Last Conference Day

I presented my second conference paper today and I am reasonably pleased with the outcome. It is always nice to have an award. Anyway, after the conference, I was wondering where I should go in town and probably ride the Belle of Louisville when I learned that another professor was quite inclined to visit the tank museum at Fort Knox. Between the novel experience of riding on a real honest to goodness steamship and visiting a museum full of old military hardware, hell I would go for the museum any day of the week. Every ship largely feels like every other, as long as it isn't a speedboat or catamaran.

Anyway, the museum was smashing and had what was basically entire halls full of military hardware. Even though we had to hire a driver at quite some expense in order to get there and back, it was really a unique experience. It was in fact made even more unique because the museum itself was moving away from Fort Knox. Basically, that made us one of the last few visitors to the place.

The rest of the evening was largely uneventful. It was getting late, I was quite tired and overall there really wasn't a lot we could do anyway. Just a walk around the waterfront one more time, and then off to bed.

Around the town

Today was a fantastic day. I had my breakfast at the hotel, then managed to head down to the Old Town of Louisville. Just the ticket, considering that I am a big fan of these old places. I took the trolley down and marched about in blazing sunshine. Frankly, summer sun sucks, especially when it's approaching midday. Bitching about Sol aside, I nearly wanted to pull out when I started seeing the old buildings.

It really is quite amazing to see the old French-inspired architecture, amongst other buildings from the Victorian era. I even managed to hit the Conrad-Cladwell house, which was quite the quintessential richly decorated Victorian mansion. Overall, it was quite the tour of the town and its historic buildings. Unfortunately, I did not go for the ghost walk at night because I found out online that the ghost walk was really effectively a walking tour without actually going into the "haunted" houses. A pity, really.

Anyway, I headed back after that and had a good walk down the waterfront. It really is amazing when the sun's down at 9pm, because that means the sunset (and sunrise) is effectively a whole hour. Plenty of time for some serious shooting.

Conference Days

These two days were effectively conference days, with all that entails. I presented my first paper, and the reception seemed generally positive at the point. On the first day I went out with this really nice fella from the conference who gave me a spin in his Mustang, and we got to visit the historic Bardstown road area. Again, it was quite the place and the food was superb. It's a shame that most stores closed real early, so I was unable to do a lot of shopping.

On the second day, my post-conference time was mostly taken up by the conference dinner, so it was a lot of food and rubbing shoulders with minimal sightseeing. Regardless, it was nice to have a little walk around downtown area after sundown even though it was lightly drizzling at the time. I did hear that the area was prone to street crime, so I did avoid going too far by myself given that I was carrying some serious camera gear. Ah, well.

To Downtown

Morning at Louisville. I learned that the nearest (and most iconic) attraction nearby was Churchill Downs, a.k.a. *The* Kentucky derby racetrack. If Kentucky's known for its horsies, then CD is the place where it's all at. In theory anyway. It was a right fine place, and a good photographic warmup even though I was never really all that fond of the derby. I did learn some little things about the gig in general, and really it was quite the fun experience.

Of course, this was also my first taste of summer sunshine and I dare say it was singularly horrific. I set out early at 7am, figuring that I'd be back before things really got scorching out there. That's the theory anyway. It turns out that after walking to the derby track, mooching about the museum and all that, I was really heading back at around 11am, which was pretty much as good as high noon. Note to self: walking around at high noon is a painful experience and should be avoided as much as possible.

After checking into my hotel, the next thing was to figure out where everything was downtown, and plan my movements for the next day. I felt real fortunate to have a free city trolley service that could take me across town in air conditioned comfort. That was a real life saver and would prove to be most useful in the coming days. I hit a thrift store just as it was closing, and then basically wandered about getting my bearings with the aid of a map.

At Louisville

It was a really long plane ride, with a bunch of transits. Basically, here I am at my hotel after a free shuttle ride from the airport. One thing good about being me is that I can basically sleep in most places, including on planes. So far, it seems like I have little trouble with the time zone shift.

Unfortunately, as it's really close to midnight, there's little opportunity to explore the area except those immediately close to my hotel. Perhaps I would have an opportunity in the morning. All I can say is that the room's positively enormous given that I chose the smallest they had available...it'd probably fit 4 people comfortably. Regardless, I'd go get about the next day.

Off To Kentucky

This begins my log of my trip to Louisville, Kentucky for a conference. At this point, my key concern is not so much about the nitty gritties of presenting papers before an academic audience as it is about how I am to go about to the city proper and moving between hotels. It would be my first time navigating a new city a goodly distance away from home, and it is indeed quite a novel experience. The other noteworthy concern is how I'd deal with an exceptionally long plane flight.

Overall, however, I am pretty excited about the prospect of going so far, especially considering that the travel and hotel expenses have been covered. I have brought my laptop and main camera, along with my sidearm, so I should be pretty well equipped for an extended photographic jaunt.

Unfulfilled

It is a strange feeling, how unfulfilled I can be at times. I had another pang of it just now while heading home from my walk. I suppose what hurts is that everything is starting to feel routine. There are few truly new experiences, and I guess the best description for what I am feeling now is empty. Truly, I have achieved some things, and I guess life in general is going pretty well, but something's still missing. I can't really put a finger on it, though.

I guess I got a hint of what did get my blood pumping during martial arts class. It was a good feeling. The thrill of the hunt, as I put it, though that still felt somewhat unsatisfying. Perhaps I had simply not sated my bloodlust for too long. Well, whatever it is, the fact remains that I still feel somewhat empty inside, and there's a tingling urge for me to do something about it.

I went out today to get a feel of the camera in my hands again. I've not walked my gear for some time, and my trigger finger was itching. I am always conflicted whenever it comes to taking my camera for a walk. On one paw I am never thrilled to go out while the sun is blazing. On the other, that's probably the best time to grab shots given the excellent lighting. Ah, well.

The Value Of Life

There was this question I asked myself regarding the exchange rate between pleasure and life: would I swallow a pill that would make me feel good permanently, but has a 10% chance of killing me outright? In terms of odds, I'd say it looks like a pretty good deal. 100% chance of a significant benefit, vs 10% chance of total wipeout. On that evaluation alone, I'd say yeah of course! But then again, things are never that simple when evaluating a deal. My marginal utility of the option is quite low, considering that I wouldn't really be feeling all that much better since I'm not all that messed up in general.

This hypothetical situation is an abstraction of how addictions happen. In general, addictions will have some sort of wipeout-style drawback. Gambling addiction may result in financial ruin. Drug addictions may wind up with a fatal OD sometime. Yet, the good feelings gained from the addictions are what make them addictive (in addition to their own inherent addictiveness like in the case of drugs). If one is truly feeling mighty messed up, the exchange rate between pleasure and life becomes pretty low. It is a lot easier to shoot up some good feelings today and fuck tomorrow, than it is to endure another "safe" but otherwise awful day. Simply put, their marginal benefit from the experience is way higher than my own.

That is not to say that I do not have my own addictions. It simply is that mine are, while possibly harmful, generally not expected to have some truly lethal wipeout scenario. The black swan will show up when it does, but I can reasonably expect to survive that experience when it does.

Toy Story 3

First thought: just what was I expecting? It's Toy Story, after all. Anyway, this is the time when Andy grows up and the toys have to find a new home. The attic, someone's childcare center, someone else's home, the dumpster...you get the idea. Them old toys gota go somewhere.

Unfortunately, I think the story lost a lot of its drama when it was made known early on that Andy did not intend to throw the toys away. It would have done a lot better if the toys had a true story of woe, only to learn later that they were not junk. But then again, that's my personal bent.

Now, the premise is similar...toys go on an adventure, everything resets in the end. Only this time they have a new owner, since Andy's now off to college. I guess this is something I cannot really relate to, since I never really had those sorts of toys when I was a kid, and I certainly never imagined that my toys were anything else but toys.

While most other people can and do appreciate this particular installment of the series, all I can give this one would be 7.5/10. Primarily due to the touching scenes that dot the story. I still prefer How To Train Your Dragon.

Faces Of Slavery

Slavery does not just disappear. It simply reappears in different forms. There is always a demand for labor one way or another. And of course, the cheaper the labor is in whatever terms matter, the better. That simply means there will be more labor available to help get work done, thus freeing up resources for other applications.

The modern day equivalent of slavery (apart from slavery itself) would be outsourcing of production to poor countries, whereby foreign labor is paid pathetically small sums in order to produce goods for their richer employers. Some may argue that it is a fair business transaction that is agreed upon by both sides, and that the employees receive enough money to be reasonably well off considering the cost of living of their countries. That sort of logic is also applied to slaves of old, whereby they are "privileged" to be treated well...or rather...simply not being abused.

Simply put, compensation for outsourced labor can never be fair. If it is fair, as defined by the market rate for labor in the original country, there would actually be a disincentive for companies to outsource. Outsourcing as a cost cutting measure necessitates that costs be lowered and this is achieved by under-compensating labor. Indeed, this does not sound like the traditional definition of slavery, which in modern times is common amongst trafficked humans. That is, people forced to work and often for no pay. Yet, the modern face of wage slavery cannot be ignored, considering how people from poor countries are basically paid an artificially low wage simply because their would-be employers would not pay more and they can do little better locally anyway.