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Friday, February 21

pastels vs fur

I've been training with my newly-acquired box of soft pastels. Some time ago I've changed my tastes and started painting mainly with soft pastels, chalk and pencils. Well, pencils have always been there. After I've decided I like the medium (soft pastels) and found the brand I liked by trial and error, I've traded my small box for big set. Not the *most* expensive pastels, I can assure you, But so far they behave decently. 

Then again, I forgot that I have an animal in the house. With watercolors or pencils, there's no immediate danger for the painting after you've finished a painting session - I always dry my watercolors before leaving them alone. As for pastels... My cat decided it'd be fun to sleep on one of my sketches and wiped quite a bit of pigment with fur. I had to dust my cat and repair the sketch.

This photo shows the 'recovery' effort, not the finished painting. Had no time at that point to do better setup.


Sunday, February 16

domestic help

I hope makers of women's lingerie would realize that nowadays most women don't employ domestic help. 
Which means there's no one to help you to *get into* that cool and hot corset with lots of tiny iron hooks (getting out is another thing). It'd be really nice if you could put one on without getting all sweaty right after taking a shower. And it'd be super neat if those little iron bastards - hooks - weren't ruining your nail polish as you work them. 
Modern women would appreciate that, thank you...

Friday, February 14

foods

lately I've been sick with flu and had to stay home most of the time. 
I felt so sleepy at times, that had to take showers in the middle of the day so that I won't sleep on my keyboard. 
strangely, cooking also helped to maintain awareness. I've cooked many things, mostly easy-to-do ofc. like roasted chicken, pilau, chilli, fried noodles, omelets... yes, those are easy-to-do in my book, and I love chilli and pilau - not only for flavor, but also because you can leave them be and they'll practically cook themselves. 
this later transformed into a meal: 


I'm a fan of spicy food and in our company I can tolerate the most hot pepper. even though I've been treated (with tablets) for early stages of appendicitis several years ago. figures, my appendicitis doesn't like seeds of strawberries and other such things, but doesn't mind spices. at least not as much as it minds strawberry seeds. 


Tuesday, February 11

an island


It's a sketch - or a doodle - I've made one day, while talking to my friend.We were discussing what to put in here... 
What's peculiar about this pic, is that it started innocent with woods and crystal clear water.
Then somehow the volcano came to be. Then ocean made land into an island. Then beach and waves.
And last touch of idiocy - alien-egg-shaped boulder on the beach. An example what strange things collective mind can create :)




Wednesday, February 5

Labyrinth

also I must confess I've just discovered this game for myself:



been playing it quite excessively. excessively like 'several matches' each day.

the game isn't popular here. to tell the truth, I've never heard of it before I saw it on Google play. and I've just checked - retailers don't stock it here. a waste, really, I could buy a set to play with friends on Saturdays.

Sochi 2014

on the other hand, 
I've been laughing hard today, reading reports from Sochi Olympics. 
Oh wait, the games haven't even started, but the fun is here. 

When I say 'fun', I mean the incompetence surrounding the whole affair. 
Twitter, for example, is buzzing with tweets from journalists arriving for the games. Their story are horrid - and believable. Believable for someone who knows firsthand how things work in countries like the one in question. 
I encourage you to read some coverages about misfortunes of journalists in Sochi. Broadens your perspective. This article is only a tiny bit of information floating around: http://t.co/Cs0ZiQPxON 

Yes, I laughed. 
But it's not a laughable matter when a huge, enormous country is sinking in corruption and incompetence. Open manholes on sidewalks isn't a laughable matter. Capitalism at its best. What has it to do with capitalism, you may ask. Nothing and everything. 

And yet another thought - why don't they build ONE Olympic park and host games there. Ok, maybe 4-5 locations around the world. Why this charade every 4 years? Who's benefiting from it, besides those who get 'returns' and are able to buy nth sports car?

we said our farewell to January... and?

people keep asking me 'how are you?', 'what's going on there?'.
I prefer answering 'I'm fine, thanks' and  'read the news'... 
neither statement will help you understand, though. 

everything - even such commonplace word as 'fine' - depends on your point of view. 

if I were to say sth about our current political situation, I'd say that I'm tired. tired of it, tired of reading news, tired of people discussing the news while maintaining their routine lives. 
it feels like a madhouse governed by fellow madmen with doctors coming in from outside every now and then offering insincere 'advice' .
yeah... can you trust a madman to run a madhouse?