Col-Panic's photostream

MY PHOTOS

I've really just gotten into digital photography since Spring 2007 when I started using iPhoto on my Mac to organize and edit my photos. I heard about Flickr on my technology podcasts and finally started using it this May.

What really sold me on Flickr was finding several pictures on a friends photostream from events we both attended and being able to download full-quality copies to add to my iPhoto library. The low-resolution images on other social websites just don't cut it for me. I also like the ability to share photos with other users in groups.

ABOUT ME

I am an out gay Atheist, a Liberal, and a Mac geek.

I started coming out of the closet when I was 16. Raised as a conservative Christian, part of this process included reevaluating things I'd been taught to believe. I went through a brief ex-gay phase at age 18, thinking I was supposed to be straight or celibate. I stopped going to church once I moved out on my own, but I still believed in Christianity. Then, I found freethought resources and started seriously asking myself the tough questions. I finally shed religion and faith at the age of 24 and have never looked back. I am interested in ethics and morality, but not in self-contradictory and immoral thou shalt's and thou shalt not's.

Politics is one of my interests because it affects people's daily lives. My interest in politics was sparked in 2003 when the US Supreme Court handed down their decision in Lawrence V. Texas, striking down sodomy laws. I was horrified in 2004 when 11 states approved constitutional amendments banning marriage for gay couples. I was very glad to see five states legalize marriage for same-sex couples in the last year. Although as happy as I was about Obama's election, I was also very sad on November 4th last year to see that California had failed to defeat Proposition 8.

I am a semi-geek Mac user. I was a lifelong PC user; I got my first computer, an 8088 dinosaur my uncle had built, when I was in the 6th grade. I loved Windows, from Win95 to XP. I got an iPod shuffle in 2005 and Apple emailed me about the Mac mini. I was amazed -- a two inch tall 6 1/2 inch square full-featured computer (with built-in wifi and bluetooth, etc). I bought one in June 2006 and have been in love with the Macintosh platform ever since!

MY VIDEOS

I started recording videos at the beginning of March 2008 using a digital camera (HP Photosmart series). I started video editing when I upgraded to iLife '08 and tried out the new version of iMovie. youtube.com/wabes2k

OTHER

twitter.com/wabes2k