joe randel's art dump

I hate this time of year.  I should love it.  I love that it gets cool…  I love the colours the leaves turn… I love that close to the end of the year feel.  I hate my allergies.  My seasonal allergies kick in from end of August to end of October.  I have to blow my nose until it’s raw.  I can’t sleep properly and my throat gets all sore because I end up sleeping with my mouth open… so I don’t die in my sleep on account that my nose is all stuffed up.  I’m ready to gouge out my eyes too… ugh.

Who else out there has fall allergies?  If you do… I suffering there with ya.

I mentioned in a post a long time ago one of my top fears.  The fear of dying.  I’m quite terrified of death, what happens after and the thought that I won’t be here any more.  I can keep myself awake at night thinking about such things.  So I asked for The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and wife got it for me on my birthday back in February with the hopes that it will help me though my fears and answer some of my questions.  Which it very much did.

The book covers two topics living and dying (duh).  But with in those there is such a wealth of knowledge on how we live our lives and how much of the current society views death in contrast to Tibetan views.   There is a section meditation and the mind with was fascinating.  And the final section about death which covers others deaths, near deaths, helping others deal with death and our own death.  Of course all is discussed from the Tibetan view point, which I find is very close to my own.

So did it help me at all?  Yes, it did.  I’m still nervous about it but I do feel better about it.  It taught me that thinking about ones death is actually quite encouraged in Tibet and among the Masters.  It mentions how most will live and never really give it more then a passing thought. Even things that I’ve thought of on my own and wondered about where answered and it was nice to have some reassurance on those ideas.  Out of the whole book though, the chapters on Bardos (death state), Rebirth and near death experiences where probably my favorite.

I feel that this is one of those books I’ll read over and over again and I’m quite happy to have it in my collection.  If you have death fears like I do and a lean towards Tibetan views then I highly recommend it.  With any luck, when my time comes… I won’t be so afraid.

Why don’t kids eat bread crust?  It’s such a waste of food since kids never eat to the edge.  They’ll leave a good inch of bread and crust on their plates.  If you ate any closer you might accidentally eat some of it.

As a kid I always ate the bread crust.  I never thought to have a reason not to.  I even ate the heels of the loaf!  My kids eat crust… sometimes.  They’ll eat the crust of my homemade bread with no question, but they resist eating the crust off the store bread.  It drives me NUTS!  I also refuse to cut off the crust because I feel like I’m letting them win and thus they will never grow up and eat it like a normal person.

The worst I ever saw was my nephew, who NEVER eats crust of anything.  We had dinner rolls one day with our lunch and I thought “HA!  Now you’ll have to eat the crust if you want to eat the roll! HAHAHAH!!!”  After he was done I noticed that he ripped it in half and ate all the bread from the inside and left the crust shell.  WTF!? o_O  Grrrrr!!!!

Where you a kid that didn’t eat bread crust?  Are you as an adult a non crust eater?  If so you deserve a slap.

Today is my 10th wedding anniversary!

WOO!

I honestly couldn’t have picked a better person to be my partner.  She’s made me a more complete person then I could have ever imagined.

Here’s to many more years!

^_^

So I found this the other day when checking my stuff on Deviant Art.  “What a wonderful idea” I thought.  Not only is it a great way to reflect on what inspires you to draw, but it also allows other to get to know the artist a bit better.  It was fun to look at who I am and what I draw from as an artist.

I find that I don’t really inspire from shows, movies or music as such but more from other artists and ideas.  I feel divided as I love video games and design (pixel art and all) on one side with sex and  naughty cartoons on the other.  I do have a love for taking photos, but I lack the time and nice camera to fully go in to that.  When I do have the opportunity though, I very much enjoy it.

The map was done buy Fox-Orian and you can see his here and download a PSD of the map here if you’re interested in doing one yourself.   ^_^

We’ve all done it.  At one point or another we’ve had to play tech support for a family member and their computer.  For me, it’s my Dad and Step Mom.  I do my best to walk them though any problems they might have over the phone, and when we visit I play doctor with the PC or answer more questions.

What I never thought about though is how it must be on their end.  Having this computer or laptop that they never seem to quite understand so they have to constantly ask questions.  It’s great when you “get” what your working on and can solve your own issues.  But if you don’t… it must be frustrating.  I have a feeling that I’ll always be their tech support and that’s fine with me.  Things are more difficult now that they’re on Vista and I’m still on XP.  I must admit that I do feel bad when I can’t solve their problems.  Having a computer should be fun, easy and relatively pain free.  But if theirs noting but trouble… it totally makes things not fun.

Are you tech support for any of your family?