Posts by Chris Waugh
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Capture: Better Food Photography, in reply to Russell Brown,
Heh. Otoh, they’ll stand there for 10 minutes carefully choosing the best weeds in the bin – and throwing the others back with something approaching disdain.
If they grew up in China, it's from years of practice in markets where you have countless very strong reasons to be very choosy about what you buy.
-
Hard News: Time to move on, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
It is a strange day, indeed, when Paul Holmes makes sense.
Still, that is a fine example of why I think the Herald's editorial staff need to buy some sharper blades and apply them mercilessly to the often rambling work of their opinion writers. How he starts reviewing the Tuhoe situation and then suddenly swings on to Nick Smith I don't know. If he were one of my students, that piece would've been handed back with a big red line and the word 'irrelevant' through the final few paragraphs. Pick a topic, and stick to it, dammit.
-
Capture: Roamin' Holiday, in reply to Lilith __,
'Twas actually quite a depressing road, and not quite what I expected. The roads I normally take my walks down show a lot more vitality, even when the buildings that line them are just as old, rundown, or in a similar phase of destruction. I do actually know roughly where that road goes to, though, and it's just as rough and ready, but a lot more interesting. That was the first road I've walked down in ages that has had me turn around and head back the way I'd come - partly because I was imposing a very strict limit on the length of my walk, but mostly because of what you can see in those photos.
-
And bugger those holes in walls, I got me a hole in the city.
-
I'm gonna see all your portals and raise you a Road to Nowhere. At least, that's the silly '80s pop song that was going through my head as I walked down this road a surprisingly short distance from my home.
-
Capture: Roamin' Holiday, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
That's in California? Change the language on the signs and it could be any number of hole-in-the-wall restaurants here in China.
-
Hard News: A fiction of unalloyed darkness, in reply to Russell Brown,
Although in the comments, it’s striking that several people have been able to convince themselves that Daisey’s translator is a stooge put up by Apple and the Chinese government.
Unfortunately another common tactic when people are presented with stories that don't fit their preconceived China narrative. It's easier to write inconvenient alternative views off as an evil Commie plot than accept that one's own view might not be as perfect or complete as it so comfortably feels. And of course, on this side of the Great Firewall, the same process happens in reverse.... Basically, people are more interested in comfort than truth.
-
The Adam Minter mentioned in Schmidt's story is, I strongly suspect, the one who can be found blogging here. His blog's been a bit quiet of recent months, but I think a browse through the archives will show he tends to be fairly careful and balanced and make sure he has the facts.
-
A little further to the right... the local pollution factory, busily turning coal into electricity.
In both photos, the older buildings and the power station are Yanjiao Township (on the east bank of the Chaobai River in Hebei Province. The Chaobai River is the border between Hebei and Beijing along this stretch) as it was before Beijing's real estate bubble took the good ship Insane and put it into warp speed. All the fancy new highrises in the background of the first photo are Beijing's real estate bubble swallowing everything in its path. Strange place, Yanjiao. I think today's trip was the first time I haven't seen real estate touts lining the main road pushing brochure's for fancy-looking housing developments into the window of every car unfortunate enough to have to slow down. Fortunately my brother in law lives on the very eastern edge of the township, too far out for the touts to bother with, since most of the traffic at that point is local rather than Beijingers desperate to find an affordable apartment.
I'm enjoying the birds and bugs. This morning on the way out a couple of magpie-like birds (喜鹊 - I'm confused, because they do look like, but absolutely neither behave nor sound like the magpies I remember in NZ) were playing happily, but too high and too fast for my cellphone, or even for my meagre skills if I had my SLR with me. First birdlife beyond crows I've seen in a few months.
-
Capture: Roamin' Holiday, in reply to Lilith __,
Yeah, to echo Jackson and Sofie: not necessarily!
Yup, 'nother echo here. Not that I'm any good at photography.... But these compacts are getting really compact and cellphones are getting super fancy, and both are so much easier to slip into a pocket and pull out for those random, spur of the moment shots that happen just as you're going about your daily business. Pity my old N72 seemed to do a much better job of photographs than my current Nokia 5230, but oh well....
This one Mr Nokia cooperated reasonably well with. The view out my brother in law's window.
