Posting commentators...and more...

I must admit these folks amuse me.

First, there are the legit ones, people I know, people who are genuinely responding. Thank you for everything.

Then there are the nutters and spammers...We all have those.

Then there are the folks who search the blogs for keywords and then comment on those posts. I just got one of those. It was a comment on a post I wrote back in January 27, 2006. It was about "A Million Little Pieces" and Oprah Winfrey. I mean really, how often have I thought of Oprah since then? Once? Twice, maybe?

The great news is that the photography company that I have been sending my digital prints to for enlarging is as goos as advertised. I know have 9 -16" x 24" prints that I need to have matted. I'll frame them myself. The quality is superb (real Kodak paper) and the price...So inexpensive. For the whole 9 pictures it was around $130, and that includes s/h.

Very happy.

I am off to The Manhattan Short Film Festival tomorrow night with a friend and then to a night out in Troy, New York on Friday. I have begun my Tai-Ji Guon class and handed in the first of six papers for my Commie Class.

The photoshop class is buzzing along too. Above is an example of some work that I have done.

Johnnyboy

Goodbye brilliance...Hello idiocy

David Foster Wallace took his own life last week. It has taken this long for me to respond. My first year sober was spent reading his seminal novel 'Infinite Jest' in my little room, all 1079 pages, including footnotes. It helped me while away the time, made me laugh, question reality, and made me jealous that someone could write a book that long and that crazy. Here's a random quote, from page 579, of the Little-Brown soft cover published in 1996...

"Something touching about a gift that a toddler's so awfully overwrapped makes a sickly-pale and neurasthenic but doting Mrs. Green, Bruce's beloved Mama, choose the mugged-dachshund-foil-sheen-cylinder present first, of course, to open, on Xmas morning, as they sit before the crackling fireplace in different chairs by different windows with views of Waltham sleet, with bowls of Xmas snacks and Acme-'N-logoed mugs of cocoa and hazelnut decaf and watch each other taking turns opening gifts."

Joyce, Kerouac, and others pale in comparison.

I had a lovely conversation with my sister this morning and felt better about all these life situations than I have for a long time. Something about the final line in the promises that says "God is doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves." That fills me with hope. My qualifying went very well also...A good, but small group of grateful alcoholics. My sponsee even made it. What a guy.

So how about that extremely dangerous idiotic pair of McCain and Palin? If they get their way we will all soon be living in an irrational, nationalistic, medieval society. Then will come the witch hunts, the public burnings, and our nation will soon live in the bonfire of global shame. How can someone like this ignorant harpie get to this position?

Only in America, ladies and gents, only in America...

Johnnyboy

My mother's needs...

My mother's needs outweigh my own, and that can sometimes be a bad thing. I do take care of myself, in many ways, but trying to explain to her why she needs assistance from people other than me is beginning to bother me and weigh me down. The question of why she cannot drive anymore is heartbreaking. How can I keep this up?

I have two other siblings who love and care for her as well, but so far I am still the one with the emotional football. It would be great if one of them did some of the work around here.

I am off to a meeting tonight in a nearby town. I have volunteered as the speaker. I guess that's what life really is...A series of moments when we are either chosen or we volunteer. More than likely the latter.

Johnnyboy

Some recent school projects...

Here are a couple of recent projects from the CS3 class
that I am taking on-line. The first is a basic picture clean-up job. I used an old photograph of my Great-great-great Grandfather McCulloch.
The second is a poster
I just finished as an
example of layout and
design. I used too many
images, but since I can lock and unlock at will, I can always change it...


Johnnyboy

School, homelife, and flaming nutters...

So school is going well. I have been reading alot lately and have begun my first of six papers on the Cold War. It's pretty heavy political reading, but I thoroughly enjoy it.

I have also been working on my on-line course in Digital Art and Design. It is a new experience for me, this on-line format, and I find it OK, but not the best way for me to learn. In the long run I could, if I felt inclined, do the entire course in a couple of weeks and then just hand in the work when I am supposed to do so, but I feel that it is enough just to be a week ahead of the curve. CS3 is fun, and not too hard, at least at this level. As the semester progresses, it will become more difficult.

There are two excellent photography exhibits opening in the Big City soon...One is of the artist William Eggleston and the other is the photographer Josef Koudelka. I'm hoping to see both. In their separate ways they both exemplify the image of humanity and the normalcy that makes up the species. Sometimes it is horrible, sometimes beautiful, mostly it can be seen as an everyday occurrence--living.

Mom is doing well. She is tired a lot, but her doctor reminds us of her age and her other issues and her weariness is justified. She is downstairs right now, with a very nice caregiver, while I am here, typing away with a clear conscience.

I have been flamed by some religious loony again. It makes me thankful for the moderation option on this site. I can read the idiocy and the hatred and then dump the whole thing in the trash. And I thought I had too much time on my hands! I wonder what these folks do in their off-time...? It is safe to say that they are irrational medievalists and ripe for the nationalist flag wavers to come along and turn them into the kind of jack-booted street trash that have dominated so many totalitarian regimes.

Watch out America, it could happen here!

Johnnyboy

PC MD problems...

So I decided to upgrade my PC Doc software tonight.

After paying for a new subscription, I activated the stuff. I then spent the next hour trying to get the damn thing to work with my system. In the end I was able to go into Add/Remove and dump the thing completely. Previous to that movies would not play, McAfee would not load, I could not access my Start menu, etc...

Now it is running just fine. I doubt I can get my $39 back...

Johnnyboy