I've decided (and saved up for) going back to Jim's classes. As fun as Sabrina's classes are, and as much as I love the music, it's just not working out. I don't know if it was the parking situation or overcrowding or what, but the feeling of having that focus wasn't there. Her classes are not for someone who's been on hiatus (read: lazy) for such a long time, and they don't really have the structure I prefer. However they do make for a fun evening. I'll most likely do a drop-in now and again, but Jim's style of teaching just works best for my body until I get back to a higher level.

So, let's add six hours of dance per week plus my 20 mile per week minimum biking goal, plus whatever walking gets in there, and I should be in semi-decent shape for my Halloween deadline. My metabolism needs a good kick-start.

In other news: rebuilding my portfolio. Also figuring that aggregating my FriendFeed should be the easiest way to keep all my adventures together in a nicely peruse-able fashion. Now for the giant task of sorting ALL my contacts (phone/email/addresses/relationship/etc) and tagging several thousand bookmarks & journal entries. It's my project for when I'm taking a break from other projects. ;)


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PS: Sad note: Geoffrey Perkins, 55, (who also produced the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, one of the most successful radio shows ever made) has died in a road accident in London. I don't know how major of a hit that is for BBC's current comedy, but it is sad nonetheless.

http://www.randomwire.com/2008/09/01/google-creates-a-browser/
Google creates a browser called Chrome (not yet live) and presented it in comic form. No beta yet.

See full details here: http://blogoscoped.com/google-chrome/

Since my interests now have gone back to the tech/social-networking side of things, this is an interesting read for me. I have to wonder what the sad face means (haven't really delved in fully yet), as I am browsing online while currently in the queue for my fourth run of EoTS. We've won two out of three so far (go Horde), so that's kind of nice. I'm just farming honor and don't really know why. PvP isn't really my thing, but it's a nice break from the monotony of what I've been doing for the past several years.

Back to Chrome: I particularly liked the monkeys. :)

It seems they're beta-testing a pre-beta, or something like that. My immense hunger beast (which will soon be soothed by this delicious delivery from Pita Pit) is making it hard to think properly. In any case, I am impressed and will probably use it secondarily for awhile, until it becomes second nature, and then replaces Firefox for me.

Me: Female. Mid-twenties (okay, late twenties). Short. Curvy.

You know what that means, right*?

It means that everywhere I go, I have this intense urge to scream things like "Cut your hair!" and "Pull up your pants!" and "You're a boy, why are you wearing skintight girls' jeans?"

It also means that my body is no longer the body of a teenager. This is something that my brain is very slowly coming to terms with. I eat a pretty healthy selection of stuff (usually), my life isn't totally sedentary, and my job affords me the freedom of not being chained to my desk. In any case, the point of all this is that the phrase "Muffin Top" is one that strikes fear into my heart while my gut sits there silently, reminiscing about that tasty half a cake it forced me to devour.

CupCate is a new-to-me blogger and her stuff is funny and well written. She's witty and girlish and lives in freaking LONDON (transplanted from NorCal). This means she is going on my bookmarks, and hopefully you'll all do the same.

Anyway, her article is what sparked my thoughts:

http://cupcate.vox.com/library/post/highly-proficient-in-camel-toe-excels-at-muffin-top.html


--------------------

*another novel idea - novel as in words on paper; get it published. Goal date: Summer 2009.

"A hack that uses Google's mapping application to help record distances traveled and calories burned during a running or walking workout."

Well, it doesn't mention biking, but that's what we did. Jason bought a bike, finally, so hopefully this will be the start of a good habit. I've been biking on my own (with a non-beach cruiser) since April 23rd, but it's nice to have someone else there for motivation, especially when it's someone who you know will push you to keep going. There's a calorie counter where you enter your weight, but I don't know (don't want to know) my weight, and I'm not sure how it calculates. It doesn't account for hills or speed, so ...oh well.

Still... this is AWESOME. I love maps and stuff like that. So! I'm hoping it's correct. It looks correct. It also means we went 11.2 miles this morning and 6.3 miles on Friday night... something that my glutes and quads can attest to. It *also* means that my route to work is just under four miles (2 miles each way), which is nice.

Back in the day I used to walk around my Pennsylvania neighborhood quite a bit. The month or so before I moved found me awake every morning before 7, then off to walk/jog almost four miles. I'd come back home, make breakfast, and play the Sims/chat with Jason, and not really do much else. Mainly I was just waiting for the moving day to get there. It was fun looking at the route though just now, and remembering why I took a specific way or some of the things that used to be there.

My next goal is my Bird Rock Route/LJ Route, one of the most scenic and peaceful rides ever. With some hills and everything.

Chart your own course!
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

...is relished by the wisest men.



drunkbunny's got some newness up. primarily paintings, but other stuff too. checka checka.

I've been trying passively to learn Spanish through immersion, but it hasn't been working as well (or quickly) as I'd like. So yesterday I made a more solid decision to become fluent. It just irritates me not knowing the language, it's something I've always wanted to learn (properly) since high school. This is probably the best town to do it in, since it's so available to me.

Some people are giving the "meh" response since they think "oh, we're in America, we shouldn't have to know Spanish"... that whole debate. This isn't a political statement for me, this is just a pure desire to learn. It makes me happy to be able to communicate, and to understand. Isn't that what really matters here?

In any case, the dust is getting shaken up in all those mental dark corners that had been abandoned for so long. I get frustrated with not remembering certain basics, but just have to pace myself and go slow. It's tough because I have enough problems communicating in English as it is; it's really hard for me to figure out what I want to say, how to translate it, and then make sure I'm getting the accent right too. So I sound a little....... retarded. It's fun though. My bilingual friends are getting a good laugh out of it, especially the maintenance guys at work, but hopefully they know I mean well and aren't taking it as an insult.

Go me? Hehe. :) So anybody that wants to help or give me links to helpful sites and stuff, feel free.

Sorry gang, no punchline. It just sounded good in my head.

1) Holidays make me crazy. I am going insane.

2) Art makes me crazy. I am going insane. But I love art.

3) If you've been following along, you'll know I'm bipolar. This session is less of a mood swing and more of a mood tsunami. My manic phase has kicked in to overdrive and my friends are to blame... they are starting to want more from me (by this I mean products/art for themselves). This is not a bad thing in any way, I love my friends and love making things for them; my friend Eric called this the "design high", and it's very nice to hear someone else put a term to the craziness that happens. Unfortunately the output can't keep up with the input right now. I've been ingesting epic amounts of inspiration, mostly via MySpace ...yes, that site can actually be a goldmine for artsy folk. It's like a giant Juxtapoz or something, but with hundreds of thousands of people. The major problem happens when I go into a high-speed mode, and start putting out quantity instead of quality. My perfectionism wins out, my brain then processes all of whatever I just made as Utter Crap, and I become totally depressed, resulting in a complete shutdown that lasts anywhere from a week to a year.

The only way this process seems to work appropriately is if I'm on a deadline - if I'm not creating for just myself, then the shutdown seems to be voided by the fact that Someone Else Wants My Stuff.

So....... if you picture my brain as a normal, functioning cog inside a machine inside a building inside a city... the short version of what's happening to me right now is something like this:



I think that about covers it.

1 of ?



8" x 8". acrylic. adorable as well as evil.

[i don't do well when photographing paintings.]
[discovery: inexpensive canvases don't yield the best results.]

Brought to you by the letters P and Q. Random inspiration brought on by numerous things, one of which is Edward Gorey. As one reviewer put it: "I don't know what kind of tea Mr. Gorey drinks but I'd quite like to try some."

Edit - I think his Amphibigorey Too and Doubtful Guest books are back at my place in PA... which means I'm going to need new copies. Not to mention copies of everything else by him... and banksy, my newest obsession. I've added quite a few things to my Amazon wishlist, check out the link on the right side of my LJ. Woot!

Edit2 - Have you guys seen his version of Dracula? (A Toy Theatre: Die Cut, Scored and Perforated Foldups and Foldouts (Hardcover)) Go immediately. It's wonderful.

I digress.

I have two versions of somewhat the same project. It's going to be the Art Alphabet, a title that may or may not change throughout the duration. Anyone who wants to participate with me is welcome - part of the fun of art projects is having other participants.

Project 1: Illustration.
An art alphabet, with illustrations from A to Z. The goal is illustrations for each letter.
Unknown: The timeline, one letter per day or per week.
Unknown: Different styles of the same illustration or different illustrations?
Example - A is for Arachnophobia. Divide a sheet of paper into four equal sections (like a square pie chart). Three sections will involve sketching any ideas that come to mind regarding arachnaphobia. The goal with those three sections is to get down ideas regarding the subject. As the unknown states, I'm not sure whether I would prefer to focus on more ideas or more styles - i.e. a contour line drawing of the same idea, then a scratchy sketch of the same idea... or whatever style you prefer with as many ideas as possible. The fourth section should be the best (perhaps most photo-realistic) of the most obvious item, i.e. a spider. (Or perhaps just a portion of a spider, as if you were zoomed in on the upper left front angle.)

Project 2: Typographic.
Another form of art alphabet, except this time experimenting solely with fonts and words. One
Example: See Edward Gorey's "Category". That particular one would be "C is for Category".
Unknown: The timeline, one word per day or per week.
Unknown: Experimenting solely with fonts, or with a scene involving illustrations that revolve around the word? I noticed that in the cover of the book, there are (probably not ironically) cats removing the letters from the word category. Typography is always fun, but do I want to make it even more challenging?

- - -

The unknowns will be more absolute after I finish one or two pages as an example. Timelines are both a pro and a con in that they allow you to have a certain amount of time to work on things, but in regards to personal projects they sometimes don't allow you to have the time you need. They also help you to focus but sometimes make you feel rushed.

My personal goal with this is to become better at art. That's why there are so many unknowns at this time, but it was an idea that needed to be written down before it was forgotten.

I'm fairly sure my versions are going to be primarily by hand (with possibly small amounts of digital work if I decide on colorization), and I'm only going to use Micron pen and graphite/charcoal style pencils. However they'll all be photographed and uploaded... and possibly added to my portfolio if I produce any spectacular pieces.

I'm also going to do something different from my norm and not make a prefabricated list of words/phrases, instead the next alphabetized item will be listed when the prior one is completed. This will allow me to focus more on technique and less on worrying about what idea to come up with. (Although another focus of this is to learn to be more creative on the fly.)

I think I've also just figured out the timeline. No more than a week for an item (so that there isn't time to dwell on mistakes), but if I complete an item before the week is up, it will be time to add a new item. With that being said, it will be okay to go back and work on certain things (add touchups, etc), but at least that will keep me from stagnating on an idea.

- - -

The next project may be a written version of this, i.e. for each item write a very short story (one page minimum).

- - -


Well, that feels different. It feels much the same way as when a particularly intriguing project was assigned to me back in the PTI days. The same way as when I had all my tools spread out on my dining room table right before I began undertaking whatever weird stippling or matting task they'd given me.


Surprisingly, I've logged out of WoW to work on this update. Hmmm.

Did you ever have a partial song or quote going on in your head, and you know it full well, but can't quite make out what it is?  That's what's going on right now.  It's most likely the last song that was on the radio on the way home, but you never know.

I'm waiting for my pot pie to cool to edibility (and if it wasn't a word before, it is now), relaxing after a hot shower and a decent workout.  The gym is coming along okay.  It's time to call the trainer I paid for and take advantage of that.  It's also time to go shopping again since there's pretty much nothing here except cereal and some tuna. 

Today was an excercise in patience, right up until walking in the door at 1015 or so this evening.  In less than twelve hours I get to get up and do it all over again.  Hopefully I can manage to get out of bed at the desired hour; enough for some time to take a jog along the surfline and pick up some groceries before work.  The 1030-730 schedule is still kind of weird to me (after years of 630-330 / 7-4, but if I'm discplined enough it allows for a very good schedule.  No traffic, some extra time outside, a little peace and quiet.  Getting home way late kind of messes with my mind, but it's for a good cause - I'm getting closer to not having to buy an entirely new wardrobe.  Rent is also due in a few days, how fun.  Come on payday. 

Other than that..  it's time to reflect on the thirty spokes composing a wheel.

When people see things as beautiful, ugliness is created.
When people see things as good, evil is created.

Being and non-being produce each other.
Difficult and easy complement each other.
Long and short define each other.
High and low oppose each other.
Fore and aft follow each other.

Therefore the Master can act without doing anything, and teach without saying a word.
Things come her way and she does not stop them; things leave and she lets them go.
She has without possessing, and acts without any expectations.
When her work is done, she take no credit.
That is why it will last forever.