Everything in Particular

Art in Progress

2011-02-22T09:14:00.002-05:00

I love doing art! It's so satisfying and a great way t spend a snowy evening. This piece is for a book I am working on for my grandson. it's not done yet.

Stay safe and warm!

Happy New year!!

2010-12-29T22:22:00.001-05:00

Spring???

2010-02-11T15:27:00.001-05:00

Photo: Gail Slaughter

Words: Michael Serafin

The People mover at Night

2010-01-30T21:06:00.002-05:00

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The People mover at Night, pigment markers. by me, Mary Stebbins Taitt.

2010-01-13T10:59:00.003-05:00

Here's a good guess: EVERBODY who has a computer (and/or a laptop, I-phone, notebook, etc etc etc) is frustrated by the attempts to make technology work, daily. Point two: everybody's got at least some of these devces, therefore, the entire world is in some state of frustration.

But think about it. (I did after buying a bunch of Chinese pencils from WalMart and found I couldn't sharpen them without the points breaking. EVERY SINGLE TIME... EVERY SINGLE ONE.)

Technology does not advance or retreat, it inhabits, like those relatives who come for Christmas and won't leave. If we make it, it has a disturbing habit of hanging around long enough to wear out its welcome.

And days will come in the future that we will be nostalgic for those good-ole PCs and how easy it was in them thar days to get along in the world, then turn around and tell our grandchildren's grandchildren how screwed up we had it compared to the present cushy world of 2040. (I am assuming we'll all be living in nursing homes run by robots by then, unable to die.)

At least it will give us something to kvetch about...

The Kaleidoscopic Life

2010-01-08T13:04:00.003-05:00

Through these windows, lightly. Life, in fragments.

My Wish

2010-01-08T10:53:00.003-05:00

(This greeting I pass on from Sometimes Saintly Nick and his feline friend Alex, adding that wherever good wishes come from, we should feel grateful for them and pass them on down.)

Simple Rules

2010-01-08T10:19:00.001-05:00

Fractal Work by Mary Stebbins Taitt

2010-01-08T09:42:00.002-05:00

Fractal computer art is an art form.. let there be no mistake about that.
Yes, the image is created and exists (until printed) as electrons dancing in a box and on a screen, frozen in that dance, the dance itself determined ALMOST by random chance. Fractal geometries are based on the mathematics of nature herself and are interesting in that, like nature, the patterns persist at every scale, small to large, and therefore are not random and chaotic but instead random and yet organized and, as noted here, extremely beautiful to the human eye and brain.
God works through art such as this, make no mistake about THAT, either!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-05T14:12:00.001-05:00

I haven't been able to post because my Picasa web album filled up.

I hope you ahev a great New year!

Paint project

2009-12-29T15:33:00.008-05:00

This is a graphic work that Mary and I collaborated on by email over a year ago and posted to Silk Creek Portal. Mary created the basic artwork and then I got involved.

It was a study in how altering the eyes of an image slightly can have a great deal of impact.

In Paint, by zooming in and altering an image pixel by pixel you can engineer artistic effects. It takes time and effort but the program is something anyone can access.

lolcat

2009-12-22T14:40:00.003-05:00

The lolcat thing might have peaked some while back but it's cute. For the uninitiated lolcat is the secret language of felines. It's got devotees who have translated the Bible into cat lingo. (God is "Ceiling Cat," derived from a photo of a pussy paw dipping down in consecration from a suspended ceiling.) A cat is a "kitteh". Food is generalized as "cheezeburgerz". There are certain established conventions in lolcat, but if you just want some fun, you can make up your own.

Petunia's Pals

2009-12-10T12:57:00.008-05:00

PLEASE go visit http://petuniablogg.blogspot.com/

Petunia is a wonderful person with wonderful photos there. You might even learn a bit of Norwegian!

Mallow Fellows

2009-12-08T17:05:00.005-05:00

Petunia of Norway says she takes pictures just for fun, and this shot proves it!

And The Band Played On

2009-12-07T10:39:00.005-05:00

Sometimes things, esp when I'm involved, move slowly. You get diverted, sidetracked, whatever, and I'm sure you all know what sort of thing I'm talking about.

At any rate, these pictures were last summer at a benefit concert for "Love, INC", a ministry of the First Presbyterian Church in my hometown of Jackson. Long enough ago that I've got a full beard now, but you can see that we guys are truly handsome and loveable. Love In The Name of Christ (Love INC) sponsors various relief supplies and help to needy people in our area. A WORTHY CAUSE!

The Holy Jean Band is due for another benefit concert on January 24th (a Sunday) that we plan to record on CD so that the audience can get a copy. Goal: raise $2000.

Not pictured here but joining us will be Emily, our new singer, Ted, our drummer, and Bert and Bea Furman, good friends. AND MORE... stay tuned.

Dead Man Gawking

2009-12-03T16:18:00.005-05:00

Santa is DEAD. It's official now. Photographic proof has surfaced on the net, and here it is.

Unlike the '70's proclamation that God had passed away (because of declining church attendance) the demise of St. Nicholas was not caused by lack of interest in the holiday or even the recent decline in per capita Yuletide spending in the US to less than $364 (anything less than one dollar per day being the poverty level).

No, Virginia, Santa was a victim of his success, not failure. After approximately 1100 years of roaming the globe philanthropically filling stockings and dispensing cautionary lumps of anthracite, Nick was licked by technology, or the decline thereof.

As we all are aware, Chinese manufacturers have cornered 99.999% of the world market in Christmas holiday lighting. The inside story of this is sad in itself.

Employing slave elf labor was never Santa's style, so along about 1995 it became economically impossible for North Pole LLC to compete, and their last reliable string of multicolored bulbs was shipped out. Subsequently the Polar Ice Pack began melting, and the handwriting was on the wall. All remaining operations were translocated to Boca Raton, FL, and 75% of the elves went into retirement near Ft. Myers. By 2007 NP International's total output consisted of driedel tops and knitted Kitten Mitts, intended to allow domestic shorthair housecats the ability to survive in the wild in January.

In 2008 production of even this dubious moneymaker was halted by legal action, the Florida Supreme Court holding that "kitten mitts" was a copyright infringement against "Kitchen Mitts Conglomerated", a wholly-owned subsidiary of "Everything and ANYTHING Kitchen-Related," a Hong Kong holding company with damn good lawyers.

Holiday spending peaked in 2009 when the last domestically owned American dollar passed to the Chinese. The holiday which Santa built from little more than a reindeer and ruddy nose had been pushed to the final tipping point long feared by some but ignored by too many. We all know what resulted. A worldwide economic financial disaster.

The Chinese, of course, took over everything remaining of the holiday not already in their grasp, retaining all rights to the name, which was modified to ChrisMart Day and moved to September 25th.

Santa was put out to pasture, ie, made homeless, since his Workshop was now floating through oil slicks in the North Sea. Rumors persist that Japanese whale fishermen sank it with explosive harpoons but those remain unconfirmed.

Santa drifted from city to city and town to town, pathetically picking up litter and stuffing it into his suit as padding to replace the pounds of jolly he'd lost on his quest for spiritual guidance. "Show me the LIGHT! Show me the LIGHT!" he would moan, bending down time and time again for a McCheesy wrapper or a BurgerWop box.

God listens.

Santa found himself in the lower Michigan town called JACKSON, apparently drawn to the state by the mitten shape of its Lower Peninsula on Google Earth. Lights weren't working on the inherently defective Chinese-made street decorations. Santa tried to fix them and died from electrocution.

He's finally at Peace, but not on Earth.

Photo by: KAT KULCHINSKI

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-19T20:55:00.001-05:00

We hope you have a wonderful, loving, safe and healthy holiday! :-D

Proposal: The Southern Michigan State Fair

2009-10-13T11:24:00.002-04:00

Dear Brad:

I'm sending copies of this letter to a variety of contacts and friends..

Your column and the accompanying article which appeared today in the Jackson Citizen Patriot regarding the future of the Jackson County Fairgrounds was timely, lively, and clearly puts forth the issues regarding this important tradition. I was gratified to see that you included my suggestion about relocating the State Fair to Jackson. Thank YOU!!

Here's my view. Mr. Treacher is an administrator, and I hope he continues to be a good one. But the Fair needs an Events Coordinator, I believe, and this task alone is a full-bore, full time job. Problem? Paying such an expert's salary. Well, I have a solution to THAT to propose to you and the Fair Board.

I will offer my services to fill such a role, if it is made official, for $1 a year. Just as it was in the Depression, times call for experienced and knowledgeable professionals in the business world to step forward to serve their country and community where they can, and because I have been a Jackson County fair goer and resident for 58 years and have experience for over forty of those years in the entertainment business, I WANT THE JOB.

Mr. Treacher is good with money. The Fair needs ideas and promotion and a slam-bang selling job to revive. I am willing to help. I would also encourage any professionals also willing to step up to the plate to serve on an advisory committee for the Southern Michigan State Fair, which is what I propose the new venue be named.

I am planning to attend the Fair Board meeting on Monday, if they let me in!!

Thanks again, Brad. I always enjoy your column and I think you, too, are a professional.

Sincerely,

Michael Serafin-St. John
339 Oak Grove Ave Apt Q
Jackson, MI 49203

E in P Rerun:The Following is NOT a Hate Cartoon!

2009-09-21T14:40:00.001-04:00

(If this cartoon is hazy, click on it to enlarge it.)

In modern politics, or in olden politics, for that matter, "handlers" of the candidates try, sometimes desperately, to mold the image of an office seeker to fit what they think is some sort of ideal of electability. This is what is known as "packaging". The same thing that is done with bread, beer, corn chips, and lunchmeat... the four food groups.

We don't complain about this situation very much until election time approaches, but of course it has been going on without our notice all along. This is no surprise... a candidate is really perpetually either running for an office or running from one all their political career.

Go, go, go.

But at election time we notice what we've been trying to ignore, because some politician will bring it to our attention to try to defame his or her opponent. In political terminology this is referred to as "calling someone out" and in regular speak as "the pot calling the kettle black".

Being "packaged" is made out to be a sin, and we are supposed to think these handlers and their "image issues" are devils of deception. We're supposed to wonder what rotten, no-good, low-down, cotton-pickin' rascal this candidate must be deep down if he or she needs to be gussied up like Emma's prize pig at the county fair. Something, somehow, must be gang agley. There's squirreliness afoot someway, and we the public must beware, beware, beware.

This is, of course, utter nonsense. Humbug.

This sort of worrying is like being afraid to fly because the plane is painted purple. It's not of any importance. Not at all, for one simple reason. You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.

No, the real problem isn't in what we are told to believe about politicians, because on the whole we're perfectly skeptical. We voters are basically too savvy about the way the game is played to be fooled by the cheerleaders on the sidelines. The real problem isn't in what we are pressured to believe. It's what we talk ourselves into thinking that's dangerous. It's in what we WANT to believe, even if all the evidence is to the contrary.

For example, if we vote for Hillary it's because we want to believe she'll bring this country together, stop the war, fight poverty, give us all affordable health care, correct the economy, and be the perfect representative for all our interests around the world.

Now go back and fill in the foregoing statement with the name of any other candidate you want, and the statement remains true for any of them. I don't care who you plug in, if you want to believe, you will believe, and that's your right, even if you're wrong.

It's really a good example of blind faith in action, the way we vote. But what other choice is there? We could look at the candidates' voting history, maybe? Not much help there. Things and people and their opinions change, as do the times. Look at their professional careers? Maybe, but in the case of the Presidency it's a whole new ballgame with different umpires, and a lot further between the bases.

I decided that I'm not going to expect miracles or sainthood from my choice for President, just that they be somebody I wouldn't feel ashamed of a couple years from now. How can you ask for more than that?

Women and Their Wants

2009-09-16T10:57:00.001-04:00

(When Ann Landers, the advice columnist, passed on, the job passed on too, and the column is now "Dear Annie". I wrote this the other day after reading a particular letter.)

Dear Annie:

After reading the letter of "Disheartened in Louisiana" I feel I need to comment.

This lady, a widow, says "all the men she meets" want just sex, not a relationship. One or both of two things have to be happening here. One is, she is approaching men with the wrong signals. Or two, with the wrong attitude.

I've searched for a companion for thirty years, not just seven, and I have to say I have a lot of discouragement myself over the fact that the women I meet almost invariably believe the outrageous falsehood "Disheartened" seems to believe as well.. that "all men" are sexual creeps out to get only one thing. We are not. We are human beings, we are individuals, and we absolutely do not deserve to be collectively punished in this manner.

I have a strong suspicion that what "Disheartened" finds is what she WANTS to find, and what she sees she wants to see, to back up her prophecies about "all men."

If we men did not show a healthy interest in sex (which she mentions prominently) what would be the case for her then? Aha oho, we'd be instantly rejected! (And labeled.) You cannot vary your rules to suit yourself. This is contradictory and if you operate that way, always testing and holding our behavior up to a changing impossible light, OF COURSE we will not wish to have a long-term relationship. There is no trust or loyalty or openheartedness in such a woman and we will definitely go elsewhere if we have any dignity at all.

Signing off with much more to say but no time...

Much maligned in Michigan

Domestic Violence

2009-09-14T11:54:00.003-04:00

October is National Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse Month.

This is a photograph of some graffiti in some ruins in Syracuse, NY. It represents what it feels like to be sexually or physically abused by someone you love (or don't).

order out of Chaos

2009-09-12T11:25:00.001-04:00

Fractals are a result of chaos theory. I love the designs, which seem
very ordered to come from chaos.

Sometimes

2009-09-12T10:13:00.001-04:00

I feel as if I am caught beween a rock and a hard place. And about to
tumble into space.

Pacifists of the world unite!

2009-09-12T10:12:00.002-04:00

I've been reading Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver. Great book. Have you read it? What did you think?

I'm 3/4 of the way through the first rough draft of a children's chapter book. It's keeping me very busy--and you?

"Belinda's Price"

2009-09-11T15:07:00.003-04:00

Her chosen grave before him, Paddy brought his shovel down
And pierced the breast of Ireland to prise it from the ground
He lift his eyes to heaven and he cried out sad and clear:
"Oh Lourd, why take Belinda and her Spirit from us here?"

"Ah, Lourd," prayed sturdy Paddy, "ye have giv'n us this Earth
And all which grows upon it and beneath, for what it's worth
But why did ye see fit to give us poor Belinda May
If only as a flower seven years and snatched away?"

"What did she in her little life not holy in your Sight?
What sin had she committed? None! so what gave you the right
To take her back untimely? Well, for taking her away
I take this stand...I'll be hell-damned if I won't make You pay!"

"Belinda's Price from You, oh Lourd, is lasting Peace on Earth
My price for her removal is redemption from our curse!
You may not wish to pay this price, but I say all the same
My name is Paddy Donnell, and by God I make the claim!"

The blessed Moon, in crescent, like a silver scimitar
Slid sideways through a smoky sky and left behind a scar
A Star shone through that rifted cloud of midnight in the mist
And took a fair position over Paddy's outflung fist.

And Lo! a Voice, a Rumble, like a thousand raining stones
In tumble down a mountainside in mashing, crashing moans
As if from many miles away, yet to one ears are borne
Such came the Voice of God to Paddy, answering his scorn:

"I hear ye, brother Paddy, oh ye simple, foolish man...
I hear ye as ye bellow badly, questioning my Plan
Such arrogance as you display deserves no recompense
But as I am a gracious God, to PEACE I will consent."

And from that moment all the people, land to burning land
Cast off from war and fighting, and instead began again
To take this World and make it in the Image of Above
And drown all hate in charity, in hope, and faith, and love.

And children gathered flowers, woven in a grateful garland
And in Belinda's memory they danced the fields of Ireland
And Irish mothers smiled on them, and knew, forevermore
Their sons would be no sacrifice to foolishness of war.

By Paddy's sons' and brothers' toil a monument was raised
A "Statue of Belinda", carved and placed above her grave.
And every morn about it were a thousand petals flung!
And everywhere those blossoms fell, a thousand seedlings sprung.

But what of Paddy, father, left to ponder what God wrought?
Well, after many months had passed, with Peace at long last bought
He pined for poor Belinda, and her blessed presence lost
And in the end he muttered, "Lourd, it wasn't worth the cost."
.
.
Original Poetry by M. Serafin (2003) Reprinted by permission (2009) All rights reserved.

The Beachcomber

2009-09-11T14:14:00.003-04:00

Leaflady Gail has been in California for a couple years now, and she often visits the nearby beaches at Arcata near Eureka, which for those of you who are geographically challenged is on the coast north of San Francisco.. quite a ways north, actually.

Gail says the climate there is not what you'd expect. I looked on the weather and saw that while they had 100 degree temperatures recently near Los Angeles, Eureka had temps in the low sixties. And Gail says that's typical.. YEAR 'ROUND.

This explains the misty fog and Gail's attire.

I miss having Gail here in Michigan as much as she misses the wide variation of weather we enjoy (and sometimes complain about), but fate separates us.

If you see this, dear LL, remember me and smile, OK?

The Price of Excess

2009-09-01T12:10:00.002-04:00

One too many clubs in your bag at Barclays? Sorry, guy, it'll cost you.. penalty strokes for each hole played in non-compliance.

It cost Jim Furyk 14 places in the standings (from sixth down to twentieth) and a cool ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS in prize money.

That's a lot of brewskis.

Goings-on These Days

2009-08-28T09:32:00.007-04:00

Scientists of space say they have noticed a planet out there that is DOOMED!! Doomed to spiral down and CRASH into its star, with probably pretty nasty burn-up sort of effects, as one could imagine. Or can we? Imagine such a thing? Well, yes, sci-fi writers have imagined such things for fifty years and more. Look up "The Big Eye," a book from the sixties (I believe) which goes into what sorts of changes men and women go thru when a scientist informs them their world is going to end with a bang when a wayward big red planet comes closer and closer and...

Well, you'll have to get the book and read what happens at the end...
.

Perhaps yet another sign of endtimes.. but women as beautiful as Ms. Gosselin not only populate TV but also our own humdrum lives. There is, for one example, a 30-year-old girl who visits the pool at my apartment complex (whose name is Sarah, by the way) who is fully as beauteous as Kate and is much more proximate to my situation than any TV screen. She suns herself in a barely legal bikini and enjoys intense male attention.

Sarah tells me she had a guy living with her for several months until she determined that he was already married to another woman.. a woman who began a stalking campaign to get her man back. Apparently this was a success, for he went back home to her, but Sarah shrugged the whole thing off.

"I don't go in for dating these days," says sexy Sarah. "I met him at a bar, and bar things never seem to work out."

Being 58 and 28 years beyond Sarah in life experience I'm a bit too old to pursue any sort of relationship with her, but take my word, SOMEBODY will.. it's a simple matter of time and who she picks next.

Women are the gatekeepers and are the ones to say when (and thus have no restrictions) but men have to self-govern themselves to maintain their integrity when faced with a "come-hither" from dangerous beauties. I'm not assigning blame or anything, but facts are facts and if a man does not take responsibility for himself, look out.

A Concerted Effort

2009-08-27T10:40:00.002-04:00

A Tribute

2009-08-26T16:56:00.003-04:00

A GREAT MAN..

A GREAT AMERICAN..

A GREATNEST OF HEART..

A GREATNEST OF VISION..

REQUIEST ET PACE..

2009

2009-08-26T15:30:00.002-04:00

For Labor Day weekend (hopefully the Sunday thereof) I've invited family and friends over to the apartment complex where I have taken up residence, Canterbury House Apartments.

Canterbury has over two hundred (!) units in it, organized into Buildings, each with a number, and one-, two-, and three-bedroom townhouse-style units in each, with letters running from A to S.

Got all that? Well, I'm in Building 339, Apartment Q, and this is near the end of the building, with a porch letting out into a resident parking lot.

A few steps away, off the back of the complex property, is a woods. There is a place I can dig for earthworms to go fishing with, and a clear area where, if the weather cooperates, I will set up a luau-style party outside for my guests. Planned: pork loins (catered by a local downtown bistro famous for them--Darryl's Downtown in Jackson), fresh sliced pineapple, rice and sweet potato casseroles (individual ones--classy and freezeable), and, of all goes well, a special French-bread spicy garlic bread of my own invention. Cool, huh? And not as expensive as all that sounds since Darryl's promised to help out with the thing a bit for the advertising, as it were. You know, where did THIS come from? And you tell everybody if they like it where to get more.

Anyhow, the regional office of the company which owns Canterbury was consulted and they said, "WHOA! absolutely NO open pit fires or bonfires!!" Consequently I had to come up with an alternative to the traditional luau format.

For $2.50 (closeout at CVS Pharmacy) I picked up a bamboo hawaian torch, and then I designed a barbecue setup (pictured above) to be made from found materials. My brother Bob supplied the empty oil drum (he's had two of them dating back to the eighties when we had an oil company) and I found an electric sheet metal cutter for $10 at a garage sale, and I plan on making my grill in time for the party.

Back in the '70's we threw a Labor Day yard party for the staff of Portage Lake State Park where I worked as a Park Ranger, and then we took an empty drum and sliced it in half length-wise to make two grills. This is different, but the new design should work as well and be transportable back to the complex garage area by dolly, so there you go!

Today's Fractal

2009-08-26T11:43:00.002-04:00

Oh-oh, bad me, I can't resist playing.

(See more--much more--computer art by Mary and myself in Nerd Shots, another blog. Click HERE to go see.)

How Quickly We Forget

2009-08-26T09:48:00.007-04:00

Ok, ok, what POSSIBLE link could there be between a somewhat faded Pop star and the onset of dementia?? It's a teaser. Actually it doesn't matter WHO the celebrity face you choose to use but if you want to test for Alzheimer's condition, researches suggest that the ability to recognize famous faces tells you a lot.

Are you good with names and faces? Hmmm? Well, here's the slight difficulty I have with this new theory about testing for dementia using this method. I remember conversations really well, almost like a tape recorder, but I have trouble remembering the full lyrics to songs, even ones I write myself. I can remember faces from YEARS ago, but screw up the names associated with those faces. I can remember all sorts of historical trivia and I have a good brain for quotations BUT knowing WHO said what.. and when? Ring the gong, I'm toast.

Dates are an especially irrelevant thing with me. Just not important. I don't TRY to capture that info and hold it so I never can feed it back. When did I eat last? who knows. What year was the Magna Carta signed? go ask somebody who cares. In what year was I born? AHH! I can answer that. (Exceptions to every rule, kiddies.. people DEMAND that info from me so I'm FORCED to spew it back.)

I like it when people remember my date of birth and wish me well but if it wasn't for intensive interrogation over the years I probably wouldn't give a darn about THAT date either.

Memory, according to Einstein, is finite, and he disregarded a lot of things for fear of clogging up his mind with things that weren't relevant to more important things. But I kind of disagree with that. Memory is one thing but I look on TIME as the most finite thing there is, and that it is a tragedy to waste ANY of it..

..like the time wasted trying to remember where I put my keys.......

2009-08-25T13:51:00.002-04:00

Farm by Moonlight

by Mary Stebbins Tait, digital smudge painting, new today.

Ghosts in the Wave

2009-08-25T13:27:00.003-04:00

My lovely Leaflady snapped this shot of a big breaking wave and said to me, "Do you see a ghost?"

Actually, blown up..? Several!

2009-08-25T12:39:00.004-04:00

Word is, out there in the Great Beyond, there has been a wayward planet sighted. This sucker revolves BACKWARDS around its star, the reverse of the direction of every other known planet. On such a world there may be unknown effects, but we can speculate:

Elvis is not dead.. he's running for President of the American Medical Association following his discovery of a blanket cure for heart disease.. peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
George W. Bush has just been appointed Prime Minister of Lithuania.
Madonna Cicone has received the Pope's blessing and proceedings are underway to nominate her for sainthood. (And she IS a virgin, but doesn't feel like one.)
Pete Rose is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Alice Cooper is Mayor of Detroit, his home town, following a landside vote that enjoyed the full support of the Archbishop of Detroit, the head curator of the Detroit Institute of Arts, and St. Madonna Cicone.
Superman has athlete's foot.
Batman is portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the latest installment of the movie series, opposed by Joker, portrayed by Rachel Ray, who wields poisoned pumpkin pies.
There is, and always has been, Peace on Earth.

A Beauty Treated Beastily

2009-08-22T15:27:00.003-04:00

"We'll let Paris' cherry-adorned dress slide, but her cheesy plastic earrings and overly bronzed skin are unforgivable."

Well, I'm sorry, but this here dude disagrees. Ms. Hilton may not be the sharpest tool in the shed but she knows style. Anybody saying otherwise is just attempting to draw attention to their own snarkiness. (Meow! Hiss! Spat! Splat!) Photo by Campos/X17 Online

Graphic work: M.Serafin

Company Logo Work

2009-08-20T12:16:00.005-04:00

Two versions of Logo work need to be made to check gray scale effect. You would LIKE to have any logo you do show up well on television, and to do that, you need to pay attention to the black & white values along the gray scale. How well do different colors contrast, is the question. Some colors are different tints but fall in the same contrast range and therefore aren't as legible.

Color is so great, ain't it? It somewhat irks me that logos stick to old-fashioned drab one, two or three-color effects simply to save printing costs. With today's computer printers and digital work there's no reason to do that anymore.

(The version above has EIGHT different hues in it, and each one is there for a good reason.)

Current Work in Progress

2009-08-20T12:07:00.003-04:00

I may not be the best graphic artist to come down the pike but I have fun creating stuff, almost always using

the "Paint" program, which as far as I am concerned is good for most anything

(These are a few samples of stuff I've done recently.)

Letters from Family

2009-08-17T12:53:00.008-04:00

Hi Mike.

Good to hear from you. What is up with the eyesight? I hope this something that can be corrected.

The music gig sounds like fun. Let us know when and where you are playing and maybe we can make one of the performances. Around here (Lansing) several of the popular open mike nights and places that featured local talent have closed apparently due to the poor economy.

I trust all is well with Cousin Ron and Vickie. The last we saw them they did not know what was in the future with Chrysler and employment. Retirement was the back-up plan. I know they had an interest in moving back in to Jackson. I don't know why. I don't see Ron as ever retiring.

Take care.......................Cousin John

Dear John and Karen:

Cousin Ron moved to one of the houses he owns near the hospital.. a lot more convenient, tho I am sure that downsizing and leaving his luxury digs on the lake was a somewhat bitter pill to have to swallow. He is "looking for work", but I don't think that right now is a good time to be over 60 and wanting to be hired in ANY field of manufacturing in the US. Maybe in the energy, health care, security or construction design areas as a contractor/instructor/administrator, but NOT as a general programmer. Ron's background is strong and long-term but proly pretty specific to a specific system, and to be "portable" his skills may need to modernize, broaden, etc, so MY thought is he should just go back for training and get upgraded.

I think that you MUST take whatever opportunities that arise and aggressively pursue creative alternatives, and Ron has never been known for that. He will have to switch to tactics he's never had to use before.

Talked to Bob last nite and we think that a get-together on September 5th (Sunday) would be cool. He said he's been trying to engineer a way to get Joe up from Tecumseh for bike-hiking on the Falling Waters railtrail and we would ALL like to eat, drink and be merry playing cards and music.

If I act fast to reserve it, the clubhouse where I live, Canterbury is available.

The greatroom holds about forty people and is equipped with a full kitchen and would be ideal for a party. I think we should take advantage while we can. I definitely want to have a Christmas Eve dinner party here since that was Dad's birthday and we ALWAYS had a party for him that day in the past. But in the meantime, all I can do is offer that alternative.

Do me a favor and call Bob and get the lowdown from him on this whole thing and let me know what you guys decide is best to do.

I see Cousin Timmy twice or three times a week because we are in a group called "Twist of Dylan" and are doing rehearsals quite a bit.

Another incarnation of the same four guys plays christian folk-rock called "The Holy Jean Band" . We are willing to go play anywhere that will cover our expenses, because it is a ministry thing.

The leader of the group, Harvey Zook, writes our songs, researches the Dylan material, and gives the group(s) their identity. Timmy and I are the experienced "old hands" who supply the backing.

We will let you know when we are coming up your way but in the meantime we could use your help promoting our act to friends, enemies, and the powers that be up there. WE DO GOOD WORK CHEAP. (yuk yuk)

Your cuz

Mike

2009-08-13T12:53:00.002-04:00

I never knew much about this particular issue until I went in the National Guard back in 1983, but there is such a thing as "SIGN DISCIPLINE" in the matrix of the military (along with all the OTHER sorts of discipline--- etc etc etc til you're SURE that there has GOT to be a God because only God could create "LATRINE LIGHT and SOUND and LITTER DISCIPLINE PROCEDURES for use in UNFRIENDLY TERRITORY."

Anywho, in the bowels of Army discipline procedure manuals there is not only one but many manuals telling you how to do what, signage-wise. One manual I looked up dealt with acceptable colors for use on night convoy work, and one combination was black with, and I'm trying to be accurate here of THOSE was

Beachrock Bingo

2009-08-13T11:24:00.003-04:00

Photowork by: Mary Stebbins Taitt
Location: Trinidad
Graphics by : M.Serafin

Grandmother and Child Reunion

2009-08-08T14:36:00.004-04:00

Leaflady (Gail, my love in California) sends this bulletin:

Nico got home from the hospital in San Francisco last night. So far all is going well. He was checked by local pediatrican this morning. She said he seems to be doing fine, but warned them that any sort of respiratory ailment during the first month might send him back to the hospital! So they plan to have few visitors, avoid taking him to public places, etc.

The twins are doing fine with him SO FAR ........

Again thanks to everyone for your support during the scary time we went through. And I promise to start paying more attention to what's going on in YOUR lives, instead of deluging you with what's going on in mine!

Gail

Announcing: music festival preparations!

2009-08-08T14:11:00.004-04:00

The Second Annual CROSSROADS "Concert in the Park" will "erupt" on Sunday, September 20th at Cascades Park in Jackson (Michigan), with five contemporary Christian acts sponsored by Joint Heirs Music Ministry, New Moon Entertainment (that's ME, folks!), 20/20 Light & Sound, and several local churches and charities. BIG DEAL? YES!!!

One of the bands that will appear is the Holy Jean ensemble, consisting of Harvey Zook, Peter Rogers, and Mike and Ted Serafin... I'm playing bass, Harvey plays acoustic guitar, Pete plays harmonicas, and Ted (Timmy to the family) plays drums and assorted other stuff like the recorder, xylophone, pots and pans, tambourine, congas, blocks, bells & whistles.

We have fun. We just designed a "covered wagon" to haul our stuff, and when it isn't stuffed with our stuff it's going to be used to haul recyling loads hither and yon. (Mostly yon.)

Whether and when on the Bandwagon is, as most such things, a Matter of Moola. Scratch. Dinero. Long Green. Payola. Lettuce. Monetary Considerations.

When we go around the world with our little trailer we aim to attract the sort of people for an audience that, had they been born about eighty years earlier, would have followed the circus (which is Latin for "traveling show", by the way) to the field outside town and gone under the BigTop to see the Greatest Show on Earth.

True, we would have been in the "FreakShow" area, not center ring, but so what!!!

Precarious Perch

2009-07-27T15:19:00.002-04:00

Photo: G. Slaughter
Captioning: M. Serafin

Pelicans and their Gull Friends

2009-07-07T14:44:00.001-04:00

Photo: G. Slaughter
Editing: M. Serafin

Grover the Art Critic

2009-07-07T14:25:00.001-04:00

Photo: G. Slaughter
Editing: M. Serafin

2009-06-09T12:55:00.000-04:00

Sometimes you get a photo that is pretty impressive but just too dense, kinda like a really overdressed movie idol who can't spell.

The bottom shot was impressive but didn't speak in clear tones. It had a lot of reflection effect, unfortunately, TOO much. To me that was overkill when mated up with text... the picture image would compete with the writing I wanted to do with it. So, I thought, crop out a nice portion that is simpler.

I uploaded the picture to the Paint program and used the selection feature to "grab" the part which kind of looked like the shore of an island, losing most of the distracting reflection effect of the original shot and gaining a great focus on the colors and the essence of the shot. Your eye could now capture the image more quickly and it made a more concise impression.

Sometimes less is much more... and I think a lot of modern graphic designers are going back to that as witnessed by the increasing use of simple, almost cartoonish images in many magazine ads and sprinkled iconic colored graphic illustrations in the text areas, too. It's a fresh look, using broad simple colored backgrounds or plain white rather than a lot of cluttered backgrounds.

Nothing's new, of course.... they did all this stuff back in the early days to illustrate all sorts of periodicals in one to three colors, where the images had to remain relatively simple. If you recall the early black and white Volkwagon ads or the placard ads in restaurants in the fifties for Coca Cola or certain brands of hot dogs or whatever, THEY used the principle of simplicity, never claiming to be high art. And the effect worked fine.

We can put photos in graphic framing or attention-getting backgrounds and mimic the same thing, which is kind of what this posting is all about.

Autumn's Fire

2009-06-06T13:13:00.003-04:00

Photo forwarded by: G. Slaughter

Editing and text: M. Serafin

2009-06-05T10:19:00.001-04:00

Photo: G. Slaughter

Text: M. Serafin

Thought for the day

2009-06-05T10:17:00.000-04:00

When you have visions of the one you love, why does it hurt? Shouldn't it be totally joyful, not a crazy mixture of joy and longing and remembrance?

Diane

2009-05-31T15:12:00.001-04:00

A new love inspires much...........

2009-05-31T13:29:00.000-04:00

Picassa 3 is a neat program to experiment with. I don't normally use the "retouch" function (which allows for the removal of blemishes, etc). This lady's face did NOT need THAT! However, when I moved the brush width to maximum and disturbed the image slightly on the right portion of her face I noticed that the right side locks of her HAIR jogged to the left at a certain critical location. I'd restyled her hair electronically!

COOL! I said to myself, and saved the result. I cropped her face tight and applied sharpening, film grain and messed with virtually all the other effects to get what you see. Note that I definitely altered the color temperature... this allows a lot of surprising color effects to pop out when a picture has been sharpened (which increases contrast and depletes the number of discrete pixels... kind of an Andy Warhol effect.)

Every image is a combination of two things... shape (or form) and color. A photograph is not a single image but thousands of individual images (call these pixels if you want) arranged in some organized way. Our eye captures this organization and our brain compares it with previous experience stored in memory. That's seeing.

Is seeing believing? Maybe, maybe not... but when you see something that strikes a deep chord within you (in the case above: beauty, life, joy) it translates to emotion. You are either attracted or repelled by striking photowork. You are never bored!!

Siri and Grover Make Friends

2009-05-23T21:51:00.003-04:00

Siri made a visit to Gail's place (grandma Gail often looks after Gemma and Siri) and Gail took a couple shots to let me see with my own nearsighted half-retinal eyes how big a hit Sesame Street's Grover had been. "She wouldn't let go when she left," Gail informs me. "They're probably fighting over him right now."

I hadn't intended to cause a sibling battle, figuring there was also Elmo hanging around to even things out, but novelty does strange things to women. Of ANY age...

Photography: Gail Slaughter

Editing: Michael Serafin

Little Things...

2009-05-21T14:56:00.000-04:00

Fort Humboldt Steamer Ride

2009-05-21T14:46:00.000-04:00

Gemma's Catta-Pillar

2009-05-21T14:43:00.000-04:00

Be it Ever so Humboldt...

2009-05-21T13:36:00.006-04:00

It hardly seems possible but it's been going on two years that my friend Gail moved out to California to be with her daughter Wendy at the birth of her twins Siri and Gemma. I get occasional photog evidence. Now I see the twins walking, talking, and enjoying life to the fullest. These pictures were taken at Fort Humboldt Park. Wendy is in the lower shot, right.

She's got Gemma, the caterpillar enthusiatist, on her lap.

Photography by Gail Slaughter

Editing and effects: Michael Serafin

Phairy Philosophy

2009-05-18T15:49:00.002-04:00

photo: Gail Slaughter

text: Michael Serafin

Spiders' Dews and Don'ts

2009-05-18T15:48:00.002-04:00

photo: Gail Slaughter
text: Michael Serafin

Mermaid Manipulation

2009-05-16T12:39:00.004-04:00

From time to time I post stuff both in E in P and in Nerd Shots, my site dedicated to Computer art which is to say, pictures that have been enhanced or altered or invented inside the electronical box.

This image was taken from a photo Gail Slaughter sent me from her garden in California. She is usually on the lookout for fairies and elves that paint leaves but here she caught a Mermaid sunning herself. Well, in the sea, they sort of have filtered sun, you know? In the area of California where Gail resides they have much more cloud than sun.

I used Microsoft Photo Editor to smudge and sharpen and then smudge again to create the weird sandy/watery texture and then used Picassa to progressively tint the picture, warmify, etc etc etc. I forget what all I did, but if you fool around with Picassa, you can too.

photo: Gail Slaughter

effects: Michael Serafin

Elphie the Eloquent

2009-05-16T12:26:00.000-04:00

Gail Slaughter's two cats, Hybrow and Elphaba, are nearly alike, both being essentially black, but Hybrow has some white markings and therefore I can tell them apart. This picture is obviously Elphie, but something was perhaps amiss because I don't remember her so fierce when they all lived back here in Michigan. I can't say for sure but I think having the Terminator for your Governor may have some side effects...

Mermaid Manipulation

2009-05-16T12:10:00.000-04:00

The "Dude" is at it again... the top image is a creation accomplished with the cropping and effects available in Picassa 3. Almost. It also required smudging and sharpening in Microsoft Photo Editor. I find that MPE is fairly crude but in some instances these crude effects can be used to your advantage.

No, I don't really appreciate the changes introduced when Picassa 2 became Picassa 3, but when you are getting stuff for free, you have to accept what is out there and just view it as a challenge.

Gail Slaughter of California sent me the photo from her back garden, by the way. She has a thing for elves and fairies and for wizards and witches, too, I suppose, except we all know that only elves have any sense.

Taking a few shots at Pot

2009-05-14T14:33:00.003-04:00

Once upon a time, not too awful far away except in terms of years, I had a thing for the evil weed. It doesn't matter now too much me admitting this, because to hear people talk EVERYBODY in my generation had a thing either for or against pot in those days.

But today I am nearly 58 years old, it's almost forty some odd years later, and I am now supposed to be one of the stable pillars of American society. There is no longer any place for "thrills" or anything anymore.

Ah, me.........................

may

2009-05-14T09:11:00.002-04:00

Have a beautiful day!

Going going gone

2009-05-13T12:02:00.002-04:00

The rains first made the tulips lovely, then took away the petals.

"Paint" Project... Elphaba the Eloquent Cat

2009-05-12T18:30:00.003-04:00

Gail Slaughter is taking a figure-drawing course. (With real nude models... that is, they are real and they are also nude... I'm not saying they are "really nude" as in nuder than the usual nude, because nude is nude and that's about the most you can say... remember getting your clothes "whiter than white?" Oh, hell, I digress from my digression.)

Elphaba, the cat who lives with Gail (or one of the cats who share her abode, that is, there being another named Hybrow) came over to comment on Gail's artwork and how well it was progressing, and Gail said, "oh, thank you, dear, for your eloquent opinion, may I take your photo for posterity?"
TOP: "Finished" version with background reduced to essentials

BOTTOM: "Halfway" version taken from original photo

You, too can get away from it all... maybe!

2009-05-12T18:06:00.000-04:00

Gail Slaughter's Eye on California

2009-05-12T17:49:00.005-04:00

Gail and I are bestest friends (I remain hopeful!) and she sends photos from her new digs on the West Coast from time to time. I mess around with these, sometimes to her chagrin, trying to venture into some sort or other of wordy worldly philosophy.

A Shot of Gail's with Rhyme by Me

2009-05-11T14:23:00.001-04:00

A New Adventure in Acting Goes Sour!!

2009-05-04T16:43:00.006-04:00

This poor little dude ALMOST made the cut for a costume I was ALMOST roped into wearing for a new ice-cream store that ALMOST was set to open on May 1st.

It's "stolen" and modified from a crochet pattern I found on the net, with the coney-sorta hat added. I was going to make the striped suit more ice-creamy-colored, too, probably blueberry and strawberry and vanilla.

BUT... the store ran into opening-up permit difficulties, etc.

Sorry Kidz... That's Show Biz!

........................................................................m

A Bit of Visual Thunda from Down Unda

2009-05-04T16:27:00.006-04:00

Yes, yes, yes. I've mis-spelled bromeliad. Or have I?
I like MY way. (Blogger's spell-czech is no help.) Bromo as in seltzer? Iliad as in Homer? What DOES this name-word mean?

(Photo courtesy Kat's Cradle, Australia)

EXOBIG...Earthlike planet found

2009-05-01T10:31:00.000-04:00

s

sOOOO COOL!

Finding something earthlike out there in the universe has to be a thrill for whoever manages to do that. But this is merely a computer generated mockup drawing, since we cannot literally "eyeball" or even photograph anything so darn far away.

Even the Hubble "telescope" really cannot "see" so much as think. Why? The very faint photons of light the Hubble "sees" must be computer-enhanced (interpreted) to show colors in spectrum. Space colors are not possible without a little creativity. Space is really mostly black and bright white... colors such as "green" and "red" and "blue" and "yellow" are possible only with OUR eyes in OUR atmosphere, and that's it. To make Hubbles's photos palatible to our sensititive eyes we "doctor" them extensively.

Oh... without heavy filters on our space helmets' visors, space would blind us. No protective atmosphere.

Be thankful God made air!!!!!

Ywe

Gail's Art Critic

2009-05-01T10:15:00.000-04:00

This "final" version I created by selectively choosing portions of one of Gail's photographs in the Paint program, and copying cat parts. I could then "flip/rotate" and piece them back together symmetrically to make a whole cat!!

Moving the drawing into position was easy... just select and move. I used "color select" and "paintbrush" mode to make the grey areas uniform...

Cat as Catch Can

2009-04-30T10:54:00.000-04:00

Whoo haw!!! some time to blog!!!! AMAZING!!!

Gail sent me a pic from Cally forn i ya of her pussy cat (Elphie) poised to spring away from the camera, and with her latest artwork from the drawing class she's taking displayed (accidentally?) behind the puss.

I decided to see if I could isolate these two and piece them together again. I am showing the steps here...first paint out ther extraneous stuff. (in this case, using color-matched gray of the notepad paper.)

Figure Drawing & Cat in Progress

2009-04-30T10:50:00.004-04:00

Gail took a photo of Elphie the magnificent with a product of her drawing class!
The picture did not turn out as she or I had best hopes for, so here it is halfway doctored to paint out the conflicting background in Paint program. I am planning to finish this little project for inclusion in Nerd Shots, my computer art blogsite, which you can visit from my profile page or by clicking on the left column header concerning other sites, or by tapping your heels together three times and closing your eyes and wishing... "There's no place like Gnome..."

A Message to my Love, of my Love

2009-04-02T10:36:00.000-04:00

WOW!!!

2009-04-02T10:10:00.001-04:00

Greeetings from Jackson to ever boddy....

Things are HECTICK rite now... new businesses, etc etc

BUT....

I still love ya all....................................m

Fractal Flaming Flowers

2009-02-02T17:40:00.006-05:00

This is a cool work of art done by Mary Taitt on her compooter.

She called it "Fractal Flame" work, which means, I guess, she set fire to her keyboard or something.

At any rate, it's neat stuff... all veddy mathematatical. Which means I've not the foggiest how to do it myself.

Fractal Flowers

2009-02-02T17:40:00.000-05:00

Mary Taitt

Fractal Flowers 536

2009-02-02T17:33:00.000-05:00

Mary Stebbins Taitt worked up this fractal computer painting and sent it to me, maybe as an early Valentine. Me being me, I did a little extra goofing with it in the Paint program, too, but the essence and substance is all Mary's.

Movies that Shook the Theatre

2009-01-22T10:51:00.003-05:00

SOMEBODY should think of doing an awards show that would pit ALL the best actors, best actresses, best pictures, best directors from all time against each other. They could run it in a series, with audience voting a la American Idol.

Stanley Fish: The 10 Best American Movies gives one man's take on this and his reviews of his choices are good, BUT how in the world did he overlook Caddyshack?

Seriously speaking, if you want a great movie (who knows if it's the best or not) try White Heat with James Cagney and watch it imagining you are not a jaded effects junkie. What a performance!

What in the World?????

2009-01-22T09:55:00.003-05:00

Some of you out there have visited Google Earth at one point or another...you download software that allows you to search space photographs of various places on earth. Well, months and months ago I decided to "zoom in" on my own address in Jackson, Michigan, and was online with a Blogger friend, Andree in Vermont. She called up the same shot as I did and asked me what the tower was growing out of my apartment building. I said, no tower, what tower?

YIKES. As you can see in these two pics taken from Google Earth, SOMETHING that is not there IS there. AND IT STILL IS.

Much weirder still the apartment designated by the tip of the "white spear" collapsed on top of me.....two TONS of concrete ceiling came down. And I was saved from being crushed because I answered a phone call from Andree SECONDS before the collapse.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. >

The How and Why of Doing Good

2009-01-18T13:22:00.002-05:00

We had talks in my new church's men's group this morning and somebody brought in a piece written by Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Boiled down, what it said was you may be persecuted or laughed at or thought half nuts for doing selfless good...but bottom line, do it anyway. NOTHING GOOD IS EASY. We have to realize this going in and basically refuse to let frustrations get us down. How? Well, the other big component of our talk was that the peace of the Lord is a communal thing...sharing deepens and strengthens our peace and resolve...to GIVE and TAKE COUNSEL with each other knits the fabric together.............

Buddies

2009-01-15T17:32:00.004-05:00

Gail and Mary have bugged me for a long time to show my face (maybe for the prospect of printing out a dart target) but the best I can do at the moment is a shot back in time. My friend is Hybrow, who now lives with Gail in California. I've grown a mustache since then and it came in greyer than the old mare. Anyhow, this will have to do because I'm not really into photos of me. OK OK OK?

A Blonde in Winter

2009-01-15T14:24:00.003-05:00

Gail Slaughter (aka leaflady) sends in this seasonally adjusted joke:

A trucker stops for a red light, and as he sits there he hears a banging on his door. Startled and curious, he looks out and it's a blonde, clutching a brand-new parka around her, looking concerned, so he naturally rolls his window down to see what she wants. Her breath comes out all smoky from the cold.

"Hi," she says, "My name is Heather. I was following you and I just thought I'd tell you... you're losing some of your load!"

The light's about to change, so the trucker shakes his head. "Better get back in your car lady, you'll get run over or something," and rolls the window back up before the wind can freeze his face off. The light changes and he grinds gears to get going again down the road.

Intent on what he's doing, the trucker almost forgets the whole thing until a mile or so farther on, another traffic light looms up red in the swirling snow and he has to pump the brakes and skid and crunch to a stop. He's just reaching for his coffee when BANG BANG BANG goes the door. Amazingly enough, it's the same blonde! Sighing, the trucker cracks the window open and she's shouting over the howling wind.

"Hi," she says, "remember me? Heather? Well I don't wanta nag or anything, but you're still losing part of your load!"

There's nothing to do but humor her. "Yeah, sure, right, thanks," he tells her, and waves her back to her car, hoping she'll find somebody else to bug. He looks back in his mirror and sees her pile into a little yellow car behind him. Shrugging his shoulders, grinding his gears, off he goes again.

It's a long day, miles and miles of road to cover, all over town, but wherever he goes, every time he looks back, there's that little yellow car with the blonde, following in his wake, so finally when it's time to pull over for coffee he jumps down out of the truck and heads to the back as she pulls up behind. Her window comes down but before she can say anything, he sets her straight.

"Look, Heather, my name's Mark, this is Michigan, and this here's a salt truck."

What to do, what to do...

2009-01-14T10:39:00.004-05:00

There is actually quite a bit of hope in every "crisis" situation because that's normally when people get off their dead butts and do something, if they are ever going to.

We need to look maybe twenty years ahead and design that world today... that's where we need a vision for what that world could and should be like, given what we have available now or can gather to ourselves between now and then. The vision need not be futuristic, though. I personally believe that basic solutions have been around from day one and many good ideas have fallen by the wayside as "outmoded" or "obsolete" or have perhaps suffered rejection because they were either too simple or because they were too far ahead of the common curve.

Technological stuff like cell phones, high speed communications, electric cars, and "miracle" drugs seem to me sometimes to be a kind of churning of the waters of our society, which often give the illusion of progress, but don't really add to our quality of life so much as feed our impulses and distract us from our higher calling. I think that higher calling is to understand why we battle each other and stop doing it.

Sure, life is a struggle... that's the cliche. But if it is, we've made it one with fear and selfishness and an imprisonment of our spirit. Technology itself is frequently a cause of our unrest rather than a source of peace and satisfaction.

I think we each need to seriously start to identify those things we encounter which are disruptive of the spirit and make our position against those things known. But not simply by protest. We must suggest and support quality alternatives to the trash. And we must be patient and perservering in our resistance, not rash or volatile or caustic.

What to do? Make a resolution. Every day, encourage someone. Every day, meditate awhile on what your true needs for living are. Every being on earth will have those basic needs, the same as you. Only their outward frustrations are different. Only your reaction to those frustrations, if negative, keeps that cycle of frustration going. You can break the chain off at its weakest link by simply saying, "This ends with me... I'm not going to let this madness past this point."

In short....be a firewall for frustration.

If you try to operate this way........ you'll be doing good.

I am certain of nothing but the Heart's affections and the truth of the Imagination- John Keats

Not-so Brave New World

2009-01-06T14:14:00.005-05:00

Change, change, change... and the more things change, the more they... what?

Remain the same, of course, and we should remember that when we look back from the future and recall the present days. We will be looking back from a world, about five or so years hence, that will have experienced rather startling changes which we should not consider startling at all.

We should not be startled because these changes will be technological, not spiritual, and certainly not fundamental. Nor will these changes make it possible for the human race to solve any of its differences, feed any greater fraction of its population adequately, or lessen our risks of war.

It's not going out on a limb to say these things, crystal ball-wise. It's only a simple matter of looking backwards and seeing where we've been to figure out where we will be going.

The issues in my future, regardless of how high-tech we become, will remain:

How far can I trust myself financially? That is, there will always be questions of how much to spend on what, and afterwards, all the same self-incrimination for goofing up the process. It's safe to say I will never, ever solve this conundrum or REALLY feel I have a handle on all my money issues.
Who loves me?
Where am I going when I die and if there's any chance I'm heading to the wrong destination, how much time have I got to get the situation straightened out?

So It's All Very Simple................(send HELP!!!!!!)

Brave Not-so New World

2009-01-06T14:14:00.000-05:00

OBAMANOMICS:

2009-01-05T14:34:00.003-05:00

"There will be sacrifices we'll all have to make..."
(meet me down at the volcano...bring virgins)

"What the American people need above all is change..."
(the car's repo'd, the bus won't take bills)

"I have a New Vision of what we can and should be..."
(and it scares the hell out of me)

"Promises made must be promises kept..."
(so name your kid after me, the way you said)

"We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition,
where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice
clothes and live in nice apartments but don't want to
work hard to accomplish these things..."
(so we're gonna have just regular poverty, instead)

The Secret of "A Wonderful Life"

2009-01-03T15:57:00.007-05:00

George Bailey never would have jumped off that bridge if left to his own devices.

Oh, I know it looked like he would at one point...but it also looked at one point that he'd head for South America and build bridges and railroads. It also looked at one point that he'd spend his honeymoon in fine hotels quaffing fine wine and making mindless love with his new wife. It also was very nearly his fate to get into the plastics biz with his "hee-haw" buddy. And wasn't George an inch from accepting a princely salary from Potter by simply allowing the shaky "good ol' Building & Loan" to sink into oblivion?

But each time George teetered on the brink of happiness, something intervened to spoil it for him. Time and time again. Where was Clarence when all this was going on, is what I want to know. Strings were being pulled, that much is obvious. SOMEBODY was monkeying around with George's life. Setting him up???

Is it coincidence that, when all this monkeying has brought George to the juncture of despair, no place to turn except the dark waters of the raging river, the angel Clarence, admittedly motivated by a two-hundred-year-old desire to earn a set of wings, got in the way?

Then, by subterfuge, play-acting, and "what-ifing" Clarence convinced George that all was indeed lost unless George embraced his second-guessing loser life as flawed but livable.

If you remember, at several points George says something to the effect that this "Pottersville" was an illusion that Clarence was causing him to hallucinate.

George was soooooooo right!

Clarence wasn't really dotty... he was crafty, and declared innocently that this invented alternate history was no dream. This was a bald-faced angelic lie! One wonders about heavenly expediency. If ones wings hang in the balance, just how far are you authorized to go? Periodically Clarence glances skyward and asks how he's doing. Supposedly. And each time somebody eggs him on with encouragement. Supposedly. We don't hear this encouragement in the soundtrack. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Think about THIS.... George already had experience in winter water rescue... he saved his brother Harry when the ice gave way under Harry's coal shovel sled. In the first place, why and how did Harry slide so much further onto dangerous thin ice when all the other participants did not? A little not-yet-angelic shove? The question could be asked. But most glaringly, if George could survive cold water and drag his brother to safety as a mere child, what's the likelihood of him choosing a river to commit suicide? None at all. When it came to water, George was in his element. Don't forget the High School Hidden Pool Affair. Jimmy Stewart as George was the first one in, and was enjoying the experience so much, splashing around with Donna Reed, that EVERYBODY went into the pool after him!

Doesn't the evidence point directly to would-be-winged Clarence as the author of all this from the beginning? Clarence knew perfectly well that George was preconditioned by his previous rescue of his brother to do exactly the same thing again! Ladies and gentlemen of the jury......!!!!?

Other evidence abounds, and some of it is extremely sinister.

Not content to deprive George of any existence he ever had, all the money in his pockets, and even Zu-Zu's petals, Clarence incited Nick to have them both thrown out of that tavern by making outrageous requests for antiquated drinks he knew they weren't intending to pay for. Even in Martini's bar back in Bedford Falls you'd be shown the door for trying THAT.

As in all mysterious treachery, unresolved questions abound. Uncle Billy was distracted. Why? Was it that raven hanging around him all the time? Donna Reed smashed that record of "Buffalo Girls" and yet she kept the drawing she'd made of George lassoing the moon... why? To taunt him later, a sign of dreams left unfulfilled? How did Bert the cop get to the airport and back so damn fast with Harry the hero.....and yet find time to pick up an accordion? an accordion we never knew he could play? and learn Auld Lang Syne by ear?

It all seems pretty suspicious to me.

How deep and for how long had this deception of George gone on? At the end of the movie, the whole TOWN shows up to put the gag over the top... all conspirators from day one? Ah, that would seem incredible. But is the notion of a SECOND, parallel illusion, brought on by Clarence in his quest for wings, so far-fetched? Perhaps George never HAD been born in the FIRST place! But speculation about illusions gets us nowhere.

I won't spin out all the possible alternatives a delusional angel might spawn, that would merely confuse the issue. Instead I'll stick with the final scenario: the aftermath.:

1) The real George, one Hedman P. Lakewurst, was born, grew up, failed to prosper, and died miserably, in good ol' Bedford Falls---NOT fictional, as so many claim, but located too far east of Lake Woebegon to be of any notice to anybody but Frank Capra. Capra was stranded there one Christmas Eve in a blizzard. Frank got drunk in Martini's Bar, and was run out of town by Bert the cop, but all the rest he improvised.

(Capra, before he died, blurted out a mumbled explanation and apology for his screenplay, which came down to us as his but which was actually directed by Elia Kazan, who swore everyone associated with the picture to secrecy about his participation.)

2) Donna Reed was not a virgin when she seduced Jimmy Stewart. In the script, when she tells her mother Jimmy's there "making passionate love" to her, the reason her mother doesn't take the comment as a sarcasm is because it wasn't.

3) We know the ensuing years were not pretty. Bert the cop made it all the way to Chief of Police until he made the mistake of threatening to expose Potter's theft of that $8,000, a fact he'd known all along but had been happy to accept smallish bribes to overlook. Potter, reacting logically enough, ordered Bert's assassination. Nick the bartender took the contract, slipping cyanide into Chief Bert's beer stein. Ernie, still a cabbie, thought he might finally get out of town with some ready cash, so he agreed to help Nick cart off the body to that highway bridge and drop it into the raging waters of no return. Unfortunately Potter had his "chair lackey" wire a time bomb to the cab's ignition. Of course, their names live on today, Bert and Ernie as hand puppets and Nick as a rerun television network. Potter himself was too evil to ever die. Instead he wound up a hedge fund manager...a dark shadow in the festering back alleys of Wall Street. .

4) In every movie, names are changed to avoid lawsuits, but in this strange case we have a twist: one of the first instances of reverse product placement. Getting wind of the movie, a small town in mid-Michigan decided being known as a city of sin was preferable to never having any reputation at all, and paid the studio handsomely to change "Onondaga" to "Potterville." Somehow this was garbled to add an "s", which made "Pottersville", which was not in Michigan but in Missouri. But so what. Nobody cared one way or the other.

It was a nice try, but the Indian Casinos all located elsewhere.

5) Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed passed on to greater glory after the movie was made. Stewart moved into gosh darn tootin' westerns and Reed evolved into the quintessential sixties housewife. Their torrid backstage romance was never exposed because to do so would contaminate American youth. ,

6) Clarence was an angel, though as you might surmise, a fallen one. The "mission" he was sent to earth to accomplish was NOT to save George Bailey but to demonstrate the futility of economic parity. He failed in this task so miserably that his wings were revoked six months later and he was permanently assigned to the redemption of Joseph Stalin.

A Personal Announcement

2008-11-11T00:43:00.004-05:00

Dear FOLKS-----------------

Some few close (very close tho far) to my inner heart and soul know what travails have ensued since my apartment ceiling crashed down on my head in April, cutting me off from the webbernet, the phone, and nearly, life itself. Enough about that. Enough said about THAT for SURE.

Anywho, AHM BOCK............like Ahnold Swartzenogger,
the esteemed Gahveenore of Cahleeforneeya.

HERE IS MY NEW INFO FOR ALL TO SHARE WHO CARE:

Michael Serafin
339 Oak Grove Rd. Apt. Q
Jackson, MI (USA) 49203

email (continues): mserafin01@yahoo.com
new website: imperfectnerd.com

I believe that times are right to explore this lifelong dream
That is really in God's hands, I guess,
but so far He seems to have at least
a crooked grin on his face
concerning this idea
and I'll settle for that!

Thank you, everyone, for sticking with me in times of trouble and, some of you, through tragedy and comedy both. I will try to keep you all in my prayer: that you, too will find your life and love in one package, someday, as I have.

(In other words, Kit-Kat Bars.)

See you in the funny papers...right next to Blondie,
and down the street from Dagwood.
(Modern marriage thing).

Peace..........................Michael

Three Generations---

2008-10-20T22:14:00.000-04:00

Gail Slaughter, her son and the third generation pose for a New York City photo, and then Gail sends it to me. Big Mistake!!!

(Picasa and Paint Effects)

On the Road

2008-09-13T14:40:00.004-04:00

Imagine my AMAZEMENT when I visited Silk Creek Portal and saw Gail's bike looking out at the ocean.

Oh, wait, you can't. The reason the picture made my jaw drop was because I JUST bought a bike like hers!!! But mine has a luggage rack and detachable baskets.

And no fenders. And knobby tires. And a widdle BELL.

Sharpened Watercolor Flowers 1053

2008-08-30T22:52:00.000-04:00

I did this on Microsoft Photo Editor from a beautiful flower photo sent me today by Gail in California, without whom I am nothing...........

---m---

a poster from Gail's World in California

2008-08-28T21:11:00.002-04:00

tasty treat

2008-08-14T10:37:00.001-04:00

a joint effort between BB and me. At Stone Quarry Art Park.

"Dune 740"

2008-08-05T18:24:00.000-04:00

Gail Slaughter of California took the beautiful dune shot to the left and sent it to me, knowing full well, perhaps, that I would take that beauty and mess it up with my OWN version, seen below.

How did I get so much sky?

Well, in Microsoft Photo Editor you can select a portion of a picture, copy just that section, and move it around. In this case I took a hunk of ground and all the sky I could, then copied that section lower down, repeat repeat repeat until I had pasted a whole lotta sky over the sand. (The "SMUDGE" tool works great for blending out lines and gaps and irregularities to make the effects look fairly seamless.)

"Dune 608"

2008-08-05T18:07:00.000-04:00

Gail Slaughter produced the top photo....(California dune shot) and I fooled around with Microsoft Photo Editor to make the bottom one from it.............................MS

(Hint: select a section with sky above, ground below, then paste it lower down to mask the ground, repeat, repeat repeat until you have lotsa sky to play with, then use smudge function to blend images together relatively seamlessly........time involved: 10 minutes max!........MS)

more sculptures

2008-05-30T14:30:00.001-04:00

Here are a couple kinetic sculptures, plus another shot of that awesome dragon. LeafLady (Gail)