Making Snoopy a Representative of Palestinian Terror

 My graphics opponent drew the image of Snoopy wearing Arab gear, below, and waving a Palestine flag.

I added the skulls and the legend.  Hope the Snoopy kidnapers like it.

Note how I used  a skull pic with a transparent background to add to the graphic.

Adobe Illustrator: My First Attempt

I have added Adobe Illustrator to my graphics programs.  It is a vector graphics program -- that means it draws pictures.  The graphic at the left is my first attempt, using a tutorial I found on YouTube.  Frankly, it isn't very good.  However, the only way to learn a graphics art program is to use it, learn what controls do what.  So my first learning episode is done, and I will seek a more sophisticated tutorial for my next attempt.

Adrienne's New Blog Banner

My good friend and blogger buddy Adrienne of Adrienne's Corner mentioned that her blog banner was bit plain, and someday she would spruce it up.  I asked if I could do it for her, and whipped up a new blog banner.  It's simple, but she liked it and it is in place there now.  Go see!

I think a blog banner should express the essence of who you (the blogger) are and what you are all about.  Adrienne's slogan is "Still Catholic, Still Conservative," so I wanted to express that in her banner.

She also likes flowers and grows them in her garden.  So I put a simple floral design on the left of the banner, and a stained glass window (with a cross) on the right, to signify her Catholic faith.  Still it lacked something, but then it dawned on me:  stained glass windows are glorious when emitting light.  I added a blue glow to represent sunlight.  Now the window emitting light symbolizes Adrienne's blog, which emits the warm and vibrant light of truth and of faith.

I am just so sensitive I can hardly stand it.

I love that blue glow, though -- it immediately draws the eye to the stained glass window and the cross, telling the subconscious, "this is the essence of Adrienne."

Now, for your blog, who are you?  What values do you hold most dear?  What message do you want to convey?  What symbols, pictures and graphics most closely convey your essence?

Think about it.  Contact me if you want to toss around some ideas.

A Soft, Summer Night with Dagny

I'm sitting here in the backyard at night, puffing on a cigar and listening to the crickets. I spent the day studying economics for a course I am to teach at DeVry on Monday evening. It is kind of interesting, if GDP, GNP, supply and demand, monetary policy, inflation and deflation and that sort of thing grabs you. No? No wonder people run from me at cocktail parties. I'm lying -- I never go to cocktail parties.

The rhythmic chirping of the crickets takes me back to childhood in Missouri, where there were great big, green metallic June bugs, and 17 year cicadas, and my favorite bug, lightening bugs, or fireflies if you prefer. There was something magical about these tiny hobgoblins, emerging silently from the grass with their tiny blinking lanterns to flit about the yard while I watched in wonder. We don't have fireflies in California. All the good stuff lives somewhere else.

I am learning Poser 7. I bought Poser 5 four years ago, installed it, found out how hard it was to use and learn and never touched it again. This week, however, I had a reason to learn, the need to replace Pamela's figure on her blog. The new owners of Poser do a better job of documentation, like including a tutorial and reference manual. So I have created the woman from stock models in the Poser libraries and she looks pretty good so far. She's naked, but that's because I haven't yet learned how to dress her. I will though. We named her Dagny, after the famous heroine of Atlas Shrugged (the novel). Here's a preliminary look. She will get better as I learn to add realistic effects.

Here's a closeup of her face. She's kinda cute.