Solutions and Content... Have I Got Your's!

Not really.

I am on a few email lists that are basically lists of shmoes that are OK with being marketed to in a direct emailing format, as that is all they do. I only stay on as I do pick up the odd idea that I may want to look into further.

That is not why I am posting. I am posting to let out a little rant steam on the "content" phrase. I recall a number of years ago when the word "solution" hit the market and everyone had my "solution".

First off, what is the problem that I need a solution for in the first place? Companies were using "Solution" in their business name, their marketing, advertising, client correspondence... anywhere they could shoehorn in the word solution to sound more technologically savvy, it was jammed right in there in big bold colourful type.

Many are still using it but it has turned into a technical term having to with actually having a solution to a particular problem.

OK, enough about that.

Now, it's all about "content". In order to successfully market anything I have to have THE content, current content, new content, interesting content.... my content even has to be a solution for some problem that I can come up with. If I say I have a new post worth reading I should tell people that it has great content meeting some or all of the above criteria.

"Have I got some content for you".... gimme a break. I am getting tired of having people tell me that they have great content, let me see the information that you are attempting to dispense and I can decide if the information is useful or applicable for me.

Jeff.

Being my own boss.

I know many people would love to be their own boss. Imagine the flexibility of self scheduling, the luxury of setting your own targets, goals and looking after your own paycheque.... here is where you hear the music end as the record scratches to a stop.

Reality.requires context.

There are as many ways to fail at starting and operating your own business as there are people who try it, it's tough. I happen to be lucky in that I did not start the business that I am in, I sort of fell into it as it was an already  established family business. I have done everything there is to do in the business and now I get to be, for the most part, my own boss. I have been here for over 25 years after all. At one point I could say that I installed enough systems that I doubled our client base... not without other help of course.

The trouble is that sometimes, maybe more often than I know, I would love for someone to say "do this to the exclusion of everything else". You see, I am in a very interrupt driven environment. Alarm systems, installation, monitoring and service. The very nature of alarms and the reasons why people need them makes this interrupt driven. I set a target or goal and I know that I can meet them, just not necessarily on any known timeline. While the cause of an interruption takes a certain length of time to address, the interruption lasts for a lot longer as it takes time to get back into the "groove". This is frustrating and is often cause to drop a project or even a time consuming task that needs to get done.

As a result of the environment I tend to not honour my target timelines even without interruptions, almost as if I assume I will have them so why bother.

I need to be a tougher boss for me in order to get to the end of some of the piles of stuff that I need to get through.

Well, that was a rambling bit of writing.

Jeff.

Technology Woes

I am between computers, in a sense. My older laptop has been relegated to my daughter's use so getting it to do anything is a hassle, unplugging, plugging in (battery is only good fro about 5 minutes... I did say it was older). Then there is the main PC, less than a year old. Kate put a split ergonomic keyboard on it, I don't much care for it due to it's very nature. I also still tend to look at the keys sometimes and the letters have started wearing off already. I just don't like using it unless I have to.

So, I have been away from most blogging and what not. I get emails and do some correspondence on my ipod or at work but neither lends itself well to actually blogging anything more than a sentence or two. Well, work is OK but I just don't take the time as I am quite busy any more. It takes me the better part of the day to whack together my thoughts with a minute here and a minute there. Then I have to re-read to see where I was and where I was going.

I am expecting a newer laptop this week. It's a hand-me-down, like most of my computers are except the one home PC, but it is in great shape, the battery is still good for hours and it has the built in WiFi that is so handy at home. It's a wider screen format, I like those better even though the aspect leads to smaller fonts, they just appear cleaner due to the increased resolution.

There was a time when I had the smallest production laptop that still boasted a full size keyboard, less the number pad. Black and white monitor but was it handy at the time.It used a small trackball instead of a touch pad. Now the laptops are getting bigger and notebooks and tablets are taking over the small catagories.

So, hopefully I can catch up on my blogging in the next little while.

Jeff.

First portrait re-visited.

Last month I posted a first attempt portrait from a picture reference. The picture was an image off of the internet and the printed out copy was poor quality and the original was digitally airbrushed pretty heavily... that made it an easy one to work with as some of the details are missing that would make a "realistic" drawing much more complicated.

I am starting a re-do using a different method and graphite instead of charcoal. I look at the original attempt and see all sorts of things that I could do differently to provide a more curved looking surface to better match a true facial profile.

Here is the beginning. This uses a 6H pencil to get the primary details in place, note that this one has two eyes.

Something looks wrong in the apparent angle but I am thinking that it will correct itself as I add layers.

Jeff.

More eyes...

I have been doing some more testing of various pencils to come up with the right combination of technique and material to determine which direction that I want to head in my drawing. I had a desire to stick with charcoal in it's various forms, and my previous eye posting was using mainly compressed charcoal pencils and stubs to blend the charcoal. I tried 2H to 6B compressed charcoal and found it easy enough to work with and I like the blending but, unless the image is large the detail is tough to impart.

I have resisted using straight graphite as it tends to be grey and shiny and the result is typically less contrast. The trade off is that more detail can be incorporated and the application of graphite is easier to control than charcoal without having to blend anything and this works for smaller images. I have a range of 6H down to 8B which gives me a fairly wide range of contrast, I can add some of the charcoal if I want a blacker highlight contrast, pupil of the eye for example.

Here is a graphite eye that I tested with:

I added a darker charcoal blend pencil for the pupil. Now the iris needed a bit more work, actually the whole eye is still incomplete but this was only a play test to see how it would work out. I was concerned about the coal sticking to the graphite but it seems to have adhered decently.

So, I have reworked one picture using charcoal a couple of ways and now I have started one with graphite. It's not as interesting doing the same face multiple times but it gives me a frame of reference for direct comparison as well as a familiarity that allows me to lay the face out quickly for this sort of experimentation.

I'll post my next attempt.

Jeff.

Irish Cream, more cream and less Irish...or Bailey's on a Budget

Two years and change ago I started drinking coffee more regularly than just a weekend cup here and there. It was Christmas and Kate and I were enjoying the Holiday week off and coffees in the morning. I would put a tablespoon of Bailey's in mine or would choose to just not have coffee otherwise.

Well, it stuck and I have had one or two cups a day since.

Now a tablespoon or two of Bailey's a day doesn't sound like much but that stuff is expensive enough to notice when it is used that regularly. So I decided to make my own, partly for some cost savings and partly for adjusting both the flavour and the alcohol content of my morning brew. So online I went to find a recipe... there are quite a few. I settled on one that had the simplest ingredient list and no eggs... I just figured that raw eggs would not last as long as just cream.

My doctored recipe:

500 ml whipping cream (longest due date, highest fat content means less needed to "colour" the coffee)
250 ml Irish Whiskey (this is about half what is called for, in the interest of keeping the alcohol and cost lower)
1 can of sweetened evaporated milk
2 tablespoons chocolate syrup (not milk mixes, real thick dark chocolate syrup)
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Blend really well, but don't whip the cream. I use an immersion blender to keep the air out of the mix

The cream is doubled from other recipes I found and I use whipping cream (35%MF) instead of table cream (18%MF) so this keeps the consistency about the same. Just doubling the table cream would thin out the whole mix... off course half the whiskey also thickens it up a bit more too.

Alcohol content, once in the coffee is 0.1% or so by volume, I would probably get more just using mouthwash so I certainly don't worry about "drinking" in the morning.

Cost:
Bailey's at $15.00 for 375ml
My stuff at $5.35 for 375ml ($15.00 for a 1050ml batch)

So all in all I end up with a less expensive Irish Cream tailored specifically for my coffee consumption.

Jeff.

The Eyes Have It

These are a few of the eyes I have been playing with. For some reason I feel the need to draw eyes, which is counter to what I originally started out with in mind last year when I picked up pencils and paper. I wanted to draw landscapes and still life stuff... but the eyes have it for some reason. Now I am drawing people... mostly so far... as I am drawn to drawing eyes and, well, they go with people.

This was a quick test for sizing of an eye that is not looking straight out. I was getting ready to do another portrait style and wanted to see what size I wanted the eyes to be as they set the stage for the rest of the image. I started the final already based loosely on this test, which I think worked OK.

I did this little ditty to try a colour technique using chalk pastels and damp brush to set the colour to be able to put charcoal over top without picking up the yellow. It worked well but I got carried away with the colour and made it a rounder shape than the eventual eye was to be... that happens when I have no plan or saample but do something from my imagination.

This was the specific eye from my first portrait attempt from last week, I just put it in here as the focus of the portrait was the eye.

What does this have to do with "self" stuff... I think a lot as art is a direct connection to expression of some of what makes us tick. Exactly how I have no idea. Basically I am using this blog as a catch all for all stuff that may or may not be related to Searching for Self. Perhaps I will change the name sometime... perhaps not.

Jeff.