Crusty Underwear? Seriously?

My dad was always attentive to things like hygiene, especially when it came to being out in public.  He made sure I understood what it meant, for myself and for others, from brushing your teeth to washing behind your ears to brushing your hair.  Didn't matter what your style was as long as you were clean and presentable; no stink and the like.  It also extended to conducting oneself in public; you can do whatever you like at home but be respectful of others while out and about.  Not that he didn't enjoy fully an accidental or purposefully strategic puff of noisy and/or stanky flatulence on occasion.  Don't we all.

"...and that was silent but deadly...wow..." -George Carlin <3

I also recall him, until I worked it out myself rather quickly for obvious reasons, doing an effective job of wiping my outer anal sphincter clean for me after I enjoyed a movement.  He himself always seemed to put the same, good effort to this for himself, even using a liquid afterwards to freshen things up.  I do not recall what it was but I doubt highly this was its intended purpose.  My parents were divorced early on so I don't have any recent memory to back things up other than it was a watery, orangish liquid with a citrusy scent.  In a gallon jug he would dab toilet paper to that was kept behind the toilet tank.  In hindsight it may well have been his own concoction.  I probably should not admit this but in those very early days I experimented with available toilet water as a like option...I obviously did not stick with that long. 

I also had an upbringing around of a lot of strong, intelligent and opinionated women.  Many adults coming out of an age where women were much of the time stay-at home moms and thus taking care of many of those chores - like doing laundry.  Obviously, unfortunately, this is still often the case as apparently few men are yet willing to help around the house in this way.  My point is I was around to hear much of what they had to say to each other in the presence of 'kids' but with their husbands absent.

You know much of what I speak but I recall one thing stuck out that I couldn't wrap my head around - crusty underwear.  Right?  Yuck.  At first I didn't even know what they meant but nothing good can come of those to words combined.  To this day I haven't heard of or myself witnessed this problem with respect to women though I know it has to exist to some extent.  I'd hear stories about not minding brainless chores except when it came to 'his tighty-whiteys' with their own flavor of adjectives to describe said underwear along with this stuff that always came with them when...soiled.  Yes, I did use the word 'flavor' in that sentence.  Deal.  

I was like WTF?  I credit myself with always having been a respectably observant person but it never occurred to me to investigate this, not even in the school gym locker/shower room.  Not until I had heard these stories did I go looking.  Yeah.  What.  The.  Actual.  Fuck.  If people wipe, how could this happen?  Doesn't everyone clean up completely?!

This reminds me of something a friend said...about likening the wiping of one's ass when hairy to 'getting peanut butter out of a shag carpet'.  Yeah.  That's a thing.  And accurate.  But, in my opinion, no excuse. 

This left me pondering technique or lack thereof.  It is one thing to just not care, which I am sure is often the case 'because they're underwear for a reason' (which is stupid).  And how can a person not tell how effective a job they've done?  I think right now this moment is possibly the first time I have ever considered that people might not even look to see what kind of job they've done.  I mean seriously...I get that most people are scat averse but geezuz! 

Back to technique; use of a bidet notwithstanding, there appear two obvious choices - down the front and center between the legs or the hip-cock-side-wipe.  I suppose a contortionist might attempt to go down the rear center for fun.  No, fun might not be the right word but fuck it.  Down the center has always struck me as the way to go.  Almost painfully obvious.  The latter leaves me with visuals of guys (and some women) smearing shit up their cheek on the side of their dominant or otherwise favored hand.  And not bothering to continue cleaning things up, especially when combined with a lack of desire to actually see what kind of performance is being realized. 

Then, beyond all this, are people so unaware and/or uncaring that they aren't seeing these fine results when changing said undies?  I know people are often unaware of most things three feet from their face but come on.  I can not wrap my head around the concept, let alone being the person responsible for dealing with this problem.  I know one thing for certain - it sure as hell has never been and will never be me. 

Oh - and speaking of scat, Fuck Trump. 

©2019 Michael Pichahchy

Hydration and Visual Acuity (and some blathering)

tl:dr
Yeah, something I have noticed.  You?  Your level of true water hydration affects your vision.  Whooda thunk. 


Water.  Basic need...required for life as we know it, so far, on this planet at any rate.   The more pure the better.  I'd drink DI if I could. 

My mom and I used to talk about all kinds of physiological conditions and effects as I was growing up.  Training of muscles, exercising various functions the brain, range of motion, psycho-physiological considerations, you name it.  Always asking questions; always studying.  I miss her.  We'd have been more batshit than we already were had we enjoyed the likes of today's Internet in the '70s and '80s. 

Given that lack of the 'Net, I was plastered to books of all kinds.  We both were.  I had always figured I 'ruined my eyes' by spending so much time at that limited focal length.  Of course I don't truly specifically believe this in terms of direct cause and effect but it does merit consideration when you consider range of motion of a given muscle or joint loses effectiveness if overworked in a certain way and not fully extended, even stretched a bit.  Mus hav balance, grasshoppah.  Yeah...phuk dat.  Lolz. Gallon of ice cream and a bag of cookies, anyone?  Vegan/gluten-free of course.  

Despite a need for corrective lenses in my teen years I have always tried to limit the time spent wearing them...to driving, movies and the like.  Nearsightedness...but the proverbial squint worked and still works well enough at times, depending on quality of available light.  I do exercise them, forcing far focus as possible when I think about it.  That was my understanding from age 15ish to about age 4...3?

Then something happened.  My @#$*&%# partner put a camera in my hand.  A real one, not one of these stupid, quickie-phoney things.  Something that required a bit more attention, precision.  Do you wear glasses?  How annoying is it to shoot with your lens-corrected eye (glasses, I haven't tried contact lenses in over 25 years) to the eyepiece?  Right?!  Have an astigmatism?  Yeah, I developed one in the last decade or so, in my right, dominant eye.  The eye I shoot with.  Diopter adjustment on-camera you say?  OK, fine, but Pff...even professional cameras can't correct for astigmatisms. 

S0o...in the pursuit of making the capturing of light with a lens and sensor a wee bit easier and more effective, as always, more acute attention must be paid to anything and everything related.

During the first year of my running around with said equipment on a daily basis I started to notice that some days were easier than others in terms of 'finding focus'.  I do switch eyes, too, depending on the situation, which gave me double the information to go on.

Footnote/random thought - ever notice how each of your eyes not only focuses differently, but how the color temperature and/or saturation differ from one to the other?  Of course, when you are post-processing your brain compensates for this difference by 'averaging'.  Or something.  I dunno.  Maybe later.  I need to read up on color blindness as well. 

Where was I...the point.  I started paying more attention to those things I thought might affect my ability to focus.  Internal, external, environmental, with camera or without.  Humidity, sunlight, breeze, you name it.  Anything that can affect your vision.  It actually did not take too long to figure things out as I am fairly disciplined at drinking up to a full gallon of water per day; if I don't hydrate I notice it.  I noticed that if I am not hydrated I have a (sometimes much) harder time focusing, which can obviously make capturing a scene more difficult, or you can lose those little moments that can already be hard to catch. 

©2019 Michael Pichahchy

'Like' Is No More

For one social media platform, 2.27 billion active, monthly users at the time of this writing.  Over 29% of the human population of the planet. 

Like.  Yeah. 

People advertising so much more of their daily lives.  Necessary?  Scientists of various ilks have theorized til faces go azure as to why this level of sharing has become so important but it is ultimately very simple - awareness of the rest of the planet and a desire to be a part of it.  One would Like to think it is out of a desire just to participate but most want to be heard, and now to feel not just present but important, even celebrity.  It will be great when cooperation overtakes competition.

The torpid perusing of other peoples' publicized lives and clicking a button to show some level of engagement, albeit painfully minimal.  Like.  No longer just a word to be spoken inter-personally but a button to be pressed.   It is because of this now seeming absurdity...what...billions of times a day...?...that the word Like has lost virtually all of its purpose...diluted almost to the point of non-existence if you will.  That is possibly too tough a statement but I will leave it for now. 

Not that Like hasn't always been a feeble word.  A word used when you wanted to convey interest in something but lacking the commitment of something stronger.  A shade above neutral awareness of a subject.  Now it has been overused to the point of total saturation...enough.  You might as well be saying 'meh'.  Its use today would almost feel dismissive if the intent weren't intended to show approval.  Shoot me a Like.  Give me a Like.  Like my shit.  And follow me. 

For quite some time now it isn't just the dopamine response people are after, either.  As soon as profit motives infected this realm things went batshit.  'Like' was no longer something to show said genuine interest in but a commodity to be sought and, hopefully, given freely.  Whether the person extending the Like truly felt anything it matters not. 

This overuse across motivations has effectively erased any value this word ever enjoyed. 

©2019 Michael Pichahchy