Author Archives: davidstong
Personal AVIF experiment
I’m trying to see if the browser supports avif. If it does, an image of a demon provided by my granddaughter displays. If not, it shows my mousetoon honey logo. Hey, they’re what I have. The html looks like this: <picture> <!– use if browser supports AVIF –> <source type=”image/avif” srcset=”IMG_2027.avif”> <!– use if browser …
Birthday 2025
She was inspired by an eagle and had a tattoo of the bird put on her thigh. Knowing my daughter, I thought that eagle should have a tattoo of my daughter on its thigh. I actually drew the whole bird, it just wouldn’t fit legibly on the card.
earth day, 1970
I ran this first in my Penn State blog. Is this the fifty-fifth anniversary? Maybe I should just bring it forward every year? Anyway, I thought it deserved a retread. A student committee asked if I’d host the art room discussions about ecology. I was in the room practically all day anyway; it was my …
Holiday windows
Every year the local high school enables students to paint holiday scenes on shop windows throughout downtown. Typical pictures are of the Grinch, Charlie Brown, or Snoopy. Year after year the same sorts of images go up, generally inspired by holiday cartoons. Last year, the Black Diamond Barbershop, which is on the first floor of …
Second Life
I was sitting on the couch watching my ten-year-old granddaughter work in Minecraft. She enjoys creating in the environment even more than in real life. “It’s more creative, Grampop.” Her words. I started to tell her about Second Life and wanted to show her - but my Penn State work has been deleted and I can’t …
End of Second Life Recap
This is the first of two posts about the online 3D virtual world known as Second Life. It’s a re-posting of a Penn State blog post from 2010 I’d like to try to recap several years in Second Life. Brett asked how educators were using our environment, and not being an educator I thought I’d …
BASD “B” (Part 2)
Read part 1 here. Across the bottom of the Superintendent’s page on the BASD website, it says The Bellefonte Area School District community continually strives to “Inspire and Prepare Today’s Learners to Embrace Tomorrow’s Challenges.” Welcome!BE Informed • BE Involved • BE Connected • BElong in BEllefonte On the Middle School site, it says, “At …
Plate 14
“Hailey!” I called to her and her eyes popped open. She saw me, leaned over and put a finger to her lips. “We have to keep the noise down, coach. There’s nothing so far. I don’t want to scare ‘em.” She whispered down to me. “I know! Your brother just made contact. He wanted me …
old cover experiment
This, along with several sheets of vellum showing different arrangements, just tumbled out of a pile of old papers. After 30 years, I had forgotten all about it. Back before I started at the university, I’d left the restaurant to try to make it as a commercial artist. I bought a list of different businesses …