As anyone who saw yesterday’s post may have gathered, I’m trying to teach myself to use 3D modeling software. To that end, I attempted to sign up for an internet forum on the subject. The forum has rules, as these things do. One of the rules was no weird names. Okay. Keep your stuff family friendly. Okay, again. No nudity. Okay. Sort of. I mean, I wouldn’t sign up for a forum and post things against the rules because I’m not that kind of antagonistic person, but I do have my own philosophical feelings on the subject and nudity is a-ok by me. In fact, I thought about it a bit and 3D modeling… hmm… that’s, like, artistic stuff, isn’t it? And artists draw naked people. It’s an integral part of your traditional artistic eduction. Conflating nudity with sexuality is something that irks me more than a bit. You can have something sexual where people are fully clothed and you can have nudity that’s not sexual. Or you can have both.

Meanwhile, a few days ago, Daz over at The Dixie Flatline put up a post about how to talk to an atheist which was inspired by the fact that according to his stats (If you don’t have a site on WordPress, they have a page that tells you your “stats.”) and found there that many people arrive at his site after searching for “how to talk to an atheist.” This inspired me to look at my own stats. Um… no, I’m not going to make a porn video. I posed for nude photos when I was young and still passably attractive. For better or worse, I didn’t indulge in the moving images. Since I’m now going on fifty, I think my time to shine as a porn star has passed. Beyond that, I need to put up more pictures of naked people in general and women in particular. Somehow, I’m not surprised.

Back to the 3D modeling forum, and in the explanation of their rules, they mention that they have users from all over the world. So, I started thinking about how there are different standards around the world about how much clothing you need to wear to be “decent.”

Somewhere, I thought of the line that some atheists use to explain to theists that their lack of belief is not really different from a theist’s lack of belief in one of the many competing religions in the world, “I just believe in one less god than you.”

Throw that all into my brain, add Manet’s Olympia for good measure, and this popped into my mind:

If anyone experienced with 3D modeling software can tell me why the cast shadows are clipped off in a funny way, I’d appreciate it.