Just pucker up and blow… if you want to go with some kind of spray paint doodle. I don’t think the paint tastes that great so I just stick to a semi-ordinary pen and blank, white paper. I scan my doodles then plaster them to my personal blog. The odd thing is that people like them. Thank you to those who have sent kind and encouraging comments.
Claire and I began Doodle Week this year. I think I came up with the plan but I know it would not have gotten as far as it did without Claire. She doodles too.
I draw my stick figure grrls in pen and ink. I use a small photo scanner to turn them digital. Then I use software to turn them the right way around, resize them and erase smudges and little lines I regret. Claire uses software to create her doodles. Her doodles are very different from mine in appearance. You can also draw your doodle or use some other art skills such as collage and take a digital photo of your creation. I’ve learned to make sure I don’t get my own shadow or any other in the way when I take the digital photo. Also, if you scan your drawing, place a sheet of unblemished white paper behind it. Makes it come out sharper.
Claire and I have different styles for creating our digital images but the really odd thing is how we both have some kind of queen/ diva of the world feeling. I think drawing something for your blog does that. When are you taking more of a risk than drawing something for your blog, to publish out there in the big, wide, digital world? Typing a journal entry is not the same. Your letters are perfectly formed and spaced. It’s only when your hand is unsupported by your keyboard that you realize just how imperfect and down right skillful you really are. Let’s just say each one is very original.
There are some resources and groups for bloggers who want to get into this more creative aspect with their own blogs. I wrote a post to the EntreCard blog about this and will carry over the links from that post. (I’m lazy that way).
Flickr Groups:
Join us for Doodle Week, July 14th – 20th.
One thing I have learned to watch for when I look at free web scripts, gadgets, widgets and such for adding to my blog are hitchhikers. Before you paste the code into your HTML paste it into Notepad first. Read the code. Do you see a link to a third party URL? A site not your own or the one you are using the code from.
Some of the sites offering freebies are also making a buck by using your blog to spam another site. Watch for it. You can remove that part of the code or just choose not to use the script, find something else.
Why does it matter? Well, not a big deal, but do you really want someone else using your blog to make money for themselves? Whether your blog is completely spam/ ad free or not, do you want people getting away with piggy backing on your work?
Wink and Feedjit are two programs I have been using on my personal blog awhile. I began with Wink after finding it on Lady Banana’s blog (I think I found both there actually).
Wink is a way to keep all your social communities in one list. You can also find others through Wink. Mainly I like it cause I don’t have to remember what I have joined and where I stuck the link. It is all right on the front page of my blog. I can go from there to MySpace, FaceBook, Flickr, Yahoo, and so on. Take a look.
Feedjit is a tracker. I don’t have a huge interest in what browser people are using. It’s interesting to see how they came to my site. But, the real reason I like Feedjit is cause I can see where they came from, which country. Most people are fellow Canadians and Americans. But, I enjoy seeing the odd international flag just as much as seeing what area of North America people are from. It’s great to see how far flung my blog is reaching out.
Been a while since I posted here. I moved, got a new job as a tech support person. (Don’t laugh). I’m doing my best to help people with their digital television systems. I’ve grown to think very little of anything hd (high definition) and remote controls should be kept under safety glass. I’ve found someone to be interested in but I’m not doing anything about it and I kind of like it this way. I’m making new friends at work. The biggest annoyance right now is not having a car. I’m working on that, not very successfully, but still trying.
So, now that I’ve bored you… lets talk about avatars. I found two sites which have really cute avatars. It’s a girl thing. Not many guys seem to create them. Though I don’t know why. Maybe there just aren’t enough guy type avatar things around. Anyway, try them out for yourself: Bless this Chick.com and Tiz Me.net.
Avatars are not meant to be a recreation of yourself. Few of them aren’t Barbie clones. Yet it doesn’t matter. Think of it as the you you could be if… Or, think of it as just something fun you can stick on your blog. On science fiction shows an avatar isn’t meant to look like whoever it represents, it’s just a representation. When you create an avatar how seriously do you stick to who you really are? Why? Get rid of compulsions to be honest and just play with it. Give it green hair and fangs. Give it geeky hair and glasses. Go play with your avatar. It’s not being judged, just admired.
Working full time again is like living on another planet, in another world. I come home, I have dinner, I waste time watching TV and then I have to get to bed so I can start all over again the next day. So many things I want to do and don't get done. This blog and the other one and my own site. I used to keep all those balls in the air, juggled around. It's bugging me.
Tonight I came home late, the bus was running late, but I managed to finally get someone at Bell and straighten out the account for the digital TV. So, after two months, I finally have the Space science fiction channel. I thought they would have a bigger selection of the old shows like the Canadian Starlost which has always bugged me cause I never saw how they ended that, if they did. Also the new and old Doctor Who series from the UK. Others I'm sure I will think of later. Maybe they already had a run and were retired from the regular line up as people got tired of them. But, I'm new and I want to see the old tired stuff. It's fun to watch the outdated science fiction as much as I enjoy seeing the new.
At least I can waste my time watching worlds end and aliens taking over and all the other odd and interesting things going on in science fiction these days.