I haven't done New Year's resolutions...well...ever, really. The pragmatic side of me seems to realize that I'll never actually follow through on them, so I just don't make them to begin with. Seems to keep the getting disappointed in myself thing to a low.
But I decided to make some this year. And, as this is my first new year as a blogger, I thought I'd share some of them with you all.
1. The obvious, and most cliche - to lose that 20 pounds that seems to have made its residence on my body. We're going on vacation this summer with Herman's family, and for once, I'd like not to be ashamed of those photographs. We'll see.
2. To create something everyday. I have this horrible disease called "perfectionism". For some reason, my mind thinks that I can't make something unless the end result is beautiful and perfect (in my eyes). The silly thing is, that I never get better. The whole, trying and failing in order to succeed thing scares me.
3. Continuing the above thought, I'm going to do something that I saw someone else do: take a photo a day of myself combined with something I learned that day. Could be a news item, or something much more mundane. It'll be a good lesson in discipline for me, which is something that I seem to lack.
4. Most importantly, I'm going to strive to keep in better touch with those people who are important to me. I'm horrible (HORRIBLE) at keeping in touch, which has led some of my friends and family to believe that I don't care about them. Ouch. And so NOT true.
So there. For now.
Feel free to share yours with me. We can keep each other in line.
Happy Holidays!
And of course, Happy Christmas.
We're off to Idaho, the land of quiet, and of dial up internet (otherwise known as "I won't be posting for the next 11 days").
Have a good one.
We're off to Idaho, the land of quiet, and of dial up internet (otherwise known as "I won't be posting for the next 11 days").
Have a good one.
More Good Music*.
A friend recently (as in 2 days ago) turned me on to Mermaid Avenue, a collaboration between Billy Bragg and Wilco. I guess a few years ago (as in 7 years ago) they got permission from Woody Guthrie's family to record some of his (Guthrie's) unrecorded music.
It's pretty great (as in I can't get enough)**. Pick it up if you get a chance. Also check out Mermaid Avenue, Vol II. Also fantastic.
Josh and Wesley...for some reason, I keep thinking about you guys when I listen to this. Have you heard it? If not, I think you both might like it. I could be wrong though.
*2 posts in 1 day? What am I? Made of time? Well no, of course not, but I am 3 books away from being finished for the semester. Then I'll be made of time. Relaxin' time.
**as in, I was on a roll. I'll stop now.
It's pretty great (as in I can't get enough)**. Pick it up if you get a chance. Also check out Mermaid Avenue, Vol II. Also fantastic.
Josh and Wesley...for some reason, I keep thinking about you guys when I listen to this. Have you heard it? If not, I think you both might like it. I could be wrong though.
*2 posts in 1 day? What am I? Made of time? Well no, of course not, but I am 3 books away from being finished for the semester. Then I'll be made of time. Relaxin' time.
**as in, I was on a roll. I'll stop now.
In Which We Scare the Crap Out of the Cat...And Then Make it Better.
A lesson on how to make your cat revert to being a frightened little kitten. Take off his normal collar (a very beaten up Manchester United collar), and replace it with a new collar...that has a bell on it. Watch your cat curl himself up in a ball and not move until you swear you've taken the god-forsaken bell of death off of his collar.
Then let him sit* in your lap until he's sufficently calmed down enough to go hide under the bed for the next 15 minutes.
To get your cat back to normal, let him go collarless for the rest of the afternoon and for good measure, fill his favorite stuffed frog (courtesy of Julie) with a pinch of Cosmic Catnip. He'll be good as new before you know it.
*Note, if you will, the way his feet are curled up in tense anticipation of the bell coming back.
Then let him sit* in your lap until he's sufficently calmed down enough to go hide under the bed for the next 15 minutes.
To get your cat back to normal, let him go collarless for the rest of the afternoon and for good measure, fill his favorite stuffed frog (courtesy of Julie) with a pinch of Cosmic Catnip. He'll be good as new before you know it.
*Note, if you will, the way his feet are curled up in tense anticipation of the bell coming back.
More Great Advice.
"You can fly drunk. And you can fly crazy. But you gotta make a choice. You can't be both."
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
The Two* Things That Annoyed Me Today.
Thing #1.
I spend all of my time in the Design Center here at RISD and most of my classes are on the 5th and 6th floors. When the school year started, I made a little deal with myself that I wouldn't take the elevator if I was going to any floor under 5 (like 4 - where the photo lab is). I've kept that deal and have even walked up to the 6th floor a couple of times (yes, this is going somewhere. Somewhere good? You be the judge of that).
So I get to the Design Center today, laden with numerous projects as it was our last day of Type class and we had to bring in all of our work, and walk over to the elevator. When the doors open, I go in, hit the 6th floor button, and when the doors start to close someone says to wait. A couple gets into the elevator and HITS THE BUTTON TO THE 2ND FLOOR.
My inner dialogue said something like "You have GOT to be kidding me". I'm afraid it will be said out loud one of these days because there is no end to the amount of people who will ride the elevator to the second floor. It's the second floor. 12 steps. 20 at the most. I tried to push away the very judgemental side of me, and give them the benefit of the doubt. You know, maybe they can't walk up stairs. Maybe their legs only work forward and backward, not up and down. Well, yeah, that didn't work very well. I judged.
Thing #2.
It snowed all day Sunday here. A good 3 to 4 inches. No, that's not the thing that annoyed me today. You'll have to wait until January or February when I've walked to school in the freezing cold and wiped out numerous times before you hear about snow annoying me. But be prepared. You know it's coming.
No, the thing that annoyed me was that I had to wear boots to school. OK, I didn't HAVE to, but walking in the snow in Chuck Taylors (and fake Chuck Taylor's to boot. hee hee, to boot) probably isn't the best idea (you would hear me complaining about snow then!).
I have sort of large feet for someone of my height, and my feet combined with the snow shoe boot things made me very, very aware of my feet all day.
I DO NOT like being aware of my feet all day.
*You're only getting two because that's all I feel like talking about.
I spend all of my time in the Design Center here at RISD and most of my classes are on the 5th and 6th floors. When the school year started, I made a little deal with myself that I wouldn't take the elevator if I was going to any floor under 5 (like 4 - where the photo lab is). I've kept that deal and have even walked up to the 6th floor a couple of times (yes, this is going somewhere. Somewhere good? You be the judge of that).
So I get to the Design Center today, laden with numerous projects as it was our last day of Type class and we had to bring in all of our work, and walk over to the elevator. When the doors open, I go in, hit the 6th floor button, and when the doors start to close someone says to wait. A couple gets into the elevator and HITS THE BUTTON TO THE 2ND FLOOR.
My inner dialogue said something like "You have GOT to be kidding me". I'm afraid it will be said out loud one of these days because there is no end to the amount of people who will ride the elevator to the second floor. It's the second floor. 12 steps. 20 at the most. I tried to push away the very judgemental side of me, and give them the benefit of the doubt. You know, maybe they can't walk up stairs. Maybe their legs only work forward and backward, not up and down. Well, yeah, that didn't work very well. I judged.
Thing #2.
It snowed all day Sunday here. A good 3 to 4 inches. No, that's not the thing that annoyed me today. You'll have to wait until January or February when I've walked to school in the freezing cold and wiped out numerous times before you hear about snow annoying me. But be prepared. You know it's coming.
No, the thing that annoyed me was that I had to wear boots to school. OK, I didn't HAVE to, but walking in the snow in Chuck Taylors (and fake Chuck Taylor's to boot. hee hee, to boot) probably isn't the best idea (you would hear me complaining about snow then!).
I have sort of large feet for someone of my height, and my feet combined with the snow shoe boot things made me very, very aware of my feet all day.
I DO NOT like being aware of my feet all day.
*You're only getting two because that's all I feel like talking about.
I Guess It Can Be Done.
Remember the Alphabet Book project? Well, after weeks of searching for photos, talking to numerous professional photographers, editing, designing, and not sleeping*...it's done.
Well, almost. This is the first one that I've actually printed, and it has some issues that I'll rectify in subsequent printings. I need to print another one for my professor, then a good one for my portfolio, then...8 more - for the extremely generous professional photographers who gave me their high res original images, and for the 4 fans who supplied me with their own concert photos. Yeah. That's a lot of printing.
The final book is 7" x 7" and slides into a cover. Just like a 7" LP.
And below this photo is a small, very horrible spread of the 26 pages, plus the intro and cover. I wanted a way to show the entire thing, but it's huge and this is all I came up with at this late hour. And for some reason, when moving this from Illustrator to Acrobat, the blacks changed. So the actual blacks aren't the grayish black that this is showing. Ok, it's crap, but there it is.
Oh, I wanted to mention the pros that helped me out. These guys are amazing:
K, N, X were provided by Mike Duncan.
C, E, P, R, T, W were provided by Greg Glenn.
G, Q were provided by Barry Hott.
D, Y were provided by Jesse Yance.**
*This coming week is the last week of classes, and Monday, I have like a bajillion projects due - including this book, one other book, and a 3-D letter. I haven't gotten to sleep before 3.00 am for the past week. As a result, I'm sick. Sick, sick, sick. What horrible timing.
**Is anyone else getting a Sesame Street vibe? Blah blah is brought to you by the letter A. Only, I've never seen Sesame Street so I wouldn't really know.
Well, almost. This is the first one that I've actually printed, and it has some issues that I'll rectify in subsequent printings. I need to print another one for my professor, then a good one for my portfolio, then...8 more - for the extremely generous professional photographers who gave me their high res original images, and for the 4 fans who supplied me with their own concert photos. Yeah. That's a lot of printing.
The final book is 7" x 7" and slides into a cover. Just like a 7" LP.
And below this photo is a small, very horrible spread of the 26 pages, plus the intro and cover. I wanted a way to show the entire thing, but it's huge and this is all I came up with at this late hour. And for some reason, when moving this from Illustrator to Acrobat, the blacks changed. So the actual blacks aren't the grayish black that this is showing. Ok, it's crap, but there it is.
Oh, I wanted to mention the pros that helped me out. These guys are amazing:
K, N, X were provided by Mike Duncan.
C, E, P, R, T, W were provided by Greg Glenn.
G, Q were provided by Barry Hott.
D, Y were provided by Jesse Yance.**
*This coming week is the last week of classes, and Monday, I have like a bajillion projects due - including this book, one other book, and a 3-D letter. I haven't gotten to sleep before 3.00 am for the past week. As a result, I'm sick. Sick, sick, sick. What horrible timing.
**Is anyone else getting a Sesame Street vibe? Blah blah is brought to you by the letter A. Only, I've never seen Sesame Street so I wouldn't really know.
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