New Blog

Update: New blog: A Certain Lack of Focus is up and running! See above for most recent updates.

Ok, you may have noticed over the last few weeks that my blog has been moving around a lot. The problem is that I've recently decided that, as much as I enjoy the ease of use in blogger, I want a bit more freedom when it comes to design. I temporarily moved hosting over to my website, but if anything this puts more restrictions on design, so I finally decided that it's time to move to blogging software. I'm still fiddling around with what kind, because at this point, I really know nothing about it.

The challenge has been trying to figure out how to use new software without losing the content of this blog, and I'm still not entirely sure whether it's possible. At this point, I think it's not worth it, and so instead, I'm putting Living in Space on permanent hiatus.

I'll be starting up my new blog at www.hadesarrow/blog just as soon as I can figure out how to work the software. I'll keep you posted once it's officially "launched" but to be sure you catch me, please change your bookmarks to www.hadesarrow/blog. Thank you!

Website

Things are winding down, I should be back to blogging in about a week. Until then, here's a link to the Vindicator website which I FINALLY got designed an online: www.csuohio.edu/vindicator

It's not exactly finished... the pictures are largely unlabeled not because I'm going for some ultra-cool minimalist look but because it was 5 am. The labels that do exist aren't haphazardly slapped on the photos because I have no design sense (I hope) but because it was... yes, 5 am.

Posting? HA!

Ok, so remember how I said I was going to re-start real live actual honest to goodness blogging this week? Uhm... next week maybe?

I've actually GOT two posts written and ready to go on sci-fi/fantasy design, I just need to draw the banners for them (yes, must. Because in my mind it's necessary). And I have tomorrow more or less free (Thesis? Psha.) but instead of blogging I'd actually like to try and get my desk *gasp* clean. I already made a major chunk in the colossal mess on Wednesday and it's AMAZING how much better I feel just from being able to see the wood grain again. If I could actually get my studio space organized for once that would just be... friggin fantastic. I've been close before, but I think it may actually be doable. If I promise to post pictures will you forgive me?

Multiple

Getting back into drawing of the day(s) again I hope. This is actually a... I dunno web graphic for the new blog theme. I think that will be more clear as I go. There should be a whole set coming, let's see how it goes.

Improve somewhere else

Improv Everywhere released a new video yesterday. It's not quite as striking as most of their "missions" but it's interesting for other reasons. This was the first mission by Improv Everywhere: Singapore, part of their IE Global group. If we think people in the US are potentially twitchy about large groups of people acting strangely, it's nothing compared to Singapore where they apparently have a law preventing groups larger than 4 people from gathering. The group explained that the law made planning the stunt difficult, which is perfectly logical.

Personally if I lived in a places with laws that restrictive, I'm not sure I'd be so quick to jump on board with a prank like this. There are many things worth risking arrest by oppressive governments, I'm not sure that this is one of them. Nonetheless, it sounds like they pulled off their first mission without anyone getting in trouble, so I'll give them kudos for that at least.

Video Spoof

A little while ago I posted a link to the youtube video inspired by a speech by Obama. I just ran across this video, posted on the eleventh, inspired by McCain and thought it also warranted a post.
It makes me giggle. There've actually been several video spoof type responses to the "Yes We Can" video. Two that I found just by clicking around are here and here, but I think the one above is the best.

Meme madness

William tagged me, he said to help my procrastinating. In true procrastinating style, I'm finally getting around to it more than a week later:

1) The rules for this meme are:
2) Link to the person that tagged you.
3) Post the rules on your blog.
4) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
5) Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
6) Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

1- When I ride in a car I have to tick off the road lines with my eyes and fingers. If I'm looking anywhere near them I won't be able to stop myself.

2 - I sometimes bite my nails down so far that I need a band-aid. Right now for example. Which is making typing difficult.

3 – I stopped drinking soda/pop about two and a half years ago, but I still crave it. I DREAM of drinking Pepsi, and when I pass a bar I think: God I want a drink, but I mean the soft variety.

4 – When I was a kid I thought I was an alien and was always confused by the fact that I looked so much like my parents.

5 – I don't remember how to write in cursive.

6 – Because I'm always trying to do a hundred things at once, it's often difficult for me to get anything done at all.

Tag, you're it (I'm so sorry... blame the coroner):

Kim
Matt
Marissa
Karen
Jessica
Mary

Craziness

This week's another crazy one.

While I've got a few minutes, I wanted to mention that I'll be making some changes to this blog. The theme, which is currently vaguely defined as looking at design, or looking at the way we interact with our spaces, or... well, actually it's not really defined at the moment, will be changing (I think). I'd like to start talking about design in fantasy. I'll go into a bit more detail later this week to explain what I mean by that. I hope to post about three times a week but continue (ha) my daily drawings and photos although they'll have nothing to do with the blog theme. We'll see what I decide to do with that in the long term, I'm pretty attached to both even though I've been pretty bad about posting drawings lately (including tonight, there will be no drawing tonight).

More later this week.

Living Online

I was reading Neil Gaiman's online journal and it got me thinking about modern authors and whether or not they really take advantage of the internet.

It seems like well known authors fit into one of three categories. The first is full throttle web presence: Gaiman fits into this category. You can find out anything you might want to know from his website, and (nearly) daily he updates his journal with thoughts that are interesting enough to keep people coming back. Obviously to me this sounds like the best option but I can understand why not all authors would opt for it, or why they might do it with less than full enthusiasm. Stephen King has a frequently updated site like Gaiman's, but it's clear he doesn't put quite the same attentiveness into it. Although there are still nearly daily updates, they are brief and seem to be done for the sake of doing it: it's a message board rather than a blog. Only the occasional update comes from King himself which is an important difference. Still, there is a current and full web presence for Stephen King in a similar way as there is for Neil Gaiman. J.K. Rowling also has a site like this, though she doesn't seem to update the blog section as frequently. This site, I might add is one of those obnoxious visual ones that looks super cool but is a pain in the ass to use. One of my favorite artists, John Van Fleet is guilty of the same sin.

I would classify the second segment as authors with helpful, current official websites, but without the author's presence. Terry Pratchett has a website like this. It's attractive, informative but not particularly personalized. I'd wager Pratchett has never actually spent much time on his own site and didn't put much input into its design or... anything really. And that's completely fine. At least you know that whatever's on there is going to be accurate.

Then there's the third type which is the one I really just don't get. This is the category of authors who not only have put no work into their online presence, they haven't bothered to pay someone else to do so either. My favorite author is children's author Diana Wynne Jones. When you click on what google calls her official website, what you get is actually an extensive fansite. The information on there is likely current, and probably accurate, but who knows really? The design is horrible, which is understandable because it's by fans, and probably something put together in some teenager's spare time.

In all fairness, I think Diana Wynne Jones is getting on the older side, so her lack of online involvement isn't entirely surprising. But then I come across the website for Tamora Pierce which is again, a badly designed fansite. I'm not sure how old Pierce is, but anyone who writes comic books is young enough to have a real website, not something put together by dedicated fans. Particularly for someone like Pierce whose primary audience is teenagers.

These authors are popular enough that web presence might not be necessary (though I can't think it would hurt) but in the future I see that changing rapidly. I'm always shocked when I look for an author or artist and discover that they don't have a website these days. Worse, a new business should always have a website, it's something relatively cheap and extremely easy that may help increase a customer base. Even my dad has his own website and he can't even copy/paste without help. I think the electronic age has taken over so quickly that some people still don't realize we're in it.

Picturing Matt

Some of you may have noticed that pictures I post on this site with Matt in them do not actually show his face. That's at his request, because Matt would prefer that his photograph not appear on the web. I can understand this. Obviously I have my own photo on the web, have made a conscious decision to do so. As an aspiring artist and writer I need to market myself, and I believe part of that is having my image available.

For reasons of his own, Matt doesn't want his photo online but as he does intend to publish, and in some ways, also needs to market himself, he would like to have some kind of image associated with himself. He came up with a rather clever compromise I think, by asking David Mack to draw a picture of him. David Mack is best known as the writer and illustrator of the popular Kabuki series of graphic novels which are some of the most beautiful comics I've ever seen. I mean, ever. Mack did a quick $20 sketch and agreed to let Matt use it as the image for his websites. Matt is currently using it as his blog "photo." I suppose this might get more complicated later on when Matt does start publishing, but then again, maybe not. David Mack seems pretty laid back and is also one of the nicest artists I've met at a Comic Book convention.

Stalking the Election

For the last few years I've been a bit obsessive about elections. Ok, specifically, since 2004. In 2006, I was so excited about the prospect of Republicans getting the boot that as the evening results came in I sat by my computer on an election website, hitting refresh every ten seconds, and listening to the radio for any new results (no TV). When Ohio voted in a Democratic senator, I ran into the other room where Matt was on a conference call and waved around a piece of paper where I'd written in sharpie: "Ohio is a BLUE state!"

I'm a visual person (duh) so I find it easier to process election results with charts and maps, and side by side comparisons. Yesterday, after finding out that Obama beat Hillary in South Carolina (boy did he ever!) I was looking around for some visual explanation of what exactly it meant, and preferably, for a reminder of the past few primaries and which of them actually mattered (anyone else finding this year's election more than usually confusing with all these primaries that don't count because they're too early etc?). I looked on MSN, where I spend more time than I'd like to admit, and CNN and couldn't find much, I mean, I know it must be there SOMEWHERE but I couldn't seem to run across that.

Haven't any of these news sites heard of ease of usability? People do want election specific results (I can't be the only one) and a page dedicated to that is expected. Maybe they even have one and I just couldn't find it. But seriously? I could have designed a much better path to election results.

So finally it occurred to me to check NPR's website, the site I'd haunted in 2006 and the station I'd been listening to. They had *gasp* a page dedicated to the election and, wait for it, graphs, maps and yes, side by side comparisons. I gotta say I'm a little disappointed in CNN. I'd always considered them the basic, unbiased source for finding out what's going on, but lately they've been getting more rating hungry, using fearmongering that would make Bush jealous, and apparently, giving a lower quality of information. I've trusted NPR since I started listening to it, but I always think of NPR as focusing on more human interest, unusual, slightly off the beaten path stories, with news news taking only about half the attention. You know, stories on cow farmer struggles in Wyoming and the high level theoretical discoveries by some Canadian physicist VS. weather, war and ELECTIONS. A bit more widely spread is what I'm saying. So that NPR's site is that much more effective and easy to use is, while commendable for NPR, kinda pathetic of CNN. Anyway.

What I'm really getting at is the long awaited announcement that npr.org/ is now the OFFICIAL ELECTION WEBSITE of Meagan B. Call and Hades Arrow Incorporated (there's not really any incorporated, it's just me). I Meagan Call do endorse NPR. I know the suspense has been killing you.

*Images from NPR... possibly illegal but I'm ENDORSING them, to all five of my readers, hello! Right, anyway I'll take them down if someone (someone from NPR that is) asks me.

Hosting

Yesterday I finally changed hosting for my art portfolio website, which means I can update again!

I'm not sure when I'll actually have time to update but here are a few things I'm hoping to accomplish:

On the main page, I'd like a real hadesarrow logo instead of just type reading: "logo logo logo logo HADESARROW logo logo logo logo" although that is rather fun to say if you imagine it to the tune of "Bager Bager." I've actually grown rather attached to it, but I realize it's not very professional looking so I'll probably leave it as the scroll over title to make myself feel better.

The Gallery is badly in need of updating. I'd like to have more than one gallery, with different types of artwork. The artwork on there is also pretty old, but I'm not sure how much new finished stuff I have. I guess we'll see, either way the gallery needs an overhaul.

On the bio page, I'd like to replace the pomegranate images with paintings of the same. On that note, but actually for this site, I'd like to come up with some kind of image for the title. I do like the image that's up there now, but it needs to go. It was the stock art that came with this template and since I'm claiming to be creative it's a bit sad to have something up that I didn't create. Once I get rid of that there won't be any imagery on the site that I didn't create. Except of course for all the photos I steal from flickr.

100

This is my 100th post, something that I find extremely fitting since I managed to hit 100 pages in my novel/thesis today. True, I had to cheat a little to get there, but the "filler" is legitimate chapter planning that will be expanded as I go, a normal part of my writing process. Without it I have a very real 95 pages of story and the page count at the bottom says 102, so standing by my claim of having finally reached 100 pages.

This has been a good year. Matt and I got engaged which, while I can't exactly list it as something I've accomplished, does make me very happy. I'm almost finished with classes towards my degree, this semester I'll be taking my last workshop and thesis credits. Next year I'll have a single thesis credit left to complete. On a related note, I also started a blog for the NEOMFA community. It's not exactly hopping with popularity, but we've got a handful of authors and I suspect we'll have many more join next semester.

Last year in March, we adopted Tricky. She was pregnant with six kittens, all of which were born healthy and thrived, much to our exhaustion. To Chyna's dismay, we kept the kittens until June, when went to Scotland to see our friends Greyson and Amy (different Amy than I've mentioned before, that Amy was taking care of our cats) get married. Once we were back in town we moved to the condo, a smaller space than Matt's apartment, and started working on consolidating two spaces to one at the same time as introducing two angry, female, adult cats. Surprisingly, they're good friends now, though the space is still a mess.

This year marks the first time I've felt that I had some kind of skill set that might actually allow me to get a job. I've also lost 20 lbs which makes my doctor happy, and doesn't exactly get me down either. All in all I'm feeling pretty positive about things. I do live with the constant fear that I'm a bit too happy and something horrible is bound to happen, but here's hoping that gut clenching paranoia is a karmic payment?

Winter Break

Now that the semester's over I've got a bit of free time. I say free, but most of it's already spent, like credit, with tasks I've been putting off until now.
The most obvious one is cleaning. The condo has rarely been clean since I've lived here (though it truly has been once or twice) but it's not been clean at all since Matt moved in. This isn't to say that he's more of a slob than I am (he's not, trust me) it's just that the two of us now have so much stuff that we can't seem to figure out what to do with it all. Things were slowly getting better but over the last couple weeks my areas specifically, my studio desk, my side of the bed etc. have been piling up as I've not taken the time to put things away. Now that I have a bit more time I can get caught up on laundry and get my work space cleared once again.

It will be nice to have a clean living space, but this is less pressing than a few projects I need to complete. One is the Vindicator website. I've been meaning to get this started for a year and a half, and now I finally have the time and the lack of excuses to hopefully get it up and running. Once I'm done with that I've promised to make a website for Matt's sister Jen, who knits funky-cool to elegant purses, scarves and accessories. If I finish that and still have some time left over I'd like to start redoing my own website. I think the basic look is ok for now, nice and simple, but it desperately needs a logo of some kind and the gallery is badly in need of updating.

I'd also like to start cleaning up my computer desktops, and synchronize my laptop and desktop as much as possible. Matt just purchased a 500 GB hard drive and is making a larger server out of it. Once that's done I'll back up all the data on both computers and be better able to figure out what should be on which. I'll also be able to finally sit down and rip all our music onto the server and my desktop so we can listen to anything whenever we want. Matt says he can hear the difference in quality between CD and mp3, I guess I can too, but I don't really mind. We'll be keeping the CDs anyway, but this way we'll have semi-permanent versions of all our music.

Cool CopyCat

A little while ago I posted about a photographer I'd stumbled on with cool invented reality type photos. He does scenes that range from fantasy flying to diving to high speed bike races and they're all pretty fun.

Well the writer of the blog who initially pointed me to his site decided to copy his technique for her Christmas cards. Personally it's a bit religious for my taste, but it's a freaking cool looking photo, along with commentary of how she did it. Go to the December 3rd entry, she doesn't seem to have pages for each entry.

New Ideas

I recently joined a new blog called Illustration Friday Night. They post a word or phrase every week and contributors have the option of posting an illustration in response. The blog itself is a response to a blog called Illustration Friday which, as they put it, tends to be a little tamer in theme. Friday Night is supposedly a bit edgier or, as they put it: "the only manifesto is to keep things fairly real and raw." We'll see how that goes, I think having a space to post, with decent artists to sort of spurn me could be very helpful. There's another site I wanted to join, Sugar Frosted Goodness! but I think they actually want you to be a professional Illustrator to contribute, which I'm obviously not at this point. Some of the artwork on there is really amazing, my favorites are Michelle White and Mattias Adolfsson.

My posting will probably be a little scant over the next few days because I'm dealing with finals preliminaries...

Neat

I just ran across a nifty website. It's called 43 things and the concept is extremely simple. It looks like people just log in and make a list of things they want to do. They can be daily goals, life goals, or just silly whims, and the combination is really quite entertaining. People who log on do have the opportunity to write a post on their goals, but for the most part it's a site of just lists. The best part is the site's design, I can't really describe it, so go check it out. http://www.43things.com

I found it while looking for other blogs that do a Drawing of the Day type thing. Apparently there are four people on the site who have as one of their goals, to do a drawing every day. Kinda cool. I've still yet to find another blog that's doing this with sketches. A few that used to, a few that call it a drawing a day but post almost never. I'm sure there must be others, can someone tell me if they've seen some?