The Boy

Bill Folds

He’s sitting up. He’s bashing his hand up and down, often into my face. He’s practicing his gargles. He’s inconsolable at bedtime. He lies in bed going “oiyoiyoiyoiyoi” and “berberberber”. He’s overjoyed when we hold him up to stand on things. He’s teething. He’s trying mashed potato and baby rice. His hair is thinning out and getting lighter. He’s a happy little guy. I love being his Dad.

30 August 2007 · · Journal

Be Her Elk Sin

Pages of Photoshop retouching are always a bit scary, even when they’re subtle (not too many where she actually changes their shape; it’s mostly skin-smoothing), but some are scarier than others.

Amazing demo of content-aware image resizing (full paper, cache) with some disturbing implications for the photographer’s art and the historical record, but still. (Via Mefi.)

Read More · 24 August 2007 · Weblog

Sense of Place

Why we should not try to save the whale - The Scotsman

Everything changed in Scotland on May the third—and nothing changed. The squeaking home of the SNP into minority government was supposed to mark a tectonic shift in British politics, but when Alex Salmond last week unveiled his plan for a referendum on Scottish independence the polls were still showing a yes vote twenty percent behind a no—contrary to the impression given by the nationalistic reader comments on the site of The Scotsman. It’s a relief, I suppose, because the election results had made me wonder what the future held for my relationship with Scotland and Britain, mere weeks after finally getting a UK passport. Would I have to choose between the two? This has been my home for six years, but how could I justify casting my lot with five million over fifty-five when the whole point of taking on a second citizenship was to go beyond narrow nationalism?

Read More · 23 August 2007 · · UK Culture

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