Changing Places

My dogs’ least favorite words: Half an hour til dinner!”

Neatorama

These awesome photos of egg city sculpture / art was taken somewhere in Guangzhou. Link

For other city landscape / art made from food, checkout Neatorama’s past blog posts: Biscuit City | San Francisco in Jell-o

ARTnatomy | ARTnatomía

Very cool tool for learning about the muscles and structure of the face – great if you are interested in learning how to draw better faces!

Glass Garage Fine Art Gallery

Yes, it’s a painting. Wow…..

Via Neatorama.

Self-portrait Tuesday

Dear Donna,

OK, get that grin off your face and listen, because we need to talk. Having just gotten done with your shower, and fooled around with all that jazz you do afterwards, here’s the thing:

Nobody cares what your toes look like. What the heck are you wasting all that time for with a pedicure? You aren’t even wearing sandals, you wear tennis shoes 80% of the time anyway. If it feels good, fine, but quit obsessing over what they look like for goodness sakes.

Ditto on the leg and pit shaving. You barely have hair on your legs anyway, and the few times people even notice the pit fur you think they’re weird for getting bugged about it. Again, nobody really cares, and you’re not wearing shorts or tank tops anyway. Stop it. Unless the pits are smelling, forget about it.

OK, so you don’t bother with makeup much these days. I’m cool with that. And the hair is certainly easy enough – just long and straight these days. No fuss, no bother. We’re good there.

The facial stuff? Well, when you have time, fine, do a peel or whatever. Otherwise, slap on some moisturizer and be done with it, already.

You tend to wear comfortable clothes, which is great. Aren’t you glad you don’t have to wear those damned suits from the 80s anymore? And pantyhose? Forget it. Yeah!

On to other things.

Get that grin back on your face, and smile more! It looks a lot better than when you’re just moping around, and it makes you feel better. Didn’t that cheer you up, just smiling? Right, so do more of that.

That pile of art books is getting pretty bad. Stop piling them up, read them, and do stuff with them.

Ditto on all the other piles of crap around here. Clean them up, already. It’s spring, time to clean! Great job cleaning up the kitchen yesterday, btw – sparkly!

Stop worrying about the Japanese final tonight – you’ll do fine. Relax already. And the Japanese dinner after is gonna be great.
You don’t have to order things perfectly.

Stop worrying about the voice lessons this week – it’s been 30 years since you practiced, you’re not gonna be great. Just have fun, already.

Ditto on the art stuff. Just have fun already. You need lots more fun.

OK, get your hair dry and take the son out to lunch. And enjoy the day!

Without going outside, you may know the whole world.
Without looking through the window, you may see the ways of heaven.
The farther you go, the less you know.
Thus the sage knows without travelling;
He sees without looking;
He works without doing.
Tao Te Ching, 47

The personal message I have taken from this verse of the Tao is the understanding that whatever I am seeking outside myself, the real answer lies somewhere within. Tao often reminds us that the things we seek from the world can be found within us as well – if we are seeking love, the answer is to give love. If we are seeking wealth, the answer is to take care of what we have.

I have so often found when I want something new, the answer comes in taking care of the thing that I have that I seek to replace, or taking care of related things in my life. Either I find myself seeing something with new eyes, and realizing I don’t need a new one anyway, or I will take such good care of it that someone else comes along and wants it, and then I find I have the funds to replace it. Or I may find I have something else available to me that I can use in its place. I don’t know why this works, but it does.

The other answer is to give up looking, and suddenly, the thing seems to come to you. When we stop desperately seeking for something outside of ourselves to fulfill us, the universe can answer us. As long as we are so desperate in our search, we often overlook what is right in front of us.

This was the Inspire Me Thursday challenge this week:

Now that we have put our sense to the test let’s see what we can do when we take them away…
This weeks challenge is to create a piece of art without using your senses.

I tried to do this piece at first as just something without my senses – brown ink, a stamp, limited. But, then the red came in, because
the thing that almost immediately comes to my mind when I think of “Senseless” is violence, and from there, I couldn’t come up with anything more senseless than the headlines in the papers every day. I don’t even subscribe to the paper, but on Sundays, they seem compelled to bring me one, I don’t know why. I usually read news off the Internet – NY Times or from the myriad of web sites I frequent. But anyway, these were headlines from today’s news.

I’m late on this, thanks to jury duty this week, but this was the Inspire Me Thursday challenge for the last week –

This week’s challenge involves some sensory exploration: Can you use all five of your senses in your creative process?

This piece used color, for sight, of course, salt, sugar and vanilla in the painting process, for taste and smell, touch/texture with paper towels and napkins for blotting and my hands which ALWAYS get in the paint somehow, and for hearing, the silence (Aah!) since nobody was up making noise this morning when I did this. And, the Tao quote relates too, of course.

The five colours blind the eye.
The five tones deafen the ear.
The five flavours dull the taste.
Racing and hunting madden the mind.
Precious things lead one astray.
Therefore the sage is guided by what he feels and not by what he sees.
He lets go of that and chooses this.
Ta Te Ching, 12

“In a creative life, droughts are a necessity. The time in the desert brings us clarity and charity. When you are in a drought, know that it is to a purpose. And keep writing morning pages. — Julia Cameron

As I write this, it’s raining outside. Within though, there isn’t much art going on. I feel like I’ve been in a creative drought. But, like the day outside, perhaps the rains are coming soon. I start my voice lessons next week. This is a good rain outside today – my garden is going to be happy. And perhaps, soon, so will my art.

Backpack Slut Cat

Cat in a Box

Catnipped Cat

Except that I was juror number 10 at that point, having just moved into the box from being juror number 22 as the final jury was being selected. The prosecutor decided to use one of his peremptory challenges to kick me out right at that point. They don’t have to tell you why, they just get to boot people they don’t think will be good for their case. So, I spent two days on jury duty instead of the five weeks I might have served.

I had sort of mixed feelings – glad to be out of the committment, yet also a little disgruntled at not getting to know what about me had made the prosecutor reject me as a juror. Was it a gut feeling, something I said, something I did, being a 40-something female, a smile at the wrong time, not laughing at his jokes, not opening up enough that he had a good feeling about me? I’ll never know. And it was an interesting case, and I was enjoying watching the psychological battle of wits and the sly attempts at persuasion before the case was even presented.

Ah well. So I’ve spent most of the afternoon pouring over info about voir dire and all the little tricks involved. I know it isn’t personal — I’m just curious. At one point in my life I thought I might be a lawyer, when I was in around eighth grade. In high school my views turned pretty liberal and I didn’t want much to do with law. Then last week, my shrink was suggesting I go to law school. I just sort of grinned inwardly, and shrugged it off. Today, I was starting to feel at home in the courthouse, thinking I could have been there, potentially, as a participant if not for the feelings in my life that changed as a teen. And then, to be so summarily dismissed from that world. It’s a strange feeling. Like an alternate life, I might have lived, if not for…

Well, a lot of things.

Dependable Renegade: Wednesday morning

So..darn..cute! Thanks, watertiger!

I can’t wait to have a golden retriever ranch!

Via Hoffmania:

From my friend John Pierce…

(Logo via feministing via Daily Kos…)

Follow the “Take Action” link to let these troglodytes know what you think… I hope you can be more polite about it than I was. Or not. I’m sick of these asshats thinking they own our uteruses.

Take Action: Stand Up for South Dakota Women
Take Action!
Stand Up for South Dakota Women

Can you believe it? South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds (R) has just signed into law a ban that criminalizes abortion in the state of South Dakota! Americans across the nation are outraged by this severe attack on women’s health and safety.

Write Governor Rounds a personal note to let him know EXACTLY how you feel about this dangerous abortion ban. We’ll even send a copy of your message to your governor to help make sure your state doesn’t become the next South Dakota.

UPDATE:

In South Dakota, Rounds’ Approval Plummets
South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds’ (R) job approval dropped to 58% from 72% last month, after he signed a bill outlawing most abortions in the state, according to a new SurveyUSA poll.

One of the most important guidance points in life I’ve come across lately is to love the people in front of you. I think of this every time I’m out in public and waiting in line, or ordering something, or being served in some way. This post hits on some of those very important points of simply being considerate of those who are serving you.

AlliStan: A Guide!

I enjoy giving guidance to others. It is why I am an RA and a Trinity bitch. Not so much teaching, maybe, because although that can be fun I am not so practiced at it. Mostly, I love advising. And a topic has been brought to my attention recently:

Many people (not necessarily you) treat service people like crap. And even those who would never dream of treating a waiter poorly (as there is some semblance of a personal power relationship there) still treat counterworkers like crap. My innate trust in the good of mankind (*chuckle CHOKE*) leads me to believe that this must be because people do not know what they are doing or what behavior is appropriate. Thus I will take it upon myself to remedy the situation! with some points.

Just got the book How to Find the Work You Love from Paperbackswap and already finding it resonating. A brief passage:

Ultimately, the discovery of a life’s work begins with the realization of what it means to be a human being — embracing what binds us all together and appreciating what makes each of us unique. As long as we deny that we are social beings and ignore the needs of the world, we miss the sense that our work is meaningful. We feel cut off, lonely, and alienated. As long as we deny our individuality and fail to develop and express our unique talents and gifts, we miss the joy of creative self-expression. We feel frustrated, repressed, and trapped. Simply put: To the extent that your work takes into account the needs of the world, it will be meaningful; to the extent that through it you express your unique talents, it will be joyful.

We are constantly pushed by this society to produce more, consume more, work harder. But when are we encouraged to be more creative, to be more joyful, to truly take a look at what the world may need and how our skills might match it?

So here are some of my current needs, which I can’t find anyone to provide and would love to pay someone to help me with:

I would love to have an art mentor, someone willing to share their skills with me without trying to “fix” me the way an art therapist does, or force their techniques on me the way many art and craft teachers seem to do.

I would love to have someone I can learn from about how to breed puppies and raise service dogs, that doesn’t demand that I devote all my free time to raising a service dog right this moment or want to charge hundreds and hundreds of dollars for a dog.

I would love to find someone who likes gardening and would help me redesign my garden landscape without charging me a small fortune.

Studio space to use one or two days a week.

Someone to come design and build built-in bookcases and not charge me a small fortune.

Here are some services I HAVE paid for:

An organization service provided by a friend called “Clutter Therapy” that helped us weed a lot of the crap out of our house and organize the rest of it.

Various art and craft classes offered by individual friends as well as the local craft store – would just as happily go to someone’s home or studio.

Beautiful handmade items sold at craft fairs and online at places like Etsy.

Here are some skills I have that I need to learn how to market better:

Software and business process design – would particularly like to work with smaller local businesses to help them define and restructure their processes to be more successful. I am not very good at marketing myself, however. I tend to find work either through headhunters finding my resume, or search services like Dice.com.

Tao. I am never sure how one would go about “teaching” the Tao, and would certainly not ever charge for it. But I have found it brings me more peace of mind that anything I’ve ever found in my life. I get a real thrill whenever someone tells me they “discovered” the Tao through my blog!

Golden Retrievers. I really want to turn my love of goldens into a business, eventually having a golden retriever ranch and raising goldens as service and companion dogs.

Native Plants. I keep another blog, Native Growers, that I once wanted to turn into a business linking Native Plant growers, landscape designers, and customers. The people I was trying to put this together with lost interest and moved on to other things, so these days it’s just a blog.

Natural health care and cosmetics. Antoher business idea was to start a store featuring natural health care and cosmetic products, as well as local artist’s jewelry and work. I figured out it would probably kill me to have to be in one place all day long, though.

So anyway, I have lots of ideas, but — I never really seem to find the motivation to pull these ideas off. And I’ve spent many years as a consultant. I know how to do it when I “have” to, but not how to pull things together when I want to.

Which isn’t to say other things in my life have come to me easily. I’ve had a wonderful 21 year Marriage (our 22nd anniversary is coming up April 28th). But it certainly hasn’t always been great, and at times, it’s been very painful. At other times, it is incredibly joyful. I’ve raised two kids, certainly always a mixed experience. Even pets are sometimes sick and eventually, we do lose them, which brings us great sadness. I’ve lost my parents, several friends, and had my share of heartaches.

So I don’t expect work to always be wonderful or fulfilling. I do expect, though, that all of us need to be involved in creative work that we love to do, or else it is simply a job. And I don’t need a job, I need something that goes far beyond that. There isn’t a pressing financial need for me to work, or to make myself unhappy doing it. But the need to express myself creatively is there, and the desire to make a difference in the lives of others is there.

What’s left is to find the missing pieces of this puzzle. And I doubt that this time, they are in my business professor’s pocket. (One of my professors used to have groups of students put a puzzle together as an exercise. The final piece was in his pocket, and you had to figure out to go ask him for it. It was to teach us to talk to the customer when trying to figure out the problems in a process). This time, they’re most likely hiding in my pocket.

Cha Xiu Bao: Food for Petty Persons

In Chinese moon calendar, today earmark the day of Jingzhe (驚蟄). Chinese farmers in the past came to realize that every year there is a day in summertime when venomous insects wake up and the ‘White Tiger,’ a super-natural malignant being in Chinese folklore, roams around looking for prey. Gradually, it has become the day of Jingzhe. To placate the White Tiger, local folks perform some sorts of ritual today. At the very beginning, it was some kinds of fest, like lion dancing and singing. But over time, the main theme for today was turned into ritual of beating ‘petty person’ — 打小人(i.e. beating hostile people), with reason still unknown.

The best locale to witness this ‘petty person’ beating ritual in Hong Kong is the Goose Neck Bridge of Wanchai (nearby the Times Square of Causeway Bay). Dr. Sui-wai Cheung of the City University of Hong Kong has a detailed story about this over here.

Like all things in life, the formule for beating nasty person changes too. In the days of yore, the petty person you hated so much was beaten up for some good time by the professional beaters (about HK$50 per fix) with Chinese cloth shoes vigorously. But what a sad fact for your nemesis! These beaters these days use high heels, which in my opinion is ten times deadlier than cloth shoes. “To all the restaurateurs and chefs I’ve bad-mouthed out there: if there’s anything I did you wrong, let me know, okay? Just don’t go down to that bridge, please? I’ll try to make up for you as far as possible…”

A funny thing is, for the spell to be more effective, it is better to use the shoes worn by clientele, though in theory any shoes will do. That’s the reason why you can see many people sitting barefooted next to the beaters during the ceremony. [Caution: the large loaf of french stick you bought from the bakery, though stone solid, is hopelessly useless in this regard. It is better to use it to bang a living person; instead of the sufferer drawn on papers.]

There is a wrong belief that the birthday (the year, month, day and hours in lunar terms) of your antagonist is pivotal for an effectual beat up. But, hey, we’re living in a space age, right? Good news is, the residential address your hidden adversary will suffice (email address or URL is quite another story) …

Food-wise, food served today is for neither you or me but the paper tigers. You’d need to buy up some nice xiu yuk (barbecued pork) from the roastie specialist so that you can ingratiate the paper tigers (represent the mighty White Tiger) with. With that, not only will the white tiger not take you as prey, but it will also aid you to remove all the threats from the petty people around you.

By now, you’re probably wondering why the bloody hell I know so much about this virulent business. Frankly, my dear readers, it’s because I am also one of these professional beaters down there at the bridge and, I am, the busiest among all — simply because someone once asked me to beat all those spiteful souls who dislike this mediocre food blog one year ago…

「打你個小人頭，打到你有氣都無得透﹔
打你隻小人手，打到你有金都唔識偷。」

“I beat your petty head, so that you can’t breathe any air;
I beat your petty hand, so that you can’t steal any silver.”

This sounds like great fun to me! I’m off to go make some petty people to beat up, and some paper tigers to feed!

Molecular Expressions: Science, Optics and You – Secret Worlds: The Universe Within – Interactive Java Tutorial

View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons.

I have a Bookcrossing copy of Artist’s Way available to anyone who would like to read it. You have to promise to pass it along when you finish with it, though! Email me at donna at woodka dot com if you would like it….