I found new interesting trees!

It been a while but I found a few new interesting trees!  First one have amazing flowers:

The second one seem to have a nose on it's trunk (it could be something else if you are PG18):

There is a hole in a tree, with interesting offshot:

I think that I will have to find a way to better photograph this tree, it is too far off:

New try with Square

I got some inspiration and tried new drawing with graph paper.  It is a little bit better.  Not a big improvement but it is slighting encouraging:

I think that the second one, with the insects and my attempt to do butterflies, are the most promissing.  Well, I am happy to got those ideas anyway.  I think I am heading in the right way.

Got what I want first shot, success!

With this photo, I wanted to show how the foliage of the tree was beautiful under the night light.  Well, I find it look good except for the street.  I think the next step would be to crop a photo and photoshop it.    I don't have much patience in working on a photo.  Croping that photo to focus on the tree would be the most I could do.  I think it would also be time to invest in a lens that could focus on the subject that I want to take.    I would had taken this photo focusing and zooming solely on the three.  Maybe it would be the next step I should try next before focusing on photoshoping photos.

My biggest latch hook project yet

It took me 2 weeks to do this, in latch hook:

I show the front and the back of my big project.  It is not showing how large it is.  There is some satisfaction to have done this latch hook.  I felt challenged.  It was right up to my level and I didn't mix up the colours.  I loved doing this one, despite being that large.

I wonder if I will byu another kit.  This one was the epitome of all the others, for me.  I would be ready to go to the next level, if I found an interesting design.  I feel a bit empty now.  This project was absorbing.  I was totally immersed in it.  I had much fun and enjoy doing this project.  That kind of project will stay with me for a whle and it may take some time to find an project where I get as involved as this one.

Genealogy and personal history

I was curious to learn a bit more about Prussia.  I haven't seen anything about it in the history classes I took.  I looked at this video on the leader of Prussia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqIUzy4RvN8.  It was a bit enlightening.  It wasn't answering all my questions but I was set into another line of thought.  Genealogy is a kind of personal history that explore a person past and predecessors.  It may or may not lead into repeating the same errors.

What I find interesting is the stories that can be transmitted from one person to another.  I have a few of those tibits of familial lore.  I am tempted to use that for creative purpose.  There is nothing salacious into those low ranking lore.  It highlight more some aptitide in some people, strange facts and weirdness.  All to makes a good fictional story more spicy.

I find it great how each family is unique in it's own way.  They have specific that may not be reproduced in other families.  I am a big fan of oddity and getting on being on a particuliar path.  It should be transmitted and it is part of who we are.

Vampira

I bought a book on Vampira (https://www.amazon.com/Vampira-Goddess-W-Scott-Poole/dp/1593765436/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1OGT9IZTUFSB1&keywords=vampira+dark+goddess+of+horror&qid=1558222876&s=gateway&sprefix=vampira+dark+g%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C171&sr=8-1-spell).  I bought that book out of curiosity.  I know little on Vampira.  I know she is the precursor of Elvira; Vampira had a legal battle against Elvira and that Vampira had an alledged relationship with James Dean.  So, she was a femme fatale.  I don't know if she was the first but she wasn't definitively the last.  I just hope to learn more about that character and her time.

I like to go to the source of things.  In that dark femme fatale thread, I don't know if Vampira is among the first ones.  I am willing to expand my knowledge and see where it will lead.  I am doing this out of curiosity.  Maybe I will find a practical side to this, an inspiration.  I am more interested to put my twist into characters and events but not spot on copy.  I may makes an reference to someone or a place but it is a tiny part of what I am writing.

I don't know if it was syncronicity for me and that book to stumble on each other path.  It is sometime strange how stumbling into something new set something else into motion.

She sell seashell by the seashore

I recently learned about Mary Anning (1799-1847).  She discovered a passion in fossil hunting and selling them.  She discovered many new species of dinosaurs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning).  She was a big influence in science term.  She was on the field finding fossils.  Of course, at the time, she was not able to get rich with her job.  She would had deserved to become a scientist by her contribution to science.

How many people are under the radar in the scientific field?  Her contribution was mainly known in the paleontology field, even if she was not a scientific herself.   Beside that, no one put her in history classes.  I am sure that even today, there are people who don't know about her.  Well, I was part of that group until recently.  This is this kind of tidbit of history that get people interested into history.  It is relatable, it is a rag to influence story.  I guess she must had influence.  She could select fossils that she find to the right buyer.  I am sure she was not stupid, especially with time.  As she was searching for fossil, she could see what is common and what was not that common.  She was the one getting her hand dirty, after all.  She was seeing all the fossils on the ground.

It is the kind of discovery that I like to make.  It gives more life into history.  I don't know much about history of science but this one was giving an extra credit on her.  I start to believe that it's not all great discovery that was made without influence.  It only need a little spark, be it a person or an object brought by a person.

Doodling with square

It may be awful but it is a first try:

It is a first try, just wasn't thinking much.  I could say I channeled my inner creative flow.  I would be lying if I say it.  I just did it without thinking but wanting to do better than that.  Next step: do better and put some colours!  I know have an excuse to use my crayons.

Less known people that deserve to be known

I found an interesting video on youtube.  It is on 10 historical figures we've pretty much forgotten: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkceV5zAKds
I already knew about Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley but I was fascinated by Elijah McCoy.  I wish they talk a bit more about his inventions related to train.  Would be fun to see him covered on the Biographics channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClnDI2sdehVm1zm_LmUHsjQ)  He would deserve it.

History is such a big topic, there is much that could be covered.  Well known peoples seems to be a version of photogenic but for history.  I wonder who choose to pick famous historic peoples.  Napoleon Bonaparte is sure a big guy in history but he is not the only one.  Napoleonic complex is part of his character but it doesn't explain all his coverage in history.  There were other persons of interest in the time of Napoleon: people like Czar Alexander, Talleyrand (French politician and a diplomat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Maurice_de_Talleyrand-P%C3%A9rigord)),  Duke of Wellington and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (the latter two of the Battle of Waterloo fame).

People are not well versed in history and I think that we would all benefit from interesting history classes.  History is crammed with important dates and big names in history.  Classes should also present other history facts that are important too.  It is not just Oppenheimer who developped the atomic bomb.  There was other people with him.  There is another of his colleage mentioned in the video mentionnned above.  It was a team effort and every participant should have the credit into this research.  It is not the most glamorous of our discovery but it was truly a team working together toward a goal.  The goal is really a wartime effort.  Now, with all the events related to the atomic bomb, we are supposed to be wiser and with more knowledge.  It took two dropped bomb to gain all this knowledge and this is why history is important.  Without knowledge in history, we stumble into the same thought patterns and we repeat the error.  History is not just learning some dates.  History is about the various process that connects various dates together.

Some songs would be improved by an redo

There are some songs that show their era or their ages.  Could also be applied to some music videos too.  There are songs that I wouldn't change nothing, like the song by the Twisted Sister and their song We're Not Gonna Take It  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9AbeALNVkk.   The looks may seems to be outdated but the humourous style of the video still hold on pretty well.

There are songs that show the era they were made.  Many songs by Laurence Gowan (http://www.gowan.org/) fall in this category.  They are good in their own right, in their original version.  We just can feel the 80'ties touch in many of his success (I think of Criminal Mind, Moonlight Desire and You're a Strange Animal).  I am sure that with some light tweaking, it could become a little more timeless.  Well, I wonder if it would be done.  I am not an musician, so, I couldn't experiment it myself, so I am not sure it it would be a full proofed good idea.  I know I would keep the melody but I would put more real instruments, not ones that seems computer generated.

Redoing songs can go both way.  It can be good or it could be bad.  Thinking about it, it may be good or bad, depending on our taste in music.  On the other hand, there are songs that I would not touch like all the songs by the Eurythmics (https://www.eurythmics.com/)

Fame is not forever -- Forgotten Movie Stars

Recently, I have heard of Vilma Banky (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0126566/ and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilma_B%C3%A1nky) and Ronald Coleman (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0172903/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Colman).  They both work separately and together in movies.  I also learned that not early films from the early filmy industry survived to now.  It is a shame because I am curious about the early time of movies.  Silent and black and white movies show how entertainment industry evolved throught time.  It makes me appreciate the movie effects we have now.

It also show who fame is not for ever.  Movie stars rise, have their heights and then, fall into obscurity.  Maybe I have a curiosity about those forgotten movies stars.  Maybe it's because they are now in darkness and are forgotten.  I wonder if they where good actors.  I saw that Ronald Coleman had a good voice.

There is also the old movies posters that interest me.  They have a aura of attraction that I don't always find in more modern one.  I would be interest to see how old movies posters were made at the time.  The choice of colours of those old posters are also something that interest me.  Ancient movie posters have colours that we don't really see now.  The combination of colours are also more dramatic then.  Now, I found recent movie posters more on the side of watercolours or computer generated, very generic. 

I like to learn about new facts, not always useful.  I have gained more insight into culture.  A new alleyway to explore.  I may look up for the movies I saw listed under Vilma Banky and Ronald Coleman.  It may be leading to new discovery.

Experimenting with wooden steps

I purchased two wooden steps that look like this:

With one, I had fun with paints.  The top of the wooden step is interesting but it is less succesful on the side:

I can't go against gravity, this is why the paint had dripped on the side.
For the second wooden step, I used a Varathane in a tube, it seems to be a recent product, well, for quick project, it is great:

It look good.  I don't consider this one to be a failure.  I go more for a success.  It is a little bit messy but I love the look!  It is only with one coat of wood stain.  I would be interested to test and experiment on the other wood stains.

Thumb down, thumb up and the unexpected

I have a thumb down when it come to beads.  This one thumb down is a wired up bead.  I can see that the wire is not a perfect match for the beads.  This is probably why it doesn't work that well.  The wire is too thin for the bead.  I agree that the shape of the bead is not easy to fit with a wire:

i won't buy those bead again.  At least, as long as they stay like that.  Or I make a sphere with thicker wiring and get the beads into it.

My thumb up is a more round bead that have the proper wire:

those are a real success with me.  The wire is thick enough to wrap well the beads.  It is a breaze to work with those beads.  No problem, no beads getting out of the wire wrapping.  Well, it would be hard because on how it is wrapped.

I got a nice surprised with the last components:

They are not that big but I like the idea behind them.  I did it simple with earring but I am sure could do more with them.