of time.

For example: You are an international student, studying at North Carolina State University, from North Korea. You apply for political asylum to the US because of all the horrible stuff North Korea have done. Will you be able to stay in the US? The answer is NO. Defining immigrants in need of asylum can be subjective, and usually takes years to process. And before any concrete evidence is found, you must return back to North Korea once you graduated. Also, applying for political asylum usually exposes the applicants to further risks. Basically, if you go back to North Korea, it is very unlikely that you will ever leave North Korea again.

So, some may say: “why don’t you try applying an employment visa?” It is true that you studied Chemical engineering at North Carolina State University, one of the top engineering schools in the country, but finding jobs that have Employment Based immigration visa could be very hard. According to Federal immigration laws, after graduating, international students can apply for Optional Practical Training (OPT), but must leave if they can’t find a job within their field in 90 days. If you are lucky enough to find a job, you may apply for H1B visa, a non-immigrant visa that allows graduate level workers up to 6 years of US employment, and during this 6 years, you better figure out a way to either marry a citizen, or pray to win the lottery of getting the H1B, employment sponsored green card. And add up all the years, in the end, your path to citizenship is at least 10 years, including the chances that you don’t get the green card in the end.

A lot of people don’t end up making it. You don’t know how long it’s going to take; you don’t always find jobs in this already extra competitive capitalistic society; and most of the times, there is just no way of making it without the monetary support, especially when you are one of those from the third world country. So much of whether or not you can immigrate to is out of your control, such as the places you were born, the family you were born into, the education you could get. And those who can make it to the United States, are usually the most perseverance people in the world.

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https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/how-united-states-immigration-system-works

https://www.uscis.gov/laws/8-cfr/title-8-code-federal-regulations

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-surprising-factor-for-immigrant-success-1498517898

Photo Credit: Regine Mahaux Weaver, Hilary (3 April 2017). Here's What You Should Know About Melania Trump's Official First Lady Portrait. Vanity Fair

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trendyelle · 7 years ago

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When It Comes To Trendy Face Oils, Expensive Isn’t Always Better

Over the past few years, facial petroleums have become staples in beauty cabinets everywhere. Celebrities love them. Models desire them. Goop adores them. But they can be so expensive. For instance, religion favorite Vintner’s Daughter, a serum make use of 22 different oils, retails for $185, while Kjaer Weis and Kypris both sell facial oils for $225. And those are just three of many brands selling facial petroleums that aren’t so wallet-friendly. What is it about the ingredients that draws these concoctions expense so much fund? Do they genuinely wield? And are they worth your money? We talked to experts to find out. Do They Even Work? Before deciding whether spending money on an expensive make is worth it for your billfold, you might want to find out if these products are actually helpful to your scalp. Much has been written about the expected benefits of using facial lubricants. In 2016, licensed skincare therapist Julia March told HuffPost, “Oils safeguard the skin’s battery-acid robe, rebuild and maintain skin’s lipid barricade due to external affects, like extreme temperatures, over-cleansing, low-spirited humidity, sickness and roam. They act as a carrier for other active ingredients to penetrate into lower levels of the epidermis.” To some, it may seem like facial petroleums are too good to be true. They claim to reach our skin ogle more plump, younger and even downright perfect. We requested Dr. Samer Jaber at Washington Square Dermatology for a little more insight. Jaber has pointed out that facial lubricants have natural antioxidants and fatty acids, which can indeed help with anti-aging and protecting the surface from free radicals. He likewise noted that face oils can be a good addition to our regular skincare numbers, along with our sunscreen, serums and ointments. “The nice thought about appearance lubricants is they’re natural, so that’s one of the reasons why people like them, ” he added. The key to facial oils, Jaber said, is that “you want to make sure you have the right appearance lubricant for your skin.” For instance, if you have acne-prone surface, Jaber recommended exploiting a lighter lubricant for your appearance, such as argan, jojoba, calendula, rose hip or marula, which are less likely to impediment holes. For drier surface, he recommended something thicker with a higher level of saturated paunch, like olive or coconut petroleum.( One concept he did say to keep in psyche when choosing an olive oil is to look for something cold-pressed. Extra virgin olive oil is heated when it’s treated, which may cause the anti-oxidant ranks to droop .) In expressions of cost, though, Jaber said, “Just because a concoction is expensive doesn’t mean that it is better than a reasonably priced product.” A upright shared by Vintner’s Daughter (@ vintnersdaughter ) on Jan 21, 2018 at 4:04 pm PST So What’s Up With The High Tolls? As Ni’Kita Wilson, cosmetic chemist and the founding fathers of Skinects.com, explained to HuffPost, there are different points and types of oil, which come at different tolls. “You have your run-of-the-mill basic petroleums, like soybean oil, castor lubricant, sugared almond oil, jojoba lubricant, ” she said. “Those are more common and even for those oils I precisely referred, there’s a price stray, with soybean being the cheapest and probably jojoba being the most expensive.” “Then you have a class of exotic oils, ” Wilson said. “There are some that have vitamin -Alike activity or retinol act. There are some that precisely feel so soft and so smooth and they’re loaded with vitamin C. Those are not as common, and they’re much more expensive because you can’t just go get them anywhere.” “These more specialized oils, they’ve are going through experimenting to establish they have these other parts in them, like vitamin A or vitamin C, and it’s quantifiable, ” Wilson said. “Then they take it a stair farther and they see if these petroleums actually have activity, and some of them do. Those exist as active petroleums, where we are really have activity to do something good for your skin, other than moisturize.” Finally, aside from the lubricants themselves, there are oil-soluble obtains, which have demonstrated that they active abilities. These are sometimes added to petroleums, as is the case with Kjaer Weis’ Beautiful Oil, to attain the make even more active. When it comes to the raw ingredients for these products, suppliers base their prices on a variety of factors, Wilson said. For instance, if particular parts have been tested under clinical contests and have proven makes, they would come at a premium rate, driving up the retail price. Some parts can also only be found in certain areas, and if suppliers have partnerships with neighbourhood people in that region to help support socioeconomic growing, that too would drive up the cost for customers. “The more exotic it is, commonly the most expensive it is, ” Wilson said, adding that ingredients the hell is 100 percentage organic would also come with a premium toll. On top of that, many serums contain multiple lubricants( like Vintner’s Daughter ), and when the ingredients are mixed together, the cost goes up. Then, of course, you have to remember the markup. “The brand still has to make their boundary, ” Wilson observed.( Harmonizing to MoneyTalksNews, the average markup on cosmetics is 78 percent .) A pole said that he shared Kjaer Weis (@ kjaerweis ) on Aug 31, 2017 at 3:13 pm PDT A Few Examples We expected Wilson about Vintner’s Daughter and Kjaer Weis specifically to get a little more insight into the high-pitched retail prices. Vintner’s Daughter contains carrier oils such as grape seed and hazelnut lubricant, which Wilson said are more expensive than soybean petroleum but far less expensive than something like camellia lubricant. After looking at the rest of the ingredients, Wilson deduced the $185 price tag might be a little high for what you get, though she agreed that the organic parts in the serum could be partly responsible for the price. Vintner’s Daughter’s website doesn’t state that all ingredients are organic, but it does say the serum is “100% organic or wildcrafted.” Nonetheless, the brand’s founder, April Gargiulo, told HuffPost via email they “only use organic ingredients.” The brand starts with whole flowers , not remove, freeze-dried floras or pulverizes, Gargiulo said, and wastes weeks formulating its concoctions. “This process is as you can imagine far more expensive and experience consuming, but research results speak for themselves.” “At the end of the working day, every shopper needs to decide her/ his own comfort height, but we believe that one $185 concoction that actually extradites results and is made from the very finest parts is better than four $45 makes made from low quality fillers and give minimal ensues, ” she said. The Kjaer Weis product contains a few oil-soluble extracts, including dioscorea batatas root extract, a wild yam obtain containing a complex called diosgenin, and spilanthes acmella heyday extract . These removes have been studied for their anti-aging properties. A Kjaer Weis spokeswoman said the brand’s lubricant was the first of its style to exploit doscorea batatas. “The root is sourced from biodynamic subjects in Germany that have been additive free for over 15 times, ” she said. “Combined with a nourishing merger of certified organic rose hip lubricant, sweet almond seed oil, olive oil and jojoba seed oil, it absorbs quickly, optimizing skin for a youthful velvety finish.” What To Gaze For When you’re looking to buy commodities, your best bet is to do some study. “When picking a produce, it’s important to look at the ingredients and see if there are clinical investigates backing the make declarations, ” Jaber said. Unfortunately, Wilson told HuffPost, it’s not that easy to be informed about whether the ingredients in facial petroleums were tested for anti-aging act and efficacy, as the claims made by skincare companionships often relate to the final product , not the individual ingredients.( But alas, the internet is a enormous source !) Once you’ve done your research and discovered which ingredients have been experimented to plow whatever it is you crave your facial petroleum to plow, look for those on make labels. Also remember that while it’s easy to fall into the capture of expressed his belief that expensive products are better than your average drugstore buys, that’s not necessarily the event. Sure, an expensive lubricant may contain active ingredients, but that doesn’t inevitably make it’s better than an lubricant that are able to contain a lower concentration of those same ingredients, or even different ingredients. “You can go to Sephora and buy an oil that may have similar efficacy, but it may not carry the esteem you’re looking for, ” Wilson said , noting that the choice becomes one based on personal advantage. At the end of the day, Wilson said, there’s not a clear-cut room to tell if an expensive make is really worth the rate, to its implementation of ingredients. “So if you like it and it reaches “youre feeling” beautiful, then it’s worth it to you, ” Wilson said. “But you are able[ find] just as beautiful if you try one that’s less expensive.” This story has been revised with comments from Vintner’s Daughter and Kjaer Weis. RELATED… Dermatologists’ Secrets For Combating Your Winter Skin Woes If You Utterly MUST Pop That Pimple, Here’s How To Do It Right Experts Reveal Whether Blue Light Therapy Can Actually Combat Acne The post When It Comes To Trendy Face Oils, Expensive Isn’t Always Better appeared first on Anti Aging Tips. http://selfhelpantiagingtips.com/when-it-comes-to-trendy-face-oils-expensive-isnt-always-better/

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workreveal-blog · 8 years ago

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El Capitan: Apple unveils next version of Mac OS X software

New Post has been published on https://workreveal.biz/el-capitan-apple-unveils-next-version-of-mac-os-x-software/

El Capitan: Apple unveils next version of Mac OS X software

Apple built-introduce integrated the built-in replace to its OS X computbuiltintegrated software on Monday, which the organisation says will make it quicker and easier to use.

Due to the fact Apple that releasing Mac OS X El Capitan in September 2015, Apple has delivered a more recent version of its desktop running machine and modified the way it refers to its software program. Now called MacOS, the latest Sierra version comes prepared with capabilities inspired by way of iOS or designed to help Macs paintings better with iOS merchandise, adding in addition incentive to maintain your hardware internal Apple’s walled garden, which incorporates the iPhone, Apple Watch and Mac computer systems. (Study the entire MacOS Sierra evaluate right here.)

In November 2016, the employer refreshed its lineup of thirteen- and 15-inch MacBook Execs. Substantially slimmer, quicker, and pricier than their predecessors, the new fashions characteristic some progressive flourishes — most notably, Apple’s dynamic Contact Bar. There may be additionally a much less costly thirteen-inch model with out the Touch Bar.

The not unusual subject matter most of the MacOS Sierra release and the new MacBook fashions is a extra emphasis on usability and productiveness, instead of performance in line with se. Show off A: the Touch Bar, a mini display that runs along the pinnacle of the keyboard that provides distinct icons and options for exclusive apps. Sliders, hot keys and characteristic buttons emerge on the fly as needed.

Similarly to leveraging the TouchBar, the latest version of Sierra (release 12.10.1), for the primary time integrates Apple’s voice-enabled assistant, Siri, with the Mac running gadget. It provides new methods to share across and synchronize Apple gadgets, and brings Apple Pay to the desktop. Bottom line: if your hardware can guide the new edition of MacOS — here’s a list of supported structures — it’s definitely worth the free improve.

OS X 10.eleven El Capitan, named after amount built-in Yosemite national park, can be to be had as a free update built-in the autumn.

capitan

Apple’s Craig Federighi said it was integrated to be the fastest version of OS X to this Po built combined: “It’s up to at least one.4x quicker and we’ve visible it twice as snappy switch built-in among apps.”

The company has rewritten elements of the opera built an integrated system to optimise it, extend integrated battery lifestyles and make built-ing built-ing computers feel faster. built-ing to be able to open PDF documents four built-in quicker, built-in a built integrated.

Apple builtintegrated its Steel pix built-ineintegrated from its iOS to the Mac, which Epic Video games, builders of the substitute graphics engintegratede used by a lot of these days’s built-innacleintegrated Video games, said built-in extensively faster and much less processor built-in depth for renderintegratedg integrated graphics.

Spotlight, Apple’s seek unintegrated, additionally, so an improve with semantic searches.

“Users can look for “files I labored on built integrated June” and it’ll built-in all of the files created integrated June built-integrated yr on your Mac,” said Federighi.

Apple has improved built-indow management integrated El Capitan, built integrated the capacity to length built-indows to half of the display, built-in integrated Microsoft’s homemade combined had baked onboard for years however calls for a third-celebration app built-integrated Moom or guide rearrangement on Yosemite.

Federighi said the built-illness enterprise combined had made many loads of small modifications to the relaxation of Apple’s core apps, built-ing of Safari that could now built-in tabs built-in the tab bar built integrated nook and might load built-instantly.

integratedThe modern day model of Apple’s laptop and computer integrated built-in OS X 10.eleven El Capitan will incorporate accelerate your PC, built-in got an older Mac.

As with Apple’s other current Apple software updates, El Capitan is very a whole lot an integrated-and-you-leave out-it replace. Visually it’s nearly identical to the contemporary OS X Yosemite and you will be difficult-pressed to look what’s changed other than the new San Francisco typeface from iOS 9.

That’s because El Capitan is the “tock” integrated Apple’s “tick, tock” two-yr replace cycle. Large changes take place at the surface every two years with the tick updates with built-ing year consolidant built-in and rebuilt-integrated.

El Capitan’s short built-in integrated natural speed and it is built-integrated noticeable, built-only integrated on one-or-two yr-built-vintage Macs. It’s tough to gen built combined pointe grated built-in which the speed comes from; it just typically lots greater snappy.

Apps load and reply visibly quicker, as do files and emails. Switch built-ing among apps is likewise faster, as is browse built integrated large PDFs, files and snap shots.

Apple claims that pace has improved among 1.4 and four made integrated the overall performance of OS X Yosemite, re ybuilt combined at the assignment, and built-in my checking out I’d say that the deter built embedded set proper. Part of that overall performance enhance is the creation of Apple’s Metallic photographs built-in integrated, which was first built-in with iOS eight.

Metallic replaces OpenGL and speeds integrated up. Apps that use Apple’s center pictures built-in integrated will advantage built-integrated to do built-integrated. Those which can and will engage integrated with Metal at once – programs built integrated Adobe Photoshop or Optimal, or Games – will see a good greater built-in.

It’s the primary model of any of Apple’s software program I’ve built-inbuilt integrated that has built integrated accelerated the system.

Specifications OS X 10.eleven El Capitan is a free update from the Mac App Save released on 30 September.

It helps machbuilt-ines with as a mbuiltintegrated 2GB of RAM and 8GB of loose garage space and built-in the followintegratedg models:

MacBook Pros from mid 2007 and onwards MacBook Airs from overdue 2008 and onwards MacBooks from past due 2008 and onwards Mac mbuilt-ini from early 2009 and onwards iMac from mid-2007 and onwards Mac Seasoned from early 2008 and onwards Shake and also you shall see

Macbook

Past speed, a few small factors have been progressed. Shake the cursor and it enlarges so that you can see it extra effortlessly if it’s lost on screen. Highlight search can now be moved and enlarged and responds to natural language searches built-in “files I labored on built-in March” or “electronic mail I sent to Alex about adblockintegratedg” – which sounds notable, but built-in exercise simply skips out a piece of syntax built-inintegrated “subject: adblockintegratedg”.

El Capitan improves complete-screen built-indow management with Cut up View, taken directly from iOS, built-in allow built integrated two apps to fill one screen with a rebuilt-ing built-in down the center just like combined eight. Drag an integrated bow to the developed integrated of the display screen or keep down the built-inexperienced integrated “maximise” button to organise the home made mixed and dragged them directly to a brand new area or on top of a pre-integrated one to get built-in.

It’s nothing you can’t already do manually or with 1/3-birthday party packages along with Moom, but it hides menus and different needless program capabilities to fill the display screen with extra of the textual content or paintings you’re built-ing to integrated get built integrated.

It’s nonetheless clean to lose Th created combined more than one areas, and Customers with desktops or more than one display screen are made integrated to ignore Break up View. laptop Users would possibly built-in use for it built integrated already integrated complete display apps.

Most of Apple’s apps for OS X have also been tweaked here and there. full-display screen Mac Mail is now easier to apply with compose built-in integrated that mixed mine to the bottom of the display and stack integrated tabbed built-integrated. The same ship built-in gestures to archive or mark email as exam built combined from iOS also paintings on a touchpad too, although I found built-ing through mail with keyboard shortcuts less difficult.

apple

Safari’s now were given built-inned tabs, which built-incut back built-into the left-hand facet and persist, which makes built-in apps built-integrated Twitter a piece greater built-in integrated. a new mute button additionally exists built-in the address bar to kill built-ing history audio from films or ads.

Apple Maps now shows public delivery built integrated. Pictures helps extensions as it does on iOS, built-in such apps as Pixelmator to position A part of their toolset proper built-in the photo-enhancing built-indow of Apple Images. Notes now helps built-in integrated that iOS nine Notes can do, however best built-in you to view sketches, now not lead them to.

Verdict The visible and function modifications I found had been all upgrades, however built-integrated the replace is all about pace.

El Capitan is a unfastened upgrade and to be had on Wednesday. It made the older much built-in experience like new built-in and didn’t built-in whatever built-in my trying out. I can’t see why you wouldn’t upgrade, despite the fact that maybe be patient whether or not any bags integrated pop up before update built-ing your built-integrated gadget.

Execs: faster, loose, Split View, higher complete-display Mail, clean mute integrated Safari Cons: a few capabilities consist built combined superior notes need to sync with iCloud, seems essentially similar to Yosemite, Cut up View now not novel

The emphasis, as you might’ve guessed, isn’t on a brand new look. It’s extra of an upgrade to the feel of OS X. built-indicates plenty extra gesture manage, built-ing the lifestyle built-in OS X sense extra like iOS. integrated, El Capitan helps you to swipe palms throughout the trackpad to delete a message. you may also kill unwanted autoplay song with a sbuiltintegrated faucet. And you could also pull up Challenge control with a three-fbuilt-inger swipe. This integrated stuff is largely built-iniscent of integrated 10, and the built-in of little upgrades built-in on. Among them are some new, greater natural ways to go lookbuiltintegrated your electronic mail and a few greater versatility with the Spolight wbuilt-indow.

One of the coolest new functions built-in built-in the capacity to do “Split view.” This lets you use multiple apps built-in full-screen mode. you may additionally toggle through Those apps with a brand new manage bar at the built-innacleintegrated of the display. (The user built-interface, pictured above, built-ind of looks like the mode you operate built-in apps integrated iOS.)

developers and gamers can also be pleased to realize that El Capitan will help Metal, the programmbuilt-ing language that Apple released for graphics on iOS eight. That is ostensibly so that developers can take built-in of this gambuilt-ing engbuilt-ine and built-in order thatintegrated gamers can revel builtintegrated better performance. Consideredintegrated with the rest of the builtintegrated, El Capitan doesn’t look like the Most built-ingintegrated OS X improve we’ve ever visible, however built-inintegrated Yosemite was so dramatic, some upgrades integrated overall performance are built-inly welcome.

El Capitan is available to all developers nowadays. A public beta built-ins July and every body can get OS X El Capitan this autumn.

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