Italian composer Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868) didn't like to work hard, and yet he was also prolific. In fact, his desire to avoid strenuous exertion was an important factor in his abundant output. He got things done fast. His most famous opera, The Barber of Seville, took him just 13 days to finish. Another trick he relied on to reduce his workload was plagiarizing himself. He sometimes recycled passages from his earlier works for use in new compositions. Feeling good was another key element in his approach to discipline. If given a choice, he would tap into his creative energy while lounging in bed or hanging out with his buddies. In the coming weeks, Sagittarius, I recommend you consider strategies like his.
"Looney Tunes", huh? Maybe I ought to find some cartoons to watch.
Sagittarius Horoscope for week of January 22, 2015
FreeWill Puts It On The Page
Nov. 5th, 2014 10:13 pmSagittarius Horoscope for week of November 6, 2014
P. G. Wodehouse wrote more than 90 books, as well as numerous plays, musical comedies, and film scripts. When he died at age 93, he was working on another novel. He did not suffer from writer's block. And yet his process was far from effortless. He rarely churned out perfection on his first attempt. "I have never written a novel," he testified, "without doing 40,000 words or more and finding they were all wrong and going back and starting again." The way I see your immediate future, Sagittarius, is that you will be creating your own version of those 40,000 wrong words. And that's OK. It's not a problem. You can't get to the really good stuff without slogging through this practice run.
I didn't even think about NaNoWriMo this time around. But my problem is that my long spans of quietude aren't long enough for actual work. They come to crashing halts when the furnace fires up.
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(Linking to an NPR Post ABOUT THIS, I added:)
I remember when OMNI magazine had an article about a fiction-writing artificial intelligence named Racter.
I remember when OMNI magazine had an article about a fiction-writing artificial intelligence named Racter.
Elsewhere today I on Facebook I linked to an article about a thesis-writing app that has suddenly become a tool for abuse among scientific scholarly “authors”.
Allow me to connect some more dots here. Upstairs, I have a lectern dictionary I snitched from my brother, who acquired it in a neighbor’s garage sale. One of the features of this dictionary is a bibliography of the World’s Great Books, as judged in the 1950s when the dictionary was compiled. Over 2500 books are included, all now public domain.
In theory, a battery of artificial intelligences can figure out all the story genres you like, and then mine the public domain for paradigms on which to construct new material especially for you, in manners that particularly appeal to you. They would make a whole new canon—just for you.
To Set It Free(Will)--I Have The Key!
Mar. 19th, 2013 12:47 pmSagittarius Horoscope for week of March 21, 2013
On the one hand, menopausal women are no longer able to bear children. On the other hand, they often overflow with fresh possibilities and creative ideas. More time is available to them because their children have moved out of the house or don't require as much care. They can begin new careers, focus on their own development, and devote more attention to their personal needs. So in one way their fertility dries up; in another way it may awaken and expand. I suspect that whether or not you are menopausal, you are on the cusp of a comparable shift in your fecundity: one door closing, another door swinging open.
I certainly hope another door is swinging open. I had a dream overnight in which I needed something from my room...and new managers had taken over the building in which I lived and gave me a rough time about letting me into my room or letting me at my own belongings. The people you think are in charge of your life pretty soon won't be--and the next regime won't fall over itself to help you.
On the one hand, menopausal women are no longer able to bear children. On the other hand, they often overflow with fresh possibilities and creative ideas. More time is available to them because their children have moved out of the house or don't require as much care. They can begin new careers, focus on their own development, and devote more attention to their personal needs. So in one way their fertility dries up; in another way it may awaken and expand. I suspect that whether or not you are menopausal, you are on the cusp of a comparable shift in your fecundity: one door closing, another door swinging open.
I certainly hope another door is swinging open. I had a dream overnight in which I needed something from my room...and new managers had taken over the building in which I lived and gave me a rough time about letting me into my room or letting me at my own belongings. The people you think are in charge of your life pretty soon won't be--and the next regime won't fall over itself to help you.
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Serial Chill-Er
Nov. 18th, 2012 02:59 pmI've decided to re-serial post Chillin' Out on DeviantArt, and set it to some of the Creative Commons permissions.
Maybe this will goad me into finishing it.
Maybe this will goad me into finishing it.
Cut, Copy, Paste, Crop, Repeat
Sep. 10th, 2012 09:10 pm
This is me, spinning my creative wheels, again.
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A while ago here I voiced my desires to make a race car-based horror movie. Paul liked my initial premise, but thought it too expensive to pull off, and wanted to do something else, which I still may participate in if I get all the resources together.
Meanwhile, I'd come to the thought--on the racetrack smaller cars can easily, more safely, and less expensively handle the action. As some of the "track" will have to be rendered as miniature sets, that means that stunts and crashes can be done using miniatures, thus removing risk to players and stand-ins.
So I'm now thinking about using Legends and Baby Grand cars as the structural basis for the machines in the story/movie. There would be mockup cars for acting around that wouldn't have to be operational. Perhaps a truck-with-cockpit rig like as used in the Fast And The Furious movies for the actors to ride in and pretend to drive.
And since the Legends and Baby Grand cars use fiberglass bodies as designed, new bodies just for the movie can be designed and fabricated for these. Which means some room for artistic creativity.
I need more info. *Pokes around the Internet and ruminates...*
Meanwhile, I'd come to the thought--on the racetrack smaller cars can easily, more safely, and less expensively handle the action. As some of the "track" will have to be rendered as miniature sets, that means that stunts and crashes can be done using miniatures, thus removing risk to players and stand-ins.
So I'm now thinking about using Legends and Baby Grand cars as the structural basis for the machines in the story/movie. There would be mockup cars for acting around that wouldn't have to be operational. Perhaps a truck-with-cockpit rig like as used in the Fast And The Furious movies for the actors to ride in and pretend to drive.
And since the Legends and Baby Grand cars use fiberglass bodies as designed, new bodies just for the movie can be designed and fabricated for these. Which means some room for artistic creativity.
I need more info. *Pokes around the Internet and ruminates...*
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FreeWill Busts It All To Pieces
May. 25th, 2011 12:01 amSagittarius Horoscope for week of May 26, 2011
In her irreverent platinum-selling song "Monster," Sagittarian rapper Nicki Minaj offers up a poetic sequence never before heard in the history of the planet: "Pull up in the monster . . . with a bad b-tch that came from Sri Lanka / yeah I'm in that Tonka, color of Willy Wonka." I hope that you will soon come up with an equally revolutionary innovation in your own chosen field, Sagittarius. All the cosmic forces will be conspiring in the coming weeks to help you to do the equivalent of rhyming "Tonka" and "Sri Lanka" with "Willy Wonka." Please cooperate!
The cosmic forces have some work cut out for them, I see.
In her irreverent platinum-selling song "Monster," Sagittarian rapper Nicki Minaj offers up a poetic sequence never before heard in the history of the planet: "Pull up in the monster . . . with a bad b-tch that came from Sri Lanka / yeah I'm in that Tonka, color of Willy Wonka." I hope that you will soon come up with an equally revolutionary innovation in your own chosen field, Sagittarius. All the cosmic forces will be conspiring in the coming weeks to help you to do the equivalent of rhyming "Tonka" and "Sri Lanka" with "Willy Wonka." Please cooperate!
The cosmic forces have some work cut out for them, I see.
Writer's Block: Brush with stardom
Mar. 16th, 2010 04:30 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
I'm not sure I told this story here before. Maybe I have and if so I'll link to it. Watch this space.
*Checks*
Turns out I haven't. I've seen Lee Greenwood at least three times. The first time, I was just an ordinary fellow in the audience of a show at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, and nothing particularly unusual happened.
The second was almost a whole decade later. His star had been eclipsed by others in country music and he was reduced to appearing at a department store grand opening occasion to sign autographs and give out pamphlets for his theater in Kodak, TN. I was on lunch break from my job, in a bookstore in the same plaza. I saw him sitting at a desk, and there wasn't anybody else in that corner of the store and he looked...hmm...like he had already signed too many autographs and didn't want to have to smile to strangers unless they were buying him a drink. And unfortunately, I was still a stranger. And while, if I had the time to buy him a drink, which I didn't, I'd still feel bad about intruding on him, because even though I know him as a celebrity, I haven't exactly been a fan of his as such. Maybe it isn't so much the dark side of fame as it is a failing of the human condition. I like to think we all have some creative skills, some desire to create, some admiration for artists who have achieved enough to make a living at what they love to do. But even they have days in which what is demanded of them has nothing to do with what they love. And that stinks sometimes.
The third time was at a TV studio. Both he and my mother were guests on a local affairs program, and as I saw him come into the "green room" I said "Hi Lee! Nice to see you AGAIN!" It really was good to seem him again--because he looked much happier than he did the second time. Sure, it wasn't the same as performing in front of a football stadium full of fans, but at the same time, it wasn't that lousy lunch break from hell either. He took a double take...after all, I'm still just a stranger to him. And perhaps I'll always be that to him. Part of my ambition is to maybe have one or two of his problems someday.
I'm not sure I told this story here before. Maybe I have and if so I'll link to it. Watch this space.
*Checks*
Turns out I haven't. I've seen Lee Greenwood at least three times. The first time, I was just an ordinary fellow in the audience of a show at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, and nothing particularly unusual happened.
The second was almost a whole decade later. His star had been eclipsed by others in country music and he was reduced to appearing at a department store grand opening occasion to sign autographs and give out pamphlets for his theater in Kodak, TN. I was on lunch break from my job, in a bookstore in the same plaza. I saw him sitting at a desk, and there wasn't anybody else in that corner of the store and he looked...hmm...like he had already signed too many autographs and didn't want to have to smile to strangers unless they were buying him a drink. And unfortunately, I was still a stranger. And while, if I had the time to buy him a drink, which I didn't, I'd still feel bad about intruding on him, because even though I know him as a celebrity, I haven't exactly been a fan of his as such. Maybe it isn't so much the dark side of fame as it is a failing of the human condition. I like to think we all have some creative skills, some desire to create, some admiration for artists who have achieved enough to make a living at what they love to do. But even they have days in which what is demanded of them has nothing to do with what they love. And that stinks sometimes.
The third time was at a TV studio. Both he and my mother were guests on a local affairs program, and as I saw him come into the "green room" I said "Hi Lee! Nice to see you AGAIN!" It really was good to seem him again--because he looked much happier than he did the second time. Sure, it wasn't the same as performing in front of a football stadium full of fans, but at the same time, it wasn't that lousy lunch break from hell either. He took a double take...after all, I'm still just a stranger to him. And perhaps I'll always be that to him. Part of my ambition is to maybe have one or two of his problems someday.
Writer's Block: Educated Guess
Feb. 6th, 2010 01:53 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
As a man who is "freelance" now, never found a job in his intended field (Aviation Management), and is going back to school to start over, I guess the answers to this question are 1) No, it hasn't worked as much as I would have liked; 2) Yes, but I didn't have a real choice at the time; 3) Doing it now with no clear vision of how it would help. A student needs to know all his skill sets and know them EARLY. Ambition isn't enough.
As a man who is "freelance" now, never found a job in his intended field (Aviation Management), and is going back to school to start over, I guess the answers to this question are 1) No, it hasn't worked as much as I would have liked; 2) Yes, but I didn't have a real choice at the time; 3) Doing it now with no clear vision of how it would help. A student needs to know all his skill sets and know them EARLY. Ambition isn't enough.
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Color Question
Jan. 30th, 2010 09:58 pm* BLUE or
* BROWN/BEIGE?
Want a show of hands one way or another, please? Thanks in advance.
* BROWN/BEIGE?
Want a show of hands one way or another, please? Thanks in advance.
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Crayon Brainstorming Fodder
Jan. 11th, 2010 04:56 pm
Thanks to Paul Francis, a Spitfire VC scale model is on my build list for the year. This diagram is posted in the interest of generating ideas from the readership here. Feel free to download it, color it, and send it back my way if you think you have a good idea. The finished model will have a wingspan of about six inches, so a color scheme shouldn't necessarily be intricate or involved.
( The BIGGER Version I Have Hosted At DeviantArt )
I Feel Poor...And Obsolete
May. 26th, 2009 08:19 pmOne of the side effects of getting the sample issues of Videomaker magazine is that now I'm on the mailing list for video production suppliers. Today I got (along with my long-awaited and measly IRS tax refund for 2008) a little catalog from Sony Creative Software (sonycreativesoftware.com), which includes Vegas Pro 9 (high-quality video editing), Cinescore (video soundtrack constructor), royalty-free music on disk or download, sound effects from the archives of radio and film production houses, ACID Pro 7 and Sound Forge 9 (high-quality audio editor programs for music applications), CD Architect 5 (master creation for CD mass production, and other goodies related to these.
What's weird is the prices seem insane at first glance, but are reasonable from the aspect of somebody starting a new business. This stuff has come a very long way since I first got interested at the end of the 1970s and portable video cameras had just started becoming available.
Still, even if I got $400 together to get the stripped-down "Home" editions of the software, and a camera, and a computer that I know can handle them all, I still would feel out of my depth.
What's weird is the prices seem insane at first glance, but are reasonable from the aspect of somebody starting a new business. This stuff has come a very long way since I first got interested at the end of the 1970s and portable video cameras had just started becoming available.
Still, even if I got $400 together to get the stripped-down "Home" editions of the software, and a camera, and a computer that I know can handle them all, I still would feel out of my depth.
A Mess Of Updata
May. 19th, 2009 12:26 pm*) Dad somehow succeeded in getting the lady's analogue channels back the way they were, but still no digital success yet.
*) Another Job Fair in Knoxville--standing room only and just double the number of participating businesses as the last one. I let them have my resume to scan, so it's not totally hopeless, but I don't know if I'm going to bother with any more of these for a while.
*) Yesterday, in Morristown, Moonshine smoked a Mustang GT at a traffic light. Good going!
*) I ate the last of Sunday's Monkey Bread.
*) I'm experimenting again with the idea of home-brew DVD case covers and liner note sheets. I got a 10-pack of slim cases at Big Lots and since I already have a design template, all I'd need would be legal sized paper for printouts. But I want to design more dummies beyond the one I'd done earlier. Perhaps I'll go through my old LJ entry headers for spurious titles and concoct dummies from them.
*) Another Job Fair in Knoxville--standing room only and just double the number of participating businesses as the last one. I let them have my resume to scan, so it's not totally hopeless, but I don't know if I'm going to bother with any more of these for a while.
*) Yesterday, in Morristown, Moonshine smoked a Mustang GT at a traffic light. Good going!
*) I ate the last of Sunday's Monkey Bread.
*) I'm experimenting again with the idea of home-brew DVD case covers and liner note sheets. I got a 10-pack of slim cases at Big Lots and since I already have a design template, all I'd need would be legal sized paper for printouts. But I want to design more dummies beyond the one I'd done earlier. Perhaps I'll go through my old LJ entry headers for spurious titles and concoct dummies from them.
Camcorder Envy
Feb. 4th, 2009 03:25 pmFinally got my sample copy of Videomaker magazine after over a month and a half's wait. Of course, in an age when personal portable phones have built-in video, the actual "stand-alone" video cameras themselves have gotten supersophisticated. Everything's High Def now...of course, that means that second-hand pre-HD format cameras are real cheap now. Looking at this stuff "cold" shows me that I have a lot of terminology to learn.
I'm not subscribing to this magazine but using my copy as a springboard for my own education on the subject.
I'm not subscribing to this magazine but using my copy as a springboard for my own education on the subject.
[Error: unknown template qotd]
I want to get in on the video bandwagon. It's been in the background since Grade School (just ask buddy![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kevissimo) but something I've rarely gotten to do. I worked a floor camera in High School for a few times (doing School Board meetings for Public Access cable TV) but I've never owned a video camera, and haven't tried Flash animation.
Of course, for a long time my big ambition was to have my space-opera/coming of age/New Age fantasy Rayome produced as an animated TV series. Who knows? That may still happen someday.
FP
I want to get in on the video bandwagon. It's been in the background since Grade School (just ask buddy
kevissimo) but something I've rarely gotten to do. I worked a floor camera in High School for a few times (doing School Board meetings for Public Access cable TV) but I've never owned a video camera, and haven't tried Flash animation.Of course, for a long time my big ambition was to have my space-opera/coming of age/New Age fantasy Rayome produced as an animated TV series. Who knows? That may still happen someday.
FP
Carbon Paper
Oct. 1st, 2005 12:54 amHey.
My father introduced me to carbon paper about thirty years ago. I was in the habit of cutting up magazines for the pictures, and so to minimize the damage, Dad brought some carbon paper back from his job as a VA civil servant and taught me how to trace. It became my artwork of choice for a number of years...and back whenkevissimo and I were in gifted class together doing film projects, his was a live-action Star Wars "tribute" while mine was a automobile race collage animation using magazine-picture traced cars I still have somewhere.
I guess if I really wanted to, I could attempt to remake it using the Flash animation program and other such tools.
I gave up on artwork in college, not because I wasn't interested in art but because there was a kind of disconnect in my life in that vein. What I was doing was to "art" compares to what a rapper "sampler" does in music...attempt to use other's work to relate my own messages, if I had them. I had given up actual tracing midway through high school...I tried to go beyond that and ran into my own incompetance as a visionist. Besides, the world was changing. And it didn't help that my art teacher in high school was a rabid modernist. I turned my attention to writing (prose and drama) and to the computer--and to flying--and it all fell by the wayside. I still doodled on scratchpaper, but I knew I wasn't an "artiste".
I'm thinking back about this phase of my life because of a project I thought up...I've been making my nephew a kind of coloring book, by scanning in clip art from catalogs and magazines of mine and altering them to make them more "crayon-friendly". The finished files are being saved as .gifs so I could either e-mail them to him or print them out when he visits here. One of the things that bugged me about the coloring books I had as a kid, was the fact that sometimes the areas of the artwork that should have been open for color were simply blacked out. Thanks to the graphics software at my disposal, I can correct some of this.
I would have loved to be able to do this when I was a kid. I feel a little kidlike as I work on these pictures. This is a project that is taking me back to an old, familiar neighborhood...just when I feel about as alien as I've ever felt.
FP
My father introduced me to carbon paper about thirty years ago. I was in the habit of cutting up magazines for the pictures, and so to minimize the damage, Dad brought some carbon paper back from his job as a VA civil servant and taught me how to trace. It became my artwork of choice for a number of years...and back when
kevissimo and I were in gifted class together doing film projects, his was a live-action Star Wars "tribute" while mine was a automobile race collage animation using magazine-picture traced cars I still have somewhere.I guess if I really wanted to, I could attempt to remake it using the Flash animation program and other such tools.
I gave up on artwork in college, not because I wasn't interested in art but because there was a kind of disconnect in my life in that vein. What I was doing was to "art" compares to what a rapper "sampler" does in music...attempt to use other's work to relate my own messages, if I had them. I had given up actual tracing midway through high school...I tried to go beyond that and ran into my own incompetance as a visionist. Besides, the world was changing. And it didn't help that my art teacher in high school was a rabid modernist. I turned my attention to writing (prose and drama) and to the computer--and to flying--and it all fell by the wayside. I still doodled on scratchpaper, but I knew I wasn't an "artiste".
I'm thinking back about this phase of my life because of a project I thought up...I've been making my nephew a kind of coloring book, by scanning in clip art from catalogs and magazines of mine and altering them to make them more "crayon-friendly". The finished files are being saved as .gifs so I could either e-mail them to him or print them out when he visits here. One of the things that bugged me about the coloring books I had as a kid, was the fact that sometimes the areas of the artwork that should have been open for color were simply blacked out. Thanks to the graphics software at my disposal, I can correct some of this.
I would have loved to be able to do this when I was a kid. I feel a little kidlike as I work on these pictures. This is a project that is taking me back to an old, familiar neighborhood...just when I feel about as alien as I've ever felt.
FP
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