Thursday, December 23, 2010

Good King Whats-His-Face

(originally written 12.20.10)

*Not that I don't understand that the holiday is coming up, but does every car owner in Dekalb county need to be out driving around today?? Not that I would usually care, but they're getting in my way.

*Started a couple of new project folders today, one for Eve and one for Amy. Seemed like it might be a good way to keep the series files for ongoing projects organized, but they're just manila folders. It's not like I can put a canvas in there or anything. Guess the best I can hope for is to be able to keep track of what number I'm working on when I switch back and forth between series. Even managed to get some color laid in on a new piece today. Pretty soon I'm going to have to figure out how to do some hard mounts for all these works I have done on paper. Or maybe I'll switch over to working on masonite or some such thing.

*There should be no real way you can injure yourself with an empty, cold teapot. But, somehow, I managed to do just that.

*Finally did some rearranging in the garage so I'm not tripping over stuff in there. Managed to do the same thing down in the studio, as well. There's still a bunch of stuff in the garage I need to get rid of, but that will happen with the annual spring purge. I think I now have the inside space set up decently for carving, so now I just need to figure out what I'm going to work on and when I need to have it done by. I know I'll need some things for the Chef, probably some for Ohana, and if Tropical Tails is happening this year, I'll need something for that as well. And, if I actually intend on building the bar downstairs, that's some more work that will need to get done.

*Managed to pull a couple of nice Treasure Craft fish platters out of the back of a cabinet at CJ's. Unfortunately, they only had the big one and the small one. The mid-sized one was MIA. These are the red/yellow/white ones, not the blue/green/white ones that I really like. Still, they're in really nice shape, and I don't currently have any of them in my collection. That is to say that I didn't have any of them in my collection until I bought these.

*I can't find the picture, and that is making me quite pissed. But, finding the picture would just let me copy the picture, and part of the idea behind the created image is the degradation of memory. You'd think that after 20 some odd year of keeping something that you wouldn't just up and loose it, though.

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Monday, December 20, 2010

Haiku 4 u!

Snow comes falling down
People forget how to drive
End up in the ditch


Saturday, December 18, 2010

Playing Ketchup

*Thanksgiving around the old homestead was no big deal this year. The rest of the fam went up to MN to do their thing, and we begged off since I had to work the day after. So it was just the two us and some less than stellar pre-prepared food from Jewel. And that left us with tons of leftovers. The fridge still smelled like turkey the week after Thanksgiving. Not really a good thing. Makes me think that next year will be a Thanksgiving filled with pizza. Or maybe Chinese food.

*The studio is a horrific mess. It has gone beyond that stage of 'interesting clutter' and is rapidly advancing on 'damn near dangerous'. I'm thinking that some of the furniture has to find another home fairly soon.

*Had an absolute blast at Mel and Rog's holiday party. Probably a good thing I had to work the next day, though. I probably would have ended up in that baby monkey video if we had stayed around too much longer than we did. But, the presentation went well, and the Lodges got what was coming to them as well. The Santa in the shower still kinda creeped me out though. And it was also a good thing that we had the foresight to lay in a supply of coconut water beforehand. Looking forward to the next event, and hoping I have the next day off!

*We finally hit that point where we had to make the decision whether we were going to put more money into my car to get it fixed again, or if we were going to look at something new. It all started with a little puddle of antifreeze under the car, which turned into a trip to Motor Works. The trip to Motor Works led to a diagnosis, which led to a repair estimate. The problem was that the repair that needed to be done would have cost about as much as the current Blue Book value of the car. When I shared that little gem of info with Sheri, she said I should start looking for a new ride. Mind you, I hate car shopping. I'd rather spend the day at a Jehovah's Witness revival meeting than shop for cars. Luckily, using the 'net can greatly decrease the amount of time you actually have to spend in direct contact with an actual car salesman. Sheri thought I should look at a small pickup, and I thought that my days of helping people move were long over. I had been thinking of a Subaru Forrester, but the more I looked at them, the less I liked the way they looked. A little more research put me on the trail of the Honda Element. So that's what I have now. A red 2010 Honda Element. And I don't care what Forbes magazine says. I like it.

*Do you ever REALLY need a piece of meat on your plate that's the size of you head??

*OK, taking time off from work is usually a good thing. Taking time off of work and expecting to hit a killer party first thing is even better. But, if the weatherman decides to piss all over your plans, that is not a good thing. And so, I listened to the weatherman and called off on one of the FOM holiday gatherings. AND NOTHING HAPPENED. I was so pissed I couldn't see straight. True, there were blizzard conditions the next day, but we played the part of responsible adults and basically got poked in the eye for our efforts. When we were in college, we would have walked to Chicago from DeKalb while a blizzard was going on for a good party. Now, it would appear that we're just old.

*$6 for a draft beer? $6.50 for a domestic bottle?? Next time I go into the burbs, I am damn sure gonna take my flask with me.

*Survivor's Day is what I'm calling the gathering we're having on Jan 1. I have to work on NYE, so there will most likely be no parties for me that night, which is no big deal. The drunks don't usually start heading for their cars until about 1 AM or so, and I'm usually long gone from work by then. Plus it seems that every year fewer and fewer people are actually going out for NYE. So the thought occurred to me that doping something the next day might be better. And, since NYD is on a Saturday this year, why not give it a try?

*Kinda sucks that when you stop shopping for something you no longer get to spend time with the cute salesperson.

*OK, I managed to design, playtest, and get assembled a game prototype in less than 8 weeks. Why the hell is getting it shifted over to production mode proving to be so damn difficult? As easy as it was to work with the print place who did the prototype, the $100 per unit quote for a production run about made me have a heart attack. Plus, there are a few design things I'd want to get ironed out before actual production starts. Might be able to get some help from FOM folks who are in the printing biz, but that remains to be seen. I am working on getting an estimate friom a place in Chicago that does game printing for independent publishers, but there are some tech aspects that are proving to be difficult to communicate back and forth.

*Our house is slowly turning into a repository for people who are trying to hide gifts from each other. I'm thinking I could make some extra coin if I start charging a fee for storage. Or maybe just for retrieval.

*Had a good time seeing Eve and enjoying some really good Thai food at the same time. Can't believe that it's been a year since we'd seen each other. At least if I get to see Bluegirl in the next week or so, it will have only been about 6 months since we've gotten together. Been quite a while since I've been down Peoria way too. Geez. I really need to get out more.

*As is typical for me at this time of the year, I find myself with a yen to increase the size of my game collection. And just in case you were wondering, the selection of games at Toys-R-Us SUCKS BIG HAIRY ROCKS!! Sheri said I should go check out the place in town, since I haven't been there in a long time. I might. But I may also just grab some things from Funagain. Either way, I will have to wait for some Giftmas fundage to arrive.

*I need to do just a bit of Giftmas shopping. Soon. And a bit of Giftmas designing. Also, soon. Beyond that, I think I'm pretty well covered for this year. Apparently, I got the wife some really nice jewelry. At least that's what she told me. Good to know.

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