piece by piece, it all comes together

I have succesfully built an at home exposure unit! It's just a 500watt work light attached to some wood, designed to rest above a screen. But yeah, can't wait to test it out!

I slept in. That was nice. Had a big scramble for breakfast. Also nice. After that, I ran my errands. Went to the hardware store and got the light, some screws, a C-clamp, and a ceiling hook. Then drove on to the art store, perused their screenprinting materials, and got some drawing fluid and ink. Can't wait to get my at home printing set up done with! WHeee!

Back at home, I laboriously sawed scrap wood (from the shed) (err from inside the shed, I didn't take apart the shed) into the right sizes, and afixed them together. That took a while. Had some dinner, watched some telly. Think Ray & I are going to see Rocky Horror Picture Show tonight at the Del Mar. That should be...an experience!

Tomorrow I have plans to meet up with Daniel for a matinee of Cloud Atlas. WHooo! Weekend!

If I own a book, I will not listen to it as an audiobook

It was a shorter day at work. Well, a shift of the usual length, just short compared to earlier in the week? Now it is the weekend! Yay! Have some plans, but no Halloween plans. Don't even have a costume. Halloween just isn't my holiday like it is for other people.

Set up the job, though the separations were a bit weird so it was tricky to line up. Weeded some vinyl. Boxed the job. All was well, and it was a nice day.

Back at zee home, I ate some chips and dips. Washed my towels. Took inventory of things. I think I'll make myself some cocoa and settle in to bed and read. I really need to finish Shadow of Night so I can FINALLY read something else. I am committed to not starting any new book till I finish one I'm in the middle of. I'm in the middle of: Shadow of Night (which improves whenever Matthew is not in the scene) and Blood Meridian (so grotesque) and How To Live Safely In A Science Fictional Universe (the writer is trying too hard and I'm having trouble getting into it). I have: The Blind Assassin, Neuromancer, The Patrick Melrose novels, Cloud Atlas, The Gunfighter, Lucrezia Borgia, Berthe Morisot (both biographies), and Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man. Alphabet Soup came in the mail, but that is more a browsing book than a reading cover to cover book, so that has been delegated to bathroom reading, replacing my Thrilling Tales short story compilation. Basically, I have a bunch of things I want to read, but I have to get through something to get to those.

So first I must finish Shadow of Night. Never have I gone from so excited to so drudging of a book...it needed like, 200 pages less. Ah. Oh well. Writing is hard.

good ol' J.K.

Remember what I predicted I would do at work? Coat screens? Yup I did that. Reclaim screens? Did that too. Tape up screens? Yuuup. Also cleaned up the space a bit. It was a shorter shift. Started listening to A Casual Vacancy, which is J.K. Rowling's new book. Some of the character development is plopped in a bit heavy handedly, but I do like stories with lots of characters, and when your perspective of characters changes based on what you learn about them from other people. I'm enjoying it, and I look forward to listening to it some more.

I did some grocery shopping, and got some shampoo. And some gin. And pineapple juice. Makes for a nummy drink, I must say. The gin & pineapple juice, not shampoo and gin and pineapple juice. Yuck. A bunch of obviously college kids were behind me in line, and each were getting precisely one beer each. Not the big beers, just the little ones. It struck me as a bit odd. Just one? Why not pool moolah and get a case of something? Or get gin and pineapple juice and be classy like Trillian.

Regarding your question Dad, yes the tires were a bit low.

Ma, may I recommend the book The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde?

Oh wow, it is Friday tomorrow! Then the weekend, whooo!

chicken bawk bawk bawk

Forgot to mention that I filled up my tires on my way to work tomorrow. They were a bit low, and I did it at the gas station and it was easy peasy! Hurray, life skills!

Another mostly "left to my own work" day at work, though it did start with catching a job. I reclaimed 17 more screens, once that were cleaned up yesterday, and I cleaned the ink off another 15 screens. Probably tomorrow I will tape up the four screens I burned today, coat the 17 screens that were left to dry, and reclaim the other 15. Slowly but surely getting caught up. Well, not so much caught up, just getting a bunch of screens back into circulati-AHHHHH THIS AUDIOBOOK I WAS REALLY EXCITED ABOUT FINALLY COMPLETED DOWNLOADING! YAAY! AHem. Anyway. Yeah. We were short screens due to burning a ton of screens for jobs, and now we have plenty once again! Wheee! A shorter day, though I could have pushed it. Though my arms are still feeling strained, so I didn't want to tax it.

Also, Charles Burns and Chris Ware were doing a little talk at Book Shop Santa Cruz, and I didn't want to miss that! Unfortunately when I first went to the shop, I left my bike lock at home, so I went back and figured riding my bike would take just as long as driving, so I rode back to the shop and locked up. I didn't have anything for either guy to sign, so I just listened to their wonderful lecture/discussion about influences and sketched them as they did so. I figured it would be weird to have them sign my sketchbook, so I didn't shake their hands or anything. Sometimes I am shy about things. Some people had like...bags of books to be signed! I think that is a bit outlandish. Every damn book? Really?

Both their new books (X'ed out and Building) look amazing. Totally putting them on my Christmas list. Mad genius writers and artists, the both of them.

Riding back, these girls in a car shouted at me. I guess I was too much in the lane? Though I was going quite fast. They sounded like 18 year olds trying to be cool. Feh. Whatever.

Almost done with Good Omens. Have some neat things lined up in my audiobook queue. Whoo!

Tuesday, but it feels like Wednesday

Today was a very good day! The boss complimented the good work I've been doing, so that was nice to hear. I spent most of the day cleaning. Cleaning screens. Cleaning squeegees. Breaking down the press. Burned a couple things. Coated a bunch of screens. Andrew and Stuart ran the jobs, I just cleaned things up in the back. It's good when things run smoothly like that. Getting a good knack for what needs to get done.

Afterwards I treated myself to dinner at Yan Flower. Okay not the fanciest of meals, but it was warm (I had the ginger, beef, and green onions dinner) and I had a great book about words to read. Afterwards Ray came over for a visit. I showed him the print portfolio from PNCA I participated in, and I think he was impressed by the talent. Not just my talent, of course. I have awesome peers.

My arms hurt so bad from work. Well not so so so bad. Just they are feeling the strain of the constant hefting of screens, and I am doing it with two screens in one hand, four at a time, and sort of twisting and moving them about, which puts a lot of strain on certain muscle groups. It wears my arms down by the end of the day. But soon I'll get even stronger and it will all get easier!

there are many rules to this thing

Wow. I am so very tired. I got woken up early a couple times because my window was rattling in the wind. A nice sound, actually. Sort of the charm of the house I live in.

First thing at work I broke down the press, saved the necessary squeegees and floodbars, pulled out the screens, put the new screens in, set them up as best as possible, then cleaned a couple squeegees while waiting for Chris to put the final touches on the registration. Finished that job, then got to cleaning and reclaiming screens. I've revised my method, and now screens seem to clean a lot faster. I use a scraper to remove the ink after I've sprayed the ink remover solvent. This spreads the solvent, and takes off just a little bit more of the extra layer of ink. It seemed like I got through 20 screens a lot quicker than I did before with this method. Or maybe just listening to a damn good audiobook (Good Omens) makes it go faster. There were more than 20 screens to reclaim, but time is limited. I reclaimed them, and then cleaned the squeegees and floodbars from the days job. Another long shift. My shoulders and arms are quite sore. But it's a good work out!

I need to check my tire pressure and in turn probably, assuredly fill them up. I'll do that tomorrow morning. If I blog about it, I have to do it. That is the rule.

sunday funday

Ten and a half hour shift. Blimey! But it's all good, because I learned something new! Or rather I learned a better way of doing something. Brock showed me a better, cleaner, neater way to tape screens. And ohhh they do look much nicer, I must say. We had a big job to do, all though setting it up seemed to take the longest time. Once it got printing, it went pretty fast. Course we had to set up two different fronts and two different backs, and print both. Fronts and backs in one day, that is a bit much. But we did it! And it was awesome.

Taped some screens early on in the shift. But I mostly caught. It went by fast, though the K-Wave station was so repetitious. Still, they actually played Gangnam Style! A Korean song on an American pop station! How 'bout that? The Boss provided dinner for us, so that was nice.

Whenever I work a shift with Brock, I really see how much more I have to learn about screenprinting. It is exciting and intimidating, but I'm game. It's a wide world out there, and I'm only 24.

I need a(nother) nap

Went to a little get together at Ray's and by the time I got back, I just crawled into bed and went to sleep.

Friday:

Started by burning a few more screens. Andrew has been working up in the embroidery area, and now he is back in the main studio. Nice to have more company. Set up the back and did...wait no I set up the front and did an okay job. Wait yeah I did set up the back as well. It was such a rush, hard to keep it all straight!

Cleaned the squeegees. Boxed the job. I taped some screens as well. It was a full day but danged if I can remember all that went down. Working Sunday with Brock. Nice and early.

After work I put my feet up a bit and then drove on to Ray's place to hang out, play Rockband. It was a little shindig, and I met Cody, Dan, Chantall, Emily, Ally, and Devin. Dang I am good at remembering names! Everyone was really nice and friendly, which is always a bonus when you are meeting a ton of new people all at once.

Saturday:

My one day off! Slept in. Then made myself a big scramble. Yum. Then I took a nap. I think the weeks worth of working caught up to me big time. Spent the day at home, relaxing. Unclogged the toilet, that was yucky. I was going to take out the compost but the spiders were quite gnarly, so I just went NOPE and left it for another day (I pushed down the webs, but didn't want to tempt the spider's anger).

Oh, I got the card Ma & Pa! I've been getting so much mail lately, it is awesome. Mail mail, not just...things I buy online arriving in the mail.

I have to write up my to-get-done soon list, because I have a few things that need to get done in the coming weeks. Plus a few things that I needed to get done a while ago. And just things I want to do in general.

I should get a white board.

I felt a little earthquake right before midnight. Just a wee one.