Art Wednesday - I'm not a Pollock

Jackson Pollock paintings are only slightly interesting because they are expressive depending on individual beholder's mood. This goes back to a previous post on Pareidolia - the tendency to find order among chaos. This is why we can see animals in the clouds. I think people are predisposed to see things according to their mood: If I'm happy I see a teddy bear, if I'm angry I see a skull, if I'm ornery - and I am - I see a desperate beatnik attempting something avant-garde so he can afford his next bucket of paint to splash at the amusement of the 1950's socio-elite.

It might appear that his style of art isn't art at all. Just an orchestrated accident. Maybe that was his goal - so that each sorry sap looking at his mess could see what they want to see. It is like a choose-your-own-adventrure book painted on a single canvas.

I'll tell you what, you give me a large pizza, two liters or diet coke, a canvas on the floor and a spoon to gag myself and I can make you a choose-your-own-adventrure painting.

I'll never do this again, because I think it is a waste of time, but here is my hommage to Pollock, minus the chunks of pepperoni. (By the way, I think the painting on my previous post on pain were done by Pollock).

Another Art Wednesday - Another Painting by Andrew

I call this one the schizo-eyeball. It hung on my wall at work for the last four months since Andrew painted it in art class. I noticed that it has an angry mood, but when you turn it on its side, it mellows out a little bit. Maybe I'm the one with the schizo eyeball.

You can download this and his other paintings here for use as a desktop background. And like his other paintings, this one starts at $300. Bidding closes at noon tomorrow.

Art Wednesday - Andrew's Paintings

Andrew was trying a new technique at school and painted these three killer pictures. I think they are really cool and they get the paradolia fluids pumping in my brains. I have the originals hanging in my office and I'll auction them off to the highest bidder starting at $300 a peice. I also have high resolution pics that are awesome for computer backgrounds if you want me to email them to you (about 2mb each!)

Baby

Here is the ultrasound of kid number three:

Writing Friday - Canafantine Research

Why is power so lustful? Is it because people in power can create wealth for themselves? Is it only desired because of greed? Or is power even more than money? People with money can have power. But people with strength can influence and influence is also power. People with strength can take down people with power.

It is hard to build a bad guy. Here is one one of the bad guy's henchmen. The main antagonist is named Horvil (horrible+evil). The henchman is Master Crandall. He used to be a college professor until he helped Horvil develop the serum that in addition to being addictive, gives extreme strength (both muscular and skeletal). Master Crandall is better known by his nickname: Callous. Anyone with the serum addiction who has the musculo-skeletal deformities is called a Faker-Body. The Faker-bodies make up the armies of Horvil in his pursuit of power.

So much more to explain. I guess you'll just have to read the book.

Art Wednesday - Skateboard

Here is Tyler's skateboard we painted for Christmas. I used a $10 deck from Target - sanded down and sealed with a white latex and rubbed with blue watercolor on the edges. The rest is painted with black enamel and orange water color - sealed with clear spray paint. Also included is the vector rough of the Triano logo. Note the signature on the right girl's boot.

Art Wednesday - Vector Art

Bit Maps (most digital photos) are made from a grid with location and color values for each point. Vector diagrams use mathmatics that goes over my head and are mainly used for logos and large graphics. I use the open-source (means free) tool called Gimp to photo-shop my digital photos. But I just discovered Inkspace (another free opensource tool) to make vector art. Here is a sample:

Music Tuesday - Eagles of Death Rock

I listened to a couple live recordings of Eagles of Death Rock, and they stink when they play live. The only good songs I've heard: Wannabe in LA and Cherry Cola. One of the guys is from Queens of the Stone Age. Actually most of their other music that isn't live stinks too.

Art Wednesday - Eddy in the Sun

I’m ¾ of the way through Twilight. Eddy just showed the damsel what he looked like in the sunlight. (I can't yet give a full critique of the book, because I’ll probably get hung, but at least I’ll say I wish there was more action and less gushy, mushy, cruddy discussion of their immature relationship.) Here is Eddy from the film and the way I think they should have made him in the sunlight.

Music Tuesday - One Word

Weezer - The Greatest Man That Ever Lived.

So we were driving east on County Line Road in Littleton on 12/04/08 at night and I saw a fireball blaze through the sky. I checked the clock - 8:42PM. The fireball was heading east towards Parker but looked like it would impact somewhere between I-25 and Parker. But there was no rumble, explosion or even a flash or light. I checked all the news sites and googled fireball sightings and couldn't find anything related to that specific night. However, I learned that there are tons of meteorites that hit in Eastern Colorado.

Here is a quick sketch of what it looked like:

I also saw this drycleaning truck in the area. No drycleaner has that kind of money these days to warrant a uhaul sized delivery vehicles. This is the most obvious undercover CIA UFO detection vehicle I've ever seen. You gotta know there are millions of dollars of computer hardware in that delivery truck. Coincidence that I saw both in the same area?

What this all has to do with Weezer? I don't know.

Scripture Monday - Agency

In legal terms, an agent is someone who acts on behalf of their client. For example a real estate agent acts on behalf of the home seller. Perhaps an alternative way of thinking of divine agency as freedom to choose, you could think of it as acting on behalf of the Lord. We get to chose how we serve our client, who is ultimately the Lord.

Maybe this isn't a new concept for everyone, but it was a fresh idea in my studies yesterday.

Two great agents and then one more great agent (I'll have to do a painting of the first picture sometime):

Mountain Biking in Fruita

Rode two trails on Saturday in Fruita: Horse Thief and Troy Built. I rate all the trails I ride on a scale of 1 - 10. Horse Thief demoted all my previous 10s to 6s. It was awesome. First Picture shows one of my riding budies. Then I walked over to the little rock sticking up on the right side and took the next picture to give you a sense of the size of the cliffs. Shortly after taking these pictures, I took the movie below. Shortly after I took the movie (like 2 seconds after taking the movie) I dropped the camera onto a rock and smashed the front end to pieces. Shortly after realizing I destroyed our family camera, I remembered I was in Fruita and forgot about the casualty and rode merrily down the same trail. Fun times. Sorry camera.

Art Wednesday - Tibetan Monk

I actually took this picture with my scanner since I dropped and destroyed our camera on the last mountain bike trip. This is a statue of a Tibetan Monk holding a baby that my brother-in-law brought back from Afghanistan. It is the statue of prosperity and it glows in the dark. I keep it in my office to help me remember that in order to be prosperous I will need to ... grow a fu-man-chu mustache and wear a Mickey Mouse hat upside down.

Music Tuesday - Pink

I can't get Pink's "So What" song out of my head. I heard it twice yesterday on the radio and that is all it took to infest my brains. Listen on Seeqpod if you dare.

Here is a quick sketch of Pink:

Nanowrimo Update - Finishing In November?

If I have an hour to sit and type, I can knock out at least 1,000 words in an hour. The problem with Nanowrimo (national novel writing month) is that it puts all my attention on how fast I can type crud. The idea isn't quality, it is quantity (50,000 words). I just can't devote that much time, pride and hopefully passion into something that is too embarrasing for anyone else to read. If I was doing this purely for myself, then I'd just leave it up in my nogin.

I re-read what I have already written in the Canafantine Story and now re-written most of it so that it sucks less. Despite the depressing reality that writing a novel is harder than I originally thought, I'm having a really fun time. Here is a list of the other novels I already started or outlined:

• Rob and the King (Squirrel Story)
• Rob and the Queen (Squirrel Story II)
• Quantum Cowboy (Space Cowboy)
• Communiphrenia ('crazy' adventure of Charlie Conway)
• Transporphrenia (more 'crazy' adventures of Charlie Conway)
• Canafantines part I (I'm writing part II first)

Nanowrimo Update

I'm at 8,000 words. I don't think I'll hit 50K by the end of the month, but I'm having a blast.

Here is an odd site someone sent to me. It lets you make your own little sound widgets. Here is mine:

Nanowrimo - Updated

I'm up to 5000 words. I'm supposed to be around 25,000 words by now. I hope to make up some of that ground this weekend.

Quick research question: out of our 5 senses, pain is obviously felt the most with our sense of touch. But what does pain look like? Or what do your eyes see when you are feeling intense pain and your eyes are closed? Does pain have a smell or taste? Does it have a sound? Are there any other sensations or feelings associated with pain?

I wrote one section about a Canafantine Warrior who learns to deal with pain. I'll have to post it sometime, but I don't want it to influence anyone's response to my questions above.

I did see these pictures on the net and I thought they were good representations of what I think pain looks like.

Nanowrimo update

1,435 words down. 48,565 words to go.

There are no such thing as "absolute" magic in the Canafantine universe. So if someone makes magical armor that will resist all other weapons, and then a magical weapon is made that will cut through anything, what happens when the unstoppable weapon hits the impenetrable armor? Since the armor was first, I think the weapon would go through the armor. If the weapon was first, it wouldn’t go through the armor. Does that make sense? Does that still follow the rule of no absolutes? Does it matter?

The only reason it would matter is if two warriors were dueling and you wanted to place bets on who would win. You'd have a good chance at winning the bet if you knew what infallible tool was created last.

Scripture Studay Monday - Helmets

D&C 27:15-18 discusses the armor of God (Ephesians 6:11-20). Verse 18 mentions the helmet of salvation (see also Isaiah 59:17). I feel like the scriptures discussing the helmet of salvation are referring to clarity of thought related to an understanding of the plan of salvation. If I study and understand the gospel, that understanding will act as a protection to me.

In a letter to the Corinthians, Paul said (2 Corinthians 10:3-6) we don’t fight flesh wars. We fight to cast down “imagination”, everything that exalts itself above the “knowledge” of God, and bring into captivity every “thought” to the obedience of Christ.

Our daily spiritual battle includes living in a physical world, acting, serving, and doing, but these scriptures point out that a large part of the battle is in the mind.

Writing Friday - Nanowrimo starts on Saturday

Nanowrimo starts tomorrow. I'll keep a link to my story. Is it wierd that I am writing part II before part I?

Being a Canafantine warrior can create a lot of difficulties in your personal life. Faker bodies ignore the difficulties.