Mindflight

Thumbnail Appeal

For art to impress, it’s helpful if it readily catches the viewer’s eye.

If you have your work scanned in on the computer, looking at the file thumbnails is an excellent way of quickly seeing what an art viewer sees as they pass by.

A similar effect can be had by putting the painting or drawing across the room from you and glancing at it quickly. This is how you can truly tell if your work has good contrast and interesting composition.

What pops out at you? What is the first thing that you see? Is that the main focal point of your work, or can you think of ways to make the art more impactful?

How customer service taught me to “be a lady.”

Art of Womanhood

When I was little, sometimes I’d hear “that’s not ladylike,” or “be a lady.” I usually got a negative impression of that. I didn’t watch TV as a child, so I thought all “ladies” were like the women at church – rather timid, rather limited, and rarely doing anything interesting. I surely didn’t want to be that! It wasn’t till later that I discovered women really could do interesting things, as I learned about Amelia Earhart and Sally Ride and Joan of Arc, and eagerly read stories about Athena and Artemis. Still, these women weren’t portrayed as “ladylike” and so I still thought being a lady was for the birds.

In a way, I still do – but I’m changing.

Enter the wonderful world of customer service. I went from a completely clueless tech support rep who could barely clear cache and cookies and was awash in a sea of things I couldn’t control, to a competent CSR, and eventually a knowledge expert who was training other people. During that time I learned a lot about being a lady.

I learned that it was just as okay to let the door be held for me as it was to hold the door for others. I learned to accept help with nearly as much grace as I gave it. This kind of work drilled me to always, always, always say please and thank you. I learned how to be calm and polite, even friendly, no matter how loudly the other was yelling, and how much power that gave me. A true lady’s grace under pressure lets her overcome as many challenges as a true gentleman’s strength.

A wiser, older coworker of mine once said, “a lady can do absolutely anything she wants to. But that doesn’t mean she has to.”

Once rather uncomfortable with the courtesy that is traditionally given women, I learned that it was important to accept that courtesy – how else can we give men practice at being gentlemen? Being a lady doesn’t mean you are not allowed to do certain things, but it is a role that ultimately makes the world a gentler place to live in. I could get out of my airplane (I did eventually learn to fly) and walk to a door, smile nicely at the man who held it and thank him, then confidently go in to the hangar and ask the mechanics for a quart of oil and a red rag. There’s nothing unladylike about that!

I realized recently that my main problem with “being a lady” was connotations related to the word itself. Ladyship could be a position of grace and strength, much like being a gentlemen. Whether you are a lady or gentleman, it means you are strong, mentally and hopefully physically, can stay cool under pressure, are resourceful, keep yourself neat and clean, and know how to talk to people graciously. It means you have respect for other people and yourself. It has no bearing on what you do for a living. Being a gentleman or a lady is a state of mind.

We live in an amazing time. Women and men have more freedom than ever. At the same time, we can pass along old fashioned customs of politeness, not because they are a duty, but because they are a joy.

Amelia: not just another Airhead!

Art of Womanhood

It’s become fashionable in some circles to remember Amelia Earhart as a somewhat flaky, irresponsible aviatrix who is mostly famous because she got lost. She is often portrayed in movies and books as somewhat irresponsible, even a dilettante.

This is far from the truth. Amelia Earhart was a tireless champion of women’s rights. She wasn’t just about flying, either. She constantly tried to help young women enter fields of math, science, engineering, and other traditionally male dominated roles. She studied hard in school, tried to learn as much science as she could, and even picked a high school based on the science programs available there. She earned most of the money for her flying career and took many jobs, sometimes two or three at a time, to pay for it.

She worked as a nurse’s aide during the aftermath of world war I, she worked for the phone company at one point, she drove a gravel truck, she was an author, she worked as a social worker in a settlement house as well as many other jobs. At one point she drove across the country in a two seat sports car at a time before the interstate system was even in place. She learned to fly multiengine aircraft, set numerous records, and flew a type of aircraft called an autogyro across the country as well.

Once, she was in position to win an air race but another pilot had cracked up their airplane. Instead of continuing on to win, she saved the other pilot’s live and then got back in the air to win second place. She was more interested in doing the right thing than winning the prize money.

She got together with Charles Lindbergh, and started America’s first airline, TAT. It went through many evolutions and name changes and eventually became Delta Airlines.

Yes, Amelia took advantage of publicity. She used it as a tool to try to advance the cause of women. She did some stunt flying for fun, and some to prove that women could. She supported other female pilots and helped create an organization for them, called the 99s. She encouraged people to follow their dreams and not be limited by their sex or social position.

She wasn’t the best pilot, nor did she claim to be. She loved what she did and she wanted other people to love what they did, too. The more I have learned about her, the more inspired I have become. She didn’t hold herself above people or claim to be the greatest, instead she tried to inspire people so that they could join her in the sky.

The Bravest Kitten

Thoughts About Life

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One night, my partner and I were sitting around home, minding our own business, when we heard a kitten crying.

Cat lovers that we are, we immediately went to investigate. Out there in the dark was a tiny kitten, yowling pitifully, calling to us for help but obstinately not letting us near. We tried for quite some time to capture her. All we could see was a little ball of fluff. Loud fluff. The yowling continued, and she mewed all night under my partner’s window.

In the morning I went out and found the ball of fluff under our overgrown jungle of tea roses. I got the loppers and worked my way in, eventually freeing the kitten. She was starved, she’d been bitten, she was long haired, and she was calico. Big greenish yellow eyes looked into mine. She was even having trouble walking. There was only one thing to be done…. I liberated the box the TV had come in, put bedding and a water dish in the bottom, and waited for the partner to get home so I could go get kitten chow.

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We figured out that this flea infested little waif had apparently left her mother and litter-mates, crossed two yards with mean dogs in them and had come specifically to us. As if she knew we would be the ones to harbor her. She was right… we held her and carried her practically around the clock until she could maintain her own body temperature, rid her of the fleas, fed her well, cared for her leg till it healed, and defended her when our senior cat hissed until he finally accepted her as an adopted daughter. He helped raise her to a fine figure of a feline.

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Cassiopeia Dawn, nicknamed Mouse, is now a rather rotund, sassy queen cat. Now that her adoptive “father” is gone she is boss cat of the house. She throws stuffed mice, wraps her curly tail around your wrist in response to pettings, and pats your knee when you haven’t paid her enough attention. She’s come so far from that starving kitten she was, eight years ago. She’s returned our love many times over. We wouldn’t trade her for anything.

It’s really true… one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

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Tips for Bloggers – a great ‘lede’

Tips for Writers

The key to capturing your readers’ interest is a great ‘lede.’

Sometimes referred to as a “lead,” a “lede” is the first sentence or paragraph of a news article. Secondary only to the headline, the lede describes the most important parts of the article. Read some newspaper articles and observe how the author tries to hook your interest with the first sentence.

You can use this in your blog, as easily as in a news article. A good lede highlights what’s important and encourages the reader to continue. It also directs the reader to the thoughts you want them to have. Just like with a news article, you only have a few seconds to interest your audience. A lede helps you do that so people are less likely to click on by.

I recently wrote an article where I was trying to lead the readers to a conclusion – but made the mistake of doing that in a high volume venue where everybody skims things. My plan backfired because everyone read part of the first paragraph, responded to that, and moved on.

I should have picked a good lede, one that indicated the direction I wanted things to go in.

For example, in a blog entry about a famous badger race, this might be a good lede:

Sir Fluffbottom is the new world champion in the exciting Beetle Cup race!

Much better than:

I think you’ll love finding out who one the latest edition of the Beetle Cup!

The second lede has no real information, isn’t specific about the Beetle Cup being a race, and makes the reader work for their answers. Many will move on – or click by. Better to be short, punchy, specific, and work into the details in the body of the work, after the reader knows why the article is relevant and interesting to them.

If you haven’t done this yet, try it out. Also, practice picking out ledes in news articles. It can be fun and educational. And who knows, you just might get more people reading your blog.

The Art of Womanhood

Art of Womanhood

This is a blog I would love to write or contribute to.

Currently, there is a truly amazing website called the Art of Manliness. I love it because you can find information on many different topics that are incredibly valuable in the world today and yet are neglected or nearly forgotten. You can find everything from how to do an old school wet shave with a straight razor, to basic car repair, understanding tools and materials, how to light a fire without matches, how to dress sharply, how to write a letter, and all kinds of old things you wished you’d learned from your grandpa. AOM is a window to a more civilized world full of manly men who know how to be strong, capable, and independent, but also kind and loving.

I want to do that for women.

I want to help create a repository of information that modern women can use. Old skills, new skills, tool use, self defense, health, beauty, grace, independence, and family skills. I know all of these things are available elsewhere – and I’d probably start by linking to existing content – but I want to make a place for people who want to know about all of this and at the same time carry forward an aura of grace and dignity and strength into the new era.

How about an article on being a gracious hostess? Or how to really carry on a conversation? How to pick out stationary and when to use it? Or how to talk to a mechanic without looking like a fool? I basically want to collect these things together in a package that’s classy, well organized, and appealing to women. It could be a sister site to Art of Manliness. Maybe we could even ally together.

There are so many skills and arts that are being lost even as we speak. I want to preserve them! What if a young woman wants to learn to roast a turkey, say, but her mom isn’t there to give her all the tips and tricks? What if a young woman needs relationship advice but doesn’t have someone she trusts to talk to? Or doesn’t know how to sew on a button? Or needs to jump start her car?

“Art of Womanhood” would solve all that!

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Thoughts About Life

And, most interesting to me, how does that look compared to what you are doing now?

This is my 200th post so I thought I’d go retro. And hey, it’s fun to look at candy. When I was young, I sold it – by the piece, parlaying up from 19 cents or so worth of on sale Valentine’s Day lollipops to an empire worth at least ten dollars and boasting many different varieties, all priced to tempt.

Maybe I should have gone into business.

Before I was maybe seventeen or so, I didn’t think that much about what I wanted to actually do. I thought about things I wanted to be, but I didn’t think about the actual day to day of living within the jobs I wanted to do. I wanted to be a bus driver when I was three, for example, and I thought about becoming an attorney, a pilot, a vet, a nurse, an architect, an artist, and quite a few other things.

When I went to university I planned to become a jeweler – and would have been very well served by job shadowing someone who did that job. I was aimless and really needed a well respected mentor. If I ever have influence over a young person about to enter the working world, I’ll advise that. The funny thing is, I like what I do – but the job I do would have simply required a few typing classes. I don’t use my degree for much, but I guess it’s nice to have as a credential. If I had it to do over, I’d definitely do more research about what would be best, not just what would be expected.

I had no idea what day to day work at a job would be like. I had some vague idea of working in an office, but I wasn’t sure what people really did in offices. It’s actually rather funny how little I knew. Now I work in an office – a big one, populated by a few hundred people on any given day. A call center, yes, but essentially a huge office. It’s busy and chapati and sometimes a lot of fun, and nothing like I imagined.

What did you want to be as a kid? Are you doing something related to that, or something completely different? Do you wonder about the road not taken?

Mixed Media Technique

Tips for Artists

There are times when you will want a strong background color but a lot of surface detail and highlighting at the same time. At these times, a background of marker with surface layers of colored pencil, chalk, or oil pastel for the highlights and surface detail can work quite well.

This portrait of a Blue Heeler pup was done with two main background colors – black and blue. Everything was built up on top of that. I made a mistake here which can be learned from, however. If at all possible, make your background marker color as smooth and even as you can. Fresh markers are important for this. I used Conte and normal chalk pencil for most of the detail here.

This mixed media technique also work with acrylic as a backdrop and chalks or pastels for the detail. If you do this, however, spray it gently with fixative when you are done.

This cover painting made heavy use of chalks in the wood grain and in the surface details and highlights of the piece. With the wood grain, I used the ridginess of the brush strokes to help form it.

Eggs a la Roh

Food and Cooking

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Were you ever frustrated by how hard it is to clean a container in which you’ve microwaved eggs?

Worry no more!

This is really quick, easy, and fairly healthful. I invented it recently. Sure, someone else may have come up with it too but I hadn’t known about it.

Start with a large burrito sized tortilla, the thinner the better, and lay it on a plate. Crack two eggs on it and use a fork to mix them up. You can add salt, pepper, dill, garlic, etc, to the eggs. They should collect in the middle, held in by the edges of the plate.

Put this in the microwave and cook on high till the middle solidifies, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes. The eggs will bubble up and the cooked area gradually spread toward the center.

Take out of microwave, probably with pot holders, and sprinkle cheese on top. Fold in half.

Result: Tasty eggs in a tortilla shell so it’s a lot easier to clean the plate!

There are a million potential variations – add peppers, olives, different kinds of cheese, chopped vegetables, mushrooms, salsa, crumbled bacon, or really, whatever you want. The other reason why I like this dish is it’s incredibly cheap. Tortillas aren’t expensive, neither are eggs, and this results in a meal full of protein and healthy fats.

Six Months to Live

Personal Growth

We all waste time. Some of us more, some of us less, I certainly know I do, but what do we do about it? One of the classic questions is “what would you do if you had a week to live?”

This is too short term a question to use as a real too, though. We want to pick a time frame that creates urgency but doesn’t give us so little time that the answer is irresponsibility and empty pursuits.

I propose six months. If I ask myself, “What would I do if I had six months to live?” then I feel urgency but at the same time I wouldn’t do anything rash like quitting my job. I would, however, want to work harder on my various projects, improve my art, have closer relationships with my loved ones, and try to spend the end of my life in a peaceful sort of way. I wouldn’t be interested in wasting time. I’d still take time to relax and have fun, but my intensity would go up.

I’d take the walks I’d meant to take, write the letters I’d meant to write, make sure I got that last novel done. I’d write more, paint more, waste less time online. I’d try to come to some sort of peace. I’d try to have at least one adventure. Also, I’d leave some provision for surviving, after all, because nothing is guaranteed until it happens. But I wouldn’t waste my time.

If you had six months to live, what would you do?