Blender 3D Comes in to my Life Once Again!

So, over the break I have been working as close to non-stop as I can on my artwork. In addition to three other projects, I have begun work on a short film created in Blender 3D. I haven't worked much in 3D in the last 10 years and am truly amazed at how far the software has come! I am having to learn all new ways of working and creating! Easier ways of course but new! I am so excited to be working in this direction! The above image is not the only project I have going in Blender. I am working on another print piece that will be approximately 12-15 feet wide by 5 feet tall. I will post more as I go.

Died for Our Country

So, yesterday I visited Arlington National Cemetery for the first time in my life. I think it is an understatement to say that it was a powerful experience. I shot these photos at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

I went to the cemetary to get some photos to use in one of my latest art works. During my foray I started to feel as though I didn't really want to do the work I have in mind simply because it might be disrespectful. Of course I am still going to do it but I just need to handle it in a way that is thoughtful and respectful to those who have lost a loved one in the military.

That said, Arlington Cemetery is a pretty amazing place. Walking around you become wholly aware that the men that gave their lives for this country deserve respect, whether or not their idiot government had them in a war they didn't belong in.

X-Mas Makes me Tired

So, Christmas is not even hear yet and I am tired. Not enough sleep, too much alcohol, too much fun. All of this I have to blame on Aaron. Aaron can't help but have holiday parties. In fact, his Christmas party and his Seasonal beer tasting happened over the last two evenings. Therefore I blame him for my being tired. Aaron on the other hand is in even worse shape. His daughter is sick with a cold as is his wife. No one is sleeping as a result. So, I am glad for Aaron that his personal parties are over. Now all we all have left to endure is everyone else's parties. Here are a few of the photos from the last couple of days. Unfortunately, my sister who was present on Friday didn't make it in to any of the photos. Therefore, I only have my word as proof that she was there.














Kathy with Emelia just before things got going on Friday.
















Gene's beautiful girlfriend Shannon with Patrick accosting her.
















Me accosting Lydia.
















Now for last night. Left to right Ken, Eben and Mike appreciating some fine beers.
















Left to right. Mike, Jason, Chris and of course Aaron.
















Shannon and Gene cheesing for the camera.

I love winter. I love snow. The early snowfall this year is definitely a big smile from mother nature. I met Anna last night at the Dubliner for her Christmas work happy-hour that almost no one showed up for. I walked all the way there in the snow and it was fantastic! We had loads of fun! Her co-workers Dell and Zoran are fantastic folks! Once we were done there, we decided that dinner at Cafe Berlin seemed like a good idea and was on the way home. The food was great! The company (Anna) was the best and I have to say it was one of the best evenings I have had in a while. On the way home I snapped this picture of Stanton park at night in the snow. Beautiful. In addition I snapped this photo of a fire hydrant this morning. I am just so anxious to test out this new camera I bought. (Panasonic, Lumix TZ3) I am really pleased with this camera so far. It takes fantastic photos (Thanks in part to the Leica Lens), good quality video and is easy to use! I am finding that carrying it around with me and shooting shots of whatever I please is making taking pictures fun again! Check out the slide show to the right.

Jake of the Dead

I spent the day with Jake here at home. Jake has some sort of creeping-crud, zombie, walking death sort of thing. The doctor calls it dyshidrotic excema. Unfortunately it was irritated and then became infected by him not keeping his hands clean and of course chewing on his fingers, DUH!
So home today we were. "Tom!, are we going to do anything fun today?". This is the call of the bored child. One who because he is unable to use his hands for much, feels the helplessness we have all experienced at some point in our lives. Mind you, Jake can be a creative individual who at times comes up with the damndest ways to entertain himself. Today, however, was not one of those days. Today, I was the savior of the child's universe. The knight who comes to the rescue to fend off the evil monster of boredom.
Of course this was the perfect opportunity to pull out the big guns and introduce Jake to one of my favorite movies of all time! A movie that changed the way sports movies were made. A movie that was so monumental that it put all previous sports movies to shame!

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

Some may ask why I would let a 9 year old watch this film. This is the person of whom I would ask, "Are you kidding?". This is only the greatest football film of all time and should be on every parents mandatory "what films will I use to raise my children, so I don't have to." List. So, regardless of the thoughts of 1/10 of a second blurred, unrecognizable tit shots and the incessant curse words, this movie is absolutely appropriate for a child of 9. This film looks at football from a sensitive, realistic viewpoint. It shows the intricacies of high school football in the self obsessed, insular, maniacal way that only a West Texan could truly appreciate. The absolutely bloody and brutal nature of West Texas high school football comes through with blood squirting, detailed realism, and the hormone-maddened completely inappropriate stupidity of high school football parents is true to form and would make any West Texas trailer-trash proud. Needless to say, this film is now high on Jake's top-ten movies of all time list which makes me proud. You see, his blood parents don't want him to have a violent thought or to be angry or to get in the scuffles that most boys find themselves in during the painful stages of adolescence. They want him to grow up without ever seeing a violent film or playing a violent video game. Now, I may be a bit of a Neanderthal but this seems to me the quickest route to raising one of those useless people with no identity that just want to cry about the world. You know the ones, the people that wear nothing but clothes from the goodwill (because they want to, not because they have to), the ones that are always sad because the world is just so mean.
It seems to me that a child needs to understand a bit about the world. A bit about life handing you the short end of the stick most of the time, and the need to work with what you have to make the best of a situation. Some may say "but Jake is 9! He shouldn't learn about the world yet! Let him be a child!". I assert that the formative years between 8 and 14 are the years that will decide who a person will be for the rest of their life. If you make your child afraid of the world during these ages, that child will grow up to be an adult that is afraid of the world. That said, I believe further examination of this subject is a discussion for another post.

Life is Good

So Jake and I had fun. This is key for someone who came in to a child's life during the child's seventh year. We are now in his ninth year. We are friends. I am a recognized authority figure. Things seem to be as they should be. By this time next year I will be his step-dad and a permanent part of his life. We will spend a lot of time together, learning about each other and learning from each other. Though I never imagined I would be in this position, I wouldn't trade it for the world. Jake is an incredibly important part of my life.

Zombies 'R' Us

So Jake will be going back to his dad's on Sunday and back to school on Monday. The doctor says his Zombie ism is not permanent (thank god, I am tired of doing things for him that he can do himself). He will continue on his path and this past Friday will become a memory and may even fade in to obscurity for him. I however will remember our time together watching "The Greatest Sports Movie of All Time". When I am old, I will talk about it. I will enjoy the memory. And it won't fall in to obscurity for Jake because I will remind him of it, period.

Mom Walked Up a Step Today!

I am so proud of her! She will be independent before we know it!

Black Belt Hai!

I am a few weeks late on this but here is Jake on November 3rd testing for his black belt in Tae Kwon Do. We are so proud of him. We won't know for sure if he has the black belt until January but we are pulling for him.

Going With Anna and Jake to Greg's Party

We have just had a really nice time in Richmond. Greg was respectful, Laura was super nice. Mind you this is the nicest time I have had with Greg in a couple of years. The chase for the gold changes people and Greg is no exception. Stuff, stuff, stuff. This is the mantra of the greedy. Greg has everything he could want. Huge lcd televisions throughout the house, 9 foot hi-def projector in the basement, high-end appliances, hot tub, big workshop with tools probably doesn't even know the uses for. Believe you me, they want for very little. They are up to there eyeballs in debt but hey, that's what makes them happy. That said, they seem happier than I have seen them in a long time. Maybe having a baby is changing them some. They don't seem to enjoy parenthood but I think it is changing them nonetheless. All of this reminds me of one thing. I am in love, happy with my life for the most part and have a wonderful future step-son. Life is good! Sometimes it takes looking at others to realize what you have and to figure out just how good it is.
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Halloween and Things I Like!

Ok, so Gene sent me this awesome picture of him and Tuesday on Halloween! Man those are some great costumes! Excellent use of fabric to restrain the kids! Ok, that was out of line but man I like the angel outfit. I love the horns Gene! It is nice to hear from Gene. We just don't spend enough time with him anymore. Ah well, soon...

Tom and Anna

Me and the beautiful LOVE of my life. She thinks this picture is goofy. I think we look happy. So, there you go. Different ways of seeing the same thing.

Goodbye Mr. Falwell, you will be sorely remembered.

Good Riddence. May you burn in Hell.

As I arrived at my class last night, I noticed, as was expected, a difference in the way the students were acting. Calmer, more distracted than usual. The Virginia Tech incident was on their minds. I talked with them about it and they were clearly disturbed. They had gobs of questions regarding the possibility of this happening at George Mason. They wondered what could be done to prevent this sort of occurrence. The clear answer was that short of not allowing people with any sort of mental history in to the school (which is absurd) there was nothing to be done. Anyone at any time could lose it and wander around with a gun and kill people. The issue of gun control helping at all is absurd as well. If a person wants a gun, they will find a gun. There are many many outlets to get guns illegally. Gun control won't help that.
I feel awful for the families of the murdered students and in particular, I feel awful for the family of the shooter. They will never be able to escape this. They will forever be the mother and father of a psychopath and will be blamed (if only in secret) by those that are too ignorant to understand mental illness. My thoughts are with them and with the families of the deceased.

HPI makes one hell of a car

Ah, my new baby. This thing is fast, handles well and is just plain fun to drive. It is an HPI Micro RS4 1/18 R/C racing car. The paint job is 8 coats of Candy Blue with 8 coats of Indy Silver beneath. I am in love.

Thoughts on Sculpture

Three dimensions are real space. That gets rid of the problem of illusionism and of literal space, space in and around marks and colours - which is riddance of one of the most salient and most objectionable relics of European art. The several limits of painting are no longer present. A work can be as powerful as it is thought to be. Actual space is intrinsically more powerful and specific than paint on a flat surface. -Donald Judd, in Arts Yearbook 8 (1965)

I really love this quote. Sculpture is for me the absolute highest form of Art. I love all mediums but Sculpture is truly at the zenith.

Home

After taking care of my Mother for the last five days, I am finally home! Having lived away from home for the last ten years made for a different and at times difficult engagement. I learned something very important this week however. All the things that I thought I was bothered by and was having a hard time forgiving her for were meaningless. She is human, plain and simple. She is not the superwoman that was impervious to all wrong or temptation that, as a child, I perceived her to be. She made the decisions that were necessary for us (my sister an I) to excel. I can never fault her for that. I know this is hard to believe, but I even had a good time with her. It turned out to be a kind of vacation for us. We talked about things that we have always had ideas to do. Though some things have changed (like the trip to Peru becoming a trip to Panama), she still thinks about the trip to somewhere every day, a trip we planned to do ten years ago! This makes me feel wonderful! Though she has been bedridden for a year, she is not letting go of the things that made her life worth living. I hope that she will be up on her feet again soon. It is so hard to see her confined to a room instead of being confined to the world as she used to be.

PROTEST!

Today is the day that the American public can make a difference. I for one hope that the protests today in D.C. are fruitful. I don't Support violence but I believe that if "civil disobedience" breaks out that it could be a good thing for the movement. The thought that the protestors are not supporting our men and women in the war is absurd. The protests are against the war, not the troops.

I just love the types of people that point the finger at those against this administration and call them communists or better yet, anti-American or anti-Patriotic. How ignorant can these people be. This country was founded on dissent. It is truly Patriotic to be a dissenter. Those that follow an administration as idiotic as this one and practice blind-support are the anti-Patriots, the Communist, the Conformists. Wake up and see the truth America. If you support an administration because it just happens to be the one in charge, you in fact are the ones that are moving this country towards Tyranny. Fight this administration and claim your Patriotic right to Dissent!

Speakers

Ok, so I finally finished my pair of horns. These are the Audio Nirvanas listed on the right in my gear list. They sound absolutely fantastic! They image like mad and the bass is clean, balanced and smooth. So far they are great accept for their slightly gargantuan size. 4 feet tall 2 feet deep and 17 inches wide. They have to be a minimum distance of 10 inches from the wall so you can imagine, they protrude in to the room in quite an imposing fashion. Not to mention they are 50+ pounds apiece! They hit 25-30 Hz though and they sound amazing!

Man, it is slow getting this page set up. My GF says the photo of me is aweful! Her words were "You are Hot! That picture is not!" Ah well, I like it.

A new day. A new way to send my thoughts into the oblivion of cyberland.