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"There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces..."

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:09:12 -0600

“There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.”

- Pablo Picasso

copycats: “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” - Neil Youngoriginally...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:43:40 -0600

copycats:

“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” - Neil Young
originally by Will Smith
(posted by sometimesagreatnotion)

This might just be the best cover I have ever posted. Neil Young played this last night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and the universe was complete.

Banana Bread Recipe

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:33:49 -0600

This is what I made last night (loosely following the prescribed measurements) - came out light and fluffy and good with coffee. Makes 1 loaf.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350F and prepare loaf pan by buttering. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat shortening in mixer until creamy. Add sugar and eggs, continue beating at medium speed one minute. Add bananas to egg mixture. Mix until blended. Add flour mixture, beating at low speed only until blended. Turn into loaf pan and bake 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean.

Writing a 2nd Book - the halfway mark

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:27:13 -0600

It’s almost halfway through the month of November and the book is currently only at 27% (might make it to 30% today) - arrgh! What with the traveling, the two art shows, the painting, the procrastinating, I just haven’t gotten back into the groove of things - I count five days where I wrote exactly zero words in fact (!!) - this has got to change. On top of that, Thanksgiving is still to come, and it looks like we’ll be able to have it with family, after all (which is good, except I don’t see myself breaking away during that time to write a couple thousand words a day). Sooo, we’ll see.

At this point, I’m still shooting for 50,000 words by end of month, but if I don’t quite make it, that’s fine too. Wish me luck. That’s all for now - more later.

(writing focuses your mind)

Red Cat and Captive Audience - two new paintings

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:04:23 -0600

Red Cat and Captive Audience - two new paintings

A Captive Audience series - four new paintings

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:43:52 -0600

A Captive Audience series - four new paintings

Writing a 2nd Book - Change of Plans

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:45:00 -0600

November has begun, and like so many others this month, I have started writing in earnest. (see nanowrimo.org for more information on this phenomenon) I’ve changed my plans, however, and I’m putting my space opera idea on hold for awhile. New story idea began as a stream of consciousness description of a childhood playground scene and turned quickly into a prequel to my last story. So, same main character, a couple years younger than in the first story, bouncing back and forth, revisiting childhood memories and such. And I’m pretty sure at this point, I will probably end up combining this story with the last (the last was a little flimsy on wordcount, anyway, and needed an ending to cap it off).

I’m technically at 6771 words, unofficially at 11,162 words (I had started a few days before the first of the month) - goal: 50,000 words by the end of November (unofficial goal: 54,391 words :-). At the rate I’m going, I should be fine, though I will have a few days of travel this month where I’m not sure if I’ll get a chance to write.

(Writing is an adventure.)

merlin: Top 1 Habits of Amazing Writers They write.

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:51:21 -0600

merlin:

Top 1 Habits of Amazing Writers

They write.

(via garfieldminusgarfield)

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:03:34 -0500

(via garfieldminusgarfield)

merlin: (via thememegeneration)

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:45:23 -0500

merlin:

(via thememegeneration)

Writing a 2nd Book - Changing the Plan

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:38:00 -0500

Update: I’m still writing another book during the month of November, and I’m still writing that space opera book some time in the future, but I’ve decided to push the space opera further back in my schedule. Next month, I’ve decided on a comical novel - not sure of the name, not totally sure of the plot, though I’ve got a lot of it already in mind (I would especially like to come up with a good ending before I begin writing, as well as a few more characters … it’s just that kind of story, I think). Thanks. More later.

merlin: Jonathan Coulton - “You Ruined Everything” I was fine...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:39:32 -0500

merlin:

Jonathan Coulton - “You Ruined Everything”

I was fine
I pulled myself together
Just in time
To throw myself away
Once my perfect world was gone I knew
You ruined everything
In the nicest way

You should know
How great things were before you
Even so
They’re better still today
I can’t think of who I was before
You ruined everything
In the nicest way

Bumps in the road remind us
The worst of the best behind us
Only good things will find us
Me and you

Days will be clear and sunny
We’re gonna need more money
Baby you know it’s funny
All those stories

Coming true
Despite my better efforts
It’s all for you
The worst kind of cliche
I’ll be with you till the day you leave
You ruined everything
In the nicest way

You Ruined Everything - JoCopedia, the Jonathan Coulton wiki

qualtagh n. the first person one meets after leaving the house via:...

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:01:31 -0500

qualtagh
n. the first person one meets after leaving the house

via: http://www.futilitycloset.com/2009/10/24/in-a-word-230/

No-Bake Cookies (candy) Recipe

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:53:00 -0500

This is a family favorite. Quick and easy to make. Tell the truth, I usually double the recipe, and I hardly ever add the vanilla extract anymore. Also: when it starts to fully boil, start the clock - closer to one minute on the dot, the better - then be quick about mixing in the oats and peanut butter and be quick about spooning it out onto foil before it starts to harden too much (might prefer two spoons). Enjoy!

No-Bake Cookies (Candy)

Combine in saucepan:
1/2 cup milk
3 cups sugar
3 Tbs cocoa
1/2 stick butter
Let boil for one minute, then turn off heat and Mix in:
3 cups oats
1 cup peanut butter
1 Tbs vanilla
Drop by tablespoons onto wax paper or aluminum foil — Quick!

Writing a 2nd Book - The Plan

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:20:00 -0500

Starting a second book. (Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t totally finished the first one yet - stuck in first-draft stage for now - planning to return to it after a month and a half to work on second draft) For this second book, meanwhile, I had planned to write 50,000 words in 30 days (from Nov. 1 through Nov. 30) according to the spirit of nanowrimo.org, but I have since decided on a 70,000 word novel as 50,000 words is really a bare-minimum novel size and I wanted something a little more meaty. And with that larger number in mind, I went ahead and started writing - ready, set, go! - current word count: around 10,000 (proud of my quick start, personally).

Space Opera would be the genre of this new one. Although I hate the name (too close to “Soap Opera” for comfort), I’ve decided to just embrace the category whole-heartedly instead of acting all artsy and too-cool-for-the-name-space-opera-y and so forth. So, it’s a sprawling sci-fi adventure tale with a large cast of characters with intertwined story lines and whatnot - a space opera - after that definition, perhaps 70,000 words is not enough, after all! We’ll see. More later.

flax and sunflower seed bread recipe

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:52:00 -0500

I’m making bread today - every time I bake bread, I resolve to do so more often. Those resolutions, of course, go unheeded (present resolutions excepted, of course … as usual). This is the basic recipe I follow for Flax and Sunflower Seed Bread, but this morning I’m substituting bulgar wheat for the sunflower seeds (MIA) … I’ve never cooked with bulgar wheat before but judging by its birdseed-toughness, I am boiling it first per the packages instructions before adding it to the bread dough. Wish me luck! (I recommend adjusting the recipe according to your bread-making experience - if you have none, find a good bread-making how-to online - there are lots of little tips and hints and guidelines that make the whole process “work.”)

Flax and Sunflower Seed Bread

* 2 cups water
* 6 tablespoons honey
* 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
* 2 tablespoons butter, softened
* 1 1/2 cups bread flour
* 1 1/3 cups whole wheat bread flour
* 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup flax seeds
* 1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1. proof yeast in 2 cups warm water with 6 tbsp of honey dissolved in it
2. add yeast, additional water, honey, and butter to the mix of flour, salt, and seeds
3. knead by hand or in a sturdy mixer
4. let rise one-hour, punch down and shape into two loaves
5. let rise 45 minutes
6. bake at 375 degrees about 30 minutes

(via garfieldminusgarfield)

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:37:22 -0500

(via garfieldminusgarfield)

Writing a Book - First Draft Finished!

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:58:00 -0500

I made it to 95% complete and then just couldn’t figure out what else to write about so I stopped there - had already gone through and added a paragraph here, a paragraph there, scattered throughout - even created a new chapter somewhere in the middle. All, just to make it this far - the last 15% can be killer if you run out of story, lemme tell you. (and, of course, I’ll probably be editing out all those final additions in the second draft process)

And the tough part is that I’m not totally happy with the ending. I resisted the urge to add anything like a natural disaster or a fire or killing off somebody’s mother or some other great calamity in the story that would be unlikely to happen in the context of this psuedo-realistic tale. And as a result, I was kinda left with “seconds”, as far as the amount of punch I could give it at the end (in other words, not so much punch).

So there’s the ending, and there’s also a couple of characters that I might not have fully developed as well as I could/should have. But that’s less troubling - that’s second draft stuff at this point - but so is the ending and all the rest! So, plan is to refrain from reading it again until December, at which time I will reread it again and begin editing toward a second draft. (I’ve recently reread Stephen King’s, On Writing, to brush up on his process, which seems so logical, it just might work)

The name of my book is, LEITO THE ARTIST, but that might change - I mean it just kinda sits there on the page, not very dynamic or anything. We’ll see. Meanwhile, I’ve started planning out my next book, believe it or not, which I’m pretty sure will be completely different (think, something like a sprawling space opera with lots of characters and, therefore, plenty of story to keep me busy). More on that real soon!

Lunduke.com » Windows 7 vs Ubuntu 9.10 vs OS X 10.6

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:13:33 -0500

Lunduke.com » Windows 7 vs Ubuntu 9.10 vs OS X 10.6:

Presents a fair overview of the three major Operating Systems, in my experience. Fun.

evrt: Baseball by Tatsuro Kiuchi It was hard to pick just one...

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:11:20 -0500

evrt:

Baseball by Tatsuro Kiuchi

It was hard to pick just one illustration from Tatsuro. His work is really amazing. He blurs the lines between traditional and digital work: honestly I am not sure which it is. Probably a combination of both. He has a different view point of things, than I have seen from anyone else. Really a great eye. I’m glad he switched from Biology to become an illustrator. You can see more of his work on his flickr page here.