False Herring

First off, I'm sorry that this blog has lain dormant for so long.  I knew that when I moved houses the blog would take a hit, but I never intended to give it up entirely.  Maybe it's more realistic to do one or two posts a week rather than one a day.  I'm not sure, but I'm intending to get back in the saddle with some fresh new posts, starting with this one.

I think the phrase "false herring" came to me when I misspoke one day, meaning to say "red herring."  I liked the way it sounded, and was convinced that it offered some nuance of meaning that the standard phrase did not.  I have yet to figure out what that nuance may be, but I use the term in my private inner monologue to refer to activities, objects, or desires that lead me away from what I really, deep down, know that I want and need in my life.  Perhaps the pursuit of another shiny guitar is a false herring, since my time would be better spent playing the ones I already have.  Perhaps watching a TV show that I don't really care about is a false herring, because at the end of the evening, I will wish that I had done some writing, read a book, or caught up with someone on the phone instead.  Some people probably know exactly what they want at any moment and have an easy time expressing that to others.  I do not.  So I'm training myself to look out for those ersatz ichthyoids and avoid them in favor of, um, genuine herrings.  Well, you get the idea.

Blogging Process

So, this is how I make a blog post for Unorthoducks.

First I draw a duck.  I use low-tech tools like printer paper and black gel pens.  Though I think it would be fun sometimes to post drawings made with charcoal on rocks, or with sticks in the dirt.

 Then I take a picture of the drawing with my phone . . .

 . . . and I email it to myself.

 Because I don't want this to become a big production, my phone photos are usually poorly lit and need some editing.  In the freeware image-editing program, the GIMP, I crop the photos and adjust the black levels until I have a more-or-less black-and-white picture instead of something with a blue or gray background.  Then I save the resulting picture as a JPEG and try to get it close to 66k.  Why?  No particular reason, but I tried that once and it looked fine, so I kept going.  The idea is mostly to keep the image sizes pretty small (except for this image-heavy post) so that they blog will load quickly and not bog down readers.

 Then I log onto Blogger, upload the image, and write a little something about it.

 Then I post the whole kit and caboodle . . .

 . . . and lean back to bask in the glow of another successful blog post!

Thanks for reading, y'all!