LEST WE FORGET

It was ANZAC day here in Aus today. A very special day for all Australians and even more so for those of us who had loved ones in the forces.

I've had a long day and it's late so I don't have the patience to put a moving blog together. Amarinda has done that for me, so drop by her blog as few could have done a better job.

My Grandfather fought at Gallipoli. He was an ANZAC. He survived. I don't know how but he did. He died the year I was born so I never got to meet him but I am ever so proud.

Cheers Pop!

LEST WE FORGET

This was a pic from last years ANZAC parade. A much nicer day and my camera was working better then.

Conjuring Cal

Conjuring Cal by Buffi BeCraft-Woodall is coming soon to Total-E-Bound.

I love this cover. It's definitely up there as one of my fav's. I've been dying to do something like this for a while and I will admit that it was heavily inspired by Denise Rossetti's - Gift of the Goddess cover by the incredible Syneca. I added a few brushes to give it that magical feel. I mucked around a bit with the dragon, all the while berating myself for not having done some more drawing/painting lessons. I ended up resorting to some dragon stock available at DA and in the vain attempt to not take credit for someone else's work, I maniped it to add another head. As required by the story.

I added his hair, again with brushes and was surprised that it was allowed through. I didn't think it looked quite real enough - but hey! I'm not complaining LOL.

Oh, I so need to practice my hair and painting skills. I also really need to start making some of my own brushes. DA has been a fantastic resource, but I'm hesitant in mentioning it because I don't want just anyone going along and thinking they can take things for themselves. There are rules set up by the owners of the stock there. Some allow commercial use, others not.

I guess now that I have Illustrator and CS3 I have less reason to say I can't. Now it all really just comes back to time. Time to focus. Time to experiment. It's frustrating to turn around 3-4 hours later and have nothing to show for it. Anyway, this wasn't meant to be a winge post. So Hurrah! Conjuring Cal has been released :D

Ooh .. quick update on the So You Think You Can Dance AUSTRALIA. It's down to the final 4 and Rhys is one of them. Yay! for Rhys LOL. Love him to death even if he does bat for the other team. He danced with Jack on Sunday night. Jack is the fav to win the comp. He's good. Damn good, but I still gravitate to Rhys. Anyway, here they are (Rhys is the one on the right of the screen, slightly to the front):



Phhwwaaaarrr .. is all I can say.

Ta daaaa ...

Well. There we have it. Despite the intervention that some of you had planned, I made Butter!!! LOL.

Wasn't as hard as I expected. Mind you I can't believe how hard it was to find Organic double cream.

Our local IGA has quite a reputation for stocking a lot of alternative ingredients, so I assumed that Organic Double Cream would be there amongst the Tofu and Organic Yoghurt. Sadly all they stock was the Pouring or Thickened Creams. The same you'd buy in any supermarket. Considering they have everything else in Organic form, I guess it was silly of me to assume as much. I quickly ducked up to the 'full on' health food store up the road and they only get their organic cream on a Wednesday (of course, why am I not surprised). So back I trundled to IGA and just got some thickened cream. It was on special at $0.99c for a 300ml. A 600ml was usually about $3.20. Still a good deal cheaper than the $5.18 for the tub of butter.

So when I got home I whacked it in the food processor and watched with baited breath. I can't believe it actually worked LOL! I drained off the buttermilk (which I then used to make some buttermilk pikelets - is that scary or what? LOL) and rinsed the butter in cold water. I then whipped in a bit of salt and some light olive oil to make it easier to spread and voila! I have butter.
It was interesting to read what ingredients were used in the bought butter - Cream, Vegetable Oils (Antioxidant (320), Butteroil, Salt, Buttermilk Powder, Emulsifier (Soy Lecithin), Flavour, Vitamin A, Colour (160a), Vitamin D, Milk Fat 38% and Canola Oil 21%.

Geez. Seems an awful lot of 'stuff' for a pretty natural product. All I used was - Thickened Cream (which contained Vegetable Gums 407 & 412) and 35% milk fat, Light Extra-Virgin Olive Oil and Sea Salt.

I'd ideally like to get organic cream or a good double cream with minimum additives. Funny thing is that we're surrounded by dairy farms. Sounds like I may need to chat up a few farmers and see if they sell any products direct.

So. All in all, it was a productive morning. I wonder what it will be next week. I already do my own breadcrumbs. Hmmm ... what will it be? Soap making? Candle making? Bread making?

Ah yes, I know. Just call me Martha :D

Where for art thou Muse

Okay, so I'm over my little spat with the computer. I ended up dropping it off at my computer guy. Turns out that my disk drive didn't read DVD's. 'Fix it' I said and it was done. So everything is working (for the time being). Now if I could just find some inspiration I'll be set.

Speaking of Inspiration (aka Muse), well, he's done a runner on me. In other words I don't have any. I've offered to do a banner for someone who wants a Fantasy theme with a hand-painted feel to it. Unfortunately I'm not confident (or good enough for that matter) to digitally paint something so I'll have to do a manipulation and give it that hand painted feel - aka whack a filter over it LOL.

Anyway, the thing is. I can't for the life of me come up with anything. I've dabbled but there's no spark or interest what-so-ever. It's just so hard to come up with something? Why is this?? I'll get a picture in my head but it means a lot of dabbling, learning and general mucking about. I just don't seem to have the time to dedicate to dabbling, learning and mucking about. I don't recall it ever being this hard before. I spend so much time at the computer already, perhaps it's a guilt thing. My mind is constantly telling me to get away from the computer - you're putting on too much weight, you need to move, you need to hang the washing out, you need to do something with the kids, the house is a mess. DO SOMETHING!!!

Ooo .. I did do something this week. I went horse riding with my daughter. Woohoo! We went on a 2 hour bush ride (or trail ride for the non-Aussie folk). It was a bit of fun although I was a bit torn between wanting to go for a nice canter and stick behind with my daughter and be a responsible parent. LOL! I got a bit of both which was nice. The guide, Sue kept an eye on my daughter while I went for a bit of a run. So now my legs are aching but I love it. I missed the feel of being on a horse. It was hard work though. My boy was always so responsive. I basically had to lean forward to go and sit back to stop. He'd turn with the pressure of the reins and to canter I just had to put one foot back a smidge and we'd be off. The trail horses are very much the opposite. You need to boot them to go, pull them to stop and push them every step of the way LOL! Still, it was a bit of fun. I do miss my old boy though.

I did a quick grocery shop at our local IGA (Idependent Grocers of Australia). I like real butter. None of this pretend margarine crap, no matter how good they want to tell me it is for my health. So. I went to grab a spreadable version that we go through at ridiculous speed. $5.18 for a 5oog tub! What the hell? It was only $3.90 not that long ago. Oh-0h, somethings going to have to give.

So this morning I had a bit of a domestic moment. Why don't I make my own butter? So off to the computer I trot to look up recipes for home made butter (yeah I know what's in it, just not how to do it). I really don't know what I'd do without the internet. Honestly! Anyway, I looked to see if there were recipes for home made spreadable butter, which of course there were. So I'm all set now for recipes. This afternoon I'm off to IGA to pick up some heavy cream and have a go at making my own butter. No doubt it will end up more expensive to make than just buying the tub LOL! But what the heck. I'll give it a go and report back.

Why me?

I. HATE. COMPUTERS.

Why is it that whenever I get something new for my computer I get all exited? I know that whatever it is I am trying to do won't work. Why do I always think, surely this time the computer gods will be watching over me. Right?

Yeah, they're watching alright. Laughing their collective beards off!

I'll fill you in.

So my CS3 Design pack arrived in the mail a few days ago. Yippee! I did a little dances because this means that not only do I now have the latest version of Photoshop, but I also have InDesign, Illustrator and a few other bits and pieces that I'm not overly worried about atm. Because I got the student version I needed to apply to get my Serial number so that I could run the programme. No problems. I got that today. Me-2, Computer Gods-0. Things are going well.

So I open up the pack. There are 3 disks (gone are the days of downloading 30 disks, YAY!!). One says Application, one says Content and the last says Video Workshop. There are NO instructions anywhere, what-so-ever. So I pop in the Application disk, purely because it was the one on top.

Now just because I've purchased a computer programme doesn't mean that I instantly know how to install it. I assumed from previous installations that I just put in the disk and a install wizard would pop up ... ha ha ha, she laughs sarcastically.

Nothing. I try the Content disk. Nothing. (me-2, computer gods 1) Damn, the bastards are catching me.

Of course, why am I not in the least bit surprised.

I decide to visit the Adobe web site. Surely there are some basic instructions on how to install my disks? It may be there somewhere but obviously it is buried in amongst the 'techy' language that my eyes automatically skim over. So of course I'm getting more frustrated by the minute. All I want to do is load my programmes and play. (me-2, computer gods-2) Agh! We're even now.

I then spend the next hour or more reading every word on the disk box, the dismal flyer inside that tells me what I'll be able to do with the programmes (providing I can get the damn things to work!) but still no installation instructions.

Do I need to activate something? Register? Silly me thought that the disks would prompt me to do these things. (me-2, computer gods-3) Typical!

So here I am a good 2 hours later and I still haven't worked out where I'm going wrong. I've left a message with my computer guy, I've left a support message with Adobe AND I've joined the CS3 forum to try to work out what the problem is.

I am so deflated and frustrated that I just want to cry. Why can't something just go to plan for once. Why does anything relating to my computer always take endless hours for me and a few minutes for everyone else? I swear to god (obviously the wrong one) that this happens every time I do something to my computer, whether it's internet installations, upgrades, new programmes or new bits of hardware. I mean, something as simple as my wireless mouse/keyboard. I have to change the batteries in my mouse EVERY DAY! Yes they're rechargeable but WTF? My brother-in-law's last for a good six months!

I just don't get it.

Computers suck!

The Set Up

Now released over at Total-E-Bound
























The Set Up by J. P. Bowie. A relatively easy cover to do. The only time-consuming part of this was finding the 'right' character to portray the Native American Indian movie extra. I chose a different image of this guy but apparently it had been used quite a bit so I had to find someone else. Turns out this image is the same guy LOL! Just a different photoshoot. Unfortunately he had some quite ridiculous glasses on his face so I had to chop off his head. I must say that the did give him that air of 'budding LA Moviestar', but, the glasses had to go. Oh, and I also had to add the long hair.

The other fellow was pretty straight forward. I touched up his eyes to make them a darker blue. I tried something a little different with the font this time. A dark colour got lost and a light colour seemed to be too much. So I added a 'style' which is available in CS2. I'm pretty happy with it.

Aaah .. it's been quiet around the blogs with a lot of the Authors that I frequent heading off to the RT convention. I'd love to go to one of these conventions one day and meet all these wonderful people. I doubt that I'd be heading off to the US or UK though, it would have to be a home grown Romance Writers of Australia get together LOL! Maybe when one comes to Sydney or Brisbane I could escape for the weekend. Gee, I wonder if Total-E-Bound needs an Australian liaison officer LOL. Probably the ONLY way I'd make it to one of these shin-digs.

Got the kids home on school holidays. YAY! (not). We're off to the Dentist today. All three of us. YAY (not). Then we'll hit the shops to buy some much needed shoes for the kiddies. So all in all it's going to be an expensive and very frustrating day.

Wish me luck!

Orphaned Works Legislation

I've always had trouble understanding legal jargon. Sit me down to read a legal document and I'm off on another plant within seconds. Just doesn't sink in. Doesn't interest me in the least. Even if it works to my advantage. I just have one of those brains I guess.

So, I'm going to post a link on The Orphaned Works Legislation for you to listen to. (here)

Please listen to this. Pop it on in the background as you do other work on the computer. Yes it takes a good 50 minutes, BUT it is very interesting. Especially if your an artist or know someone who is an artist. Actually, interesting isn't the word to use. SCARY would be more appropriate.

Basically what it is saying is that this law will effectively remove all rights of ownership to ANY artistic visual that you create.

So. For example, let's say that I doodle a picture of a tree. I post it up on my blog saying 'Look how clever I am'. Someone spots this and decides to us it for an add campaign for a kids cough syrup (yes a bit far fetched I know, but bare with me).

Suddenly someone is making money off my work. I decide to demand compensation for the company's use of MY artwork. However, under this new legislation it is no longer considered to be my artwork. It's been deemed Orphan. Why? Because I have not registered it with a privately run Register.

Now, at the moment there are no limits on how many registers there could be. There could be 5 or there could be 1000. AND may I add that these will be run by the private sector. So you may have 5000 images that you create a year. You will need to register EACH AND EVERY PIECE OF ART YOU CREATE. And if you really want to cover your butt it will be not once but possibly 1000 times. Yeah, like the starving artist can afford to do that.

SO. Back to the story at hand. All the Company needs to do at this stage is state that they 'had made a concerted effort to find the owner of the image'. They may have only searched 5 of the 1000 registries. However, because they could not find your image (because you could only afford to register at 3 of the 1000), all of a sudden your artwork is considered Orphaned.

Plus. What if they did find that particular piece of artwork registered. With so many other registries available they could easily pretend that they didn't find your work. Still claiming that it had been Orphaned.

As usual, the Artist is left high and dry without any form of compensation, despite having registered the artwork in the first place. Big Business is the winner of the day, because they can afford to be.

Anyway. I hope you see where I'm coming from with this blog today. It's certainly something the art community should be seriously looking into. So if this doesn't effect you please link it to someone you think may be interested.

Here are a few more links to get a more detailed overview on the situation:
Illustratorspartnership
DeviantArt
OrphanWorks Blogspot

There are lots of good links within these articles as well as some Petition links.

Also, big thanks to Melissa Findley (or as we know her over at DA, Mercuralis ) for the use of her poster. She gives permission for it to be used on blogs, etc so we can spread the word.