Just here for the day looking for some pet projects. So far I've had a couple people dig up some old forum posts about making avatars, so those people have something special in their inbox. I hope I'll hear some hellos while I swither swash along this chain of links holding the mighty ship afloat amongst the waves which splash against the devious shore.

Way anchor! Yo Ho! Tis a series of tubes my fellow scags!

Journal CSS Encoded by `thespook

EOF

Nothing intensive mind you. Just quick and dirty. A day and a half of my attention if you will. Maybe some web design is involved...

CSS maybe? I'm really tired of work. I just worked an entire week without rest and am coming to the realization the I have left my creativity at the wayside.

Looking for a thrill.

Journal CSS Encoded by `thespook

EOF

Man I got so lost on Facebook for the last few months...

I was boycotting it for the most part until my boss had me sit down and actually make an account. Ah yes... back in January. She spent about 20 minutes explaining all the wonders that are the largest social networking tool in the world. I pretty much took over after that.

Imagine her surprise when I came to work the next day claiming that I, "broke it". Apparently you can't leave and then come back to a network in the same day, let alone the first month. The next day after that I had the entire site skinned (the deviant in me) and had a whole arsenal of plug ins that made Facebook do all sorts of stuff it wasn't supposed to do. I active browsing

Of course it didn't stop there! I had to figure out how Facebook worked! Hours upon hours were spent with debugging tools and literature. I even managed to dig up some articles related to application hacking. Mind you I didn't manage to make much of a dent in it but found myself in quite the world of insecurity. Most Facebook applications are seriously terribly coded if you haven't guessed yet, not to mention that your privacy goes out the window as soon as you fall victim to installholism.

The thing that has really nagged at me though is how utterly non expressive the site is. As interesting as the people are within the community the mechanism is dull and teeters on creativity deterrent. Its trend towards communication utopia don't allow for the kind of expression that you'd find on a site like, let's say... dA. And they're coming out with an instant messenger to boot!

I guess what I'm getting at is, I'm kinda bored of Facebook now. And so are millions of other people who only last year were return visitors every day, are now simply looking for the next thing that tickles their fancy. In fact all of those big social networking sites are suffering from dark matter that were once bustling active servers, which is what I was thinking about when my mind set me in motion to log into deviantART today.

As I recall deviantART had just done some major hardware upgrades as I was winding down from being a gallery director. Interesting that of all of the online social environments this is not only the one making it, but it continues to see growth on hourly basis.

Could it be that creativity is the ultimate anchor? Not only that, but does it have to be your own?

I was changing Facebook because it offered me very little. Sure I could message a bunch of people I know, kinda like how I could already do that with any instant messenger or email address. Sure I could keep a big list of contacts, which I already do on my cell phone. Sure I could play a bunch of witty games and find out what celebrity I resemble... you catch my drift. The convergence of ideas and the technology to share them is swell, but shouldn't a well designed website do one thing really really well?

They should have stuck with putting people in touch with each other.

Journal CSS Encoded by `thespook

EOF

Hey gang!

I'm no longer the text art gallery director.

I would like to thank my team for pulling through and making the last few seasons a big deal on deviantART.

Members,

Those people that do all that they do really love you. They all have lives, yet they get up everyday and find experiences that you would really go for. That is because they are artists like you. Some of them have been here for a year. Some of them have been here since the beginning. They all joined for the same reason. To be here for art and the people that create it.

Artist Relations, I salute you. You define this website and we really love you for it.

-Pat



Journal CSS Encoded by ^thespook

EOF

So how about that year eh?

Man, that was a tough 365 days. I've been off site for about three weeks trying to keep up with the daily drip. Finally the run off has been diverted and I have a moment to relax. I have got to tell you, retail is physically tough. Especially through the holiday season. I have seen people make huge sacks of cash and I have seen people pool a huge deficit. This time of year always does a number on me and I'm glad that finally, one more time the ticker has gained a notch.

Welcome to 2008. We have gained a year.

I look forward to the next 365. I am sure it will warrant more adventure and more interesting circumstances.

And so on to my new years resolutions:

- I'm going to quit smoking. I don't like cigarettes and they don't like me.
- I'm going to find some companionship.
- I'm going to become more of an artist

What is an artist? Early records of the creation of art and the term provide mixed meaning. It was once frowned upon to create without purpose. An artist was once the architect, the sculpture and the politician.

Now all of us are artists. We depict our lives and the lives of others in meaningful ways. We have normed together. We accept that we all have the means to create art. We learn together and advance a new culture. A culture of ourselves. The proving grounds have been removed.

I am glad that I am back. Come to 2008 with me. The community is ours.



Journal CSS Encoded by ^thespook

EOF