A Spooky Bat in Adobe Illustrator

 In order to learn Adobe Illustrator, you have to practice.

Just fooling around and I drew this Spooky Bat.  To make the wings bat-like, I used the Ellipse Tool.  I drew a long ellipse, then smaller ellpses to cut out the flap shapes using the shape builder tool.  

The head and ears were made with the rectangle tool and the polygon tool.  I used the pen tool to draw the eyes. 

To download the image, right click on it.

Making Memes In Adobe Illustrator

I recently began studying Adobe Illustrator again, a great graphics program for use in making graphic illustrations.  I am doing so through the "Bring Your Own Laptop" website.  I was a member of it in 2022 but let my membership lapse while I was laid up with a broken hip.

I am currently making a few "memes," that is graphics with a message.   Here is one I just made, for use on X, Elon Musk's site that was previously known as Twitter.   There is a lot of Yankee propaganda on X and ignorance of history and I see that memes of this sort are popular. 

Karmelo Anthony and His Supporters

 Karmelo Anthony, a 17 year old black high school student in Frisco, Texas, was recently convicted of murdering a student from another school at a track meet.  Karmelo was sentenced to 35 years in prison.  His guilt was not in doubt. 

Karmelo's supporters, mostly black folks, were outraged at the verdict.  Some have promised violence against white folks and a few have urinated on the grave of the victim, Austin Metcalf, who was also 17.  Curious, their anti-white racism is so virulent that they take revenge on the corpse of Austin Metcalf.  After all, it was his fault for dying when Karmelo stabbed him in the heart.  No doubt this dying was a deliberate act of white supremacy.  Or something.

In any case, these events tell me that there are some blacks who are violent and incapable of fairly assessing the events of the crime.  They are tribalists who strongly identify with their epidermis and skin color, and that is primary and above all other considerations.  

That's the bad news, but the good news is that YouTube hosts a number of black pundits and YouTubers, and they are conservative, articulate and fair.  They are not fans of Karmelo Anthony and have accurately summarized the case and Karmelo's guilt.  Some are critical of the black community for their lack of fairness and their anti-white racism.  In a later post I will list and recommend some of these writers.

Kudos are also due to the black teammates of Austin Metcalf who were present at the scene and testified that the confrontation was provoked by Karmelo and opined that Karmelo was in the wrong.

Beware the "Sovereign Citizen"

"Sovereign Citizens" -- Lately our roads and highways have been the scene of the infamous "sovereign citizen," people who are following the false driving instructions of weirdos on Tic Toc and elsewhere.  This leads its followers to believe that they can voluntarily withdraw from all state and federal driving laws.  Here are some of the beliefs and practices of the followers of this nonsense:

1.  They don't believe they need a driver's license unless they are driving commercially (like a taxi or delivery truck). So they frequently drive with no license or an expired license,

2.  Similarly, they believe they do not have to register their vehicle with the DMV or carry car insurance.  They often use fake license plates that say "PRIVATE" to avoid being pulled over for not having a an actual license.

3.  When pulled over by police they claim they are not subject to state driving laws because they not driving, they are traveling, referring to some obscure law or court case to make the distinction.  They often refuse to roll down their windows fully so police can talk to them more easily, or refuse to identify themselves as required by law. 

4. Eventually the police decide to arrest them for these infractions but the driver refuses to exit the vehicle, rolls up the windows and locks the doors.  After issuing several unanswered demands by the police to exit the car, the officers use a tool to break the window glass and physically remove the driver from the car, who is then handcuffed and carted  off to jail, while his vehicle is towed away to a police lot.

5.  There are numerous videos of these police interactions on YouTube; search for "sovereign citizens" and view the madness.

Updates to My Exciting Life

 Here's the exciting details of my so-called life:

Physical Therapy;

My physical condition continues to improve with Focus Sports Therapy in Hollister, California.  I can walk better and longer than when I first started back in March. I have discovered through experience that even a thoroughly decrepit body can react to exercise and improve greatly in many cases.  

Learning Spanish:  

My strategy for learning Spanish is immersion, sort of.  I watch lessons, stories and examples of Spanish on YouTube, and do not write anything down.  Once I have covered the same vocabulary, words and phrases as before, it begins to stick.  I use Google Spanish to English translation for new words and phrases, which are translated instantly into English at no cost.  This is a great tool when reading stories only, to learn new words and expressions.

I used to try and listen to Spanish broadcasts, songs, news, advertisements to see how many spoken words I could recognize.  It wasn't very many at all.  Then one day recently the fog began to clear and I could understand various words and phrases, a lot more than before.

Back to Making Graphics

 Since I broke my hip two years ago I have lost energy and mobility.  However, I am undergoing some great physical therapy and it has done me a lot of good.  So this week I have reactivated my favorite Abobe programs, namely Photoshop and Illustrator.

To get back into the swing of things and learn the newest updated versions, I am selecting some projects to work on.  Here is a repair of a picture I found on FaceBook, of  a Civil War era sailor.  It was a tintype image and had corroded badly.  I wanted to see what the sailor looked like without all that damage.  Here he is.

The original is below.

Time To Reinvent Myself

At 81 years of age my working life has come to an end.  Now I need to devise a plan for the rest of my life.  I don't want to spend it on the couch watching TV.  Not exclusively, anyway.  I don't want to feel useless.  

My priority for the time being will be to regain my physical health.  I start a new round of physical therapy tomorrow.  PT has done a lot of good for me so far but I have a ways to go.  I have an exercise table that I bought from Amazon several weeks ago, still in its cardboard packaging.  I need to install it in my spare room upstairs and start using it. 

Tax Season Ends Next Week

 The Tax Season is winding down and this may be my last hurrah.  

I will soon be free to do other things.  

But what?

Fighting for Good Health

 My fight with my body goes on.  Physical therapy helps a lot, but on days between workouts my painful joints and weak legs reassert themselves.  Today Tess drove me to an appointment with my orthopedic surgeon in San Jose to undergo some nerve tests to detect possible neuropathy.  After a grueling drive through traffic, we arrived but the doctor’s computer software failed to operate so the whole trip was a large waste of time.

 I bought a physical therapy table but haven’t had the time or strength to set it up.  There is one more month of the tax season and I will have more time to accomplish what I need to do. 

Learning to Play Violin

A few days ago I was browsing YouTube and happened upon a violin maker and repairman and found the subject of violins to be compelling.  These tiny instruments are made of Maple and topped with Spruce and even those two or three hundred years old can still sound beautiful.  Famous brands like Stradivarius sell for millions of dollars, even though very old.  Antonio Stradavari, the maker, died in 1737.  About 650 Stradavarius violins still exist and are sought after by collectors who are rich enough to buy one as an investment.  Great violinists seek to play them whenever they are offered the chance.  

Intrigued, I bought a beginner violin off of  EBay, a German 4/4 full size violin made of Maple and have been slowly getting it, and myself, ready to operate the instrument.

My first tasks were to rosin the bow and tune the strings.  Rosin is something like tree sap that is rubbed on the horsehair of the bow, otherwise the bow cannot make any sound.  The rosin grips the strings and makes them sound when the bow is drawn across them.

The second task was to tune the strings.  Seeing how thin violin strings are, I became worried about breaking a string if I tuned it too tight.  So I bought an electronic tuner from Adobe and proceeded with caution.  Now the violin is tuned.  The next task is to make nice sounds with the bow, then start practicing scales.  It should be fun and there is plenty of videos on YouTube to educate me in each task.