The ugliness on the internet

Some time ago, I felt compelled to respond to an ugly comment left on someone else's blog. I know, I know, don't feed the trolls. I just get angered by petty behavior. Today, I notice a response that I am assuming is from the same person due to the venom toward me for my response. If not, it is a person of equal character. So, they decide to turn around and attack me. For some reason this person thought the ugly comments were a positive thing, and that this kind of behavior was justified because we live in a democracy. Then, they decided to do call me names.

It really puzzles me why people think that we are entitled to say anything to anybody because we live in a democratic society. Sure, you have the right to, but should you? Does opening yourself up on the internet really entitle others to criticize you mercilessly? I don't think so. I think human decency trumps the need to belittle others for your enjoyment. And people who are nasty and belittling should be called out.  But where do you draw the line? How do you know if the person is a troll, and is merely making ugly comments all over the place as sport, or is just a person who needs a little scolding? I don't know. Are they the same thing? Possibly. I know I should just ignore all comments because they will only serve as a reminder of how many horrible people are out there furiously hurling insults and conspiracy theories. They are frequent users of the word "sheeple" and are very quick to try to justify their actions behind the shield of democracy. They are the dredges of humanity, and I know their bad behavior does not represent most of human society, but they bring us all down with their nastiness.  Just food for thought.

Kittehs make everything better.

Fun with cheap (and not as cheap) art supplies

After taking Alisa Burke's Sketchbook Delight class, I became enamored with the idea of painting with water soluble markers. I stocked up on every cheap set I could get my hands on and did a little playing. After this class, I also decided to try some different brands of cheap watercolor paints, like Crayola and SimplyArt. The Crayola watercolors are remarkably smooth and richly pigmented. I really loved them.  Although I felt the class was for absolute beginners, and I am more out of practice intermediate, I did get great tips on cheap supplies and new ways to play with them.

I also invested in some watercolor crayons and Neocolor IIs, which I have been coveting for some time. They are also very fun to work with. I plan on expanding my collection of Neocolors over time, as Dick Blick has open stock reasonably priced. I would love a set, but they are just too expensive for me to do them that way.  

Cheap markers

Cheap watercolors with crayon resist

More crayon resist

Staedtler watercolor crayons

Cheap watercolors and crayon resist

Markers

I am SO proud of this! I had a page scuffed up with walnut ink, and drew over it with Neolor IIs and Staedtler watercolor crayons.

Crayola watercolors

So, it has been a long time since I wrote an entry. Far too long. Many things, good and bad, have happened since then. I got a job, finally...one that will give me much needed experience for better things to come. Unfortunately, the job is not what I would call good paying or with many people I care at all about. The boss above my supervisor is a micromanaging woman who seems to feel the need to have a target of ire. I seem to be that target now. So, I am currently seeking greener pastures before she tosses me out. I am not, however, going down without a fight. I have an ally who carries some weight with the owner, so all is not hopeless.

Let's see, I have also had very bad problems with my shoulder, which are very slowly improving with the help of my new, most awesome doctor and a great physical therapist. I have also had other health challenges, which I will not bother you with. On the very positive side, I have lost close to 20 pounds since I started my job in mid-April. That is not so much, especially when I need to lose over 100 pounds, but it is the result of some positive changes I have been maintaining for the last 10 months. These are habits I can maintain, and they don't involve deprivation or working out to exhaustion. I have been wanting to incorporate more strenuous activity, but the things that appeal to me all involve things I cannot do until my shoulder is healed.

I have feathered my nest a bit, too. I had a massively good Christmas, which afforded me the ability to get some furniture, albeit cheap, to make my apartment look more like a home than a hoarder's dorm room. I actually have a pantry and a real dresser! There are a few more things I would like to get, but they will have to wait for a while.

I was also able to replace my horrible Kindle keyboard with the cheap, regular model, which seems to be much sturdier. I went through 6 Kindle keyboards and they all had problems. For most of them, the problem was that the screen would crack if you breathed to heavy near it. The last one, appropriately named "Last Chance" would only keep a charge for a few minutes, even after I put a fresh battery in. So now, I am working on getting back into the reading habit. With my last Kindle,  I was reading "Under the Dome" by Stephen King and only made it less than 1/8 through. In less than a month, I have more than doubled what took me a year to do. Mind you, I have had less than stellar concentration levels and I have been fighting bugs for close to 2 months, so I couldn't be bothered most of the time. That is starting to change. I used to be a voracious reader up to the time I started college. I graduated almost 14 years ago, and worked at a library for 5 years, and still never regained that passion. I will get it back or die trying!

As for art, I have gone through phases of working on painting faces more realistically to using markers to paint faces with some realistic shading, to Gelli printing to doing actual written journals on the painted pages of paper grocery bag journals I made. I even started making a calendar on a grocery bag journal, but only fully completed 3 months. Those three months look awesome, but I found that a smaller, regular sized calendar would be a better fit for me, especially after the bugs I was fighting wore at me and I no longer had the energy or motivation to complete the homemade one. I have been in another lull, so I have worked on reorganizing my supplies again. That is always a good project when you are not feeling inspired.

While I am recovering from my crud-a-thon and the very slow-to-resolve aftermath, I thought I would remind people that I am still alive. Now and then, people do take a look at this blog and I feel bad that people may have given up on me. I know how I feel when bloggers I enjoy reading fall of the face of the earth.  It may be the end of January, but it is never to late to stage a tentative return.

As a reward  for sticking with me through my wordiness, here are a few photos I took from my office window this summer. Downtown Seattle has been beautifully surreal over the past 10 months with more fog than I have seen in the 7 years I have lived here.  Enjoy!