Netflix & Doctor Who

Sorry, movie lovers. We're still going through the 2005 season of Doctor Who and enjoying it a lot. We highly recommend it.

We started getting our movies through Netflix in October 2005. We got sick and tired of getting DVDs from Blockbuster that wouldn't play when we got them home. The mail service is very convenient. Last week we received the very first disc from Netflix that wouldn't play on our DVD player. That's one bad disc out of about 190. Blockbusters odds were close to 40/60.

It was also very easy to replace the bad DVD. I got online, answered two multiple choice questions and my DVD replacement was on its way. How easy is that!?

If you're still hedging about doing a mail service, I hope this pushes you over the edge!

SHAPE icons

Last week I worked on the logo and icons for a Community Life series for Hillsdale Baptist Church. The purpose of the series is to discuss and discover how your own personal SHAPE fits into the church's core values. SHAPE stands for Spiritual Gifts, Heart, Ability, Personality, and Experience.

I thought the puzzle piece looked like a little person. I divided it into 5 color sections, each representing a part of the little person's SHAPE.

I also developed icons for each aspect of SHAPE. Each week a different aspect will be highlighted so they needed an icon to represent that week. I also designed the PowerPoint slides.

I'm really pleased with the overall look of the whole design. I thought is was utilitarian and generic. The icons needed to be as broad and recognizable as possible. The whole look needed to work across all demographics. I liked the really heavy borders and rounded corners.

Doctor Who * * * *

No new movies again this week. Instead we've been renting the 2005 season of Doctor Who. Some of our friends, who I don't see as Sci-fi buffs, are fans of the show so I had to check it out.

I tend to be a purest. I always read a book series starting with book one, if I start reading a new blog I start with the first entry and I prefer seeing any season of a TV show from it's first episode. Doctor Who has been on since 1963 so I looked for CDs of the very first episode. 1979 was as far back as I could get. The note on Netflix said, "Die-hard fans consider "The City of Death" one of the series' greatest episodes...". Well, 1979 it is, then. Should be good.

Quite frankly, I hated it. How dull. I must be missing something and I believe it's the first 13 years. My friends can't be fans of something like this. Better go to 2005.

Much better! Great characters! Before I was even half way into it I liked the actors and characters so much I wanted to know all about them. If you don't have story, you've got to have characters. If you don't have characters or story, you better have some damn good f/x.

MyGeek is enjoying Doctor Who so we'll be watching this for the next couple of weeks and see how it holds up.

Tattoo Art

On our adventure to the beach, Fluffy and I decided to temporarily commemorate the occasion with henna tattoos. Of course, the artist is not allowed to use true henna anymore because someone had an allergic reaction.

Fluffy and I know it would be impossible to choose a real tattoo because it took us forever to pick these little guys. I thought I might thrill MyGeek by having his name (temporarily) inked across my bicep but that was out of my budget. Once I spied this SPS inspired ditty, I went with it. It is still visible on the outside of my right ankle. I should have had it done in a more prominent location (like my forehead). No one has even noticed it.

The process was so quick and simple, I actually looked online about getting into the temporary tattoo business myself but quickly decided I didn't need any more art projects. These people are making a killing at this, though. Let me tell ya.

Closed Door - SPS Card

This isn't great art but it's my first SPS card for the study of Esther, just to let you know what I've been working on.

The first week we looked at hiding who we really are. Is there a part of your past that you're ashamed of? For me that's a big YES. I've always felt like I'm going to spend the rest of my life living down and undoing the reputation I developed and honed the first half of my life. I wore a lapel pin expressed my motto: "beyond bitch". I wore it proudly and became that motto (I am nothing if not focused and an achiever).

But, this chorus by Geoff Bullock expresses how I should think about that past:

I will never be the same again
I can never return, I've closed the door
I will walk the path, I'll run the race
And I will never be the same again.

The door is closed and I need to quit opening it. I need to see myself as God sees me.


Art notes: I cut a door with an x-acto knife in a giant playing card (4" x 6.5") and then traced it with a black sharpie marker. The "CLOSED" sign is a picture off the internet. The "beyond bitch" button was done in prismacolor pencils on drawing paper glued to the back of the playing card. I laid down a heavy layer of black and then scratched the words out. Didn't work the way I wanted but it's o.k.

IF: Illuminated Initial

Click image to see a larger view.

It's been about two weeks since I've seen any movies. I went to the beach one weekend (ahhh!) and then I've been working on this illuminated initial.

Over on SoulPerSuit, we are taking an artistic look at the story of Esther. Each week we delve into the history of the Jews around 486-465 BC and the roles the characters played, and then create a collage of personal impression about the story. SPS calls this "Playing Your Hand."

At the beginning of each week, SPS has something called "Shuffle the Deck" which is a silly and fun creative exercise to get you kick-started creatively, sort like warm up exercises. One aspect of the story of Esther is about identity so the Shuffle last week was to make an illuminated initial about yourself. I had so much fun with this exercise. Can you tell?

The main trunk of the "R" is a tree that represents my love for books and movies.

The scarf around the trunk represents my love of computers.

The cross in the closed loop of the "R" shows God sealed at my center.

The orb represents MyGeek and our union.

The rose represents art and beauty. Here's where things got a little self-therapeutic. The rose is crying because I am letting the Critic take it away from me. The Critic is not bound to me; his chain is broken but I won't banish him out of the reach of the rose.

This drawing was suppose to serve two purposes. Last weeks Illustration Friday (IF) word was "moon". I would have loved to post this but I didn't get it done on time.

The Art of Can

What do you do with your Red Bull cans?

Since 1997, Red Bull has held The Art of Can competition. Anyone can enter. Using tons of creativity, create a piece of art using Red Bull cans. The results are amazing. This year's competitors are getting ready to go on exhibit. Check out past entries on The Art of Can web site.