Day 68/365: culture.

My culture is flowers.

You can take that as a profoundly artsy fartsy statement if you like.

I really meant to post some pictures of the lake... pictures I just took tonight, but my camera did something weird. I sat through it uploading almost all of the 190 something pictures I had, and then because there was an error uploading ONE of them, it cancelled the whole fucking upload. It would probably be okay next time I try to upload if I just skip the picture that was having problems, but I really don't feel like sitting through that shit again.

Besides. Culture is a really broad term, and as you've previously noticed (or haven't, since nobody goddam reads this) I like to twist the themes to fit my nefarious purposes.

Today's pictures are new, though, so at least there's that. I haven't posted them on deviantart, or facebook, or any of that. I only just posted them to photobucket so I can use the link to post them here.

Cute little purply blue flowers growing in the flowerbed by our driveway.

Color balance edit of the same picture, because I liked it.

Another color balance edit of the same picture, because I also liked this one. I think it's cool how something as simple as color balance can change the entire feel of a picture.

And now, for a picture that ISN'T the above one. XD

Thankfully the swarm of bees that were hiding out in these flowers a couple weeks ago have gone somewhere else.

And now, since I've gotten the brand new pictures out of the way, I feel like I should post some old ones that might actually have more to do with culture.

The funny part is, when searching my deviantart gallery for the keyword "culture", nothing came up.

Touche. Lol

This is a weird idea I had several years ago. If we get cherries this summer (which I'm sure we will, at some point) I may try this idea again. Or with different pieces of my stemware collection.

Seriously, if I had my own house, my cupboards would be filled with shit like this.

A great idea I had that I wish I could do over (i.e. the bottom of the glass is too close to the bottom of the picture for my liking now, but obviously years ago that didn't bother me). 

Sadly, that glass has gone off to the Big Cupboard in the Sky. I try to avoid buying stemware made out of super thin glass now because several of them have broken.

Anyway. This is an idea I would like to try again with different glasses. I'm thinking my brandy snifter would work pretty well.

I know you've seen this picture before but I don't care. I like it, so I'm posting it again.

You've probably seen this before too. I can't remember. 

Pretty sure you haven't seen this one. It's word art inspired by the Michael Jackson song of the same name. It says "Unbreakable" for those of you who can't read my trippy handwriting.

This is an idea I'd like to redo, mainly because I'd like to get the lettering with straighter lines, as opposed to the wobbly lines.

Tomorrow's theme is "curious", and considering there's a Duran Duran lyric with that word in it... I may just have to do some word art for that. Maybe akin to this piece:

OR. Or I could draw a trippy lady in the vague shape of a question mark. I haven't decided yet. Lol.

Anyway, I'm really tired and exhausted... partially because I'm a female and I hate this week, and partially because I rode my bike and stuff... and spent all day at grandma's house. AND and and. Because I want to get up early so I can do dishes, because generally my failure to do dishes on Saturday night causes some ire with my parents when they want to cook Sunday breakfast and there are dishes all over the kitchen counter.

In my defense... we were gone basically all day, but they'd probably go "Well you could have done the dishes when we got home instead of going for a bike ride" BUT. I don't care right now. There aren't that many dishes.

ANYWAY. Good night. I'm really logging off this time. XD

Day 67/365: crossroads

Today, you're getting a sketch. I'm tired and in pain so forgive me for not making this entry a bit longer.

I had part of the tree lady drawn already. The rest is a product of me watching FernGully: The Last Rainforest for the millionth time since age 6. I thought I could take crossroads to mean, we're at a crossroads environmentally. At an impass, if you will. It makes sense to me, but I'm really too tired to explain it. Maybe at a crossing where we have to figure out how to balance nature with technology. 

This sketch was also somewhat subliminally inspired by a youtube video I watched this morning.

It's pretty incredible. I loved it.

But.. yeah. The main reason you're getting a sketch today is that I really have no idea what I want to do with the colors. I kept throwing color schemes around in my head and I couldn't decide which one I wanted to go with, so I just decided to scan the sketch to show you all. I figure I can finish it when I finally decide what I want. I have been known to get terrible decision paralysis, as my dad calls it, where I just can't decide what I want to do. 

Like... should the buildings be dark grey, or black? Should I draw the grass all swirly like with different shades of green, or should I make it all one green color? Should I draw fruit in the tree? Should I color the sky in the background with sunset colors? What color should her hair be? What color should the clothes be?

Yeah. I can't decide what colors I want to use, and I would prefer to wait until this vile monthly gift has left me again so I can concentrate.

It's hard to concentrate on much of anything when you feel this gross.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a bed to go pass out in.

PS: This is my food journal entry for today. I don't feel like posting a separate link on my facebook:http://bluesilver.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/day-110/

Day 66/365: cross.

Today, I copped out and used the image mosaic program I just downloaded the other day (AndreaMosaic; it is freeware).
I had Lady Gaga on the brain after watching her perform on Ellen, so I decided to find a random image of a cross through google images, and then made a mosaic using pictures of Lady Gaga. If I didn't feel like such shit right now (think "female monthly issues"), I'd have spent more time looking for more pictures of her so there wouldn't be so many duplicates, but right now... I'm sorry but I don't give a shit.

I'm too crabby and in pain to give a shit right now. I really am. In fact. If this weren't a post a day, every day deal, I'd have skipped today altogether. And to quote Sarah in Labyrinth "I can't give up now, I've come too far".

I recommend clicking on the picture so you can see it a bit better. I did cheat a bit on this one and layered the colorized original photo over the mosaic photo. I made the mistake of choosing a basically black and white picture to make out of a bunch of color Lady Gaga pictures. Which probably wasn't a great idea, but like I said, right now I really don't care.

This blog is pretty much a failure. I had it in my head that I could come up with something awesome and brand new to post every day, but I almost feel like I've cheated too much to call it a real post a day blog. That skull a day guy didn't cheat by using old pictures. He made something new every single fucking day. Something AWESOME every single day. And most of the crap I've made for this blog is mediocre at best. There have only been several pictures I've drawn/taken for this blog that I've been really proud of, and everything else is just in a cesspool of bums and questionable behavior, fighting whores for cigarettes.

Tomorrow's theme is crossroads, and I'll be honest, I have no fucking clue what I'm going to churn out for that. If I don't feel like complete shit, which is iffy to begin with, I might try going out to take some pictures. I really don't know and at the moment I don't give a shit.

All I care about is finishing this entry, shutting the computer off, and passing out in my bed. I'll worry about all the artsy bullshit tomorrow.

Day 65/365: Costumes

Well, as I suspected, I am going to be using old pictures for today's entry. I have no special costumes to speak of (since none of my old prom dresses fit right now), and I don't really have any super fashionable friends within a decent radius. In the summer I'm going to do several photo shoots with my very fashionable gay brother, but he still has another week and a half at college. And we still have a couple weeks before it starts to get green and pretty outside. Still. There is one particular area in town I want to take my brother's picture fairly soon. Said place is an old antique store that went out of business in September. There's a side door to that place that is pretty picturesque, and also there is a bunch of ivy growing on the back wall that is all cute and artsy fartsy.

Anyway, enough of my artsy rambling. Most of these pictures have to do with Halloween.

This is my brother dressed as Lady Gaga. He made the outfit himself out of old clothes from the second hand store and some fabric glue.

This picture is especially nostalgic. For one, it was taken several years ago at a very interesting Halloween party in a friend's house. Lots and lots of alcohol was consumed. Another thing that makes this picture very nostalgic is that now, the girl in that picture is married to someone... and not the male someone seen in this picture. Also, I know the picture is blurry, but given the amount of drunkness that was partaken in at that house, I feel like I can get away with it.

My halloween costume in 2009. Because I'm so broke, I usually take the easy out and dress as a gypsy, since it doesn't involve spending that much money. At all. I can only count two pieces of that costume that were specially purchased for that night. I was headed to the bar/restaurant I worked at, for their Halloween party.

The false nails I was talking about. As I got progressively drunker at the party, when the nails started to fall off, I remember just ripping them off and throwing them on the ground. In my defense, since I was going to crash at a co worker's place for the night, I ended up staying afterwards to help clean up, in which I picked up after myself. In my defense again, I was going to stay to help clean up anyway, since it was my bosses' last night there (as the place was changing hands to the people who actually own the land).

The next picture is from Halloween 2008. Just feel like I should say that.

A terribly adorable guy I used to work with. And another testament to the fact that I cannot resist tall brunette men with big noses.

Very funny, drunk or sober, but told me himself that "I was too nice and sensitive for him". This was pretty much the only picture I ever took of him where he didn't threaten to smash my camera, or my face, or make some stupid accusation about how I was a creepy stalker. 

(backstory for those out of the loop: I got a crush on this guy and made the mistake of telling a couple of my coworkers about it, stupidly thinking it was between myself and them; they in turn told almost everyone else. Without my knowledge, they constantly pestered him about it and blew everything way out of proportion. Lesson learned).

 Honestly though, you should get drunk with this guy. I still stop and laugh about drunken things he said or did. I'll never forget the time that people were playing a shitload of 80s music on the jukebox. So.. what the guy does is draw "I hate the 80s" on a bar napkin and wore it around like a bib. That was also the time he drew on a napkin, a picture of someone shooting whoever was at the jukebox. He was unhappy with how the drawing looked, but instead of throwing the napkin away, he ATE it.

Anyway. That's today's entry. Tomorrow's theme is "cross", and I should tell you right now that this is probably the only time you will ever see a christian cross in my artwork. And that's if I decide to go that route. I'm not sure what I'll draw yet. Maybe something Jesus Christ Superstar related, because strangely enough it's less, I dunno, preachy than Godspell.

I liked Godspell but it was just too... I don't know. I don't believe in christianity in the least and I don't like essentially having scripture shoved down my throat. But I have to admit. Victor Garber was totally hot in that movie. Like I know he was playing Jesus but I had all sorts of unholy ideas throughout the entire movie.

ANYWAY. You all have a good night now.

Day 64/365: Corners.

Well, there goes that.
My dad was having a problem with his email and that was preventing me from getting on the other computer to upload today's pictures, so I had a whole spiel about how I was going to have to use filler pictures until the other computer was free.
Well, now it is free
As a warning to any older readers that may have found my blog, I have a piece of advice for you. If an address begins with "www", it is a URL. It's a website. Not an email address. An email address will have an @ symbol in the middle. Like my real email: melodyevapope@yahoo.com.

You may recognize the base image, because I've posted it here before. It is made up of tiny Simon Le Bon pictures. A bunch of them re-used because I do not have very many pictures of Simon. Lol.

I downloaded some freeware mosaic software called AndreaMosaic.

This one's a little worse, but it's made up of pictures I actually took.

I haven't played around with the program very much yet, but I can see it being a lot of fun. I have a bunch of pictures of Paul McCartney and the Beatles... and that could be fun. I could also make a huge folder containing all the photography I have saved on my flash drives and then make a mosaic using those. It'll be fun to see what this program can do. 

Also, if you were wondering how today's theme ties in... rectangles have corners. So do squares. I believe the program has a setting where you can use square images. I just didn't want to have to crop a bunch of pictures.

Tomorrow's theme is "costumes", and unless I come up with tiny costumes for my mini mannequin to wear, tat might involve using old pictures. I'm not quire sure yet. XD

Day 63/365: Cookery

Today, I haven't spent that much time online, and the drawing I was trying to prepare for today just wasn't turning out. I wasn't feeling it.
I'm guessing I'm nearing my "super happy fun time of the month" time, because I'm having that sort of feeling. That crabby "I'm not quite here" feeling, where I also constantly have the munchies. I've learned recently that I feel this way right before my super happy fun week.

What I'm saying is, today you're getting a random conglomeration of pictures. Seven of the last eight entries have been brand new material, so I don't feel bad at all about today.

Okay, I kind of do, but I've been preoccupied today.

Anyway. These pictures are randomly related to cooking, kitchens, and all that sort of thing, because cookery? Who uses that fucking word anymore?

A picture of my family with Goofy, at Disneyland. Taken in 2004, during our big California vacation. I got very very sunburned. A couple days before, we went to the zoo, where I got a bit sunburnt. The day after that, we went to Sea World, where I didn't wear sunscreen because I apparently thought the sunburn would even out. Instead, I turned bright red. I remember having to sleep like a mummy (on my back with my arms folded across my chest) for several nights because it hurt too much to roll around.

A wet match that I drew a heart with on the counter.

This picture isn't all that good, but it's loaded with memories for me, so I chose to include it. I used to work at this restaurant, and even though I haven't worked there since late 2009, I miss it almost every day.

Another picture I took at that restaurant, during a slow day at work.

Another picture I took at the place I used to work. This picture means a lot more to me than it probably means to anyone else, but I'm not going to explain it for you. 

My mom (who you see in the background) took me out to eat on my birthday. It was a cute little Vietnamese restaurant, and we were waiting for our food.

An old picture I took at college. This would be Almond, who goes by Ally now, but I still call her Almond because I'm stubborn.

Tomorrow's theme is corners, which seems to be a much easier theme to come up with art for. So rest assured. You shall have a brand new piece of art tomorrow.

Day 62/365: controls

I took artistic license with today's theme and turned it into "control", because I found a quote online that I wanted to use.

I recommend clicking on the picture or opening it in a new tab so you can view it a bit larger.

But yeah. Happy easter everybody. It's been a good day thus far. Chilling out with the family. Eating ham, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, and of course candy. We're going to eat easter eggs and ham sandwiches for dinner. We played a few card games, so that was fun.

I may get out for a bike ride but I don't really want to be gone, because my brother is only home from college until tomorrow morning. I mean. His whole school year is over in two weeks, but I would still just like to be at home. I'm feeling pretty lazy. AND. Instead of buying a soda here and there, I'm trying to save up all my small change and eventually have enough to buy myself a cheap bottle of amaretto or something. Seriously. The 6 dollar stuff they have at my local grocery store doesn't taste any different from a different brand that sells for 20 bucks a bottle, so I don't care.

I'm cheap when it comes to liquor, because I can't afford to have expensive tastes. XD

Still. Tomorrow I have to get back on exercising hardcore (for me) because not only have I eaten too much today (within reason, but still more than normal), there are a bunch of easter treats and candy sitting around the house that I have to contend with. Lol

Well. I'm off to have some more offline fun. You all enjoy the rest of your easter. :)

Day 61/365: concrete

Today we return you to our regularly scheduled programming. I realize that's going to throw my count off just a little bit, but like I said yesterday, it'll probably be the only time I stray from the themes.

Today I've basically spent the entire day in the kitchen with my mom and brother. And just goofing off, watching tv, stuff like that.

Anyway, because it's a holiday weekend, and because you've recently had a few brand new pictures posted, I am going to use old shots for today's entry. I literally didn't even turn my computer on until a little bit before 2pm, so I haven't really been brainstorming art ideas.

Today I'm equating concrete to shots I've taken of the road, and the sidewalk.

This heart shaped spot is no longer there. It's deteriorated too much and now I can't see it when I go back to the area I took this picture.

So there is today's entry. I'm sorry for using old pictures, but I have been busy today and will probably be busy tomorrow, it being Easter, and my brother being home from college. He might go back tomorrow, so I don't want to be wasting my time thinking of art and being on the computer.

He might decide to go back Monday morning but I still want to enjoy him being home. I mean. There are only two more weeks and then he's back home for the summer, but... I should spend less time on the computer anyway.

Tomorrow's theme is "controls" and I might do something marionette related or something. I'm not sure.

Happy easter, whether you're a believer, or a heathen like me. XD

Special Entry: Earth Day.

Well kids, it's Earth Day. The weather this year is nothing like last year. Last year, I walked around town in a tee shirt, a skirt, and sandles. It was a sunny, gorgeous day last year, and I was out and about picking up garbage. I walked past a guy standing outside a bar, and he was talking on his cell phone. He asked if I was picking up trash for earth day and said 'Good for you blahblahblah'. What he didn't know is that I don't wait for earth day to pick up garbage. I do it for as long during the year as I possibly can. Obviously in the winter it doesn't happen that much. However, throughout much of the spring, summer, and fall, I pick up garbage. I walk to town with plastic grocery bags in my purse for the sole purpose of picking up trash.

I feel a little guilty that I probably won't get out to pick up any trash today, but when you consider how just how much garbage isn't in the lake thanks to me, I'm not going to let today bother me.

There is literally probably a dumpster's worth of garbage that I have picked up off the ground or picked out of the lake. There are numerous bottles and cans, and even cardboard I've put in our own recycling bins. I never get plastic bags when I go to the store. Every month, we recycle at least four huge bags full of recyclables, sometimes five.

And really? We need an Earth Day once a month. We really do. The volume of garbage I see on the ground around here is appalling. So... I guess what I'm saying is I love earth day, but we should really treat every day like earth day. I know that's cliche but I think it's what we need to do.

Anyway, to get on with today's special entry, I'd like to present to you a storybook I had when I was a little kid. I even wrote my name in it.

I was six years old. I still remember the day I wrote my name in this book, because I wrote my name in a bunch of my other books at the same time. 

If you want to actually be able to read, I suggest you click on each picture to get a larger view.

There you have it. I know it was published in 1991 but it still has a lot of good messages for kids. I thought about recording myself reading the book, but I don't have a webcam, and my digital camera isn't the greatest.

I may be getting someone's hand me down webcam soon, and should that be the case, I may consider reading "The Great Kapok Tree" on webcam.

Also... I may do some actual art in honor of Earth Day today. Either way, the next art theme in the list is going to be put off until tomorrow, in honor of Earth Day. This is probably the only time I'll postpone a theme on the list. I just didn't want to be posting this, THEN some art for Earth Day, and THEN the next theme on the list all in the same day.

Happy Earth Day everyone.

EDIT:

The picture I made for earth day. Made from some newspaper, parts ripped out of an old magazine, and a panel from the cardboard box we got our new rubbermaid kitchen containers in.