blog

I've been slacking on my html-in' and drawin', plus I've had the same layout for a year and a half now, so I figure it's time for another overhaul, something much more exciting looking. Last time I went for "it's the content that's interesting, I want something that won't detract from it," now I want something that communicates better what this site's about. (What is it about? Don't ask me!)

Here's the header that I'm working on for starters. I'm not great with lighting so I thought I'd challenge myself. CJ says she looks black?

She's supposed to illustrate that my site discusses art, atheism, and science. Can't quite get the adventure in there too. I welcome suggestions!

I took an art class at the Seattle School of Visual Concepts over the summer and wanted to show off my last assignment: making a counterfeit bill styled after a particular artist. I of course chose Alphons Mucha. Though I ran out of time to finish drawing and coloring the backside, I still think it looks good.


Both bills mounted on bristol board.


Fortune adorned the backside--Mucha likes to illustrate themes and symbols, so I thought Fortune would be fitting on a bill. Didn't go into the concept as much as I planned. The front side is supposed to be Prosperity / Harvest / Summer, take your pick.

I sketched both girls and concepts for the design with pencil and paper first, elaborated the girls in PS, and laid out the bill and illustrated the swirls in AI. I printed it to size (7 x 4.5 inches) and colored it with colored pencils. We were required to use a color scheme utilizing analogous (?) colors.


Here's my original sketch for Fortune, which I traced in PS about 20 times too big for the bill.

Since I got my new job I decided to adopt one (typically) religious practice that I think is actually a nice idea: tithing. Not to a church, not even to one particular organization. Each month I am donating a percent of my income to a secular charitable organization. I'm starting out with $50 a month, which is 2% of my annual income; the "standard", it seems, is the 10% of your income, so I too will work my way up to $250 a month.

My motivation? Ultimately, I feel it's my duty as a relatively well-off human to help others (including animals) less well-off than I. Also, it's a way to promote lifestyles and causes I support (e.g. local farmers, alternative transportation, separation of church and state). But I must admit a small part is that I want to correct misguided perceptions of atheists as bad people, and to bolster charitable giving by atheists, which actually is significantly lower than other (religious) groups.

Oh come on, right? No one discriminates against atheists anymore. To the contrary. Hemant at friendlyatheist.com (which I enjoy and recommend reading) pointed me to an article written to explain/explore why atheists were not invited to the Democratic National Committee's Interfaith Gathering:

Democrats will nominate a Christian gentleman who respects others. It’s likely they didn’t invite atheists to their faith service because they didn’t want embarrassing guests. Atheists might bring pseudointellectual proselytizers, who are intolerant, self-aggrandizing and rude. Atheists should fund universities and hospitals. They should feed and clothe starving kids. They should act more like Christians and Jews. If they do some of that — if they contribute to a diverse humanity — they might get better party invites.

I know you’ve heard this before… but you replace "atheist" with "Muslim" in that paragraph and lots of people would be out of a job. As it stands, there’s not much reaction from anyone.

And these are the liberals of the country. :P

Should you like to participate, here's a good list of secular/ humanist/ atheist charities for starters. I started with a local food shelter and the Secular Student Alliance; I think August will go to animals. I may start following Hemant's recommendation to join groups, giving them a donation that way. Global Giving Green also looks like a neat way to find environmental projects needing donations.

[Actually, I just want the tax write-off :P]

An aside: I irrationally get very annoyed when people swing extremely wide around me into the other lane while I'm riding my bike, assuming they think I am a horrible bike rider. "You don't need to give me THAT much room!" I think. This is silly because I AM a horrible bike rider, and they SHOULD give me that much room. Plus, when I'm driving, I give all bike riders a wide berth.

For the fourth of July, I made a feast: Deviled eggs, potato salad, peanut-butter noodle salad, beet salad with feta pecans and orange dressing, strawberry daiquiris, and cornmeal-whole wheat biscuits!

Cornmeal Whole Wheat Biscuits
1 1/4 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c cornmeal
1/4 c flax meal (if you don't have, just use 1 1/2 c flour)
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
2 T sugar
5-6 T cold unsalted butter
1/2-3/4 t salt
3/4 c buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450. Combine dry ingredients. Cut in butter till coarse breadcrumbs. (Optional: add 3/4 c grated cheese, bake at 425 instead.) Add 3/4 c buttermilk, mix into dry till just moistened. Gather dough and knead 5-10 times with floured hands. Roll 1/2" thick, cut 2" rounds. Bake 10-12 min. Yum!

Dear Seattle Transit Authority: It takes me 25 minutes to drive to work. The same distance takes an hour and a half on the bus. I want to take the bus. But my time is valuable too, and I can't justify two extra hours in transit a day.

Dear Washington Department of Transportation: Traffic is horrible stop and go on 520 until the carpool lane ends and it drops to just two lanes. Is this just correlation or is it causation?

Dear Kaiser Permanente: I've spent my past three lunch breaks trying to get a written and not just verbal referral. Your hold music sucks--you need more than three songs, clearly. Have you never had to issue a referral before?

Things that are right: I saw a kid so excited to get to the ice cream truck he jumped an eight foot fence in two bounds.

I rode a sloth (with Dad's help) at the La Brea Tar Pits. (OK, this was April.)


Robin had her hair and makeup done by a fancy salon who used her as a model.


We had a nice picnic at the headlands after visiting the de Young.


I've created a shrine to Art Nouveau over my bed in my new room.


I visited the UW arboretum on my last free day before starting work since it was a gorgeous, hot day.


A huge patch of the arboretum was devoted to different varieties of azaleas, separated into the historical periods of hybridization. This red flower was from the 60s-70s.




I saw these turtles as I followed an indistinct path along the waterfront.


Saturday, I rode the other direction to a beach with a grand view of these sailors in front of the Olympics. The hill back up was a challenge.