No Substitute for Talent

You'll have noticed by now that this is a rather basic blog layout, picked from what Blogger supplies. There is a reason for that. When it comes to things like drawing, design, and layout I have absolutely no talent.

Geek stuff I can do, or I can learn. In the case of HTML it's partly relearn and partly learn the things that have changed since I last did a web site more than a decade ago. It was an incredibly ugly internal corporate site for a group I worked in, mostly a convenient place to hold documentation for various networks we supported.

Hardly a day goes by that someone doesn't invite the Twitterverse to look at a new web page they did and comment. Even when it isn't quite right I despair because I know that it's better than anything I could do.

At one time I thought that computers were the answer to my problem. I spent hundreds of dollars on various painting, drawing, and animation programs, first for my Amiga 500 and later for a PC. Each time I thought "THIS will be the tool that will reveal the hidden genius!" Each time I finally had to admit that this was not the tool to reveal my hidden genius.

Eventually I had to admit the truth: I have no hidden artistic genius. I have not even a smidgen of talent in that direction. Artistic power tools on a computer just help me make a mess much faster. There is no substitute for talent.