A Little Holiday Cheer

I recently got on to Deviant Art and noticed that there was a new update from the site. It was about the Holiday Card Project, which is where a bunch of us artist and anyone else, make or buy cards for people who are sick in the hospital. These patients vary from mild to terminal illnesses. I encourage all to send in at least one card. Please, just one. All it cost is a postage stamp (in the US). I'm more than likely going to send in a few from myself and encourage my family to do so too. Each card should have a cheerful look and some words to life the spirits. Store bought cards need a personal touch, besides your autograph. DA says to send it to the following address:

deviantART,Inc.
Holiday Card Project
7095 Hollywood Blvd., #788
Hollywood, CA 90028 U.S.A.

here is the link to the original journal on DA (Link)

I recently did two paintings, one a painting of a husky/wolf dog for a local customer and another for a very special friend of mine, for christmas for his family or a beloved pet that they had lost.

As a student, I'm excited for the upcoming holiday break, seeing family and friends, eating some delicious food, and walking around and looking at the lights. I've noticed Waverly has some nice decorations up this year and Corning's Market Street has some gorgeous lights on the streets this year. I encourage everyone to take a walk out and see what your neighborhood has done in the line of holiday lighting. If you have some lovely light pictures, feel free to show them off and comment on the post with a link to the picture and I'll post another blog later with any pictures you've sent, with the link of course.

You should watch this too, It's pretty awesome.

Art Update (sales and promotion)

SO my prices are basically $1 per inch on the longest side. The biggest canvas I am ab;e to get is a 16x20" canvas board, that is minus the frame or any hanging additions, in which case The price of those is added, so the price of a simple piece on a 16x20" board, no frame, or hangings is $20. I do these paintings with acrylic. Oils are twice that, because it's more expensive paint and it's harder to work with. Recent things I've done :


"Poe-a-tree"



 Most of these paintings were done for friends or family. Poe-a-tree is a hard edge abstract paining that took several days to complete, it's a very complex work that revolves around the work of Edgar Allen Poe, of course.

Blue Cat

Some paintings were previously made, such as Blue Cat, and wait eagar buyers. Blue Cat is a realistic abstract that took maybe 5 hours to complete.

Glow Smoke

I have buyers of all types, and I refuse to judge them by their taste. Some one had asked me to paint a bong and some mushrooms, and I asked if they'd like them to glow. The answer was "Hell yes" so I painted a special glow in the dark, black light Painting that is also textured, you can feel the highlights in the bong and the mushroom, as well as the smoke.

Horse

The horse was a piece someone had asked for to give to their daughter, so i had to make sure it was soft looking and gentle. She loved it.






If you would like to help me promote my work, please send a link of my blog to anyone who may be interested, i'd much appreciate it. If you're interested in buying work email (morbid_mockingbird@yahoo.com)

Personal Update(art and sales and the eradication of my FB)

Over the past few weeks I've been adding people to my so called new facebook account, then realizing that I'm not even on facebook for more than 30 minutes a week anymore and it was mainly to add people from the other account, so why the hell do I still have facebook. I'm going to fix that.

For any family members that wish to stay in touch with me:
you can text me, email me, or write me a letter.
I do like to stay in touch, the family needs to stay together and be awesome like that.
for the REAL friends I have, well thanks for caring, you can also text, email, or write.

anyone is welcome to join DA (Click for Deviant Art) and watch ME (click) on there, I ENCOURAGE it. It's a great page for artists of all forms, poets, photographers, painters, crafters, anything really. I think all of my family has some sort of tallent like that, so please join, it'll be cool to see what everyone is working on.

as for those who like to play games with pets and taking care of them, I know there are a lot of you, Rescreatu! join it and like it. It's a great site, I've been on it for YEARS. Just follow the simple rules and you'll be fine, plus you get to raise some cool pets. click to join
this is me (click)


P.S i will post a link to my DA blog with all of my paintings and works for sale. as well as my prices. If you're interested in work you can contact me on one of the sites or leave a comment on here.

Thank you all for your time and understanding!

All Pictures were taken from Google Images.

Metal vs. Metal

clinking just about anything in (LINK) form will bring up a video

If you enjoy music as much as I do, you notice the differences from band to band, from genre to genre, and from era to era. Metal has changed over time as much as the people who listen to it. The guitar riffs get heavier and the screaming gets louder, but what else has changed since the birth of metal to make the "new metal" of 2011? There are many different aspects to metal as a music genre, instruments, vocals, and lyrics are the main parts to music in general, but metal has a special way of using each of these parts to make the sounds that only metal has.



Prince of Darkness



The band that really began metal has been debated over the years, as a listener and metal genre enthusiast, I've also debated this. A fact of the matter is that metal began in the late 1960’s to the early 1970's and the most well known metal band to release a self titled album in the era, Black Sabbath has been called the band that started it all. Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath's lead singer, has been called the Prince of Darkness and is known to be the Father of metal music by many "metal heads". From Ozzy, came the inspiration of "Satan music" and "Christian metal", one could say metal has the best of both worlds. Today, metal sounds quite different from the controversial lyrics and rough voice of Black Sabbath and the other 70’s and 80’s metal bands. New bands, such as Slipknot, Five Finger Death Punch, Himsa, and Avenged Sevenfold now plague the scene.

What makes new metal sound so different compared to old metal, also known as classic metal? Lyrics are what make up the majority of songs. Lyrics hold the power in metal to those who listen to them and can understand them. While listening to Black Sabbath's self titled song off of their self titled album from the approximate beginning of metal in the 70's, one hears what sounds like a story being played out in the music, a struggle of a man faced with being the "chosen one" (Black Sabbath by Black Sabbath).  Stories were a popular way for many metal artists to really work themselves. The idea of a story in the lyrics of metal is still prominent, but it's more of a personal story than a made up or historical one. Looking at the lyrics of a newer metal band called In Flames , "But we're here today, Alive" is about the everyday challenges and living in the moment instead of an epic battle with the devil or some giant beast from history (Deliver Us by In Flames).

Joey Jordison of Slipknot

Randy Rhoads Flying V

While listening to the lyrics, one cannot help but notice the instrumental differences in the two songs, but just for the sake of comparison, let us compare two different songs from the same times. Listening to Judas Priest's "Rapid Fire", one can hear that the guitar, specifically, sticks out along with the drums (Rapid Fire by Judas Priest). The beat to this song, like many metal songs, is fast. The majority of the song is compiled of simple instrumental techniques, but it carries the gallop of the guitar, which is a trick that guitarist use that make the guitar sound somewhat like a horse galloping, along with the elaborate guitar solos of early metal. Lots of early metal songs have solos that are fast paced like the ones in this song. Bands such as, Iron Maiden, Motorhead and Megadeth have been known to carry solos that are fast paced and use the same high drop tuning, usually drop D, as Judas Priest. As a guitarist, I have used these drop tunings while playing songs from these bands and notice how different the tuning is from the metal of today. The Agonist, which not only demonstrates that females are more likely to be found in new metal compared to the old metal, but also demonstrates the instrumental differences and vocal differences. The Agonist is a wonderful example of the instrumental differences in new metal. One can hear that the music is still fast paced and the guitar and drums are still the most prominent instruments in the music, but the guitar sounds much "heavier" than that of the old metal. This heavy sound is what gives Heavy Metal its name. The guitar in this song,” Business Suits and Combat Boots”, is in a lower drop tuning, probably drop C or B, than that of the guitar heard in “Rapid Fire”(Buisness Suits and Combat Boots by The Agonist). Much of today's metal has this low drop tuning and the songs can get lower. The development of guitars with more strings allows the guitarists to tune the guitars lower. It's more common, today, for a metal band to have a guitar with seven or more strings, for example: Suicide Silence's guitarist is known for playing with a seven string called the SC-607 made by ESP, which is a popular guitar company(Unanswered by Suicide Silence -time:0:34 there is a nice shot of the ESP). Aside from the general guitar work, sweeping, which is the extremely fast sound heard in the beginning of Outworld's Riders, performed by Rusty Cooley(Riders by Outworld -listen to guitar not vocals, the sweeping is awesome-).

Rodney James Dio (R.I.P July 10, 1942 – May 16, 2010)

Another way, and possibly the most drastic way, old metal and new metal are different is through the vocal styles. If you have followed the songs listed and listened to them, you can hear the vocal differences. VH1 named Ozzy Osbourne the greatest metal vocalist of all time, but third on the list of ten is Ronnie James Dio who, in my opinion, has the most unique vocal style for old metal. Dio's song Holy Diver, which is still a popular song, features Dio's unique vocals(Holy Diver by Dio -R.I.P-). One can hear that it is more of a singing type of style than the screams and growls of today. Metal of this era often carried more of this singing style which was smoother, although still coarse sounding, than that of todays. Much of today's metal vocalists prefer to growl or scream rather than sing, even the female vocalists, as heard in the Agonist's “Business Suits and Combat Boots”. It's common for the vocals to go as low as the instruments, although some types of metal vocalists like to scream, screech, or squeal as well as growl and sing. Cradle of Filth has the deep growl mixed in with screams in many of their songs. In their song, Nymphetamine, they mix a gentle female voice with the growl of their lead vocalist and the screaming vocals of their second vocalist(Nymphetamine by Cradle of Filth). Job for a Cowboy has the typical new metal sound with a lot of growling and some pig squeals thrown in some places of their song, particularly speaking of "Embedded" (Embedded by Jod for a Cowboy - about 18 seconds in is a pig squeal-).  A lot of bands also combine all vocal stylings in one album at least, but not all bands do this.

In my own personal opinion, I feel that old metal and new metal are almost completely different, if it weren't for the aggression in almost all of metal music, I would not be able to classify the music as metal. The differences between the old and new are obvious if one listens to the music, but if not, maybe this essay has sparked an interest at least to experience the power found in many metal songs. Whether it is Metallica or Bring Me the Horizon, the differences are clear, new metal and old metal have different lyrics, instrumental tuning and style, and vocal styles.

Works Cited

Black Sabbath. “Black Sabbath”. Black Sabbath. CD.Trident Studios, London: Rodger Bain. Vertigo. November 1969. Released: 13 February 1970.

In Flames. “Deliver Us”. Sounds of a Playground Fading. CD. IF Studios, Gothenburg, Sweden: Roberto Laghi, Anders Fridén. Century Media, Razzia. October 11, 2010–January 25. Released: June 15, 2011 (2011-06-15).

Judas Priest. “Rapid Fire”. British Steel. CD. Startling Studios, Ascot, England: Tom Allom. Columbia. January–February 1980. Released: 14 April 1980.

The Agonist. “Business Suits and Combat Boots”. Once Only Imagined.  CD. West West Side: Chris Donaldson, Alan Douches.  Released: 2007.

Outworld. “Riders”.  Outworld.  CD. Spyder Studios, Texas: Outworld. Replica Records. 2006. Released November 2006.

Cradle of Filth. “Nymphetemine”. Resident Evil: Apocalypse Soundtrack.  CD.

Job for a Cowboy. “Embedded”.  Genesis.  CD. Phoenix, Arizona: Blue Light Audio Media, Cory Spotts. Released: May 15, 2007.

"VH1 | Topic | Top 10 Best Metal Vocalist Of All Time." Top 20, TV Shows, Celebrity News, Music Videos, Photos, TV Schedule | VH1. Web. 27 Oct. 2011. <http://community.vh1.com/Discussion-Thread/Top-10-Best-Metal-Vocalist-Of-All-Time/087F6FFFF01EF8675000901605D34>.

Toxoplasmosis: The Zombie Maker

We have all seen the traditional brainless zombies on the movie screen, but what if that could actually happen? There is a parasite that causes many of these symptoms that we have seen in zombie movies, but only in rare cases, so far. We know that parasites and diseases all have the ability to mutate and become more powerful, the common cold and the flu does it all the time. This little parasite can be found in food, pets, rodents, even your next door neighbor. Toxoplasmosis is caused by a parasite that comfortably dwells deep inside of you friendly feline and finds its way into your gullet and that's when you start to feel a change.

Toxoplasma Gondii

So, what is the cause of Toxoplasmosis? According to the CDC (The Center of Disease Control and Prevention) Toxoplasmosis is caused by a tiny protozoan called Toxoplasma gondii. Despite the anti-violent name, the protozoan silently creeps into the system of rats and alters there brain activity so that the rats no longer fear their common enemy, cats. Parasites In Humans (a website filled with this sort of information) says:

Studies show the capability for the parasite to make rats fearless near cats. This indicates the evolutionary need for Toxoplasma gondii to get inside felines. When a rat is eaten by a cat the parasite gets inside the primary host. There have been a few studies with humans, too. Some results indicate a strong correlation between schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis. According to some studies women with toxoplasmosis are more likely to cheat their husbands. Men with the parasite have shown to be more aggressive. Infected humans also have slower reaction times.

Schizophrenia is a pretty intense symptom to list with this parasite. With the knowledge of the reaction of the rats from the parasite, one can assume that the behavior caused by it in humans is also adapted for evolutionary survival. Affairs or having multiple sexual partners passes many diseases. STDs pass this way and if a woman with the parasite behaves this way, she may have been taken over by the parasite in order to pass it on to other males. As for males, extreme acts of aggression cause the shed of blood and the parasite is easily transmitted through blood to blood contact.

The Cycle of Infection

How do you know if you or anyone might have Toxoplasmosis? Symptoms are a key way to identify the infection of this little protozoon. Toxoplasmosis is mainly an asymptomatic infection, says the CDC, this means that the average human being has a strong enough immune system to prevent the infection from doing any extreme damage to the infected body and shows no symptoms. A simple list of symptoms can be found on the Toxoplasma gondii page of Parasites In Humans and this list says that symptoms include the following: confusion, fever, headache, nausea, poor coordination, and seizures. After reading the list, one may picture a figure that looks lost, stumbling across the road and moaning, which looks like a zombie in the minds of many, all it needs is the brain craving.

So, how exactly do we get a zombie from Toxoplasmosis? Parasites and diseases, as mentioned previously, have the ability to mutate in order to survive. Although Toxoplasmosis is not air borne, it, like many familiar infections, such as the swine flu, which started out as a similar infection to Toxoplasmosis that was not air borne, it mutated and became air borne. The infection caused by Toxoplasma gondii can also mutate into an air borne virus, which may cause other symptoms to develop.

In conclusion, Toxoplasmosis can cause a zombie-like infection if it happens to mutate into a more powerful air borne infection. It is already easily transmitted, I myself know a few people with the infection, luckily it is treatable, but colds adapt around treatments as well. Toxoplasmosis is a hidden enemy just waiting to burst out and come stumbling after us in an attempt to survive evolution and produce more infected beings. It’s already found in rats, cats, pigs, cows, and people as well as other warm blooded mammals. So if you see that friendly girl next door eyeing you over the fence, think again, she may have Toxoplasmosis: the new strain, and be waiting for her next victim.

Isn't she perfect!

Works Cited

Center of Disease Controland Prevention. "CDC - Toxoplasmosis." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2 Nov. 2010. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. <CDC's Toxoplasmosis/>.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "CDC - Toxoplasmosis - Epidemiology & Risk Factors." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2 Nov. 2010. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. <CDC "Toxoplasma Gondii">.

Parasites In Humans. "Toxoplasma Gondii." Parasites In Humans. 2010-2011. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. <Parasites in Humans "Toxoplasma Gondii">.

All photos except for "Brains" were taken from Google Images, Brains was created using Cool Text Generator