Corner35

Free !!!
Time for a Snoopy Dance !

:-D

Cold Shiver Nixie

Yet another magical creature has come out of hiding to request my artistic skills this week. And since this Illustration Fridays subject is 'Dreams', the Cold Shiver Nixie is a perfect fit !

Have you ever been daydreaming during an idle moment and had a quick vision of flying like an eagle over a snow covered mountain range ? Or had a vision of plunging feet first into a cold and pristine forest stream ? Or even a vision of a midnight outing to dance naked under the moon ?

Bet you got some goose bumps, didn't ya ?
That means you were probably visited by Kalamazoo's very own Cold Shiver Nixie! She will sneak up behind you while you are daydreaming, and she will tickle you with her cold fingers up and down your back.

Brrrrrrrrrr !!!
:-D

Corner34

Suck that belly in to fit through...

Valusian Infiltration

The Serpent People are awakening from their eons long slumber. They still remember the human race that they battled with for supremacy over the continent of Hyperborea. Their plan to hibernate for a few hundred years deep within their underground city of Valusia ( or as we call it 'Irem-city of pillars' which is but ruins aboveground ) in the Arabian desert, failed to work properly. Far more time has passed than they anticipated.

But, the humans have largely forgotten about this race of Ophideans, and that will be what the Serpent People wanted. Now they can recite ancient spells of Illusion and drink potions of eldrich alchemy to cover themselves in a deception. This deception will allow them to walk among us, to seem like they are humans, to live as our neighbors.

This glamour will be nearly perfect. It will fool our eyes and we will see only what we want to see...just another human. Not a 5 foot tall bipedal intelligent scaly Snake, but a filthy stinking primate (Human). Only one flaw exists besides the odor of reptile, and that is the shadow. For while the Valusians can don the likeness of our appearance, their shadows remain true to their heritage as the children of the Ancient One called YIG -father of serpents. By this shall ye know them.

"They walked lithely and sinously erect on pre-mammalian members, their pied and hairless bodies bending with great suppleness. There was a loud hissing of formulae as they went to and fro." Clark Ashton Smith, 'The Seven Geases'.

Don't believe the 'reflection' of your own species, it could lead to your sorrow...

Illustration Friday, August 19, 2005.
:-)

The DooDoo Dunnie

Another fey creature native to Kalamazoo has come forward to be illustrated and displayed for all the world to see. This is the DooDoo Dunnie. Dunnies are known for being guardians of children and endangered animals. They are also known as tricksters and pranksters. Some are horse-like, others are...er...well...less welcome in appearance.

I had to breathe through my mouth to avoid inhaling a noseful of poop fumes. He (she ?) seemed rather nice, if odorous, and carried on a rather pleasant conversation with me concerning the rather bad year we are having with peach trees. We had a late frost and that ruined most of the peach buds on the branches.
It's rilly too bad, I luv peaches, especially fresh from the orchards. Fertilizer helps immensely...

:-D

Does E-mail Make You Dumber ?

-Originally printed in Discover magazine, Anne Casselman, August 2005, page 8.

If you feel like a zombie at work, perhaps you're suffering from infomania, the term the Hewlett-Packard affiliate in Britain coined for people addicted to e-mail, instant messaging, and text messages.
A recent study for the company found that British workers' IQ test scores drop temporarily by an average of 10 points when juggling phones, e-mails, and other electronic messages-more of an IQ drop than occurs after smoking marijuana or losing a night's sleep. "This is a very real and widespread phenomenon," said Glenn Wilson of the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of London, who conducted the tests on some 1,100 volunteers. Just how long it takes to recover in unclear.

The study found that modern-day communications have become addictive: Sixty-two percent of adults check work messages after office hours and on vacation. Half of those surveyed reply to an e-mail immediately or within 60 minutes. About 20 percent were "happy" to interrupt a business or social meeting to respond to a telephone or e-mail message. Yet 89 percent of those surveyed found it rude for colleagues to do so.
Whether infomaniacs are less intelligent is another question. "It didn't affect their IQ at all; it affected their performance on an IQ test," says Bob Stickgold, a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard University. "When you're taking an IQ test, you probably want to be really focused. That's the antithesis of the state you get into when you do a lot of multitasking."

The human brain has evolved different modes for concentrating on a single thing versus jumping from one thing to another. "The reason we have these systems that quickly shift between each other is because what's right for you now might not be right later," Stickgold says. "There are basic brain-stem mechanisms that will cause you to shift and focus your attention on a change in stimulus."

Whether that change is a saber-toothed tiger popping out of the woods or a phone ringing suddenly, the consequences are the same. "The switch signal comes fast and powerfully. This system knows at a moment like this that what's important is to shift your state quickly, and damn the cost. And the cost is that it takes several minutes to shift back," says Stickgold. "That's the way we're wired."

** The rest of this post is by PoisonPencil **

Turn off your computer, cell phone, pager, and television.
(1) Go outside.
(2) Breathe deep.
(3) Exhale.
(4) Smile.
(5) Go back and repeat actions 2-4. At least a few times more.

:-D

Corner33

Oh, look...a window.

Window !!!

Scenic View

Just some more experimenting and fooling around in Photoshop. No pre-sketching or scanning. Only a Photoshop window and my painting skills.
It didn't turn out too badly...

I'm gonna keep plugging away and see what happens.
:-)

Ganzir

You've studied hard. You've delved into books of forbidden knowledge. You've gathered the exotic and nearly impossible to get ingredients. You've chanted all evening and night. You've made sure that the STARS ARE RIGHT.
So you cast the spell and open the gate.

Oops.

Instead of a properly working hyperdimensional gate, you now have a gate of GANZIR. That's right, you screwed up royally, and this DARK PORTAL is bad news. Now you've gotta fight off THE HOUNDS OF TINDALOS and avoid getting sucked into that EMPTY void between universes.

Oh, yeah. Don't forget asking YOG SOTHOTH to kindly put things back to normal.

Illustration Friday has proposed the word 'EMPTY' and this is my take on it. I gotta go back and consult my copy of the NECRONOMICON to see where this gate went wrong...

* sigh *

"Remember always to copy each of the formulae as I have put it down, and not to change it by one line or dot, not so much as a hair's breadth, lest it be rendered valueless, or worse: a broken line provides entrance for Those Outside, for a broken star is the Gate Of GANZIR, the Gate of Death, the Gate of The Shadows."
- Alhazred, the mad arab...

* sigh...again *

Book Meme

Ok, here is my Book Meme contribution:

NUMBER OF BOOKS ON SHELF ?

Uh, which one ? The biggest one has about 240 ( Not including maps...)

LAST BOOK PURCHASED ?

Brand new or used ? Mmmm. New would be Eragon (by Christopher Paolini). Used would be Swords and Deviltry, Swords Against Death, Swords In The Mist, The Swords of Lankhmar, and Farewell to Lankhmar ( I already had Swords' Masters ) - All of these written by Fritz Leiber.

BOOK I'M READING RIGHT NOW ?

Swords In The Mist ( Fritz Leiber ) #3 in the series about Fafrhd and the Gray Mouser.

LAST FIVE BOOKS READ ?

5. Queen of the Demonweb Pits - PAUL KIDD (second or third time, luv this series)
4. Crossroads of Twilight - ROBERT JORDAN
3. The Doctor Who Technical Manual - MARK HARRIS
2. Swords and Deviltry - FRITZ LEIBER
1. Swords Against Death - FRITZ LEIBER

IF ANYONE WANTS TO PARTICIPATE JUST REPEAT WHAT QUESTIONS APPEARED HERE AND SUPPLY YOUR OWN BOOKS / AUTHORS...

^_^

The Blemish Gnome

This is another denizen of the hidden Fey Kingdom of Kalamazoo...The Blemish Gnome.

I'm sure you've heard of him. Or at least encountered his work. Whenever your skin is blotchy and discolored, whether from mysterious bruises or puffiness in the morning, you will know that The Blemish Gnome has been hard at work.
He heard about the lil' Elm Tree Sprite who posed for my posting request from JenniferVintageByButtons, and just had to be next in line for a blog picture. He smells faintly of Calamine lotion and used bed covers. And he likes to tell off-color jokes about celebrities and famous historical artifacts. I don't remember much about his jokes other than one involving Baba Yaga's Dancing Hut and a man who suffered from terminal dandruff.

Maybe it's best if I don't remember too much...
:-D