Animation, Art, and Other Shiny Things
(with apologies to The Who)
As I mentioned the other day I’ve been wanting to rename this blog (and me, for that matter) for quite a while. Well, I finally got around to figuring it out and making it happen.
Welcome to The Ruffled Crow.
Ruffled Crow - pastels by Mike Beeman. Visit him at http://pastelsbeeman.blogspot.com/
The new name is even more accurate than the previous. “But I digress” has certainly been a good term to describe my writing, it’s also the way I experience the world. Everything is distracting and I tend to wander down odd little paths of thought constantly. This causes a lot of noise in my head and, as a result, can be rather annoying to me, and sometimes others.
“The Ruffled Crow” is a much more specific characterization of me and how I feel most all the time.
A ruffled crow, in my experience, is a particularly uncomfortable bird.
By nature, crows are bright and expressive birds. They are known to be quite inquisitive and if something interests them they will peck and worry at it until they either break it, figure it out, or collect it. (pick any two or all three) A crow has no problem telling you what they think, especially when you annoy them, and just about everything annoys them.
I would imagine that anyone who has been around someone like me would recognize the signs of ADHD in just the short descriptions given above. Back in the 1960’s I was diagnosed as hyperactive and it was assumed I would grow out of it. Now days doctors understand that that is not always the case. I’m currently in the process of getting it dealt with finally (in ways other than ‘self-medication’) and I’ll likely write more about it and the depression that comes along with it in a later post.
So… Welcome, again, to this little corner of the intertubes. While I primarily focus on animation and art, anything that catches my crow-like sensitivities is fair game and I will undoubtedly write at length about it. (fortunately for you it’ll get edited down to near-readability before it’s posted. sometimes…)
I want to be sure to acknowledge, and thank profusely, PurpleEevee909 over at Deviant Art for my avatar. When researching ‘ruffled crow’ I came across the image and it cemented the decision on the name. It is most awesome and perfect.
Please feel free to comment on whatever I post – in fact I’d truly appreciate it if you would as it is one of those little things that make blogging worthwhile.
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The Ruffled Crow 
I love the picture so much I made it my wallpaper. But more important I am touched by your open revelation of your journey. I at times have had the same feelings about ADD and hyperactivity. Never was diagnosed (doctors are not my favorite folks) or let it slow me down but it did led to an early life of hippieness and other rebel activity. At times I think that was a better way than the corporate world I currently live in. The blog gives me an expression of the natural world I see just like it does you. And that is a GOOD thing.
Carry on!! It is a good journey.
That is a great pastel, eh? Mr Beeman is a pretty talented artist imho. Philosophically I’ve been on a walkabout for a very long time and have used writing as a way to try and get all the way through whatever concept I’m working with at the time. (balance of sliding or fracturing focus with hyperfocus is a sharp edge) While the pedantic splash through mental mud-puddles is a primary intention of my blog, the act of writing it is rather rough (imagine agonizing over the wording of a sentence and how it hangs in a paragraph and if it even makes sense to others. a constant issue) so I’m hoping the ‘new’ direction makes it enjoyable for others and -me- too. I’m not sure I understand what you mean by hippieness and rebel activity, but I did go the ‘experimental’ route before settling on booze for a couple decades (which is not uncommon I’m learning) to quiet the noise in the brain pan. The fear of ‘screwing up again’ and an inability to connect with others has kept me from being any sort of real rebel though. I was the kid that was always pissing off the teacher by asking too many questions or challenging their facts or reasoning. (sunday school teachers particularly disliked this aspect) Were I the proverbial cat I woulda been pushing up daisies a long time ago… 😉
Anyways, as I’m not ‘self-medicating’ any more then figuring out how to mitigate, or even exploit it, will help me stay outta that particular drain and damp the frustration of the slide and fracture. If that helps someone else then all the better!
Thanks much, Batgurrl!