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| Friday, January 1st, 2010 |
ermine_rat
|
4:05p |
a new year
Yesterday evening, I was home, and not really motivated to get out of the house for the various new year’s stuff. I had several parties I could have attended, but I just couldn’t summon up any motivation. I was thinking of staying home and cleaning the garage. I guess it’s that time of year when the dark of the season seems to oppress me. I don’t let very many people bully me, but I am very grateful that a friend called and bullied me into going out. Today, I am auditing a Jennifer Aniston marathon while cleaning the house….It’s funny that I can get through her whole cinematic career while getting my house clean, and without spending a dime at a theatre. It actually makes me feel pennywise and productive. Damned Lifetime Channel. I think I will officially become a middle-aged woman by the time Stacey and the boy return from Arizona tomorrow. If she was gone for another week, I’d probably become a lesbian. Damned Lifetime Channel. |
skachick_101
|
12:05p |
Happy 2010
Hello friends, I hope 2010 is wonderful for all of you and that everyone is having a fantastic day to bring in the new year. I am home with hubby and dogs, sitting around in my pjs playing on the puter, and am about to become multitasking girl and embark on 3 projects today. wish me luck! Current Mood:  happy |
tjk_40
|
12:28a |
So, posting about the most influentional movie of my decade.
Interestingly enough, "Fight Club" is my most influential movie of the decade. For me, certainly but I would also hope that the message carries. Here's the thought process: I love the Dada movement. I have always felt that the Dada movement is the beginning of the Beat movement/generation. Watch the beginning of "Howl" "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness" - or watch Fight Club it is the best minds of my generation numbing themselves so they don't see the madness. |
| Thursday, December 31st, 2009 |
tjk_40
|
7:24p |
Ten years ago I
lived in Tacoma. We had just moved back from *shudder* Virginia. Brent and I had been married 3 1/2 years. Grayson was not yet a year old. Brent was teaching History at Peirce College and I worked in the Financial Aid Office at TCC. 1999 was the crazy new year. Stupid amount of, "OMG with world is going to end" stuff. Can't wait for 2012. =p SCAwise, I had recently changed my name to Constance Davies. |
ysabella_dolfin
|
3:16p |
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| Friday, January 1st, 2010 |
yrsa
|
1:22p |
Last day of 2009
This year has been a huge year of changes and adjustments. We have had a whole new person join our life. That kind of adjustment takes work, all of it totally worth it. I have returned to full time work plus piano teaching and have found that really cuts into my time! I am currently sitting home a little bummed because we were supposed to head to Chez Wilson for New Years. I was REALLY looking forward to it. Then a weather system moved in . . . . Not super crappy but very unpredictable. When I look at the highway cams there are some that are totally clear and others that you have zero visablitiy. If is it was just the grownups we would probably just go. However, Caleb's anxiety over travel right now has reached such a level that I think his sress and emotional and behavioual ourbursts would make the drive unsafe. It is difficult enough in the summer when he is like this and there are only so many meds you can give the kid before you start to damage his health. So . . . we are home for a quiet New Years Eve. Over the last couple of weeks I have witnessed the breakdowns of a few relationships and it is difficult to watch friends go through that kind of pain. It seems to go in cycles so I will see what is to come. Over Christmas break I got to hang with Allison a bit - that was a great treat. I never get tired of talking to her. We both have the ability to put on the 'happy show' around others because that is what they expect but when her and I went for lunch we were both just us and it was super cool to just talk. She is one of those people that I never have difficulty just picking up where I left off the last time. One thing that I have noticed about this past year is that I am in need of re-connecting with friends. I miss people a lot. Due to financial responsiblity we are just not travelling like we used to and that trend will continue for another year at least. I miss the SCA events but I know they will be there when I get back into it all. I just didn't realize how much I relyed on that constant connection of those people. Ok - back to putting Christmas clutter away and then I am off to the grocery store and possible a Starbucks to keep me moving. . . . yeah . . . . strictly medicinal!!!!! Current Mood:  blah |
| Thursday, December 31st, 2009 |
aelfgyfu
|
1:41a |
Circus Skills
I just wanted to share what I consider to be the best website with tutorials and links on training various circus skills. There are manuals, photocopies of old books, links to foreign websites with images, and more. A lot of places won't post this kind of information, but the acrobatic, tight wire, and trapeze links here have been invaluable to me. Check out the tutorials section of Simply Circus. |
aelfgyfu
|
1:30a |
Projects!
I've had several commissions lately, quite a few for needle felted items. Here are pics of some of the latest:  |
| Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 |
tjk_40
|
2:31p |
Khalja inspires us all to share
Cuffs on my new dress for 12th Night.  You can still see the gouache I used to make the pattern but, that will go away when the dress is washed. That is the beauty of gouach! |
ysabella_dolfin
|
10:21a |
Sewing Day
I feel like I have a hellacious hang over, but I didn't drink last night. I had such a nice day yesterday. I met Mike for lunch at the Ferry Building and then headed in to work, where I had such a nice day but I didn't do anything really pig related. I pitted olives all day and then I cut these giant green olives away from their pits, leaving them in one piece. It was really fun but my hands are killing me! I will be doing the big internship blog soon, with pictures, but I have to get some of my sewing done since 12th Night (in An Tir) is in like 1.5 weeks and I still have to do a ton on the dresses. E's camica is only like 6 more hours of hand sewing. The dresses, I need to put together Algyfu's placket (it's cut out) and sew together her lower sleeves (they are all put together and pinned) then put the guarding ont he skirts and pleat them to the bodice. This sounds like a lot, but skirts are usually about 2-3 hours for me, with guarding. I should be able to get it all done. The iffy thing is going to be putting together the documentation for the "Period underpinnings" thing. It's mostly out of Janet Arnold, but I still have to DO it. And my house is TRASHED, and we will have a likely small FP tonight, plus NYE party here tomorrow and then the Gourmet Wake on Sat. I need to check to see how many are coming for that so I can have the right number of chairs and plates and things. I hope it doesn't get to messy tonight, but it always does lol. Maybe sneak away with Deb for lunch with Etaine. I don't think Syele is back from visiting her mom yet? |
| Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 |
wolf_in_exile
|
10:09a |
RIP:2009
I have to admit, while 2009 sucked for a lot of people, it was great for me. On a professional level I've really taken off. A couple years ago, when folks started speaking of the dreaded "recession" in the US I told people that it'll be a time for freelancers to really shine. Layoffs will dump lots of good talented people in to the "freelance pool" but being used to simply drawing/ painting daily and taking coffee breaks and getting paid days off...they have to do it all: self-marketing, hunting for gigs, and working ridiculous hours with no net to speak of. Most folks are NOT cut out to be a FT freelancer or simply cannot do it due to circumstances beyond their control. Honestly, the first couple years of being a FT freelancer is the hardest because "art" is such a small percentage of the day. You'll bust your hump to eeek out minimum wage and still live a subsidized life via food stamps or just living extremely lean (no cable tv, no outings, no dinners out, lots of ramen noodles and the bare necessities). After a year or two you should have something of a reputation built and a regular lineup of people to work for (or to avoid). I got lucky: I'm married so I get to pay half the bills instead of all of them. Still...I had (have) to pony up the cash in order to survive. It's easy to give it all up. Serious. Just go back to being an IT nerd or Customer Service Technician, or whatever you did before your nice in-house art gig. Live off unemployment for a while. I very nearly did quit and just get a dayjob. A few times. Surviving a "recession" as a freelancer is hard. I said up front that the guys who are already FT freelancers will have a HUGE edge in surviving this strongly because they are already doing it, used to the suckitude, the lean times and the hustle of day-to-day work where the guys coming from in-house gigs have to (re)learn to survive by doing more for less and hustling for it. Companies don't have the money to throw around like before so they want more for less and won't put up with an artistic diva. That's where the Professional Full-Time Freelancer comes in and really shines. Well...it worked. 2009 was a stellar year for me. I've been booked up approximately 4-5 months in advance since January or February. I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but I haven't needed to look for work in almost a year now. People know me, my work and that I do a good job and that I'm dependable. I like to think that my overall skill-level has improved as well. I did end up skipping out on several conventions which I regret now. I expanded my footprint to include reviews in a more serious fashion. Previously I did a review of a book or game here and there, but now I'm signed on with several publishers to review material and it's been fun. Granted, I only have so much time, so I'm doing as much time juggling now as before. On the fun side I've enjoyed my Xbox 360 greatly. I pretty much use it for all my video and music needs. No need for cable TV now. Netflix via Xbox Live handles that nicely. Played some great games this year on the x360: Fallout 3, Bioshock, Fable 2, Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dragon Age: Origins. Played tabletop games too. Played some D&D 4th Ed. Several times in fact. Really didn't blow my skirt up. Ran a Dark Heresy game and a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay campaign. Both were short but fun. Played some D&D 3.5 Ed which was more to my liking and some Vampire: The Requiem which was fun. Played Warhammer Fantasy once and 40k three or four times. Sad really, I like this edition of 40k. Apocalypse especially suits me (go fast, move figs, roll dice and have fun doing really epic stuff rather than the ultra competitive sort of play many of the locals seem to prefer). I've reconnected with several friends from the long-lost past as well as made some new ones. Overall I'm REALLY looking forward to 2010. Conventions, seeing my peeps from far away and sharing a drink and a "no shit there I was" story or three with them. Well...that's it for now. I've got work to get done! Cheers! Current Mood: thankfulCurrent Music: BOC: Don't fear the reaper. |
| Monday, December 28th, 2009 |
ermine_rat
|
11:46p |
googly-eyed stuff
Zachary is always looking for the explanations to the world around him. When we were at lake at the park he asked if there were sharks and alligators in it. When I told him no, he asked "then why don't those people go into the lake to get their football?" Brilliant. I think I would tell people that there were alligators and sharks in that pond to keep from getting into that icy water myself. One of the toys he asked for was a skateboard. Santa obliged him. Zachary really can't manage to ride it, and he really objects to the safety equipment. But his cousin got a Razor scooter thing, and he loves that...so I suppose he will get one of those for his birthday. I wonder what effect these kinds of things have on a kid after they grow up. If you teach them to live with wild abandon, do they grow up thoughtful and creative? Or do they just get loaded down with bad manners and maxed-out credit cards? I don't want to oppress my kid, but some rules are necessary. Unfortunately, kids often will not see what you intend when you try to protect them from harm. Sometimes they only see the punishment, and not the behavior that triggered it. Sometimes they see how the parent applies the rule rather than the purpose behind the rule itself. Sometimes they just envy the percieved feeling of authority, and yearn to use that authority themselves. Sometimes they just need to confront you on every last detail to challenge your authority, and to see where your limits are. Sometimes I wish I had put my contrarian brain to a more lucrative use, but I digress. My foray into googly-eyed aliens was when my son was playing on the computer with his cousin on a computer game called ‘Spore’. My Niece is two years older than Zachary and plays this game every day, so she is better at it than him. So my boy asks me to read the little messages from the various creatures. Then he asks me to help him mouse the hard parts. Then he asks me to sit at the keyboard while he tells me what to do. Pretty soon, he is off playing with his Legos, and I am hopelessly hooked. I avoid exposing myself to video games in general because I am compulsive enough to ride them out to the bitter end. 4am, crap. I suppose he will ask for this for his birthday. Dammit, I’m already having dreams about the googly-eyed little freaks. Oh and I saw Avatar this weekend, (my second foray into googly-eyed aliens) if you haven’t seen it, please skip this (here be spoilers): Visually, it was really good, and there were lots of artistic touches throughout the movie that made it very pretty to watch. I did wonder about the female lead, her snarl was very vampire-like, her accent was more like a badly educated woman from the Caribbean. She posed pretty though, but I guess the Navi had to be pretty to make them more sympathetic. I think I saw this movie before, wasn’t it ‘Dances with Wolves’? The script plot themes were much more like Alan Dean Foster’s ‘Midworld’ (James Cameron should send him a check). I dislike being preached at, and I felt like a viewpoint was being sold to me in a rather heavy-handed way. Another thing, the dialogue was non-existent, when your best line is “use big words” you have failed somewhere and are leaning too much on the effects (did I mention the effects are good?). At one point when Sigourney Weaver was in the remote avatar base, I was thinking how good it was to see Ripley in a dusty old spaceship setting again. I think it’s a bad sign when I’m thinking about one of the main character’s previous roles. At least this wasn’t another ‘Waterworld’. Would I see it again? Yes, but probably not in a theatre. Current Music: sweet tequila blues --chip taylor |
gulenay_barb
|
6:20p |
2nd try, looking for help for a friend
Our friend Countess Marrianna of Atenvelt is planning to come to our 12th night celebration. (yay!) We have arranged to pick her up here at the airport and transport her up to the site, and of course we'd be happy to take her back to the airport as well, but she will be flying standby and absolutely positively needs to be home in Phoenix by sunday night. We won't be able to guarantee her to the airport before 3pm or so on sunday, and that might not work for her. She can fly our of either PDX or SeaTac, is there someone planing on heading home sooner sunday that can get her to one of those 2 airports by noon? thanks in advance...Including her picture so you know who I'm asking help for.  |
tjk_40
|
5:56p |
I'm wearing a shirt that says, "Soylent Green is People!" My husband says, "They need to make a baby bib with that on it!" He is a sick, sick man. EDIT: apparently he meant you should have "Soylent Green is Peas" on the baby bib. I took it to the sick level. |
tjk_40
|
4:59p |
I would just like to report that restringing my Norse jewelry is a huge time consuming pain in the ass. |
ysabella_dolfin
|
4:36p |
Strange days...
And we had to put Tiger down today. He had FIP and stopped eating a few days ago. Today he couldn't get up to go to the bathroom. He was the best cat ever. Our neighbor, Jody, loved Tiger so much he had a cat door installed for him. He kept all of the houses around ours clear of mice and was SUCH a ferocious hunter he once decapitated a squirrel (that was as big as he was) and left it in our bathroom. He was also the most mellow cat. When Juju and Sammy used to run around with him, he would sometimes fall asleep. He slept in my daughter's arms every night she was home for the last 5 years. We will miss him a ton! |
wolf_in_exile
|
2:15p |
Holiday Card...
The 2009 holiday card... Not everyone opted to get a paper card mailed to them, so here's the electronic version:  |
| Sunday, December 27th, 2009 |
fearga
|
9:24p |
On schools killing creativity...
This is a terrific and funny talk about the nature of creativity, and how schools are not modeled to support the creative mind: Current Mood:  cheerful |
tjk_40
|
5:56p |
|
| Saturday, December 26th, 2009 |
ermine_rat
|
12:27a |
all about the boy...mostly
My boy is a cruel taskmaster. He did get many Lego toys, but he isn't skillful enough to follow the directions to build these things. He does manage to get me to build them... though I must confess that the cool vehicles he recieved are a lot of fun to build. Doubtlessly, he will start to modify them in his own special way. My boy gets pulled back and forth between his two cousins, one of whom is two years older (and a girl), or the other cousin that is 7 months younger (and a boy). It creates an interesting dynamic between them. Zachary also got his first skateboard.... I know he asked for it (and the grandparents supplied it), but I wanted to hold off on that until he could ride his bike without training wheels. I tried to keep all the protective gear on him, but regardless of that, his first attempt at riding it was supposed to include a trip down the stairs. sigh. It's funny that I would be much more supportive of him surfing, but I guess I just can't skip my impression that skateboarding is pointless (liberal use of the delete key was used here). .... 12th night is coming, and I have planned to get some projects done by then... some are long-standing. It's funny that you canpush yourself with goals, but if you create too much pressure, you drowned yourself with expectations and kill the motivation with a gloomy shade of guilt. Sometimes you can spark some enthusiasm with a change of the type of art, but becareful of being awash in the overwhelmed feeling. Some stuff will get done, some stuff won't... no one has paid me for anything, and all my goals are self-imposed, so overall I am not in a really bad spot... I'm just not going to be able to finish everything. |
| Friday, December 25th, 2009 |
ysabella_dolfin
|
7:36p |
dilemma... go back to bed with warm naked blond... or fart around on Facebook and LJ? Ok, so went back to bed for a few hours. Gotta love Xmas! Man it's been hectic here! Which I do love really, but today it will likely just be me and Bri and Pliska maybe hitting a movie and vegging out. I am going to take a bath and clean up some of the copious mess that has accrued over the last two weeks. I really want to make some salumi, but it's a long path to a sanitary counter top at this point. Pausing blog for bathtime... ( Read more... ) |
| Saturday, December 26th, 2009 |
yrsa
|
12:25p |
Survived the morning
Merry Christmas to everyone. I am sleepy. . . Either I sucumb to the sleep or ingest more coffee . . . . have a fresh pound of Starbucks Komodo Dragon beans . . . . tough decision! |
| Friday, December 25th, 2009 |
kristinewilson
|
8:48a |
|
| Thursday, December 24th, 2009 |
vesta_aurelia
|
5:43p |
2009 in review
Very scattered year. I can't pinpoint any real "trend" to it. Maybe that's what happens when you're happy? January I got called into the executive conference room this morning...
...and got offered a new job. ( the rest of the story... ) |
| Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 |
fearga
|
10:38p |
The year in review.....
Egads, I do an appalling amount of work...just reading my LJ for the year utterly exhausted me. I was thinking that I never get out, and then read about going to Florida and Las Vegas. I do think the quote I posted at the beginning of the year kinda sums it up: January: The difference between a creative person and a creative producer is hard work. ~~ Mary Elaine Jacobsen, Psy.D.( The rest of it back here.... ) Current Mood:  chipper |
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