View allAll Photos Tagged self-control
Hard to control these beautiful dogs.
Downtown Los Angeles, California
Proverbs 25:28
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
Great German Shepherds K2 & Kennedy Self Control Watching Neighbor Running Past With Her Dog! - IMRAN™
(My 147th Flickr Explore!)
I had walked the dogs to the empty lot nearby early today. It was a stunning and serene morning on Tampa Bay, Florida.
Kennedy (further from camera) and K2, my great German Shepherds, turned from the beach when they sensed something. I turned and saw a neighbor jogging with her dog going past the lot and my blessed home.
Both my dogs showed such great self-control while being very interested in others going through “our space”. Both of them sat alert, waiting, knowing that the runner & dog would pass by us again after turning back at the cul de sac.
Only after the “visitors” departed did these two move and resume their normal beach play. What a smart breed German Shepherds are! Enjoy the picture in 3D at www.facebook.com/100063547631173/posts/pfbid02b5ZQfZkGB2d...
© 2023 IMRAN™
#3D #IMRAN #Florida #TampaBay #GSD #GermanShepherds #summer #beach #discipline #selfcontrol #gratitude #morning
Angel of the Black Stump
Not knowing their prevalence.
But forever experiencing great pain, loss, and crisis.
Our challenges.
Our recovery.
To deny.
To repress.
Living with disturbance.
And the failure to reach personal goals,
and to self-control unwanted thoughts.
The flames that take us beyond ourselves.
Read more: www.jjfbbennett.com/2020/10/australian-gothic.html
Well, KS 265 came out, so I've been indulging myself in making over a couple of old characters, instead of, you know, doing homework. My self-control is nonexistent.
And I swear, one day I'll stop posting portraits and actually play the game.
But character creation is just too damn fun.
hola.......manco da un po', sono più incasinato del solito, però questa devo postarla, in mezzo a mille casini e impegni mi è venuta in mente una cosa, le zone d'ombra andrebbero illuminate?
Papi perde colpi? Sbaglio o è più nervoso del solito? Non lo penso solo io, in fondo io sono nessuno, lo pensa la maggior parte della stampa, gli osservatori politici e no, i "gossippari", si vede ad occhio nudo che qualcosa non va nel modo di fare solito del nostro amato premier.
Innanzitutto i sondaggi, si dice che non arriverà a più del 40% alle prossime elezioni europee, si dice che l'inchiesta sull'"affaire" Noemi sia più devastante della questione Mills, si dice che il suo proverbiale "self control" stia cedendo e che se è vero che tra moglie e marito non si debba mettere il dito, stavolta si rischia che ci si metta un'intera mano.
Si perché come si è più volte detto, il fatto dell'Amicizia particolare tra un 72enne e una 18enne non è cosa da tutti i giorni, e non è nemmeno da tralasciare il fatto che il 72enne in questione, frequenti la 18enne da almeno due anni, cioè da quando era 16enne!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bene, anzi male, se è vero che nulla è dimostrabile, ma tutto plausibile, il Nostro, dovrebbe cercare di dare spiegazioni su certe sue "frequentazioni", non alla CNN, ma al popolo sovrano, cioè al parlamento tutto, cercando di chiarire una questione che il Lodo Alfano non mette al riparo da possibili chiamate in giudizio.
Non oso pensare al peggio, ma se non è così, perché non chiarire definitivamente questa ZONA D'OMBRA che oltretutto sta destabilizzando il potere esecutivo nostrano?
Per non parlare poi del caso Mills.....ma questa è un'altra storia......
This is a song about a person I love
Ay ay ay
I got a toxic attitude and lack of self control
A reasonably fucked up individual
Need you to cleanse my sins
So I can go to school
P-p-p-please
They're gonna lock me in a closet, but I'm coming out
Singing fuck all the oppression and the self doubt
I'm gonna bite all of your fingers, put them in my mouth
I'm on my knees
So take it easy, take it easy, take it easy,
Take it easy, take it easy on me
I know you're so hard to please
Just take it easy, take it easy on me
Ay ay ay
He got, he got my heart in his hands like a headlock
he holds all the p-p-power in his fingertips
he's gonna suck on my strawberry lipstick
he's gonna taste my body with his fingertips
I cannot breathe
I can't breathe
I have a confession...................
I smoke, I am overweight, I do not exercise, I let stress get to me, I am going to turn 33 in 10 days, I drink an alcholic beverage almost daily, I have a family history of heart disease, I have poor circulation, I have chest pains sometimes that I do not tell others about, and I am scared.
I am a mother, a girlfriend, a lover, a daughter, a cousin, a niece, a granddaughter, a friend and I am important.
I am weak, I have no self control, I am a vegetarian that eats too many carbs, I have no motivation, I take medication for depression, I live with physical pain daily, I get winded, I know I can change so many of these things and I need help.
NATIONAL WEAR RED DAY~AND I BEGAN TO THINK
GO RED ANYWAY YOU WANT. Eat red - apples, cherries, tomatoes. Leave red kisses on someone's cheek. Laugh so hard your face turns red.
GO THE DISTANCE. Keep it moving 30 minutes a day: step, march or jog in place. You can even do it when you're watching TV. We won't tell.
EAT SMART FOR YOUR HEART. Just cut 200 to 300 calories a day. That's one less candy bar, two less pounds a week, a zillion points for your heart.
JUST STOP SMOKING. Your risk of heart disease and stroke drops by half just one year after you stop.
DO IT ALL FOR YOUR HEART. Every day, put your hand on your heart and make a promise to be heart healthy.
KEEP IN TOUCH. For any questions about heart disease and how to prevent it call
1-888-MY-HEART.
Oh how I do love cities. :)
Taking a much undeserved break from studying :P
I have no self-control, really.
Thank you so much for the birthday well wishes!!
this picture is dedicated to sweet Mulan and luvhumpbacks
you've been an inspiration to us...thank you !
And not of her choosing. Millie is waiting for her morning treat (carrots). On with it, woman!
Take Aim Waiting Challenge
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nWmBJxW9q0
I'm insane!
Well, I can feel it in my bones
Coursing through my veins
When did I become so cold?
For goodness sakes
Where is my self control?
If home is where my heart is
Then my heart has lost all hope
Aftermath
Name: Peter Renshaw
Location: Kinglake West.
Date: 2009MAR26
Description:
First time in the back paddock. The plants you see in the foreground are what is left of a 1acre paddock of exotic Camellias and Rhododendrons. They are bending in the direction of the fire path.
The text below is a talk I gave on how we (brother, sister, myself and mates) organised and executed plans to get immediate power & water at my Dads house. Authorities simply didn't react fast enough.
==================
Final draft for talk at Trampoline
update latest news
Now published at seldomlogical.com/gsd.html.
A quick intro to the fire is here www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157615800278371/. Be aware this is a draft & I'll be posting later a linked & more polished version at seldomlogical and my wp site. For the purposes of the talk on the day I subtitled the talk Kick-starting Volunteers to not only make the title shorter but to put the talk in a bigger context. The ideas here can be applied to situations like Black Saturday but could just as easily be applied to Volunteers, even Startups. They all face the same types of problems.
Hello, my name is Peter. My talk is called "Getting stuff
done with nothing". Before I begin I'll tell you something
about myself. My first computer was a ZX-80. I don't get
out much and I haven't been to a meeting for a long time.
I'm one of those Gen-X slackers, I went to school for 20
or so years and I've worked mostly in Startups and
software. So you could say I'm a bit of an expert on the
topic. Well at least one.
Getting stuff done with nothing
Why is it that some individuals adapt to change faster than
others? How is it that people with no authority, few
resources can make such a difference? The ideas I want to
explore has its roots in the slow decline of volunteering,
the unfolding financial crisis and the 7th February 2009.
A day we now know as Black Saturday.
How do you avoid sabotaging yourself trying to help?
How do you get stuff done, with nothing?
Black Saturday
It was 46 degrees that day. I'd thought about going to Dads
about 70 kilometers from where I live. But with a total
fire ban and hot conditions I chose the pool instead
staying close to home. It wasn't till I got home about six
o'clock that evening that I got a call from a distressed
sister saying Dad was fighting off fires at his property at
Kinglake West and his phone was going flat. Later I got
another call at around 8 o'clock to say the house had
survived but he was still fighting. [0]
I was 70 kilometers away, it was getting dark so I drove to
the nearest place I could see the range, snapped a few
shots and uploaded them to Flickr. My brother and sister
who lived closer shot up to Whittlesea trying to get into
the fire-zone to help. Foolish maybe, but it was to have
positive implications later. [1] I knew that if Dad
survived the first two hours with house intact - as long
as he kept his wits about him, he would survive. So I
started planing, writing and collecting any information
I could to see if I could help out further down the line.
49 days later
It's now forty nine days since the fire and work is
still going on. A casual comment by a CFA volunteer on my
Flickr account [2] suggesting that for the next major fire
a similar site might do exactly what I was doing -
collecting information and acting as a clearing house.
This was going to be initial idea for my talk. "How to
apply technology and apply it to solve the communications
and logistic problems" I encountered with the fires. Maybe
it could be applied to other relief efforts. What about
the recession? Could it help people who loose their jobs
to re-train? Get new skills?
But thinking about it more, it turned out to be the wrong
question to ask. I don't think technology is the problem.
[3] I think the real problem is much more fundamental. I
think it's people and how they tackle obstacles. I don't
want to get bogged down in theory. What I want concentrate
on something practical. How to apply some quick hacks that
anyone can master in times of need.
Personal qualities not technology
To get things done you have to overcome hurdles. Some
are personal and internal. Others are external and totally
out of your control. When I started thinking about what
personal qualities might be important, I was struck by the
fact you might need to experiment and apply various
combinations to achieve a result. So I have tried to narrow
the list, to what I think are the 10 qualities that make a
difference.
1) Controlling emotion
Emotions effect the way we make decisions. Emotions come in
many forms as we react to stress. Each person reacts
slightly differently. Limiting your emotional reaction, lets
you move forward to make decisions. It's a trait that only
you can control. Some sort of control is an advantage over
none. No control over you emotions can let fear control
you. Fear is by far the most damaging emotion I can think
of. Fear paralyses you into in-action. In-action is not
only counter productive but it's also the fastest way to
sabotage yourself. Fear is also contagious. If you are
fearful, it has a nasty habit of rubbing-off onto others.
I don't know the solution to avoiding or controlling fear
but I do know you should be aware it exists. You should try
to negate it's side effects. The better control you have
over fear, the more effective you can be. [4]
2) Listening
How well you listen greatly effects any outcome to try to
achieve. Not listening is one of the quickest ways to fail
when you encounter external hurdles. Not listening you miss
details. Details that could mean the difference between
knowing what is required or taking a risk and guessing. A
requirement achieved is a form of measurable success.
Guessing simply wastes time. If in doubt ask someone "on
the ground". They know things you don't. Listen now and
you save time and effort later.
3) Mindset
If you have a rigid mindset. If you cannot adapt quickly
enough. You risk not only failing to achieve the things you
set out to do. You will be susceptible to blunder. A
blunder is when the action you take, results in a worse
situation than when you start. Blunders have many causes.
But the most likely culprit is a fixed or rigid mindset.
Mindset is the combined effect of "how you react
emotionally to current events" and "the decisions you make
as a result". So ask yourself. "Are you undermining
yourself because you have a rigid mindset?"
4) Empathy & imagination
Can you walk in the shoes of another person? Can you
identify their problems and solve them? Empathy and
imagination are an effective antidote to blunders, rigid
mindsets and cognitive traps in thinking. [5] Don't just
try and blunder your way through a solution. First put
yourself into situation you are trying to improve and
use your mind to to project, how you might make the
current situation into a better or best situation. [6]
5) Communication not Info-mania
An info-maniac is someone who misuses information. If you
hold onto information, shun or avoid the source or nature
of information. You are self sabotaging yourself. You need
to collect enough of the right type of relevant
information. Don't worry about the having too much
information. You will be surprised what people might be
looking for or find. [7] Working as a team has its own
challenges. When communicating to more than one person
make sure they have the right mindset and ensure they are
communicating together to get the job done.
6) Thrift and resources
Up till now, the focus has primarily been on the how.
Little thought has been given to cost. If you have few
resources and need them quickly it is up to you to work out
how important they are. Weigh the costs of buying verses
loaning. Don't buy if you can help it. The time honoured
"Beg, borrow and ask" works, well some of the time. A simple
solution is to hack what you already have and see if it can
fit the purpose. A roll of fencing wire and duct tape may
work wonders but not miracles.
This is where you have to get creative. A good resource can
be friends or people you know. It may even be complete
strangers. In some cases you will have to pay cash. Before
you do check with people on the ground if they really need
this item. If you pay cash it might be better to accept a
higher price for a receipt instead of trying to negotiate
a discount. This avoids disputes. Pay a bit more to avoid
potential conflict. [8]
7) Speed
We are often told to do things "fast". But saying and
doing are two different things. Where do you start? Well
start at the basics. The basics of life are 'food', 'water'
and shelter. So for a given situation concentrate first on
the basics. Be able to say with certainty you have
reliability. Day in, day out. Every day. Speed is also
about getting real results without wasting unnecessary time
and resources. Any lack of the above qualities will hinder
your efforts. So I think the measure of speed is about
delivering the basics. Then using a combination of
listening, empathy and imagination you can move your way
forward.
But speed alone isn't good enough.
It's a constant. What you really want is acceleration.
What forces can you use to increase the accelerate the rate
you do things? Well the answer to this and a potential
road-block is probably a combination of and Info-mania.
Collect enough information on problem at hand and you get a
data glut and as long as the relevance of the information
is high someone can probably find the right information.
The trick is then to get the right people to take notice.
We got "feet on the ground" to Dad in less than 48 hours.
Delivering a delivering a generator and essentials. Yet I
was shocked that it took another 48 hours for support teams to
touch base in Flowerdale a mere 26 kilometers further
north. [9] This changed quickly when Pete William started
writing the "helpflowerdale" blog. Things sped up when the
information flow sped up. [10]
8) Search for simplicity
KISS or Keep it Simple Stupid. Easy to say, much harder to
do in practice. The advantage of simplicity is it helps
keeps you focused on what is achievable. Focusing on simple
outcomes is also cost and time effective. Complex things
consume resources. How do you find simple solutions in
real-life complexity?
I have no real answers. But I did get a few valuable
insights trying to work out how to solve the problem of
water. After the fires, I knew delivering the basics was
going to be a big problem. And the most important basic is
water. But how do you source, deliver and maintain a clean
water supply 70 kilometers away?
How did I simplify the problem? Well first I had the right
mindset. I knew in the middle of summer in remote areas
that damaged water tanks, no pumps and when the power is
down there will be no reliable water. I also knew speed was
of the essence. The simplicity hack I applied was knowing
that water being a basic was required quickly. I confirmed
by ringing up people on the ground that water storage was a
problem. Then spread the news around this is what was
required. It just so happened that other people where
already thinking along the same lines pre-warned because of
the information I spread, "empathised" and offered help.
The actual situation itself is complicated and I couldn't
tackle this problem myself but I got a call from a good
friend who is an expert in logistics and just happened to
have a water solution in the form of a Shutz. By chance I
also got access to various forms of transport.
Is this a case of good luck or searching for a simpler way?
I'm not sure. I do know that by knowing this was a priority
and using resources I secured the water containers and got
them delivered. [11], [12]
9) Follow through, re-evaluate
What you start you finish. Don't leave loose threads. Then
quickly re-evaluate. Do you really need to continue?
Communicate together. Is someone else doing this? Check
with someone on the ground again. Then continue. If you
promise to do something, do it. No one else is going to do
it. It is up to you.
Are you going to let your mates down?
10) Motivation, "the mongrel factor"
The final personal quality is how much of the "mongrel
factor" you have. No, it has nothing to do with "Blue
Heelers" (the TV show) [13] but the mongrel breed of dog.
How hard do you "snap" and "snarl" [14] to extract that
last 5 percent effort required to complete a task? The
difference between those who give up and those who succeed
can partially be explained to how hard they are willing to
push themselves. [15]
The future of Volunteers
I don't think technology alone can solve the types of
problems. You need intelligent application of technology.
Instead we should look at how we as individuals respond
using technology to amplify results. I also saw a complete
change in community attitudes to 'volunteering'. Before the
fire, volunteering was a dirty word. After the fire people
felt guilty not helping.
The fires may be over. But your chance to make a difference
begins now. Black Saturday might be the fractal training
run for the current recession. Lots of people, young people
especially are now going find themselves without the
opportunities to work and no path to improve themselves.
What are YOU! going to do? Are you! (point to individual)
going to let your mates down?
Reference
[0] Bootload, flickr, "You can read a summary and view
pictures of the fires first hours here",
[Accessed Thursday, 26th March, 2009]
flickr.com/photos/bootload/3260244634
[1] We (my brother, sister, her bloke, myself and a good
mate) undertook two distinct operations. Operation Genny:
objective to deliver power in the form of a generator.
Operation Shutz: objective to deliver clean water supply
tanks up to 3000 litres with 1 tank capable of being put on
a ute. We completed both. We had feet on the ground within
48 hours of the fire occurring for the generator. The water
supply following some 2 weeks later.
None of this would have been possible if emotional sister
and determined brother used speed to the fire zone within
couple of hours. The reward, a pass to move through the
police road blocks. Had it not been for this quick
thinking. Nothing we planned would have come to fruition.
[2] miniopterus, Flickr, "I should have said, good job
tracking the events. I imagine that next time we have fires,
we might see something similar to your Flickr diary.",
flickr.com/photos/bootload/3298613958
[Accessed Thursday, 26th March, 2009]
[3] To technologists who forge and yield hammers every
problem can appear to be a nail. In this case I don't think
a technology solution is applicable as tackling how people
deal with decision making. You need intelligent application
of technology. Instead we should look at how we as
individuals respond using technology to amplify results.
[4] Fear is there for a reason. Men may perceive women to
be inferior when it comes to emotion. But like the second
law of thermodynamics, all that built up emotion is going
to leak out some time in the future. So in the long run,
I think women have an edge over men dealing with emotion.
But in the short term it is men who edge women out with
self control. There is a downside here. Apply too much
control and you might emotionally overheat and become
brittle when you cool down leaving yourself open to
cracking. Hard objects become brittle and crack under
stress.
[6] google, "enter 'from: kinglake west to: Flowerdale
VIC, Australia' and view the maps tab. This reveals the
distance from Kinglake West."
[Accessed Friday, 27th March, 2009]
[5] Zachary Shore, "Blunder: Why Smart People Make Bad
Decisions, Blunder Intro, P5."
www.zacharyshore.com/static/content/blunder_intro.pdf
[Accessed Friday, 27th March, 2009]
[6] CVS2BVS: Current View of Situation to Best View of
Situation is a quick hack to make you think of moving
forward. What is you current view? What is your best
view? How do you get there? You have to ask the question
before you can find a solution.
[7] ITConversations, Tech Nation, Zachary Shore, "Why
Smart People Make Bad Decisions: Professor, Naval
Postgraduate School"
itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail4007.html
[Accessed Friday, 27th March, 2009]
[8] Sourcing the Shutz (ruggised 1000 Lt, portable water
container) I negotiated a price by quoting a friends name
in cash. Then I get a phone call asking for more money. A
quick call back to my referring mate sorted this out. But
had I got a receipt I could have avoided this. In the end
it worked out. But the risk was there. You can read more
about sourcing the Shutz here:
www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157614178152108/
[Accessed Friday, 27th March, 2009]
[9] google, "To find the distance from Kinglake West to
Flowerdale enter 'from: Kinglake West to: Flowerdale VIC,
Australia' into google and click the maps tab.
[10] Pete Williams, blogspot, "Flowerdale - Survivor
Spirit", "A cry for help from the forgotten people of
Flowerdale"
"... The final straw for my sister in law came at 6.00am
today (12/02/09) when those left fought to save one of the
remaining houses that caught on fire overnight. They fought
with no water, no fire trucks and no support from the Army
that was in the area. They lost the fight. ..."
helpflowerdalenow.blogspot.com/2009/02/cry-for-help-from-...
[Accessed Friday, 27th March, 2009]
[11] bootload, flickr, "flickr set: 'Shutz IBC 1000L' where
I order and collect the Shutz water tank"
www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157614178152108/
[Accessed Friday, 27th March, 2009]
[12] bootload, "flickr set: 'Eltham to Kinglake West'
where we deliver the tanks"
www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157614178001242/
[Accessed Friday, 27th March, 2009]
[13] IMDb, "Blue Heelers, The Mongrel Factor"
[Accessed Friday, 27th March, 2009]
[14] Australian Sports Commission, "Participating in Sport:
Predicting sports suitability", "... Coaches who observe
such testing sessions are assessing the ‘mongrel factor’
which athletes show a doggedness to continue when the test
becomes hard?"
www.ausport.gov.au/participating/got_talent/overview/pred...
[Accessed Friday, 27th March, 2009]
[15] Simon Britton, "Mongrel Nation",
culturenow.com/site/item.cfm?item=24814
[Accessed Friday, 27th March, 2009]
To Andy, James, Kev, Mum and Trace. They know how to get
things done with nothing. Thanks Trace, Colin for reading
the article.
Delivering food and water to the homeless on Broadway
Downtown Los Angeles
Galatians 5:22
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
I can’t take my eyes off the green tulip leaves with the great light on it… Then I’ve asked myself: What’s the meaning of green? To me it’s nature & restful energy… Here is what I found from different sources: “Green, the color of life, renewal, nature, and energy, is associated with meanings of growth, harmony, freshness, safety, fertility, and environment.The color green has healing power and is understood to be the most restful and relaxing color for the human eye to view. Green can help enhance vision, stability and endurance. Green takes up more space in the spectrum visible to the human eye and it is the dominant color in the natural.The color green affects us physically and mentally in several different ways. Green is soothing, relaxing, and youthful. Green is a color that helps alleviate anxiety, depression, and nervousness. Green also brings with it a sense of hope, health, adventure, and renewal, as well as self-control, compassion, and harmony” Bourncreative “Since the beginning of time, green has signified growth, rebirth, and fertility. In pagan times, there was the "Green Man" - a symbol of fertility. In Muslim countries, it is a holy color and in Ireland, a lucky color. It was the color of the heavens in the Ming Dynasty.” Colormatters BeNowMeHere, Keukenhof, Lisse, Netherlands, 2015 via 500px ift.tt/21SqnYF
Critical evaluation of the finished piece:
In general I am quite happy with the way this animation turned out, but there are still issues that need a lot of attention. One of these issues is the jagged movement of the character’s arms throughout the entire animation; this is visible even more intensely towards the end and it is an issue related to the rotations of the joints that I didn’t really have time anymore to address. Another more technical issue regarding this animation is related to the lip sync itself – there are moments when the ‘up-down’ positions of the jaw and the ‘open-close’ shapes for the mouth change too rapidly so the movement of the mouth doesn’t look too convincing and it feels rushed. From the characterization point of view I’m very happy with the fact that the he does not exactly move in a generic way, hopefully the ‘diva’ personality in him is noticeable. If I had a chance to animate this from the beginning one more time I would alter his movements altogether – right now he behaves more like an erratic character with little self-control over his own body and the movement doesn’t really feel like it’s flowing properly. It feels to me that he is just changing from one pose to the next one without much thought in between and the emotion and authority in the character could be brought out more properly with a more subtle array of gestures in the body. Even though I am not overall happy with the movements that I chose to animate for my character, I tried my best to make those movements look as sophisticated as I could using overlapping action and adding a lot of subtle animation that is rather hard to notice because of the scene dressing, for example, the shrinking and dilation of his pupils is almost invisible because of the darker lens over the retina of the eyes. I am very happy with the amount of skills that I have gained while working on this project and I enjoyed working on this project very much!
Brief Technical Summary of the scene:
The scene itself is built using the file referencing system where the character is imported as a reference in a blank scene file after it has been fully prepared for animation. This allowed me to work simultaneously on the animating the character and texturing and skinning without any major technical issues.
The head of the model was built using an online video tutorial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xls25e08sSg) and the body mesh is a group of separate meshes (body, hair, glasses, eyes, shirt, teeth, earrings, bandana, tongue, gums, eyebrows) all skinned together to the rig. The edgeflow of the character’s body is kept as simple and clean as possible and the small amount of triangles in the mesh are placed in areas where they add to the shape of the body organically (connection of the neck to the chest, Forming of the underarms, etc.). The textures are mostly very simple with an addition of a subtle bump map apart from the three separate skin texture layers for the sub-surface scatter shader.
The rig for the character is a modification of the Digital Tutors basic character rig and the modifications include the removal of IK controls on the arms, individual controls for spreading and bending each finger, improvised control system for the blendshapes of the face and addition of more control over the back. All of the unnecessary transformations of the control curves have been locked and hidden, though I have not limited the rotations of the control curves on the arms and this caused quite a lot of problems during the animation process.
The lighting in the scene is just a set of two spotlights and one directional light and there is no animation on the camera. There are also no props in the scene as there was no need for the character to be interacting with anything but the viewer.
LUST
Lust or lechery is usually thought of as excessive thoughts or desires of a sexual nature. Aristotle's criterion was excessive love of others, which therefore rendered love and devotion to God as secondary. In Dante's Purgatorio, the penitent walks within flames to purge himself of lustful/sexual thoughts and feelings. In Dante's "Inferno", unforgiven souls of the sin of lust are blown about in restless hurricane like winds symbolic of their own lack of self control to their lustful passions in earthly life.
[Wikipedia]
... And for all the Friends of course :-)
This is why a make Art.
This is why I stay, notwithstanding some sad evil episodes, on Flickr that just reflect how is the world, so, nonsense to escape it, better to fight, protect the others and try to become better persons.
Art is a catharsis or, as an Artist Friend would say, it serves as exorcism of the evil.
My diversity in art (and as a person) has been disrespected, insulted, abused, till the point I decided to leave 3 groups and in one of those, my leave has been anticipated by a ban and delete of all my art pictures shared in that group. A retaliation for having left two groups run by the same Admin who stupidly revenged because I spoke and asserted my point, with courage, sincerity and intellectual honesty.
I will add that he didn't succeed to offend me, I feel attaked frontally but I'm unable to suffer for that sad people. I'm stronger than him, I know ;-)
( The whole story can be found at my fore last post or clicking directly on the link to picture: flic.kr/p/2oJcdMx ) .
Thank you dear Friend Richard Harvey, for your purity, your courage, your self control, your will to understand, your sense of equity, your acceptance of diversities, your intellectual honesty and, especially, your support, friendship and affection which moved me to repaint this work for YOU! <3 \WA/
As I paint by perception and I never stop until I'm done, I had not saved a copy of my work in progress without the portions that I now find unecessary (the arrow, the lettering, although I consider Lettering one of my most favorite Arts). For this reason, one third of my work, included the target, is totally newly repainted.
I will send you the download but, if you prefer, I can print it and send you the physical work with the postal service, with my best compliments and deepest sympathy.
Thank you, dear Richard Harvey, to be among us and on Flickr !!
Ref. Remastered from my work IMG_8574 VM DEF entitled "Alla prosopopea degli inetti" / To the prosopopeia by the inepts.
©WhiteAngel Photography and other stuff. All rights reserved.
Obviously, no download, saving nor resharing/reblogging without my written consent.
Royal Soul ©Copyright . Images may not be copied, downloaded, or used in any way without the expressed, written permission of the photographer.
I once kicked a six and a half foot, 250 pound man in the head doing kumite. I felt good, haha. Apparently, I have good kicks.
"It’s not just self defense, it’s about…self control, body discipline, and mind discipline…and breath techniques. It involves yoga. It involves meditation. It’s an art, not a sport.”
Église de la Madeleine, Paris
"D.O.M. SVB. Invoc S. M. Magdalenae" ("For God almighty and very great, under the invocation of St. Mary Magdalene")
A Perfect Circle "Magdalena"
Mer de Noms (2000)
"Overcome by your
Moving temple
Overcome by this
Holiest of altars
So pure, so rare, to witness such an earthly goddess
That I've lost my self-control, beyond compelled to throw this dollar.
Down before your
Holiest of altars
I'd sell my soul, my self-esteem a dollar at a time
For one chance, one kiss, one taste of you, my Magdalena
I bear witness to this place, this prayer, so long forgotten
So pure, so rare, to witness such an earthly goddess
That I'd sell my soul, my self-esteem a dollar at a time
For one chance, one kiss, one taste of you, my black Madonna
I'd sell my soul, my self-esteem a dollar at a time
For one taste, one taste, one taste of you, my Magdalena"
---
Nikon D3S+Nikkor 180mm ƒ/2.8 AI
© Ivan Herrador
Smugglin' Isaac Goldgrubber is a pirate. He's sneaky. He does his pirate stuff at night. So, during the day, he needs a place to stay. He found that if he just hangs out in the open, no one even pays any attention to him. Of course, being a pirate, he really wants to rob and plunder. He has to have a lot of self control during the daytime.
Santa Cruz Boardwalk Amusement Park, Santa Cruz, California 2012
In A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf argues that the creative process requires material and psychological independence. She insists that this is not a romantic defence of solitude but a concrete condition: a woman must have a room of her own to create.
The room Woolf describes is both literal and symbolic. It is an uninterrupted physical space, but it is also continuity of thought. Privacy protects extended reflection, which any serious creative work demands. Without control over one’s time and environment, intellectual work becomes fragmented and secondary.
Psychologically, the room functions as protection. Creative work requires freedom from imposed obligations, demanded behaviours, accusations, or expectations that invade the interior space of thought.
Privacy and independence allow the development of what Woolf calls an “androgynous mind”: a balanced and integrated consciousness capable of expansive imagination rather than reactive production.
Creativity does not emerge purely from innate talent; it depends on infrastructure: space, time, and security. Private space is not a luxury. It is a precondition.
A private room represents cognitive continuity, protection from interruption, and ownership of one’s intellectual life. Artists and highly creative individuals require private, self-controlled environments for cognitive, psychological, and practical reasons.
Creative work depends on sustained attention. Complex ideation activates distributed neural networks. The interruptions force cognitive switching, degrade working memory, and reduce coherence. Generating original material means allowing incomplete, imperfect, even unconventional ideas to exist long enough to develop.
When someone is constantly observing, questioning, demanding, or accusing, the mind turns toward self-monitoring instead of exploration. Even subtle evaluation anxiety increases risk aversion. The imagination begins to censor itself before it has time to expand.
Incubation requires psychological safety because creativity involves vulnerability. The process is nonlinear: doubt, confusion, emotional intensity, experimentation, even failure. When intimate environments are contaminated with tension or negative emotion, expression becomes regulated. The body anticipates interruption. The nervous system prepares for defence rather than creation.
Artists are often highly sensitive in how they organize their working space. They perceive small shifts in light, sound, and movement. Sensory calibration matters. Control over lighting, spatial arrangement, and objects preserves cognitive bandwidth. When that space is repeatedly touched, moved, entered, or emotionally destabilized, something subtle but essential is disturbed.
Creative work is intertwined with personal meaning. Private space forms a boundary between social identity; roles and expectations and creative identity; experimentation and self-definition. Without that boundary, creative output begins to align with external approval or defensive reaction rather than intrinsic vision.
Research in cognitive psychology, stress neuroscience, and creativity studies confirms if physical space and personal boundaries are repeatedly violated over a long period, creative capacities erode in their expression.
Chronic interruption prevents entry into flow states described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The brain requires uninterrupted time to integrate complex ideas. Constant disruption trains vigilance rather than immersion.
Prolonged stress activates the threat-response system. Chronically elevated stress hormones impair working memory, cognitive flexibility, and associative thinking, all these are essential for originality.
Under perceived threat, the brain prioritizes control over exploration. Creativity narrows. Loss of autonomy further diminishes intrinsic motivation.
When space is invaded or constantly monitored, creative activity shifts from self-directed expression to reactive coping. Persistent criticism or invalidation leads to self-censorship and learned inhibition. The process becomes associated with tension rather than safety and something as fundamental as creativity gift is lost.
But inhibition is not the same as structural destruction. The capacity itself does not disappear; access to it does.
What erodes is fluency, trust, and the sense that creation is allowed.
When autonomy and safety slowly return, the nervous system must relearn that imagination will not be punished. Recovery is uneven. It requires rebuilding the internal room before rebuilding the external one.
Prolonged violation of privacy can block creative functioning for as long as the adverse conditions persist but once the door closes again (not as exclusion, but as protection) creation begins to move back into the room that was once stolen.
IMPORTANT STATEMENT
THE LIMITS
To those looking to scrape, copy, or “borrow” my soul, read carefully:
ZERO TOLERANCE: Any use of my works in portfolios, commercial displays, or training data will be met with rigorous legal action.
NO SHARES: Do not share my work to platforms without my permission. Especially to Pinterest.
NO AI TRAINING: My images are strictly prohibited from being used for diffusion models or AI generators.
VISIBILITY IS NOT A LICENCE: Sharing my soul with the public does not grant you ownership. Using my images to feed an AI or build your portfolio is not “sharing” — it is theft.
ANTI-COPYIST STANCE: Technical mastery does not grant you the right to the soul of another’s work. To copy a composition simply because it is “beautiful” is to fail the fundamental test of artistry: having something original to say.
New Magic Art Photography website is now live! I hope you enjoy it.
This is what happens when you are shooting a long exposure, and the surf comes rushing up to engulf your tripod!!
Run away! Run away!
P.S. I am trying out my new tripod and new camera. Said I'd never take the tripod to a beach. That lasted exactly one week!! I have no self control!
90/365.
im learning to let go.
this image is pretty important to me right now. growing up, my parents controlled the hell out of me. i was never allowed to go anywhere, to see anyone. part of the reason why im such an internet nerd now... that was the only communication i had with people outside of school. anyway, it kills me inside to see myself act that same way towards other people. i know what im doing, and i know why im doing it. that doesnt make it any easier to change.
i took this just now, right before it stormed. it moved through real fast, and now the sky is golden.
and im so happy that this image is not square.
facebook fan page | formspring (the whole hate-mail thing is getting a little old, so im going to ignore it now. although i dont think its anyone from flickr so this is probably an irrelevant statement)
oh yea, check out my brand new website:
There are some photos that HAVE to be taken each year... Dog & Daffodils is one of them :) Haha, Flynn's looking rather serious here because he was concentrating incredibly hard on being a Good Boy. What he really wanted to be doing was springing about & barking his head off, but he knew he was supposed to be staying still. Flynn wanted to be barking because he'd just his... "frenemies" barking somewhere nearby.
Flynn's friends/enemies are a pair of large & extremely loud German Shepherds. Whenever they see Flynn (or most other dogs!), they bark a LOT - at him & at each other. Flynn gets very wound up about these "scary" dogs barking at him, so he yells back. These days, if Flynn sees them 1st, he'll be the one to trigger the bark-fest. But it was the shepherds who started it, years ago! (Their owner & I have never managed to chat - we see each other, share a mutual laugh & eye roll at our idiot noisy dogs, wave & then one of us hauls our dog/s off to hide & let the other pass). For a long while, Flynn simply hated those shepherds... but now, I'm not so sure? Whenever we encounter them, it's nearly always on our way up to the woods, so Flynn strongly associates that particular pair of dogs distinctive barks, with the start of having a lovely fun run about! Flynn's definitely begun sounding less irate & more excited, when he hears or sees them.
Anyway, on this occasion, we were actually on our way home for once, when we heard echoing "ahh-woo-woo-woofs!" from the shepherds. I'd just stopped to take photos with the daffodils & when those 2 began yelling from down the road (out of sight), I sighed, assuming we'd have to abandon getting any pics because Flynn would be going too wild but he surprised me, by maintaining his stay. It was a clearly took an almighty struggle, but he kept his self control - & sat there, listening intently!!
Flynn at his favourite water trough of all the water troughs (yes, he has a favourite!). Once, a long while ago now, I made the mistake of splashing the water in this trough with a little twig as we passed by & Flynn has never forgotten that wildly exciting moment. He now absolutely demands I create splashes every single time we pass it. He'll run far ahead to stand in wait by the trough & is then reluctant to move on unless & until, I've indulged his little obsession. He almost quivers with anticipation as I approach... & once he sees I have a twig ready in my hand, crouches down slightly, so he's just peeping above the top of the trough. His eyes go very big & his ears go sideways & he freezes. He doesn't move again until I tap the water & create a splash & then Flynn shrieks like a banshee & lurches in to snap at the droplets, or to bite & gulp at the water nearby - before sinking back to his previous frozen position.
Pleased to capture this photo of silly-snappy Flynn - I never let him play the splashy-bitey game here for very long at a time... Mostly because I worry I'll Flynn's brain will break with all the excitement (typical border collie, he can only cope with so much craziness at once, without losing all self-control!)... Haha, also partly because I worry we'll be spotted by a passer by, who may think it's a bit odd for a grown woman to be playing with a twig in a trough, while her collie screeches & screams & half throws himself in the water (& I giggle at him like a little kid!). I don't mind playing silly games with Flynn but I'd rather not have witnesses ;-) No-one has caught us yet - well, unless they *did* & quickly walked in the other direction!
this air is blessed, you share with me. This night is wild, so calm and dull.
These hearts, they race, from self control. Your legs are smooth, as they graze mine.
We're doing fine. We're doing nothing at all.
My hopes are so high that your kiss might kill me. So won't you kill me? So i die happy.
My heart is yours to fill or burst, to break or bury, or wear as jewelry.
Whichever you prefer.
I'd bring you along
We'd go to New York to Tampa too
But truly I'm set right here
In dennys drinking coffee
And sharing a cigarette
I am disgusted by my lack or self control sometimes.
*Thank you ALL for your clicks. Explored Front Page, 1st time. Woo-hoo! Made my weekend. =)
Explored #1 on 3/29/10
Reading her like a book, I push my chips all in before the river decides to show. Down to the wire, Belle decides to fold her hand and keep what chips she has to herself. An intense showdown between best friends.
On a side note:
I really am amazed what I can do with this dog. I really didnt have to do much to keep her sitting on the chair, paw out, bones in front of her. Goldens FTW!!!
Shot info:
D700
F8 @ 22mm
1/200
ISO 200
Strobist info:
SB800 in a 28" softbox above both of us.
580EXII to the left of the camera barndoored and pointed directly at the pool of chips.
Triggered by Pocketwizards
* Elevated mood
o Racing thoughts
o Hyperactivity
o Increased energy
o Lack of self-control
* Inflated self-esteem (delusions of grandeur, false beliefs in special abilities)
* Over-involvement in activities
* Reckless behavior
o Spending sprees
o Binge eating, drinking, and/or drug use
o Sexual promiscuity
o Impaired judgment
* Tendency to be easily distracted
* Little need for sleep
* Easily agitated or irritated
* Poor temper control