Tag: two cents

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Pressure

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This is our last dance – not much has changed since 1982…

For those of us of a certain age, the saying there there is nothing new under the sun starts to have greater meaning.  Trends in many circles – art, music and fashion – come and go, then reappear, reinvented with a new coat of paint, appropriated riff or brighter shade of lipstick.  The cycle seems to get shorter as time goes on but then our life experience alone suggests that we have probably seen or done it at least once before.  It is said that people born between the first World War and 1960 have witnessed more changes to our planet and the way we conduct our daily existence than those at any other point in history.  Some days, life plays out with nary a hiccup, on others it is “full of sound and fury” but on most we are, at best, reacting to circumstance.

The heavy load that man doth bear…

When the stresses of the 21st century seem about to collide all at once in some sort of weird cosmic finger-pointing, all that is necessary is to step back – or to the side – and think about how someone else is dealing with the vagaries of life at this precise moment in time.  Such visualization can have dramatic and profound results: Would you really want to be in those shoes?

Today, of all days, when a good portion of the population on this continent feels the onus of civic responsibility weighing down upon them, Across the Bored puts forward the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge topic – Pressure.   In all its incarnations as a verb or a noun, action or reaction, as a social construct or in the animal kingdom, from architecture to hydraulics, sound to weather, our world is an example of how everything is affected by compelling and constraining influences.

So,  “How does pressure appear to you?” – As a butress flying out from a gothic cathedral, the force of a hurricane bending trees to its will or as that long line of voters snaking into the distance?

If this is all too much, just Relax…

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge: HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or post by you or attributed to someone else, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble.
  3. The Challenge will be open for 6 days after it is posted upon which I will post another challenge.
  4. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on Across the Bored’s blog.
  4. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Temptation

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Coffee and chocolate or something a little more sinful?

Hurricane Sandy has howled inland, blowing away the last of autumn and leaving no doubt that the first flakes of snow will soon follow.  We can smell the change in the air, see by the height of the sun and know by the cravings for winter foods that November is but days away.  The season that encompasses Halloween, the December Holidays and New Year’s can be one where we get carried away, so this week’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge topic – Temptation – is timely.

The first entry that appears when the word is googled is:
Noun:  A desire to do something, esp. something wrong or unwise: “he resisted the temptation to call Celia”; “we gave in to temptation”

(or “the temptation to chew on the USB key was too much for the dog…)

A thing or course of action that attracts or tempts someone: “the temptations of life in New York”

(or “the temptation to redecorate the house while Jack was away left Jill with no choice…)

One imagines that the writers of dictionaries were a cranky lot who didn’t really have much fun in life.  Whether we are enticed, influenced, allured or seduced by a person or an idea; when we have an inclination or an impulse to do or achieve some thing; when the thing itself is so appealing that we are left breathless with desire, is this really so terrible?  It sometimes has beautiful results.  Or not…

So,  “How does temptation appear to you?”

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge:

HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Your point of view on the current week’s challenge can take any form: a quote, a motto or saying, an essay, poem or post by you or attributed to someone else, a work of art, photograph, graffiti, drawing or scribble.
  3. The Challenge will be open for 6 days after it is posted upon which I will post another challenge.
  4. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. If you would like your reader to see what others are presenting for the same challenge, add a link to the “Two Cents Tuesday” challenge on Across the Bored’s blog.
  4. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Manipulation

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As is: iphone photo taken through car window at 130 km per hour

This week’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge topic – Manipulation – was inspired by Ohm Sweet Ohm, a recent photo challenge and a series of articles and discussions circulating about the validity of iphone photos as “real” art (see the bottom links for more).  Actual or virtual, raw or enhanced, point and shoot, SLR or DSLR, good or not – beauty, art and an appreciation of the world around us are where we find it. Judgement shouldn’t rest on the effort taken, and the tools that we use, to bring images to a state where we are satisfied with them.  As a friend once said about the unwanted gift of a print from a relative – “I don’t care whether it’s a Picasso – I don’t like it!”

Judicious cropping, the use of levels, curves and contrast, topped with the graphic pen filter from photoshop result in the American gothic novella illustration

The noun “manipulation” has a bad rep; most of the dictionary definitions have negative connotations but perhaps, in this century of change and alteration, the editors should append their entries to include a few words on a positive note.  The very act of creation is making something out of nothing (although the opposite could be argued as well), it is manipulation of the best kind. We assign meaning by presenting images in a certain way – whether our audience gets it or not is irrelevant, what is important is that they take away their own impression.

Sofa size: tweaking vibrance, hue and saturation, cropping and the application of artistic and brush strokes filters in photoshop

Nature is the mistress of manipulation, from animals using tools to the strangling vines that plague our gardens in their climb towards the sun.  Babies are manipulative in a sweet, endearing way; small children learn it early as part of their skill set; teenagers start to refine it by practicing on each other in a microcosmic mimicking dance;  but, adults take the art of manipulation to a whole new realm, infusing the word through action with as many variations as there are synonyms and definitions.

So  “What does manipulation mean to you?”

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers to Across the Bored, here are some guidelines for the challenge:

HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Feel free to attach photos or artwork you have that fit the current week’s challenge.
  3. The Challenge will be open for 6 days after it is posted upon which I will post another challenge.
  4. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Interesting articles:
Binoculars and iPhone Give Pro Cameras Stiff Competition at Olympics
Stop Arguing About Instagram and Go Make a Picture
How the iPhone changed my photography
Pix Before Pixels

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Compromise

9 Comments

Your choice

The last few days dealing with surly clients were fraught with high drama and the gnashing of teeth but fortuitously, offered up this week’s Two Cents Tuesday Challenge!  Daily life, whether technicolour, monochrome or gray-scale can be, at best, give and take.  How we deal with it relies solely on how we react – with logic or emotion, fact or fancy, nature or nurture. This week’s topic – Compromise – can be found in all the spheres that intersect: human, animal, plant, even things inanimate. It is sometimes as simple as our summer garden where the neighbour’s zucchini plant wound its tendrils along a shared fence and down into our tomatoes – the compromise rested between plant and static architecture, between friends’ understanding that sometimes nature needs to seek its own way rather than bend to our will.

So  “What does compromise mean to you?”

We would love to see your vision.

For all those who are new readers and in the spirit of this week’s topic, Across the Bored has made a few (minor) changes to the challenge:

HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same.
  2. Feel free to attach photos or artwork you have that fit the current week’s challenge.
  3. The Challenge will be open for 6 days after it is posted upon which I will post another challenge.
  4. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

 SO – Create your Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Two Cents Tuesday Challenge: Procrastination

6 Comments

From a tuppence to a toonie

Procrastination is the order of the day and in a effort to remain productive while still managing to avoid doing the really pressing work at hand, Across the Bored presents the Two Cents Tuesday Challenge!  What better way to waste time and let everyone know your tuppence worth (yes, we actually are soliciting your opinion!).  So without further ado, this week’s topic is all about that time-sucking void we all know and love (or despise) – Procrastination.

“How do you waste time, delay, put off, goldbrick, postpone, or shilly-shally?”

HOW DOES THIS WORK?

  1.  I will post some commentary on a random topic that pops into my head (such as the above) and then ask you to respond on the same in 2 lines.
  2. Feel free to attach photos or artwork that you have that fits the current week’s challenge.
  3. Please enter only once!
  4. The Challenge will be open for 6 days after it is posted.
  5. ENJOY, have FUN and TELL your friends and fellow bloggers.

Create a Two Cents Tuesday Challenge post

  1. Then add a link to your blog in my comment box.
  2. To make it easy for others to check out your post, title your blog post “Two Cents Tuesday Challenge” and add the same as a tag.
  3. Remember to Follow My Blog to get your weekly (hopefully) reminders.

Thanks to Cee for the simple format and to everyone who has visited, been reading and followed. You provide endless good reasons to procrastinate….