Mmmmm

The jasmine is blooming, and the fragrance wafts through the house on any errant breeze.

Anyone else a bit twigged about

the fact that Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher is a relative of one of the Keating 5 (Charles Keating), who happen to be close friends with McCain? And that Joe actually owes back taxes?

All Hail FactCheck.org aka Palin busting lying again.

Fact check: Is Columbia professor Khalidi a 'political ally' of Barack Obama?

The Statement: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, speaking on Oct. 29 in Bowling Green, Ohio, said Barack Obama "spent a lot of time with" Rashid Khalidi. "Rashid Khalidi, he, in addition to being a political ally of Barack Obama, he's a former spokesperson for the Palestinian Liberation Organization," she said.

Get the facts!

The Facts: Rashid Khalidi is a scholar at Columbia University in New York, where he is director of the Middle East Institute.

His university profile says he specializes in the "history of Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt; the growth of nation-state; nationalism in the Arab World; problems of modern Middle East historiography and and an expert on Palestinian issues."

He has authored scholarly works on Palestinian issues, has been an activist for Palestinian causes, and has been a critic of U.S. foreign policy toward Israel.

In a 2004 Washington Times story, he denied ever being a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Sen. Obama, on his Web site, described Khalidi as "a former neighbor and university colleague." But their relationship has sparked questions about Obama's stance on Israel and what Obama calls "ugly insinuations." Obama has said he has been a "clear and consistent" supporter of Israel and doesn't share Khalidi's views.

ABC News on May 22 aired comments Obama made at a Boca Raton, Florida, synagogue, where Obama faced questions from Jewish voters and addressed the issue. He said he knew Khalidi and had conversations with him in Chicago, where both men taught at the University of Chicago. And, he said, their children went to the same school.

"He is not one of my advisers; he's not one of my foreign policy people," Obama said. "He is a respected scholar, although he vehemently disagrees with a lot of Israel's policy."

"To pluck out one person who I know and who I've had a conversation with who has very different views than 900 of my friends and then to suggest that somehow that shows that maybe I'm not sufficiently pro-Israel, I think, is a very problematic stand to take," Obama said. "So we gotta be careful about guilt by association."

An April 10 Los Angeles Times story that explored the Khalidi-Obama relationship said Khalidi and his wife lived near the Obamas in Chicago and "the families became friends and dinner companions."

"In 2000, the Khalidis held a fund-raiser for Obama's unsuccessful congressional bid. The next year, a social service group whose board was headed by Mona Khalidi (Khalidi's wife), received a $40,000 grant from a local charity, the Woods Fund of Chicago, when Obama served on the fund's board of directors. At Khalidi's going-away party in 2003, the scholar lavished praise on Obama, telling the mostly Palestinian-American crowd that the state senator deserved their help in winning a U.S. Senate seat," the Times reported.

When asked about these details, the Obama campaign pointed to the May 22 comments aired by ABC News. Khalidi, asked by CNN to respond to Palin's assertions, declined to comment.

In a New York Daily News story published March 6, 2007, Khalidi said he hosted the fund-raiser because he had been friends with Obama in Chicago. "He never came to us and said he would do anything in terms of Palestinians," Khalidi is quoted as saying.

The Los Angeles Times report said, "though Khalidi has seen little of Sen. Obama in recent years, Michelle Obama attended a party several months ago celebrating the marriage of the Khalidis' daughter."

The Verdict: Misleading. While Khalidi eight years ago hosted a political fund-raiser for Obama, the two men strongly disagree over the Israeli-Palestinian issue and there's no evidence of a continuing political relationship.

This comment brought to you

Via Kradical

Copy this sentence into your livejournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow.

What two consenting adults do has no influence on my life, nor do I need a bunch of homophobic bigots trying to pass laws pretending it does.

Talk about grace under pressure

Palin's latest round of political puke is that a professor, who has to be a radical because he is a scholar of Middle Eastern studies is an ex PLO spokesman, and an Obama ally. Although there is nothing to back her outlandish claim (Other than he is a scholar of ME Studies), once again slander during elections seems to be ok.

Obama's response to some of this is priceless:

Deep down, John McCain knows his economic theories don't work. That's why his campaign said if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose. That's why I keep on talking about the economy. They don't want to talk about the economy. But that's what you want to talk about. That's what affects your lives day in and day out. Now, because he knows his economic theories don't work, he's been spending these last few days calling me every name in the book. Lately he's called me a socialist for wanting to roll back the bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans so we can give some tax relief to the middle class. I don't know what's next. By next week he'll be calling me a secret communist because I shared my toys in kindergarten. I shared my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

The Motion of Music

Fractal art design.

Gallery

So tired

To put it none too delicately, my ass is dragging.  This getting up earlier for Day light savings is just gah! Oh yeah, too all the Poms who threatened to go back to England if W.A. doesn't keep DLS, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. 85% of Western Australians don't want it. If you want an 'extra hour' of day light, get your ass out of bed an hour earlier.

Computer isn't quite 100%, as I keep running into small things, like Peer Guardian not having the 'allowed' list I had built up, might have the DVD burning software but it's bunged because of being from a back up, so hunt for the installation software, when found tear out the faulty one, reinstall.  Repeat as necessary.

I had one royal run around again. The installed NTI Dvd/CD maker software wasn't working, and the restoration version wasn't working. So, I contact Acer  and explain the situation. I get reply that I need to contact NTI about it, so I did. Three guesses what their reply was...  It's an OEM problem so I have to contact Acer and have them rectify it.

ARGH!  So fine, I 'fixed' it my way. Found and downloaded a copy of my 'busted' version and installed. Problem solved.

Sold a few artworks, so that's good.

Only Two days left!

Redbubble is having major sale. Not only free shipping with anything purchased, but anything you select, us poor starving artists get double our normal commission. This doesn't mean your costs are higher.

This is a great way to get some early Holiday gifts!

The coupon code to receive the free shipping offer is ‘100000masterpieces’ – just enter this during the checkout process to receive the free shipping offer. And feel free to pass this on to your friends and family.

Both promotions will expire at 2359 on 30 October (GMT)

Calendars

Gallery

Without the Daffy Duck lisp

This comment is despicable

“One good thing about Jennifer Hudson’s family tragedy - two less Obama voters.”

As much as I am all for free speech, there is something called decency, which I have found sorely lacking in McCain/Palin/GOP supporters, encouraged by Palin with her 'pallin' around with terrorists' and other incendiary comments. Here is a prime example of such.

The even sadder thing is the miscreant who said the above is proud of his statement.

No, I haven't slipped a cog or two

Palin as President

Pet Post

From snuggling:

To Wrassel-Mania 2008

and Kitty Boxing.

Side by side we can tell just how much Loki has grown. And there is more growing to do. Chances are he will be quite a bit larger than Keito, who isn't small by any means.

Archery Sunday, with a humorous surprise

Had a good time at archery. Got about 6 ends in, and then spent 5 ends coaching a new horsebow user. Did pretty well too.

Went to Foo Gwai, where pork buns were sacrificed to akire-yta.

Came home, got the gear put away. I sit down to relax, and I hear aikidomayland holler "Hon, we have birds in the house."

I think, well of course we do, two lorikeets and one cockatiel, and say this to him.

"No hon, we have birds in the house!"

I get up and go look, and discover two laughing doves walking around where the cockatiels cage usually is, picking up seeds off the stone floors!

That wasn't enough, they waddled into the kitchen and decided to clear any crumbs off the kitchen floor.




Rest stop before their way out? On Ceiling fans!



Managed to shoo them outside and closed the door. Guess the cats are gonna have to meow at the door to be let in now. Funny thing is the doves didn't get munched or pounced on by the two cats who were in the house!

Back to 100%

After finally calling Texas to umm 'comment' to a software vendor that 3 days waiting for their automated password recovery system to send my password to register the software I had purchased was a bit slack on their part, I suddenly got 4 responses (one for each of the "Automated" page, and one directly from their office). My bet is the was something wrong at their end and they had nary a clue until I called and (ok, I'll be honest) bitched at them about it. I didn't use foul language, just told them that, although I know I'm not their only customer, 3 days for an automated recovery was not good customer support no matter how they sliced it.

Wasn't able to recover any of the lost artworks in progress, but I do have all the finished ones, and a few I had backed up prior to the problem. I guess I will just have to make new ones.

Right now, I am in the process of copying the "TravelMate Drivers" and all the rego files over to the C driven in preparation of making a full system back up. I have set up an automated reminded once a month, not that I will need to do a full system back up once a month, but hey, at least I will back up data files and program info (regos, serials etc).

My only complaint is why the hell when you make a full system back up, you still have to reinstall and tweak everything when you use it as a restore? You would think a 1:1 image would be just that, yes?

Pimping My Work

Redbubble is having major sale. Not only free shipping with anything purchased, but anything you select, us poor starving artists get double our normal commission. This doesn't mean your costs are higher.

the coupon code to receive the free shipping offer is ‘100000masterpieces’ – just enter this during the checkout process to receive the free shipping offer. And feel free to pass this on to your friends and family.

 Both promotions will expire at 2359 on 30 October (GMT)

Calendars

Gallery

95% Fixed

I did lose all artworks in progress, and the ones I had left in Twisted Brush to work on later, but all finished results had been saved on the external hds. So that is good. Waiting to hear from one software vendor, as I can't find the damned serial number on either Acer computers.

I have lost some data (music, artworks, jpgs) but it's not as bad as it could have been if I hadn't had that external hard drive back up.

Of course, IINET had to go belly up this morning so I couldn't do some heavy duty downloading during off peak hours.

Worth quoting

With the crowd duly chastened and put on best behavior, he accused Obama of “inciting class warfare” and said that “liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.”

As for class warfare: Good. There's something severely wrong when a CEO can make millions off his/her severance package after doing a poor job, but the average working man isn't likely to make even a hundred-thousand a year.

As for liberals hating "real Americans": Go to hell. A real American supports his fellow Americans, all of them, not just the richest one percent.

Oh yeah!

Due to scarcity and

that Alan seems to have lost my XP Installation disc, and I don't trust 'recovery discs' (haven't had one that worked yet) and that I know sooner or later I will have to change out a harddrive, I snagged legal copy of XP Pro to use on the 'older' computers.

I remember the last time I had gotten an XP disc for my sons' computer, there were thousands of copies available. Now, less 120 listed.

Evil Genius, or cheap b*tch?

I had gotten a small kitchen timer for $6, because the one on the stove was so quiet and faint, you could only hear it if you were in the kitchen, thereby defeating the purpose.

I wound it to the right time for baking something, and I noticed something was missing. No tick tick tick tick. So, I zeroed the timer, and the bell rang, showing me somethings inside it was still working.

I break out my screwdrivers, and started slowly taking the thing apart. As I got down to the gears, I took off my glasses so I could look closely at the clockwork gears. I spotted something. The main sprocket rod wasn't in the upper part of the housing. Unscrew the top of the housing and slowly and carefully lifted it, until I lined the rod up, pushed the top back on, tightened the screws. I nudge the wheel, and away it started.

I put it all back together, took it out to Aikidomayland and asked him "Evil genius, or cheap b*tch?" He opted for genius.

Weekend catch up

Didn't go to archery, giving Aikidomayland's neck the full week recovery it needed. He might grump about it, but I would rather not have him going through a relapse.

Went to see MomInLaw. The last time I had seen her, she was very uncomfortable with me there, so I told Aikidomayland that I would only see her socially when she invited me, when she felt comfortable. Got the invite on Saturday and went over yesterday.

She is still so frightfully thin, but not as bad as she was a few months ago. She was talking to me about how the pain is keeping her from eating and putting some weight back on, and I softly told her "An, if I could take all the pain away I would do so this instant. You will never get over this, but you will get past it, to where it will hurt less, and be easier to bear." She was surprised, and said "My friend told the exact same thing." We are making sure that we are there if she needs us for anything, but not smothering so she doesn't lose her independence.

It got warm! I am in heaven. OF course, we have two puddles of fur laying out like throw rugs on the stone floor.

What is with the Right Wing nutjobs

Who think that American criticizing wrong actions, or things that are wrong with the USA are Anti-American? If anything, critiquing our public servants, our government, and things that are wrong with the US is a Constitutional right. What is with these RWNs and their selective blindness concerning The Constitution?

They claim that Obama is bad and Anti-American for a loose association with Ayers (working on the same board for school reform), who did, as Obama has clearly stated, 'detestable things' 40yrs ago, but it's A Ok for McCain to have close association with Liddy?

Hypocrite much?

The Canon and I are getting acquainted

The last two days I have been taking the Canon camera about and about. I want to get as familiar with it as I am with the Lumix. The best way to describe it is speaking Italian, and going to Spanish speaking country. It's so close, so similar, but just enough different to make you go "Wut?"

So far so good. Would still like to get lens with a better zoom capability. I want to take candid shots, and it's easier if you can stand a goodly distance away.

Waterfall

Beautiful sights can be found at the most unlikely of places.

When life hands you lemons

I had brought my camera along with us when Aikidomayland was going for another physio visit, hoping to get a shot of quendas living around there. No such luck.

Looked up and spotting this coming in fast:

That's my 'lemonade'.

Crap

Got to the Doc, and he ordered xrays. Got em done, went to Garden City to get refunds from Medicare (yes, that evil SOCIALISED medicine, works great) and waited for the films to be developed and examined. Had some sashimi and grilled seafood Japanese style while waiting.

Got films, headed back to Doc. A rather somber Wing comes out.

Degenerative narrowing of the C5/6 and C6/7, slight narrowing of C4/5. Lipping is present at the vertebral margins. Small osteophytes (bone spurs) encroaching into the canal from behind, most prominent at C5/6.

Facet joints are generally intact, slight degenerative change is present at C2/3 and C7/T1. The atlanto-axial joints are intact.

Diagnosis: cervical spondylosis, disc degeneration and foraminal stenosis.

Off to the Doc we go

Aikidomayland has finally seen reason and has made appointment to see doctor. Have to make sure he takes the paperwork from the physio along, so the doctor doesn't demand he see a physio first for an assessment.

I managed to make it until 9pm last night, then that 2am wake up caught up with the force of a Mack truck.

That went well.. sort of.

Went with Wing to the physio, and got the full skinny about his neck. No gym, no aikido, no archery for a week. I also narked on him about his passing out and going into shock because of the pain.

Treatment went well, and he goes back tomorrow and then again on Thursday. He is going to try to get in to see our GP for possible pain meds should the OTC stuff not work.

Used the Macro Light ring

I was able to get within .5cm of Lokis' face and got this shot. Do not click on the image for the full sized one, unless you have broadband,as it's a 4.5 meg file full sized.

I wish I could have gotten the photograph of what he looked like immediately after I got this shot. I swear he opened his eyes and they crossed. Have to remember to set the white balance for outdoor lighting when I am using the Macro light ring, due to the soft blue light it uses to evenly light the subject.

It's going to be a long day

At 2am, Wing woke me up, calling for me in a scared voice. I leaped out of bed, and got to him, and he was shaking like a leaf, soaking in ice cold sweat, and his skin was clammy and cold. The pain in his neck (not me) was sending him into shock. I took appropriate actions, and got his skin temperature back up. Found a way for him to lay down that didn't make him sick with pain, and then gave him anti-inflammatory/anti-spasmodic. Kept watch for a while, and he was able to get to sleep. I didn't.

He has another appointment with the physio to work on neck. The consensus is he has whiplash, that he didn't take care of when it happened, and it has snowballed into what it is now.

What I don't like is he said he had to go into work today, because of scheduled meetings. He got there ok, but knowing him, he hasn't had, and won't take, anything for the pain.

Oy

Aikidomayland hurt his neck several weeks ago at aikido, but typical of him did nothing about it. I had told him many times to go see the doctor, and he of course ignored that advise. That came home to roost finally.

The pain in his neck (not me) is so bad that he was getting spots in front of his eyes, and felt like he was going to pass out or puke. He left work and managed to take advantage of an opening with the physiotherapist. He has to go back again tomorrow. Prognosis: he injured it but by not taking some time off of aikido or other sports activities, he has exacerbated it. He couldn't even turn his head 5 degrees off center in either direction. He has about that now because of the physio. *sigh*

Fenghuang (Chinese Phoenix)

The Fenghuang (Phoenix) symbolizes the union of yin and yang. It appears in peaceful and prosperous times but hides when trouble is near. According to tradition, each part of Fenghuang's body symbolizes a word, the head represents virtue, the wing represents duty, the back represents propriety,the abdomen says belief, and the chest represents mercy. The Fenghuang represents the Yin of the Yin Yang symbol (The Imperial Dragon being its opposite). It is often described as a composite of many birds including the head of a golden pheasant, the body of a mandarin duck, the tail of a peacock, the legs of a crane, the mouth of a parrot, and the wings of a swallow.

It's also called the "August Rooster" since it sometimes takes the place of the Rooster in the Chinese Zodiac.

McCain and Palins' hate mongering comments are coming back to bite them on the ass

'Hate' claim fires up John McCain in US presidential race

The legacy of Wallace, who survived an assassination attempt when running for president in 1972, was invoked by Georgia Democrat John Lewis, who said the "negative tone" of the McCain-Palin ticket was sowing the same seeds of hatred and division that defined the former Alabama governor's style.

"George Wallace never threw a bomb, never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans," said Mr Lewis.

"Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama. Senator McCain and Governor Palin are playing with fire, and if they are not careful that fire will consume us all."

I find this part below funny.

An outraged Senator McCain said the remarks were "beyond the pale" and demanded Senator Obama dissociate himself from them

Considering the people going on about KILL HIM KILL HIM and TERRORIST! about Obama, they have the gall to say their hate filled comments aren't causing this? Inflaming it? As for McCain demanding Obama distance himself from Lewis, bullshit. Using that same logic, he should be distancing himself from that twit Palin for the same friggin reasons.

I like Democratic spokesman response:

Democrat spokesman Bill Burton repudiated the Wallace reference but said Mr Lewis, a veteran of civil rights struggles, had every right to speak out against the "hateful rhetoric" surfacing in the campaign and against McCain-Palin claims that Senator Obama was "palling around with terrorists".

Sunday in the park? Nah

Went to archery like usual. Had a helluva good set of ends. Decided to head to the 40 meter target. Bad move, seeing as I had been shooting at 30 meters. One should always go from furthest to closer targets, not the other way around. I didn't do too badly, but more misses than I care to have, but over all good.

Went to Foo Gwai, where upon Aikidomayland and I made a poke bun sacrifice to Akire-yta. There were some rather rude diners, nagging the wait staff and just being overall rude jerks. Such is life.

I have been working on another digital painting. I did a small version of it, and decided to make a larger version so it would have more details. But I'm not going to do it all in one long sitting, as I did that with a different artwork and it took two days for my poor dried out eyes to recover. Live and learn.

Yesterday, I had sliced lots and lots of strawberries, and sprinkled some sugar over them, and popped in the fridge to 'self syrup', as they were rather sour, not just tart. Came out perfect. Made some whipped cream with the vanilla bean paste, and thinly sliced some madeira cake. Yup, I served strawberry shortcake. I swear Aikidomayland had a private moment.

Seed if Life

Lotus Blossom seemingly springing from its seed.

Fractal artwork

GOP Spinning until you wanna puke.

Palin broke state law, abusing her Gubernatorial power by trying to get her former BiL fired by pressuring the Safety Commissioner fired, and then fired the Safety Commissioner because he wouldn't abuse HIS office by firing her BiL, but didn't break any laws?

Brain hurt yet?

McCain and Palin have been whipping people into a frenzy making outlandish claims that Obama is a friend of terrorists, 'palling'' around with terrorists and othersuch nonsense. Now McCain is calming down crowds and rallies where people are flat out saying Obama is a terrorist. And McCain is flogging misleading and flat out lying again by equating Obama's being on the same school reform project as him supporting terrorists and being one himself.

Hurting yet?

Have a bit of common sense.

Obama's statement (and proven by proper investigation): "The gentleman in question, Bill Ayres, is a college professor. He teaches education at the University of Illinois. And that's how I met him, was working on on a school reform project that was funded by an ambassador and former close friend of Ronald Reagan's. And I was sitting on this board with a whole bunch of conservative businessmen and civic leaders and he was one of the people on who was on this board. And he lives in the same neighborhood. Ultimately, I ended up learning about the fat he had engaged in this reprehensible act 40 years ago, but I was about 8 years old at the time, and I had assumed he had been rehabilitated."

Being polite to someone during a charity meeting, someone who you have no idea who he is/was, is now deemed 'friends' by Gov Avon Lady Palin? I guess she should step back from the shiny mirror, as she and her hubby were not only friends but political supporters of the AIP leader, the one who got himself blown up trying to buy C4.

And now the GOP campaign machine are spinning Obama calling them out for their piss poor behavior and that of their supporters. As if "Kill Obama" "Bomb Obama" as rallying cries at McCain and Palin rallies isn't something to be called out on? Oh Please.

Now McCain is trying to placate the crowds. I agree with Shadoutcarver; McCain's calming the crowds at these town hall meetings seems like the sicko fireman setting fires, so he can put them out and look like the hero.

Imperial Dragon

Aikidomayland has an old shield from his Grey Company days, that has seen better days. What better way to preserve it than use it as reference for artwork

Repgunicans* are at it again!

States’ Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal*

Tens of thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states have been removed from the rolls or have been blocked from registering in ways that appear to violate federal law, according to a review of state records and Social Security data by The New York Times.

The actions do not seem to be coordinated by one party or the other, nor do they appear to be the result of election officials intentionally breaking rules, but are apparently the result of mistakes in the handling of the registrations and voter files as the states tried to comply with a 2002 federal law, intended to overhaul the way elections are run.

Still, because Democrats have been more aggressive at registering new voters this year, according to state election officials, any heightened screening of new applications may affect their party’s supporters disproportionately. The screening or trimming of voter registration lists in the six states — Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina — could also result in problems at the polls on Election Day: people who have been removed from the rolls are likely to show up only to be challenged by political party officials or election workers, resulting in confusion, long lines and heated tempers.

Some states allow such voters to cast provisional ballots. But they are often not counted because they require added verification.

*The NYT has to say 'appears' due to legal reasons, and can't say which party is doing it. Whereas I, average citizen can flat out say the GOP sycophants and the GOP election machine is getting worried, due to the high voter registration that has been sparked by Obama supporters.

This is reminiscent of people being refused their right to vote because they name was similar to a known felons, even if the DOB and SSN didn't match. To be honest, I am surprised that gerrymandeirng has been re-applied to skew voting populations and districts. Who knows, maybe that will be the next stunt. "You can't vote here because your district is there" only to go to the other one and be told you can't vote there because you needed some slip of paper 2 weeks ago.

Heroes, Season 3, eps 2, 3, 4

Ok, again, I know there was a writers strike, but Episode 1 was a serious stuff up. It was as if the writers forgot what the 1st two seasons were about.

By episode 4 (so far) things are a bit more back on track, for the most part.

SPOILER SPACE BELOW
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I don't like (or believe) how the character Mohinder is quite right. Yes, he would inject himself before anyone else, but not because he has the screaming ya yas for someone.

Nathan Petrelli Peter from the future shoots Nathan to change the future, and hide the Present Peter inside someone (he gets out later, and niftily learns the other escapees super powers). It doesn't work, and Nathan suddenly becomes a Holy Roller. Then he gets his own Jiminy Cricket.. the ghost of Linderman past! (Think Six in Battlestar Galactica).

Claire on a murderous rampage to kill Peter in the future? Now I know he screwed up, but enough for his niece to want to kill him?

Hiro and Ando There is no way Ando would kill Hiro. Not now nor in the Future. Knock him out, maybe, but kill him? Not a chance.

Sylar I kind of figured out why Peter and him were so much alike. I had thought they were related, and I was right. Who would have thunk that in Ep 4 I would feel sorry for Sylar/Gabriel?

I do find it... amusing how the 'heroes' seem hook up and get hitched.

Now, I know there was a writers strike

I have just watched Episode 1, Season 3, of 'Heroes', also some previews of ep #2, and my burning question is this: Couldn't you have read the old scripts to refresh your memories?

I had serious "WTF?" and "Whohuhwha?"

Maybe y'all should go back and read what was done before, yes?

Show and It Tells

I showed some of my digital painting work (mango madness, Dancer, Kandyse McClure, Jewel Stait, etc) to someone who knows the difference between using automated filters, and digital paint work, including the individual layers of painting, and the step by step methods used, including adding more to the artwork than was in the original photograph used for reference

R said he couldn't understand why someone would mistake or claim the painted ones were art filter constructs, unless they were totally unfamiliar with the differences in the techniques or process. I felt vindicated, as someone accused me of doing just that.

I have never had any problem listing a photo manipulation as such (Assassins Guild series, The Stage is Set Taiko Drums etc) and was very upset at being lied about, and falsely accused of something I hadn't done.

I was told by R to be proud of the work I had done, and not to let naysayers bring me down. I think his advise is good, and will be followed.

A serious WTF??!! moment yesterday

I was going through some photographs I had taken, doing the usual edit logos out, cropping, and all was going quite well. I ported image over to another program that has this great "Removed purple fringe" tool, and anyone who has had back lit digital photos knows about this. All was ok, right until I tried to go back into my "Illustrations and Drawings" subfolder only to be told it didn't exist.
Whohuhwha?

I checked the directory where it was a sub directory and it wasn' t there. Thinking I had accidentally done a drag and drop and moved the directory, I did a CTRL Z on the desktop. Nope, not there. I did a search.. again, negative results. Panic is starting to set in. I used Iolo "Search and Recover" and nothing. No no no no no...

So, tried different file recovery program, and lo behold, I found them. Somehow the entire directory got deleted. If I had accidentally hit DELETE they would have ended up in the recycle bin. And I know I didn't delete it, as the working directory I was using wasn't even close.

I managed to recover all but a few, but since I am one for caution, I lucked out. I might have lost the JPG or PNG verson of a file, but I always save artwork as TIF, PNG and JPG.

I spent a goodly part of the late afternoon renaming the recovered files as close to their original names as I could, and then copying the entire directory with the subdirectories to a different harddrive.

Pardon me while my blood pressure returns to normal.

A nice visit

Meegan stopped by today. Her mom is recovering from surgery, and is enjoying the morphine. (Better living through chemistry). She should be home by Wednesday.

She also had a surprise for me.. a nice nifty crepe maker. Now I can make proper blintzes!

Loki keeps looking for our guest. Kinda funny watching him sniff around the 'guest room', and meep. Poor baby

Can she do anything else?

Other than duck dodge weave and not answer direct questions, or fall back on folksy homilies, or spout McCain/Bush slogans?

Not really.

I found it hypocritical of her to deride Biden's age and time in gov't, seeing who her running mate is.

I do like how she manages to use yellow highlighter when spouting 'facts'. Obama voted against funding the troops. Half right, but she neglected to mention two other things. There were strings attached to this funding, so he voted NO, as Line Veto isn't an option for Senators. Also, McCain also voted NO on the same one.

That being said, McCain voted down, or just didn't show up, for votes to increase funding for Veterans.

Her Folksy manner isn't endearing. Saw it too much with Bush and look where that led.

And count how many times she says MAVERICK. She and McCain aren't mavericks. Just because you pigheadedly go your own way, totally disregarding consequences or damage, doesn't make you a maverick. Just because McCain was a POW does not mean he knows how to win a war. How in the hell do you make that leap of non-logic.

Biden did a great job on rebutting this BS about being a 'maverick' about things that really matter to everyone.

And one more thing to Palin: There is more to the world than the one of the smallest population states in the US. Comparing your running of a small town.... I guess you would call a breeze a hurricane.

As for McCain being the only candidate that 'fought for you'... I guess Obama is a bad guy for not being OLD enough to have been drafted, huh?

*shakes head laughing*

Once again, I have been accused of 'using a pathetic art filter' to make a portrait. The funny thing about this, is I had someone here who saw the work as it progressed.

Why do people have the "Since *I* can't do it, you are obviously faking!" mentality? Why do they have such a problem believing that a stylus, a graphics tablet and the right software means you can make artworks that rival 'the real thing'?

Does TwistedBrush have art filters? Yes. Did I use it? No

Side by side comparison of the painted one I did, and same image run thru the filter, and quality is excruciatingly obvious.

Here is the one I painted, using the original photograph as a reference image:

This one was the original photograph run through the best quality of the programs' art filter:

It's not 'bad' but it doesn't hold a candle to the one I used the oil brushes and oil daubing tools.

I'm not going to deliberately tank a digital painting. I will do the best I possibly can, and I did.

Sometimes being right isn't the only thing to consider

I don't like censorship, even if it's self imposed, but to shut someone up, I removed from sale (not from site) some of the best digitally painted portraits I had done over the weekend and part of this week. She accused me of just 'running them through a filter". Even though that function is available iwth TB, I didn't use it. I even have screen caps of the many layers, even with the brushes used listed, and she still insisted I 'stole her photograph' (no, I took legal photograph) and ran it through paint filter (uhh no). I used the same I did with the Kandyce and Jewel photographs, but used oils instead, and boy was that tricky as all get out! I even showed the work in progress to someone (not that I need to prove I'm not lying, but I so really hate to be called one.)

She called the hosting site, and even though she was told I was doing nothing illegal, she kept posting defamatory comments and veiled threats. I don't need this, so once again, she gets katowed to even though she is in the wrong and I am in the right. Who knows, maybe I will just host them elsewere, OR take a chance on getting nose bleeds from the chemicals in the paints and cleaners, and hand paint them, and then repost them.

Funny, she said all the others were 'outraged'. I got email from them saying "Wow, Thanks!" or othersuch comments.

Ready to go!

I asked Aikidomayland if he was going to be near the embassy, and he said no. Oh well, only took 2 weeks for it to get here, figure it will take about the same amount of time to get back.

Oh the fun (and egos) never stop

I took some photographs over the past week, where it was expressed that photographing was ok, just no video (due to recording artist rights)

I have used said photographs along with my Wacom and art program to create Digital Oil Paintings. Said person isn't named or identified as I made sure the facial features were blurred. Someone is trying to throw her weight around, saying it's illegal for me to be doing this. I have checked, double check, and even had two people get back to me, and it is NOT illegal. It would be if I had used photos taken by someone else without their written permission. I own the photographs I took, I am the copyright holder of them and can use them as I see fit.

Why do some people feel the need to bully? It doesn't work with me. You would think people would get that by now.

Lookit what *I* got in the mail today!

So many people throw away their legal right to vote, for whatever reason. That's so wrong. With the way things are going, you never know what rights you have, that you don't exercise, might be taken away

Iddums BOO!

McCain, Palin decry 'gotcha' journalism

Aww, poor babies! It's ok if this sort of journalism is done to democrats on their behalf. Or for Bill Oh'Really to actually stalk people to do this, but 'its not fair' when done to them. Especially when those rascally articles or reports are true!

McCain trying to cover Palin's ass by her getting called on her stupidity as "Gotcha Journalism". It wasn't "Gotcha" in the slightest, unlike the BS Billo does, which is. Palin got verbally nailed for her stupidity, and is whining about it. (For giggles, count how many times Palin and McCain say 'Gotcha Journalism'. I think they are trying for a new catch phrase/sound bite ala 'smoking gun/mushroom cloud')

Boo-f**king-hoo.

The sorta sad thing about having a good guest

Is when they have to go home.

thatgothgrrl has been a wonderful guest here during the WAMED Fest.  She was a lot of fun to have over. Told her we will have to do it again, but not wait 2 yrs (Geelong trip we took in '06) next time.