Tag: thoughts

Smoke Breaks

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

Half of the people in my office go out for smoke breaks.

I've never found it to be fair that employers make accommodations for employees who are addicted to tobacco products, and it is widely accepted in our culture that these people get special treatment. Most other addicts wouldn't even be hired if it was known, except for coffee addicts, but you can have a coffee at your desk while working without polluting your work environment.

So, I have again began my practice of taking smoke breaks.

In my case, they involve walking around the parking lot briskly, mostly while talking to myself, or singing a song, but I think that can be accommodated.

Even if people look at me like I'm crazy.

Slow Down

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

I feel like everyone in Information Technologies should take a crash course in customer service. It's one thing to be a good technician. It is a completely different thing to provide good service.

Slow down. Talk to people like they matter. Talk to people like they are important. Talk to people like you want to help them.

As I listen to most technicians assigned to customer support, they fail to do these things. They speak on the phone as if they're in a hurry to be done with whatever they're doing. They don't take time to build rapport, or gain the user's trust, and confidence.

I've always said, technology is 10% fixing technology, and 90% understanding there is someone who depends on this technology who might be feeling frustrated, disregarded, angry, or simply inconvenienced by a problem. Understanding how to alleviate those feelings, and help them understand that you are there to assist them goes a lot further than just quickly fixing their problem, and then abandoning them again. Or acting like you know everything, and they know nothing. Or complaining to them about how tough your job is, and how dumb other people are, when they were probably just thinking the same about their job, and the IT department that you work for.

Maybe businesses should put more effort into having classes for emotional intelligence...

Weed Day

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

So, 4/20 is supposed to be a big deal. Leave the milk, and cookies out for Snoop Dog, and go get high. Whatever pot smoking joke, or metaphor you want to throw out there, pot certainly does get a lot of attention.

But, why?

Mainly because a bunch of old, profiteering white men decided it was cutting into their business so they lobbied the government to make it illegal. Then Nixon came along, and started his "war on drugs" classifying marijuana into the same categories as illegal synthetics, and opioids. Ever since, "satan's lettuce" has been a big deal.

Satan's Lettuce. They even gave it a nickname including a fictional character, because their claimed negative affects of marijuana are just as fictional.

I'm not so much a defender of marijuana use as I am a defender of civil liberties, common sense, and environmental protection. Within the boundaries of making pot illegal, America has also made hemp as an industrial crop illegal. A crop that could help save thousands of acres of trees each year. That's kind of a big deal.

Why? Because the profits of one industry are valued over the profits of another. Or, they were made to be valued that way, because someone already had more money.

And as far as protecting us from the "dangers" of pot, those who claim pot to be so horrible are all pretty horrible people themselves, and we'd probably be better off making their existence illegal. My take? Pot isn't all that harmful when compared to other already legal drugs like alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine. The often used example of the "loser stoner" is misleading. We live in diversity. Some people are just that way. With or without pot, the "loser stoner" would still be a "loser" in the eyes of society in some way. There are people who use marijuana regularly that are high-functioning, and high-achievers. There are people who use it who just are people; your common, ordinary, everyday folk, and you'd probably never know they are pot smokers except for this assumed pride of pot culture that some people latch on to because of this fight to make it legal again.

Yes, again. It wasn't always illegal.

Legalize it. Stop trying to legislate some false morality that those who are legislating it don't even adhere to. Expunge the records of those in prison on minor marijuana related charges, or at least throw away those convictions, and reduce their over-all sentences if they have more to serve.

Our society doesn't NEED marijuana, but it needs a lot more common sense, and a lot less focus on trying to protect people from themselves. Not to mention, less money in government, but that's a different, albeit, related rant.

Discovering The New

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

Hopefully this doesn't catch on that I can blog from work, and type on a regular keyboard instead of only using my phone.

But what to blog about today? Photography stuff? Film stuff? Acting stuff? Politics? Current events? Self-evaluation, and the shortcomings of me in my life?

I don't know. I'm not sure if it's writer's block, or being overwhelmed, and not knowing where to start. I had a strong urge to blog this morning, but unfortunately I made myself so busy for the first six hours today, I ran out of things to do for the last two.

So, here we are.

How are you? Good to see you. Welcome back to my blog, that no one reads. 🙂

I'm stressed out over time right now. I have four personal projects that I am working on for Living In The Buff. The first, is working on my marketing photos, for shooting small products, food, jewelry, etc. The next step is going to be a push to get more clients who need such services, so I want to bolster my portfolio for these types of images.

Project number two: working on some video interviews with the folks I've worked with a lot on the past. This one should be fun. Especially combined with offering a free photo session to encourage collaboration.

Project three is a growing film making project. Can't talk about it right now, but it's going to be great.

Project four will be getting out, and about, and taking more artistic images of the area. My Buffalo Adventures portfolio is a little thin because I just haven't put time into taking more local, artistic shots. Mostly it's been weather. I just haven't wanted to be out in the cold so much this year, and the weather just isn't breaking. Some of it is just time allocation. There is someone I prefer spending time with, obviously, so that is more of my focus.

I need to collaborate more. Musicians, photographers, models, artists, filmmakers... everyone I can work with. I just wish I had the time, and resources to maximize those opportunities.

The Truth About Pornography

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

That point aside, if we want our society to stop looking at porn as an educational resource, we need to have, or create better educational resources about sex, and sexuality. If parents, and other guiding adults, aren’t talking to their children about this part of their life that is vital to their own connectivity to human kind, a relationship with another person, their own happiness, and sense of life fulfillment, then where are their kids going to learn from? Other kids who don’t know? Online resources? Do you think they’re going to research on WebMD, or PornMD? Think they’ll look up information from Planned Parenthood, or from Motherless? Are they going to watch educational videos on YouTube, or YouPorn?

I think you know the answers.

A Story About Alaska

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

Again, they refuse – not denying that I’m going to miss my connection. They know now I won’t be on that flight. No chance. None. But now it’s too late in the day and there are no options.

I sigh a long sigh and stand frustrated waiting for the boarding to actually begin.

A Few Notes

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

One, please stop sharing Rick Lax's videos on social media. They are by far the worst, and dumbest "tricks" on the interwebs.

There is so much better, and more interesting content out there.

Two, I am still in favor of dropping the voting age to 16. And I believe, if there is a minimum, there should be a maximum. Say, once you hit 70, you can no longer vote. Same reasons. There's nothing saying you're responsible enough at the point to truly understand what you're voting for, and furthermore, you're no longer deciding YOUR future. You're almost done here. Seems morbid, but it's a fact of life. Let the younger people choose the future in front of them.

I know, I've suggested that before, and people whine, "You can't do that! That's age discrimination!" Really? More so than saying a 16-year old is incapable of understanding issues, and how they impact the world, the nation, and their own lives? You're making a judgment on all young people, and thereby preventing them from voting based on an assumed ability, or capacity to handle that process, but not on older people who might actually have failing faculties? And yes, I know many very sharp, keen 70 year olds, but I also know some I wouldn't trust with the TV remote, so why is OK to blanket one age group negatively, and not another?

Discuss....

But wait... I'm almost an old person....

Sushi Bandit

Posted on by Paul In The Buff

If you do a web search right now on the "Sushi Bandit" you will most likely find an endless string of stories about a Utah man who repeatedly did a dine-and-dash at his local Asian style restaurants. Which is a shame, because a decade or more ago that same search would have yielded at the top of the listing an amazing blog called The Sushi Bandit.

I have been posting to this blog since December 2010. Although I have owned this name, and domain since 2005, and my official start to my latest incarnation of my photography career I consider to be 2007, it wasn't until about 2010 that I began building this site, showing off my photography here, and blogging about... everything under the sun, and under my skin.

Much of that inspiration, I have to credit to the mysterious comedic blogger who went by the name, The Sushi Bandit.

I wish I could share all of the wonders of that blog. It taught you a lot about Sushi. It was funny. It was informational. It was a deep dive into the person behind it. It was whimsical. It was sexy. Like most heterosexual men, he had a penchant for attractive females, especially Asian women, and often referred to them as his "sushi." His images often bordered on the X-rated. It was everything I would hope for a blog to be.

From it I think I absconded with some of the coolest animated GIFs going. He was a master at hunting down just the right GIF to go along with his thoughts, feelings, and what he was trying to express.

 

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say with this one, except it seems as thought the world took a big bite out of my hero of the bloggosphere. But I believe this was one I collected from his madness. His blog shut down suddenly many years ago, and it appears as though he had a failed attempt to raise funds for the goal of turning his blog into an actual book. Not sure how animated GIFs translate to a paper page, but I'm sure he would have made it work somehow. In my research, this appears to have started, and ended in 2013, and I am finding nothing more recent.

Like mine, the Sushi Bandit's blog wasn't posted to daily. Sometimes there would be multiple posts in a day, sometimes it would be untouched by the author for weeks, or months. I guess that's the nature of blogging.

So in the spirit of inspiring others, and continuing legacies, I want to work on making this blog a better, more interesting, and more inspiring place for people to go. However, I can't just read your mind with an eye scan as you glance with disinterest at what I already have here. I need to know what would make this more interesting for everyone.

 

Sure, that's one of the basics, right? Make it sexier? Except no one wants to see me remove my clothes... like, ever, so aside from photographing much better looking people than myself, or adding in similar "sushi" content such as...

 

Or creepy content such as...

Or just funny or weird content...

I guess my question is, does it make a difference?

Here is your chance: what would make this blog more of an inspiration to you, or at least get you to read it more often?

Or, in the case of all 7 billion of you on this planet, read it at all.