How do you know when you're addicted to a graphics app? ???

[timeth]

I just returned to Tokyo today from a school camp with around 160 of my junior high school students camping in a beautiful mountain range in the prefecture of Nagano, Japan. For about 5 months of the year it's full of skiers and snowboarders but at this time of the year (Summer), the weather is perfect (not too hot because it's in the mountains) for camping, hiking and relaxing amongst some of the most beautiful, natural scenery you've ever seen. Or so you'd think......

Have you ever been unable to sleep because your mind will just not let go of the most ridiculous thoughts and ideas that just seem to persist no matter what you do to try to let go of them? Well, before going on the camp I had been using Inkscape a great deal and each night at the camp as my head hit the pillow, even though I was so exhausted from the day's activities, I seemed to be stuck in that place between awake and sleep for around an hour to an hour and a half until my mind had put every thought that ran through it into a perspective shape by drawing the shape with the bezier tool, selecting both the idea/thought and the shape, and going to > Extensions > Modify path > Perspective. Finally by the third night I was able to fall asleep without being plagued by the dreaded perspective tool. 

One thing is for sure though, I'll never again forget how to use the perspective tool. I guess that's a good thing.     

Here's an example of what I'm talking about.....

[Sproggy]

i am so glad that i am not the only one that does this ... my wife has even woken me in my sleep to tell me to go downstairs to my computer and make what i am talking about in my sleep lolol ....

Kori

[rnojonson]

Aah yes, we are symbiont beings the computer and us, digital serendipity and nerdvana aside, we often channel our PCs through graphics apps. It is why caveman wrote on walls, graffiti artist do trains, travelers do bathroom stalls, the raw savage graphics urge relentlessly begs to be expressed. My advice, keep a journal by bedside, jot it down, release the idea and rest in peace. Thus says the PC Mouse Whisperer. That will be 2 cents (us) and email me in the morning. Oh, and don't forget to close the journal so that the ideas don't escape and keep you up all night!

[Paul LeBlanc]

hahaha, "No, you can't have more bread" 

 This was merely your artistic side, working with your current surroundings, and I actually think the little clip you provide us, is just a small excerpt of a piece of art, which is locked inside your mind, that wants to come out.
 A way to put your trip into an artistic medium / collage, to share with others. A piece which could involve photos and images you create from memory, along with phrases which came about and your mind has seemed to kept on to (and those phrases in perspective is pretty cool)

 If you try to remember, that art is an addiction, this type of thing will be more easily accepted as normal. You were surrounded by the beauty of nature, it is perfectly reasonable that it caused you to imagine ways to put it all into a form to express how you felt.
 So, relax... you are not crazy (but you're getting close) and with a little more practice, I imagine it will not take you long to join us in the ranks of the truly psychotic visual-benders. 

[rnojonson]

In any case timeth, I like your scenery description, I would have sensory overload. Just think of the frustration you'd have if you had no way process the ideas and work them out. All artist have a secret life that no one understands but us. People only see the finished picture, never realizing the stuff you went through to do it. And what would they say to us if they did, "hey man, you make that look easy!".

Gemini is right, you got some great stuff going on inside that's coming out. We are glad you are sharing with us.

[sawer]

Join the club, I'm glad I'm not the only one. I've been on  a cycling/camping trip and wake in frustration because I can't save a drawing. the above posts are right on.

[MeeMaw]

I haven't done all of that yet, but if I've been working on a picture that's frustrating me, I will go & do something else completely different. My poor brain, however, is still thinking about what's wrong with the picture and will keep going over the layers and mouse clicks until it (occasionally) figures out what I've done wrong - if I happen to go to sleep in the meantime, then I have dreams about the right way to fix it...... I don't talk in my sleep (at least my hubby hasn't complained about that) and I don't wake up and go to the computer, but it "churns" around in there....

I guess I'm addicted too!!!!
 

[Gozzin]

 I'll wake up sometimes and realize I've been working with the Gimp in my sleep.