worthless foray into second rate photo editing

i've been playing around with images of my family members (and myself) on picnik. if you don't have a design degree/don't want spend 85 hours learning photoshop, it's a great, cheap way to edit photos, all from the comfort of your web browser.

i'm thinking of making a t-shirt of the image of my grandfather: paterfamilias. my fear is that he will see it and say, "what the hell kind of drugs has that fool been taking." that's a probably more of an excuse than a fear.

things that make me laugh pt. ii

on blogging and voice

what is your desired 'voice' when you write? other than 5 pages of a half-ass sci-fi novels, i didn't do much writing before the blog world took over. and i don't really think i can count lame history papers on the spanish armada or why eisenhower was really a genius for letting the ruskies take berlin...

the more i write on blogspot, the more i've been thinking about the idea of voice. i know from the two literature courses i've had over the age of 18, that a writer's voice is typically pretty specific. kind of like its audible counterpart. the thing that drives me crazy about this concept is that there is a voice i want to have and voice that i actually have.

but my desire is subliminal. typically, this is how it works. walking down the street (more likely, sitting on the couch), i hatch an idea that sounds interesting to me. at that moment, i begin to imagine how i would write the post with my desired voice. my desired voice is a casual genius. an offhand observer of the world, he's sharp, but never overbearing. he knows the game has been going on for years, so he's naturally cynical, but not depressed--he realizes the value of humor. he has a ready knowledge and wisdom about nearly everything and can candidly discuss any subject intelligently. but since he doesn't need to impress you, he feels comfortable talking about whatever subject interests him at the moment, no matter how trivial. since he is such an amazing person, whatever interests him is going to be damn interesting to his readers.

then, i actually sit down to type up a post. what comes out is shockingly different: trite, random, insular, and all around hastily written. i usually get distracted or bored toward the end of my posts and cut them short out of laziness. as much as i'd like to think of myself as a great undescovered writer, blogging his way to relevance, i'm just like the other 99% of the people with blogs--a self-absorbed nerd with spare time.

but why is it so hard to be honest? if i know i'm not the writer i want to be, why can't i at least set out to be turthful? it would seem far simpler to write from my own perspective than from the artificial one.

i'm guessing this is where those who actually know something about writing chime in and say something about why it's so difficult to be a good writer because of the difficulty writing the truth. i'm not exactly sure what the saying is, but isn't there something that says that all beauty is truth? i think so.

i just realized lewis has a great quote on this and found it here.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

C. S. Lewis

franny

yes, we did get a dog. yes, we named her franny. try not to read into it. we're pretty obsessed with her right now, even through she has issues in the urination arena. she is a 7 month old golden retriever from a local rescue shelter. so she has some confidence problems as well. but have no fear, she's starting to come out of her shell inch by inch.

right now, sticks are a pretty big deal for fran. that, and sleeping underneath my desk while i work. we'll have plenty more stories to come, but enjoy the pictures for now.