Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

I saw this technique linked on MeFi and quickly wrote a version of the action he described (although it has some fairly obvious flaws in it). To be honest it's easier to write it yourself than for me to provide a copy of it because even with the action you've got to “get” it to use it right.

Note: If you do want to see how I did this, here's the current version of the action. You will have to do a lot of the work manually still (like choosing your rotation angles, and applying any distortion to the lines). Note that the first time you run it, a few errors will be generated because of missing layers. Ignore them, but when it's done running the first time, press undo three or four times (until the 'Layer 1' reappears). Anyway: etchit.atn (F9 activated).

I'm working on images and a new IAM toy (should get posted later if I don't pass out from exhaustion first), but I wanted to pause for a moment and show a few pictures of the BME staff shirts that Ryan just sent me, as well as one of the new Prof. Orbax shirts.

I probably shouldn't be looking this gift horse in the mouth, but one of the things that always surprises me is how poorly people insult me. As expected, I got a final email from the lil' Nazi girl that got booted a while ago (who's now happily moderating a page elsewhere with folks congratulating each other on teaching their toddlers to say 'spic' and 'wetback' and other ignorant slurs).

Anyway, it accuses me of a number of strangely amusing things. First I'm accused of never donating any time or money to anything but myself. That's kind of an odd thing to accuse me of given that the truth — which is far from a secret or hidden, although I do general ask projects I donate to not to include my name — is pretty much the exact opposite. Then I'm accused of being a trustfund kid… I wish! My family rejected their royal title in the 1800s after a political dispute, and I've so alienated pretty much everyone other than my father at this point that my odds of even collecting anything from anyone's will are becoming increasingly slim. I'm afraid I made myself the old fashioned way… hard work!

I also got accused of not having any friends when I was younger and that everyone made fun of me. Now, I can see how people prone to be believing in stereotypes might assume that since it's kind of the cliché, but for whatever reason (probably being in a small town that tolerated eccentricity), that was never really an issue… There were only two kinds of people who harassed me when I was a kid — much older racist locals who had an issue with my German accent when I was young, and then when I was older (in highschool), violent Christians who took offense to the zine I published. But to my surprise, the jocks came to my defense! Anyway, the accusations go on to include me being stupid (honestly, that doesn't worry me), deluded about my abilities, making fun of me for not speaking Spanish, and finishes off with a complaint about Canadian spelling, and how if it wasn't for America, Mexico wouldn't be a nice place to live. Oh, and calling me a dictator of course, but that's a given.

It's funny because of all the people who've sent me various forms of hatemail, it's extremely rare for anyone to actually peg something that's hurtful. Most of it is just kind of weird little rants that offer much more of an insight into the writer's insecurities than anything else. Anyway, here's something you can insult me on: I've only ever had one business card, unlike Keith who has had many.

Anyway, I've never understood why people don't come after me with better thought out attacks. I mean, I post plenty of entries with pretty gaping logical flaws in them, and in the past I even renamed a piercing because it was associated with an ex that I'd had a typically bitter falling out with. That's a pretty crappy (and petty) thing to do right? That would be a valid example of an abuse of power. That's a case where you can really say, “gee, Shannon sure was being an asshole that day!”

That said, I know what my flaws are and readily admit them. I recommend that everyone do the same. Recognizing the things about yourself that you don't like is the first and most important step in correcting them. Anyway, feel free to post your flaws in the forum. It's cathartic. Anonymous posting is permitted, and I'll remind you again that if you make an anonymous post and you want to clear your identity afterwards (click here to do so), it makes reverse engineering who you are almost impossible (please don't abuse that tip!), although it will make it so people can't send you anonymous replies from that message or any other ones sent with that ID.