“Man, she crazy… like seriously she has a chemical imbalance.”- M

Here we are. We are going through a rough patch, or maybe a break-up, or maybe she asked a simple question–the most common thing uttered out of his mouth is “You’re crazy, ” or the infamous “You’re a bitch!” Classic one liners that change your entire mood in a blink of a second. The real issue id how sis we even get to this point?! 

 I only can tell this from a woman’s point of view: 

In the beginning, it all seems so simple. He looks at you, you look at him, he asks you out, and then you start dating. You are talking every day. These are the good times. He is chivalrous enough to pay for the meal but respects the fact that you did offer. You find yourself rushing to the phone when he calls or text, and you answer or reply with a smile . The best part is the butterflies you get when he comes around or does something cute and romantic out of the blue just to let you know he was thinking about you. He says things like “I miss you,” and eventually declares he loves you and then you two are in a wind tunnel of passion. This feeling typically last up to 4 months to a little over a year (shorter for some) and then it is possible things become stagnant. You might start talking every other day. One of you “has things to do” so plans get cancelled. You are having silly little arguements, nevertheless, he still gives you butterflies and the twinkle of adoration and hope is still there. It’s easy to begin contemplating where things where go from there, but sometimes you find yourself getting deeper into this relationship and things are different.  

Now the texts have become sporadic and the phone calls almost nonexistent. He stops going to get the car for you, and you are now going stag on almost all your dates (if you even still go on dates).  And all the work in effort he put into courting you is gone out the window now that he has you.  Now to you, things are looking a little shaky because you are head over heels and it appears he is second-guessing his decision to be with you.  Moreover, it could be logic (I use that loosely) that tells him the grass is greener.  You’re texting and calling his phone trying to overcompensate for the recent lack in communication that is new to these once inseparable love birds. You start feeling dumbfounded, questioning him when you get a chance, because you are using reason and logic (I use that strongly. lol), trying to put the pieces together and find out what is going on and why did things change. Then he says the three magic words, “You are crazy.”… I’M WHAT???! ( I’ll show you crazy!- Beyonce). This is the classic and  simple:

Girl meets boy, Girl falls for Boy, Boy changes/ lies/ or disappears, Girl speaks up about it, Boys says she’s emotionally unstable, Girl grabs a knife!  

“You change and start treating me like chopped liver and I’m Crazy?!!”  For the fellas, it’s easy, Keep treating us the same way you use to. I’m not saying you need to be clingy or spend your life savings on us. I’m saying don’t walk far away from us and being too frugal is not attractive. All a girl really wants from a guy is to feel wanted. Protected. And that you can take care of us, if it comes to that (However, this is all null and void if you are a cheater and/or liar). It would be nice to get the butterflies back if guys would continue “dating” us after we have been together for a while. Do something nice other than calendar holidays. On the other hand, it goes both ways.  When we (women) are still feeling the love and adoration from you, there is no reason why we wouldn’t mind doing things for men or our relationship. We can pick up checks, we can buy a round a drinks, it’s a partnership that shouldn’t fall by the wayside after some times has gone past. Again for the MEN, this is null and void, if you  are trying to use that fact that we love you to get over on us… don’t mistake our kindness for blindness!  

To my girlfriends, a man calling you crazy because you put him on notice that he is slacking in the relationship department is not cool, but don’t ever be afraid to address the issue.  It does not make you clingy or crazy because you are feeling insecure in your relationship.  Honestly, if he was doing his job, you would not feel that way. With that being said, for all you males out here claiming ” You know I love you, I don’t have to tell you that,” guess what?? YOU DO! It maybe silly to you, and she might never let you know (because her pride is also large), but hearing “I love you,” or whatever stage you are at, more times than not works a WHOLE lot better. We all get a little unsure of ourselves and it is easy to forget the little things.  

And check it, if you are just being an ASS and/ or over the relationship, or being with THAT person… let them go, before you ruin them for the next!   

Greetings from outer space. Contact has been made. You damn well better be ready for a fairly long post, for this one has the potential to be the longest of the year…

If one’s never ill one will never fully appreciate how great it is being what we in Japan call “Genki” (Healthy/Energetic).

This was a very sublimate way of saying that I was feeling quite like crap the other day. Not enough to get me downhearted though, of course.

Right, let’s start this off by taking a trip down memory lane. This due to the fact that I have just managed to squeeze some pictures outta the slimy eels with which I hobnob.

De mortuis nil nisi bonum… sed de vivus…

All the same, let’s start by my trip to Tokyo Dome which I undertook a very long time ago… Here… we… GO!

Here’s the Tokyo Dome itself. Some kind of stadium where they host both concerts and football games etc;

Victor, Alex, I and Carl on our way up some kinda free fall attraction… PM me swiftly if you want your names removed from the presence of the interweb!

Here’s a picture from another, maybe more explanatory, view:

I just now remembered what an awesome view one had when at the top. It was one of a neonlighted Tokyo stretching vastly like a spiderweb not made of silk but instead made of flashes and thunders. Something like that atleast.

Here another shot of the mindboggling Roller Coaster. World’s 5th largest, mind you.

Here’s also a shot of me drinking my favorite traditional Japanese drink, the Creamtopped Melonsoda:

Yeah, about that…

Onwards. Here’s another picture from that spooky place called “The Lockup”…

This one recollection actually serves a pretty acute purpose. The thing is that me and my droogs find these kind of festivities very intruiging (or well, I s’pose I can’t speak so freely on their behalf, but I find it immensly entertaining at least.)

Thus we decided to frequent this “Lockup” place yet again this very Friday, Friday the thirtheenth, there’s hardly a better day to go to a place honing everything scary than this one day, innit?

Here are the pictures!

The menu, evidently… See how uttermost wicked it is…?

Oh my, what a gay time we’re having! (Gay as in joyous of course…)

Yet another of their strange drinks…

Hmm, I hope they won’t sue me for infringing on copyright and stuff… Can one take patent on a menu?

Next up was the arcade, where we bished and bahsed ourselves furiously… Had I not died and run outta 100 Yen coins I’d definitely have slaughtered all competition…

There’s a superserious test coming up this Monday also, to which I s’pose I look forward, of course I’ll ace it…

Some philosophy must be put into any serious blog but I just hope this won’t be too esoteric to frighten most of you away forever…

People often say that overconfidence can be the worst enemy. Until recently I didn’t understand what was so freakin’ bad about it. But I think I now realize what damage overconfidence can do, not to yourself but to those around you…

Hmm, think I need ot study a ‘lil now…

A special thanks goes out to Carl and Fredrik for sharing pictures with me and another one goes out to Victor, Malin, Åsa, Maddie and everybody else with whom I get to spend some really great time, keep on spreading the love!

(I know what you’re thinking now; “What the heck, praise and flattery on the internet, impossible!?”)
It might seem so, but why not try to break the norm and give a little love and it’ll all come back to you. Yes, I know I already used this in a previous post but come on, recycling is in time at the mo, I’m just trying to cut nature some slack! Don’t blame me, blame society!

This post didn’t get as massive as I had hoped… Ah well, better luck next time.

That’s me, checking out… ttfn

Nemo nisi per amicitam cognoscitur…

Audio of people calling 911 regarding:

• a woman wants to know a quiet place to sit
• a woman wants to know if its safe to put a turkey at 200 degrees
• a man needs someone to get ice off his windshield
• a funny police chase
• a woman is watching a movie of a guy beating someone with a bat
• a ‘rude’ woman won’t get a dollar refund for her taco

George Clooney’s motorcycle accident 911 call.

911 caller arrested for wanting to know the names of police officers because they were cute.

Emergency calls from a hospital about Edith Rodriguez, the woman who died from being overlooked in emergency room (I remember seeing this on the news but never heard the 911 tapes).

• from an onlooker
• from the woman’s husband
• from the news cast

——————–

A Dispatcher’s Plea: “No, I Am Not 911!”

No, I am not 911!

I am a public safety dispatcher who fields emergency and non-emergency calls from the public. I dispatch law enforcement, fire or emergency medical help, and coordinate the activity of field units by radio. I also handle many other duties to assist the public and members of the public safety agencies for whom I work.

“911″ is the telephone number that you dial when you have a life-threatening emergency, and you need help quickly. The number was selected to allow quick dialing and direct routing to the nearest public safety communications center. It’s maintained by the local telephone company and consists of computers and switching gear to accept your call, route it to my communications center and, in most cases, display your address and telephone number.

I am a person. 911 is equipment. Please don’t use the term “911″ when you intend to refer to me. No one likes to be referred to as a piece of equipment. For example, don’t say, “I talked to 911 and they said….” Instead, say that you, “dialed 911 and talked to the dispatcher.” That makes me feel more like a valuable person.

And please don’t use “911″ to encompass everything that I do. Handling 911 calls is a critical part of my job, but it’s just one small portion of the many tasks that I perform.

The majority of the calls I handle are non-emergencies. People call with parking problems, barking dogs, questions about the law, and just advice on how to handle an everyday life situation. I help track all the activity performed by the officers, deputies, firefighters and EMS personnel by writing logs or entering information into computers. I make telephone calls for tow trucks, taxis and assistance from alarm companies. I coordinate responses when our jurisdiction needs help from other agencies, including the state police, county sheriff, transit and university police, the FBI or Coast Guard. At some agencies, I may also greet visitors at the police department’s front counter, or assist in booking prisoners into the jail.

As you can tell, there are literally scores of tasks that a public safety dispatcher performs. It’s not all “911.”

So, call 911 if you have an emergency. But please don’t call me “911.” I’m a public safety dispatcher.

Thank you.

Source

Other videos:

Footage of a collapsing roller coaster.

Sagittarius is one of the 3 fire elements (the other 2 are Aries & Leo) people born in fire elements are usually full of energy and drive.

THE SAGITTARIUS: In General
They can make changes: “Stop, I have a different idea”. they are usually very optimistic, freedom loving, honest, good humored, straight forward, intellectual and philosophical but on the flip side they can also be careless, irresponsible, superficial, tactless, restless and blindly optimistic. They combine a happy disposition & eagerness to talk. They have a certain tendancy to talk and always with a smile. His speech can be very direct & outspoken (in a innocent way) totally oblivious to his blunt speech. He really thinks he’s funny or just wants to be honest. They are so honest & sincere. They feel terrible when they find out that they hurt someone.

Most of them are extroverts, social, like being around people. Confident in themselves. They love to give free advice. They always have very high goals. Thinkers – how to get things done better. They have a restless nature, they can’t stay at home and do nothing, they love things exciting, LOVE challenges even if it involves risk & danger. They love speed, fast cars & roller coasters. Very brave. Temper can flare suddenly. They are clowns & funniest of all the signs. Very much in a joking mood. Has a positive good attitude. Too trusting. Refuses to accept the seriousness of life. Brave, they don’t like the burden of responsibility. They like to champion causes. If he feels abused he may act physically, react quickly and later regret it. If you are rude to him, he will give you a black eye and next day give you roses.

All the fire signs don’t think about their actions. He may even rebel against authority. Many of them love the stage and enjoy performing before an audience. They make great actors, they make people laugh and their sarcasm can come across as insulting. They can ponder deep subjects. Many of them become philosophers, psychologists & very religious. Enjoy sports, outdoors. they LOVE travelling. Good memories and remember many details. But are always losing their wallets, car keys, gloves, somehow there is a lack of focus. They can’t hold a secret. Can be very clumsy. /he will try his hand in gambling & drinking.Weakness with money. He’s curious. Can easily become obese. They are not as close to family as other signs are. He’s very generous. He’s not a whiner or a complainer, he’s brave, he’s confident, always willing to help. Staunch believers in being truthful.

Unique combination of wit, intelligence & fiery drive. Very independent in nature. Will want to know the why of everything. They will easily spot phonies.

THE SAGITTARIUS MAN
Optimistic, frank, very blunt, has many friends, honest, tactlessness, thoughtlessness, give him freedom, does’nt want relatives to interfere. Don’t dampen his fiery ideas. Won’t be too strict with kids & will be a pal to his kids. You need logic and reason to convince.

THE SAGITTARIUS WOMAN
Very outspoken, very generous, sarcastic, bright and intelligent with naive outlook, will not lie, very accepting of situations, ask her don’t tell her, prefers applause not romantic phrases, very good in breaking the ice (or raise eyebrow) very independant and cannot stand weak men. Can be extravagant with money, she may need a maid, doesn’t want to be confined to a house, makes a good hostess always smiling. Will give you loyalty, trust and affection.

THE SAGITTARIUS CHILD
They need to be liked, need the applause, more playful & happy, likes to be around grown-ups, wherever there is laughter and talking. They will want to know why it matters what people think. They will question everything and ssearch for the truth. Needs to be taught how to economize. Give them lots of room, cheer them up – they need to be happy. Be fair and they will respect the rules.

THE SAGITTARIUS BOSS
Will make outrageous remarks, they are seldom grumpy. Optimistic, won’t hold a grudge, will not tolerate unhonest behavior, he will fight for what he believes is right, is sincere, frank & friendly.

For those of you that follow me on Twitter you probably read a few of my tweets about going to LA. Yup last Thurs a few friends and I drove down to Seattle to catch a flight and went for a 5 day vacation in LA. Some highlights:

• Went to the LA Kings vs Vancouver Canucks game on Thurs night. The Canucks played horrible but somehow walked out with a win. It was really cool checking out the warmup skate. Since it was the “Canadian” night, there were tons of Canucks fans. We sat in front of bunch LA fans and throughout the game we were trash talking each other, it was great fun. As part of the Canadian night ticket package, after the game there was a concert with The Tragically Hip at Club Nokia nearby. Walking out of the arena tons of Canucks fans were high fiving each other and chanting “go Canucks go.” While waiting in line to get into the club a bunch of us began singing Oh Canada on top of our lungs. It was awesome! Never been to a Hip concert before I wasn’t sure what to expect but I’ve heard lots things about how entertaining their concerts are. The Hip did not disappoint! The concert was amazing and they rocked the place!
• After about 6 hours of sleep the 6 of us went to Disnleyland the next morning. It was tons of fun. Somehow though, the roller coasters didn’t seem as scary as they were when I was younger. I almost managed to put my hands up as our log plunged down the Splash Mountain drop. Thunder Mountain was tons of fun so was Space Mountain.
• We spent Halloween in Six Flags Magic Mountain. Man the roller coasters there were sick! I felt queazy just looking at some of the roller coasters. I was too scared to go on some of the extreme rides like Superman the Escape or X2 but managed to get on tamer ones like Colossal, Scream, and Terminator. My favourite was probably either Terminator or Scream. Evan & Colin went on X2 and Tatsu and both said those rides were just really silly scary. At night the park turned into a hunted park with lots actors dressing up as zombies, vampires, etc. It was really funny looking at the actors chasing some scared girls. The hunted houses were very very well done!

• The next two days were spent walking around in Hollywood and lazing around in Santa Monica. I couldn’t believe we were able to lay on the beach shirtless in November! Talk about unbelievable sunny California weather!

Lowlight?

• Eating like a bloody American, tons of fast food and not enough veggies. It was really nice to get home and cook a delicious home-made dinner.

Looks so innocent, doesn't it?

So, you’re trying to find your soulmate. She’s nowhere to be found! And then someone calls you, wanting to set you up with a girl they think is absolutely perfect for you (uh huh). As you hesitate, trying to decide if, from what you’ve heard, you should say yes and give this girl a try, the person says to you: “What’s the big deal? It’s just a cup of coffee.”

Sometimes that line makes me want to forgo all logic and open-mindedness and, instead spend the rest of my life hiding under my bed.

It’s just a date? How can people say that? A date is a whole array of things.

There are the stressful decisions, the nerve-wracking first phone call. Then comes the “cup of coffee” except there is so much unknown involved: Where do we meet? How do they look? Will I recognize them? How long should we stay out for? Where do we go? Who’s paying? Will it be hard to make conversation?

Then, afterwards, you sit at home trying to figure out what the hell just happened.

I can take all that, though. For me the hardest part about a date is the emotional roller coaster.

Here is the only kind of roller coaster I do like. (I’ve been on this one. It’s worth a trip to Toronto.)

The thing is, though, that a lot of the stress can be eliminated through a set of etiquette rules. Check out the rules of this site to see the changes we propose in dating that will raise the Bitza up and make us all proud, happier, and more open to putting ourselves out there.

Photo by Ballistik Coffee Boy at flickr.

I think I had a nightmare last night.  Not a very bad one, certainly not a wake-up-screaming one; just one that wakes you suddenly with the after-burn of indecipherable images everywhere you look, and the nagging feeling that something was wrong.

Which brings to me to remember some of the most memorable nightmares I’ve had that have woken me up, either screaming or paralysed in fear…

1.  Very young, living in a bungalow (that’s a true bit, not the nightmare).  I’m in the dining room, it’s dark, the curtains are all closed.  From outside I hear a gunshot.  I run to the dining room window – which overlooks the back garden – and open the curtains.  Lined up in regimented rows on the back lawn are countless rabbits.  All headless.  I wake up.

2.  I’m on a roller coaster.  We’re going fast.  Suddenly I see a thick, black cable – it’s too low, it’s going to hit my head.  I can’t duck out of the way, and I can’t get out the seat because of the safety bars.  The cable hits, there’s a deafening electrical buzz.  I wake up.

3.  I’m walking home, it’s dark and foggy.  I’m scared to look up, fixing my eyes on the ground.  I pluck up the courage to look up, and there’s a dead body hanging from every lampost. I wake up.  (I think this one was triggered by a scene in an early BBC TV adaptation of ‘Great Expectations’!)

4.  I’m older now, living alone in a bedsit (again, that’s true, not part of the dream).  I wake up suddenly and look down at the foot of my bed.  My sister’s face is grimacing at me from above the footboard.  I wake up.  Not quite sure why that should have been so terrifying, but it was!

5.  Older still.  My partner and I are living in some kind of sci-fi dome, and are in bed.  The bed is at floor level – it’s more like a sleeping room, wall-to-wall cushions.  I hear a noise, and look up, over my partner who’s lying next to me.  Suddenly a man appears, dressed all in black, with a black motorcyle helmet on, visor closed.  I’m too shocked to cry out or move.  The stranger raises a gun and shoots me.  I wake up in my own flat.  My partner is asleep next to me, and I’m so scared I feel paralysed, but relieved it was just a nightmare.  The bedroom door is open, and suddenly the stranger walks in and shoots me.  I wake up.

Urgh. Shudder!  Have a nice day!

In my dream I was on an amusement park ride, one based on the board game Life. The ride was configured just like the game, except instead of cars, we were in several boats on a huge water flume.

In my dream, I remember thinking, ‘What a cool idea! This should be fun, not like Monopoly.’ If the ride had been based on that game I know I would’ve been afraid. I played that game with my brother as a kid. He was good, tournament good, but he was also ruthless and mean. Taunting the losers (most often, me) until they cried and quit in abject humiliation. It sucked all the fun out of it for everyone else ~ I digress, but all of this ran through my mind as I slept.

In my dream, I was riding in a large boat with two other people. I didn’t recognize them as anyone I knew in waking life, but in my dream it was clear that we were all friends, laughing and joking together.

As we floated down a wide canal, passing through and under a series of waterfalls, I kept saying, ‘I don’t want to get wet, I don’t want to get wet.’ I would brace myself for that expected, yet unexpected, downward plunge that never came.

Instead we began a long, upward climb until we leveled off and entered an enclosed structure with a platform beside the canal that was the actual ride start. Here everyone exited the larger boats to board individual, kayak-like vessels.

We were all given overshoes (think: Jellies from the 1980s), except there was something wrong with mine. Is it of any consequence that my overshoes were yellow?

The ride operator was yelling at someone I couldn’t see for not culling out the defective shoes. After a bit of a struggle, I was finally able to get my shoes covered and in my kayak.

Then… I woke up.

Scruffy felt that 2 am was a good time to play his favorite game of sleep on Tara’s head.

I’m one of those people who can go back to sleep and finish an interrupted dream, pick it back up where it left off, even on a different night. But, last night I didn’t want to.

It wasn’t that I was worried about the ending, or being on a nightmare roller coaster. I like roller coasters and water rides, I just don’t LOVE them. And, yes I know that it was a metaphor for something else. But, I was dead tired. It was a convoluted dream and promised to not be very restful.

That it still stuck with me this morning, was unusual. I often remember dreams, but they don’t stay with me long unless they are significant or I write them down. This one stayed with me, so I have to believe it was important.

So, dreamweavers… what does this oddity mean? Nothing in my Dream Dictionary even comes close to deciphering all this. Should I try again to finish the dream, or simply spin the wheel and move on?

]]> http://genevaanderson.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/john-baldessari-irreverent-data-processor-shedding-light-on-whats-not-obvious-and-making-all-the-difference-show-in-final-week-at-legion-of-honor-san-francisco/ Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:40:29 +0000 genevaanderson http://genevaanderson.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/john-baldessari-irreverent-data-processor-shedding-light-on-whats-not-obvious-and-making-all-the-difference-show-in-final-week-at-legion-of-honor-san-francisco/

John Baldessari, "God Nose," 2007, cast aluminum with hand-painting. Object 36 x 37 x 6 inches. Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer.

It is rare that the Legion of Honor has a show honoring a living artist who is available to comment on his work, and even rarer when that artist is leading rabble-raising conceptualist.  For the past 50 years, John Baldessari., now 78, has been poking his finger in the eye of the contemporary art world, challenging its long-held assumptions, with the persistent confidence of a visionary.  As a result, he has become one the most influential artists of our time.  His current show at the Legion of Honor “John Baldessari: A Print Retrospective from the Collections of the Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation” closes this coming weekend and is well worth a trip.   

125 prints are included in the exhibition that spans the last forty years of Baldessari’s post-painting period, from the 1970s to the present.  The collection of prints is on loan from the Portland, Oregon-based collection of real estate developer Jordan D. Schnitzer.  Schnitzer, who began collecting in 1974, and now has an almost complete archive of Baldessari’s printed work in his a collection of over 5,000 prints by leading artists including Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, and Bruce Nauman.  Schnitzer worked with Karin Breuer, Curator in Charge, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, to organize the exhibition, and to support the printing of the catalog.

 The most important thing that someone can take away from a visit to this show is a change in their own attitude about what it really means to really see something.  Baldessari is the quintessential data processor.  Much like what Einstein did for physics, Baldessari has challenged some of art’s lynchpin assumptions by exploring what would happen if they were relaxed, asking WHY is this so?  He is a genius at stripping things of their normality—their context, order of being experienced– and then seeing what emerges.  As a result, he has been able to experience the world in a way that is not preconceived and to see profound connections that others aren’t even looking for.   He separated himself from his herd of artists early on and made a distinctive break from painting in the 1970’s by ceremoniously burning his paintings.  He then began working with paper and photographic images, working through many of the concerns that he wasn’t able to address as a painter.  With his fresh eye, sharp wit and soft spoken ways, he managed to influence an entire generation of artists.  His work can be intimidating for the uninitiated as it is not always easy to understand.  “Sometimes I think people get frustrated with his work because they feel they have to figure it out,” said curator Connie Lewellen, who has worked with him for years, “and that causes tension because they have to decide.  You can look at everything he does on many different levels and I think you are also challenged to make your own stories which will evolve the more time you spend with the work.”

 The press preview offered a guided tour through the exhibition with Baldessari and Lewellen and a chance to hear Baldessari talk about his work and ask questions.  What emerged was captivating—he spoke very simply about complex and powerful thoughts.  The Baldessari comments  that follow (in italics) are all from that day.

John Baldessari, "The Fallen Easel," 1987, color lithograph and screenprint in five parts printed on paper and aluminum plates. Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer. 2005.108a–i

 Standing in front of “The Fallen Easle” (1987), a nine part color lithograph and screenprint, that is emblematic of a lot of the issues that his work has dealt with over the years, Baldessari admitted to being a “closet formalist.”  (focusing on the visual elements of the artwork).  There are fragments of different images that were possibly culled from movie stills, magazines, sources from popular culture, sources that are cut up in very idiosyncratic ways.  On a compositional level, the fallen easle is a pointer, an arrow to the rest of the composition.  The space between the images is empty.  One frame holds a pointed gun, an image appearing frequently in his work. Another frame contains three men in suits treated in his emblematic way of handling faces, which is to cover them with bright, primary-colored dots.  “He does this to take the individuality away from the people, so they cannot be identified and are generic types, explained Lewellen.  “It’s never important to John to identify what the source is or where is came from.”

 “This is a period where I am choosing multiple frames,” said Baldessari.  “In early shows I was such a purist that I refused to put my works in frames, I used Velcro and a lot of damage occurred over time.  I refused to think about frames for as long as possible but my gallerist, Sonnabend, convinced me that I had to think about the work and preserving it.  I decided to use the frame as part of the work, to use the frame as architecture and to avoid a single frame and to play around with pieces that had both framed and unframed parts.  A lot of the works also play with what was considered normal height/width ratios that were accepted by museums and that as artists we had to accept… I asked ‘why?’ and started using long rectangles and placed them with other sized rectangles and squares.”  

 Leveling the playing field with colored dots

Circular disks placed over faces figure prominently in Baldessari’s work from the mid-1980’s onward.   “I’d been working with images from newspapers a lot and had a lot of imagery of people shaking hands, the local fire chief, that type of thing.  I was always intrigued by them. It hit me one day that, working in the isolation of your studio, you’re not doing much about the condition of the world but those people are.  I got to feeling there’s something out of whack here.  I was working with other works where I was using these little price stickers and, in a fit of exasperation, I stuck them over the faces so I didn’t have to look at them.   I felt that I had leveled the playing field.

 It later struck me that we have ways of prioritizing our vision that impacts what we see.  If you’re running into a train station and you’re late, you’re going to prioritize the clock but if you’re just wondering about you’re going to look at other things first.  People tend to look at faces and if you can’t see the faces, you’ve got to look elsewhere—at how they’re dressed or standing, the ambience, so forth.  Also in drawing class, you might

John Baldessari, detail from the artist's book "Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line (Best of 36 Attempts)," 1973, color offset lithograph. Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer. 2008.214b

spend two hours on the head alone and the last hour on the rest of the body.  In my class,  I put a drape over the model’s head so they couldn’t do the head.  Then, in the last hour, I took the drape off.  That’s how that all started.  Now, I think in terms of I am master of my universe I can control what people see and pay attention to.”

 “Throwing Three Ball in the Air to Get A Straight Line (Best of Thirty-six Attempts),” (1973) is illustrative of the prankster in Baldessari, who initially set out to trying to upset beauty (a beautiful result) by intervening on a photo shoot.   The series of work is about throwing three balls in the air to make a straight line…an absurdist idea….and underlying that, trying to create order from chaos or to look at non-conventional forms of order, an ongoing interest of Baldessari.

“Beauty is a by-product,” explained Baldessari.  “Each time an artist does something, you get better and better at making beauty, so why work at it?   Why not something else?”

 The majority of the works in the show are from the 1980’s and they all basically address breaking-up the rectangle, which had become the convention that people had become conditioned to accept as normal.   Baldessari asked “why?” and found there was no real reason.  He began working in a new direction, experimenting with various ways of putting together images from varied sources, sometimes adding colors. 

 “Roller Coaster” (1989-90) combines two black and white squares which are formalist tropes we recognize from Malevich but sandwiched between them is something very novel and other—an image of two carnival roller coasters about to hurdle past each other. Your mind looks at what appears to be a very minimalisti piece of artwork in the black work and then processes the roller coaster and then moves on to the white square.  The work has a curving line of white that extends the movement of the photograph and across the black on the left and a similar effect with a green line on the right which extends into the white expanse.

 Baldessari is masterful at word play.  In “Life’s Balance (With Money),” (1989-90), he offers three images that don’t seem to be related at all—a juggler, some people above who are very happy with money and a precarious situation—someone about to lose his balance.  “The point is that you can combine almost any two or three images and come up with a story or narrative,” explains Connie Lewellen.

 Humor is also by-product–a lot of his absurdist ideas are funny and serious at the same time.  His first print using digital imagery– “The Pot with Nine Removals” (1996)—is a bizarre series of ten prints that begins with what appears to be an old film still of several scantily clad blond Marilynn Monroe-like cannibals dancing around a man about to be cooked in a huge cauldron.  People are systematically removed from each successive print in the series until just the empty pot remains.   A frustrated journalist tried to think his way through the piece and asked him what was going on.  “Well, I’m the last person on earth who is going to answer this,” replied Baldessari.  “It’s about being reductive and taking things away, or being additive. “

John Baldessari, "Person with Guitar (Red)," 2004, five color screenprint on Sintra board with hand painting. Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer. 2005.272b

 “I sometimes think of myself as writer but, instead of using words, I am using images,” said Baldessari.  “A word and an image I find equal in weight.  In a lot of my work, instead of an image, I am using a word or, instead of a word, I am using an image.  I’m putting them together pretty much like a writer does and, if they are good, they have to have the right placement of words.  If it’s not the right order it’s too flabby or it’s too obtuse—it has to be just right, not so stretched that it snaps, but you want it to pop.”

Repatterning the Color Code
Baldessari has long been fascinated with big questions such as can color in art ever be stripped of its meaning.  A number of his works address color which he tends to use sparingly but in a bold fashion.

I used to do a lot of painting and then I started doing more and more with paper and painting wasn’t foremost in my mind.  I decided I was going change my attitude towards color which has a relational use in painting and most of the time is used to produce something aesthetically pleasing.  I decided that I wanted to get away from that and would use something like color coding, always in some systematic fashion.  I was working in sequences at the time, so I if were working in a sequence of three, I would work in the three primary colors–red, yellow, blue— and if it were six, I’d bring in the secondary colors of orange, violet, green or up the ante by adding black or white.  I had a system going on and I owe that to Sol LeWit who has a system and follows it.   With faces, I used color in a symbolic way, color coding people—red/dangerous, green/safe, blue/platonic, and yellow/crazy. This led me to ask him about how the dot might factor into his interaction with real people.  Does he mentally blot out of their face and focus on the information around them?   He did not answer the question.

 Philosophically, Baldessari has a long-standing fascination with the relation of the part to the whole which he has tackled in many ways.  He often has asked himself’  ”How much can I leave out of something; when does it cease to be whole?

His “Person With Guitar” series (2005) addresses a very clichéd image—the guitar—in a novel way.  There are six images of hands playing guitars—the players are not recognizable as individuals because they are headless and the guitars are hand-painted, each in a different color, so that all distinguishing characteristics are gone. The hands are also painted. “I am always gathering images but I don’t necessarily like them but I am fascinated by them.  I am attracted by things that are ugly, in my mind, too.

John Baldessari, "Noses & Ears, Etc.: The Gemini Series: Two Faces, One with Nose and Military Ribbons; One with (Blue) Nose and Tie," 2006, three layer, fourteen color screenprint mounted on Sintra with hand painting. Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer. 2008.19

A lot happens form disliking it so much that I force myself to deal with it. The guitar has a long history…it made such a beautiful shape when you take away all the distinguishing details, so that it’s in perspective and it’s just a shape.  I isolated that and the hands and I decided to paint on the surface to create a different reflectivity.  I got tired of paint and so I decided to have more than one level and had a level above and then another by sinking into it…hands, guitar, clothing”.

 

 Parts of the body is another curiosity.  “Noses & Ears, Etc: The Gemini Series: Two Faces, One with Nose and Military Ribbons; One With (Blue) Nose and Tie,”  (2006) is part of a series in which six three-layer screenprints are mounted on Sintra board and specific facial features are articulated by color and dimension.  There is a high degree of abstraction—the face is a single color, but the tie and shirt are presented in exacting detail.

 I had a retrospective in Vienna and I saw these works that I had forgotten about.  The ear painting came about when I was in San Diego and I had friend in the billboard business and they put them together in sheets—a 24 sheet billboard.  So, any time they were any left over sheets, I would get it from my friend and look at the imagery.  I was very much interested in  philosophical way what was the difference between the part and the whole or is there any difference…this still occupies my think a lot.  I came upon this giant ear and all of a sudden a part became a whole and so I used it as a basis for a painting and that’s how I got interest in body parts.  Going on with it, it became a subject of my work…eyes and lips seemed fairly conventional but noses and ears were rare in visual art, so that’s what I started off with, eliminating nearly everything but the ear and the nose in roughly he same territory that we might expect a head to be.  After that I did a whole other series of elbows and knees. And then foreheads and eyebrows (some of which are here) and now I am working on hands and feet. Hands are pretty easy; feet aren’t. 

 What Baldessari is doing is formulaic—at every instance, he is rejecting the common view and trying to find a new one by stepping out of conventions and assumptions.   Art has the benefit of not needing strong conventions because of its abstract nature–you never have to return to the real world.   Baldessari is also a paradox…he had to achieve a certain amount of success in the real world before his early ideas were accepted and became so influential.

Facebook's games

Postingan kali ini, saya dapat inspirasi dari hasil ngerumpi di reuni kecil bareng sahabat-sahabat sma saya selain itu juga dari hasil pengamatan selama hampir satu setengah tahun ikutan facebook, saya perhatikan sejak enam atau delapan bulan terakhir ini semakin banyak temen-temen yang pada ikutan games online di facebook. Saya sendiri, karena ga terlalu seneng main games, jadi kurang tertarik ehehe…yang membuat saya tertarik adalah tingkah laku teman dan sodara yang ikutan pada ikutan games itu…jadi pada addicted

FarmVille

Terus terang saya ga mungkin membahas semua games yang ada di facebook, tapi salah satu yang cukup eksis dan karena cukup banyak teman dan sodara saya yang memainkan games ini, saya jadi tertarik untuk ngorek cerita mengenai game-game  ini  

 Yang pertama adalah FarmVille, disini ceritanya kita bermain sebagai orang mempunyai kebun, hasil kebunnya bisa dipilih sesuai kemauan…apakah mau jagung atau anggur atau blue berry…pokoknya terserah deh yang seru karena sifatnya interaktif, setiap tanaman mempunyai umur panen yang berbeda, dan kalau kita tidak memanen pada waktu yang ditentukan, maka hasil panenan akan busuk. Bicara soal panenan busuk, adik saya waktu mudik lebaran lalu sampai bela-belain bawa laptop kemana-mana supaya bisa terus memantau hasil kebunnya supaya ga telat panen. Teman saya juga akhirnya rajin begadang karena harus panen kebun digitalnya   teman saya yang  lain, bilang karena game ini, hubungan pertemanan dengan teman lama yang baru ketemu di facebook jadi makin akrab karena saling mengirim hasil kebun atau ternak untuk mengisi farmville mereka yang lucu lagi, kadang ada ternak yang nyasar di kebunnya…kalau diumumkan di status…teman yang lainnya bisa mengambil dan merawat ternak tersebut hihihi..so sweet….

lost cow

Yang kedua, Happy Aquarium…kalau yang ini, teman saya bilang sama seperti kalau kita punya aquarium aja, kita bisa pilih ikan yang kita suka, menghias aquarium dengan aplikasi yang sudah disediakan…biasanya aplikasi disesuaikan dengan event yang ada saat itu, seperti misalnya bulan oktober terkenal dengan hallowen..jangan heran kalau ada hiasan kepala labu di dalam aquarium

Happy Aquarium

Ada lagi Yoville..kalau yang ini katanya permainan seperti kehidupan kita sehari-hari..seperti berangkat kerja, mengatur rumah, berteman…mungkin hampir sama dengan sims.

Lalu yang mulai sering muncul di status…cafe world..nah disini kita bermain sebagai pemilik kafe. Kita bisa membuat makanan, mendesign layout cafe bahkan bisa mengundang atau menerima teman untuk mampir ke cafe kita

Selain game-game yang saya sebut diatas, ada juga Roller Coaster, Mafia War dan masih banyak lagi. Waktu pertama-tama ikutan facebook, saya sempat confirm ikut poker game…ya ampun…kaget banget waktu lihat di monitor ada replika saya lagi duduk di meja poker bareng orang-orang dari belahan dunia lain yang ga saya kenal…hihihi buru-buru aja saya cancel…habis serem sih ;p

Oh ya…menurut teman saya, di kantor suaminya ada kebiasaan setiap istirahat ada game bola yang dimainkan secara online dan interaktif oleh karyawan di kantor itu…mulai dari staff sampai bos..semua ikut partisipasi dan yang pasti seru dan membuat suasana hubungan mereka semakin akrab   Buat ibu-ibu yang setia mengantar dan menjemput anak-anaknya sekolah…game di facebook ini lumayan juga loh untuk mengisi waktu luang menunggu anak pulang, daripada bengong…kan lebih asik main game beberapa murid suami saya bahkan dibayar oleh  publisher game karena dengan bermain game di facebook ini secara tidak langsung mereka telah mempromosikan game tersebut…hebat kan…

Big thanks to Dyah, Tari, Inonk n facebook games for this inspiration

Last weekend was super busy for us.  It started on Friday with preschool, a Halloween party for Wildman to go to, Zumba for me and a local fair at night.  Saturday found us at an early morning soccer game then two consecutive birthday parties.  J came home on Saturday from a week-long business trip to DC as well.  I passed him on the way to our first birthday party.  On Sunday, I attended and help teach a 3-hour Zumbathon at a local gym then rushed home to shower so I could attend services for a friend’s mother who passed away.

Whew!  Just typing all of that out makes me tired.

The only photos I have from the weekend are from the fair.  So, here we go.

We rode the sketchy Ferris Wheel first.  The operator stopped us at the top three times.  It was windy and dark.  I gripped the handle bar until my knuckles turned white…  This was not my favorite experience of the night.  The boys, of course, loved it and wanted to do it again…  We distracted them with promises of cotton candy and lemonade.

There were tons of kiddie-size rides for the boys.  We did all of the ones that were working.  The dragon spinning ride was out of operation which was probably for the best since we didn’t really need a bunch of dizzy kids hopped up on sugar.

Cutie Pie perfecting his homecoming wave…

Crazy Bus!

I didn’t really care for the light bulb eyes on this ride…  They freaked me out a little bit.

All in all it was a good night. We did as much as 4 sheets of tickets would let us.  Sure, some of the carnies were pretty strange but I expected that and ignored them accordingly.  The boys had a blast and cannot wait to go back next year.  That’s what it’s all about anyway.

And look who came home with a goldfish!  Cousin B was gifted this little guy by a friendly fair patron.  Steph was less than thrilled…

Cousin B was over the moon, naturally!

Some people argue that its just games and that people shouldn’t be so pissy about errors in the game but if Zynga is going to design and distribute games, they should work and be stress free. People play video games to ease stress but all Zynga Games is doing is provoking stress. There are a lot of complaints about the multiple errors in both Cafe World and Roller Coaster Kingdom but the designers at Zynga aren’t paying attention to that. They are constantly adding more features to the game instead of fixing the problems with the game.

The games are awesome they have potential but they lack structure. Yea beta’s are not always supposed to be the complete game that’s why its called a beta but these two games seem like they still in the crawling stage. Well here are the complaints with both Cafe World and Roller Coaster Kingdom

Cafe World

• The lack of space. The game allows you to have all these stoves, counters and tables but you have no room to put them all. You have to wait probably for months or so before they allow you to expand your park.
• Constant down-time. The game is either down because of the servers are down or because they felt that adding new features and items to the game in the middle of the day is the perfect time.
• Losing dishes that were cooking. Say you are cooking pizza and you refresh or go to another game, come back and the dish is gone. That pisses you off doesn’t it?
• Taking doors down and still have people entering restaurant. I’ve seen this a few times in the past week or so where I would want to pause the game by taking the doors down because I was out of food and I did not want to lose my buzz rating of 105.0. I take the doors down and people are walking through walls. So I close the browser and open it back up the next day and there is a door on the wall when I specifically deleted them all.

There are more but those are the major ones for Cafe World.

Roller Coaster Kingdom

• Having to babysit the game just to get money and to level up. I have to sit and keep the game open just to make sure I get the money and the leveling up that I deserve from the visitors.
• Having to use real money. Its understandable in Farmville but its just stupid in Roller Coaster Kingdom.
• People lose everything. I never had these problems but after Zynga updates the game and people can play again, people have lost their money, rides, neighbors and or tours.
• The servers. Enough said.
• That annoying music before the game starts up. Also the fact that when it loops, you can actually tell its looping.
• The loading screens. I don’t know why their servers favorite % is 74…
• It uses too many browser resources. I mean come on, its a flash game and I don’t think the games over at Shockwave.com uses that many resources.
• Visitors getting stuck. Now this one I have witnessed. They’ll be in a line but they won’t move. They’re just standing there frozen.
• Hiring friends to work as operators. Hiring friends does not add value to the user, it is obviously a way to market the game to other potential users.
• Too many restrictions. You can’t do this, you can’t do that..etc…etc.
• Expanding your park requirements. You have to have a billion neighbors to expand the park. Again with the marketing ploy.
• Moving rides around. There should be an easier way to move rides around. You should be able to rotate them as well.
• No saving option. You should be able to save your progress since leaving the page would result in you losing your visitors. Farm-ville and now Cafe World has a save feature.

Complaints from other users:

1. Do not attempt to collect rewards (Broken down bus, Baby Moose or Lost Bag of money) in a new browser page while you have customers in another or the connection will be lost and with it, all your customers.

2. Sometimes the connection is reset at random = all customers and thus all coins and XP is lost.

3. The three prices, Lost Baby Moose, Broken Down Bus and Bag of money once were worth between up to 60K coins. Zynga reduced this to 1000 coins for the baby moose/bag of money. The broken down bus now only yields 6 park visitors (or orphans) with 15 coins each to spend. Whoopeee! 90 coins instead of 10,000 – what a trade… NOT!

4. It is by far the WORST memory hog ever in the history of Windows. Park visitors still have half their coins but it has already slowed to a crawl with the pagefile fully used up. (2.2 GB) With so much available memory one wonders what is demanding in Flash using vector graphics. Even a RAM defragmenter has no effect. Yuck, RCK is a nice idea but very poorly implemented.

Anyway if you play these games and would like more neighbors, either leave a comment with your facebook link so people can add you or just add me. I’m always looking for Neighbors for Farmville, Cafe World, Roller Coaster Kingdom and Yoville.

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“Stay hungry, stay foolish.”

Never think you’re too old to try things you haven’t tried before (especially things you secretly want but feel to old to try out). As it often brings one to a realization that life shouldn’t be taken too seriously, no one gets out alive anyway.

We set off quite early that morning hoping to be able to beat the rush hour commute (Luckily we did! What took long was the line at McDonald’s).

Located an hour away from Manila was the country’s one and only theme park, The Enchanted Kingdom. Of course this was no comparison to the likes of Six Flags, Universal Studios, or Disney Parks, but it was the only one we had so we made do.

Arriving at noon on a weekday (Look ma! No lines!)

We arrived close to noon and there was barely anyone there albeit a few tourists. That plus the cheaper rates and student discount we got was just too hard to pass up. We lined up and psyched ourselves for what would be a memorable day!

A final wave before the drop (That’s Sonny Thakur!)

We took the quickest ride first, just to get those jitters out for those who haven’t ridden a roller coaster in a while. Sonny being the brave soul that he is, took the front seat and exclaimed some random words I barely understood.

Here we go!

As the cart forced its way through the wind and the exclamations of refusal from some of the riders, one gets a breathtaking view of the entire park. I took a few snaps and then held tight.

After less than a minute we were done! We took a quick lunch break afterward since some lost their McDonald’s breakfast during the ride (me mostly) and then we proceeded to the next ride.

View from the swinging ship, Anchor’s Away

The next ride was a bit of an up and down affair, a swinging ship called Anchor’s Away. Taking the seats closest to the edge would guarantee the full force and experience of the ride. Which needless to say nauseated some people.

Here’s the crew, with Sonny going wild and me screaming my head off

There would have been quite a few more photos from the other rides, but I had to leave my camera in the lockers as the others insisted we take the rides that involved getting wet and sticky.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s post! More to come!
Remember, be a kid! Be Immature! Its usually more fun that way!

“Love the fun, love the fun that you have. If you over do it, there’s still the rehab.”

Un foarte bun prieten mi-a adus de ziua mea jocul Roller Coaster Tycoon. L-am jucat în disperare, îl iubeam teribil de mult. Am construit parcuri peste parcuri, iubeam să-mi observ vizitatorii şi să văd cum îşi cumpără umbrele, mâncăruri şi diferite alte porcării şi mi se părea super amuzant cum după anumite jocuri mai zgâlţâitoare (tiribombe în special) anumiţi vizitatori începeau să vomite pe jos. Trebuia atunci să angajez curăţători care să se plimbe pe acolo şi să le spele voma de pe jos.

Super! Şi mai superbe mi s-au părut aceste jocuri Roller Coaster descoperite pe un site de jocuri foarte fain. Este mult mai simplu ca cel pe care l-am primit de ziua mea, însă foarte distractiv. Aici nu mai este vorba despre crearea unui mare parc de distracţii, ci numai a unui Roller Coaster. E însă foarte tare, căci în joc poţi stabili tu fieacare viraj, urcare şi coborâre, cât de abruptă să fie etc. Satisfacţia unor astfel de jocuri vine după ce ai construit tot şi vezi cum vizitatorii ţi se urcă în Roller Coaster şi se învârt pe şinele construite de tine.

Those who have heard of this game probably have tried playing it and couldn’t. Others are playing it and have became pissed. Well obviously I can understand because of the limited amount of fish you can add to the tank. At level 4 the capacity of the tank rises to 30 from 10. I guess that’s a start. To buy your first tank in FishVille, you’ll need $10,000. Although, its not that hard to make cash on the game but it would make it easier if you can add more than just 30 fish to a tank and that the tanks didn’t cost so much. In Fish World, the tanks only cost $1000 and the first one is free and you can buy the first two tanks after the free one at $500 before they raise the price to $1000.

I don’t know how long I’ll be playing this game but so far, its very easy to level-up. As far as the fish is concerned, you don’t know exactly when the fish need to be fed or when they grow because the timing is wrong. The fish that’s 5 minutes to grow needs to be fed from 1-3 minutes if you don’t and 2 or so minutes go by, they die.  So this is basically like Roller Coaster Kingdom where you have to babysit yet another game if you want to level up fast. Of course you can’t get ribbons or decorate your tank’s background just yet.

After level 5 [which is the level I'm on at the making of this blog] it’ll take a bit longer to level up if you continue to use the 5 and 15 minute fish.  So I don’t want to be babysitting the game all night, I chose to buy the 1 day and 12 hour fish that don’t need to be so much and in short times. Basically I don’t have to babysit the game. Its risky though closing the game out because the fact that I’ve been trying all day to play the game to see how it is means that I might not be able to get back into the game later on to check on my fish. So right now, Zynga Games FishVille is a play at your own risk flash game.

Anyway, I play FarmVille, YoVilee, Roller Coaster Kingdom, Island Paradise [yes I know, not a Zynga Game] and Cafe World just in case anyone is looking for neighbors. Feel free to add me here. I’ll be updating this blog with new info as it comes in.

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