The Age of Distraction

As someone living with ADHD, I have become accustomed to dealing with distraction. Recently I was thinking about my fascination with computers and the internet, and how addicting social networking sites like Myspace, Flickr, Blogspot, and LinkedIn have become for me, not to mention RSS feeds delivered a la Google Reader. And let's not forget my love for Ma.gnolia and social bookmarking, either ^_^

I started to consider how the information age has really just turned into the age of distraction. You may have already seen surveys showing how we paradoxically seem to be getting dumber as the access to information increases. In my search for further distraction, I discovered a few interesting articles on this phenomenon:

Big Babies (or the Age of Distraction)

"...it seemed to me, blurred between work and distraction: both exist to keep our minds off the central existential problem facing intelligent life on this planet..."

The Age of Distraction

"...using technologies like RSS and cellphones, we have trained ourselves to be constantly aware and on the lookout for distractions."

Is my obsession a feature or a bug?

Love the comments here:
A: How many people with ADD does it take to change a light-bulb?
B: I don't know? How many?
A: Want to go to the movies

The Onion once had a headline..."Ritalin Cures Next Picasso"

i try to think of ADD as 'hyper threading' as even though i have ADD, i can still hang onto threads and fall back to them. i think its about losing interest in something, picking up on another more mind captivating thing, regaining interest and continuing one with the previous thing.

Only in a society where people are expected to sit on their asses for 8 hours a day from kindergarden till retirement would people even think of calling it a disease.

N.A.D.D.

"Ocassionally, you'll attempt to impart your fractured wisdom only to throw your hands up four minutes later when it's clear, 'Jesus, they just don't get it.'"

My great grandfather

Google Image Result for http://www.beaumontpd.com/images/brammer.jpg

Clarence Adam Brammer

Detective

September 19,  1923

Killed after a gun accidentally misfired.

It is funny what you run across while surfing the internet . . .

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The Bees Knees ^_^

Flickr: Photos from Cyrus khamak

Go and check out Cyrus's closeups of insects, especially the one of the fly. It's definitely my favorite.

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465. Liz - 700 Dragons

465. Liz on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Orange Iguana on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I thought the scales on this lizard were really fascinating, and I just had to try and paint them. I didn't anticipate the amount of time it would take, however! I ended up creating a custom image hose in Corel Painter to get all of the dainty bits - I would rather spend time painting every scale on a better composed picture, I think. All in all, I like how it turned out and I learned a lot about using the pattern pen and image hose. I plan on doing a few more of these to really get a feel for the way the eyes, nose and ears work with scales. I want to add some crocodile teeth too, of course. Who wouldn't? ^_^

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Dragon illustration tutorials and resources

Bilateral Symmetry on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

A couple of interesting links here about drawing dragons that I have come across.

1. drawsketch.about.com/library/bldragons.htm
   
2. Drawing and Painting Dragons on ImagineFX
   
3. neondragonart.com/dp/tutorials/dragon.htm
   
4. Also, take a look at McFarlane Toys' Dragon Series One, Series Two and Series Three - Quest for the Lost King, as well as the subsequent Series Four, Series Five and upcoming Series Six - The Fall of the Dragon Kingdom. They have some great photos of their merchandise in a variety of lighting and settings.
5. There are also a lot of great photos of reptiles for reference right here on Flickr.com. I have marked some of my favorites here.

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