Monthly Archives: December 2010

  

Ten Favorite Photos of 2010

Some favorites

2010 wasn’t a very productive year for me in terms of photography. I can think of two factors: this investigative project taking up most of my time the latter part of the year, and getting a Canon S90 (well, two of them, since I lost one). Not that the S90 isn’t great; a few snapshots from it are on this list. But it made photography a lot more casual for me, rather than something I worked at.

So as a result, there’s not a lot of variety here and everything seems somewhat distant and impersonal. I don’t know if these are my top sentimental or technical favorites, but they’re the ones that stood out after a quick look-through of my Flickr this morning.

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Snowloko: Getting Around in New York’s Blizzard

Subway, car, and foot…the snow drifts conquered it all. I’ve seen snow fall into a subway platform before, but not huge drifts (this photo doesn’t do it justice, but it’s the only one I have that actually caught the train in focus).

I love that mass-transit-dependent New Yorkers won’t hesitate to help push a car out of the snow. It’s so strange to walk through the otherwise traffic-clogged streets that pushing a car through Astor Place is actually a treat.

Pushing a car through Astor Place during New York blizzard 2010

Pushing a Taxi - New York Blizzard Snowstorm Thundersnow Blaaaaagh

I wish I had booties, like my friend’s dog:

Dog walking, the morning after New York's big blizzard

Whoa, slip-sliding down the subway steps - New York Blizzard Snowstorm Blargfest

  

Snowball fight in Times Square, Snowpocalpyse-Thundersnow 2010

During last night’s blizzard, there was an attempt at a mass snowball fight like last year’s. People spent more time pelting vehicles than each other, since they had to fight across a street, and It petered out after a few minutes.

I think the main difference between this year and last was that last year, the TKTS plaza area was open, providing a much bigger common space to goof around in. That area has been closed to prepare for New Year Eve’s festivities.

Also, the weather was much blustier this year…there was lightning and thunder, not that you could really notice the former in Times Square. See my pics of last year’s snowball fight here.

The Father Duffy Square, where the TKTS stand is, was closed off:

George M. Cohan statue, Times Square - New York Blizzard Snowstorm Blargfest

Last year was more of a big snow flurry. Last night was definitely a blizzard.

Trekking Times Square - New York Blizzard Snowstorm Blargfest

PIX newscast - New York Blizzard Snowstorm Blargfest

Jumping for joy in Times Square - New York Blizzard Snowstorm Blargfest

  

GQ’s Devin Friedman: Late 30+ year olds doing social media stuff is “kind of like androids having sex”

GQ’s Devin Friedman tries to understand, by taking a visit to Silicon Valley and the Y Combinator, why everyone wants to share so much. He comes up with as apt of metaphor as I’ve seen about the older generation’s befuddlement about this societal shift:

I gave two sites access to my credit cards so I could share my purchases with my friends. I did my best to check in wherever I went on Foursquare. And what it all made me feel, mostly, was stupid. And anxious—that I didn’t have enough people following me and then that I was the kind of person who wants people to follow him. Every update, every tweet, every check-in, ultimately began to feel not unlike doing my expenses.

The experience isn’t unusual. I think old people like me (I’m 38) often do this stuff to feel like the world hasn’t yet left them behind, but we don’t have any natural hunger for it. It’s kind of like androids having sex: We know we’re supposed to do it, but we’re not really sure why. Meanwhile, and infuriatingly, we know that humans just like to bone.

Read the full story.
Hat-tip to longform.org