Cartoons: it doesn't take long

Today's collection of cartoons talks about insidious threats that have or had a potential for proliferation.

Measles.

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Pat Bagley, The Week

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Drug-toting drones.

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Milt Priggee, The Week

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The wealth of the 1%.

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Steve Sack, The Week

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Red-light cameras. (These may be going away due to popular demand.)

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Scott Stantis, The Week

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-- Marge

DIY: Valentine's Day impressions

A friend of mine uses scrapbooking tools and materials to produce Christmas and birthday cards that are real keepers.  So why not one or two for Valentine's Day? 

Scrapbooking was originally only practiced for preserving family history and memorable moments, but has expanded since about 2001 into an industry that supports making cards, invitations, and artwork-- including steampunk and digital. A nice piece of digital scrapbooking was found at ArtFire.

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"Tiny Moments #4," Chili Designz

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There are many websites offering supplies, such as paper, cardstock, stamps, inks, and pretty little doodads, to add to your design. Some are Papersource (mostly offers kits), Amazon (search on 'scrapbooking'), and Michaels. 

You can find a number of design ideas and kits for Valentine's Day at Scrapbook. Here's a sample.

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Sanna Lippert, "Live in the Moment," Scrapbook

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PaperSource has a selection of kits, crafts, stamps, stickers, and card ideas. There is a selection of steampunk stamps available at Pinkflamingo61 on ArtFire.

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 Steampunk wood mounted rubber stamp, pinkflamingo61

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Now, who to send one to?

-- Marge

Art: some 2D animation for inspiration

Asuka Langley Soryu, sampaikini

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There are so many ways to approach animation (a discipline/art form I'm trying to learn), that I find myself turning to works that I like for inspiration. In animation there's not only the artwork, but also storyline, voice, music, camera angles, and--maybe most important--motion and timing.

This one's my odds-on favorite. I love the sketchy, yet fluid style, transitions, now-you-see-it-now-you-don't effects and the song is lovely, too.

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This one has a similar story, but very different style. Again I'm attracted to the wispy effects.

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The backgrounds are really, really good in this film. And the story is fun--it reminds me of questing in an MMORPG.

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This last film is a collection of scenes from a Japanese animated television series called "Neon Genesis Evangelion." In most of the animé/manga films I've seen the artwork is outstanding. If you'd like to get an idea of how dedicated its fans can be, here's a page listing the author's top ten favorite characters. The page will also give you an idea of the wide range in artistic styles. Keep in mind that some animé can be pretty riské by America's prudish standards.

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To play these videos in sequence the playlist is available on YouTube.

-- Marge

Cartoons: well, don't that beat all.

My regard for America and thinking that it's the best country in the world has taken a pretty serious beating in the last five, ten years. And things just seem to get worse.

The aptly-named Patriots cheat at football.

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Rick McKee, The Week

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The Republicans spent millions of dollars to take control Congress and they can't find a presidential candidate who has national appeal.

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Bill Schorr, The Week

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The rich just keep getting richer, and have the Supreme Court's sanction (see Citizen's United) to buy anything American they want.

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Chan Lowe, The Week

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And the British in the form of BP (British Petroleum) are still treating us like the Colonies.

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Walt Handelsman, The Week

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Sorry for the dark, sort of snarky, viewpoint--today's just a don't-that-beat-all day. Maybe it's time to stop watching the news again.

-- Marge

DIY: what do you want your avatar to say

And where can you find one?

While psychologists are trying to figure out what your avatar says about you, I say what do you want your avatar (aka icon) to say. Do you want an image that approximates what you look like? Or one that makes a statement about your interests, philosophy, or general view of the world. Perhaps one with shock value will do nicely. You could decide on an animated one, although they can be quite annoying to some.

Before continuing further, let me say that I'm not talking about the kind of avatar that you drive in a virtual world or MMORPG. What I am talking about today is the icon or small picture that identifies you on a social site or forum.

Here are some examples of avatars seen on social media and found through Google's Image search ("avatars").

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left to right: four icons from findicons, oldtimersguild (Mr.Nubba),
biodegradablegeek, and NinaPaley 

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An article at Mashable--Avatars Everywhere--lists 27 sources for avatars. The list includes virtual worlds like Second Life and IMVU, which seem to me like a lot more work than necessary. Digibody's Caricature Maker is one I tried. See below.

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avatar made at Digibody's Caricature Maker

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There are a number of sites where you can create an avatar online using an uploaded photo. Picasion is one. It's pretty simple: you upload a photo, crop it, then save it to your computer. What I like being able to instantly see what the cropped photo will contain and select the size of the finished product. This site also offers you the opportunity to animate your photos.

Sizes of avatars differ from site to site--some want none larger that 100px, some want none smaller that 200px. What to do? One of my favorite apps for browsing images and doing some simple editing is FastStone Image Viewer. It's free for personal and educational use, and costs $34.95 for a lifetime, commercial license. This application will resize, change the resolution, and convert an image to a different file format.

A note to the wise: while I was looking at a variety of avatar generators, some wanted me to download an application. Not a good idea unless you know the site.

-- Marge

Martin Luther King: visions of the man

It being Martin Luther King Day, a tribute to the man is in order. Many people have idolized him with their artwork, relatively few really knew him. In the images below I'm attempting to capture moments in his life rendered by artists he or his memory touched.

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cxard, Martin Luther King Jr., DeviantART

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Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, National Park Service

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Here is King when he gave his "I have a dream" speech in August, 1963. To me he looks lonely--a solitary man standing exposed above the crowd.

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Martin Luther King, Jr., I have a dream speech, MSNBC

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Shepard Fairey, Martin Luther King 2004, ObeyGiant

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The Graphic Design & Publishing Center site features a collection of Martin Luther King Jr. artwork you may enjoy.

-- Marge

Cartoons: the race is on

Here are today's cartoons, freshly picked for humor and ironic twist.

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David Fitzsimmons, The Week

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Bob Gorrell, The Week

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Tom Toles, The Week

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Jack Ohman, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons: One last word about Charlie Hebdo

Ok, two last words.

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Steve Sack, The Week

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Cameron Cardow, The Week

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-- Marge

Cartoons and cartoonists up in arms...

...and armed with pens.

Following this second attack at the Charlie Hebdo offices, many editorial cartoonists have paid respects to the magazine and freedom of speech, freedom of expression. You can see some of their cartoons on the topic at The Week. In the cartoon below David Fitzsimmons also gives a nod to Ann Telnaes.

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David Fitzsimmons, The Week

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Ann Telnaes is a well-respected cartoonist. Her response to the Hebdo attack is this.

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Ann Telnaes

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In the first attack on Hebdo in November, 2011, the offices were fire-bombed. This was their response to that attack. The text translates to 'Love: stronger than hate'.

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November 8, 2011, issue, Charlie Hebdo

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An article in The Globe and Mail asks What is Charlie Hebdo and why was it a target? and quotes former editor Stéphane Charbonnier:

No one is forced to read us. Charlie Hebdo is sold in stores, we do not post our content on our website. To read us is a voluntary act. We are not imposing it on anyone...

-- Marge

DIY: dodging the TL;DR response

CSG, Writing:the Revision Process (half-tone), SecondaryWriting

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In case you don't know, as I didn't, what 'TL;DR' means, it's 'too long; didn't read'.

There may be an information explosion going on, but much of the information just flows by one's comprehension because it's just not readable.  It's a good idea to approach the topic being presented with clarity and tighten up the language.

The idea is to be terse, but not abrupt. You don't want this said about your latest post to your favorite here's-what-I-have-to-say forum:

"omg you postwench. i can only say one thing in response - tl;dr"

"tl;dr...why dont you give up on your unabridged edition of War and Peace or at least stop posting it here?"

--DisgruntledJoe, Urban Dictionary

Revision is one of the keys to clarity. First step is to get the general idea down, then review it for meaning, then review it again for meaning, all the while condensing the wording when you can. By now the piece's purpose should be clearer and the message more focused. Review it for grammar, then review it for spelling, and, finally, review it once again for clarity and tightness. When the piece begins to look worn from polishing, it's ready to release it to the world. Or toss it--your call.

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Ernest Hemingway, copyblogger

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Writer Ernest Hemingway is known for being terse. Here are his top 4 rules for writing and a fifth thrown in by Brian Clark, author of  "Ernest Hemingway’s Top 5 Tips for Writing Well."

1. Use short sentences.

2. Use short first paragraphs.

3. Use vigorous English.

4. Be positive, not negative.

Most important writing tip: 

“I write one page of masterpiece to ninety-one pages of shit,” Hemingway confided to F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1934. “I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.”

There's an app, available on Google Play, called Hemingway that analyzes text and "makes your writing bold and clear" (Hemingway Takes the Hemingway Test). However, as it's noted in the test, you can lose clarity, and meaning, by being too terse.

As in all things, the middle way is best.

-- Marge

The czar's new clothes

TomToles, The Week

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This insightful cartoon relating Putin's current standing in world news to Hans Christian Anderson's tale, "The Emporer's New Clothes," suggested to me an opportunity to delve into a number of topics related to Putin and his ambitions, the ambitions of the Russian People, and how children's tales, aka fairy tales, can give us insight into real-world matters.

First, the children's tale. A comment on Maria Tatar's writings in Wikipedia notes:

...that "The Emperor's New Clothes" is one of Andersen's best known tales and one that has acquired an iconic status globally as it migrates across various cultures reshaping itself with each retelling in the manner of oral folktales. Scholars have noted that the phrase 'Emperor's new clothes' has become a standard metaphor for anything that smacks of pretentiousness, pomposity, social hypocrisy, collective denial, or hollow ostentatiousness. Historically, the tale established Andersen's reputation as a children's author whose stories actually imparted lessons of value for his juvenile audience, and "romanticized" children by "investing them with the courage to challenge authority and to speak truth to power." With each successive description of the swindlers' wonderful cloth, it becomes more substantial, more palpable, and a thing of imaginative beauty for the reader even though it has no material existence. Its beauty however is obscured at the end of the tale with the obligatory moral message for children. Tatar is left wondering if the real value of the tale is the creation of the wonderful fabric in the reader's imagination or the tale's closing message of speaking truth no matter how humiliating to the recipient.

Condensing Russian history to the major transfers of power within its borders, the Russian people went from being serfs under the czars, to fodder under Stalin, to being spied-on and imprisoned under the Communist regime, then to suddenly being free but nearly destitute when the Berlin Wall fell. Note: this is my simplistic view of Russian History; here's a more detailed timeline.

Skip to the present. Stepping in after Yeltsin's failed attempts at democracy, Putin has progressively edged toward the policies of the totalitarian Soviet Union but offers the Russian people as sense of the pride once felt for Mother Russia and momentary prosperity. Joshua Kucera, a freelance reporter specializing in the former Soviet Union, writes in his article "Decoding Vladimir Putin's Plan:"

Putin for years has advocated for a “multipolar” world order in which the current dominance of the U.S. is replaced by a more equitable balance of power. And many of Russia’s dramatic moves over the past year – the annexation of Crimea and support for rebels in eastern Ukraine, an enthusiastic embrace of China and increasingly anti-Western rhetoric from Putin – could be interpreted as moving toward a multipolar world.

However, with the Russian economy imploding the question for the Russian people becomes world power or survival. And world power becomes the Czar's new clothes.

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The Emperor’s New Clothes, illustration by Cyril Bouda (1956), Smeddum

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-- Marge

Cartoons: the baby in the room

It's a new year with new opportunities to address old problems. What will we do?

I don't think talking about it on Facebook will help, but I could be wrong.

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David Fitzsimmons, The Week

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Putin's bluster is wearing thin with the collapse of the ruble and the new year isn't opening well for him.

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John Deering, The Week

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Meanwhile, just about everyone is blaming Obama.

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Bill Day, The Week

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Lower prices at the gas pump doesn't necessarily mean lower prices at the ticket counter.

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Chan Lowe, The Week

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One plastic bottle or little green army man overboard doesn't matter, does it?

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Jack Ohman, The Week

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-- Marge