Long Time No See

[shanmonster]

It's been far too long since I did any substantial blogging. I do a lot of posting on FB, but it's not at all the same thing. FB does not encourage active conversation. The threading on posts is borked, and on more than one occasion, misunderstandings have arisen from replies made in these threads that were so severe that they resulted in people dropping me as a friend. In one instance, I was busy formulating a carefully-worded response to an earlier comment in a thread. While in this process, they were responding to other things and making other points. By the time I'd finished my write-up, there'd been several messages in the interim and because of simple timing and non-threaded discourse, it made it look like I'd completely blown off the points they were making. I tried to send a private message to explain what had happened, but they'd already blocked me.

This sort of platform does not make for good communication. It does not make for lasting friendship. Now, I'm not completely dismissing FB. It is excellent for sharing photos and links, and for networking and sharing events. I have missed the nuanced conversations and friendships I made in my years of blogging on my own defunct site and, later on, on LJ.

My intention is to resuscitate my old website. This is a daunting task. I hand-coded every single one of those many hundreds of webpages. It was years of work. Can I port things over without destroying my old formatting? How does FTP even work anymore? I haven't done it in so long that I've forgotten almost everything.

In other news, I've been working hard to promote my artwork and get more regular practice in. I started an Instagram account where I share artwork regularly. I've been updating it daily since I started paying attention to it. I haven't sold anything via that venue (yet). I have, however, sold several pieces through FB. Go figure.

I hope to go back to university at some point to pursue my fine arts training. In the meantime, I'll practice independently.

Here is my current major work in progress. If you click on the picture, you'll go to a gallery of my progress shots:



In other news, this afternoon I'll be going to Brass Butterflies (an aerial studio in Waterloo) to study handstands and acro-yoga. The training will never end until ten minutes after I'm dead.

Comments

[prolixfootle.livejournal.com]

Very impressive! As you know, I've been following you on FB, but I agree this is a more... agreeable... format in which to interact, and I'm glad to see you back.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I'm making an effort! :)

Yeah, what he said

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

It is good to see you write. What you said about FB is true, true, true. It's just for splattering images and posting trite comments on day to day life. It's throw-away stuff for the short attention span. LJ supports more substance. I get tired of Facebork, myself. I haven't been over there in a month now.

Resolve

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

By the way, I just need to say that I've often found your resolute determination for self-improvement inspiring and admirable. "The training will never end until ten minutes after I'm dead." Indeed. Words by which to live.

Re: Resolve

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[butterbee.livejournal.com]

Welcome back. :)

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[valkryor.livejournal.com]

I use FileZilla FTP Client for my webpage (which I still need to update - yay procrastination!) which does a pretty good job. It has a pretty simple drag-and-drop interface and it's really easy to navigate directory trees.

And I do love that vulture.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I'll check it out, and thanks!

[sidruid.livejournal.com]

Hey Shan! Welcome back! i never took to the FB thing, tho many friends are there. I've too much to say in a thought than to squeeze it into that format. Not that I'm saying much of anything online these days, but it does seem in part due to the lack of community that resulted when everyone headed over to FB.

As someone else said -- Filezilla for FTP. It's rarely worthwhile resurrecting pages, tho. Grab the couple of things you still find meaningful and start over; many sites are built just with Wordpress as a platform, so the handcoding isn't necessary these days.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

I can't tell you how much I love this vulture. Ugh, so so gorgeous.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you like it. I'm fond of him, too. I need to start looking for my next ugly bird subject. Maybe a potoo...

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Poor potoos! I always worry their eyes are going to dry out.
Spoonbills are another fave ugly bird for me.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Spoonbills are pretty neat, too. I'm also starting to groove on tawny frogmouths.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

OMG SO FLUFFY AND ANGRY

[ltmurnau.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're back. I don't post much here myself any more, but I visit more often.