surfer dude = genius!

This post was just up over on the reddit page and it caught my attention...
"Surfer dude stuns physicists with theory of everything"
It's a really cool story - I can see John Cussak staring in the movie version of this! :)
nutshell... This guy who lives the "surfer" lifestyle also has a degree in physics. He's apparently been thinking a lot while waiting to catch a wave, because he has come up with a new "theory of everything". I used to know more about this physics stuff, but it's been a while so I'm a little rusty... As I understand it... Physics have certain laws that nature seems to obey, example: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Light behaves a certain way, etc... Well, since "forever" these scientists have been trying to tie all of these laws into one. Which is pretty tough since we still don't really know what gravity is yet that is a pretty big player.
Garrett Lisi (the surfer dude) has tied it to something that I had never heard of before called the "E8". I'm gonna have to look into this more because it sounds really fascinating!
The above graphic is supposed to represent this E8. Reminds me of a mandala.
Cool stuff going on here!

Tech Tags: physics science theory+of+everything e8 garrett+lisi

You call this art?

Well, it's official... I really like my new brushes! (That I blogged about yesterday).
I actually only used one of them (didn't want to ruin that "new in a box" feel to the other one).
I'm thrilled that I got such a good bargain on these things. It's funny, if I had seen this brush in the store for $30 I probably would not have bought it, but because it was marked as 70% off I had to get it. If you've never painted before this will mean nothing (And if you've never painted before, you really should try!)... anyway, the brush does exactly what I had hoped it would do, it has a larger area up near the Hosel (do they use that word in painting or just golf?), this larger area lets you really load up the brush with water/paint. The ability of the brush to hold this amount of water/paint is good because it means you don't have to keep going back to the pallet to get more paint, thus allowing you to get a good long flow on the paper. The other benefit to this brush is that it tapers to a really fine point which allows you to get really detailed if needed. I like to paint these small paintings (5"x5") so the extra detail is needed for me.
In the interest of all the kiddies out there and those who may be at work I won't post the "live pose" which translates to nude. The model was funny, she was "braggin" about how her and this other artist worked on staging this pose about 15 years ago. I thought 'what pose? you're just laying there on your back' - but I get her point :) If you want to see this you'll have to go to my flickr site here.
As I noted on my flickr posts, I have a tendency to paint very lightly, so light, that the scanner that I used to scan these in had a difficult time picking up all the details. Not trying to make excuses for a bad painting, but they look better in person :)
These may be the 2 best paintings I've been most happy with so far.

Tech Tags: art watercolor model red+head fleischer

misc Wednesday

Been kinda quiet around here. I just haven't had much to say I guess. But in the interest of getting back to bloggin I'll throw out some random thoughts...

I'm looking forward to my watercolor class tonight. Two reasons... I'm looking to deviate from the normal model painting tonight and trying my hand at a landscape painting. Although it hit me this morning that if someone is sitting in the room posing and I'm not paying attention to them or off in my own world is that rude? Is it weird? We'll have to see. The other reason is that I'll be trying out my brand new brushes! I've been wanting to get some "Kolinsky" brushes for some time now, but the price has kept me from doing that. Well, in the last "Jerry's artarama" catalog they had a sale price for the special 175th anniversary edition of two Kolinsky brushes for about $32 each! That's an awesome deal! It's something like 70% off the retail price! So I just got them yesterday and the look nice. We'll see tonight how the "action" is... I'm hoping that they are gonna be like getting a new pair of sneakers that make you run fast... These new brushes will make me paint a masterpiece - yeah right :)
If I'm somewhat successful tonight I'll post the results.

I signed up today for another "electronics" class that deals with LED lights. Again, I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into, but I have an interest in this stuff so I'm hoping that I'll enjoy learning about it.

I got a new book yesterday too... just what I needed! Ugh. But it's very daunting to look at! But again, I have this interest so I'm going to try and persue it. It's about an open source software program called "Processing", that is geared towards artists and designers. The book talks about how the "average" person is either interested in programming OR art, not both. Well, I think I fall mostly in the art category, but I really have in interest in the programming part as well. I've just always had difficulty sticking with trying to learn it. But I've got my mind set on trying to learn more new things (thus the electronics classes and now the self taught programming), I hope I can stick with it.

Ok, enjoy your Wednesday.
Peace

Bread

Well tonight I added another notch to my "cooking" belt. I made bread for the first time. I followed the recipe I found over at the "simple dollar" with one small modification, I used soymilk instead of regular milk. Overall, it turned out well I guess. But for some reason the dough did not rise as much as I thought it should have according to the photos on the simple dollar website. I used a steel mixing bowl, and perhaps it cooled off too fast for when I mixed the yeast? I wasn't sure of the exact amount of water to add either to the original yeast amount.
The crust was tough as a rock! This thing feels like a lead weight! But once I cut a slice it tasted really good. I think I was impatient too and didn't let the oven pre-heat long enough, I had to cook it an extra 20 minutes longer than what they said (30 min). So all in all, this took me about 3-4 hours to make one loaf of bread, I could have driven up to new york city and back in that time! But to be fair, 2 hours of that was spent waiting for the dough to rise. and 50 min spent waiting for it to bake.
I'm not totally discourage, because I think I want to try this again with a different kind of yeast (I used the instant pack), and also I'd like to try a better flour (I used all purpose), I'd like to try a good whole wheat next time.
But for a first try, I'm pretty happy.
Now I've got to hurry up and eat it, cause the website said it'll only last for about 3 days since there are no preservatives in it.
Oh, and I really need to buy myself a serrated knife for next time.

totally unrelated, but worth mentioning, while waiting for all this to take place, I watched a dvd that I had seen in the theater some time ago... the motorcycle diaries. This is an awesome movie! Just a tad bit long, but really good stuff - go rent it!

Tech Tags: bread loaf cooking baking simple+dollar movie motorcycle+diaries che

Larry Lessig at TED

I stopped over to Larry Lessig's website today and saw that he had posted his talk at the TED conference. Pretty interesting stuff. It's a complicated issue but he does a good job at nutshelling it into a 19min talk. If you have kids, create art, download mp3's, or practice law, this should be of interest.
I also encourage (once again) everyone to check out the TED website. Lots of GREAT "short" videos there. Perhaps someday I might be lucky enough to go (doubt I'll ever be able to afford it though, so the website is as close that I'll get - which is ok too).

Changing gears...
A few small things that I've been into lately...
I just watched "Malcolm X" (imdb) last night on DVD. I ALMOST shut it off after about 15 minutes. I was very corny and the quick edits were really getting on my nerves and very distracting. But (I'm guessing because Denzel) I stuck with it... as it turns out it turned into a really good movie. I knew nothing about Malcolm (wikipedia) other than I thought he was a violent black supremacist... Well, I was wrong (shows how much I know). I won't say that I agree with his thoughts and I do agree there were violent words used, and a certain amount of "hate" but I thought the movie painted a pretty good picture as to the complexity of this man's life and beliefs. I also learned a bit more about Islam and some of what I saw and heard scared me.

I have just scratched the surface of learning about processing.org. I read about it in a new book I got from the Makezine team, called "making things talk". It's not exactly the kind of book I thought it was. It's VERY technical. I think as early as page 33 they are talking about PHP code! But this stuff interests me so I'm trying to slog my way through it.

Enjoy your weekend.

Tech Tags: larry+lessig TED copyright malcolm+x denzel+washington spike+lee processing.org makezine

What is art?

I think it interesting that twice now within 6 days, I've gotten into a discussion with friends and co-workers about "what is art" and "what makes and artist and artist." It's a surprisingly simple question with possibly a simple answer, but the more you think about it the more complex it becomes. I won't bore you with all the details, but here are two small blips of what I thought about...
What is an artist?
I think an artist is someone who looks at the world around them and sees shapes, colors, patterns, and light.

What is art?
It all is!
I may not like it, I may not understand it, but when I'm honest with myself, I have to say that it's all art.

The above video link I found while surfing over to Juxtapoz's website. I've also learned recently that this type of art is gaining a name (I called it underground art)... People are calling it now "pop surrealism". (I like underground art better). Robert Hardgrave has a great outlook on his art, and I really like some of these pieces.
On a side note... I've been half thinking of trying acrylics, and MAYBE trying my hand at some "pop surrealism." Who knows.

Tech Tags: art robert+hardgrave juxtapoz pop+surrealism

Don't ya love the internet?

I've been meaning to post this for the past couple days but keep forgetting. About a week or so ago, I stumbled upon this link to a blog all about mustaches. At first I thought, here is yet another useless blog cluttering up the intertubes... BUT instead, these are the types of blogs and websites that to me give the intertubes character. (Not trying to sound holier than thou either, I freely admit my blog is leaving its clutter too).
But what I like about this mustache blog is the photography. Where else can you find these great old photos of guys mostly back at what looks like the 1800's. I also give them credit for coming up with the funny/witty headlines for each style of mustache.
I had to laugh too when I read this quote where someone (probably a guy with a beard) was trying to weasel himself into the spotlight...

(lord) franko said...
while i prefer just a mustache, the proper beard can enhance a mustache sometimes, don't you think? sort of like the proper accessory to fine outfit?
October 31, 2007 9:21 AM

A beard to me is like a fine lawn gone to seed for lack of mowing. I do not lament the beard, but rather the mustache it has subsumed.

Good Stuff - Gotta love the internet!

Tech Tags: mustache blog internet intertubes