TX Dragon Texas, Dragons [Video Games], Electronics & More

3 day holiday week-ends should be full of rest, relaxation and fun. Mine is full of housecleaning, throwing out junk and getting myself pared down to what is important and being able to find what is important. BUT … I can find all of my desk again for a change … LOL … I had it covered with all kinds of stuff … now it is down to where I only have a few things to finish clearing off and all of it will be visible and ready to be used again. Now that I can find my desk, the next time I want to use my book rest – I will have the space to do so easily. What I have left are books … I love books

What books are on my desk? … hmmm …

The Painter IX WOW Book by Cher Threinen-Pendarvis

I bought Painter IX originally because I wanted access to the Artist Oils feature for painting … and I bought the book so I could learn to use them much better and more effectively. I have not had a lot of time to spend learning but they are so much fun to use! I upgraded to Painter X … the RealBristle Painting System and better performance. What is odd … to me anyway … once I installed Painter X … I still have full access to Painter IX.

How to Draw and Paint Fairies by Linda Ravenscroft

I find this book to be well-written and full of good information for a person such as myself who does not really draw – I more sketch and give impressions or glimpses when doing people … tight drawing in detail is not me and never will be – I do not have the hand & eye coordination or the talent for that – I love to see the exquisite detailed drawings my neighbor does and wish I had the gift for being able to do those … I suggest where he fleshes everything out in minute details. I want to spend time learning more about fairy painting – I love fantasy art and wish I was better at creating it – I enjoy seeing it very much though!

Watercolor Fairies by David Riche and Anna Franklin

Even if I were not interested in learning more about painting fairies, I would enjoy seeing all the fairy art and reading all the passsages about them … this is a gorgeous book full of spectacular artwork. If you love fantasy art .. .take a look at it and if you like to read folklore, this is a great book just for reading too!

Digital Fantasy Painting Workshop by Martin McKenna

If I never read a word that was written in this book, it would still be worth every penny I paid for it and then so much more. It’s not a recent book but I love the fantasy artwork in it and the How I do this by a variety of fantasy artists is great too … it is marvelous all round and a good book for any artist’s library. Now if only I could get Painter to give me the kind of results these people get from computer paint programs … okay … I get terrific results too … just mine are not the images like they are painting … we all want what we do not have huh?

Purple Majesty by Barbara Burns

Posted under Computers / Electronics

Mother’s Day is over for another year. I just came back in from taking Miss Sugar Plum outside to do her business … and I heard a pack of dogs howling in the distance. Dogs do not sound like wolves howling but it did contrast to me how a pack of wolves seemingly howls in harmony that sounds like music (to me anyway – very lonesome, spine-tingling and musical is how I find it when I hear it) and packs of dogs do not. Dogs barking sounds like a moment of chaos is upon us and getting ready to break my ear drums if close and it always irritates me to hear them … they always seem to have a variety of yapping yap dogs mixed in with the deep bass of bigger dogs and the medium range of off-key woofing.

I was reading over at PBS about Wild Wolves – they have some very interesting info available!

One of the pages is What’s in a Howl? It is not my imagination that a wolf howl is harmonic! I also found out that wolves do a lot of other sounds besides howling but it is their howl that appears to define wolves to us. Howling in the wrong place or at the wrong time can get a wolf killed – if the wolf is too close to another wolf pack’s territory, they might hunt it down to just run it off or to kill it if they can. Low-ranking members of the pack that join the pack howling chorus may start a nasty pack fight as well.

Another article is about restocking Yellowstone National Park with wolves – I remember hearing how ranchers in the area were really, really, really upset to have wolves brought back to the area – I wonder if they are more adjusted to having wolves for neighbors again now? One thing I found quite ironic was that the last wolves killed in America (this is way before the restocking project began) was what is now the US Fish & Wildlife Service … and they are the ones that are now having to do the wolf restoration! The really great news is that the ecosystem is adjusting for the better out there! It’s also interesting to me that dogs are all descended from … check out the DNA … LOL

There is also a Wolf Quiz – Wolves and Dogs: Fact and Fiction. This was so much fun! Go take it and see what you know for a fact and what you believe that is untrue. I’m not going to give away my results … but it was fun! And I learned things about wolves that I did not know … I love it when fun and learning become one with each other.

There is a Teacher’s Guide to the program – the original broadcast was November 11, 1997 (they give warnings of it being graphic and may not be suitable for all classrooms) and a Resource page where and how to find more information about wolves. One for kids that sounded awesome is The Boomerwolf – it sounds like a lot of fun – I’ve got to send my daughter a link to this one for sure! She and my grandson would probably enjoy it a lot!

And if you want a wolf … my best recommendation is get a stuffed wolf toy – not a real live wolf!

Posted under Texas