Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Who'da Thunk It?

It is indeed possible to cause a potato to burst into flame in a microwave.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Ninjagirl Blues V 2.0

She learned from the Dharma that day
But the Lama was out of her way
In the moment of present
She found a town that was pleasant
And there for a while she stayed

Pinkgirl I

She flew out of town
before the sun was in the sky
Put the pedal to the floor
no more goodbyes
Racing down the highway
had to get out of here
One last bridge to burn
and nothin to fear

She had hot pink toes
She wore hot pink shorts
Long tan legs in between
She had hot pink toes
She wore hot pink shorts
Oh so sweet and clean

Just starin out the window
when I woke up alone
Then I heard a ring
reached for my phone
'You know I'm gonna miss you'
was the text that she sent
And the picture attached
showed what she meant

She had hot pink toes
She wore hot pink shorts
Long tan legs in between
She had hot pink toes
She wore hot pink shorts
Finest thing I'd ever seen

Can't say if she'll ever
end up back in my arms
Highway keeps her movin
sun keeps her warm
The only thing she left me
is right there on my phone
And daybreak find her gone
just like a rollin stone

She had hot pink toes
She wore hot pink shorts
Long tan legs in between
She had hot pin toes
She wore hot pink shorts
Closest thing to heaven I think I've seen

Fractal Collage

The dreams are creeping back in. Neon lit, expansive, epic dreams. Undercurrents of love, sex, and violence twisted together with beauty and monsters. The whole thing studded with touchstones to the past and present. A rich hallucination, haunting and enticing. Granted this minimal degree of freedom, they're determined to put on a hell of a show. Is their purpose to inform, warn, or possibly enslave? Why have they returned? An indication that something is going wrong inside my skull again? Is it just not possible to chemically restrain them anymore? Such lovely sharp white teeth to devour me while I sleep. Such boundless joy to depart me when I wake. Faceless beauty and formless fear ebb and flow in the tide of the night. A chorus of dark whispers from the brightly lit stage. Cries of lust from shadowy corners. Familiar yet foreign. To dream, or not to dream; that is the question.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Graffitti Wolverines Eating Pizza

CHAPTER ONE: The Power of Three
We've all heard this question, or some variant of it, at one time or another: What is your favorite _______ of all time? For some reason, this popped into my head last week complete with the blank, and I spent a brief moment thinking about it in the context of music. I really couldn't come up with just one song that I could listen to ad infinitum. When I thought about it in terms of musical groups, it was a bit easier. Yes, I realize that I did skip over the category of 'greatest album', for much the same reason that i skippped over the category of 'greatest song'. Since the word 'greatest' in and of itself is purely dependent on your perspective, I think I will drop it entirely and rephrase the question thusly: If you were on a desert island and could only listen to one musical group for the rest of your life, who would it be? I know the desrt island part has no real relevance on the rest of the question, what with GPS, I-pods, and the like, but freakin work with me here.
I approached this from the rather boring perspective of looking at my stacks of CD's and figuring out which ones were most consistently in my player. That rather simple step got me down to a mere three groups. Then I noticed an odd consistency between those three groups. Had nothing to do with musical style, content, or presentation. Wierdly enough, the were all trios.
My knowledge of bands that are also trios is limited enough to make me think this was somewhat of an oddity. Perhaps all bands now are mandated by law to be trios. Don't really care, since I thought this whole situation was odd to begin with. Anyway, my list is comprised of the following: ZZ Top (always been a trio, always had the same members), The Presidents of the United States of America (always been a trio, had a slight lineup change), and Blue Man Group (go ahead, bitch all you want about this one. they're a trio to me. NYAH NYAH NYAH!).
If severly pressed I think I could narrow it down to one, but I think I may save that for another posting. Let me leave you with this, though. If any band you wanted (irregardless of deaths or breakups) were to perform a concert for you that consisted of one, and only one, of their songs, who would it be and why?

CHAPTER TWO: 'Possum Bonk
This week provided me with the funniest moment that I have had this year on my bicycle. Right at the beginning of my ride the other day, I saw something making its was across the road up ahead of me. After watching it move, and seeing its tail, I was convinced I was riding up on th e first opossum I had seem this season. I managed to catch it in the beam of my headlight, which not only confirmed its identity, it made the sucker start moving double time towards the woods on the other side of the road.Now this is where the story takes what could be percieved as a cruel turn. Myself, after feeling an instantaneous pang of guilt, decided that it was the funniest thing I had seen in a very long time, and proceeded to laugh so hard I almost dumped my bike right in the middle of the street. So, here's what happened: I'm not sure if this critter had its eyes on me as I was approaching, or if it just had the crappiest eyesight in the world, but instead of hopping up over the concrete curb, it plowed headllong into it at top opossum speed. Now, that does seem to be a bit sad/cruel. But the sound that this collision caused was wht made it funny. Not quite as dull as a 'thunk', not as sharp as a 'crash', it was this dull, yet resonant sound that carried all the way across the street. After thinking about it time and again, the closest comparison that I can draw is if you were to hold a bowling ball five or six inches above a thin rug over a cement floor and drop it, that would be close to the sound of a opossum skull whacking into a curb. I doubt it would be as funny as hearing it firsthand, but maybe you can get a sample of the experience that way. So this is what threw me into a fit of hysterics that damn near made me crash my bike. Which, now that I think about it, may have resulted in some sounds that the opossum may have found hilarious. For those of you more sensitive than I, when I looked back, there was no unconscious opossum laying at the side of the road. And by the way, the title of this section would be one of the most bitchin band names, EVER!!

CHAPTER THREE: Climb, You Bastards, Climb!!
Even though I thought I had gotten a good emergence on my morning glories this year, they really seem to have gone into 'pause' mode. So far only a few have gotten to the top of the fence, and even those look a tad spindly. The scarlet runner beans seem to be a different story, though. Several of those have hit the fence top, and I have already started training them down the rail. It should be neat to see what they look like once they get a bit more leafed out. And, if I remember right, the beans they produce are actually edible. Not that I have any idea why that should be at all important. The pumpkins are really taking off, too. I think I may have planted way too many, but Hell, what's a few more vines growing around the place. Plus, I get to have my own pumpkins for Halloween, even if I end up not having the big bash this year. So, I guess it's time to haul out the secret ingredient:Miracle-Gro!

CHAPTER FOUR: Doctor, My Eyes
There were a couple of days this week where I walked outside and I had to rub my eyes to make sure I was seeing what I though was seeing. It was one of those days when the quality of the sunlight is such that it just makes all the colors seem so sharp and vibrant they're almost unreal. When you look at the leaves of a tree against this sky that is so blue it almost looks fake, and you just can't stop looking at it. Something amazing about a day like that. And yes, I am still clean and sober.

CHAPTER FIVE: Mass Issues
Six days till my journey to scopeland. Fortunately for me (sorry Pimp Daddy SC!), I'm getting the top end checked and not the bottom. What I didn't realize, until Pinklady mentioned it to me, is that Quint died of esophageal cancer. Not really what I wanted to hear right at this particular instant. And of course, so far today is basically symptomless. Having second thoughts about throwing away a day off to have this done. Of course the phrase 'mediastinal mass' really has connotations that I do not like.

CHAPTER SIX: Safe. For Now...
The invasion of the Japanese beetles continues unchecked. When the Terminix guy came on Tuesday, he delivered the unfortunate news that there was nothing they could do for them since they weren't a 'location pest'. I guess that means since they just move around where ever they want to go there isn't really any way to control them chemically. Not really what I wanted to hear. The earwigs, though, are in line for a major fucking up. Still, it does seem to be a bit lucky for me that even though the mass of them started right next door to my house, they seem to be moving away to the south. Either there's nothing in my yard they really want to eat, or the stuff in the other neighbor's yard is just tastier. I could get pheremone traps to catch them, but it seems those have the ability to draw beetles in from more than a mile away. I'm thinking 'no' to that option.

CHAPTER SEVEN: Musings
Just one image came winging into my pocket this week. By the light of the TV screen, I am intrigued and engaged yet again. And, after due contemplation, I think I'm ready to start prelim sketchwork on it. Pink may not be a color I work with often, but I find that the subject matter compells me.

CHAPTER EIGHT: What Gallery?
Cromag (aka Pimp Daddy SC) has requested a replacement for the photo gallery that had appeared on my old Myspace page. I am currently looking into that. He also requested to know the identity of the enigmatically mysterious Bluegirl. That I did not tell him. Many have complained about the frequency of my postings being a bit in the area between sluggish and non-existent, so I will make an effort to post things a bit more often. Anyone else got any complaints?

CHAPTER NINE: Not a Naked Chick to be Found....
For some strange reason I had a dream that I was back at what I thought was my old grade scholl to see Huey Lewis perform. Of course I didn't have a ticket. I also had another dream about a bug called a silver cicada. Doesn't exist, as far as as I know. But just the fact that freewheeling sexual fantasies are now being replaced with thoughts of mythical insects does not endear me to taking my meds. That kinda reminds me that since I've been skipping breakfast, I've also been skipping my meds, and I think I only have one dose left. One more thing to have to do tomorrow. Or, I could just go crazy, yet again.


DELINQUENT HAMSTERS
*Aw, Nuts!:: From the Goalie, a gift of almonds. Perhaps a nut is just a nut?

*Garage Sale Hell:: I thought that was in Arkansas, not Washington...

*FIL Status::Grumpy and cranky, with outbursts of crabby and downright cantankerous. Banned by his doctor from playing more than 9 holes of golf at a time, and only on days when he won't sweat profusely, he is squarely in the bunk of an unhappy camper.

*Bestest Geekllist Ever!:: I think this is the best posting I've found on boardgamegeek to date! I've always wondered how to be a gentlegeek...

*All in the Family?::Really sucks when you find out just how many nuts there are in your family tree, right Kittyluv?

*That Doesn't Go There:: Seems I had forgotten how oddly enjoyable I find assmebling jigsaw puzzles.

*Up, Down, Up, Down:: A summer of dealing with someone's hot flashes causes me to think that I may have to find some way to lock up the thermostat or risk dying of exposure inside my own home. I suppose I could just sling my hammock up in the garage and sleep out there, if I really need to.

*It's Just a Pipe, Right?::I suppose I should consider myself lucky that I escaped from the mechanics with only a $250 bill. I have to consider it an act of extreme wisdom that Marty has Leslie working the desk. She had me grinning the whole time I was paying that bill. Damn her and her unflaggable cuteness!

*Ninjagirl Blues v 2.0 and 3.0:: Now that she knows who she is, I'll be rolling these out shortly.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Wierdness in Orange

I happened to be feeding the fish in my aquarium yesterday, when I noticed something odd. As usual, when I walked up to the front of the tank and tapped on the lid, the fish all swan up to the front corner in anticipation of being fed. It caught my eye that one of my orange platys seemed to be trailing a streamer or something of the like. I looked a little closer and sure enough, there was a white filament sticking out of the fish's mouth and trailing back past it's tail. At first I thought it was a root from one of the duckweed plants, because the platys do tend to nibble on them. But is was just way to long to be that. Too long to be a worm of some sort, either. I settled on the notion that it must be a hair or fiber of some sort. Pleased with my deductive prowess, I then came to the somewhat unpleasant conclusion that I would probably need to make some kind of effort to remove whatever it was from said fish. Oh goody. After making several unsuccessful attempts to grab the filament as the fish swam by, I decided that perhaps the use of tweezers would be a better approach. So, there I am, standing over the top of the aquarium, tweezers in hand, waiting for this inch and a half long fish to swim by so I can try and grab whatever it is that was hanging out of it's mouth. Not exactly what I had planned for a Monday afternoon. Once again, I made several unsuccessful attempts to snag the fiber. Finally I did manage to grab it, and the scenario then became one of a teeny tiny fishing show. Rather than just coming right out, this fiber must've been a ways down into the gut of this little fish. It was swimming around in frantic little circles, stuck just as sure as if it had a hook in its lip. I contemplated this odd little scenario for the briefest of moments before deciding on a ultimately male solution. With a quick tug on the tweezers, the fiber came out, and the fish swan away. I puzzled over this hair or whatever it was, just trying to figure out why such a small fish would even try to eat something longer than it was. The other oddity was of the origin of said hair/fiber thingy. Gauging by the way the end that was stuck in the fish was all twisted around, it seemed like it was on its way towards trying to work its way through the fish. Now, I'm sure that if I were more deeply versed in folklore I would have well known that finding an orange fish in your house that has partially eaten a hair is a bad bad bad bad omen. I learned that when I got to work.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Contains Small Parts

  • Seriously, how can there be anyone out there who doesn't like Asian pears?
  • The ink is laid for Bluegirl VII. Up next: color. Once I did get the ink down, as usual, I wound up liking the design more than I thought I would. Who knows, I may end up only being a version or two away from going to paint. Doing all that fine brushwork started to give me a headache, but not like I used to get when I did all that with a Sharpie.
  • Have to call Motor Works in the morning and find out what's up with my car. I don't dislike driving the FIL's car, but at the moment, it has a slight funk clinging to the interior.
  • I hope when Terminix comes out this week, they have a solution for the Japanese beetle problem.
  • Rained again last night. The grass will be growing so fast now, you should be able to hear it coming up out of the ground.
  • I really am not fond of Neil Diamond's music. Nope. Not at all.
  • I think I may have fixed my watch.
  • Even though I think she may have run screaming for the hills, I would like to present The Ninjagirl Blues Ver 1.0:

The Dharma she wanted to hear,

But directions were not quite so clear.

Not a Buddhist around,

But a nice little town.

To Marengo is where she did steer.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Muddy penguins playing Tetris

CHAPTER ONE: Hot In The City
While it has been summer as far as the calendar is concerned for quite some time, the weather hasn't quite gotten the message. Yesterday proved to be one of the first day to actually provide us with summerlike temps and humidities. The sun was unavoidable, the mercury went over 90, and the dew point was in the upper 60's. The air had just a hint of heaviness to it that made you really feel that it was there. The cicadas were buzzing in the trees, and if you looked far enough down the street, you could watch the cars disappear into the heat shimmer. Yup. Finally summer in Illinois.

CHAPTER TWO: If At First You Fail, By All Means, Be Sure To Fail Again
I should have known better than to try and split my focus when working on an art project. I happened to be out in the garage working on my current tiki project, when the daughter of the Actress came wandering in. She was bored because her friend wasn't able to play, so I guess I made a somewhat acceptable second choice. Story of my life where women are involved. Anyway , as kids are fond of doing, when they see you engaged in a particular activity, then instantly want to participate in the same thing. Ergo, as I happened to be carving at that moment, she wanted to carve too.
Now, you must understand that this is not a hideously unusual occurence on my street. If your garage door happens to be up, you are fair game for anyone to do an unscheduled drop in visit. Also, as I had entertained both of the Actress' kids on numerous occasions, they aren't shy about making themselves at home in my garage. Most of the time I can manage to set up another station so that they can have a space where they can participate in whatever I happen to be doing on a relatively safe, controlled scale. Wood carving had been a previous activity for both of the kids, so this request was not overly odd by any degree.
The problem arose when I had an attack of unfocused/lazy/stupid/irritatedness. To get her set up with a safe carving station, I would have had to move all the chisels that I was currently using out of the way. I had them neatly arranged on a towel at the end of the workbench so that I could grab whatever one I needed, and they wouldn't be banging against one another. So, rather than take a moment to move the chisels somewhere else, I opted to leave them where they were and secure her blank in the bech vise. That would be the large, heavy, steel bench vise. This proved to be mistake #1.
I then compounded this mistake by not taking the time to go over to the tool chest and find one of the lower quality, but still serviceable chisels that are in the drawer with the files. I made the decision, mostly because I was in a hurry to get back to what I was doing before I lost my train of thought, to hand her one of the chisels on the work bench. Take note: that was mistake #2. The end result was that she managed to whack that chisel into the jaws of the vice and install a couple of good sized chips in the cutting edge. Needless to say, this did not serve to make me dance around with glee. The reason I did not dance around with glee is that I am very bad at sharpening things. So, when I do get a decent edge on something (especially my carving chisels), I do my best to keep it neat and sharp. My estimate was that the damage to that blade will take me at least half an hour to fix. Or more. Still, as much as I wanted to, I couldn't be mad at her, since was just using what I had given her to use in the setting I had provided. Crap. One more thing that was completely my fault. This reluctant acceptance of my own stupidity lead almost directly to mistake #3.
Mistake #3 came about while I was busy beating myself up about being stupid enough to let her use one of my good carving chisels. While explaining to her that the chisel was basically 'broken' for now, I set it off to one side and HANDED HER ANOTHER ONE OF MY GOOD CHISELS!! THis one was eventually dropped onto the concrete floor, thereby guaranteeing that I would have at least anothe half hour of trying to correct the damage to this other chisel as well. Shortly after that she went home, leaving me to contemplate the cost of my stupidity.

CHAPTER THREE: I Shall Call Him 'Woody'
Speaking of carving, the current big scale tiki keeps getting closer to completion. Right now, the main focus is on cleaning up the lines that have already been laid in and matching/evening out the depths and angles of the cuts. The headdress design hasn't been finalized, but as I am running out of other things to do, I will have to settle on something relatively soon. The back seems to be a bit too blank to me, but that would be another design decision I will have to make in the near to immediate future. The majority of the actual face is done and ready for sanding. So, maybe another month or so until I have a completed piece. Or at least a month or so till I set my estimated date of completion back another moth or so. Etc, etc, etc.

CHAPTER FOUR: She's So Fine
I am also working on the second sketch in what I have decided to call the 'Bluegirl ' series. This one I actually like enough to ink in completely to get a better sense of how it holds together. After that, I'll lay in some test colors to try and find a good palette for when I take it to paint. Don't know if I should gesso some of the heavier paper I have and see how that works with the ink brushes. As far as the ink brushes go, I really prefer the Pentel ones, but it seems that no one in town carries them. Right now I'm using the Bienfang ones that I got at VCB, mostly because that' s what I could easily get my hands on. I am not running all the way out to freakin Hobby Lobby for a $5 ink brush. Now, if I happen to find myself at Hobby Lobby, you can damn sure bet that I'm gonna stock up though.
So far, aside from not being really thrilled with the way the paper is wicking up the ink (which could very well be a technique issue on my part) I like the composition of this second sketch. I may actually have a chance to use some or the iridescent inks that I picked up a while ago. I think the blue would work, and I know they had a nice magenta shade that I didn't buy the last time I was there. I'll save the green and yellow for another project. Or just another variant of this project. Either way, I am so upset now. That means I will just have to make a run to the art department. I. Am. So. Heartbroken. About. That.
The only somewhat pissy part about this series is that my muse for the series has gone missing on me.

CHAPTER FIVE: Excuse me, I Think You Have My Stapler....
Work. As thrilled as I am to have a job in this black sucking vortex of Hell that is our economy, at the moment it is giving me quite a headache. I think that's all I really care to say about it at the moment.


CHAPTER SIX: Logged Out, For Good
I am at Myspace.com no more, for any of you who may have cared or noticed. I figure that I have had this post going for long enough that I can start weeding out some of the other sites I have been attached to. I have just to damn many passwords, user ID's, and crap like that to keep track of. And when it takes you about an hour just to do a basic check of all the social networking sites that you belong to, it's time to cut back a bit. Up next on the delete list: Livejournal, and some other one I can't remember the name of at the moment. I thnk I'll hang on to the Facebook account for a while so I can keep tabs on Dharmagirl for a while.

CHAPTER SEVEN: And Now, These Words From Our Sponsor
Time seems to be a problem for most people, and I am no exception in that regard. TV and the computer seem to be sucking up greater and greater sized chunks of my time, which lead me to ask myself a rather bizarre question the other day. Which takes top priority:art or exercise? On the surface it seemed to be a legitimate question. Time is indeed a finite quantity, so you are required to make choices as to what your priorities will be at any given moment. The weird part for me was that watching reruns of Cash Cab and Deadliest Catch never even made it to the table for consideration of dismissal. When you take that into account, it does tend to make the original question seem ridiculous in it's narrowness of focus. Oh, and if you can't figure out what it is that I intend to do in this situation, feel free to dope slap yourself into unconsciousness.

CHAPTER EIGHT: Buy Now, Pay Later...
The general frustration level I am feeling with things at work has been nudging me in the direction of wanting to indulge my craving to acquire a bunch of new stuff. The fact that I have a couple of unused gift cards from work really isn't helpful. It would be real easy to blow a few hundred on new kilts and related accessories. Tiki Farm has some way cool new stuff, as well as a few older things that I wouldn't mind adding to my collection. Could toss a couple three hundred there, too. New board games? Forget it. I could mow through a few hundred and not even blink when it come to games. So, you may well ask, what's the issue? I would imagine that it's the same issue that a lot of you are also wrestling with right now: I have no freakin money! And to top it off, while I was in the midst of making plans for spending money that I don't really have (did I mention I wouldn't mind stocking up on art supplies?), I blew a hole in the exhaust system on my car. Since the police around here don't take kindly to people driving cars around that sound like dune buggies, I'm left with trying to figure out how to pay for that repair.
The lesson here, because I have yet to find a silver lining in all this, could be that I should be working with the stuff I have here presently, rather than just making pointless additions to my stuff in order to satisfy a momentary agitation. Boy, doesn't that sound adult of me. I do think that I need to refine my focus a bit and pay more attention to the things that are more meaningful, and less expensive, to me. More art, more reading, and more writing adds up to less TV and computer. No big secret there.

CHAPTER NINE: On Screen: "Chaos Theory"
Seem to have hit a run of just so-so small scale and independent films lately. I'm not sure if this one falls into that category or not. Told as an extended flashback, this is the story of a time management expert (mild-mannered, of course), whose world gets turned upside down as a result of missing the ferry one day. Life changing complications and hilarity ensue. Well, maybe not hilarity. "Dan In Real Life" had hilarity. This would be more humuorous, I guess. If forced to try and cram this movie into a category, I think I would go with the 'Wouldn't Be Afraid To Watch It With A Mixed Group Of Relatives' category. Or, perhaps it could also fit into the category of 'Safe Date Movie'.

CHAPTER TEN: Murphy's Law
Well, it seems like my day off on Friday may not end up being as relaxing as I'd want it to be.
My car is scheduled to go in to Motor Works to get the exhaust fixed, and now I have a doctor's appointment in the morning, too. Should be lots and lots of fun.
****POST SCRIPT****
Little did I realize when I had written the above, just how true it would end up being. In the midst of lunch, we were informed that Pinklady's dad was having a heart attack. Fortunately, it wound up being untrue, but not before he got a helicopter ride, and all the local troops were mobilized to Rockford. The exact cause of his problems has yet to be determined, but we hope to have more information by this time tomorrow.

TEFLON WATERMELONS
*
Still haven't figured out why the hell my watch keeps shorting out.

* I ordered a pizza via the internet this week. That may be the pinnacle of laziness in my life.

* Manscaping: good. Razor bumps: bad.

* Heat of summer makes for extra stinky dog poop can. Take my word for it.

* It's been great to hear from the Amazon again. Just hope her work situation resolves itself soon.

* The Giant's project is moving along quite well. Recording the WAV files is going smoothly, and once that's done, then I can start the editing process.

* If I stop putting money into my 401K for a while, since the market is in the tank, I can increase my cash flow somewhat. Of course, then the government will tax that extra income. Seems like I lose money either way.

* Congrats to Kittyluv on her new morning workout routine!

* Good luck to Dhawk as she prepares to migrate southward once again.

* Not even a hundred miles on the bike yet this summer. I am so disgusted with that.

* Royal blue, red, hot pink, aqua- what doesn't look good on my muse?



Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Bg V

A vision beheld
A blue and purple flower
On a dark island

Ow. Ow. Ow.

Once again, I find myself with a low grade headache while at work. I will, for the moment, resist the temptation to draw a direct cause/effect line between those two things. Of course, it didn't help to come in and find one of the parts of the cell washer installed upside down. I have to guess that it's been that way since I left on Monday. Aside from the fact that it simply doesn't look right assembled that way, there is raised lettering, in English mind you, right on the part that says 'This Side Up'. It wasn't.
I also got a reminder note from the boss lady that I need to finish my rounding questions. This was something I was hoping would simply go away. Not so. I find myself in the curious position of trying to find the right way to answer this list of 10 questions. Full honesty is rarely the best policy in the workplace. Just ask Jerry Falwell. The notion of giving answers that are even minimally ass kissing makes me want to hit myself repeatedly in the head with a stapler of some variety. Along that line, I doubt humor would be welcome. Prepositions, too. Management hates prepositions. Could do it resume style and load it up with adjectives and hope it conceals the lack of meanigful content. Or buzzwords. Lots and lots of buzzwords. Make the whole list a real 'slam dunk'. Yeah, me and Colin Powell on that bus. This has the potential to end up sounding as forced and trite as 'What I Did for Summer Vacation'.
I may have to revise my previous statement regarding the whole headache thing....

Bluegirl IV

A fragment of blue
That she placed into my hand
Colored the whole month

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Bluegirl III

From the east the sun
Had knocked a chip from the sky
She showed it to me

Monday, July 7, 2008

It's Not the Heat....

Monday morning rolled in with a classic Midwest thunderstorm about 0800. A 69 mile per hour wind gust was clocked somewhere in town, and we got between .6" and .68" of rain as well. That seems to have moved out and left some strong winds along with humidity that can leave your clothes instantly damp, and not in a good way. The weather has that unsettled feel that leaves you thinking a downpour could drop out of the sky at any given moment. I'm thinking I won't be riding the bike to work today.
Work today. Something else that's been on my mind. Tonight the temp tech starts. There's gonna be more bodies than usual around, moving with less efficiency than usual. The weekend was pretty quiet, and Leslie and Paula managed to keep each other entertained. Looks like I'm going to be doing a lot of time in BB/Micro.
Latest video rental was "Just Add Water". Pinklady wasn't taken with this one, and walked off in the middle to fix lunch. I really enjoyed it. Had elements of Napoelon Dynamite and The A-Team in it that I found to be quite amusing when set against the backdrop of a barely existing California town. I though it was an interesting mix of funny and bleak that was a bit to close to things I remember at times. Through the whole movie, though, I couldn't help but see Thomas Hayden Church in the lead role. There was also an unbelievably shiny speed limit sign post that was put to amazing use, a disappearing whimsical chicken, and in the end, an almost spooky number of tortoises. The recipe battle was worth the cost of the rental alone.
So far, I'm not really thrilled with the first of the Bluegirl sketches. I've already got some revisions I want to try, and the first one isn't even done yet. This may take several versions before I come to one that I'm ready to take to canvas. Maybe in the meantime, I can get another bit of poetry done.
Time to start getting ready for work. Just a hint of dread in the air. Then again, it may be the wet dog laying behind me....

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Off the Shelf

I haven't done a great volume of reading lately, and when I happen to run across a book like I just finished, it reminds me just how much I enjoy reading. "Last Call" by Tim Powers was a book I picked up on a whim, along with a huge stack of other books, at a discount book store. Now, after reading this supernaturally laced book, I may have to consider the notion that I was destined, nay, directed, to buy this book. I really don't want to go into the story line, because I found myself being pulled along by the story, and I wouldn't want to spoil that for others. You've heard about books you just can't put down? For me, this was one of those books. I am trying hard to resist the temptation to simply start reading it again. I think I may toss this one over to Lady Justice and she what she thinks about it. There may not be sex with vampires in it, but I think it might be right up her alley. At least if I do that, I can let it sink into my brain a bit more. Hopefully by now, you have no clue as to what the book is about, and you may actually have an urge to find and read it. Good. That's what I was shooting for. For those of you who simply can't take my word for it and read the damn book, I will now provide a short list of story elements which may or may not convince you to read the book. They include: Las Vegas, poker, a glass eye, a houseboat, a Porsche, Coors, and Death.
Not since I read "The Ruins" have I been so completely engrossed in a book, not to metion rather disappointed by the fact that it had to end. Speaking of that particular book, I do believe it has yet to find it's way back into my collection from the tan and delicate hands of the person who borrowed it.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Dream in Blue

Spendin all my time
so far down in a hole
Diggin in the dirt
lookin for some gold
Took me just a second
for to see the light
Super secret vision
coming into sight
I can see it
Know I need it
Cant stop dreamin
Dream in blue
Dream in blue
Dream in blue
Can't stop dreamin
Never saw it comin
just ran me down
Left my ears a ringin
knock me to the ground
Thunder in my pocket
and a storm in my brain
Rolled in from the east
now she back again
I can see it
Know I need it
Can't stop dreamin
Dream in blue
Dream in blue
Dream in blue
Can't stop dreamin
Daylight leave me shakin
dreams fade to gray
Highway starts a callin
she'll be gone today
Fall into the dark
somewhere way underground
Nothin left but dreamin
till she come back around
I can see it
Know I need it
Can't stop dreamin
Dream in blue
Dream in blue
Dream in blue
Can't stop dreamin

Five Pound Family Size!!!

CHAPTER ONE: The Guys With the Beards, Right?
Song that's stuck in my head right at the moment:'Breakaway' by ZZ Top. Had thought about going to see them this summer when they're on tour, but I seem to be lacking in the area of anyone I know who'd be interested in going. Also noticed they have 'meet and greet' options at some, if not all, of the concerts.Tempting as that may be, I bet it would easily add another $100 or more to the ticket price. It was kinda neat when Cromag and I did something similar for the Blue Man Group show at the Convo. The options would be Summerfest in Milwaukee, the state fair in Springfield, or the Allstate arena in Chicago. Don't know if I even want to see what the ticket prices are, money being tight like it is. Then again, this could wind up being another situation like the one where I missed seeing Kiss onstage in makeup. Maybe I should just stick with my idea of maybe getting a hat and a new keychain....

CHAPTER TWO: Must.....Not.....Kill.....Dog....
Less than five minutes. That's how long it took Lucy to get herself into a situation that ended with me having a strong desire to forcibly remover the life from her. Two weeks worth of nurturing a batch of scarlet runner bean seedlings nearly ended with the dog trying to eat the whole batch. All because I had to go out front and get a container of water. I left the tray of seedlings sitting on the ground right in front of the place where they were to be planted, and something about the peat pots they were in must have just screamed 'dog treat'. Lucy had managed to shred all of the pots but one in the time it took me to to go out front and get a watering can full of water. I was not at all happy. I salvaged what I could, and planted them anyway in the hopes that somehow a few might make it. So far, several have started to take off, but now some insect is making a banquet out of the leaves. Did I mention that I was not happy about the situation?

CHAPTER THREE: Grow dammit!
The other starts for the season are quite a mixed bag so far. The pumpkins are all starting off well, and I fully expect that the entire front of the house will be swarmed with vines before too long. The hardy banana plants are growing slowly, but seem to be moving along. The cana (?) is also doing well, and has put on a nice show of soft orange flowers. The butterfly weed has gone insane and is now starting to resemble a medium sized shrub more than a group of individual plants. I plan to seed in the next two bays on the front side of the house with butterfly weed one we have a hard frost, and get rid of all the things that didn't really take off out there. The miscanthus is already over my head, and shows no signs of slowing down. The morning glories in every bay have emerged, but haven't quite hit twining height yet. Hopefully they can get a good start before anything starts munching on the leaves. I actually seem to have gotten starts on several of the moon flowers as well, so there may actually end up being some white in my drift of blue flowers. Gotta call Terminix and see if they have anything to deal with the Japanese beetles, too.

CHAPTER FOUR: Read It
'Busted Flush' A quick read authored by Brad Smith. Set in Gettysburg and centered around the discovery of some mythic Civil War relics, there are enough twists in this plot to make you go back a page of two to make sure you read it right. Add a dash of actual factual history, a crusty anti-hero, a wilderness man wanna-be, and a Yugoslavian history professor, and you have a great light read for your summer reading list.

CHAPTER FIVE: Watch It
'King of CA' Reasons why you may not like this movie: You have a bizarre need to have every last minimal detail of everything explained to you in the course of a movie. You have no imagination (see previous note also). A movie is not a movie for you unless naked breasts, or references to naked breasts, appear in at least every third scene. Beyond that, this is a neat little film. Makes me want to go out and buy a metal detector. And go digging up the floor of a Costco.

CHAPTER SIX: Is That a Moose?
Some notes on riding home at night from work: Fireflies bear a strange resemblance to animal eyes. The temperature along the trail is easily 5-10 degrees colder than the ambient outside temp. Technically, the trail is 'closed' after 10 PM. While I greatly enjoy the new rack I had fashioned for my bike, I also discovered that it has greatly affected the center of balance, and effect that gets magnified the more weight I put in it. Haven't dumped the bike as a result, but I have come close a couple of times. Just have to remember to take corners really wide.

CHAPTER SEVEN: Quite A-muse-ing
Ms Sparkly Drawers celebrated her birthday far out on the east coast this year. As of yet, I am still unbale to locate that specific thing that I want to get her. Still the summer is young, and there are a decent number of flea markets to go. On the flip side, she was kind enough to gift me with a little triangle of blue that has served to be the starting point for a couple of art related things. We'll see if she continues to be kind to me in that regard when she hits the road all over the IL/IN/MI area. I can but hope.

CHAPTER EIGHT: I Think Darwin Had It Right
Monday afternoon my head nearly exploded when I came in and found a huge hole in the July schedule. Seems that another full time day shift person had either been let go, or had quit without any notice. At this point in time I realize that the circumstances are not as important as the end result. As such, I don't really care what exactly happened. The unfortunate part would be that this was one of the people who had been grabbing up hours right and left to make up for the others who had gone or been removed from the schedule. Now, it seems that all bets are off. Tonight, for example, I have the new heme supervisor (who will not be staying on this shift), and the new second shift tech (who is not yet fully trained) as my coworkers. I was unhappy with the situation, and expressed my agitation to those who had the highest degree of potential to deal with it. The end result of that skull session was that I somehow wound up just slightly on the wrong side of things, yet again. There is not currently, and there is no potential for (at least the next half a year), smoothness of flow and that knowledge that comes from understanding your coworkers and what they are capable of. There will be some new technologies thrown in to boot sometime soon. The whole thing just went BOOM. And then once the dust had settled a bit, then it kinda went BANG. Yet another situation I find myself not liking very much. And again, I find myself uncertain of how to proceed.

CHAPTER NINE: And The Chicks Dig It....
Why blog?: There it is. A rather simple question. Two words, seven letters, and and a galaxy full of things I hadn't completely considered yet. So, when presented with this little gem by The Canuck, I had to do a bit of thinking. One of the first things I came up with was the idea of it being a way to let far flung friends keep up with whats going on with me. OK, so far that sounds pretty true. She asked if I was trying to give her some insight into who I am, or somehting somewhat along those lines. Yes, I suppose that would be true. Given the basically total lack of people I find trustworthy at work, this seems a first glance to be a relatively harmless means of self-expression. I can discuss things that people may not have thought about, or may be uncomfortable with. Don't like where a section is going? Skip it, and find something more to your likes to read. Or not. Skip the whole event, if you choose. But, I can't say that this goes unnoticed. If I didn't care about being read, I wouldn't have installed a hit tracker on my blog page. Scratch the notion of writing for the sheer need for anonymous self-expression off the list. I'm not quite an attention whore, but it does matter to me in some way that whatever this is doesn't go totally unread. Lack of social skills would be another reason. I don't chat (verbally), because it takes a great deal of effort to do something you're not very good at doing. Comfort level and editing ability are another couple of good reasons. Feel free to add to this list as you, dear reader, have need.

CHAPTER TEN: File an Extension....
The return of MSD to the area reignited my honest intent to complete the Giant's project. All I can really say is that the start I did make was nowhere near as impressive as I had hoped. This project now has all the initial earmarks of turning into yet another started but never finished project. Like the huge pile of my own records that I haven't cut yet. The furniture that hasn't quite gotten completely refinished. The incomlpete tiki room. The mounds of unfinished art projects. The inventory that never got cataloged. And who knows how many other things that I've forgotten about. Why is it that I can't keep focused long enough to get any of these larger scale projects done? Has my mindset been so conditioned by what I do at work that I can only focus on things that are viewed easily as piecework? And, if that is the case, how do I change my view so I stop seeing things as monolithic impossibilities destined to die a dusty death on a shelf next to all their predecessors? Do I get some sense of continuance from all these undone labors? I do have a track record for not being able to handle the end of long term things well. Perhaps by leaving things undone, I can put off that sensation of discomfort that comes with having to move on to something new. That loss of the familiar, that comfort in what you know well. If truth lies there, then why would I be agitated by the same undone projects? Have I come to rest at the crux of needing to move and fearing to move? Worse yet, have I never left that spot? That latter statement seems to be far more squirm inducing than the previous. Therefore, I think I have to grant it a higher degree of validity. This was all so much esasier when I could just bury all of this under gallons of alcohol, if only for a while. And none of that changes the fact that the stuff just needs to start getting done.


PEAS AND CARROTS

*Fourth of july: uneventful. The neighborhood was mostly abandoned, and there wasn't anyone in the left around who was trying to do their impression of the invasion of Normandy. Did get a nice whiff of cordite and gunpowder drifting through the house when they started the show over at Hopkins park, but I was content to sit and work on my jigsaw puzzle. What made me less content was when I seemed to get the Princess Cowgirl quite pissed off at me. And I'm still not sure exactly why.

* OK, I finally came to grips with the fact that I fried my hair with all the coloring I did while I was letting it grow out, and I now have an inescapable need for conditioner. But why is it that when I actually find one that works and that I enjoy the smell of, they no longer make it?

* Soon to be returning to her own house:Meenah, the farting wonder! Not a bad guest as far as our dogsitting escapades have gone, but I still have no realistic idea how such a small animal (Boston terrier) can generate such vast clouds of noxious fumes.

* Pinklady's folks finally had to put Trixie down. Her 6,458 years on the planet ended with an hour long seizure, and a trip to VCA.