Aftermath

Warning: this post is graphic.

No shave November!

   It doesn't take a lot to ruin someone's life. We are, for all our power and intelligence, very fragile creatures. Our lives can end quicker than it took to be delivered. Seconds... that's all it takes. For those who lose their lives, while tragic sometimes, it is not really them who seem to suffer, (although since I am writing this, I can't really say I have any first hand evidence to back that claim up!) it is their family and friends who suffer. Those who survive tragedy have theirs and their family's life disrupted too and sometimes ruined completely.

   I am writing this blog with one hand (so forgive any typos) for this very reason. On November 26th, the day before Thanksgiving, someone not paying attention disrupted my family's and my life in a split second. As I was driving home from school on my motorcycle on interstate 10 as I always do, a man in a black sedan entered the freeway and without signaling or looking, immediately merged into my lane and hit me from my right side. This sent me into the third lane on my left where I was then sideswiped on my left side at full freeway speeds (about 60 mph). I then fell and slid for a long while. As I slid I could see other cars barreling towards me trying as hard as they could to stop in time.

   When my slide came to a stop I immediately lifted the bike as far as I could and pulled free my trapped and mangled left foot. I took off my helmet which I am glad I was wearing as later I would see that the face shield was ruined and that would have been my face if not for that helmet. (always wear a helmet guys, they even look cool so if nothing else do it for that reason) I then tried to stand. I was stopped though, not only by pain, but two random men who stopped and told me they were trained nurses. One of them called an ambulance while the other helped me to the side of the freeway. After all, I was sitting in the middle of a 4 lane interstate.

The one near my toe goes to the bone.

   I thanked them at the scene, but if perhaps they ever see this post in the future, I hope they understand that no words of thanks can express my gratitude sufficiently. You are heroes in your own respects. Quickly I learned that the lady who had side swiped me on the left side stopped too and apologized to me. Her apology hurt me because I knew it was sincere and I could hear how worried she was, but in no way was this her fault and I told her so. However, the person at fault was no where to be found. He didn't slow down, attempt to pull over, then get scared and change his mind. He just kept going. Before he hit me I looked him straight in the eye. Our eyes met for a split second before colliding. He had no idea if he had just taken the life of the person he had locked eyes with or not, but that did not factor into his decision of cowardice.

   Although I was in pain, I really didn't think my injuries were so bad. I knew I had lots of deep cuts and scrapes, lots of bruising, and a swollen stiff elbow but nothing too serious. I even told my father I'd probably be released that same day. Wrong. In fact my arm was broken near the elbow and the bone was beginning to pierce through the skin. You know people always say, "Oh no, you'd KNOW if you broke it." I'm here to call bull shit on that statement. My elbow hurt a lot, but having never broken a bone, but spraining an ankle and taking many spills before, I really didn't feel like it was broken. Turns out it was broken in one of the worst ways and required surgery. Surgery is a really scary thing. It takes a lot to scare me, but to think that you cannot breath for yourself while under anesthesia and there is always a possibility of death is frightening. That... and a catheter...

That little white spec towards the end of my elbow is the bone starting to show.

   So my Thanksgiving was spent in a hospital room alone and in pain. I had told my mom to leave the night before despite her insisting to stay. Not all was gloomy and dismal though, my family brought me plastic containers filled far too full with Thanksgiving dinner later that day and sat with me as I ate and took pain medication. My appetite is only now returning to normal, but that was pretty good turkey and I ate as much as I could.

   Which brings me to my next point, and one that is probably most important. My family. Before I went to Japan I wrote a post explaining my role in the family as a sort of shield for them. I am the strong one. But recently this shield has bent and broken and in my weakness they have been strong. I really could not do this alone. I am strong, and I will never fully rely on anyone no matter what the circumstances, but even the strongest need a bit of help. They have not let me down. From dressing the wounds I cannot get to, to helping me get a cold soda from the fridge. They are amazing people and I love them more than you can imagine.

   To whoever this man was that did this to me, to my family, you are a coward. I am quite angry to say the least. Not because you weren't paying attention and hit me. Which is ironic since today's post is coming so soon after this post where I remind drivers to be careful with motorcyclists. I am angry because you were too much of a coward to face what you had done. I wouldn't have been mad if he came to me and apologized. In the end it was an accident. One that could have been avoided, but an accident all the same. Now I have hospital bills I cannot pay for, pain doing the most basic things, a plate in my arm, a disrupted life, and a stressed out family.

   I am thankful that my life was not taken. You hear all the time when someone dies, "He/she probably didn't even feel it," "He/she probably blacked out before it happened." If I had died that day, I would have seen everything. I was conscious through it all and I saw every vehicle barreling towards me trying to stop as I was laying on the ground. I would have seen my own death. At the start of this post I mentioned we are fragile creatures and that is true. But we are awkwardly amazing too. The human body can survive an accident that claims many lives every year with relatively little damage, only to be rendered helpless by that little damage doing the most basic things... like peeing. Peeing is a freakin' chore right now...

#BringDownJulianBlanc

   Hello everyone, just a quick and raw post tonight because there is something kind of disturbing going on. Some of you may not know about it but there is a certain "pick-up artist," or "dating coach" holding seminars teaching other men how to pick up women.

   As a hopelessly single guy I might think, hey that sounds pretty cool, maybe he knows something us unfortunate bachelor's do not. But then you see his videos and his... "techniques" and it is quite hard not to be disgusted. The techniques he uses are just demoralizing towards women and borderlines on abuse. In his video he shows a trip to Japan where he grabs women's heads and forces them into his crotch. These are the types of things he is teaching people. This is an excerpt from that video:

"At least in Tokyo, if you're a white male, you can do what you want. I'm just romping through the streets, just grabbing girls' heads, just like, head, pfft on the dick. Head, on the dick, yelling, 'pikachu,' with a pikachu shirt."

   This is not just something that is going on in Tokyo either, he is doing this everywhere and holding seminars around the world.

   So what can you do? Well so far he has had his passport revoked in Australia because of an overwhelming number of people signing a petition against him. Please do us all a favor and sign the petition too. This guy is disgusting and a disgrace to what it means to be a man. Do not let him come to your city and teach people these disgusting "techniques."

Full article from "The Guardian" here.

Halloween and Day of the Dead

 

   Halloween and Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) has come and gone. Are you sad to see it go? Are you the type who stays up all night dressed in a ridiculous costume binge eating sweets watching Hollywood horrors? What is Halloween to you?

   For some it is a day for the kids. For others it is the one day you can be a kid again and get away with it. For others still, it is the Day of the Dead. I haven't really liked Halloween since that time in my childhood where I wanted to dress like nothing but Dracula for so many years in a row. I don't know why but I got out of the whole dressing up thing when I was pretty young.

   In addition to that, I never really understood Day of the Dead even though it is popular with Mexican culture. I am part Mexican and quite proud of that, but at the end of the day I can't really identify with that side of my heritage. I was, after all, raised by my very loving, and very white, mother. (Who ironically knows far more Spanish than I do go figure.) So Dia de los Muertos was completely lost on me. I didn't understand that it was any different from Halloween. I mean, people dressed up, skeletons are all over the place, the only difference I really saw is that it is slightly more colorful.

 
   This year I figured I would go downtown to see a Halloween costume contest. What I found, much to my delight however, were people setting up little booths and shrines of sorts for the Day of the Dead. Many of these were beautiful and very labor intensive for sure. I even stumbled upon these guys who were glad to talk to me about what was going on that day and took real pride in their work. I have no idea how much of it was set up prior, but I can tell you they were working on it for hours before and after I got there and the result was fantastic. They were kind enough to give me their Facebook page which you can check out here: AlamoBasementSA.

   I saw many different booths and each were highly decorated. I even saw one dedicated to Robin Williams which I thought was pretty cool. He was my favorite actor after all. (Go see his non-comedic movies. That really shows what kind of an actor he was.) Still, seeing all these really didn't grant me any more understanding as to what Day of the Dead really was, beautiful though they may have been.




   That is... until I discovered the most eye opening piece of art work I think I have ever personally seen. Tucked away behind a wall so you may very well have missed it was a piece that was so unassuming I almost passed it by. I am glad that I didn't. A simple dead sapling tree (or branch disguised to look like one) is all it was with ornaments hung from its bare twigs like a very sad rendition of a Christmas tree. Underneath it was a blanket with  figures drawn that were reminiscent of much of what I had seen already that night. I was about to leave because beside it was a 6 or 7 foot tall booth dedicated to John Lennon, when something in my head told me to take a closer look at the piece. Perhaps this "something" comes from seeing so much art over time. When you view a piece, you must always try to see it from different angles, distances, and with different lighting. But perhaps it wasn't that at all, and maybe, just maybe something else called to me, beckoning me to see what this was actually all about. So for whatever reason I walked up closer to see the ornaments. What I saw, or rather what I read, will be in my memories forever. The minute I read some of the notes that were pinned to this poor little twig of a tree I felt that, "Oh it's nothing I just have something in my eye," feeling. Come on guys, you know which one I am talking about. For on these ornaments were messages to passed loved ones. Some were vague, some were written by children, and some celebrated the deceased by explaining to whoever read it what their favorite food in life was.

   I couldn't believe the beauty and sadness in this little otherwise unremarkable work of art. I can't explain to you how surprising and moving this was for me. The words scrawled on these little strips of paper touched a part of my soul I didn't even know existed. None of them were very long, a few words at most, but the love and care put into those few words were powerful enough to humble this average observer. Of all things, that showed me what the Day of the Dead was all about. It's not about ghosts and goblins. It's not about candy and costumes. Rather, Day of the Dead is about honoring, respecting, and remembering those who have left us. It's a time of sadness, but also a time of happiness knowing that we have a day dedicated especially to their memory. It is the Day of the Dead, but it is also a day of the living. On this day we can be thankful we are here to feel the sadness we feel for the deceased. We feel it, not really because they are dead, but rather because they were alive, and we miss them.

   The Day of the Dead is a reminder to everyone that life is fragile and precious. Precious because sometimes you can turn a corner down a path you never expected to go, and find the beauty of the human condition scrawled on a strip of paper hung on a twig.

   As always, thanks for reading everyone. I hope you had a great Halloween. If you'd like to follow me on twitter so you can be updated when I post new blogs, please look me up @thealexscene.

Motorcycles and Stereotypes

   I just saw something on the interwebz of a guy who filmed himself and a group of fellow motorcycle riders doing stunts on the highway and then being chased by a cop. This officer was behind the group of riders when he saw them speeding and performing "stunts" on the open highway. In the end the officer was outnumbered and decided it was best for himself and for the general safety of the public to leave so as not to encourage them further. This video was uploaded anonymously and police are looking for the riders. I will put the video down below.



   I myself drive motorcycles and I enjoy doing so. It's great to be out on the open road with the wind rushing by and the road stretched out in front of you. When you drive a motorcycle your whole body is one with the machine leaning to turn, sensing vibrations, and listening to the engine's requests to shift. It is an experience matched by very few things.

 
   One thing that bothers me though is the stereotype "bikers" have. To some people the word "biker" has become synonymous with crime and recklessness. The only things people think about when they hear someone drives a bike is either biker gangs or reckless young riders who are all over the news because they drove their motorcycle straight into another car. I tell people I am a motorcycle driver and I almost feel the need to caveat that with, "but I am not like the guys you see swerving in and out of traffic at 100mph." It really shouldn't be like that, yet it is.

   Part of the reason it is like that is because of riders like in this video here. There is absolutely no reason to put yourself and any other driver at risk like this. If you feel the need to "stunt," I get that completely, but that kind of stuff should be done on a closed track. Instead you have videos like this one perpetuating the negative stereotype of young riders and people all over the internet cheering them on because the officer left. I am amazed at people's naivety.

   Look, driving a motorcycle can be a dangerous thing to do and we all accept that every time we sit in the saddle. To all my fellow riders, there is absolutely no need to make it any more so. Furthermore there is no reason to feel like you are above the law just because you are on a bike.

   The last thing I want to say is, if you are not a motorcycle rider, please do not allow people like this to shape your image of us. Most of us are not like this at all. Remember to look out for us while on the road and give us more space and attention than you would a car. Drive safe everyone.

Why Freedom of Speech is Bad

   I am a firm believer in freedom of speech and freedom of press. Both are so important for the general well being of our country and our own selves that I could write a book on the topic. If freedom of speech and press were not available to us you would not be reading this blog. Our life as we know it has been shaped by freedom of speech.

   In Hong Kong right now a movement is happening because of China wanting the ability to approve Hong Kong's candidates for their 2017 elections. Hong Kong was once sort of "borrowed" by Britain and returned as per agreement to China in 1997 with the promise that Hong Kong would be able to operate as they had been under British rule, but still be a part of China. This meant that they could have democratic elections and other freedoms that came with democracy. Now however China wants to "approve" who Hong Kong can "democratically" elect into office. Because of this a peaceful protest on a massive scale began and police handled it poorly. It's interesting that police reacted the way they did, throwing tear gas and pepper spraying protesters, because Hong Kong has peaceful protests quite often, it is nothing necessarily new for them.

   This is not something that is only happening in Hong Kong though. Here in the U.S. we face our own problems all the time with freedom of speech and other freedoms. Perhaps we aren't facing exactly the same issues Hong Kong is, but we face our own all the time. It's just a part of an imperfect race trying to perfectly govern an imperfect race.

   Now that brings me to why freedom of speech, and more importantly for this post, freedom of press is bad.

   Something has been really bugging me lately. As I browse the internet which I so often do, (I am a computer science major after all so that's my excuse for being on a computer way too much) I am bombarded with news articles about this or that. I love it, I don't watch television much so being able to get so much news at basically all times without having to watch TV or waiting for the next day's paper is a blessing. What I can't stand though is how much crap is also out there. More disgusting is how many people accept it without question.

   Everyday I see things linked to me through Facebook, e-mails, YouTube, etc. that is just complete fear mongering click bate.

Allow me to rant for a minute about some things I have observed.

  Many times the things linked to me, especially on Facebook, are articles that the person linking has not fully read through themselves. The person linking it will say something like, "What is our country coming to??" and the article will be about France or the lost city of Atlantis... (not 100% sure about Atlantis!) Most of the time I disregard these articles because I naturally have a distrust for any "no name" news sources that I stumble across via Facebook. However, every once in a while a title grabs my interest and I end up reading it with a high level of skepticism as any informed media consumer should treat all things read from any source. When I get through the page I am usually just mortified that any self respecting journalist could write such a horrific, fear mongering, biased, short sighted, unreliable, and borderline untruthful article on anything. Sometimes I feel like reading the tabloids would be a more credible source of information.

   What I am saying here is this; freedom of speech and media is ever so important. Without it we would not have a voice when we really needed it. However, it's becoming a little bit like the boy who cried wolf. Media above all else must be trusted to spread accurate and honest information. When we have to second guess the validity of anything said from any news source, media becomes toxic at best. When you begin to abuse media and freedom of speech for your own selfish gains, it's not really you who loses out. You are stealing something from a society and potentially the entire world.

   To those of you who believe everything you see on Facebook, please research more extensively before you draw a conclusion. Unfortunately we cannot take news coverage at face value. Some may argue, "Have we ever?" and to that I would answer, "No," but there has always been a moral responsibility for journalists to follow. More and more this is becoming swept under the rug for internet traffic and "Likes." Just be careful everyone, there is some bad stuff out there that some sources are trying very hard to make you aware of. But their voice is being squelched by the fear mongering sensational media screaming, "OBAMA DRINKS RADIOACTIVE SPORTS DRINKS EVERY NIGHT BEFORE BED!"

   Really guys, just read.

Personal Projects

   Hello everyone. This is blog post #50. In the grand scheme of things that's really a small amount. Some blogs have literally thousands of posts and thousands of readers. For me though, 50 posts is pretty exciting.

  I guess this will be more of a brainstorming post though. If you have any thoughts on any of this or suggestions please leave them in the comment section below.

   So here is where I am at with my thoughts. For one I don't really know what I want to do with this blog in the future. I have been thinking about a few things. I do want to get a website going for a photography portfolio. When I do that this blog will be moved to that site. This is something I have been chewing on for a while and I think I know what I am going to do. That being said, it won't be for a while still. When I finally do it though I will be sure to update everyone with the new blog url. 

   At the end of the day this blog is a personal project. I like having personal projects, stuff that keeps me working towards a goal. Personal projects keep my mind going and challenges me creatively or as a person in general. I think these projects are important for everyone even if they are not creative projects. They are things we do for ourselves, not to get paid or to do really anything with. Sometimes though, at least in the creative world, those personal projects can open up other doors you would have otherwise never seen before. But a personal project is just that, something personal and dear to yourself. 

   On the topic of personal projects, other than this blog I really haven't had one since my Japan trip. I really don't have the time for one. Personal projects take a lot of time and effort. You can end up spending a lifetime on a single personal project. That's just the nature of the beast. I don't like not having an ongoing personal project and so I have been milling around for things to do. 

   It's pretty embarrassing to admit that I don't have an actual portfolio to show for my work. My photos have been so far spread and differing because I like to try to be a well rounded photographer. True, my favorite type of photography is photo journalism and street photography, but I try to stray away from being stuck on any one type of photography. If you have ever read Miyamoto Musashi's "The Book of Five Rings" then you would understand why I feel that way. This is good except that I have no portfolio. So I think my next personal project will be something that fills up a portfolio and works towards my goal of moving this blog to it's own site.

   Anyways what I am trying to say here is, be looking for a new personal project from me soon. If you are into that sort of thing then check back here every once in a while. Aside from that, if you have any ideas or suggestions for the blog please let me know. I really would like to reach post 100 and beyond if I can. It's fun, you know?

Photo Basics: ISO

   I realize these are probably my least read posts of all, but I would like to continue with my "photo basics" posts in the event that someone does find them useful and just isn't speaking up. I have many readers on this blog who, for whatever reason, have never left a comment. Or if someone finds these posts in the future and it helps them then I think it is worth it. For those of you who find these useful, thank you for patiently waiting for another. I put a hold on these posts for a while when I was abroad and just didn't get back into doing them afterwards.


   Let's jump into it. ISO. What is it? Why is it? Who is it? How does it taste? And so on. Perhaps I can't answer all of those but maybe I can answer some of the questions you have about ISO.

   When film was the only medium to shoot on there was a rating on each different film roll called an ASA rating. Lower ASA film needed more light to be properly exposed and not be too dark. These low number film rolls were usually marketed on the box as "for sunny days," or whatever. The higher your ASA, the less light a particular roll of film needed from your scene. This meant the film was more sensitive to light and it also meant more "grain." This grain was little flecks of silver that would show up in the image. So as a general rule, lower ASA less grain good for bright days, higher ASA more grain but better for darker scenes.

   But how does that relate to digital photography? We no longer use film, so what do we need to know ASA ratings for? Well you still need to record the information your camera captures onto something. Back in the day this was film, but now film has been replaced by light sensitive digital sensors. Though it isn't film, we still need some way of knowing how sensitive to light that sensor is just like with film. How do we do that?

    ISO stands for International Standards Organization. To put it simply these people took ASA ratings, matched them up with different sensor sensitivities and gave the sensors ISO ratings. So in theory 100 ASA = 100 ISO. This isn't exactly true but as a very crude generalization, that's good enough. So in turn this also means that the lower the ISO, the more light the sensor needs, and the higher the ISO the less it needs. But unlike with film grain, we get something a little bit different in digital sensors called "noise" as we change our sensors sensitivity higher.

   This "digital noise" happens to all electronics as you push them further and further. For the sake of simplicity I won't explain that much in detail but if you'd like to know more (and you're a nerd like me) there are tons of sites explaining all the small details of how digital noise is introduced into electronics. Digital noise doesn't quite look like film grain though because digital noise shows up as random specs of color throughout the image, mostly in darker areas of the photo. Photographers can kind of bend reality to make it look close to film grain, but in the end grain is grain and noise is noise. At the end of the day just remember that higher ISOs have a lot of noise and unlike film grain, it doesn't look as nice.

Nikon D610 at 3200 ISO

   Some cameras handle this noise better than others. Older cameras or cheaper ones will have a

Nikon D5000 at 3200 ISO cheaper/older camera

whole lot of noise at, say, 1000 ISO, but a newer or more expensive camera may not have any at all. Many other factors play into how much noise comes in at higher ISOs like sensor size, megapixel count, in camera processing, lighting, sensor manufacturer and so on. But really don't bother yourself with all of that. Generally all cameras are fairly good in low light at this point but some are better than others. Technology has come a long way in terms of ISO. On the right I have two examples of differently priced cameras from two different eras but at the same ISO. It's hard to tell but the Nikon D5000 doesn't hold up in low light as well. You may need to enlarge them to see what I mean. I'm pretty impressed with the Nikon D5000 though. It still held up quite well proving that older technology shouldn't be completely scrapped just yet.

   Some other things to consider when choosing which ISO to use are color and detail. When you go up through the ISO ranges colors start to change a little. Not so much that red becomes blue, but what you thought was bright orange may not be so vibrant as you climb to higher ISOs. Again, the difference is subtle, but sometimes it makes all the difference. Detail also takes a hit at higher ISOs. If an image is cluttered with digital noise, hard edges become softer. In my opinion (as with anything on this blog) I think it is best to shoot at the lowest ISO possible for the amount of light available and the image I am trying to capture.

   If you have read my other photo basics posts then you will know that aperture and shutter speed go hand in hand when properly exposing an image. Now you must also think about ISO. In a future post I will put all three together and explain how each one effects the other.

   Here are some examples of what different ISO's do. Keep an eye on two things as you look through each image. One: the black box and shadow area to the right of the motorcycle helmet. Here is where you will see the digital noise the most. Two: the color of the chair. Watch as it changes ever so slightly as I climb the ISO ranges. No editing was done to these images. I merely took the RAW files straight from the camera and converted them to JPEG for this blog.

Nikon D610 100 ISO

Nikon D610 200 ISO

Nikon D610 400 ISO

Nikon D610 1600 ISO

Nikon D610 25600 ISO (looks like a dumb instagram filter)

   Anyways guys I hope this helped. If you have any questions, feedback, suggestions, or anything else, please leave a comment. I read them all.