Things I Like Go Here

"Well, straight away, I think The House Queens seem to be driven by a baseless confidence."

The short answer is... a tilt-shift lens.

The slightly more complicated answer is... Mister Rogers.

Mister Rogers is an example but not the only reference point in existence.

I do think Mister Rogers is probably hugely influential due to being on the air and in repeats for half a century. And since it was shown to almost every American child and since this effect was prevalent in the opening song of the show in every episode, I imagine this is the main reference point for many people.

But it could also be from seeing toy photography or toy commercials or diorama photography or stop motion movies or Team America.

You may not even remember what trained your brain.

I also wanted to mention several of the examples were created using a filter in Photoshop. Actually I was afraid one of them was A.I. because of a comment someone left, but I was able to verify it was based on an actual photography.

I don't know if people feel this effect is less authentic or less special if done using a filter, but I'm afraid most of these photos are created that way and not with the actual lens.

That said, I have verified the following photos were taken with an *actual* tilt-shift lens and were not Photoshopped, just to make sure you have some authentic examples.

It's clear this is my mistake. I really thought I made it clear I was just using that as an example. People are exposed to miniature photography all the time. Mr. Rogers was just a very strong memory for a lot of folks and I was trying to use that to gain interest. But after so many comments of that nature it seems I failed to convey that.

People also question the psychological aspect. I was really hoping to do an in depth explaination of the psychology of perception as an addition to this post. But shortly after I started feeling horrible and I never got around to it.

But there is one fun fact I found that I was really excited to share.

It is theorized that up to 90% of our visual perception is created by our brain based on past experiences.

Up to 90% of what you are currently looking at is your brain using old information to help you make sense of the immense visual input.

It is constantly making shit up and it makes me wonder if ghosts and UFOs and strange phenomenon are often caused by this.

You can look up Richard Gregory's "visual assumption theory" if you want to go down a rabbit hole.

There is also top-down vs bottom-up processing which is really fascinating too.

Top-down is stuff you've already experienced. It helps you read faster. You can see words instead of individual letters. Y_u ca_ ev_n re_d when letters are missing. Sometimes you will not notice misstakes or or duplicate words. Your brain can actually correct them as you read if you are not actively searching for them.

Bottom-up processing is new stimuli. Your brain has to figure out what it is looking at from scratch. I remember just a few weeks ago I saw a photo showing a perspective I have never encountered before.

At first, my brain literally didn't know what I was looking at.

I was confused and disturbed and I was just trying to interpret all the shapes and features to parse what I was seeing. And finally my brain noticed the hooves and teeth and then magically I saw a horse. And now when I look at the photo I can't not see a horse.

Basically everything we've experienced (or not experienced) influences our present perception. There is too much stimuli in the world for our brains to compute so it fills in a lot of blanks as we go.

People wondered if you hadn't seen Mr. Rogers (or the countless other examples of miniatures), would you still see tilt-shit photos as a miniature. And I'm not really sure. That would be difficult to prove. Once you've seen a stop motion movie or a toy advertisement, your brain already has stimuli to work from. It's going to use it if it has it in the data banks.

I think it would be a matter of intensity. I noticed that some folks mentioned certain tilt-shift photos did not give them a strong feeling of being miniature. Whereas I had a very strong sense of that for every photo. Probably because I have studied this a great deal and have absorbed countless examples.

If we want to get to the start of Egypt's civilisation we have to go to c.6120 BCE. Roughly about 3000 years before the invention of writing and almost 4000 years before the Pyramids. This is called the Pre-Dynastic period and I encourage people to check out the Naqqada pottery because it's cool as shit.

Tutankhamun reigned c.1332 BCE which is 1300 years (1302 if we're being pedantic) before Cleopatra and 1300 years after the Pyramids were built. He's slap bang average.

The Bronze Age collapse happens *during* the New Kingdom as that period in Egypt's history doesn't end until c.1069 BCE and the BAC ends c.1150 BCE. Trust me, it had a punishing effect on Egypt with famine and tomb robbery being common.

Ancient Egypt was quite green. The idea that it was all a desert is that classic 'yellow filter' they use for foreign places in TV/Movies. They lived on the Nile. That big river that flooded once a year and left really beautifully fertile soil in its wake from which grew an abundance of life. It was GREEN. Yes there was desert, but nowhere near as much of it as people think there is.

So this vast amount of time should put a few things into perspective. Egypt's civilisation began in c.6120 BCE and ended with the death of Cleopatra in c.30 BCE. That's 6090 years. Yes. Six Thousand and Ninety.

So when we think of the Egyptians doing things and someone says 'the Egyptians did X' I'm going to ask you to ask yourself 'which time period of Egypt is that?' because SIX THOUSAND YEARS is a bit too long for one thing to be true for all of it.

Pharaohs had Pyramids? Really only the Old Kingdom (there are a couple of Middle Kingdom ones but they're shit)

Pharaohs had Chariots? Only in the New Kingdom (that's also when they got the horse...yes...up until the beginning of the New Kingdom, Egypt didn't have the horse)

Egyptians really liked cats? Not ever true. They had a trade of killing them to use as offerings to Bastet from the Late Period onwards (after the New Kingdom)

The Middle Kingdom? Pretty chill and has good literature.

Mummification? Really only took off for everyone in the New Kingdom

Pharaohs used the word Pharaoh? Only in the New Kingdom

Because Ancient Egypt was around for this long it really does the civilisation a disservice to reduce it to 'they always did this.' You wouldn't say any country in the world now is the same as it was 200 years ago or even 30 years ago for many of them. So lets not think that a civilisation that lasted nearly 6100 years was completely static. It would be beneficial to my mental health.

Also - this line from costco actually gave me more hope than there rest of the post, and that's significant because the post was very positive overall:

And Costco's shareholders voted by a 98%-to-2% margin to retain their DEI programs and practices.

Because that's not... just the CEO being "woke" or leftist or just understanding that DEI benefits EVERYONE, that's the SHAREHOLDERS saying that. That's the people with the money and the power in the company, the ones who want to see the profits who are agreeing with a near-unanimous vote that yes this is important.

Here’s some more.

they do not see us as men, y'all. WHAT reality is this attitude based in, because it's not this one.

They see: a bunch of faggots.

And they want us dead.