My surface thoughts and musings…
A friend of my wife’s came over yesterday and we celebrated my wife’s birthday. She is one year younger than me and takes every opportunity to let me know it. Anyway, she got a couple of gnomes as part of her gift. I’ve always liked the little guys. We put them on the fireplace rocks. I’m tired. Stick a fork in me – tonight I’m done.
-Rat
Well, I was told under no uncertain terms that I will feel like crap today (due to the COVID shot) so don’t plan on doing anything. Luckily or unluckily I feel pretty good thus far. We shall see going forward. Since not having any initial side effects the first time, I should expect them this time. I am expected back in the office on color rotation in 2 weeks. There are 4 colors and they will be rotating in and out to limit the amount of contact at work. Ah, the joys of a lack of trust. I personally am looking forward to it since it will mean less hours working for me. When I am leaving, I will be gone. Not available 🙂
I missed my Watercolor class with John Wednesday evening. Bummer. I thought it started next week. It was dropped due to low enrollment. I felt like crap so I texted him an apology. He called me back. It was good to speak with him. He was busting my chops about the trail (he always does that) and bike riding. Last week, I was watching one of Dale Popovich’s watercolor painting workshops. Whether or not he knows it, Dale had a huge influence on me in my career directions. I don’t know if he would remember me but I also went to the American Academy back in 79-80. There was a few of us that congregated between classes (we had hourly 10min breaks) throughout an 8hr day of Art immersion. There was a guy from the south-side that he hung with who wanted to be a professional illustrator. I don’t remember his name but he had dark brown hair, wore glasses, had a chipped tooth, and rolled a mean cigarette. He was really good at illustration and i could see he looked up to Dale with a bit of skill jealousy. They were taking a class with Irving Shapiro who was a premier watercolor artist in Chicago and the dean of the school. He used to say more than once “If it was just Irv and you (Dale) in the class asking questions, he would be happy…”. Dale would reply: “He doesn’t want to hear from me…”. Anyhow, Dale and this other kid (whose name I cannot remember), met me in the hallway for one of our many breaks, and I was considering a different career choice. I was burned out, disgusted with myself, full of anxiety, and truly rudderless for the first time in my life. I had no direction. I was always going to be an artist. Now, I was going to be a disappoint to my folks, and myself. There was a community college (COD) that i was considering – it was a fledgling college of trailers next to a swamp, a 40min drive from my house . I asked them the question “What is the furthest thing from art?” Mathematics, electronics, physics… Dale replied, and that’s the direction I went. There was a few more guys I listened to. A hyper-realist named “Arno” who was a second year illustration student, and 2 second year artists named Scott and Mario and a big, tall, bushy, black haired guy named Royce (I think he was related to Sasquatch). But it was really Dale and the other guy who I listened to. Dale was one of the “cool” kids who would spend his lunch hour in the spring and summer tanning himself at the lake front. That was the Dale I remember. Wow, reflection – what a trip.
I may spin up a photography studio dedicated to stained glass windows in the Midwest. What I would really like to get is Cardinal Cupich’s blessing on my work and start building a photography portfolio. It’s still a concept but it’s gaining momentum and clarity in my mind. I think I’ll call it 3SaintsArtStudio.com (I had the domain name anyway) and link it to RedSky as a linked art studio. It would allow me to separate my painting and drawing from my photography. Now all I need is time, some drive, and a little luck
-Rat
Had my first experience with Dell Customer Support this morning. Now, being an IT guy and having dealt with all manner of experienced and non-experienced types all over the globe, I had a low bar and lower expectations. I have a laptop that I purchased last January for my business. I wanted something portable that i wouldn’t have to mess with very much, easy to use, because my wife would also need it for her things. I have had good experiences with Dell at work so I went with that. Ive had my fill of building stuff at home and I’m at a point in my life where I know what I want from a number of technological perspectives. I didn’t just fall off the truck – I’ve dealt with all manner of computers and programs. I want something that can be wireless and wired, can be used for graphics programs, for manipulating photographs, create websites, program, do email, run all standard Microsoft software, run all Adobe software, run a myriad of VM’s if I should need it, and play games. In other words, “a jack of all trades”. I want a large hard drive, I want it fast, and I want horsepower. Now, all of those things together are really a hardware juggling act. So the PC that I got, is a laptop, has a SSD – which is kind of small in the grand scheme – only 200Gb. So I bought a second SSD that is 1.8Tb which requires a bit of juggling data. I have a RAID 5 NAS that’s somewhere on the order of 12Tb if I should want or need it. Hey, some day I may try recording. 🙂 A Core i7/10th Gen with 4 Cores, 8 Logical processors later.. Sorry, I went off into the weeds. Anyway, I called the Tech Support number, and was walked through a bunch of well thought out troubleshooting steps. Problem was eventually solved. What I found out was that my Bluetooth is integrated to the motherboard but has hooks into the network adapter. So I had to reinstall some drivers, restart and hard-restart the laptop. Problem solved. I think Nino, who is from the Philippines is very knowledgeable and patient. I had to kind of chuckle. I could hear a rooster crowing in the background every once in a while (he may be working from home in Hawaii). I would definitely buy Dell again. Thanks Nino and thanks Dell!
My watercolor class with John is over for this period, so its time to figure out what I want to do next from an art class perspective. Supposedly Beth Leahy was teaching a “master the method” class which focuses on artists, their lives, motivations, techniques, and history. You then mimic their technique to see what you will come up with. Sometimes, its eye-opening the hoops they (the artist) jumped through. Anyhow, I still have a ways to go on this watercolor. The color harmony is much better than my usual. I am still learning. My drawing is decent, my composition skills need some work, my color skills are lacking, my color mixing skills are decent, my color identifying skills are decent, I just need time.
-Rat
Started the PowerBreathe training today. For whatever reason, I cannot for the life of me find the instructions. Spanish instructions, yep. English, nope. I decided that I am so gassed after the Octane in the morning, ill substitute it for the morning workout and use the PowerBreathe in the evening after dinner. The Octane is a recumbent elliptical. I try and push myself when I can.
Laid off the painting tonight. I think I’m going downstairs to clean and straighten for a bit.
We made Enchilada Cream of Chicken Soup tonight in the Instant Pot. It tastes yummy served with tortilla chips. So, you take the chicken out and pull it. Blend the contents, and put the chicken back. No actual cream involved – uses squash, tomato paste, a tin of hatch peppers, some beans, onions, a potato, and a hand blender for creating the “cream”.
-Rat
HEY! It’s a reference to juggling, smart ass. I’ve been busy lately, not that I’m not always busy, I received my “PowerBreathe” in the mail yesterday. I bought this hoping to increase my lung capacity. Hopefully, it can help me on my bike this year. It’s a 4 week course of twice a day. I am supposed to not over-train like any other muscle and give myself enough recovery time. When the hell am I supposed to get my high-intensity training in? I’ve got to figure this thing out. On a similar note, I purchased some more weight to make working out at home more feasible. Yesterday, when I was snow blowing the driveway, I was using my neighbors snowblower and for a time and i actually felt that I was hurting my shoulder or bicep tie-in. I was a little tender this morning but not too bad. Today, I also began to just sit with my back against the wall, stretching my psoas. Trying to undo the damage sitting and working from home for long hours has caused.
One other thing that i have been working on is creating a book of watercolor paints and values of my limited pallet and all my convenience colors. It’s been interesting seeing what mixes with what and what the paint values look like.
With all the snow that we got yesterday, I had to walk around to the back of the house today to knock the hanging drifts off the roof. We got between 11 and 13 inches. I refilled some of the bird feeders and added some water to the bird bath.
-Rat