Sunday, August 4, 2013

Go Crazy? Don't Mind If I Do!


You can't say that I never write captions for myself, now can ya? huh? oh yeah!


Well, as you probably know by now, I didn't win Powerball, but its up to 400 million dollars now so its an even bigger purse for me to win! Woohoo purse! Only the pure of heart .. or pure evil usually win these lotteries, so I figure I've got it covered both ways!

So this blog posting will probably be a mash up of different things, so follow along with my ADHD and take wander around my scattered thoughts, and stay for the omelets .. I have one scorching hot brain pan to cook the mushrooms and peppers .. just be careful of the sriracha lurking inside!

RE: GFS BROTHER

They have this radical treatment sort of like chemo they said they could try to see if they can get the tumor to shrink so they could remove it BUT its one of those situations where the treatment is just as bad as the cancer, with no real guarantee it will actually work. He's mulling it over now to see what is best for him.

RE: CAPTION TRANSCRIPTIONS

I have a few thoughts on that that I replied to others in that post. I'll recap them here:

FONTS:
 Funny you mention fonts .. as someone that delves into graphic design at work, I spend much time working with fonts and how they are viewed. They need to kern well and look good at a variety of different sizes. Often, they should also be able to blend into the background so that people notice the copy (the content) you are getting across, and not the text formatting itself.

I have found a few fonts that work really well in captions, and I stick with them. Other than using a "handwritten" font for effect, I would prefer most people stick to a basic non comic-sans, non times-new-roman that integrates well into their structured design.
 WHAT EXACTLY *IS* A CAPTION?
I guess for me, a caption is the integrated whole enchilada of story and image in one fell swoop, self-contained and its own entity. I even have trouble getting into TG Blogs that have a picture posted, then a few paragraphs afterwards .. its a pseudo-caption, and it just feels disjointed to me .. unless its just one or two sentences, like Leeanne's work.
 I am thinking of possibly posting a transcript mostly for the idea that foreign language readers will be able to see what was written. The only strike against that is I think that MANY of my captions are based off American Pop Culture, and colloquial turns-of-phrase that might not translate well. Trying to explain many of my captions to Martha, who actually is REALLY good at English, made me realize I'm not an artist on par with Charlie Chaplin, which transcended international borders.

MORE BAND TALES:
We actually got a headlining set one night because the original group no-showed. We were supposed to be the 1st act, but we had more original songs than the middle slot band (they only HAD 8 songs!) So we went on last and did all 14 songs we'd practiced up until that time plus 3 cover songs as an encore .. though that still only filled up about 70 minutes! (edit: it was actually probably closer to 60 minutes .. we wrote short songs!)
If you head HERE, you'll see a caption that Jennifer made for me based around the band stories I posted on Monday.The irony after all this is that a famous nightspot in the area we used to play, the old DJ is trying to get a reunion show together at a hall and there is a possibility one of my former bands will reunite for that show. Perhaps Dementia and the Skullfuckers will blow minds again!

THE PERILS OF .., CAITLYN!

Click HERE to head to Caitlyn's latest posting, where she lays out her current situation. I don't mind having Calvin around from time to time, even if Caitlyn walks off into the sunset and never captions again. I usually talked to Cailtyn/Calvin as one entity, so I don't think it effects me as much as some of the other people. I don't really role play and often when we talked, it was about life in general and/or the artistry behind making captions. That probably won't change much. Having Calvin around is still a win/win for us in any case!

OTHER STUFF:

I think I like this idea of recapping anything I had mentioned before in posts over the last week or so that people might not see if they just open the most current blog posting. Sort of puts things in perspective, and if people want to talk more about it, I am all for it! This might become my new Sunday night thing.

I made the caption this morning. Not only do we have GF's brother situation, the GF and I are fighting what we think is ear or sinus infections. Then my grandmother called up last night and said, "I am back in the area for a few weeks," which means I will be over there quite a bit. She is a lot of fun, and goes out partying 4 nights a week back in Florida, but she gets bored here because her friends are down there. This will cut into my free time but I'm not quite sure yet if she'll live forever ... though she's almost 90 years old so whatever she's doing must be pretty good.

I still also need to work on a special project for the nest issue of the Haven Quarterly that Rachel keeps bugging me to complete. There are various other things that are filling my time so I sort of feel like I am going a bit crazy, hence the caption. Figured I could have some fun and poke various holes into my online persona(s) just to keep us all honest. Sometimes we can be SOOOO pompous!



Since its a blog exclusive (I think) feel free to comment about the caption and/or any followups to what was written above. If it wasn't for all of you, I'd just be talking to myself, and I don't need to type if I wanted to do that! Speaking of insanity .. isn't that the most sexy straight jacket you've ever seen? Sometimes you have to suffer for fashion's sake!

5 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. I know Babe! On the Haven, Dementia usually gets the blame so it was nice to give that to someone else!

      When I wrote it, I figured that with all the TG activity at the Haven and with some other captioneers disappearing, Damien finally went insane and Dee took over trying to fulfill all peoples TG wishes. Since you are quite the Domme, it made sense to have you appear as a special Guest Star.

      And of course, I had to add some of my favorite motifs .. mentioning credenzas and Jenkins just HAD to be there somewhere, so a disjointed Dee giving an cryptic warning just seemed like a fun idea. Ita definitely no "ROSEBUD" but it worked well enough for me!

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  2. Amen on the Fonts. Readability really is important. Contrasting Dark text on light backgrounds help too. Also the Blogger Bloglist gadget picks up and displays the first sentence or so of your reader blogs, so having that Hook first sentence does catch peoples eyes.
    ...
    Oh, and I love the CAP, Picture is fabulous! >:)

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    Replies
    1. I so agree on the picture. Originally I was looking for a spookier goth girl in a staight jacket, but this one came up and I couldn't say no. It ended up making the caption even more fun to write!

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  3. After reading it I had the sudden need of saying: Leeeeeeeeeroy Jenkins

    Now on topic. Wasn't that on topic? I don't know :O)

    Fonts is a thing I've been struggling with. Just for the sake of having fun behind the scenes, is something I keep changing from time to time and sometimes you do struggle between picking a sexy font or a perfect readable font. That takes practice me thinks..

    Unlike Martha we in Spain are really showered with American Culture (specially through TV series, FOX and ABC or the likes.. Canadian series comes too) much more than you would start to think. So I'm pretty well informed about many things. If that is to be something obscure legend or happening in Minnesota, then you got me!

    Ouh and sexy jacket too!

    Hugs and Kisses Alectra

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