I've decided to consolidate my two blogs (It's A Binary world and It's A Binary World 2.0) onto this blog so that everything can be in one place. For clarity's sake, I will add [1.0] to the beginning of each of those entries, but generally speaking, anything before Feb 2005 is from the old blog.
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Posted By Eric Mesa on May 18, 2013
In response to the fact that most of the spam comments on my site are on older articles and given that historically no one has commented on posts older than a couple years anyway, I’m enabling WordPress’ auto-close on comments for posts older than 2 years.
Posted By Eric Mesa on May 17, 2013
Remember earlier this week when I said the gun control debate was now pointless? Apparently the State Department wants to pretend that what I said isn’t true. In a complete misunderstanding of how the Internet works, they have compelled the website holding the CAD designs for the 3D gun to remove the CAD file. The reasoning is that leaving it up would be exporting munitions (since everyone all over the world can go to a web page) This, of course, ignores the fact that it was already obtained over 100 000 times and is already on Bit Torrent. Oh well. I guess pointless moves are better than nothing in their eyes.
Posted By Eric Mesa on May 16, 2013
One of the biggest trends on flickr is to start a 365 Project. This usually means taking one self-portrait a day for an entire year. This project is often misunderstood by those outside of flickr, especially since they’re used to the selfie-culture of MySpace and Facebook. It’s not a vanity project. A 365 Project is about taking the adage about becoming a better writer through writing every day to photography. It also has a special bonus of teaching the photographer what it’s like to be the subject. Many of us photo-geeks are behind the camera way more often than we’re in front of it. Sometimes we struggle with how to communicate to our subjects how to achieve the vision we have in our head. By being both the photographer and the subject, we learn to appreciate both points of view.
Unfortunately, the 365 Project is also the most often abandoned project on flickr. Lots of people start with a lot of energy and can’t make it past a month or two. So I wanted to put together a few tips to help get you through the process.
Some people out there have some pretty incredible 365 images. So it can be discouraging when all you can think of is something like this:
Don’t worry about it. Because it’s when you get fixated on how good or bad the photo is that you miss the point. By making sure you participate every day, you don’t fall out of the project. It’s very hard to be creative every single day. Don’t get hung up on it. Just shoot. Otherwise you can’t get to better photos like this one:
Also, sometimes the simplest ones can end up becoming your favorites when you go back and visit the images later. This is one of my favorite simple images and it’s my current profile photo on Steam:
One of the best uses I got out of my 365 Project was learning how to work with lighting. I had a lighting kit and built up some backgrounds and then made some images I really loved as I learned the different lighting techniques:
There might be some movies or books that you could try to replicate. I decided to do this with Bible scenes and ended up with one of my most complex images ever, a recreation of The Last Supper:
Depending on how good you are on telling stories, you might choose a series of week-long stories or do one story that spans the entire year. I ended my 365 with a story. Here’s the first image and you can follow along on flickr to see how it ends:
Or try out a theme. One of the most popular is the Seven Deadly Sins.
One of the ways I was able to keep getting new ideas was to join a few 365 groups. Some of them are generic 365 groups and I could see what others were doing and sometimes that would spur some creativity in me. Other groups are challenge based like Macro Monday or Half-Nekked Thursday. They give you a theme to aim for every day.
Hopefully these tips can help keep you motivated. I think completing my 365 was one of the biggest accomplishments I’ve had outside of work and school. It was hard while I was doing it, but it was great to have finished. In fact, I was so proud of it, that I even had it made into a book. It’s a great documentation of a time in my life when a lot of changes were happening so it’s great for more than one reason and I’d recommend it to everyone who wants to improve their photography.
Posted By Eric Mesa on May 15, 2013
On 30 April of this year I came across an article on Eater about how restaurants can deal with No-Shows. I didn’t even know this was a big enough thing that restaurants have multiple strategies to deal with it. Every time I’ve made a reservation to a restaurant, I’ve gone. I set reservations because I (or I and my wife and whoever else is involved) have decided to go out to eat and want to be sure we’ll not have to wait too long to be seated. Or, in the of exclusive restaurants, ensure we’ll actually get a table. I could understand people not showing up because of a life event – someone gets sick or dies. But I don’t understand the mindset of making a reservation without an intention to attend. Additionally, the biggest reason I make reservations is, as stated above, to ensure I get a table in a reasonable amount of time. Nearly every place I’ve ever made reservations at has a line out the door and even with a reservation I sometimes have to wait 15-30 minutes for my table. That said, they wouldn’t write this whole article if there weren’t a bunch of people skipping out on reservations so I wanted to answer their suggestions.
The first one is to not take reservations. You know what this gets you? It means I don’t go to your restaurant. I value my time and I appreciate restaurants that value my time. The lobby area is usually not amenable to socializing or eating. So if I’m out with friends I want to get to our table so we can talk and have fun. If I’m with my family, I want to eat and GTFO so I can get back to having fun. And the larger my party is, the more I NEED a restaurant that takes reservations because we require more empty tables to make up our eating area. So on the times that would have been most lucrative for the restaurant – parties of 10-15 people – I avoided them due to a lack of reservations. And the workers REALLY missed out because usually if it’s that many of us, it’s my in-laws. And they usually insist on paying. And they tend to tip 20-25%. (They really value good service)
Overbooking is somewhat dangerous. My wife and I are fiercely loyal. We’re also fiercely shunning. There are restaurants we have completely sworn off because of a bad to horrible experience there. And one of our peeves is not being seated within a reasonable time with reservations. Now, we’re intelligent folks. We understand that managing restaurant flow is an art. You have no idea how long your customers are going to take. My mother, when out with only adults, might be at the table for 2-3 hours. My wife and I have closed two restaurants when eating out with her friends. My father-in-law insists on leaving the second the check is completed. And he’s asking for the check the second he’s done eating. So if I have a reservation for 2000, a busy time, I can tolerate being seated at 2015 or even 2020. But after 2030, I start wondering and commenting aloud on what the purpose of reservations are if I’m not seated at that time. After all, when I go out to eat I like to enjoy my food, so I often make sure not to eat any snacks. I want my stomach ready to receive as much food from your restaurant as possible. So I’m usually hungry as I stand there.
Requiring credit cards is OK. As I said, I always make my reservations with the intention of fulfilling them. But you better have a rational way for me to cancel without penalty. If I get the flu a few days ahead and call you, I better be able to get all my money back. And, ideally, you’d combine this with the next suggestion of tracking cancelers. Because I believe everyone should get one freebie. If I get sick on that day or get in a car crash or my mom dies or something and you charge me for not showing up like some kind of jerk – you can be your food I will never show up at your restaurant again. And I may be a lowly blogger, but for something like that, I’d do my best to make sure it gets out there – because that’s a jerk move. And by tracking, you’d be able to know that it’s not like I’m on my third mother dying, if you catch my drift.
The pre-paid ticket system COULD be weird. I’m not completely against it, unless it ends up becoming something where the tickets are sold on the second-hand market at a premium. Like if one guy can buy most of the tickets and then sell them for more – I don’t care how awesome your food is supposed to be. It could literally be orgasm-inducing and I wouldn’t go. I know damn-well that my wife wouldn’t let me spend more for food than the food actually costs – which is what the ticket system would represent – buying a ticket to a fixed price menu.
Public shaming would only work together with tracking. Again, don’t be a jerk if you don’t know all the details. If I’m already depressed because my mom died, I’m not going to feel a whole lot better because some jerk called me out on twitter or Facebook. That’s the kind of stuff that could lead to the mentally unbalanced taking revenge. Don’t do it. It’s tacky.
Again, I’m not in the restaurant business so maybe this is a HUGE problem. I’ve never seen any evidence of that in any of the restaurants I’ve been to that range from medium class to high class. They always seem to be packed and have tons of people trying to get in. But if you do feel that you need to take these steps – beware. I’m sure I’m not the only person out there you might be shunning from your restaurant. And, really, your goal as a businessman (or woman) is to make as much money as possible so you shouldn’t be turning people away.
Posted By Eric Mesa on May 14, 2013
The Liberator – the world’s first working 3D Printed Gun
I’m sorry Obama, Sandyhook victims, and everyone else. You’ve already lost the gun issue. Not because of politicians, but because of technology. We have working 3D printed guns. It’s over. On 6 May my RSS feed reader was ablaze with articles about the working 3D-printed gun including this article from Ars, another article from ars, and one from Boing Boing. This is the same guy who previously created the ability to hold more bullets in semi-automatic guns using 3D printing. The articles all made sure to mention that the CAD files that were uploaded for this new gun had a section that was purposely made of metal to ensure it could be detected by magnetometers. Only one article mentioned that this was a bull-crap attempt at not getting too much flack from anti-gun people. Because there’s no reason why someone who got the CAD files couldn’t change that to be made of plastic and have a nearly undetectable gun. The gun only fires a few rounds, but under the right circumstances that could be more than enough.
Jonathan Hickman, writer on Fantastic Four and Avengers, tweeted that this is the beginning of the end of being able to declare things illegal. I tend to agree with him. The government can make an effort to stop the proliferation of CAD files for things it doesn’t want private citizens to build, but there isn’t an effective way to do that. Look at the horrible job they’re doing of keeping music and movies from being shared. And if they were somehow able to make it so it couldn’t spread online, it’d be all but impossible to prevent its spread via USB sticks and other offline media. If they tried to force Microsoft and Apple to make this (or any other contraband) unspreadable via USB, people would turn to Linux and BSD. If they tried to make the 3D printers unable to print it, people would come up with custom ROMs. 3D Printing may end up being the most disruptive technology to society since the printing press.
So, just stop worrying about gun control. Who will run background checks when people can print their own guns?
note: for the record, I’m for gun control and all that. I just think it’s pointless at this point given technology
Posted By Eric Mesa on May 13, 2013
My favorite thing about being a first-time father is watching Scarlett’s mind develop and acquire the skills necessary to be human. Anyone who paid a passing attention in biology class knows that humans are born more immature and less capable than almost every other animal. It has to do with walking upright shrinking the female pelvis while the ever-growing brain required a larger head. The result is that kids have to be born before their heads would be so large we’d be exploding from our mother’s vaginas like a horrible, horrible version of Alien. (As it is, quite a few women need an episiotomy to have a safe childbirth) And I’m not the only one to find this transformation into humanity so incredible as to refer to babies as not quite human. Jonathan Coulton mentions this in a throwaway line about his living situation while recording his song, The Presidents:
My studio stuff was all in my daughter’s room. She was still just a dumb baby for the first part of Thing a Week, but it got harder to keep my stuff in her room the more she turned into an actual child.
The most recent thing I’ve noticed and which melts my fatherly heart is that Scarlett seems to have started discovery of empathy sometime in April. Whereas she previously was was vehemently against snuggling and being hugged, she suddenly wanted to put her head on my shoulder and feel calm as I hugged her. I was seriously confused before this point why every time I (or anyone else) hugged or snuggled her, she seemed desperate to escape. And she’s also made the connection that hugging is something to be done with entities you feel an affinity for, including her dolls and stuffed animals which she doesn’t yet distinguish from being real. She has a special place in her little heart for her green dragon. Every time she sees it, she hugs the heck out of it. Second to that is her pink penguin. There are other stuff animals she variously hugs, but those are her favorites. It’s incredibly hard to catch this cute gesture on camera. It typically doesn’t last very long (toddler attention spans and all) and even with my dSLR, I need time to focus. My wife got the best shot so far:
Scarlett Hugs her Dragons
Originally I was only going to write about how she’s been learning this whole empathy angle, but in the past 2 weeks or so she’s started to display a new emotion – jealousy. I mention it here because it manifests most often in a way nearly all parents will be familiar. She might be ignoring her green dragon. As soon as I pick it up and start hugging it – she wants it. She’d be in full-on “mine” mode if she was talking already. Danielle recounted to me last week that it’s starting to expand to items she doesn’t outright own. At the library she was done with a rocking horse until another kid started using it. She started yelling at the girl in baby gibberish. Perhaps it’s a good thing she’s not talking yet.
Posted By Eric Mesa on May 10, 2013
Citi Bank is one of those too big to fail banks
Matt Taibbi wrote a story on 1 May about how there is a possibility of the end of banks that are too big to fail. The biggest issue I have with the way the financial crisis has been dealt with is the complete hypocrisy. Now, I’m not so naive as to fail to realize that politicians just say what they will and hope that people don’t look at what their saying either because of party bias or the media doesn’t cover it so they can worry about the latest media tart’s exploits. After all, the biggest retort to every bit of legislation to help the vulnerable (whether that be the environment or the poor) is that the free market should be allowed to work. Well, in a free market a lot of banks would have gone bust and perhaps we would have learned out lessons. Of course, the big difference this time is the money involved. Money can turn any politician into a hypocrite instantly. So I’m glad to read in this article that some politicians are attempting to pass a law that would require the riskiest of banks to hold more money in reserve. Because I understand why the government has to bail out the banks – we don’t want a global collapse to lead to the end of our awesome first world luxurious life. But rather than need a bail out or financial collapse, what if we just had a system where banks could fail and it wouldn’t destroy the system. Taibbi goes off on a huge tangent about how the content of a Standard and Poor white paper on this bill means that Wall Street is actually scared of the bill. It’s a good read if you don’t have blood pressure problems. Unfortunately, the article ends with the prediction that it probably won’t even make it out of committee, but at least someone is trying.
Posted By Eric Mesa on May 9, 2013
It’s once again time for my biweekly Photojojo post. For those of you who haven’t been following my blog for a long time, Photojojo is a digital time capsule service. Every two weeks they send me an email that has my most interesting photos posted to flickr from one year ago.
Scarlett’s only 2-2.5 months old in these photos and the most striking things are how tiny she is and how much in awe she seems of the world around her. No mean feat considering how tiny she remains compared to her peers. But it definitely takes a lot more to astound her than it did a year ago.
Posted By Eric Mesa on May 8, 2013
It is a fact of life that things will be bootlegged. (commonly called pirated, but this is one area where I strongly agree with rms. Piracy is a horrible thing where people get kidnapped on the ocean and die. I have in-law relatives who have died from pirates. So I don’t find it cute to compare that with people who acquire things without paying for them) We usually think of digital items, but go to Chinatown in New York and you’ll see the same thing going on with physical objects. So what’s a company to do? My least favorite route is digital restrictions management (DRM) because it just makes things a real pain in the butt for legitimate users. (It also makes criminals of people who just want to rip their DVDs and BluRays to their laptops or media centers) My favorite tactic (which works best with games, but I’ve seen it with music and movies), is to mess with the person who didn’t pay for it. I’ve seen games that are extremely mean about it (mean being in the eye of the beholder since these people didn’t pay for the game) where they make it so that the final bad guy is unbeatable (after all those hours!). Others glitch out halfway through. Game Dev Tycoon developer Greenheart Games was able to use the subject of their game (in which you’re a game developer – META!) to come up with a unique solution. On the same day the game came out, they started a torrent with a slightly modified version of the game. It works just like the paid version for a while. Then you get this message from your developers:
Greenheart Games – Game Dev Tycoon – Message in Illicit Copies of the Game
That says:”Boss, it seems that while many players play our new game, they steal it by downloading a cracked version rather than buying it legally. If players don’t buy the games they like, we will sooner or later go bankrupt.” Of course, whenever developers make glitched up illicit versions of their games, the developers have a good time laughing at the complaints in the forums that only they know tip them off that the posters are running illicit software. But, this was even better because you can always count on the Internet to fail when it comes to irony. Here are quotes from their forums:
Guys I reached some point where if I make a decent game with score 9-10 it gets pirated and I can’t make any profit. It barely sells 100k units…I am during the Xbox 1 and the PS2 gen. Back in the 80s and 90s I could easily make a 1m sales with a 9-10 game but now its not possible due to the piracy. It says bla bla our game got pirated stuff like that. Is there some way to avoid that? I mean can I research a DRM or something…
So far I am going no where. My profit is little to none. If I make an average game 5-7 I get some cash which is understandable but then if I make an 9-10 game I earn the same cash because I get the message for the piracy…
For the past 6-7 games I ended up with the same amount of money or a few grand less.
So what I have to do now? There’s no point in inventing a new engine because the revolutionary game made out of it will get pirated and I will not be able to cover my expenses.
What are there so many people that pirate? It ruins me! I had like 5m and then people suddenly started pirating everything I made, even if I got really good ratings (that I usually get) Not fair.
Remember, these complaints are coming from people who didn’t pay for the game themselves.The developers have a great blog post about this process and how they believe if things don’t change we’re just going to get more and more crappy online games. It’s a good read. I don’t know what’s going to happen to Greenheart Studios, but I do applaud them for taking this method of dealing with illicit users. I enjoy not having to worry about DRM or how many computers I can install the game on.
Ars, whose gaming articles I usually enjoy, ran a weird followup article entitled Piracy or baiting? In it they considered whether Greenheart Games could go after the illicit users or if the fact they put it onto Bittorrent themselves meant it was meant to be obtained that way. I doubt that could be true, because the entire music industry standard around 2005 was seeding the P2P networks with messed up MP3s. I don’t think anyone could have argued it was, therefore, ok to be trying to obtain those files. Either way, it gets beside the point (which Ars itself pointed out early in the article) that these guys are trying to play games without compensating the two-man team that worked on it. It’s not any less illegal to do it from big companies, but they’ve already built that into the price. You’re disproportionately hurting small developers when you play their games without paying.
I’d prefer for more and more developers to take to this tactic rather than DRM so I always get excited when I hear these kinds of stories.
Posted By Eric Mesa on May 7, 2013
Firefox (aka Red Panda) busy Not Spying on You
A 1 May Ars article and 30 April Wired article mention that a UK company known as Gamma International is selling spyware that pretends to be Mozilla Firefox. Both articles mention that repressive governments have used it to spy on dissidents, but it’s unclear from the article whether the company purposely sells to evil governments or whether it sells this to anybody, including foreign governments. The Wired article mentions that Gamma markets it to governments in general and so, if pressed, would probably say that it’s not meant to be used by evil governments – just people like the FBI trying to catch criminals. Either way, Mozilla has sued for trademark infringement. I applaud them for doing so. Governments may have both legitimate and illegitimate reasons for spying on computer communications, but I don’t think they should be abusing the good will of other companies to do it. Imagine if Gamma was selling Ford cars that were bugged. No one would want to buy a Ford car for fear it might be a bugged version. Come on, guys! Figure out a solution that doesn’t screw over the folks at Mozilla.
Also on 1 May Ars had a story about how Google Glass could be exploited. My first instinct is that this was a PR nightmare for Google. They’re putting these devices into the hands of users as part of a beta test and generate media buzz and someone goes and figures out how the glasses could be rooted, allowing someone to take recordings (video, photo, and audio) without you knowing what’s going on. On second read, however, I realized this is PERFECT for Google (well, perfect would have been no exploits, but that’s not realistic). Right now they aren’t trying to get this device out to the public – they’re trying to find all the problems that would make it DOA when it goes out to the public. Almost nobody in the general public is following these stories and so they won’t be spooked by it. And Google gets to fix the devices before they get out there. In fact, it could even be spun as, “No, don’t worry about those fears – we handled it during the beta period.”
When I discussed the story with my wife we were trying to figure out the worst possible scenarios. Like no one is probably going to wear Google Glass during sex. No one I know who has glasses wears them during sex – they end up getting knocked about. But even if you did, it’s probably not going to show the parts most people care about (compared to a camera you’re not wearing) most of the time. More likely would be photos of you spouse and others you live with in various states of undress. But what’s even scarier to me is someone turning on the camera when you don’t know it’s on and then taking photos that make you look like a jerk – and could get you fired or thrown in jail. For example, in a public bathroom or locker-room. Or a shot that makes it look like you were taking a breast shot of someone. Would someone really believe the “I was hacked” defense?
Luckily, for now the exploit can only happen if someone has possession of your Google Glass. Given how much these things cost, I doubt anyone’s going to be letting anyone else use it out of their line of sight.
On a quick note: I’d wondered why my current WordPress theme (if you’re reading this before I’ve switched over to Twenty Thirteen at the end of May) hadn’t been updated to incorporate the newest features. In lots of other WP sites I have, the themes have been constantly updating. Turns out that the developer stopped working on WP themes a couple years ago. Bummer!
Posted By Eric Mesa on May 6, 2013
lil kids – CC licensed by jepoycamboy
I titled this Part 1 because I am sure I’ll have to revisit this topic in the future. Scarlett is only 1 and she barely cares for television, much less Disney animated films. However, if you don’t think about the future, it has a way of surprising you and finding you unprepared. Of course, as a kid, I loved the Disney cartoons. It was only in the last ten years or so that I came across any articles critical of Disney and how it might be corrupting our daughters. There’s always going to be some degree of hate towards the creators of mass media because we are powerless against them. They’re able to use emotions and psychology to affect us (or those around us) and bypass our rational thinking. Try telling some kid back in the late 90s he can’t have a Power Rangers toy because it promotes violence. He doesn’t know or care about that. He just wants to have one of the rainbow of action figures to play with his friends. Mass media is everywhere and the only way to keep it from affecting your kids is to lock them in the basement – they’ll see it on TV, movies, radio or from friends, teachers, and family members. And Hinds over at The Atlantic recounts how he was unable to keep his daughters from learning about the princesses, despite his best efforts. Interestingly enough, Hinds doesn’t really dwell much on why he’d want to do this to his daughters – it’s considered to be assumed knowledge – of COURSE people want to keep their kids away from Disney Princess Culture. But why?
I think the most common objection has do to with the princess passivity, but let me first turn to a new argument. Over at Make It Better, an interview with Peggy Orenstein, author of Cinderella at my Daughter, says that:
MIB: You write that Disney’s decision to heavily market princesses has brought them more than $4 billion in sales. Little girls obviously love it, so what’s the harm?
PO: It’s part of this culture that encourages girls to define themselves through beauty and play-sexiness—and eventually, real sexiness—and I don’t think that’s the yardstick we want our daughters measuring themselves by.
Now, perhaps this is something I’ll have a different opinion of in my Part 2 when Scarlett is dealing more directly with the princesses, but I don’t really see that. Take a look at this image of a few Disney Princesses:
Some Disney Princesses – not exactly dressed like sluts
With the exception of Jasmine – none of them are wearing anything that emphasizes sexiness. And I don’t know too many girls (even the most tomboyish ones I know) who don’t enjoy putting on a dress and getting dolled up when the occasion calls for it. (I think both of the sexes do truly enjoy looking their best at fancy functions like weddings, for example) Although, I could counter with the following:
Ariel Magazine Cover
My sister, Elizabeth, who is 20 years younger than me (long story), has this up in her room. I’ll be getting back to Lizzie later, but it was this faux magazine cover that originally inspired me to start thinking about this topic and this blog post. Specifically it is the Legs teaser that really got to me. I understood what the creator was going for – it’s a great pun on the story of The Little Mermaid as told by Disney. (Ignoring how much it differs from the original) It also works because it’s probably a teaser you’d see on Cosmo or Seventeen. But that’s what bugged me a bit. Like it was sending some kind of subconscious message to get girls thinking about their legs. It’s hard to say because except for the most blatant sexist or racist behavior, everything else can be seen as finding sexism where it isn’t really. (See my comment about how Lois Lane was drawn on the cover of Superman: Birthright for an example where I was on the other side of the argument – it’s about 3/4 of the way into the article) So it could be one of those things where we’re both right. If Scarlett’s main exposure is through the movies, then there isn’t really a huge focus on sex and beauty, but the commercial side of things might be a different story.
Really, the main complaints have to do with Disney Princesses supposedly teaching passivity and other bad feminine qualities:
The opposition between Cinderella and her two stepsisters is clear. While Cinderella is kind, patient, and sweet, her stepsisters are cruel and selfish. What is presented through these female characters, Cinderella being the central character, is a conflict between what personal traits are associated with physical traits. Although Cinderella is dressed in rags she is the more beautiful female and her sisters are stout and unattractive. These representations are then capable of teaching young girls what characteristics they should associate with specific physical attributes. Marcia R. Lieberman argues, “If a child identifies with the beauty, she may learn to be suspicious of ugly girls, who are portrayed as cruel, sly, and unscrupulous in these stories; if she identifies with the plain girls, she may learn to be suspicious and jealous of pretty girls, beauty being a gift of fate, not something that can be attained” (385). (from: Heroine Passivity)
and
Through the transformation Ursula is able to grant, Ariel becomes like other Disney princesses, in which being a passive and beautiful female is the proper way to be. When Ariel tells Ursula that without her voice she will not be able to communicate with Eric, Ursula says, “You’ll have your looks! Your pretty face! And don’t underestimate the importance of body language! Ha!” Ursula’s response emphasizes the suggestion that a woman’s voice, her ability to express and share her own opinions and decisions, hardly matters since men care most about how attractive and sexy a woman is. The power beauty has in this and other Disney princess movies problematizes the type of acculturation young girls face. (from: It’s a Man’s World)
I’d like to directly respond to both of these before presenting my rebuttal of the stance as a whole. I am not a psychologist or anything, but I find the Cinderella analysis to be insanely complicated. I saw it as a child and see it as an adult as a type of fairy tale karma. Children seek out fairy tales as a form of escapism (especially the sanitized Disney versions). In the real world there can be beautiful, mean people whose cruelty goes unpunished in this lifetime. The most we can hope for is a punishment in the afterlife (which I think is part of what humanity finds so attractive about modern religion). Another example: I got picked on a lot as a kid because I was a skinny, nerdy kid. I’m still not great at any sports, but I wasn’t even good at any sports until around Middle School age. But I was always told by the adults that some people are smart and some are strong and I should appreciate what I was given. But in reality there are people who are both athletic and intelligent. So I just see Cinderella and her step-sisters are visual kid karma. Cinderella may be mistreated by everyone (including the cat!), but at least she has her looks. Also, it can be seen a visual pun on the phrase, “acting badly makes you seem ugly”.
As for The Little Mermaid, the person who has analyzed what Ursula has said is taking the words completely out of context. We know (and kids know) that Ursula is the bad guy. We know that bad guys are dishonest and what they say is not to be trusted. I think even the youngest child who can appreciate and understand that line can understand that it’s bad advice and would probably understand it’s the opposite of how they should act. In fact, any kid who’s actually paying attention to Disney’s The Little Mermaid realizes the incredible mistake Ariel has made. It is her voice that attracts Eric’s attention. Without her voice she’s at a distinct advantage and her body itself doesn’t work. It’s only due to Sebastian creating the mood that he starts to fall for her as anything more than a curiosity. And as soon as Ursula shows up with Ariel’s voice, Eric drops Ariel like a hot potato.
Disney Princesses – Creative Commons licensed by Stefano Mara
And I think my biggest critique against the passivity argument is that it seems to ignore the latest of the princesses. They’re talking about Scarlett’s grandmother’s or great-grandmother’s princesses. Starting with my generation is Ariel. But I feel that in Disney’s The Little Mermaid she’s neither passive nor aggressive. She is a love-stricken child. She is Juliet and acts rashly. It’s more a story of teenage rebellion and first love than anything else. Belle from Beauty and the Beast is the exact opposite of passive. It’s a great update to the original story as I remember that one having the father send her. Instead, Belle sacrifices her life and freedom to save her father. She loves to read and dismisses the man all the other women in town are fawning over. She is not cowardly in front of The Beast. Despite his scary nature and temper she talks back to him. She actively runs away. Sure, she has to be saved from wolves – but that’s more of a consequence of the castle being in the middle of the wilderness. Also, she does a pretty awesome job fighting them off before their superior numbers threaten her life. When she goes to see her father, she confronts the entire town to save him. She’s ultimately unsuccessful, but she wasn’t afraid and is actively trying to find a way out when Chip saves them.
Jasmine by Ryan Astemendi
Pocahontas by Ryan Astemendi
In Aladdin, Princess Jasmine is opposed to the idea of an arranged marriage. She confronts her father AND Jafar. She goes off to have an adventure on her own and only has to be saved by Aladdin because of her naive nature – the very thing she protested to her father before running away. When Ali and Jafar squabble over her she confronts all of them and shames them all. In fact, look at the two protagonists in that scene – they both look full of shame. She literally tells Ali to go jump off a balcony. And she only ends up captured by Jafar because of Aladdin’s dumb choices. She’s actively fighting back and participates in the deception that leads to Jafar’s defeat. Simba’s mother doesn’t do that well at first – sticking with Scar. But she does walk with pride and does threaten to lead a mutiny. Pocahontas, while wildly inaccurate, is definitely not a passive girl. She’s basically Jasmine in The New World. She’s off on adventure, stopping entire wars. She’s never even held hostage.
As far as I know, the females of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules are not part of the princess line. Mulan is the next princess and one of the first non-white. (Persian is not a race and Jasmine’s essentially white anyway) And she is THE poster child for the opposite of the common princess criticism. Mulan talks back to the guy who tries to conscript her father. She cross-dresses to join the army to save her father. She saves her unit. When she is discovered, she still does everything she can to save the emperor – not taking no for an answer. After that, I think the next theatrical release with a princess is Tangled. Again, Rapunzel does not wait for anyone to rescue her. OK, you could make the case that the thief gets her out of the tower, but he is only a catalyst in the chemical sense. She was going to go out on her own anyway, he’s just the guide she needs to keep from getting lost within minutes of leaving the Tower. She’s the least active of the princesses, but she’s certainly not waiting for her prince to save her. The epilogue even mentions that she rejects Flynn’s first few marriage proposals once she finds out she was actually a princess.
While we’re on the topic of Tangled, I did come across a very weird blog post a year or two ago that claims it’s undermining our children’s morals:
This is the first major sermon statement of the story, and from here things spring into action as we’re shown, for the remainder of the film, that chronic rebellion is innocent, healthy fun, and disobedience in pursuit of our heart’s wildest desires actually leads to enlightenment and maturity.
Of course, we could overlook this because, after all, Mother Gothel is really just a wicked captor bent on using Rapunzel for her own ends. But, the fact is that Rapunzel’s actions are carried out in the understanding that this is her mother and it’s really not until the last few minutes of the film that she finds out otherwise. Theirs is the relationship which is modeled throughout the film as mother/daughter. Parents are sinners, just like their children, but one person’s sin doesn’t excuse the sin of another.
We also find out that children’s movies are a great way to ensure a break down of morality in the future. We see this in a number of ways- running away from home with a complete scoundrel, camping out in the woods with said scoundrel, an unbiblical view of love, emotional enticements (e.g. smolder), and also, within the dialogue.8 In the beginning, Flynn steals the tiara of the missing princess(Rapunzel) in order to fulfill a utopian, childhood dream. The tiara bounces around until it comes into Mother Gothel’s possession and as she confronts Rapunzel, the lines read like a teenage romance about losing one’s purity. Mother Gothel tells Rapunzel that the only thing Flynn is after is the tiara and as soon as he gets it, he’ll leave her. Then later, after they’ve ‘fallen in love’, Rapunzel tells Flynn that she has something to give him(the tiara)- she was scared to give it to him before, but she’s not scared anymore. Though we’re talking about a tiara now, we won’t be in a few years as similar lines are heard in teenybopper films. To a great extent, the things that we watch and listen to as children are the most influential in forming our character and worldview, in defining who we’ll become as adults. (From Mangled)
Rapunzel from Tangled by Ryan Astemendi
In general, the article comes across as finding fault in the smallest of cracks, but as I said above – whether it’s trivial or not is in the eye of the beholder. I guess I find the first two paragraphs the silliest. First of all, rebellion and disobedience are at the heart of nearly all media directed at kids. I think this is because, as I said above, movies are a form of escape. Children have to behave all day long. In movies like Matilda the adults really are as clueless as kids see them to be and the kids get to rebel and there often aren’t any consequences. Other times, it’s a parable and the child does indeed suffer consequences for his disobedience. In the same way that MOST research shows that violent video games are a healthy way to channel aggression against fake opponents rather than fighting in real life, the children can engage in a world in which they can disobey. It’s why people play table-top games like Dungeons and Dragons in which they can vanquish enemies when their lives might feel impotent. Another great example would be Harry Potter’s disobedience to his evil Uncle and Aunt although the author of Mangled is so religious she’d probably have other issues with the series. But apart from role playing, rebellion is a healthy part of growing up. It’s why we have the terrible twos and the teenage years. Children need to become independent on their paths to adulthood. And that involves testing the limits parents have placed on them. Some kids are like me and do non-consequential things like staying out past curfew to lay on a trampoline with my friends and talk about life while we look at the stars. Others do destructive things like getting involved in drugs. But all children rebel in the path to becoming an adult. Also, the second paragraph almost sounds like it could be an apologist’s view of an abusive relationship and that sits quite wrong with me.
As for the last paragraph, it’s funny in that I agree with her that the Tiara is being used as a sex/virginity metaphor in the scene with her mother. But I don’t see it as cynically as trying to get our daughters ready to be sexually easy. I just see it as a bone thrown to the adults since Disney doesn’t make kids movies – they make family movies. (I saw this movie as an adult, so I’m not being colored by childhood nostalgia)
I’m not the only one that feels the hatred against the Disney Princess is a bit overblown. A paper, of which the abstract only (unfortunately) is available here says:
In spite of all the claims made against the Disney Princesses, through the lens of third-wave feminism one can see that all the Princesses—even the classic, supposedly “most passive” ones—possess admirable qualities for young women of any generation. While the anxieties of commercialism and materialism concerning the merchandise are certain very real and valid, Disney Princess’ strain of princess culture is actually more well-rounded and benign in those regards than certain other branches, such as the Bratz dolls or Club Libby Lu. Finally, talking with young girls who are currently living and experiencing princess culture has revealed that, for the most part, playing princess is just that—playing. They view it as a fun game, and, while they are certainly unconscious of how the Princesses may be serving as role models, they appear to take their cues about femininity and life from more important, stable figures in their lives.
Yup.
I also think people get freaked out because they see this as a never-ending phase:
A new book released in Britain suggests princess culture has taken hold to the point where girls are blurring the line between fiction and real life – demanding to wear their own tiaras and princess dresses daily. ”Unless parents are careful, the dream can become an everyday reality and their daughter can slip into the princess role on a full-time basis,” Sue Palmer, author of 21st Century Girls, told Britain’s Daily Mail.
Disney Princess Boutique – Creative Commons licensed by Loren Javier
I think they’re just forgetting that this is just childhood behavior. When I was a kid there were Disney Princesses, but the marketing hadn’t started yet. And you know what little girls did? They demanded to wear their tutus everywhere they went. They wore their favorite Halloween costume way into December. Little boys dressed like Batman or with a blanket cape all year long. People just have an unhealthy paranoia about this stuff because it’s Disney. I dated about two dozen girls and women from High School until I met my wife in college. ONE of them thought it would be a good idea to have a Wedding/Honeymoon at Disney. (And it wasn’t my wife) Most people just get over the whole princess thing. And haven’t all girls and women always wanted to be princesses ever since there were princesses? I think it appeals to the fantasy as a child of being able to command others and as an adult of being pampered. (Despite what life was often like for the real-life monarchy)
And, finally, let me present two examples in my life that it can be OK to allow your daughter to be into Disney Princesses. (And, of course, I know that two examples is NOWHERE near a valid scientific sample) Exhibit A: My wife. My wife loves the classic Disney movies we grew up with (and Tangled). It’s thanks to her that we own all of them. She watched them so much as a kid that she knows every word to every song in Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and The Little Mermaid. I can think of no one else (outside of emo, goth, and other dark cultures) who is the antithesis of the Disney Princess stereotype. She’s a scientist and participated in the Intel Prize in high school. As I mentioned before, she enjoys the opportunity to dress up for weddings, anniversaries, etc, but her standard attire: t-shirt (or polo) and jeans with sandals or sneakers. No makeup. No fussy hair. She has no problems going out as soon as she gets out of bed. It’s AWESOME! Exhibit B: my little sister Elizabeth. She LOVES The Little Mermaid. She can watch it over and over. She is not into ANYTHING girly. She actively hates it. Eschews dolls and everything girly. Loves playing with the boys and “wrestling” around. So, again, it ain’t the most scientific of studies, but it proves that exposure to Disney Princesses does not irrevocably harm girls. Hinds could have saved himself a huge headache by simply letting his twins experience the princesses. Even if they, as he recounts, currently want to be a princess when they grow up, that’s just a phase. I wanted to be He Man when I grew up. I’m a computer programmer.
So we’ll be letting her experience these things. And I’ll update you on how it goes for the better or the worse.
Posted By Eric Mesa on May 3, 2013
A bit of a news roundup for this week’s political post.
Game of Thrones – coveted by Australians
Apparently, illicit acquisition of the Game of Thrones is making things awkward for the United States Ambassador to Australia. He’s asking Australians to please stop getting the show off the Internet. After all, the US is quick to put (or threaten to put) other countries like Spain onto their special list if they start grabbing TV shows off the net. But Australia is an important ally so it’s embarrassing for them to be pushing the US’s buttons. Here’s where they could have done better by listening to something I’m constantly complaining about. See, according to the linked article, the issue is that for seasons 1 and 2 of Game of Thrones it was not available until a few weeks after it had aired in the US. There’s no reason for that. It’s not like the days before current technology where physical objects need to be ferried around the world. It’s all digital – all parts of the world should be able to watch all programs at the same time. Because NOW that it’s available a few hours after it shows in the US, the people in Australia don’t care – they’re already used to getting it for free online. So – the whole cliche about the genie being put back in the bottle.
In other news – Boing Boing reports that CISPA has once again died. Although the House had passed it, the Senate did not. However, Penguin Pete provides the best explanation of why we might not need to worry about CISPA anyway. (really the only webpage outside of those involved in trying to get it passed) Pete makes a very reasoned post and I think you should definitely check it out – even if you were against CISPA. The other side has a lot of resources and I think they’re trying to wear us out by continuously bringing it up and hoping we get fatigued and give up. So we need to make sure we save our fights for the most important issues.
Posted By Eric Mesa on May 2, 2013
Every phase of life the children in your life go through presents different sets of challenges. For example, take a look at this photo of Scarlett’s first Easter:
Scarlett’s First Easter
She couldn’t sit up and she didn’t have the slightest clue of what was happening. We could try to get her to look at her mom, but it didn’t hold her attention for long and she might start crying on a dime. Now, take a look at her as a toddler:
Scarlett’s Second Easter
What a difference, right? She’s engage with the camera, she’s actually smiling, and she’s sitting up on her own. But, as I said, each stage presents challenges. The biggest challenge in this particular shoot was keeping her there. She kept getting up and walking around and leaving the area the lights were focused on. We kept thinking – if only we could combine the immobility of her baby self with focus of her toddler self. So I figured I’d share my top 5 tips for taking photos of toddlers.
Toddlers are exploring their world for the first time and you never know what they’re going to do. You don’t want to miss photos, so keep your camera nearby. There have been dozens of times where we had the camera upstairs because I’d been transferring photos the night before and we missed taking photos or videos of fun things she was doing because by the time we got the camera, she was bored of doing that.
Scarlett eating stolen bread on the countertop
I wouldn’t have been able to catch the photo of Scarlett stealing Danielle’s bread out of the toaster if I hadn’t had my camera nearby. We usually keep it near us on a surface that’s just out of her reach.
You don’t want photo time to be something novel to the child or he or she will act unnaturally when you bring it out. They might get scared or interested and distracted from what they were doing. Between Danielle and I we take photos so often that Scarlett doesn’t really pay too much attention when we’re taking photos. That allows me to get photos like this one:
Scarlett discovering bubbles
One big mistake I see with a lot of people trying to photograph toddlers is focusing too much on posed shots. Those are very important, especially as milestone markers like Christmas, Easter, or Graduation. But kids, especially toddlers often do not look very cute when they’re posed. Often it’s unnatural for them to stay still and they can’t really smile on command. The candid shots also help with remembering life’s moments as they actually happened. A great example is this shot where I captured how crazy Scarlett’s hair looks in the morning:
Scarlett’s Morning Hair
When taking photos of the children it’s often easy to forget about others. But capturing those relationships can yield some pretty magical moments.After all, while children often seem to be in their own worlds, they have some pretty great moments when interacting with others.
Dad and Anthony at the Park
If it’s easy to forget about the kids and others, it’s even easier to forget about yourself. Danielle has taken 75-85% of the photos of Scarlett but there are very few photos of Scarlett and her. (And the same with me) So don’t forget those, because it’s all too easy to be the photographer that has a million photos of everyone else and no photos of yourself.
Danielle and Scarlett
Scarlett and I in San Francisco
Posted By Eric Mesa on May 1, 2013
Fall Out Boy – Save Rock and Roll
The new Fall Out Boy album, Save rock and Roll, came out a few weeks ago after five long years. Having listened to it about a half dozen times now, I figured I had a good enough handle on it for a review. For context, I enjoyed the last three albums. I enjoyed Folie à Deux the most – I felt it was the peak of their maturity both musically and lyrically. (According to a recent Rolling Stone article, I’m in the minority)
This album overall has a dance anthem feel to it. There were danceable elements to previous albums, but this one really seems to go for a dance rhythm.
The Phoenix – The album starts off extremely strong, setting the tone. I really enjoy this song.
My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up) – Lyrically, this song is the first to sound more like the older albums, although the music continues to be more of a dance vibe than previous songs. It’s a great first single since it is pretty representative of the rest of the album.
Alone Together – I’ve long been a sucker for call and response songs. So I love the chorus with: Say Yeah (Yeah)/Let’s Be Alone Together (Yeah). While still maintaining the energy of the album as a whole, this is the first song that sounds musically like the previous albums.
Where Did the Party Go – But right after that similar sounding song, we jump right back into the dance anthems. It makes sense considering it’s called Where Did the Party Go. Interestingly, I find the song to lyrically be similar to the old Panic! At the Disco songs, while seeming like a song you’d throw on at a party.
Just One Yesterday (featuring Foxes) – I like the use of the corny pickup line as the root of this song. “Anything you say can and will be held against you/Say my name and it will be held against you”. While, they have had some collaborations like Jay-Z in the past, this album seems to have the most use of guest singers. Foxes makes a GREAT contribution here, similar to Kina Grannis on I Fight Dragon’s With You. She contributes both background vocals and a verse.
The Mighty Fall (featuring Big Sean) – This is a great. bombastic song that I could see a lot of people playing as an FU song to others. I’m not a huge fan of Big Sean’s part, but it’s not horrible.
Miss Missing You – Another huge song, this time a carrying-the-torch song. The biggest theme of this album is HUGE sound. This is not a subtle albm.
Death Valley – The pace picks up a bit from the song and then drops everything but acoustic guitar for a quarter of a verse. The music is in top form on this album. They’re not afraid to go from an all out musical assault to as sparse as possible if that’s what the song needs at the moment including guitar distortion at the end.
Young Volcanoes – A milder anthem that could almost be an easy listening track. It’s the mildest track on here and I swing back and forth between enjoying it (especially for the lyrics) and hating it for sounding so bubble-gum. But the one song I truly dislike is the next one.
Rat a Tat (featuring Courtney Love) – Maybe I’m a bit poisoned by Danielle’s almost vitriolic hatred of Courtney Love, but I really don’t like this song. I don’t like the disorganized and almost discordant sound of the song. Which sucks because, as with the previous song, I actually like the Fall Out Boy-sung lyrics. But the song just does nothing for my ears.
Save Rock and Roll (featuring Elton John() – This is the final track and I think it ends perfectly. While there an always be a case made for ending an album on an exciting note, I think it’s always nice to end an album on an introspective note. Not only that, but Elton John’s contribution is the best collaboration on the album.
I think with this album, Fall Out Boy has both reinvented themselves while remaining true enough to transition those of us who are older fans over to this new sound. I recommend it whether you’re a fan of their old stuff or stayed away (as I did for too long) because you didn’t identify with “emo” or thought they were a band for teen and pre-teen girls to listen to. If we can keep getting strong albums like this, 2013 is going to be a great year for music.
Posted By Eric Mesa on April 30, 2013
Cities XL – Trio – buildings up close
In addition to the game I played this month, I’ve decided from now on to include a running total of the top games to see if/how they change with time. For example, when I wasn’t paying attention, Saints Row: The Third made the Top 7. (Which, raptr, is a weird number. Usually these things are multiples of five)
Cities XL (19 hrs) – I thought I was just going to move on to playing Quantum Conundrum, but I really wanted to try out one more city in Cities XL. This time around I decided to do more of a Manhattan layout, mixing commercial and residential zones. Unlike the previous city in which I had a separate commercial zone, I was curious to see if this would help traffic and sprawl. I also tried to design the blocks so that when I changed to high density zones I wouldn’t have to destroy any streets. That’s why you can see in the image below that the houses and buildings are on the corners of the blocks.
I’m still going to play a bit more to work on getting high density to see how well it works. I also learned that a bunch of commercial zones can’t exist near air pollution so I’m keeping that all the way on the corner of the map. That way a bunch of the pollution radius is not affecting my city.
Cities XL – Trio – Residential and Commercial Sector
Top 7 Games on Raptr
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