Blue Jeans 18"x24" - SOLD

This Thursday past, the SA Society of Artists had their annual Eleanor Palmer competition and it seemed that hundreds and hundreds of paintings were entered. This was my contribution - a portrait of my friend, Carol Hadfield's daughter, Tracey. I called it Blue Jeans.

Seagulls & Lobster pots

I love the sea. To paint, that is, not to swim in. I'm an earth sign and like my feet on the ground, so swimming in the sea is not my favourite thing. Needless to say I have done quite a few seascapes in acrylic, watercolour, but, so far, only one in oil. These are some of them.

The top one is the watercolour of the lobster pots, a project taken from Leisure Painter magazine, the acrylic of the two seagulls is from a photograph taken at Muizenberg here in Cape Town whilst the 3 gulls come from a magazine. The last one is the oil - taken from my head and number of other sources.

Morning Thoughts, A Word Quiz

O is for Opera, the browsing software.

Morning Thoughts

I am quite happy to say, my car passed inspection so I don't have to worry about this for another year.  I tried to drive over to the Queens main library, but there was a giant street fair and all the parking was taken.  I ended up driving for a little while, then heading home.

I am finding the Opera browser to be most satisfying.  It is even faster than I thought.  Browsing and loading websites happens very quickly.  It makes Entrecard dropping go fast.  I still haven't looked through all the features but I like it better than Internet Explorer.

I read a bit more of The Future of the Internet and How To Stop It.  I am up to page 88.  At this point in the book, the author is talking about innovation.  It is much harder for large companies to innovate because it requires them to focus on things which are not necessarily their major selling points.  There is also a bit on how customers create innovations with existing products.  For example, 20% of mountain bikers are likely to modify their bikes to make them easier to ride.   The author uses many general ideas in this work as well as ideas on the internet.

Just as an aside.  I've noticed that there are not as many Star Trek books as used to be put out.  I guess this is because the show is no longer on television.  In fact, I see no star trek books as part of the Locus bestsller list.  Star Wars seems to be a lot more prominent lately.  Dark Horse comics has been producing a lot of Star Wars comics, and Pocket Books has been producing a lot of Star Wars paperbacks.  There are a few series which I have not ordered a lot of which seem to be at a lot of libraries.  These are Warhammer 40K and Forgotten Realms.  Maybe, I like to have my science fiction paperbacks to have original stories.  I might order a few of these just to show we have them.  Also Halo is another popular series that is being put out as paperback books.

A Word Quiz

This was a nice little entertaining quiz which I found while looking at the Oxford University Press Blog. http://www.oup-concisequiz.co.uk/  

Obama-Anity "The One"

WATCH THE AD

Well,  when I talked about the media frenzy around Barack Obama last week, I didn't actually think the Republicans could do anything about it.  Guess I was wrong, and I hope this plays out well. I'm not sure how it will go, but it is certainly entertaining.

In the era of American Idol, popularity rules as we have seen proven out so many times in recent years.  I still think Bo Bice should have won hands down a few years ago. Fantasia had been so wonderful the year before, only to see artistic soul and innovation dashed on the ground in front of beauty, sex appeal and a good voice.  Sorry, that was a tangent. Oops, I did it again. 

There is something familiar about the compelling rhetoric and vision that Mr. Obama presented. The style, the elegant presentation and the smile are just a little too perfect.  I know this is judging, but I hope others will listen to that inner voice telling them, that this is just too good to be true.  I listened, and decided. It is!  

I can't prove this. I could be wrong. Obama can't even defend himself against my "gut feeling". The showmanship vote definitely goes to Obama.  I am a little conflicted, but only a little.  It isn't particularly rational nor objectively grounded to reject such promises. However, I have to go with my instincts and say that we don't need an American Idol in these trying times. We need a proven leader who is willing to make and learn from mistakes.  Side by side, I vote for the senior senator, war hero, prisoner of war, maverick every time over the polished presentation master.  Kind of like Top Gun.. Maverick versus Ice Man and that awesome Colonel who just wanted to teach them both.... Yet another tangent. Oops, I did it again.

Come on Senator McCain. How about a flyover, right beside the tower... just for fun.

John Singer Sargent at the Corcoran

John Singer Sargent's portrait "Marie Buloz Pailleron (Madame Edouard Pailleron)" set in the outdoors was unusual for 1879. This is one of the paintings artist Jay Rolfe saw at the Corcoran Gallery in the "American Evolution" exhibit. The outdoor setting and the light around the figure seem somewhat radical for the time. Compare this painting with Sargent's more formal portrait "Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherford White (Mrs. Henry White)" painted in 1883 which is featured in the post of July 30, 2008 on this blog.

This is the latest step of artist Jay Rolfe on his Journey From Starving Artist To 21st Century Picasso. You may view some of Jay Rolfe's signature style, his innovative Pop Art 3-D paintings, on his website at http://www.3dssc.com/.

THE SPECIALISTS: NATIVE TONGUE

My latest hit the shelves this week. Everybody say yip-yip!

Morning Thoughts, Evening Thoughts

Hollerith Card

Morning Thoughts

I think I finally got up on the right side of the bed today. I took the train in to work this morning. I napped most of the way in. But, towards the end, I started reading The Future of the Internet and How To Stop It by Jonathan Zittrain. He has licensed it for free over the internet under Creative Commons license. http://futureoftheinternet.org/download

I think this is kind of interesting. It means you can look it over on the computer then see if you want to buy it in print. The book so far focuses on the difference between generative technologies like the internet and tethered technologies like mainframes. Generative technologies are open to use and programming by everyone, and tethered technologies are designed to be used for specific purposes. An xbox game console or an ipod would be a good example of a tethered technology. A personal computer would be an example of a generative technology.

I have various things piled up which I need to do. I have two copies of the New York Times Book Review to look through and a variety of legal material to process.

I think today should be interesting. I have to return all the numerous books, dvds and graphic novels which I took out for the weekend.

Several books have come in for me to read. By Schism Rent Asunder by David Weber, Kellory The Warlock by Lin Carter, and The Post American World by Fareed Zakaria. One of the people who reads this site asked me to review The Post American World. I am going to read this after I finish reading The Future of the Internet.

Right now, I am just catching up on things. Doing things like writing monthly reports and checking how my work is going.

I worked some more on ordering for the graphic novels section. This of course includes newspaper comic strips. I went and picked up the Daily News and tried to order books on the comic strips that are in one of the local papers. I ordered books based on several comic strips including Zits, Pearls Before Swine, Sherman's Lagoon, Dilbert, Mother Goose and Grimm, and Rose is Rose.

I also ordered a few science fiction and fantasy titles.

As part of the process, I put a few titles on hold for myself to read, Slanted Jack by Mark L. Van Name which is the author's second book, Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson which is the seventh book in an excellent fantasy series, and Saturn's Children by Charles Stross. Saturn's Children by Charles Stross is supposed to be a tribute to Robert Heinlein's Friday. Saturn's Children is a tale for adults.

Evening Thoughts

I took the car out for a short drive in preparation for my road test tomorrow.  I drove around the neighborhood as well as down to the mall and stopped at Barnes and Noble.  I hope my car passes the state inspection tomorrow.  I have put over a hundred miles on it.

This evening, Internet Explorer was not working correctly.  I download Opera 9.51 and found it worked fine for my site.  Internet Explorer was not working with Entrecard or this blog.  It was also giving me errors with several other sites.  So far Opera has been doing a fine job.