elf yourself
Saturday, 22. December 2007, 11:06:58
this was so much fun i had to share it with you all.watch mine and then make your own. you will just simply crack up and roll on the floor laughing til you piss in your pants.
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1679835627
elf yourself and three friends... it doesn't cost a penny. my wife turned me on to it. what a hoot.
totally in the christmas spirit.
i just did this one too... i was surfing opera and found this i know not where now. but it's a cool test.
my results were encouraging.
(15%)
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1638624310
By kripo, # 22. December 2007, 11:12:05
By I_ArtMan, # 22. December 2007, 11:24:45
By kripo, # 22. December 2007, 11:26:26
By I_ArtMan, # 22. December 2007, 11:49:46
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1683558090
By cakkleberrylane, # 22. December 2007, 15:07:52
By DuckyChickenLady, # 22. December 2007, 18:57:06
By SqueakeyCat, # 22. December 2007, 21:33:21
Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!!!
By Stardancer, # 22. December 2007, 21:45:39
By momable, # 23. December 2007, 01:08:57
By I_ArtMan, # 23. December 2007, 02:14:38
Huh. I guess I'm a nature geek!
By mlynnjohnson, # 23. December 2007, 03:10:05
I am, however, torn between competing desires to create and destroy.
By noah counte, # 23. December 2007, 03:41:17
i think i am happiest when i am creating something, even dinner.
By I_ArtMan, # 23. December 2007, 05:59:12
As for self-destruction, I sure hope I've put the worst of that behind me!
By noah counte, # 23. December 2007, 15:58:03
Liu
By Liu, # 23. December 2007, 19:48:13
By FXM256, # 24. December 2007, 01:27:17
and a joyeux noel to you too miss liu. j'espere que vous irai heureux
tujours.
glad you liked it marcus.
By I_ArtMan, # 24. December 2007, 04:09:53
By noah counte, # 24. December 2007, 13:18:48
By SqueakeyCat, # 24. December 2007, 16:42:49
there may be some bugs in their programming because although i can watch mine and my link works, the one my ex-wife sent me of the kids stops halfway.... arrrgggh computers are so primitive.
noah,
smite with all your might but if you don't throw the devil a bone now and then, i find he hits back and he is extremely devious.
By I_ArtMan, # 25. December 2007, 00:54:42
By SqueakeyCat, # 25. December 2007, 02:53:20
By noah counte, # 25. December 2007, 02:58:44
that sucks all right. i get so irritated with 'puters sometimes.
but i always keep trying and finding new ways to skin the cat... pardon the idiom... but there are as you know things to do. sometimes the easiest is just to call them on the phone and the tell the cure right away. firewalls, virus prevention... all that stuff can diable activex. you know the drill. just now i finally broke down and tested a registry cure program. it ran a scan and found more than 2,000 errors. my dvd re-write and cd drive were not even being seen by my computers brilliant brain. so i had to do something.
i used to use norton systemworks which kept things tuned up pretty well. anyway we'll see. if i can't back up my files on disc and have the option of restoring my hp to factory settings i am not satisfied. i lose too much work that i haven't even printed. bit by bit i get to know the ways to avoid tragedy. i have seven discs from hewlett packard which will restore everything to the beginning but it takes a lot of time to get everything going again.
i am getting so tired of doing that. haven't had to resore for two years or so. knock on wood. *knuckles head.
call me tonight if you want. i'm staying home.
happy christmas eve anyway.
and you noah, my new acquaintance...
you are awfully confident. which is good i suppose.
i am getting so wary having slipped on the banana peel too many times.
one of my problems is that i am basically fearless and extremely experimental.
there is no principle that i do not automatically have to bend to see if it will break. of course when it doesn't break i get in hot water or something like that. but at least then i know for sure that it's an axiom not conditioning.
if you understand what i just said, we're going to be friends.
merry christmas eve.
By I_ArtMan, # 25. December 2007, 04:11:21
By the way, I´m back on my weblog again. Thought you might like to know?
By ricewood, # 25. December 2007, 12:14:24
wb Allan
By SqueakeyCat, # 25. December 2007, 16:37:07
thanks kim, merry christmas kid. i hope you got my card on time.
By I_ArtMan, # 25. December 2007, 17:16:28
thanks kim, merry christmas kid. i hope you got my card on time.
By I_ArtMan, # 25. December 2007, 17:18:00
Abrazos, DonYan
By DonYan, # 25. December 2007, 17:21:07
By SqueakeyCat, # 25. December 2007, 17:32:09
til then, tc scott
By SqueakeyCat, # 25. December 2007, 17:55:32
dear kim
that's terrible news for the whole country who so much love to call their distant loved ones. what a shame.
i won't be home until late evening christmas day. as i am invited to share the christmas of a family i am fond of and who, luckily for me, are, due to fondness or charity i am not sure..., but either way, a lucky chance for which i am naturally very grateful.
By I_ArtMan, # 25. December 2007, 18:48:58
By SqueakeyCat, # 25. December 2007, 22:05:48
Oh heavens no! I live in constant fear, and because of it, I am awfully wary. I consult my notes and try not to screw up the same way twice. I like to think I'm pretty bright (humor me), and when I do the same stupid thing a second time, it's hard for me to keep myself convinced that I am not an idiot.
I don't think that I push at convention as hard as I used to... or perhaps I need more justification. "I wonder what two pitchers of long island iced teas will do to my judgment?" isn't as inviting an experiment as it once was.
I hope the holiday was enjoyable, and that you had a good time with family?
By noah counte, # 26. December 2007, 03:28:49
mr. counte,
a very satisfying response to my somewhat impertinent challenge...
i'm the same way about repeating mistakes. self knowledge is a lifelong study it would seem.
i like to quote the sufi sage bahauddin, who tells of how he was walking along a path and came upon a strange stone. written on the stone was "turn me over and read." so he turned the stone over and on the other side it said "why do you seek more knowledge when you pay no heed to what you know already?"
and, at least you are bright enough to know that two pitchers of long island iced tea might make you think your ideas are brilliant but if you write them down and read them the next day after the hangover has worn off, most likely the flaws in your reasoning will stand out like a sore thumb.
the event was a great pleasure and i am very grateful to have been included in a real civilized and harmonious family get together.
my place is very festive right now and i have a good share of goodies and new clothes. but spending christmas alone, even in the most comfortable conditions can be difficult.
discreetly, i am allowed to share a few highlights of the day.
so, i'll be posting about it soon.
a couple more major events coming up and then i can get back to painting.
thanks for commenting noah.... i guess i'll just be friendly and drop the mr. counte. i know it's a clever psuedonym anyway. but with your permission it will just be noah.
also, i will add you to my friends list with your permission. it's an enormous list and i hardly know half the individuals on my friends list. that's because when someone adds me, i just add them. no big deal.
opera really should have two lists one called acquaintances, or readers and the other friends or buddies who correspond or relate to each other as friends do in the concrete world.
By I_ArtMan, # 26. December 2007, 05:07:48
I'm glad that your place is festive, and that the goodies and clothes seem to have put a smile on your face. I hope the time with family was enough to take the difficulty out of your holiday. It's been some time since I spent a holiday alone, but I always sort of enjoyed it. Of course, I'm a recluse by nature.
Noah is fine. So is Matt or Matthew. I am glad to add you as a friend, too. Social networking isn't worth much if you aren't able to distinguish between people you actually know and like, and people you've never talked to who somehow found you and added you to their list. That's the trouble with myspace, facebook, tribe, yahoo360, and every other social networking tool I've come in contact with: add a friend who is indiscriminate, and suddenly your network has more people in it than Tokyo. Meaningful conections require discrimination, and there is darned little of that anywhere I've been!
By noah counte, # 26. December 2007, 05:51:18
as a true artist i am obliged to be alone to work. as in the persian saying "the worker is hidden in the workshop"
but balance that with an alcoholics anonymous saying i picked up once and maybe the pendulum will slow down enough to distinguish whether the ground is wet or dry today. "isolation is the darkroom where i develop my negatives."
the best conditions for me i don't have right now. but i'm o.k.. i accept that.
for me the best conditions are to have a house bustling with family and pets and a large studio a short walk away.
apart from my lifelong personal aim to paint a masterpiece someday, is the desire to relate to people in a meaningful and compassionate fashion. but when in the timeless zone of production to be fully comfortable with solitude.
although i have been known to paint my best work with someone in the studio chatting away. the emphasis must always be on the work though, not on the diversion.
so i guess i am two natured. i'm a person who needs people and loves them. but i am passionate about my work.
of course then there is life's chaotic and accidental forces dictating insistently that i do something else.
i am often distracted by these picayune peregrinations like browsing in thrift stores. lol (the aliteration was accidental.)
By I_ArtMan, # 26. December 2007, 06:26:56
I keep hoping I'll win the lottery - the fruits of my labor aren't filling the coffers quickly enough - so I can build a place with a studio across the way. And maybe a velodrome... I'd hire a couple of sharp minds, and we'd revolutionize the way scholarly publishing happens, from peer review to cost models. A man can dream.
I like to work alone. But, I need to have someone who "gets me" around to bounce things off. I need someone whose judgment I trust (and whose humor suits mine). I need to hear "that's brilliant! Why has no one thought of that before?" Or, more frequently, but no less importantly "How much crack have you been smoking?" The kinds of questions people ask can tell you a lot about whether you are on the right path.
Your amusing accidental alliteration allerted me to a word I've heard, but never used myself - peregrination - which I will now make part of my personal lexicon. I do, after all, peregrinate with regularity.
By noah counte, # 26. December 2007, 15:46:00
it's comforting to know that i am not the only perennial panjandrum in pajamas riddled with bibliomania.
i do enjoy stringing words together but the trickeries fo my dilletante wordsmithing mustn't overcome the content.
i'm really a painter. and some of the love of words is similar to my love of color. in painting i see immediatly that the use of color can be almost like bad music and i suppose to a real writer what i perceive as clever diction or multiple entendre can be actually irritating. he, this imaginary real expert in communicating with words, would have to have developed a special high degree of patience not to just abruptly stop reading and never again be tempted to read my writing.
of course there's no sin in illiterating per se, but the sentence must roll gently through the mind and be chock full of meaning.
who could ever criticize shakespeare for example for penning
"when to the sessions of sweet silent thought i summon up remembrance of things past, i sigh the lack of many a thing i sought and
new wail my dear times waste." (that's from memory so wearily i'll warrant a wrong word may be wiggling away there.)
By I_ArtMan, # 26. December 2007, 21:05:00
I am blessed with many things in this world, but a juvenile sense of humor must rank near the top of the list of my assets.
I've had a number of professional lives, but none pleased me until I managed to find my current life as librarian/information manager. I've earned a lot more money, but I've never been so pleased to get up and roll out of bed on a work day.
As for my love of words, I am a muddler. I spent the weekend with my brother and father, who walk circles around me. It is a pleasure to sit in the company of masters. On the other hand, I can write limericks faster than either of them!
Your comparison of words to color is probably true - though beauty is in the eye of the holder in either case, I think. Hopefully, an artist will paint to please him or herself, a musician will compose for self pleasure, and a writer or speaker will use words that produce comfort and joy in their use. That people react well is a bonus.
Perhaps you are more able to consider the question: is art that is not created for the artists pleasure more contrived, less alive, and therefore less artful? Or is the fact that an artist can put aside his or her passion and create commercial work the true mark of genius?
By noah counte, # 27. December 2007, 00:28:58
but as far as the previous paragraph, not the last, i have a very simple ethic about that. number one; i will not do what i cannot love. and secondly, my aim is to produce life-enhancing work. which of course implies that my aim is to give something to the world while i am at it. that was a good question.
well, they're both good questions but i need to ponder the second one a bit.
By I_ArtMan, # 27. December 2007, 00:39:15
If you aren't painting something you can love, can you expect (or hope for) others to love it? Or maybe it isn't about love. I had a friend who painted really distubing things, and wanted badly to shock people. I don't think it was about love at all for her, but I never asked.
I don't know the answer, but the question intrigues me.
By noah counte, # 27. December 2007, 01:05:49
it may be a kind of glorification of one's joie de vivre or expression of aesthetic appreciation as in a landscape or sunset or a beautiful body etc.
whatever inspires you to act towards communicating that... then there is objective art which i have been trying to produce from the very beginning. something universal which will touch everyone.
i have no appreciation of ugliness or shock value. nor am i interested in slick technique. anybody who practices can do that. just as i have no interest in horror movies. i guard against bad impressions. even a grown up mind is a delicate and fragile receptor... once again not much is understood. therefore i would say that your friend must be sick in some way.
of course it's a sign of genius if you are facile enough to satisfy a commercial work. but one doesn't look upon it as anything else than a 'potboiler' for example i have illustrated a few books and i did the best i could at the time. but as a true artist i have to say that i am only searching for a way of expressing truth through art which reverberates and even emanates from my true nature. that's the hard part.
and to find that, many roads may be followed which wind up being dead ends. but you don't know that until you reach the competance in that venue. every year i get closer to doing what i am trying to do.
i would have answered sooner but the electricity has been off in the building for the last four and a half hours.
By I_ArtMan, # 27. December 2007, 05:46:04
What I know about art you could fit in a teacup. But, I know what I like. Now that I'm thinking about it, much of what I like was done for patrons, and is still beautiful to me.
By noah counte, # 27. December 2007, 19:51:39
By I_ArtMan, # 27. December 2007, 19:57:49
By noah counte, # 27. December 2007, 21:29:21
By I_ArtMan, # 28. December 2007, 00:04:12
By noah counte, # 28. December 2007, 04:02:29
By wickedlizard, # 14. January 2008, 21:58:03