Pencils and Parakeets

Moving on up....

2009-02-24T22:49:00.000-06:00

I'm so excited!

I've just been able to upgrade to a new home on the web. The best part is the domain. It's at Http://CrystalTillman.com. Won't y'all come by and take a look. Thanks :)

MMORPG's and Me

2009-02-15T20:27:00.000-06:00

For those that don’t know, MMORPG stands for Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. While the name contains reference to Role Playing, these days the games revolve more around small in game communities called guilds. There also tasks for you to do, such as carrying messages, and collecting items, for prizes (quests).

About 2 1/2 years ago I played MMORPGs a lot more than I do now. I barely play them at all anymore, at least compared to what I used to. For a long time I had completely quit playing this type of game, and had said I wouldn’t pick them up again. Yet, when a new MMORPG with an interesting plot was released recently I started playing again. No where near as much has I used to though.

Was I addicted?

For awhile I qualified as an addict, sometimes playing 4 to 7 hours in one day (on the weekends). Which is a lot of time to put into any hobby, but when you’re playing it you don’t realize all the time that you’re putting into it until you sit down and really count out the hours. It’s just not something you think about while playing the game.

Looking back on that time, I’ve noticed a few bad habits that added to the addiction. Maybe they were simply side effects of being addicted? I cannot be sure. I’ve noticed them in a few other areas of my life, so I doubt they’re addiction related. The pattern is interesting none the less.

One more thing syndrome

Most people have dealt with this at one point or the other. The drive to do just one more thing before running out the door or to get one more thing done before you go to bed. On the last on it always seems to happen when you're running 5 minutes late anyway.

This itch to get just one more quest done, or to get 10% more experience so you can level up, is one way the games eat time up quickly. "It'll only take 5 minutes to get this done, so I'll get it done before I get off and not have to worry with it tomorrow." The next thing we know it’s 2 hours later and we’re still playing.

I'm going to feel bad anyway

This is a classic excuse that I used when I played late at night. I would look at the time and see how late it was. Then I would think... "I'm going to feel really sleepy tomorrow anyway, so what is finishing this step going to hurt?" Then I would end up being up till 2AM and be a lot worse off than if I had gone to bed when I saw the time originally. That in itself kills the original faulty logic.

Not getting off when you say you will

This one is easy to do, and it fits hand in hand with the above. It's just plain easy to loose track of time when you're playing a game. Since most of them do not have clocks in game. The closest thing that I've seen is one that tells you in the chat box every time an hour has passed that you've had the game on. It’s no good though if you don’t pay attention to the time scrolling by.

My simple fix?

I’ve found that by listening to a podcast, or setting a timer across the room, that goes off about the time I need to get off works quite well. It makes me change gears, either by having to turn on another podcast, or get up and turn off the timer.

There’s still the possible problem of starting back after the change has happened. I do fall into that trap sometimes, but it’s pretty rare. So it’s best if I have a backup strategy. The podcast, and then the timer set for a few minutes after the podcast.

And over to you…

Have you ever been addicted to a MMORPG?

Do any of the habits apply to you? If so, how do you deal with them?

Skip, Skip, Skipping posts...

2009-01-21T06:53:00.004-06:00

I've been reading blogs for... Well sense they started becoming mainstream... Maybe a little before that. So that makes it a couple of years now. I've noticed a trend of three types of posts that I skip entirely. Simply out of dislike for the formats that they're using. Irony of irony's I'm going to use a short version of one of them here in this post!

1. Really long lists.

Lists are a great tool when used properly. Short ones under 10 items are great when you're writing a post. In fact FIND BLOG ENTRY) I felt that the one here is an example of how well lists can work when used well. Here's another example of FIND GOOD SHORT LIST how short lists can be used well.

The problem comes when someone has a numbered list that goes over about 15 items (Which is still a bit long in my mind). Then the post gets extremely dull, as it's all one format. The author looks like they took and outline for a speech and tried to pass it off as a normal blog post. Which is fine if your blog specializes in speech writing, and outlines.

Verdict: Auto Skip

2. MeMes

Sometimes I'll read these if I particularly like that Meme, I've even been known to do them DA MEME, BLOG MEME LINKS/TITLES HERE. But unless it's the one I like, I skip it completely. It's like those forward e-mails that have you fill out the really long surveys and send them out to all your friends. There are way too many floating around and are becoming a really bad clque.

Verdict: 98% Skipped.

3. Interviews...

You can learn a lot from interviews, but I just don't like the format that text ones are presented in. The questions that the interviewer are usually in a different font and stand out from the person being interviewed's text to the point of distracting me from the rest of it... I love audio interviews, if the interviewer is good, but text ones I just can't get into. I only read interviews if It's someone that I know, and I'm really interested in reading their opinion of something... Even then I usually skip them knowing that I can get the same information in a different format somewhere else that bugs me a lot less.

Verdict: 99.99% skipped

And over to you...

What types of posts do you skip?

I'm going on a job hunt....

2009-01-16T22:40:00.003-06:00

I've got to go job hunting.... AAAAHHHH!!!... Well it's not quite that bad, but it is scary. This isn't the first time that I've went job hunting, every other time has been unsuccessful. With the lack of jobs in my area currently I don't hold out great hopes for this round of hunting either. There is a distinct lack of jobs in my area, of any kind.

What job am I looking for...

I'm not 100% sure what kind of job that I want. I would prefer something working with the public, and possibly computers. Retail looks like an interesting job, or perhaps working in a restaurant as a cashier. I'm not sure if I could wait tables, but I'm willing to try. There aren't very many restaurants around here that aren't fast food. I'm not in a position to be terribly picky as I don't have an extreme amount of experience. I wouldn't mind working in an auto parts store, but I'm not real sure how well men would take to asking a woman about car parts.

I'd love to have a job in either the technology sector, or something related. I have two certifications in computers (CompTIA A+, and Network+), but that's not really the direction that I'm interested in going anymore. (Though if I can get a good part time job in that area I'll take it.) Maybe computer repair in a little shop.. Though that's doubtful as most of the local shops are drying up.

My dream job...

Something creative that I can get a simi steady income off of. Freelance writing, podcasting, art commissions, or some combination there of would be wonderful. I love to make things, and to be creative. Even if these are only sidelines to a normal job they're something I'm going to try anyway.

Something that keeps me interested enough that I want to get up most days and go to work. (I'm not asking for all days because that's an impossibility, because who wants to work if they have the flu?)

And over to you...

What is your dream job...?

Do we even have ‘Family Fun’?

2009-01-11T00:30:00.000-06:00

Family fun is something that I don’t think about often. My family doesn’t do fun things together, at least in the classic sense. Most of the common types of family fun I see shown, or talked about are: Board games, card games, vacations, trips to theme parks, etc.

We don’t play games together; we don’t really enjoy trips that well because of having to keep up with everything. I doubt that we’d enjoy going to a theme park even if we went to one, because of how crowded they are. Shopping isn’t that fun for us either because we don’t really need anything much. My parent’s tastes in movies are quite different, so it’s hard to find something that they both like. Even then it’s hard to get together and watch it.

I finally took a few minutes to think about what we do together that would be considered family fun. I finally came up with two things:

Visiting with friends in small groups, just one family at a time is usually the most fun. Because we get to talk to everyone in their family, and they get to talk to everyone in our family. It’s not like at a party where everyone is talking over everyone else. Because we have a lot of friends, so a meal with one or two families at a time tends to be a special treat. Even just going over to their house to visit awhile is fun.

Playing with our pet birds is another of our favorite fun things to do throughout a day. The birds are always doing something a bit different to get our attention. Playing with them all of us will get into playing. The birds just love it of course.

Maybe we don’t need the traditional family fun times. We’re together a lot. My Father’s auto repair shop is a few hundred feet from the house, and my mom is the home maker. I’m currently job hunting, both locally and working toward freelance writing.

And over to you…

What do you, and your family, do together for fun?

My Dream Wedding... NOT!

2008-12-13T14:29:00.000-06:00

Every once and awhile something on TV about weddings will come up, I hear about someone getting married, or I'll see some photography of a wedding. It always gets me to thinking about what I'd want in a wedding if I ever get married. It's just one of those odd things that runs though my mind once and awhile like what car would I buy, what kind of house would I want, etc.

The more I think about it, the less I want a white gown wedding with frills. Even a small one doesn't work for me. For one thing I don't have that kind of money, for another even if I did I wouldn't want to spend it on something that would be just one day. I'd rather take the money and spend it on a house,or a car. Something that would be actually useful to me later on.

Most people think white dress, tuxedos, flowers, big cake, big ceremony, etc. I look at those and it just boggles my head how much money people spend on weddings... After I get over that first reaction, and give myself a kick, remembering that it is a very special day an if they want to spend their money that way it's fine. (It kind of falls into the same category as me spending what I do on books, chocolate, etc.) I go to thinking about how I'd want my wedding to be.

So here's my actual dream wedding...

My immediate family, and his immediate family, meet up at the court house, get married. Dressed up in our 'Sunday best'... With maybe a new dress for me, it's not a big deal. Then after that maybe all of us go out to eat some where. Then a couple of days later a smallish pot luck type party for our friends. (A couple of days later because my nerves will probably be shot enough with getting married as it is on the day).

For the honeymoon... Maybe rent a cabin for two weeks in the smoky mountains, or just have a honeymoon at home.

And over to you...

What's your dream wedding?

It almost feels like square one

2008-12-10T01:14:00.002-06:00

Getting back to writing after NaNoWriMo is a lot tougher than I thought it would be. I've been procrastinating royally, and I'm kicking myself for doing so every day. Tonight I'm still wide awake so I thought that I'd put it to good use and kick myself over my lazy streak again.

Why does it feel like square one?

I'm having to start over for the 3rd time this year on trying to write an entry here every day. I had it almost a habit a couple of times but other things busted in. I'm going to try and work my way back up to it again. I'm probably going to be spotty at times, but I'm going to keep at it. I'm never going to be perfect at it, it's something that I just have to accept and move on with life. Which includes continuing to write.

Fumbling for words...

Which is exactly what I'm doing right this moment. I tend to do it a lot when I'm writing lately. Not on first drafts, but on actual entries that I want to publish. It's my inner editor yelling over my shoulder that I need to get this right the first time. (At 1:30AM it is highly unlikely I'll get this very well done at all, but it's the chance I'm taking for now.) I know better, but it still bugs me.

I've noticed that I also got too picky on what subjects I was writing on. I'm not going to be quite so picky, and tackle a few of the harder and more interesting ones. Such as a few more snippets on trains, and knitting, art and other things. I was getting in too much of a rut. I'll probably keep the same themes to the days that I've planned out too. It's rather sketchy, and will probably end up being better defined as I go along.

I guess I'll stop right here and call it a night, or is that a morning... It's just hitting 2AM now so I guess I'll call it a very early morning.

And over to you....

How's your week going?

Status update: Week of December 1st

2008-12-05T18:06:00.001-06:00

I felt it would be fitting to write the first update of the month as a status update sense it's been almost a month (or at least it feels like it) since I have written anything here. It wasn't that I didn't have the time to write something here, because I did. I'm not really sure what it was. Procrastination most likely.

Nothing much got done this month on my artwork either, but that's OK I guess. I have 1 painting that's 75% done,1 that's sketched and ready to transfer, and 3 more that are in the early sketching stages. So something new should show up soon. I've also got some ideas for some leaf studies plus my other two projects. Now I just need to sit down and actually do them.

I got to go to my knitting class this month, and next month the teacher is going to show me how to do a double sided cable scarf. I haven't decided what color I'm going to knit it in. I was originally thinking about knitting it in a sea foam green yarn, but I'm not 100% sure that I want to as I might want to knit that into a blanket. I have some pinkish purple that I need to finish pulling out of an unfinished project that a friend gave me so I may end up knitting it out of that.

Take care, and I hope you have a good weekend.

A sketch of my day...

2008-11-16T21:04:00.011-06:00

After reading the entry about "Managing the Natural Ups and Downs of your Workweek" on The Simple Dollar a few months back I've been paying attention to my own ups and downs. I’ve been working out how to build this into my day, and watching how my ups and downs work out. Here’s what I tried, and so far it works.

Mornings

I think clearer in the mornings, before I get involved in the chaos of the day. It’s also quieter in the mornings, so it seems to work out better for writing, and editing. I’ll try to focus on my writing first thing after I eat breakfast, alternating a bit with cleaning when my hands need a break. My mornings will basically look like this:

Edit bog draft, and post it.
Clean for 10 or 15 minutes.
Work on a fresh draft for something else.
Repeat as necessary

About 10:30 or 11:00AM it starts getting too chaotic to work on my writing more. On days when it’s not my turn to cook lunch, I’ll work on my knitting, while listening to a podcast. It worked out quite well today as I got about 6 rows on my knitting done between tending to the laundry.

Afternoons

In the afternoons I tend to be more inclined to paint, or draw. So I’ll focus on my artwork then, as well as brain storming ideas and jotting down outlines for entries. So there’s not really a rhythm to this time, as I tend to paint better wile not really focusing on anything time wise. The only real interruption that I normally have to worry about is supper.

Evening

Around 6 or 7 PM after supper I’m going to try to cut off computer time and wrap up anything that I absolutely have left and wind down for the evening. I want to be able to be off the computer by 8PM at the latest.

And over to you…

How do you roughly schedule your day?

Status Update: Week of November 10th

2008-11-14T09:46:00.009-06:00

It's been a really busy this week, which may be somewhat of an understatement. We did a 1 day (2 day?) overnight trip this weekend. I finished moving into my new computer, moving the files over was a pain. I couldn't move them via the network due to a permissions bug. I couldn't figure out how to fix, or just didn't take the time to find the fix, depending on how you look at it.

I've officially decided that I need to overhaul my back up strategy. 20+ CDs not including driver disks is a bit too much to shuffle around. They ended up taking over my art table as I sorted through them. I'm probably going to end up tossing most of the CDs when I get some DVD's to do my back ups too.

Also I had a good idea for a website, and I'm working on getting that mapped out to where I can build it. I need to get most of the back end, and quite a few articles done, as well as most of the layout planned, so I can get it up quickly when I get web space put up. I'll keep most of the project under wraps but it will be something fun to work on, and hopefully pay for itself within a year. :)

Art News:

Like I mentioned earlier. My art table was taken over by the back up disks, so no room to get any artwork done this past week. Hopefully I'll finish getting the rest of the junk cleaned off of it today so that I can paint this afternoon.

NaNoWriMo:

So far it's going well, I am up to 23,144 words. It's not quite where I would have liked to be at this point. I would have liked to be up to 25,000 words by now, but I had to miss 2 days due to the trip. I'll still finish on time, and possibly early, as long as nothing else happens.

Waking up Early:

This has been a very bad week for getting up early. I was exhausted from the weekend, plus I ended up staying up too late a couple of nights this week. I'm going to try to go to bed by 9PM tonight, and see what happens. I'll have to wait and see.

And over to you...

How was your week? Did you accomplish one, or more, of your goals?

Status Update: Week of November 3rd

2008-11-07T21:37:00.004-06:00

I've been sick sense last weekend. At first I thought it was a cold, but some of the breathing problems are hanging around. If I still have it by next week, I'm going to the doctor... I just hope it's a really bad case of allergies.

In good news, kinda, I finally broke down and bought parts, and built a new computer, I loathe to break into my savings account, but the fan on this old one is starting to make funky noises like it did when the other fan went out... I'm going to transfer everything over to my new computer and install Ubuntu on this one so that I'll have it as an 'external hard drive' basically. It won't be run that much so hopefully that will extend the life of the fan considerably. The bonus will be that it extends an extra layer of back up, as I don't completely trust CD's/DVD's No matter how many copies I have of them.

Art News:

I've started on a painting of a 'classic'. Black cat with Green eyes. I wanted to practice how to paint black Far I have two layers of color on. Jury's still out on how well it will turn out. We'll see. :)

NaNoWriMo:

So far I'm ahead of schedule, by approx 3000 words. My current word count is 13,648 as I haven't written yet today. (Whoops!) I'll try to get some in before bed and then move on. If all continues to go well I should be able to finish the 25th. I'm not optimistic that something won't happen where I'm tied up one day. So I'm still shooting for the 30th. :)

Waking up Early:

I've been sick and it's really yanked a knot in this. I've gone back to staying up late, but I still manage to get up by 7. I hope this straitens out soon, my writing schedule during the day is off. An it's making me less productive.

And over to you...

How was your week? Did you accomplish one, or more, of your goals?

Frustrated? Sleep on it!

2008-11-06T10:28:00.000-06:00

What happened to me yesterday proved that old saying works out well. My current computer is getting old enough that I'm getting scared of it. My dad built it for me back not long after the 2.4Mhz Pentium 4s came out back in 2001 or 2002.

So the parts for my new computer came in Tuesday, and I waited until Wednesday to put it together. I was really a mental workout for me, as the last time I worked on building a system was at school. Switching parts out is easy, it's when you get to messing with the motherboard and processor that things get scary. So I'd been tense for awhile, and when I finished putting it together and things didn't work I was frustrated. It was so bad that I actually saw what colors the emotion was, which means that I'm pretty badly caught up with it.

My Dad gave me some really good advice. "Just quit for tonight, because I know how it is. You'll end up wanting to throw something through it if you keep working on it." So I picked up, packed up the wrapping, and shut down for the night. Dad ended up playing with it some, going though the steps of trouble shooting to see if he could get it to working, but nothing he tried worked. He ended up coming in as puzzled, and almost as upset, as I was.

I ended up doing what I usually do when I'm confused by something technical. I Google it. I found out about our concern for the fan, and then I found a reference in a tech forum talking about a 4 pin connector that went into an 8 pin slot on the motherboard. I remember wondering what that connector was for, because it looked like a power connector, but it was in an odd spot. I told dad about it at breakfast this morning. He tried it before I got a chance to, and it worked.

Lessons learned:

If you get frustrated, walk away and go do something else. Preferably something relaxing, or absorbing.
Internet, access to Google (or just a search engine), will help you fix 95% of your technology problems.

And over to you...

What do you do to cope with frustration?

Planning a art tutorial post, Suggestions welcome

2008-11-04T09:11:00.001-06:00

I've been reading work in progress posts over at wetcanvas.com and at deviantart.com and studying them. Not so much for the techniques of painting, though I usually manage to learn something, more along the lines of how to teach someone else. With a work in progress type set up.

The first road block I ran into was that if I wanted to do a watercolor WIP type post, I would have to figure out how to get a good scan wile the art is wet. I don't want to chance getting paint stains on my scanner bed, especially Alizarian Crimson. (That color will stain things very easily.)

The next thing I thought of was my camera. I haven't yet decided if using a tripod will be required as the artwork will be laying flat on a table. My dad has one that I don't know how to use, I'm going to see if I can get him to show me. If not I'll probably just build my own out of wire.

My next problem is, how do I do this without leaving any holes? I've noticed that a lot of the works in progress tutorials, say about 50%, leave out steps that I think should be explained. I'm not quite sure how to handle that.. I'll probably end up drafting several different ones before I figure out how to do it.

And over to you...

Do you have any suggestions as to what I should paint for a tutorial?

Something that I should focus on?

What has been left out of tutorials that you felt you needed to be there?

NaNoWriMo Plans in progress

2008-11-03T20:29:00.000-06:00

I talked about planning my NaNoWriMo the other day. So far I've been writing the units in 15 minute chunks. Which works out well, as that's about how long I can type before my hands get tired. Then I go off and do something else for awhile. I clean, read a book, cook lunch, fold laundry, or sometimes just sit back and listen to a pod cast. Just anything that is enough different that it gives my hands a rest from typing.

It's not helping me on the blog post though, as so far I've missed one day, and today I almost put it off entirely because I'd procrastinated to this late. I should be in the bed right now. But this is like with any other major change in scheduled it throws you off a bit until you get used to it.

I hope that it straitens out soon XD...

And over to you...

How are things going for you? What's you're goal for the month?

Sunshine through my window...

2008-11-02T16:03:00.000-06:00

This morning while I was working on my Novel for NaNoWriMo (3,330 words as of this post) the sun was coming in my window... That just makes me extremely happy,I'm not sure why, but it's an automatic mood lifter. An it looks beautiful with my new curtains.

When the sun is shining in my window, I turn off the lights in my room, and get to work writing. If I'm working on a draft, I close my eyes and just type away. I let the words, spelling, and grammar, be what they may. It's amazing how relaxing that can be. It really picked up my mood this morning as I think I might have the onset of a cold.

Another natural inspiration here lately has been the wonderful fall leaves. My mom's boss has a beautiful tree in her yard. It's some kind of Maple, though I'm not sure what kind. Some of the leaves are yellow when they fall, and some are mottled green with orange, sometimes on the same branch.

And over to you...

What natural things inspire you? Or just plain cheer you up? (Pets count too!)

Status Update: Week of October 27th

2008-10-31T06:07:00.001-05:00

This has been a very crazy week, but rather fun. I'm a touch behind on everything accept here, but not enough to worry about. So, all is well. The weather this past week has been beautiful despite the cold. I've been opening the blinds on my window to let the light in and save a few cents on electricity (Which TVA is supposed to up the price of again I heard.)

It's interesting how people worry about you, and they things that they worry about. A friend of ours was talking about my lack of a 'job'. No I do not have a job in the traditional sense. I'm working on improving my writing enough to do freelance writing, or write for a blog. (If anyone knows of an art related blog that needs a writer please let me know!) I can understand her concern, as I don't have a job that she can see... An telling her that I'm starting my own business doesn't help... Mm... Suggestions?

Art News:
Two new watercolors up, and one photo.

Painting: A Snowy Branch
Painting: A Sun Touched Leaf
Photo: Ruined Memories

Waking up Early:

I think I'm going to modify my getting up routine slightly. Sense I have to be up late on Thursdays, I'm going to try getting up at 6 AM on Fridays for awhile. Friday morning seems to be my only current trouble spot, so hopefully shifting from 5AM to 6AM will work that out.

Exercise:

I've done the low impact work out in two variations this week. Wednesday we did quite a bit of shopping, so I did some interval style walking wile we were doing that. I hope I can keep up the pace next week.

Drawing:

I've done quite a bit of sketching this week, but nothing to show for that yet.... At least it's good practice. :)

And over to you...

How was your week? Did you accomplish one, or more, of your goals?

Walk like a Cockatiel...

2008-10-30T11:25:00.000-05:00

With a flutter of wings, my cockatiel landed down on the floor yesterday. SurgarBaby, walked around exploring every bit of fuzz, and bird seed hull that he found. He spent a good 15 or 20 minutes in the floor before I picked him up. SugarBaby was chattering happily the whole time.

My brother's often told me that the bird liked to follow him around the house, and they'd have to watch for him. Why SugarBaby preferred to follow him around on foot, rather than fly, has me puzzled a bit. Then again, it doesn't really. There's not a whole lot of places at their house which he could have perched on.

He has walked around on the floor here on occasion, but not as long, nor as far, as he did yesterday. He walked a good 15 to 20 feet or so, wandering as he did. This morning he's walked all most that far as well. Wandering around, exploring everything within beak reach. It means I have to keep an eye on him as he's like a little kid getting into everything.

He taps things with his beak, then sometimes tastes of a particularly interesting item. If it turns out to be paper he's going to chew on it for a few minutes before passing by. If I try to pick him up, he runs away as fast as his little legs will take him. It's amazingly cute. I think I'm going to have to bird proof the house again, this time on floor level.

Now I have to go see where he's wandering off too...

And over to you...

Do you have pets? What cute, or funny, things have they done lately?

NaNoWriMo Jitters and Plans

2008-10-29T19:22:00.002-05:00

Just two more days lay between us and the start of NaNoWriMo. All at once I'm excited and nervous. I can't wait to start, yet my story idea doesn't seem to be working out. I know it's mainly just nerves, and maybe a touch of perfectionism creeping in. I'm not too worried about that part though.

What worries me the most is my wrists and fingers may end up hurting after the first day. I'm hoping that my writing plan will keep me going.

Outline..

I read on How Not to Write about planning your ideas on index cards. I remembered it about two weeks ago when writing my outline, in order, in a notebook wasn't working at all. I don't plan my writing in order, which has been one of my bigger downfalls. The index cards are a wonderful work around to this. I can just write my snippet on a card then put it wherever I need it in the stack. I can even switch it around if I like it better in the other spot. This has speeded up my work of outlining from a crawl to a jogging pace. As long as I can get it at about 75% by start time I'll be happy. (There's always that 15% that likes to sneak in wile working on something else.

Twitter...

Will either be a great help or a great distraction wile I work. Hopefully the former, rather than the latter. Though at times when my brain is dead, or my hands are hurting, the latter may happen. Those shall be the times that I'll have to pause twirl's updates and just keep at it. Hopefully those will be few and far between.

Blogging...

I'm not entirely sure how blogging will fit into the picture, I'll do my best to keep up with it. I think I can do so with my system... We'll see how this works out. I may have to slack up on the blogging for a few days. I hope I don't as I'm just getting into a good routine with writing in it every day. I'm planning on blogging first thing in the morning then doing my NaNoWriMo right after breakfast... That's a loose plan anyway.

And over to you...

Are you planning on doing NaNoWriMo? Are you excited, nervous, or both?

Is Photography Art?

2008-10-28T08:27:00.005-05:00

This debate has been flying around over at DeviantArt quite a bit. It's not quite as loud, or in your face as some of the others flying around. I've been thinking about it for the last couple of days off and on. My opinion is: Photography is a form of art.

It's not just point and shoot

One of the more common arguments that is used against photography is that "all you have to do is point the camera at the thing, and click a button". There's a lot that goes into a photograph before you even turn the camera on, much less 'click the button'.

Setting the settings on the camera
Knowing what lenses, or filters, to use (or none at all).
Checking the lighting
If you use film, making sure you have the right speed and type
Making sure the memory card, or film, is in the camera (I've lost wonderful shots this way).
Making sure you have plenty fresh batteries.

Most experienced photographers have it down to a rhythm, and can do all of this is just a few minutes. Making it seem a lot easier than it actually is.

Same rules of composition

The same balance is needed in a painting to achieve a balanced composition that is needed in photography. The Rule of Thirds applies to both painting and photography. Perspective, color, light, and shadow play almost, if not the exact same, roles in both.

Background Clutter

Making sure the background is not so cluttered that the subject is lost, can also one of the harder things to do for both. When photographing nature you have to watch your focus and make sure that the main thing your photographing is standing out. In painting, or drawing, blank spaces are like a siren's call, It's very hard not to put something were when we know it's better to leave it blank.

It takes practice

Just like in painting, or drawing, you have to practice a lot to be a good photographer, much less an excellent one. There's lots of dud shots that pave the way too the good ones, and then even more between there and excellent ones. Just as an artist does a lot of work before becoming skilled enough to be considered a good artist.

And over to you...

Do you consider Photography a form of artwork? Why, or why not?

Blogging schedule

2008-10-27T10:17:00.002-05:00

I've been working out a loose schedule for my weekly posts. Mainly so I won't get overwhelmed by possible things to write about. (So many ideas, so little time.) Also so y'all will have an idea of what's coming next, and can skip days that you're not interested in the subject.

So far my rough idea is this...

Sunday: Ideas, Inspiration, Creativity, and the occasional poem.
Monday: Organization, anti procrastination, an other things to get you going for the week.
Tuesday: Artwork, step by steps, works in progress, new discoveries, and the occasional tutorial.
Wednesday: Writing progress, discussions of road blocks, grammar, spelling etc.
Thursday: Stories fiction, or non. Family history, amusing incidents. Snippets of my WIP books, etc.
Friday: Status updates... Progress on my goals, and things I've updated elsewhere.
Saturday: Fun day. Can be anything. Current research projects, things I've learned, book reviews, knitting, trains, etc.

This is not a hard set schedule I'll break in sometimes with something that I think is more important. If something on the news, or in a blog catches my eye, I will interrupt the schedule if I want to post on it immediately.

I'm not sure how well this will work out, as this is only the 2nd draft of of it, future revisions may appear in the future. I'll try to let y'all know if something changes, time permitting.

And over to you...

Do you use a blogging schedule? Does it work for you?

SideTracked Saturday...

2008-10-26T06:29:00.000-05:00

I've been fighting with procrastinating the last couple of weeks our so, yesterday it finally got me. Hence my not posting a blog entry up. I got quite a bit done yesterday in the way of other projects, such as the art desk, and NaNoWriMo, but nothing when it came to blogging. I started in the morning with full intention of writing first thing, then I let myself get sidetracked first thing into reading a PDF that I wanted to finish up. It was all downhill from there. I didn't think again about blogging until it was time to shut down for bed!

I'm working on getting enough posts ahead so that I can take 1 day off for brainstorming new ideas during the week. That way I can work up drafts and let them sit until I need them. That will help immensely, as I won't have to think up a new topic every single day. I'll have some prewritten for days when my brain just doesn't want to work!

Dealing when sidetracked happens....

I've found the best way to deal with being sidetracked after it happens, is to just do whatever you need to do at that moment. If it's bed time, go to bed. Meal time, go get something to eat. That way you're clearer headed to deal with the after effects of the pile up. Of course this only works when there's no deadline involved. (You should still get something to eat though, no point working on a completely empty stomach.) The only way to deal with those is to just dive right in and do the best that you can. It's not going to be pretty, but at least whatever you're working on is done and you made a valid effort to get it done.

The aftermath of getting sidetracked can leave 'scars', and it's hard to get moving again after you get sidetracked at times due to the shame involved. The disappointment from messing up, or failing, can sometimes lead to a bad round of the blues, worthlessness, etc. The only way to deal with it, is just get it over with and go on. It's very hard to do that as you tend usually want to go an hide from the world after having been sidetracked... Unfortunately, in my experience, that always makes things harder to deal with. Sometimes though, prevention is the best cure.

Preventing Sidetrackeditus

Most of the preventative measures for sidetracked, are the same as the one for procrastination. One most of the time leads to another, so the same type of tools tend to prevent them both. To do lists, routines, timers, and memory tricks, are usually the best ways to avoid getting sidetracked.

Another thing I've found immensely useful is a notepad that is carried with me almost everywhere I go. It stays in my purse most of the time. If I'm trying to concentrate on something, and my mind wants to go somewhere else. I write down what's bugging me to 'get it out of my head', so I can pay attention to what I need to be doing. It can backfire sometimes, like it did with that NaNoWriMo outline, but 90% of the time it's helpful. The hard part is remembering to go back later and get all of your ideas out of the notepad. The best kind is usally a small one that fits in your pocket, it doesn't matter what kind, as long as it works out well for you.

And over to you...

How do you prevent yourself from getting sidetracked when working on a project?

Status Update: Week of October 20th

2008-10-24T11:07:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone, the procrastination monster decided to kick me in the butt today. So I didn't get much done online at all. I did get quite a bit done offline though. I cleaned off about half of a bookcase that I'm getting rid of to make room for an art desk. I don't know if dad will build me one, or if I'll end up buying one yet. We'll have to wait and see how it works out. :)

Art News:
No new artwork this week, other than the sketches I talked about Tuesday. I did post two photos on DA. I'm trying to catch up with some back logged ones before I post any new ones.

Candy Fluff Clouds at sunset
Ruined Memories What was left of my grandparents house after the fire.

Day dreaming:

I've got this one cut down to manageable levels, I've gotten rid of my day dreaming during times that I need to be working, or listening to others. Now that I've cut it down, I've been having more dreams at night. So maybe my day dreams where tiring out that part of my mind that remembered the dreams from the night before? I'm not sure. Anyways, Time to move on to other things, so this is the last update on it.

Waking up Early:

I think I'm going to modify my getting up routine slightly. Sense I have to be up late on Thursdays, I'm going to try getting up at 6 AM on Fridays for awhile. Friday morning seems to be my only current trouble spot, so hopefully shifting from 5AM to 6AM will work that out.

Exercise:

I'm going to change this heading from walking, to exercise. That way anything I do will count. There's a special event going on via the No Excuses Workout Yahoo group. It sends an e-mail every day. If e-mail reminder's help with my cleaning (Flylady) Why not exersize?

Drawing:

I've been skipping out on a lot of my drawing lately. Part of it is procrastination, and part of it is doing all the cleaning that I've been putting off for ages. I get cold easily so the chilly weather has been making me want to move more. So I Cleaned out 4 shelves in my storage closet. I still have two to go, plus moving out that bookshelf. I have my painting stuff set up so that I can paint those last two small watercolors first thing after blogging tomorrow morning. Hopefully I'll get those done ASAP.

And over to you...

How was your week? Did you accomplish one, or more, of your goals?

Featured Sites: Simple Dollar, Smart ARTist, Lateral Action

2008-10-23T16:33:00.004-05:00

I decided to do something a little bit different today. I decided to feature a few of my favorite blogs. I divided this into 3 groups, so that there's not an overload of features all at once.

The Simple Dollar

I found his site in a rather odd fashion, I was hunting for a simple recipe to bake bread. I ended up finding this one, on his site. It's great for beginners because the photos of what to look for at each step. Even though I have more recipes now, I still like it the best.

I got to glancing though his other posts, and really liked his 'tone of voice' when writing. He covers investing, how to be frugal, debt repayment, and lots of other things. All from the perspective of having been there, and wanting to help others recover from, or avoid, traps. I've learned a lot from reading his blog, and it's the first blog that I check every day.

Smart ARTist

This blog is one of the newest on my list, but it's proving to be very useful as it's tailored specifically to artists in business. It focuses on marketing artwork, selling your work, as well as commonly overlooked stuff such as photographing your work. It's a new blog, so there's not a lot there yet, but what's there is very valuable information.

Lateral Action

I've been following this one sense it was first pointed out via CopyBlogger. It focuses on the creative mindset, and shows how tweeking your productivity can backfire. There is such a thing as being too productive, who knew? The entries are really fun, and it'd be worth going back and reading from the beginning... Or at least from the beginning of the current series "Creative Rock Stars Astound Their Audience".

And over to you...

What blogs, or sites, do you check every day?

My Plan for NaNoWriMo

2008-10-22T05:54:00.001-05:00

The count down for NaNoWriMo is upon us. National Novel Writing Month happens every November, its where writers of every skill level, and type, get together to write whatever their heart desires. All to reach the goal of 50,000 words (or more)! For more about NaNoWriMo, go to the site here.

The Goal

To write 50,000 words in a month it means that you have to type out approximately 1667 words a day. Unfortunately due to other obligations I'm going to be out for at least one, or probably 2 days. Which means that I'm going to have to try and hit 50,000 words in 28 days rather than 30. That divides out to 1786 words a day. A bit overwhelming, as it averages out to 3 blog entries a day. More so considering that I'm going to try and keep up with my blog on top of that.

For NaNoWriMo you're to write a first draft. No checking your spelling, or grammar, No going back and tweaking what you wrote. Which ends up helping my words per minute speed immensely. My draft typing speed averages out between 47 and 50 words per minute. I picked 48 WPM to be my average speed. It leaves me with plenty of wiggle room for tired hands, and sore wrists from the cold.

15 minutes at a time

I'm planning on writing in 15 minute sessions, so that I have plenty of time to get other things done. So here's the math:

48 WPM x 15 minutes = 720 words on average per session.

This would be the ideal, as there's going to be times that I have to stop and think about my plot, or I'm distracted by something.

1786 words per day / (divided by) 720 wpm = 2 1/2 sessions per day.

I'll probably go for the full 3 sessions for the first part to add some padding to my word count for later in the month. If it gets to the point that 15 minutes is too long, I may end up going down to 10 minutes. That's something that will have to wait to until I'm actually in the middle of NaNoWriMo to see if it'll work out.

My basic plot is done, I'm working on a slightly more detailed outline. As I'm not 100% sure what I want my ending to be yet. It's the main hole that I have at the moment, I'm sure I'll run into others, but tying the end together is always the hardest for me. As you can probably tell by my entry's here the ends tend to be a bit on the loose side.

What I hope to accomplish...

I've had an Idea for a book bugging me all summer. I thought of it in the spring, and have been putting the bits and pieces together in various notes. I'm hoping to at least get it out of my head, and down on 'paper'. Going back over the first draft, and tweak it quite a bit before showing it to my family. Then get a couple of my friends to read it over. If it makes it past that, I'll probably try submitting it to an editor. So I won't be posting the story anywhere.

If nothing else I can say that I tried. Which counts for a lot in my book.

And over to you...

Are you planning to take part in NaNoWriMo? If so, how are you planning to do it?

Painting with an Eraser

2008-10-21T17:11:00.003-05:00

I finally figured out how to paint with an eraser when shading with graphite. It happened today when I was practicing my folds. I'm not that good at it yet, I've progressed quite a bit though, I hope.

A Mini Tutorial - Painting with an eraser.

1. Do you outlines lightly, don't press your pencil in.

2. Put in your darkest shadows.

3. Put in your next darkest shadows.

4. Carefully put in a medium tone that's lighter than your next darkest shadows over the entire area that you're working on.

5. Use the eraser to 'paint in' your white/light areas.

Not the best instructions in the world, but I hope it helps someone. The idea that 'erasing' the light spots was like painting them in, was a big revelation to me. It's a simple concept that finally clicked. Up until now using an eraser on a nearly finished piece was far too dangerous for my taste. Now I have a semblance of an idea as to what I'm doing. (Yes, I do use big words in real life sometimes, I think it's from reading too many books. Heh. )

My shading is very bad with pencil right now, I tend to stick to color a lot. Having to think in just tones has proved to be a big challenge. I'm not smooth with my shading at all, I end up hatching a lot. Which when I get better at it won't be a bad thing... XD

And over to you...

What did you learn something new about this week?

Pencils, Pens, and Paint Brushes.

2008-10-20T11:30:00.001-05:00

Next to storing paper, storing pencils, pens, and paint brushes tends to be some of the hardest things to store. Their being longish, roundish, and having a tendency of being fragile are major pieces of the puzzle. It's a problem that I've had a lot of problems with, and have yet to completely solve. Here's what's been working for me so far.

Glass Jars, and coffee mugs.

I've been using Glass Jars to hold my paint brushes, and my most used pencils. My favorite storage for my watercolor bushes so far is an old sweet pickle relish jar. I have several other recycled jars that I used for erasers, inking pens, and pencils. The hard part is finding a the right size jar, since you're not able to modify them.

Coffee cups work good as well. Straight sided ones tend to work the best, as you can't store quite as much in the ones with angled sides. Hard plastic cups have worked pretty well, although they are sometimes a bit taller than needed.

Portfolio Style Pencil Holders:

I have one of the Global Classic Black Leather Pencil Cases that I bought over at Cheap Joe's. It's wonderful for protecting my Prismacolor pencils, which can be very fragile (dropping one on a carpeted floor can crack the lead). It's great for when I want to take my pencils with me when traveling, but not quite as pratical for every day use. As you have to carefully put the pencils back under the elastic bands, so you can't put your pencils away in a hurry.

Plastic Bins

I use these for my Crayola pencils, and extra Prismacolors that don't fit in the portfolio. I also have a bin for my crayons. It's a good solution for quick access to my pencils, and quick clean up. Sometimes you have to dig for the color you want, which can be quite annoying as it breaks your concentration.

The Search Continues...

Wile I realize that there's no perfect solution out there, and the ones I have look fine. I'm still on the look out for better solutions to storing my supplies, especially my colored pencils. Most places I've found pictures of art studios usually use jars, cups, cans, or bins, so I cannot be too far off.

And over to you...

How do you store your pencils, pens, or paintbrushes?

Leaves are the flowers of fall...

2008-10-19T08:10:00.003-05:00

One day as I walked,
toward the mail box to see
what the postman had left
and hoping the bills were few.

A flash of brown
caught my eye
as it fluttered to the ground
at first I thought it was a little bird at play

I turned to get a closer look
as I tend to be short of sight
instead of a bird
it was a leaf in flight
guided by the wind

I followed the leaf till it finally lay down
amongst other leaves spread about
upon the ground
covering it like wild flowers
in a spring time field

That is when I understood
that there are flowers in fall too
its the trees standing where they should
showing off their fall flowers

I saw a steam engine on the move..

2008-10-18T11:00:00.000-05:00

Back in the early 1990s my Dad and I went to the next town over to go buy some tires for our pickup truck. There was a big crowd of about 25 - 30 people standing around the parking lot of the tire place. We were rather surprised as it was the middle of the week when most of them would have been at work.

My Dad asked what was going on, as we'd seen people in several other places along the track waiting and watching. The man that Dad asked told Dad that a Steam engine was going to come through soon. It had been away being restored and was heading to be on display. Unfortunately it's been so long now that I don't remember if he said where the engine was going to be displayed.

I was really excited because I'd never seen a Steam engine before. I'd watched them on PBS, mostly on Shining Time Station. My Dad told me to be sure and watch closely as I might not ever get to see one running again. After he said that he got to talking to the other man about it. I wasn't paying much attention to what they said because I though I herd the the sound of the engine coming.

We heard a whistle that was a bit off in the distance. It was at a higher pitch than I'd ever heard a train sound out, more musical. Then a few seconds later the train came through. It was shining in the sunlight when it came out from under the trees. Fresh paint, and polished metal work sparkled. The steam trailing out from it like wispy ribbons. Then in a few seconds it was over the far side of the bridge across the road and out of site. It was far too short for my tastes.

As I grew my interest in learning about all things mechanical continued, but I never really revisited trains until the last few months. I was researching different shows that I used to watch on Wikipedia, and ran upon Shining Time Station. I ended up spending far more time than I should have over the next week researching all things Thomas the Tank Engine.

It brought back the memory of seeing that Steam engine so many years ago. I've sense learned that it was a Tender engine, and have been trying to locate the actual engine I saw. I've found several ones that look similar, but I cannot be sure if they're the same one. Mainly due to not being able to get a good handle on their size. Perhaps one day I shall find out what happened to the engine that was on the move that day. I certainly hope so.

Status Update: Week of October 13th

2008-10-17T12:45:00.000-05:00

This week has been pretty stressful. A close friend that was like a grandmother to our family, died. It was a sudden, so it caught us off guard. So not everything has been going well.

Art News:

One new piece of artwork up. A watercolor of a Sunflower.

Day dreaming:

I've knocked the worst of the distracting day dreaming out. I'm able to focus my daydreaming more on my projects, and working out problems with them. I'm still having to work on not letting them distract me during times I'm listing to something about mid evening (TV, someone talking, etc). Though I figure that's more a long the lines of my needing a nap.

Waking up Early:

I messed myself up yesterday and slept in till 8, it was raining. This morning I slept in till 6. I'm going to start laying my clothes out so I can hop into them first thing. I get cold easy, so this makes me want to go back to bed. The bonus of getting dressed right away is that it will wake me up.

Walking:

No excuses this week, I just didn't think to do it. I'll try again Monday, I'll have to wait and see how that works out.

Drawing:

I've managed to do that yesterday, I'll try to do it today... I'll take it one day at a time after that.

Temptation to rewrite...

2008-10-16T09:34:00.002-05:00

Recently I was going though the tags that I used to 'file' my blog entries here on blogger sense there isn't a categories feature. I was removing other tags that I though I'd use and ended up coming up with better ones. I decided that now was the time to do it, before I got too close to 100 posts. To remove tags, you have to go into the post and remove them from the little labels box.

Perfectionism Attacks...

I was glancing though reading the posts, to make sure I had the right tags on them. When I started correcting spelling errors that had slipped through. Fortunately I realized what I was doing before I tried to rephrase a sentence that was bothering me. I ended up backing out of the whole section and having to do something totally different so I'd stop. I had to fight the itch to rewrite my oldest posts! I felt so silly afterward, but the urge is still there.

Keeping out the creep...

After that I sat back and had to rethink how I was going to go about modifying the tags. I ended up deciding that I'd have to do one tag and then go do something else, such as read another website, then come back. It ended up working, by keeping the urge to rewrite down to manageable levels. I tried doing two tags at one point, but the itch came back about half way through the second. So, I'm having to stick to doing one at a time.

And over to you...

How do you keep perfectionism about one thing from creeping over into another?

Blog Action Day: Poverty is scary!

2008-10-15T07:38:00.005-05:00

Poverty like a lot of terms varies depending on your perspective. The definition that most people think of when they hear poverty is the extreme poverty that effects so many in African countries. The children that are often shown on TV that are walking skeletons that are just a few days away from death. Those images that make you want to cry when you see them.

There is another form of poverty in developed countries that is often overlooked because it tends to not be as obvious. Those that tread that line often feel ashamed to consider themselves in a stage of poverty because we have roofs over our head. We have enough food, clothing, and shelter. Maybe even a few luxuries like books, video games, a older but good computer. We're not starving, some of us may even have steady work.

The problem comes in where a visit to the hospital, or just a ride in the ambulance would cost more than you earn in a year. There's no hope of heath insurance due to simply not being able to afford it, nor is there hope of government assistance because you either make too much or too little for it. If you are trying to start your own business, even if it barely turns a profit, it still counts against your getting help... Or a job.

It's hitting very close to home...

I was struggling with what to write for today, I was afraid to write about poverty... This hidden type of poverty that I described earlier is right where I fall. My gross income for the year, is about 2k. I own one small business that pays for itself plus a little more. The part of that little more that doesn't go toward need to have things, is being split on building my freelancing business, and going into savings. Fortunately I'm blessed with parents that didn't kick me out of the house the day I turned 18, and are willing to provide room and board in exchange for my helping around the house.

Side note: I'm mentally fighting with admitting that because it sounds like I'm mooching off my folks when I'm really not. I buy my own clothes, shoes, and what little luxuries I allow myself. I earn my room and board by doing the laundry, vacuuming for my mom, doing heavy lifting, and so forth. My parents are in their 60s so they need someone at home to do odd things that they're not able to do anymore.

Poverty is scary to everyone.

Poverty in it's many forms can be terrifying. The rich are afraid that they'll loose everything that they worked so hard to get. The poor are afraid of not being able to go to the doctor, get food, getting clothes. It's heart breaking to see poverty in it's extremes, and it's not so extremes... Because it causes everyone to suffer in some fashion. For those of us that have a little more, we feel ashamed to ask for help when we need it at times. Because there's someone out there who needs it worse than we feel we do.

It's especially scary to me because if I were to get sick, and had to go into the hospital for whatever reason. I'd probably be completely broke before the day was out. I know my parents would try to jump in and pay what I wasn't able too. It would put them in a bad position because despite having everything paid for, and being very fugal, they don't have a lot of money saved up. The rest of my family is almost as poor, or poorer than we are depending on who you look at.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you participated in Blog Action Day, please post a link to your entry in the comments. I'd like to come and read it. :)

And over to you...

Does poverty scare you? How do you deal with being afraid?

Writing my way up the mountain

2008-10-14T14:46:00.004-05:00

There she stood, looking up, dreading what she had to do next. She had to keep going, there was no way to go back to before. The woman had been standing on the ledge to rest, she wanted to reach her goal. Yet the top of the mountain looked so very far up... She wasn't sure if she could continue on, but she went on climbing anyway, praying that she would make it.

This is how I've been feeling lately with my writing. The more I write, and read, the more I realize how much I've yet to learn. In one way it's wonderful, I enjoy learning new things. In another way it's daunting, and overwhelming because I realize how little I know. It's all at once humbling and inspiring. It's a feeling that I find epically hard to put into words.

Where I've been...

The higher I got in school the less I understood the importance of studying English. 6th, 7th, and 8th grade just about killed me on English... It wasn't writing that got me, it was diagramming sentences, and all that technical stuff. A good friend of ours who is a professional English teacher in a near by school took the time to come over and tutor me. After her explaining gerunds to me, and several other things she came to the conclusion that I'd been over the it so much my mind had basically shut down and refused to work. She figured that it was due to boredom, because of how quick I picked up whatever she taught me without having to have her reexplain things more than once, or twice.

Fortunately my High School courses didn't go over that ground again, and concentrated more on actual writing. I still had quite a bit of trouble with it. It was very fortunate for me that in my final English course the grade heavily relied on an essay. Which after reading the instructions wrong, and writing the wrong kind of essay.

Where I am....

Writing has helped me to be far more clear headed, and it's helping me to be far more articulate in expressing what I mean. I'm not a polished writer at the moment by any means. I'm slowly getting better, even though it feels like I'm spinning my wheels on a lot of days. It's especially hard on days where nothing seems to fit together well during a first draft. On these days even spelling is hard. I'm very thankful to whomever first invented spell check!

Lately it's becoming more and more of a fight with my perfectionism to be able to write. I have a generous stack of ideas, but I haven't touched them lately other than to add new ones to the pile. They're a bit over my head at the moment, or require additional research which I haven't finished yet. I'm fighting with the sudden urge to just stop writing on my blog all together. As it's my inner editor telling me that I'm not writing 'good enough', whatever that is, and should quit. It's getting harder to fight that urge each day, so I'm just having to work though it.

Where I want to be...

Where do I want to be in a few years?

I want to have a blog that is useful, and interesting, to others.
I want to be able to support myself though my creativity. (Art, Writing, and Blogging.)
I want to be selling artwork on a regular basis, maybe even have had a show somewhere.

Other than that, I'm pretty open to see where things work out. As long as it's good for me, my family, and friends, that's where I want to be.

And over to you...

What skill mountain are you working up? What advice do you have for other's struggleing up that mountain? Where do you want to be in a few years?

Learning art on the internet

2008-10-13T06:37:00.003-05:00

There are lots of ways to learn art via the internet. While these options aren't a substitute for taking a college course in fine arts, nor are they a 100% substitute for buying some really good art books. They can help you to improve immensely on a very tight budget, and help you to keep improving until you can afford the book (or class) of your dreams.

Generally as long as you have a computer that you can use to surf the internet you can use these resources. The only type that requires a fairly new and strong computer, and/or internet connection are watching streaming art videos via places like Youtube. So almost any computer will work for what you want to do.

I'm going to go with the assumption that you already know which type of artwork that you want to do. If you don't that's fine as well. This will give some resources to help you find information about the different types of artwork, and to help you to make a decision about the type you want to try.

Searching for tutorials.

DISCLAMER: All art sites, especially how to draw human anatomy sites tend to contain some nudity. Follow the links at your own risk. I am not liable if you are offended by something that is contained on those sites as I do not control thier content.

The best place to start is by searching via Google, or any other of your favorite search engines. Some good search terms to start with are "How to _____" or "Tutorial _______". Instead of ________ put what type of tutorial you're looking for "drawing people" or "painting landscapes watercolor". Not all tutorial sites found by searching will be the best, or the most useful.

Don't judge if a site is useful, or not, by the name. Sometimes a site with a title that sounds uninteresting can be very useful, or vice-versa. So be willing to invest some time exploring. A good example of that is looking for how to draw realistic people. BakaNeko, a how to draw anime site, has excellent human anatomy tutorials. How to draw manga also has some excellent tutorials.

Art Galleries

Some of the more informal internet art galleries have sections where site members can submit tutorials for others to use. One example of this is the Resorces>Tutorials section on DeviantArt.

Forums

Forum websites such as wetcanvas.com can be good sources for critiques and guidance from other artists. For smaller traditional works generally scanning on a flat bed scanner is best. For Charcoal, pastel, and larger works a very clear photograph with good lighting is best. For digital art a small copy of the file saved as a jpg, gif, or png is best to use. (Just be careful not to save over your original file!)

Just remember that no matter how harsh it sounds, critique is usually meant to help you to get better. So if someone at a forum gives you critique and it sounds harsh, or picky, go do something else for awhile then come back after you've calmed down.

Videos

There are even how to draw videos out there on the internet. One of the easiest places to find them is at YouTube you can put in the same kind of keywords that you put in Google search. The only downside to these videos is that dial up users, or others with slow connections may not want to take the time to wait and download the video. A good quality video where you get to watch someone draw, even if they don't provide steps can be just as helpful as a tutorial.

And over to you...

Where do you go for art help on the internet? Please post your links!

Paper Storage, an artist's headache

2008-10-12T05:18:00.008-05:00

October is Paper Clutter month on FLYlady.net which means that a lot of the special mission to dos are centered around filing your papers, and organizing them. Which immediately got me to thinking about how this especially applies to artists. While we generally have some of the usual problems with unsorted mail stacked up, and other important things not filed away. We also have a special set of problems that come from being an artist.

Storage of clean, unused paper (or canvas).
Storage of works in progress
Storage of finished artwork.
Sketchbook Storage

Storage of Clean, Unused, paper (or canvas)

Most smaller art papers, and canvas, can be stood up or laid down upon a shelf. I do not recommend laying canvas flat if you think that there's any possibility of someone laying a heavy object on top of it. A heavy object might stretch the fabric to the point it's unusable. With paper pads heavy objects are not so much of a danger. Perhaps a small space on a bookshelf next to your art books would be a good spot. Or if you have enough a shelf of their own.

Larger canvases and papers pose a challenge due to their shear size. A friend of mine who used to paint 4 ft wide in oils and bigger used to store hers leaning up against the wall. For bigger flat papers, perhaps a large sized portfolio that you can lean up without worry of them folding, or curling up.

Boxes are always an option, but be careful which you chose. Corrugated cardboard, and boxes that are not acid free can leach acid into paper that was previously acid free. Although it won't show up now, later on it will probably catch up with you, and your paper under your works will turn yellow. An after all the hard work that goes into our artwork, we definitely don't want that to happen!

Storage of works in progress

Although we would love to get our artwork done in one sitting, it's sometimes impossible to do so. Because it's wet media and needs to dry so the colors won't go to mud, or we simply have to take a break and go eat lunch. It tends to make us uneasy to leave our works in progress just laying out on a table, for some with little kids or pets it can be downright dangerous.

One of those fancy paper racks would be ideal, but most of us probably don't have room for one (at least I don't anyway). One possibility for paper type artwork could be some padded alligator clips, or maybe just clothes pins, over a rope or string hung on the wall. That way you have a 'clothes line' type setup for your artwork. Just make sure that it's out of reach of kids, and pets, but not you.. ( Pet birds are a different matter because they can fly, we'll get to them in a bit.)

For canvases perhaps a hook, or nail, on the wall that you can slide them over would be great. Or some place safe to leave them laying out flat. If you have to lay them flat, but are worried about your pet bird, or cat, getting into them. Perhaps you could have a big, strong, cardboard box that's big enough to fit over the painting without touching the edges of it.

Storage of finished pieces

For Oils even though a piece is finished, does not mean that it's dry. You have to be very careful of where you put them for a month or so after the last stroke of paint goes on, as drying times vary from color to color, and brand to brand. The safest option for oils is generally to hang them up somewhere. Even if you have to clear out a closet just to have room. Acrylic on canvas tends to dry quickly, but it is still safer to hang it up due to the nature of canvas being so easy to damage due to being poked or dropped.

For paper based paintings, storage can be simpler. For watercolors, colored pencils, and some acrylic paintings, a simple portfolio will do. Or perhaps a plastic storage container in a dry place. I keep my artwork in a plastic storage container in the floor of my clothes closet.

Note: Pastel and Charcoal users, I cannot offer any advice due to that I don't use those media on a regular basis. If you have any suggestions for your fellow artists, please post them in the comments below.

Sketchbooks

For me the hardest thing to store has been sketches. I've ended up using 3 ring binders filled with prepunched acid free printer paper. I don't have to worry about sheets comeing out as much as other types of sketchbooks. That way they're all together in relitive order by date they where drawn.

And over to you...

How do you store your paper, and keep it organized? What media to you generally use?

I threw myself a boomerang

2008-10-11T20:11:00.000-05:00

Life tends to throw you a boomerang, an today I threw myself one. I wasn't feeling well so I slept in by 2 hours. No big deal I thought, it is saturday afterall. Then our internet service started acting up about lunch time again Fortunetly tomorrow I don't have a choice but to write early. It doesn't usally start messing up till mid afternoon so maybe I'll get my writing done then.

It does give another good illustration against procrastination. I procrastinated both on getting up, and on writing my blog entry for today. Then it came back to bite me, in the internet dropping. This has been happening off and on for awhile, so I don't have any excuses for not going ahead and getting it done. Also, this is another good reason for me to sit down over the next few days and write up extra entries so that I have a buffer in case something goes wrong. Like the internet dropping, a storm, or I get sick.

I have the rough drafts for several posts written out, so I'll take my time tomorrow morning to get hopefully two done. The only thing that I won't put myself ahead on are the status updates. I'm planning on keeping them on either Fridays, or there about.

Today was an off day, hopefully tomorrow will be better.

And over to you?

How was your day, today?

How do you cope with an 'off' day?

Status Update: Week of October 6th

2008-10-10T19:22:00.003-05:00

We've been having problems with out internet cutting out for 5 minutes, to 2 hours. I'm not sure what it is. Dad's planning on calling the ISP the first part of next week. Hopefully it'll get worked out soon. It gets annoying trying to research for articles and it drops out.

NaNoWriMo Aka National Novel Writing Month.

I'm working out a plan so that I can participate in NaNoWriMo next month. I'm hoping that I get at least part of a story idea I've been kicking around all summer done. I'm going to try and keep up with my blogging as well as working on that. I hope it works out. My hand will probably be hurting a bit for the first two weeks. Partly from the cold, partly from all the typing. I'm going to shoot for 1,800 words a day. As I have two days next month that I'm going to have to be away from my computer. (Unless someone wants to contribute a good, working, laptop to the cause. Mac or windows, I don't care which. ;-) )

Day dreaming:

Still working on it, I've almost cut it down. I still have to daydream to work on my stories though :)

Waking up Early:

I'm just about in the habit of it. I've fallen down on going to bed, I'm going to have to work on that a lot this next week.

Walking:

I haven't walked a day this week. My knee has been acting up again where I fell. If it keeps acting up I'm going to have to go to the doctor with it I think. I hope it doesn't come to that.

October's Habit: Sketching 5 minutes a day.

I've been doing pretty good on this, this week. I've been gettin quite a bit of artwork done. I hope to keep the pace up nextweek. I think though It's going to take more than a month to get in the habit.

And over to you...

How are you progressing on your new habits?

Steam Tanks and Diesel Engines

2008-10-09T10:02:00.005-05:00

Recently I've become interested in Locomotives again. I was really interested in them for awhile when Shining Time Station was on PBS. The stories of Thomas, Gordan, and my favorite Henry, made me want to learn more. At the time it ended there due to a lack of books about trains at our local library. We didn't get the internet until about 1997, and by that time PBS had drifted out of my line of favorite programming. (Except for watching Bob Ross, of course.)

Steam is where it started

I started out with a fascination about steam engines. I have only seen one steam engine in person. Yet I could, and still can, go down to our local tracks and see a diesel engine 5 days a week. They stop in town to get something to eat wile the tanker cars are being loaded with clay. So I didn't see what could be so interesting about them. Liking Thomas the Tank Engine also made me biased back then. That was before Diesel the characters were introduced at all.

Diesels by Design

After my early fascination with trains; my interest died off for awhile due to a lack of information. I got more interested in engineering type things in general. I'd pick up bits here and there, how wiring worked, how to design a desk, an so forth. I didn't get back interested in how they actually worked until a discussion of trucking actually came up. There was a blip on a show about how trains where being fazed out because of trucks... It saddened me immensely. It hit me that the diesel engines might go the way of the steamers and die out completely. Then all the rails would be ripped up, not just the ones that hadn't been used in so long that it was unsafe to leave the bridges up.

So I watched every TV show about trains that came on the history channel that I could, even the ones about crashes. My library still had a serious lack of books about trains, so I dug up what I could on the internet. My searching skills were limited at the time, and it was before I knew about Google so I only had Yahoo Search as an option. I turned up a lot, but not a lot at the same time.

Tracks that that continue today.

I recently began to research about trains again. It started with my looking up Thomas the Tank Engine on Wikipedia after being reminded of it by some fan art. After I finished reading everything I could on that, I've started researching the various trains and vehicle that were, and are, in the show. I even ended up stumbling on a type of engine that I knew nothing about. Namely Fireless Locomotives.

And over to you...

Is there something from your child hood that you've had a renewed fascination with recently?

Knitting Class..

2008-10-08T08:30:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I went to a knitting class at one of the local libraries. I got their early enough that I ended up standing outside in the rain for a little bit on the library's porch with some of the other students. One of the other ladies noticed my bag and commented cheerfully that I probably knew how to knit already. I confirmed that I did, and she started talking about how she could croquet but didn't know how to knit yet.

About that time one of the librarians came an unlocked the door. So we all went into the room. The teacher came in not long after that, and we all got started. She was asking if we all had the kit she recommended, and so forth. Learning names, and finding out what we wanted to work on. It turned out that the teacher and the three other ladies in the class knew each other, or knew people that the other one knew. So there was quite a bit of conversation going on between the teacher helping the rest of us. "

The lady that sat on my left was the beginner I talked about earlier. I wish I could have helped her some, but I didn't know the cast-on technique that the instructor was teaching her. It looked pretty easy, I couldn't quite grasp how you were supposed to wrap the thread around the needle though. She was catching on quickly, I think she'll be really good at knitting if she sticks with it. She was working on a scarf.

The lady on my right knee how to do basic knitting, and wanted to learn how to do cable stiches (The 'ropes' on on some sweaters that are a good example). She ended up having to cast on 240 stiches which took up a good part of class, and got started on her first row. I learnd a lot of the basics of how to do cable stiches wile watching the instructor explain it to her.

The lady across the table from me had knitted argyle socks in the past, but had forgotten a lot about how to knit. She started on a scarf, using a slightly more advanced pattern than the lady on my right. She was using a pretty variegated yarn that was pink, white, blue and yellow. It took her awhile to figure out the cast on because her stitches kept slipping off of the needle they were supposed to stay on. She got a good 2 inches done during the class. I hope that she has it finished, or almost finished by next month.

I took the beginners items that the class recommended, as well as my scarf that I was working on. I ended up working on my scarf during class. Next month when they have the class I'm thinking about taking my circular needles and a hat pattern from a book that I bought (as well as my scarf to show them my finished product). I haven't yet gotten used to my circular needles yet, so that will be a big help. Knitting in the round presents a whole new challenge for me, and I'm looking forward to it.

And over to you...

Have you taken a class recently? Was it it for fun, or school? What did you learn from it?

I think I hear a storm coming.

2008-10-07T16:39:00.005-05:00

My post wasn't up this morning due to a Thunder storm coming up wile I was eating breakfast. That's when it hit me, It's that time of year again. Thunder Storm time. I love the temperatures in fall and spring, but the thunder storms I could live without. I love rain, but Thunder storms make me uneasy.

Back in 2003 we had a near miss with a tornado. It hit on the other side of town from us. We got hit by Straight-line winds. It knocked over a paper-shell pecan tree that was approximately 3 to 4 ft in diameter. I'm not sure if it was the winds, or the tree falling but there was shaking feeling after that, it almost seemed as if the house leaned ever so slightly. I think that was more my imagination than anything, though, as I tend to be very sensitive to air pressure.

Since that happened, I tended to get very nervous whenever there's a chance of sever weather. For the next year or so after it happened, I even got nervous during normal thunder storms. Looking at the radar this morning made me uneasy, the long line of storms coming our way reminded me of the radar we saw before that storm.

We were out of power for two weeks after that first storm. (Thankfully we had a generator to keep the refrigerator and the freezer's cold.) So, we only had radar available for the first storm. For about a week there was a storm every night, or at least it felt like it was. I felt like a walking zombie for awhile there.

Most of my friends tend to sympathize. with me a bit. Most of them were around when that storm happened, or have experienced something similar or scarier. I'm slowly getting over the fear of normal storms, but they still wake me up sometimes. (That's a good thing if we forgot to unplug the TV!) Severe weather warnings still scare me a lot, even though I'm better at dealing with them.

I hope that this year isn't that severe, and yet... I hope that we get enough rain to help make up for what we lack from the last two years of summer droughts.

And over to you...

How do you feel about Thunder storms?
How about severe weather?
Have you ever been afraid of a storm?

Folds on Paper

2008-10-06T06:53:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I talked about being on a plateau, or flat spot, with my art skills. I think that I'm starting to get close to starting to climb again. I have that uneasy feeling when working on certain things. I can tell where they're off, and my brain is starting to figure out how to fix it... But it's not quite there yet. Last night it started with pixeling folds on a dress.

The Back Story...

I don't want to cover what I went over here again, so I'll just start with what I'm working on lately. Its a redo of a doll that I originally pixeled back in 2005... I don't remember much about it at the time, other than I got no comments on the thread, which was odd for the forum which I posted it in. I didn't think much about it at the time. Now I see why, it would have been very hard to say anything nice about the doll.

Fast forward to now. The last couple of weeks I've been recoloring the doll, but it's just off. I posted on my current favorite dolling forum. (The name is Glam, if you're interested in dolling.) I received some very good advice and it's making me face and old nemesis... Cloth Folds.

Folds are hard...

Drawing folds in clothes is one of the more difficult parts of designing clothes, for me at least. The number of factors involved tend to be quite confusing at the start of the process. Points where the body pulls the fabric, the weight of the fabric, how point A's folds effect point B's folds, how to shade them, etc. I tend to get a bit bogged down in the details.

I 've been fudging on them quite a bit, I draw pants with the minimum amount of folds. Or I draw just a upper body portrait with a T-shirt, which is what I wear normally at home. I've been letting myself get away with this for a few years... I tried to start back to working on my folds in 2005 via an online 'class' at wetcanvas.com but it was a case of bad timing. A few months after that I started vocational school and that took up a lot of my art time.

So back to work, or play?

Like all things you want to be good at, there are times when it seems to become dull. Right now practicing folds doesn't sound interesting at all, it's like practicing hands, or feet. Same old repetitive thing over and over. It has to be done though, if you or I want to improve at all. I used to could get away with the classic "It's just a hobby" excuse... I never did use it though, and now that I would like to sell more of my art eventually. I cannot use it at all.

So it's off to work, and play, I go. To practice drawing folds. Hi, Ho, Hi, Ho, Hi, Ho....

And over to you...

In art, or other things; What do you struggle with? How do you work at overcoming something that makes you uneasy about your skills?

Slipping Artwork....

2008-10-05T06:26:00.000-05:00

I don't know for sure yet if it's my writing, or if it's just that I don't really have a spot to paint at. I've got 6 paintings waiting to be painted. I want to paint them, don't get me wrong there. I have ideas for more paintings that I want to do, and even more thing that I want to draw. It's like I've hit a wall, or a hump, an I'm having trouble getting over that hump.

Distracted by writing?

I'm still in the stage where writing is fairly easy for me. I guess the best way to describe it would be that I'm on a flat spot, a plateau, because I feel most of my writing lately is on the same skill level. It took a small juimp when I started using subheadings, and another small jump when I started 'free writing' my first drafts. Also, another when I started writing notes. Sadly, right now it's easier to write than to draw... Which may be making me procrastinate on the art, because my creative energy is still being used enough that it's not complaining that much about the lack of drawing.

Distracted by Clutter?

I've been cleaning out a bunch of junk, unfortunately that means that there's odd bits of this and that everywhere. Little things that I didn't get put away while I was working in one area, or things that I put
down wile I was in a hurry to do something else. I've been using the FLYlady trick of not leaving the room without something that needs to be put away in that room. That helps on things that are not part of my room. The problem comes when it's stuff that actually belongs in my room. An things I need to file away. I know the mess wasn't made in a day, and it won't get better in a day. Knowing that doesn't mean that I'm immune to it bugging me though. If I can keep my desk relatively clear, I'll be ok. So that all but eleminates that possibilitiy.

Distracted by Digital Art?

This is a possibility that didn't dawn on me till just now. I have a doll that isn't going well at the moment... So maybe that's bugging me to distraction?

My Conclusion...

Its a combination of everything above, and one thing more. I changed my sleep schedule up so drastically that I'm having trouble timing simple things. Such as when to eat, and how to time when to do what. So I think that's a lot of what's messing me up. It's still hard to be in the bed by 9pm when my parents go to bed about 10. Mainly due to my bedroom being right off the living room, nothing I can do about that though.

I think that once I get used to thinking about getting most of my work done in the AM, instead of the PM, I'll be better off. I'm going to set up my painting stuff before I leave this morning. That way I'm more likely to paint when I get back, or first thing after writing in the morning. By get read I mean clean the extra stuff off of my desktop (setting quite a bit of it in the floor probably), and sitting out my pallet, brushes, and water container.

And Now Over to You...

How do you deal with letting something important to you slip?

Status Update: Week of September 29th

2008-10-04T21:13:00.000-05:00

Day dreaming:

It's creeped up on me again. I've caught myself daydreaming several times over the last two days. It's really ate into my writing drive. Going to have to work on it really hard tomorrow. I thin it's part of why my mind has been so restless today. I haven't been able to keep it in one place for very long at all.

Waking up Early:

I've done well all week accept for this morning. I ended up going back to bed for two hours. I helped mom with some extra cleaning, and helped her divide up and repot a pretty big thing of aloe vera yesterday. By something like that makeing me extra tired, it shows I need to work on my walking more.

Walking:

I didn't do well at all on this. I only walked 1 day this week. I'm going to have to be stricter next week. With the weather being cooler till later in the morning, that'll help me to get moving on my walking. Because I get chilled easy so the walking will help me warm up!

Drawing:

I totally forgot about this the last couple of days... Whoops! I'll have to start tomorrow, I'm supposed to be in the bed right now, till I realized I hadn't blogged today... Whoops!

G'night all!

Rebelling against procrastination?

2008-10-03T10:20:00.000-05:00

The word rebel sound counterproductive, and in it's natural state it can have a devastating effect on your life. Under controlled conditions it can be very useful. An unusual way to use the word rebel is in the context of actually being productive.Some examples might be:

I refuse to feel guilty over something that I could easily get done today. So I'll just do it!
I refuse to feel bad by putting off __________ for another day. It'll just make me have to work harder tomorrow!
I refuse to be groggy in the morning. So I'm going to rebel against what I naturally do and go to bed early!

Trying to use will power, unless you have a lot of it, often fails. But when you're angry about something... Running the other way, or rebelling is often easier due to being so upset about whatever's going on. So why not use the flight/rebel instinct in your favor?

After reading Tuesdays With Morrie I learned that embracing your emotions for a short period then letting them go, is a good way to deal with them. It's also a good thing to learn if you want to be able to use your emotions as a tool. After you've embraced them, and dealt with them, why not try and use them as a tool to get moving... Use some spun off anger and frustration to 'rebel' against the grip that a bad habit has on you?

And over to you...

Do you think that this might be a useful tool to you? Do you think it's a good idea, or one that could easily get out of control?

Dabbling in Digital Art

2008-10-02T05:08:00.001-05:00

Most of my artwork is in traditional media: watercolor, colored pencil, ink, graphite, etc. Sense we first got a computer I've dabbled in computer artwork. I first started on a 16 color Tandy from Radio Shack. After dad upgraded to a windows 3.1 machine I lost all interest in computers except for the occasional round of Solitaire. I'd tinker with paint, but it was quicker, and more fun, to draw by hand.

After dad built me my own computer I ended up trying it again with Corel Draw. I colored some pretty good stuff, for an absolute beginner. After awhile I remember deleting them all in frustration because I couldn't back them up to floppy disks. (I still have the original line art to them, as they were originally drawn by hand. That was my last try for at least 4 years.

In 2003 a friend of mine introduced me to Dolling. Which is somewhat like putting the clothes on a doll. That kept my interest for about two years. I haven't dolled much sense. I did a little bit of pixel art, tinkering with the colors of my traditional art so it'll show up correctly, and putting watermarks on my photos to post to DeviantArt .

I've recently started tinkering with dolling again. It's a lot harder than I remember. It gives me a new respect all over again for Dollers. I have one that I've been working on off and on for two weeks. I used to do the same doll in about 3 or 4 hours a couple of years back. It shows how out of practice I am. Then again I've grown in my way of looking at artwork too. I'm more perceptive about colors, and shades, and how to get things to look right.

I've tried my hand at digital painting recently as well. Picking the colors out for digital painting is a lot harder for me than traditional. I haven't quite grasped the concept of how the colors mix on the computer, vs. traditional art. Most of the time I don't have to think very much about mixing a color with paint, or pencils. I just do it, and it's the shade I want it (even if I have to play with it a bit). It's become something of second nature for me. While the way that digital colors mix is still very hard for me to comprehend.

And over to you....

Are you a traditional artist who has tried digital (or vice-versa)? Have you had success with it?

ToDo: Procrastinate

2008-10-01T07:45:00.000-05:00

Most people have used a to do list at some point. You probably use one quite regularly yourself, or know someone who does. I use one on a regular basis to keep myself in line. A ToDo list is supposed to be a list of goals for the day, but often one, or two, don't get done. Have you noticed a trend, that no matter how you prioritize your list, the one thing you leave off is the hardest one to actually do?

Getting the little things over with...

It could be because you look at your list, and you want to get some of the little things done first. Sometimes that fine if you need to get that item done first off. The problem comes when you use it as a way to procrastinate on doing that 'must get done' item for the day. You know that important part of the big project. The one thing that could get you in really big trouble if you don't get it done. You've been working all day long, getting a lot done, then it's the end of the day. You go to mark the last few things you got accomplished off your ToDo list, feeling accomplished. An then he spots that the one main thing that absolutely had to get done today, is still there on the list. He feels like kicking himself because that item is due first thing tomorrow. So he ends up staying late to finish it, instead of getting to go home.

Why Prioritizing doesn't always work

Prioritizing your to do list can be a great tool, it shows you exactly what needs to get done the most at a glance. It shows you what can be put off till another day if necessary so that you can get the most important things done. It helps you to get things in line on paper, that aren't always strait in your head. The idea behind it is that once you get them in order, you're supposed to do the most important ones first.

The reason it doesn't always work is that us procrastinators tend to want to avoid the hard stuff, and one of our favorite excuses is "I don't have time to work on it right now." So we do some of the quick easy jobs, and we end up doing the quick jobs till the end of the day. "Well I'll do one more thing before I get started on that so I can do that all at once." Was one of my favorite excuses, I still find myself trying to use it quite a bit. (My mom usally helps me catch it though.)

How I've worked through it...

Just do it Now!.. If I find myself really dreading working on something. I take my timer and set it to 5, 10, or 15 minutes, and dive in. It's amazing how much you can get done if you hyperfocus and get it over with. The timer snaps you out of 'the zone' after a predetermind amount of time, so you don't have to worry about getting lost for the rest of the day. Often when I come out of it, I'm amazed at how much I've gotten done.
I ask... Is it my perfectionism getting in the way? I've found out over the last couple of years that a lot of what I dread is caused by my trying to be perfect at it. An example of a recent incident is right here in my blog. In my entry "Hang the CSS", about 90% of my loosing interest in web design was perfectionism. (I'm slowly getting over it, though it's taking a while.)

So if you're unhappy with how your ToDo list isn't working for you. Why not look at what you're getting done, what you're not, and why?

And over to you...

Do you have trouble with procrastinating on your 'most important' to do list items?

If you don't what tricks do you use to prevent it?

If you do, how are you working with dealing with it?

Alarm Clock Adventures.

2008-09-30T17:38:00.000-05:00

Don't you just hate those days whee you wake up late, and then everything's off for the rest of the day? Today's turned out to be one of those days for me. My alarm clock has been malfunctioning, more often than not the radio doesn't work correct. It won't pick up anything but static when I set it to the station. When I set it correctly the night before, the radio will be working when I test it. The next morning, I wake up and hour late when all it plays is static. My dad said that that it's probably going out, because when I turn the tuneing knob it goes back to working.

Options, and More options...

My only other option on this alarm clock is to use the buzzer, which I hate. The buzzer makes me jerk awake, my heart race, and my chest hurt. After that I'm too jittery to work, and it takes me awhile to get settled down enough to work on whatever I need to. I usually end up shutting the thing off, and going back to bed because it makes me feel so bad. Rather counter productive for an alarm that's supposed to wake you up. So you can get going for the day.

What I'm considering...

I'm planning on ordering a new alarm clock. I've been looking around off and on all day. So far I've looked at Amazon, Walmart.com, Target.com, Think Geek, and a handful of other places. So far the only clock I've come up with that looks remotely interesting is "American Innovative Neverlate Executive Alarm Clock" It's quite a bit more expensive than I would like to spend. It's got a lot of features to it as well, and I'm pretty sure it'd be overkill as I get up at 5AM everyday. What really interests me though is the gradual wake feature, as it would keep me from jerking awake.

My Mom wants me to wait untill after we go to walmart this weekend so that I can look at the clocks there. I don't know how good of a slection that they'll have, I guess I'll wait and look. What I really wanted was an alarm that plays a CD or MP3s to wake up by, so I don't have to worry about the content of whatever's on the radio. (Commercials, and what not)

My mom has offered to lend me her radio alarm for now, as she doesn't really use it accept for the clock. I'll probably go with it for now, as I haven't been feeling well the last couple of days, and this isn't the time to think too much about spending $60 on an alarm clock.

And over to you....

Can anyone recommend a new alarm clock for me?

Monday... Monday...

2008-09-29T15:00:00.001-05:00

I was listening to Pandora the other day, "Monday Monday", by the Mamas and the Papas Came on. That song has always puzzled me, for the next half hour or so wile I worked. I finally had to draft this post to get it out of my head. (Ideas can be annoying buggers sometimes, eh? )

I don't understand why

I have nothing against Mondays. They're just another day of the week, with something a bit diffrent to do. I don't particularly look forward to weekends because I'm never sure what I'm going to be doing. Monday always represented the move back to a 'set routine'. So I couldn't understand why people disliked that particular day of the week.

Why do people dislike Mondays so much?

It actually took me thinking about it off and on for a week for me to comprehend that it's what Monday represents, not actually the day itself that people dislike. The beginning of the work week, the beginning of the school week, work, and more work. Getting up early, or perhaps exhausted after a weekend of projects, or partying. One person dislikes their job, the other dreads that pile of homework at the end of the day. For a person that works at home, it most likely means laundry, getting the kids off to school, perhaps a bit of cleaning, on top of everything else.

It's what they have to do, that they dread. Those that their work schedule is switched to where the 'weekend' is Monday, and Tuesday, would dread Wednesday. If the days of the week were reversed they'd dread Friday, and look forward to Monday being the end of the week and payday.

It's all in how you look at it

From what I've observed it's all in how you look at it. If you have something to do on that day that makes you happy, you'll naturally look forward to it. Where as if you have a frustrating job to do that day you'll dread it like the plague... Dreading something always makes it 10 times worse than it is.

And over to you...

How do you deal with your Mondays (or equivalent day of the week)?

Paper vs. Digital Books.

2008-09-28T06:38:00.004-05:00

As with most writer's I'm fond of books. Very fond, I'd say that my personal collection is around 200+ books. This is a conservative estimate as I haven't taken the time to actually count, I'm quite afraid of how long it would take to do so. I have hardbacks, paperbacks, big books, little books, thin books, fat books. I've even borrow them from the local libraries, and I Mooch them from Bookmooch.

Digital reading

I've been looking at the Kindle ever since it came out, sadly I've yet to actually see one in real life. I'm not one to do an actual blow by blow review. I know that it looks great for truckers, and people on the road a lot. The prices per book seem pretty reasonable, at least no where near as bad as they could be. You also have the convenience of getting your book right off, and not having to worry about it being out of stock.

E-books in the forms of PDF's are quite common too. They're usually cheaper than their paper counterparts, which is always a plus. There are PDF books that you can't get in print as well. The bonus to the author of the book is that you don't have to worry about a publisher rejecting the book. PDFs look like one of the easier ways to self publish. All you have to do is get a friend that's good at grammar and spelling to look it over for you, or hire a professional editor. Then promote it on your site. At least that's what it seems to be, there's still a lot of work involved, and I haven't tried it myself.

Why I prefer paper

There is nothing quite like the smell of a book. Old ink, and paper, used for years, or maybe is the smell of new ink and paper. The feel of the paper, the weight of it in your hand, and the position that you hands are in to hold it. Turning the page. It's the whole sensory experience that I find extremely relaxing. Curling up on my bed with a good book, or wiling away the time in a waiting room.

I've also developed a sensitivity to light, from years of computer use. Though I imagine part of it is my arts training to pay more attention to how light reflects, so I can get shadows to look right. Reading on the computer is one of the hardest things for me to do for long periods of time. White on black being the hardest, wile black on white is one of the easier ones, and thankfully the most common. It's easy for me to tell when I've been looking at the computer too long, I start seeing lines across my vision. I have yet to ever have this problem with most books. (Magazines, under florescent light are a diffrent story, but that's a bit off topic for this post.)

The thrill of the hunt

My main source for paperbacks is goodwill, and stores like it. I've found about 90% of the Agatha Christie's that I own through goodwill. There's something about looking though stacks of books, and finding your favorite author that's extremely hard to duplicate with digital books. Most digital books you pop into Google, and there they are. It's not quite as hard to dig for them. Wile some might find it rather dull, I find it quite fun. When my mom and I go to resale shops, and so forth, it's my job to look at the books, wile she hunts clothes. So that adds too it as well. I have to hunt her favorites, as well as mine.

And over to you...

Which do you prefer?Paper, or digital books, why?

Music Notes, and Keyboard Clacks..

2008-09-27T05:42:00.004-05:00

Considering my synesthesia is largely sound > color it's rather odd that I want music on to write, draw, and color, by. It would seem more logical that I wouldn't want it on at all as it would clutter up my vision, and turn into a muddie looking mess for me to deal with. Usually I don't find it distracting. It seems that the colors from my synesthesia are on a diffrent plane than the colors in the art work.

Focus

Like almost everyone else I know of, my mind has a tendency to wander at times. No matter how interesting whatever I'm working on is. Especially now that I've gotten to the point that I can almost type with my eyes closed (still working on accuracy). The music keep's that part of my mind that likes to wander busy, so that it won't run off and interrupt what I'm working on. It helps me to focus on what I'm doing more.

It also blocks out little things that would otherwise be very distracting. The sound of my dad watching the weather in the morning, or the sound of my mom cooking lunch. It sinks into the background becoming white noise, that cheers me up.

Anti Negativity

When I was a teenager I used to have depression. I'm one of the fortunately ones who learned how to deal with it so that I don't have an attack of it on a daily, sometimes even weekly basis. It's still constantly trying to get at me, sometimes worse than others. One of it's primary striking times is when a drawing isn't going well, or when I'm stuck with my writing. My favorite tonic for such times is a cheerful song. It doesn't really matter which one too much, what matters is that it's got a 'happy rhythm'. So it keeps me from focusing on that negative part of my mind, and getting distracted, and depressed. Thus it keeps me working.

Mood lifter

But just covered that? Yes, kind of. I don't have to be down and out depressed for the music to lift my mood. I can be in a neutral mood, just calm and content. It lift's me into that happy spot, where my drawing and writing just seem to flow better. It helps me to hit that writing sweet spot faster.

And to you...

Does music help you focus, or do you find it distracting?

Status Update: Week of September 22nd

2008-09-26T11:38:00.001-05:00

Day dreaming:

I've cut it down significantly. I'm no where near as prone to random day dreams when doing something 'mindless'. I've been using the time to plan blog entries, art work, and how to get some other things done. I'm getting more things done, and I don't feel constantly distracted. I've also noticed that I don't get irritated as easy as I used to. I'm still have a couple of trouble spots, but I'm working at them a step at a time.

Waking up Early:

I was up at 5 AM for Tuesday (Sept 23rd), but the last three days I've gotten up at 6AM. I'm going to try and hit the bed earlier tonight, I need to get up a 5AM tomorrow, and Sunday especially if I'm going to get some writing done before I have to leave. So that means I need to be in the bed between 9 and 10 PM. It's still a hard shift for me to make mentally. Part of me is still rebelling at the idea of going to bed so early, even though I feel a lot better when I go ahead and get up.

Walking:

I've started back to walking every day recently as well. I really missed it, an it's been bugging me sense I quit. I've finally figured out what time of day works mostly. The only days of the week I can't walk are Saturday and Sunday. For now a two day break shouldn't hurt me too badly. Four trips up the hill near our house is about a mile, So far I've been walking 1 lap a day, today I did a lap and a half. Which is probably what I'll try to do all next week.

New habit for October:

My new habit for October is going to be sketching for 5 minutes a day. I'm going to start working on it today though, so that I'll have a couple of extra days in. I've been distracted a bit by my writing, and haven't dedicated enough time for my artwork Sketching for 5 minutes a day may not sound like much, but it should slowly build up. I'll probably start adding on another 5 minutes of sketching after I get the 5 down pat, which will probably take about 2 weeks or so. So we'll see how it goes.

I hope everyone has a good week next week. Take Care. :)

Advertising to yourself.

2008-09-25T14:01:00.014-05:00

A few days ago I read The Never-Ending War Against Advertising over at Get Rich Slowly. The power of how marketers manipulate things by using almost every trick in the book to get you to buy something, impressed me. It hit me that this would be a wonderful way to build new new habits. To market them to you're self, as if you were trying to sell them to someone else.

What do you mean?

Making up little posters advertising 'the habit of the month' in a spot that you will see it everyday. This could in your walk in closet, on the bathroom mirror, on the kitchen cabinet door above the coffee pot, etc. Maybe even all of the above. Just so that you can see it several times a day, during the day, to help you to remember.

Caution for the perfectionist....

Before I go any farther, a bit of a warning to those of us who tend to be perfectionists. By advertising to yourself I don't mean go all out and research the psychology of marketing before you start. I also don't mean for you to open illustrator, Photoshop, or Gimp, and make a magazine grade advertisement. That's going way overboard, and unnecessary for motivating yourself to do the habit you're learning.

It's not about getting the advertisment to yourself's paper on that exact sheet of purple that you love so well, the wording just right, or getting it perfect. It's just about getting it done! So let's go on and get it done...

Well what in the world do I use then?!?

Go to a store and buy a pack of cheap post it's. On them write one simple sentence like "Take vitamins" or "Clean lint trap on dryer before next load" will be all you need.Put the note somewhere you'll see it at least once a day, or perhaps more often than that. Over the coffee pot, on the bathroom mirror, or on your desk, just somewhere you can see it several times though out the day.

How it works.

Have you ever noticed how a TV advertisement may show at ever single commercial break in a show? It's annoying right? You get the corny music stuck in your head for hours afterward, and it becomes the source of jokes for years to come. Same principal, just without the music. You see the post it over, and over, again reminding you to do your new habit. After about a month or just whenever you get your habit down pat. You make a new post it, with you new habit on it, and start a new one.

If you try this, please let me know how it worked for you :)

The Lady Monarch

2008-09-24T15:29:00.003-05:00

A monarch came by today
as I passed down a wooded road
she was dressed in the finest,
the finest material nature had to offer.

Bright orange,
black trim on each orange fold
accented with a pearl here,
and a pearl there.

She stopped on the green
surrounded by leaves
apparently to show off her dress.
She seemed quite happy to stay
and she did stay quite awhile
until the wind blew her away
or perhaps she flew
I do not know how to tell.

So I contenued on my way
noticing something odd
on a tree branch across the way
it seemed like only a bunch of dead leaves at the time
so I paid no mind.

Later that day
I made my way back again
passing once more the place
where the monarch once stood

I saw someone in a brownish coat
fluttering away with the wind
to places that I do not know
going on down the road

Perhaps it was her again
I cannot be quite sure
the dress seemed the same
but sense I do not know her name
I cannot be sure if it was my monarch.

A Pile of Autum Memories.

2008-09-23T08:14:00.006-05:00

As I went out for my walk this morning I noticed a leaf falling from a tree. A sure sign that early Fall is here, even though it doesn't 'officially' start till this Sunday (according to the calendar anyway). It got me to thinking about how diffrent this fall is compared to last fall. Last fall was hot, and dry. This morning I was shivering because of how cool and damp it was in our house. (Disclaimer: I tend to be cold natured, actual temperature was 61 degrees Fahrenheit.)

We live in an older house, that was built before indoor kitchens, and bathrooms, came into this area. The back porch was closed in to be the kitchen, dining room, and bathroom. That takes it back to somewhere around the 1940's or so. Our house tends to stay cool all year round. Last year it was cooler than outside, only because we had the air conditioner on. It was still hot, but bearable. I don't remember our house ever staying that hot. It may have been that hot when Mom was canning fruit, though I don't remember it being that bad on it's own before.

Another thing that dead leaf got me to thinking about, was the winter cold that will come eventually. The last few years I've gotten to where I dread winter. It's not the snow so much, as the ice, and the sometimes bitter cold that we have. The winter before last was bitterly cold, the wind would go right though you. The best that I remember it was rather wet outside that winter, and it snowed considerably more than usual. I remember feeling chilled a lot. I hope that this winter is not a repeat of next winter.

The way it floated and twirled down to the ground reminded me of my pet bird's feathers when they're having a molt. Which is what two of them are going though right now. SugarBaby, and Pearl have both lost what looks like enough feathers to make a small feather pillow. When they molt it seems that they're going bald. They're rather cranky lately because of this, the new pin feathers growing in are very tender. If you touch them the wrong way wile scratching thier head, or holding them they complain quite angrily. I try not hold them accept for them perching on my finger when thier molting.

The red-orange color of the leaf reminded me of my last dog that I had, Chip. He was a rusty orange, chow and bloodhound mix. He's the only dog that I've met so far that had a solid purple tongue, and purple skin skin. His favorite thing to do every day of fall was for me to take him on walks near piles of leaves. He would would hunt for rabbits, deer, coyotes, cats, and other dogs.

It's amazing how many thoughts and memories one small object like a leaf, floating down from a tree, can trigger. Perhaps I should try this exersize more often with other things? Suggestions are welcome.

Good Morning Sunshine.

2008-09-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

Day four of my experiment of getting up at 5AM to get more writing, and art, done. This is the first day I've actually made it out of bed. So far my progress is as follows.

Day One (Sept 19th): Wake up, Shut alarm off, stagger to the bathroom, crash back into bed and sleep till 10AM.
Day Two (Sept 20th): I fell the day before so I didn't get much sleep due to having my sore ankle. So I shut the alarm off about 2AM ended up waking up at 7AM tough. So still progress.
Day Three (Sept 21st): Woke up at five, Shut off alarm, went back to bed, got up at 8AM. A slight slip, but better than my old habit of 10AM.
Day Four (Sept 22nd): Woke up a bit groggy at 5, took 10 minutes to shake the bugs out of my head. Ate a pop tart, and drank water. Wide awake by 5:30 AM

So I'm still here at 7:55, not drowsy yet. I ended up having some more breakfast though. I'll probably end up getting a glass of orange juice in about an hour. I think tomorrow I'll get a glass ready and stick it in the fridge that way I can just grab it. Water + Orange Juice is a combination I've found to wake me up on my groggiest mornings.

Tomorrow, and the next day are going to be the hardest as I'll be groggy till I get my bed time pattern worked out. I've gotten into the habit of getting off the computer, before 11:30 PM. The last few days I've been working on getting off before 10:30 PM. I've only made it once so far. To get in bed by 9PM or so, I need to get into the habit of being off the computer by somewhere between 8 and 8:30 PM.

What's making this so hard is that I used to be a night owl, Staying up till 1 or 2 AM mostly reading a book, or reading on the computer. Like the clutter of STUFF that FLYlady talks about, it didn't happen in a day, and it's not going to go away in a day either. New habits take about a month to learn, so even though it'll gradually get easier, it'll take some time to get into the habit.

MEME Alert! I am, I think, I know

2008-09-21T00:06:00.000-05:00

After putting it off for awhile, I finally decided to try this one. I'm usually not one for a lot of memes but this one got me curious. Especially after Alex of Someday Syndrome, and Writer Chick did it (not to mention Alex's sister Urban Panther and her Urbane Lion.)

I am: listening to pandora.com and writing in this meme.
I think: I need to go to bed soon.
I know: that I'm going to have a busy day tomorrow.
I have: a drawing to work on before I go to bed.
I wish: that I had a penny for every time someone said that. (Wait... That'd be way too much money for me to ever spend.)
I hate: when my friends are sick.
I miss: my friend that I used to talk to every day.
I fear: that I might fall again because my ankles weak from twisting it yesterday.
I hear: some 80s pop/rock song that pandora just put on. It's ok.
I smell: better than I have in months. My sense of smell is comeing back slowly after haveing a killer sinus infection. Yuck!
I crave: Dark chocolate, and a glass of ice water.
I search: for better ways to keep all the stuff I need, and want, to do in balance (Yay for Flylady.net ).
I wonder: if I'll get that last panel of my comic's page finished by Monday.
I regret: that I wasted so much time regretting, and feeling guilty, over meanlingless things.
I love: my family, and my many friends.
I ache: where I twisted my ankle in a hole, and fell yesterday.
I am not: going to stay up past midnight anymore if I can help it.
I believe: in lots of things.
I dance: like nobody's watching, even though I'm terrible.
I sing: to my favorite songs wile dancing like crazy.
I cry: very easily sometimes, and other times I don't when I 'should'. I'm wierd.
I fight: very rarely. I hate to truely argue.
I win: a lot at cards. Some of my friends fight over who gets to be my canasta partner.
I lose: at video game levels a lot, so I have to back and try again.
I never: say never, because I always end up doing it anyway. Like just now *laughs*!
I always: try to be nice to everyone, even though I get burnt sometimes.
I confuse: similar sounding, and similar colored word's spelling.
I listen: to my friends when they need an ear. (Also, lots of music.)
I can usually be found: in my room, on the computer, or playing with my birds.
I am scared: of impulsively doing things, I'm getting better about that though.
I need: to go to bed soon.
I am happy about: breaking 8,000 pageviews on DeviantArt
I imagine: way too much, and way too often. I'm working on cutting back.
I tag: whoever wants to do this. Just let me know if you do, I'd like to see it. XD

The woes of an overactive imagination.

2008-09-20T10:15:00.001-05:00

I used to day dream a lot... Big surprise there, eh? As a writer, and a artist daydreaming seems as if it would be a good and normal thing correct? Wrong! I'll explain why...

I've found that I can only do so much that's creative in a day. Just like a person can only do so much exercise before collapsing. Only instead of collapsing, using too much creative energy just gives me a head ache. I eventually get to the point that my mind gets foggy, my head hurts, and I need a break.

It seems that day dreaming drains me far worse than writing, and artwork both. When I day dream, I usually end up concocting some sort of complicated story that I go over again and again, until I get it 'right'. Whatever that may be. Usally with a good half dozen or more characters interacting in the same space and time. While that might be great for writing a draft of a story, it drains a lot of mental energy unessarily.

With a habit that's so ingrained, it's very hard to break. I'm having to take it a step at a time with my main trouble spots. Those being doing mindless chores, riding in a car, TV commercials, and boring parts of whatever I'm doing. I'm certain that there are other spots, but I'll have to tackle them as they happen. Some of my procrastination is either caused by, or I procrastinate so that I can day dream. I'm not sure which it is.

Step by step, day by day, I'll have to fight it. It's very easy to slip into it. Especially when boredom, or disinterest hits. I really need to get over this before I get a job. I don't need my mind off on something else wile I'm trying to wait on a customer.

The move that never was....

2008-09-19T14:51:00.000-05:00

Move? As in moving to a new house. A few years ago my parents and I had the idea of moving to a new to us, smaller, house. Sense we're still here you can tell it didn't work out. Why? Well there were quite a few reasons, but I'll stick to a few of the main ones.

Timing: The timing was wrong, it was right when the housing market started to flop around here. It was also in the middle of a vast number of layoffs, and factory closings locally. This made it to where it would be near impossible to sell the house we're in currently.

Money: This is the obvious one. Without selling the old house, it would have stretched our finances too far to get the new one. Like most folks, we can't afford two houses.

Location: My Dad really, really, wants the location to be in this one neighborhood. I understand his reasoning, some very good friends of ours live in that neighborhood. It was pretty rare at the time.

With the realization creeping up on us of just exactly how hard it would be to sell our house. An the expense it would be just to get the house into shape to be safe/livable for us. All the excitement started to die out after the 4th house that we looked at. Although the decluttering that the excitement of moving started continues to move forward. Though a bit slower than the original pace.

I did learn why everything I read about buying a house recommended getting an inspector. One of the first houses that we looked at was beautiful, and freshly remodeled. Dad climbed into the attic, and under the house. He told mom and me he'd have to rewire at least part of it, because he was afraid of fire (Dad is a limited lisened eletrician. Limited means he doesn't work as an eletrican full time.) Also, the sewer had a v-ish shape in a spot, and the pipe that went ouside to connect to the sewer line ran up hill.

Another, older house, that we looked at. The main problem there was water would run into the gerage when it rained. Due to the house's position on the side of a hill. The he bricks needed repairing where the weight of the window air conditioner had cracked the morter. No central heat either, that would have been easy to take care of though. There was also a 'house' that was actually a double wide remodled to be a house. (As terrifed as I am of tornados, that one was immidately out.)

I'm content to stay where I am, at least here we know all the bugs. How weather effects the house, and so forth. I'm also looking forward, hopefully, to the day when we get a new house. It'll be a new adventure for me, as I've never moved before. I know it'll be hard work, and hard emotionally leaveing the place I've lived my whole life. It'll will probably be worth it in the end though. At least we can hope so.

My Mask

2008-09-17T15:54:00.001-05:00

There's a mask that I wear.
That no one can see,
Because it isn't really there.
It's just inside of me.

It isn't to hide my face,
It's to hide the real me.
It's so they can see,
Or they might be afraid of me.

I'm afraid they wouldn't like the real me.
So I hide where no human can see.
I think that I'm afraid to show the real me,
I'm afraid they wouldn't like the real me.

Why should I care?
My real friends already see...
Why should I care, what other people see?
Some of the real me.

I need to come out of hiding.
Out from behind my mask.
Out of my hiding place.
For the whole world to see.

I need to be the real me.
No more mask.
For the whole world to see.
No more hiding.

My friends will stay.
No matter.
Forever and a day.
That's all that matters.

Time to show myself.
My true self.
Forever and a day.
That's all that matters!

Behind the wall I created.
Behind the mask that I wear.
There in the shadows,
Coming into the light.
That's the real me.

It's all a matter of timing.

2008-09-16T11:06:00.001-05:00

I have a bad sense of timing, especially when it comes to work. I'm not talking about missing deadlines (no problems there). What I'm talking about is my sense of timing when it comes to doing work is off. It can be quiet when I'm planning, and getting my tools out. Then a couple of minutes after I get started into actually working (or in this case writing), someone needs me for something.

I figure that it has to be either I chose a bad time to work, or there's some kind of internal radar for people. I can be watching a movie, or just staring into space. No one bothers me. It seems like the second I get to working on something the phone rings. Maybe I need to stop spending so much time planning, and just work on writing more. Perhaps I need to figure out another time to work?

There's no simple answer to that. I have to either pick another time of day to work, or wake up earlier. I've tried other times of day to work, they just don't seem to be as productive. I tend to be foggy headed in the late afternoon, so those are out. Or there's some other thing blocking that time, like an appointment, or a shopping trip to get the bird seed. Then the next thing I know it's bed time, or later. With nothing written at all, or just the first few sentences.

So that leaves me with waking up earlier. The theory is solid, but I haven't worked out how to put it in practice. I'm trying a technique that a read about, of turning the alarm on a bit earlier each day so that you gradually wake up earlier without the feeling of being sleep deprived. Hopefully my bed time will shift earlyer along with getting up earlyer. Although I have been known to stay up for 22 hours straight. (Note to self: Eating chocolate puddng as a bedtime snack is not a good idea!)

Troubled Souls

2008-09-15T22:49:00.001-05:00

Walking down the street,
before the city stirs.
The rolling fog, cold snow,
the only other moving things that stir,

Or so I thought,
faint sounds of a violin,
pierce the near silent pre-dawn hour.

I come to a stand still,
and look up at a window sill.
That must be from where the sound comes,
that must be from where the violin hums.

Who would be up before the birds?
Why would someone be up before the birds?
Perhaps some troubles plage their soul,
Perhaps like my worries, their troubles take their toil.

I take a piece of paper from my pocket,
and look at the address.
Then glance up to take a guess,
of which way to go next.

I look at the address on the wall,
then back at the one scratched on my note.
Could this place be,
the 221b that I was looking for?
Whose occupant that I want to see.

Colored Swrils

2008-09-14T22:09:00.000-05:00

Colors swirling,
Round and round,
Some fall like water,
To the ground.

Others are like sparks
Like the sparklers
Twinkling bells
And lightning bugs.

Dark deep sounding drums,
Pound into my head,
Painting their rhythm,
Deep into my mind.

So many colors
So little time
Each one leaves its footprints
On my mind.
Before my eyes.

Some swirl, round and round
Making one dizzy before their down.
Some simply want to dance

To be their with you
Why not take a chance?
And let them dance with you?

Sit back
Close your eyes
Let the colors dance
In your eyes
In your mind.

“Is she drunk?” you wonder
“Is she ill?”
“Has she taken some strange kind of pill?”
“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” I cry.
Looking you in the eye.

I’m a synesthete
Showing you what I see
When you’re talking to me
Or when music notes come round
When music notes come round.

Color My Music, color my world.

2008-09-13T13:20:00.005-05:00

How do you 'color' music? Compose it, play it, put words to it, or for me... Simply listen to it. To see the color of music all I have to do is sit back close my eyes and let go. Then there's this amazing light show in my head. It can be amazing sometimes, and sometimes it can be a real headache.

When there's a really good song on, and the voice of the singer fits the music. Then its like watching a fireworks show that's timed to the music, without the big loud explosions from the powder. A bad song from this point of view, is one where the notes, rhythm, or singer's voice, clash. It can be that the beat is too choppy, the voice is off key from the song, or just that the singer's voice does not fit for me.

For example: Sweet Home Alabama (The song, not the movie). I really like the Lynyrd Skynyrd version. Vs the version Jewel recorded feels flat to me. The music's there, but her voice just doesn't have the life to it that the song needs. Her voice stands out as a green line against the background, where as Lynyrd Skynyrd's voice's colors blend in with the music in a very pretty mixture of oranges, reds, and yellows. (Someone else may have the opposite viewpoint. This is my opinion, and experiences. Go listen have a listen and make your own call.)

The fun part of seeing colors in music, is it's very inspiring for artwork. Color pallets have come up though listening to music that I would have never dreamed of using before. Its not always just flashes of color.. Shapes, swirls, sparkles, and 'water' are common occurrences as well. Occasionally if song is loud enough, or I'm concentrating on it hard enough, it can overwhelm my normal vision. Sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad. No two times that you play a song, will it be the same. Mood, surroundings, and how tired I am at the moment greatly effects what shows up when.

There's a word for it, seeing colors of sound, the word is synesthesia. For more information on it, you can read about it here.

Writing well is dry, Please insert 25 cents to continue.

2008-09-12T23:14:00.004-05:00

Writers block, plus artists block, and a dash of procrastination. Spiced up with a hectic schedule and this is what you have. A blog entry that might be a bit rambling. As ya'll can tell by the holes between my posting I haven't really established the habit of writing everyday yet.

I was close to doing just that in June when I first started the blog, but the family vacation messed me up. Rather than taking the time to write up a little something to keep in the habit. For those 5 days I didn't write anything creative at all. I mostly took notes about what we were doing, nothing usable for the blog unfortunately. I had used what older writings I had to so that I'd hopefully have a buffer so that I could type up what I wrote during the trip.. It didn't work out that way at all.

What brought this up is that I've been reading a lot about having blog entries built up ahead. So that you have some leeway when something comes up. I've been working out how to do just that. I'm thinking about writing one entry in the morning, and one later on in the day. Then post dating the 2nd one, so that it posts the next day. That way I'll be able to build up quite a bit of padding, and have more time to plain out better entries.

Another thing that I've been thinking about implementing is cutting down on about half the blogs that I read on a daily basis. I have cut out and trimmed a lot... But lately, other than my absolute favorites, they're starting to get repetitive. I've already cut out quite a few, but it's like a seesaw. I haven't quite got the balance correct yet. Ah well, I'll get it eventually.

It's slowly dawned on me why various ones recommend starting your writing habit out with 300 words per day. 100 is easy, 200 is slightly harder, but still very easy. After 250 the difficulty doubles for me. I'm always struggling with figuring out how to fill those last 30 words from 270, to 300. I've found it quite a bit more difficult that I originally thought it would be. Writing, like drawing, painting, and to a lesser extent photography, has become something of an addiction for me, which I doubt I'll be able to put down anytime soon.

Much like an Agatha Christie in the end, I'd say.

Observations of People Watching

2008-09-08T13:10:00.001-05:00

A nice shady bench in the park on a beautiful day, or perhaps a blanket under a tree. It might be a table at your favorite restaurant, or coffee shop. It might just be out your window, depending on where you live. Wile seemingly idle observation may seem to be a dull business, and a waste of time. It can serve to be a near infinite source of inspiration, and ideas, for the creative mind.

People watching offers you a chance to brush up on human anatomy in different perspectives. How diffrent people react to the world around them. How their height, build, clothes, bags, etc effect their walking. The way they interact with doors, and other object. The hard part is not freaking people out by staring, especially when someone interesting comes a long. The trick to that I've found is find a second person that's reasonably interesting, and switch back and forth.

Learning how people interact with the environment, and one another, are vital for artists and writers. Even someone that writes user's manuals needs to know how a person is likely to react to the product. To the product designer tests of how people react to their new product are needed to refine the design. Interior designers need to know not just what colors and fabrics that the client likes, but how the client is going to use the room.

Simple things, like how your best friend likes to pull out her chair out from the table, or how your brother likes to put his glass on the left side of his plate instead of the right. Those small details can add immensely to the depth of your drawing, story, or comic.

So instead of sitting at home watching a movie that you're not interested in, yet it's the only thing on that's close to being worth watching. Go to your favorite place to grab a sit down snack Don't forget to take your notebook, sketchbook, or just a plain old everything book. So you can put your ideas wile you practice your people watching, and observation skills.

Shapes...

2008-09-05T19:43:00.000-05:00

You first learn them when you're a toddler perhaps. Squares, Circles, Ovals, and Triangles. Then slowly they grow more complex. Hexagons, Pentagons, Apples, and Pears. Yes, everything has a shape. It can be simple, or extremely complex. Think the shape of Colorado,vs. the shape of Maryland.

Shapes can be an artist's worst enemy at times. You have to get the shape that you draw on paper to look right. If its off by a bit, the person that your drawing looks like they have a broken arm, back, or even nose. I've had times where I felt like I was going to go though half an eraser before I got part of a drawing passable. Not the one on the end of the pencil, one of those Soft white ones that's 1 inch by 2 inches. Though in reality you'll probably just wear out the paper first.

There are lots of methods and tutorials that make this problem easier to deal with, some are good, some are just plain confusing. More than likely the confusing ones are just something that doesn't quite fit your way of thinking, and there's nothing wrong with the tutorial itself. (Though I will agree that some tutorials are just plain wrong, I'll let the reader use their own judgment on that one.)

Simple triangles, squares, rectangles, etc, are easy to deal with when flat. Add the 2nd and 3rd dimension in there to make them cones, and cubes, or just plain boxes, that's when things start to get slightly more complicated. I won't even go into perspective, that's an issue better left for another day.

Shapes are both an artist's best friend, and an artist's worst enemy. (Though it's debatable that shading the colors white and black could be tied, or right behind it.) Shapes are something that you have to work to master, but never end up having total control of. And that is part of what makes drawing so addictive, you never quite know how those stubborn shapes will turn out.

Inconvenient Inspiration.

2008-09-04T10:31:00.001-05:00

It's strange how the human mind works... Yesterday for instance, I'd been wanting to write a post all day. I couldn't come up with an idea for beans. Then finally last night, late, about 12:30 Am I'd given up on writing anything. I'd shut the computer off, and went to take a shower

Smack! The idea to write this hit me between the eyes, only one problem though. By the time I got out of the shower I was dead on my feet. I couldn't have stayed up to write it no matter how much I wanted to. I was that sleepy. So I used procrastination to my advantage for once and went to bed. (After brushing my teeth of course, have to put that in just in case my dentist finds this. ;) )

I find it strange how I can have a lot of time during a day, but the idea never comes until and inconvenient, sometimes impossible, to write time. It's the same for artwork, I always seem to get my best ideas when there's nothing to write, or draw, on. If I'm in the middle of a dry spell for ideas, like I've been in the last two or three days. It seems to be worse about popping up at the odd time. Be it that one day that I forget to pack my little notepad that I usually carry with me everywhere, or I'm in the middle of driving down the road with no spot to pull over for another five miles.

I don't carry a cell phone of any kind, so text messaging is out. I've gotten out of the habit of carrying a sketchbook everywhere. That's a habit I need to get back into. Maybe a pocket voice recorder of some kind?

Do you have problems with this? How do you deal with it?

There is nothing new under the sun....

2008-08-29T22:37:00.002-05:00

That's a phrase that is not to be taken lightly by any writer, or artist for that matter. Ignoring it somewhat care spur lots of creative inspiration, ideas, and artistic endeavors.

It is far too dangerous to ignore it all together though. The danger lies in the multitude of copyright laws.. Made even more of a muddle by each country having it's own set. Though that seems to be all the better in some ways. Sometimes things that are copyright in one country, are out in others.

It takes a master copyright lawyer to know just where to look to find out if there's a chance of getting your pants sued off of you. I know that as and artist, it worries me a great deal. Not on my paintings so much now. As I know pretty much what I can, and cannot do there.

On my writing it worries me a great deal. I'm not certain yet to the point of what counts as infrengement, or not. I'd imagin that it's a lot more subjective than drawing.

Ending a Family Tradition...

2008-08-16T23:50:00.000-05:00

Today I went to a family reunion. It's not my immideate family that has it. My cosins on my mom's side of the family had it. Needless to say it got me to thinking about family in general. Relationships, lack there of, etc.

What really got me to thinking about this though.. Is this is the last year that the family reunion will be held at the park. That park has been the spot of the family reunion sense I was little. It hit me on the way over to visit one of my aunts that's been sick. This is the end of an era.

That's the place that the reunions were at, when my 'last' grandmother died. Thats the place where the reunions were at when they had a 10 foot tall slide. They had a merry go round... not the kind with horses, but the kind that you pushed. There was a swimming pool there too, but they tore it out as well.

I've spent a couple hours there almost every year for most of my life. There was one time when we had it at my cosins, and there was another couple I skipped out on... I don't really remember why now.

It was always a pot luck, you never knew what there was going to be to eat for sure. Other than what you brought youself. There was a garantee thought that whatever it was, it was probably good. (My cosins are almost all good cooks.) One cosin always brought this one cake, that is really rich.

The only other tradions were family photos, and eating lunch together. Unless you count tradeing news about grand children, children, old friends, and who has been sick recently.

This year was a bit diffrent, my cosin who made the rich cake, brought a photo album. That album was mostly of photos of past family reunions... Some people I new, some I didn't.. Some that were aunts, uncles, and cosins who died before I was born.

Today was a sad day... As it almost always is. When you break a happy tradition.

Hang the CSS... I'll just use a template.

2008-08-06T00:06:00.002-05:00

I caught myself getting the urge to 'reorganize' my web presence again. I had this bright idea... Then it dawned on me. I'd just end up redoing it again later. I guess it's my tendency toward perfectionism trying to take over again. I wrote a draft of a really long story on the subject yesterday, I'm going to try and shorten it now. As I'm not particularly fond of extremely long blog posts, and I wouldn't want to put you though reading something that I dislike myself.

I started my first website in early 2001, as near as I can dig up on the wayback machine. I remember that I wanted it to show my artwork to people who where interested in the cartoon Swat Kats. It had a lot of the mistakes that 'newbies' are apt to make. Diffrent backgrounds, huge images, etc. Though I disliked the neon colors for the most part, and never touched a blink tag.

Slowly I moved on to bigger and better things. The next two phases of my website were Petz, and Dolls. Then slowly it grew to have it's own domain and became more professiona for a comic project I'm still working on. I even built a website as a class project for my technical school, and consulted several people on buisnesses.

Earlier this year I noticed my interest in websites starting to wane. I did not want to deal with the all the back end work of maintaining a site. Such as updating my blog's code when needed... Even adding artwork, and photos, to my gallery had become a chore that I put off for weeks at a time. More and more often I would just upload my artwork to DA and procrastinate on updating my site. Even the beautiful layout I had paid my friend Ali to build for me hadn't helped.

It dawned on me after I'd shut down the site because of it being a money pit. That I had lost my love for web design. I was never very much good at it (that's how I feel anyway). I sat that hobby, and dream free. Hoping it would find someone else who could give it the love it needed to grow... I quit building websites.

For now anyway.

Bed Time Blues...

2008-07-30T23:11:00.001-05:00

It's strange how inspiration always comes at odd times. Like I'm supposed to be getting to bed so that I can be ready to get up at 5 am to go on a trip tomorrow. Dad's got to be in Paducah early in the morning... Bad habits die hard I guess.

I've done my best to make an amateur analysis of my behavior.. So far I've come up with the following:

If there's something that I'm looking forward too the next day I will go to bed around when I need to.
The more I dread the next day the later I will try stay up the night before.
I enjoy the quite time it gives me if I have about an hour or so to myself after my parents go to bed. I sleep better when I have this.

The third reason seems to be the main one that resonates with me. I tend to function better the next day if I have some 'Me time' right before I got to bed. I'm calmer the next day, and less stressed. No matter what's going on.

Do you have problems going to sleep at your 'bed time'?

Slacking Significantly.

2008-07-28T22:50:00.000-05:00

Sorry about the slack lately. I wasn't in a routine of writing, and I let myself slip out of it. I'm going to try to work back into it. So my posts will probably be shorter in length, and hopefully, almost every day. I'm not going to hold myself to everyday to the point of trying for perfection. Although writing a bit every day is my goal.

I have been writing in my head, and some on paper lately, but there hasn't been anything that I can share on the net. Its mostly been some ideas that haven't become solid enough to put up. Mostly sentences and quite a few unfinished sketches.

I’m thinking about putting Notepad as one of the programs that comes up when I start windows so that I can start writing from the moment that I turn on my computer. I normally write in word though so that could present a bit of a problem… Ah well we’ll see how it all pans out. ^-^

Ugh I just had to clean out trash tags from Word... Notepad is no longer a problem LOL XD

To be Joyful...

2008-07-17T16:16:00.005-05:00

It's something that is often striven for, something that is hard to attain in todays world. Just in the news here lately are plenty examples of depressing circomstanses... Even the trying to listen to the raido, over the air, or otherwise... The songs tell of depressing circomstanses.

That's why today's post on DumbLittleMan.com stuck out to me... Yea, I know. Posts on how to be happier are a dime for two dozen. "Just follow my system blah, blah, blah..." I'm going to quote the part that struck me the most, the whole post is a really good read though.

5. Always Joyful
Children are always happy because they find joy in little things. They get excited when they see a butterfly, jump over a puddle or get to go to McDonalds....

~DumbLittleMan - 7 How-to-be-happy Lessons That Kids Can Teach Us

I guess another way of putting it would be to try and enjoy everything. Even the worst situations.... It's really hard to do sometimes. This is something that you have to work on all the time, because this world, this sociaty trys to drag us down so much.

For example, today I had to help my dad take a car back to my Aunts. I had other things that I wanted to do, such as write this post, or just sit down with a good book and eat some oreos. I could have grumbled all the way there, then sulled wile we were there. Then on the way home fussed, and whined, the whole way home about how I'd rather be doing so-and-so. An instead of getting to do what I wanted I had to go take him to return a car.

For contrast, here's what actually happened. I followed my dad (he drove my Aunt's car). It was a beutiful day. Sun shining thought the leaves on the trees, making dappled shadows on the road. It was a nice drive, a road with lots of curves. We had a plesent visit with my Aunt when we got there, and a nice trip home. We saw some butterflys on the way home. Not even a bad driver to spoil the trip.

Notice how big of a diffrence how you look at things can make? I still got home in time to write this post, and sit and eat an oreo wile I work on it. (I'll take the time for the book later.) If you get a chance, I'd suggest that you go on over to Jay's blog and look around. You might just find something to inspire you.

Memories of other people...

2008-07-13T22:28:00.000-05:00

I recently got in contact with a distant cousin of mine, he's my great great grand father's great great nephew (try saying that 5 times fast. He's a really nice guy and is sending us a CD of family history.. So that 'takes care of' about half of dad's side of the family. (Thanks a bunch, Cousin! ^-^)

It got me to thinking about my mom's side of the family. I've tinkered with doing research over the years, but I haven't really made much progress. I think the main reason that I'm curious about it is to see where my Native American ancestors come in. One of my great grandmothers was full blooded as far as family stories go. An there's supposedly 3 diffrent tribes in our line.

One day pretty soon mom and I have planned to set down together and write out what we already know. Such as what's in the family bible, and obituaries, etc. The sites that I looked up on proving Native American bloodlines said that you need to have your family history as far back as 1900 at least... That part's pretty easy as my great grandfather on mom's side lived to a ripe old age.. or at least I hope that his father and mother is as far back as I need to go for now.

The hard part is going to be finding out what county I need to look for him in... Ah well, that's a bridge to cross when I get there. An that's not even touching the other side of the family, where my great grandmother that was full blooded is.

Genealogy is fun, but rather confusing. It can be quite hard as after a certain point you can't go back any farther. The records just stop... or would that be just begin? Really depends on the way that you look at it, I think.

In Memory of Dusty: The midnight Telephone

2008-07-11T19:36:00.003-05:00

This past Sunday morning one of our parakeets died. His name was Dusty. This is one of my family's favorite stories about him, I thought that I would share it with ya'll too.

For two or 3 nights in a row dad had been woke up by the telephone ringing. He would run to get it thinking that it was an emergency, and someone was broken down on the road somewhere. (My dad's an auto mechanic, with his own shop.) Once he got to the phone, all he could get was a dial tone. Then the next morning when he looked at the caller ID there was nothing there.

Then one night as he went to the phone, it rang behind him.... But the phone was in front of him. By now you probably know that it wasn't the phone ringing, it was the bird singing in his sleep. The next morning dad was laughing about it at breakfast.

Book Review: The Courage to be Rich, by Suzie Orman.

2008-07-07T21:53:00.006-05:00

I saw this book recommended at lots of places but only got my hands on a copy quite recently. To me it was worth the wait. This is the first time I've really plowed into a personal fiance book. I'm interested in getting further than just a savings account for long term money growth.

This book was a good place to start. Suzie explained things in terms that I feel most people could understand. Her tone in the books, is much like her tone on the TV shows. Wanting you to succeed wanting to help. Yet, also willing to give you a kick in the pants if you need it.

The first few chapters of the book deal with the 'laws of money', which are guidelines to help you have the right viewpoint of money. The first one is my favorite.

"People first. Then money. Then things."

Of course the chapter that it is in explains what she means in detail, but that one sentence to me says a lot. She also points out that being rich is not all about haveing lots of money in the bank... Which for some can probably be a revelation. I'm not extremly materialistic (though I do have my weeknesses), yet those chapters gave me a lot to think about.

The main thing that irritated me is that she put the chapter on mortgages, and the chapter on IRA's so close together... As much information as is in those two important chapters I felt that they needed to be spred apart a bit. Then again that could be my falt for trying to read it strate though. Those chapters would probably be better, if you take your time, and read them similar to a text book.

Even with those irritations I definitly think that this book would be worth a read, no matter what stage you are in learning about personal finace.

Do you play too much?

2008-07-05T13:12:00.006-05:00

Have you ever had a piece of writing, or painting, or fileing system, or just something, that you could never get to suite you? Did you edit it, fiddle with it, rework it two or 3 times.. Yet you never quite got it to look 'just right.

This my friends is perfectionism right, left, front and center (behind and upside down too if you want to look at it this way)... An perhaps also a bit of procrastination as well. Even in something that needs to be as precise as engineering... Fiddling with it can go too far.

Do you have pieces that just get worse, and look more awful after you've worked on them for awhile? You keep tinkering with it, trying to polish it, until it's something beautiful. Only to have it shot down as one of your least successful works?

By all means go back and check your spelling, or rework that draft if it needs it. Just try not to overwork it.. Its hard to strike a balance, I've ruined several paintings by overworking them. They paint turned to mud, or in general just looked really bad.

When you tinker with something too much it looses that spark of being spontaneous, that little bit of being... well raw. It becomes stiff like dough with too much flour in it... Or that play dough that you've let sit out too long. It gets stiff to the point it's nearly impossible to get the life back into it.

Blue, Blue, Black, Black

2008-07-02T18:47:00.002-05:00

Blue, Blue
Here I am
Black, Black
going back.

Blue sky
Blue umbrella
The sunlight falls down like a warm blanket
onto green carpet like grass

Black pavement
Black shoes
That carry me to my work
that carry me to my home

Blue, Blue,
Black, Black
Sky and shade
Sun and road
stay the same till our coming back

Things that travel
Things that run away
Things that are always there
Things that stay.

Blue, Blue
Here I am
Black, Black
coming back.

Book Review: The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by AVI

2008-06-30T21:49:00.007-05:00

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle,
A novel by AVI.

The story begins with a young girl, aged 13, traveling thr a ship yard heading for a ship that will take her to her home in Providence, Rode Island. At first things seem a little strange. The two sailors that carried her trunk ran off the second that they learned to what ship that they where hired to talk it to. The Second mate tries to warn her off, but like the proper young lady that she was trained to be, she stays with the ship. Not long after the ship sets sail, a dagger is placed in her hand by the old cook Zachariah. It’s for her protection, he explains. When she tries to give it to the Captain he also tells her to keep it. She soon finds out just why she needs it, and later to her horror it’s used against her.

It isn’t your typical coming of age tale, and no, it’s not a romance. Actually it is far from those. It’s a tail of mayhem, and revolt on the brig style ship, known as the Seahawk. It’s about a naive girl who went to sea, and came back with a whole new perspective on life. The reputation of one Captain Andrew Jaggery, the ships master, is far different on land than it is at waters edge and beyond.

If you’re like most of us, and don’t know what a brig type ship looks like, or even how many masts that one has. There’s a handy diagram in the back of the book that shows how it looks, how many masts, along with what the names of the masts’ and the sails’ are. Along with an appendix that tells about the time keeping on the ship. Who said that you can’t learn something from fiction?

The story is very well researched, and yet it doesn’t take away from the story. This book pulled me in and nearly refused to let go. If you have a dull afternoon and are in the need of a good book, this one should qualify for the top of your reading list .

The Idea Book

2008-06-29T22:24:00.003-05:00

Many people on many sites have talked about this... An I'd like to add to the chorus due to just how helpful and useful it is.

What is an Idea book?

In it's most basic form it's simply a notebook, journal, or text file, where you keep a list of ideas to inspire you. It can be a list of words (think 100 themes), a paragraph detailing a project idea, or even just quotes that inspire you. A sketch book can be an idea book as well, it's just that the ideas are draw instead of written.

It's a 'everything book' for ideas that you would like to explore in more detail. Clipped photos from magazines that you store in a scrapbook, or a file cabinet can be an 'Idea book' as well. The most important thing about it is that you fill it with things to inspire you to work on your chosen field. Artwork, writing, project management, finances, music, or whatever you are.

Is it worth all the effort?

It depends on how it works out for you. For me it is well worth the effort. Because it helps to get me back to work after artists block, and writers block, both. I dread those blocks... You probably do too. Those awful times when we're staring at a blank sheet of paper, or a blank screen. We want to create something, we need to create something, it's driving us up the wall... But there are no ideas to be had anywhere. We spend hours it seems like, just sitting there. Staring at the blankness. An wanting to fill it with something, anything, but not even a glimmer of an idea shines.

When we have one of those awful times, it would be handy to have a file of something to look at to get inspired... Wouldn't it?

That's where the 'Idea book' concept comes in.

What should I use to make my idea book?

A note pad, a sketchbook, a stack of papers, a scrap book, file folders in a drawer, a three ring binder, or maybe one of those fancy journals you see at the dollar store. It doesn't matter what you use to make your idea book, as long as it works for you.

Fill it with quotes, words, magazine clippings, definitions of words, sketches, or just bits of this and that. It doesn't matter what you fill it with, as long as it helps to inspire you. (Although I wouldn't recommend perishable items such as food. That would probably get stinky after awhile.) Photographs that you've taken, or photos of your family. Prints bought from other photographers, or prints of your own photos. Trading cards, post cards, stamps, comic books, there's thousands of things you can fill your file with.

The worst part of all is narrowing it down, and keeping it contained in the space you have for it. But that is a post for another day.

The Dash Epidemic

2008-06-28T22:23:00.003-05:00

What's the dash? It's Diner Dash, Wedding Dash, Dairy Dash, Fashion Dash, Doggie Dash, and lets not forget Spongebob Diner Dash. (I'm ignoring the other similar games for the purpose of this post. I'll save those for later. )

Yes, I found Diner Dash quite enjoyable at first, I even bought a copy of it. I've played demos for almost all the others, and liked several of them. I still like the concept, but all the dash games are starting to wear on me a bit.

PlayFirst seems to be flooded with them, Big Fish Games, not so much... But still there's a lot of them there too. I can understand them wanting to play it safe, with something that is quite likely a boon to their company.... But maybe they could branch out a little bit more?

Then again that tends to break things in the gaming industry (Sonic the Hedgehogs first ventures into 3D for example).

Tutorial: How to change your sheets.

2008-06-27T17:17:00.003-05:00

Grab your pillows and take the pillow cases off. Put the pillow cases in one pile, so that you can take them to the laundry room, put your pillows in another.
Take your stuffed animals off your bed, if you have any, set them aside. Be sure to put them with the pillows! Don't put them in the same pile as the pillow cases, otherwise all your stuffed animals might end up wet!
Take the blankets off the bed (folding them up is optional, but it does make it easier to put the bed back together). And pile them with your pillows.
Pull your dirty sheets off the bed.
Grab your sheets, and your pillows, and run them to the laundry room. If you run them to the laundry room right off. You don't have to step over them, and possibly trip, wile putting your bed back together.
Get your fresh sheets, if you don't have them in your room already.
Now for the 'hard' part. Put on the fitted sheet. (The fitted sheet is the one with the corners that are sewed together.) Be sure to pull the corner to 'fit' the mattress otherwise when you pull it a lil bit to put it on at the opposite in it'll come off.
Put on your sheet, be sure to tuck in the bottom two corners.
Time to grab those blankets and put them back on the bed.
Now grab your pillows and put the clean cases on them. Then put the pillows on the bed.
Decoration time! Put your stuffed animals, or decorative pillows back on.
ALL Done!

Now that wasn't as bad as it could be, was it?

Yucky bathrooms, and not so yucky....

2008-06-25T22:37:00.003-05:00

Gas Station Bathrooms...

On a recent trip to Indiana, I noticed a trend. Once we got out of Tennessee the gas station bathrooms were much cleaner. It seemed that as soon as we hit Kentucky, almost as if someone had flipped a switch, all the bathrooms were cleaner.

Stinky Tennessee...

When going down toward I-40 to go to Memphis TN I've noticed that, you really, really don't want to stop at the bathrooms. There's only one station that really keeps their bathroom nice. The rest just don't seem to care to clean, other than restocking towels and toilet paper. Almost everywhere I've been in Tennessee has been like this, even a few of the restaurants are just as bad. (Though you have a lot better odds of finding a clean bathroom at a restaurant.)

It doesn't seem to matter what type of station you choose, or what brand you choose. Most stations I've stopped at, mayhap I just stink at picking, seem to have the same type of bathroom. Smallish, stinky, dirty floors, and all. Hopefully you haven't had this experience too often. The few exceptions seem to almost always be in a smallish town. So mayhap social pressure keeps those a bit cleaner. (They also tend to be newer bathrooms, so that may make a difference as well.)

Tennessee seems to be the worst in this area....

As I mentioned earlier, Tennessee seems to be the worst offender in this matter. I've traveled though Kentucky quite a lot recently. Not enough to make me an expert by any means, but enough to make a few observations.

So far in Kentucky I've only been to 1 stinky gas station bathroom. The rest have been amazingly clean. The tile wasn't stained, the bathrooms didn't smell, and the white area's were white like they're supposed to be... Mayhap they keep after them more, or mayhap the people there aren't as messy as they are in Tennessee.

I cannot say for sure about other states, as I haven't traveled to them enough times to form an opinion.

Book Review: The Treasure of Skeleton Reef (Wishbone Mysteries Number 1) By Brad Strickland and Thomas E. Fuller

2008-06-24T11:37:00.000-05:00

Wishbone Mysteries Number 1

The Treasure of Skeleton Reef , By Brad Strickland and Thomas E. Fuller
Back of Cover Summery:

"The wealthy Windom Foundation Donates the Skeleton Reef Lighthouse to the Oakdale Historical Society. Joe Talbot and Wishbone are on hand to help restore the building. But there is more to this donation that meets the eye. They soon learn that the lighthouse holds the key to and incredible treasure. It also holds dark secrets that threaten Oakdale and spell danger for Wishbone and Joe!"

From the cover this looks kind of like some cutesy doggie detective story. Although that is not too far from the truth, it is far more than that. It stars both Wishbone, and his best buddy Joe Talbot. This is the wishbone from the rather popular Television series of said name. An just like in the TV show, there is one story from a classic tied into the main plot.

In this story it is on of Sherlock Holmes’ many cases: The Musgrave Ritual. The tie-ins add to the story, and help build the plot line. Most of the references are not direct quotes, but are blended into the story quite nicely. On the whole it is very well planned out and executed. One even learns some bits and pieces about sailing, and charting.

The whole story is very good reading for both young and old.

Anti Virus, what’s with all the hype?

2008-06-23T17:18:00.003-05:00

Disclaimer: I do not guarantee that this information is accurate. I am not responsible if something you try, because of this information, messes up your computer... Or anyone else's. This blog is for entertainment purposes only.

If you talk to almost any tech, they’ll recommend that you have an Anti-Virus program. They say that it’s a necessity, to the point that some imply (And sometimes say) that it’s foolish to not have one. “Why is that so?” you ask. Hopefully I can explain some of the reasons in this article.

The simple answer is if your computer gets a virus, you need an Anti-Virus to get rid of it. Kind of like when you catch the flu, you need medication to help you get over it.

An Anti-Virus also works as a preventative. It scans your hard drive, and if configured, your e-mail. That way it prevents a virus from getting sever and crashing your computer. That is why most virus scanners will scan your computer at least once a week, if not once a day. To get rid of the virus before the symptoms start to appear, because be time they start to appear there could be a whole lot of damage done that you couldn’t undo. Like say the computer just not boot to Windows at all.

What do I do?

Simply this, buy an Anti-Virus program and install it on your computer. If you don’t have the money to buy one, I know of at least one free (for personal use) Anti-Virus program out there. Grisoft’s AVG.

The other important thing to do is to keep your anti virus software updated. It is not an install and then let it run program. Most will do automatic updates for you but it is best to check and make sure that it is actually downloading the updates every once and awhile.

Also, make sure you set it to scan your computer at least once a week. If you get on the internet once a day would be better, but once (or twice) a week should suffice for most folks.

Book Review: The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, by John Dickson Carr

2008-06-22T16:12:00.001-05:00

I was put onto the trail of this book by some members of WelcomeHolmes mentioning it in a discussion. Several months later… I found it among a pile of books in a Goodwill store, and what a wonderful find it turned out to be!

I found it to be a wonderful book to read just for reading’s sake. It tells the story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Life in such a way that anyone simply wanting to read a good book would enjoy. The way that it is written pulls you into it, and makes you want to keep on reading. It makes you want to find out more about the persons mentioned with in.

For someone wanting information on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s life, I really cannot say. As I am not an expert on the subject, nor have I read any other books on his life with which to compare this one. In my mind this book makes for a good starting point, for one’s journey into the world of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

I am no expert in the area of biographies… It would be a bit far outside of my field of knowledge to say if this book is very accurate, but I do know that it makes for a good and entertaining read. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for such… As for serious scholars, they must judge for themselves.

Cluttered Room, Cluttered mind.

2008-06-21T13:08:00.000-05:00

I sit here looking around my room at the piles of stuff that I have yet to tackle… Then it hit me why I was having so much trouble coming up with my article for illusion this month.

All my stuff that I had to clean, all my projects I have yet to finish. My books waiting to be read. Junk to be sorted, old toys to donate. Scattered, mess, clutter. All distracting me from what I really want to do. Write this article.

So I start procrastinating, going to my favorite websites and checking them out. Tinkering with a project… Here’s our old friend procrastination again, but this time I caught it before I wasted too much time.

I know that some of you can think better in a mess, and more power too you. I used to think that I could think in a mess and that I was getting a lot done… WRONG! I was spending so much time hunting stuff that I was wasting a lot of time. Or I was procrastinating because I dreaded trying to get something out from under a stack of papers, or out of a bin. Because I knew I would start an avalanche when I tried to get it out. Stuff would go everywhere, and then I would waste more time trying to throw everything back into the bin, and end up feeding the cycle all over again.

Over the past 3 years I have been slowly cleaning my room, and the cleaner it gets, the more the junk bugs me. I have been on a lazy streak recently and have let things go. Yesterday I’d finally had it. I cleaned up a 3 foot tile pile of junk and it took me way less than an hour. I’d say 30 minutes.

Where am I going with this rambling?

The stuff laying around in your room, that you have to scratch through to get to the closet, or the stuff that causes you to have to walk though a narrow path to get out. Wastes time that you could be spending doing something far more profitable (like chilling with your friends over a movie and munchies).

What does this have to do with my mind you ask. Simple. In its own way this clutter adds guilt. It adds on and piles up, and hides you from the world. Which just keeps building up and building up. An then one day you realize that you don’t know where your going and possibly don’t know who you are. Or maybe you just realize that you’re alone and your friends don’t know who you are. Both of which happened to me at the same time.

The way I started was by throwing away a few things everyday, or by putting them in a bag to give away. If you have a parent like my mom “Why are you getting rid of that, so and so gave it to you.” Or “You could find a use for that.” The best way that I found to deal with them was. “If you want to keep it you can, but I just don’t want it to come back into my room.”

But don’t go crazy and rip everything apart. Take it one baby step at a time. Clean out one small drawer, one shelf, or just put one thing away. It didn’t get like this in a day, it won’t get cleaned out in a day.

Book Review: The Case of the One-Eyed Witness, By Erle Stanly Gardner

2008-06-20T15:46:00.001-05:00

I had only seen the television show about the famous lawyer Mr. Perry Mason, until I read this particular book. Now I see how accurate the TV portrayal was personality wise for all the characters. This book is a wonderful mystery in its own right.

The story starts out with a mystery client calling Mason at a restaurant in a panic, and sending a retainer by messenger. The things spiral downward from there, with things becoming more and more of a mystery. Until the surprising end. The only thing that I found a bit hard to follow was some of the courtroom parts, but I lay that off on my reading this at night just before bed.

Overall I would recommend this book to any fan of the Perry Mason TV series, or anyone else who is looking for a good mystery.

Procrastination, the Other Green-Eyed Monster.

2008-06-19T15:44:00.003-05:00

NOTE: This was originally for a E-Zine that is no longer published. It's been so long ago that I don't even remember the name now. Rather than let the article 'sit and rot' on my hard drive. I decided to post it here for everyone to enjoy.

Please allow for me to introduce, or in some cases, reintroduce to you the other green eyed monster. Procrastination. Why do I introduce it as a green-eyed monster? Isn’t that usually reserved for jealousy?

Procrastination likes to steal your time away from the more important things in life. It’s jealous that it’s not getting all of your time… So It likes to eat away at the useful things that you do… Make them seem hard, or you just can’t get them right. So you avoid doing them. Even when it’s something that you like to do; such as reading a book, or drawing a picture.

How should we fight this horrible beast? Often times it seems like an uphill and impossible battle. On that we can never win. We use multiple excuses to say that it’s alright to procrastinate. That it’s alright to not do something, and leave it until the last minute. Then we rush and get super stressed out, and the results aren’t as good as they could be. Then we get even more stressed out. Then we procrastinate more on the next project because we’re afraid of getting the same quality of results as last time, and the cycle continues to feed itself.

There is a way to win! The seemingly impossible is possible! It takes some thought, some planning, and lots of stubbornness to work through it the hard times. It can be done! I used to be a very bad procrastinator. I would put things off for days and days. Sometimes even for a year or more. Things are slowly getting better, but I still have my bad times. You have to be stubborn enough to work through those. Its hard, but it can be done.

Instead of “only one more thing”, or “I’ll do it later”. Just go ahead and get it over with because the waiting just makes it that much worse. So simple to say, so hard to do.

Stubbornness is key. When you notice yourself procrastinating on something. Just start working on it. It can only be one thing: Hunting the articles needed for reference, getting out your supplies, even just cleaning off your work area. Breaking things down into a step at a time you will be able to gradually climb the mountain and turn it into a mole hill.

How much is that Birdy in the window?

2008-06-17T11:19:00.002-05:00

NOTE: This was originally for a E-Zine that is no longer published. It's been so long ago that I don't even remember the name now. Rather than let the article 'sit and rot' on my hard drive. I decided to post it here for everyone to enjoy. I updated some of the information so that it would be up to date.

Have you been thinking about getting a pet bird? A chatty parrot? A comical lovebird? The very thought of having a creature with such personality and smarts captures the imagination of many… An yet, as there is to everything there is a catch.

I currently have seven birds, and have had three more over the years for a total of 10. They make wonderful companions, for many years. But along with that wonderful companionship comes quite a bit of work.

Cages must be cleaned weekly, if not daily.

Fresh water every day or every other day.

Fresh seed every other day, or every day depending on how much your bird eats.

Feathers, seed, seed hulls, scattered everywhere.

Where the bird is sitting at the moment is where it goes to the bathroom.

A few other important things to consider are that if you get a bird you cannot use non stick pans. Teflon and many other nonstick coatings release a gas that is toxic to birds. Even if they’re on the other side of the house the gas can kill them. Self cleaning ovens are another concern, along with candles (lead in the wick). Many scented aerosol sprays are toxic to birds as well.

Wile there are a lot of things to consider when getting a pet bird, there are also many rewards. Their songs and chattering to greet you in the morning, or just whenever you come home. Parakeets, Lovebirds and Cockatiels love to play and act silly, wile Finches and Canaries will sing you a tune.

The best way to find out more about what it takes to have a pet bird is to do research. Find some books in your library or local bookstore on the breed of bird you are considering. Or you can search for information on the internet. Maybe even check out your local pet shop.

Birds are wonderful pets to have. With the possibility of creating a relationship you both will enjoy for years. There is more work to keeping them happy and healthy than a dog or a cat. So it’s important to make sure you really have the time to share your life with one of these wonderful animals.

Walmart and Lays... Never can get just one

2008-06-15T21:32:00.006-05:00

I think it's lays that had or has that slogan that "You can't eat just one" or something similar. (I can't find it on google at this moment.)... I think Wal*mart's equivalent for me would be, "You can't leave with just the item's on the list."

No where else am I much of an impulse spender. I'm not even as bad at the grocery store as I am here. I don't even splurge as much at the art supply store. Wal*mart has become a bit of a magnet for my money. Fortunately my family only goes there about once a month, or once every two months if we can get away with it. An they're good at helping me avoid the sections that I have low resistance too.

Namely Stationary, Electronics, and Arts & Crafts. Electronics, is getting a lot easier. Because there hasn't been any new games to come out recently, that I want. In Stationary it's all the beautiful pencils that get me. Ones with glitter, butterflies, cats, stripes, or just plain old No. 2s. If I wasn't careful, half of my room would be filled with pencils.

Pen's I don't have that problem with because I just buy the black ink Bics. They write really smooth, and there's no clicking button for me to annoy people with. They also fit my hand rather well.

Arts & Crafts at Wal*Mart is puny. Just the basics, and not a lot of good quality stuff. Donna Dewberry's painting line is nice for beginners, and people who are interested in that style of painting. I got one of her wide flats for watercolor, and it works nicely for that. Occasionally you'll find a Wal*mart with Bob Ross things. Those are of good quality, but mostly useless to me as I'm allergic to oil paint.

The yarn section is where I tend to loose all willpower. All the pretty colors, and textures promise hours of knitting fun. We have a lot of yarn from back when mom used to crochet. It never seems as fun as those new bundles on the shelf.

It seems that I'm something of a spend thrift. I'm not. I left Wal*Mart today with a journal, a book of stickers, packing tape, and a wrist brace. Those are the only things I bought that weren't on my list. The rest was bird seed, millet, and Ovaltine. The packing tape is for mailing out books for bookmooch, and games for goozex. I use the stickers to mark diffrent things on my calander. The wrist brace is to be used to replace one I can't find. The journal is probably the only thing that was totally frivolous... But I shall put it to use somehow. Blank paper rarely stays blank for long at my house.

To see is easyer than to explain....

2008-06-13T19:50:00.008-05:00

Sometimes the easiest way to learn is to just watch someone do it. Hopefully they will be explaining what they're doing. Why this goes here instead of that. Maybe why screws turn to the left, rather than the right... (Although, the answer to that one might require a bit of research on the answers part.)

I tend to be more of a visual learner about some things than other. I can learn how to work on a computer from a book, but I have to have the photos to know. Now other things... Say personal finance, how to write, or how to study. Those I only need to read about... Or do I?

You don't always need a picture in the normal sense to 'see'. A visual aid can, in the loosest sense of the term, be just words on the page. I'm not talking about that form of are where everything is made up of letters (thats called typography by the way). I'm talking about illustrations.

Wait! Isn't illustration a form of artwork?

Illustrations are a form of artwork... The type of illustration that I'm talking about at the moment is the type that speech writers often use. Book writers use them too. They are often call examples. They are often proceeded by the words: for instance, for example, or even... It's similar to. (Yes, that list is one. Can you find the others that I used?)

Relating one thing to another is a simple example of an example. There are lots of other words that can be used for the diffrent types of illustrations... A name for each diffrent type. Similes, metaphors, and... I think there's another couple of name's thrown in there as well.

Accountability can be dangerous.

2008-06-11T21:06:00.001-05:00

Disclaimer: I am not speaking for anyone else but myself. I am not a psychologist, psychoanalyst, or doctor, of any kind. This post is for entertainment purposes only.

A lot of blogs, books, and self help folks recommend having a partner that keeps you on track. A person to be accountable too. Such as someone to go to every so often and check in with… Someone to call you and make sure you did this, or that, habit in which you’re trying to start.

I’ve found this useful on certain things (exercising by going on walks with my mother). Sometimes though, the keeping a count part of accountability, backfires. A very good example of this, in my life, is the goal of going to bed earlier.

I have a bad habit of staying up till 1, 2, or even 3 am sometimes. I won’t state all the various reasons behind my being up so late. The top one seems to be a bad habit of eating a big bowl of ice cream about 10 PM, but now I’m getting off track (and making myself hungry to boot).

The point where accountability backfires is when one, or both, of my parents reminds me not to stay up late. I’ll get side tracked reading, and end up staying up ‘too late’ by about 10 or 15 minutes. It will make me feel guilty, then upset, then I’ll get hyper and clean my room, because I’m upset with myself. An I’ll end up looking at the clock after I’ve calmed down; It’ll be 1:30 on a good spell… Or as late as 3 AM on a bad one.

That first guilty feeling tends to pile up. It will manifest itself in odd ways. Which are only made worse, in this case, by a lack of sleep.

How to fight it…

I’ve found one of the best ways, at least for me, is to try and surprise someone by doing the new habit consistently. Start with two days in a row, then try for three. If you miss one, just start your count over. By starting with lower numbers, it eases the ouch in the period your most likely to trip up. Right at the beginning.

For some habits, even two days, or times, can seem overwhelming. So just start the count at one, and celebrate accomplishing it the first time. (My celebration is marking on my calendar that I did that habit for that day wile saying aloud ‘Yay me!’ Your mileage may vary. )

Next time you feel you want to start a habit, make it a secret habit. Then surprise someone you care for with the results. It might just brighten your day, and theirs too.

Storms are coming...

2008-06-09T22:00:00.005-05:00

This may not make as much sense as my last few entries, due to the speed I'm having to write it at. There's a thunderstorm on it's way, and I don't want my computer on wile the storm is here. Normal thunderstorms don't make me terribly nervous, but when there's a slight risk of severe weather... Like there is tonight, it makes me very nervous.

A few years ago, we had straight line winds hit our house. The wind was powerful enough to rock our two story house enough that it creaked. Then again what could have caused the creaking was that our paper shell pecan tree fell over in that wind. Ever sense then storms in general have caused me to be nervous.

I really enjoy rain. I don't mine having to run errands, or go on a trip, in the rain. Walking in the rain is something I find very enjoyable. Along with naps near and open window where I can hear the rain coming down. It's one of my favorite sounds, a soft spring rain.

It's something of a contrast now that I think about it. Soft rain makes me sleepy and relaxed. Wile hard, fast, rain makes me nervous and upset. Only recently, I have started being calmer around 'normal' thunderstorms. They still make me a bit uneasy until their over. Although I am slowly getting better about being so nervous... I just hope that no one gets hurt tonight.

300 words... Mayhap. Mayhap not.

2008-06-07T22:50:00.014-05:00

300 words seems so daunting right at this moment... It's late, and for once I just want to go to bed. Here I am writing out this blog like I promised myself I would start writing a bit everyday. Though every day lately it seems to get a bit harder to come up with something to write.

I found myself procrastinating today. "I'll just play this game for a few minutes then I'll go post." Then after the game I went to the kitchen and cooked some supper for us. Then I got sidetracked again doing something or other that I can't remember what it was now. Covered the birds up for the night... Oh, now I remember! I check some forums for Petz 4.

I kept putting it off, mainly do to a lack of an idea of what to post as an entry. 300 words is rather daunting when staring at a blank screen... Even 150 seemed daunting. (Sense this is my first week working on this I gave myself a bit of leeway on my goal.)

Mmmm maybe a goal for next week should be to try and post an entry without using the words 'I', 'me' or 'my'... On second thought, that sounds a bit hard yet. Might give it a try anyway. It'll be next week before I post again anyway. My calender starts the week on Sundays.

Two hundred thirty six, and almost there, yay!

I guess this would be the appropriate place to properly introduce one of my favorite odd words I discovered. Mayhap.

Mayhap is defined according to dictionary.com: Perhaps -adverb, Archaic.

So saying Mayhap is the same as saying perhaps. Mayhap just sounds more cheerful to me though. I've noticed a lot of my favorite words are spring green. Its a very cheerful color right up there with purple. There's a strange lack of purple in letters, maybe thats why I have such trouble with spelling.

There I go getting side tracked again. It's really late now, so for now I'll say good night.

Not your average 22 year old.

2008-06-06T13:12:00.003-05:00

The more I read about things that are supposed to appeal to people my age. The more I realize that I'm somewhat odd...

Clothes: I'm not into fashion. I know what works for me, my closet has plenty of clothes for whatever occasions I usually need them for, and I rarely buy clothes.
Shoes: I've gotten to where I keep at most two pairs of tennis shoes, one or two pairs of dress shoes, and a pair of flip flops for going to the pool.
Make-up, Jewelry etc. I only buy new stuff here if I run out (makeup), or if something breaks.
Purses: I haven't bought any in about a year.

These are common things that it seems that a lot of the young women I know are interested in. I pay them very little attention if any at all anymore. I admit that I was interested in them for awhile, but that interest waned quickly after I figured out what worked for me.

Before anyone starts thinking that I'm judging anyone. Please stop where you are, and take a second to read the next few sentences. I'm not judging anyone who's interested in these things, that's their business. There's lots of things I'm interested in that would make them wonder what I was thinking.

An that's simply what I'm wondering, why would something that interests so many women.. Be of little to no interest to me? I'm not frilly, I'm not girly girl... well not as the stereo type goes anyway... I don't like wearing pink, I find lace itchy, etc... Maybe I'm too biased by the 'tom boy' image. .. Or just images in general... But that shall have to wait for another post.

Just do it now!

2008-06-05T13:57:00.004-05:00

Which is what I'm doing! I'm just writing this now instead of putting it off till 3 or 4 this afternoon. Yay me! Yes, that does sound a little crazy... Maybe it is a bit, but it's the good kind of crazy.

Remember the FLYLady...

Remember me talking about FLYlady yesterday? FLYlady is an 'organization system', but it seems rather strange when you first look at it. "Oh this is just for house wives", some may think. Actually this system is good for anyone, Guys, Gals, old, young, it doesn't matter. If you break it down to just the principals; anyone can use the system.

"You can do anything for 15 minutes."

Take a timer, set it for 15 minutes. Then work, clean, write, read, or even play. It's amazing what you can get done when you 'only have to work for 15 minutes.' I've caught my self having the thing that felt like it was going to take forever done, and looking for something else to do!

"Microwave moments."

You're standing there waiting for the microwave to buzz, the coffee pot to finish, or the fax to go though. Take that time and do something really quick. Pick up trash around your desk, wipe off the kitchen counter, put your pencils back into the holder. Doesn't matter, just do it.

"Never leave the room empty handed."

Before you leave the room and go somewhere else. Look around and see if there's anything you can put away on the way to the room, or in the room you're going to. If you just do one item a trip, you'd be amazed at how quick this adds up.

But I know all that already...

Thats wonderful! No I'm not being sarcastic. I think it's great if you know it already, but there are a lot of us that don't know all of this. That don't 'just know' how to clean. FLYlady is for us, and you too. You may think you know everything already, but go take a look anyway. Mayhaps you'll learn something in the process.

One step at a time

2008-06-04T14:52:00.005-05:00

One step at a time, one word at a time... No make that one letter at a time. I'm working on figuring out where I want to go with this blog. On days like today it's a bit of a struggle, I want to go do something else. I realize though, it's not necessarily that I actually want to do something else. I just am lacking inspiration at the moment, and I'm trying to procrastinate on writing by doing something else.

I want to have a relatively popular blog, I'd imagine that anyone who starts a blog hopes for that. An I'd like to be a decent writer. I sometimes jump into something, and get frustrated when it doesn't turn out the way that I want to immediately.

The simplest way to define it is perfectionism, or perhaps just a lack of patience. A good example of my frustration with writing would be the spelling of the word patience itself. I have a terrible time trying to spell that word. My friends can testify to how many times I've tried to correct that word in an instant message and haven't got it correct. I've finally gotten into the habit of looking things up in a dictionary, an online dictionary, but a dictionary none the less.

So where does the one step at a time come in?

The one step at a time, or babysteps, is my way on working toward being better. At writing, and at artwork. My working on a post to here every day will help with my writing, just as drawing every day will help with artwork. I know the general rule is to start with a minimum of 300 words, but here I'm starting with a minimum of 150. Though most days I go over by a lot.

One step, one word, one letter at a time. Thats how to get better at something. Where did this finally sink in from this perfectionist? By being a FLYbaby. That is a subject for another day.

Escaped bird, or not.

2008-06-03T14:42:00.004-05:00

Some time back I had quite a scare. I thought that one of my pet birds had escaped from the house and had gotten outside. In something of a panic, I went to investigate the source of the tweeting. I searched the branches of the pecan tree thoroughly. The tweeting sounded just like one of my pet lovebirds. When I finally found the source of the cheeping, it turned out to be a Mocking bird. My family and I ended up having a good laugh over it.

My mom already knew about the Mockingbird because it liked to sit on top of the chimney and sing in the early morning. Apparently it had 'traded' songs with some of my birds as well, as one of my parakeets started singing a song rather similar to that Mockingbird.

A couple of months later my Dad thought that one of the parakeets had gotten loose, but it turned out to be a Mockingbird again. Perhaps it was the same one, or mayhap it was another one that had picked up the tune. You never know with mocking birds.

Truth in fiction.

2008-06-02T23:22:00.005-05:00

Fiction can not only be fun, and relaxing, but quite instructive as well.

"If you are sure about something," he said as they slowly returned to their seats, "force yourself to think about it another way, even if you know it's wrong or silly. When you read , don't consider only what the author thinks, but take the time to consider what you think."
- Mr. Keating in Dead Poets Society

There are a lot of things that you, and I, can learn from fiction. Some of you may fondly remember those books that we used to have as children, that taught us things on the sly. How to treat our friends, how to not be selfish, how to be respectful to our elders, and so on. Those lessons, and sometimes deeper ones, can creep into fiction for those of us that are adults as well. They are harder to find, and farther between, but you can usually find one. Sometimes two.

Its all about perspective...

We're taught at an early age that there's only a certain process to studying. That to tackle every problem we are to do steps A, B, and C. Whatever they may be. That there's only one correct formula to do this or that. While that may be true in math, or in a number line. In life, practice, and studying (of course) there's usually different ways to look at things.

I think that Mr. Keeting said it well. "force yourself to think about it another way, even if you know it's wrong or silly."

Just because it's the wrong way to look at something, doesn't mean that you won't learn from looking at it that way. You could find an even better way of looking at it, but you won't know unless you take the chance to look at it that way.

"It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." - Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Beryl Corone

In short I'm an Artist.

2008-06-01T15:05:00.007-05:00

Hello,

My name is Crystal, quite a few of you will already know me from my DeviantArt account. An introduction is in order sense this is a new venture, don't you think?

In short I'm an Artist.

To put it in more detail: I enjoy painting, drawing, coloring, knitting, writing, and playing the piano. Some of my other interests are reading, learning, studying Spanish, working on computers, and decluttering.

That is just things that I like to do, but it gives you a bit of a start into the way that I think. Also some from maybe wondering, "You have a perfectly good journal over at DeviantArt why are you writing another journal here?"

The answer is simple. I wanted some separation from my art for my writing. So that neither would get lost because of the other. Here is a place for me to focus on my writing, DeviantArt is the place for me to focus on my artwork.

I hope that you will enjoy my venture into writing.