Thursday, September 13, 2007
One of my policies at ModBlog is to not moderate first comments that are negative, because if the first thing a person does is come in with something hostile, I don't feel it's going to be productive. Because ModBlog is getting to be a quite popular and well-known blog, the number of people visiting it that don't care for the content grows all the time, so the number of comments I end up blocking grows with it.
I'd say that every day I get probably two or three really vicious comments — not “I don't like that” junk, but people threatening the site or the lives of the people who are posted, various degrees of ill-wishes, to say nothing of generic nasty insults and hate-mongering. It's sad, because for a long time I didn't get this kind of feedback so I assumed it was a thing of the past… But it was just that BME spent quite a while being insular, and now it's back in the public eye a bit more.
From: jody clevenger <jodyjclevenger@sbcglobal.net>
To: glider@zentastic.com
really is there people who do this for FUN? Fuck shit that's the kind of thing that makes me happy we have the death penalty in Texas geezz y'all need to be put out of your suffering
Nonetheless, I'm prepping a few heavy mod interviews right now. I've been slow on getting the new book put together so I'm trying to get a nice interview posted once a week to get myself going. There are a couple mega-stresses in my life right now, but on the whole I'm feeling really good and quite productive, so I'd like to keep riding that wave as long as I can.
On that note, I've been drug-free (well, no smoking pot that is) now for almost two months and I really feel good about it after smoking daily for roughly five years. It's definitely hugely improved my mood and my head feels much clearer and sharper, although I admit that I do miss it some evenings because it did help a lot with pain control. But like I've said quite a few times before, I'd much rather have a clear head and be in pain than have a muddy mind and be pain free.
I made a fresh pesto pasta (fettuccine) with peppers, mushrooms, and a mix of scallops and shrimp (leftovers basically), and then grape tomatoes and green onion tossed in after cooking — someone teased me that everything I cooked looked “soft” so I thought I'd put some raw ingredients in today! It wasn't particularly exciting or inspired but it was still good.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Yesterday was Nefarious's school BBQ — it was nice seeing that parents from last year were quite happy to see she was back… And it's also good to know which kids are the troublemakers, since they were all running around like maniacs causing a variety of degrees of chaos.
Because I was really happy with how the framing turned out on my last painting, I decided to do some supplementary painting on other frames. It's definitely a trend I'll continue, because it means that with even with really basic 2×4-box type frames I can make something quite pretty. I have to clean off one of the sensors on my carving machine, but when I get a chance to put aside an hour to dismantle it and do that, my next frame should have some carving on it as well.
All three of those frames are I think 1.5″x3″ boards in a simple box, with a masonite backing glued together. On the outside two, the stretched canvas is floating (mounted on risers, with a small gap between the painting and the frame on all sides), and on the middle one, the painting is actually painted right on the masonite because Nefarious used it as a drawing pad when I realized it had been cut too small (so the painting and the frame are the same thing).
Work is progressing on The Blind Lizard quite nicely, which is also tentatively “sold” assuming it turns out nicely — people have been asking me a lot lately whether I would sell paintings or work on commission, and I've decided that it's time that I start to do that*. When I get a chance I'm going to set up a website that's a dedicated portfolio but I likely won't get around to it for a few weeks… Not sure yet whether I'm going to use zentastic or get a new domain to host it…
Anyway, off to make some pesto fettuccine!
*
I was asked if this included paintings that I do with Nefarious. These are not for sale. I might sell some when she's old enough to understand it and appreciate that she's building up savings, but I don't think it would be fair to exploit her by selling them at this point… That said, I am willing to do paintings based on your child's artwork on a commission basis!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
I made empanadas this evening with Nefarious, another really quick and simple meal. The dough I used is really similar to a pizza dough with slightly different spicing, and it was stuffed with cheese, refried beans, salsa, and many tiny shrimp (pre-cooked). Finally, baked for twenty minutes at 400 degrees and then served with guacamole and sour cream. It was eaten by all with gusto.
When Phil gets back from the wedding in Vancouver, I'm going to ask him to help me take much higher quality photos of my paintings because I'm ready to take the step to start selling work, doing commission work, and preparing for a gallery show, so I need to set up a site dedicated to that.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Because I'm just making really simple frames right now, I figured it might be fun and look better (and suit the paintings) if I painted the frames to match…
Monday, September 10, 2007
I know everything I cook looks almost exactly the same. I should just take one photo and crop it differently and pretend it's a new photo… But this was really quite delicious — a Korean-style teriyaki shrimp with udon noodles and a mix of fresh garlic, red pepper, zucchini squash, red onion, and green onion if I remember right. Other than what I mentioned I don't think it was spiced with anything other than a little sea salt, mustard seed, and seaweed, and was crazy-delicious… Total cost for the meal (enough for two to three people) was about $7.50 at the most — a delicious meal for about three dollars a person seems good.
Other than that, we did some biking and drawing on the steps with chalk, and I painted some frames I made for my paintings. I also went to the gym for the first time in a month which was great — the tumor removal really does seem to have totally fixed my knee, damage to the nerves below or not — and did a little computer work as well.
I have an interview that I'll work on a little tonight about very intense play piercing including chest skewering (
literally — where a long needle is inserted through the ribs and actually rests against the heart so you can see it bouncing with every beat)… I'm somewhat split on publishing it because the response to heavy mod and play content has been so closed-minded lately that I'm strongly considering just publishing it in a private forum instead.
