Saturday, June 8, 2013

Number 19

19. The Ancients called this the ‘Number of Surrender’ for your life needs to link up with the Universal Life.

The number 19 is an endurance vibration.  It brings everything into focus, winds up old accounts and starts off anew.  People influenced by the number 19 can be completely self absorbed, are usually extroverts and are often egotistical.  They can also become dependent on others and will find that there are many obstacles in their path until they work forward, balancing their needs with the needs of others. (http://numerology-thenumbersandtheirmeanings.blogspot.com/2011/05/number-19.html)

So here we are at the end of the quarter and the last entry on this blog. What better way to end it than to delve into a little Numerology as we wind up old accounts and bring everything into focus.

This has definitely been a challenging quarter for me and I would attribute it to doing too much and dealing with family and health issues, which might have allowed me to become dependent on others who were generous with their time in helping me to clear obstacles in my path. But within that struggle, I discovered many others were facing roadblocks as well and I observed the entire class help each other at one time or another. I never heard anyone say "I can't help you," without trying to solve the dilemma first. That is a generous quality.

One of my struggles this quarter was getting the hair to work on my cat that I created in 3D Modeling. This cat looked like it had been doused with gasoline and set on fire. It looked terrible. So my solution was to watch a tutorial on making believable hair and giving my sad little cat a new lease on his virtual 9 lives. 

This is where you may watch the Lightwave Hair System Tutorial (http://vimeo.com/30132850) and here in this blog is where you can compare the old and new versions of my cat.


 This poor cat... after applying the details outlined in the tutorial, the cat crashed my computer so I had to systematically remove bits and pieces of the tutorial elements until my cat looked a little like a puff ball. Also, I could not render in HD because it was going to take 72 hours to render one frame. I have no idea how Mr. Vaughan managed to render the caveman.

4 days later, I am putting this one away and moving on.

Spring is a sign of beginnings and many of us will move on to new starts. I am excited about the personal and professional connections I have made this quarter and am eager to see what is next as I move forward... beyond the number 19.

Thank you to Brian Martin for providing an excellent learning environment and to a classroom full of helpers, you are awesome! I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

 

Friday, June 7, 2013

The Eighteenth Element


The Atomic number 18 on the Periodic Table is Argon. The name Argon is from a Greek word meaning lazy or inactive. Argon's existence was suspected in 1785 but not confirmed until a century later in 1894 when two Lords had nothing to do so they removed the oxygencarbon dioxidewater and nitrogen from a sample of clean air and instead of finding nothing... lo and behold there was Argon: chemically inert, colorless, odorless and nontoxic as a solid, liquid and gas. It sounds like nothing to me, but I am not a scientist nor a Lord with nothing better to do than figure out what is left when you remove all the known gasses from air. (Thank you Wikipedia. Remember this may or may not be true... but it's out there like a whole lot of Argon.) 

Thankfully, I am an artist and this week's assignment was like old-school graphic design. Make an Art Deco poster out of nothing... which, to Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsey, is impossible... because if there is nothing it's probably loaded with Argon. But like Argon, Art may seem like nothing when it is in the form of an idea. (Ar-t like Ar-gon. It's amazing how these things line up in the universe.)

I love the Art Deco style. I decided to stick with my strength and incorporated people into my design.

When people dance the Tango well, they can sometimes suck the air out of the room but what is really happening is that they are sucking oxygen, carbon dioxide, water and nitrogen out of the room. 

And what's left? Did you guess?

Nothing. Because, unless you've got skills like old English Lords, you are not going to be able to leave the 18th Element behind.

Assignment 18: The Art Deco Poster




Monday, June 3, 2013

Seventeen for the Road

I didn't get my driver's license until I was a senior in high school in Pasco, Washington... and I was 17. Across the state, in Bellevue, my future Husband also waited until he was 17 to get his driver's license. A match made in heaven.

So, when our oldest daughter was up for driving, we didn't see the need for her to get her license earlier than we did, so a trend began.

All of our children have not gotten their licenses until after they were 17 years old. I like this plan because that means, they were all a bit more mature when we sent them out on the road to be teenage drivers. (With my kids, this rated right up there with being the only kids not watching Friends. They thought this made them Freaks. I am sure it made them smarter.)

http://clinedesignart.wordpress.com
And here we are at Assignment 17. The cute little slice-em-up web page. I like this assignment because I often create web pages that have elements that just wont work in a div tag type layout. Being able to cut up the pieces is a great way to allow more organic elements to a site. I like this process.

One more note about driving, my son is now 17. After our three girls all followed in their parents footsteps regarding driving, my son appears to be breaking the mold again (the first time was him being our fourth child and a boy.) He has still not gotten his drivers license and he is halfway through his 17th year. (His future kids, if he chooses to have any, might just want to invest in bus passes.)

In for a Penny, In for 16 Ounces

Ah, the Card Dance. I do love a good slide show and the Card Dance is pretty darn awesome. (I only used 8 pictures though, not 16. It couldn't be helped... this is me trying not to "make the universe when I was asked to make a ball.")

I didn't need a "pound" of flesh for this one although I had many stops before the start. I did find that the AfterEffects program on my laptop was not in compliance and refused to show any motion. This created much drama in my household... it truly rivaled my math meltdowns which really just consist of a lot of whining.

Once I came to the lab, the problems magically removed themselves and it left me wondering if I had imagined the whole thing. "No," my family says.

Here lies the Card Dance. 















Soon, I will be "pounding the pavement" looking for that perfect job. Hopefully, when they see my Card Dance of 8 pictures twice, they will understand the power of Assignment 16 and hire me on the spot.

My Dad used to say wish in one hand and ..... well, we wont go there today.