Music Tuesday - WolfMother
More frequently lately I've been enjoying late 70's punk and rock. I've also discovered a more contemporary band with a similar sound: WolfMother (good songs: Love Train, Women, Tales, Pyramid...)
(edited for modesty)
Scripture Monday - Andi is Great!
Andi rocks! I just read this conference talk yesterday for my scripture study. It affirmed my confidence, amazement, and veneration for her. Here is another quick sketch in commemoration (I still need to work on this).
Writing Friday - Nanowrimo is coming up!
If you don't know what Nanowrimo is, look it up. But I'm doing it! The rules say I can't have already worked on the piece. Since I have 4 of my pieces already underway, I'm going to have to resort to work number 5 of 14: the Canafantines! Stay tuned for outlines (your allowed to have an outline before the event). 
Philosophy Thursday - Mercy and Justice vs ???
In the Spring 2008 General Conference, Elder Lance B. Wickman said, "Mortality is the battlefield upon which justice and mercy meet. But they need not meet as adversaries, for they are reconciled in the Atonement of Jesus Christ for all who wisely use Today."
If mercy and justice are on the same team, I wondered what their adversary is: Tyranny, cruelty, ignorance, procrastination, unforgiveness, apathy, deceit...?
It also made me think of this quick sketch of Lady Justice standing on Death's robe.
Is it depicting reality or is it depicting how society acts?
If mercy and justice are on the same team, I wondered what their adversary is: Tyranny, cruelty, ignorance, procrastination, unforgiveness, apathy, deceit...?
It also made me think of this quick sketch of Lady Justice standing on Death's robe.
Is it depicting reality or is it depicting how society acts?
Art Wednesday - Shadows
I listen to Yahoo radio at work and three of these faces showed up in the corner of the screen. I think the shadows are pretty cool on these faces and I had to see if I could duplicate the effect with Gimp. So below are my versions. (some guy from a band called Aiden, a guy from Oasis, some other guy named Springfield, and Gilbert).
I just use a black background, paint the general shape with a wide, fully open air brush, then black in some details, and I use an almost shut white airbrush for the highlights. This simple style only takes about three minutes for each sketch. 
Music Tuesday - Clean Beat
My search for dinosaur footprint beats, concrete grinding guitar and lyrics that don't leave me feeling like I need to take a shower lead me to two words (you won't believe it): Beastie Boys.
They aren't known for having the most kid-friendly lyrics, but they do have two albums with no lyrics at all. They usually have two or three lyricless jazzy hip-hop beat songs on each CD they release, and they collected all these songs and put them on one CD in 1996 called "The In Sound From Way Out!".
Last year, they released another collection of fresh sounds called "The Mix Up". 
Scripture Study Monday - Method
Two lessons at church influenced the way I study the scriptures. One teacher asked if we regularly check the news online at work. Of course. Then he asked why we can find 15 minutes to check the news and find it difficult to find 15 minutes to study the scriptures. So I made a goal that when I go to work, before I check my personal email, before I check the news and before I do anything to this blog, I spend about 15-30 minutes studying scriptures.The other lesson that influenced the way I study the scriptures was a guy who simply printed a page from his own scripture study notes and handed it out to the class. I base a lot of my scripture study on his method of note taking.
I have a list of topics to choose from. I also have a template for new topics. I create a new word document for each topic. When I am reading the scriptures and find a verse or section or conference quote that seems interesting, I copy and paste it into the appropriate word doc (adversity example). All of my scripture study is done online and my notes are stored on my thumb drive. (The links above are saved on Google Docs. I don’t save all my notes on Google Docs, because sometimes I don’t have an internet connection)
I like studying online because I can copy and paste into my own notes without retyping, and I save a lot of time by clicking on the links instead of manually looking up cross references. I also really enjoy looking up special topics in the conference talks and Ensign articles. I find that writing down my thoughts, questions and testimony as I study is a huge benefit.
Music Tuesday - Audacity
Bands of the week: Muse, The Raconteurs, Switches and the Aliens. You can check them out on Seeqpod.com.
There are usually three things going on in the back of my mind's stage while I listen to music: 1) mentally, I'm getting down like Michael Jackson on cold pavement with my accompanying zombies and ghouls, 2) I'm mountain biking downhill through trees like Luke on Endor, 3) I'm lounging into a deep seat at a shady cafe, sipping hot cocoa with a swirl of cream on top, not paying attention to the designs of the rising smoke from other invisible listener's cigarettes, mildly bobbing my sun-glassed head in synch with the tune.
Then, out of left field comes a swear word like a piano falling on the stage from the cat walks. The music keeps going, but the stage is cleared. I seem naive to let a single swear word ruin a song. Swearing is a different topic of debate.
So, I export the song into Audacity, find the swear word, take a sample from some other place in the song and paste it over the swear word. Audacity is an open source music editor that keeps the back of the stage jamming.
There are usually three things going on in the back of my mind's stage while I listen to music: 1) mentally, I'm getting down like Michael Jackson on cold pavement with my accompanying zombies and ghouls, 2) I'm mountain biking downhill through trees like Luke on Endor, 3) I'm lounging into a deep seat at a shady cafe, sipping hot cocoa with a swirl of cream on top, not paying attention to the designs of the rising smoke from other invisible listener's cigarettes, mildly bobbing my sun-glassed head in synch with the tune.
Then, out of left field comes a swear word like a piano falling on the stage from the cat walks. The music keeps going, but the stage is cleared. I seem naive to let a single swear word ruin a song. Swearing is a different topic of debate.
So, I export the song into Audacity, find the swear word, take a sample from some other place in the song and paste it over the swear word. Audacity is an open source music editor that keeps the back of the stage jamming.
News Flash - Stones' Shenanigans
Check out the Stones' Shenanigans blog for the latest news and additions to the family.
Scripture Study Monday - Armor of Righteousness
President Brown, the Denver Temple President, visited our ward last week to teach us about the temple. He mentioned that the veil of the temple is a symbol of Christ.
This last week, I studied about the armor of God: 2 Nephi 1:23 says put on the armor of righteousness. Romans 13:12 says put on the armor of light. Then in verse 14 it says to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is our armor. I think there are so many ways that Christ is a shield and protection to us in as much as we do not defile that armor.
This last week, I studied about the armor of God: 2 Nephi 1:23 says put on the armor of righteousness. Romans 13:12 says put on the armor of light. Then in verse 14 it says to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is our armor. I think there are so many ways that Christ is a shield and protection to us in as much as we do not defile that armor.
Splenda Packet Super Power
Heroes' new season is starting in a week and I just wanted everyone to know that I am coming out of hiding. I have a super power! For the longest time I thought I had this crazy knack, but then I realized after watching this show, that it is really a super power.
My power helps me to choose the right amount of splenda packets and excedrin tablets. Seriously!
Every morning at work, I sweeten my oatmeal with Splenda and every time I reach for the bowl of splenda packets, I think in my head how many I want to grab, maybe 4, maybe 8, maybe 17, depending on how much fake sugar I think I need, and to my astonishment, that is how many packets I pick up. I have never had to put packets back because I picked up too many and I've never had to pick up more because I didn't pick up enough.
Even crazier, when I get a headache and open the bottle of excedrine, I just say to myself, dude, this is a bad headache, but still, you only need two pills. Then I give the bottle a little sidways shake and bam, only two pills fall out. Never more! Never less.
This power doesn't seem to work on Nutra Sweet Packets or Ibuprofen. There may be other countable items that would trigger my powers, but I haven't found them yet.
I've been racking my brain to try and find a way the producers of Heroes could work me into their story line with no success. It is hard to find a way to make the precise quantities of Splenda and Excedrine work into a plot to save the world.
My power helps me to choose the right amount of splenda packets and excedrin tablets. Seriously!
Every morning at work, I sweeten my oatmeal with Splenda and every time I reach for the bowl of splenda packets, I think in my head how many I want to grab, maybe 4, maybe 8, maybe 17, depending on how much fake sugar I think I need, and to my astonishment, that is how many packets I pick up. I have never had to put packets back because I picked up too many and I've never had to pick up more because I didn't pick up enough.
Even crazier, when I get a headache and open the bottle of excedrine, I just say to myself, dude, this is a bad headache, but still, you only need two pills. Then I give the bottle a little sidways shake and bam, only two pills fall out. Never more! Never less.
This power doesn't seem to work on Nutra Sweet Packets or Ibuprofen. There may be other countable items that would trigger my powers, but I haven't found them yet.
I've been racking my brain to try and find a way the producers of Heroes could work me into their story line with no success. It is hard to find a way to make the precise quantities of Splenda and Excedrine work into a plot to save the world.
Philosophy Thursday - Fortune Cookie
I don't believe that a fortune cookie really tells your fortune. But still, it is a shame that the little slips of paper only contain good advice instead of real fortunes.
So I walked into the kitchen at work and someone had Chinese take-out but didn’t eat their fortune cookie. They just recklessly decided it was better to ignore fate in order to save those calories and left it on the counter for anyone to take. This brought up a couple questions about fate, fortune and weightloss:
And reading a fortune cookie that doesn't tell me how to make a million bucks is frustration.
So I walked into the kitchen at work and someone had Chinese take-out but didn’t eat their fortune cookie. They just recklessly decided it was better to ignore fate in order to save those calories and left it on the counter for anyone to take. This brought up a couple questions about fate, fortune and weightloss:
- Was that cookie meant for the buyer of the food?
- If I ate it, would I be stealing their fortune?
- Would the fortune change according to who opened the cookie?
- Or would that fortune have been fatefully intended for me from its creation?
- Do I have to eat the cookie to adopt that fortune?
- Or do I just need to open the cookie and read it?
And reading a fortune cookie that doesn't tell me how to make a million bucks is frustration.
Art Wednesday - The Mighty Yam High School - School Bus
It isn't art, but it was fun. Here is the progression of the Mighty Yam Bus Logo. People kept telling me it wasn't short enough. Listen, if I shorten it any more, the wheels will rub and it would do a summer-sault at a quick stop.
Scripture Monday - Spiritual Warfare and the mother of abominations
My scripture study for the past couple days has been on Spiritual Warfare. 1 Nephi 14:13 mentions "the great mother of abominations". I found this article, "Warring against the Saints of God", by Stephen Robinson, to be a pretty good explaination of the whore of the Earth.
The article from the Ensign in 1988 didn't have the illustration included from the original publication. I looked up the artist, Robert T. Barrett, and recognized a lot of his work. I don't know what illustration they used for the article, so I chose this one as an example of his work. It is titled "Christ The Creator".
The article from the Ensign in 1988 didn't have the illustration included from the original publication. I looked up the artist, Robert T. Barrett, and recognized a lot of his work. I don't know what illustration they used for the article, so I chose this one as an example of his work. It is titled "Christ The Creator".
Music Tuesday - Hip-hop beats
A Plan B song called Missing Link feat. Radiohead says "why is it that everyone who does drugs thinks they knows everything there is to know about life already?" Is this true? Do they know more about life than people who aren't addicts or experimenters? Is their knowledge something to be proud of?
I like the hip-hop beats of El-P, but I hate it that he swears so much.
I like the scratch-hop of Mix Master Mike, but it tends to get a little stale.
There needs to be more funky, real, hip-hop beats with scratching and grinding guitar: Roots, B-boys, Nerd, Fatboy at one point.
I don’t really identify with the lyrically illustrated lifestyle of hardcore thug rap, nor do I need some ego punk telling me why he is so much better. But I really like the beats.
Seeqpod is good for making a quick long playlist for the day of new artists to try out.
I like the hip-hop beats of El-P, but I hate it that he swears so much.
I like the scratch-hop of Mix Master Mike, but it tends to get a little stale.
There needs to be more funky, real, hip-hop beats with scratching and grinding guitar: Roots, B-boys, Nerd, Fatboy at one point.
I don’t really identify with the lyrically illustrated lifestyle of hardcore thug rap, nor do I need some ego punk telling me why he is so much better. But I really like the beats.
Seeqpod is good for making a quick long playlist for the day of new artists to try out.
Pics
Finely crafted mind chocolate should include pictures. This is the older Santa Cruz Blur that Greg wants me to get. $2000 on Craigslist? A little pricey. I could talkem down to to $1500...if I had $1500.
Writing Friday - Clementine
I have folders filled with folder saved on my hard-drive filled with years of stupid things I've written. I used to think that stuff was good. Anyway, every once-in-a-while on Writing Fridays, I'll post some old crap.
One of my old favorite past-times was to write quick character sketches for books. I would create a character - sometimes stock, sometimes original - and write about them. Usually a circumstance that would illustrate their personality. This one is about Clementine:
People sometimes associate names with personalities. The name Clementine might be associated with a whooping and hollering cowgirl with a smile and a lasso for a belt. But this Clementine, or Clem as she began correcting people, was not a cowboy. She was the exact opposite, dressed in a long black dress with a slit right up the front so you could see she was wearing dark maroon self-dyed jeans underneath. Her pail round face smathered with black makeup resembled a cold chiseled statue, and her short and spiky hair was meant to resemble the patience she wanted people to think she had. Her tendency to act like an anti-people-person came from her history of constantly changing orphanages and schools in her youth. But, there was that one foster family that bought her new bright colored clothes and enrolled her in a special school were the other kids didn’t know she didn’t belong. But that only lasted a couple months. Now she works in the plexi-glass cage on the night shift at the gas station downtown off of 16th. She brings her laptop, so when work isn’t busy, and it rarely is, she can keep in touch with the two or three people who commented on her poetry from her website. Her poems are occasionally about places she’s been, but mostly focused on the emotional trauma every person she comes in contact with inflicts upon her. The poems don’t rhyme. They are mostly just adjectives and metaphors. And sadly, the adjectives and metaphors feel overly used and unmotivating. Her poetry is stale – except the one about her landlord who she described as a moldy, sweaty donut with a face and armpits.
Clementine’s two cats understand her and actually like her. Her true personality glows through the cracks in the emotional stone walls she put up around her when she is talking to her cats. One cat is black and his name is black. The other cat is named Mo, but if she ever had company, she decided to tell them his name is Despair. One time Mo escaped from her apartment and climbed the tree into the unit above hers. Clementine shot up the stairs and knocked on the door to rescue Mo. The man, roughly her same age, answered the door and gave the cat back to Clementine. He commented that in all of their comings and goings, he had never seen her wear anything but dark colors and that her canary yellow T-shirt looked cute. She of course wrote a nasty poem about the jerk upstairs. A person’s underwear and pajamas say a lot about their superego. Clementine’s were sky blue, and yellow.
One of my old favorite past-times was to write quick character sketches for books. I would create a character - sometimes stock, sometimes original - and write about them. Usually a circumstance that would illustrate their personality. This one is about Clementine:
People sometimes associate names with personalities. The name Clementine might be associated with a whooping and hollering cowgirl with a smile and a lasso for a belt. But this Clementine, or Clem as she began correcting people, was not a cowboy. She was the exact opposite, dressed in a long black dress with a slit right up the front so you could see she was wearing dark maroon self-dyed jeans underneath. Her pail round face smathered with black makeup resembled a cold chiseled statue, and her short and spiky hair was meant to resemble the patience she wanted people to think she had. Her tendency to act like an anti-people-person came from her history of constantly changing orphanages and schools in her youth. But, there was that one foster family that bought her new bright colored clothes and enrolled her in a special school were the other kids didn’t know she didn’t belong. But that only lasted a couple months. Now she works in the plexi-glass cage on the night shift at the gas station downtown off of 16th. She brings her laptop, so when work isn’t busy, and it rarely is, she can keep in touch with the two or three people who commented on her poetry from her website. Her poems are occasionally about places she’s been, but mostly focused on the emotional trauma every person she comes in contact with inflicts upon her. The poems don’t rhyme. They are mostly just adjectives and metaphors. And sadly, the adjectives and metaphors feel overly used and unmotivating. Her poetry is stale – except the one about her landlord who she described as a moldy, sweaty donut with a face and armpits.
Clementine’s two cats understand her and actually like her. Her true personality glows through the cracks in the emotional stone walls she put up around her when she is talking to her cats. One cat is black and his name is black. The other cat is named Mo, but if she ever had company, she decided to tell them his name is Despair. One time Mo escaped from her apartment and climbed the tree into the unit above hers. Clementine shot up the stairs and knocked on the door to rescue Mo. The man, roughly her same age, answered the door and gave the cat back to Clementine. He commented that in all of their comings and goings, he had never seen her wear anything but dark colors and that her canary yellow T-shirt looked cute. She of course wrote a nasty poem about the jerk upstairs. A person’s underwear and pajamas say a lot about their superego. Clementine’s were sky blue, and yellow.
Philosophy Thursday - Pareidolia
The linoleum in my bathroom, the ceiling tiles at work, the clouds, the wood grain on my desk and the shadows from the leafy trees are all Rorschach inkblot tests to me. Pareidolia is when your brain finds patterns in random information. My brain is doing this all the time. I mostly pick out faces, bodies and sometimes hands. I’ve never seen any religious images in grease stained pizza boxes or pancakes.
Supposedly, what you see in these random images is a reflection of your mood. When I’m grumpy, I usually see dragon heads, devils or trolls. When I am happy, I see cartoon bears, handsome people and rough shapes of physical activities, usually running.
And no, I don’t think this is a sign of insanity. I would only be insane if I started acting on connections between pareidoliate images and things going on in the real world. (I’m not going deep enough to contemplate the meaning of “the real world” and perception).
What do you see?
Supposedly, what you see in these random images is a reflection of your mood. When I’m grumpy, I usually see dragon heads, devils or trolls. When I am happy, I see cartoon bears, handsome people and rough shapes of physical activities, usually running.
And no, I don’t think this is a sign of insanity. I would only be insane if I started acting on connections between pareidoliate images and things going on in the real world. (I’m not going deep enough to contemplate the meaning of “the real world” and perception).
What do you see?
20 Wishes
My Mom and Dad are reading a book about 20 wishes and came up with lists for themselves. Here are my 20 wishes (not necessarily in prioritized order):
- To know Christ (currently doing)
- To wake up every morning and see Andi next to me (currently doing)
- Have my kids get married in the temple
- To always be a humble, willing, honest and charitable servant of God (striving towards)
- Be healthy enough to always run at least a 10K (maintaining)
- Publish a book (working on it)
- Own a motorcycle
- Go skydiving more
- Go scuba diving more
- Learn to play the piano (took a lesson with Grandma Baker in 1991 – I need to work on this one)
- Sell a screenplay (working on it)
- Learn to sail
- To have a warehouse sized garage to store toys and build stuff: bikes, cabinets, airplanes, cars, motorcycles, boats, tree houses, cyborgs (I currently have a cardboard box in the laundry room)
- To be the world champion of Super Mario Cart (I don’t even own a Nintendo)
- To find a dinosaur bone
- To drive a European sports car on the autobahn
- To always play with legos, ride bikes, watch Star Wars, play card games, and go camping (currently doing)
- To have time to read at least one book per week (I barely have time to read one book per month)
- To be able to eat anything I want and as much as I want without physical consequences (I think I would need to run a lot more than a 10K every day)
- To never say or do anything that would make people hate me and to make sure that everyone knows, no matter what they’ve said or done to me, that I don’t hate them. I don’t even hold a grudge. Even if I think of the most villainest, ignorant, vitiating, senseless, selfish things people have done to me, (I can’t even think of anything off the top of my head) I wouldn’t hold it against them. My wish is that they know that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
