Images 0122

Probably, this is the last of the "op art" pictures.
The first of the two, 281 Blocks, is an old pattern for me. When I run out of ideas, I put a border around a pattern and do it again. I did make one change from before...the smallest units are 7/8"x7/8" (2 blocks) instead of 1/2"x 1/2" (1 block), and the big block in the center is 1 5/8"x 1 5/8"
(4 blocks), instead of 1 1/4"x1 1/4" (3 blocks).

Dozens of color schemes were produced before I chose one to build a model of, then I made lots and lots of changes on that model before I settled on a design for the final product.

Second on the hit parade, 282 yellow_x, is a slight change on the border concept. Instead of the interlocking s shapes, the border was a box of 4x4 squares. This did prove to be much easier to design and produce.
The other thing I wanted to try was Purple. I got some materials in December, and I got a pack of Purple stickers that I wanted to try. The original model was a yellow x in the middle, with the colors following in a rainbow pattern (albeit a five color rainbow)

Finishing the initial model, I saw very quickly that this was not going to work. In fact, the only thing from the original plan that made it to the final assembly is the yellow x, and two of the layers of green alongside. What I wound up with was a yellow-green x in the middle, with the rest of the box filled in with orange and blue. Purple will be used at sometime in the future. The blocks around the outside were arranged to accent the colors in the middle.
I was reminded on these two projects how I have to build the model, look at the results, and make the appropriate changes based on my instincts. There is a lot of intuition and "gut feeling" involved. Is this god talking to me? Or does it matter what the source of these images is?
And how to know when I have made enough changes, and have the best product that I can get out of this design, or maybe change the design itself. There are some who say that god doesn’t speak to man anymore. I beg to differ.

Blog Notes

http://www.blogger.com/start
This has a scrolling list of blogs that have recently had posts. Some are great and some are not. Also, this is where you would go to set up a blogger account, and to post to that account.
There is a photo posting software they will try to get you to use. Stay away from it. The regular posting window has a way to add photos, which is easy enough to use. When you get to that point write back and I will give you a couple of ideas that have worked for me.
http://www.chamblee54.blogspot.com/
This is me.
http://www.technorati.com/
This reviews the blogs on the internet. It has a top ten list, and a search engine that will find just about anything you want.
http://www.slate.com/
This is the microsoft "content" newspage.( They may have sold it to someone, though) The "todays papers" feature is a consise summary of a few newspapers. "todays blogs " is a review of what they find on blogs. TB will usually cover three or four subjects a day, and what they find people are saying about them. They will have links to the blogs that they mention, and a link to an overall source of commentary on that subject (usually technorati)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Main_Page
This is an amazing resource.

The shortcuts folder
Recently, I have been saving interesting sites to the "favorites" section on the internet explorer. Every few days, I will drag these into a folder in "my documents" called "shortcuts". Here are a few of the highlights.
Religion
http://www.undojesus.org/
http://www.subgenius.com/
http://purgatorio1.com/
this is the only jesus worship blog i include here. Billed as "a panoply of evangelical eccentricities, un-orthodox oddities and christian cultural curiosities".
http://www.beliefnet.com/
Take the test and find out what religion you are.
http://www.seesharppress.com/20reasons.html
20 reasons to abandon christianity
Politics
http://www.trueblueliberal.com/
This is a collection of things from a variety of sources on the internet. If you need more convincing that W is an idiot.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/
http://smirkingchimp.com/
http://progressive.org/
http://hammeroftruth.com/
http://www.crooksandliars.com/
http://www.commondreams.org/
http://www.antiwar.com/
http://iraqbodycount.org/
http://donkeyod.blogspot.com/
The kitchen sink
http://satanscrotchlessknickers.blogspot.com/
http://voidwithme.blogspot.com/
out of sao paulo, a great source of quotes.
http://www.ihatestarbucks.com/
what it says it is
http://www.erowid.org/
"documenting the complex relationship between humans and psychoactives"
http://www.digitalblasphemy.com/dbhome.shtml
Lots and lots of wallpaper to download
http://www.anagramgenius.com/definition.html
Where we learn that elvis evils lives, with nicest incects incest.
http://godisnotanasshole.blogspot.com/
this is a great resource. It has three to four features a day, with all sorts of "fantastic realism"

Arlington Sunday

September 5, 1982. I am making a delivery to Taylor and Mathis. A plane is flying by, carrying a banner; "Harvey Mathis is Fifty"

January 8, 2006. I go for a walk at Arlington Cemetery, along with my friend Robert and a blind chow named Uzi.


Steppenwolf did "Born to be wild" on the radio as I was going up Lake Forest Drive to the facility.


Steppenwolf was also a novel by Herman Hesse. One day in 1970, a recent graduate of Cross Keys High School went to the 22nd floor indoor balcony at the Regency Hyatt House. She left a copy of Steppenwolf on the railing, and jumped to the lobby 22 floors below.


Leaving the burial ground, the song on the radio was " I wanna be sedated" by the ramones. Three of the original four members of that band are now deceased.




Vietnam sent many fine young men to a premature demise. This man died on my 17th birthday.

Holocaust Survivor. When I see those words on a headstone, I wonder how I could complain about anything.










Coworker and friends were visited. After a visit to the baby section, the only thing left was the sculpture garden. This is the site of sunrise services on Easter Sunday.

Letterman vs BO

I am so grateful I don’t have cable tv.
Aside from being subjected to cable company service, you are also exposed to the fox news network.
Of course, I can read Bill O’Reilly (BO) in the Sunday Paper, along with another argument for retroactive birth control, Ann Coulter. I can get an idea of what he is talking about, including the laughable "War on Christmas"
Aside from my own blog babble about the WOC, I got into another bitchfight with a jesus worship blog(Look in the December05 archive, "What", "So Called", and "The Last Santa Post"). I made the comment:
2- This has been a bad year for christmas. Fox News made a play for ratings out of the "war on christmas", which really took some of the fun out of it for me.
To which my counterpart replied
I’m not sure, really, how this was a “bad year” for Christmas. Even after reading your link, Christmas still was pretty good all around. All-told, about 3 billion people celebrated it in one way or another.
to which I replied:
Christmas can be very unpleasant when you are alienated from jesus. The fact that 3 billion people celebrated it this year (please break that figure down for us) only serves to isolate people who have been shown the ugly truth of jesus by way of jesus worshippers. The fact that Bill O'Reilly tried to score rating points by exploiting this situation only makes it worse.
sophistry...an argument that is plausible but fallacious or misleading, especially one devised deliberately to be so
Now , thanks to the HammerofTruth I have a copy of the BO-Letterman debate. I also have a copy of BO's column about this meeting, as well as a story from MediaMatters,regarding one of the points BO made.
Now , I could go through all this...matter... and sort out, compare, contrast, cross reference, annotate, affiliate, and masticate to my hearts content. Using the above links, you the blogreader can do the same thing. Such are the wonders of the internet.
If you like, you can even go here, and there, and find out more about BO, his sexual harassment settlement, his love of falafel , and much much more , until you discover a new meaning for the phrase T.M.I.
But then, Mr. Letterman summed much of it up when he said “I’m not smart enough to debate you point to point on this, but I have the feeling, I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap."

Cold Weather

Originally, I went out on my bike to take pictures of what i call "doggie no signs".

Brookhaven used to be full of houses that looked like this, albeit without the purple paint. This house is across from a row of condos, and used to have a sign in front..."greedy developers suck".

Walking is a great activity. Last week I posted this comment about a walk I took.
I just got back from taking a walk in the cold twilight.
I went through a forest, which is still standing 3 miles from the city limits of a major city.
I went to a mall. The mall is now dominated by Mexicans, and was full of happy men, women, and children who have come to the United States to find a better life.
The ATM at the mall gave me money.
I walked back to the house, and my body heat was captured by the layers I was wearing, so I was no longer cold.
I see God in all of this
The day before I had taken a similar hike...the ATM did not work that day...and I took my camera.



Inside the mall, these birds were on display.


Photography is a popular pastime at the mall. Here are two backgrounds on display.

Granite and limestone are two of the featured players in the stone circle.This picture is notable because I was able to edit out the barkaholic dogs next door. If only I could do that in real life.

Self-timer photography is a dangerous hobby. I have gotten some bad press for other pictures, which offer "too much information". In partial retribution for those, I offer this image of me with lots of clothes on.

Jerseys for the Fan

It all started with a visit to Godisnotanasshole. There was a story posted there about how Jesus used cannabis products in oils used for anointing.
While I was looking at that story, I saw a sidebar.There was a about a story with this headline "Iraq war could cost US over $2 trillion, says Nobel prize-winning economist". In that story , there was a comment from Paul Bremer, the leader of the US occupation of Iraq after the initial invasion....."we really didn't see the insurgency coming,"
I went to technorati, to look for articles about Paul Bremer. I found this. It turns out he was promoting a book when he made that comment. As one blogger noted, don't they have laws about criminals writing books to profit from their crimes?
While I was looking for Paul Brewer, I saw a listing for Marcus Vick.
At the top of the page ,of links for posts about the disgraced Marcus Vick, was a sponsored link...
"Michael Vick Jerseys
Michael Vick Falcons jerseys and other great Falcons products for the fan"
And people think I make this up.

spell check

Spell check is a wonderful feature. When you misspell a word, you look stupid. It takes away from the message you are trying to present, by focusing attention on your spelling mistakes. (“Profanity” serves the same function, but that is a topic for another day.) It is like the old ad slogan:
"Aren’t you glad you use Dial soap, don’t you wish everyone did?"
I began to notice some of the suggested spellings. Some of these are not noticeable, but some are, well, poetic. It is what I would call a synchronistic connection. Often, the suggested spelling is truer than the real word.
An example of this is inerrant. For those of you fortunate enough not to be babtist, inerrancy is the belief that the bible is perfect. There are no errors, it is inerrant. The spell check suggestion for inerrant is ignorant.
So I started to save my spell check suggestions, with the idea of posting them to my blog (blob). Well, I have enough now to produce my first installment.
I have also produced a best-of list. My goal at first was a top ten list, but I found 13 that I wanted to include, and you don’t have to put a bakers dozen in order. I will present them in alphabetical order.


blog...blob
Cheney...teeny
christian...tearstain
crockpots...crackpots
elvis...Elvis levies elves pelvis envies olives selves elsie
i ching....chink
inerrancy....ignorance
inerrant...inert ignorant
jesus...Jesus Jesse jests guess gases gooses guesses
gaseous disuse disease
Latino...lotion
mens...mess
Saddam...sadism sadden sadder sad sadie sodium sodom
Satan...stain

Here is the unedited list. When I get more I will post them, unless that is illegal by then.


batman...batsman, badman, bagman, barman, boatman, boatmen, batten, baton, batsmen,
boatsmen, bitmap, bitumen, badmen, bagmen, barmen
blog....blob
blogging....blooding, blooming, blotting, blowing
blogs...blobs,blocs, blots, blows, bloods, blooms, bolls, bags, bolos, bolas,
boles bolus, bolds, bolts, logs,clogs, flogs,
bringeth...bright
buford...buffered.
cessationist...secessionist
Cheney...teeny, cheyenne
chou--- chuo cho chow chuuo chichofo chop thou chouse choir choke chore chase chori choose
christian....Christian, Christina, christen, Christine, christie, tearstain
citgo....cite cit. city cottage co she shi
conoco...conic conch cognac
cookoff-- cookout, cook, cookie, cooked, cooker, cooks, kickoff
crockpots...crackpots
doo-----do du dew dough doe dou doom door de dod doro doc dog don dos dot dow
elvis...Elvis levies elves Ellis pelvis envies olives velves selves elise elsie Eloisa Eloise
Faerie...faeroe fare fair fairy fairer faired
google... goggle googol
gotta...got goth goat
grady...grade gray gravy grabby grammy granny grassy grad grads
hiv...HIV iv hi hive hie hid hop him hip his hit div
hiway...hawaii helwa howa
i ching....change chin china chine chino chink chins ting tinge shinju cling
inerrancey...ignorance
inerrant...inert ignorant
jesus...Jesus Jesse jests Jesus' Jesults jest jesuit guess gases gassess gooses guesses gauss gaseous gessoes disuse gesso disease
korean...Korean Koran Korea Koreas chorine Karen careen corn quern corona Corinne doreen Noreen Loren choral
Latino...Latin, lateen latinos latent latrine lattice litany lotions litton lain
laity lamina
LOL...loll Lola lolls loa lou lob lot low lox Lon Los
mens....men menus means men's mend menu mess megs mews
mylar....molar myles
pervs...proviso peer's press preps preys preens per's perks perms perts proves
psudo...spud pseudo
ramadi---armada, ramada, rammed
Saddam...sadism, sadden, sadder, sad, sadie,sodium sodom
satan...satin, sateen, sata, saran, stan, stain, saturn, satanic, sat, sate, sating,
satins, satiny, sated, sates, sat., SATs, seat, seats
satanism...satanist, satins, stalinsim, stains, sternums,
taliban- talibone
tanuki...tank tannic
thats...thetas that's thais thaws that tats teats
tmi--- tim Mt
todays....toadies toddies today's today toads toady's toads toady
ty...tie
wassup...wasp
x-tian...Tina tan tin Ian titan
When I first posted this piece, I noticed a glitch that I wanted to correct. After I fixed that problem, I saw a spelling mistake that somehow got through the spell check. I spelled "ignorant" ignortant. I rest my case.