Yeah, I have a secret hobby. HTML! I first started learning HTML when I started blogging. My blog is special to me as a creative outlet, though I don't post that frequently these days. I enjoy playing around at an extremely amateur level with web design, and have spent many a happy hour finding just the right shade of yellow for the bgcolor .

Sometime around last summer, though, I became really happy with my blog's layout, and haven't messed with it in a long time. It's clean, the post width is ample, the sidebar aligns pretty well, the little photos look cool where they are, etc etc. So when I opened up Dreamweaver on Sunday to work a bit on a new look for my dad's (warning: extremely amateur) website, I was extremely rusty and could barely remember how to do anything-- let alone think about table-less layouts or stylesheets. Screw it, I decided, I'm going to go simple. So I am almost done with something to show him this weekend that will be a breeze to finish up. (I'd show you guys, but he hasn't seen it yet.)

Thanks, 2weeker! Thanks to the little push I had to finally start working on my poor dad's neglected site, I've gotten some awesome ideas for a more complicated layout for another project-- and with the refresher course in HTML that I've gone through over the past few days, I'm equipped to take it on, even after next Monday.

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks

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Whenever we have mehndi/henna fundraisers at school, we're inevitably at a loss for which design to draw on a person's hand. For the longest time, I've been meaning to make a posterboard with popular and easy mehndi designs... Maybe I can work on that during this Tweeker?

Hm...

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks

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Okay, remember my earlier post? The one about origami? Well it's actually a "unit" origami. It's a geometric shape that is constructed by repeated units. The one I'm working on has more than 30 units, and I'm only up to 6 now. It's slow going because each unit itself is like a complicated origami fold, and if you mess up even once, the edges don't fit right together and the whole thing doesn't hold together. I'll post again when I start putting everything together.

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks

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Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks, art gallery, flowers

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Mollie is generous, and I know she won't mind that I steal her idea for HAIKU THURSDAY (a distant cousin of Egg Thursday, perhaps?). But I will only write one haiku, because I just got home and it's kind of late.

A familiar face
On New York City Transit
Oh, humanity!

(Running into someone you know on the subway is probably the best thing ever. The subway is such a lonely place otherwise; you've always got your game face on, there are delays, hobos spit on you, etc. Any reminder that you're not alone, that you're not just a face in the crowd, is amazing. It happened to me tonight in a particularly awesome way; but that's a story for another time.)

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks

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First off, muchas apologías for being MIA! I've just returned from NYC from Part II of my BFF's Wedding Spectacular! And yes, brown people's weddings really do last more than a week. And are composed of multiple parts.

But I'm back! And will slowly try to catch up for this week (maybe by doing 2 creative things a day for 3 days?). But for now? I'm totally copping out. Don't hate me!



As my absolutely original and creative gesture of the day, I spasmed around my room (I'm sure it looked like I was having some insane seizure) while making weird oogly noises. Creativity, Day One? Mission accomplished!

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks

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Every personal email or facebook message I send today (starting now, when I remembered about haiku Thursday) will be in the form of a haiku!

This entry will be edited throughout the day to reflect my poetic genius as it is created. Keep checking back!

...On a technical note, I looked up "Haiku" in wikipedia, and I will be following these rules/guidelines:

• Five, seven, five syllable structure
• "English-language poets often use commas, dashes, elipses, or implied breaks to divide the three lines into two grammatical and imagistic parts. The purpose is to create a juxtaposition, which creates space for an implication as the reader intuits the relationship between the two parts."
• "A haiku traditionally contains a kigo (season word) which symbolizes or intimates the season in which the poem is set with some reference to the natural world."

3:26pm (EST):
I'm sure the other 2weekers will be interested in receiving hakiu emails! - Rjlucero

3:45pm:
haiku me!
I like haikus but
I am not too good at them
....refrigerator - Tony S.


4:10pm:
hah!
I actually plagiarized that from a friend of mine
didn't know it was a shirt, but it totally makes sense he'd have seen it there.
embarrassed, this is
why I dont write haikus.** I
will stick to music - Tony S.


5:30pm:

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks

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In this week's episode of "suggestions gone horribly wrong," I embarked on a miniature interprative dance. LAME, you say? Well I'm busy dammit. Dance is easy when you have a willing partner. And the best I could do is a statue. Zing.

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks

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MAKE Magazine's Issue number 12 has some interesting instructions for modifying existing photos that you may already have. The instructions cover how to create an Ansel Adam-like monochrome print from an existing digital image. I thought that this was pretty awesome, but I'm kind of a stickler for not modifying my digital photos at all. So I embarked on a new artistic adventure.

Essentially, this image is just a red color filter applied to a photo and then changed into a black and white photo. What I find really interesting is that the reds in the photo now stand out as strikingly white in the monochrome image. Check it out!

Original Image:

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks, ansel adams, art gallery

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A little MS Paint Art never hurts. This is something that I find myself doing at home when I get bored. Today, I decided to actually color and save my free form MS Paint art. Today we have a little penguin reading a book and floating on an ice cube in the ocean. I figured that I should add the description in case anyone thought it might be a tree or some sort of Picasso-esque abstract art. This medium is actually really fun to use. I've been interested in sketching for a long time, but I'm never confident putting pencil to paper. With MS Paint, I'm able to undo all of the lines that I'm not sure of and keep retrying until I get what I like.

Anyway, it is something that actually shows off my artistic creative side...

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks, art gallery, penguins

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It doesn't look like much... yet...

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks

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• "Let's get some internal validity up in this sample." (7% out of 44 votes?! Where mah researchers at??)
• "As a stoppage attempt is futile, you may aspire to contain me." (2% out of 42 votes)

Note the piece of chewing straw and the "straw hat."

This is the level of quality you can come to expect from my artistic endeavors over the next two weeks. GET EXCITED!

* Would making a particularly genius poker play count as art?

** Ha ha, that was just for comic effect. TOTALLY kidding, mom. And grandma. ...And senior co-workers.

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks

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First off, sorry for not posting in so long! I've been really busy with work and travel. Don't worry, I'm planning on doubling my efforts for this 2weeker!!

So, on to Day 1...

I have decided to try something that is sometimes not really thought of as being creative. Cooking and baking is the process of preparing and creating deliciousness. Tonight, I tried to create a ham roll. This is something I've never attempted before. It involved making bread from scratch, cutting, baking, rolling, and using my hands to forge food into goodness.



What do you think!?

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks, ham roll

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I am kind of taking the easy way out in today's creativity post by posting something I've actually been working on the last couple weeks. I'm cheating tonight as a result of being burnt out from a long day and simply not having the energy to "create". I'm taking this 2week fairly literally by doing some visual art, tonight being the exception of course...

Today's post is about a refresh (More like a fresh coat of paint than a total redesign) of BWISH Studios I've been working on in preparation for my next big project once 2weeker 2.0 is completed. This refresh is something I've been working on to take a break from 2weeker programming.

So here it is: BWISH Studios' dev site

And for comparison's sake... BWISH Studios' current site

I did work on it today so it's not total cheating! Also, it's far from being complete so expect many broken links should you explore, but you can get an idea of where I'm going with it. Any general feedback is certainly welcome, but I'm most likely aware of any comments people might say at this point.

What is BWISH? Allow me to copy and paste...:
"BWISH Studios is a home for the creative efforts of Justin B. Evans & Michael C. Chen. Once focused primarily on film, BWISH’s is now dedicated to comics and art."

Like I said before, I am interpreting this 2week as an excuse to create some visual arts. The plan is to work more with this shiny new tablet of mine I got from Santa this past Christmas.

Lastly, this post isn't totally useless! I'm sharing the work I've done in the past to prepare you all for the... future...! Yeah...! ...

...

Ummm... Until tomorrow! *away*

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks, bwish

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You know, I am really excited about this 2Weeker. The broadness of the challenge means that all of us can take this idea and run with it. In my humble opinion, doing something creative doesn't have to be a big THING. Sure, you can say, "I will now sit down at my work space and spear several limes on a stick as a statement about globalization." Or "I will now write several stanzas of rhyming verse about my commute." But you can also be like me and say, "I will now lie on my bed and mess around with Photoshop pretending to be artsy."
So, I found some love letters in a box on the street yesterday. (I KNOW!) I read them, obviously, and enjoyed; one line kind of struck me as funny and/or poetic, and I kept saying it to myself. So I plopped it onto one of my recent photos and thought for a while about what it could all mean. "The arctic could not be whiter." Than what? The line after it as written made no sense, so I won't even bore you with it. Let's be honest: nothing is pure white, not even the arctic!! Snow gathers dust; polar bears are kind of yellow tinged; white walls get handprints on them in seconds (the walls of art galleries are painted practically monthly, I've learned); and "white" people are actually pink. I think this photo speaks to that a bit with the crumpled white piece of paper and the decaying white painted lines on the bridge.

Enjoy! And other interpretations welcome. Heck, you could even count a comment as your 2week creativity for the day.

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks

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Sigh. I wasn't anticipating a tie. I'm not made of limes, people. In any case, using the power invested in me as random website starter-upper, I've declared "Do something artistic every day for 2 weeks" the winner of the first poll. Reasons are as follows: 1) other authors were threating me and 2) that's about it. We'll begin Monday.

So there you have it. Go off! Draw your pictures, sculpt your sculptures, play your harmonicas, whatever... just don't break the 2weeker rules. This one is a bit broad, so I leave interpretation up to you. And in case you didn't think I meant you, I fully expect everyone that reads this can (and should!) participate. Haven't you always wanted to take aside a few minutes each day and release some creative energy? Soon we'll have a formal mechanism for you to post your work. Until then...

• Rule 1: None of the changes can endanger oneself or others.
• Rule 2: None of the changes can endanger the livelihood of oneself or others.
• Rule 3: None of the changes can cost significantly more than what one currently spends.
• Rule 4: All of the changes must be reasonably achievable in some form by most individuals.
• Rule 5: All of the changes must be undertaken voluntarily.

If you have any other suggestions for future 2weekers, don't be afraid to contact us and let us know.

Labels: 2week2: Do something artistic every day for 2 Weeks, Admin Stuff

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