hi

hi

Thursday, April 18, 2013

すばらしい

My eyes hurt. Too much computer? Or just too tired? Either way. What a day!

Finished those sleeves. I registered them like a champ. Boss told me that if I felt like they were lined up, I should just go ahead and print 'em. The better I get, the less work he has to do on this end of things. Which makes all things better. Sleeves and then I put on youth pallets and then 1100 units were counted in of this job that is due really soon. So we got started. We roto'd the first 100 or so, because there wasn't an underbase screen (roto = send the print around twice to get a second layer of ink instead of two screens, it is slower to print but it takes less screens and set up, so for smaller jobs it isn't the worst idea). Then the second screen was put in and it went so much faster. Got another 200 through the press and then I was tired and done diddly done for the day. Tomorrow will be the fronts. Andrew reclaimed the screens while I printed. Plum Island is an okay audiobook. The main guy is so sarcastic and sardonic, it's an enjoyable change of pace from, ya know, the cannibal guy.

Our stove will get wheeled out of its place and replaced. If they are just going to trash it, we might try and keep it for some back yard decoration.

At home I had a salad and a headache was working its way back and forth. The heat in the studio was getting to me a bit too, I think.

I've been in shorts all this week and the week previous. I think those pants will be put away for the season. Yaay!

Chatted with Alana. Janet's birthday is soon so I quickly ordered her a present that I know she'll like. Etsy is great, and my talented friends who make great art are great.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

out of luck, but I've maimed some rabbits for their feet

Tuesday (written last night but not posted):


So last night, on top of the stove and water heater, the internet went out at 1am. And at 10pm tonight, it is still out. I'll survive.

I microwaved a big bowl of water and gave myself a bath of sorts with that. It seemed to do the trick.

I burned and taped screens, and Andrew burned screens that I taped. I also cleaned some screens and floodbars and squeegees. I could reclaim a nice small stack any ol' day now. Nice to not have the big pile up of 20 screens all needing tape removed and ink cleaned.

I'm nearing the finish of Hannibal. There is a great part about Hannibals "memory palace" which reminded me of Sherlock's "mind palace" in the Sherlock series. I wonder if it is an homage? Kinda funny thing to reference, but both sort of function in similar ways.

Boss gave me some eggs. Now I have more eggs than I know what to do with and no stove to cook them on. Too bad you can't microwave eggs...not unless you like eating scrambled eggs off the side of the microwave...ha. Well, they'll last.

At home I felt very, very tired and took a nap. I think the weekend was still wearing on me a bit. And now it is 10:20 and I am feeling chipper. I can always read or watch something. It's kinda nice to take a break from all the multitasking and refreshing that being on the Internet fosters. Just some me time.

Alana moved in a nice shelf into the bathroom, so there is more storage. And a plant. It's feeling a lot cozier with her around. Too bad all these things went wrong RIGHT when she moved in.

Tomorrow is looking to be a print heavy day. Got one shirt with three different graphic placements (three different two color set ups), and another that still needs to be burned. Summer is rolling in.

Wednesday:

Woke up to find the internet functional! A plumber was checking out the stuff. It looks like the people who installed our water heater installed it wrong, so we'll have to get them to do it right. Thus far I don't think I smell. I managed to wash my hair, and that is the main thing that makes me feel gross...when it gets greasy like that.

At work we printed the sleeves on this one job, and then started the sleeves on this other job. It's a lot of color changes and weird set ups and it's quite the hassle. But we are the super team, we'll get it done all awesome like! I also burned a few screens. It was busy, and tomorrow will also be busy, and I predict Friday will wind down busy.

 I finished Hannibal. It did not end the way I expected it to, but I liked it. He got to eat this really awful guy, so I was happy about that. I started Plum Island, a John Corey novel. Never heard of him as a detective before, so I'm giving it a shot. Plum Island is a location referenced in Silence of the Lambs, so that is an interesting parallel.

At home I ate some rice crackers and creme cheese and drank beer and caught up on the internet. It didn't explode in my absence, so that was good. Hope things in the house get restored to normal right quick.

My lips are doing that getting really dry thing. I have to try and not to rub/chew them because then they'll crack and I'll pick at that and they'll scab. It's a vicious cycle.

Monday, April 15, 2013

well, this week is off to a good start

Came home to a report about a CO2 leak with our water heater and leaks with our stove. Apparently Alana smelled a leak, so this guy came and checked it out. Good thing, that! Hopefully the leaks will get fixed soon, because cold showers are sucky things. I don't have the strongest sense of smell, and the stove doesn't light automatically all the time...so hopefully our new roomie saved us all from being blown up by a rogue leak!

I should have washed my hair this morning. It was sort of the last day I can leave it unwashed and not have it be all...gross looking. Ahh oh well. I work with dudes, and they don't really care.

We started with bags, and I caught those. Then a two color back and one color front. Easy. Then a very long front print with discharge ink that was a bit more complex and took some creative flood bar rigging to get it to pull right. But pull right it did! Andrew and I had some good conversation about Game of Thrones and food (he dislikes feta cheese as it turns out).

I burned some screens. I counted in the shirts, and then boom right back into the boxes they went. A nice full day. Hurray!

I made my grocery run. I left my list at home, but I managed to get all that I needed.

Lucy Knisley Sketches





Sketches from Lucy Knisley's lecture and Berkeley Public Library. 4/14/2013 

Micron and ink wash in Moleskine.

Lucy in the Sky with Foie Gras

Had the plan to go to the Lucy Knisley book signing today. For her book "Relish" a comic memoir about food. I love her art, so figured it would be a neat adventure to go to Berkeley and see her. I texted the people I knew in the area and one was doing stuff later in the day so the scheduling would be too tight, the other had plans, and the third never called my back and the fourth I don't think got my Facebook message. So I went it alone, which was a bit lonely. I think my day might have been a bit more enjoyable if I had some company along the line. But oh well. Can't say I didn't try.

I left at around 12:45ish and arrived in Berkeley at 2:30ish. My written instructions were good because now I fully don't trust my GPS to connect at all. Found free parking that was only a couple blocks from the venue too, which was awesome (helped that it was a Sunday). I walked up Shattuck Ave and I went into Fantastic Comics and bought Relish ahead of time and then I stopped in Half Price Books. The books were indeed Half Price but I was able to resist purchasing. I got to the Berkeley Public Library with time to spare before the little book talk. The room wasn't totally crowded, but it had a good vibe. Lucy Knisley talked us through the first chapter of her book with photo references, as well as detailed her process. She talked about the length of time it took to do the comic (3-4 years) and other stuff. It was nice. The signing happened at Fantastic Comics, and she was drawing everyones favorite food in their book, so I asked for fish & chips and she obliged with an excellent drawing. So good. She was really friendly for the little I talked to her. Just being in a comic shop gave me good vibrations.

Afterwards I wandered back down Shattuck and got a cheesesteak and coke at a diner. It wasn't anything special, which was disappointing to eat after seeing a talk about a comic that is food centered memoir. But I didn't know where any better restaurants would be, and I didn't feel like spending 45 minutes walking up and down Shattuck and Univeristy looking for them. Guess that is the Spencer side of me. The "I need to eat something before this day will progress any further" side.

At 5pm I left Berkeley and headed for Santa Cruz. I listed to Hannibal and some music. Traffic was okay. Got home in good time. Pajamas were engaged, and Game of Thrones was eagerly watched. This weekend was so busy, but I guess that is a good thing! Can't spend all my days doing nothing.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

ups and downs and all arounds

I did enough today to warrant its own posting, instead of double day posting like I've been doing a lot lately.

Dog Beach:

Because a potential housemate has a dog, we were going to have a meetup at Lighthouse Field State Beach to see if Joey and that doggie will get along. And I figured it would be good to kill two meetings with one stone, I got up at 8 and joined Janet and Joey at the beach. I met tons of Janet's pals. There is a big hooplah about leash laws and they are trying to take it back, so they have set times where people meet with their dogs on the beach. Established times and stuff. 8:30-10am on Saturday for sure. Anyhoo, so I met those people and they had coffee and doughnuts. I met so many lovely doggies. Friendly doggies. Fluffy doggies. Big, small, just...awesome dogs. Several times I was just sitting on the sand and I didn't have enough hands to pet all the dogs. There was Charlie, Perro, Jessie, Lou, Molly, Penny, and other dogs. Ah! It was lovely. Charlie was very sweet. It was seriously many kinds of awesome to just chill with happy animals and to chat with various people.

Alas the potential housemate did not show up.

Alana:

But Alana, a potential housemate who was referred through a friend of Janet DID show up. She was very sweet, is going to school and working, and was just generally like...nice! She was easy to talk to, easy to laugh, everything about her seemed good so....now we have her for a housemate! She liked the house, and seemed to have the right sort of energy for the way it is around these parts. And Ron Lemon, the across the street neighbor, stopped by for a chat with us three while we were all talking on the porch. So that felt very communal. Yay! New housematey.

Fridge and Pantry:

Alana departed to do what she needs to do, and Janet & I worked on making a little room for her. We cleaned out the fridge of food that wasn't ours, as well as Amanda's shelf in the pantry. She (Amanda) didn't have a lot anyway, and we didn't toss what was good so if she still wants it, it is here...it's just been sifted into the communal food a bit. There is so much more room in the fridge. There were several things that have been in there since I moved in, and I didn't know whose they were. Now it has been long enough to just toss some of the stuff. And there is much more room in the freezer. Hurray!

Egg:

I had a fried egg sandwich for lunch.

Shopping:

There were these nautical boat print swim trunks at JC Penney that I really wanted, so I drove up to San Jose to see if they had them (I should have called, but I wanted to check out Kinokuniya as well). I took a wrong turn on Tully, and it took me a while to realize that, but once I did that I got my way to the mall pretty easily. They did not have the shorts! And none of the other designs appealed to me. I need a new swimsuit, but I'm not going to buy one I'm lukewarm about. I really want those cool boat patterned shorts. And I'll just get a bikini top or whatever to go with them. I haven't bought a new swimsuit in about 5 years, ha. I wandered around the mall a bit. There was a Daiso, which is bad news. It's a Japanese store, but all the stuff is priced at 1.50, or a couple bucks more. And they have a little bit of everything. It's like a slightly more higher end Dollar Store, but they actually have a good stock of things like: wrapping paper, pencil lead, mechanical pencils, ceramic chopstick holders shaped like flounder and radish, yan yan, toothpicks, goofy hairbows, calligraphy pens, notebooks...yeah I did not make it out of that store empty handed, and if you think that description of items is oddly specific well, there is a reason for that. I don't know what I'll do with my little ceramic flounder, but I know that I love it. After that hooplah, I went to find the Kinokuniya. I remember seeing it on my way to the Imax to see The Hobbit, and it WAS on Saratoga and it WAS on my right when the theater was on my left....but I couldn't find it this time! I wrote up directions but I didn't write the address because my GPS is pretty useless at finding satellites, especially in San Jose. I drove down Saratoga till I hit residential, and then the other way till I got into a residential area again. No luck! I wrote down the directions to get home from the Kinokuniya, and thankfully the directions started with turning on Williams, and at least I had located THAT street. Naturally I turned left on Williams when I should have turned right. But that mistake was evident after a few minutes. I eventually got back home after a shopping trip that ended with no luck at the store I wanted to go to, lots of luck at the store I didn't plan on going into, and no luck at finding the store that I really wanted to go to. As it goes.

Evening Time:

I now have a calligraphy brush in each size. I had purchased two from Ichiban Kan in San Francisco (a store similar to Daiso) and so with the one I procured today, I have multiple sizes. So that is fun. Too bad they utterly bleed through my preferred sketchbooks. Still, I'll find a use for them. They have a nice weight to them. Alana has started moving in, so that is pretty neat. Lucy Knisley is doing a book signing in Berkeley tomorrow. Don't know if I'll drive up and see her, but I don't have any other plans. Might as well journey about on my weekend.