FTF12: Plutarch Proverb

"An empty mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled."

-Plutarch

In honor of the last Free Text Friday, here is an experiment: photographic Free Text Friday.

Instead of Comic Sans

On the off-chance that anyone's looking here, here is Blambot: http://blambot.com/fonts_dialogue.shtml

FTF11: Grr

"I think Crab, my dog, be the sourest-natured dog that lives."

- Wm. Shakespeare in Two Gentlemen of Verona

Blender resources

On the off chance that someone thinks to look here for more information, I will provide some.

Blender can be downloaded from blender.org. It is available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and a lot of things you probably haven't heard of. So no complaining that it won't work on your system, because unless you use an old TRS-80, you can probably find a version which works.

Useful resources? Right here, friend. Also check out BlenderArtists, which is the active user community.

What's that you say? You say this is all well and good but you doubt that the software can be used to make movies? Guess again! The Blender foundation has created two short films to put an end to that myth, and a third is in progress. Check out the weird one and the silly one.

Also, I apologize for the ten-years crack. That was uncalled-for and misleading. The truth is that you can easily learn the basics in a few days, and with enough time invested, become quite skilled within a year or two. There are a lot of people who are much better than me who haven't been with it nearly as long, so don't let my pretentious airs sway you. Whenever I open my mouth I embarrass myself, and yet I keep opening it anyway, to the detriment of everyone. Sorry.

FTF10: Zap

Every year in the US, 625 people are struck by lightning.














Hobbes: What are you doing?

Calvin: Counterfeiting money. It's really hard. Look at all the little lines on this bill.

Hobbes: Ol' George has the gout, I see.

Calvin: I said it was hard!

FTF9: Squishy and Sinister

The tentacles of the giant Arctic jellyfish can reach 120 feet (36.6 meters) in length

FTF8: Watch Your Step

"Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."

-William Butler Yeats

FTF7: Unsinkable, Unpredictable

"The only certainty is that nothing is certain."

- Pliny the Elder

FTF6: Quiet, you

"Powerlessness and silence go together."

- Margaret Atwood

FTF5: And you know it

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy."

-Thich Nhat Hanh

FTF4: Kafkarama

"A book must be an ice-axe to break the sea frozen inside us"

- Kafka

I used this same gimmick way back in the bird project, and it still works nicely. Maybe I can figure out a way to use it for the Raab prize.

Metanoia

Click to enlargify.

FTF3: Winey

"In spite of a sluggish economy, U.S. wine consumption registered its 14th consecutive annual gain in 2007, as Americans drank more wine than Italians for the first time ever and now trail only the French in total wine consumed."

-Wine Spectator

Blogger is wreaking havoc with the text, but it's the image that counts. Stupid Blogger, anyway.

FTF2: Watery Wisdom

Click to enlarge- Blogger won't let me show it full-size

"A portion of the water you drink has already been drunk by someone else, maybe several times over." - University of Texas School of Public Health, "Fun Food Facts"

Free! Cummings! Friday! (FTF 01)

Nothing measurable matters. - E. E. Cummings

Looks Like It's Time For...

Yeah. This thing again. Hi everybody. I don't know most of you, but I guess we'll be acquainted with each other soon enough. I'm John W. Allie, and the W. really is not there just so that I can sound pretentious. I started using it a while ago for reasons beyond the scope of this already boring paragraph and I got used to it. You can call me John, though, and "Allie" is pronounced the same as "alley."

My summer was pretty good but it could have been better. I'm glad to be back now, and taking Illustration, Figure Painting, Writing for Children, Linguistics, and an art Independent Study. Yes, these are all exciting things.

For those of you who don't know me, you can check out my website, or you can jump straight to my webcomic, which is where all the good stuff is anyway. The writing is better than the art, though, I will warn you up front. It's a learning experience. Anyway, I read a lot, and write, and don't watch any TV besides Star Trek, and think webcomics are the bee's knees, and I suspect that by the end of the semester the class will be fairly evenly divided between people who want to be my friend and people who can't wait to be rid of me.

What the heck is a triffid? Always ask Wikipedia first, because Wikipedia knows about everything.

Enough blather. I will see you in class.