Well you’ve seen mine now it’s time to see how it should be done, admittedly he dose have a much better camera….but he used to have mine and his were still better

Also He’s currently suffering from a horrible flu so give him some love guys

I love being posetive, for the simple reason that i believe that if your posetive then your actually having a marked and real effect on the world around you through your perception. And if thats the case it’s better to be seeing a happy world than a sad one.

To this end i have used Xanga mainly for being nice to people, sharing beauty and spreading humour and joy.

But I would also like to point something out that i’ve noticed not only within myself but on several other peoples blogs and posts.

 

While happiness and being posetive is great it in no way should be used as a ‘fake it till you make it’ wall to put up and hide from those that might be able to help when your suffering, also and most importantly if you feel that being posetive is a good thing this dosen’t give you rights to look down on those that need to vent, sometimes we all need to share something painful or explore the elaborate and often troubling mazes of our minds and without places like Xanga or a close friend or even a diary we would be left alone to face our confusion and the awesome mysteries of life.

So I write this to say I salute all you bloggers who share your pain and your confusion, who open doors to the darkness that they see, either through experiance, fantasy, poetry, or words you bring the dark that allows the light to seem so much brighter.

Noone can claim to be perfect or to hold all the answers and so it’s through sharing our perceptions and allowing those fleeting glimses of anothers universe that we can expand and grow, that we face within ourselves that which otherwise we may never have known. Everything we percive is incredible, unique and has never existed before and that goes for everything be it ‘dark‘ or ‘light‘ ‘posetive‘ or ‘negative‘ it just is and i’m grateful for all of it.

 

So I say Xanga; complain, whine, shout and scream, if not here then where

Yep a few things, but the one that pops into my mind would have to be jumping off a 30ft (or maybe 40ft) cliff into the sea.
All the way along the run up your telling yourself your not going to do it…right untill your falling lol

   

I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!

I’ve been meaning to post a few more photos of the local area for a while but not gotten around to it for ages.

some of them i’ve posted before and most of them are just clouds lol but these are just to set you guys up for when i post some of my bro’s shots as comparison.

Also all these are from random times not what it looks like currently.

I’ve posted this before but i was taken at dawn after spending the night camping in that forest alone, and since dawn is almost an unheard of experiance for me i’m quite proud of it lol

Gorse Flowers: They make a lovely wine, and when your picking them the world turns funny colours from staring at so much yellow

Always got my head in the Clouds….

I love clouds…..

summer is comming back soon, today was almost warm enough to feel proper and i saw creeping things in the grass

long days laying on the rocks and trips out on the water, lets hope it’s a long summer this time.

What can i say about how long it’s taken me to come through on the promise of these two

Way back in my second posting of Supers I was asked about these and although i did want to get to them things kept getting in the way and plus i had to struggle a bit on the concepts, esspecially Charm since thats for Elizabeth_Ho and since i usually use the username and a few bits and bobs of whatever character or personality i can get from the blogger to build the concept It was a bit tricky with Elizabeth because A: her username was just a name and B: superheroes and resturant review don’t often come together

But eventually an idea formed and i quite like it. Same with Carolina, perfect name this time but how was i going to weave Basketball into a super power??? I wanted it to be cool and interesting but still nicely themed.

So with humble apologies for the delay here are two more XL heroes….watchout for ViperPhoenix though

Also since i was talking about how i draw i’ve also uploaded the pencil versions of these two before digital colouring.

 

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Elizabeth_Ho
Charm
Charm normally is like any other girl, But when she uses the mysterious Charm she found in the ruins of a crumbling temple she becomes Charm a warrior superhero who uses her magical blades to watch over the city streets at night.
Her two blades Mas and Perak work together to weave bewildering patters and summon terrible powers, she can blind with a stunning blade dance

, fire blasts of light from their tips and even send them out to do her bidding telekinetically.
A consummate tracker and hunter when in the form of Charm little escapes her sight and keen senses. 

 

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Carolinavenger
Carloinavenger Is an avid basketball fan who wove her love of the game into the advanced gravitational physics she was experimenting with to create the Gravity Nullification Object, or as it’s been nicknamed the ‘Zee-G Pill’.
With this incredible device Carolina can both repulse and attract almost simultaneously with amazing force, allowing her to fly with ease and perform stunning acrobatics with and around the Zee-G Pill. It also functions as a potent weapon disrupting normal gravity and sending attackers spiralling helplessly into the air, or when repulsed at speed simply impacting with abnormal gravity crushing the target under tonnes of pressure.

Well since plans changed and I shall be off tomorrow rather than today I now have time to post a proper V-Day post, which is brilliant because i remembered that one of my all time favorite songs is actually perfect for Valentines so I hope you’ll enjoy The Queen of Love from the Album U by the Incredible String Band. They are my favorite Band ever and this song always really captivates me, it’s a little long and wordy but listen to the lyrics and feel the poetry of it and see what you think.

 

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Also Since Jen asked to be my Valentines which was really sweet of her I thought i’d try to write her a poem to say thanks.

Firefly so warm so bright, give me comfort with your light.
Sharing courage in the dark of night, your gentle glow a joyous sight.

Fate and chance tried to dim that light, that spark of hope and life,
But even as darkness drew in and fear grew, in my heart I still knew,
That despite it all that glowing spark would never die within your heart.

I hope you have a fantastic Valentines Jen.

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Thanks completely to Xanga this is pretty much my first time celebrating Valentines and it made me realise finaly the purpose for all these holidays and celebrations, rather than just the commercial value of them that was all i previously saw.

It’s actually a way of focusing large numbers of peoples attention on one concept or idea, further use of the battery effect many minds can have. To most people this won’t really be news but since i’ve never really been connected to a society or social group it’s come a quite a suprise and clarified some more of the posetive sides to social interaction….of course i’m still going to be a hermit hehe but it’s nice to have experianced that sense of community goal and group idea.

Makes me excited to think of other holidays/celebrations that i’ll be able to get this alternative perspective on via Xanga.

I wish everone the very best this Valentines  

As the delightful Winsa said in her recent post Valentines day is all about Love, and even though I may not have a relationship with anyone currently i don’t mind because I know that i am loved and that i love those around me and thanks largely to Xanga i’m also actually feeling quite romantic and Valentine-sy, so much so infact i’ve tried my hand at a couple poems (or vaugely poem like things) on the subject of Love and Romance.

But first i’d like to point out that I’ve never written poetry or even read all that much so don’t expect anything too wild.

 

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This first idea was inspired by listening to this above music, so turn it on and try to use it to imagine…i suppose i’m trying to capture first date excitment:

Heartbeating.
Nervous, excited…your there.

Glittering eyes, perfect hair, magical scent…can’t tell you.

Laughter, fun, endless night, you are everything…you free my soul.

Quiet, content, unspoken, unbroken gaze…nothing said everything shared.

Endless moment, so close, unknown…lips touch.

Explosion in the Sky.

 

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And since the above is a little more unusual than what i would call a proper attempt at a poem here’s another more elaborate one about just love in general:

(you can stop the music now

What is it?

Something fills my mind, it’s source within my heart.

It eps and flows, comes and goes, whenever we are apart.

It’s not held within your structure, your face, your hair, your scent.

It obsesses, it posesses, it’s beauty is heaven sent.

It’s deeper than time, longer than light….and renders the best of us speachless no matter how bright.

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Well that and my gratitude and love to all you amazing Xangans is my contribution to Valentines, I hope that whoever you are and wherever you are you feel loved by someone or just feel connected to love it’s self

Also to any commenters and my friends, I’m going to be off for most of Monday evening and night because i’m off to visit a friend so if i seem absent thats why…..(I miss one day of everyones blogs and i feel like i’m out of the loop lol *Xanga Junkie*)

I’ve loved drawing since I was very young, but despite enjoying it I’ve not actually spent all that much time learning it until just recently. I am still learning and have no great skill as yet but there are a few things that I’ve either learned my self or picked up from people, the internet and books that are useful to know if you fancy teaching yourself to draw.

First and foremost go with something that inspires you. I really struggle if I’m not fired up by the concept I’m drawing, so find out what you like to draw and what concept seed gets you excited and then spend sometime visualising what your going to draw.
Personally I like drawing characters and especially caricatures or an image that takes someone or something else’s idea and personality and creates something new from a mix of outside influences. And when I’ve settle on the idea I’ll spend a day or a few mins before drawing really planning out the body position and the emotion/theme I’d like to capture.

Then (and this is rather obvious but still) use a pencil and make sure you have an eraser. Most important of all don’t feel like you can’t edit what you’ve drawn, it took me a while to feel confident enough that I could do something better to allow me to really use an eraser again and again until you get it to look good and feel right, and also it’s okay to have a really messy sketch to begin with you can always erase (as long as you’ve not pressed too hard) and the extra graphite on the paper makes nice shading.

Also very important depending on your preferred subject learn from the world. I like drawing people (can’t draw landscapes to save my life) so I spend my time examining people in TV shows or in RL see how they look from different angles, checking proportions and body part relationships.
Also use photos or images to practice from, I still find it amazing but just having an image to check back to really helps, you can suddenly draw exactly what your seeing and all the lines fit it’s very confidence inspiring. Again for people you can just search google for nude photography or any image you need really.

There are some illustrations to go with this section check the image
Now to the actual technical details I’ve thus far learned: (this is pretty basic drawing book sort of info but hey)
The head; Start with a circle then depending on what angle you want the face to be draw a line from the top to just outside of the bottom, then another line across the middle of the circle but going horizontally (this is the eye line) onto this line (and I just recently learned apparently there should be one eyes width between eyes and one half eyes width to the side of the head) draw your eyes, eyes can be tricky and I’m not perfect at them yet but just play about and look at reality for examples.
The eye line should help you keep them level with each other.

After the eyes add a nose onto the middle line and you can add an ear or two depending on angle, (the top of the ear is level with the eyes)

Also once the eyes are in you can chisel out some of the head and skull shape, the little dip near the eye, cheek bones and jaw line, use the line that protrudes below the circle to create the chin. Edit the skull a lot until it fits.

Then you can add a mouth, I’m pretty rubbish at mouths so far so I can’t really tell you anything apart from look online. You can also erase the guide lines and add a small circle inside the eyes with a central dot (try to make these mimic each other to avoid crosseyes)

Finally on the head add hair, and I find it best to just let hair grow, as in just kind of keep adding layers until it looks good for the character, again don’t hesitate to erase.

Proportions and body:    
In this section we find out the value of boobs
The average human can be measured into 7 to 8 heads. So take the size of your head and count it and 7 others down and you’ve got the height of a human, this is very handy to remember.
And It helps place all other major features, counting the actual head the breast or more accurately the nipples are one two heads down, three and three quarters down you’ll find the crotch and you can usually have legs as long as the body and head combined.

What I do is draw the head then using my finger nails just count down eight heads marking the key locations like breast, belly button, groin and feet. Then I begin drawing or sketching the rough body shape.

And a quick note about boobs, they are pretty tricky but fortunately we have a sort of built in pattern recognition with regards human body shape and when you get them too high or too low it just looks weird, as long as you can follow the heads rule it usually works good and once you’ve got the breast done it helps no end with arms and chest and can also inform your body perspective.
(I will admit the internet dose have some pretty good resources when it comes to naked photos…hey at least I was being creative )

When it comes to body shapes well we all know the differences, female is an hourglass and male more triangular or even straight, just play about with it and when it starts to look ‘right’ go with it.
Hands are a nightmare for me I suck at them, but what little I do know is…first use your own hands or body as a model, it really helps for getting thumbs on the right way lol. Also our hands are a lot bigger than we think, cover your face with your hand and you’ll see that they are actually bigger than I usually imagine them.

Legs and arms:
Legs I’m getting better at after a friendly Russian gave me a tip that you can see illustrated, one bit oval for the thigh then a small circle for the knee and a smaller oval for the calf, connect them all up and fill in the gaps. Different perspectives are tricky but fun, the leg is really quite beautiful in it’s architecture so go look at some and copy reality.
Arms all depend on position and perspective, I’m only average at them so far but again you can get the feel of them, just get the elbow in the middle and then make sure you taper the forearm making it wide at the elbow and really wuite thin at the wrist.

Feet are really tricky but super hero comics and animes taught me that they can look good if you just have a round bit at the heel, then hourglass in around the middle and end it with a pointy bit, so far my feet are pretty basic unless I get lucky but as illustrated the superhero socky foot is very handy to learn from.

And finally Clothes:
Yes clothes come last, I find it’s much easier to draw a character naked first, (you don’t have to get anatomical unless you really want to hehe) get the body shape and perspective right and then start adding the clothes, it gives you much more freedom to try to add the proper effect of cloth and rumples, crinkles etc.
Once again you have to have the confidence to completely erase the great body you just drew but the resultant clothing will look much more ‘real’

I have loads more to learn but more and more I’m really proud of my drawings and often surprised at how accurate to my mind and even to reality they are becoming.
Best tip just play around and do something that your really enjoying and the rest will come naturally.

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If there are any proper artists or even other amateurs who also have tips suggestions or techniques I’d love to hear them.   

 

Hurrah it’s the final post of this brilliant idea inspired by Kampj.

It’s been a lot of fun and i’ve met some amazing Xangans so far, that i really ought to do another list to mention lol. Thank you to everyone for being who you are and for commenting, friending and subbing I hope that i’ve been able to share some lovely Bloggers with you and help to spread the love, I know i’ve smiled and been happy more this week than most.

 

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Again this post will feature two Bloggers who both really deserve my thanks for their great posts and joyful attitudes, i doubt many of you won’t have heard of them but still drop by and say hi

He needs no introduction, because as far as i’m concerned he IS Xanga it’s MR.GUNBLAAAAADEEEE….

RoadLessTaken
Alex

A Year ago when I first came to Xanga Alex was one of (if not THE) first Xangans I looked at, I actually stopped using Xanga after only about a couple weeks after I first signed up but I always remembered Alex and his friendly style.
In fact as I write this I remember what really caught my attention was Shillykins had a Vlog up saying she’d worn Alex’s face on her t-shirt for an entire day lol that always stuck in my mind. 
Several months later when I returned I spent a bit more time getting to know Alex and properly reading his Blog, I love his RoadLessTaken video on the header of his blog and as I’ve seen more of him I am confirmed in my expectations of one of the most decent and fun Xangans out there, along with Lena, Alex was another inspiration for the XangaLegion idea since he just gives a sense of being heroic (sorry serious case of nerd bromance going on here lol)
Also once again being a newbie to Xanga and blogs in general to get comments and even I think a few Recs from the likes of Alex was a really big thing for me so I’m really grateful for that because without his input I wouldn’t have met half the cool people I have so far.

Alex’s blogs make you laugh and they make you think, he seems to get into some fantastic situations (forehead hicky being the recent highlight) and he always shares them well presented and with eloquence. He’s a pro and a great role model.  

 

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Next is another really sweet blogger who i just love.

Babieboo_Annie
An

I’m terrible at remembering where or when I first met Xangans, but I think she commented on one of my posts.
The thing that really caught my attention though was her positive picture week posts, because what she picked and wrote each day was so lovely and uplifting I really looked forwards to it.

I get a real motherly sense from her and much like several others of my favourites she often posts things of interest with a very clear and positive style, and she’s quite a romantic which is always nice.

Check out her posetive picture week entries and see what I mean:

Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4 – Day 5 – Day 6 – Day 7

Best of all it was because of her posetive picture week that i was tempted to do this week of posts so everything preceding is in part thanks to her.

 

Due to a couple of recent posts by others and the fact it’s never far from my thoughts i’ve been considering loneliness.

It’s a very hard thing to actually identify, personally I like peace and quiet and have spent my whole life more or less isolated from large groups of people, but i’ve also pretty much always had my close family around me so i’ve not been ‘alone’, despite this though i do more and more feel lonely., And this feeling can manifest it’s self in many ways most of which resemble either frustration or melancholy.

The thing is that even when i’m with other people i can still feel just as lonely, sometimes i’ll simply feel dissconnected and captive within my own mind and thoughts unable to share my experiance with others due to shyness or lack of mutual understanding. But also I can long for my own space, freedom and privacy when with others and sorely miss feeling alone.

My best explanation to this rather hard to pin down emotion is based on the concept that in truth all we have is our experiance, as far as we know there is nothing beyond our perception and there’s no way to proove otherwise. What denotes our ‘perception’ is hard to say but the idea that everything and everyone we percive is in fact only our version of them or even just other expressions of a total oneness makes for some even more confusing interpretations of feeling alone.

Are we feeling alone just for our own amusement?

Are we feeling alone because in one way of looking at the idea of everything being one, we are?

Or is it just a miss interpretation of a total connection to all things?

Once again i really don’t feel like i have the right words to express this so for example: There is a fascinating Hawaiian healing technique called Ho’oponopono, which basically involves sitting somewhere (or even while your going about your day) and focusing on something or someone and expressing in your mind “I Love you, I’m Sorry, Please Forgive Me, Thank You,” these four statements and the emotions of Love, understanding, gratitude, and appreciation, (among others) that they represent, if held with enough focus and intensity have been seen to achive some incredible things.

The concept is that there is no dissconnection between people, that if you know of someone within your perception; be they right next to you or a person in a news report you just saw while eating breakfast and that person is in trouble or suffering then you are responsible for that event in your universe, and i’m not saying you caused it but rather you are not powerless to act upon it.

You can help or hinder if you wish, i suppose it’s an elaborate version of wishing someone luck. What i really like about this idea is that is helps to remind that we’re never alone that there is always some way that we are connected with everything that is, also that we are never powerless if we see something that we feel is wrong then take it as a hint that in your mind in this time that thing is wrong and you can do something about it.

Nothings out of our hands, not world events or global disasters and certianly not our own emotions and experiances. A lot of the time I used to feel insignificant or unable to interact with any-thing or one around me in any useful way but now more and more i’m aware that thats just not true, it’s never been true, as a point of perception we are given the chance to create, and what we can create is unlimited.