Like many of us that have been hung on blogotha, I realize we engage in seemingly pointless acts of computer capacity.
I’m referring to thangs like choosing your screensaver, or wallpaper. Personally, I’m the only one who views my own of that lot, and though I never had a deep interest in discovering all the possibilities, I seem to have ventured into changing some damn thang, every once in awhile.
Is it merely a self-constructing device? And even if you lethargically change these things, like I do, does something bring you to the point where you cease “devotion” to a particular image or theme?
The Confession (never to be construed with the late great Laura Nyro):
Sammy Sosa swinging a bat was my first “wallpaper” back in ’98.
I had no idea gwb had traded him, no idea of the ‘roid issues that would haunt the sport. As a native Chicagoan, I wuz bettin’ on him Jordanizing the sorry Cubs.
Wrong.
The next image was a picture of Daniel Pearl.An extremely handsome man, and a journalist risking for a big important story.The horror of his death, being beheaded while reciting his Jewish heritage. The horrible history of so many peoples being slaughtered for who they are.
That one hung around for a long time, and to my memory was replaced by an image of someone ice-fishing on New Year’s Eve, with the skyline of Moscow in the background, holiday-lit.
The Russians can even write without pens.
Nadja Anjuman came in there, somewhere. A twenty-five year old Afghanistan poet beaten to death by her husband.
Eventually replaced with Sarah Johnson, who I dubbed the “Madonna of Katrina” in some vast orange space.
Most recently, thanks to maryb2004, who posted a Maxfield Parrish painting I’d never seen, with a theme of setting out lanterns, I remembered hearing descriptions of how the losses of the most recent Indonesian tsunami were commemorated with a massive lantern launching.
And an image from that event is my current wallpaper.
How do you weave your private self into public history, entirely unbeknownst to others?
St. Peter Port, Guernsey, CI is my ancestral home and has been my wallpaper for over a year. The picture (obviously borrowed from the BBC) is a reminder of the place I would most like to travel to and explore. Of course that’s assuming that Americans are not classified persona non grata by the rest of the world before I can get it together to go there.
My current image, a shameless download from a recent scene from popular culture: Doc Hudson, aka The Fabulous Hudson Hornet, and Lightning McQueen on the outskirts of Radiator Springs. Busted.
boran!
Just so I can divest myself of my last ounce of self-respect before the new year:
ROTFLMAO!!!! I love it!!!!
I saw your tracks long ago.
Get on a mesadone program, please.
I’ll table that suggestion.
n/t
LOL! I love it. I am constantly amazed at the quality of Pixar’s work. If you ask me, it’s all due to the writing. Special effects are cool and all, but a good story will carry you when all the flash in the world won’t.
Speaking of which, have you seen the special features on the DVD? We got my granddaughter a copy for Christmas. There is a “making of” video on there. They did an amazing amount of research on NASCAR and Route 66 to get the movie made. I don’t know squat about NASCAR — they don’t even have any raceways up here, and the locals just rejected a plan to build one — so I had to go look up a few of the in-jokes, but even to a guy like me it’s obvious they did their homework.
Another underlying story is the NASCAR success of Hudson Hornets for some 4 years runnining. And this feat was done with 6 cylinder engines by a smaller manufacturer against what was assumed to be overwhelming competition. The cars were all but forgotten today, before the film. But light weight, a low center of gravity and good aerodynamics helped those six cylinders achieve victory.
Huh. The things you learn. Given the number of other real-world analogues in the film, though, it makes perfect sense.
And now I know why you did that painting a while back. I thought that, maybe, you did it for your son BUT… lol
Today it became Tiki Barber…breaking through a wall of 300 pound Washington defensive linemen and speedy linebackers on his way to a franchise record 230 yards rushing, breaking his own record. Football, in the big picture, isn’t making or breaking the world or even the US in these times. But Barber is a man with integrity and dreams that won’t be corrupted by money or fame or ‘roids. He’s retiring at the top of his game at the end of the Giants run, which will probably be next week. I have a great deal of respect for anyone who determines their own future, on their own terms.
Before today it was a Pawnee scout in a photograph from the first decade of the last century. With his hair finely braided and adorned, top knot facing forward into an uncertain future. With a weathered and determined face and countenance that belied his courage and his intention to stand against whatever the wind and the white brought.
Personal courage can win my heart everytime. No matter what chest the brave heart beats within.
Thanks for an interesting diary :o)
…and Happy New Year to you
Chris? Is that you? ;o)
Nope, I’ve never seen a guinea pig before, I swear.
C’mon, Garcia’s gonna take them to the promised land… it’s a good thing 🙂
Aw no…
you’re sorely tempting the rabid Giants fan that’s lurking just below the surface of this reasonable, and in the Eagles and Garcia’s case, charitable man ;o)
Philly winning anything is never a “good thing” :o)
I won’t win any political points for mine – its a picture of the beach at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Years ago I bought a time share that was really a steal. I go there every year for a week to energize this old heart for the next 12 months. I just pack a suitcase full of books and split my time between reading and staring at the water. Seeing it every day reminds me of the place of peace in my soul that I find there.
Not everything you do has to be political. I could do a big song and dance about my desktop representing one earth, one people, blah blah blah, but if I really wanted a political backdrop I’d use the fake “BUSH RESIGNS” Time cover. I just like watching night fall across the western hemisphere.
my whole background is the color 0,0,0…. I just find pitch black to be very relaxing… ; )
in code?
others like paint.
easier to read than dood’s 000…
screen saver is a collection of images gleaned from NASA set up to zoom and change…no reason, just feels right.
the “new black” is black again.
What happened to the old black.
turned it gray. Then, I think, white.
Advanced age only made me fatter.
remains black.
as in:
“black at you”
Makes sense to me.
LOL I would post my screen saver but I think I would be banned. LOL
it just dawned on me one reason that “Expose yourself” line resonated with me:
http://www.errolgraphics.com/pages/exposestory.html
twas buried in my PacNW subconcious, I suppose.
We picked that one up in a little gallery in New Harmony, Indiana not long after it was done, early 1980’s, I think. Its still one of our most prized posters. Great minds and all that;-)
Yup that’s our former mayor! I met him one New Year’s day whilst out for lunch with a friend who was a city worker. Clark completely charmed me in a matter of minutes-what charisma!
My screen saver is a shot of my friends and neighbors, the musicians Victory and the Lads from their recent European tour. I literally dreamed of meeting them years before I actually did.
Got it from APOD:
Along w/ this one:
Me too! I waited to see all the comments before I threw in my 2¢.
Been collecting photos from the APOD site for a few months now, just love it. My head is certainly in the stars now . . .
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field. It’s a million-second exposure image of a patch of sky having, as nearly as possible, nothing in it. It therefore shows about 10,000 galaxies. It’s a small patch, less than one ten-millionth of the sky.
I used to wallpaper the Hubble photos back some time ago. Spectacular!
when it comes to computers, and as sucn use the ultimate tinkerer’s operating system, Linux. Specifically, Ubuntu Linux. It’s very easy to operate — a Windows or Mac user would feel very much at home. And, you can use an Ubuntu CD to boot your computer and test out Linux to see for yourself what it’s all about.
But I digress.
My wallpaper varies. At the moment I have a backdrop on my desktop machine I picked up from space.com. One of these days, though, I’m going to re-enable a very cool wallpaper I had for a couple of years. There’s a program available for Linux that will give you a view from near-space of Earth, large enough to fill the screen. My favorite backdrop is to use that a feature of that program that updates the wallpaper every couple of minutes. I use this to center the image on Seattle and show the procesion of the terminator as it moves across the globe, showing which parts of the Earth are experiencing daylight and where night has fallen. It’s a very cool effect.
If I can get it re-enabled today I’ll post a screen shot so you can see what I’m talking about.
Apparently I’m no smarter in 2007 than I was in 2006. After I posted my comment above I had one of those DU-UH moments . . . I have xplanet running on my laptop.
So, a few keystrokes later, here’s what my laptop’s screen looks like:
Click the picture for a larger image (about 112K). One thing that for some reason doesn’t come through, is the image at the lower left. At the time I took the screenshot, that window was showing the three-way tie scene from Cars. (hi boran2. 🙂 )