Thursday, March 30, 2006

Iran Watch








The smaller image is how the larger image would show as an Avatar in your posts.

Its a Griffin.

Head wings and foreparts of an eagle and hindquarters of a lion.

Its an ancient symbol recognized in many cultures.

In Christianity it represents the strength and wisdom of God.

This one started life as a brown, faux wood, pencil holder. You won't find this anywhere on the net unless someone steals it. I usually use some type of image as a start to save time.


Whatca think? Yes, no, maybe so, changes, something else, ideas? Don't take it if you don't like it, I can find it a home.









I believe this is the size it would show on your blog although you can probably change the template to make it larger.

Saturday, March 25, 2006

OK Nanc, let's try again.





The text doesn't work well in the avatar sized images.

They're too "busy" and have too many hues.

Suggestions?

Something different?

For it to work well the image needs a ratio of about 3:4 , taller than it is wide.


Update:

Two more images: (whoops! One more something happened to it when it was uploaded)







The other image has a darker background.

I rescaled the image and cropped it so the forward figures appear bigger. I changed the type of siren to one that is more commonly recognized and lightened the background to bring the foreground out.





Another idea. I cropped more of the image and added some color and texture. Also got rid of the guys hand that was in front of her feet and replaced it with some water and rock.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Some fun stuff and something for nanc

I have some fun stuff stored on the web and if any of my friends wish to use these, feel free they may be used in posts but will not show in comments unless you plug one in to your personal picture box.



http://host.jwcinc.net/610407/gifs/booty.gif







http://host.jwcinc.net/610407/grenade2.gif








http://host.jwcinc.net/610407/gifs/fttt.gif







http://host.jwcinc.net/610407/gifs/kmb.gif







http://host.jwcinc.net/610407/gifs/nuts.gif







http://host.jwcinc.net/610407/pooch.jpg







http://host.jwcinc.net/610407/rds.jpg

All of the ones above are in the public domain and may be used freely. To use them, copy the URL from beside the gif or jpg and paste it into your menu for adding images where it says "Or add an image from the web" set the size for 100px which you will see in your "Edit Html" tab, in your blogger "Posting" tab after you download the image to blogger. (the drunken squirl is set for 200px), or play around with the size to see what it looks like. The larger the px size the larger the picture.

If you need help, ask me and I will be glad to give you a hand.


For my friends, no strangers. (if you, a stranger, become a friend first)
I hope I'm not stepping on the boss's toes (Mr Beamish) but if someone wants a custom Avatar, let me know. Its yours owing only to my consrtaint of time. If you aren't familiar with graphics programs and have an idea for a picture you would like to have for your blog, I'll see what I can come up with.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

A quote and a few thoughts

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
--- Frank Herbert, Dune


Much of my though and subsequent life has been gleaned from the written word. I don't remember the first book I read but I remember my grandmother reading stories to me from The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. I remember reading "A Pilgrims Progress" when I was about five years old.

Fiction has always been my favorite and Science Fiction my love. I discovered Robert Heinlein through a beloved older cousin that bought me two of his novels when I was six years old. After that I read everything by Heinlein I could get my hands on.

I learned that true friends are more rare than diamonds and to do the right thing for self respect and not for praise or reward.

Later, I read books of philosophy and religion, then politics, history and biographies, (and the back of soup cans and cereal boxes).

Through that reading, I gained an appreciation of humanity, even with all its warts, and a cynicism that has always disturbed my family greatly. I learned that civilization is ephemeral and to prepare for the worst but live for the day. I learned that life is paradoxical and if these things seem contradictory, life itself is a constant contradiction.

The one thing I know for a fact.

Without individual freedom, all of the knowledge in the world is worthless.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

A letter to the editor

Sometimes when you have despaired of the poor excuse our children and young adults have received for an education, a jewel shines forth. We meet someone like DM, who has his head screwed on right, or read one of AOWs posts, where she has reprinted the work of one of her students, and you come to the realization that things aren't quite as bad as they seem.

From, Wilmington Del. "News Journal"

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
03/05/2006

What leaders do on their own time is a private matter

Because I am 17 years old, some people might say that I am not mature enough to understand many issues. However, let me just say that I get more laughs reading the opinion page than I ever have from the comics.

Delawareans seem to be fixated on bashing President Bush and proposing new conspiracy theories whenever they seem convenient.

President Bush did not cause Hurricane Katrina or the complications afterwards. New Orleans was built below sea level so they should have seen it coming and made preparations themselves.
if Dick Cheney shoots someone by accident on his own time, it is none of your business and neither he nor the president has any obligation to tell you about it.

Finally, it seems unreasonable to me that Bush was able to graduate from Yale University, be elected governor of Texas, and earn the respect and confidence of enough of his peers in the Republican Party to be nominated as their presidential candidate if he is indeed as dim-witted as you say.

I am willing to wager that the majority of Delawareans who get their information from this sorry excuse for a newspaper have barely enough brainpower to govern their own lives, let alone governing a nation of almost 300 million.

Bradley Lehman, Hockessin


Thanks to WSJs, Best of the Web Today - by JAMES TARANTO

And special thanks to Always On Watch, educators like her, and all of those parents that take their obligation to raise their children, seriously, (you know who you are!). ;^)

Friday, March 03, 2006

A new nightmare for the left

Let me preface this by saying, so there is no misunderstanding, I am a Vietnam ,"Era", veteran. I never served in combat I knew I would be drafted and the prospect that I might die in Vietnam was very real.

I placed my fate in Gods hands. I supported the Vietnam war even if I didn't support LBJ and his minions. I was drafted in January of 1971 was inducted into the US Army in Louisville Kentucky, took my basic training at Ft Knox Kentucky and reported for leadership training and combat arms training, (field artillery), at Ft Sill Oklahoma. I was assigned to the 1st Infantry Division just after that unit was returned to the states from Vietnam. Many of my friends were not so lucky.

It always interested me that, there was no organized protest against the Vietnam war until the government started drafting college students after they graduated. A collage "draft exemption" turned into a "limited deferment" and all hell broke loose.

To most of my generation, a college education was either an unattainable dream or something unnecessary for work in a factory. For many of us, thanks to the GI bill, a degree became possible and our horizons had been broadened. We may have once been children when we left, (children, as we came to see those spoiled boys and girls who were insulated from a very nasty world and sent off to school with little to do but party and protest), we came back men and blooded warriors.

There is a core in each generation that has a vested interest in this great nation. They have taken an oath and served our country proudly. They never forget. They know who their enemies are.

Today, this core is being refreshed anew. Only this time they are men "and" women. They are volunteers, they are smarter, more healthy and better educated and trained than my generation with a far higher percentage of those that describe themselves as conservative.

They are the pool from which our future leaders, in both the private and public sectors, will come.

The left vilified my generation upon its return to civilian life, and in turn, those that would accept the label, were portrayed as victims.

This will not happen again!

This is the lefts nightmare. A generation of leaders tested in fire, one that does not, and will not, bow down at the alter of political correctness. A generation willing to face reality and ready to cast out silly notions of moral equivalence and "subjective truth". A generation that has taken an oath and served our country proudly. They will never forget. They know who their enemies are.

Leftists, meet your future. It looks pretty grim.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

For Nanc and Missinglink

George and Ida. Notice Georges feet.



This is a cleaned up photograph of, Ernie, (my wife's grandfather) and Jack, (her father).
Ernie was raised on the reservation, (Cherokee). He was the common law husband of Maisie, (half Apache). Ernie was 25 or so years older than Maisie. This picture was taken in the late 1940s

My wife is strawberry blond and freckled. :^)




This is the repaired and cropped photo optimized for the Internet.

The original was torn and spotted with places where the emulsion was totally gone.

I repaired a bunch of these photos for my brother in law.