Enjoy the break. My work day just got a little longer and a lot less interesting.

But umm.... what if some readers maybe might wonder over and read a blog that’s slightly less in grandeur than the great Neopoleon and one that often pays homage to you and your blog...could they maybe do that in your absence?

(Notice the absence of a link to my own blog just to show you I'm only kidding)

Girlfriend, eh? Just as I suspected... you're mating with an alien race with heads made of potato chips! :-o

Enjoy your break, dude. Oh - and make those babies Deli Ranch flavor. I just *love* those!

You could just sing a song...

The "Me_dreaming_melting" image is not actually me nor you dreaming and melting. It actually rather much appears to me as a large set of dentures that fell on, and crushed, a very thin stick-person.

Its a sandstorm!... sorry I thought it was somethign else for more brown and sticky.

.
.
(like a stick)

Here is what the pictures mean, from left to right, top to bottom (in chronological order):

1. (upper left) A self image portrait, representing what, I don't know. Maybe something to do with the uncontrolability/impredictability of your life (the headaches, the passing out, perhaps), and the emotional angst that you experience as a result.

2. (upper right) Having felt so accomplished in producing a self portrait that so accurately defines you (from your own perspective), you move onto your girlfriend.

3. (lower left) Your girlfriend, upon seeing how you have portrayed her, beats your a$$ down, and this is your self portrait in this state.

4. (lower right) This is la-la-land, where you are after the aforementioned beat-down.

Is that close?

Guess you've never written a book eh? Cranking out daily brain dumps comes no where near the effort it takes to produce something akin to a book.

Wether the book is fiction, which requires that you stay on plot, sub-plots keep character development going or a non-fiction book where you have to constantly check your facts and test your theories.

Writting a book is not about typeing the letters and making words.

Nicholas -

"Is that close?"

Not even remotely, but it was a good try :)

The mushroom one in the corner is something I don't even understand myself.

I hate mushrooms. I hate them the way Indiana Jones hated snakes.

They're evil. Terrible. Disgusting.

I think the reason I drew one is that I was drawing jellyfish, and, for even more reasons I don't understand, I drew one of the jellyfish as a cross with a mushroom. It was hideous.

Then I switched to pure mushroom drawing.

I don't know what it's for, and I can't stand it.

Mushrooms make me ill, and I'm not talking about the "magic" ones, either. I hate 'em all. Every last one of them.

"Mush" "room." That's so gross.

"Gills." "Spores." "Caps." "Stems."

Sickening.

I really hate those damn things.

Bob -

"Guess you've never written a book eh?"

Little known fact: I have.

It was a Linux text written for a private party (training business).

I didn't find it especially difficult - time consuming, yes, but I loved doing it.

When you love doing something, it's pretty easy for that thing to be a challenge instead of a chore.

"Cranking out daily brain dumps comes no where near the effort it takes to produce something akin to a book."

Unless the book is just a more refined version of those daily brain dumps.

I've had quite a few other ideas, as well, which would be just as easy and satisfying to produce.

But there's definitely a market for collections of anecdotes.

"Wether the book is fiction, which requires that you stay on plot, sub-plots keep character development going or a non-fiction book where you have to constantly check your facts and test your theories."

There are plenty of other formats out there.

A travel narrative, for example, isn't something which would require extensive fact checking. Provided you can make it interesting, it won't really matter.

I bring this example up because it's what I'd really like to do. Something like Paul Theroux without all the education and intelligence.

"Writting a book is not about typeing the letters and making words."

I agree. My better posts are the ones in which I've actually decided to make a point about something - to wander off and get tangential, but to always tie everything back together again at the end. That takes planning, even if my conversational tone makes it appear as though I just jotted down whatever was on the top of my head.

Anyway, when I say that I want to get published, I'm not talking about writing a book. I *will* write another book someday, but right now, I just want to get a small portfolio of published work together. I'm thinking about items in the 2,000-3,000 word range. For articles like that, I have about a bajillion choices of publications to which I could submit.

NJJohn -

"Girlfriend, eh? Just as I suspected... you're mating with an alien race with heads made of potato chips!"

No, no, no!

I was doodling, but found that I had gotten tired of drawing the same old stick figures.

Actually, that's not right - I'm not "tired" of it, but I wanted to branch out a little.

So, I decided to draw some stick figures that had heads which appeared somewhat 3D.

What I wound up with was a collection of figures that I would consider to be 2.5D.

Close enough :)

Dear Mr. Nicholas Paldino,

Your analysis of Rory's third illustration (and second self portrait) will need some adjustment; I absolutely *adore* this rendering of myself. Truly. I love it. Besides, I think Rory looks rather peaceful in his moment of flight.

So let's take it again from there:

PS to Mr. Nicholas Paldino:

I visited your site and would like to mention that I do appreciate your philosophies with regard to utilizing one's talents as a means (*the* means) of obtaining a sense of fulfillment and continuous growth. We all have the capacity to put a roof over our head by doing what we love to do; it's just a matter of figuring out what we need to do to accomplish that. And then doing it.

So anyway, mush talk over. Your revised analysis:

I was thinking that the pictures can link together a bit.

For example your girlfriend is there on the top right looking lovely, and you're actually off to the left, stalking her from behind with some form of maniacal lusty desire.

As to the bottom left one? Well that's a close up of a guy swan-diving onto the soft fluffy landing mat in the right picture, where others have just landed (see the guy at the bottom watching the next descent - he's probably the stunt co-ordinator, or a talent scout for Swan-Divers Inc).

Surely it's obvious.

For some reason the upper left drawing (the one you used as toilet paper) really makes me laugh. Enjoy the break. :)

dig the shadow on PCG.

best of luck

Rory is not blogging for some time !!!!

Blogs are not wanted now , take out everyone
pour away stars and dismantle the sun ...

I'll be back to complete the rest when I get over the shock.

Neopoleon
Raging river grows calmer...
Rain will come again




Rory takes a break
Friends and admirers wait;
The world is silent

The brownish pic is definitely of someone ( Rory maybe ) in the 11th dimension searching for Nigel's foot.

Next one is of course PCG

The next one is an industrial sized fondu fork with an elbow brace for easier spearing accuracy.

The last one has a few things going one but first off I want to know how the guy who can't even sit next to people who are eating mushrooms actually drew one?

Ok so the last picture is of Jack and Jill walking up the mushroom where they will eventually fall down from and start a whole new bunch of nursery rhymes. The guy in the bottom right of the corner is scratching his @ss and checking to see what is making it itch so bad.

Those are my guesses.

Is it infinitely more resolutions, or is it mathematically undefined? I seem to recall 1/0 being undefined...

Andy -

"Is it infinitely more resolutions, or is it mathematically undefined? I seem to recall 1/0 being undefined..."

My freaky math friends taught me that it was infinite.

Hmmm, looks to be undefined.

http://www.math.utah.edu/~alfeld/math/0by0.html

I think this means I win a fabulous prize.

Andy and Rory -

"Is it infinitely more resolutions, or is it mathematically undefined? I seem to recall 1/0 being undefined..."

Andy is correct in that 1/0 is undefined, however I would like to point out that Rory did not mention 1/0 in his original post. He said something to the extent that he had one resolution which was infinitely more resolutions than he had ever had before (indicating that he has never made a resolution before).

So, Rory did not make infinitely more resolutions than he has ever made before. He made 1 more than he has ever made before, 1 more than 0. Using my elementary school math (which I passed I think) 1 - 0 = 1. No infinites, just a number minus zero.

So you both win a fabulous prize. You're both weird and that's prize enough I think.

I'm impressed to come across references to you here and there (in places where they should know better ?) No, other than seeing you diss' Steve Ballmer, reducing him to that pathetic carcass (begging, I suppose, for adversaries to come closer, so he can bite their legs off, as it was after all, "only a nick" that you inflicted on him;) no, I found it reassuring to see that someone who learned all his technical skills from Greg ( is that right, Jack ?) has done so well out in the dog-eat-frison-biche' world, beyond the cloisters of NW Natural. I want to show your drawings to my grandson, Max, so that he'll not be discouraged by the fulsome praise and less veiled disparagements he's endured over similar drawings. [If you remember me, I'm the hoary fuddy-duddy forever squinting through useless specs, like Mr. Magoo.]
- Best wishes for health, good humor and fulfillment in your pursuit of the American Way during the coming year. nbw at X-5532

That's right, Rory has a secret inspiration to the art of programming that can be described with just one word, Greg. Greg is the ultimate guru of all things code. Greg is not only a sexy beast, master of the Latin limbo, and Pagan god of many a financially challenged young ladies. He is the Ubermort that all of us aspire to be.

Thus spoke Ubermort.

Rory,

You need to start posting a little more techie content IMHO.

That looks like an Amanitas Muscaria mushroom. Odd. I would have expected you to draw a Psilocybin Cubensis mushroom.

That looks like an Amanitas Muscaria mushroom. Odd. I would have expected you to draw a Psilocybin Cubensis mushroom.

Rory has Returned from his Blogging Holiday