Let the Boy Scouts Know Your Opinion

The Boy Scouts of America have a meeting coming up in a couple of months where they will (in theory) make the decision about inclusion or exclusion of homosexuals in the BSA.

You have a chance to have your voice heard.

If you are not currently a registered Scout you can send them a note here.  Don't forget to be polite.

If you are a registered Scout you can also complete the semi-annual survey.  The next one is going to be specifically about this topic.  The survey is not out yet but you can request it be emailed to you here.

From http://scouteradam.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/bsa-membership-survey/ :

"To participate, you will need your membership ID number (or if you are a parent, your Scout’s ID number). The survey will close on April 4th, so please request your copy right now and forward this information to other current BSA members.

To participate in this survey, which is conducted twice a year, you will need your membership ID number, also called a BSA ID number. This is the number which appears on your registration card; or which is displayed on your MyScouting profile page. If you are a registered youth or adult with no access to MyScouting or without a paper registration card, contact your unit leader or the local BSA Council to obtain your BSA ID number."

The Eight Foot Bride and The Gift of Giving

My friend Jason Andrew has been trying to raise money for a science fiction anthology called The Future Embodied.  He has been running a Kickstarter campaign for nearly a month and as it comes down to the last 5 days and there is still $700 left to go I am finding myself full of ideas.  I've shared many of them with Jason.

He recently blogged about the uncomfortable feeling he gets asking people for money, even though that money won't go to him, but to increase the amount he can pay the writers that are accepted to the anthology.

I have felt this same feeling.  There is a certain amount of shame in asking someone to buy a $15 bag of popcorn to help my son have a better Cub Scout program.  There is no way the popcorn is worth that much.  Yet it flies off the table every year and people love to give.

My mom used to say that if you refuse a gift you are robbing the giver of the blessing of giving.  If you are in need you must ask for help in order to give other people the blessing of helping you.

If you are in need of funding for your book or prayer for that cold that won't quit or a shoulder to lean on when your spouse makes you so very angry don't be afraid to ask those around you.  Most may say "no" but some will say yes and you have given them a blessing by giving them that opportunity.

Amanda Palmer gave a TED Talk on how to open up to those willing to help you.  From the start of her career as a living 8 foot bride statue asking for coins on the street to a fully crowd-sourced music career she understands that sometimes you have to open up and trust the people around you with your needs.

New Ventures

It has been a while since I updated.  This blog is primarily about art and I haven't been doing finished pieces for a couple of months.  Mostly I have been sketching and finding inspiration from other artists.  I also took some time to write, something I haven't done in a long time.  Things are about to change though.

I am getting started on several larger drawings and paintings.  I will also begin making Artist Trading Cards again.  My first will be to make 4 cards about sheep. I will be focusing primarily on animals and nature for the next couple of months in most of my art.

I have had enough people request ATCs as gifts from me in the last couple of months that I am opening an Etsy store to sell my art.  I have thought about it for a while but didn't want to limit myself to just ATCs.  Many years ago I drew a lot of animals in pen and ink and most were pretty good.  I want to go back to that style with some fresh drawings and better printing.

If you are an artist who needs a challenge, I found a great site that I've been using a lot the last few weeks.  It provides human photo models on a timer.  You can do several 1 minute sketches, move to some longer ones and then do a really long one if you like.  It has some customization so you can pick gender (or both) and clothed or nude.  I'm finding the fast studies are really helping my more detailed drawings as I'm focusing on the big stuff more.

Daily 5 Minute Sketches 1/9/2013

I finished my 5 minute sketches last night while catching up on NCIS.  I'm enjoying the randomness of the chart from yesterday.  I used colored pencils this time.  After a week of getting into the habit of doing these I will use them as a warm up for a larger creation as time allows.

Daily 5 Minute Sketches 1/8/13

Today I am starting Sketch Sprints or 5 minute drawings.  The rules I have are:

- I use a random generator to determine the theme of each drawing.
- I have to do at least 5 sketches.
- Any media is allowed.
- Drawings may be combined as long as 5 minutes is given to each.

Today I pulled 5 themes from the list.  I kept the nude family friendly.  These were drawn in pencil and then drawn over the top of that with charcoal pencil when I realized the pencil wasn't dark enough to scan.  Lesson learned.

Daily Sketches by Michael S. Dyer January 8, 2013

Feel free to use my 100 themes and share what you have drawn.
1. Favorite Food
2. Sci Fi
3. Time
4. Magic Teacher
5. Harry Potter
6. Dog
7. Comfort
8. Weather
9. Donkey
10. Sickness
11. Accord
12. Pirate
13. Pandora
14. Rock and Roll
15. Salmon
16. Portrait
17. Snow
18. Planet
19. Chicken
20. Daredevil
21. Hockey
22. Gourmet
23. Star Wars
24. Pregnant
25. Mermaid
26. Eagle
27. Scouts
28. Victory
29. Survival
30. Submarine
31. Unicorn
32. Orange Tree
33. Fire
34. Still Life
35. Rosebush
36. Nude Female
37. Royalty
38. Star Trek
39. Rainy Day
40. Drunk
41. Broken
42. Sex
43. Baseball
44. Still Life
45. Nude Male
46. Feast
47. Runner
48. Church
49. Camping,
50. Picasso
51. Tall Ship
52. Motorcycle
53. Helicopter
54. Still Life
55. Nude
56. Portrait
57. Landscape
58. Game
59. Portrait
60. Landscape
61. Skull
62. Clown
63. Underwear
64. Still Life
65. Nude
66. Christmas
67. Christmas Sweater
68. Miraculous
69. Storm
70. Feet
71. Hands
72. Imitate the style of an artist
73. Shark
74. Hawaii
75. Tattoo
76. Spaceship
77. Zebra
78. Superhero
79. Super villain
80. Library
81. Teddy Bear
82. Cowboy
83. MC Escher
84. Easter Island
85. Pharoah
86. Mardi Gras
87. Water
88. Dragon
89. Build
90. Ring
91. Chocolate
92. Cash
93. Music
94. Growth
95. Fruit
96. Veggies
97. Death
98. Mythical Beast
99. Fan Art
100. Self Portrait

Why I stay with Boy Scouts with their anti-gay Policy

I am an adult member of the Boy Scouts of America, a Scouter.  My son is in the Wolf Den of the Cub Scouts and I am his Den Leader.  The BSA has drawn a hard line in the sand opposing the participation of homosexuals and atheists.  It is a policy that I strongly disagree with.

So why do I not only remain with the BSA but allow my son to participate?  I believe that the BSA is extremely valuable and a fantastic addition to the lives of many boys.  Also, because change will only come from within.  All the outside pressure in the world will not change BSA policy.  The voices of its members, rising up will eventually enact that change.  Take for example Ryan Andreson.  He was denied his Eagle Scout and had his membership revoked when it was discovered he is gay.  This made national news.  Hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions to give him the award.  This outside pressure is fantastic and necessary.

But then came the internal pressure.  The review board of the Mt. Diablo-Silverado Council violated BSA policy and advanced his application.  Scouters from within the organization, in an act of civil disobedience, challenged the policy from within.  Where will it go?  Who knows.  But many Scouters and Scouts (including me) continue to send letters to the BSA office and express their opinions in BSA surveys and eventually our voices will be heard.  Without those internal voices they would not change.  And that is why I stay in spite of the policy.

Drawing Sprint

A friend of mine is going to be self publishing a novel in April (if he knows what's good for him!) and I've been looking at a lot of writing resources to help him get the book done and into print.  Something I stumbled over is called a Writing Sprint.  The idea is that you set the timer for 10 minutes (or whatever) and just start writing.  Don't let up until the timer goes off.  It shakes the cobwebs loose and gets the creative juices flowing.

I'm the barest amateur of a writer, usually only finishing the occasional NANOWRIMO book I'm too embarrassed to let anyone read, or comic book scripts.  But I am looking for techniques to force me to draw a bit more without the thinking part of my brain getting in the way.

I think tomorrow I'm going to set myself a  Drawing Sprint.  I will give myself a blank piece of paper and 30 minutes to fill it up.  I have a list of 100 drawing topics and I'll use percentile dice to pick the next sketch after the first one and then the next etc. until time is up.  Hopefully the page will be filled up.  I'll scan and post the results.

Have you done an exercise like this for writing or drawing?  How did it work for you?