Les vrais Mémoires du chevalier d’Herblay

In case you were wondering, I'm suggesting that "resistance" is equivalent here to "testicles"

dherblay — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:29:56 GMT

Today's second-best revealingly unintentional double-entendre comes, via ponygirl2000, from The Guardian's article on the new Whedon-less Buffy, where some trade paper editor opines, "Warner [Bros.] know[s] that people have an appetite for revamps."

Today's best revealingly unintentional double-entendre is the kicker to Michael Kinsley's opinion piece supporting the new TSA procedures:

Since I have no choice, I’ve already experienced the new, improved pat-down and the TSA-phobics are right that it’s even more intrusive than the previous version. I’ve no doubt that it’s an embarrassment the TSA guy could do without, just as I could. He was apologetic as he slid his hands up my leg. “I’m supposed to keep going until I meet resistance,” he said. He’ll get no resistance from me.

dherblay — Sun, 23 May 2010 17:53:15 GMT

From atpolittlebit

This is the post your current wallpaper to your journal meme. There's some folderol about not switching wallpapers before posting. This just makes me wonder what embarrassing wallpapers you people might have and what you do when you carry your laptops into coffeeshops.

Also in the folderol: a demand for five sentences on why one uses said wallpaper.

I like this wallpaper because it's pretty, and amazing, and I took it myself so I'm proud of it. That was one of those fifty-in-one (seriously, I think I took about three hundred and fifty pictures taken that morning to get seven really worthwhile photos -- I love digital) shots where everything goes together, almost. Plus, I like the way the depth of field reduces all the leaves in the background to really abstract shapes. It's also (in different dimensions) the wallpaper on my cellphone. It's a shame I never actually look at my wallpaper, and I've left so many icons and HP-installed Vista craplets on top of it.

Anyway, my other computer has XP's Follow picture with the crappy Photoshop mixing of Caribbean and Indo-Pacific fish. (I take that back! Looking at it I can't tell if the followers are juvenile blue tangs -- Caribbean but maybe circumtropical -- or a yellow tang native to the Pacific I don't know. But anyway, not a scene from nature!) And the dimensions are wrong for the netbook screen too! I use that because I'm lazy.

dherblay — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:47:34 GMT

Wow. You know, I've been dithering over buying a wetsuit for a couple of years now. But you know that if you get it in red, no one's going to want to buddy with you.

dherblay — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:32:47 GMT

Yes! I'm so relieved I don't have to clean out my car this weekend!

dherblay — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 02:30:20 GMT

It's National Poetry Month! In honor thereof, a quote from Lu Ji's Wenfu (On Literature): "We poets struggle with Non-being to force it to yield Being; we knock upon silence for an answering music."

That's the best description of improvising I've run across.

Underwater photographs

dherblay — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:29:16 GMT

Bonaire, March 9-26.

(My father took this picture. All others by me.)

Underwater photographs

dherblay — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 01:54:53 GMT

Bonaire, March 9-16.

dherblay — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:51:12 GMT

Monet had water lilies, Degas had ballerinas, I have Facebook profile pictures. Katie with Oliver, graphite on paper, 11x14:

dherblay — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:22:49 GMT

I've made progress.

Work in progress

dherblay — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:17:07 GMT

This is a work in progress:

One thing I need to make progress on is getting permission from the subject herself, who seems to be occupied with other trifles. I hope she won't mind the liberty; no offense is meant. (ETA: as Buffy fans will recall, drawing portraits of people without their prior permission, and then leaving them where the subjects could find them, was a habit of Angelus's. Good role model, that!)

I really need to "push the darks," as they say, laying more graphite on the page and heightening the contrast. I could even stand to add a layer of black to the smock, perhaps get more of the folds in there. I might spend more time on the right side of the hair, making the level of detail match that on the left. And I'm not sure I yet understand the nose.

But the eyes are perfect, which is what most matters to me.

(You might want to be careful what pictures you post to Facebook, as I'm trolling for subjects. However, this may be it for blonde curly hair.)

dherblay — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 03:53:10 GMT

Hey, baby, want to see a picture?

Sam and her kitten.

dherblay — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:35:08 GMT

After a picture in the October Smithsonian of the bust Bernini carved of his mistress, Costanza Bonarelli, reputedly the first marble sculpture ever created not for commission, but for the artist's own pleasure:

Yeah, that's freakin' awesome.

dherblay — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 20:11:01 GMT

Look! A drawing! Joseph and the ass from a Mexican ceramic creche my mother has had on her mantle since last December:

And with the source material (so you can see just how bad I am with faces):

Stuff I'm up to, in pictures (2)

dherblay — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 03:36:23 GMT

I've enrolled in a drawing class through the Cleveland Museum of Art. I hope you don't mind if I share the fruit of my labor over the past two sessions.

Kind of sinister!

Also, Improv update! Monday I start commuting to Chicago for a weekly class at the Annoyance Theatre. This is notably insane. Meanwhile, y'all should look into your transportation options Cleveland-ward because four weeks from now I have another show going up at the Centrum Theater.

dherblay — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:31:29 GMT

dherblay — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:53:58 GMT

Tiltowait!

Which of these movies are worth a buck (and gas money)?

dherblay — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:56:26 GMT

View Poll: Which of these movies are worth a buck (and gas money)?

dherblay — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 17:34:17 GMT

If you carefully look all the way to the right, you can see the back of my head and my left shoulder.

dherblay — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 20:31:41 GMT

Video of me crossing the finish line at the Cleveland Triathlon can be viewed, over and over again, on infinite repeat, here.

dherblay — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:09:45 GMT

I hope to write up my triathlon write-up some time today. But I am feeling pretty lazy about it. Prescribe something for me:

View Poll: Which movie should I see today?

dherblay — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 22:33:22 GMT

The gear, everything but my sunglasses and Pam, is packed up. I still don't know how I'm going to manage to remember to get all this stuff on in the swim-bike transition. It may involve another checklist. But if I'm biking down the shoreway and I'm still wearing the wetsuit, I'll probably remember.

I'm not expecting to tear it up out there: my bicycle, frankly, just isn't made for this type of event, and I'm not that much better constructed. I figure maybe 20 to 25 minutes for the swim, an hour and ten for the bike, and 25 to 30 minutes for the run. With unimaginably smooth transitions, that's about two hours and change. This puts me behind competitor John Gwin, who was born without the left hand he won't need to kick my ass.

Assuming all goes well, and my bike doesn't break down and I don't drown, if you watch this page tomorrow between 9:15 and 9:45 a.m., Eastern Daylight Time, you might catch a glimpse of me crossing the finish line.

Triathlon checklist

dherblay — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 16:13:11 GMT

dherblay — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:23:34 GMT

And now I am an official registrant of the 2007 Cleveland Triathlon, Individual Sprint category (800 meter swim, 16 mile bike, 5 kilometer run). I must remember to try riding my bicycle sometime between now and the event. Just to see if I can do this without the training wheels.

dherblay — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:29:59 GMT

I've just rented my wetsuit for the Cleveland Triathlon. We are approaching the Rubicon, and we're expecting it to be chilly.

dherblay — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:30:29 GMT

The New York City Triathlon provides free pre-race psychological counseling; meanwhile, it's unclear that the Cleveland Triathlon will even provide water.