OK, well, I have a problem.
And it's sad because it's really, really lame.
I can't stop downloading desktop wall paper and free fonts off the internet. *SOB*
I think, "Hey, I don't have a curvy font that looks all like nice handwriting, I should get one!" And then I download 20 different fonts off of free font sites, and then I go to deviant art and download about thirteen different desktop backgrounds and then it's 6am in the morning and I'm wondering what I'm doing with my time.
That's lame.
However, I'm learning how to use Photoshop (And learning that having the pre-packaged software version of Photoshop that came with my WACOM board makes it hard to use because every time I'm looking at tutorials I'm like, "Hey, where's the channels button?" and "Hey, where's my layer mask?" then I look at the glossary and realize these features are available for those wonderful people who have the full version of Photoshop. (ie. Not me.)
I have, however, come to the realization that Photoshop is a lot like an oven. The state of things used to be that artists everywhere had to rely on their skills, wits, and ability to serve tables and be disgruntled to be a good and flourishing artist. It was like cooking meat over the fire. Somedays you got burned, some days you didn't. Some days you couldn't even start the fire. The proof was in your ability to persevere.
With Photoshop, however, you just press the right buttons and magic happens. If you can click a mouse you'll probably be called an 'artist.' It's like baking one of those cakes where you just add eggs and a bit of milk, and even the worst cook couldn't ruin it. (Not that I'm pointing fingers to anyone who has. I've ruined microwave popcorn, so let that assuage your ego.) Photoshop is like a very big, very complicated oven that could probably wash your dishes for you once you're done baking. If you slap a bunch of random things together and put it on a random art website, you're known as a buff web artist. Some people only do digital design now, did you know that? No art medium but digital. How scary. Art is becoming a different medium...it's no longer a physical but digital enterprise.
On top of that, have you noticed how many people are meeting people over the internet and getting married? Like, really, really fast? On top of that, do you realize how many of these people are meeting on virtual games, and having 'in-game' weddings and real weddings? I've seen a distressing number of articles in the last two weeks that highlight this oddity. (Although I'm not saying it's necessarily bad. I haven't seen such relationships in action, so I can't really comment on their quality, but I can on their quanitity.) I'm sure you probably saw MSN did an small bit on it as well a couple of days ago, and Yahoo did as well, I think. Anyways, the gaming companies like Blizzard and whatever other online video game service seem more than happy to officiate these sort of things.
I've read...oh what's his name...Todd....Tad Williams, good grief, had to look that up. Anyways, I've read Tad Williams, and I am somewhat surprised at how similar Tad Williams comes in his science fiction novel views to what's happening now. His books are all about how people live in the virtual world, and they create cities, literally, of virtual worlds where you immerse your whole consciousness in it. Anyways, it's not the way he says how real the virtual world seems, but more how clunky the whole experience of the virtual world seems, and yet people still prefer it to real life. Many of the characters in the books complain about not having advanced enough equipment to really 'feel' what's going on in the virtual world. Then there's the typical up and rising 13 year old hackers who are more knowledgable than people who have made the systems. Yadda yadda.
I think about things that Tad Williams writes about now and then when I hear that people have apparently happy and successful marriages through World of Warcraft, web cameras, and chat rooms. I can understand the idea of virtual forms of communication...but why would you want to be there forever? Since this seems to be a growing trend, I am a little sad. And, perhaps, alarmed. It's a little of both, now that I think of it. After you read 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 I'm not sure you can go back to thinking that personal psychology and technology should ever go together.
Anyways, the whole reason I started this post was because I wanted to share a wallpaper I made. It's nothing good, but it's a start for someone who's using second-class software. (The book I read by Tad Williams is called Otherland if you're interested...be warned, it's a massively long book in a massively long trilogy. The whole trilogy which he lengthened into a quartet so that the last book wasn't twice the length of the rest of the books, which were already a thousand pages or something huge like that. Anyways, they're long. But interesting.)
Alrighty, here's the wallpaper. Click on it and either save target as and then put it as your wallpaper, or you can put it straight on as a background from right-clicking once you enlarge the image. (You know, I'm not sure why I'm telling you this. If you're reading someone's blog, you're probably computer savvy enough to download off the web and change your desktop background. Man, I sound like...well, we all know what I sound like! LOL. Someone grab my cane!)
OK, off to jog!
15 comments:
haha fonts are breannan porn
Ewwww!
"I think about things that Tad Williams writes about now and then when I hear that people have apparently happy and successful marriages through World of Warcraft, web cameras, and chat rooms. I can understand the idea of virtual forms of communication...but why would you want to be there forever?"
Don't worry, sooner or later WOW will go offline for good. That's the thing about turning the web into a new reality: in the web world people find themselves in a place where everyone in the group shares common interests; it's much easier to bond with others. Then sooner or later the reality hits home that all that time spent in their alter ego Orc form is kinda pointless. Either that or the money-minded executives decide to shut down the server because having a Star Wars themed online universe didn't rake in as much cash as expected.
Anyway, meeting people on the internet is like having an imaginary friend and a penpal all rolled into one. In my mind, the parts that make up the internet aren't people: the factors that limit or define people in reality often do not exist on the internet (not only physically, but mentally. Just look at WOW, people who normally do not cheat or steal or swear do so with alarming regularity over the web, for example) so when people make online friends it's really much the same as having an imaginary friend except that we can reassure ourselves that they actually exist, even though they really don't. I figure that's why people are generally vaguely uncomfortable about webheads, but society somehow places them one notch above insanity.
As for the issue of online marriages, just look at cultures with arranged marriages. North Americans have this strange ideal in their heads about marriage being a perfect union between two compatible people. So we work towards that ideal and achieve higher divorce rates than cultures where marriages are prearranged. I figure randomly slapping people together is a better way to go about it; it's not as if people actually know what they want or need anyway. So two people marrying online because they share a love for Warcraft is not necessarily a bad thing.
Travis,
While I do agree with you that WOW will eventually plummet into despair (or one can only hope) my biggest beef is that people want their imaginary friends more than they want their real friends...which says something about their personality, and how they don't feel comfortable really expressing themselves. While some people say it's just a game, I think that in-game behaviour says a lot about a person. (One only needs to play cards with the right people to realize this. Not pointing fingers.)
While I certainly don't have a problem with the idea of arranged or internet marriages, I'm not sure I agree with the tactics of 'yeah, oh baby, that lvl 7 spell you cast just really turned me on.' I would if this were a reality thing, but it's not. Instead, people think that they want something real, when what people really want is something imaginary but can't admit it to themselves.
I also agree that the concept of North American marriage is certainly not very...well..acceptable or anything (Its highly idealized nature comes with a lack of seeing the need to be committed and actually seeing the other person as a person and not an ideal.) and arranged marriages do seem to work out generally speaking (mainly because it's a practical situation that is out of your hands.) but meeting through a common interest of imaginative role-playing that physically and mentally seperates you from the other person, I would say, is probably a bad way of meeting people.
So, I agree with everything you said, to at least some extent, minus the last statement you made of 'two people marrying online because they share a love for Warcraft is not necessarily a bad thing,' since it may or may not be contradictory to your previous argument. =)
However, I appreciate the thoughtfulness.
And, I don't appreciate the smarminess, and whoever the 'Breannan' person is, he better get over his fonts-as-porn addiction, but I'm thankful that person isn't me, Brennan.
Hallo! Figured it was time I stopped lurking and started posting on your blog....
I'm currently working my way through the Otherland series (only 1 1/2 books left! Whoo!) and I can understand your feelings of deja vu when looking at virtual worlds like WOW.
However, I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with you and Travis on the evils of online marriage (I know, you didn't say, or even imply evil, but darn it, if I can't grossly mis-interpret other people's arguements, what can I do?). Most people I know who play WOW a great deal do it more for a chance to expand their social circle. It's not simply a chance to play an orc. Hell, I avoided playing it just because of my utter loathing for interacting with people (ah, misanthropy; There is no greater joy). This is even more visible in cases like Second Life (secondlife.com) where there isn't any combat, spell casting, or game play. Just people interacting in a virtual world.
Wow, this post is going longer than I thought it would.
Also: if there is anything I've learned from the anthropology I've taken, it's that humans will invent new marriage forms at the drop of a hat. Web marriages don't even rank in the top 10 weirdest marriage types I've heard of.
(PS: don't count on WOW dieing out any time soon... Few companies abandon a game that yields something around 4 million dollars a month profit....)
Coming here is like going to the circus. Except there's no elephants. You need some elephants. Or some refreshments. Something. Oh, wait I can have a bite of that salmon salad. It's so easy when you're an imaginary internet penpal.
Oh wow, people are actually saying stuff.
Well, ok, here it goes.
Eric: Thank you for leaving some comments, even if it was only to point out your own misanthorpic ways. I had wondered what had happened to said misanthropy and why I hadn't heard from said misanthropic person in such a long time.
In response to what you said, I would first say that it's a BAD step to move in the direction of 'online' equalling 'social circle.' I think Travis is right, I think you make it up in a lot of cases who that person is. (Re: The unaccounted for number of guys who seem to like playing girl characters on online games. I don't personally know what's up with that, I guess you would have to ask someone who does, I just remember seeing a statistic somewhere.) Also, I know WOW isn't going to die out any time soon, I'm only hoping...so that people will get back to living in RL, or 'real life' as we like to call it. The amount of people who I know who have been consumed by online Games is just too many. Games become addiction at some point, and not just something to do because it's fun.
Also, I don't have a problem with marriages that use the internet for a way to meet, but like, I said, forever? I'm not sure that's cool, since the more virtual, the less actual, and I am and always will be a bigger fan of the actual than I ever will be of the fictional. (Although you better believe my love for the fictional is quite huge, my friend. Uh, I'm sure you blog makes that quite obvious.)
However, limits are required. Like St. Augustine says, 'Disciplina.' (I just like saying that. It sounds so naughty.)
I agree with you that humans reinvent the concept of marriage in a lot of ways. I would like to see the top ten list.
Kaedra: Yes. Exactly. As per usual, I'm mind melding with you. It's totally that way. And it's unfortunate that most people don't see that they're missing the point of life...namely other people and not just objects.
Mrs. L: I'm glad you liked my recipe! Or at least enough to make a joke about it! Yay! As per usual, you're awesome and to the point. I agree, it's a lot like a circus on my blog. Of course, I'm king bannana around here, so don't get any funny ideas. ;)
"Instead, people think that they want something real, when what people really want is something imaginary but can't admit it to themselves."
I just mean that marrying someone from the internet is a lot like prearranged marriage in that two random people are getting married. It's almost random anyway, I don't know how well two people can get to know one-another online. I'm assuming that someone messed up enough to want to marry online is too messed up to make a decent decision in reality, so a random outcome would have better chance of success. I admit this is an invalid assumption, but I can't wrap my head around a perfectly intelligent, good-looking, and social human being choosing the internet over reality for such a serious commitment.
I agree with you on this point, I assumed people would go into it thinking "I'm marrying over the internet, I must keep my hopes and standards low." But marrying their online-friend might actually raise their expectations, especially bad when their online friend doesn't really turn out to be all they had fantasized.
"Most people I know who play WOW a great deal do it more for a chance to expand their social circle. It's not simply a chance to play an orc."
Yeah, but I figure it usually starts up with leveling up and accumulating weapons and such, and there is a phase when people start gathering friends (or clanmembers) then suddenly they realize that they only go on WOW for the social reasons and they're not storming dungeons as much as they did when they started. Like Brennan said, eventually they stop going on because it's merely a fun game.
"Hell, I avoided playing it just because of my utter loathing for interacting with people (ah, misanthropy; There is no greater joy)."
Yeah, I stopped using X-Box live for similar reasons. Penny Arcade published my reasons in a neat little formula:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19
It's not like everyone on Live is evil, but why waste time finding the few decent people on Live when I already have friends. People on Live, even the friendly ones, are all inherently spooky.
"This is even more visible in cases like Second Life (secondlife.com) where there isn't any combat, spell casting, or game play. Just people interacting in a virtual world."
It happens on forums too, where people end up making most of their posts in the sections that don't deal with what the forum is supposed to be about.
I know, WOW makes record-breaking profits, but eventually people will grow up and move on (or become complete addicts.) Even if they can keep replacing the people that get sick of it with new recruits, eventually people will move on to newer, better online RPGs. Patches can only keep it fresh for so long. Of course, what they move on to might be WOW II or World of Starcraft...
If you want the functionality of Photoshop without all (or any) of the cost, Brennan, you might consider GIMP (the GNU Impage Manipulation Program). It's just as powerful as Photoshop and just as well-documented, with many tutorials and that on the net. And since it's open-source software, it's absolutely free. I've had it for a while now (got it for a Notpron riddle), and use it as my image authoring program now.
Willem
Brennan, I'm too lazy/ going insane with home work to read all comments all I have to say is I like your wall paper
I have a comment that has nothing to do with WOW (except why, Kaedra, do people keep typing it at you? How does it come up that often). Rather, on to photoshop: it doesn't make everyone an artist. It makes digital art fairly easy, but if you don't have the eye for it, it still looks shitty.
Willem: Thanks for the info. I will certainly look into it! =D
Travis: Good points, in a lot of places, I think. I think you summed it up well enough not for me to have to reply. =)
Russ: Thank you! And, yes, there are a lot of comments here. I'm surprised, really.
Caitlin: Does this mean you don't like my wall paper? Did you just call my wall paper a bad name? =(
=( =(
isn't it logically unsound to assume that I'm talking about you? Or are you a solopsist?
Hey, blogs are naturally solipsistic. They are their own world, when you think about it.
And if nothing else, they're rather egotistical.
Especially when someone is just trying to get your goat.
;)
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