Day 99/365: fads

Today, the picture I'm posting is technically a couple months old, but I haven't posted it anywhere before today when I uploaded it to photobucket so I could link to it here, so it's new.

You should be familiar with this by now, but this picture is probably going to look a little too dark if you're using a regular old computer. I recommend viewing most of my pictures on an LCD flatscreen, such as are found in laptops.

But yeah. I decided to use a retro sort of font because I thought it suited the quote, since it is kind of a fad-ish font.

Tomorrow's theme is "fair", and it's also day 100 on the art theme list. So that'll be fun.

Anyway, I'm off to finish up a few things and attempt to be in bed by 10. We'll see how that goes.

Day 98/365: Faded.

Today, I thought I would not only produce something that could be tied to today's theme, but an idea that has  been knocking around in my head for a while. Also, it is relevant to Memorial Day.

The lyric is from "Man in the Wilderness" by Styx, and it was a song that I was privileged enough to see/hear Styx play live when I saw them at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake in August of 2008. It was one of those favorite songs of mine that didn't get much attention on its own, and I never thought in a million years that they would ever play it at that concert.

As for this picture, it's been a couple years since I first got the idea. I just edited a copy of the famous photograph. I have the threshhold tool to thank. I did black in some other areas but most of the heavy lifting in that respect was done by the threshold tool.

This is more or less how I wanted it to look, I believe. I think my original mental picture had more black at the bottom and was more rectangular, almost like a desktop background size, but I'm happy with the way this came out.

Now, as for my opinion regarding war, I don't like it at all. Sometimes it's unavoidable, but I hate it. I support the troops because they don't have any control over where they're sent. I would never go into the military, ever... If everyone thought like me, we'd probably be speaking German right now and today wouldn't even be a holiday, but I'm thankful for those who have served or given their lives to protect their country.

There are a lot of conflicts in which I think war could be avoided, but that's just me. I'm a hippie. I would never last in the military because of that, and because I'm far too mouthy. I'd get my ass kicked.

But I salute those of you who have served. Enjoy today but ultimately take just a little bit of time to think about why it's a holiday.

Day 97/365: eyes.

Well, I was GOING to upload a couple of new pictures, but my internet is being a douche. The pictures I'm trying to upload, the both of them together don't even equal half a megabyte, but I can't upload them. Every time I try, I lose my internet connection.
That can't be normal.
Usually, I'd just upload them on our other computer, but I got a rather nasty yelling at from my father the last time I was on that computer so I have to save that shit for when he's at work.

Never fear, though. There are some decent things to be seen, and also I'll be posting links to a few songs involving "eyes".

A picture of Pete Townshend I went to... TOWN with. *cymbol crash*

An old picture of a friend's daughter. I ran into them at Dollar Tree I believe, and I just had to snap a picture. I remember saying "Kenny I can't believe someone that cute is related to you!" and he was like "Yeah I know." It was fun.

A pair of really awesome sunglasses that I can't find anymore. Dammit.

I am not in any way obsessed with Pete Townshend, but during my Who phase, it was a lot of fun to mess around with pictures of him. It's those blue eyes.

Another friend's daughter. She was really adorable. I remember once she was at the activity center with us all, and she was eating a brownie... and it was all over her face. Kids with food all over their faces are too damn cute. XD

The cutest little boxer puppy ever. She lives next door, and oh my gosh, she has got the cutest face ever. This is an older picture of her, but she still has that adorable little face.

I colorized one of my eyes blue. Also, I really, really miss that hair color combo, with burgandy hair and blonde bangs. I probably won't go burgandy again because that takes too much upkeep, but I am considering going for the blonde bangs again. I could get some dye from Sally's Beauty Supply so I only have to mix up as much dye as I need, since I won't need much for the bangs.

And now, for some songs.

Firstly, YOU MUST LISTEN TO THIS SONG. It's not on youtube so I can't embed it on this page, but I mean it. This is the song I haven't gotten sick of once in my life, and I've been listening to it since about age 7.

http://new.music.yahoo.com/thomas-dolby/videos/view/valley-of-the-minds-eye--2160548

Day 96/365: Exercise.

Today, you're getting old pictures. I was basically busy all day, and since dad is home I can't really use our other computer to submit the pictures. Also, I'm tired, have an upset stomach, and my entire bottom half hurts.

Today, I delivered the newspaper as normal. I biked home, and the neighbor puppy was out so I played with her for a bit. Then, my mother, brother, and I marched in the band fest parade with the local PFLAG chapter. My brother and I were two of several people carrying rainbow flags, and one of these amusing older gay men brought a giant rainbow flag that four people carried like a big tarp, and it was just fun. Fun, but wearing rather tight red chucks is not comfortable. Hey, it looks  hot, and they're the only red sneakers I have, but my feet are killing me now.
And my knees are about ready to pop right out and go on strike or something. My arms hurt from newspaper delivering (mostly because I have to lift and turn around my bike a lot). Still. Marching was fun.

Afterwards, there was a little get together at said giant rainbow flag owning amusing gay man's house, where we ate food, talked to people, watched a bit of tv, and I had two vodka lemonades. I probably didn't even have two shots of vodka and I was sufficiently juiced for a few hours. I'm actually still feeling it, just the after effects. Not like a hangover, but you know how you feel when alcohol wears off.

I actually really like being a lightweight, and I'm not one of those prudes with expensive taste either. Especially since most of the time, I don't want to taste my liquor. So there's no point in springing for the expensive vodka if you're just going to cover up the taste with lemonade, or orange juice, or whatever.


But yeah. After biking my newspaper route, walking the whole parade route, and then actually biking to a bar that I pass on my newspaper route... my legs are shot. I biked to that bar to pick up a job application. Just to clarify that.

Anyway. Onward with the pictures. I picked pictures of my bike, other people's bikes, pictures taken on my bike, or picture taken when I've gone on walks.

I layered together a picture of my hand holding my mp3 player with a picture I took of an airplane flying overhead. Lyrics belong to The Who.

One of my favorite pictures taken while actually on my bike.

A macro shot of my bike handle.

I don't care if I've posted this picture before. I love it too much to not include it.

This picture was a pain in the ass. There were no less than thirty failed shots before it came out. Usually I walk away after three or four failed shots, but I really wanted this one.

Usually I would not put the subject that close to the edge of the photo, but I liked the way it looked like she (and by she I mean Vanessa) was just going to walk right out of the picture.

To date, this is one of my favorite nature pictures that I've taken.

This is not my bike. It was sitting out in town, and I liked it so I snapped a picture.

Tomorrow's theme is "eyes". After I deliver the paper tomorrow, I get to do whatever I want. There is no paper published on Memorial Day, so I get to sleep in tomorrow night. I'm pretty sore right now, but thinking "All I have to do is get through an uncomfortable hour and a half tomorrow morning and then I don't have to fuck around with newspapers until Tuesday" makes it a lot easier. The reason I say that is that I should have more than enough time to produce some new art for you.

Anyway, I'm off to finish up something on facebook, and then I'll be in bed.

Day 95/365: Evil.

Today, you are getting new pictures. Not new as in I took them today, new as in, they've been sitting on my computer and haven't yet been submitted anywhere (except photobucket, but I link them from there so that doesn't count).

I took a picture of a bird on a walk one day. I got all trippy and dark with the editing of said picture.

I'm not sure how this qualifies as evil. Maybe it's the glass that somebody drank poison out of. To quote the late, great Freddie Mercury, "If you see it, dear, then it's there."

This picture reminds me of absinthe. I read somewhere how the poor artists couldn't afford the good stuff and so a lot of the time they got stuck with cheap absinthe that had been mixed with god knows what, chemicals that made them hallucinate and such. And that's what I thought of that could be considered evil.

Pictures of one of my stemware glasses, and a parasol I got from an Asian vendor at the art fair last summer.

I'm still working on the drawing I told you about yesterday, but now it's a matter of finding decent watercolors (We've got crayola ones somewhere but I have misplaced them). The only watercolor paints I can find in the house are these shitty Rose Art ones, and I hate Rose Art art supplies. They're cheap and shitty. I remember I always hated rose art crayons and colored pencils as a kid because they never goddam worked right.


Anyway, tomorrow's art theme is "Exercise" and considering just how much of it I'm going to get tomorrow, that is pretty serendipitous. Especially since if I hadn't done a special Earth Day entry, Exercise would have been yesterday's theme. I have to deliver papers tomorrow morning, and then my family and I are going to walk along with the local PFLAG chapter in the Band Fest parade. I am going to bring my digital camera, although I need to charge it tonight. I'll probably plug it in the outlet at my bedside and then wake up at some point during the night to unplug it. OR WAIT. Better idea. I'll plug it in this morning before I leave to deliver papers, and then by the time we leave for the parade at 8 something, it should be charged enough.

To quote those Guinness beer commercials, "BRILLIANT!"

Now if you'll excuse me, I really need to be getting off to bed. As you can clearly see, I need the sleep. XD

Day 94/365: Environment.

I had intended to post at least a sketch for you today, but it's going to take a lot of work. It's going to be a fairly simple drawing (no acid trippy patterns), and I'm actually going to watercolor paint it, but... it's outside my comfort zone, so it's going to take more effort and work than most of my pictures do. I am notoriously terrible at drawing decent human anatomy. So often I have this amazing idea in my head, and I go to sketch it out only to find that my hands aren't as good as my brain. If I could get my pictures to come out the way I saw them in my head, people would actually pay attention to my artwork. It would be amazing.

I suppose I have churned out some quality stuff in my time, but for every drawing that works there are at least two or three that I cannot physically get to come out like they were in my mind's eye.

I know, I basically create art to express myself, and not just to get attention, but after a while it's really hard to spend hours on a drawing knowing only a handful of people are going to give a shit about it, and that's if I'm lucky.

Anyway, I need to get to bed pretty soon, so I should stop rambling and start posting pictures.

This is a drawing I did for Earth Day 2009. It's hanging on my bedroom wall.  I drew this just a few days before I lost my driver's license, so sometimes it can be hard to look at, but I like it as a drawing and I'm not going to stuff it away in a folder somewhere.

Our city has a curbside pick up recycling thing, and once when packaging the recyclables I noticed that the top of one of the crushed milk jugs looked vaguely like a heart. I did pinch the bottom (LOL) just a little to make it that pointed though.

This was my earth day picture for 2010, I believe. I had gotten a strange idea to use a chain as a flower stem in a drawing. I like the idea enough that I would probably use it again

This has nothing to do with today's theme. I just wanted to brag to you all that I have seen Carole King in person. Granted, she was giving a speech and not singing, but I don't care. XD

I don't know how good this picture is, but I liked the feeling it gave me, so I decided to include it.

This is a rose bush I got on sale last year. It still hasn't showed any huge signs of life, so I'm worried that it won't come back. Although. Another house in the area has a rose bush, and it looks pretty much the same as mine, and that one's been alive for years, so maybe it's just too early.  For this particular instance, I was coloring a picture with pastel crayons, and when I do that, I frequently blend the colors with my fingers. It was during that that I got the idea to color my thumb green and take pictures of it. XD

I have a weird ability to remember where pictures like this were taken. I mean, it could be any stupid grassy field, but I can remember where it was. I can't remember something someone said three minutes ago, but I remember where I took a picture fucking four years ago. I'm so weird.

This picture was taken from inside a car. The sky was just amazing that day. I hope I see another day like this, because it was really just stunning.

This is a picture of one of my best friends, Vanessa. This was taken a few years ago, before she had moved back to the general area that I live. I went to visit her when she lived a couple hours away from me. There's a really good chance that I had a nice beer buzz going when I took this picture. Also, that summer I was really, really into Def Leppard. XD

Pictures like this are really fun to get but I haven't tried for a while. I think it's because I can't drive, and so I can't really wait until it gets this dark to take pictures, because I still have to bike home afterwards.

A peace sign I made out of sticks on the ground. I had gotten home while my parents were out. They had locked the door and I didn't have a house key. I just decided to take pictures while I waited for them to get back home.

Tomorrow's theme is "evil". I will try to have something decent (and new) for you tomorrow, but I can't make any guarantees.

I'm still having second thoughts as to this blog. I've kept it going for nearing 100 days, and literally only three or four people have even bothered to acknowledge it at all. I feel like all I'm doing is talking to myself and showing myself new artwork, or old works of mine that I'd forgotten about.

Whatever guys, I should really be getting to bed so I won't babble on any longer tonight. XD

Day 93/365: Envious.

Today, in lieu of the really, really shitty day I had, you're getting old pictures. I drew something about envy, but I didn't like it, so I'm not posting it.

I'm fairly sure you have seen this before, but I don't care. It's a pretty old picture. The reason I included this is I'm envious of myself from that time, in some ways. For one, I could still drive. For two, I seemed to have a lot more ideas for pictures. Not all of them were good, but I just feel like I have photographer's block. I never want to take a bunch of trinkets and take a bunch of still life shots like I used to do.

This is another rather old picture. I don't know that the picture is that good, but I get a certain vibe from it. I guess you could say I'm envious of that time in a way. I could still drive back then, even though in many social areas I was still very immature.

An old picture of a college friend, Amanda. You could say I'm envious of her in many ways. Many except the fact that she's pregnant. I love kids, but I don't want any right now.

It's just weird. All my friends are like... getting married. Having kids. That sort of thing. I am nowhere near ready for that crap.

The curtains could be envious of the sun. That either doesn't make sense, or it's very profound. I vote for the latter.

This picture is also rather old. From some time in 2007 I believe. Taken with my shitty old finepix A600 camera. People say megapixels don't matter, but that camera was only a 6.3 megapixel. The camera I have now is 12 megapixels, and I can most certainly tell the difference.

To be honest, I'm not really sure what this picture has to do with today's theme, but I like it a lot. It's got a dreamy feeling to it. For me, anyway.

I thought that the piece of wood in the picnic table could be envious of trees.

A rather old picture I ran across in my deviantart gallery, but I really like it. I don't take enough pictures of my mini mannequin anymore.

And that's today's entry for you. I really should be getting to bed.

Day 92/365: Entrance.

Today, you are actually going to see some new pictures, but not a whole lot else. I have to get up before 4:30 to deliver newspapers, and I had fully intended to be in bed by now.

I watched Labyrinth this evening, and have been inspired to work on a Labyrinth fanfiction I'm writing. It's not boring romantic mary sue crap. It's going to be really good and well thought out. As well as I can anyway. I'm not really an author but I don't do too badly at it.
The reason I mention that is because I want to at least get through reading/editing the 12 pages I've written so far before I get to bed so... hopefully I pass out right when I get in bed because as it is I'm looking at probably 5 hours of sleep, and I need at least 6 to feel normal.

This picture looked really good when I was editing it on our computer with the LCD flat screen, but back on my boring old regular computer screen, it looks way too dark and green.

I'm not really sure what this has to do with entrance, but work with me here.

An artsy fartsy picture of my brother standing at the entrance/exit of central gardens

 

 This is a picture I took yesterday on my way home from delivering newspapers.

So is this. Lol.

Tomorrow's theme is "envious", and considering the fact that I might take my camera with me to deliver papers again, the envious part may be how envious I am of people that don't have to get up at frickin 4:20 in the morning. I wish I could deliver some magazine that didn't have to be there until the afternoon or something. Lol.

Anyway. I'm off to tweak my Labyrinth fanfic a little more and then I'm going to be in bed. Dammit.

Day 91/365: Empty.

Today, I'm sorry but I don't have any new pictures for you. It was my first morning delivering newspapers (well, since 2006, which was when I had my first route), and I thought of perhaps using a picture or two I took of main street, completely devoid of cars, but... My dad didn't work tonight, which means I can't get on the computer that I use to upload pictures, so... I'm putting together a meager collection of pictures loosely related to the theme.
Once I get more used to the waking up at 4:15-30 and going to bed at 9-9:30 thing, I imagine I should be able to come up with more (and new!) art, but today I've just felt kind of tired and lazy. I should get back to the library to return a couple books I've had for a while, but the movie I checked out isn't due until Wednesday, so I probably won't go until then.

I know it's only May 23rd, but I almost feel guilty on days where I don't have the energy to go gallavanting around town. I have promised myself that I'm going to be super busy with being outdoors and enjoying all the weather/activities this summer. I know stuff really gets going in this town in June, but... I don't know. Whatever I do, I don't want to piss away half the summer indoors, so then it'll be October, and I'll go "Ugh, I should have spent more time outside. Now it's getting cooler and blaaaaaaaaah". I want to exhaust myself with and get totally immersed in summer.

Well, I've totally swerved off topic, so let's get back to it.

I know today's pictures may seem a bit loose with how they tie into the theme, but you should be used to that by now. Not that anybody reads this. Sometimes it feels pointless to even keep updating this blog. Nobody ever comments on it or acknowledges that they read it at all. And part of that is probably my fault. I guess I don't do much to advertise. I should figure out more to do, because posting a blog a day every day for a year is a pointless achievement if only five people even know what you did.

Tomorrow's theme is "entrance", and... it'll probably end up being an artsy fartsy picture of somebody's doorway. Maybe I'll take a few more pictures tomorrow when I'm out delivering papers. Or after I'm done. Monday-Thursday, I only have 22 papers to deliver a day, a bit higher on the weekend. One person gets a paper Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, a couple people only get the Sunday paper, and several other people get both the Saturday and Sunday papers, but that's it. It sounds more confusing than it is.
I'm off to finish up some web browsing and then I'll be in bed.