Wednesday, December 31, 2008

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Whatever.....

New Year's Eve, and here I am at work once again. No great surprise, really. Not that I'm gonna complain about it either. NYE has just become one of those days that doesn't really register on my list of important things anymore. Part of that has to be the fact that I don't drink anymore, and can only tolerate drunk people in small amounts. Another factor would be the fact that I'm old. No two ways about it. I'd rather stay home and watch reruns of Dirty Jobs than wind up puking in the gutter somewhere.


But on the whole topic of NYE, I got to thinking about what would constitute a stereotypical NYE party. Then I started going through the memory files trying to see if I had anything that matched up to that ideal party idea. The first thing I noticed is that overall, memories of NYE are somewhat sparse, even from the sober years. But there are a couple that stick in the brain for one reason or another.


One was from what I think would have been the post high school, pre college years, somewhere between '88 and '90. May have been as late as '91, but I don't think so. Mr Crow was my cohort at the time, and the scene of the event was Mr Voros' recently deceased grandmother's house. We were in the basement, which had a pool table and a rudimentary bar, as I recall. I must admit that having some surviving pictures of this event has helped me prop up what would be otherwise shaky recall. Ken Mangold was there and so was Gary, whose last name I can't recall at the moment. This was when Chris was dating that girl from St. Louis, and she was there along with her sister, I think. There was some other guy that I have absolutely no recollection of who may have been a friend of Chris' girlfriend. I remember a big pan of what was basically lemonade and vodka, I think. Someone called it 'sip, strip, and go naked'. I started off playing bartender. Which I enjoyed doing because it kept me close to the alcohol, which of course I drank way, way, way too much of. This resulted in me falling down a lot, and finally getting carted off to an upstairs room, where I was supposed to stay to sleep off my alcohol induced stupor. I somehow made it back downstairs and continued to make an ass of myself. Ah, memories....


Another NYE that I can recall, and have a picture or two of (maybe), found me in Chicago. Once again, I was in the company of Mr Voros, along with Morgan, and Stan. There was another guy whose name I can't remember, and somewhere along the line was a redhead that may have been named Penny. What made this one memorable, up to a point, was being at this bar named Iggy's that had open bar till midnight. Cue the heavy drinker. Yet another evening I can be proud of....


There are other holidayish parties that I can remember bits and pieces of, but none that really stand out as being NYE. Most all of them involve me drinking way too much. It also would appear that after I quit drinking, not only did NYE stop being an event, I slowly stopped getting invited to events related to NYE. Not really a huge loss, I guess. In the end, I suppose that NYE just ends up being another day for me. Which reminds me, I need to get some new calendars for the downstairs. I may also be saved from having to play nice with the neighbors tonight by way of Pinklady having had a massive migraine last night that she is still trying to recover from.


Anyway, hope you all have a fun NYE, and don't forget to share your stories and pics.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

100% Gluten Free!

Well, today at work is sure a change from yesterday. At least so far. Got my tiny little ass run over six ways from Wednesday yesterday. The capper for the evening was having to section four toes from someone's left foot so we could set cultures. I didn't want to end my day with dicing up toes. Not that it would be a great way to start the day, but fishing a big toe out of a cup so you can slice it up is just not a good way to close out your work day.

This week between Christmas and New Year's can be so unpredictable as far as business goes. And with the weather going all over the place, it makes it even harder to say what's gonna happen. I thought for a second there that strep/flu/RSV season had started in earnest, but it doesn't seem that that's the case now. Still getting them, just not at the insane rate we have over the past few winters.

Got asked if I wanted to work New Year's Day today. That would be another day of time and a half, plus shift diff. Tempting for the split second that I didn't remember the fight I had this past weekend with Pinklady regarding holidays and my work schedule. If I thought I could get away with working Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day, I would be gravely mistaken. So, I had to give that one a pass. As it is I'm glad I looked at the schedule today, because I didn't realize that I was supposed to be in at 1400 tomorrow. At least that mostly insures that I'll be out at 2230 and can go put in an apppearance at the neighbor's party. Oh. Boy. Will. That. Be. Fun. Whoo. Hoo.

Aside from the getting a blog entry in today, my morning was pretty much a waste of time, not counting playing goalie while the dogs got their nails cut. Even though I had the whole house to myself, which doesn't happen much anymore, I still didn't do anything notable. Unless you're impressed by the video game playing abilities of a 38 year old. I did manage to find out when I have to have the donation tiki done, and ignored a boatload of strange requests on Facebook. Beyond that, I sat on my ass. There is a small part of me that worries that the medium low energy level I am currently experiencing is a symptom of a need for an increased medication level. That would make the fourth straight year that I've had to increase my dosage to keep from crawling under a rock.


**I still have gifts to wrap and deliver. Some of which could be yours.

**Shoes are ridiculously expensive.

**Gotta call Cromag in the next couple of days and see how the office move went.

**By the time Pinklady goes back to work, it is highly likely that she will not have accomplished any degree of her goal for the past week.

**They're biscotti. They're supposed to be that hard. That's what the espresso is for.

**I should pick up a couple packs of floor tiles so I have replacements handy.

**She likes Nerds. Freakin adorable.

**I need to shampoo the peanut butter residue out of the carpet tomorrow. And the blood.

2008 In Review, and Other Stuff

  1. Operation:8 Shelf-A great idea, or so I thought at the start of this year. It actually worked for a couple of months, and then just fell flat. Of course, I didn't do a whole lot to keep it going, either. The concept was, as I recall, an attempt to get a group people together to play games on a regular basis. Part of the genesis of this was the fact that I continue to add to my game collection, but still have a number that I haven't ever played. The name derived from the 8 shelves of games that are on display in the main room downstairs. I really should try to revive this one this year. I think I had also attached a dollar amount per game played that I was going to donate to TAILS at the end of the year. Since that would add up to be some ridiculously small amount, I think I can cover it with the tiki I'm donating to the auction at Tropical TAILS.
  2. Home Improvements-Done this past year was the downstairs and upstairs hall bathroom remodels, the front door replacement, the cladding on the foundation, the painting of the house, and the new furnace. Good to have that much done, bad to be sitting on top of the home equity loan that we got to finance the whole mess. If we can get that paid down, up next would be the master bath and the water heater. Then maybe some skylights in the living room.
  3. Off the Meds, and Back Again-As usual, I made a try at getting off the pills in the summer. Thought I actually had a run at it until I dropped off the charts really early in the fall this year. So, I started taking the damn things again. Holding steady at the same dosage from last year, which is good in my opinion. I just hate the thought the thing that I am most known for seems to be having mechanical issues.
  4. Class of '88-20 years later, and I summed this up to Nikki by saying it was exactly what I expected, and not at all what I wanted it to be. I had no real reason for what I was thinking it would be, except for a mega-gargantuan batch of wishful thinking. Instead I got a huge pop in the head from reality.
  5. Tails Donation-I have until the actual day of the event to put whatever finishing touches I want to on the carving, as they really don't have anywhere to store it. Rather than put it on the back burner, I'm going to try and get it done this week. The sanding is already done, so up next would be the conditioning and staining. I think I managed to strike a decent balance between sanding as much of the really rough surfaces off as I needed to without removing all the tool marks. So now there are no splintery parts, and it looks just roughly/crudely done to really cool looking. Can't wait to see how much it goes for at auction. I'll get some pics up of this soon.
  6. Project: No Mas-This went well for a couple of weeks, then the wheels fell off. More like they exploded off in some nuclear style fireball. This is another one I should resurrect for the new year.
  7. Studio For One-At last I have managed to get all my stuff mostly in one place. I evicted Pinklady from the room, laid some new flooring, and viola! a studio space for me. It's a nice place to retreat to.
  8. Bookless-This was a really off year for me as far as books went. I just didn't do a whole lot of reading. Starting to amend that, though. The pile of owned but unread books is starting to decrease for the first time in quite a while.
  9. "Silence of the Lambs"-This was one that has been in my stacks for a while. I was really looking forward to reading it as my general experience with books that get turned into movies is that the book is usually much better (ie Christine). I didn't get that with this book. I remember that when I picked it up it seemed a bit thin, physically, that is. Fairly large print, and not a huge number of pages. I was a tad apprehensive. Then I read it. I ended up disappointed, slightly. The movie was almost lifted verbatim from the book, with a minimal number of deviations. The additional insight into the workings of Hannibal Lechter's mind that I was hoping to find just weren't there. Of course, that does keep him in that category of mysterious evil that makes him all that more creepy. I also have to give a huge tip of the hat to Anthony Hopkins and everybody else who brought this book to life and actually added something to it in the process. I guess this is ones of those exceptions that proves the rule.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Snow White and Sky Grey



I think it would be safe to say that there is more snow on the ground here currently than there has been at any given time in any winter in recent memory. It was here, oooh, aaah, now it can go away. The holidays are within about 8 hours of being over, so the whole white Christmas thing can go jump. Actually, I think there's a chance for thunderstorms in the forecast for this weekend. So, in one period of seven days, we will have gone from a -35 degree wind chill to upper 40's and thunderstorms. And, as a concession to my upcoming advance into middle age, we did our part to help stimulate the economy and finally gave in and purchased a snowblower. So now, part of me wants to make sure I get my money's worth of this investment by getting a lot of use out of it, and another part of me wants to never have to use it again. Ever.

I am currently waiting to hear back from someone at TAILS to see if they want to accept one of my tikis as a donation for their Tropical TAILS fundraiser. Be interesting to see how much it would go for, and it would also help thin my collection out by just the tiniest bit.

**Spore is putting too large a dent in my studio time.
**When I don't have cereal for breakfast, I tend to forget to take my meds.
**For a little light holiday reading this year, my choice is "The Silence of the Lambs" by Thomas Harris.
**The padlock on my locker at work decided to die today.
**The glasses are for reading only. And the left eye is the bad one. They're both nice to look at, though.
**How challenging is a Muse meant to be? And, is it possible to be inspired in Peoria?
**Dimples survived her final! Yay!
**It is ridiculously, dangerously, freakishly, unnaturally cold outside (Sunday). Or, you could see it as a very minimal preview of what may happen when all of the energy present in the universe is expended and the temperature of all that remains is hovering just above absolute zero.
**Will rates go below 5% again? I can only hope.
**Here's hoping the lights are back on in IN.
**I think the whole 'short arms' excuse is fairly lame, with only the tiniest footing in reality. I mean really, who hasn't heard of a mirror?
**Good to finally hear from Dhawk. Glad it wasn't a flare, and hope you feel better soon.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Ho, Ho, Ho-Now Make It Go!

I have discovered that one of the things that grates on my nerves most during the 'holiday season' is Christmas carols/songs. Mind you, it's not really the actual song itself, but the fact that you hear the same 2 dozen or so songs from August thru mid-January in an endless repeating loop. It's almost like having a CD stuck in your player that you can't remove. Ever. And if you dare comment on it in any way other than the positive, be ready for the public at large to rip you a new one. And then fill it with a festive holiday display. I don't really want to hear Barry Manilow singing 'Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer'. Ever. And I do mean ever. The original song is OK to hear once, maybe twice a year. The first time you kinda catch it in the middle and then you start tuning in to whatever song is playing cause you want to hear that one specific song again. And within a very short amount of time, you will no doubt hear it again. And that's enough. You've heard it, and you're done. In small doses like that it can be quite amusing and even fairly festive. By the time your hear it the 473rd time, you are praying that someone will shove a knitting needle through your skull to make it stop. Even back when the 'holiday season' started the day after Thanksgiving, by the time Christmas rolled around I was pretty much ready for a change of music. But it seemed that not even the appearance of a brand new calendar year was enough to make it go away. Even now I rarely listen to the same CD more than twice in a row. I have something like 200 hours of music stored on my computer, and I get cranky when I hear the same song twice in a week when I'm listening to a random shuffle playlist. I just don't want to hear Clay Aiken's rendition of the Spanish version of Van Halen's take on the Indian remix of 'O Come All Ye Faithful'. IT'S THE SAME DAMN SONG!!!! I don't care whose Christmas album it is, I really don't want to hear it. If it's actually a new composition, you're more likely to get me to listen, but realistically, by the time Halloween has come and gone, I've had my fill of Christmas music. Now, if you'll excuse me, I feel the need to partake of some Nine Inch Nails.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Brrrr....

While Christmas lights do all their twinklage,
And snowflakes come down in a sprinklage,
I realize that my kilt
May not quite be built
To protect me from cold weather shrinkage
.

What? No Fruitcake??

It's Wednesday. The supposed midpoint of the week. Since I have to work on weekends (again, supposed) I've discovered that whole context doesn't really have any great meaning for me. All I know is that I'm off tomorrow, and just about every form of precipitation known to man is supposed to start coming down in the afternoon. I've got to take Reka to the vet in the morning, and as soon as I'm done with that, it's off to the folk's house for the holiday celebration. If I had my way, I'd just hole up in the studio for the day. I'm getting the impression that's just not gonna happen.

'Paula IV' has been completed, and as usual, I'm not completely satisfied with it, which means that 'Paula V' (and beyond) will soon be in the works. I also have a notion that I want to work on courtesy of Dhawk, and another couple from Bluegirl that need some attention. I found another piece that I had done in one of my other sketch pads that I think I like enough to get framed. Of course, I need to get it mounted first. I have also been toying with the notion of sending '623' out to Jeweltiger, but I'm not sure I really want to do that. Also still working on doing clean up carving and sanding on a tiki from the past with the notion of donating it to the TAILS auction, which is coming up in February. I suppose it would be a good idea to first contact them and even see if it's something they'd be interested in having in their auction. Aside from it fitting in with the tropical theme, I don't know what they'll think of it. Which reminds me that I need to go get more 60 grit sandpaper. And put gas in my car. I think we need ice melter, too.

Got another blood donation in the books today. I'm still not sure if I'm working on gallon number three or gallon number four. Either way, it'll be a year and a half or less before I find out for sure.I really can't see how the girl in the screening area can get away with having those long, fake nails, but that's not for me to say. And for those of you who may be wondering, a tetanus shot is not cause for an automatic deferral.

My shoulder and neck are still somewhat messed up, even after two sessions with Pinklady. Today is definitely better than yesterday, but range of motion is still a little limited. I will only grudgingly acknowledge that a potential contributor to this problem was the somewhat excessive amount of time I spent on the computer this past weekend.

**$99 for two tickets to see Blue Man Group?? How cool is that? Now, who could I go with?

**What will come of Jeweltiger's 'project'?? I must admit to a high degree of curiosity regarding that potential outcome.

**Spamalot is returning to Chicago! I'll have to investigate ticket prices for that one.

**Dhawk has gone completely off the radar again, leaving me somewhat worried about how she's doing.

**A book returned, and lots of eye candy given from Lady Justice this past Saturday. Bluegirl contributed a ridiculously large box of candy candy that is still riding around in the back of my car.

**I find myself leaning more and more towards removing the aquarium in favor of building a bar for the tiki lounge.

**Having made my way through several sections of the train station without collecting a single soul, I now find myself stuck. And irritated. And low on chaingun ammo.

**Here's hoping Dimples kicks some ass on her stats final!

**Sutures can be removed with a pair of tweezers and a properly sharpened chisel.

**Saw some things today that I thought the Princess Cowgirl might like. Almost picked up a couple of them. Maybe in a day or so.

**It's really hard to mail something to someone when you don't know their address (you 2 know who you are....).

**Almost time to go break the mega-ginourmous-chocolate bar we get here in the lab every year.

Friday, December 12, 2008

I'm Freakin Freezing, Mr. Bigglesworth....

I hate the cold. It's supposed to get up into the 40's this weekend, but the wind chill today is sub-zero. When you go outside, it's like someone shoving hundreds of pins through your clothes when the wind hits you. I have discovered that I can tolerate (please note the rather intentional use of the word 'tolerate') being hungry, lonely, horny, injured, and medicated. The cold is about the only thing I can't take. So, before I headed out the door for work today, I once again donned my insulated overalls. And I don't freakin care what anyone thinks. They can all just continue to scurry as fast as they can from their car to the door and back again. I will continue to be warm. Or, at least as warm as I can be here in the frozen armpit of Hell.
Goodbye, Bettie...

Thursday, December 11, 2008

A little bristle action

The pack of Chinese brushes I picked up at Michael's a while ago are crappy. Or maybe not. I suppose it would be better said that they don't quite perform the way I had hoped they would. The smallest one in the bunch is still to big for doing the interior detail work on the piece I'm working on currently (the 4th incarnation of the piece inspired by Jaws). It worked well enough to do the big fill on the outside edges, but when wet it has a split tip, which I don't care for. Makes me glad I kept and cleaned that other self-contained ink pen. At least it has a nice tight tip.
Still not sure what the palette for this piece is going to be. Not entirely sure I'm gonna care for the form, but it looks interesting enough now that I'm at least gonna put some color down and see how it looks. Reds and blues, mostly. May have to get back into the tempera for this one.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

That's Not Good.....

There is an old addage that goes something along the lines of "let sleeping dogs lie". I would like to add a more obvious and yet unstated part to this saying: "don't reach in between fighting dogs". I could have made use of this nugget of info yesterday night. I had taken a break from studio time (this may have been the primary mistake) to go upstairs and spend at least a little time with Pinklady, lest she become overly cranky. So, there I was sitting on the couch, watching the news and playing a bit with Gracie. Reka was to my left, down at the end of the couch. Now, she was trying to sleep and wasn't taking to kindly to Gracie bumping and banging her way past as we played with the turtle, and let her displeasure be known with her usual low growl. And just like usually, we ignored her and continued playing.

Somehow, I got interested in what was on the TV and stopped paying attention to the interaction between Gracie and Reka. When I noticed what was going on between them, they were in a very alert staring match, practically nose to nose. Almost instantaneuosly, Reka barked at Gracie, and Gracie grabbed Reka's ear. This, of course, caused Reka to make some very unpleasant sounds. That was when my big dose of Stupid kicked in.

I reached across Reka's face to try and get her ear out of Gracie's mouth at exactly the same time she made a grab for her own mouthful of Gracie. Instead, she got the inside of my right wrist. I instantly forgot about the dogs and clutched at my damaged wrist. Then came the blood. Quite quickly. And in a surprising amount.

Now, as a side note for those of you who may not be overly familiar with the particular details of my anatomy, I offer this general description. I am not well insulated. Bones and tendons and the like are quite visible in most parts of my body. My hands and forearms are, for lack of a better descrition, very veiny. Almost to the point of being somewhat freakish in appearance. Bear that in mind as you continue onward.

I jumped up and ran to the kitchen where I stood over the sink and had that moment where I knew I had to look, but really didn't want to, given the amount of blood that had already seeped through my fingers. But I let go and was rewarded with a rapid fire patter of blood drops into the white sink. At this point my head got a little swimmy. I grabbed my wrist again while the room seemed to make a half turn around me. More blood squished between my fingers as I heard Pinklady call from the other room, "Are you all right?? Do we need to take you to the ER??" I looked at the dinner plate sized puddle in the bottom of the sink and and replied simply, "We need to go".

Everything in the room did another half loop when Pinklady came rushing into the kitchen, saw the mess in the sink, and started saying, "ohmygodohmygodohmygod" at a near frantic pace. She began corralling all the animals in to separate rooms wile I stood over the sink with a towel wrapped around my wrist while trying to keep her from going completely off the deep end. The whole time, visions of vascular repair surgery kept dancing around in my head. I made sure I could wiggle all my fingers and could feel everything, and tried to point this out to Pinklady as a good thing as she draped my coat around my shoulders, but I think she was a bit put off by the bloody towel I had clamped around my wrist.

The car ride to the hospital was thankfully short, as it had gotten somewhat icy outside. Pinklady kept looking at me and saying, "you look pale". I really wasn't too surprised at that.
The wait to be seen in the ER wasn't too long, and I discovered that the bleeding had actually stopped when I had to show one of the triage people what had happened. That did nothing to change the fact that I looked like an extra from some horror movie. And people kept saying that I looked pale. After the waiting came the cleaning, the shot, the antibiotic, and ONE SINGLE STITCH. I was almost insulted. One stitch. That's all it took to close up the hole. It was just a lucky grab on Reka's part that she managed to hit, and puncture, the vein. But, for as small as the vein is, there is obviously A LOT of blood that moves through there on a regular basis.

Now I have a sore shoulder from the tetanus booster, a wrist wrapped with Co-flex, and a single stitch protruding from a developing bruise like some bizarre lone whisker. Not to mention that the ER people said they'd have to report the bite to Animal Control, and Pinklady thinks they're gonna break down the doors in the middle of the night and take Reka away.

In short, the moral of the story: don't reach around the snappy, bitey part of the dog should you need to separate one from another.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

12/7 Haiku

Losing my focus
A nap would be really nice
Six hours left to go

Trash or treasure?

Tropical TAILS is coming up in a couple of months, and I need to decide not only if I want to go, but if I want to donate something for the silent auction. I seem to remember this crossing my mind last year as well. It also seems to have left my mind as quickly as it entered. In any event, I need to make a few decisions. If I wanted to donate some tikis for the auction (since it is a tropical themed event), I'd have to go through my collection and decide which ones I wouldn't mind getting rid of. Of course, the ones I'd be most likely to let go of would also be the ones that aren't the greatest to start with. And, the object of donating something to a charitable event would be to help them raise money, not to help me clean out my project closet. On the other hand, it would help me clear out some space. I just had the thought that I could carve down the fangs in the first big pine tiki I did and let that one go. Could also get rid of a couple of the smaller pieces I've done. Or, I could keep all my stuff and just give them money instead.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

12/6 Haiku 2

Another icy night
Frosted windows need scraping
Breath makes rolling clouds

12/6 Haiku

I hate the winter
Endless layers of clothing
Still, I get a chill

Just Saturday

**Woke up to find more snow on the ground. Wasn't expecting that. Not sure why I wasn't expecting it, I just wasn't. Not that I had bothered to watch the forecast or anything. So we got a touch more of that dry, poofy blowing snow. Just enough that I did have to go out and make an effort at clearing the driveway. Was fortunate enough to have the neighbor blow out the end of the driveway where it meets the street. Of course, it also seems that she went all the way down the sidewalk to who knows where with the snowblower. Not that I minded.

**Good luck to Jeweltiger in getting the snot out of her head.

**Left my phone at home sitting on the charger. Not really a functional problem as much as it is an annoyance. Not like tonight is gonna be the night that I get a text from the Spanish Women's Gymnastics team saying that they had a mass wardrobe malfunction and they need my help.

**Brought way too much stuff to do tonight that isn't work related. Not like I don't have things I need to get done here, it's just that I really don't want to be doing any of it. At least since I came in at 2 today, I get to head out at 1030. It also seems kinda stupid to be all worked up about the things I didn't do while I had the day off yesterday. Odd thing is that I actually think I got all the stuff done that I set out to do at the start of the day. With the exception of getting some epoxy and going to the game store. It could also be argued that I spent a minimal amount of time on art, and only slightly more on reading. Barely managed to get a nap in, too.

**Got one of those 'I'm out shopping RIGHT NOW, so what do you want for Cristmas' calls today. I hate those. Mostly because I don't usually have an answer for the person who's calling. That almost always ends up meaning one thing: gift certificates.

**"Wanted":A gimmicky, one-trick, attempt-to-make-violence-into-art kind of movie. I wasn't terribly interested in seeing it, but Pinklady decided she wanted to. The jerky quick/slow POV camera work got her somewhat motion sick by the middle third of the movie. I had gotten bored to the point where I was just hoping something other than another exploding head would happen. The overall impact of the movie was something like Office Space meets Reservoir Dogs. Forget about curving the bullet, just curve yourself away from this DVD when you see it in the rental store. MALE SPOILER ALERT: There is only one very, very, very brief shot of Angelina's mostly bare, wet butt (and nothing else) in the whole movie.

**Dhawk must be living in the vicinity of a black hole in order to account her her rather odd perception of time that has left me with not even the vaguest clue of what was under the black.

**Dammit!! I just caught myself looking at the clock and counting the hours till I'm done. Not a good thing, as it isn't even 4 yet....

**Some 4 legged occupant of the house decided that the new leaf on my banana plant must be rally tasty. Luckily for them, that occupant's identity remains unknown.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Counting Down....

I know I shouldn't do it. I know that when I start looking at the clock and trying to figure out when I'll be done for the day, that's when the clock will stop moving. But I was already looking at the clock at four this afternoon. Now, I've got 3.5 hours to go, and I could very well be climbing the walls by the time I swipe out tonight. It also seems that the lab is being slowly swamped by cyclical waves of 'This shift didn't do x, y, and z and that shift didn't do a, b, and c'. Back to acting like kindergardners.

I'd really like to be working on the new line inspired by Jaws. The ink is laid for the first sketch, I got some of the lines in for the second, and I have some ideas in the running for the third. Also realized an oddly consistent visual element that I hadn't thought of before. I'm thinking of doing an impasto technique should I end up taking one of these to paint.

Maybe I'll go to the game store tomorrow and see if anything pops out at me as potential gift material.

Definitely going to replay the 'Snowy Bridge' level of Painkiller. Just a few too many one way areas to be able to go back after you clear eveything and find all the hidden areas. Not too mention that I think I'm missing two of those areas. Could be just one. I know there is one holy item I haven't found yet, and what seems to be a crapload of gold stashed somewhere.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

What, ho? An idea?!

Jaws seems to have unwittingly provided me with the seed of an idea that seems to be stuck in the old brain pan. I've already laid some graphite of the first version, but at the moment, the palatte is eluding me. I was going to work in the general tones of the crystal violet, but after asking, I find that blues are the preferred color. Interesting. Very interesting.

Got a little more snow down today, and it seems that people decided to not drive around and randomly smash into each other. At least that's my take on the situation given the lack of trauma patients in the ED. Cold and very windy should make clearing the driveway less than fun, too.

Once again, it seems the triple play of meds, exercise, and vitamins is helping me move in the right general direction. May be time to head back to the pool. Shame that Kittyluv can't join me.

Watching the snow whip by the window makes me realize how loudly that hot tub in AZ is calling my name.

Dammit, what the hell do you people want for freakin Chrismas!?!?

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Broken?

I feel like I may be on my way out of the Doldrums. Maybe. Right now, it's somewhat hard to say since I have a persistent lingering visual headache that seems to be a holdout from the game of Painkiller that I was playing earlier. That left me feeling vaguely nauseous. I'm also really tired, which is no great surprise. Guess I'l have to see how I feel in the morning in order to be able to decide if this little spell is over, or is just winding up to hit me again a little harder. I'm hoping for the former and not the latter. The way this whole thing feels like it almost snapped while I was at work does make me wonder if I was in the process of coming down with something, which then just had a synergistic effect with the downer. To early to call yet, I think.

Pink and teal for Jeweltiger tonight. Not bad at all.

From the looks of things, I can only hope that Jaws continues to spill crystal violet all over the place.

No holiday list exists outside of my brain, and very little of one even exists there.

Tuesday's List

A good night's sleep: needed
A sunny day: helpful
Fatigue: pervasive
A brisk 30 minute walk: helpful
Watching a documentary on Hitler's bunker: not helpful
Concern from friends: appreciated
Being busy at work: distracting
Creativity: unengaged
A good book: enjoyable
Pinklady hovering and fretting: expected, but not helpful
Sense of impending, overwhelming inertia: massive
Appetite: minimal

Monday, December 1, 2008

Crap Monday

This has not been a good couple of days. All I feel like doing is staying in bed, which is not a good sign. It's not the restful, 'I have a day off and I'm not getting out of bed' kinda thing, it's more like an 'I don't have the energy to be interested in functioning' kinda thing. Nothing even sounds remotely engaging, and work is looming on the horizon, which will make for a looong day. I could just crawl under the desk right now and go to sleep. I'm starting to pace and pull at my hair again, and even naked time seems like way too much effort. Hopefully this will pass. Otherwise, it won't be long before winter becomes intolerable.