Going to the V-E-T

Ski (aka Demonspawn) hasn't been doing well lately. Been pretty poorly, in fact. Sooooo, it's off to see Dr. Fred - and hope he comes home.

Getting old is not for sissies.

P.S. Had to PRY his skinny butt from under the bed. He did NOT want to go!

UPDATE! It was his hyper thyroid acting up...the new Rx transdermal wasn't trans-dermaling enough so his thyroid was through the roof. No wonder he felt awful! We're cutting back the amount of med per ml and will see if that fixes it.

ATC Crazy

Over the holidays I discovered a great site for trading ATCs (Artist Trading Cards). I'd read about ATCs for several years but whenever I searched for more info it emphasized trading in person...and I couldn't find anything locally. The few sites with International swaps...welllll, I just didn't like the 'art' that was being swapped. To be honest, most of it was cr@p!
http://www.artist-trading-cards.ch/index.html

I think running into Cedarseed's site really fired me up to get started, though. So when I found www.ATCards.com (note, that site is defunct and has been replaced with an improved site: ATCsforall.com), I jumped in with both feet. I had a backlog of images I'd created with Photoshop, so I mined those to get started.
I was surprised at which cards got the most attention. I was surprised, also, at a distinct bias against digital works, like it's cheating or something. Looking at some of the 'handmade' stuff on offer, I'll stick with my digital!

That said, there are plenty of members who are into digital or just open to trade for digital, so I'm not constrained by someone else's shortsightedness. Now that I've been participating for a few weeks, I'm signing up for a few swaps...

What I like most about the whole enchilada is that I'm doing a lot more work right now than I was before.

And art is just like photography. You have to do it a lot to get good at it.

Remembering Rackety

I'm currently using this shot on my ATCards profile page, and I was asked about the fellow on my shoulder.

This shot was taken back in the summer of '72 (yes, I'm an Old Fart. If you're real lucky, you will be too, so hush). We'd taken in Rackety as an orphan. He had to be the luckiest coon baby that year because he got the old kid's playhouse for his 'cage.' He especially liked to jump up on the lintel of the doorway and hop on your shoulders as you ducked to come inside. His non-stop chittering gave him his name.

He was with us through Halloween, when some twit unlatched his door and we never saw him again. I've always hoped he learned quickly enough that not all humans bring grapes, and went on to live a long life making lots more little Racketies.