chatter

Because we don’t like to “plan” our trips enough to make reservations anywhere we conclude that we should leave on Sundays so we can get a first come, first server site since most weekenders would be leaving by then.

Also lately we have become road trip wimps where we don’t want to venture too far from home so that make leaving on Sunday all right.

This year we decided to go to Petoskey Michigan, about a 9 hour drive. When I asked mom her favorite camping sites in Michigan where they use to camp a lot, she mentioned a lot of state parks but kept emphasizing Yankee Springs but it is only 3 hours from them implying that it is nice but really not that far.  Three hours to them is 5 hours from us so we thought that would make a not too long drive then that would make Petoskey only 4 hours or so.

Since our drive isn’t too long we decide leaving at 10:00 a.m. would be ok. With the exception of RAW, Hollace and I are not really morning people so 10:00 is a perfectly acceptable time to leave.

For some reason we have it in our mind that that isn’t how most people going on vacation do it. They get up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to take off, we must feel a little guilty because we keep justifying our schedule to each other. At about 10:00 as we are getting ready to leave we see some neighbors with their popup camper take off. Apparently we aren’t the only ones with this late Sunday schedule.

We finally leave at 10:30 (a thirty minute buffer is normal for us). Every couple weeks RAW goes to Fort Wayne which is a 5 hour drive but for some reason this 5 hour drive to Yankee Springs was rough on him. He went to the chiropractor the day before  which I am sure didn’t help. We get there at 4:00 only it is now 5:00 because of the different time zone. When we tell the girl at the desk we don’t have reservations she has a knee jerk reaction and says the campgrounds are booked solid on weekends. Of course all of those weekenders should of left by now since 1:00 is check out time.

We eventually get a site on the channel. Yankee Springs looks like a nice enough campground. In order to make it worth while setting up camp, we have a policy of staying anywhere two nights.

We kind of sink into complacency where we think we should just stay here all week. I don’t know if this campground was energy sucking but we didn’t have the energy to do anything, even leave! We went into town one day, Hastings, which was a nice little town. They had a nice outdoor public sculpture exhibit going on through out town. We figured if we stayed here all week we could go into Grand Rapids or Kalamazoo and hang around the campsite. I know I didn’t feels like doing anything but read, blah.

I should be reading up and playing with Cheetah 3D, the affordable 3D software that I can get photo realistic results from. I just need to learn it and for 3D software, the learning curve isn’t too bad. So why aren’t I mastering this yet?

Just now, typing, I noticed that my fingertips kinda hurt pounding on the keyboard. I am sure it is yet another sign I am dying or something. Not even worth Googling, my symptoms are too obscure.

My homebodiness is getting out of control. On the weekend, I don’t want to leave the house at all. I got Hollace to be the same way. We didn’t leave at all on Saturday even though we had a party to go to (and it is rare we ever go to parties) and there was an interesting talk at the LC Discovery Museum. On Sunday we did get out but shouldn’t of. RAW thought it would be cute to take his Valentine to White Castle for a promotion they were having. We didn’t realize how serious they were and it was for reservation only. We ended up at Steak N Shake instead. Everyone and their brother or probably sweetie was out. The mall was packed. We stoped because Hollace wanted to stop at Black Market Minereals. Geez, it was nutty out there, totally underestimating the Valentine thing.

Had my performance review at work yesterday. I always have good ones but this one was the best yet. The boss said he wished he had 11 of me.

I am starting an animation inspiration journal where I will screen shot shots of my favorite or inspirational animation and paste them in a sketchbook. And since animation really needs to be animating to be appreciated, I made a corresponding playlist of them on my iPod.

More diet by design. I bought these table top frames which will be perfect for diet inspiration cards to be displayed on the table and in the kitchen to remind me to not snack mindlessly. I am working on engaging graphic design now for these frames.

Now,  quick check of Facebook and then off to do some Cheetah 3D

One thing crossed off. I was able to get the Utata photo project shot. Now I need to spend the time to process the images. To be fair, I did do other things on the list like Walk, Read and some Lynda.com tutorials after I wrote last night.

Did I mention the extra $100 the cell phone was this month? Well now the electric bill came in and it is a $100 more then I was expecting. Don’t forget I need $100 for plates for my car this month and the vet bill for $100 is also due. Anyone keeping count? Does anyone have a spare $400 on them?

My nails are short again so now I can type again 😉

I have to do something about the time sucks and my addiction to writing overwhelming to do lists (thought I was going to say Facebook didn’t you?). I have been on social media type web site for almost 12 years when I first signed up with ParentsPlace when I was pregnant with Hollace. And for 12 years I have been at odds with the time I waste and not do all the cool projects I want to do.

Calling it wasted time isn’t fair really though. Being connected with these people is very important to me, I like feeling like I belong and that I have all these cyber sisters. It is critical to my well being since I generally don’t feel like I connect or fit in with people. What I need to do is to do it in moderation. Right now every spare moment I have this urge to check in and see what is going on. If I can set aside a specific time to check in instead of a gazzillion interruptions throughtout the day I might be able to focus on the projects.

My other problem is the actual to do lists for these projects. Here is my actual list of to dos for this weekend. It is enough to choke a cow. I set myself to fail with these lists because I can’t possibly get a fraction of them done but I guess I like to put everything on there so I can pick and choose.

Weekend Projects

1. Shoot Utata money photo project (project)
2. Fix up Hollace’s closet
3. Construct the kaleidoscope from the kit I bought 5 years ago (how and why this one is making it on my list now, I don’t know)
4. Play with/learn Google Sketch Up (project)
5. Start my After Effects animation project, Ode to Toast (project)
6. Maybe do  a mini After Effects animation as a warm up first (project)
7. Write
8. Read
9. Walk
10. Stop at Kohls to look at their selection of Calphalon pans
11. Comp up Hollace’s Creature web site (project)
12. Look at good design and get inspired (project)
13. Go thru all those old Real Simples and then recycle
14. Do some tutorials at Lynda.com, see what they have on Sketch Up (project)
15. Plan/shop for Hollace’s birthday
16. Make design for my new photo watch (project)
17. Design meditation cards (project)
18. Start the online piano lessons (project)
19. start taxes?

Is that enough?

sabotage, that is what it is plain and simple. Why do I do this to myself? Every day, maybe when I get home from work or maybe on the ride home, I should meditate (yeah driving and mediating mix) or visualize my goal. It really is just a mind game.

Oddly enough, I think I get more satisfaction writing this down on paper then typing this in my blog. I think I think better with a pen in my hand as opposed to in front of a keyboard. I just go blank when I sit down here in front of the computer. I can be more fluid with paper and pen.

I think I associate sitting in front of the computer with wasting time. Wasting time with Facebook, reading the news, surfing mindlessly. I need to stop that association because being a digital artist means sitting in front of the computer creating.

I don’t know if I was ever a focused person but now that I know I am not (and I blame the internet and the rush of media coming at you) I desperately try to be.

Do do do ok.

The month of January is over half over and I am just now getting around to writing my first post in 2010. I really plan on writing more here, I just don’t know where the time went. Right now my fingernails are verging on too long so as soon as I cut them, I will get extra chatty.

I was wondering about that the other day, now that texting, typing and such is so prevalent, do people really keep their nails long? I remember when I worked in the photolab in the 80s, a coworker named Sybil had those ultra long nails and I would watch her push all the buttons on the printing machine and cash register with a pencil. A few weeks ago as I was leaving Cindy’s house I busted my thumbnail pretty brutally on the wall. The break was so bizarre that it kept me entertained on the 3 hour drive home but when I got home I had to cut it all the way down. The nail is still pretty short and I noticed just how easier it is to text and type on my iPod touch and I contemplated whether I should cut all my nails that short. Nah,I will just enjoy my short thumbnail while it is short.

Ok, not sure how or why I am on a nail tangent, that is not why I came here tonight. I can’t recall what tangent I wanted to cover actually.

Last night I actually sat down with paper and pen and wrote this kind of nonsense out, manually. I have this urge to spill the trivial content of my head here and there and I don’t know why.

I was suppose to turn a photo into the gallery last week for their member’s show but I did not. I wussed out. Or really it was a bit of laziness. They said all paper based photos need to be under glass but this one was laminated and I did not want to buy a 2’x2′ piece of glass for it. I was going to try and send it in anyway when I noticed the picture was kind of marred up (yeah, I know, maybe glass would of saved it) so I decided to say the hell with it. Besides I was a bit overwhelmed at work. At least that was the excuse at the time.

Hollace became a woman Saturday much to both of our horrors. I was really hoping she would be a late bloomer like I was but I guess no such luck. She had one day of period and it wasn’t light either. I hope we don’t see it again for a couple more years. The funny thing was that she was just telling me about the 2 baby teeth that are about to fall out when she made her discovery. She was upset.

I guess that is enough rambling from me this go around.

creepybaby on tree004, originally uploaded by swardraws.

this is another test. This one is probably too big at 500 wide on my narrow blog but I will check it anyway.