Handshake of Doom

When you go through very hard times in your life it is sometimes comforting to lash out at those around you, even if you barely know them.

There is a man that I am acquainted with.  Yes, in the real world, not just online.  He is not a friend or anyone I've spent any amount of time with but we have worked on a project or two together.

Out of the blue today he began sending me long notes criticizing how I write emails, what I write in emails, and daring to use the word "homosexuality" when asking the group in the email chain a question about homosexuality.  His emails were very polite but hard and filled with emotional subtext.  I think of it like a person shaking another person's hand but trying as hard as he can to break a bone in the process.

Clearly, this was misdirected at me.  I wasn't at fault in anything but he needed a target to vent his emotions on.  Something is going on in his life and somehow lashing out at me made him feel better.  I've done it before, I admit.  It feels good to feel like you are teaching someone something.  The sad part comes when you realize that it was really an attempt to feel better about yourself at another person's expense.

There was a time I was a terror when it came to email confrontation.  I trolled and tantrumed with the worst of them.  Hopefully I am better in my balding years.

If you are feeling small or inadequate, please take a few deep breaths, go for a walk, visit with a friend and stay off the keyboard for a while.  People will think better of you and not so many feelings will be hurt.

Thank you.

SeARTle Meet Up and Playing With the Big Girls

Today I went to the SeARTle art meet up in Seattle.  I didn't know anyone and nearly made an excuse not to go several times.  I'm still very shy in spite of my outgoing persona.  I have trouble meeting new people.  Once I do I'm fine but getting my foot in the door is sometimes the hardest thing.

I don't spend enough time with adults though.  I volunteer at the school and teach Cub Scouts and our house is the nexus of the neighborhood where all the kids come to play.  So I try to force myself into adult activities in order to maintain my tenuous link to the adult world and my own sanity.

The meet up was actually pretty fun.  I was greeted at the door by name.  People recognized me from my self portrait userpic.  I settled in at a table and finished working on an artist trading card (ATC) that I had started the night before.  Pretty soon conversations started and then people (almost all women) began pulling out their art media and showing me all the cool things they can do with them.  I learned all about beeswax and watercolor pencils and liquid graphite and gel press and shrink film and watched some amazing people make very awesome art.  I finished 3 cards while I was there.  I'll have to post them tomorrow since the pictures are on my phone.

I hung out with women the entire time.  There was one other man there and he was busy in another room mostly.  After an hour or so the wine bottles got opened and the gals got fun.  I don't drink but really enjoyed watching them get tipsy and silly and how it affected their art (pretty well actually).

It was a great time, over too quickly.  Here are some cards that I made over the last 2 days.  I'll post more tomorrow.  They are all 2.5 x 3.5 inches on bristol paper.  They are mostly Prismacolor markers with some acrylic painthighlights on a few.

A big brown bear

This was my name tag, hung on a ribbon around my neck

An orca pod

a seagull

the Space Needle

Lord of the Nerds

[Nerd Rant]  Over the last week I've been engaged by no less than 3 people, one of which was a stranger (the cook at Hot Iron Mongolian Grill) on the topic of eagles in the Lord of the Rings.  I don't start the conversations.  I don't join them when I hear them, yet somehow my opinion is always asked.  This is only the movies of course.  No one bothers with the books anymore.

Okay boys, here is the simple of it.  Gandalf did not let Frodo and Sam ride the eagles into Mordor and save the whole dangerous trip because Sauron was watching everything with his giant phallic eye.  At the end of the movie they have to have a massive suicidal battle in front of the Black Gate for the sole purpose of turning Sauron's eye away from the hobbits as they closed in on the lava.  So flying them in at the start of the movie would have resulted in an eagle or 2 being chow for the Lord of the Nazgul and his boy band.  Sauron could tell where the One Ring was when it was in the open.  Frodo could not have avoided him.

So the idea that it was a plothole is just silly.  There are so many better plotholes to foam at the mouth about.

"But they could have distracted Sauron just like they did at the end of the movie."  NO!  Bad Nerd!  Watch your movie.  They only way they could get to the gate at all to cause the distraction was by defeating the main orc army in Gondor.  Sauron wasn't paying close attention.    The orcs didn't give the heroes any choice in the battle either so don't pull some card about them avoiding the invading army.

"So why didn't the eagles get killed when they saved Frodo and Sam at the end of the movie?"  Oy!  Bad guy army crushed.  Sauron's tower went crashity crash.  No more giant eye looming over them.  Also Frodo no longer had the brilliant ring shaped magical strobe light strapped to his neck that kept getting the Big Bad's attention in the first place.

People of the world, please enjoy your movies how you want and rant and foam all you want.  Just stop randomly dragging me into your conversations.  Eventually I will stop nodding and being quiet and actually start talking.  Woe unto you.
[/end NERD RANT]

Home, Art, Cubs

HOME

My wife has been sick at home for the last week.  She finally dragged herself in yesterday.  I feel bad that she has been so miserable but I'm glad to have the house to myself again.  It seems small of me, I know.  I have just gotten so much more done  than most of the week.

ART

Saturday I am hoping to attend the SeaARTle meetup with many of the ATC folks that I trade with.  I enjoy making artist trading cards and it will be a good chance to see folks I have never met in real life before.

I want to get a bunch of drawings done in advance of the meetup for trading and showing.  I should probably get on that.

I've been doing a lot more figure drawing lately.  I'm also hosting a beginner nude art card swap.  New swappers are welcome.

CUB SCOUTS

I am excited that we are gearing up for our first Pack camping trip in May.  One of the big failings of our Pack is that they haven't been camping in about 5 years from what I've been told.  That all changes now.  The new leadership team is excited and motivated to get the kids into the outdoors as much as possible.

Our current year ends on June 15.  At that point Caleb will graduate from being a Wolf to a Bear.  I have begun planning the next year's worth of activities and it looks like it is going to be amazing.  There are a lot of fun achievements in the Bear Handbook.

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.