u/Str0nglyW0rded

I’m sorry, but the majority of $500 watches from the following out there are not worth even $400. I respect Casio, Seiko, Citizen (especially disappointing recently for entry level), but the crack is being smoked. I found a newer duro with a full metallic bezel, but the bezel was fixed, $90 for a faux-dive-duro. I almost bought the GTSB1000 but luckily the fraud detection flagged my deviation from normal spending patterns and while sitting there waiting for them to call me it dawned on me that I could not gift this, I love everything about in the watch but the feel of the case, pushers, bracelet, I could not gift with a clean conscience. Then this happened, he told me sale was final after sizing the bracelet, why does a store policy for a $20 watch apply to a watch that’s over 400. I felt like Casio was trying to fuck me. If I had gone to a department store they would have thrown me 10% and sized it and would have given me the gift receipt.

When I buy shit for myself and spend real money I don’t come across half the sorry shit I saw today and I expect dealers to fuck me.

It has become blatantly obvious that the use of computer vision and AI tools are being leverage by the apps. We are talked down to by people like George Arison who claim to be creating inclusive digital spaces, building community, a community of what? People all on the same mail order prep scheme? I find it hilarious that the same companies that were telling us that no fat, no femme, no- is bad are now instituting that on a personalized level cause of greed. Sniffles is only still good cause match owns a minority stake, but the day will come…

Why does no one call out these tech gays out on this shit? We should be exploiting others, not each other.

I have collected things pretty much always, but when I was younger I found myself just picking up about anything just cause it was available, but space became an issue and I had to be more discerning. Also, sometimes I was under the impression that by obtaining it, I was somehow protecting it from being discarded. Not thinking that any one else would be interested. Now I would say I’m much better I only have like 8 watches, I was far less disciplined with other things like vinyl records, but music is different and in some cases I strongly believed that I needed to buy this and that cause of historical significance, I feel less that way about watches.

I want a nice ass (who doesn’t) I’m working eating etc I think I’m in an ok place, there’s this guy at the gym I saw do 405+ lb (I lost count of the plates) back squat 10 reps, he has NO ass , I’m sure it’s there, but like nothing and then there’s this person who is doing 225 and he has enough cake for everyone to have seconds in the zip code.

What gives???

Preface: This might be a bit uncomfortable for some people to read, and I want to acknowledge that upfront. My goal isn’t to diminish the medium or the people who practice it — I know photography still matters and that the people making it matter too. This is more about my own complicated relationship with it and whether anyone else has been here.

I was a very active photographer through my early-to-mid twenties. I had a freelance business, shot all kinds of work, and was genuinely invested. Then one day, while preparing a submission for a photography show, I felt this wave of futility wash over me. No one bought shit unless they were going through my freelance practice and they needed photographs of . I was trying to tell stories and explore ideas — not really about photography, but about my own discontent with things — and I just couldn’t fit what I was after into the lens anymore. So I started exploring other mediums. Ways I could incorporate photography without being confined by it. And eventually I stopped shooting altogether.

By that point I’d gotten deep enough into my photo education, and was aware enough of the media landscape from working professionally in it, that I didn’t feel any compulsion to go out and make images. I was still using images — pulling publicly available photographs, enlarging them, sampling textures for sculptures — but I wasn’t making them. Then I moved into television work and it stopped entirely. At some point it also became clear to me that I wasn’t going to make the kind of money I wanted as a photographer, and that my path forward was becoming the person hiring the people with cameras. And those people, generally, don’t take pictures in their off hours. They don’t even tell people they take pictures.

Recently I went on a date with someone who shoots professionally — primarily serving one specific community, with a solid client base in that space, which is genuinely great. But looking at the work, I just couldn’t find anything that grabbed me. The images only seemed to hold meaning for the people in them, which is valid, but the larger messages they seemed to be reaching for weren’t landing. I didn’t say anything. It wasn’t the time or place. But it stuck with me. And I can just think to myself how I would just argue with clients over timelines and cost, which is my other issue with the medium and more so the industry is that no one values it anymore. People do not want to pay for pictures and those people who do are on a very short list. Yes some people have to pay for them and do make money because I have to, but those are far and few.

I live in a major metropolitan city and there are a lot of people out here walking around with prosumer DSLRs, Leicas, and rolls of film — and a lot of them seem to be photographing the exact same fucking thing. Bridge. Building. Naked person in bed. I started as a teenager shooting five rolls a day. I ended up as an e-commerce photographer rolling my eyes every time someone asked for a third frame. I went from being a genuine advocate for film to seeing it, in a lot of cases, as a crutch — a way to intellectualize what would otherwise be a pretty unremarkable practice. And on the other end, I remember being the beginner sharing photos that were more a reflection of my surroundings’ inherent beauty than anything I was actually doing, and I can’t hold that against anyone either. I work in media still, but I use a keyboard, if I see something wrong in broadcast. I will message Production and ask to speak to somebody ask them what kind of lenses they got and what their constraints are. Very grateful for the knowledge I have and I never shit on anyone to their face or really to anyone else but when I go to a big town and there’s something like AIPAD or ICP I can’t help but roll my eyes. That aside I think there’s some photographers out there doing great work.

Has anyone else hit this wall? How do you rationalize these feelings to yourself, and how did you eventually work through them — or are you still sitting in that tension?

Preface: This might be a bit uncomfortable for some people to read, and I want to acknowledge that upfront. My goal isn’t to diminish the medium or the people who practice it — I know photography still matters and that the people making it matter too. This is more about my own complicated relationship with it and whether anyone else has been here.

I was a very active photographer through my early-to-mid twenties. I had a freelance business, shot all kinds of work, and was genuinely invested. Then one day, while preparing a submission for a photography show, I felt this wave of futility wash over me. No one bought shit unless they were going through my freelance practice and they needed photographs of . I was trying to tell stories and explore ideas — not really about photography, but about my own discontent with things — and I just couldn’t fit what I was after into the lens anymore. So I started exploring other mediums. Ways I could incorporate photography without being confined by it. And eventually I stopped shooting altogether.

By that point I’d gotten deep enough into my photo education, and was aware enough of the media landscape from working professionally in it, that I didn’t feel any compulsion to go out and make images. I was still using images — pulling publicly available photographs, enlarging them, sampling textures for sculptures — but I wasn’t making them. Then I moved into television work and it stopped entirely. At some point it also became clear to me that I wasn’t going to make the kind of money I wanted as a photographer, and that my path forward was becoming the person hiring the people with cameras. And those people, generally, don’t take pictures in their off hours. They don’t even tell people they take pictures.

Recently I went on a date with someone who shoots professionally — primarily serving one specific community, with a solid client base in that space, which is genuinely great. But looking at the work, I just couldn’t find anything that grabbed me. The images only seemed to hold meaning for the people in them, which is valid, but the larger messages they seemed to be reaching for weren’t landing. I didn’t say anything. It wasn’t the time or place. But it stuck with me. And I can just think to myself how I would just argue with clients over timelines and cost, which is my other issue with the medium and more so the industry is that no one values it anymore. People do not want to pay for pictures and those people who do are on a very short list. Yes some people have to pay for them and do make money because I have to, but those are far and few.

I live in a major metropolitan city and there are a lot of people out here walking around with prosumer DSLRs, Leicas, and rolls of film — and a lot of them seem to be photographing the exact same fucking thing. Bridge. Building. Naked person in bed. I started as a teenager shooting five rolls a day. I ended up as an e-commerce photographer rolling my eyes every time someone asked for a third frame. I went from being a genuine advocate for film to seeing it, in a lot of cases, as a crutch — a way to intellectualize what would otherwise be a pretty unremarkable practice. And on the other end, I remember being the beginner sharing photos that were more a reflection of my surroundings’ inherent beauty than anything I was actually doing, and I can’t hold that against anyone either. I work in media still, but I use a keyboard, if I see something wrong in broadcast. I will message Production and ask to speak to somebody ask them what kind of lenses they got and what their constraints are. Very grateful for the knowledge I have and I never shit on anyone to their face or really to anyone else but when I go to a big town and there’s something like AIPAD or ICP I can’t help but roll my eyes. That aside I think there’s some photographers out there doing great work.

Has anyone else hit this wall? How do you rationalize these feelings to yourself, and how did you eventually work through them — or are you still sitting in that tension?

Long story short I was in a friend group of 4 (I’m the youngest of the group the oldest is in his mid 50s), one of those was my my ex and best friend for 5 or so years, my best friends parents and I have been friends for about two years, he passed away under a year ago, within week or so his grandmother passed away, and now his other grandmother is on the way out. So both his parents lost their only child and both their moms within a year.

Earlier in the year after the funeral for their son (bestie), they (parents) invited the 3 of us to their vacation home, my bestie and I would go 2x a year and occasionally others from the group would tag along. Despite showing interest my other friends in the group will not go to the vacation home and have been cagey with me even discussing why they won’t. I don’t want to push them to go, but needless to say, I'm disappointed. However, I understand that people have constraints whether it be money or the emotional wherewithal. But also, I understand how it’s not exactly a relaxing vacation to be just constantly confronted with the fact that he’s gone… but it’s something that I can deal with because I’ve literally saw fucking happen, there is no dispute in my head, no belief that someone will walk through the door and it all just be a *bad dream*. They just can’t give me an answer why they won’t go. I’ve asked some other people what they think about this situation and they don’t really say anything about anyone but they just tell me that *you’re doing the right thing.*.

I feel an obligation, but I also have the desire to continue whatever kind of friendship I have with his parents. But I have a slight worry that this friendship and seeing them may be harmful in some way to either of our ability to process and rise from this darkness. I don’t seek to replace their son by any means, but I feel a subconscious push to have presence in their lives…just cause I love and miss their son so much, and I don’t know how else to share that love…

On another note, part of the reason I’m going is cause I want to miss Pride this year. I don’t feel like celebrating, nothing about going out here feels the same. I managed to shake this with a change of environment with a 2 week long holiday far away, but when I flew back I was just over come with gloom. I’m finding it hard to participate like I used to, I never had any interest in seeing drag, but I used to be more social, if I go out I just sit there and smoke occasionally entertaining people who sit with me, it’s obviously easier with regulars and people that I know who know us as a group and the whole situation. But it’s just hard. He was very much the interlocutor between us all and his absence is unfortunately not just a loss of him but has taken something from us as a friend group. Time, hope, kindness, I know, but patience is essential, I know there is no silver bullet.

Any advice, anecdotes, fables are appreciated….

In the spirit of approaching pride, I thought it would be fun to perhaps come up with some ridiculous hypotheticals. I will be posting my idea in a separate comment so we can properly rank ideas by vote.

Policy can be anything from just general fees and processing to how police deal with petty crime.

Why Is it orders will never come with napkins, and when ONE is requested, 20-30 are given?

Whatever it is you do at Gunnison, Riis, Tilden, Jones, SoBe, Playa los Muertos, Copacabana, etc. please be aware that these wonderful places we visit are the domain of wildlife. When you do go to the beach and see anything that doesn’t belong in the sand please help dispose of properly regardless if belongs to you or not. I have lost count of the amount of vapes I have found in the sand at Riis among plasti bottle caps, preroll tubes, small plasti baggies, and endless cig butts. Additionally, this is the kind of litter that conservatives use to chase us out of places under the guise of environmentalism.

Please be aware that beaches in the area are a nesting ground for the Plover (which is an endangered species of bird), obviously boomboxes and stuff are probably more suitable for Riis than Tilden, but kites are scary for birds everywhere. Please discourage others from going in areas that are closed, if one or two people see some one and a friend going behind the dune on Sunday word can spread and in two weeks time it will be 30 or so people doing it regularly. This may seem silly, but we have a federal government that does not give a shit about the environment anymore so unfortunately it is on state, local authorities, and individuals to do what is right. Not everyone seems to be able to be accountable for themselves, so I just ask that people look out for each other and lead by example and hopefully we will have a safe summer. Leave no trace.

I’m new-ish I’m like level 24. I’m pretty solid with Cannon. But I’m kind of tired of running into servers that are just not organized and have children. I would like something a little more buttoned up. I’m down for whatever maps whatever modes I’m not so much into the World War I stuff but everything else is fine. Can anyone make any suggestion suggestions US or European base teams are ideal considering time zone and my availability.