Random Chatter

[OldJake666]

I think we need one of these threads, so we don't have a billion little threads of odd random thoughts throughout the lounge. I VAGUELY remember something like this existing, but perhaps not, and if it DID exist, it's clearly dead now. Post anything you want, whether it's weird, funny, sad, questioning, etc.

I'll go:

Today I think I finally know how people who only post art on DeviantArt feel like once they first post on ConceptArt. I was posting some poems on little poetry communities and receiving basically only positive feedback. Against my own wisdom, I blindly believed that positive feedback and was feeling sort of decent about myself. And then I posted on another, much more professional website that actually publishes the works of renowned contemporary poets throughout the world. My poems were basically ripped to shreds. Unfortunately the poems were NOT critiqued so constructively as one might be on CA even if they came from DA. My poetry was called bland, immature, juvenile, and cliche'. One person even quoted Keats who said that "if poetry come not as naturally as the leaves of a tree it has better not come at all" and that perhaps it shouldn't come from me. And then I found myself with my guitar struggling to find a chord progression, a melody... ANYTHING (other than some stupid little riff I wrote that sounded a bit like Opeth) that I can build a song out of. If the man himself is the medium of the artwork, it's days such as these that give me cause to question my own self worth. And with this (and other sources) the depression is seeping slowly but steadily back in.

And with that I close my random thought. Mine wasn't so cheerful, but that doesn't mean that yours has to be about struggle.

[TinyBird]

I think we need one of these threads, so we don't have a billion little threads of odd random thoughts throughout the lounge. I VAGUELY remember something like this existing, but perhaps not, and if it DID exist, it's clearly dead now.

You do realize that people still will post their own random thought threads (because everyone's opinion is special enough to warrant a thread solely for them), at least after this disappears from the page? Then somebody remembers vaguely this thread but decides that this thread is clearly dead and they won't bother searching for it.

Unless the admins actually start combining these threads to this one.

[ArtZealot]

Just to key off of the thing you said, Jake, about the first time posting on concept art and getting criticism. My random thought after reading that was just to say, that's what i love about this site, is how everyone (or most people) are serious about improving, and it's a great place to get good, honest critiques.

Everyone gets it, and generally you get honest critiques, and everyone understands that just about no matter what you say within reason, it isn't going to hurt the other persons feelings but is almost better than any compliment; a critique on someone's work.

Anyway, that's my quick random thought, just a little CA appreciation. I got a good crit on my sketchbook the other night. It was short and sweet but really got me thinking, and that's what i fuckin love about this site, is those random critiques that make me go "i never thought of that". A good place to get critiques is hard to find, but this site is a great place to find them.

[Brendan N]

We are defined by the dialogue between who we are and who we want to be.

[Smashed_Pumpkin]

The problem with "post your whatever" threads is that people usually are too wrapped up in posting "their whatever" to respond to others. And most "This is my thought" threads are made to get some sort of response in return. Or at least that's my little thought for the moment.

[Raoul Duke]

I know what your talking about Jake. I'm always attempting to work on a comic of some sort. When you slave away for months on end to realize you did a bad job is always devistating. You just have to learn from your mistakes, suck it up like a big boy, dust off your shouler and get back on the horse.

Now onto to my random thought.
Art Has The Power To Kill The Yuppies! If you think about it they are a product of an uptight, chickenshit culture. Art is the biproduct of the energy of a thinking culture. Good art should offend the sensibilities of an absent soul, because it's a reminder. Anybody open to the concept of lifestyle can appreciate art.

[Beeston]

One person even quoted Keats who said that "if poetry come not as naturally as the leaves of a tree it has better not come at all" and that perhaps it shouldn't come from me.

It's interesting because I have made a few sketches over the years with little snippets of poetry that vaguely resembles Beowulf/Tolkien because in terms of poetry that's where I get my inspiration. As far as poetry then goes I prefer the type where you try to nail the symbolism, rhythm, meter and mood of the poem to a tee rather than writing things that naturally come to you as most poets seem to do on the surface - like planning a composition before you start a painting in comparison to throwing paint at a canvas and calling it a masterpiece simply because it was made with emotion. I guess I'm saying that if you haven't looked into the technical aspects of constructing a poem, just like not looking into the technical aspect of composing a picture then of course it's going to have issues.

Besides, poets can sometimes be elitists.

So my little contribution of the week is that I now have had a Job at a Surveying firm for almost a month now, which consists of Aerial mapping and photogrammetry. Think of it as using the polygon lasso tool to build lines which define boundaries of properties, structures, paths, roads, mountains, etc. What you get at the end is a full contour map accurate to about half a foot.

It's my first REAL taste of the outside world as I'm working from 8.30 to 5, four days a week (Soon to be five) as opposed to being an academic my whole life. I'm glad for it though, because it (probably) means that I'm going to learn the meaning of having my spirit broken, to be able to force oneself to work even at times when disinclined to do so... Doing the normal thing that every middle class westerner does. That'll make the few hours of painting a week a pleasure, every spare minute of time on the train a commodity, every quick sketch before bed a resource and it should teach the value we should invest in every second of our lives, which is something I should have done from the beginning.

It's a shame though because a lot of the people I met that went from academic institute to academic institute (High school to animation school) don't REALLY know what kind of labour this profession requires, and all those people who are falsely told by marketing departments nationwide that academia alone is the path to your dream Career are in for a surprise. And they are legion.

Anyway, yeah. Go this thread. My only hope is that it goes through healthy tangents upon healthy tangents rather than people arguing with each other as is the case with a lot of discussion threads.

[Barefoot]

My most frequent so I guess not random thought is: "Am I progressing fast enough?"
I also thought poetry was supposed to be personal, and not like concept art at all, so I don't really understand how they can call it juvenile or pointless. The stereotype of a poet is thoughtful, reclusive and reasonably liberal, these guys sound like total wankers.
Some people would call me a philistine for saying this, but pretty much all the poems I have read in books and serious blogs/sites are pretentious and whiny in my opinion, with the exception of Spike Milligan who is the greatest man of all time imo, 'the ning nang nong' got me through some tough times maaaaan.
I have been totally put of 'modern classic' poets like Duffy and Armatige by school, I fucking hated my anthology by the end of my GCSEs

[manlybrian]

If the man himself is the medium of the artwork, it's days such as these that give me cause to question my own self worth. And with this (and other sources) the depression is seeping slowly but steadily back in.

Ooh, that's good, you should put that in a poem, haha.

"if poetry come not as naturally as the leaves of a tree it has better not come at all"

Also, I'm not a professional poet, but that sounds like a bunch of crap to me.




My thoughts as of late: James Gurney is ridiculous. I knew people held him in high esteem on here and I'd perused his blog a bit but nothing I saw really struck me as all that exceptional. Then I got his Imaginative Realism book and was blown away by the time, effort, and research he puts into his projects! He spent nearly a year doing research for this piece and spent two months painting it. That's some inspiring dedication and a stellar piece to show for it.

[blogmatix]

My random thought: I will never be particularly good at any one thing, because I am interested in too many things and unwilling to relinquish any of them in order to pursue one skill.

[Featheredface]

My random thought: I will never be particularly good at any one thing, because I am interested in too many things and unwilling to relinquish any of them in order to pursue one skill.

I kind of understand where you're coming from.


My random thought: I am stuck in a generation filled with entitled, selfish brats who think "cool" is being overly edgy and offensive, and that "lame" is being the opposite.

Whatever, This is why I don't want friends my age.

[OldJake666]

The stereotype of a poet is thoughtful, reclusive and reasonably liberal,

haha I guess it's a fit then.

The inspiration of this thread was that most other forums that I go to have a "Random Chat" thread where you can come in and talk about anything and I really like that. Sometimes there are things worth talking about that certainly aren't worth making a new thread about, whether it's "I'm reading this book and loving it," or "man I can't sleep right now."

Today I'm thinking about how ridiculously ahead of it's time Tomorrow Never Knows was. The song was released in 1966! That's before the psychedelic explosion or before experimentation in music was very common place. I doubt that The Beatles knew that 20-30 years later sample based music would become a genre of it's own. And it's an AMAZING kick ass song, anyway.

[Angel Intheuk]

My random thought is...why oh why did I listen to that tech guy at 3 customer service?

For some weird reason when I try and view this website on my new smartphone it takes me to an 18 restricted warning page with links to porn (???!)

Anyone else had this? (sorry this is more of a rant than a random thought)

[QueenGwenevere]

I wonder if that porn site has something to do with those weird tiny Russian links that were showing up on the left side of the site? (Are those still there? Did anyone ever look into that?)

Random irritated thought of the moment:

Note to client: the iPad does NOT have rollovers. Or hover states. Or clicks. HELLO THERE IS NO MOUSE!

Argh. Back to work...

[stragan]

"if poetry come not as naturally as the leaves of a tree it has better not come at all"

thats the dumbest shit i ever heard

thats like expecting a newborn to walk right away because after all it should "come naturally as the leaves of a tree", right? so if the newborn cant walk on two legs right away, does that make him a non-human? EVERYTHING takes practice. professional poets jot their ideas down when they feel inspired, ok, but it takes alot of rough drafting until the poem becomes perfect

even da vinci went over his shit over and over again. as he said "art is never finished just abandoned"
he didnt just shit mona lisa out of his asshole during an evening, he spent a LONG time making it

thats the problem i have with alot of artistic/creative communities
the elitist bitchism is why people look down at the creative types... even the poets hate eachother hahaha
i cant recall a single person at my highschool who didnt hate most of the english teachers...

when you write a poem, just dont be so self absorbed and dont try to meddle it with symbolisms that regular people can't interpret without reference. it makes you look like a self-important prick.

[OldJake666]

The English teachers at my high school were by far the best teachers on the campus...

Today I had the orgasmic idea that Paul and Ringo could unite with Dhani Harrison and Sean Lennon (both of which sound exactly like their fathers) for a sort of pseudo Beatles reunion! Seriously, how amazing would that be?

[meth]

i need beer, and it is raining outside. Good electronic music, quite relaxing, need to render that orc, i am reading not so random(as i expected to be ) thread.
Need to get out, need to smoke, rain, coke( or beer) ha ha, this can go forever...
Nice initiative Jacob....

M

[GuruGaia]

I wonder how many cigarettes I smoked today, my ear feels warm, ohhhh what do i have to do tomorrow, this movies pretty dumb, oh there they go talking about sex again, ha the sound is off. that guy was awesome, neck warm sounds like neckworm. i remember when I traded my brain for a crystal ball, that would be cool. That is a cool gurney picture, ok I think thats enough random thoughts.

Hope you all enjoyed a few select random thoughts of my night.

[Psychotime]

I hate driving. I'd rather walk.

[Kamber Parrk]

The doctrine of 5 Point Calvinism perfectly explains my concerns of why Jesus would doom American Indians to Hell for 1,492 years before anyone could make contact with them and expose them to the Gospel.

Per Calvin, some humans are purely "reprobates" who have not been "elected" to receive the "good news." Thus, no matter what they do, they are damned for all eternity just for being here and being human.

Sounds harsh.

(Don't know that I really believe any of it. . .)

But, it's a perfect intellectualization to solve that sticky Indian theology problem.

[blogmatix]

My random thought: I am stuck in a generation filled with entitled, selfish brats who think "cool" is being overly edgy and offensive, and that "lame" is being the opposite.

Whatever, This is why I don't want friends my age.

Have pity on me then: I am a school teacher by profession. ;-)

[blogmatix]

Today I had the orgasmic idea that Paul and Ringo could unite with Dhani Harrison and Sean Lennon (both of which sound exactly like their fathers) for a sort of pseudo Beatles reunion! Seriously, how amazing would that be?

I'm sure they'd be more popular than Jesus... ;-)

[stragan]

I'm sure they'd be more popular than Jesus... ;-)

yeah anyone who loves everyone unconditionally is probably not gonna be popular lol


oh btw i just reread my post and realized it makes me sound like YOU'RE a prick jacob krobyn just in case you took it that way
well i didnt mean it that way i am just stating in general that people should be careful not to get so self absorbed when they write poetry
i never read your stuff lol so i cant criticize you and call you a prick or anything i never bother to read poetry anymore
i had too much in english class

but at my school, everyone HATED the english teachers because the teachres were very pretentious about their stuff. and if you interpret something differently than the teacher, he/she gave you D's and hated you for no apparent reason

[OmenSpirits]

Random thought.

Pay off credit card to start next certificate.

Work on friend's book cover illustration.

4 year plan still viable.

Need to ingest more tech knowledge to get better job.

I hate this F***ING island and from time to time start to loose my goddamn mind!

My friend is doing financially better and can move forward in life, which makes me happy.

Wonder how CJ is?

10 more minutes 'til I go home from work.

I get back to the gym this weekend and am happy.

Back of my neck bothers me.

[manlybrian]

In my current comic I've hit "the mud pit" or whatever that I always come to in my projects. The point where the fun new idea stops and the tedious work begins in order to finish the project. If I quit, it'll me another unfinished project to add to the pile. If I push through it I'll be able to say that I finally finished something and have work to show for it. Only two more painful pages left. I'm just going to press on through.

[stragan]

okay here comes a 'random thought', its not that random actually its more like bitching but its been filling my mind so HUSH//////


its not like they'll get involved in this drama but god, they're all a bunch of chickenshit. most people are not good people, they're selfish. doesnt matter if you're one of their child's oldest friends or related to them, they'll kick you out or threaten you if you seem like even the slightest inconvenience. i even said i am willing to pay money to spend a few nights at their guests rooms, basements, or couches.

its so stupid how they're willing to feed the friends of their kids for free who come over and have sleepovers, but they're not willing to give me a single hand and at least give me a roof when i am the one who need it the most. that is all i am asking for. a fucking roof to cover my head when it rains.

all i need is a place to stay. fuck i'd be thankful to even sleep on their living room floor like how i once did back in texas when a friend let me into his house. what the fuck is wrong with these people? these people being from a group of people who were oppressed throughout history, you'd expect better hospitality.....

"yea your situation is fucked up shit but my parents dont want to be involved"
"well if my shit is fucked up doesnt that mean you guys should have even more incentive to help me??? i can directly talk to your parents about this"

what sort of fucked up person would be content knowing that they can help someone who's getting cornered and threatened at home and still not do anything about it
if i found out that a female friend of mine is getting beat up by her father i wouldn't be like "nah ah sista i dont want no drama in MY house so go deal with your daddy by yourself ^_^"

i mean most people dont help hobos but shouldnt they at least help their friends or their kid's friends

be careful of people who like to be around you when you're okay but then totally reject you when you need help the most.

[Angel Intheuk]

English teachers...ah I remember mine, Mr Parkinson or Parky as the students called him. I went to high school in Doncaster which was shortened to Donny, because most people I went to school with obviously couldn't cope with words with more than two syllables. My one lasting memory of him was reading a play set in Newcastle and he did the best brummy accent ever, I love brummy accents.

Also my art teacher was an elitist snob who wasn't very good and made us paint our whole gcse work in powdered poster paint. It's a wonder I didn't study English instead of Art.

[Featheredface]

I don't want to go to work, I want to draw.

[Lady Medusa]

I actually enjoy it when people take time and dedication to rip my work apart.
Makes me think that they are really being honest. I know most of my work is shit so why should comments like "OMG its AWESOME!!1!one!eleven" be sufficient? Of course it is better than nothing.
Too bad I tend to feel like my work isn't good enough (and hilariously bad enough) to be ripped apart, so I don't even bother to waste your time and space making threads asking for it.
And I usually end up abandoning it anyhow.

[OldJake666]

I love that too, especially here, and I'm always to rip apart my own work and highlight the flaws. What they did, however, is an entirely different beast. Telling me I should stop writing entirely because I obviously don't have the knack for it is anything but constructive.