Second Life

My youngest daughter has been a "resident" of Second Life's virtual world for some time now. Once she took me on a cyber-tour of the virtual world, we visited her shop, chatted with friends, checked out how one can modify one's avatar, and one of the highlights (other than checking out her store) was visiting a strip-joint, watching her avatar being hit on by a cigar-smoking baby, and watching as she kicked the baby across the dance floor only to have it come running back shouting "HEY!"

I was fascinated to see the real-time interaction with other avatars knowing that somewhere out there on the other end of the internet, real people were controlling those characters...and yet I wasn't fascinated enough to want to check out Second Life beyond that night's tour.

UNTIL I received a solicitous email yesterday from a stranger who had found my art online and was offering to display my digitally-enslaved art works for sale in his virtual gallery, in Second Life... for a $3.50 monthly fee. Knowing that many bonified businesses and schools are virtually doing real business and making real money, I became intrigued enough with this idea to log on and create my own free account. The plan was: Once I get a feel for it (which will likely be a loooong time from now) I am going to upgrade to a premium account (which allows me to purchase virtual land) and then I am going to build my own art gallery!

FINALLY! My OWN Gallery damnit!

I have not gotten past the initial "Orientation/Tutorial/Help" phase yet. In fact, last night I got pretty damn frustrated because I stopped to get a drink on Help Island and now the freaking glass of water is stuck to my hand and my avatar continually slurps from it. For the virtual-life of me, I could NOT figure out how to ditch the water and so I quit playing.

I don't know why the hell I thought I should give this virtual life a go-round because I can't even seem to keep my first life under control...sigh, what the heck. If you are a Second life resident and you feel like going to Help Island, you might see me walking around a dock somewhere, drinking water and bumping into things... please be kind to me, it seems I'm a little "challenged" with this whole hand-eye coordination thing and understanding written directions.

Stayed home from work today

Couldn't do much here at the house and didn't feel like doing anything that required thought, so...

Baby yer greens are the best!

First a confession: I have a cold.

Fever, achey, stuffy-head, yucky cold. I came down with it the day after I walked in the rain with a buzz... Anyway, I have NOT been contributing to the household happenings as I should have been the last few days because my energy level has been, well, zilch, zip, nada. Yet despite my days-long-lazy-fest this morning my honey made collard greens seasoned with onion and fried bacon and garlic and beef broth for breakfast. Coffee and greens... yum! Damn dem some good greens go on and getchya some!

It has been too long...

Sammy Davis Jr Jr and Enrico
...since updating on the status of Enrico. So long in fact that we have much exciting news to tell you about. Enrico has two brothers now. Sammy Davis Jr Jr (after the seeing-eye bitch in the movie "Everything is Illuminated" - AND as of a couple days ago, dear little "Ludwig" joined the family.


Sammy Davis Jr Jr & Enrico with Ludwig peeking from behind
I made a decision some time ago that I would let Enrico live his days out in the mushroom playpen for two pseudo-scientific reasons: 1) What do the stages of a portobello's full life span look like? and 2) Maybe if allowed to live his full life-cycle perhaps he would drop some spores and we would get a little more "action" in the box... who knows?

Is Enrico ready to procreate?
Observation #1 two days ago Enrico's sides curled up in a mighty mushroom display. I'm thinking he's ready to do some "sporage".

I was asked yesterday how come all my 'shrooms have boys names- is it a Freudian thing? Do i think all men are in the dark, with damp feet and mold all around them? Perhaps, but without a qualified professional to make the call, I have to say their names are just names, that is all! :)

Back by popular demand

Tech Support #2

Okay, HAD to fool around with it some more... a slightly different (even bigger) version on YouTube:

Updated my art stuff

It is about dang time eh?!
http://www.artonthewing.com/available/works_available_new.html
Cheers!

Hijacked Blogspot!

My mother changed her blogspot address as she was working on it.
Someone has taken the domain and it reroutes to IP address:
http://66.249.31.51/

Where there is currently some kind of bogus login. Trying to report it to blogger is daunting because all the pre-determined support issues to choose from don't say anything like: My domain has been hijacked.

Mom, Gordy thinks you might have some spyware on your 'puter that facilitated this. If you are using Internet Explorer to surf the web, I stongly suggest downloading and using Firefox. You may want to download something like "Spybot Search and Destroy" and run it ASAP.

p.s. Here are the URLs to download the Firefox browser and Spybot:

1) http://spywarebot.com/
2) Mozilla.com

Tech-support, how may I help you?

Today I was booted out of my cubicle by one of our programmers. He had to use my WinXP 'puter because it was the 'puter on which i managed to duplicate a problem reported during a tech call yesterday. The whole issue has to do with IE (which sucks) and actually, this post is REALLY meant to be about getting to play with the big giant Mac and all my brand spanking new applications... one silly program that came with the Mac is called Photobooth. Photobooth lets you snap pictures of yourself sitting in front of the computer (Oh joy!) and apply certain canned effects if you like. So using Photobooth, Photoshop, and Imageready I made the above compilation I call "Tech-Support." Cheers!

Howdy!

!#@$%@@!!!#

Allrighty then...

... the work day is quickly coming to an end. Today was a busy one with too many unresolved tech support issues, too many signs needing to be sent to the graphics place for our next conference in Austin, and too much documentation needing to be done. Thankfully, it is now time to wrap it up, put it all in its place, shut down the 'puters and head for the house.

The real world...

...is not so loverly, but i absolutely love it.

and so I just walked home from the local pub. I'm a little drunk, a little cold, a little old, and a little tired. The above picture is courtesy of my mindset...thinking how important it is to realize we are all just human...not so attractive at times, we fart, we piss, we shit, we vomit, despite it all we laugh and engage and love and share and admire.

yeah i know, I've got a buzz. But it is a nice buzz. I just spent a couple hours with Heather and friends at the local pub...they picked me up because tonight I am car-less. They are these incredibly talented young people with aspirations and directions, and of course I find them fascinating. One of these young women is a writer...she had an article published at the ripe old age of NINE....magnificent! I walked home ten blocks or so in the cold rain tonight thinking how wonderful these people are, and how glorious it is to be walking in the cold sharp rain. I passed the flower shop that has been delivering me flowers every Wednesday for the last eight years, and i passed the barbershop that i left paintings on their window sill because I secretly fell in love with an old barber who i saw late at night as i spied through the window- he was playing a piano in the shop all by himself. I listened to the sound of the rain on the aluminum awning of a store as I passed under... These are the parts of life that I enjoy most.

These are the parts of being human that make me abhor the thought of dieing and suspect of the prize that is supposed to be had when going to heaven...

The only thing that would make this moment better is if i could be looking into the eyes of my beautiful daughters and see their smiling faces.

Okay, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense... who cares?!!! Goodnight! sweet dreams and all that...

Thanks to the hormonal fluctuations...

...associated with "Women of MY age," If you were to plot out my mood-swings in any given week it would look like a Richter Scale reading from The Great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake...or perhaps something drawn with a giant spirograph set. Don't know why I felt compelled to tell you so...but sometimes it is just good to know these things.

Welcome and a hearty hand-shake...

...to one of the WWW's newest artists experiencing online representation: David Weaver...who's site is still pending the upload of many images.

WELCOME TO THE INNERNET DAVID!

MetaphoricSurrealist.com

Enrico is...

...beginning to get over his sadness for his lost brother. Considering the lifespan of a mushroom, and that Enrico has spent approximately 1/7th of his entire life grieving, it has been a tough life for little Enrico!

Shameless plug for contributions

I want content, and YES it is because I have not thought this out completely, none the less I STILL think there is something of "value" in it. You are wondering: What the hell is she talking about?!

Quite some time ago, I came up with this website as a submission to Houston's Watershed Art Project contest to try to win a spot on a single billboard in Houston. I didn't "win" in fact, it was kind of funny as I suspect I might have been the only entry at some point because they kept emailing out notifications that the deadline for entry had been extended, i.e. we don't really like the entries we received so we are keeping our fingers crossed that SOMEONE enters SOMETHING good. Regardless, I STILL think there is good in this.

The website is Art Is Good For You.
There are currently three sections to this, the main section being a collection of hyperlinks to Houston artist's websites... yes! I want more links but don't have the patience to try to find them all myself.

The second section is meant to be a collection of memoriable art experiences...pictures and/or stories... the idea is that someone (who doesn't already) might be enticed into exploring the art world seeking similiar deep and meaningful experiences as should be posted. Please send me stuff as my "stuff" is the only stuff on there right now and I feel naked and am becoming embarrassed.

The third section was added a couple of nights ago. It is intended to be a "Personal Ad" exchange between artists and art collectors. Please write me something, what would your ad read?

Thank you bunches (in advance) for finding any merit at all in this and considering helping me with this endeavor by submitting SOMETHING.... cheers!

Humphrey's Last Wish...

Humphrey requested to have Gordy photo-document his final journey for the world to see, the very least we could do was comply.

As I rip Humphrey from his cradle he maintains complete composure...Enrico on the other hand seems to lean toward Humphrey in a futile attempt to reach for his brother.


The underside of Humphrey's well developed self.


Last bath...remarkably Humphrey is way cleaner than any store-bought porto I have ever laid eyes on.


Humphrey prepares to die.


Words escape me at this point as I am overwhelmed with emotion.


Sauteing the Humphrey bits in butter, a splash of worschestire, with onion and garlic.


Scrambling the eggs who are lucky enough to be accompanied by such a brave and glorious 'shroom on their final adventure throughout our respective digestive tracts.


Final moment of reverence.

ART: Why do you collect it?

**I had to bump this up to the top by changing the post date on it so that it doesn't go away too soon**

Yep, thats right. How do you determine if art is worthy of your attentions? Is it something that has to be enshrined in gilded frame and hung upon a wall in a fine arts museum before you will consider it of merit or seek the deeper meaning that might be embedded within it? Is it an artist's resume that leads you to believe you are making the PERFECT investment - or perhaps an educated gamble? Perhaps you think in the distant future you might get your name listed in the required reading of some MFA student as an influential contributor/collector of what defines 21st century art? Or to you, is art something that helps express a part of you that for whatever reason you may not feel capable of expressing yourself? Is it important enough to have the real deal hanging in your house...is it important to KNOW the artist and the context from which his art originates? Do you feel compelled to have a relationship with the art/artist? Is the art the type of consideration where you might ask the question "Does this go with my new motif?"

just wondering.

Clearly it is time to eat Humphrey...

...but I just can't bring myself to do it. Afterall, I have cared and nurtured Humphrey for the last (and first, no, ALL!) five days of his extraordinary little life. What if I were to just let him live out his days undigested?


And yet, what about little Enrico? I have concern that he might not reach his full potential always standing in the shadow of his glorious brother...in fact, looking at the two 'shrooms side-by-side I am reminded of The Profit and Kahlil Gibran's final words on marriage:

...And stand together, yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Oh What am i to do?

Humphrey's skin desktop image

One Thousand Paintings

This is interesting... The fellow has painted the numbers between (and including) 1 & 1,000 and is selling each of them online. Each number has information (from wikipedia) posted about whatever mathematical properties might be associated with it. The fellow has sold over 700 of the numbers already. He also includes estimates of what your number might be worth after say, 800-900 have sold. I looked, if I could afford such a painting the numbers I might choose have already sold.

One Thousand Paintings

Humphrey and Enrico

Humphrey and Enrico just after they woke up this morning.

Sessy Avatar Contest AND a bonus Humphrey Update!

As you can clearly see Humprey was looking dapper this morning when I checked on him on the way out the door for work. Stealing yet another name from my sister's recent online adventures, I think I am going to call Humprey's little brother (who is most certainly a portobello like his brother, although he seems to be quite a special 'shroom)- Enrico. SO there you have it, Humphrey and Enrico are doing nicely in their little compost-filled playpen.

Now on to the Sessy Avatar Contest...Mind you, The degree of "sessyness" is severely limited by the fact that iYAM in my cubicle here at work, and iYAM suppozed to be WORKING. I am having a hard time determining which icon best represents my 40-something state of enticing-hotness... wait! Is that even POSSIBLE?

 Add makeup:

So do Hot Chicks make ya wanna do it?

Your "foot-in-the-door" is one tiny little 32x32 pixel icon (or avatar)... your shot at acceptance is limited to this little square area, no words, no explanation, nothing, just an itty bitty 72dpi picture.

In a world filled with many forms of temptation...how much do you rely on the palatability of your visuals to que you to do something you might not have done otherwise...

What do YOU say about this? When networking and high-visibility are the main focus, what do you think this fellow should do?

hot icon or intellectual icon? what should it be?

Girls Gotta Do Whatta Girls gotta doo doo!

In a show of support for Marc (One Man Band) Twyman's latest post regarding "Why does there ALWAYS have to be a sex scene?...and why don't they ever go to the bathroom?"
Hey Marc- I am SO with you on that!

Kittens, Icicles, and Humphrey Status Report

Okay, so the hard-core winter storm here just outside of Houston amounted to a lot of wet ground and little-teeny-tiny icicles clinging to things off the ground. Not that I like the threat to life and all, but I really like it when a storm comes through that is just enough to offset the routine of life. The kind of storm where everyone gets a stay-home-free card and you get to steal a day away from life's routine doing something perhaps a little different, even if only seeing daylight in a different spectrum. Meh.

On the other hand, Humphrey seems to be doing fine despite all the nasty weather...He is darkening up a bit more and really starting to look like the fine and tasty shroom I know he will be.

and the lil' kitties from under the house are snuggled up in their shanty-shack, warm and toasty on their heating pad. I had to belly-crawl under the house to locate them and then two-at-a-time, bring their lil' wild-ass-spitting selves out to put them in their happy-hut on the front porch. Yeah I know, I'm turning into a "cat lady."

and you think YOUR blog is exciting...

...well here are pics from today's trip to the grocery store! Woo Hoo!



We like the cheddar-blast goldfish crackers in our chowder!






I never seem to be able to squeeze enough juice outta the little guys and so have to add some more to the recipe.


Now that we have most of the ingredients we need, time to move along to my favorite aisle in the whole grocery store:

I can't wait until dinner time!

Gads it is COLD outside!

Okay, that is it! Tonight is a good, no make that GREAT night for a steaming hot bowl of New England clam chowder! During my lunch break not only will I be headed home to let the dawgs out to take care of their noon-time bodily functions, I will be headed to the grocery store for some chowder fixins. Anyone reading this, you are cordially invited to dinner at our house @ 7-8...AND IF you RSVP in the next 20 minutes, I will be sure to have enough wine available for you too.

Baby 'Bello may have Stunted Siblings

Clearly "my boy" is beginning to take on the physical characteristics you would expect out of a fine strapping young Portebello!

This morning after giving the happy box o'compost and mold it's misting, I noticed what MIGHT be little brothers and sisters...MAYBE? The next picture is focused on the compost surrounding my Bello Boy... look at it closely and tell me what you think, are these slow bloomers OR is the white mold trying to fashion its own version of mushroom?


Because Priscilla asked, and I wanted to be sure she sees the link i posted in the comments, here it is again: Mushroom Adventures!

thank goodness iyam not a mushroom murderer!

It is with a great sigh of relief that I am able to post these photos of my first baby portebello mushroom! The directions that came with the package said that I should see the first mushrooms within 7-14 days of setting up their "playpen." On day six the surface of the compost was covered in a white mold...i worried: is it too moist, did i drown them, too dark, too light, too hot??????? oh lordy! the pressure!

The first lil' shroom appeared on day 15. Yep. Iyam a happy camper because i have one lonely survivor...despite my inability to be a good 'shroom mommy, there it is in all it's yummy glory! I'm positively beaming! Infact, i think iyam beaming strong enough to ward off the fastly approaching freeze the weather-peoples say is gonna hit us. I don't know about youze, but fer tonight all is well and good in the world here with me and my fungi! Cheers and goodnight!

Michelle was here...

AND YOU wrote! YAY! I do want to paint something together again... Michelle, I hope you and Massoud are bundled up over there because its gonna get cold tonight! Don't be sorry about the stains, I made them too ya know. Please give Ms. Elsa a scritch fer me and Houdini an extra sun-flower seed or two...

I almost forgot Savana! I'm sorry Savana... you need a scritch too!

It works for the Birds!

I really can't explain why i happen to have a feather boa here at the office, but it works great for maintaining warmth when outside for a smoke break. Chels just sent a pic of 6-8 inch icicles hanging from the eaves of her apartment building. We are expected to get sleet tonight/tomorrow...crazy! brrrrrr...

This has NOTHING to do with anything

IYam Dark Phoenix!

Dark Phoenix 62% The Joker 59% Mr. Freeze 58% Apocalypse 56% Venom 51% Poison Ivy 51% Dr. Doom 51% Juggernaut 48% Green Goblin 48% Mystique 48% Catwoman 46% Magneto 41% Two-Face 40% Lex Luthor 35% Kingpin 32% Riddler 18%

A prime example of emotional extremes: Passion and fury incarnate.

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain are you?" quiz...

Go Figure M2 Gallery

Some pics Gordy took throughout the evening...

Aimi Dunn, one of my favorite Houston Artists with her painting: "Fire and Ice"

With my painting: "Youth"

Myself with Mr. Patrick Palmer, after getting an Honorable Mention.

Good-looking Menz hanging out back: Mitch Cohen, John Mercado, Gordy, and Terrence

Google Translation

You may have noticed the little drop-down menu thing on the top-right for translating this page. I found that simple code on somebody's website (I sincerely wish I could remember whose to give them credit where credit is due). It is a little bit of code that loads the URL you designate automatically into googles translation tool. After you copy the HTML below, in each place where you see "http://www.yourwebsite.com/" replace it with YOUR URL before you paste this code into your blogger template...

<!-- Begin Google Translator thingee -->
<form name="nav" width="90%">
<div>
<select name="SelectURL"onChange="document.location.href=document.nav.SelectURL.options[document.nav.SelectURL.selectedIndex].value">
<option value="http://google.com/translate?langpair=en%7Cen&u=http://www.yourwebsite.com/" selected>Translate this Page</option>
<option value="http://google.com/translate?langpair=en%7Ces&u=http://www.yourwebsite.com/">Spanish</option>
<option value="http://google.com/translate?langpair=en%7Cit&u=http://www.yourwebsite.com/">Italian</option>
<option value="http://google.com/translate?langpair=en%7Cfr&u=http://www.yourwebsite.com/">French</option>
<option value="http://google.com/translate?langpair=en%7Cpt&u=http://www.yourwebsite.com/">Portuguese</option>
<option value="http://google.com/translate?langpair=en%7Car&u=http://www.yourwebsite.com/">Arabic</option>
<option value="http://google.com/translate?langpair=en%7Cja&u=http://www.yourwebsite.com/">Japanese</option>
<option value="http://google.com/translate?langpair=en%7Cko&u=http://www.yourwebsite.com/">Korean</option>
</select>
</div>
</form>
<!-- End Google Translator thingee -->

But now that i think of it - BUYER BEWARE! unless you trust who's webpage you are on, you may not want to use the translator drop-down as it would be totally easy to load a different (EVIL, BAD, DEADLY) URL into an unsuspecting person's browser. Cheers!

Beliefnet bits from today

I find this latest email a VERY encouraging form of hope for the hopeless like me!

You should know that so far as Buddha-nature is concerned, there is no difference between an enlightened man and an ignorant one. What makes the difference is that one realizes it, while the other is ignorant of it.

Me thinks Hui Neng was on to something very important! This could mean I am only one-step away from fulfilling my desire to be enlightened... I wonder if this means I can give up on the OTHER lesson I've been working on:

When you can snatch the pebble from my hand, you will be ready..."

Michelle Macy

Just so's you would know the face with the name...Here Michelle and I are happily being entertained by the fact that Winterstreet Studios has a black potty.

Photo by Massoud!

I like to call this one "Jellyfish"

This is the collaboritive painting I mentioned last night... Michelle Macy and I played with paint together :)

Michelle is KNOWN for painting with her fingers... I must say that I was a wee-bit apprehensive to go rubbing my fingers through lead-, cadmium- or cobalt-based paints, ah but what the heck, after I got over the eebie-jeebies it was fun...and the paint didn't taste half-bad after all!

I forgot to mention, this baby is big! 4 foot tall and 3 feet wide. I like it a bunch and am trying to workout some "joint-visitation" arrangements with Michelle, but fer now...possession is nine-tenths of the law! Isn't that how it goes?

No I am not...

...trying to entice Mr. Vonnegut by exposing parts of my body that should remain covered at all times! But I am infact attempting to illustrate the level of seriousness of my concern regarding the washer troll who now clearly enjoys taking scissors to our clothing, apparently during the rinse cycle. WTF? I put these jammies in the washer - perfectly in tact, and they came out missing a chunk...clearly a chunk that isn't simply a break in the fabric because if I gather the edges together as if to repair the hole, there is not enough material to go around my brutish thigh anymore...and NO, I swear it, the dog's head is not stuck up my arse.


Completely on another end of the posting spectrum...

This is the state of the latest neglected painting in the corner of my room... i call her "blinky" fer now :)