It's called "Web Development". The theme is Nightmares, and in this nightmare, on a slow day at work, the spiders take over.Please vote if you can!
My last two designs (sort of):
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Woot T-shirt Derby
I have recently discovered the WOOT T-shirt Derby at shirt.woot.com, where I can design a T-shirt to fit their theme-of-the-week and submit it. If my shirt wins the derby, they actually sell it!
The first derby I entered as come and gone, but you can vote for my latest T-shirt design:
My designs so far (in thumbnail form):
The first derby I entered as come and gone, but you can vote for my latest T-shirt design:
My designs so far (in thumbnail form):
Friday, December 25, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
Fish Speaks Out
Soap operas don't get a lot of respect, but every once in a while, one comes up with something that's both incredibly real and worthwhile. That's right, I said, "worthwhile".
On ABC*, it's usually All My Children that has the social conscience, leaving the gangster drama to General Hospital, with One Life To Live usually sticking to family drama, although each of the shows has ventured into the others' areas of expertise (what soap would ever really avoid family drama?)
But the soaps have always had a hard time when it comes to portraying same-sex relationships. That's partly because to tell soap opera style stories, you need romantic triangles, temptations and tawdriness. And usually, when they bring in a gay character, it's one character (maybe two), so they really can't sustain story lines for him or her or even them, and they fall into back-burner hell. All My Children did a marvelous job when Bianca, Erica Kane's daughter, came out as a lesbian, and they've stuck with it, but after a while she just didn't get the screen time.
Several months ago, One Life To Live brought in not one, but three gay characters, all male, which is letting them have plenty of soap-style action to sustain the characters, and also giving them a chance to show us what it's really like to be gay, in the not-as-tolerant-as-some-might-think new millennium. It's been incredibly moving watching police officer Oliver Fish struggle with whether his parents, his roommates, his coworkers at the police department, would accept him when and if they found out he was gay.
On the episode that aired October 30, 2009, he stopped struggling.
I've removed all --- or at least most --- of the plot-line stuff from the video, so people who've never watched One Life To Live can watch this video and see for themselves this timid young man who has suddenly had enough and finally breaks his long silence. (And also to hopefully fall under the "legitimate use" news reporting section of copyright law.)
I apologize to anyone who finds the video isn't up to snuff. That's the Internet for you. And hopefully the suits at ABC will appreciate this post for the fan-appreciation that it is.
* If you're at work, or listening to music while surfing, beware the video that starts automatically at the ABC web site.
On ABC*, it's usually All My Children that has the social conscience, leaving the gangster drama to General Hospital, with One Life To Live usually sticking to family drama, although each of the shows has ventured into the others' areas of expertise (what soap would ever really avoid family drama?)
But the soaps have always had a hard time when it comes to portraying same-sex relationships. That's partly because to tell soap opera style stories, you need romantic triangles, temptations and tawdriness. And usually, when they bring in a gay character, it's one character (maybe two), so they really can't sustain story lines for him or her or even them, and they fall into back-burner hell. All My Children did a marvelous job when Bianca, Erica Kane's daughter, came out as a lesbian, and they've stuck with it, but after a while she just didn't get the screen time.
Several months ago, One Life To Live brought in not one, but three gay characters, all male, which is letting them have plenty of soap-style action to sustain the characters, and also giving them a chance to show us what it's really like to be gay, in the not-as-tolerant-as-some-might-think new millennium. It's been incredibly moving watching police officer Oliver Fish struggle with whether his parents, his roommates, his coworkers at the police department, would accept him when and if they found out he was gay.
On the episode that aired October 30, 2009, he stopped struggling.
I've removed all --- or at least most --- of the plot-line stuff from the video, so people who've never watched One Life To Live can watch this video and see for themselves this timid young man who has suddenly had enough and finally breaks his long silence. (And also to hopefully fall under the "legitimate use" news reporting section of copyright law.)
I apologize to anyone who finds the video isn't up to snuff. That's the Internet for you. And hopefully the suits at ABC will appreciate this post for the fan-appreciation that it is.
* If you're at work, or listening to music while surfing, beware the video that starts automatically at the ABC web site.
Friday, September 25, 2009
New England Patriots Training Camp
I took these pictures at Patriots Training Camp in August:
(unfortunately, I don't know how to make Blogger give me a wider posting column, otherwise I'd arrange the pictures better.)
Rob Ninkovich (50)
David Thomas
Jake Ingram
Julian Edelman
Stephen Gostkowski
Tyson DeVree
Andrew Walter
Brian Hoyer
Kevin O'Connell
Tom Brady
(unfortunately, I don't know how to make Blogger give me a wider posting column, otherwise I'd arrange the pictures better.)
Rob Ninkovich (50)
David Thomas
Jake Ingram
Julian Edelman
Stephen Gostkowski
Tyson DeVree
Andrew Walter
Brian Hoyer
Kevin O'Connell
Tom BradyAnd some pics of the quarterbacks together:
Friday, July 3, 2009
How I make a Wallpaper
I don't do a lot of wallpapers or collages and I wouldn't otherwise post this (because frankly the source pictures don't belong to me) but it's a good example of how I would do a collage.
I took the Matt Grothe on the right, and stretched out the left half of that picture to get a good wallpaper size. Because the background is blurry and only there to capture a mood and setting, it works, but if I were taking the pictures myself, I would take a picture of the stadium crowd and used it as a backdrop.
For the other two Matt Grothes, I removed everything from the pictures except him (and the helmet-shoulder-arm of the guy making the tackle) and pasted them into this picture. Again, if I were taking the pictures myself, I would probably find two more good pictures that didn't have another person in them, or I would use one where I wanted the other person completely in the picture. ... Although, the cut-off of the head and shoulder isn't a bad effect if I do say so myself.
I used The Gimp, which is an Open Source program similar to Photoshop.
I reduced the full-size picture because the point is to demonstrate capability, not provide people with a Matt Grothe wallpaper.
I took the Matt Grothe on the right, and stretched out the left half of that picture to get a good wallpaper size. Because the background is blurry and only there to capture a mood and setting, it works, but if I were taking the pictures myself, I would take a picture of the stadium crowd and used it as a backdrop.
For the other two Matt Grothes, I removed everything from the pictures except him (and the helmet-shoulder-arm of the guy making the tackle) and pasted them into this picture. Again, if I were taking the pictures myself, I would probably find two more good pictures that didn't have another person in them, or I would use one where I wanted the other person completely in the picture. ... Although, the cut-off of the head and shoulder isn't a bad effect if I do say so myself.
I used The Gimp, which is an Open Source program similar to Photoshop.
I reduced the full-size picture because the point is to demonstrate capability, not provide people with a Matt Grothe wallpaper.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Baby Birds
Early this spring, I'd noticed that there were some stray twig-like things on top of the light fixture on my balcony. And I kind of watched out for it for a while, as it grew into a bird nest. I forgot about it for quite a while, then one Saturday, I woke up at around 6:00 am to the sound of knocking on my outside wall. (I live on the fourth floor.)
At first, I was seriously annoyed that the apartment maintenance was out there working at 6:00 on a Saturday morning, and I was all set to let them have it. (Yes, the noise was that loud, and really, the bird was not a woodpecker, so I think I can be forgiven.) I walked out on the balcony to look around at where they were working, and there was no one there. Then I saw the bird nest and remembered. I also looked down and saw a small piece of an egg shell, so I knew in no uncertain terms that I had to make sure the nest wasn't disturbed until the eggs hatched and were able to fly away ... of course, I had no idea how I would know when the baby birds had flown away if I was busy not-disturbing them.
Memorial Day Weekend, I was showing my mom and sister around, and we went out on the balcony, but first I made sure to jiggle the knob loudly. At that point, the eggs had surely not hatched yet. And Memorial day itself, I was going to set myself up on the balcony --- guess I forgot to not-disturb the babies --- but as I was setting up, Mommy Bird made her presence known and I decided I didn't want robin-poop on my computer, TV table, drink, snacks etc.
Anyway, a couple days ago, I decided to check on them again, but this time, from the safety of the bedroom window. I turned the slots in the shade to peer through, and sure enough, the eggs had hatched.
It looks like there are four birds here. Now, all I have to do is wait for the nest to empty.
At first, I was seriously annoyed that the apartment maintenance was out there working at 6:00 on a Saturday morning, and I was all set to let them have it. (Yes, the noise was that loud, and really, the bird was not a woodpecker, so I think I can be forgiven.) I walked out on the balcony to look around at where they were working, and there was no one there. Then I saw the bird nest and remembered. I also looked down and saw a small piece of an egg shell, so I knew in no uncertain terms that I had to make sure the nest wasn't disturbed until the eggs hatched and were able to fly away ... of course, I had no idea how I would know when the baby birds had flown away if I was busy not-disturbing them.
Memorial Day Weekend, I was showing my mom and sister around, and we went out on the balcony, but first I made sure to jiggle the knob loudly. At that point, the eggs had surely not hatched yet. And Memorial day itself, I was going to set myself up on the balcony --- guess I forgot to not-disturb the babies --- but as I was setting up, Mommy Bird made her presence known and I decided I didn't want robin-poop on my computer, TV table, drink, snacks etc.
Anyway, a couple days ago, I decided to check on them again, but this time, from the safety of the bedroom window. I turned the slots in the shade to peer through, and sure enough, the eggs had hatched.
It looks like there are four birds here. Now, all I have to do is wait for the nest to empty.
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