In short, I’m having to develop a system which at this point doesn’t exactly exist. The problem is that I’m lazy, and can’t decide on the “proper” way of doing so.

Anyway, the project will be in Django, and I have a whole bunch of pseudo-code, a basic design (see below) and lots of hope.

I’m not that brilliant at it, frankly.

I’m still getting the hang of it (again). It’s nothing like the Volito 2, which is not a very good tablet to say the least. I’m very pleased with the size, feel and sensitivity. And though I don’t use the touch features much, it comes in handy sometimes (though not for drawing).

One of the issues of the tablet is that you still have to know what the heck you’re doing with it. My drawing skills aren’t all that, but I’m improving.

Macy

I did that through Sunday and Monday, and still haven’t quite figured out how to do proper brushes at the time. I for one would like to say that I’m quite pleased with the result. Wouldn’t it look great with pastels?

After I figured out how to do proper brushes, I also decided to do a sketch of Auberdine, which looks a bit more realistic.

A sketch of Auberdine

I still find it a bit difficult to get used to the feel of a tablet. But I’m getting there, I think. I’m specifically having troubles with achieving exact angles, much more so than on paper. Maybe I should go back to just paper for a while, eh?

Start with the assumption that you, dear reader, are nothing but a mere lost soul in a great ocean of successful people and that the only light at the end of any tunnel is the crack under the door from your basement where you live to your parents’ house. Feeling trodden down yet? No, OK, I didn’t mean it quite that way. Lots of people are talking about things nobody cares about, not even their friends. For instance how this twitter search actually comes up with results – not only that, results keep being discharged by the collective rectum of the internet.
The point I’m trying to get across is that you are nothing. Nobody cares about you. The internet is full of drivel as it is, and nobody wants to talk to you unless they:

1. Want to feel better about themselves by smearing you
2. Want to have sex with you
3. Feel they have an overwhelming duty that they must carry out by talking to you

Wanting to avoid 1, and probably 2 (or just not being the object of number 2) there’s still number 3. There’s always a plan B… or C.

You may ask yourself, how come I don’t have such frequent debates with (most) people around me in the same way I do with the internet personalities that surround me? Could they all be internet superheroes? Of course not – the answer is simple: You can’t punch people on the internet.

I suppose protection from physical harm is what leads to these cans of worms be readily available for quick opening. So considering the alternatives, it’s a no-brainer. All gain for no risk and no cost, other than your reputation, sanity and oh look – a slippery slope. It’s the get rich quick scheme of attention (negative and otherwise), which leads me to my first lesson, maybe inspired by Colbert’s tips for a healthy marriage:

1. A smart poster knows how to post with at least some tact

But you know that one guy who religiously defends something, who stubbornly shoves it down your throat and feeds it to you on every damn occasion they get. Sometimes more gracefully than other times.

I, too, know a few people like that. First, an immigrant co-worker who (somewhat ironically) hates Arabs and finds annoying ways to say it sometimes and brings in a wide array of manners to express his right-wing views. Second, my cousin who is a staunch communist and would never miss an opportunity to tell us over family dinner how the government caused the recession on purpose, that phone manufacturers insert flaws into their devices on purpose. They’ll get… very emotional when anything opposes their extreme views. They don’t have that “poster tact” and won’t hesitate to get into a very heated discussion with you to defend their ideas.

Those exist in all walks of life, on the ‘nets as well. So, here, have another tip:

2. A smart poster knows to pick their battles

And what about when you have to? A sense of duty exists in us all, and I wouldn’t bother denying it personally (neither should you). We all have a soft spot in us when somebody mentions that one thing that ticks us off:

3. A smart poster has a second account/handle/username they can use to be everything I said they shouldn’t be without any risk

I guess the internet is a place full of cruel ironies.

I so happened to come across this blog post about airport security. Although that story is about the passenger section, or as we cool kids in freight call it, “pax”. Pax usually have these more personal stories and it’s only one in so many who do get pulled out of the line – although, don’t get me wrong, each of them equally sad in its own way. So you guys in pax: wtf?

First, allow me to preface this and say that I personally haven’t really experienced being held up for security for very long first hand - being caucasian and having an Israeli name and passport aren’t really the types of things that get you pulled out of queues. I even had an airport access permit at one point (an “‘A’ tag”). But I do have strong opinions about this whole “security” charade in Israel regardless and thought I’d get this off my chest.

Working in airfreight export at the moment gets me face to face with airport security. Here in Israel, the terminals (Maman and the smaller Swissport) have security teams whose jobs are to identify bombs and so forth so they don’t blow up airplanes. Fair enough, except there’s one tiny problem…

They’re completely, way, way way off. Waaaay off. Customs rarely ever hold shipments for more than an hour or two, and rarely request physical examinations of outbound cargo. But then… there’s security.

If you’re a more casual type of exporter, your shipments are likely to be delayed for about 24 hours on “security status 3″ (can’t fly until further notice). Eventually, they’ll be released (“security status 1″) and hopefully in time for the flight, though you might just find yourself missing a few just because security decided holding your shipment for 24 hours is like, a wise choice somehow and will save planet earth from its demise or heaven knows what.

But here’s what really, really ticks me off. For instance there is one Arab exporter I work with. Based in Ramallah, arab name and all. It’s unmistakable. Their shipments always get held up for security. And we’re talking days here. And then when those shipments are released they enter “security status 7″ which means they can only be flown on freighters (cargo only aircrafts) and that the decision is not negotiable unlike “security status 2″ which will eventually be released. It can make the whole thing much more expensive for the exporter and sometimes means you have to book new flights if you don’t know it in advance.

Seriously? Seriously, guys?

While I’m at it, here’s another story. I take the train to work. Upon entering the station, I have to put my bags through an X-ray machine. In addition to the X-ray machine I have to go through a metal detector in gate configuration to make sure I’m not carrying any weapons. Strangely enough it never goes off even though I have a belt with a metallic buckle and my house keys on me and that usually triggers them at the airport. Then when the train arrives, you can’t board it until the “security examination” (a 23 year old running back and forth, that is) is over.

Oh and did I mention they have 1-2 large dogs they keep around and that all train personnel including drivers are armed with real live pistols?

But the best art is: soldiers carrying M-16s are free to walk in unchecked if they present a slip of paper showing that they’re allowed to carry weapons.

Wonderful…

I’ve uploaded three new pieces to the gallery from Thrusday and Friday’s sessions.

Under the Highway

Under the Highway was shot right by the Rishon Le-Zion train station in a kind of highway underpass. The version uploaded now is the final one, and needless to say, I’m very pleased. I especially appreciate the subtle texture and gradients that the light creates.

Abandoned Building and Abandoned Warehouse are both shots of the same building from different angles. Turns out that house served as part warehouse, part office for the winery right across the street.

As usual, they’re licensed creative commons, so knock yourselves out!

A while back I spotted an old abandoned building and promised myself one day I’ll shoot it. I did it, and I’m still not happy. I didn’t actually get inside even though it’s pretty easy. I guess that’s what you get for being a coward.

The thing is, the building is somewhat raised above the street level, has no stairs and has a fence all around it. Nothing you can’t get past, but enough to ruin shots. The only shots of it which I could take were my usual “looking up at a building” shots.

I was pretty frustrated and decided to at least climb up there, but decided not to step over the fence. I won’t be trespassing just yet.

But then a few blocks away I spotted another building, and this time I was a bit more satisfied with the result. Also, it was a bit more accessible.

Now I also found myself making obvious mistakes. Naturally it’s been very long since the last time I honesty held a camera. I came back home to discover exposures like this:

Stone wall. Note the top-left edge.

It is not really wrong per se except I wanted to get both the shadow and light. I should have compensated for it a bit (half a step maybe) to at least get the values somewhere out there. But in this case I simply pushed it beyond the end of the range, so it created some clipping. I should have known this stuff when I shot it…

And just as a bonus. I saw this cat nearby. I never thought that there were cats like this in the neighborhood. They’re usually aberrations with missing limbs, eyes and sport a wide array of congenital issues. But not this one. It also looked at me when I took its photo.

Friendly neighborhood cat

I’ll take some more, soon.

This one is a shot of the underside of the highway underpass, looking up.

Much like The Stadium, this one focuses on the shapes, texture, shadow and light of the building in question.

It was shot on December 10th at around 19:33. I came back from work and immediately decided to get my stuff together and get out there. Right by the train station, I saw this (among other things).

Most of the exposures weren’t all that great, thanks to me screwing around with the camera.

Under the Highway

And you know I wouldn’t just settle for any one.

So, coming soon, I’ll post the first batch of photos. Hang on tight, yall.

I figured I have a lot of material I don’t really use in the form of tweets. 1,832 of them.

When I started writing this blog post I wanted to gather a bunch of tweets and just call it The Best of Dushkin or something. Then I started looking at what those tweets actually contained.

Common themes include:

1. Being generally PO’d with the state of public transport/commuting:
   

   The automatic announcer that’s supposed to make up for the shortcomings of the Israeli train schedules didn’t go off and I missed a train.

1. Boring work related things that nobody who isn’t in my particular position would ever in their right mind understand or want to understand:
   

   The guy who did the friday shift didn’t trace right.

2. Playing (boring) games:
   

   I played some plants vs zombies. It was cool actually.

I began to wonder if that’s the future of my communication with the outside world will be conducted in 140 characters or less and be about terribly simple things like playing Plants vs. Zombies (update: it’s a good game).

So perhaps it won’t replace it completely, but I wonder just how many of these tweets could have been expanded upon and become fully fledged blog posts. Not that a blog post is much of a step up from a tweet, let’s face it.

So I promise I’ll write more meaningful things, more often.