“I Don’t See Color”

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I was reading a thread in a forum, and one of the commenters said “I don’t see color”, with the intention of conveying that race shouldn’t matter. Honestly, I thought this was an admirable sentiment, but soon learned how problematic this phrase is. I spent some time reading about the reasons why, and I now consider myself a bit more educated than I was a little while ago. I’m linking the articles below:

After 51-years of life, I’m still figuring out what it means to be mixed/multiple-ethnicity. It’s complicated, but fascinating, and surprisingly challenging to find information or groups that discuss mixed-Asian ethnicity (Asian-Asian, not Asian-Caucasian, Asian-Black, etc.).

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On a side note, the original commenter’s reaction to the links to the articles was defensive and hostile, instantly devolving into name-calling and personal attacks. Which reminds me of the saying, “when you resort to ad hominem attacks, you’ve already lost”, as in the entertaining feud between James Altucher and Jerry Seinfeld.

Bicycle Name

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/105 sec, ISO200
 “Golden Hour Bicycle” Cedar Park, 2020

I gave my motorcycle and car names (Kiki and Sana respectively), and I wanted to give my Kona Blast bicycle a name. I’ve thought for a while now, and decided to go with Mango.

The original paint color is called “Mongo” so it’s pretty close, and the color is like the meat of a ripe mango. I also thought of naming it Papaya, which is probably more accurate color-wise and is interesting because my kids still call me Papa, but it just doesn’t roll off the tongue as naturally as Mango does.

Anyway, here’s my bicycle – um Mango – on the same bridge several years ago:

Photo info: Panasonic DMC-TS2, 7.8mm, f/4.3, 1/250 sec, ISO80
 “Panniers” Cedar Park, 2013

I hope you had a good day! 😊🚲

ISS Fly-By

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 19mm, f/2, 10 sec, ISO800
 “ISS Fly-By” Cedar Park, 2020

Tonight the International Space Station (ISS) was very bright as it passed over Texas, and I had my camera and tripod set up to capture it. I didn’t really know what kind of settings to use, so I just went with a typical exposure that I normally do. Unfortunately there were a lot of clouds obscuring the view, but I think the photo turned out okay.

I made a series of 10-second exposures, then stacked them in Photoshop to create the composite image above. You might notice that there appear to be double stars. This is because I hid a few layers in the Photoshop stack when the ISS was passing behind the clouds so the overall cloud coverage would be reduced, and this resulted in the star trails having a gap in them.

FYI, this website is a fantastic resource to see when satellites will be flying overhead. It uses Google Street View to show you exactly where to look from your viewpoint! Just make sure that your watch is synchronized to the atomic clock so you know when to look up.

Snapshot While Running

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Photo info: motorola moto g(6), 3.95mm, f/1.8, 1/2700 sec, ISO101
 “Cloud up the Hill” Cedar Park, 2020

This is one of the longer hills near our house but the school bus gave me an extra bit of motivation to power up it today.

When facing a big hill, I usually think of a saying: “Just keep your legs moving and let the top of the hill come to you.” It’s worked every time! 😊

Have a great day!

Cat Nap

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/9 sec, ISO3200
 “Napping Spot” Cedar Park, 2020

Here’s another of Anko’s frequent napping locations. It looks a little nicer than her last one.