geekout
I ordered an electropuff kit last week and made it the night I got it. It was fun being crafty yet somewhat geeky. It’s really cool cause the yarn itself is conductive, and really soft. As of now it’s set up to be a light dimmer, but I think it has so much potential to be used for something cooler than that. And I think the yarn could be formed into something more interesting than a big puff… so I’m trying to think of some interesting projects it could be used for.
gaming
We got an old gamecube this weekend along with Mario Kart and Paper Mario. Probably not the best idea since I basically spent most of the weekend playing with it… It’s been a while since I’ve had a console in the house (with games I want to play). I forgot how easy it was to get sucked into them… so evil… but so fun.
You suck at photoshop
These “you suck at photoshop” tutorials are great. The earlier ones are good too, but I’ll post this one not just cause everyone should learn how to use the paths tool. I just really like the phrase “baby making man batter”
Jumbles
I am super sleepy so this is going to be somewhat incoherent I fear. The kitty above is Riley’s new kitty named Otter. He’s a sweetie. We saw Juno last night. It is probably one of my new favs. Also has a good soundtrack.
I’m wishing I could have some sort of direct port into my brain where I could just pour new information. Like in the Matrix. Not enough time to pack all this information in there. Kind of slow at work so I’ve been playing around with trying to learn Cinema 4D, which is actually pretty fun. So far I’ve made a castle, a lamp, a house, and a dolphin. Pretty sweet. The newest release has nice icons. Well thought out icons make me happy.
I am in one of these weird super flip floppy moods lately where I can’t really focus on any one thing very long. I don’t know what it is. General restlessness I suppose. Winter laziness is hard to fight off. Ok… too tired to keep writing. BED.
I’m selling 5 years of my life
So the other day I got the first copy of my first “real” book, “Five years of random chunks in my life,” a compilation of the life comics I’ve drawn over the past few years. I just did it through an online print-on-demand place because it was easier. I think it turned out pretty well. The stuff I inked looks nice, but some of the penciled details got kind of lost in the printing. I also didn’t realize how much the binding would eat up, but I think it’s fine. It feels somewhat narcissistic but It’s really just kind of exciting for me to see all my stuff bound together like that. It’s only 144 pages, but still feels substantial enough to feel real. More pictures on the flickr.
I’m also making it available for other people to buy a copy because a few people have shown an interest in it. I set it up so it’s only $9.95 + shipping. The majority of that is the manufacturing cost because I’m not really trying to make big bucks on it or anything. I just want to make it easy to share these little slices of my life with people. And the shipping is kind of pricey anyways. Cheapest is media mail, which is about 3 bucks. Not too bad, took about a week to get it.
Resolutions
So I think I did a pretty good job on the the 2007 resolutions. graduate (check), get a job (check), lose 5 lbs (not so much), travel (check), meet new people (check). 4/5 isn’t too bad. And hardly anyone actually loses their new years resolution weight anyways, so I don’t feel too bad about that I think. And technically I did lose it by the summer. But I think winter time just brings it all (plus some) back when my body goes into hibernation mode.
So it’s time for some new resolutions:
Physical
• Getting fit is always such a hazy goal. Even the losing 5 specific lbs wasn’t specific enough, so maybe I should be more event oriented. Even though running doesn’t seem to stick for very long it always seems like a good idea. I’d like to be optimistic and say a 5k (Firecracker?) in the summer and a 10k (Dawg Dash?) in the fall. I would say that’s pretty moderate and realistic. I know I can run the 3ish miles cause I’ve done it before, and the 6ish miles doesnt seem like that much more. It’ll just give me a reason to get going.
• Take at least 3 different dance classes.
• Strengthen my core muscles. Yoga? Pilates?
Learn/Make
• Learn Processing and make some cool shit with to play with. (I’m about 1/5 of the way through the book)
• Learn how to make physical interactive networked electronic objects. This is a pretty daunting one because I know nothing about it, but that’s also probably why I really want to learn it.
• Learn how to cook better, and cook more often.
• Make at least 10 more Big Word Bird animations. That is like less than one a month. Sounds reasonable I think. I know I want to make more, it’s just a matter of time and priorities (isn’t everything?)
Social
It’s not that I’m anti-social, I think I’m just often pro-solitude. But sometimes it seems that Jenny Holzer’s Truisms “spending too much time on self-improvement is antisocial” is all too true. But I think I can work the social part into things.
• Be more outgoing and get to know people in the various “extra curricular” classes.
• Have people over for dinner more often. I love dinner parties. Mix up the groups more.
• Collaborate on more fun projects with people.
