Here I am.  Approaching thirty.  And I'm seeing just how truly important experience is.  In relation to "education" I suppose.  Education can teach you to question everything.  It can teach you to never assume.  But, I think only experience can teach you to ask the truly dumb questions.  Because even though you walk into a situation telling yourself you're going to cover all of your bases.  Even though you tell yourself you're not going to assume anything.  You never think to ask, "How big did you say that is?".  And then you wind up with an eight and a half foot tall monstrosity that is just about the most ridiculous thing you've ever seen.  And you wonder.  Why didn't anyone question this?  I'm thinking it comes back to lack of experience.  Cause I sure as hell hope we're all not just that dumb.  But then again, maybe we are.  I guess we'll just have to see if we learn from our experience.

So, I'm working my way backwards here through The National's discography.  My first listen through Sad Songs was a little uncertain.  But, as I'm all about giving an album some time to grow on me, I've found it to be quite enjoyable.  If, as I've seen it labeled, Alligator is Sad-Core, this is definitely even Sadder Sad-Core.  Yet, for as down-trodden as much of this album sounds, it doesn't drag you down.  Murder Me Rachael is often cited as the stand out track on this album.  I think I would disagree.  Murder Me Rachael is closest to many of the songs on Alligator, and as such, I think the songs on Alligator are better.  90-Mile Water Wall and Lucky You are my picks for being the stand out tracks on Sad Songs.

What is art?

Some thinkers have argued that the difference between fine art and applied art has more to do with value judgments made about the art than any clear definitional difference (Novitz, 1992). However, even fine art often has goals beyond just pure creativity and self-expression. The purpose of works of art may be to communicate ideas, such as in politically-, spiritually-, or philosophically-motivated art, to create a sense of beauty (see “aesthetics”), to explore the nature of perception, for pleasure, or to generate strong emotions. The purpose may also be seemingly nonexistent.

I was bored to tears with the wallpaper I had been using.  And after cruising Deviantart for what seemed like forever and not finding anything I was enjoying, I decided to take matters into my own hands.  I fired up Photoshop and produced this.  A Japanese art inspired piece.  Its really nothing too special, it was simple to make and only took me a few minutes, though, I think it looks pretty nice.  When it comes to wallpapers, in particular, I'm a fan of minimalism.  Which is also typical of a lot of Japanese style artwork.  You can download a full size 1600×1200 jpg from my Flickr if you are so inclined.  Enjoy.