Japanese

Due to the fact that particularly recently i have developed an urgeto learn more bout Japan and it's culture i have decided t give my avatar environment a Japanese theme. my main environment will be a Japanese style dojo, in the backround there will be usic by Dir en Grey, a japanese metal band that i listen to (video at bottom of post).
as well as this I will have this as a picture on the wall:

This is how you write Richard in Japanese and as well as being part of the Japanese theme it is directly linked to me. This picture will be a link to some of the work I have been doing on learning to speak Japanese.

Dir en Grey:

The Dragon.

In order to give people a better view of who I am and my indentity I have decided to inclde a post on the Dragon, a mythical beast that seems to hold a large sway over my life, even though it may not seem so at first. Since I was little I have always been amazed by the dragon, a great mythical beast said to be very large in size and acroding to mythology, breathes fire and tends to reside in mountains and other countries. I beleive that my love for the ancient creature stems from the fact that i was born in the year of the dragon, I think that this sub-conciously makes me drawn toward dragons for example i have the followin dragon related items:


This is the tattoo on my right arm, I bleive that this tattoo is particularly realated to my self identity as I have never seen another person with this tattoo, this is not to say I beleive I am the only person to own this tattoo, however if you were to show a picture of it to my friends they would automaticaly think of me as this tattoo is so rare that they would assume it was me owning the tattoo.



This is a ceramic dragon that i bought when i went to devon wen I was very young, while it may not be so significant that my friends would see it and think of my it is very significant for me personaly as I spent all of the holiday saving my money so that i could buy this dragon that i had seen on the first day of the holiday.

As well as these items I have a collection of clothing that has dragons on it, the one most related to me is a tank top which has a chinese style dragon and snake entwined on it, this is the most relevant to me as i am soon to have this tattooed to myself, two of my friends are also getting this tattoo as it is relevant to all of us, we were all born in the year of the dragon or the year of the snake and as we will be the only ones with this tatto it will mean alot more to us as friends than if it was a popular tattoo.

Of course it is not only the items I posses that make the dragon particularly represent me, it is of course the year i was born as well: 1988: the year of the Dragon. In order to learn what this means to me I have looked into what traits and aspects people who were born in the year of the dragon have, this is what I found:
The following section was taken off http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_%28zodiac%29


The Dragon is flamboyant, attractive and full of vitality and strength. In China, the Dragon is the sign of the Emperor of China or the male element Yang. The Dragon is the symbol of power and wealth.
It would be right to say that people born in the year of the dragon have a natural charisma and are certainly gifted with power and luck. It is unlikely for them to escape unnoticed from a party or to take second place in a competition. The dragon person has an active mind and shows an unfeigned interest in the world around him/her. This person is also self-confident enough to know how to create a necessary impression. Because they are larger than life themselves, dragon people like to do everything on a grand scale. They are egotistical self-grandising and ambitious, almost to the point of megalomania. They will stop at nothing to get what they want. A person born in this year wears the crown of destiny, and is capable of great achievements if he or she knows how to harness his or her tremendous energy, intelligence and talent. While these people enjoy being the center of attention, they also have a brave and charitable side to their personality. If a dragon's friend faces a problem or dilemma, he or she will be there to offer help, and when others leave the field of battle the dragon takes a step forward to solve the problem with authority and dignity. Dragons set a high standard of actions for themselves as well as for other people and are surprised when others cannot cope with a task; they are so carried away by the process that they fail to see other people's weaknesses.
Ideal jobs for dragons include kings, military officer, politician, musician, buffers, poet, artist, biological and environmental engineer, stockbroker, athlete, trade union leader, company director, explorer, and attorney.
The Dragon is most compatible with the Rat, Monkey, and Snake.

Traditional Dragon Attributes/Associations
Attribute

Colors: Black, Gold
Polarity: Yang
Element: Wood
Food: Wheat, poultry
Positive Traits: Noble, ambitious, dignified, charismatic, vibrant, magnanimous, expansive, powerful
Negative Traits: Ruthless, imperious, judgmental, arrogant, dogmatic, pompous, despotic, intolerant, demanding

Other than the general list of suitable jobs for people born in the yer of the dragon I agree that i mostly fit in with the characteristics of other dragons, this includes the neggative section.

the logo

In order to create my logo I have taken a picture of a tattoo I have on my right arm (above). The next few screen shots run through the steps I have taken to make this into my logo.
Below is the image at the start of the editing process.





In this screenshot I have begun to cut away all of the flesh and hair and shading around the tattoo. In order to cut out the flesh and hair I have used a polygon lasso tool to cut around the parts I want to cut out.



This screenshot is just the same as the last shot but it is further along the road to completion than the last shot. As with before I have been using a polygon lasso tool to cut out the parts I do not want on the logo.



This is the completed cut out of the dragon, when I have a picture of my friends tribal tattoo I will be using this behind the dragon to complete the logo a further post will be added when this has been completed.

Dark place

For this post i have decided to give everyone a small in sight into one of the greatest spoofs of all time. The show is called Darkplace and is a mick take of a 70's/80's TV drama starring Garth Marenghi. In order to give you a better understanding of the show I have included this clip from the show:


So what then is so amazing about this particular spoof? Well other than the fact that it is amazingly random and yet still fits in with the conventions of a 70's/80's TV drama, every single aspect of this programme is a spoof. For exmple if you were to look into who "garth Marenghi" is you would expect to find information about an author, a film maker, a producer or an actor. So then if you do not find these things out about Garth Marenghi what do you find? Well you would find out that he does not exist. Every aspect of this programme is made up, the names of the actors, the books Garth claims to have read, the memories of the actors and of course the show itself, it is all one big spoof.
To me this makes the show even better due to the fact that unless you look into the show you do not know that this is made up therefore making the show a huge sucess.

post modernism

Postmodernism is a term which is applied to a large set of developments in many areas critical theory, philosophy, literature, and culture.

Postmodernism was originally a reaction to modernism . Largely influenced by the confuison of the Second World War, postmodernism tends to refer to a cultural, intellectual, or artistic state.

modernism is problematic as it works for the ones that fit but dont for the ones who dont.
post modernism valuse everyone it says everones views are equal if they are in right context.

…in contrast to Western documentaries ‐ emphasis on individual protagonists, Indian films relied  on the collective in representing its subject, including the collective interview. In place of the  private home was the street. …the group rather than the individual and public spaces rather  than private ones become the primary sites of political discourse and cultural expression.
(Jyotsna Kapur).

In this quote it is obvious that the western film is modernism film and the indian film is the post modernism, i think this is one of the most prominant quote amongst them.

According to Armin Medosch, in an interconnected environment, individuality or expression are  neither important. What's important are the new forms of sharing, spreading and planning the  digital work. With collective actions this cultural domain progresses in its entirety, because  sharing and collaborating mean learning from each other.
(Valentina Culatti, Neural.it).

in this quote it is obvious that Culatti is looking at the interconneted enviroment should be more of a post modernism environment.