part of the daily photo project
May 2008 Archives
Will it never stop, I mean me, it seems that I can not seem to catch up with stuff and I am putting more on my plate all the time...
Not much of an exiting nature to report at this time, my little project has had some minor successes that are so minor that I feel that I should not even mention. The only problem is that there has been little time to really "get it chugging along" and work in my sketch/journal book.
I have several photos that I should and now that I think about it, will post now...
Enjoy!
Gords in NC
painted turtle sunbathing
I am quite upset at the moment, I have been awake since
At least I got a walk in this morning, which was nice. Forgot how nice
Went back home and checked emails, but was unable to answer any, just wasn't in the mood I guess, so I hoped an early bus and made it downtown by the ungodly hour of
Need caffeine is my only thought but since I got in at
Alright, the leg has lifted, weight been shifted forward and the foot placed back on the ground (the first step has been taken) in the Deconstruction of the Box. I found a small sketch book that I bought last winter and not touched since and have now dedicated it to being my journal for this project. It is small enough to carry around and I will usually have a small arsenal of pens, pencils, glue sticks and the like that I will be able to carry around with me if I so feel like it (just like the old days).
On a smaller note too, this morning I passed on picking up a Pepsi at the corner store before catching the bus. I usually do for a little morning eye opener, albeit I bet I break down at some point today and have one, damn you Pepsi for being my Achilles heel! (that last part as sound as if John Stewart said it) This is something I want to quite having to have on a daily basis. I had kicked the habit for over a year but I picked up the habit again after I started my current job, and it has been getting worse and worse lately. I don't need the empty calories (can't stand the taste of the diet products and don't trust there side effects either)
I am sure some of you (especially on LJ) have noticed that I have been writing a ton more then I had been in the recent past. This has really primed me up for this endeavor and hopefully will continue to push me in positive directions. I am also hoping that this will improve my somewhat lacking writing skills to at least an adequate level of writing. I am not planning on writing the great American novel or anything but it would be nice to be a better writer.
(please note that this was writen 2 days ago, just had time to post it)
I tend to be a very habitual being, this is something I do not like about my self and have tried to change at times which can be rather hard when the s.o. is also like that. The good think is, I am not quite to the point of being obsessive/compulsive, or am I?
I don't think I need to bore you with all the details but I will highlight some of the things I do on a regular basis. I like to take the same bus to work, and go on breaks at the same time and walk the same or nearly the same path (indoor when not nice and outside when it is nice). I have several lunch places that I obsess about, throughout the week but they come and go with me (after I get totally sick of one I find a new one to take its place). Happy hour is one of two places for the most part even though I like to try other places, I do like to hang out with the people I know well. There are a ton of other examples, however I do not think this is a problem that I alone possess, it is something most people do to one degree or another.
My point is that, I need to change some of these habits to more beneficial and productive ones. Why not try to take over the world! Ok, how about getting all that energy back into art works and focus on expanding my horizons? I think that is what I will have to challenge my self on and try to document the progress here in a weekly update. I know that this is going to be a multi-process endeavor that I will need to think about and plan carefully to become successful.
Ha, I could call it "deconstruction of the box", not a bad idea for a project and I could also create/start an art-journal (on real paper) to add a layer of complexity, not unlike books like "Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain" by Betty Edwards but different, something that I can use better. Now that I think about it, I might go back to that book as an inspiration to this project but tailor it to my own liking, since I find it can be a bit flowery for me...
***Note to self, think about big picture and think about baby steps also use Chuck Close's new paintings as example to this end***
More on above note as I develop thought...
Ok, my LJ friends are rolling their eyes at me since I have tried this before, however this is a good time for me to take a good fresh start at this...
In spite of Mother's Day, I did get a few things done this weekend. My biggest achievement was getting my Daily Photo Project updated on DeviantArt. I was so behind on uploading them that it stretched all the way back into March, yes almost 2 full months behind, so I broke it up into 3 groups and slowly got them all up! I seemed to pick up some new friends in the process, and a whole bunch of comments and favorites, mostly the fav's were from the May photos. It is always nice to get nice comments there.
Feel free to check them out at http://photo-a-day.deviantart.com if you like. I do post some of the one I do like here once and a while as some of you already know.
I did get a short bike ride in on Saturday, just over 7 miles, once around
I also made it to the
Mother's Day was fine, we went to see my mom and had brunch with the family close to there place. Food was fine and it was nice seeing the siblings however Shae did not eat as much since she is NOT a meat and potato kind of gal, and meat and potatoes was the main product of the brunch. I bought my mom a hibiscus plant for the deck, really pretty pink flowers on it with a lot of buds so it should flower most of the summer.
I also helped Shae edit some photos for a report she had to write, other then that we hooked up with our friend sherry for a bit and chilled out for a while, and went to bed .
On a final note, I am thinking of doing a Photo of the Week type project. Not sure what this might intail but so far, on nice photo from the week taken with my d-slr camera. It might be a good way to get me to pull it out more. I do think I need a hook to it though, but unsure what that might be...
Yeah, i have been working my butt off this week, close to having a 50 hour week. I wish that was art time but no, I must work a real job that saps me right out...
Besides working, i have been tweaking the web site and adding "google ads" to it so that the site can pay for its self. I know, I know, it is a bit against principle but hey, I am just a capitalistic whore!
I am also adding affiliates so I can sell things like books and art supplies from here too, that is coming soon, but will not be to invasive. just an added service and a little pocket change i guess :)
Oh, i am also going to create a book review on my site soon! I have been reading a nice eclectic variety of stuff lately and i think it would be fun to review them.
have several post started but i have not been able to finsh them so i will leave you with a photo a day picture:
i am behind dearly on uploading them to da
i am behind dearly on uploading them to da
Yep, shuffle board playoffs basically sucked ass, lot of waiting around since we had a by and then 2 teams (from the Wednesday league) did not show up so things got all shuffled around (pun intended). It was mostly that we just played like hell, when we finely got to play. It was nice that my friend Scott showed up, he had some time to kill before he had to help his wife with taking down the KFAI stuff down at Powder Horn Park's May Day Festival.
I invited Scott over for a little homebrew tasting after he was done helping his wife, he home brews also so we like to compare. While waiting I got groceries and a chimney charcoal starter. Oh, which reminds me, I am getting less and less tolerant of other peoples children, the store I go to is a smaller "fancier" type of store so it is mostly pretty mellow. Yesterday was kind of crazy there; kids were running right in front of my cart and getting in the way. The big problem is this store has little kid carts, so as I was going done the narrowest aisle, this mother walks in front of me, her one kid too both cutting me off as it were, her littlest, I am guessing he was 3ish, comes plowing at me with his little cart, his head down and smack, right into my cart. Yeah, I saw him coming but there was not much room for me to move so I let him hit me. The thought was that he could learn a lesson that he needs to pay attention to others. He could have rammed into an elderly person and really hurt them. The other lesson was geared at the mother to pay closer attention to her kids. After he plowed into me, I looked right into his eyes and said sternly to him "you better watch where you are going", the mother had the gall to say that I was crabby, Fuck yeah I was crabby, your stupid kid just rammed into my cart, I retorted to her that she better watch her kid a little better before someone gets hurt.
I usually blow crap like that off, since kids are kids, but I felt a bit disrespected the whole time at the store with kids and parents having no courtesy or respect for other people around them that I felt obliged to say something. I degrees though, what was I talking about?
Oh yeah, so after the store I prepped my stake, the chicken, mushrooms and potatoes, for dinner before he came over. Since I was going to start the grill, I figured that I would make some bbq'ed chicken for lunch for the next couple of days. We had a nice couple of beers and talked about life and politics and beer and music to boot. I was also happy that Pam came with him, haven't seen her in a long time. They were both pooped from hauling stuff back to the car so they did not stick around which was fine since it was getting dark and I needed to grill yet.
I was almost done grilling when Shae made it home, she elected to get Little T's for dinner so I eat while she chatted on the phone with her mom and went to bed.
I am hoping we can hang out a bit today it is wonderfully nice again so maybe a nice walk would be nice, it seems as if we have been going and going since we got back from NC.
what weekend, yesterday i put in 4.5 hours of work in, so i am sitting at 5.5 hours of ot already for the week. this could end up being a 10 hour ot week. the money will be great to have but the burn out factor will increase...
on another note, today i have the final play offs for shuffle board at the herkimer, my brother and i are in first place but we will be (more then likely) facing off with the team called the "champs" and they have won every league playoff since it started. in other words it is going to be hard to over throw them, but our time is now, wish us luck!
if you are in town, stop by after 1 pm and cheer us on.
other then that, not much to report so here is an old photo:
If you want to look at it this way, our trip started a day early. After work on Tuesday the 22nd, Shae and I took Sophie (our parrot) to her mom's house about 45 minute out of the city, so she could baby-sit her while we were gone. We had already decided to spend the night there and that her mom was going to drive us to the airport be for she goes to work. By the time we get a pizza to make and settle in the time was already 11 pm. Not bad, but to make the flight we needed to be up by 4 am and on the road no later then a quarter to 5. It was not that easy getting up but we all made it, traffic was not bad at that time and check in and security was fine and surprisingly quick.
The only snapho was waiting for coffee, we stopped at the French Meadow Bakery (at least I think it was the place) to get a latte' but to our surprise they only had regular coffee. So we went to the starfucks where the line was long and service was slow to get it. Now Shae can be a bit impatient especially when she is tired and is waiting for caffeine. So the 4 minute wait felt more like 40 minutes. It probably did not help when I kept on saying, "It's vacation, relax, we have to wait for the plane any ways". Ok, I know it did not help, but damn-it, I have not been on vacation for many years and I did not want to be stressed out at all. Go with the flow, don't plan anything and if we don't do everything that is fine. Relax!
We had the idea that sleep would be found on the airplane, at least for a little while. I must say we were WRONG, no thanks to the two little SCREEMING kids the WHOLE way to Charlotte. Long story short, we did not kill anyone but the thought did cross our minds several times.
After an annoying flight, we decided that after we got our rent a car that we would find something to eat in Charlotte then drive the 2 hours to Boone. The rental guy told us where to find some decent food, well, we did not find any where he had told us, but we did end up downtown by happenstance and found Jolina Tex Mex Kitchen & Bbq off of college st, so we stopped there.
Jolina's was a nice place with in a newer building, they made a point to be a bit quarky in there ambiance that make it homey, and they had a nice outdoor seating area. It was really slow but it was only 11ish am. We sat at the bar to eat, and the girl behind the bar was as sweet as apple pie and very helpful. She was the first one to point out that "you aren't from around these here parts, are you?" So that gave us all something to chat about for a while.
Shae got the torttia soup and I got the pulled pork BBQ sandwich with spicy seasoned fries and a coke. Both were very good but as I found out later the pulled pork was not very traditional there since the meat had BBQ sauce on it when it came out, what I was told most pulled pork you put the sauce on at the table. Maybe Charlotte is a bit different then the northern part of the state too. I will have to clarify that before I talk too much out of both sides of my mouth. I will talk later on about other BBQ experiences later on. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who likes good food and a nice enviroment.
I will leave it here for now, as this post is getting a bit long, but here are a few more photos from the trip (I did not get any of Charlotte since I felt my cameras in the car):
I have been running and running since the return from my trip to North Carolina. Last night I went to a wake for my sister's father-in-law down in Jordan MN (that is about a 35 to 40 minute drive from where I live). It was not to sad, he was in his mid 70's and in really bad health, so it was expected. He had suffered a major stroke years ago and was unable to communicate well, he also had other heath issues to boot. The life as a farmer is a tough one, and wears the body down. After the wake, I stopped at my folk's house for a bit to chat, although I was not in a very social mood, post vacation blues I think.
Tuesday Shae and I ended up hanging with a few friends for some beer and general hanging out. It was fine and all but it got a bit late for my taste. Went home and made dinner and cleaned up a bit.
Monday was not too bad but when I got home from work I finished unpacking and did two loads of laundry, and dishes and took out a ton of trash. Shae's mom gave us this "put it together" cabinet on wheels thing she did not want anymore so I took the crappy one where we have the microwave and other stuff on it and swapped them out. The new(er) one has more (badly needed) storage space and a drawer where I put all the bigger utensils in it. I can now find crap that I need! Yeah, exciting, isn't it. By the time I was done with all of that, I was pooped, actually, I was pooped before that, the trip home was long and grueling, more on that later.
A brief cap on the trip, the weather was awesome, in the 70's for the most part with sun most of the time. The mountains were beautiful and interesting. The people were all really nice, even though they liked to point out that we weren't "from around these parts" or "where are y'all from" (said in your best southern drawl). Damn Yankee accent clued them off! We found a lot of good food and a bit of drink and some interesting places around town. Spent a lot of time with Sunnee and the baby, wish we would have had more time with Mark though, he was busy with work and other commitments. There was some stress and sadness regarding a dog, and had an interesting ride because of it. I also wish I could have done more hiking but because I strained my heel I am glad I did not push it. I will try to find some time to go into more detail about it soon...
Here are some more photos of my trip:
