Happy Halloween!

Ian — Fri, 31 Oct 2003 13:33:09 +0000

It’s the end of another month already. I’ve been trying to take some stock in this month’s activities. Being injured has temporarily put my weightlifting goals on hold (and has really fucked with my head). I’m glad I went to my nephew’s birthday party. I need to do more to support Mary’s efforts. It sucks that the assignment with HL2 got cut short, but beyond that I don’t regret the opportunity in the slightest. I feel my recent computer acquisitions reflect progress towards my multimedia goals. I have a lot of work to do.

My shiny, new Intuos 2 Platinum Wacom tablet was delivered by FedEx late yesterday afternoon. I made space for it on my desk, made the USB connection, installed the driver and software on the CD, and then downloaded a working copy of the driver from the Wacom site and installed it. It didn’t take long to get it up and running, but I evoked a “Low USB Power” warning when trying to have it hooked up with my keyboard, Turbo Mouse, and Zip drive. Beyond this appreciable nuisance, everything looks fine. (I guess it’s time to buy a USB hub,.)
Gotta’ just love installing new hardware,especially when it comes with free software! My tablet comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0, Corel Painter classic, nik multimedia penPalette, and Wacom Brushes v.1 for Photoshop. While I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to experiment with the main applications, I can’t resist giving them a whirl when I get them as bundled software. Mmm-more toys!
I played around with the tablet a bit yesterday–finding it extremely awkward to use. Using a stylus is a real change from what I’m used to, so I’ll need time to grow accustomed to it. Plenty of creatives report that once they got the hang of using their tablets they wondered how they ever got by without them (which sounds a lot like my Turbo Mouse dependency). I’m still reviewing online documentation and various web sites to get a better understanding of the tablet’s workflow applications. I’m also going through the PDF manual.
Of course I have plenty of other reading to do as well. I went to the Ballard Library today and picked up two more books that have been on back order: Real World InDesign 2, and Photoshop 7 Studio Techniques. I’ve already started reading Maya 4.5 Fundamentals, and have three other Maya books I need to go through. (I hear late charges in the distance.)
For the time being, I’m doing house chores while listening to Spike TV’s Friday The 13th Marathon on the TV. Mary’s out to a business meeting with Marcus this afternoon, which leaves me free to focus on domestic matters. I’m dusting, doing dishes, laundry (with no complaints from Willy) and reorganizing my desk at the moment, and hope to work on a business card and get some study in by the end of the afternoon.
So, this is Halloween. Pretty exciting, eh? Other than expecting the biweekly visitation of “The Reclusive One,” we don’t have any special plans. (Hmmm.. maybe a pizza and video games would be a nice change?)

My Summer Vacation

Ian — Mon, 01 Sep 2003 23:11:34 +0000

Today is Labor Day here in the United States, marking the unofficial end of summer. This three-day weekend is the last real hoorah of our summer season. Tomorrow, many of our schools will re-open for another school year, initiating the familiar routine which will carry us well into next year. (And one step closer to the holidays….)
Seattle has experienced a record-breaking year of summer weather. Last week I learned that we’d had over fifty straight days of 70°+ weather (that’s 21° Celsius) –which beat 1958′s record of 49 days. It’s been truly beautiful.
As far as the traditional summer activities go, this summer has been the least active summer of my life. (ex: A major highlight has been catching up on the first season episodes of The West Wing.) What can I say? I don’t socialize. Money has been tight, and I haven’t given up hope of finding a constructive social group to interact with. Knowing that I have been concentrating more on metaphysical study than ever before has been helpful, but not entirely compensatory. I’m still working with a sense of loss of social and creative outlets.
We’ve done a lot of thrifting this year, but we’ve stopped as of late. We’re still volunteering at St. VDP, but less frequently. My car has been acting up a bit and I really can’t afford to get stranded out in North Seattle. My brother-in-law will be looking at the car this weekend, and I’m hoping that it’s nothing serious.
We did have a garage sale weekend before last, but our turnout was lame. What a trip. Our apartment is two blocks off of the main arterial, and no one really wants to drive down here to check it out. Just a few blocks away, and people are swarming all over our neighbors’ yards. Oh, well.
Fortunately, the quiet tone of our summer has also helped me to recognize some precious little reminders. For example, breaking the routine, Mary and I were invited to a party over at Sarah and Dean’s last Sunday. It was great to be invited. It was nice to see many of the core O.P. regulars there. I kept to myself most of the time–not really to distance myself, but more to hold my mental geography, and to keep from bruising the ears of those who don’t really care to know my locality. It didn’t take long for me to remember why I have distanced myself from this particular form of hypnosis. Little has changed.
Oh, that reminds me, I’ve been very off and on again with my study. I had a good week of the most amazing study, and then got distracted by a bunch of stupid bullshit that seemed oh-so important at the time. I’m still studying, just not nearly at the same level. In his letter to the Hebrews, Paul encourages us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” and I’m inclined to accept his kind instruction. I’ll be back at it soon enough.
In other news, my Mom graduated from college! She’s had a bunch of credits towards her degree for at least two decades, but never got around to completing. She’s been working on finishing her BA for about a year now, becoming a full-time student during her unemployment and taking night classes while working at her new job. She graduated, quietly, at the end of summer quarter. This is her personal victory for her, and I am very proud of her! Very happy for her, really. (Odd. I have a hard time describing this one.)
I haven’t heard a thing from Chuck. It’s been three weeks since I saw him last and gave him those sample designs for his trailer signage. I’ve left two messages, but have now given up on trying to contact him. He knows how to get in touch with me, and if something’s gone sideways, I shouldn’t have to stress about it. (Of course, him not returning my calls makes it hard to tell him that I bought a web site for him as a gift.)
Lessee, what else? There’s so much, and I’ve been negligent. I’m bouncing around a lot. How about the home front,
Kelsey moved out on Friday. This means that she’s packed most of her stuff and taken it to her dad’s out in Woodinville, where she’ll be going to school. Her bed and TV are still here for the time being, as are a number of things she’ll be sorting out when she comes to visit this weekend. She’ll be visiting every other weekend.
I don’t know what to say about this. My over developed bachelor-senses (i.e.: fear) are conflicting with my highest sense of right. Mary and I talk about the extra room, but we haven’t figured out what to do with it. I think about trying to accommodate Kelsey’s coming around every other weekend, but I haven’t been able to forget that she is anti-social and selfish,in other words: young. Am I supposed to make these changes required to accept a long-term relationship with these qualities? And how can I be so self-centered as to even feel this way about Mary’s daughter? Aarghhh.
Anyway, Kelsey is now at her dads, and Mary’s feeling it. It’s pretty bad at times, and I understand all too well. She loves her daughters so much, and none of this was in the brochure. Such sensational evidence to the contrary challenges the admission that our Father knows what he’s doing.
Mary’s been keeping herself active over the summer, too. She’s been going out for power walks in the mornings, and has changed her diet over the last few weeks. When feeling inspired, she continues to working on all digitizing all of her family photos.
Also, Mary is continuing to work on a new business venture with a good friend of hers. They are sending the emails back and forth, and getting together to talk business. I’m only peripherally involved, so I won’t go into details. They have said that they’ll need a logo, and I’ll be happy to help develop their marketing materials and courseware, or whatever, when the time comes.
The work situation may have a break this week. The Smart Department called last Friday about a job opportunity here in Ballard. I’d be working for an ad agency for a few days, doing production work. A messenger will be picking up and delivering my portfolio tomorrow, and I’ll know more after that. (I’m looking forward to working with The Smart Department.)
With a new job possibility on the horizon, I took time this weekend to get a haircut. (White people’s hair and black hair are sooo different, as I am continually reminded.) It’s now the shortest it’s ever been,but still not a fade. It feels nice.
Lastly, I talked with Narelle yesterday. I love her so much, and I’m so grateful we had the chance to talk, as we do. I think we talked for about two hours, but it could have been more. I hope I didn’t offend her.
During our conversation, I told her about my giving up caffeine. She laughed, and asked me about it. Doesn’t Squirt have caffeine in it? No. No more coffee at all? No. Huh.
You know, I do miss the ritual of the whole thing, though. I’ve enjoyed the morning walks for coffee, sitting at Vera’s for an extra half-an-hour, and the little panic attacks when I realize I really need a bathroom. However, much the same can be said for beer, hard liquor and the many substances its been my pleasure to abuse.

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Happy Halloween!

My Summer Vacation