PEAK OIL

Living in Interesting Times.

Image created by me in Apophysis

PEAK OIL

It's here, right now, and we are all faced with
Titanic-scale consequences.
Just how will it all play out?

Powerlessness.
An interesting concept.

We should have acted in the 70-80's,
but maybe nobody really believed
this scenario would come to pass.

The sudden awakening of the 00's
to the reality of the tsunami nature of the catastrophes
of over-population, inappropriate technology, profligate consumerism, greed,
power-hungry rulers who fiddle while Rome burns,
biosphere breakdown,
climate change, gross pollution on all levels,
(etc. etc., you know the litany),
is just too late.

Spaceship Earth has too many passengers,
is powered by polluting technologies
controlled by power mongers with agendas
that somehow don't include
the well-being of the passengers and crew.

But of course I/you/we know all this.

Now we reap the whirlwind.

Incoming!

Hold tight, it's going to be a bumpy ride folks.
Prepare for colateral damage.

FANTASTIC DIVERSIONS

RECENT DIVERSIONS IN APOPHYSIS

Ancient Magic

Migaloo Singing

Secrets of the Cave

Full Moonrise over Rainbow Falls

All the above can be seen, with production details and, in some cases, a bit of prose poetry, in my deviantArt Gallery


I have been so sad. The disasters of the past weeks in Myanmar and China have been so appalling I haven't been able to stop crying at what I've been seeing on the news. So I have been diverting my mind creating fantasy art in Apophysis. Feeling so helpless, unable to do a thing to help, what else can I do except try to occupy my mind with the beauty within and without. There is enough being said about it all by others, so I'm not going into either horror here.

So I give you my art.

Ancient Magic was created in response to ideviant's extraordinary recent works, Sanctum Sanctorum and Illuminati Tablet , evoking old stones and fantasy myths. Unfortunately my attempts lacks the expertise of his works, but I was able to express something of my own fantasy myths, based on the Bradshaws, which would horrify my old Prehistory Rock Art prof no doubt! All done in the spirit of fantasy Michael I assure you. No, I don't believe in that twaddle, science is science, but I can have a bit of fun fantasising, can't I?

Meanwhile the champagne weather of late Autumn here is giving us endless beautiful clear sunny days reaching the mid 20's round middle of day, but crisply chilly in mornings and nights. The full moon in the cold crystalline air fills me with the joy of being alive, thankfully happy to be safe here in my mountain idyll in this wonderful Land of Oz, as I gaze into the universe and ponder It All.

SUNSPOTS and LAUGHTER

HERE'S THE GOOD NEWS

Laughing Kookaburras - Dacelo novaeguineae.

She struggled thru the endless wet to feed her brood, begging for food every day at my kitchen window - see her in other pix by clicking kookaburra tag and here in my Flickr Anu Wilde World Set.

Today the laughter from the Native Tamarind tree (Diploglottis campbellii) brought me outside to record her successful breeding season as I see 3 juveniles and her mate with her, all cackling like crazy.

So I cackled back. Impossible to be sad with this mob around!

SUNSPOTS.

Yes a few spots of sun from time to time, but still showers most days.

The cooler weather has brought back my need to crochet again. Last winter I started on a granny square rug called Sunspots.
I put my cache of finished squares away in one of those ubiquitous plastic crates with the onset of the wet weather of early summer.

SUNSPOTS IN STORAGE

But I posted the details of its' creation on GrannyAlong. Today I revisited the site and saw another has come up with a similar pattern so I'm inspired to finish Sunspots, despite the fact that it hasn't stopped raining and the air is humid and moisture-laden. This bird-blind of a studio isn't conducive to a dry atmosphere, I'm surprised my computer functions sometimes.

I have been busy organizing in the world of Tapestry Crochet lately.
Met Megan Jack who makes extraordinary and beautiful hats.
Go to the Tapestry Crochet site (sidebar) to read about her and see other artists in this field I'm uncovering since I started the Flickr Tapestry Crochet group.

APOPHYTIS

I'm having a rest from fractals for a while. I think I've got the hang of Apophysis, enough to rest on my oars for a bit and gather back the shreds & threads of the life I once lived before the Apophytis virus took me over. My main fractal cache is on Flickr and Picasa if you want to see what I've done so far - see sidebar links.

I've never had an obsession before and now I can see why addicts' lives fall apart. Time to show who's the boss of this ship! The lure of something so beautiful, so attractive, that becomes so dangerous. Now I've had that experience and can see how others can be taken over by various traps life can present. Just watch the news and see the fallen and the falling. Hear the stories of the victims who could not resist that siren song. Just like overcoming smoking or drinking, it is a matter of finding inner resources, of recognizing a certain objectivity and exercising willpower. It's all to do with personal freedom. Unfortunately many don't know how imprisoned they are by their own stupidity. We are, each and every one of us, such flawed and fallible creatures.

THE VIEW OUTSIDE MY WINDOW!

Hello...
...the Very Big Snake digesting the 2nd last pademelon ....
....goodbye...!

Click on tag at side to see more of her.

EVEN MORE GOOD NEWS

Kevin the Reformer is showing us his stripes. What a powerhouse we have in him & his team. The last few weeks have shown his dazzling diplomatic form with his OS trip. Here in Oz we've seen, among a plethora of much-needed reforms and initiatives: work place reform, climate change, 2020 Summit, China (Olympics, Tibet & all THAT!). His latest coup is the appointment of the (first-ever) woman, Quentin Bryce, as our Queen's representative. Could be the last too, as Kevin, Julia and the Mob are openly declared Republicans and I feel we will be a republic before 2015, if not sooner.
Not a moment too soon for me.

MANDELMANIA

While exploring an Apophysis tutorial for creating Wires and Tubes Fractals I found how to create the classic Mandelbrot in Apophysis 2.06c beta 3D Hack.

Here are a few:

MANDELMANIA

HOT MANDELBROT

CLASSIC MANDELBROT

The below was created with the same Wires & Tubes tutorial.

COOKING WITH GAS

Finding how to create these fractals has given me a lot of joy. Feel like I'm taking Apophysis fractals away from the types of images usually associated with this program, opening new possibilities. Keep wondering what will be the next amazement this extraordinary program will reveal as I continue this journey of discovery.

Life is Jesta Bowl of Cheeries

Latest Apophysis fractals

THE CHERRY BOWL

CROCHET

TROPICAL FISH

Playing around on Apophysis is a fun & productive way of passing my last days.

The endless rain persists, but last week has seen champagne Autumn coolness kick in with showers early, giving spectacular misty dawns, followed by glorious mornings of sunshine before the clouds move in to bring more showers later & into the night. Gentle soft rain. Couldn't be better, for wet season weather.

Of course the insects are in full abundance, sandflies especially.
I've had a couple of scary spider bites that have made me very sick for a few days.

The flock pigeons have arrived, but their numbers so few it makes me weep.
Once the noise of hundreds, thousands, darkening the sun, was like a low F1-11 passing over treetops. Yesterday the flock numbered less than 20 birds.

The depletion of wildlife as our numbers increase and invade the last wild places is past critical, Researchers keep giving us the facts, but it's all fait accompli.

Like the coming climate change events, like our uncontrolled numbers impacting on the life support systems, unstoppable.

So we put it down to biosphere evolution. This is what happens. Watch and learn.
Doing anything is a shoulda, coulda. Back then, when we first became aware.
But few listened and those who shoulda & coulda didn't.
Fact is we didn't & now it is too late.

How do we stop the icecaps melting?
How do we stop the ocean conveyor belt currents changing?
How do we stop the populations expanding?
How do we control Mammon, pollution?

Oh yes, there are/were ways and all hands to the pumps, but, drat, too little, too late.

It coulda worked

It shoulda worked

But it ain't gunna work because the process is in motion.

Prepare for the culling.

The northern spring flowers and we in the south eat the fruits of autumn.

Enjoy the cherries.