Creativity Continues To Elude Me...

I started working on an owl drawing, but digital media does little for me these days. I'll probably never finish it. As much as I loathe the mess (especially in the confines of my tiny home), I still long for the physicality of a tangible medium. I'm not ready to haul the paint out again any time soon, but I have been doing a bit with some gel pens (circa 2000 - I'm amazed any of them still write), but I doubt I'll be able to elevate something best left to junior high girls' notebooks to the status of high art.

Ponyo

Nothing but good mail today! No bills: just a lovely postcard from Taiwan. A welcome, pleasant surprise after waking up to ants biting me in my bed at midnight. I think they're seeking revenge after my attempts to boil them out of their mulch-pile home by invading mine.
Again, I've neglected this blog for some time and I think all the things I have to say should probably be broken up into more than one post. Right now I'll stick with my brief (and likely incomplete) review of Ponyo, as we went to see it over the weekend and I still find myself somewhat preoccupied with it. I don't like to review things, really. Maybe it's because I think my opinions are somehow invalid because I don't like to think about things (especially movies) too deeply. I've looked at art from a scholarly perspective long enough to be totally cynical and I think I've looped back around to a rather "that's a purty picture" mindset. But, this particular movie is still on my mind, so here goes.
For the most part, the story was sort of predictable and unoriginal, borrowing heavily from Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid. Not that that's a problem, mind you, but we left the theatre with Rebecca kvetching about the plot, or lack thereof, and anticipating that the story would be somehow more developed in the Japanese dialogue version (unfortunately, only one theatre in the area was showing the movie at all, and it was dubbed. Boo. But kudos to Liam Neeson - he was really very entertaining.) Rebecca may be right about that, and we'll see when the DVD comes out, but frankly, I don't care. I don't watch Miyazaki movies for the stories. I find that they're usually just a tenuous framework to build a lush, magical world filled with endearing characters around - and THAT is why I love his films. They leave me yearning to make my little world somehow more magical in the simple and decidedly Japanese way that his worlds always are, and in that aspect, Ponyo did not disappoint. I was a little surprised to see the slight deviation in style towards washy, looser backgrounds (rather than the very tight ones in Howl's Moving Castle or Spirited Away - did he do this in Totoro? I'll have to check.) And the chicken feet - and hands - were a bit weird. But really, what could be more magical than a little house on a hill by the sea? It also left me with quite a hankering for ramen and ham. So now you see why I don't write reviews. All in all, it's worth seeing. Especially after sitting through Transformers 2. Ugh.
I think I'll have that ramen now.

Wednesday

So, I sort of ran out of momentum on the house-cleaning project. Never could get up the nerve to tackle the spare room... And in the meantime I've been working on a poster for the upcoming Jeff Buckley extravaganza (or so I'm calling it as I have yet to get a firm title from the Columbia Records people).
Working without a title does make things tricky, but since the event is less than a month away, I thought I should get to work ASAP with or without full details. The goal is to get everything else done today so whenever I get the go ahead to start putting letters in there I can hastily finish it up. Hopefully whatever text has to go in there fits in the spaces I've allowed.

The band played at Marina del Ray over the weekend, and I used to opportunity to experiment with the new camera. It isn't fabulous, but it takes better pictures than my iPhone. Maybe I should have gone with the Sony Whatever-Shot that I was considering, but decided against because it didn't have as much zoom.

The guys are playing again tonight at Cate Street Pub in Hammond and on the 31st at One-Eyed Jacks. If you're in the area, come out!

Long-Awaited

For years I've wanted a real digital camera. I really had my eye on one of those fancy schmancy DSLRs or what have you, but I figured I'd never be able to afford/feel worthy of them, so I finally went ahead and spent some of the $$ my dad sent me for my birthday and got a Nikon Coolpix L100. I suppose it's what you might call "mid-range": bigger than a credit card, 10 mpx, 15x optical zoom. That's all I really need to take pictures of the dog, anyway. I still have a lot of figuring out to do (why do all cameras shoot JPG format? JPGs are for the internet!)

Following Through

My guess is that no one really reads this, but that's okay. I do not have delusions that tons of interweb lurkers are clamoring to read the pointless little tidbits I post about my mundane life. You see, this blog is more a motivational tool than anything else. If I write about something I intend to do, there is a far greater chance of my actually doing it than if I just make a mental note of it on my imaginary "to do" list (and then promptly forget about it, blow it off, or talk myself out of it). If I can convince myself that somehow, some way, I'll be letting my little imaginary online followers down by failing to do something I've written about, I'm much more inclined to follow through. As for today, however, I'm only reporting on things I've already done.

So, as promised, I shall proceed to post about the fantastic rearranging of the bedroom!

Having eliminated the desk that never quite fit, I was able to move the bed back to a more appropriate spot. The small dresser came out from behind the door (now it opens all the way!), and I gave (my side of) the closet a much-needed overhaul.shame on me for not having done this sooner

Today, Albert and I spent the afternoon together across the lake before my evening class. We walked down Magazine Street and got him some bitchin Richard-Simmons-esque sweatbands at American Apparel and checked out a music shop where he drooled over some amp or another. I also picked up some regionally relevant postcards for Postcrossing (I'm sure the good people of Finland have grown weary of receiving my handmade cards).

Summer Cleaning

Although I started my Spring Cleaning while it was still actually spring, it seems to have spilled over into the summer. The goal has been to eliminate as much stuff as possible (fiercely), and to make the house feel neat, organized, and comfortable. A tall order, indeed, for someone who lives in a trailer. Anyway, things really started coming together last night when we realized that, having been liberated from the CABLE, we could finally move the T.V., thus allowing for glorious rearranging of the entire living room (with the exception of the giant sofa that can really only go in one spot).
I brought my little desk back out from where it had languished in the bedroom (for some reason I thought I'd get more work done if the desk was tucked away - not true, it turned out), and now my computer has a home! Just because it's a laptop shouldn't mean that it has to be a nomad, constantly roaming from the sofa to the ottoman to the kitchen table, etc. We finally took the wood glue to our crappy LACK coffee table and now it doesn't wobble anymore, nor is it sunk down in the corner next to the big sofa that is much too tall to render the table useful as anything except a hiding spot for the dog. Now it is by the door - a place for the phone (which needs replacing, but oh well), the modem, and our shoes which were previously strewn about the entryway all the time. Furthermore, the little bookshelf that used to be by the door was emptied of the handful of books and random stuff it used to hold, and now serves as a much needed annex to the DVD/game collection. Now, if I can just find permanent homes for all the things I've displaced... Onward to the bedroom!

Cooking Overload

...but no real dinner.
I knew that today was destined to be grocery day, but I did not suspect it would be a cooking day. I'd been waiting for the opportunity to try out this recipe for stove-top whole wheat pitas that Carly sent me, then when I saw a link to an orange cake with an improbable name in one of my favorite blogs, I knew my fate was sealed and I'd be spending the afternoon wearing a light (or not so light) dusting of flour (three kinds, no less!). And of course, since pitas require hummus, I put on a pot of (unsoaked - eep!) chickpeas for what turned out to be a batch of half-assed hummus. (I should note that my hummus recipe also comes from the aforementioned blog; the half-assed version entails not bothering to pick out any of the little chickpea skins and using the reconstituted lemon juice in the little plastic lemon instead of squeezing fresh lemons). In spite of my failure to soak the beans beforehand (therefore cooking them aaall daaay) and my two other short cuts (and one screw-up), the hummus came out pretty good, albiet a little tahini-y.
So, I thought I'd finish the painting today, but apparently I was more interested in working with flour and sticky stuff than acrylics. Tomorrow is class in the morning and apparently screen-printing in the afternoon, so I guess it's on hold for now. I'm quite anxious to get it done at this point - and also very proud of myself for really pushing myself to do a real painting from start to finish without a deadline or some other imposed obligation hanging over my head.

Stampede!

I can't believe I rounded up this herd of 25+ My Little Ponies in my early childhood. Sorry guys, it's ebay for you now! Maybe you can make some 80s kitsch collector very happy.

If I Blog It, Will I Do It?

I just can't seem to get going. Being out of work has made me feel increasingly worthless and sluggish with each passing day. As of last Friday night, I had a grand scheme to be set in motion the following Monday (TODAY), but alas, I have done naught but study, surf the web, and finish a sock.

So I started thinking that maybe if I lay out my plan (tiny as it may be) here, I'll be more compelled to get to it.

1) Go to the DMV and get a driver's license with my correct address for once, so as to lend myself some sense of legitimacy for when I:
2) Go down to the high school to sign on as a substitute teacher. I really need some kind of employment; stable or not.

Although it may not seem like a monumental task, I can't seem to motivate myself to get started. Maybe tomorrow.

Yay for Socks

Just finished my Baudelaire socks!

These were a lot of fun, and the first thing I made with my KnitPicks Essential Sampler that Albert gave me for Christmas. I think I'll wear them tomorrow, though I really wish I had better shoes to wear them with. Right now my DC flats are the only shoes I have that really work with handmade socks, so they'll have to do for now.

These being finished, I'm ready to start another pair of socks RIGHT NOW. There's just something about socks.


I've also been working on a painting. It's good to get back to my roots.

It's Been A While

I haven't really wanted to blog about what has been going on with me lately because it's been tough making peace with some decisions I've made. Law school (as I should have foreseen, and probably did but didn't admit) was not for me, and despite totally decent grades and a good likelihood of keeping my scholarship, I quit. I now find myself without a steady job, taking the occasional class toward paralegal certification (which I missed altogether this morning because I overslept), painting, knitting, cooking, and playing too much Beautiful Katamari.