Want more? Check out NIcky! Categories All I submitted this cartoon and got it sent back to me. because, according to the moderator, it wasn't "perfect". Came back with a request to fix it appropriately. Can you guess what the perceived issue was?
Juggling is just like riding a bicycle. You know how at first you're wobbly but once you finally get it you've GOT it. You can ride all day.
Juggling's just the same. Except that once you've got it for 20 catches in a row you'll drop a ball at 21. Or at 8. Or maybe 37. Yeah, I guess it's nothing like riding a bike at all ... You know what I never said "in the old days"? "Oh damn, my paper crashed; I have to reboot it." "Oh look, my Esterbrook #914 steel nib just spontaneously transformed itself into a sponge." "Wait, I just got up for a minute and my artwork disappeared from my desk and, in fact, the face of the Earth."
Yes, these are the exciting experiences that we digital artists can enjoy each and every day. Spots of digital ink! Corrupted files! Inadvertent and permanent resizing from 12x12 inches to 0.12 x 0.12 inches. The list goes on. Gotta love it. I understand her confusion. How hard must it be to understand the world around us when gravity pushes us down onto the bed but pulls our tears sideways ...?
Have you ever wondered at those "get ripped in 5 easy lessons" ads and how true they might be? Well, I thought I'd illustrate just a bit as to how what you see isn't necessarily what you get. Here's an ad that just showed up on my feed. BIG difference, right? Maybe ... they actually have something worth buying ... Or do they? I'll ignore what I thnk is subtle photoshopage on the abs of the pic on the right because the basics are believable. The story is that the guy with the big gut worked out with the program (AND YOU CAN TOO!) and got transformed into the hunk on the right: The reason I'm kind of dubious is I know what a differnce posture can make. And since the proof is in the pudding, here's your humble cartoonist, both before and after: By "before" I mean a few seconds before I took the picture on the right. The difference? In the right I'm in my usual posture (unless I'm splayed out on the couch). On the left I did a few things. I collapsed my spine. Major slumping. I pushed out my diaphragm, putting my stomach waaaay to the front. I pulled in my chin, accentuating any jowliness. And I moved my arm back to hide the fact that it's actually my back being contorted into an S shape that's making my gut look so big.
Those love handles you can see on the left pic? Well, they're real (blush). My excuse is Covid and I'm sticking to it. Just another example of what you see being often less than what you get! Episode 127 in the long running segment "Evidence that our world has jumped the shark".
NFTs. Are you familiar with them? Likely not. Because they are so very odd. Stands for Nonfungible Token. Here is literally what they are - I'm not creating an analogy - this is actual. A basketball player dunks the ball. It's filmed and uploaded to YouTube. Anyone can view it for free. And they can download a copy. BUT. Someone takes that video clip and associates it with a digital tag. He sells that tag to you. You now "own" the right to say you're the first person to "own" that particular tagged video clip. You can now sell your NFT if you wish. For actual money. You may say "But wait. That's insane. Anybody can view the clip for free on YouTube. Why would I pay for it?" The answer is that you pay for it because yours is documented as official. You own the NFT. That creates "value". Now what you should remember is that almost nothing that we value has intrinsic value. Food and shelter - that has value. But gold? It's just a shiny mineral that has value only because other humans agree that it does. An old original baseball card is just an old piece of cardboard with ink on it. But collectors agree it has value and thus you can sell one for millions. If everyone suddenly decided it was worthless it would be. So ... if rich folks, who love exclusivity, agree that owning an NFT of an image is cool for bragging rights ... suddenly there's value. Not only do image clips such as I've described currently have a worth in the thousands of ACTUAL dollars, a digital "artwork" just sold for $69 MILLION dollars. Digital. Just a collection of electrons. An unlimited number of identical versions can be created by a single keystroke. But for the special NFT version? $69 million bucks. We didn't just jump the shark, we pole vaulted over it. |
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