And back to Las Vegas for this Top 200 Photo

photo #46 is:

This is an ad I used to pass by every day and night while I was in Las Vegas. Because of the glare it may be a little hard to read the text of the ad. It says “Always a Happy Ending at Tao” which is described as an Asian Bistro, Nightclub, and Lounge. I took this photo because I was unsure of how I felt about it. In case you don’t know the idiom, a “happy ending” is a euphemism for getting oral sex at the end of a massage (it could also mean masturbation - but not by the self). It originates from using massage parlours as a front for prostitution in places where prostitution is illegal. This allows the owner to claim (or ATTEMPT to claim) that he had no idea what his masseuses were doing. He thought everyone was just getting massages back there. These erotic massages and the term “happy ending”, in particular, are heavily associated with asians. Additionally, the billboard employs the image of a naked woman and either Chinese or Japanese script. (I know it’s not Korean which is bubblier)

Another surreal photo is today’s Top 200 Photo

photo #47 is:

This is the black and white version of a photo I mentioned before. As I mentioned then, I prefer the black and white version. Apparently the flickr community agrees since this one has so many more views.

Back to a wedding for this Top 200 Photo

photo #48 is:

This photo is from that wedding at which I was the official photographer. A few hours into the wedding I realized I didn’t have a post-ceremony photo of the bride and her sister. So I got them together and we started riffing off each other because I wanted them to express how close they were as sisters. I ended up with this fun photo. I think it’s in my top 5 favorite photos from that wedding.

Otakon and some familiar faces for this Top 200 Photo

photo #49 is:

These Soul Eater cosplayers have appeared before on this list and will appear at least once more. I think this photo is unique in showing them from head (or hat) to toe. For the first time, I’ve realized that the woman on the right has “elf shoes” or shoes with curly toes. I think it’s pretty odd how much of a gap there is in the number of views between all these photos of the same subjects.

Las Vegas is the subject in today’s Top 200 Photo

Photo #50 is:

Las Vegas is a really weird place. There are many reasons for this, including squaring gambling, family friendliness, and topless revues. As I mentioned before, I was in Vegas to attend BlackHat and Defcon. For the three days of Defcon I would walk all the way from Caesar’s Palace over to The Riviera. From what I could tell from the dilapidated looks that part of Vegas was the oldest surviving area of the Vegas strip. There were empty lots that were soon to get new casinos and old ones that looked like you’d get a disease just from stepping in the front door. I wonder what the recession has done to the construction efforts there.

Winter and Math in this Top 200 Photo

photo #51 is:

I’ve always loved how trees demonstrate fractals and I think that’s almost nothing so beautiful during the winder as a tree covered in a small bit of snow. It really brings out the structure of the branches and makes it easier to notice them.

Another computer project for today’s Top 200 Photo

photo #52 is:

I built this computer for Dave when he graduated from High School. I learned that, although Windows XP 32-bit should have been able to read 4 GB of RAM, it wasn’t able to. It had the most powerful graphics card I’d installed up to that point because Dave was a big WoW player at the time. It really transformed how well the game played for him (graphics and speed) and that was satisfying to see.

Back to Florida for this Top 200 Photo

photo #53 is:

Here’s yet another Coco Peli. I wonder why he was in the middle of these palm trees. Here’s some more info on Coco Peli, from wikipedia:

Kokopelli is a fertility deity, usually depicted as a humpbacked flute player (often with a huge phallus and feathers or antenna-like protrusions on his head), who has been venerated by some Native American cultures in the Southwestern United States. Like most fertility deities, Kokopelli presides over both childbirth and agriculture. He is also a trickster god and represents the spirit of music.

Back to NYC for today’s Top 200 Photo

photo #54 is:

This is from the Greenwhich Village Halloween Parade. If you want to see some of the best costumes outside of an anime or comic convention, you have to go to the Greenwhich Village Halloween Parade. This photo is not representative of some of those amazing costumes, but those will show up in a future post. I think it’s pretty obvious these are supposed to be three breasts. Other than that, I’m not sure what the connection is. I just always think of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’s mention of the Triple-Breasted Whore of Eroticon Six. Danielle always thinks of the girl from Total Recall.

It’s my second time in Vegas and I definitely think that the best way to first experience Vegas is arriving at night, as I did this time.  The city really looks wrong and ugly during the day.  Like a bar where they need to keep the lights dim so you’re 100% sure what that person you’re flirting with looks like.  Today I was up early (0700) to make it to the conference.  Vegas is weird early.  Most of the tourists are sleeping so they do all the maintenance work that you don’t see at night.  It’s very weird as if all of Vegas is on some walk of shame after an all-night bender.