http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:TigerNinja&section=today deviantART RSS for by:TigerNinja en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:05:35 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/21796186/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/21796186/ Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:36:36 PST
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Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/21790542/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/21790542/ Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:07:09 PST

I love hanging out with my friends.

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Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/21695129/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/21695129/ Thu, 27 Nov 2008 08:55:58 PST [link]

I love the juxtaposition of an iconographic children's toy with one of the true horrors of modern history. This is what good Pop Art is really about. Fucking brilliant.

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Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/21417879/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/21417879/ Sat, 15 Nov 2008 12:45:55 PST
From

From

From

From

From

From

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Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/21356857/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/21356857/ Thu, 06 Nov 2008 12:42:06 PST
Many people are satisfied with(or at least pragmatic enough to realize) that in the day and age we live in, expertise pays. We want people to have the right degree for the right job, with the right certifcations, which they will then do for the next however many years. An example of this is my little brother who has always had a more pragmatic outlook on life than I have. He went to school and did well. He went to law school and got his grades that were good enough to pass without busting his ass to be in the top ranking. And then he settled in comfortably to a well-paying government job that he likes well enough.

Other examples abound here on DA of people who pick a medium or a subject and just stick with it until they become amazing for it. Whether it's just graphite portraits, or just paintings and drawings of dogs, these people dedicate themselves to whichever idea it is and just plug away at it until their work is consistent (and consistently blows you away).

So whether it be for greatness (like the DA example) or for a settled mediocrity (like my brother) expertise and dedication to one thing just pays off in our society.

But I've never been able to cultivate this kind of single-mindedness. I've always preferred being good at several things, but have never found a successful way to market that to an employer or to turn it into a career. On the one hand, the dilettante perspective allows me a creativity and an opportunity to do all kinds of exciting things. Overall, I enjoy my lack of expertise except for the guilt I feel at not being a real participating adult in this society -- the kind with a real job, with real retirement saved up, and who isn't living with her mom at 30 years old flitting from one idea to the next.

I've started a poll, because I'm interested to see what everyone thinks. Is it better to be an expert, to be great at one thing and to reap the rewards from that. Or is it better to forgo the tunnel vision in favor of a more creative (but not compensated) lifestyle?

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Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/21337066/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/21337066/ Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:45:17 PST
This is a historical election. There will be a black First Family living in the White House. And this is first time a Gen-X'er has been elected -- a symbol for those of us in that generation that it is no longer our parents and grandparents ruling this country, but that it's now our turn.

Yes, we can!

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Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/20665687/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/20665687/ Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:43:41 PDT
-- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

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Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/20533929/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/20533929/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:27:07 PDT
So that's where it stands. It's not a final sale, but it's a good prospect. And it's both exciting and sad (part of me doesn't want to let her go!)

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Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/20522901/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/20522901/ Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:31:14 PDT
How the fuck do I price it?

I have no comparable pieces right now, I'm obviously not exactly an established artist, but at the same time it took me 4 months and some pretty expensive materials to make it.

Any advice on how to price? Also, I'd really appreciate it if anyone was willing to pop over and take a look at the piece and let me know what they think would be a reasonable price for it (you know like if you had money and were on the market to purchase art).

Thanks guys!!

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Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/20355738/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/20355738/ Sat, 06 Sep 2008 10:45:18 PDT
A thanks to all for their good wishes and humor on the last entry. Things are going much better now as I'm all settled in at my mom's place and have found a nice little job that allows me to telecommute from home (aka: my favorite place to be).

I haven't been feeling like doing the mosaics still. I don't know what my hang-up is on that. It's like I feel like I should do it, which makes me not want to do it. Or something equally juvenile and convoluted like that.

However, I'm looking into doing a show of my animal drawings at the local Starbucks. Which I will put on my resume as something snazzy like: "Exhibition at the Barnes and Noble Gallery" because we all know it's not what you do but how you spin it.

In the meantime, I'm donating a piece to a local charity auction to get publicity. I haven't decided whether to donate the giraffe, or the new one I'm working on. If you have any thoughts, let me know!

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Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/19307192/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/19307192/ Thu, 10 Jul 2008 09:19:04 PDT
It's amazing how one little conversation can completely change the world as we know it...

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Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/19131602/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/19131602/ Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:33:51 PDT

Proving once again, that people have nothing better to do with their time than look at crappy art...

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Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18932938/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18932938/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:24:30 PDT
Itching!

In the meantime, I'm contenting myself with just doing drawings for my next mosaic series "Saucy Duckfeather and the Old Man Coyote." Dirty old man Coyote is more like it. What with having sex with trees, and unsuspecting daughters of chiefs while they bathe in the lake. There's just nothing like a good trickster tale...

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Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18687737/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18687737/ Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:12:13 PDT
So I picked up a 36 pack of crayola colored pencils and a drawing pad to fool around with in the evenings. May or may not end up with anything worth showing anyone, but at least a scrap or two may make it up. Until then, let me post today's stupid student trix: Lines from essays responding to the question about the "New South" created post-civil war.

*Edit* had to remove these becuase this is a public blog and apparently the AP owns the rights to any stupid student quotes -- who knew?! So since I don't want to lose my job...well, either you already saw it or you didn't.

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18637114/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18637114/ Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:40:31 PDT and so how can I refuse?! Although I wonder do I even know 8 people to tag?! Well, I'll see who I can rustle up...

The rules are:
1. Post these rules.
2. Each person tagged must post 8 random facts about themselves
3. Tags should write a journal/ blog of these facts
4. At the end of the post 8 more persons are tagged and named
5. Go to their page and leave a comment telling them they're tagged

I. Because my middle name is "Pompea" as a kid I thought I owned Pompeii.
II. I still kind of believe that stuffed animals are alive when no one is around.
III. When I was very little, my brother and I got caught with our pants around out ankles in the backyard -- we were trying to see if our butts would light up like fireflies!
IV. I married and divorced an Italian soccer player
V. I grew up on an apple farm.
VI. I graduated from college at 19.
VII. I once blew my entire bank account going to France for the weekend.
VIII. I used to be an opera singer.

I'm tagging

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18568050/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18568050/ Thu, 29 May 2008 21:29:20 PDT
First billing has to go to my best friend, who is never on here anymore, but her work is still amazing and I just love her




Next is an amazing graphite artist, and soon to be great painter -- a double threat!:



Next up is the super talented artist who just keeps amazing and is threatening to take more classes and become the next Van Gogh (except with ears):



And finally, there's , a surrealist whose work makes me want to get stoned and contemplate life because it blows my mind:



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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18525464/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18525464/ Tue, 27 May 2008 11:00:16 PDT
The population of Mexico is about 10% of European descent, 12% of pure Indian descent (although it's been reported as high as 30%), and 78% mestizo (mix of the two).

By American standards, the majority of the population of Mexico is Native American. Some of these people have claims to U.S. territory (such as members of the Tohono O'odham tribe who have always traditionally migrated between Arizona and Mexico, but are now being denied citizenship and access to this side of the border) many are from tribes further south that have no specific land or territory claims here. But almost all of them are descendants of people who have been on this continent far longer than any Euro-Americans.

Yet here we are, trying to build a wall, close down the border, and stop "illegal" immigration. What is "illegal" immigration? Most of us are the descendants of "illegal" immigrants. None of us asked the Indian population if we could be here, none of us tried to assimilate into the existing population. Instead we try to enact "English only" laws once again ignoring that there are plenty of people who have a right to be here who speak Navajo, Cherokee, Winnebago or another primary language. We showed up, committed genocide, and tried to force the existing population to assimilate to our culture rather than the other way around.

So when we turn around and tell a population of Native people that we're the "natives" here, what does that mean? Is so-called "illegal" immigration a means by which the Indigenous population is taking the continent back? and do we have the right to stop that?

More importantly: does it change the picture when we think about it this way? I've noticed that no one is talking about immigration as a "Native American Issue." By only referring to people as "Mexican" or "legal/ illegal immigrants" we're trying to put the situation on par with the immigration of the late 19th century. I hear a lot of people saying: "Well, when my family came over, they learned to speak English, and they assimilated, and they came over legally." Because by using these terms, we're tyring to make the two things the same -- a person from another country coming to America on our terms and conditions. But the question remains: Did your family come over legally based on whose perspective? Did they assimilate based on whose perspective? From some perspectives aren't we still the unassimilated illegal immigrants while the Mexican mestizos are just crossing a border we never really had the legitimacy to put up?

Is it that we're not talking about it as a Native American issue because that would tug too much on "white guilt"? Of course, "white guilt" doesn't seem to play out when there's a fight over say, watering golf courses vs. allowing a tribe to have water to grow fresh vegetables. But on a less local level, would thinking about immigration as an Indian issue make it harder to support building a wall?

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18447469/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18447469/ Thu, 22 May 2008 13:12:21 PDT [link]

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18437817/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18437817/ Wed, 21 May 2008 20:00:05 PDT
So while gearing up to teach summer session, I've been distracting myself with another teaching expedition: creating a book of Daoist parables for children. Of course, while writing the stories, I'm realizing how as much of a Daoist I want to be (I've been, in my own mind, practicing this philosophy since my early teens when I first "discovered" it) how little I really act like a Daoist in my own life. I get wrapped up in petty shit far too often, think too much of glory sometimes and not enough of quiet and life under the radar, and spend a lot of time acting like a chatty asshole. Yet here I am, writing stories to tell kids how to be, well, nothing at all like me, basically. Making my life more like a cautionary tale than anything to be remotely emulated.

Does that make me a hypocrite? Maybe it does. I keep hearing the old adage in my head: "Those who can't do, teach." How does one try harder to be effortless?

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18296420/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18296420/ Mon, 12 May 2008 20:16:43 PDT
[link]

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18079362/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18079362/ Mon, 28 Apr 2008 23:00:42 PDT
- Zhuangzhou


No real reason to post this, except to clear out the negativity!

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18067480/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/18067480/ Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:35:46 PDT
Not even when I call the cops (as I have done over 40 times in the last few months) does it register. Now I'm not the type to be so passive-aggressive as to call the cops. But after five long years of asking, begging, and reasoning, I've reached that saturation point where I know if I go up there ONE MORE TIME, I will start screaming. And possibly escalating to throwing a punch or two. So I call the cops now, more to prevent my own arrest than anything else.

But the Bronx is a place where people just don't give a shit. In certain ways, I've had my own humanity slip away as I've learned to claw my way onto buses, not get up for old ladies, and ignore panhandlers. Where I come from, these are mortal sins. I come from a rural place where community means something -- where God forbid if the cops show up once, you're so ashamed you never do it again.

My brother's girlfriend is a nurse. She works in a rehab place for the elderly, many of whom have diabetes. One old lady -- diabetic and mentally retarded, is allowed to have tea and a biscuit when she wakes up at 4:30 am because otherwise her blood sugar crashes.

As V. tells it: one night, the old lady rang the buzzer and asked for her tea. V. asked the aide what the old lady wanted and the aide replied smugly: "She asked for some tea, but I told her the kitchen was closed." So V. explained to the aide that the old lady was to have her tea for a variety of medical reasons. To which the aide snapped: "Fine. But I'm only doing it becuase you're making me." And she then made a production of making the tea.

The next day, V. gets called in by her supervisor. Apparently, the old lady had complained that no one ever brought her her tea and snack. And by 7 am when the new shift started, she was collapsing from the insulin drop. V. protested: "But I told the aide to bring her the tea -- I even saw her make it!"

And then it hit: the aide, out of the purest levels of spite, had gone through the effort of making the tea and then THREW IT OUT. Just to be spiteful, she let an old, retarded woman get sick.

Now, I get being an aide is a tough, underpaid job. Many of these people work two jobs -- the night shift, the morning shift, then go home, take care of the house and kids, take a nap and do it over again. V., understanding this, tries to be a good boss and lets the aides work in shifts so everyone gets a 2-3 hour paid nap. And I also get that exploited workers can (and I would even say should) protest their treatment by getting away with as much as they can on the job.

But when you harm an elderly, retarded woman out of nothing but sheer spite, that's going too far.

Was the aide remorseful? Not at all. In fact when she got written up, she was vocally angry at everyone else in the world about it. And that's the Bronx -- not giving a shit just isn't enough. You have to also turn it around and get angry that you're being called out about it.

Last weekend, my boyfriend made a last-ditch attempt to reason with the guy upstairs. His response? That we were crazy and his music wasn't that loud, regardless whether or not it could be heard from three floors down. And all I can say is that I'm grateful to be moving out of this rat hole back to a place where all it usually takes is a knock at the door and a polite "please turn down the music."

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Member of: http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17787856/ Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:10:18 PDT

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17511912/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17511912/ Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:37:42 PDT
Apparently, sometime the weekend of March 15th -- after the weekend mailperson had delivered the mail and the regular postman came on Monday, someone broke into several of the mailboxes in my apartment building. They broke the locks, stole the mail, put plastic flowers in the mailboxes and then replaced the locks. So when the postman came on Monday and opened the boxes, all the locks fell onto the floor and there were plastic flowers inside.

It would be funnier if I didn't just spend the last 2 hours on the phone with every credit card company/ credit agency/ police/ postal inspector's office etc. But still -- plastic flowers?

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17479293/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17479293/ Sun, 23 Mar 2008 17:21:31 PDT
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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17457103/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17457103/ Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:10:37 PDT
Of course, it may also be tied to a 30th birthday being around the corner...anyway...

So in moments like this, one says: what is my niche in the world? It seems like finding a niche would be easy. Yet somehow it brings up all sorts of unresolved issues, hopeful dreams, rationalist cynicism and a host of other unpleasant things to contend with.

Finally a voice of reason, from my therapist (which, I guess, is what I'm paying him for, isn't it?): If you're not a normal person, then maybe trying to fit yourself into a pre-carved niche will never work. Maybe, you need to create an entirely new job for yourself.

Funny how life presents opportunities. See, what killed me on the Ph.d. front wasn't the coursework (aced), nor the comprehensive exams (aced), nor the research for the dissertation (mmm dusty old archives!). No, it's the thought of the next four years of my life writing 500+ pages (for those not familiar with the American Ph.d. system, it takes about 10-12 years to complete the program. I've already put in about 6.) Because it's not that I can't write (I'd rate myself as "OK" on that front) it's just that I HATE writing. Of the artistic skills I have, that's always been the bottom of the barrel for me. (Well, actually, dancing is bottom of the barrel because I tend to look like a corpse having spasms when I dance. But writing is a close second.)

So imagine how cool is a bright idea I have a month or so ago: I take all that dissertation research, and instead of disseminating it through writing, I do it through drawing. I talk to my old advisor who is currently the head of one of the top journals of Early American Studies and I sell her on the idea. If I can produce this "article" by July, it will be included in the upcoming issue on New Netherland colony. It would be the first time a historical journal has ever published an article rendered in a visual format.

This could be my niche -- there are astists who render historical subjects, but no historians who research and theorize and present their work in a visual form. It would cause controversy among the academic stuffed shirts (my favorite of all past-times, ruffling the feathers of the old guard). It would take history in a new direction. And for once in my life, my right and left brain might be able to get together to work on something.

Yet here it is a month later, and nothing's been done about it. And it's mostly because I'm scared shitless about my ability to render human subjects in pen and ink.

I have until July to create prolly 5 drawings or so. So expect, for the next couple of months, some crappy renderings, my bemoaning how crappy they are, and some potential temper-tantrums about how I'm going to become an accountant. Because apparently, my true path in life is to jump into the deep end hoping I'll swim not sink, over and over again. Maybe it's my version of bungee-chord jumping, except with my career.

Oh, and if anyone knows how to render people in action with settings in a pen and ink format, you know, tips are appreciated!

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17415533/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17415533/ Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:27:09 PDT



When I have to ask all of you to join me in protesting Canada's annual seal hunt.

What can you do?

* Sign the pledge here: [link] to boycott Canadian seafood, and ask at your supermarket before you buy seafood.
Why boycott Canadian seafood?
Seal hunting is an off-season activity conducted by fishers from Canada's East Coast. They earn a small fraction of their incomes from sealing— primarily from the sale of seal pelts to European fashion markets. But the vast majority of the sealers' incomes are from commercial fisheries. Canadian seafood exports to the United States contribute $3 billion annually to the Canadian economy—dwarfing the few million dollars provided by the seal hunt. The connection between the commercial fishing industry and the seal hunt in Canada gives consumers all over the world the power to end this cruel and brutal slaughter.

*Email the Prime Minister here (for U.S.): [link] or here (International): [link]

*Spread the word. With my journal, I can reach about 5 people. But if you repost this post and send out emails, and then if eve a couple of your friends do, etc. that's a lot more outreach.

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17295683/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17295683/ Wed, 12 Mar 2008 02:33:46 PDT

At about 11 pm yesterday I finished drawing my meercat. He is beautiful, glorious. So why am I still up at 5 am? Because I can't just draw a meercat, oh no my lovlies, I must be different, special. I must put a crown on him and sceptre in his paw and do SOMETHING with that rock he's standing on because we can't have TOO much negative space...and...and...

...and here I am at 5 am. About 100 freak-outs later (involving various self-depreicating comments, contemplating cutting the meercat out and pasting onto another sheet of paper to liberate him from the disater I was making around him, and just throwing it out and finding a job as an accountant), the crown is finally done. The rock went from being shoddily done to being erased to being even more shoddily done to being erased again, and is now a pale grey blob. Oh, and the sceptre is a WIP.

I have already spent far too much time on this piece. And it was worth it. At around 11 pm yesterday. And now, I am going to bed before anymore damage can be done. I am praying that tomorrow, I will be able to rectify this before I see many hous of my life down the drain.

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17195416/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17195416/ Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:26:35 PST

I've also finally figured out how to use my scanner, so I've uploaded new, cleaner, more accurate pictures of many of my drawings. Nothing makes me feel like an old biddy like being completely overwhelmed by technology. I guess that's why I don't do digitial art.

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17134516/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17134516/ Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:48:42 PST [link]

Some highlights:

More than one in every 100 adults are in jail or prison, making the U.S. the the world's No. 1 incarcerator.

The rate of increase for prison costs was six times greater than for higher education spending, and four states -- Vermont, Michigan, Oregon and Connecticut - spend more on corrections than on higher education.

While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that age group the figure is one in nine.

One in 355 white women ages 35 to 39 is behind bars, compared with one in 100 black women in that age group.

The United States incarcerates more people than any dictatorship in the world including Cuba, and even though China has a much greater population, they only incarcerate 1.5 million people as opposed to the 2,319,258 Americans behind bars in 2008.

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17065283/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17065283/ Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:00:03 PST
But the more I draw, the more I realize how much I love to draw animals. I've tried to just sit down and draw a human face. I know, in a technical sense, how to do it. And I'm always impressed when I head over to and see the amazing drawings of people others do.

But when it comes right down to drawing it, I find people as a subject kind of...well..boring. Maybe I'll eventually change my mind about that. But for right now, I guess I'm just too enthralled with answering the call of the wild.

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17057841/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/17057841/ Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:21:55 PST
Since this is DA, I know that all of you know that this is NOT because dark eyes only come in "brown" and "black." "Brown" is merely an indicator for a broad spectrum of colors ranging from Amber to Chocolate to Copper to Sepia to Auburn, etc etc. My eyes, for example, are Amber or Dark Hazel (not even an option according to the DMV) which is very different than the shade of chocolate my mom has, or the bistre shade of my boyfriend.

Does our categorization of eyes, then, really then reflect a holdover from imperialism? Is readily recognizing variation in light eyes but rarely recognizing variation in dark eyes just because the color changes appear more significant in light eyes, or because we're still in a system which values light eyes over dark eyes? Is it just because there's just more of a difference between blue and green than there is between amber and chocolate, or because we just care more about the difference between blue and green because it's more connected with Europeans and whiteness?

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/16965490/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/16965490/ Tue, 19 Feb 2008 16:40:41 PST
It's not a logical thing, but in a strange, emotional way, an era has just been closed. It's a deja vu feeling, the same one I had when I watched The Wall being torn down. Sure, there was still a USSR for many years after that, but it was never quite the same.

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Member of:

(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/16936863/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/16936863/ Sun, 17 Feb 2008 21:37:22 PST I realized I have no idea how to do ANYTHING on this darn site, not even add an icon to my page.

Hopefully, this will do for now, because I finally buckled and got a 3 month subscription and I need to figure out how to use it!

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(Hopeful) Member of: ]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/16754059/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/16754059/ Wed, 06 Feb 2008 12:45:22 PST [link] They had come to my website and wanted to add my mosaic, "The Jaguar" [link] with a link to my website to their artist resource page.

Since most of the people they're linking to are internationally recognized mosaic artists, I am flattered and intimidated to be on there. It also makes me feel guilty for not finidhing that second mosaic -- except I've just been so into drawing lately, and well, that's sometimes how it goes.

But how cool to be "found" like that! And here I thought I was in a little corner of the web out of sight. All-in-all, I'm totally excited.

]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/16616298/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/16616298/ Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:31:12 PST
But who's really surprised? As Nancy Gager Clinch writes in her book The Kennedy Neurosis: “All of the Kennedys were raised within a childhood pattern centering on three negative dynamics: patriarchy, competition, and sexism” (Clinch 13). Setting the example, not only did Joseph Kennedy have multitudes of affairs and extreme power issues -- he was well known to invite his girlfriends over for dinner and force his wife to serve them in front of their children -- but even had his daughter Rose lobotimized once she began to sneak out at night of the convent she was being kept at for sexual liasons. Not that her brothers minded. It was quoted that they considered their sister a "disgrace" and a "nuisance" and supported their father's decison as beneficial to their personal political ambitions.

It is unnecessary to mention the womanizing and sexism of both Robert and John, but certainly the "Chappaquiddick incident" as it's so blithely referred to is of relevance. For those not versed in U.S. history, this "incident" was actually the drowning murder (or manslaughter, depending on which theory you believe) of Mary Jo Kopechne -- one of Ted's mistresses -- when his car went off a bridge. Even if you believe the "accidental" theory, that Ted waited nearly 24 hours until after the car had been discovered and traced back to him to report the incident to police (particularly when an immediate phone call would have likely saved Kopechne's life) demonstrates either a lack of compassion towards others, or (probably more accurately) his true opinion concerning the disposability of inconvenient women.

Now, I recognize that Kennedy has been an important supporter of abortion rights and an ally in the fight for reproductive choice. Even if that support is more political than sincere -- prior to the passing of Roe v. Wade, Kennedy was stanchly anti-abortion, and gave impassioned speeches concerning women's responsibility to prevent unwanted pregnancies -- in a fight for choice, it's better to have Kennedy's weight behind the movement than against it. His reintroduction of the ERA (30 years after the fact) could also belie that his personal sexism has abated over the years. But call me a cynic, yet I can't help but believe that if Kennedy was running for a senate seat in, say, Kansas instead of ulta-liberal Massachusettes, he'd be singing a very different song. As the Kennedy's have proven, the key to political success does not lie in personal belief, but in blowing whichever way the wind goes.

So in the end, underlying today's headlines is the subscript: Senator with Long History of Sexism Decides to Back Male Candidate.

To which I have to reply: Big F*cking Deal.

]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/16529109/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/16529109/ Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:11:12 PST
Because even with our constant vigilance, we have things like the Colorado for Equal Rights for Human Life group getting approval for a ballot initiative that would let Colorado voters decide that a fertilized egg is equivalent in all respects to a human being. ([link])

"It doesn't outlaw abortion, it doesn't regulate birth control," said Kristi Burton, 20, of Colorado for Equal Rights and the initiative's sponsor. "It's just a constitutional principle. We're laying a foundation that every life deserves protection."

The ultimate goal, however, of the group is to ban all abortions. The group's founder, Mark Meuser, is up-front about that: "We're defining when personhood begins... in this state, there would be no abortions."

"Our goal is to take this all the way to the Supreme Court, and argue the personhood of the preborn baby. When we were writing this, we wanted to have a singular focus so that nobody is confused," Meuser said. "We want to force the argument that has been avoided for 34 years by the U.S. Supreme Court."

We also have exciting new movements to fight against, such as the so-called Post-Abortive Men’s Movement. "We had abortions," said Mark B. Morrow, a Christian counselor. "I've had abortions." For more on the post-abortive men’s movement, see [link]

This particular bit leapt out at me:
Aubert has since converted to Catholicism. He and his wife have five children, and they sometimes protest in front of abortion clinics. Every now and then, though, Aubert wonders: What if his first girlfriend had not aborted? How would his life look different?
He might have endured a loveless marriage and, perhaps, a sad divorce. He might have been saddled with child support as he tried to build his legal practice. He might never have met his wife. Their children -- Christine, Kyle, Roch, Paul, Vance -- might not exist.
"I wouldn't have the blessings I have now," Aubert said. So in a way, he said, the two abortions may have cleared his path to future happiness.
"That's an intellectual debate I have with myself," he said. "I struggle with it."
In the end, Aubert says his moral objection to abortion always wins. If he could go back in time, he would try to save the babies.
But would his long-ago girlfriends agree? Or might they also consider the abortions a choice that set them on a better path?
Aubert looks startled. "I never really thought about it for the woman," he says slowly.

His ex-girlfriends got theirs, now he wants to make sure no one else has one, what with the protesting at abortion clinics. And while he gets that his life is better, it never occurs to him to wonder if those women's lives are better, too. "I never really thought about it for the woman," he says.

And that's the crux of the problem: No one ever does think about the women. Nor is this a problem solely limited to abortion rights. The problem with this country is that we don't want to take care of the ones we have, but we'll get up in arms about ones that don't even exist.
The equation should be simple: Take care of the veterans you have before making more. Take care of the kids who already exist in this country before forcing women to have more. Take care of the people already existing in our society before worrying about ones who may never come to pass.

We won't pay for welfare, for education, medicine. We will fight for the right of a child to be born, but not for giving the child a chance to be healthy, fed, educated or given a chance. We'll fight to force a woman to have a baby, but we won't fight to give her the option not to.

We care more about humans who don't exist than the ones who do.

In the equation between a potential human being and an actual one, there shouldn't be any contest. Women should be more important to us than a concept.

That's why being Pro-Choice *is* being Pro-Life.

]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/15834185/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/15834185/ Fri, 07 Dec 2007 12:40:08 PST [link]

Richard Prince made a name for himself since the 1970's as an "appropriation" artist -- he takes photographs of photographs (usually advertisments), blows them up, and gets paid amazing amounts of money for them.

In the meantime, the photographers he steals from can't command the kind of prices Prince gets -- the poor photographer who did the work for the Marlboro campaign certainly didn't get the 1.2 million Prince's photo of his photo got at auction. And people are starting to recognize the work as being Prince's rather than belonging to the photographer who did the original work.

My question for you is: is Richard Prince a brilliant artist or a parasite on the art community? Should his work command the money it does for the originality of the concept? What are your thoughts on this issue?

]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/15772219/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/15772219/ Sun, 02 Dec 2007 22:22:26 PST
To whom it may concern:

I was on your site this evening looking to purchase an item for my 5 year old niece. First, I was amazed to see that you segregated the "by age" categories into gender. Second, I was shcoked by the sexist division of products. While almost all of the toys designated for "boys" were science and technology related, many of the "girls" toys were crafts. For example the first four items which come up in the "girls" section are a fashion studio kit, design your own lamp kit, headband creating kit, and create a blanket kit -- all sewing items. Further, there are not only many more products listed in the "boys" section -- 89 as compared to 67 for girls -- but most of those products are clearly unisex. For example, the beautiful Dinosaur book by Sabuda is only listed in the "boys" section, as if girls have no interest in dinosaurs. So are many other science products like a book about bugs (because we all know women can't become entomologists) , all of the dinosaur paraphanalia (nor can they grow up to become paleontologists), and the automoblox car building kits (and certainly not engineers! they might need to learn math!). Even all the "spy" items and sports items are only listed in the boys section as if female children don't play soccer or have a best friend that they could use a cool walkie-talkie wristwatch with.

Many people, wanting to give their kids a better start in life than what they may have had, go to your site looking for suggestions on items to buy their children to encourage an interest in science and technology. We have enough problems in this country recruiting women in fields like engineering and science mostly because of this kind of stupidity, where children are taught from a very young age that little girls should sew blankets while little boys should be building robots. Why not just list the products by age appropriateness and allow parents to decide if it's of interest to their child instead of having to worry that they're getting a "boy" toy for a girl, or a "girl" toy for a boy? Boys may watch Meerkat Manor sometimes, too, even though your website deems that it's only an appropriate show if you have a vagina.

I'm very disappointed with your online store, and how you're helping to perpetuate the already difficult problems women face in trying to work in the fields of science and technology. I really hope you reconsider your marketing tactics. Until then, I will be posting this letter on my blog and on several forums, initiating a boycott of your website this holiday season. There are many other stores on the web who sell these products and don't see a need to direct parents into archaic "gender appropriate" gift categories. I hope your online store will eventually change.

Thank you.

(P.S. Please feel free to repost this, email this, or in any other way get the word out about this)

]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/15505411/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/15505411/ Wed, 14 Nov 2007 10:27:22 PST
I've started a seperate identity here on DA for my mosaic work. You can see that here: [link] Or, you can visit my brand spanking new website: [link] yeah, me and a weekend with dreamweaver. Almost enough to make me start drinking. Almost.

]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/15315368/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/15315368/ Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:55:52 PDT [link] )

Now, I have issues with the MoMA which go back several years ago to when I was doing art installation work and some friends of mine got caught in the middle between the desires of the artist and the desires of the museum. Frankly, it's the overall problem I have the museum -- the prevailing attitude seems to be "We're the MoMA, and we'll do what we want, the desires of the artist be damned." And it doesn't have to be this way. Other institutions I've worked for, like DIA:Beacon, manage to accomodate the desires of the artists, and I think their exhibits are better and more organic for it.

Why do I bring up this longstanding grudge? Because once again, I was kicked in the gut with the MoMA's inconsideration for their artists. Going to the Serat exhibit, I thought I was going to see some DRAWINGS. Instead, I saw a collection of SKETCHES.

Do you get it? Let me break it down.

DRAWINGS are something you do which are INTENDED TO BE SEEN BY OTHERS. Usually it's signified by being signed, being sold/ given away, being published, etc.

SKETCHES are those things many of us do, in a notebook, which are the roughest of rough drafts. In this case, these sketches eventually became elements of paintings -- a quick sketch of a woman at the corner, who eventually is a background figure in a painting.

The question is: how would Serat feel about millions of people seeing his roughest of doodles that he kept in his little sketch pads? And more importantly, why doesn't MoMA give a flying fuck about whether or not Serat would care?

Ultimately, I felt the exhibit was objectifying -- Serat is an "artist" not a human being, and therefore his feelings on the matter need no consideration. An "artist," as object, has no feelings to speak of anyway. They are simply there to be a vessel to create work for the titilation of the public. Hence, it's perfectly ok to delve into their notebooks and roughest of sketches without their permission, splah them onto walls to display to millions of people, and not feel like it's an intense invasion of privacy.

Have museums slowly become little better than papparazzi for the elite, educated classes who would turn their noses up at a tabloid? Is it perfectly ok to invade the privacy of the dead? Certainly, the egyptology collections at the Metropolitan seem to say it is. In the end, the exhibit made me feel dirty, voyeuristic.

Oh, and there was no cheese. Only free alcohol, not a crakcer to be found. So let's add "cheap" to the faults of the MoMA and call it a day.

]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/14978863/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/14978863/ Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:08:41 PDT
Sure, there are plenty of nice things that could be celebrated in October. But the reality is that when we lose a holiday we rarely replace it with a new one. Protesting against Columbus Day is all well and good on a philosophical level, but in the end, it just really means another day that corporate America can squeeze out of us.

Which really means, ultimately, that we're foregoing "celebrating" European imperialism in favor of allowing further exploitation in the form of capitalism -- the main export and driving force of European imperialism. In other words: in the name of not "celebrating" imperialism with a day off, we'd rather just spend the day being a victim of it.

Once again, a holiday gets taken away, without replacement, and the American worker gets nothing but the bitter satisfaction of politically correct ideaology.

]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/14892759/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/14892759/ Tue, 02 Oct 2007 22:54:23 PDT
-- John Keats

]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/14673744/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/14673744/ Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:17:38 PDT [link]


For shame on her. I wish I knew where she was and I'd liberate all of them. Or at least protest daily outside her house.

There are millions of cats being put to death every day, yet rich assholes have to create breeds because they're "pretty." Not to mention that all the inbreeding creates animals who suffer inscrutable pain and misery their whole lives from congentital diseases.

These poor cats are kept in cages and are nothing but breeding machines so some wannabe pseudo-scientist can get her rocks off and have the Frankensteinish pleasure of creating a breed. She's no better than a Nazi.

And I loved that justification at the end: "But as Sugden sees it, Toygers are about saving something rarer—the essence of tigerness.
'Wild animals are disappearing in front of our eyes,' she says. 'We can’t keep big cats where we have people in massive numbers.'"

Hey, here's a bright idea: how about instead of maximizing the problem by playing God, you take all that time, effort and money and help save the actual tigers and their habitats?

UGH!!!

Feel free to repost this in your own blog(s). And I encourage everyone who reads this to send $5 to the Humane Society to help all those cats that just aren't "chic" enough to be adopted, or the WWF to help save the real tigers.

]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/14553501/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/14553501/ Sat, 08 Sep 2007 23:30:09 PDT
[link]

They're arguing the asteroid theroy again, but with more evidence this time. Will it hold up? Who knows. But quite the thing to think about. Had no asteroid ever hit, would my soul be in a lizard right now?

Survey question: If you were a lizard, what kind of art would you make? Would it be out of teradactyl guts? Would it be in sand? If I was a stegasaurus, I think I'd use ferns. It just feels right.

]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/14388829/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/14388829/ Wed, 29 Aug 2007 00:08:34 PDT
"Why is that such a big deal," you may be wondering. Well, because this is New York where pretension is the name of the game. For example, Pearl Paint (a staple of the NYC art world) is equally famous for its selection as it is for its demeaning staff. Call me ignorant, but I've never really understood the "well a REAL artist wouldn't ask a question that stupid" game. I mean, if you're that great, why are you still working at an art supply store?*

Somehow, I managed to control myself. The downside to a great shopping experience is that it inspires you to spend MORE. So what nifty things did I get? You're dying to know. I can feel your unbridled enthusiasm from here. WELL CALM DOWN. Breathe. Cause I'm about to tell you.

I got:

1 Block of 16x12 watercolor paper of some brand I've never heard of. But the size is right, and it felt like a good cotton.

1 Block of Arches fine grain cold pressed watercolor paper

1 Sweet, sweet book of rough cotton paper. I wanted to get the Arches "Aquarelle" rough paper, but it's hella expensive. So my intrepid guide pointed out these lovely books of paper where I could get what seems to be similar quality for about half the price of the Aquarelle. I love the idea of using rough paper. Mmmmm.

A few more bamboo brushes with a nice little bamboo mat to roll them up in for safe-keeping. I wasn't sure how I felt about buying these brushes -- as an animal rights activist, I try not to purchase anything with animal materials, and I think these bristles might be goat hair. It's a tricky situation -- meaning I'm excited about the brushes but it's tempered by a smidgen of guilt.

Some miscellany: an "F" pencil, masking fluid, a couple of paints I was out of.


So that's my bountious booty. Hey! HEY! Stop drooling! You might smudge my painting.


*As we all know, REALLY great artists don't even dain to go to art supply stores -- they send their assistants. Mostly because they're too busy boffing elderly society ladies for commissions on the Upper West Side.

]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/14300681/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/14300681/ Thu, 23 Aug 2007 08:43:28 PDT
*This post interrupted by my cat, Tibbald, heroically jumping up and precariously hanging on to the back of the chair, all in order to eat my hair. Now THAT is a shampoo commercial waiting to happen.*

In the meantime, I've been engaged in philosophical reflection, mostly around academia and my recent desire to possibly leave the academe to do something (else) with my life. The thoughts have mostly centered around a long-winded philosophical argument about the way academia gives an illusion of free-thought, when in reality, it's about creating mimicking robots who can merely reproduce within a classical rhetorical model. Our entire system of education, actually, priviliges a specific kind of philosophical system over all others -- one of dichotomistic, classical rhetoric, centered around a self-serving system of logic. Which is probably why so many people in this country have turned back to estatic religious experiences: you spend day in, day out, using one philosophical system, you need respite. And two "acceptable" places for that respite is in God and Art.

To God and Art!

]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/14122654/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/14122654/ Sat, 11 Aug 2007 17:24:57 PDT
I also finally got around to putting up a fixed picture of Altse Asdzaa. RayvenOGiger was kind enough to have edited the last one for me, out of pure kindness (or out of exasperation for my sheer laziness). But I couldn't take the blue moon anymore, so I finally got my ass in gear and put up a decent picture. Of course, by "decent" I mean "better than nothing" and "less than good." Much like Calvin, I find keeping everyone's expectations low is my true ticket to success.

]]> *TigerNinja http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/14059043/ http://TigerNinja.deviantart.com/journal/14059043/ Tue, 07 Aug 2007 12:02:37 PDT
I wasted much of the day trying to figure out how to upload joomla to my (still non-existant) website. I might as well been conversing in nonsense. The instructions look like this:

1. Unzipping the Joomla! Core distribution file to a local directory on your local computer
2. Then to FTP the files to the host server placing them either directly under, or in, a directory under the web server root. There are many free FTP programs available for this operation, such as Filezilla. A Google search or visit to any of the open source resource sites will assist you in finding a suitable tool.

Except not knowing what half(most) these words mean, I read it like this:

1. Unzipping the Joomla! Gyring gimbling file to a local file on your local computer.
2. Then to WTF the files to the slithy tove placing them either directly under, or in, a directory under the mimsy borogrove.

Shockingly, I was unable to upload the gimble to the slithy tove in the borogrove, and hence, I am still website-less.

I'm feeling like peas and carrots.

]]> *TigerNinja