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The other day when I was getting ready to go out I thought I’d record my ritual. This is my “bare minimum” face for being presentable outside my house and I’ve done it since I was in my teens. I have acne that is impervious to over the counter treatments (believe me, I’ve wasted so much money!) so make up has always been my mask. I feel very self conscious if I am without foundation and in a way, it is quite limiting having this anxiety about showing my real face. I guess this video is about unveiling my mask and my ritual, more than anything.

The song “Marie-Claire” is by Elfes, and the lyrics are in French but when I passed them through Google Translate (I hope that link works!) they spoke about body image anxiety – so I thought it was rather appropriate!

I’ve been wanting to start experimenting with using wood as a support, and I bought a big piece of plywood from Bunnings weeks ago but hadn’t had the time to cut it up or paint any of my ideas for personal work. This week I’ve decided is my week; on Monday I got electrocuted by our crappy circuit reset button (and the power died too) then I went over to use Kate’s powertools to cut up the plywood! Horah! Last night I sanded back and stained a couple of the boards and recovered from my day (no, really I was totally ok – minor shock). Yesterday I painted up one drawing I had in my sketchbook for a month or so and took a little video and did awesomely scintillating live-action updates with my mobile phone.

I like to document the process, just so I can go back later and revise what I’ve done so I know better for next time. A few people say they actually enjoy the updates too!

Here’s the video! The music is really cute, it’s by Julandrew and it’s called “Get Back In Line“. I was introduced by Melissa to Creative Commons music and I’m really impressed by some of the things I’ve found! Also, it’s nice being able to use music in a video without worrying that anyone will sue you.

On Saturday I went to the Equal Love rally to march in support of same-sex marriage. I went to support this key human right for all people, even though I am privileged insofar that my relationship is legally recorded as a marriage. The government and religion should have little to do with each other, and much MUCH less to do with dictating who can love who. Recognising same-sex marriage will not harm my marriage to Nick, nor will it destroy society; in fact I might be so bold as to venture that it can only do GOOD! People will feel less anxiety when it comes to talking about their relationships; more children will grow up in loving homes with parents that are in a legally recognised couple; and who can argue that love is bad? Surely you’d have to have fairy floss for brains.

Brisbane Tweeps for Equality by David Jackmanson

If you support love (and you’re Australian!) please make a submission to the Senate enquiry into the Marriage Equality Amendment Bill 2009. The last bill was rejected because the anti marriage equality groups pulled more numbers than the pro same-sex marriage groups even though the last Galaxy poll declared that a majority of Australians support same-sex marriage. The other side has mobilised and they are a minority – why are you sitting on your arse waiting for other people to pitch in? Go make a submission to the Senate enquiry online now!

Everyone likes a larf, right? Here’s some stuff that’s made me giggle.

• Matt Preston, one of the judges from MasterChef Australia. Aside from being a dapper dresser, he has a way with words. He described a perfect panna cotta as having the consistency of a “5′10″ rubenesque woman on stilettos = perfect”.

• This is from a Something Awful thread, which I can’t access EVEN THOUGH I HAVE AN ACCOUNT. CAPSLOCK INSANITYYYY. It was years ago and a friend bought it for me as I didn’t have a credit card and they didn’t accept Paypal back then, so I have no record of my account. Consider this a BOOHOO Something Awful, thanks for taking my money and being jerks. Anyway, this picture is hilarious. And free.

• Kittens Inspired by Kittens. And old ‘un but a good ‘un. I don’t even like cats and I cry with laughter at this.

• Les Larbey and Margaret Bland’s Galaxy of Dance. Classic. CLASSIC. When I need cheering up I always come back to this video.

• I found this on tumblr. Sure, it’s childish but… don’t judge!

• And now, a dramatic reading of a REAL breakup letter from a REAL person. I don’t know how I missed this, but I only came across this last night. I had tears streaming down my face, it’s that hilarious! Promise.

• Another tumblr find… it’s funny and sad!

• sadtrombone.com. I am giving you the power of the sad trombone. It’s a powerful tool. Use it wisely. Or you could just cut and paste the url in response to friends’ whingey facebook status updates.

I thought I’d get off the video thing but yesterday I realised I hadn’t done a “video portfolio” and I wanted to see if I could top my old one, done in September last year. Because I’ve now got an iMac, I also have iMovie… so I’m able to do all kinds of rad edity things that I couldn’t do last year with Windows Movie Maker **gag** You might notice on most of the still frames there is movement across them – that’s called the Ken Burns Effect, and I might have abused it a little bit on this video because I just learnt how to do it. ha!

The music in the video is all Creative Commons licensed! Isn’t it awesome? Melissa Maples recently turned me on to CC resources, and I’ve been so impressed by the quality and the scope of music available. You can see who created the three songs I’ve used in this video by hanging out until the end, or just going to the YouTube page where I’ve also supplied links to the song pages on ccMixter.

Video has been intriguing me lately. I never thought I could do it – in the past I’ve attempted animation but the one thing that kept tripping me up was the dimension of time, and how to manipulate it while using all the other design principles that have been drummed into my head for two dimensional work. I am having heaps of fun experimenting with iMovie though, it’s definitely a less intimidating jumping off point into the world of video editing. I’ve boldly told Nick that I would like a video camera for my birthday, plskthx! (Though I’m fairly realistic about my small chances there… unless I pull some super huge fantastical commissions soon!)

I’m not sucking up at all (Hey Nick ILU pls buy me a video camera) but here are some photos of the beautiful bunch of flowers he bought me the other night. It is a HUGE bunch. There are literally 20 billions of dimensions of flowers in them!

They make me want to start drawing flowers more.

Do you have any requests for video stuff? It seems like there’s a whole world out there for me to talk about, but I don’t know where to start! Leave me some requests or suggestions in the comments or on my YouTube channel and I’ll do my best to get some new videos up!

I did a vlog version of the “How to love yourself in 8 really hard steps” today because I thought it might be good practice to get into the swing of talking and making videos. I actually surprised myself – I think I had about 20 minutes of babbling that I had to edit fairly brutally in order to come under YouTube’s 10 minute limit!

Please watch, rate, comment, subscribe and give me your first born child’s toenails. I bronze them and sell them on Etsy as earrings.

So, I have a friend called Heather who has been vlogging for a while and I’ve been hesitantly toeing the water for a while on Vimeo by getting people to ask me questions that I answer on my web cam. It wasn’t until I came across the hilarious communitychannel, created by Natalie Tran, that I felt like I could maybe probably start a vlog on You Tube myself. I was initially apprehensive because of all the trolls I see spouting ridiculous things that their mothers should slap them for, but when I had a look at the actual vlogs I saw that the quality of comments rose steeply.

I love everyone who reads my blog here, and so I want to invite you over to You Tube as well… so we can bring our incredible fancitude to the site and push out the trolls by show of force (and fanciness). You can see my profile page here, where you can also subscribe. (And I hope you do!)

I am quite the choir nerd – This is Perpetuum Jazzile covering Toto’s Africa completely a cappella, even creating the rain and thunder from clicks, knee slaps and jumping on the stands. Amazing.

Yes, I’m gay. It amazes me when people reduce a gay person down to every stereotype they’ve ever heard because it somehow protects them from actually getting to know that person. This is a beautiful video, and I love everything these guys said.

Design isn’t free; budget for it, love it, pet it and stroke it! This video points out that when you haggle or try to undercut a designer’s work (or any other service-based vendor), it’s like you’re asking for something for nothing. You wouldn’t ask a car salesman for a free car, and tell him it’d be good for his portfolio, or good exposure… right?

The other Natalie (one of many awesome Natalies!) sent me a link to this last week but I hadn’t had time to watch it until now! Thanks Natalie

People often tell me that I’m “so creative” and that they wish they could be “gifted” in similar ways. When I thank them and tell them that I’m still learning and that they can probably draw too, they usually look at the ground, put their hands in their pockets and kick at something imaginary on the floor while telling me wistfully that they simply don’t have the talent. To which I say with much enthusiasm “THAT’S CRAP!”

I have always believed that everyone can learn artistic techniques that will help them fully utilise their creativity, it’s just that the culture we’re in seems to dictate that art is some kind of flight of fancy that isn’t very useful at all; hence it isn’t developed as a priority in school curriculum. I even went to uni with the intention of becoming an art teacher so I could try and teach young people that, but quickly discovered that I wasn’t going to change the world in the ways that I had so naively assumed

Kirby Ferguson from Goodie Bag has an awesome name. He also has a point. You should watch the above video and be enlightened; then you should write a list of all of the things you’ve wanted to do but thought you couldn’t – and then set off on your 10,000 hours of practice.

Nothing is stopping you, except a little bit of hard work (and PS: I’m still doing my hours!)