Today I went to a wedding ceremony that started at 10:30 a.m. I’d never been invited to a morning wedding before so I worried for weeks about what I would wear and had no idea what to expect once I arrived. It was a beautiful ceremony in a lovely building along the river with a city skyline as a backdrop. The music was a jazz trio, they shared a Bloody Mary bar, red wine, white wine and champagne with their guests. A wonderful brunch was served followed by cupcakes rather than a traditional wedding cake. There was a bit of dancing and then, when the newlyweds were ready to leave, instead of throwing rice or bird seeds the revelers waived streamers.
Instead of gifts, the happy couple requested that guests make donations to a local humane society. They made it easy for us by including a website in the invitation. I appreciated this very much as searching for a wedding gift can be a daunting task.
This week, an unidentified man anonymously donated $25,000 to a Canadian animal shelter. The mystery person dropped off an envelope at Ontario’s Humane Society of Durham Region that included the cash and a short note about helping others. The shelter posted the following message on their Facebook page in response:
“Today a wonderful young man came into our shelter to make a donation. He wanted no tax receipt and didn’t want to leave his name. He just handed us an envelope and left. Inside this envelope was a note that said “Life is a lot more valuable than anything money can buy! All I ask is that you help a stranger one day, with no expectation of gain.” In the envelope was a bank draft for $25,000.”
The Humane Society of Durham region is a no-kill animal shelter that relies entirely on the charity of donors to fund its operations and has recently had to postpone surgeries due to a lack of funds.
“I don’t want anybody to know who I am. I don’t want anything for this. I just want to help.” – Anonymous
Today’s wedding wasn’t the first for either the bride or the groom. They both have beautiful homes that they’ll be combining into one so they have duplicates of most traditional wedding gifts already. Most guests at a function as nice as theirs want to give a gift. I really appreciated the fact that they acknowledged this fact and provided us a way to give a meaningful gift.
Have you ever donated to charity instead of giving a gift?
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Copyright © 2013 www.DiatribesAndOvations.com
Many years ago, before the invention of the digital camera, I had a friend who worked in a camera store and helped me to get a beautiful Nikon setup at a discounted price. I assembled quite a few accessories, read a few books and called myself a freelance photographer. I was hired to photograph several weddings and other projects but never found enough work to make a living. Back then, taking a picture was a bigger investment than it is now, because the results weren’t immediate and mistakes could be costly, so I spent a lot of time setting up each shot.
At weddings, however, I enjoyed taking “candid” shots of the bride and groom, the wedding party and guests. These action shots, often taken without the subject’s knowledge, often made for the most interesting photos. Of course, the people that I photographed knew that I was there, that I was a photographer, that I was taking pictures and that they might be in some of them.
Recently, fine art photographer Arne Svenson opened an exhibit consisting of photographs taken of the residents of a building near his studio in New York through the windows of their apartments. The showing, named “Neighbors” featured at the Julie Saul gallery, has angered many of the people who were unknowingly captured on file. He defends his work as follows …
“Some time ago, I began photographing the occupants of a neighboring building through the windows. I’ve lived in Tribeca, in Lower Manhattan, for 30 years, and have built my life and studio here. The area has gone through many changes, and I watched the building across the way built from the ground up. Made entirely of glass and steel, it offers residents views of the neighborhood — and neighbors and passersby views into the apartments.
As people filled the empty units, I was intrigued not only by the implied stories within the frame of the glass but also by the play of light upon the subjects, the shadows, the framing of the structure. I don’t photograph anything salacious or demeaning — instead I record the turn of the head, the graceful arc of a hand, the human form obscured by drapery.
I am not photographing the residents as specific, identifiable individuals, but as representations of humankind. In fact, I take great care in not revealing their identity; the strength of the imagery comes from us seeing ourselves in the anonymous figures of “The Neighbors.”
In New York, people are masters of being both the observer and the observed. We live so densely packed that contact is inevitable — even our homes are stacked facing each other. It is no wonder that street photography was born in this city, and some of the best subjects and most famous works are the results of those who didn’t know they were being photographed or painted.
‘Neighbors’ has sparked a good bit of conversation. While people differ in their opinions — as most do when it comes to art — I believe the images speak for themselves. I encourage everyone to draw their own conclusions after seeing the work.”
I think I would be upset, too, if I had been photographed without knowing about it. If he wasn’t a “fine art photographer” he’d be a Peeping Tom. Maybe he took care to disguise the identity of the people in his shots but the building was identifiable and the contents of the apartments, etc. could be seen. Most, I think, would be angry to learn that their young daughter, for example, had been photographed by some guy across the alley!
What do you think? “Fine art” or “Peeping Tom”.
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Copyright © 2013 www.DiatribesAndOvations.com
Like most people, young and old, the internet has become an increasingly larger part of my life. I resisted an online presence for a long time. For many years after my friends, family and colleagues were using online services to pay their bills, I was still mailing checks every month. I continued to buy compact discs long after everyone else was buying digital music and I still buy books instead of e-books.
As my online presence has grown so has the number of usernames and passwords that I’m required to create and maintain. Like many, I rarely can remember the unique passwords for the dozens of sites I visit so I end up using the same one over and over. Unfortunately, this practice, and ever-growing computer power, makes us increasingly vulnerable to hackers who can find the passwords for our bank accounts and email by breaking into other, less secure sites. Essentially, using the same password all the time defeats the purpose of having a password.
Fortunately, a group of tech companies, including PayPal and Google, believe that the future will have no passwords at all.
“Passwords are just not working terribly well any more. And they’re starting to impede the development of the Internet ecosystem” – Michael Barrett, Chief Information Security Officer – PayPal
The technology already exists for several other methods of authenticating a user’s identity. For instance, the camera resolution on laptops and Smartphones is advanced enough that your computer could verify who you are by scanning your face or eyes. Smartphones with fingerprint scanners could hit the market soon. Other methods might include touch screens that can read your signature and voice-recognition software.
In addition to what the industry calls “biometric methods”, physical objects like a USB plug-in combination with a password are a possibility. A token that creates a randomly generated code, for example, is already required in addition to a username and password when accessing many banking websites.
Experts say that, even though much of the technology required to move away from passwords already exists, it could take a period of many years for a noticeable transition to take place. Organizing the many website and devices involved will require a lot of cooperation.
I, for one, am far more likely to remember my face, eyeballs and fingerprints than an ever-increasing number of usernames and passwords.
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Copyright © 2013 www.DiatribesAndOvations.com
I’ve always loved amusement parks. I particularly enjoyed roller coasters and, because the lines of people waiting for their turn on the big roller coasters are always the longest, every trip to a theme park required quite a bit of advanced preparation. Before the internet, we had to rely on advertisements, word of mouth, and pamphlets containing maps that were distributed at rest areas and welcome centers along the highways to plan our day. (My rule was always “stay to the right and we won’t miss anything”.)
Waiting in the long lines was part of the adventure. We expected to wait and we prepared to wait. There was no such thing as “cutting in line” and everyone waited patiently for their turn.
The lines these days at Disney World are apparently longer than ever. According to the New York Post, some wealthy mothers have, allegedly, figured out a way to get around the long waits. According to the article, they hire disabled people to pose as family members in order to jump to the front of the lines. One woman in particular said she hired someone to escort her family through the park in a scooter labeled with a handicapped sign that allowed the group to enter through a special entrance at the front of each attraction.
Handicapped Floridians are being pimped out for as much as one thousand dollars per day and the people hiring the “guides” often think they’re doing them a favor. I’ve heard rumors that some of the handicapped people aren’t even handicapped at all … they’ve simply borrowed a wheelchair so they don’t have to wait in lines.
My blood boils when I see a perfectly capable person walk away from a vehicle that they’ve just parked in a space designated for handicapped drivers (I’d like to sit these lazy fools in a wheelchair, or hand them crutches, for just one day and see if they ever take a spot from a truly handicapped person again), so it’s no surprise that I find this practice despicable.
Apparently, Disney is investigating. But what can they really do? Hopefully, people with legitimate handicaps won’t be seen in a poor light as a result of this foolishness. Of course, the New York Post doesn’t have the best reputation either.
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Earlier this week, retail giant Abercrombie & Fitch made headlines nationwide when an article from Business Insider indicating that any girl who doesn’t fit into a size large isn’t welcome at the company’s clothing stores became trending news. The brouhaha resulted in the resurfacing of a statement that the company’s CEO, Mike Jeffries made in an interview with Salon magazine in 2006:
“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” Jeffries told the magazine. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong (in our clothes), and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny.” – Mike Jeffries, CEO, Abercrombie & Fitch
In response, filmmaker Greg Karber has come up with a funny and creative way to react … by giving their clothes to the homeless.
I wish I’d thought of this. Apparently, Jeffries would choose to burn the clothes that the company can’t sell rather than donate them to the needy. I understand the importance of marketing to a target audience but the message this sends is offensive.
Ever since last summer’s Chick-Fil-A fiasco, it seems that “outrageous statements from management” is becoming a marketing tool like none before. National headlines, trending news stories, tweets and Facebook posts can get a message to a large audience in record time … good or bad. And, as the saying goes, there’s “no such thing as bad publicity”. I believe Karber’s plan, however, is different from a boycott and could be even more effective.
What do you think? Would you give Abercrombie & Fitch clothes to the homeless?
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I don’t like Karaoke. I never have and I never will. It’s one of those things that seem to only happen to people who have been drinking. It’s as if a few drinks magically turn each one of us into a country star, an opera diva or a teen idol. Unfortunately, those same few drinks somehow change the function of these singers’ ears and they think they sound good. If I can think of anything worse than karaoke in a crowded bar it would have to be karaoke on a crowded airplane.
Last Thursday, an American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to New York City made an emergency landing to remove a woman who would not stop singing I Will Always Love You.
Shortly after the flight began, the woman’s solo performance quickly became too much for passengers and airplane staff. The pilot was forced to change course halfway through the six hour flight to make an unscheduled stop at Kansas City where officer escorted the woman from the plane.
“The woman was being disruptive and was removed from the plane for interfering with the flight crew. There was a federal air marshal on the aircraft that subdued the woman and put her in cuffs and removed her from the plane.” – Airport Spokesman Joe McBride
Remarkably, the woman continued to sing as she was handcuffed and taken from the airplane. During her interview with local police, she allegedly claimed to be a diabetic in need of medication. The cops released her without charges but the airline refused to allow her to board another flight.
It seems to me that the difference between a drunken singer in a bar and a diabetic singer in need of medication on an airplane is a very small difference indeed.
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