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A variant on previous post, trying different materials.
Copic markers and Lamy pen with Noodlers ink on Bristol Board. 11cm x 12.5cm. Click to enlarge.

Stuart Vyse is Professor of Psychology at Connecticut College, in New London. In his new book, Going Broke: Why Americans Can’t Hold On To Their Money, he offers a unique psychological perspective on the financial behavior of the many Americans today who find they cannot make ends meet, illuminating the causes of our wildly self-destructive spending habits. In the excerpt below Vyse looks at the psychology of credit limits. Check out the tips he provided us with this morning or his podcast.

The Magic of Credit Limits

It is a wonderful feeling. You apply for your first MasterCard, hoping to be accepted. Finally it arrives in the mail, and you feel like a million bucks. It is shiny and new, and it comes with a letter that tells you your credit limit. In most cases, this happy event occurs when you are quite young: just after graduation from high school or somewhere in your twenties. As a result, the credit limit often seems like an amazingly large figure. (more…)

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Miss Popularity (Candy Apple) by Francesco Sedita

Rating:
This was the third Candy Apple Book (all the books are about different characters, so it doesn't matter which one you read first). The main girl was into clothes and fashion, but it didn't have the boy/girl relationship stuff that the other Candy Apple Books have all had. It was more about the importance of being yourself even when you are the new kid. Other than that, it was pretty comparable to all the other Candy Apple books.

Description:
Cassie Knight was the most popular girl in her Texan middle school. She was nice, outgoing, and extremely fashionable. But when her father got transferred to Maine, she became the school outcast. Everyone at her new school was prim, proper, and only wore gray. In an attempt to fit in, Cassie decided to take charge of the annual school fund-raiser. Can Cassie pull the fund-raiser off, and convince the kids in her school that being different isn't always a bad thing?

Card no.7 in a series of 78.
Copic markers and Staedtler pens. 12cm x 8cm. Click to enlarge.

Beastly by Alex Finn

Rating:
This was a fun modern twist on beauty and the beast. The beast was mean, arrogant, and self-centered. And the beauty character was smart, kind, and kinda pretty. Even though the characters were young and had to deal with the typical high school problems, they also had to face life in the real world. I think lots of teenage girls would be able to relate to the characters. My main criticism of the book is once again the content. There were a few swear words in the book and a couple sexual innuendos. It would have been a really good book without it, and I just don't understand why it was necessary.

Description:
Most people considered Kyle to be the perfect boy with the perfect life. He was tall, blond, rich, and handsome and was dating the most popular girl in school. He had the potential to be smart but was too concerned with his looks and popularity to concern himself with anything else. But when he asks an ugly girl in school to the Prom as a joke, his life changes forever. The girl is really a witch in disguise, and she transforms him into a terrible beast. Ashamed of having an ugly son, Kyle's father hides him away from the world. Kyle must find true love in two years, or risk living the rest of his life as a beast.

Stuart Vyse is Professor of Psychology at Connecticut College, in New London. In his new book, Going Broke: Why Americans Can’t Hold On To Their Money, he offers a unique psychological perspective on the financial behavior of the many Americans today who find they cannot make ends meet, illuminating the causes of our wildly self-destructive spending habits. In the podcast below Vyse talks with Oxford editor Marion Osmun.

Transcript after the jump. (more…)

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Runemarks by Joanne Harris

Rating:
This was an extremely detailed book, and it seemed like it would be very difficult to write. The writer created an in depth history and a whole new language and did it well. I liked the background story, but all of the detail was a little too much. I could only read a little bit of the book at a time, and it ended up taking me a week to read it. That might not seem very long to most people, but the last time it took me a week to read a book, I was reading the complete unabridged version of Les Miserables. The book also swore a few times and had some crude language.

Description:
Madi lived in a world where order ruled and anything strange was avoided. Because Madi was born with "the ash" ruinmark, she was always treated like an outsider in her town. The only person that treated Madi like an equal was One Eye, a nomadic traveler who also had a ruinmark. One Eye became Madi's only friend and he taught her about the old god's and the forbidden powers. As Madi grew in strength, hatred grew in the heart of the local parson. In time, Madi learned that she was really Modi, the first born god of the new age. And it had been prophesied that only she could save the world from Chaos. Madi must decide who she can trust and where her loyalties lie as she embarks on an epic journey through Hel and the Nine Worlds.

I'm developing my own system of divination.
Copic markers with Staedtler pigment liners. 17cm x 12cm. Click to enlarge.

Babysitting Wars (Candy Apple) by Mimi Mccoy

Rating:
My nine year old niece was reading this book so I decided to read it to see what it was like. I liked it. It was a really fast read and it was fun. It wasn't too in depth or complicated and seemed like the perfect level for my niece. The book also talked a lot about what it takes to be a good babysitter, so it would be a good tool for younger girls just getting into babysitting.

Description:
Kaitlyn is known as the super-sitter of Marshfield Lake. She is so good that she almost always has a babysitting job but has almost no time for her friends. When a new girl named Nola moves into town, she starts stealing some of Kaitlyn's clients. Kaitlyn declares war on the new girl and will stop at nothing to find out how Nola is stealing her clients. But when she lies to her parents, misses her best friend's art show, and goes into the city at night before herself, Kaitlyn might have to stop babysitting completely. Find out just how far is Kaitlyn willing to go to win the ultimate babysitting job with the richest family in town?

Drama Queen (Candy Apple) by Lara Bergen

Rating:
This was a great book for elementary school age girls. It was fast, fun, and entertaining. It contained all of the girly aspects typical in this type of book, but did so in a fun new way.

Description:
Charlie and her best friend Nicole decide to audition for the school musical. After a shaky audition, Charlie lands the roll of a woodland creature. To take part in the play Charlie must babysit her little sister and her imaginary friend during rehearsals. But between her audition humiliation, mean drama girls, and sister's with imaginary friends, Charlie doesn't know if she wants to stay in the play. Charlie learns that even when everything seems like it is going wrong, the show must go on and sometimes something bad can turn into something positive.

The ancient Egyptians used to discuss these matters.
Pentel brush pen. Digital colour. 13cm x 14cm. Click to enlarge.

An Ex Libris wot I done for me.
Wood engraving 8cm x 10cm. Click to enlarge.

An anxiety dream.
Lino cut 26cm x 26cm. Click to enlarge.

Portrait of a determinist.
Pencil 17cm x 12cm. Click to enlarge.

Just finished "Side Effects" by Adam Phillips.
2-colour lino cut 25cm x 25cm. Click to enlarge.

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to assert myself more effectively. I often find that I have trouble sticking up for myself without feeling that I am being pushy. So I turned to Overcoming Depression and Low Mood: A Five Areas Approach by Chris Williams. Dr Chris Williams is a recognized expert and trainer in Cognitive Behavior Therapy and works as a senior lecturer in Psychological Medicine at the University of Glasgow. The book is a series of short self-help workbooks, below is an excerpt from the assertiveness workshop.

What is assertiveness? (more…)

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2 colour lino print. 26cm square. Click to enlarge.

Following the lead of Alex Itin, I painted over a spread from a Walt Disney "Monsters Inc." novelisation.
Oil paint on paperback book. 26cm x 20cm. Click to enlarge.

It's OK.
Rapidograph 13cm x 9cm. Click to enlarge.

Study for a portrait.
Coloured pencil on paper 100cm x 150cm. Click to enlarge

Left and right hemispheres in tandem.
Scraperboard 11cm x 4cm. Click to enlarge.

This morning we posted an original article by Jeffrey Abugel, co-author with Daphne Simeon, MD, of Feeling Unreal: Depersonalization Disorder and the Loss of the Self. This afternoon we have an excerpt from their book which will hopefully help you better understand Depersonalization Disorder. Below is Trisha’s story, just one of many varied experiences with Depersonalization Disorder.

Trisha was a 21-year-old college junior majoring in fine arts at a large state university. She was bright, attractive, ambitious, and sociable. She describes her upbringing as happy and uneventful. She was the second of four children raised in a small Midwestern town, and her parents were still happily married. She got along well with both of them and was particularly close to her sister Jane, who was 2 years younger. Trisha always did well in school, was athletic, and had many friends. (more…)

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Jeffrey Abugel, co-author of Feeling Unreal: Depersonalization Disorder and the Loss of the Self has worked as an editor and writer for more than 25 years. He has researched depersonalization and its relationship to philosophy and literature since the 1980s and is the founder of the depersonalization-themed website, www.depersonalization.info. He is also a member of the American Medical Writers Association. In the article below he reflects upon what it was like to see his book in the new film Numb, starring Matthew Perry.

Depersonalization Disorder is nothing to laugh about.

So when Harris Goldberg, the writer/director of a new movie called Numb, starring Matthew Perry, invited my co-author and I to the premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival we truly didn’t know what to expect. (more…)

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This morning we presented a post from R. Barker Bausell, author of Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine , in which he argues that the placebo effect has as much healing power as alternative medicine. Below, in an excerpt from Bausell’s book, we learn about the history of the use of placebos in scientific research.

…The placebo effect itself escaped serious scientific scrutiny until 1955, having largely been considered prior to that time to be more a part of medical lore (or physician mystique) than a documented clinical entity. (more…)

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