Blue Collar Muppets

One of the things that I like to do before commencing a new drawing is to seek inspiration from images, with much help from the google image search feature. As you may be aware, I am beginning my next composition, which will be the cookie monster and a garbage truck. I came across this web page during my research period, called: Iowa Accident Investigation Report Roster. I guess I'd like you to consider that I am not mocking the working trades, but trying to honor them, but in my way.

One of the reasons that I wanted to draw an image in the refuse industry is because I spent 5 months of my life hugging the back of a garbage truck. My first driver was a huge guy named Elwood, who was injured in my third week. I went to work with Jim Moodey after that, and learned that the job could be enjoyable. But Cookie Monster fits Elwood's physical characteristics best. (I want to point out that I am not going the obvious with Oscar the Grouch in this industry. I haven't picked out his job yet, but I wanted to avoid the cliché.)



Before I took this job, I held over twenty others. All but a handful were based in work that would be designated blue collar (plumbing, insulation, carpentry, drywall, roofing, concrete -- everything in construction but electrical, actually). However, I knew better than to ever try to align my situation with that of the hard-working American. I was always college-bound, and knew that I would never have to work a trade to bring in my income. So, I am fairly handy around the house (but am horrible with electronic appliances, or engines).

Last summer, I wrote about my high school experiences, complete with my transcript. (Hint: I sucked!) I compiled a list of my employment history once, and plan on using that for blogging fodder sometime this year. I had a job for only one day once, but it is amazing that I could write paragraphs about what I did that day!

--gh

Busy on some other stuff, so...

Try to play HIGH WHEELS only once! (Yeah, the game play and the music is addictive.)

--gh

Monetary Policy, G-Had style!

I watch news regularly enough, especially financial news. The issue of the falling U.S. dollar hasn't really been on the radar of most Americans, in my opinion. In fact, clever economists like to brag about how a falling dollar is advantageous in the short run, because it erodes our foreign debt. How clever, yet China has already hinted that they weren't going to buy as many dollars as anticipated. Indonesia and Russia have already turned bearish on the dollar. (Would you keep buying something that gets cheaper each month?) In fact, many countries may refrain from pegging their currency to the greenback in the next few years.

What should we do? First, listen to Alan Greenspan (diminish the deficit), reform our currency-reserve, and make it attractive for more countries to buy Treasury bonds. (Thanks, Japan, you rule!)

Earlier this month I read in The Economist about using Frequent-Flyer miles as the new international standard. Apparently, there are $14 trillion of these "miles" out there:

"It has been superseded not by the euro, nor 

by the yen or yuan, but by another increasingly 

popular global currency: frequent-flyer miles. 

Calculations by The Economist suggest that 

the total stock of unredeemed frequent-flyer miles 

is now worth more than all the dollar bills in 

circulation around the globe."

(In terminal decline?, Jan 6th 2005, From: The Economist, print edition)

This is not the first time that The Economist has brought up the use of these miles. In fact, the point is raised about every six months or so! Part of me thinks they are just joking (those cheeky brits!) but maybe there is a point to this notion...

In fact, I even have a better proposal: I think we should peg the rate of our own currency to the amount of unspent coins in our own circulation. First, we have all of those funny quarters (Indiana's is the best!) and now we have a goofy nickel. This inspires weird people to "collect" them, and not spend them. However, there is another part of our economy that we should buy more shares of: those "Give a Penny, Take a Penny" jars in convenience stores! By my own calculations, there are at least $16 trillion of these pennies out there, and no one ever uses them. (Do they? I don't.) I think I will write to Mr. Greenspan about my monetary plan.

--gh

Kidz Bop, ...as addictive as heroin!

I would be pleased if you would visit my Amazon.com Reviews and give a positive rating to my Kidz Bop review of the sixth album. Basically, I am keeping it real by reviewing not the latest CD, but one of their earlier, less derivative works.

You don't know how lucky you are, because I have the following EMBED's autostart set to "false." So, if you dare, press the play button below.


Okay, if that is not your cup of tea, (or even your cup of urine), play this song to complete remove the mental image those kids' voices put into your head:
It will work, I promise.

--gh

"I have things to say in Persian"

Okay, it is extremely safe to assume that *I* will never be writing these words on this blog:

"There really isn't much of a reason for me 

to blog in English any more. But on the 

other hand, I've become much more active 

on my Persian-language blog. I have things 

to say in Persian, and I have people I like 

saying them to."

Er, brought to you courtesy of the English version of the Persian Blogger Chronicles.

I would love to blog in Spanish, but it would be all rajado and stuff.
--gh

New Year's Resolution

Blogs around this time of year focus on two things. The first is the posting of the author's new year's resolutions. And the other is predictions for this year. (None of last year's predictions came true, but I will try again soon.

But for now, I will post my resolutions:

1. I resolve to not be so literal. One of my friends has charged me with this crime, and I will try to work on being more more figurative, inspired, unrelated, metaphorical, and all that other crap. (language) You will note that my previous post featured a muppet smoking a camel with camels in the background and oil fields smoking. But I cannot attach a more significant meaning to this. By the end of the year, I should be able to understand this painting I did...


2. I resolve to use only one space between sentences. I am the victim of the old-school typewriter instruction that mandated two spaces. My right thumb immediately hits two spaces, rather than one, wasting effort, time, and wearing out my keyboard's space key. At the end of the year, if I keep this resolution, I will gain a minute or two. (However, my own self-editing has already wasted more than a minute, and it is only day five!) If you disagree, try to find two spaces outside of a PRE-tagged format, netscape, firefox, and MSIE turn two-into-one automatically...


3. I resolve to do stuff and things.


4. I resolve to make more art like this:

...and by stuff and things, I mean lose weight, be nicer, stop biting other people's nails, you know: the usual.

Stay tuned for this year's predictions!

--gh

Rumaylah Elmo

This is my latest work, and is really the first of 2005. In terms of digital art, I now consider this my magnum opus...


It took about 50-60 hours to make, luckily the weather turned nasty and I was able to finish it before classes started again. Even the enlarged image is 1/4 the real size. (Email me if you want the 3000x2000 pixel version, it is almost 800kb.) I am thinking of printing this out on the large scale printer. That will be about $6! ($1 per sq. ft.)

I took the spelling of "Rumaylah" from National Geographic. I have a few working copies on my hard-drive that have titles like "Ramalah", "Ramayla", "Ramaylah" etc. If you try to search on the web, you will get twice that number of variations.

Amy inspired me to work on a related work, but I will have to put some thought into it. By the way, when I say related, I mean Sesame Street, or at least childhood icons, and not war... If it materializes, the series will be called "Blue Collar Muppets" or something. For the next work, I am thinking of Grover working as a shade-tree mechanic or something. It will take me a week or so to compose the piece in my mind, and then search for suitable inspiration images to work from.

--gh

A new blog is born...

One of my advisees has been activated in the United States Marine Forces Reserve. He is using a blog to keep us up to date with what the gearing up process is like, and eventually how Iraq is. You can view Sgt. Young's blog here. I also placed a link to his blog in my side bar.

Steph is also blogging now. At least I think this is the right Steph. Technically, I served as her advisor since her real advisor was exhiled to Iraq.

On an unrelated note, it appears that Tyler is blogging again. For some reason, my joke-image about jiggling the toilet seat from the Show-Me Inn sign inspired him:


Well, I have two days of meetings starting tomorrow, and a full week of classes next week. I am so excited to get back to work.

--gh