Today I got up early so I could go for a run, but I ended up working on my 3d program a bit instead. I did some pretty neat animations. Got into work too late to go for a run, so I took one at lunch. Some tourists didn't appreciate the fact that I was running shirtless.

This is the Embarcadero in San Francisco. Lots of people run here. I have seen plenty of older folks running around the bay area in various stages of undress. This is the location of the famous Castro halloween party and one of the biggest Pride events in the world, as well as the the Folsom Street Fair, where you are *guaranteed* to see naked guys of all body types - mostly 'stereotypically hot' but a many who are normal or overweight or older. So, I don't think most natives would really blink at a 200-lb guy who could stand to be 180 out for a run. Also, they were dressed in stereotypical tourist garb, and were at a place in the waterfront where tourists tend to congregate.

The thing that trips me out is the psychology of these people - and, of course, a lot of it comes down to the unrealistic standards of beauty that our culture has, especially in light of a food culture that's *designed* to make people obese. Instead of thinking women who are pleasantly plump and guys who are anything short of chiseled adonises are normal, even quite attractive, the media has twisted our perceptions to regard anything short of Brad and Angelina as somehow flawed.

It is also a function of youth, I think. The folks at the Saturday life drawing class - mostly an older crowd - were all too happy to have a young if imperfect model, and an older woman was also willing to do some posing. If any flak would have come from the college-age folks. It's not even that your average college-age art student is heroin chic-thin and that your average 50-year-old is getting saggy and paunchy. It's that young people are incredibly insecure about themselves, so they tend to be judgmental of others, while older people are more relaxed.