Category: Blog

In Conclusion

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

Individually you only matter to a couple of generations before and after your life. Your grandparents might love and adore you. Your parents might love and care for you. Your peers might love and respect you. You might give rise to children whom you will love and guide to maturity. They might have children, and if you’re lucky enough, you might be around long enough to see them grow and be a meaningful part of their lives. And that’s about it. Rarely do we know or have significant relations with our great grandparents, and likewise, our great grandchildren. There’s an outside chance those generations might know you as a person. Outside of that, you’re a name. Maybe. You’re someone else’s memories to be relayed, maybe. You’re a grave marker.

Maybe.

Maybe you’re fortunate enough to be a grave marker people visit on purpose. But that too is rare.

A New Social Restriction

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

If you’re getting on a flight, and you don’t understand that basic fact – YOU ARE SUBJECT TO FAA REGULATIONS THE MINUTE YOU WALK INTO AN AIRPORT AND/OR BOARD A FLIGHT – you absolutely should not be traveling by air. The second you start acting like you are above those regulations or your personal views should be held above FAA regulations, you’re not only being as asshole, but you’re most likely breaking laws, and in the larger picture making it more difficult, and more restrictive for people to fly in the future.

You asshole.

Living In The “Buffa” Art Media

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

I guess WGRZ doesn’t think much about local professionals, even if they are requesting a favor from them.

Unfortunately, they’re not alone. I’ve been asked by other media groups from the Buffalo News, to the BEE Newspapers for permission to use media, and rarely do they manage to credit it properly, or at all. Hell, it’s often an impressive step if they even bother to ask to use it. Larger media organizations simply don’t care about the work of others apparently. As long as they get what they need in the moment.

Today We Vote

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

I’ll vote for Biden – somewhat begrudgingly, but at least I know he has the experience, intelligence, and courage to surround himself with good people, good legislators, good policy writers, and people who will tell him where he might be going wrong. I trust his VP pick, Harris, and look forward to her stepping in when the time comes that she needs to. Honestly, I’d prefer her for President. I don’t think Biden will be in the seat for long.

An actual fortune!

COVID-19 Shutdown: Day 45

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

So often fortunes inside of fortune cookies actually come across as advice, proverbs, or idioms. Not fortunes at all.

This was an actual fortune. And in reflection, it was accurate!

See, it was only 10 days after posting this that I photographed Cortney one-on-one for the first time. New headshots. But from there our relationship grew quickly. Five years later, and she is still the refreshing change I was seeking, and that apparently the fortune cooking sent my way?

Maybe? Whatever – I’m not sure I ever had a fortune cookie that was this accurate, and timely.

COVID-19 Shutdown: Day 38

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

Right now there are 861,266 confirmed cases of COVID in the United States. The death toll was just updated to 48,240. Taking into account, recovered, and deaths, currently there are 733,540 open cases. With the US current fatality rate of 5.55%, that’s another 40,345 deaths pending. Unfortunately we’re still seeing about 30,000 new cases per day with a slight decline from the peak of just over 31,000 per day. That means in a weeks time, if we have simply flattened the curve, there will be another 210,000 cases.

Meanwhile the numbers in Europe have been on a steady decline. Since April 12th, France has only seen an increase of 7,000 deaths. Spain 5,000, Italy 6,000 and Germany less than 2,500. The Unites States: over 20,000.

So here is your lesson n reading data: The numbers themselves only tell you a fraction of the story. Over 20,000 deaths in the last 10 days, with the potential pace of another 40,000 over the next week is NOT handling this well, and a WHOLE LOT of that responsibility falls on Trump, his decisions, and his administration.

Oh, and one other factor for you especially dimwitted Trump supporting morons; one of the biggest factors for the quick spread of a pandemic is population density. That is why in the United States you see the highest case rates in major urban areas.

The total land area of the United States is 3,797,000 square miles. The combines land area of Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the UK: 791,900 square miles.  So 4 million fewer people in 3,000,000 fewer square miles of land to live in. But please, ignore the factors that don’t fit with your narrative, or just keep failing to understand science while you wave your confederate flags, Nazi emblems, and protest signs with six misspellings because you’ve been inconvenienced temporarily. 

Hello? Religion?

COVID-19 Shutdown: Day 36

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

Listen, this works so much better as a religion critique, so you missed the mark twice on this, but in another breaking news flash, just because YOU don’t personally know someone dealing with COVID directly, good for you! Consider yourself fortunate, and keep doing the right thing instead of advocating for everyone to do the wrong things. Plenty of people, including yours truly, know people, and have people in their lives that have been directly impacted by this.