Month: January 2006

Art, Journals

Soul Mapping

Shelly

Soul Map Chapter 2
Soul Map, Chapter 2

Last year, I started working through the book Soul Mapping. I got a few chapters into it, and the going got rough, so I put it aside. I picked it up a few weeks ago, and have been trying to do a little work in it every day. I’m not big on self-help books, but this one is geared toward artists and finding motivation and inspiration, so it’s a little bit different.

One of the goals of the exercise is to develop a visual vocabulary that can be implemented in one’s artwork. So, it’s helpful to artists who feel they have run out of inspiration or who are having trouble finding their voices. The exercises require a lot of of both written and visual journaling. Each chapter culminates in the creation of a small soul map, which together will ultimately form a large soul map.

Unsurprisingly, the beginning exercises deal largely with childhood and formative issues, which can be incredibly difficult for some people to sort through. When I started the book, I was working through it along with a group of people on one of my art lists. We all did really well with the first two chapters. When we hit chapter three, everything fell to pieces. I guess everyone felt it was just too damned hard.

Well, I’ll be damned if I’m going to let it get the better of me. I guess that’s why I picked it back up again. Just based on how large an impact the first couple chapters had on me, I know there is a huge amount to be gleaned from persevering and forcing myself to finish working through the book. Boy, is it ever hard, though!

Soul Map Chapter 1
Soul Map, Chapter 1

And, on a lighter note:

There’s a commercial for a local personal injury attorney that cracks me up. Apparently, the best selling point they can offer up is that they will argue your case in court using Power Point. Oh yeah, that impresses the hell out of me.

Pets, Photography

Frosty Dog

Shelly

We had a nice, hard frost last night. It’s been warm and wet and yucky, so this was a very welcome change. It seems as if the local critter population appreciated it, too. The birds were extra boisterous this morning, and there seems to have been a higher than normal amount of bunny traffic in Harriet’s yard (cuz, it is all hers, dontchaknow?).

I got some pictures of her patrolling the perimeter, nose-to-the-ground, tracking rabbity interlopers. Every so often, she’d pause, stuff her face in a pile of leaves, huff and snort, then move along to the next spot.

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I also got a couple of what I think are good “stacked” (ha!) photos, taken from the rear side, one with her head facing away, and one with it turned back toward me. I nearly missed the second one, because she saw or heard something interesting and was off like a bolt of lightning.

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I’ve been finding that it’s difficult to get outdoor photos of her, because whenever I’m outside with her, her attention is focused on me. It was much easier when there were two dogs, because she was more apt to ignore me in favor of more entertaining companionship.

I also got some photos of the frosty grass and frost crystals on one of the young black walnut trees. Since I was up way past my bedtime last night, finishing up all the image issues left over from the migration from Blogger, I was lucky that I woke up before the frost had melted away. I had just enough time to get a few photos before it started to disappear.

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Meta

That Was Quick

Shelly

We are moved. There will be no further updates at the Blogspot address. The sudden uber-ugliness of the old blog is not something I can live with. It is hideous. Do not gaze upon it lest you be turned to stone.

All the links in the headers on the main website have been updated. Now, I just need to sort out the aforementioned minor formatting issues and reinstall the images that have been lost. Whew!

Crankypantsing, Meta

Friday the 13th

Shelly

I’ve apparently gone through an entire black ink cartridge in my Epson printer. Or, rather, my cat has. She walks over the printer on her way to nap on top of my monitor. Every time she steps on the printer, she turns it on, which means it goes through it’s start-up, head-cleaning routine, which uses up ink. If I were smart, I would’ve unplugged the stupid thing when I realized she kept turning it on. But, noooo. I’m a dork. So now I have to go buy another black cartridge if I want to print anything.

I’ve been going through old posts, fixing problems with image locations and adding categories to them. It’s time consuming because my connection is crap. I’m working backwards, and have gotten almost half-way through May. Good grief! I had no idea I’d used Blogger’s image hosting so much. What a pain in the ass! Literally.

Also, I set comments so that you don’t need register. If anyone was bothered by that, it’s gone. I still have to approve everyone’s first comment, but after that, everyone is unmoderated. That should take care of any errant spam. I don’t tend to attract much of it, but when it happens, it’s a pain to track down and delete.

Crankypantsing, Meta

Template Tweaking

Shelly

I really didn’t like the way the sanserif font looked, so I spent some more time hunting for a basic template that was more to my liking. There must be twelfty million templates out there, but not one of them was even approaching what I had in mind. I finally decided to use the Cub Reporter template, and substitute my own graphics. It’s not exactly what I’d been visualizing, but I think I can live with it. The only thing I still need to fine tune is moving the WordPress link to the footer.

Now, the only thing that’s still wonky is that Sitemeter is pulling stats from both my old blog and the new one. Very odd. I’m assuming it’s just a latency issue, and that it’ll clear itself up in the next day or so.

So, guess who was born on this date?

A) Howard Stearn
B) Rush Limbaugh
C) The Maharishi
D) John Singer Sargent
E) Me
F) All of the above

Do you suppose this is a sign that the End Times are nigh?

Meta

Migration

Shelly

I struck out finding the perfect WordPress template, ready made, so I opted for a nice, crisp, clean one for the interim. It needs a couple of minor tweaks, but it was pretty much fit for public consumption straight out of the box.

This was a shockingly painless endeavor. There were a few minor kinks, but nothing serious. I wasn’t even tempted to throw things or tear my hair out! The biggest problem I had was of my own causing, so I can’t even complain about it. Typically, I tried to make things too complicated. I hunted around for an import tool, and found one that will handle comments. It involved doing the Hokey-Pokey, saying an incantation, lighting candles, and burning hekatombs, which, of course, I was incapable of doing correctly. I was about to give up, when I hunted in my WordPress directory and found that there was an import utility included. Wheee! It’s not working perfectly–it’s stalled out on me a few times, and I had to restart it–but so far it seems to be getting the job done. With comments. Except for June, which has gone walkabout. I’m going to try re-importing the whole shebang, as I can’t figure out any other way to import just one month. If that doesn’t work, I’ll have to move those entries manually, sans comments. (Hmmm, June seems to have imported this time around, but April was skipped. No biggie, because it was just an overwrite, so the original files are intact, but still, it’s kinda funny.)

When everything is finished running, I’m going to have to go back through my archives and try to reincorporate images for the early months when I was using Hello to upload photos. Those pictures aren’t importing, but that’s not surprising, as Blogger is not likely to want to share its bandwidth with a rival.

I’m also going to have to do something about the formatting on a lot of old posts, in terms of image and text integration. I’ve used a lot of floated images and tables, and they aren’t translating well, resulting in a lot of uglification of Teh Pretty.

There may also be something funky going on with the archives navigation buttons. I’ll have to take a look at that. The original template had built in Google Ad scripting, which I didn’t want, so I removed it. I’ve never touched a php file before, so that was a little nerve wracking.

But, it’s done. We have successfully moved and we are live!

Art, Artist Books, Collage, Meta, Music

A Mid-week Bundle of Non-sequitury Goodness

Shelly

Hemp Bound Journal: Skirting the Issue
Skirting the Issue
child’s dress pattern, used sandpaper, dried plant fibers, and hemp twine
8 3/4 x 11 1/2 inches

I haven’t finished this one yet, but it may not be fit for public consumption once I have, so I thought I’d scan and upload it while I could. I don’t know when I got au fait with Teh Punny, and it needs to stop rightthisminute, but what can I say? It’s an illness.

As you can see, I’m still stuck in Brown Land. I guess I’d better just face the fact that everything in this book is going to be some shade of blech, and stop worrying about it. Maybe if I tell myself it’s a reflection of the winter landscape, it won’t bug me so much. And pigs might fly.

The new Earl Brothers CD is out. Wheee! The Earl Brothers are goth bluegrass at it’s very finest, with a blend of humor and menace that can be found in some of Nick Cave’s best work. Their first CD was one of those rare gems that is an excellent companion for cleaning, arting, or driving. If their second release is half as good as the first, it’s worth every penny and then some. (Guess what I’m getting myself for my birfday?)

Speaking of music… I’m sure everyone has suffered having a song stuck in their head, and been unable to get rid of it. It happens to me regularly. Well, yesterday I had one so firmly lodged, that it stayed there all day, then showed up in my dreams, which consisted of various efforts to dislodge the damned thing. That’s right, I wasted my precious REM time getting rid of Generation X’s Kiss Me Deadly. Not because the song itself was bothersome, mind you. I quite like it. But, it had thoroughly outstayed its welcome.

This just in from the Things Could Be Worse department: Be thankful that you don’t own the green Pontiac that mysteriously rolled out of its parking slot this afternoon.

I’m in the process of installing WordPress on my main site. If I get time over the extra-extra long weekend (four days, onna count of MLK Day), and if my connection cooperates, I’ll play around with it (as in, I’ll try to break as many templates as possible). Right now, it is Teh Vanilla. My host also has some interesting looking image gallery packages that I’m going to have investigate. Because, you know, I need to complicate my life like I need another hole in my head. It’s that time of year, though. Spring cleaning is overrated. Personally, I’m a fan of mid-winter cleaning.

Photography

Brownies of Dqqm!1!!

Shelly

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I like my brownies to be chewy, with a crispy crust. They must also be rich tasting, with a nice balance between sweet, chocolatey goodness and salty (real) buttery-ness. After years of tweaking, I have finally achieved what I consider The Perfect Brownie. They’re easy peasy to make (prep takes about 5-10 minutes, tops), and don’t require any of what I consider “non-basic” ingredients, like baking chocolate. You can add chopped nuts, but I tend to be a purist.

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/8 tsp salt
6 Tbls butter (not margarine or shortening!)
1 tsp vanilla (again, the real thing, not imitation, vanilla flavored gunk)
2 eggs

Add all the dry ingredients to a bowl and whisk together to blend and remove any lumpy bits. Microwave the butter in a microwave safe dish (I use a Pyrex measuring cup), just until melted. You don’t want it too hot, because it will cook the eggs when you add them. Remove and add the vanilla and eggs. Pierce the egg yolks and stir them into the butter until they’re loosely incorporated. Don’t whip them or worry about thoroughly mixing them, though. Less is more! Pour into the dry ingredients and gently mix until everything is blended. The batter will probably be thicker than what you are accustomed to when making brownies, but It’s Okay. Promise.

Pour into a greased 8″ or 9″ round pan and bake at 325F for about 20-30 minutes.  I’ve found that cooking time varies widely, even when baked in the same oven. Also, my oven is a runs hot, so you might need to adjust your temperature and/or cooking time accordingly.

This makes super chewy brownies, with a caramelized crust. They’re a little on the thin side, but that’s what allows them to be crispy and chewy. If they get much thicker, they become cakey, which would make them ineligible for the title of Brownies of Dqqm.

Music, Photography

Bones and The Magical Chair of Giving

Shelly

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It occurred to me that Mr. Jawbone might have once belonged to a pig, so I went a-Googling, and sure enough, it did.

javelina jawbone
Credit: javelina jawbone, by Drew Mackie

I think the sacral vertebrae are bovine in origin, but I’m not having much luck Googling up any images that are helpful. The closest I’ve come are anatomical drawings.

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Image from page 47 of "A text-book of veterinary obstetrics : including the diseases and accidents incidental to pregnancy, parturition and early age in the domesticated animals" (1901)
Credit: Internet Archive, Image from page 47 of “A text-book of veterinary obstetrics : including the diseases and accidents incidental to pregnancy, parturition and early age in the domesticated animals” (1901)

I’m calling it Good Enough.

As I was driving in to work this morning, I did some more thinking on good car music vs. not-so-good car music. There are some things I love to listen to, but that I don’t like to drive to. For example, I like both Cat Stevens and Marilyn Manson, but only one of those things belongs in my car. So this is why, as I was listening to Antichrist Superstar this ayem, I was actually thinking of hippy-dippy music. Which reminded me of New Year’s Eve and the Magical Chair of Giving.

My neighbor and I attended a New Year party at a friend’s house, which was all sorts of good fun. At one point, we were both hanging out upstairs, when she realized she’d lost one of her hair sticks. So, she started rooting around in cushions of the big, squishy easy chair she’d been enveloped in. And, she started pulling out a vast and varied array of objects. The chair kept giving, and giving, and giving. The penultimate gift was a mixed CD with both Teaser and the Firecat and Tea for the Tillerman on it. She, a little drunk at this point, handed it to me, thinking it was mine. Why, yes, I do happen to have that those two albums on one CD, but that particular copy–despite the fact that the handwriting it bears looks eerily like mine–does not, in fact, belong to me. Very odd. Who knew I wasn’t the only person on Urth who listens to Cat Stevens and who decided to put those two albums on one CD?