My great-uncle Emmanuel was mentioned in the Sunday Fargo Forum as savior of a valuable ring, for which the original owner was extremely grateful when he returned it to her. Ah, those Dahlsad guys...so nice and honest! #

Well, it was bound to happen -- 104.7, the most schizophrenic station in Fargo, has changed formats again. Today, they are known as "Ed FM", with a big plump picture of Ed Schultz temporarily on their webpage, presumably because he's going to get his own station despite having been off-the-air in Fargo for a while and briefly considering leaving the area over satellite issues. Every year or so, this station is stunting with something new, changing formats from rock to country and back and then back again...the stunting this time is to broadcast only Ed-related music, which means a whole lot of Eddie Money, Eddie Van Halen, Little R*ED* Corvette, Eddie and the Cruisers, etc., etc. It'll be sad to say that the Ed-related rock music is more entertaining to me than political blathering. #

In other art-related news, I write an "E" on my forehead in the direction that I would read it, which would look backwards to a person facing me. The image of me drawing an "E" from my perspective jumped into my head before hearing what each direction means -- and, it turns out, that I'm self-centered and prone to being a powerful person. However, on other tests, like the Meyers-Briggs, I show up as introverted and conservative. And, strangely, I can see both aspects. Watch for more thoughts on this at MyMySpaceSpaceBlogBlog...as that's the place I talk about myself at gratuitous lengths for the whole world to see, while emphasizing my failings and insecurities. I think that last sentence explains a lot. In other news, I once new a person who was proud of learning the "loser" symbol by putting his hand to his forehead, finger and thumb extended...however, he was left-handed, resulting in a backwards "L". That said a lot, too. #

Feb 23 2007 0 comments

It's been a while since I've done a non-remaindered post here, so I'll take something that probably should be a "Self-Promo" remaindered link and post it in long form. Hey, you're one of, like, four people who read this blog -- you don't have any say in it.

So, my creativity has been waning...I've got lot of ideas, but I'm unable to flesh them out. My largest boon of creativity happened during the years of single parenthood, when distractions were low, but as you may have figured from my recent writings, distractions are at an all time high...and at a point where my creativity needs to pay a larger portion of the bills. I can still be creative, as this week's project -- the Blushing Ladies Journal (soon to be NSFW) -- shows, I still have some creativity in my blood, but it's not at the level I'd like.

So, I've been trying a variety of things. I've set up places to write, using tools like MediaWiki to take off some of the pains of organization and allow me to just create. I've been planning on drawing more, as my illustrative skills are generally lacking anyways, but that, again, gets put off by priorities, and the set-up-time involved is time not spent on other things.

This morning, BTAF posted a link to 101 things to spur on an illustrator's creativity, and I liked a lot of them, and may do them eventually -- but #81 was a reminder of something I'd bookmarked with the intention of doing, but never got around to it: Illustration Friday.

So, I told myself I'd do it, I have fifteen minutes before I have to go to work, so don't think too hard about it, and don't sweat the details, and I don't even have to enter it if I don't want to. Here's what I came up with, for this week's theme of "communication":

You know that freehand circle-drawing champion? Of course you do -- his video was all over the internet, on TV's youtube-thieving-reality-shows, and your grandma asked you about it. In a recent interview, the guy credits a Fargo resident for spreading the video on the internet. Go Fargo nerds! #

Once upon a time, you could order a plush-kitty turn signal indicator for the rear window of your car. Alas, Winky the Cat is discontinued, but one ingenious geek has built one of his very own. Begin the kitty puppet dissection creepiness! #

Fun with spam-scammers! In responding to a Nigerian scam email purely for the fun of it, this netizen managed to convince two scammers to perform the Monty Python Dead Parrot Sketch on tape. The results are...well...about as legitimate as the scammer's emails. Pining for the fee ords was never as unintentionally funny. #

You know things are getting good when CNN gives you a phone call. One of our authors, Randall Radic, is making a lot of press because he's being sentenced this week for stealing his church. Yes, his church. Also making the news is his new book deal. When a defendant is advised by his lawyer to avoid the press...who else can the press call? His publisher. That's, um...me and D. So, much of what we can do is take phone numbers, offer to pass them on to Radic (who, as we warn, is unlikely to call them back), but we can provide lots of info about his book. This, my friends, is how publicity works.

Update: Here's me talking to the Modesto Bee about it. #

The sleepy town of Fargo isn't immune from the ultrafuturistic crime that abounds on the internet. Widman's Candy, a local candy company, has a bit of trouble with one of their competitors. They claim that Cafe Chocolat has registered a handful of domain names that are suspiciously similar to Widman's business name...even though two of the three in the article apparently do not exist in either WHOIS or DNS records, which will make it hard to complain about them. Widman's, of course, has taken the issue to court -- which, most likely, is the first step to taking the domains away from the nefarious competitor. #