Artist Trading Cards

I went to Michael's today to get some paints (there's a 40% off all paints coupon now), and found a cool product called "Artist Trading Cards" it's just a little pack of canvases, I bought a assorted pack for 1.99 which included: vellum bristol, smooth bristol, canvas, textured, water color, 1 illustration board and 1 acrylic.

The reverse side of the packaging once you get it open has an interesting history:

What are artist trading cards?
Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) are miniature pieces of art that are traded around the world. Artists create, trade and collect art at organized "swap" events, either in person or online. It is a great way to meet other artists and share your work. The only official rule for ATCs is the size: 2.5" x 3.5".

How did the movement start?
In 1997, M. Vanci Stirnemann, a Swiss artist, created 1200 cards by hand as a part of an exhibit. On the last day, he invited others to create their own cards and trade with him during the closing reception. After that, the movement took off as other artists organized major "swap" events! Today, there are ATC swaps in almost every major city around the world. There are also many online swaps.

There's more info here if you're interested: Strathmore

I'll post any that I make, maybe I'll do one tonight!

Fritterotica

When I got home from the store I didn't even take the time to put the ice cream up, I laid the box down on the counter, and like the beast, split the red hot manager's special tag with my raging index finger.
The box top was thrust open without thought, usually I see myself as a loving creature, a man with care and gentle passion, but something else was in control.
The smell of fried pastries, fruit, and sticky sugary glaze filled my nostrils and it was said that you could see a fire being ignited in my eyes, and I feel as though there really were little fires being ignited all throughout my body and mind, fires of the id, fires that rise up from the bottom and burn the divine with desire.
My salival glands began to quiver with excitement, the first emissions of salival fluid began to be released as I wrapped my fingers around a crispy fritter, oh yes, it's a cherry one. Delicious.
My arm, hand, mind, eyes, they were no longer working as individual body parts, but as a machine, working toward a single goal, the goal of unification between the fritter and my face.
My teeth break the sugar glaze, and continue through the dough and cherries, my nip-nips, they get "rock solid" as my mind expands to the edges of the universe.
The sensations are so strong that I lose myself in the process.
I come back to my individual state, my fallen state... fallen from that eternal heaven that fritter was the temporary key. Oh! This is my struggle, finding the keys to unlock that door to that place, one key will work for a while, then it's another. Damn those slippery keys!
As I sit here writing this now, I know there's a box of frits out on the kitchen counter and a bottle of milk just waiting to dribble down my bearded chin to my hollowed chest that will be and is filled with ecstasy and sorrow to the most extreme degrees.
What key will unlock the oceanic experience today? Will I be able to find it? That is for me to find out, and to drink deeply of the ichor that floweth from the teats and deaks of the godesses and gods. I am a tick who hath burrowed deep within the flesh, and there is a tick that hath burrowed within mine and as it drinks I drink.
Hell understood is heaven, eat fritters, unify in life and in death!
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law!

32. Go Upward

When you do something wrong, you must always use it to build rightness -- which is the same as happiness. Never permit a mistake to push you downward into pain and self-hate. Instead, allow the error to carry you upward to where you can see why it happened. Maybe you snap angrily at someone, then see its wrongness. Remain with your rightness of seeing its wrongness. That heals you. Each day you will make fewer and fewer harmful mistakes.

Dope Show

Anagrams

The United States of America:

• A Eradicates Men Outfits
  
• A Sectarianised Me Of Tut
  
• A Academies Fine To Trust
  
• A Academies Fetus It Torn
  
• A Academies Titters Of Nu

On the Bondage of the Will

From the wiki article: "On the Bondage of the Will"

His conclusions are that unredeemed human beings are dominated by Satan: Satan as the prince of this world never lets go of what he considers his own unless he is overpowered by a stronger power, i.e. God. When God redeems a person, he redeems the entire person, including the will, which then is liberated to serve God.

and I thought this was a good joke, the wiki author thought he was "proud" of his essay On the Bound Will...

Regarding [the plan] to collect my writings in volumes, I am quite cool and not at all eager about it because, roused by a Saturnian hunger, I would rather see them all devoured. For I acknowledge none of them to be really a book of mine, except perhaps the one On the Bound Will and the Catechism.

Dynamics in the Quaternions