Listless is a good way to describe myself of late, but I had a good bout of creativity and free-form fun over this past weekend and I find myself emerging. A few threads in my life are coming together, and life makes sense.
I wrote a while back that anger is a good thing when used correctly. It's energy, and when channeled well, it's a positive. As I like to say, if someone is going to kick you, make sure that you're pointed in the right direction first.
My cards have sold modestly. Not in droves, but rather in spurts. And I've discovered that the people cards don't sell. In a fabulous bit of timing, I sold nine cards today to one person. They bought:
Two of this...
And two of this...
And two of this...
And two of this...
And one of this...
No people, except for the child. I don't think the woman jumping for joy counts because she is somewhat generic. Two of the cards had words on the front. The majority of my cards have sold in batches. People buy a bunch of them at once. All of my buyers have been women.
Hmm... I'm connecting the dots, and I think I see a way to grow the business, and my direction was misguided. Ha ha! Movement...
My friend, Peter, writes me today and says:
I think it is so cool to get out there and learn these types of things, and even cooler to take action and adapt.
Haven't heard from Peter in a month or two, but his timing is exquisite. Perfect. Thank you, sir.
I had considered painting portraits, but for the money I would have had to charge, I don't think I'll find many buyers, and it's not really the direction that I wanted to go anyway. I might do it on a one-off basis now and then, but I can't sustain that effort and feel right about it.
I'll soon be back to painting cards... with a renewed direction, with juices flowing, with a strengthened sense of self.
It's all a matter of how we see life. Sometimes hearing "No" is just as important as hearing "Yes!" Both are an answer, and a direction. Both allow for movement.
myphonefiles.com sucks. I wanted to create a custom ringtone, and found this web site and software through Google. So I purchased ($25 + $5) and installed the software and went through the process. I used the software to upload my custom ringtone, and used the web site to send the ringtone to my phone. Got a text message on my phone and went to download the ringtone. But then I got this:
Error 905: Attribute Mismatch-Content-Type
I should mention that I have this phone, a very multimedia-friendly phone, and my service is Sprint, which myphonefiles.com says that it supports.
I tried changing the ringtone file type to MMF, MP3, and WAV, but to no success - same error every time. So I wrote support, and the guy who wrote the software and web site, Steve, sends this in reply:
hi brett, type purevoice or AAC. ~Steve
So I go back to the web site to change the file type. Here's a screenshot: there's an option for Purevoice, but not for AAC.
So I send him this screenshot and tell him that I get the same error and that AAC is not an option. I get nothing in reply.
Fair enough - perhaps his product won't work for me. I send an email and request a refund. I get this:
hello since we offer a test area at www.myphonefiles.com/test , we do not offer refunds for subscriptions. This is stated in the terms and conditions that was agreed to during signup. ~Steve
In trying to resolve my issue, I had gone through the web site pretty thoroughly to see what I might find for help and not once did I see a test link. I still don't.
So, be warned: the product didn't work for me, the support sucks and doesn't care about you, and you won't get your money back when it doesn't work.
A basic human principle is this: respect for life.
There are lots of folks who believe that there are equivalencies to be drawn between the Israelis and the Jihadists in the Middle East. But there's a simple distinction: respect for life.
...in Article 15, the Arabic is translated as "the elimination of Zionism," whereas the correct translation is "the liquidation of the Zionist presence." "The Zionist presence" is a common Arabic euphemism for the State of Israel, so this clause in fact calls for the destruction of Israel, not just the end of Zionism.
The European Union and Russia have joined condemnation of the Iranian president's public call for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's remark has already been condemned by individual EU states and Canada who all summoned Iranian diplomats for an explanation.
Israel has not made such a call. Isreal is, in fact, armed to the teeth and has been for decades. But they're not trying to wipe out or eliminate anyone, though they certainly could have.
Jihadists have no respect for the lives of others. They want to kill indiscriminately.
Israel, on the other hand, currently targets its bombing of Lebanon to Hezbullah's weapons caches and means of weapons re-supply, such as ports and the airport runways and bridges.
Not night clubs, bus depots, hotels, financial centers, or railways - all populated by civilians.
There's a difference.
If Israel chose, Lebanon and Syria could be "wiped off the map." They have the capability. They don't choose that. They're simply going after those who seek to kill them. That's called defense.
If the Jihadists had the means and opportunity, they would nuke Israel without the merest second thought. So Hamas, Hezbullah, al-Qaeda, and all the other terrorist Muslim groups worldwide take an offensive stance and seek to kill all non-Muslims.
It's time for the world, as a whole, to say "No" to the big jihad that kills innocent people worldwide. Enough already. Everyone has a right to exist. Can anyone really disagree with that? If so, why would anyone support Hezbullah? Or Hamas? Or Iran's religious political leadership?
For me, I stand with Israel and with those who recognize Israel's right to exist. I stand with Muslims who truly do seek peaceful coexistence. I stand with the basic human principle of a respect for life.
While sitting in the living room, I decided to pen-and-ink Jacob while he played. I've always wondered how to capture people who are moving. He didn't sit still, nor did I ask him to do that. His face and body changed angles and shadows and color and I tried to render him correctly.
I like pen-and-ink; it forces me to sketch without eraser, and that's more discipline. No net, so to speak. But I don't like how after a bit I get a bubble of ink in the pen and it then splots onto my work. See the two large black dots above...
Afterward, Cub and I sat at the table and painted with watercolors. He portrayed his McDonald's doll that he got in a recent Happy Meal. I colored in what I had seen. Here's his:
We're both happy with his effort, plus he likes listening to the scanner take a picture of his work. He imitates the whine of the scanning light as it moves under the glass.
Earlier, Austin and I played baseball. I pitch; he swings. "We need a pitcher, not a belly-itcher." I do manage to get him a few good pitches, and he enthusiastically clocks them when I do.
Prior to that, Cub and I played a new game together: Blokus. Cool game!
Thankfully, my little digital recorder works as I expected in creating multi-track song files. My goodness - what I can do from here.
I own Cubase, which is a multi-track music production software package. I can take audio files and mix them together. It's pretty decent. So while the boys are sleeping I created a simple vocal piece (totally made it up on the fly) and then recorded a separate harmonizing piece for it. Then a percussion track (me slapping my leg...) Three tracks, and then blended them all together with Cubase. Ho ho! It worked. I've never done anything like this, so I'm thrilled.
I'm playing a lot today and trying new things. Fun!
ETC: And because it's 128 bit, I can put it into this little player. Click twice to get it going...
I can't explain why, but doing this pen-and-ink thing with the watercolor is deeply satisfying. And I'm not even particularly proud of the results, but just doing it feels good. It's almost like I don't care about how it looks. It's fun just to grab an image and paint without worrying about how accurate it is and then throw color at it.
Cub beat me earlier in Battleship and wanted to go for round two: I lost again. To a 6-year-old. Who has a most bizarre strategy and seems to know where my ships were despite any cleverness on my part. Take a look:
How he knew that my none of my ships were in the lower right of the board, I have no clue. But he did, and through his random guesswork, he found me and beat me.
Feeling a need for pen and ink and watercolor lately, I dove in after we had lunch.
I went out and bought this little gizmo last night, an Olympus digital voice recorder.
A while back, Mike Sansone suggested that I do podcasting, so I'll do that on occasion, but I also wanted something to better record the music that I create, and this does that fairly cheap. Better than recording on my digital camera and converting the mpeg to mp3, anyway. That process introduced lots of Rice Krispies to the process (snap, crackle, pop, and all that).
And I'll just play with it. The human voice is an amazing instrument, whether it can carry a tune or not. And the world around us is so full of wonderful sounds. We focus a great deal on our vision, but if I had to choose between eyesight or hearing, I'd go with hearing every day of the week. My hands can make up for the loss of vision, and I would not want to go without the sound of the human voice.
The process of recording is easy. And I've incorporated the XSPF player to allow easy playback here on the web site. (You'll probably have to click twice to get the player to play the file...)
Did it work? I'll know in a minute after I post this...
ETC: Yep, it worked, but I discovered that I have to save the MP3 file at a 128 bit rate. The larger the bit rate, the larger the file. For voice, a bit rate of 32 is just fine and lends itself to a smaller file, but when I do that, the track plays 4 times faster so I sound like a chipmunk on helium. I'll have to work with it or find a different player.
MORE ETC: I've created a graphic for this and decided to forego the in-browser player because it can't support smaller files, and I don't want my traffic eaten up here by humungous file downloads. You can click the graphic to listen to Cub beat me in a game of Battleship. I was testing the sound quality of the recorder (good!) and messing around to find the best quality file size (64 bit).
Years ago, as I walked to work (which is one of my favorite activities), I scanned the scene from horizon to horizon and realized that we live in a bubble of locality. If anything occurs within that bubble, it's immediate to me and personally known. But outside of it, such as the doings in Washington, it's really conjured up in my head as best I can imagine it. I can't view it. I wasn't there.
Later, when I began my Internet ramblings, I realized that distance from others makes us less likely to feel a sense of, well, etiquette. If I meet you face-to-face, I'll be more polite. If I write you an email, I might be inclined to be less so. If I only comment on a web site of someone I don't know, etiquette could go right out the window.
In the corporation where I work, which spans several large cities, we often talk about getting together for a face-to-face with those on a project so that we can not only have a greater accountability, but also a greater comraderie and rapport. That personal sense of someone brings us closer and preserves a sense of etiquette.
I've been watching the dust-up between Jeff Goldstein and Debbie Frisch at Jeff's site. It's long and involved and that link is only part of the story. Suffice it to say that his conservatism and her liberalism didn't mix, and she was notoriously rude and even made comments about his child and he was insulting - so this was a rather nasty episode. But why? Here are two highly educated folks snarling at each other publicly, and the mob of Jeff's commenters joined in the fray and the rudeness. Blogs are just great, aren't they?
And then Jeff Jarvis, in his infamous "Dell Hell" series, noticed that Dell - the corporation - has started blogging, which he asked them to do long ago. And so they do, and what does Jeff do? He sneers.
Both of these incidents get a ton of traffic and notice. It's as though someone yells "Fight!" at school and then everyone runs to the window to see. And it's ridiculous. And I'm one of the ones at the window.
What is it with long-distance online relationships that reduces the need for civility? Remote invites the cold and is best left behind, I think. Life is best lived in the local bubble of our awareness.
I don't disagree with blogging at all - I have this site after all. I write here for many reasons. I am reminded of what Gandhi said:
The Palenstinians have it in their charter to 
I went out and bought 
