Hebrew Quiz II

I had a Hebrew quiz today. While I nailed the translation (because that's what I do) I struggled some on the extensive parsing section (because that is also what I do). So you can trust me when I say that some of the answers I put on today's quiz were creative.

Plus, I'm changing the rules for this blog a little. I'll let you know more about it tomorrow.

love.

Highly Informative and Nerdy

Please excuse me while I geek out.

What I did today wasn't necessarily epic in scope, nor did it take a long time to complete, but it does, I feel, require a bit of back story. There were a lot of commas in that last sentence weren't there? There are so many silly details that would help shed light on today's post that I don't know where to begin. I'll just start talking and guarantee that this will NOT be in chronological order.

My wife and I live with my friend Mark and his wife. Mark is what you might respectfully (and with a hint of awe) refer to as a “gamer.” Now I don't just mean video games (though he does play those too). Because while we do have 2 gaming PCs, 3 XBOX 360s (one is mine), 1 Playstation 3, a Nintendo Wii, a Nintendo DS and an iPod touch stocked with quality games it is in fact Mark's prodigious board-game collection that steals the show. I don't know exactly how many there are. I can tell you that it is less than one thousand, but not by as much as you might be thinking. And they aren't games that the average person has heard of either. You won't find these puppies at Target. The majority of them are European. You can view his collection here if you wish and find out about some of the games for yourself.

I never knew such a thing existed before I met Mark. In fact, I made fun of the nerdy kids playing Magic: The Gathering in school. Now I know how to play the game and it is, I am loathe to confess, fun. Mark has done an excellent job proselytizing. I enjoy board games. I even have an account on boardgamegeek.com as well. But I have some quirks that hold me back from being a “true” board-gamer. I want a game to look pretty. It's not enough for it to simply have good rules or clever mechanics. This type of thing is anathema to true board-gamers.

Now for the nerdy part. So as I was ushered into this dark and brooding world of board games I was quickly drawn to “miniatures” games. They involve, you may have guessed … miniatures. So it would be like playing with toys when you were a kid only with rules and a winner. Who doesn't want to play with toys again? These games are also generally very strategic. This appeals greatly to me.

First, models and miniatures of all sorts remind me of childhood. I loved building models with my dad when I was a kid. I especially loved model rockets. My dad, brother and I launched quite a few together. Dad explained the physics and principles of rocket propulsion and my brother and I were rapt in awe and wonderment because what we were doing was very mildly dangerous (come on – it involved combustion!). Dad was also an airplane buff, so we built several models together (my first was, of course, a space shuttle). Yet again, dad explained the forces that act on an airplane to us. My brother wanted to be a fighter pilot. I wanted to work for NASA. And we both understood Bernoulli's principle well before middle school.

Second, I love strategic type games that don't overly depend on luck. I don't know when this first started. I know what is to blame though: chess. I love chess. I have books on chess. I know opening moves. I own several copies of chessmaster and more than one board. I hope you've got the picture by now.

One last side note: I also like Mechs. Or Gundams. Or whatever you want to call them. Giant robots are awesome. Whether piloted by humans or not. To continue the thread of tracing these things back to their causes in my childhood you should know that I loved Transformers. But who didn't?

So when I found a game called Warhammer 40k I asked Mark about it. He told me what's what. I was encroaching on true nerd territory. People lose their minds (and bank accounts) playing this game. Painting figures can take up weeks. And they probably won't even look as good as the adverts anyway. The rule book is an ACTUAL book. And I would have to use a tape measure and do lots of math on sheets of paper in front of me. OH BOY WHERE DO I SIGN UP! Actually, the length of the rules and cost of the game are mild deterrents. But I still thought it looked cool.

So Mark graciously found me a similar game to cut my teeth on to see if I had what it takes. Classic Battletech. There is a cheap introductory box set, complete with miniatures to paint, a moderately thick rulebook, another book on painting techniques and tactics and several stats sheets. It was about twenty bucks. I ordered it last week.

It got here last night. Unable to control my glee I opened the box (I wasn't going to until after my Hebrew quiz). I took out the miniatures. I looked at step one of painting:

PREPARE THE MINAITURES.

And prepare I did. The models are plastic and injection molded. So there is a line around the center where the two halves of the mold come together. Also, there are the unsightly injection points. Little nubs on the figure where the plastic was shot into the mold. They had to go. So I got out my handy X-ACTO knife (I believe you know why I love that already) and cut away the “flash” (fancy word for those aforementioned blemishes that I learned today). Interestingly, after I remove anything the X-ACTO knife missed with an emery board I'm supposed to bathe the thing in warm-soapy water. I'll just have to do that later.

So what did I do today? I prepared two miniatures. The two recommended for the first-time players game between two people. This took up so much time that I didn't have time to do anything else. It completely consumed my creative time quota. So it'll have to do.

Now if you'll excuse me, I really must get back to studying.

Over and out.

Jacked Hoop

I was wondering how this would work with two "circular"-type images. Not well:


And as I'm short on time, that will be my first and only attempt for the day.

Peace out.

Frontier Tower

Another layered image:


This composition could have benefited from some simple masking techniques to really make that tower pop. But I didn't have time for that today.

Layers from these pictures.

Cheerio then.

Prepare for Service

My friend April is very good at these types of images that I'm doing this week. She usually produces pieces with great contrast and color. Very pretty. She loves to use statues in her foreground. So today I thought I'd pay homage to my friend by using a statue. However, while I was meddling with the image I came up with this strange shadowy figure emerging from a uniform background and I rather liked it. It's very different. So I'm still paying homage to my friend April, but in a different, weirder, way:


This is a simple layer combination of these two pictures. Kudos to the original photographers.

:)

Grunge Forest

One of the coolest things that Photoshop and other photo-editing tools lets you do is combine pictures. Now, this may be in the simple sense of cutting out part of another picture and pasting it into a picture it doesn't belong for simple comedic effect or to produce a brilliant composition. But even easier than that, and with equally cool results, is the simple combination of photos in layers to achieve a dramatic visual effect. For instance today's image combines two pictures: a dirty was and some trees at dusk. With some simple layer tricks you can create something like this:


This effect is popular in magazines, those awful clothes that Affliction put out and Powerpoint backgrounds at church. A simple technique that goes a long way indeed.

And have I mentioned how simple it was? I believe so. Because I'm going to be playing with photo combinations all week while I focus on studying for my next Hebrew test.

Sayonara!

NÜKE

Sometimes it's best not to ask.


I have no reasonable explanation for this one.

Cityscape

I went back to my old friend the GIMP today. I'm getting ready for another Hebrew test so I'll be studying more and spending less time on these posts next week. So I figure now would be a good time to get in some tutorial practice and/or add a few new photos to my portfolio. We'll see what happens.

So this is a tutorial that I got out of a great book on the GIMP that I got for Christmas. It's supposed to produce something that looks like a shimmering cityscape. I learned about a few new tools, got to play around under the hood of the GIMP so to speak, and so I'm happy. The tutorial is actually designed to make a much smaller image, so it looks a little funny since I was working on a much larger scale. But it matters not, while it may not look as city-scapey, it is still a cool trick to have under my belt. Check it out:


Mares eat oats
And does eat oats
And little lambs eat ivy
A kid'll eat ivy too
Wouldn't you?

noon

In a shocking turn of events this week I was asked to design the cover for the newest Stephanie Meyer book, Noon*. It continues the story where Breaking Dawn left off. All the details are tightly under wraps right now, so I can't reveal too much about the story. The publisher told me to let them worry about the font because it costs thirty bucks and I'm too cheap for that.

Here it is:


A few more months 'til this beauty starts flying off the shelves.













*Any resemblance to an actual book bearing this title written by the aforementioned author is strictly coincidental and therefore even funnier. I am kidding about designing the book cover. Though my bank account wishes I wasn't.

Avatar

I'm a member of a couple or large internet forums where you are expected to have a flashy avatar. Something cool. Possibly animated. I haven't really worried about my avatar until recently (and even then I haven't actually “worried” per se), so I decided to do something about it.

I already knew the perfect avatar that could be animated to loop forever and never stop making me laugh. It's from Family Guy. It's Peter Griffin. When he hurts his knee running home and spends an entire minute sucking air and whining. It is also, coincidentally, the scene that cemented my love for the show. You see, I love the absurd and ridiculous things that they do on that show. And while they may sometimes push the envelope a little, you simply don't find anything else that ridiculous on the air.

So here is my new avatar for these forums I frequent:



I love it.

A Friendly Reminder

The other day I was at target and I happened to notice a fun little piece of art that said “Wash” which featured a rubber-ducky in the collage art style. It was interesting. I liked it. Not only do I posses a supernatural affection for rubber duckies, but I love texture in art. Did I mention I liked it?

Well, it was twenty-dollars. Which isn't really a lot (for decent art). But I'm developing a theory that you should only decorate your house with artistic works that you have made (or blatantly ripped off...but still created!). So I set about wondering if I could, in fact, make such a charming piece for, say, my bathroom. The cutting of a collage is very similar to cutting a stencil (see last week). Only you use the shape you cut out and not the remaining outline.

Not to mention I have in my possession an excellent resource for all things collage and mod-podge: my wife. I think she would be a fan of the idea. So, like last week, I sort of sketched out how I'd like it to turn out and I may be working on it over the week:


However, the part that says “WASH” would be done in the collage art style as well. You know, stealing letters from magazines...like a ransom note or something like that.

Ta for now.

Full Circle

And so this week ends the same way it began:



I'm happy with it. If I do another “print” of this one here's what I think I could do better:

(1)Use a canvas that doesn't have a hole in it. Yep. There's a hole in the canvas I didn't see until after I got the canvas home and applied the yellow paint. Oh well.

(2)Use better spray paint. That's Krylon. Not the best for “artistic” purposes. I'm not an awesome stenciler, so I've been skimping, but it's starting to bother me. You can see the where the black seeped under the stencil and pooled a little. Especially in the upper right on the mic. I'll probably invest in some Montana Gold next time I go spray-paint shopping.

(3)Pay more attention to how much spray adhesive I'm applying. Technically I've already learned this lesson. But it was overcast this morning and I couldn't see how much adhesive I had put on my stencil. (btw – spray adhesive helps hold the stencil in place while you spray in case you were wondering) There was a section where the adhesive glopped up and made an icky mess on my canvas. I rubbed of what I could. You can see the last little remnants in the middle of the letter “P.”

Now I need to figure out where to put it.

BJJ Shirt

If you know me personally, then you probably know that my friends and I are a little obsessed with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. You can usually find us at Leadership Martial Arts on a Tuesday, Thursday or Friday night trying to tap each other out. It's a great way to stay in shape and hang out with friends at the same time. There's friendly competition, but tempered by a genuine desire for each other to get even better. But enough of that for now...

I've been wanting to make this T-shirt for a while. Since making a T-shirt would require cutting a stencil I decided to just throw it in today because this has apparently turned into stencil week. Also, I scanned a T-shirt of mine into the computer to get that texture and made it tileable so that you could seamlessly fill up a whole screen if you ever needed to.

Anyways, I plan on having the coolest new shirt in the dojo soon when I rock this:


Simple yet effective.

A brief summary of color choice: I love the way blue and orange work together (they're complimentary colors!). I darkened them up a bit so that they would be easily readable. But I haven't made the shirt (or the stencil for that matter) yet, so you can suggest other color combinations if you'd like to (April).

Love to all.

Keys

So I'm cutting my stencil and I can't help but think how much easier it would be if all my lines were straight with no fine details. You see, my X-ACTO blade is beginning to dull and cutting curves into my acetate is getting harder and harder. But I don't want to change my blade just yet. It's got a couple more quality cuts in it.

On the other hand, I'm not so sure that a stencil with only straight edges would be terribly pleasing to look at. So I engaged in a small experiment: make a design with only long straight edges. Also, I've seen a lot of work lately that uses various shades of gray to really bring out the texture, or topography if you will, of the subject. I've never attempted using only shades of gray to design a stencil before. So I gave it a shot today. I, of course, chose to make a piano keyboard:


I doubt I will ever cut this stencil. But it was fun to try out something and see what it would look like.

I think the straight edges here aren't so bad because I chose a subject that is inherently linear. But that isn't the case with most objects. Plus, I like graffiti and stencils that are bubbly and round … almost cartoonish. So this is stretching it a bit for me. The gray does a nice job of adding a little depth to the piece. The next stencil portrait I do will definitely utilize the technique.

That's it for me. Back to the cutting board! (no joke.)

Shellmound Buckthorn

I have a small announcement to make: this is my 100th post! I'm into May and my resolution is going strong. It's not easy, but I'm keeping up with it!

A few weeks ago I visited my friends Bryan and Abi (there were several posts...I'm sure you remember). Now we spent some time around the island learning about vegetation and birds and whatnot because Bryan is … well, brilliant – and biology is, I believe, his primary field of expertise. So Amie and I got to stop and see all kinds of things that we would have normally ignorantly trampled underfoot or barged past. One of the small wonders we saw was (anagram alert!) an interesting little plant called the Shell-mound Buckthorn. I can't tell you a lot about it. Apparently it needs bits of sea-shell in the soil to grow (don't quote me on any of this). Also, and the reason these photos aren't as banal as they might first appear, the fruit is rarely photographed when ripe because the berries take an entire year to ripen.

I'd link to something about the plant, but I can't find a good article right now. Sorry about that. Also, it'd be funny if Bryan was just messing with me. I wouldn't know this plant from a snipe. Or a jackalope for that matter. Just a thought that made me laugh.

Anyways, I meant to get him the photos a long time ago and I've forgotten until now. Here they are!



I'll return to something I know about tomorrow.

It's fun to branch into material momentarily of which I am totally ignorant. :)

Speak

I haven't made a stencil in a while, so I thought I might get back into it today. I only had time to do the design this morning, the cutting and final product will have to come out later this week.

If you want to learn about stenicls, you should check out Stencil Revolution. There are a lot of really good pieces on the forums there. Plus tutorials and all kinds of stuff.

So here's my design:


It's destined for a 5x8 canvas.

I think it's cool.

Happy Hill Climber

A photo I took with some added visual flare:

Tag

Do you remember when you were a kid how you would spend time thinking about handwriting? How you would marvel at cursive? Actually think about the strokes that made up your letters? Maybe try your hand at other writing styles? I do. But that was just the fancy introduction. Truth is I haven't thought about it in a while and I've always wanted to develop that popular style of graffiti handwriting. So I spent some time looking around and learning, and here's how my first attempt at my name turned out:


Not the most exciting thing...but very educational.

:)

Whiter Teeth

I figured out how to easily whiten teeth without making them look super-phony (all by myself too!). I had been selecting the teeth and using the brightness/contrast function, which ends up looking ridiculously fake. But if I use the black and white tool instead the results look much better. Let me tell you why … when you control black and white you have total control over all of the color channels and how bright or dark each one is. So when working with teeth you just brighten up the yellows (and the reds help too), and voila! - great looking teeth.

I figured this out today while I was editing this photo from the aforementioned carnival-type-thing. This is Nick:


He's cool. And so is this trick to easily whiten teeth.

Who Will Win?

If you've been reading along you already know.