Many of them brought to you by Stumbleupon.com

This is my lame attempt to make up for some down time due to illness and Oregon heatwave issues, and so I am struggling to catch up in real life, here and on livejournal... bear with me.

I'll be needing some of this music for my planned gypsy-spirit trek next June. No, it's not gypsy music, it's world music, my vehicles and art workspace all run on world music....

This is a fun site filled to the brim with fun stuff to cruise while sipping your morning coffee... or late night coffee in my case... the art section alone will take you days of skimming. Fun stuff, truly.

The truly cool photography of a young photographer named Eric M. Gustafson, worth a look see, if he keeps turning out photographs like these he is gonna make his own niche in the world.

Monkeysee is a bonanza of how2 videos on everything from cooking, (great international cooking videos btw)... to changing a light bulb to repairing a broken window... and of course there's important stuff like step by step instructions where you can learn how to build your own computer

This is the most amazing tribute by a son for his father, a photo journal of a young man's interactions with his 98 year old father. It is truly a touching tribute as he documents his father's end of life journey with dementia and remembers what he use to be like. Sorta tricky to navigate, scroll down till you see the bottom of the picture and click on it to get to the next page... many of the pics have notations along the left side....

This one's for Ramie Vegan recipes to torment Brian with....lol. The rest of you can use it if vegans come for dinner and you have no idea what to cook for them. Some of them actually look rather yummy!

A fun collection of unusual statues from around the world... shame on them for omitting Portlandia.

And last but not least, THIS, just because everyone should have this bookmarked for future reference.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Robert Genn sent out a newsletter today and within it he mentions Professor Jim Horne of the Loughborough Sleep Research Center in England and his opinions on larks and owls, ( aka early birds and night owls).... you can read it here: http://clicks.robertgenn.com/larks-owls.php
Within it he says "It seems that larks have an advantage in concentration and inventiveness"

I tend to disagree with this generalized statement, because the outcome really depends on when you test the owls. Testing the creativity of an owl at 8am is sorta like testing the creativity of a lark at 3am... they probably are not at their top performance, ya know?

If you are at all interested in how the brain functions, you really need to read John Medina's book:
Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School

There is a podcast interview with him here to give you an idea of his ideas on things.
Pay attention to the 41:00 mark where the discussion covers owls and larks, and sleep cycles.
The Brain Science Podcast is a great site. The host, Dr. Ginger Campbell, covers tons of topics about the brain, in layman language.

Anyway the article got me to thinking about how I function. I think I have always been a owl, I function better than most on 4-5 hours sleep obtained between 2 and 9pm, my 'pay the bills' job is in health care, where night shift workers who function well on an owl sleep schedule are cherished. Artistically I always get my best ideas and do my best work creatively between 2am and 6am, (the ideas wake me if I am sleeping) my second best function time is between 11am and 1pm. When I try to flip schedules on my days off by trying to sleep at night, I am largely dysfunctional.

I am worthless mentally if I try to sleep at night and then try to get up and function at 8 or 9am. We are wired how we are wired... if an owl functions poorly while trying to function contrary to their natural sleep cycle, it is because they are at a disadvantage....  no different really than trying to get a lark to be fully functional at 3am, that wouldn't work well either.

One of the best advantages to working at night either for employment or artistically is the reduced number of distractions. Thought processes are not interrupted by life, because life is sleeping. The phone doesn't ring, no one asks where their socks are, or if I can drive them somewhere, I don't have to stop what I am doing to cook meals, or to do laundry, I have no appointments to get to... and the quiet solitude of the night is glorious. I get more done in less time, and no one is awake making demands on me that imply I need to justify my time for artistic endeavors. It is a slice of life uninterrupted. Larks never get that. I feel sorry for them.

The colors, sounds, and impressions of the night are different than those of the daytime, everyone who has an ounce of artistic talent in them  should explore them artistically sometime.... the world is a different place at night... and the dawning of a new day, as it seeps into the world starting around 430am... is amazing to watch, and even more amazing to feel, because it is a time of day where everything comes together and allows you to feel the day....and how could that fail to produce great art?

The one disadvantage to working nights? People, who do not understand that working nights and
sleeping days is normal for me....and when they call to chat at 5pm, they are disrupting my natural sleep schedule. It always makes me want to call them at 3am to chat....

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

It took me until 5am to fall sleep, I woke cranky. Not sure yet if I am going to the storage locker this morning or tonight, probably tonight, haven't stepped outside yet but it is not currently as hot inside as it was yesterday at 10am. I'll make the decision on this by 11. Thankfully we are cooling off tomorrow a tad.

Ramie sent this software link to me in an email, it looks rather fun. If you draw at all it might interest you. If you love music you might also like it. It's a program called HighC, it allows you to draw music. I haven't played with it yet but I have downloaded it... I wonder what my suns will sound like.....

My brother is getting legally married to the love of his life on Tuesday, July 1 at 10 a.m.
I have to say that they are without a doubt the happiest, most devoted couple I know. They met in college in the 70s and have been loyal and dedicated to each other through sickness and health ever since. Greg is much better at the compromises needed to make a relationship last and get stronger than I have ever been. In fact I am pretty damn lousy at it. Theirs is a marriage that is long over due, in fact it is 30 years late. I can't be there in person, but I will be there in spirit. They have been one soul for over 30 years, an unbreakable spirit, without a single exception. To some people a marriage is just a piece of paper, to them it is so much more, it is a documentation of what they are to each other, a legal public acknowledgment that the past 30 years earned them rights other people take for granted. OMG, I guess this means their dogs will no longer be illegitimate. :)

There are people in my life, people who I care about who will never understand my joy for them, people who think the fact they are gay is wrong. In reality gay is what and who they are, ( not some separate issue, not some flaw to be corrected). I love both Greg and Dave, as they are... a loving couple who gives of themselves to others in need and to each other, always. I could not be prouder of them or happier for them.

That said, I need iced coffee.....

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Anyone who thinks temps at 104 in the shade is seriously not a terrorist attack is certainly no Oregonian.
Good gawd, who ordered this crap?!? I was as tired of the cold extended winter as anyone this year, but this is not what I wished for.... and to ride it out in a 1979 single wide trailer with broken A/C... OMG.... just picture a tin can laying in the desert, say...death valley...for days.... it is now 303 am and outside it is 83, inside it is 90... I sure wish it held heat like this during the winter I can tell ya.
I cannot sleep, it's too hot.... if I had enough ice cubes to fill the tub I would nekkid and cuddling with ice cubes right now. I do not do heat well.

I did sew a bit today, the outcome of my efforts the last week will be posted on Monday.

I need chocolate...and iced coffee..... here amuse yourself with being amazed by the art of this cool gourd sculptor

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

"Spoonflower" , a new brainchild that has potential to go places, if you are invited to join the beta, you can print your own designs onto fabric. If you do original designs, this opens up new options for sales... fabric panels to be used in quilts, pillow designs, blocks for embellishment in purses, etc. In my case, it would make adding my suns to clothing and bags super simple.
If this interests you, go to this page and sign up, only a handful of invites go out each week for beta memberships, once word spreads on what they are doing the list is going to get long fast.

The cost of a yard of fabric is a tad high, ( 1 yard (42" x 36") $18.00 ) but it beats the heck out of screen printing and it opens up options not currently available if you want your original art included in something you make, or you want to design original art fabric for a quilt you are working on). If you print fabric panels to resell by the yard and separate the panels, resale should be a viable option while leaving room for a profit.

I see a thousand possibilities for having this option open to me. I can hardly wait to get invited!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I don't watch a lot of TV, in fact before I moved to Portland I lived without a TV for 3 years and loved it. BUT, tonight I found shows I truly enjoyed watching.

How did I miss out on John Caparulo and his gem of a make-over show called Mobile Home Disaster???? John may not be anything like Ty Pennington, in many ways he is cuter and more loveable. The show is much more down to earth than ABC's Extreme Makeover. What I found refreshing about MHD was it was realistic in what it does.... giving simple solutions and rational fixes to people to help make their lives better. And you know what? No one in the family seemed disappointed that they got practical furniture, paint and things to make their life better instead of uncomfortable furnishings and over priced decor. It's a very refreshing show.... I didn't miss the over-acted team crying on the bus one bit... and talk about down to earth vacations, they sent the family camping in an empty lot across the street during the makeover, it was a riot.

 Just like I think HGTV's CEOs need to get their collective heads of out their botoxed "let's do lunch" hinnies and stop being so uppity. Shows like Extreme Home Makeover and the makeovers on HGTV seem to endorse anal compulsive consumerism, and living beyond one's means. Take HGTV's Dream Home contest... they build a house no one can afford to win, and they admit they know the winner is going to have to sell it... so why the hell bother ya know? How about truly embracing the idea of "Restore America", and find 4 houses in different parts of the country each year that need fixing, do it rationally so the 4 winners can afford to own the houses... let your designers have fun doing them while showing off their talents... and actually put 4 families in homes they can keep. Seems that would be a better draw for viewers than dangling a key in front of one family's face for some over priced and poorly designed monstrosity and then saying "gee, don't get too comfy you are too poor to live here suckers" when the camera's get turned off. Truly, no one NEEDS a $2500 bathtub, honest.

Anyway, be you a mobile home dweller or no... Mobile Home Disasters is a fun to watch show, not one ounce of uppity in it. It's on CMT and quite entertaining. Don't expect any hard luck stories, they help hard working folks so busy making their ends meet they can't seem to squeeze money for major repairs out of the budget. I like it when the working class gets help just because they need it. heck, I'd be thrilled if they helped me fix the 34 year old single wide I call home.

I also watched Psychic Kids: Paranormal Children on A&E. Very interesting show, even if you are a non-believer in such things. See if you can explain away an 8 year old girl knowing the name of a boy who died at age 8 over a hundred years ago, the name of his mother, and the name of his aunt unless they really are communicating with her....

A&E's Paranormal State was also rather intriguing.... yep, I gotta say, Tuesday night TV is looking up.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend