hidden faces everywhere

skull
Originally uploaded by Tygh

When I was a kid, I used to see faces in every pattern. Ceiling textures, vinyl flooring, wallpaper and sidewalk cracks would all reveal hidden eyes, noses, lips and ears.

I sort of grew out of that phase, but a while back, I noticed this little guy in a glass dish I use to hold guitar picks. The soft / lack of focus is to reveal more what I saw than what the thing actually looks like

It was there for days before I snapped this shot. I could always see it. If I moved the picks, it would have vanished forever I am sure so I snapped a few pictures and saved them off. I wanted some validation that I wasn't the only one who could see it.

my tree

tree detail
Originally uploaded by Tygh

last night I made a tree. I've been playing with the idea for a few weeks. I've always sort of wanted a bonsai tree, but I have been hesitant. Maybe I am afraid of killing it. In all likelihood, I would give it way too much attention. So, while the idea of a bonsai tree might be fine, the idea of a dead bonsai tree is definitely unappealing.

Anyway, for fun I have been drawing little branches with leaves and thinking to myself that I could possibly make a non-living facsimile if only I had the patience to x-acto out the branches and attach them to a tree trunk I might fashion.

My fingers are a little sore today from my old-school aluminum x-acto knife. I press too hard in general, but part of the process, I suppose, is learning the technique.

Most surprising to me is how nice a shadow the tree casts.

Idle hands

Coraline


I was browsing around tonight and found a site for a new movie that I suddenly must see. It's even in 3-D! The details that went into everything from the tiny hand-knitted sweaters to the clever tools and devices. The site really captured my imagination.

A new years day present

Here it is:

The big dream sequence from The Big Lebowski

I ran across this today. Something about that Kenny Rogers song and the bowling pin hats on the girls that just cracks me up.

What if photoshop were real?

This is madness. Naturally, I love it. I especially like all the tools on the left. The color mixer, etc. Great work.

Life Support

This is the little organic oasis in my cubicle at work. What I do for the flora and the fauna appeals to my nurturing side. The IV irrigation setup is the latest innovation.

I got some used IV bags from a friend's vet. The idea of recycling these bags is appealing on a couple of levels. I like that I can set them up with premeasured fertilizer and control the drip rate to last for a week or two. In the mean time, these bags aren't resting in a land fill. I am still working on some refinements, but the idea is showing promise. The aesthetics are almost exactly what I was looking for.

This site has been in a coma for a long time now. What you are seeing is just a tiny spike in the EEG, but at least it is a sign of life.

trees and stuff for sale

Now that I think about it, I'm not exactly a rolling stone. My wife and I have been toying with the idea of moving recently, but it's been hard to get excited about the prospect of packing up all our stuff and moving from one suburban neighborhood to another. I can't say I really dislike where we live now either. Our yard is beautiful in the spring. We have a nice deck to relax on.

On the other hand, it could be closer to work. It could have a different layout; all the groceries have to go upstairs to the kitchen, the bathroom situation isn't exactly optimal, etc.

Usually, when moving crosses my mind, it is part of some bigger daydream. I think about changing jobs, moving across country, maybe even moving to another country all together. I've been at my job for 9 years now and the time has snuck up on me. We've been in this house even longer. So we decided to do a little harmless looking around. I mean what's wrong with just looking?

I forgot about the autumn.

It happens every year to one extent or another and it always surprises me when it does. I get restless. I don't know if it is just left over from my school years where the fall always represented a new beginning. It was always a fresh start, new classes, new teachers, an empty notebook full of clean sheets of paper. In the fall there are brand new pencils with unused erasers. It means starting out with a straight A average and the feeling that it could stay that way if I toe the line this year.

Walking around in a house that is for sale does make me think. It brings back some of that restlessness and reminds me of how the fall used to feel when I was younger.