Live from the can -- Beth

If you're one of my FB buddies, you've probably already seen this. If not, here's your chance to, er... not miss it.

On profile pictures.

So I've been sitting here ruminating all philosophical-like on the concept of profile pictures. Bear with me, cuz I don't have any real point to make, other than to say that profile pictures are a strange convention.

I was reading an article on CNN yesterday that described the phenomena of folks creating idealized personas online, and how some people are now paying artists hundreds of dollars to create portraits and avatars. And as disturbing as that is, I completely understand why these pople are going to all the trouble. Cuz I'm right down there with them.

On the internet, you have a lot more control over people's perceptions of you than you do in real life. You can project whatever image you want; you can even pretend the be the person you wish you were. I suppose its a little like dressing up in your Sunday clothes to go to church (or "your Friday clothes to go the bar" might be a better analogy). It's human nature, right? We all want to look our best so that others will approve of us, or at least have a favorable opinion of us when they 'behold our countenance' as they say in the Good Book.

Even so, the concept as a whole suddenly feels repugnant to me. It's all so vapid and pretentious, and I'm suddenly gripped by the urge to find the most unflattering picture of myself and use it for my profile pic on every social network I'm a part of (side note: I'm involved in like six at the moment -- supposedly that's a little on the low side).

So yeah, apparently I'm a lemming. And at the moment, I am in the throes of some kind irrational, philosophical rebellion. Which is weird because I'm not usually so anal.

Anyway, getting back to my nonexistant point -- in all honesty, my profile pic looks nothing me the real Ray of Friday, August 28th, at 9 AM. I wish the real Ray was that ruggedly handsome all the time, but the camera just happened to catch me at the right moment, from the right angle, on a 'good-hair-day'. I've gained fifteen pounds since them (mostly from quitting smoking), I've got a zit on forehead, and my hair is sticking up because I need a shower. Not only that, but my office is dark right now so the whole ghastly image is lit by the sickly blue glow from my computer moniter.

I should really make this my profile picture.

But I won't. Because I'm a lemming.

No Smokey Three Months

Like the title says, today is the three month anniversary of my quitting smoking. Afters years of trying, I finally feel like I might have succeeded. But before you start applauding or anything like that, you should know what I had to go through in order to do it.

I visited this fortune teller at a circus that passed through town. Half joking, I asked the lady when I'd finally be able to quit and how I'd go about doing it. She got scary serious, scary fast. There was this chill gust of wind and all the candles flickered and went out. In a creepy, scratchy voice, the lady told me that if I sacrificed three kittens, she could make a potion from their entrails that would enable me to quit smoking, plus give me the power to reach every part of my body with my tongue. So I tried it and guess what -- it worked great. And now, whenever I feel like I need to smoke, I just lick my salty elbow. Who needs to smoke when you can do that?

So yeah, three months no smokey. I actually just quit without doing anything (except eating) but I couldn't just come out and say that. It wouldn't have been long enough to warrent a blog post.

Whateva six.

Last Whateva Pic, I think. These guys are called, obviously, 'Bishop', 'Rook', and 'Knight'. They're the robots who are gonna live with me in my castle and bring me many Guinness which I'll keep on tap in every room and surely they'll all be pros and pouring Black and Tan's (Bass or Harps will be on tap as well) because, really, pouring a proper Black and Tan is hard to do unless you possess something like precision robotic agility.

Yesterday's post made me kind of miss my future friends. Plus I needed the soothing reminder of my 'Big Dream' -- the transmission just went out in my van.

Whateva five

I was really into robots for a while but didn't end up writing about them. And. . . yeah. That's all I really have to say about that. The pictures I really want you to see today are located sort of off-campus.

So click this link, look around for a quick minute -- I think it'll make you smile. Veenie Baby Fine Arts

Whateva pics 2 - 4

Seriously -- I don't feel like posting these every day, so here's a couple more, and yeah -- I probably won't make it to ten. I'm the worst meme guy ever.

BTW, they're all 'research and inspiration' type pictures from my writing files. Some of them might even seem familiar. For those of you who are writers and didn't plan on participating before, I'm going to amend the tag: post a few of the more unusual pictures from your own writing files. Cuz I know you've got 'em. And even though I haven't tagged you by name, you're still tagged, you're still obligated, and I expect to see some dang pictures.

Ten Pictures O' Whateva

So I've been having a fairly dull summer. I haven't travelled anywhere on either of my vacations, and nothing's happening with my writing, so basically, I've had nothing to blog about. I bring it up because, yeah -- it's my excuse for not updating.

I'm not usually a big meme guy, but I miss the whole blog scene, I'm a little light on content, and cool people like Mercedes and Matt Betts are doing this.

Here goes Whatevapic #1:

Le rules (as posted by Ms. Madison):

1) Post ten of any pictures currently on your hard drive that you think are self-expressive.
2) NO CAPTIONS!!! It must be like we’re speaking with images and we have to interpret your visual language just like we have to interpret your words.
3) They must ALREADY be on your hard drive – no googling or flickr! They have to have been saved to your folders sometime in the past. They must be something you’ve saved there because it resonated with you for some reason.
4) You do NOT have to answer any questions about any of your pictures if you don’t want to. You can make them as mysterious as you like. Or you can explain them away as much as you like. (I'm not gonna be mysterious, and I'm not gonna offer lengthy and boring explanations. I'll just tell you flat out: my pictures come from my writing files. Research and things. Mostly collages.)

BAM! TAGGED! YOU'RE ALL TAGGED!