The Lucky Lad

Strings, a poem

2012-02-14T14:12:00.002-05:00

STRINGS

All the guitar strings
do not have to be changed
in Spring, but like the green
sprouts in the garden
they are a sign of new life,
the rebirth of a love
almost forgotten.
Will summer bring music
this year? I have promised
it to myself
in shining bronze.

Stephen Brooke ©2012

A Valentine Wish...

2012-02-14T08:44:00.001-05:00

Bon appetite, Kitty.

Tribe of Trolls

2012-02-11T18:45:00.000-05:00

This is sort of the graphics equivalent of the doggerel poetry I throw out here occasionally. Quick and not very serious. None the less, it might end up on a tee in my shop. I was actually fooling around with troll concepts for illustrating my book The Contrary Fairy when I took a side step and created this.

Secession, a poem

2012-02-11T16:53:00.001-05:00

Secession

Should I secede from the Kingdom of Us,
might you send armies to win me back?
I could not stand against your attack;
you know I am not valorous.

Leave me to rule my phantom nation,
receiving embassies who bring
the homage suited to a king,
before I must resume my station.

This, my illusion, I must keep
for some short while, my night's last dream
where free and bold and strong I seem --
yet I'll awaken from my sleep.

In solitary council may
I vote, in time, this schism's end;
allow our fractured union mend,
let you, as ever, have your way.

Stephen Brooke ©2012

I would have to describe this as rather first draft-ish, essentially an idea (despite being all rhyme-y and everything) but probably not really a finished idea. Oh, I suppose it can stand on its one but I'm not satisfied right now. And I'm the only audience I actually need to please!

Gardeners

2012-02-11T13:53:00.000-05:00

Who was our last President who gardened? I know Eisenhower did. Not a bad amateur painter either.

Wine and Chocolate

2012-02-10T13:44:00.003-05:00

my annual Valentine's Day poem...

Wine and Chocolate

If I ply you with wine
will you be my Valentine?
Or does it take chocolate too?
I could buy a box for you.

But don't go asking for jewelry;
I can't afford the tomfoolery
of baubles and trinkets and such
and know I haven't the touch

for romance of any sort
or the paying of court.
Heck, it's even hard
to choose a Valentine card!

I'd say 'humbug' but remember
I did that back in December;
so I'll just forget the day;
tomorrow it all goes away.

Stephen Brooke ©2012

Spiritual

2012-02-10T12:40:00.000-05:00

And all joking aside, by organized I do not mean belonging to an 'organized religion.' I mean having an organized set of beliefs. That is religion.

Beethoven

2012-02-10T07:58:00.001-05:00

Gee, Ludwig looks a lot like Johnny Cash in this pic, doesn't he? Created in Corel Draw and Gimp.

Nothing

2012-02-10T07:54:00.000-05:00

NOTHING

I would destroy your world and laugh
for it means nothing.
I would slaughter your children and smile
for it means nothing.

Should I die on tomorrow's cross,
it means nothing;
whether I laugh or am in pain,
it means nothing.

Love and hate fade to nothing;
time and fate fade to nothing.
Every light fades to nothing;
every life fades to nothing.

I hold you in my heart's embrace
but it means nothing.
I hold a gun to my head
but it means nothing.

instrumental noise here...

It means nothing;
I feel nothing.
It means nothing;
I feel nothing.

Promise made is promise broken,
for it means nothing.
Punishment or crimes forgiven,
it all means nothing.

Love and hate fade to nothing;
time and fate fade to nothing.
Every light fades to nothing;
every life fades to nothing.

It means nothing;
I feel nothing.
It means nothing;
I feel nothing.

Stephen Brooke ©2012

There is a part of me that knows of nihilistic despair. It's only a part of me. So I wrote this rough lyric even though I'd be unlikely to ever perform such a song. It means nothing, after all! :)

Hammer

2012-02-10T07:52:00.000-05:00

More play-practice with graphics programs (primarily Corel Draw).

Baseball

2012-02-06T16:57:00.000-05:00

Baseball is a play, a drama, with acts that begin and end, and characters who come and go on its stage. Give me a story if you want to keep my attention.

Fairy Cover?

2012-02-05T14:51:00.000-05:00

A mockup of a possible idea for the cover of my upcoming children's chapter book, 'The Contrary Fairy.' Nothing is set in paper!

A Room Without Books

2012-02-05T11:01:00.002-05:00

Okay, I've been on a bit of a Chesterton kick lately. But he just has so many great quotes!

Keys and Parrots

2012-02-03T08:41:00.002-05:00

KEYS AND PARROTS

It's fresh and wholesome for some,
meals of peas and carrots,
while I'd choose bottles of rum,
a life of Keys and parrots!

They boast of how early they're waking,
how much they can bench and curl,
but I've more interest in making
some winsome wench my girl!

Oh, and then there's meditation,
the level of calm they might reach;
I've come to the same destination
beneath a palm on the beach.

On all these things we must part;
it's simple why this would be:
always the Key to my heart
is bounded by the salt sea.

So, be healthy and work and run
but keep your peas and carrots,
while I grow old in the sun;
I choose Keys and parrots.

Stephen Brooke ©2012

Very much a throwaway written around the 'keys and parrots' phrase -- which might reappear some other day in some other form.

When the inspiration isn't there for deep, meaningful poetry, write light verse. It keeps the brain working and, who knows, it might stimulate something more serious.

Faun and Games

2012-02-02T19:48:00.001-05:00

So, I finished getting all the new designs up at the Emporium -- though I should still do a little non-essential housekeeping there -- and naturally had new ideas come along as I worked. For instance, the little faun silhouette I created a couple months back returns with some changes and text.

It's good to have a lot of designs available, even if some are really just throw-aways. It brings people in; if they don't buy one thing they might just buy another. It's the internet business plan and works for any sort of merchandise. Books, music, whatever -- it's going to be there online 'forever' (assuming you leave it up) so there is not hurry to have a big seller, a 'best seller.' Just keep selling, day after day, and think long-term.

And keep plugging that product, of course.

It Feels Like...Florida!

2012-02-01T09:03:00.000-05:00

It looks like we are going to have an extremely nice weekend coming up, weather-wise -- warm, sunny, and spring-like. Perfect to visit Florida and hit the beach!

But I'm already in Florida and can't get to the beach so I'll putter around here. My fencing is supposed to come in tomorrow and I'll be putting that up. That's not much of a job; just forming a small fence to go around each tree and some of the other plantings. The rest will continue to have protective milk crates over them.

Today is forecast to be rainy so I'll transplant some more trees. It's also time to fill a few flats with potting soil and start some seeds. Flowers only; I don't have time to do a vegetable garden.

I'd be making my own potting soil from my compost were it not so unbalanced at this time. I had almost no 'green' matter (grass clippings and such) to add to it last year as so little grew! So it's heavy on the manure and such. As soon as I can start mowing I'll work some of that into what I have.

There are plenty of fallen leaves, of course, but those get raked up around the blueberries, elderberries and hazelnuts. I'll have more leaves, too, as I ringed a couple big oaks and they should be dying. That will let in more light to my new trees.

The camelias bloomed beautifully and are now past their prime. With this warm weather it won't be long before other blossoms appear. The pears often bloom in February anyway so I'll expect that to happen soon. Red buds, azaleas -- they'll be coming.

Meanwhile, I'm continuing to add new material at The Insolent Lad Emporium and also getting the store linked up to my own site. When I've finished this -- and it does take time with my connection -- I'll turn my efforts back to the publishing end of things. I really need to get the Arachis Press site set up; right now it's essentially just one page with links to the store at Lulu and to my AP blog (where most of the important info is anyway).

Text, Tax, Whatever

2012-01-28T18:53:00.000-05:00

A little wasted time -- not something for the shop, I think! Incidentally, I've uploaded and got a couple designs on line at the Emporium today. More as I can.

Protection

2012-01-27T07:39:00.000-05:00

I've figured out that Tucky doesn't want in my mom's room when it thunders. She wants to be in whatever room my mom is in.

Obviously, she doesn't think Mom is going to protect her so I assume it's the other way around -- she's looking to protect Mom. It's her herding instincts taking over. Has to make sure her flock is all together and safe!

A pretty massive front passed through the area yesterday but we avoided any heavy storm activity here on Peanut Road. Just plenty of welcome rain, though it might have been better to have it spread out over a longer period.

It'll help what I've planted so far grow, anyway. I've ordered fencing to protect my trees and won't put any more into the ground until it arrives. The dogs just like to chew on a stick and it sometimes turns out to be one I planted!

A bed full of dogs at four in the morning,
they jump on me without warning!
Lick my ears, lick my nose,
lick any body part that shows
above the covers, so pull them high...
I'll get up, doggies, by and by!

I left the flap open last night and Tucky's little buddy came over to visit from next door way too early. Oddly, I'd dreamed earlier in the night that a very large orange cat had come in and was perched on the end of my bed. Then all its fur fell out...I guess I've been cleaning up enough shed hair lately that it's getting to me.

Penny Candy

2012-01-26T12:16:00.000-05:00

Another design I'm working up for the Emporium. This would be the version for black/dark tees.

Bars

2012-01-25T13:06:00.000-05:00

Until, oh maybe seven years ago, I had never gone into a bar except as a performer (or support for a performer). And aside from those two or three times, I haven't since. I'm not a bar person.

Not because I don't drink but because it's expensive and, well, kind of boring. I would never have gone in if my date didn't want to. I can sit at home with a glass of wine and a book and be much better entertained. With or without a date.

Having fun has never been much fun for me. I admittedly enjoy working more than relaxing. Shoot, I even tend to be jealous of the time I might spend on a relationship. So much to do!

* * *

I'm slooowwwwly updating my Insolent Lad Emporium at Cafe Press. The interface there is not friendly to my dial-up connection but it's getting done bit by bit. I'm finishing the consolidation of all my old stores into the one new shop. Eventually I'll attempt to get the new designs up too.

* * *

The passing of my brother-in-law Bill James serves to remind me that I will be losing my mother. How soon? Only God knows; Mom is 93 now but in surprisingly good physical health. That's a year and change older than Bill was.

It's a bit regrettable that Bill never got around to writing a memoir. Perhaps Jeanne has enough material from listening to his stories to attempt something. He certainly had an interesting life (including a career as a safecracker).

But back to my mom: she continues to drift further into dementia. I assure you that it hurts when she asks me who I am. It's like losing a loved one over again each day.

More on SiteBuilder...

2012-01-23T19:39:00.000-05:00

...and more to bore you, I suspect! Anyway, I stated before that I rather like Yahoo's SiteBuilder. It's not perfect but it gives me the sort of artistic freedom I expect from most of the other programs I use. As I said, writing html is like trying to paint a picture with a typewriter.

Well, okay, I'll do little html edits here and there (like adding font stacks). But I don't like html editors in general, even the wysiwyg sort. They still seem stodgy and slow down my creativity. Could you see graphic artists accepting those sort of interfaces in Adobe Photoshop or Corel Draw?

I did get it working in compatibility mode on Windows 7 64 bit. I'm not sure I even needed to do that. But I have continued to have one big problem -- also on Windows XP -- and that is their upload procedure. It gives me lots of trouble and that may be caused in large part by my slow and erratic dial-up connection. I finally got it to work on my Windows 7 machine by turning off the secure connection.

So it's my my web site computer from here on. I can get some serious updating done now. And I won't need to change my software!

Family

2012-01-23T07:51:00.000-05:00

My brother-in-law, Bill James, passed away last night. It came somewhat suddenly, although he had previously suffered strokes. Bill was the husband of my sister Jeanne, father of 'Mean' Mary and Frank James, as well as their older siblings James Howard, Robert, April (Ritter) and Floyd.

My condolences and prayers go to the family.

Skiffle

2012-01-22T20:11:00.000-05:00

I'm old enough to remember when Skiffle music enjoyed its brief popularity in this country. More specifically, I recall Lonnie Donegan's 'Does Your Chewing Gun Lose It's Flavor' on the radio. I'm not certain, but I suspect that one of my older siblings may have had the 45 too.

For those unfamiliar with Skiffle, it was something of a reworking of American jug band-like music in 50s England, adding elements of the music hall tradition. The name 'skiffle' was used in America for amateur blues-oriented bands playing at house parties and such as far back as the beginning of the Twentieth Century.

Within a few years, Rock and Roll and the Folk Revival displaced Skiffle's modest popularity. There is no doubt it played a role in the renewed interest in Folk in this country and it certainly was pivotal in the development of the British rock sound of the 60s. Practically every English musician of that period cut his teeth on Skiffle.

It also helped form the Punk aesthetic: modestly skilled players banging away loudly and enthusiastically. So, naturally, being modestly skilled myself I have a liking for it!

Lonnie Donegan would be one reason I play around with a plectrum banjo these days. It's just the right sort of instrument for Skiffle, loud and relatively easy to play. A certain amount of my own song-writing might fit well into a Skiffle repertoire. Except people would probably call it 'folk-punk' these days. You say potato, I say 'tater.

~ ~ ~

All my weeping willows are coming out in leaf, thanks to the rain and warm weather. I do hope a hard freeze does not knock them back but that's a probable occurrence, considering the current date. We'll see. I continue to put in my peach trees when I have a free block of time. Three or four at a go is enough. I am going to have a LOT of watering to do this year.

~ ~ ~

I'm trying to get Yahoo's Sitebuilder to work on this computer. I am assured that it is possible to get it operating properly on 64 bit Windows 7. If I had high speed internet, I would use their beta online version (apparently the direction they are going with the program) but I know from experience how much of a pain that can be with slow dial-up. Better off working off-line and using ftp to update.

The reason I use Sitebuilder is 1) I am an artist, not a programmer, so the drag and drop interface works much better when I'm designing than writing out html (writing html is sort of like writing about painting instead of using a brush) and 2) it is way more versatile than most of the simple template-based programs out there -- the results can look completely custom if you put the work in. If I wanted a preset look, I'd just use a blogging service.

I could always switch over to CoffeeCup's VisualSite but it's a bit like Sitebuilder's dim-witted little brother. Not to mention the work involved in completely redoing the site in a new editor.

next morning: I'm getting everything to work except upload, using all the suggested compatibility settings. Whether that's a function of my slow connection or a program problem, who knows? I'll keep trying...I wonder if I could just ftp the pages in a different program.

Stuff, On Line and Off

2012-01-21T09:18:00.000-05:00

All the writing/illustrating projects I've mentioned have been pushed aside temporarily, as I have been working up new designs for The Insolent Lad Emporium, my shop at Cafe Press.

Since I am creating these on my computer, rather than a drawing board, it's easier to work on them at the moment. Once I expand back into my studio area, come warmer weather, that will change. In the mean time, I have three new designs to upload and more in the development stage. Not to mention that I need to revise the stuff I have at CP -- I still have some 'basic' shops with designs that should either be jettisoned or moved to the main Emporium store.

I shouldn't ignore the shop. I really make more money there than anywhere else and there is loads of room for more merchandise. At any rate, watch for announcements when I get the new graphics up. Mostly for tee shirts, maybe some posters, mugs, etc. We'll see what fits where.

* * *

Now and again, I try to check my Twitter account. It's pretty much useless and unusable with my connection. I can sort of follow others there but forget about me posting or anything like that. As with MySpace, it just hasn't been used the past year.

* * *

I've taken to sometimes specifying Tahoma as body text font at my sites. It was designed to be the same size as Arial and Helvetica but is more readable on a computer screen. It is quite widely installed on computers but, for some reason, not used that much on line. If the viewer does not have Tahoma installed, it should display their default sans font, in most cases Arial, so everything should still fit and look right.*

It might be noted, though, that all the Windows Vista and 7 machines have the newer 'Clear Type' fonts installed so more and more of those who visit our sites can use Calibri or Segoe UI or such. These are, on whole, nicer looking fonts than the old standards. Calibri is certainly an improvement on Arial!

I'm not ready to attempt any @font-face sort of font embedding at this point. The whole process seems too much trouble. If I have a document that calls for uncommon fonts, I'll put it up as a PDF.

*Strictly speaking, Tahoma is just a teensy wider than Arial (as is Bit Stream's Helvetica clone, Swiss721) but unless you have extremely long lines it's not enough to make a noticeable difference.

* * *

It's been rather spring-like so I've been doing spring-like chores around the place. Spring cleaning and moving of furniture...some of that, but I intend to hold off for a month or so on most of it.

Outdoors, I've been transplanting, cutting, etc. Moved all the mulberries, working on the peaches. Got all my hedge plants in place. Pecans and willows are in the ground. Pears and cherries later.

And I bought a good-sized chain saw. I'm making space for the trees I actually want. Actually, I'll just ring the big oaks and leave them up for the woodpeckers to play with. The biggest oak, though, is probably too much for me to tackle and too close to the house to chance it anyway.

Knots, a little poem

2012-01-20T11:39:00.000-05:00

KNOTS

Without a few knots, we'd fall apart:
Thou shalt not lie nor break my heart.

The ties that bind, too easily loosed,
Lead us only to be seduced

By any whim, the road untried;
It's best we keep our knots well tied.

Stephen Brooke ©2012

Every 'not' is not necessarily a bad thing. No, it's knot!

(I wrote this quickly after seeing a FaceBook post this morning that basically had the opposite message. And I consider both valid.)