Conspiracy Theory

"Paranoia is haunting you, and all these dirty looks, well they are right on cue"- Spill Canvas

Truth
Yes the government is out to get you. They are using the television to manipulate your mind. Your cell phone is a tracking device and your credit cards help the market target your spending habits. Not to mention blogging communities are a playground for stalkers. I do have some good news: the government is only out to get you if your a terrorist. Unfortunately I also have some bad news: everything else applies to you.

Untruth (is that a word?)
The government is not embedding secret messages in the radio. (Subliminal messages do exist, but they were outlawed as a marketing tool)
The red cross is not stealing your blood to generate a deadly virus targeted to your unique genetic thumbprint.
Unfortunately foil hats cannot shield your mind from mind readers. Its probably a good thing nobody can read minds.... yet. (Mwahaha) Sorry if you really are paranoid about that sort of thing.
If you are paranoid please seek help. (although your shrink may be government spy)

Matchboxes: an odd semiotic domain

For my sculpting class I was googling how to sculpt hair. Obviously because the bust I am molding is bald. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything remotely helpful, which is fine because I decided that I should leave my old man bald, but I did find this picture, which led me on a wonderful hunt to learn more about making matchboxes.

Crabby matchbox made by Miss Pickle

So I looked up matchbox art and found out that most of the matchboxes were made to swap on a site called swap-bot.com. Anyway I got really excited because I wanted to decorate a matchbox, but I didn't know where to buy matchboxes, and I thought it would be a waste to buy matches just for the boxes anyway. Fortunately I found a template online for making matchboxes. Last night I tried it out. I designed a matchbox cover in photoshop, using the dimensions from the template. Then after finally finding a color printer that worked I cut it out and put it together. It was really fun and easy to do. The one thing that I would change is that I didn't print on sturdy paper, so the box was kind of weak. I joined swap-bot. I couldn't resist. So now I shall make lots of tiny matchboxes filled with tiny things and swap them with lots of people who make them too. I suppose I am trying to say that I am joining an affinity group (matchbox makers) by attatching myself to the semiotic domain of (matchboxes) and ultimately joing a larger group of swappers. Its wierd how that works.

Anyway, I thought I would add my matchbox design for anyone who wants to try and make a matchbox.

How to Link to Other Blogs

I hope this short tutorial will help

There is a nifty gadget you can use to link to other blogs, and keep track of new posts on your blog.

1. Go to the Layout tab

2. click on Add Gadget on the side bar

3. select Blog List (it will be the first gadget on the window that pops up)
the Configure Blog List window will pop up

4. click Add a blog to your list (its in the white box, highlighted in blue)

The window below will pop up.

5. Enter the url of the blog you want to add.

6. Click Add

7. Don't forget to click SAVE (this is very important)

Media Grafitti

Plastered across billboards, on telphone poles, in store windows, on tv, in newspapers, on the internet, everywhere you look there are ads. We are so used to them, we barely take notice of them anymore. Without them we wouldn't "know" what we want to buy. I mean really, if we didn't have that little comercial advertising the ipod, we wouldn't have a snobbish preference for them. The ipod shuffle is a piece of crap by the way. If you want a cheap player with better features, Sansa is a sturdy little player. (ads: you can't escape them). Seriously though, without ads some people wouldn't know that they are supposed to compare car insurence before they buy it. What are you going to pick? allstate? safe auto? GEICO? I admit the GEICO gecko is pretty darn cute. I actually enjoy watching their commercials on tv. The people who are good at designing know how to make advertisments asthetically pleasing. It seems though that there are more badly designed advertisments than good ones. We are drowning in ad pollution. Yes, ad pollution. We have noise pollution, so why can't we have ad pollution. Someday they will tell us that ad pollution is the leading cause of cancer among young adults. It causes you to go cross-eyed and foam at the mouth.

Deviant Art

Out of any web community, DA is my favorite. Deviant Art is an online artist community that is focused on sharing art between members of the community. As a member you have your own page with a gallery, a journal and the ability to track your favorite artists. I've been a member since 2005 and have found it really helpful when learning different art techniques. There are several helpful art tutorials on DA. I also really enjoy displaying my own art and commenting on the art of others. I recently started an online art magazine called Snow Palette. I promoted it on DA and several artists submitted some of their work to be in the magazine. Even though I'm a beginner at the whole magazine thing, those people on DA really support me.

Illeander on DA

Snow Palette Magazine