by Marty Coleman | Feb 27, 2013 | Andrew Carnegie, Meh Meh Mediocrity - 2013 |
I motivated myself to drawing another Mediocrity napkin!
A Decapitated Life
This is gross, right? Well, so is spending your life sitting on a couch looking at gross images. So is wasting your life consumed with watching not doing. So is criticizing what other people do while you do nothing. So is killing yourself before your life is over.
A Reattached Life
I am currently reading the book ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley. We all know the story of the Doctor who makes a man out of various body parts and brings the creature to life. Did you know we do the same with ourselves? We just do it at the cellular level. Our body recreates itself constantly, old cells die off and existing cells divide to create new cells. One estimate, just as an example, says that we replace 10% of our fat cells per year and between 1% and .5 % of our cardiomyocyte heart cells per year depending on our age. That isn’t to say every single cell is replaced, that is not true. Many of our brain cells for example are with us since birth and will be with us when we die.
The Changing Life
Having new cells isn’t as nifty as say having a new face attached (which now can be done) but it is a reminder that what our cells can do, our brain and body can do. We ARE able to change our habits. We ARE able to change our attitudes. We ARE able to change our behaviors. We ARE able to lead a life of excellence instead of mediocrity.
The Mediocrity Chair
What does it take? It takes a decision to do it and the courage, when the moment arrives, to take action. But, But, But…..All the excuses, reasons, fears, roadblocks, shortcomings, past failures, past successes, pressure, relationships, disbelief, self-loathing, lack of hope, lack of trust, lack of ability are what courage is created to overcome.
So wind up that spring of courage, breathe deep and get the _______ out of your mediocrity chair and go. Whatever it is you want your life to be, I mean REALLY TRULY DEEPLY want your life to be… GO BE IT. You might fail but you will be farther and better than if you stayed in that chair of mediocrity.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who once had skin grafts done on my arms and back. They took the skin from my butt, which was basically the only place on my body that wasn’t burnt, isn’t that cute?
Quote by Andrew Carnegie, 1835-1919, Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist
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Trivia question of the Day
A man known to many as ‘The most hated man in America’ was suppose to be on the Titanic but missed the boat. Who was he and why did he miss it?
Hint: It was not Andrew Carnegie.
Come back tomorrow for the answer.
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 25, 2013 | Meh Meh Mediocrity - 2013 |
In Honor of Oscar night…
The Emperor
Did you make fun of some the actresses and their dresses on the red carpet last night? I am not asking if you had an opinion about their dresses, but if you ridiculed, mocked and made fun of them. If you did, let me ask you this; Do you have as good a fashion sense as they do? Do you put yourself together regularly (or even occasionally) with a lot of attention paid to the visual statement you are making? Or are you perhaps the Emperor with No Clothes?
The Playing Field
You might think I am saying we shouldn’t be judging. Nothing could be further from the truth. We judge athletes on the playing field with how they play, that is why they are there and why they get paid well, to perform. There is nothing wrong with judging in that case.
On the red carpet the women (and men to a lesser degree) are on their own unique playing field. It’s proper to judge their performance, which in this case consists of how they have visually and materially present themselves. If you don’t think they did that well, then I don’t see anything wrong with saying so.
Judgment vs Judgment
But is it good for you to mock them? To ridicule them? Perhaps if they came in a paper sack, yes. But otherwise isn’t there a substantial character difference between saying a dress is ill-fitting and the actress made a bad fashion choice vs saying the actress looks like a slut in that dress? One is judging their choices, which you can actually see right in front of you and the other is judging their character, which you cannot see and don’t know. One is a legitimate critique while the other is self-righteous, egotistical puffery.
And The Oscar Goes To…
Who was your best dressed last night? My choice for best dressed last night?
I liked the metallic look so my choice was… a tie between
Stacy Keibler
and
Naomi Watts (who also should have won Best Actress!)
Photos courtesy of Popsugar.com
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who has never walked the red carpet. But it’s on my bucket list!
Quote by Dita Von Teese, Burlesque Entertainer
Dita Von Teese
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 24, 2013 | Quote Authors |
Hello Napkin Kin!
I wanted to thank all my international visitors (from 34 countries) this week. I thought I would highlight my five visitors from The Netherlands today. I usually get some traffic from Holland each week and I thought I would highlight them today.
- Amsterdam – Two different visitors, one of whom went to see my Veruschka posting in my ‘Artists I Love‘ Series and the other who went to look at the Creativity series.
- Breda – A returning visitor who went to the first ‘Idealism‘ drawing from last week and continued on to investigate 10 more categories.
- Hoevelaken – Who found my ‘Artists I Love – Andy Goldsworthy‘ post via a Google search. This post has been my most popular post of the last year, by the way. Goldsworthy is awesome, go check his work out.
- Hellevoetsluis – Who came via social media to my ‘Do Nudists have a Fashion Sense?‘ post (one of my favorites) and then went on to a vintage drawing from way back in the 90s, ‘It is much easier to repent‘.
Thanks to all my new and returning Dutch Napkin Kin, I appreciate you coming by as I do all who come to visit.
If you have suggestions for improving the blog, new ideas for drawings, series or an artist for my ‘Artist I Love’ series, let me know, ok?
Thanks again for visiting The Napkin Dad Daily, I deeply appreciate it!
Marty
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 22, 2013 | Bodyless Ghirl Ghosts - 2012-2013 |
Last we saw the ghirl ghosts some of them were trying on hats but a number of them were still back at the farm learning how to milk cows. This is the story of what happened to them.
The Cow Milk Tasting
The remaining seven stayed at the farm. After they were done milking they all went back to the farm house to have a taste test. Two of them, Sassy and Skerri, liked Selma’s milk best because it was sweet and creamy. Three of them, Betsy, Belinda, and Beatrice liked BeeBee’s because it tasted a bit like chocolate (which is not odd since BeeBee had found the daughter’s stash of hidden chocolate candy bars in the barn and eaten them all just the day before). Two of the ghirl ghosts didn’t like the milk at all. Lacey had been lactose intolerant when she was alive and had a body and it still scared her to drink milk even though she no longer had a stomach. Kacey had been kicked in the head by Bee Bee when she floated too close to Bee Bee’s butt and Selma had snorted in a way that made Kacey think she was laughing at her (and she was) . She was not in the mood to drink milk after that.
It didn’t take long for the farmer and daughter to grow tired of the ghirl ghosts, not in small part due to the big mess of spilt milk on the floor since they don’t have stomachs. It didn’t help that Belinda burped really loud, spitting milk out on Skerri and Sassy laughing so hard milk came out her nose. Soon enough they shooed them out the farmhouse door and sent them on their way. The farmer and his daughter went inside, used up all their clean dish towels cleaning up the mess, then went to the workroom to finish building bird houses.
The Chase
As soon as they left the farmhouse they heard barking and realized 5 large dogs were running after them. In the meanwhile 4 other ghirl ghosts came back from the hat shopping trip and were looking for the farm when they saw the commotion. They all panicked and floated really fast up a big hill. They were hoping there would be a cliff on the other side that would stop the dogs but instead they crested the hill and ran right into an electrified fence. All eleven of them hit the fence much full force and were electrocuted.
Death After Death
One of the nice things about being a bodyless ghirl ghost, besides not having to worry about ingrown toenails or periods, is that you don’t have to worry about dying either. Since they had died once before they couldn’t die again. But the bad part is it still hurts like hell. The dogs meanwhile had stopped short, not wanting to get anywhere near the electrified fence. They did bark and howl in such a way that the ghirl ghosts thought they were being laughed at, and they were. After the ghirl ghosts recovered their senses (not that they had much sense to begin with) they all decided they wanted to go to a safer place. They decided unanimously and off they went.
And you dear reader, where do you think they are headed next?
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Drawing and short, short story by Marty Coleman, who has never milked a cow.
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Drawing and story © 2013 Marty Coleman
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by Marty Coleman | Feb 21, 2013 | Idealism - 2013, Winston Churchill |
It might be folly, but today is day 4 of The Ideal Series!
The Intolerant Idea l
That is not a hyphenation mistake at the end of the quote. You can’t be idealistic without an idea. When a person is so persuaded that his or her idea is worth hurting others, worth cutting them down, or worth castigating them as less than they are, then the idea, no matter how positive it is in the abstract, becomes dangerous and deadly. If you have any doubts think of the history of ideas and ideals.
The Religious Idea l
Although bathed in the teachings of love over the centuries, religions and their ideas of exclusivity have led to wars, persecutions, terrorism, hatred, condemnation, assassinations, and destruction of whole societies and cities, all because the ideas included having no tolerance for those who believe differently.
The Political Idea l
State Communism and State Socialism, supposedly started with the idea of ‘brotherhood of man’ and equality for all, led instead to the oppression, incarceration and murder of close to 100 million people under Stalin and Mao alone.
The Personal Idea l
Who do you dislike and why? Who do you make fun of? Who do you declare unworthy of consideration and respect? Who do you hate? Maybe someone fat? Maybe a cyclops? How about a prostitute? What about a Muslim? Perhaps a bigamist Mormon? What about a slut? Possibly a thief? What about a rich movie star? Maybe an atheist? How about a Democrat? Or a Republican?
The Power Idea l
Now give yourself unlimited power to do anything you want to those people. What would you do? That is how the damage of the religious and the political examples I mentioned above came about. They didn’t start after the person got in power. The hatred was there first, then the power gave them the capability to do the damage.
The Ideal Idea l
Jesus taught that the sin was not in the murder alone, but that it was the hatred that led to the murder that was also a sin. Now, I am not a big believer in ‘sin’ in the classic definition, but it really doesn’t matter what you call it. It starts in your heart. If you don’t practice tolerance and understanding when you are without power, you will never have it when you do.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, who believes that in the end, only kindness matters.
Quote by Winston Churchill, 1874-1965, British Prime Minister during WWII
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Trivia Question from Yesterday
Question: How did the dandelion get it’s name?
Answer: The dandelion’s leaves had ragged edges, much like the teeth of a lion, thus in french ‘dent de lion’.
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