Blog Critique

I chose to critique the blog 'The Art Blog of James Jirat Patradoon', available @ http://jirat.tumblr.com/

Of course, the author is personality based, as clearly indicated by the title of his blog, and is written in the subjective form.

The author of the blog is actually my cousin.

My long lost cousin,

whom I haven't talked to, or seen, in at least 10 years.

I thought his blog was good, because, it made me be able to keep track of someone whom I care about, without disturbing them.

But actually, I like reading his blog because it provides very artistic views on life.

James is a COFA (UNSW) graduate, and occassionally sells his hand-drawn designs to art exhibitions, or private clients. His drawings, are especially aesthetically pleasing to the eye. He forms most of his inspiration from American and Japanese comic book characters.

I think his blog is important to a wider community, because it talks about a wide variety of everyday things (and he sometimes gives more personal insight into his thoughts). Not only does this provide accessibility to internet viewers, it also makes them feel welcome and equal in status to him, even though he is a brilliant, highly-talented print artist.

The content in his blog consists of a variety of media, including YouTube videos that feature movie trailers/music videos, written stories about dreams, and information about his artworks or exhibitions.

There is no method in his blog, to check the 1st post directly, but I am sure he has kept this blog for at least a year, the approximate time that I've been viewing it.

Although, he doesn't get quoted by newspapers, he does occasionally get quoted or referred to by art networks around the world. I think this plays an important part in the communication systems that exist in the art communities. And thus, a great benefit.

The layout of the blog, is quite sleek. It does not employ the blog engines of blogger, wordpress, livejournal, myspace, typepad, or anything like that. Instead, it is configured by himself, with a URL that he chose that is hosted by his Internet Service Provider, which is OptusNet, a member of SingTel Telecommunications.

As it does not follow a typical blog engine layout, it is designed with an artistic touch, utilising a lot of blank space on the right side, and having no internet advertisements whatsoever. The overall impression this creates upon the user, is one of cleanliness and ease, which for me, made me want to keep coming back to it for more.
In addition, it has RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication), which lets users track his updates, with the click of a button at the top of their internet browsers. This helps let people get up-to-date to his happenings, even before they even type his address on the address bar.

The audience for his blog is quite indeterminable, as there are no sitemeters on his blog, and there are no commenting features allowed for any of his posts. Therefore an approximate number of visitors is unassumed. I would predict that it is considerably about 50 new visitors to his site every week, as he also promotes his blog in Japanese blog syndicate sites.

About censorship, I do no think he poses great threat to the cyberdissident industry, as he does not talk about anything harmful to another human being, or another nation/race/sex, etc.

Finally, his sources are most often from YouTube, with the odd design site put in now and then. I think his blog could definitely be a professional enterprise, especially now when he is entering, or has entered, the professional art community.

The Classification of Trash

Purple dirt and cryptic cobwebs,

balls of dust and fallen hair,

fill the house with irreverent gloom.

These are the things which you need to get rid of,

for they are the real trash that is unmistakably filthy.

Later on,

you can enjoy a bath,

in your broken bathtub,

with correspondingly smelly soap.

Then after that,

work is to be done.

You didn't know that after all these years?

After all the trash I had to go through to find you?

Of course you don't,

you live by trash.

You kiss it everyday before you start afresh,

and you embrace it gently at the moment of your return.

Today, I will want you to classify your trash,

with elegance and a prudent flair.

'Dirty' can be dealt with nicely,

you just have to treat it like royalty.

If you want to keep some trash,

that is fine.

What can I expect from a trashface?

It's ok though,

I admire trashfaces;

you rule the world with your careless spirit,

whilst you drool on your couch in less-than-a-minute.

It's all cool.

You can go to school,

I will execute the preliminary classification,

You can join in later, when you have more information.

At school, of course, it will be your first day.

And you are not learning about mathematics or science,

you are learning about the labelling and separating of trash,

and also the different trash qualities that you may be able to identify.

Please come home quick,

after you have finished school,

as the Classy Classifier (myself) is waiting for you here,

I help you put things right,

before they smell bright,

so never fear the classification of trash,

because I can guarantee not a single rash.

Everything done with me,

will be for your own good,

but also your neighbourhood.

Trust me, they'll like you better,

and appreciate your effort.

So, keep your head up high,

but then bring it back down,

as we have a lot of work to do,

in the classification of trash.




Before we start the process,

grab this pile of trash and repeat after me:


"Classify your trash.

It will be better that way.

For at least, in a trashy way,

organisation is in a flash."

'Best' ≠ Best

People shouldn't ever compete with each other to be the 'best'.

You are the only suitable competitor to yourself.

The 'best' is just a word created by elites,

to describe what they think is good.



We (the world),

can never be under-estimators,

because,

there will always be people out there who are better than us.

They may not be standing right in front of us (in the sea of common people that we see everyday).

But there's not much to prove that they don't exist, right?


This just re-iterates that it's a waste of time,

trying to compete with someone,

for the 'best' people might not be within your reach.

I believe it's better to just challenge yourself.



In the end,

out of pure common sense,

everyone has the potential to be the best,

to at least one other person in this world,

that truly,

truly

admires what they do.

Small Change

In the economic world,

it would be fair to say that there are 2 types of people:

• Those that are annoyed by small change

• Those that aren't annoyed by small change

Those that are annoyed by small change,

even if they have acquired billionaire status,

may never be satisfied with the immediate money that they have in their pockets (even if it is a severe amount) -

they will most likely go on a spending spree/rampage that gets rid of their small change as quickly as possible.



Particularly,

they are known to go to food outlets to buy unnecessary perishable goods,

tip twice the amount of something they paid for,

approach buskers and hobos to give generously, etc,

but in the most extreme cases,

those that simply have a really bad problem with the sight of small change,

I believe,

throw their small change abruptly to the ground surrounding their immediate occupied space.



On the other hand,

we look into the features of the people who aren't annoyed by small change.

These people may deviously keep their small change in handy to agitate their most hated cashiers/money handlers/recipients,

or,

they can deceptively use their small change to hack machines

- such as soft drink machines, slot machines, or phone booths (which measure their coins by weight).

Thus perpetrators are often guilty of super-gluing small change together to imitate a larger amount and maybe even attach a string to it,

just in case it doesn't work the first time,

in which case,

small change becomes the bait for an economic fishing rod that cheats the system.

Quite smart, actually.

But so trivial.

* I don't know this from personal experience, I just know it - actually, my friend use to do it but he wasn't successful at all.



Then comes the further question of small change:

"What happens to all the rounding offs of small change,

in everyday business transactions?"

Perhaps I know nothing about economics,

to ask such an ignorant question.

But really,

what happens to all the rounding off of small change?

All the 5c coins and the other universally similar small denominations?

Where do they all go?

Do they just add to the inflation?

Do they just do nothing?

Or do they do something else?

Because value is definitely being lost somewhere in the pipeline,

with so many small change amounts around the world,

being rounded off to the closest suitable number.

Or maybe the small change goes straight back into the pockets of the wealthy,

or at least the first type of people mentioned here (not necessarily wealthy, just annoyed by small change),

whom are always,

always

desperately trying to give/throw their small change away.


To end, I would just like to ask what type of economic person my readers are.

Are you one that loves small change? Or are you one that can't stand it?

Collapse now please

Open your mouth

What do you feel?

Breathe in the air

What do you feel?

Breathe it in deeply and slowly

What do you feel?

You eventually swing into a yawn

You realise you cannot change yourself

"I am who I am"

You say to yourself

"I need to do this because it needs to be done",

you add.

But then you do it again,

You gush in a huge amount of air without being conscious of it,

( I N H A L E d e e p l y )

But at its conclusion,

You know you're this close <-->

from collapsing hopelessly

You forget what it was that you were going to do

You now agree to yourself that it doesn't matter anymore

You don't care about what you were going to do...



Your lousy self intrudes, however,

Giving you a smile and a new-born question:

"If you don't want to do what you were supposed to do,

then at least find the thing that you definitely are supposed to find"

Then,

bewilderingly and problematically,

a new voice appears - from behind your curtains! (o_0)!

"Who is it now?", you ask.

...

.....

.......

~ N o a n s w e r ~

You guess it is just the whole world.

The whole world whispers its one message to you,

in one sentence...

.....................................one sentence only . .. ... .... ..... ...... ....... ........ ......... .......... ........... ............

"Go to sleep" it bellows,

in a windy,

ever-so-hazy,

haunting,

horrible voice.

You don't even see the whole world whispering this to you,

how can you know it's actually there?

You struggle to fight the darkness of night,

punching aimlessly,

in order to hopefully find the speaker of that voice.

*You bump into your kitchen refrigerator*

*Then your steel heater in your lounge room*

*To finish it off with grace,

you trip down your stairs*

(Lucky your stairs have carpet coverings and there are only a few of them)

"Drunkard! Stop that noisy racket!!!", a neighbour says.

"Now that's one voice I can recognise", you tell yourself. {0_0}

You decide to retreat to your room,

in hopes of finding the answer there.

Again,

you punch everything in your way;

wardrobe, clothes rack, bookshelf and whatnot.

You punch until you can punch no more...

Or actually,

you punch until you hurt your hand punching the light switch > > >

You stand still,

looking into the light.....

Everything is b l u r r y.

All the previous voices you heard seem to,

blend together.

They are one product now,

They seem to be inside you.

As you look,

painstakingly,

into the light which surrounds your room,

you feel you are the focus of the light.

You hate the light.

You...



COLLAPSE



on-

to

your

bed.

There is no need to reach for,

and close the light switch.

It is useless.



Collapsed, you close your eyes instead of the light switch.

The darkness is inside you now,

instead of outside and around you.....



You are still . ... .....



You...



..... are





......... asleep.

Unpleasant Hiccup

Isn't it great when things just fall into place so effortlessly and so fittingly?

Of course,

there doesn't need to be any critical analyses,

or elaborative logical perspectives,

in order for one to truly realise what feels right.

But what about those sudden changes that may possibly occur before or after those sublime moments?

A sudden change from

a malevolent situation/environment into a benevolent one (or the other way around)

may sometimes cause an unpleasant hiccup on the conduit of life.

The sudden surprise may last only for a short while,

but while it lasts,

it is capable of leaving a heavy imprint



Either:



- one that leaves you forced into a state of nothingness



or



- one that pushes you toward a higher goal.




Nevertheless, before that imprint.....

.....intense bittersweetness.....

Technology = Primitive

Technology often deals with that which is digital.

The idea that technology is rapidly evolving,

is naive.

Technology isn't at a turning point.

It is going backwards.

Unnecessary hours are spent on something,

which could well be spent enjoying something tangible.

Something real.

Something that 50 years ago,

would have probably provided us with a more valid happiness.

A more satisfied interaction with the world.


~ = ~ = ~ = ~ = ~ = ~ = ~ = ~ = ~ = ~ = ~ = ~ = ~ = ~ =


Placing your feet on the ground and walking for a few metres seems way too demanding for today's technology outlets.

Sure,

technology provides us with a better tool for communication between people of different land structures,

as well as having devices that can access virtually anything at our fingertips,

but,

at times,

the technical errors that it can also provide us with,

can be so close to negligible to its convenient functions,

that it becomes a 'FIXTRASH' [see Endnote]

You either have to fix it or trash it (no other options are available).

It becomes a merciless vacuum -

a technological vacuum that sucks the consumer,

into wanting more functions.....



more MORE MORE!!!



...a never-ending spiral is created.



People get poorer,


and the machines get more famous.



This is the primitive nature of technology.



(_^_) (_v_) (_^_) (_v_) (_^_) (_v_) (_^_) (_v_) (_^_)



Reader's may think these words are of an old fart's (which I don't think I am yet),

but ironically, I rely on technology a lot too,

only sometimes, things really really don't turn out as expected.

2 primary examples that you may relate to:

1) How many times have you scrolled through your digital music player (with iPods being the main perpetrator) whilst getting annoyed at over-clicking or under-clicking [similar to over-steering/under-steering in driving] (i.e. you think your click is precise on the song/media item that you want, but then it just misses your intention by an irritating little bit)?

2) What about the times you update the software on your computer and the latest version just happens to get rid of a feature that you thoroughly enjoyed from a previous version? [Sure, you can find some site that has the old versions available, but that's just going back to the idea that technology wastes unnecessary time]



/@\ \@/ /@\ \@/ /@\ \@/ /@\ \@/ /@\ \@/ /@\ \@/ /@\ \@/



Wondering is easy,

about how all those moments spent dealing with technology's many little debilitating errors may find a better use.

I specifically wonder about those precious moments which could be used for doing more productive things,

like learning to write a proper formal letter,

or learning how to talk to strangers,

or even something like beating your walk-around-the-block record.

They are all rare sights these days.

People should be paid to let other people watch them do these things.

These natural attractions.


0110000100001010100000011111100000010101010111110001010


Technology is inevitable in most people's lives,

yet expectations for its friendliness towards users

should be kept at a safely low level,

for now at least.....





Endnote: 'Fixtrash' is not a term plagiarised from somewhere else. The appearance of 'Fixtrash' in any other space of written material is purely coincidental. Every other single idea of my blog holds the same truth.

Idiosyncratic

Teacher: Keqtor is a crazy student.

He can't keep himself still for 2 seconds.

Although he is progressing smoothly in the academic realm,

he cannot seem to behave studiously.

Maybe it is good for his health.

In fact, maybe it is strongly recommended that all adolescents conduct themselves in a similar manner.

After all, he is a happy student.

One that knows how to balance his studies with his social life,

whilst still projecting a viciously flamboyant happiness that resonates throughout his facial expressions and acts of silliness.

I have to say...

I have never seen Keqtor have a frown on his face,

and he never seems to be short of energy...ever

~

+

-

*

/

|

\

~

`

'

"

"

< >

>>

>>>

>>>>

>>>>>

??????

2 years later...

Same Teacher: Keqtor is someone else.

Same name, same appearance, different personality.

I really do not know what's going on his mind.

He doesn't talk much these days.

Class speeches seem to be the only time I can hear his voice.

I wonder what happened to his vibrancy.

It's gone,

I think...

completely

Later that day...

Keqtor's Mum: Keqtor, good luck on your school speech today!

Hey, just because you lost your special talent a year ago,

doesn't mean that you can't interact with the world again...{mumbling} like you once did before so effortlessly

Keqtor: What's the point?

I'm useless to the world now,

I'm irrelevant.

I am no one.

I am nothing

Keqtor's teacher once again: How can this be?

How can Keqtor change this dramatically?

What happened to him?

How someone with so much potential for a full life transform into someone like this...

I will never know.

Note: This is not a real story. It is based on fictional events that I have created myself.

Sugarous

I know nothing much about food.

I like to eat it, but any further affection towards it, is non-existent.

I guess I like food purely for its temporary enjoyment and its use of nurturing health for survival.

In the act of consuming, that is,

While eating it, I absolutely love it....just like when I'm listening to music, I think it is genuinely phenomenal.

While thinking about it afterwards, however, I think nothing of it.....


It becomes useless to me.


Although in both cases, something disappears from my senses, only music seems to matter to me once it's gone.



Could my introduction to caring more about food, start with a guilty, mildly excessive influx of a detrimental food product?

A food product which is composed of many facets of sugar together with healthy amounts of artificial additives...


Namely,



lollies



One day, in the not-too-distant past, I bought 4 species of lollies.



1) Strawberry Juicelets

2) Fizzy Cola Sour Gummies

3) White Chocolate Raspberry Bullets

4) Bubblegum Sweet Bottles



Their disappearance was fast. Lucky I got them together for a photo before they became extinct.










Whether these sweet, sour, sugary beings changed my outlook on the afterwards appreciation of food, remains undetermined.

But could it be the start of it?

May-be.



A note: 'Sugarous' is not a real word. It is a make-believe word created to give a sense of childishness.