Picture of the Day 9

Sorry about not posting for a couple days, Zooomr was down for longer than I expected it to be. But, on the plus side they gave all pro users "Pro 4 Life" accounts, so I will never have to pay for pro status.

Here is my photo for today:

Hosted on Zooomr

Taken at Bishop's University, 27/X/06
Fujifilm Finepix s5100/5500
Tweaked slightly in Adobe lightroom

In other photo related news, I am setting up a web store, where I hope to sell framed prints of some of my photos. I will alert you all when it goes live.

Yours in Christ,
Thrusday

Hosting down. . .

Sorry, there won't be a photo of the day today, as I'm guessing you had already figured out (it's 11:45 PM). My photohosting service, Zooomr is down. I'll post one tomorrow, if Zooomr is back. I hope to go do some shooting tomorrow as well, mostly film, but some digital, just so I get some more photos to post instantly.

Yours in Christ,
Thursday

Picture of the Day 8

Here is another photo for your visual enjoyment.

Hosted on Zooomr

Taken in my back garden 09/X/06
Pentax MX with a SMC Zoom 4.5 80~200mm
Shutter speed: 1/125th of a second
Aperture: f10 (or thereabouts)

Like the Chipmunk before, I had to slowly creep up on this little guy. But, I think it was worth it.

Yours in Christ,
Thursday

So why am I getting a degree?

I was just watching an episode of Penn & Teller's "Bull****!" on PETA, and this part jumped out at me.

“This is a fight for liberation [of animals], no different than the fight for the liberation of slaves, or liberation of women, or any other oppressed group in the past. We have to equate our movement with those movements” ~Some PETA spokesman

“The foolishness of that comment is so deep, I can only ascribe it to higher education. You have to have gone to college to say something that stupid” ~Interviewed radioshow host responding to that statement

It made me laugh.

Yours in Christ,
Thursday

picture of the Day 7

Hosted on Zooomr

Taken at Bishop's University, early september
Camera: Finepix s5100
Macro Mode

Just a nice fall picture for today.

Yours in Christ,
Thursday

Mysterious Myths or Legendary Legends?

I am posting this paper, in part to prove that this is still somewhat a Chestertonian blog, and also because I believe it brings up many important questions about Christian Mythology. I originally wrote this paper for a seminar course on the "Anglo-Catholic" movement of "Radical Orthodoxy."

In the modern world, the word myth is synonymous with the word false. But should it be? G.K. Chesterton wrote:

What are here called the Gods might almost alternatively be called the day-dreams. To compare them to dreams is not to deny that dreams can come true. To compare them to travellers' [sic] tales is not to deny that they may be true tales, or at least truthful tales. In truth they are the sort of tales the traveller [sic] tells to himself. All this mythological business belongs to the poetical part of men. It seems strangely forgotten nowadays that a myth is a work of imagination and therefore a work of art. It needs a poet to make it. It needs a poet to criticise it. There are more poets than non-poets in the world, as is proved by the popular origin of such legends. But for some reason I have never heard explained, it is only the minority of unpoetical people who are allowed to write critical studies of these popular poems.
(The Everlasting Man, 70)

Click here to read more


Yours in Christ,
Thursday

Picture of the Day 6

I took this photo at Bishop's University in early september. I didn't notice the bee until I was developing the RAW photo in Adobe Lightroom. I guess you could say he is a bit of a bonus.

Hosted on Zooomr

Camera: Finepix s5100
Set to Macro mode.


Yours in Christ,
Thursday

Picture of the Day 5

Here is a photo that I shot while I was home for fall break:

Hosted on Zooomr

Taken in my Garden 7/X/06
Camera: Fuji Finepix s5100
Lens: Standard
Shutter: Automatic
Misc: "macro mode"

I hope my readers don't mind that I spend most of my posts on my budding (no pun intended) interest in photography.
I promise I will post some non-photography posts soon.

Yours in Christ,
Thursday

P.S.
If anybody would like to use my photos, please ask me first. I am more than willing to give permission, but please do ask.

Picture of the Day 4

Here is the next picture of the day:

Hosted on Zooomr

Taken at Bishop's University Early September.
Camera: Fuji Finepix s5100
Lens: Standard
Shutter: Automatic
Misc: "macro mode"

I saw this little mushroom, and I thought it would make a great photo.

Yours in Christ,
Thursday

picture of the Day 3

Here is the third picture. As you can see, I am trying a new host for my images. If you click on the photo, you can see the image in multiple sizes as well as download the original file. They are also giving me a free "pro" account for one year for doing this, so I am pretty psyched.

Hosted on Zooomr

Taken in my back garden 09/X/06
Pentax MX with a SMC Macro 1:4 100mm lens
Shutter speed: 1/125th of a second
Aperture: f8 (or thereabouts)

Yours in Christ,
Thursday

Picture of the Day 2

Here is the second picture of the day:

(Click to enlarge)


Taken in my back garden 09/X/06
Pentax MX with a SMC Zoom 4.5 80~200mm
Shutter speed: 1/125th of a second
Aperture: f9 (or thereabouts)

Yours in Christ,
Thursday

Spinozistic Infinity and its Relationship to Mathematical Infinity

I have decided to post some of my essays and papers that I have to write for my philosophy classes. I am not going to post the entire paper on the front page, only the first paragraph. To read the rest of the paper, click on the link called "click here to read more" immediately following the paragraph. This will be linked to a PDF of the entire paper.

The first paper is my final paper for a seminar course I took last year on Spinoza's Ethics. In it, I look at Spinoza's understanding of infinity, and compare it to the modern mathematical view of infinite sets.

Spinozistic Infinity and its Relationship to Mathematical Infinity

It might seem, at first glance that Spinoza lived in a “dark age” for the study of the infinite. A time when mathematicians doubted the actual existence of the infinite, and the only book to mention it was on the index of forbidden books. However, Spinoza seems to have risen above these difficulties, and developed a theory of the infinite, though lacking in many ways, was surprisingly close to the modern view. This paper is divided into two parts. The first part is a line-by-line analysis of the most valuable explanations of the infinite taken from the thirty-two works and letters that deal with this subject. And the second part, in which Spinoza’s theory is put in the context of the developing understanding of the infinite.

Click here to read more
Click here for the Appendix

Yours in Christ,
Thursday