Happy Leap Day! A bonus day. Pat and I went to see some quilt and textile pieces by two local quilt artists: Lori Lupe Pelish and Peg Foley. Both very different and very interesting.
And did you think I was doing nothing at all? I seemed to have plowed out of my quilting funk anyway using the tried and true method of "just doing it" ie - do it whether you really want to or not because a deadline or two is looming and you just have to. In other circles this might be known as priming the pump or spinning the wheel - aka building some momentum. Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, a non-official photo of the pink and green quilt.
Quiet week around here. Mid-winter funk? who knows. It's back to being cold which I guess is better than the few days we had of mud-season. Too early for that kind of stuff.
I did get the sewing machine up and running again so I've been working on what can only be called "the top-secret project of 2004." Don't worry, there will be a big announcement. And I've been working on, and will be working tonight on a project that my Mom and I are doing together. Rest time's over I guess. Sometimes that's what deadlines are for - they make you say - whoops, no more bon bons for me - gotta get cracking or there won't be anyone to blame but me.
At work we were discussing talking between two tin cans connected with a string. Most of us had done that. The customer at the time seemed skeptical. I allowed as we had "real" princess phones between bedrooms. My Dad ran the wiring through the heating ducts somehow as I recall. The phones were pretty darn cool and I remember that they lit up too. Now that's a flash from my childhood.
And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
An anonymous friend emailed to show me what working for a very large, monopolistic company was really like. I wondered what they might serve for lunch for instance but when you're big, policy and lunch are the same thing:
The good news is that we can expect he'll be working for the cause of good and light in no time at all. And anonymous - at least we get "koolaid" with our lunch at Apple - it tastes a little odd, but I so look forward to it.
You know I spend a lot of time looking at the sky and clouds. Today's Astronomy Pic of the Day is a keeper - great anvil-shaped cloud and an explanation of what's up with that. All this and a link wherein cloud structure is explained so that it makes sense.
oooooh oooooh oooooh - and this - something Naomi and I have discussed previously.
It's cold. The snow is like concrete but the sun was bright. Since anything other than winter seems far off, it must be a good day for a walk! Ron went on, I turned back to take my time and shoot some photos, and the first thing I see is a big red fox. No photos but we spent some time eyeing each other.
Re the whole vacation debacle - let this be a warning to you all: Don't get out of the habit of going on vacation, no matter how routine they may seem, lest you forget how to take a vacation all together.
Instead of the winter lull, a moment of surprising personal discovery. I already knew that even though I have travelled a little, travelling isn't something that I aspire to. I admire my friends who hop on planes and ships and go to warm places when it's cold and interesting places at the drop of a hat. I've just never gotten an itch to do that. Yes I'd like to go to some interesting places, but a fear that I'd end up on a 17-city, 12 day tour, with connecting flights that take off and land in the either the wee hours or smack in the afternoon scares the bejeepers out of me.
Where was I? oh yeah, personal discovery.
What I mainly discovered this week was some deep personal flaw has put me in a state where I really really really need a vacation. A break. A recharging of my battery pack. blah blah blah. And yet even as I mock the ads touting Florida (oooooh, someone squeals in the ad, I went zooming across the everglades on an airboat - what a great vacation!) I realize that there just isn't much I want to go away to do. What DO I want to do? And why isn't there some deep longing that needs satisfying? Now, that really scares the bejeepers out of me big time!
One might say - well rent a cabin somewhere and hole up with your sewing machine! Now why do I need to pack up everything, schlep it to who knows where and unpack it. Work in a makeshift set up. Pay money to do this?
OK, what does it take to snap out of this? And no I'm not going to disneyland to feel like a kid again. ick.
Regular visitors may notice a few more people hanging around here today. QuiltArt was having a discussion about blogging so a lot of links are flying around the room. If you want to have folks visit your blog, you might leave a comment here.
me..... fabric..... sewing room..... Yes it all came together tonight.
Not huge progress on anything but I did work awhile on a joint project that Mom and I are doing. It's a bit of a block that I've REALLY been procrastinating about. Things are hardly ever as hard as you imagine and once you put scissors to fabric it's a lot easier. Heck, if you lose a little piece or hate the color - just get out a little more fabric.
Written at:
2/10/2004 11:38:00 PM
There are switchers and then there are switchers. Both switching for good reasons too!
Take a 13 lb turkey, a lot of water, some celery, a lot of carrots, a couple of onions, some run of the mill seasonings and some time over two days and whattayagot?
Merely what has to be the best turkey soup I've ever made. Have I claimed that before? Perhaps. But it wasn't true until now. Perhaps that goes to Beethoven's point about liking what you've just done best of all. Or it's just plain true.
This soup does not seek to be anything it is not. There are no secret ingredients, no obscure flavorings. I can only hold out to you that a small bowlful is a large comfort. How else shall we count the success of a pot of soup? Feeds and comforts body and soul. And when I say a lot? 2 gallons, 1 quart and a few bowlfuls. And that's without rice or meat.
In other news, since I seem unable to sit and sew anything at all, last night I did an assignment for an online challenge - I painted four color studies. Same design for each, and each had a required size. Indeed, I took primary color paint and made color studies, and amateurish though they might be I think I successfully fulfilled the assignment and that is that. On to the next.
Written at:
2/09/2004 11:33:00 PM
It hasn't been that long since Witold Riedel has been in my blogroll but I'm sure enjoying keeping up with him.
The floor is littered with layers of paper. There are some odd magazines, some bills, some receipts. I somehow decided to organize that box behind the sofa, just as an attempt to procrastinate a little, get a bit of a breathing room.
Ah! Many of us can identify with this "purposeful" procrastination. When about to launch some new project, or for me when I'm about to start the actual quilting, suddenly everything else looks much more appealing. Clean the sewing room. Do the dishes. Lay in food for the long winter ahead. Defrost the freezer.
Anything but committing to the start of the real work. I think his description of needing that breathing room is right on. Sometimes you just can't keep up the pace. Sometimes there's some problem (perhaps even one that is without a name or description) that hasn't found a resolution yet. Just a little more time is needed. A little more behind-the-scenes computation time so that when you do sit down to work, it's fully time to work, with no excuses.
Each thing in its own time, even if it's cleaning the bathroom sink.
Geeks Put the Unsavvy on Alert: Learn or Log Off From the NYTimes (requires free registration):
The tension over the MyDoom virus underscores a growing friction between technophiles and what they see as a breed of technophobes who want to enjoy the benefits of digital technology without making the effort to use it responsibly.
The virus spreads when Internet users ignore a basic rule of Internet life: never click on an unknown e-mail attachment. Once someone does, MyDoom begins to send itself to the names in that person's e-mail address book. If no one opened the attachment, the virus's destructive power would never be unleashed.
"It takes affirmative action on the part of the clueless user to become infected," wrote Scott Bowling, president of the World Wide Web Artists Consortium, expressing frustration on the group's discussion forum. "How to beat this into these people's heads?"
Many of the million or so people who have so far infected their computers with MyDoom say it is not their fault. The virus often comes in a message that appears to be from someone they know, with an innocuous subject line like "test" or "error." It is human nature, they say, to open the mail and attachments.
But computer sophisticates say it reflects a willful ignorance of basic computer skills that goes well beyond virus etiquette
Everyone has to learn about computers. No one is born knowing any of it. But those who use computers need to take responsibility for their actions and learn enough to do so. For all the people I hear describe themselves as "computer illiterate" or "technophobe", some treat themselves as victims, poor-mes who just don't seem able to learn. Others don't feel they should have to (a lot of that goes back to the real men don't have to type - that's what secretaries do). And others are too willing to lay blame on anyone else. And some of it is the fault of the techo-marketers -- it's EASY. EASIER. ANYONE can do it. YOU can do it without knowing anything. So people don't back up their files. They throw away files that their computers need to run. They click on viruses etc etc etc.
Disclaimer - Mom and Dad - you're doing quite OK in the scheme of things! This isn't pointed at you at all.
When a friend asked Beethoven which of his quartets did he consider to be the best, Beethoven answered, "Each in its own way, Art demands of us that we should not stand still." However, the composer later eluded that Op. 131 was his greatest work in this genre.
Now what a great response that is. It's hard not to love love love whatever it is you're working on now, but at some point my brain starts turning towards the lure of new projects. Without even knowing perhaps what those projects are, I start noticing new colors, or some new shape. I make a small pile of fabric to consider and it sits while I work on the current work. And as much as I love the thing before me and the excitement of seeing it come to being, and as exciting as the future work seems, there are things I love about most of the past works. Some I like very much indeed, often not for the reason I was first excited about.
Written at:
2/03/2004 11:52:00 PM
Can't help but notice the counter wheel spinning away today! Welcome visitors - where are you coming from?
So today must be a day for new music. First, an email from Robert Siegel (of aforementioned All Things Considered on NPR) suggesting that if I am not familiar with it, the Beethoven String Quartet Opus 131 is worthy of attention. And then a comment from my friend Naomi commenting that she enjoys listening to the Beethoven Violin Concerto, as played by Jascha Heifitz. How cool is that? I'm burning the CD as we speak!
