Boxed

I listed my former Nikon D200 camera along with my tourist zoom lens on Sunday and I sold the camera tonight; the lens is still for sale. I was surprised because I thought the lens would sell sooner. I’m about to buy a new camera but I haven’t decided which one to get. I think I already know, but I’m thinking of a few different options. I had this one for almost two years. I honestly thought I would have owned it for much longer – but I guess two years is a lifetime in the age of electronics. One can’t get attached to objects.

I definitely learned a lot from this camera – including lighting, exposure and especially effects with a fisheye lens. I haven’t decided what to do with the fisheye lens since it only works on the smaller frame digital cameras and not the full frame digital cameras – which I am very likely about to buy. Maybe I’ve outgrown the fisheye lens. A fellow photographer told me that I would probably outgrow it in about a year and a half – I’m three months away from that since I got the fisheye lens in 2007. Although I am curious to experiment with a super-wide angle lens. That could be my next challenge.

Some recent images with the D200 and fisheye lens.

Boycott

After getting psyched to try a vegan faux chicken sandwich after the Peta announcement in June, the nutrition information that I requested from KFC arrived today. It turns out that even after omitting the mayonnaise, the faux chicken sandwich is not vegan nor is it even vegetarian because it is cooked in the same oil that is used to cook the chicken. Even without chicken flesh, the sandwich is still a dirty bird sandwich. I’ll skip this meal.

Here are the nutrition facts and ingredients information that I obtained from the KFC holding company, Priszm.

After three days of too many parties, too much fun and not enough sleep; I now understand why everyone loves New York so much. I’m ready to get home to get some sleep – to rest up for my next trip!

I <3 NY!

Faux

I can’t recall the last time I ate at KFC – it was definitely before I became vegetarian. However, I’m contemplating going back for a visit to test out their new faux chicken sandwich that was announced after talks with PETA as part of a deal to use chickens from facilities that use controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK).

Six of us, three veg – three non-veg, are planning to go test it out because I want to know various opinions. I can’t remember what chicken tastes like so it would be good to have the opinion of someone that has eaten real chicken lately. The piece that I wrote earlier stated vegan faux chicken but the information on the link provided did not state vegan. I sent an inquiry to KFC to find out the ingredients of the sandwich. Hopefully, I get a response before I go to the restaurant. The image of the coupon appears with some white stuff which is probably mayonnaise, but that is easily omitted. Hopefully the rest is without animal products. It will be an interesting test.

Click on the image below and it will take you to the PETA page with a link to a printable coupon. I’ll post again next week after we have tried it. Perhaps you can try it and come back and let me (and curious readers) know what you thought of it.

[Update 8.7.08] This sandwich is not vegan or even vegetarian because it is cooked in the same oil that is used to cook the chickens. I wrote about it here.

Altered

Most of my photos are altered for colour, contrast and other similar lighting elements. I sometimes even retouch them to take out distracting elements such as lights and smoke as in the above example. I don’t do this often as it takes more time than it is worth. The retouching of the above photo took about 30 minutes before I published it. If I do retouch photos, it can’t require more than a few seconds worth of retouching, otherwise it is published as is or is discarded.

I am by no means a photojournalist where truthfully representing an image is of the utmost importance. One photographer set off a controversy in 2006 by submitting the following doctored photographs to Reuters.

The smoke on the buildings wasn’t that big of a deal, to me, as smoke can move and change rapidly with the wind. However, adding extra flares to the photo with the jet is not accurate or acceptable as it changes the reality significantly. I’m surprised that Reuters would publish the first photo as the photoshop work on the smoke was done very poorly. It should not have been accepted or published in the first place. It was and the accuracy of the photographer’s images were subsequently contested by a blogger, Charles Johnson, who coined the term fauxtography. Never underestimate the power of a blog.

Had the photographer added Godzilla, like Charles Johnson, he could have secured a job with a Japanese film studio.

Source: Wiki, Little Green Footballs

Monopoly

Rogers seems to have gotten on the wrong side of many people by posting higher rates (than the rest of the world) for the soon to be released iPhone. On Macrumors.com, more than 96% have rated the news negatively. One person created a website to collect names for a petition about the rates – but it seems to be have taken down – probably after high traffic after making it onto major news sources, including CNN, CBC and the Globe and Mail. It did gather about 16,000 names before going down.

Nobody needs an iPhone, however, the Rogers rates and conditions are a bit oppressive. They include, monthly rates starting at $60 – which is really about $120 after overages, ancillary fees, taxes; a three year contact; and the kicker, an absurd $7700 cancellation fee. I really could not believe it myself. It’s confusing, but if one cancels one month after signing up for a plan, one would be charged, “the greater of $1100 or $200-$400 per month left in the contract. [Edit: the cancellation fee could be a typo - but humourous that they would allow it to be published.]

This is not surprising as they are a corporation and their main goal is to make money. It’s not totally their fault as the government is partly to blame as they allowed them to buy the only other GSM network in Canada, Fido thereby creating a monopoly in GSM cell phone service. There is already an oligopoly among cell phone service providers in Canada. Hopefully the recent wireless spectrum auction will yield some foreign competition into Canada and will kick Rogers’ ass.

I won’t buy the iPhone from them (unless the rates change and are reasonable); I’m even reconsidering my cell phone service – which I’ve had with them since 1992. One website that I found, ihaterogers.ca several years ago provided me with an alternative for home internet service that was much cheaper than Rogers and Bell. I pay less than $30 per month (including tax) for an equivalent service that would cost $50 at Rogers or Bell. There are cheaper and better alternatives, you just have to look and take action.

Regardless, one way to show Rogers that this is unfavourable is to talk with your wallet. It’s time for a change.

Edit: at some point in the evening of 7.1.08, it was changed and now reads,

“The ECF is the greater of (ii) $100 or (iii) $20 per month remaining in the service agreement, to a maximum of $400. “

Promotion

When I travel abroad or meet visitors in Canada and we decide to trade personal contact information, more often than not, I receive a pre-printed card with their personal contact information on it. I experienced this first hand when I was in India at an international conference a few years ago. I received many cards from people that I met, however, I was reduced to giving out my contact information on scraps of paper.

It seems that everyone, but Canadians and possibly Americans give more importance to business cards rather than cards with personal contact information on them. I’ve always had business cards, however, when it came to friends and acquantances, I’ve always felt uncomfortable giving out my business cards.

At the raw food potlucks, people were always giving me their contact information and asking me to contact them with the website, email and event details. I met so many people and had so many pieces of paper with emails and phone numbers, I inevitably forgot to do so on many occasions. I finally did get cards for the potlucks several years ago and it made my life much easier. I thought about getting personal cards again when I first purchased a paid Flickr account because there was a Moo card promotion but thought about it more when I saw Gail’s cards last month.

Today I unboxed my new Moo cards; they contain a photo (taken by me) on one side and my personal contact information on the other side. Simple. They are a nice compact size and are more interesting than the usual 3.5 x 2 inch business card format that are one design. I had them printed with 20 different images and was entranced by them for about 10 minutes after I opened them.

Shrinkage

Reading material at the barbershop – everything a man needs to know. Before my first haircut of the year; I got a trim and I don’t think anyone noticed afterwards.

Publicity

I don’t know too many people that enjoy eating at KFC – let alone vegetarians that would eat there. However, today they announced that they would offer a vegan faux chicken* item on the menu. I laughed pretty hard when I read that – then I thought WTF, who’s going to want to eat that?!

This was pulled off with some help from PETA who most (not only vegetarians) have a love/hate relationship with because of their campaigns, however, they do work despite how invidious some of them are. They did get KFC to agree to more ethical treatment of animals – before they kill them. Although, I’m not sure what the deal is with the vegan faux chicken. Who wants to go to lunch?

*sorry to our American neighbours, this will only be available in Canada.

Vegan.com

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday to have Erik Marcus blog about one of my food photos of vegetable rolls on his website Vegan.com. Erik is an author and advocate of vegetarianism and animal rights. I read his first book, Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating, when I first went vegetarian. In Vegan, he writes about the three pillars of vegetarianism, health, animal welfare and the environment and the importance of each and how inter-related they are. This was a good foundation and reinforced my decision to become vegetarian and remain vegetarian.

The foreword in the book was by Howard Lyman, a former cattle rancher turned vegetarian. Most know Howard as the person that appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show and caused her to renounce beef. In the book, Howard also wrote about pesticides and chemicals in farming that caused him to become paralyzed (he eventually recovered). This caused me to read another book, Silent Spring that investigated pesticides and the effect on health, life and the environment of plants, animals and the planet.

Years later, when I became interested in animal advocacy, I read Erik’s second book, Meat Market: Animals, Ethics and Money. He wrote about the animal agriculture industry and the negative treatment of animals in factory farms as well as the peripheral industries such as slaughterhouses. He wrote that all people have compassion for animals and that education about their condition was the key to the reduction of consumption of animal products and the dismantling of the factory farms.

For me, any one of the reasons on their own are compelling enough for an individual to become vegetarian, however, when one thinks of the combination of all three, it is staggering to me why someone continues to consume animal products. By doing so, they advocate the harsh treatment of animals in factory farms, the overuse of resources to feed animals destined for slaughter and the negative effects animal products have on their health. When one goes vegetarian, everybody wins.

Below, the video, Meet Your Meat.