Girl Scout Camp

I loved Girl Scout Camp so much that I devoted a whole chapter to it in my upcoming novel, Back to Bailey's Chase. The readers get to go to camp with Sparky and Grey Bailey for a week.

Trying my best to remember the camp activities, I conjured up a week of adventures, hoping my readers would enjoy the camp experience as much as I did.

Of course, no magic was involved when I went to camp, but Sparky and Grey have those super powers that come into play when needed. And they are needed....when the camp bully targets Lulu Thompson. I hope my readers will laugh as they read Chapter Seven and find out how the girls turn the table on the mean girl, Ellie.

If you haven't read the first book about Sparky and Grey, The Secret of Bailey's Chase, you can read the prologue on my web site: www.marlisday.com In this book, which is available as an eBook or at www.quakeme.com or on www.amazon.com the girls slip into the scout camp when it's locked for the winter. They have a harrowing adventure there with a bully and a vicious dog. It only seemed fitting to take them back during their summer vacation to enjoy a real fun-filled week of camp. If you check out my blog at http://wwwmarlisday.blogspot.com you can see the cover of the sequel, Back to Bailey's Chase, which should be available soon.

Excuse me, I have a sudden craving for a s'more!

Saturday’s Eye-Candy: Mitch Hewer

When I first read that this British born actor is twenty-one years old I was like “no way! He looks totally more mature”, but then I started thinking about Taylor Lautner and…well never mind…

Anyway here is some brief info about the hottie: Mitch played the gay guy Maxxie in the series Skins (started in 2007) which only aired two seasons in the UK. However, it was clearly enough for all gay guys to fall madly in love with him since they assumed that he’s gay. But guess what? He is not! :D But he has a girlfriend - of course. ^^

Besides acting, he has appeared on the cover of Attitude twice (!) and according to me, he really should become a full time model because the guy is H-O-T. Maybe I should consider studying in the UK after all. :P

Eye-Candy of the week ;)

Let’s face it. There are tons of cute, hot, and criminally sexy celebrity guys (or some that have not become celebrities YET) out there and because of that, I have decided to make a special post every Saturday for just for these guys. Unfortunately, I will only use pictures and information that is publicly available (since I refuse to get sued :/), and it will of course be based on my own taste (since this is my blog, haha).

So from now on, I will feature some Eye-Candy every Saturday. Stay tuned. ;)

Daily Thoughts 7/31/2010 ( grants, libraries )

Central Stair Hall, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. (1900-1902) Detroit Publishing Postcards Series 5000.
Daily Thoughts 7/31/2010

I walked up to my local branch library and picked up a copy of Webster's New World Grant Writing Handbook by Sara Deming Wason.  It is a basic overview of the grant writing process.  I found this article from Oxfam kind of interesting.  http://www.mrss.com/oxfam-eoy-2008-fundraising.pdf   It shows a fairly common web application called a lightbox combined with a web video that is used as part of a fundraising campaign.




It is kind of interesting reading about the different types of foundations and trusts from community trusts to family foundations to corporate foundations.  It is mostly new to me.  I am reading it in the context of  getting new technology like MP3 players, Ipads, Nooks, digital cameras, and software into the library.




I have been going through all my old emails for the last couple of years where I came across examples of people, corporations, and foundations giving money to libraries in our county and compiling them into a single document.  It is mainly a mix of news articles and biographical profiles.

18 days, 18 days, 18 days…

Should I start counting the days until the day I freak out? Well I don’t think that will be necessary…since I am already freaking out! It’s only 18 days left of summer break and if that isn’t making a person depressed, I don’t know what planet that person is from. :o

It’s not that I don’t like school. It’s more about the stress, pressure, and the “I-don’t-have-a-life-besides-doing-homework” part that makes me panic. For seven weeks I have been free from all of that - and it’s not exactly a pleasure to give it up for what I just mentioned…

Ok. I am going to make a deal with myself. For the remaining 18 days that I have left, I am going to enjoy to the fullest.

Starting with a smoothie ;)

Daily Thoughts 7/30/2010 ( ebooks, reviews )

Artist: Reymerswaele, Marinus Claesz. van Title: Deutsch Hl. Hieronymous, 1541
Daily Thoughts 7/30/2010

Article-- Will the Book Survive?  by David "Skip" Prichard    http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-07-28/the-future-of-books-ceo-ingram-skip-prichard-feels-confident/?cid=topic:mainpromo1




"eBook Feasibility Study for Public Libraries," http://www.cosla.org/documents/COSLA2270_Report_Final1.pdf




Checked the displays this morning and started doing my orders for August.  I also put out flyers for a public service announcement by Dwayne Wade about library cards and did my first shelf talkers for the authors Danielle Steel and Stephen King.  I am going to be doing more as time passes.




I am reading more of Kraken by China Mieville.  There is a neat section on Simon a Star Trek obsessed mage which is darkly funny.  It is an appropriate comment on fandom.




The new copy of the Overstreet Comic Book Guide 40th Edition came in.  I will take a little time to see if there are any interesting ground level comics which I have not seen.  It has become a standard guide for pricing comics.  Some stores often sell the easier to get comics at half the price guide price and the harder to find titles at full price.




Overdrive sent me some marketing material which I can print up as well as some staff training material.  I think I might print up some of the 11" x 17" posters. 




The recent Kirkus Reviews has a graphic novel section with a few interesting titles in it; Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon, and Siege by Brian Michael Bendis, Illustrated by Joe Quesada really stood out.  Siege should be an excellent superhero comic both the writer and illustrator are top notch.  Also there is an autobiographical comic by Sergio Aragones called Mad's Greatest Artist, Sergio Aragones.




Roald Dahl has an authorized biography coming out called Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl by Daniel Surrack.




On the way home, I finished reading Kraken by China Mieville.  One of the way you know a novel is good is that the main character at the end of a novel is often very different than how the character is at the beginning of the novel.  At the beginning of the novel, Billy Harrow is a curator at a museum, by the end of the novel he is a warrior adept at saving the world and fighting magic.

Daily Thoughts 7/29/2010 ( readers advisory, book game )

Okumura Masanobu Itinerant Vendor of shikishi and tanzaku (paper and books) 1720–1730 Signed: Okumura Masanobu hitsu. Publisher’s seal: shu-no-hyōtan (in form of a calabash); seal of Masanobu’s own publishing house: Tōrishiochō.  Actually it is an actor playing an itinerant vendor for paper for poems (shikishi and tanzaku), books, and instructional material on waka poetry and koto playing as indicated on her crate. She is holding a calligraphic copybook (tehon) and a brush. One of the books at the top of her crate is named: Genji-monogatari. 




Daily Thoughts 7/29/2010

I put in some comments for my Readers Advisory 101 class on Enders Game by Orson Scott Card.   I also read the section on library marketing for readers advisory.  I may create some shelf talkers for the shelves.  These are cards which say if you like a specific author, then you might like these other authors.  Usually they are lists of three to five other authors.  Some libraries also sometimes maintain a cart for books that are always popular reads.  It is something to think about.   A lot of people use the Novelist database to create the shelf talkers.



I did not get as much as I wanted done today.  I am thinking about a couple of things to do.  We are planning on doing a library card registration drive.  We need to get more people through the front door.  As part of this, we will probably try to get more Friends of the Library to register.




There are also a few minor things that need doing like updating some bibliographies and creating some shelf talkers.  I also need to speak to someone from the Mount Vernon Public Library Foundation.




The book the Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross came in for me to read.  It is a mix of espionage, horror and weird tale.




I read some more of Kraken by China Mieville.  I am finding a subplot in the book to be quite entertaining about a labor union of wizards familiars and other magical constructs.  It is wonderfully quirky.




Guess the book by its cover game http://www.sporcle.com/games/bookcovers.php

Creative Surplus Creativity and Generosity In A Connected Age by Clay Shirky

Creative Surplus Creativity and Generosity In A Connected Age by Clay Shirky

The central idea of this book is that because of social media people are able to pool resources in their free time to create unique digital projects.  These projects can range from free encyclopedias like Wikipedia to lolcats which is a collection of funny pictures of cats.  Social media in this book expands beyond computers to include smartphones and cell phones.




Clay Shirky is arguing people are moving away from passive forms of entertainment like television to more interactive forms of entertainment like the internet.  He compares television to gin which is a bit far fetched but entertaining.  This change represents a shift in values which should create a more interactive future.



I found the book to be very positive and a bit evangelistic about the benefits of social media.  He dismisses the disruption caused by deprofessionalization when amateurs volunteer to do many jobs that were professional in nature.  Clay Shirky touches only briefly on the concept of digital sharecropping where writers and other creative professionals work for free or very little money on blogs and other digital projects.



The description of the benefits of social media is the best part of this book.  We learn how cell phone use makes government more transparent, how people created open source software, and how computers are making us more connected.  He points out that services like http://www.meetup.com/ extend social networks into the real world and allow people who had only met on computers to meet in person.



This book had a conversational tone that spoke directly to the reader.  It tried to connect with peoples every day experience of using the internet.  I found it to be easy to read.  It was also well researched with extensive notes and an index.



Clay Shirky also wrote Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.  He is considered an internet guru and is a professor at New York University.

An apple a day...

I was just sitting and thinking about the saying that: “an apple a day keeps the doctor away“, and it hit me how that line can be changed in an infinite number of ways. I mean, what prevents me from telling someone that “a bowl of chocolate ice-cream a day keeps the doctor away” or “some cholesterol a day keeps the doctor away“. Ok, maybe no one would believe that, but seriously. If a person is deadly afraid of going to the doctor they might believe it!

Besides, if I hadn’t heard of the original apple thing first and someone told me the chocolate ice-cream one, I might have believed it out of my own will. But when I think about it, I am quite easy to fool when it comes to these things…Haha. ^^

Daily Thoughts 7/28/2010 ( Bayou, Advocacy, Kraken, Made Possible By )

Simon Guggenheim, American businessman and philanthropist

Daily Thoughts 7/28/2010

I am looking at an IMLS Institute of Museums and Library Services grant and trying to figure it out.  It is the first time I am looking at this material.  It makes reference to a document called 21st Century Skills, http://www.imls.gov/pdf/21stCenturySkills.pdf  I find it kind of interesting.  It is a bit different.  There is also reference to a course called Shaping Outcomes which is about Outcome Based Planning and Evaluation for librarians.  http://www.shapingoutcomes.org/ 




Link to information on save libraries widget.  I just added it to the sidebar in this blog. http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/cro/getinvolved/saveyourlibraries.cfm




Jeremy Love's comic Bayou, Issue #1 is now free on the web.  It is quite interesting.  https://comics.comixology.com/#/issue/2584/Bayou-1




I put Smart Startups How Entrepreneurs and Corporations Can Profit by Starting Online Communites by David Silver, Wiley, c2007 on interlibrary loan.  I am requesting it from another library system than my own.  This process can take several weeks. 




I also requested another book as a hold, Made Possibly By Succeeding With Corporate Sponsorship by Patricia Martin.




On the train home, I read some of Kraken by China Mieville.  It is an urban fantasy novel.  Somehow, it maintains more believability than most fantasy novels I have read.  It is in that eerie space where things are real but not quite real.  The place where horrible things happen for not quite explained reasons.  There is an almost fortean feel to the novel.

Like my sister

When sis and I were sitting in McDonald’s eating our McFlurries it struck me how incredible long her hair has become. I want that long hair too! Like my sister. ♥

I got some centimeters left to go though…

Animal Cliches in Stories & Movies

SUDDEN CAT! - These little critters just love to pop out of nowhere in horror movies, startling one of the characters (and giving the audience a cheap scare). This usually happens just before a psycho/alien/monster jumps out to kill the character.


THAT BELOVED DYING DOG - As Gordon Korman once wrote, “check any book in the library with a dog and an award sticker on the cover, trust me, that dog’s going down.” (Examples: Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, Marley & Me, Sounder)

THE IMPOSSIBLY SMART HORSE - A staple of westerns since the genre was created, these creatures have uncanny intelligence at least equal to the bad guys, and have some sort of sixth sense to always be where their owner needs them to be in a time of crisis. Bonus cliché: the closer the horse is to his master, the more likely he is to die.

MISUNDERSTOOD WOLF - Replacing the old cliché that all wolves are inherently evil, wolves in modern stories are now noble, maligned creatures, unfairly persecuted and hunted down by angry farmers.

SHARKS - No matter the story or film, when a shark appears, the animal has an insatiable taste for human blood and will eat far more people than it can physically stomach.

BEAUTY IS ONLY SKIN DEEP - If the animal is fuzzy, it is a loveable hero. If it isn’t, it’s a horrifying monster, bent on killing people, especially if it is a reptile or insect.

SPIDERS - In stories and movies, all spiders are aggressive and deadly. Even tarantulas, who in real life sleep for days at a time, are lightning quick and attack without provocation. Then again, who wants to read a story or see a movie about a friendly spider? (Exception: Charlotte’s Web).

AMOROUS CANINE - Telling a story and want a cheap laugh? Have a tiny dog hump a character’s leg.

CHOICE OF PETS - Heroes own dogs. Villains (especially evil geniuses) own cats.

MONKEYS - Almost always depicted as endearingly cute, especially when they ape (no pun intended) human activity. Hey, this things fling their poo when angry! Then again, if we actually did that to voice our displeasure over something, most arguments would end before they began.

MONKEYS, PART 2 - Actually, the image of a poo flinging monkey is a cliché, too.

YOU GONNA EAT THAT? - Whenever a character is lost (on an island, in the desert, in the mountains, etc), he or she will inevitably be forced to eating an animal most of us would call an exterminator to get rid of.

SUPER-VILLAIN FISH TANK - If a super villain owns a fish tank, it is filled with piranhas. If he owns a pond, it is also filled with piranhas, only this time he feeds them a henchman who failed or betrayed him.

CATS - Unless the story is about them, most cat characters are generally evil…and always hungry.

BEARS - Bears love to show up at campsites, especially if the campers are city folks not used to the great outdoors. Hilarity ensues.

INCREDIBLE JOURNEYS - No matter the animal or breed, when abandoned, they will set off on a trek to find their masters, and somehow always succeed. And, of course, even though the master left without any regard for their pets, cry tears of joy whenever old Rex appears over the horizon. The heart-wrenching exception to this cliché is Richard Adams’ The Plague Dogs.

GENETICALLY ENHANCED SUPER BEAST - Scientists love to inject a normally docile animal with some weird concoction which turns it into a killing machine. What science stems to gain from such an experiment is not really understood.

D.M. Anderson
http://dmanderson.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/frandavea

America's Army 3

America's Army (also known as AA or Army Game Project) is a series of video games and other media developed by the United States Army and released as a global public relations initiative to help with recruitment. There were several versions released beginning in 2002, and I'm reviewing the latest version: America's Army 3, which was released in June 2009. The game is a squad-based realistic first person shooter.

The first time you start this you'll have to complete a training in which they explain the basics, such as how to use your weapons. Which is kinda essential in a war. When you complete the training you'll unlock various pieces of equipment. The controls are very smooth, especially when considering it's a free game. There is relatively little lag in this game, there are many servers and most servers have a policy of kicking people that have a ping that's too high. By completing more and more training sessions you'll unlock more equipment and abilities that can be used in online multiplayer. This game doesn't feature a singleplayer mode. Training sessions can be bought with points you accumulate during online matches. There are multiple game-modes such as Domination(called Take and Hold), Escort(having to defend a VIP through an area or kill him), TDM(Classic Mode).

During the game you'll achievements and other scores which all add up to your account and help training sessions. Your profile shows a graph with letters LDRSHIP which stand for:
Loyalty: Bear true faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit and other soldiers. Use teamwork, stick together and operate as a unit.
Duty: Fulfill your obligations. Complete mission objectives. Mission first.

Respect: Treat people as they should be treated. Respect your fellow soldiers, follow the plan.

Selfless Service(not Schütz Staffel, the other SS): Put the welfare of the Nation, the Army, and your subordinates before your own.

Honour: This is an average of everything else.
Integrity: Do what's right, legally and morally. Don't violate the Rules of Engagements, play fair.

Personal Courage: Face fear, danger or adversity (physical or moral). Engage the enemy, take calculated risks.

During the training sessions you aren't allowed to shoot your superiors, because you'll be thrown into jail if you do shoot them. Sadly, you can't have an epic breakout in order to join Al Qaida and fight against the american army. The american army also seems to have spelling problems since there are multiple instances at which Sergeant is written wrong. In america's army you're always playing as the american army, you can't decide to be the enemy, whoever that may be, because it's never told.

The graphics in america's army are okay, the environments are rather underwhelming, but the character models and weapons are quite detailed. The objects are also rather detailed and well done, however not everything really fits together, because you can clearly see where an object ends and a new object begins, so it gives a bit of a sterile feeling. There is also way too little blood in the game to make it seem realistic, graphics-wise. You also don't see ripped off limbs and other things that are common in war, which results in certain battles to be not as epic as they could be. Wouldn't it be awesome to see your entire squad being ripped apart by a grenade, now they only drop to the ground like ragdolls, because it's based on the unreal 3 engine.

As far as sound and music goes, AA3 is really realistic, most sounds seem to have been recorded from real guns and have not been produced by using software. There isn't much music to be found in the game except for the music in the menu, which is the song they have been using since the first game. The song is rather standard, it's semi-epic and quasi-good.

I've enjoyed this game, the overall experience was good, the problems I had with this were so small that they didn't ruin the overall experience. I think this game is definitely worth checking out. The game is free so why wouldn't you?

Banned from shopping ;(

Soon I am heading down to town for a small shopping round with my sister. But although I call it a “shopping round”, I have promised myself not to buy anything (except if I use a gift voucher). Actually I have banned myself entirely from shopping until I have paid off the majority of my enormous shopping debt to mami and Vicki. I don’t know how I am going to survive, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. ^^

A kiss from me to my readers xD

Daily Thoughts 7/27/2010 ( Broadband, sribd, social networking )

Europa-Briefmarke, Kinderbücher,Ausgabepreis: 55 Cent

Daily Thoughts 7/27/2010 

This is a link to the presentations from the Library Workers Skillshare. I did not get to go to it because I was working that night http://sites.google.com/site/libraryworkersskillshare/   Some of it is quite interesting.  I created a Google Profile for example.  http://www.google.com/profiles .  It is very basic.  I am still shy of putting up images of my face on the web.  Maybe it is a personal thing.




On the train to work, I finished reading Design and Launch an Online Social Networking Business In A Week.  It provides an outline of what you would need to do to start a social media business.  I would say it is a very bare bones outline and there is still a lot missing from the book.  It is a starting point for someone interested in making a social media business.  I found it to be a little bit too simple.




Publishers Weekly has an excellent article on Scribd and HTML 5 http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20100726/43942-betting-the-house-on-html5.html




I put together a display of books on New Media this morning with a banner and some flyers for our Digital Media Catalog.  Hopefully people will take the books.  The display that seems to be going most quickly is books on cooking and drinks.




I have been reading up on the National Broadband Plan.  They are going to have a number of grants that go with this plan aimed at libraries.  Their specific purpose is to introduce digital technology into libraries.  This means there may be a chance to get devices like the Ipad, Kindle, MP3 players, digital cameras, as well as training for digital technology.

Life Drawing

A big thank you to all who gave me advice on my last painting.  I rather like it now - just need to take a decent photo.

For something completely different, during the school holidays, which coincided with the FIFA World Cup, we had our annual Winter Life Drawing.  Although there are other venues that arrange life drawing, they always seem to be on the 'wrong' day or on the other side of the mountain.  So I commit myself to going to these Winter ones every year.

Here are a few of the sketches I did.  I struggled a bit - just couldn't seem to get into my stride, so I guess I need to practice, practice, practice!

Khadija was superb.  I used some watercolour on this and quite liked the effect.











Alan has the most amazing physique which was a struggle to draw at first.  So different to the soft curves of the female form.








Alan again, this time using far more watercolour.  Not quite what I wanted.










And Khadija in a longer pose.

Lizzie who had some amazing tattoos!

Big Daddy Bash 2010

Prillaman's Annual Bash where ALL who know or would like to know us are invited.. 

We do this every year to connect and reconnect with friends, family, neighbors and all of the people from our many worlds.. from opera, to music ministry, to corporate America, to teachers, and childrens' friends, EVEN Facebook & Twitter friends are welcome ;-)

This year is special as the Prillamans celebrate Big Daddy's Big 40th birthday! with a special appearance of pulled pork provided by Bite My Butts out of Tallahassee, Fla

LIVE MUSIC will be PROVIDED by CY Taggart Band --  Swinging, Bluesy, Funky, Reggae Rock!! 

FOOD (COVERED DISH/Family reunion) style... Paper goods, utensils, and drinks along with some bbq tasting.. will be provided.
BRING enough food to feed your crew plus a few... and lawn chairs. 

We’ll all enjoy tons of great food (and cake!), fun games, plenty of music, and the opportunity to make new friends, too!
(Presents optional ;-) Party will continue until everyone leaves...

August 7, 2010  5pm UNTIL !!! at the Prillaman HOME  2321 Olde Stone Road Midlothian, VA 23113

RSVP to 804.794.1586

A hilarious Twilight spoof xD

I just looked at the new trailer for Vampires Suck, which main goal is to make fun of the Twilight saga. And gosh, it’s so hilarious. :D

When leaving the premier of Eclipse a couple of weeks ago, me and my friends had plans of making a similar spoof just for fun, but with parts from other vampire movies and series too. Guess we weren’t quick enough. ^^

Daily Thoughts 7/26/2010 ( Cognitive Surplus, Queens Library, libraries )

Benjamin Franklin., 1767, Oil On Canvas, In the White House

Daily Thoughts 7/26/2010

It is clear that advocacy is becoming a central fact with libraries in the United States these days.  If you are not willing to speak up for your library you may not have one in your community.  Also, if you work in a library and do not speak up for your library, you might even get laid off.  Being quiet is not really an option. It may make some people uncomfortable, but it is necessary.



To Close Budget Gap, Queens Library To Lay Off 46
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/886041-264/to_close_budget_gap_queens.html.csp




With Library Campaign Materials Libraries Must Navigate Between Education and Advocacy
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/886037-264/with_campaign_materials_libraries_must.html.csp




I checked out a book called Design And Launch An Online Social Networking Business In A Week by Entrepreneur Press and Julien Sharp.  It provides an outline of the process of creating a social network from scratch.


I am looking at the Fostering Digitally Inclusive Communities Grant offered by the National Broadband Plan.  To even begin applying to the grant we would have to put some social media into effect in order to get it.  The grant mentions blogs, email, and other digital tools as being part of communicating with the public.  I have already been looking at MP3 players and ebooks because of our recent promotion of Overdrive Digital Media Catalog at our library.  It should be very interesting.




This morning, I went through and updated most of the displays as well as set up meetings to understand the invoicing process for electronic data interchange.  I also emailed Poets House about their Poetry In The Branches Program and talked to BWI about electronic data interchange.  Posters for the Library Express database also came in as promotional material.




On the train home, I finished reading Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky.  I like the descriptions of how people donating time to social media adds to real life connections through groups like Wikimedia and Meetup.  He does an excellent job of describing the intrinsic value of giving time to social platforms that can reach into the real world.  A very real example of this for me is my going to places with the New York Librarians Meetup group.

Candy

I remember being five. Six. Seven. And eight and nine and ten. And candy was such a treat to have. Usually it had to have chocolate because fruity candies and me? Yeah. It was not love at first sight.

I so looked forward to eating my twix. Because those were love at first sight.

And even though the years have gone by and my love for candy has dwindled, I still look forward to eating a few types of candy - twix being one of them. Because even as an adult, I still love biting into the crunchy goodness.

~~Alyssa
http://www.beaconstreetbooks.com

The new it-thing: vampire bite marks

I don’t know if I should laugh or cry since I love all the vampire mania that is going on right now, and I am pretty sure you do too. Nowadays we can barely live without our Twilight, Vampire Diaries, and True Blood cravings, however, the line is about to get crossed for me soon…If it hasn’t already. Read CNN’s report about the new trend of bite marks among teens here.

I wonder if I would be ok with it though if it was to be a really hot (and real) vampire that wanted to put its fangs into my neck? Hmm…I think that we can draw the conclusion that the fact that I am even considering that makes the issue very serious. Creepy. :s

Totally fine by me...or not?

Revised Kirstenbosch

Thank you, thank you to all for your input on my painting of the kids at Kirstenbosch.  I really appreciated your input and took Celeste's advice about the orange wash as well as comments on the background.

So, far fewer bushes in the back and an orange glaze, this is the best pic I could get, so please excuse any glare.

Lavinia Fontana

Lavinia Fontana was born in Bologna, the daughter of the painter Prospero Fontana, who was a prominent painter of the School of Bologna at the time and served as her teacher. Continuing the family business was typical at the time.
Lavinia Fontana, Minerva Dressing, 1613, Oil on canvas, Galleria Borghese, Rome.

Her earliest known work, " Monkey Child" , was painted in 1575 at the age of 23. Though this work is now lost, another early painting, Christ with the Symbols of the Passion, painted in 1576 is now in the El Paso Museum of Art.[1] She would go on to paint in a variety of genres. Early in her career, she was most famous for painting upper-class residents of her native Bologna. She began her commercial practice by painting small devotional paintings on copper, which had popular appeal as papal and diplomatic gifts, given the value and lustre of the metal.[1] She later created paintings of male and female nudes and large scale religious paintings.

Fontana married Paolo Zappi (alternately spelled Paolo Fappi) in 1577. She gave birth to 11 children, though only 3 outlived her. After marriage, Fontana continued to paint to support her family. Zappi took care of the household and served as painting assistant to his wife, including painting minor elements of paintings like draperies.

Fontana and her family moved to Rome in 1603 at the invitation of Pope Clement VIII. She gained the patronage of the Buoncompagni, of which Pope Gregory XIII was a member. Lavinia thrived in Rome as she had in Bologna and Pope Paul V himself was among her sitters.

Some of her portraits, often lavishly paid for, have been wrongly attributed to Guido Reni. Chief among these are Venus; The Virgin lifting a veil from the sleeping infant Christ; and the Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon. Her self-portrait – in youth she was said to have been very beautiful – was perhaps her masterpiece; it belongs to Count Zappi of Imola, the family into which Lavinia married.

While her youthful style was much like her father's, she gradually adopted the Carracciesque style, with strong quasi-Venetian coloring. She was elected into the Accademia di San Luca of Rome, and died in that city on August 11, 1614.

There are over 100 works that are documented, but only 32 signed and dated works are known today. There are 25 more that can be attributed to her, making hers the largest oeuvre for any female artist prior to 1700. Sofonisba Anguissola may have been an influence on her career.

Adélaïde Labille-Guiard

Adélaïde Labille-Guiard was first apprenticed to a miniaturist and later, in 1769, studied the art of pastel with Maurice Quentin de La Tour. The rich palette and fine detail in the present picture, one of the earliest of her major works in oils, reflect her earlier training. In 1783, when Labille-Guiard and Vigée Le Brun were admitted to the French Academy, the number of women artists eligible for membership was limited to four, and this painting, which was exhibited to an admiring audience at the Salon of 1785, has been interpreted as a propaganda piece, arguing for the place of women in the Academy. The artist's fashionable dress asserts her femininity; the feminist mood is emphasized by the presence of her pupils and the statue of the Vestal Virgin in the background. Labille-Guiard achieved a certain success at court and, having painted a number of portraits of the aunts of Louis XVI, came to be known as Peintre des Mesdames. However, she sympathized with the Revolution and, unlike Vigée Le Brun, remained in France throughout her life.

Source: Adélaïde Labille-Guiard. Self-Portrait with Two Pupils, Mademoiselle Marie Gabrielle Capet (1761–1818) and Mademoiselle Carreaux de Rosemond (died 1788) (53.225.5) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Claude Monet

  From artchive.com

"By his fellow painters Monet was regarded as a leader, not because he was the most intellectual or theoretically minded or because he was able to answer questions that they could not answer, but because in his art he seemed to be more alert to the possibilities latent in their common ideas, which he then developed in his work in a more radical way than did the others. Considering how all these painters developed their intensely personal manners with respect to the new artistic ideas, we may observe that the new elements appeared most often for the first time in the work of Monet and then were taken over by the other Impressionists, who incorporated them as suggestions or as definite means and applied them in their own ways.

"A clear example of Monet's influence can be noted in the change in Degas's art after the middle 1870s when his color began to approach that of the other Impressionists and he employed techniques, particularly in pastel, that gave to the whole a more granular, broken, and flickering effect - qualities not found in his earlier work. That is true also of Cézanne, Pissarro, and Renoir. Monet showed the way, even if the development of the others seemed to diverge from his.

Finally some rain

After almost 4 weeks of eternal sunshine the rain has hit Uppsala. - About time according to me. Because no matter how much I love when it’s warm and sunny outside, there has to be some kind of balance. Especially when the ACs in this country isn’t equipped for a temperature around 30 °C every day and therefore sucks. :/

A picture of me when it was still sunny outside

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent (Willem) Van Gogh generally considered the greatest Dutch painter after Rembrandt; he powerfully influenced the current of Expressionism in modern art. His work, all of it produced during a period of only 10 years, hauntingly conveys through its striking colour, coarse brushwork, and contoured forms the anguish of a mental illness that eventually resulted in suicide.

In February 1888 Vincent van Gogh settled at Arles, where he painted more than 200 canvases in 15 months. During this time he sold no pictures, was in poverty, and suffered recurrent nervous crisis with hallucinations and depression. He became enthusiastic for the idea of founding an artists' co-operative at Arles and towards the end of the year he was joined by Gauguin. But as a result of a quarrel between them Vincent van Gogh suffered the crisis in which occured the famous incident when he cut off his left ear (or part of it), an event commemorated in his Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear

In May 1889 Vincent van Gogh went at his own request into an asylum at St Rémy, near Arles, but continued during the year he spent there a frenzied production of tumultuous pictures such as Starry Night (MOMA, New York). He did 150 paintings besides drawings in the course of this year. In 1889 Theo married and in May 1890 van Gogh moved to Auvers-sur-Oise to be near him, lodging with the patron and connoisseur Dr Paul Gachet. There followed another tremendous burst of strenuous activity and during the last 70 days of his life he painted 70 canvases. But his spiritual anguish and depression became more acute and on 29 July 1890 he died from the results of a self-inflicted bullet wound.

Paul Cezanne

Paul Cezanne

 Pyramid of Skulls

French painter, one of the greatest of the Postimpressionists, whose works and ideas were influential in the aesthetic development of many 20th-century artists and art movements, especially Cubism. Cezanne's art, misunderstood and discredited by the public during most of his life, grew out of Impressionism and eventually challenged all the conventional values of painting in the 19th century through its insistence on personal expression and on the integrity of the painting itself. He has been called the father of modern painting.

Even Cézanne's pictures of people can be regarded as still lifes, because he demanded that his models sit absolutely still. Sitting for him was something of a nightmare. Not only was he foul-tempered, he was an extremely slow painter, probably the reason his subjects always look tired and sombre. Ambroise Vollard, the dealer who arranged Cezanne's first one-man show a century ago, posed 115 times for a single painting, sitting absolutely still "like an apple" and then Cézanne, dissatisfied, abandoned the picture with only two unpainted spots remaining. He told Vollard that with luck he would find the correct color and could finish the painting. "The prospect of this made me tremble," noted Vollard in his biography of the painter. In the artist's eye, there was no difference between a human sitter and a bowl of fruit, except that the reflection value and the palette were different. In the end, both his subjects and his fruit wilted.

Daily Thoughts 7/25/2010 ( Turning The Page Online Course, Cognitive Surplus, Reanimation Library )

A photochrom postcard published by the Detroit Photographic Company of the Library of Congress in the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University.


Daily Thoughts 7/25/2010


This morning, I finished The Turning The Page online course for library advocacy. It was a challenge at some points mainly in navigating the class to make sure that I saw all the options. This would be a good free course to take if you want to clarify your message about why you should support the library and give funds to the library. I have a printout that acknowledges my taking the course. http://www.sustaininglibrariesonline.org/pla/index.asp




I read some more of Clay Shirky's Cognitive Surplus.  The author is describing how many people who are using the web are intrinsically motivated.  They are doing things because they enjoy them not necessarily for rewards.  They are also doing intrinsically motivated projects that scale communally like Wikipedia and other things.  This can range from the silly to the extremely relevant.  There is no reward for posting videos on Youtube or making a Facebook page.  People do it for social reasons.  I certainly am not being paid to write this blog.  Yet, I am learning how to use social media, improving my writing skills, and creating a sense of both open communication and self mastery. The ideas in this book reflect many of the actions which I am taking personally.  They are relevant to how people use the web and changes in communication and interaction caused by social media.




The Reanimation Library one of the odder library websites I have seen. http://www.reanimationlibrary.org/pages/about.htm