Rose Parade Preview

Happy New Year!

Tonight my boyfriend and I wandered around the staging area for the Rose Parade floats.

My favorite floats were sponsored by the city of Torrance and the Ronald McDonald house.

The Ronald McDonald House float was space-themed.

City of Torrance float. I really liked it because of all the birds and the "greenhouse look" to it.

I can't remember who sponsored this float, but it's a tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen of WWII.

Honda float. It's a ship piloted by their Asimov robot.

Taiwan's float, sponsored by China Airlines

Here's a start to a brand new year!

How We've Come To Love the Airbrush

Photoshop of Horrors

All women want to be beautiful. I think a majority of those women also want to (if they haven't already) accept themselves and accept the way they look.

I think women are primed to want to be in that top tier of beauty. It's a natural desire.

When we skew the beauty scale even the most gorgeous don't want to accept the way they look. That is truly sad.

You can go to Communist China and take a very average looking girl, maybe a 3 or 4 on the scale (with 10 being most lovely), and a year or 18 months later she's a 9 or 10. What's more sad is women actually want to go under the knife because in China, if you're female, the more attractive and tall you are, the easier it is to get the jobs you want.

Is it the same for us on the other side of the pond? Probably.

I don't think I'll ever go under the knife. I don't think I'd ever like to get my boobs lifted or my tummy tucked. I don't think I'd want to get my face lifted, either. If I'm not happy with who I am now, why would I ever be happy if I looked different? The person underneath is still the same.

Sunset Last Night

These Guys Are Too Happy

Can Anyone Identify This Photo?

I'm a big fan of photography, and have been wanting to start a collection of prints for some time. Not in any particular genre, just stuff that I like.

Anyway, I thought a particular photo of a Marine running along the beach on D-Day would be a nice companion piece to the Flag-Raising at Mt. Suribachi. Except I don't know who took the photograph, or even if it has a title.

Here is a link to a poster from the National WWII Museum. And here it is on the cover of Norman Mailer's "The Naked & The Dead". (which is a good, if not great book, btw)

Since my googling hasn't come up with anything, I thought maybe someone else might know. I tried looking on the back of my copy of the Mailer book, but no luck.