Nothing will harm her…

by on August 12th, 2008

… if I have any control over it. That is, if I can protect my wife, I will do so if it within my power. I just had a dream that I wanted to record because of the strange things that where in it, one of which was an extremely cinematic way of protecting my wife. I know this is my first post in a long time, but I assure you, it’s a good one.

As far back in the dream as I can remember, my wife and I were doing detective work somewhat like the TV show Psych. We where investigating something having to do with a movie and had been given free run of the set. So in order to get where we needed to go, we basically stole a car from the set, a big Hummer. I don’t think we where going anywhere in particular, just trying to find out what was down this one highway. While driving up the road we came up on odd cloth screens, suspended by thin metal frames, that blocked the road. However, you could drive straight through them because they where only connected to the metal frame at the top. I specifically remember them being red, but reflecting orange as they ruffled in the wind, almost as if they where made out of velvet.

Then from the other side of the highway, we saw one of those screens moving in our direction. It was connected to a small vehicle that had a camera on the other side, filming cars from straight ahead as they moved down the road. I said to my wife, who was driving “Crap! We’re running onto a closed set for a movie, in a stolen car! And it’s their car!” We also happened to pass several police officers who seemed to be talking about the movie. Luckily, they didn’t seem to notice that we where really out of place. I suppose a lot of strange things where happening in the town with the movie being shot there.

We passed through another one of those screens immediately turned off onto a side road and ditched the car. We began walking as casually as we could so as not to draw attention to ourselves or our stolen vehicle. As we walked we passed by several strange shops on our right. One of these shops happened to be a pet shop specializing in snakes, specifically pythons. Looking through the window, we could see large clear plastic tubs that contained bright green and yellow pythons that just sat there lazily, sometimes shifting positions slightly almost like a person who is asleep would shift to get more comfortable.

The next shop was a rattle snake shop. I remember having a discussion with my wife about the snakes. She didn’t like them and mentioned something about them laying eggs inside you like in the movie aliens. I plainly told her that they didn’t lay eggs in people and even if they did, the eggs don’t eat anything… but the snakes might, once they hatch. We then went into the rattle snake shop, which I suppose was what we where looking for. It was rather dark and dusty inside with a concrete floor and wood paneled walls. Sunlight streamed through a few sparse windows showing the sheer amount of dust in the air.

Upon entering the store, we saw the store owner, a plainly dressed guy with dirty blonde mullet, sat on an old wooden chair, handling a very thin, but long, rattle snake (it was about as big around as a little finger, but about four feet long). To his right, was a dark green tub full of adult rattle snakes and in front of him was a tub which I knew contained baby rattle snakes. However, they looked like just the adult snake rattle and pure white. They just sat in the tub rattling occasionally and writing around like very large maggots.

I jokingly asked my wife if she where afraid of snakes, knowing full well that she was. In a somewhat defiant move, she grabbed the snake from the shop keeper. We where both very surprised by this, myself and the shopkeeper, and he was about to say a few words when the snake writhed around and leaped down to the ground, slithering away. The shop keep ran after it with a pole (the kind with the funny bent end for catching snakes) and a net. However, he only managed to chase it back to me. The snake ran around my leg and climbed up me. It went around my neck and then down inside the collar of my shirt. After running around my stomach area for a few seconds it turned back upward, opened its mouth to put its fangs against my throat right at my jugular (but it didn’t puncture the skin). The shopkeeper asked me if I had anything to eat. I asked why. He said that she could smell that I had low blood sugar and that she didn’t like it. If I didn’t eat something, she might bite me. None of us had anything, so the shop keeper had to slowly sneak up on the snake and snatch it away.

I then turned to leave but my wife pointed out that I had something on my face and neck. The snake had left venom on my face and neck like ink splotches from an exploded pen. In fact, they looked exactly like that, large black splats on my neck and a few streaks on the side of my face. The area where they touched my skin felt numb and tingly. My wife produced some napkins from her purse and handed them to me to wipe myself off. It was while I was wiping myself off that the snake leaped from the mans arms, turning into a cat before it landed. The cat had a medium length gray coat with brown diamond spots on it’s back and bright red eyes. The shopkeeper was a little afraid, because it was coming towards me again. Although, this time, it merely rubbed against my leg. The cat looked up at me and mewed, revealing two long and thin fangs amongst it’s regular cat teeth. The shopkeeper told us that the snake was magic. He wasn’t sure why she was able to transform or what she really was, but she did have those two forms and could change at will. I rubbed the cat’s head and scratched under it’s chin before we left the shop.

My wife wanted to go back to the car, but I reminded her that we couldn’t and that it was probably swarming with police officers by now. As we walked past the shopkeeper’s two cars that where parked out front a black sedan drove slowly down the road, rolled down its windows and a man with a machine gun began firing at us from the moving vehicle. I crouched down and immediately began to chant (as I often do in my dreams to stop an advancing threat), my right arm outstretched, my left arm around my wife, who I had forced to the ground. I now realized that the scene, which had been a desert scene before was now covered with snow. I only noticed this because the bullets kicked up snow in front and to the sides of us as I whispered to my wife “not a single bullet with touch you.”

I remember thinking that we where on the right track if someone was trying to kill us. The car began to drive away but as we stood up, unharmed they noticed and backed up to try again. The man with the machine gun produced a rocket launcher now. My wife was rather flustered and didn’t notice that they had come back with bigger weapons. She mumbled something like “you’re right, I wasn’t hit. How did you do that?” I really only had enough time to tell her to stay down as I began the chant again, in the same protective pose as earlier. The rocket was shot directly at my head and I swatted it away with my right hand, my left never leaving my wife. There was an explosion off in the distance behind me, but I didn’t turn around. I remember thinking “at least it was far enough away that it didn’t hit the shop”. My gaze was locked on the man with the weapons. He threw the launcher down and picked up another one.

This time, several men stepped out of the car, some with rocket launchers, some with machine guns, all aimed at us. They all began to fire their weapons at us, bullets and rockets coming at us faster than I could think. I dug deep to find the energy to pull this next stunt off. This part I saw from third person, as if I where watching a movie. all the rockets and bullets were diverted upwards, their paths curving as they neared what seemed like a protective shield around us. The men attacking us looked up in astonishment, seemingly bewildered by their new direction, some dropped their weapons. My right hand, this whole time was moving as if it was directing this flock of deadly projectiles. As they moved upwards, so did my hand extend towards the sky. Then, I moved my hand down sharply and their path curved to changed course again, this time coming straight down, right towards the bewildered attackers.

They didn’t have enough time to react, the projectiles hit their car and the surrounding area with lighting speed and explosive force. There was no trace of the men, just the charred wreckage of what used to be their car. The rest of the dream is really fuzzy. I remember talking with the snake hander again. He had been bitten by one of his snakes on the neck. His skin was flushed red from his head to about halfway down his chest and he couldn’t feel anything but the searing pain. But he assured us that he was immune to the venom because of the number of times he had been bitten and he would be alright. He was staying with my wife and I because he was sure those same men would go after him as well. It wasn’t long before I woke up.

The things that I thought where particularly interesting where as follows:

  1. There was a lot of color in this dream. Apparently color dreams are rare and I never thought about it until recently, but I dream in full color all the time and can specifically remember the colors therein. I made a point of mentioning the various colors for this reason.
  2. The transforming snake was really cool and an interesting idea.
  3. The way I deflected all those deadly projectiles as if they where nothing was really cool. I would love to see something like that in a movie. All I knew was that they were going to kill me and my wife and I wasn’t going to allow that. I didn’t want to kill them either, but they didn’t seem like they where going to stop until either we where dead, or they were. Such cool abilities aren’t anything new to me, however, as I can do stuff like this all the time. Although, usually not as cool and cinematic. That was my “Knight in shining armor” complex showing through. I have control over my dreams, so of course I would control them such that my wife wasn’t harmed in them… and that means deflecting bullets, swatting away missiles and blowing up a car full full of mobsters.
  4. The most surprising thing however was that my wife handled a snake! Never, in a million years would Mary EVER handle a snake like that, let alone a poisonous one!

I hope you enjoyed that, I know I sure did. I’ll try to at least post my dreams more often. Even if I can’t come up with substantial posts, I still have dreams almost every night. They’re usually fairly strange and at least entertaining.

Why does God Spam Me???

by on June 5th, 2008

Error: Your Image Folder is not Set to the 777 permissions needed to allow Global Resize function to operate

…or rather, why am I getting religious-themed spam? Some one, or ones, are spreading blessings around the internet in the form of spam… and then (of course) linking to their crazy, random, and inappropriate websites.

I’m fairly used to all the Viagra and Porn spam that comes through. That stuff is like the bread and butter of a spam sandwich. But here recently I’ve been getting some really strange religious spam. The funny thing is, they don’t even link to religiously appropriate websites. In fact, I actually found the links to be VERY ironic.

God + Spam = Woman Riding Cigar????

Here are some examples, followed by my commentary:

With a link to an antique shop:
“These prayers help me to keep God in my life, especially with the many distractions I encounter.”
(Yes all those things are… ooh wait an antique shop!!!)

With a link to some cigar website:
I praise God for answering my prayers. God, you are so wonderful, majestic. Jesus Christ, I adore Your Sacred Heart.”
(What the heck kind of cigars are these?) @.@

With a link selling Cialis (an ED Drug):
“This website is very nice and colorful too. Its nice to have something to show others where you attend church and to show all the smiling people filled of the goodness of the Lord. You have a wonderful website here. May God rich bless you always.”
(You want to go where? and show off your what?? and fill them with WHAT???)

With a link pertaining to cyber sex:
“I have always wanted a compendium of novena prayers. Thank you for sharing all these prayers with us. It brings joy and happiness to everyone. I know, I do feel that way.e”
(You spent how many days on your knees… praying for what?)
***The definition of a Novena might clarify the irony.

And there are more, but I think you get the point.

Now, I know that as a rule, we as bloggers are supposed to ignore spam altogether. Just delete it and move on. However, I found these particular examples of spam to be particularly humorous and as such decided to share. Thank you, you crazy spam bot, you really made my day. For once, I’m glad I got some spam. Normally sorting through and deleting my spam is an annoying task. This time, I enjoyed it immensely.

God Bless Spam.
Spam Bless You.

Type to you later,
~Nathaniel

Unmedicated ADD Advice

by on May 20th, 2008

This will be the first post of it’s kind here on CF. I recently recieved an email from someone seeking advice on how to cope with having ADD and being completely unmedicated, a task which is fairly difficult. The email I received read as follows:

“Hello, Im a fourty year old man that has been diognosed with A.D.D.. I have been on Aderall for four years. Prior to that I was an alcoholic and drug addict. I have tried just about every med available in the last few months trying to get out of the zombie stage. I decided to stop all meds two weeks ago. I have not felt this good in a long time. I am concerned becase I feel myself not being content with what I have and I worry about the old me returning. Do you know of anything that might take the edge off and yet not make me a zombie? I am trying excercise and diet but I feel myself getting board… Thanks Cory”

I totally understand. It was a rough transition for me to kick the meds, but it was well worth it. You’re right, you feel great in comparison to all those drugs slowing you down. You are right though,it is easy to get bored and distracted without any chemicals to keep your brain on a leash. I do have a few suggestions though:

  1. Coffee/Tea. I can’t drink either because the caffeine makes me pass out. However, I know plenty of people who have ADD and survive just fine on two cups of coffee a day (one at breakfast and one at lunch). You do have to watch out for the crash afterwards though, it’s just something to keep in mind.
  2. Chocolate, also contains caffeine. If I find that I need to focus, I’ll often snag a piece of chocolate. The sugar and caffeine helps to get my brain moving in the right direction again.
  3. Meditation. It’s boring as… well… just sitting there for long periods of time. However, the discipline garnered from training your mind to shut up and be quiet is priceless. I use both meditation and self hypnosis techniques to get myself to sleep every night. As I’m sure you know, many who suffer from ADD also find it hard to sleep because their minds just won’t stop thinking.
  4. Martial arts. Working out and eating right is great, but you don’t train your mind much with just that. Keeping your brain engaged and forcing some discipline on yourself with martial arts can be extremely helpful. Even something like Tae Bow (which is just the kung fu / kick boxing workout taken from the martial art) can be extremely beneficial.
  5. Stay away from additive/preservatives. There is some scientific evidence and a wealth of anecdotal evidence to support the claim that ADD is caused by these artificial chemicals in our food. Although I’m not entirely sure if I believe this, it isn’t a bad idea to at least keep in mind that these artificial additives/preservatives and colorings are probably not good for you. I’m not saying “go all natural”. But rather that you try not to eat/drink overly fake/processed food. Here’s a link to some of these findings:

    http://www.chem-tox.com/pregnancy/artificial.htm

Well, that about sums it up. I hope that was helpful. Keep in mind, I’m not a doctor and the consumption of caffeine and chocolate may be contraindicated for other conditions (such as hypertension, high blood pressure, and diabetes). Not to mention the dangers of martial arts. I’m not giving medical advice, just sharing what works for me. (heh, just covering my butt).

Type to you later,
~Nathaniel Summers

P.S. Thank you Cory, for allowing me to post this here as well. I sincerely hope that this dialog was helpful to both you and any others with similar situations who happen to stumble upon this post.

As an inviatation to my readers, if you have any comments, and especially if you have any more suggestions for managing ADD without medication, please, by all means, leave a comment below.

Increase Exposure, Hop on Facebook

by on April 12th, 2008

Error: Your Image Folder is not Set to the 777 permissions needed to allow Global Resize function to operate

I just got a facebook account. I’ve been meaning to get one for the longest time. All I knew about it before signing up was: You could upload photos, and a lot of people where on it. THAT’S IT! Wow, I was a little surprised to find that it has a much as it does. I’m all ready using a few apps, slinging comments all over people’s walls, and trying to snag as many friends as I can (of course all people that I actually know/knew… for now).

Now, why the heck does this matter to anyone?

Hands of FriendsWell, I’m working on an experiment. I’ve heard that facebook is a great way to drive traffic to websites, if done properly. I’ve got little blurbs about this and my other two sites up there at the moment. I also uploaded several pieces of my artwork and posted a link to this in the gallery description saying that I’ve got more here. On top of that, the items that I sell on t-shirts, I’ve got links to their product pages.

Facebook Seems like it was
practically made for artists!

I knew facebook was popular but I had no idea. I can totally see how much potential it has for connecting people. Because of the way it works, it’s perfect for visual artists. I’ve said it once, and I’ll probably say it a thousand times: getting traffic to your site (and eyeballs on your art) is all about increasing your presence on the web. People can only view your work if they know you’re there! Facebook looks to me like a great way to get exposure. At the very least, it will keep you in touch with your friends, and your friends in touch with you… and your art. Some of my best customers (and by that I mean they buy a lot of stuff ^_^) are friends and family. Let’s face it, we could all use more friends.

Let’s recap

As an artist you can build your traffic very simply by getting a facebook account, staying in touch with friends and family, uploading samples of your artwork with links back to your website (for if they want to see more).

Question for the artistic masses:

“Do you use Facebook? Do you use it to build you traffic for your site and get eyeballs on your art? If so, how successful is it?”
I’m very interested to see how others are doing with this. I’ll keep everyone updated on my results with facebook advertising.

Hope that was helpful,
Type to you later,
~Nathaniel

Attracting Eyeballs to Your Art

by on April 6th, 2008

Error: Your Image Folder is not Set to the 777 permissions needed to allow Global Resize function to operate

The MuseAs we all know, the internet is a great place to expose your art to the global community. It’s cheap and easy to set up a simple gallery of your work. In fact, it might only take a couple minutes to a few days at most. However, if even if your artwork is the most amazing, revolutionary, and inspired stuff out there… you won’t get any actual eyeballs on your art unless people know you exist.

So how do you attract these eyeballs? There are a vast array of methods that are free, fast, and easy to set up. The first I’m going to mention is social art gallery sites. Here are a few that work very well for not only generating traffic but for also serving as your main gallery website:

www.elfwood.com is a fantasy and science fiction specific gallery community for both artists and writers. There are also a great deal of tutorial pages and a host of communities built around elfwood. The main thing people have a problem with is the genre restriction. However, it’s still a very awesome community and well worth your time if your particular genre of interest happens to be fantasy or science fiction.

www.deviantart.com is a site for artists from every genre. They also have a nice feature where you can pay a monthly fee and be able to sell relatively high quality prints of your work. They’re also HUGE, so you can get a lot of organic traffic through them.

www.flickr.com isn’t specifically for artists, but I have seen artists use them specifically because of the high amount of traffic that runs through flickr.

Now, I’m sure your asking “Why the heck should I use all these different gallery sites when I’ve got a gallery of my own?”… Well, do a quick search for “Nathaniel Summers” on google and you’ll find that this site isn’t listed in the top few pages. However, the #1 result is my elfwood gallery. (huh… I guess I need to brand my name a bit better here. :P )

These sites allow you to increase your web “footprint” such that you’re MUCH more visible on the web. They also allow you to get feedback on your work through comprehensive commenting systems. This makes these galleries as much about community as they are about the art.

Indeed, using community sites to build traffic is a time-tested technique that works every time to generate organic, targeted, and absolutely real traffic.

the best advice that I have for anyone trying to increase traffic on any website is to get out there and participate in the online community as a whole. Going and commenting on blogs, people’s art galleries, their myspace photos, just about anything. You can’t lose. Now, I’m not saying that you should spam, just get out there, be present and participate. You’ll gain a lot of nice targeted organic traffic this way.

My question for my readers today is: “What is your most successful method for generating traffic for an art-related site?”

Stop a Sneeze Instantly, Without Exploding Your Eyeballs

by on March 25th, 2008

Error: Your Image Folder is not Set to the 777 permissions needed to allow Global Resize function to operate

I know you can’t really explode your eyeballs if you try to stop a sneeze but suppressing a sneeze is never a good idea. The fact of the matter is that a sneeze can leave your mouth and nose at speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour. Trying to stop such a force isn’t something I would advise. In fact, doing so could cause damage to your eyes, nose, and/or eardrums.

However, there is a way to stop a sneeze without causing damage. You have to stop it before it starts. It is possible to simply relax, clear your mind, and concentrate on stopping the involuntary spasm that is a sneeze, however, that’s not very reliable and its not easy to summon the will power to subdue something as powerful as a sneeze. Imagine that you’re an international super spy, you’re on a stealth mission, you’re in someone’s office trying to steal top secret plans and as you open up the drawer to the desk your nose begins to itch, then tingle and you sneeze. This alerts the guards outside who promptly rush into the room and shoot you in the face, mission over. Oops! I sneezed!

Use these pressure points to stop a sneezeIt’s actually really easy to stop a sneeze. Just one conveniently easy pressure point will do the trick. That’s right, all you have to do is take your index and middle finger and press them to the little indention that your super-orbital ridge (your eyebrow bones) make where they meet just above your nose (between and slightly above the eyebrows).

If you trace your eyebrows with your fingers you can feel the bones. You want to press right where they join up with the forehead. The bones form a shape that’s almost like a “W” that will perfectly fit two fingers. I’ve provided the illustration to help… well, illustrate this.

Now, I’ve got to lay out a few things. This pressure point will stop most sneezes. However, it won’t stop all sneezes, including:

  • Those brought on by high concentrations of irritants (such as pepper up the nose).
  • Those caused by extreme allergy attacks (such as sneezing fits that last several minuets).
  • A sneeze that’s right about to happen.

It’s also very important that you catch the sneeze early. If you wait too long to apply the pressure point, it won’t work. Upon applying the pressure to this point, you should immediately stop feeling like you have to sneeze. If you can still feel the sneeze building up, get your fingers away from your face before you poke your eye out.

I personally use this technique all the time. Sneezes actually do serve a purpose, so I use it sparingly. I tend to use this when I’m on the phone, with a customer at work, when I’m trying to be sneaky, etc…

Give it a shot, you’ll be amazed at how well it works.

Trafficjam, BlogRush Never Looked Better

by on February 21st, 2008

www.trafficjam.com has just been launched and it is pouring in visitors to the most popular blog posts across the blogrush network.

What is trafficjam? It’s a content rating site much like Digg and Stumbleupon. However, the rankings are figured out by a combination of the click-through rate of posts in the BlogRush widget and the amount of time they spend on that page. Apparently it’s a big complicated algorithm that figures out just how popular an article is. What is means is that these little blogs can pull in traffic like the big guys.

Trafficjam has just launched and it’s getting MASSIVE amounts of traffic already. This traffic is then being funneled to the most popular blog entries from BlogRush users all over the planet. BlogRush not only gives you the ability to increase your exposure by putting links to your content all over the web, If you’re content is popular, it could potentially expose it to thousands every day! BlogRush has never looked better. If you’re a blog owner, there is NO REASON not to join.

Join BlogRush today, and start driving targeted traffic to your blog TODAY!

Also, bookmark trafficjam.com and view it often. Why? Because you can see very quickly what headlines are generating clickthroughs and what topics are hot. Write an article about a similar topic, link to hot posts, use similar headline strategies and you could drastically increase your clickthrough rates and your subscribers. TrafficJam is a priceless headline, content, and keyword research tool.

Coke, Caffeine and Convulsions?

by on February 21st, 2008

Caffeine is a wonderful thing right? I know plenty of people who can’t even start their day without a cup of coffee or a nice cold coke. That caffeine rush sure is invigorating isn’t it? Heck, once you’re hooked on the caffeine, water just doesn’t compare to a cold bubbly soda. But have you ever thought about what happens to your body after drinking a Coke? This Article lays it out in detail and it’s some narly stuff. To summarize, you consume 100% of the daily recommended intake of sugar (in one serving), your blood sugar spikes, your pupils dilate, your blood pressure rises, and it increases dopamine production (not unlike the effects of heroine that make it so addictive), it severely dehydrates you and depletes you of vital nutrients.

The dehydrating qualities of caffeine where somehow kept from me in my youth. My assumption was “if I’m thirsty, I should get a drink” Apparently, however, the type of drink is VERY important.
(more…)

New Gallery Feature: Individual Comments

by on February 14th, 2008

With the new AWSOM Pixgallery 4.5.0 release, visitors can finally comment on individual images in my gallery. Unfortunately, this also made all the previous comments that where made on the artwork page disappear.

Even so, feel free to get in there, check out my artwork, and leave some comments to try out the new system.

Toilet Etiquette

by on February 5th, 2008

I recently discovered an interesting strategy for bathroom etiquette that results in benefits for both myself and my wife that I thought so helpful that I simply had to share. Before you read on, I should mention that I do not have any shame… just something you should be aware of.

You see, my wife often complains about the odor produced by my bowel movements. In fact, the restroom is generally off limits as a biohazard zone for quite some time afterwards. I understand this is also a problem for many other men. Generally speaking all the females I’ve known are completely repelled by the odor produced by male feces. They tend to avoid it like the plague, spray all manner of odor eliminators and scents in an effort to cover it up, and make funny faces while rebuking the source of the odor.

With this in mind, I sat down to think about what I could do to help ease my wife’s olfactory discomfort. Because it is often difficult for anyone to wait several hours for the stink to clear before they can use the toilet, I decided that it might be more considerate to wait until just after my wife uses the toilet to “take the browns to the super bowl”.

Judging by both common sense and anecdotal evidence, we can all agree that people tend to relieve themselves every few hours and are thusly unlikely to need to use the toilet within a few hours of relieving themselves. By waiting until my wife has just used the toilet to “drop the kids off at the pool” I can maximize the amount of time that the air has to clear before next she must visit the restroom, thusly sparing her from as much of my foul reek as possible. I find this to be the most considerate course of actions possible. It’s also very easy to do so long as there happens to be no immediate urgency to your situation.

As an additional benefit, because a woman must always sit in order to use the toilet, using the toilet right after her ensures that the seat is nice, warm, and ready for your posterior. The only exception is when your wife is a germ-aphobe who simply “hovers.” However, baring that one exception, this situation will likely be the same across the board. I must admit, I do not miss the cold seat, and although my wife thinks I’m a bit of a jerk to specifically wait for her to “warm up the seat” for me, she does appreciate the less frequent assault on her nostrils.

Someone once said that marriage is about compromise. I think this is a perfect example of this. There are obvious benefits for both parties and very little effort is required to reap these benefits. Because of this, I’ve got a new rule for toilet etiquette: if at all possible, wait until directly after my wife has used the toilet to “take a dump”. By sparing her of my noxious fumes, I am rewarded with a freshly warmed seat. Seems fair enough to me.