sketches of a fun time

My internet went weird last night and I couldn't post, sorry! I'll do a three day sum up tonight, promise! In the mean time, here are some sketches from my weekend with Brynne and Dan:

Pacific RiOHMYGODCOOL

Pacific Rim was so cool! No shakey cam, lots of great actors, the effects were cool. I was grinning through many points in the movie. It's just so cool. So many great parts, mostly the parts that happen between the start and the end of the film. I was so excited for this movie and it went above and beyond. Whooo!!

Meeting Brynne and Dan for brunch tomorrow. Yay. And then probably will wander around for the rest of the day. We'll find something to do.

At work we ran hat transfers, then I unboxed a bunch of shirts (like, a whole bunch) and I scrubbed the floor in one section, but it didn't seem to do much damage. I also picked up the eggs from the chickens and tidied up a bit. Could have tidied up more but eehhhh. I didn't want to kick up too much dust as all the shirts are white. Oh I also cleaned all the squeegees and floodbars.

It was a pretty nice day. Order of the Phoenix though. Man. Sirius Black is one of my favorite characters but I just know he is going to die and I don't want him to die but he will. This relisten is taxing on my heartstrings.

little big day

Whoo what a day in terms of my professional career! I won't go into detail because that would be not on, but it was a big one let it be known.

Work was short, but not as short as yesterday. We ran a job at top professional speed, and it came out looking awesome. It is great to run things on head 9 because lint and stuff only ends up on a couple shirts then you get it out of the image, ya know? Anything that gets in the image on head 1 is in a full rotation of shirts before it gets noticed.

I taped screens and did the egg pickup. Another 5!

Stuck around while waiting for clients to pick up stuff, and then it was done.

I went to the Santa Cruz Public Library and signed on for a card. About time! I checked out the Pricing & Ethical Guidelines book, which is the bible for illustrators. And a comic and a young adult book I've been wanting to read. Yay reading.

Then I got to working on professional stuff, but also taking the time to be calm about it.

hump day

Had a short day at work, decided to mix up the print order a bit in terms of efficiency. Tomorrow will have a lot of work done.

Checked the coop for eggs and got five. There is always one chicken in the nest right at eye level when you enter. It's plotting something.

After work, I made a much needed grocery run. At home I did some drawing and art communication back and forth. I took a bath and read in the bath. That was nice though not as relaxing as I would have hoped.

I'm feeling very drained, and no amount of Bruce Banner or Will Graham tea is reviving me (though only the B.B. blend has caffeine). Just need a good rest and some good company.

I'm almost done with Goblet of Fire. It's so sad! I want to listen to a happy story again, but I'm determined to see the Harry Potter series through. Only have three books left now, and Umbridge is next. Uhg.

baCAWK

Welcome to Night Vale is the current light of my life. So good.

Sent some "taking care of business" emails out. Worked on the album art. It's slow going, but it is going.

I'm feeding the chickens at work. Yay chickens. Boo roosters. But I found a plastic bat, so they seem to keep well away from me. I get to keep all the eggs too.

Caught the jobs at work, as well as burned a bunch more, and boxed the two jobs we ran. Another full bad. On the way home I swung by World Market and got some thingiemabobs. Then I caved and went to Chipotle for a burrito. Old time's sake and whatnot.

Went home. Ate the burrito. Then worked on stuff. Had some tea, of course.

Those chickens better be ready for me.

Snape is such a creep

Boss was here today, doing last minute stuff before he departed. I worked solo today. Started by reclaiming a bunch of screens. Then I put away squeegees. I cleaned the press a bit. Taped a banner. Cut some stickers. Put some patches on screens. Burned a screen. Coated the dry screens. Taped that screen. Burned three more screens and double coated them. A full 8 hours. I think I'm missing something.

I also cleaned the inside of the windows in my car using the glass cleaner at work. The back window needed a good clean. I noticed that when I was washing my car....as much as I cleaned it still looked...not clean.

Anyhoo. At home I had some tea and pasta and was not productive like I ought to be.

My tea wish list is getting dangerously long. I should see how long it takes me to get through a bag before I buy more but the blends all sound so good. I had three cups of tea tonight! Two from my steeper gadget (which was really just two small cups from the same steep) and one with just a tea ball thingy. MMm tea.

Someone come visit and drink tea with me!

take one down, pass it around

Saturday:

The landlord was coming by at 11am to look over the house, so I got up early (for a Saturday). Got the room tidied up. Washed some dishes. The landlord was YET ANOTHER Steve! There are so many of them. It's like a hydra of connections. Meet one Steve then 3 more show up to also be met.

After the visit I went on a little journey to find some beer steins for a gift exchange I'm in. Janet recommended the Attila's Antiques as an antique mall with lots of variety, and it did not disappoint. It was an H shaped building, and the lady who helped me, Christine I believe it was, told me to just keep to the right and I'll eventually find my way around through all the stalls (people could rent a space and put their wares in, and everything was labeled with their stall number, so you pay one sum instead of many sums to many people, a really good system I think). I told Christine what I was looking for and she did an awesome job of hunting out steins. There were less than I was expecting, but still a nice variety to pick from. There were some bigger ones, but they were cracked, and some crystal ones with metal lids but the metal was a bit tarnished, and some clear bottomed ones but you could probably just order those so it didn't seem so special. I settled on a glass 1989 Budweiser stein with a horse design, a ceramic one with an illustration of a ye olde dude with a stein of his own on it, and a little ceramic one with a sort of textured design. And all of that for less than a double sawbuck! Excellent! I also dug through some old photos, and found a mug with a Sears Roebuck 1906 catalog design on it. Just what I like! Wandering around the place was a really fun experience. So many little knick knacks.

I couldn't turn left onto Soquel from the store, so I turned right and drove down a ways, and turned left on a random street with the intention of taking a U turn to get me back towards Soquel in the right direction, but it was a nice day so I just continued driving. I saw a farmer's stand with the sign "don't panic it's organic" so I pulled in to see what they had. It was on the honors system of paying, which I think is a great bit of trust, so of course I wanted to get something to support that trust, so I got some green beans and flowers. I paid and headed back. Nibbled on the green beans, which were very tasty, and steamed what was left when I got home. The flowers I put in a vase and put the vase on the dining room table. We like to keep a nice house.

Then I ran a Walgreen's errand. Got some sweets and toilet paper, among other things.

And with the productivity train chugging along, I washed my car! Now it is all shiny and pretty. I am also several chapters into Goblet of Fire.

Steve arrived a bit after I finished washing my car, and we walked over to Pacific Street and went to 99 Bottles for dinner. 99 Bottles has this thing where if you drink 99 different varieties of beer at their place, you get your name on the wall. And the wall has names dating back to the early 90s. It doesn't seem like people get up there more than once a month. I figured that while I am living in Santa Cruz, I might as well try and see how close I can get to getting my name on the wall. You can get a quote on your name plaque as well. Don't panic! would be a good one, as would "slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick" or "one bottle of that Ol' Janx Spirit". #98 and #84 got ticked off my card. It begins! To accompany our brewskies, we ordered calimari, sliders, and fish & chips to share betwixt us. It was all pretty good. Afterwards we got some cookies at the cookie place that always smells really good. Then we walked home and tried to watch Upstream Color, but the sound was REALLY QUIET for no damn discernible reason. So we switched to an episode of MST3K.

Sunday:

Steve left a bit after breakfast because he had errands of his own to run. I walked over to the art shop to get some frames and look at their supplies of this and that. It was a good day for walking and listening to Goblet of Fire. I picked up a sandwich on the way home, and because of the hour at which it was consumed it got me through the rest of the day with no need for dinner. I like timing meals like that. Probably why I like brunch so much. Eat a big meal, take a nap, then good to go for the rest of the day. Looking forward to brunch with Brynne and Dan.

I spent a good amount of time relaxing. Also washed my towels. Then I whipped out some paper and started working on the Odd Owl album art. It'll be a lot of little drawing to do, but I just gotta keep chipping away at it.

Totally awesome Podcast that you should listen to: Welcome to Night Vale.

so scary

Oh what, it's the 5th! You don't get to light off fireworks anymore!

Had a pretty relaxing Friday. Weeded vinyl. Cut out vinyl graphics. Prepped screens for discharge. Got part of the job. Cleaned stuff. Cut more vinyl. Next week boss will be gone, but the shop will still be open! Jeff and I will be running it real awesome like. Hopefully nothing will go wrong (nothing will go wrong).

At home I itemized my to do for the weekend. Got stuff to do!

I was craving theater popcorn, so I went to see Monsters University at the Del Mar. The lighting in the animation was amazing! Holy cow! Really beautifully animated movie. All the textures too. What skill!

vantage point

lil doodle

mopping is for suckas

Had a weird dream where I had a pet dog that was actually a sponge. Had a good sleep in as well.

Our landlord is going to give the house a lookiloo on Saturday, so Janet and I spent some time cleaning. I swept and scrubbed the downstairs floors. They are looking pretty good now. I also gave our bathroom a good scrub. Damn thing is a mildew trap!

I relaxed. Ate some pasta. Ate some candy.

When it got dark, I sat out my window and watched the neighbors light off fireworks. A nice little display in the street. And some of the bigger ones around town were visible as well. I waved to the people on the street if they noticed me. Heheh.

Later on people let off loud BTOOOOMMMM fireworks which set off many car alarms. Annoying.

And now I go to work for one day and then it is the weekend! That went by really fast. It's almost been a year since I moved to Santa Cruz. Should find that specific date.

new sweatshirt, just in time for summer!

Fireworks have been going off. And there have been some big crackers right on my street. It's very loud and jarring. Don't like it!

Today we took some of the extra shirts at work that have been laying about and printing work branded stuff on them. Well backs and sleeves were printed yesterday, we just finished them up. I got a new brown tee and a ash gray zip hoody with the front grill design. I weeded some vinyl. Finished Chamber of Secrets and started Prisoner of Azkaban. Broke down the press. Cleaned the press. Cleaned floodbars. I don't work tomorrow! Day off!

At home I washed my work shirts. The oil seems to be slowly washing out of them over time, which is good. I've been wearing an apron when I do the wash out tank, so the splash back on shirts stopped...well staining my shirts with oil. Hurray.

Overall a nice day. It wasn't too hot. Oh and I also caught a proper job.

Don't have any plans for my day off. Sleep in? Work on freelance? Read? Sun bathe if it is hot? Mmm.

Lipstick

Spellbound by Covergirl is my favorite lip color. It's so bright!

going in circles and u-turns

I am almost done with Chamber of Secrets! Granted I listened to it a bit more outside of work. Usually I just listen to stuff at work and splice it with music, but it's been all Harry Potter these past few days.

It was another cleaning & reclaiming spree at work. Though it now takes two days to do what used to take a week. Hurray for more efficient methods! I coated hats. I coated screens. I reclaimed screens. I cleaned more screens. The screens I reclaimed were good to coat. Slowly but surely the screen room is filling up! Hurray! I also cleaned the squeegees and floodbars. I don't mind cleaning because it is prime time for audiobook listening! I do mind unclogging the sink drain, but hey it's dirty work.

Got out a bit early.

I was scheduled to meet Tenaya at Coffee Cat at 7. Tenaya and I did the PNCA Pre College Program together way back in the day. Turns out she lives in Santa Cruz (till September when she moves to LA for grad school). The instructions said to take the Mt Hermon exit, take a U turn and the destination will be on the right. The first U turn I took put me back onto 17 headed South. Damn! So looping all the way back...the next U turn I took put me down a winding road. I asked a dude on a bike if he had any idea where it might be and he didn't know. So I turned around. I asked another person and they said it was probably next to the Safeway down the road. So I continued down the road and saw a store complex so I U turned...and it wasn't in that complex! So I got on the road and U turned again and then alllll the way down the road I saw the damn coffee shop. I was 30 minutes late!! I am loathed to be late. My GPS does not work anymore either. Grrr. Tenaya had to leave at 8ish, so we only got a brief time together, but we shall hang out more before summer is up!

And it took no time at all to get back to Santa Cruz. I filled up my tank on the way. Well I stopped and filled up my tank. I wasn't moving and filling up my tank. I don't think that is possible. And if it were, it probably wouldn't be very safe.

I did my laundry. Had some dinner. Took it easy. I've made a list of the things that I need to get accomplished in July. It's...quite a list. Got the album art to finish in the next couple weeks. 

cuppa cuppa tea

Joey got skunked right in the face. Poor dog. Now the house has a bit of odor, though I think Janet managed to keep her from rubbing on anything. Just a small wafts around, ya know?

Back to work! Yay! I caught hat transfers for a bit and then Andrew took over catching punk patches and I set about cleaning & reclaiming 24 screens.Why 24? Well because that is how many slots there are in the rack for dryer freshly coated screens. Tomorrow I'll coat those screens then set about cleaning another 24 screens. There is talk of maybe getting some part time kid in for a couple days and all they do is clean screens. Our production is really bumping up, so the new load of used screens is climbing.

I finished Sorcerer's Stone and started Chamber of Secrets. Giving the Harry Potter books a good relisten. Hurray!

Went grocery shopping and got my usual staples plus short bread with chocolate cookies.

I love my tea maker thingy gizmo. Makes it so easy to brew loose leaf tea in quantities that I like to drink. Mmm!

I've got more stuff to accomplish coming up. Always making lists! Crazy to be busy.

creative post title

Did my best attempt at sleeping in, but even then I got up before noon. Had my tea and cereal. Tidied my room.

I went to the Capitola Mall to do some unmentionables shopping. Kinda sucks though because the good stuff that fits right is pricey. Sure I can afford it, but I'd rather spend my hard earned money on tea or books or candy. Boo. Not a fun experience shopping. I have no patience to try on lots of different things. Blehh. I was happy to be rid of the mall.

Went home and relaxed. Took it easy for the rest of the day. A 3 day weekend is rather nice to have, but back to it! Have a lot of screens to clean tomorrow. And reclaim. And I have more Odd Owl commission work to do. And Brynne and Dan are visiting soon. Time flies!

Neil Gaiman is awsome

Friday:

I was so excited to sleep in but it just didn't happen! Took the day off work and toodled around. Had breakfast. Had a bunch of my new tea that arrived today! It ships quick. I love my new tea brewing thingy. It steeps and then you put it on top of a mug and the tea comes out of the bottom and the leaves are separated. Really cool gizmo. Anyway. I put on my loudest top and I packed up my things and headed out at around 3:15. Traffic was horrid on 101! So much slow going and then stop and go once I got into San Francisco. I didn't get into the parking garage till 5:30ish! The line for the theater went down a couple blocks and wrapped around the block. So many people for Neil Gaiman. I struck up a conversation with the guy behind me in line, Anderson. Pretty nice chap. His friend Susan arrived in line too, and she was really nice. Some people on tour buses asked who we were waiting for. "A band?" "A writer!" When Anderson, Susan and I got into the theater, we ended up sitting together on the mezzanine. It was a nice vantage point, and we were right on the edge so we could lean over and spit on the front row (we didn't do that).

Neil Gaiman came onto the stage to massive cheers, and when he made a little “shhhh" motion and everyone went silent in seconds. Amazing. He talked, he read from The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Fortunately, The Milk, and answered questions. All of it was enjoyable and lovely and just all around great.

The signs said “no photography or film" but they DIDN’T say no sketching. Okay granted it is really difficult to sketch in the dark of a theater from a far off point of view, but I gave it my best, though I could never figure out how to draw his hair. At 8:20 he started signing, and the theater put people into line based on seating section, which was awesome! Being up high and clearly far back in the signing time frame, I had the chance to go get something to eat and hang out with Steve a bit (who came downtown). I was so hungry and the pizza really hit the spot.

It also gave me the time to chat with Susan and Anderson about such topics as speculative fiction, Ramachandran, travel, eye brows, and all sorts of things. Really cool people to sit and chat with. Much better than standing in line for hours and hours. And my oh my were the signing staff efficient! They had people getting the names on sticky notes, then the to be signed materials were handed down the line to someone who opened it to the correct page, so that all Neil had to do was sign and interact (not that interacting with several hundred different people in a few hours is an easy task). While sketching the signing line, I found that when I drew someone at the back by the time I finished, their stuff was already signed and they were off the stage! Amazing!

I got into the line at 11:40 and I was through at 11:59. Neil and I had the briefest of interactions. He saw my name and I spluttered out a “my parents are big Hitchhiker’s Guide fans" and he said “Nice to meet you Trillian" and in my book there is a little heart (along with his signature and my name). He looked very tired, but oh so understandably so. He took breaks, sure, but damn he signed for hours! I hope some day I get to meet him again, but I don’t know what exactly I’ll say. It was an amazing night for memories both new and old.

I met up with Steve again after the signing, and I drove us back to his place in Daly City. It was nice to sleep there instead of driving all the way down to Santa Cruz.

Saturday:

Steve and I got brunch at Boulevard Cafe in Daly City. I had the eggs benedict and they hit the spot. Not the best that I've had, but they were pretty good. From there we went to the ocean and walked along the bluffs for a little while. I got sand in my shoes and the back of my arm and my back is a bit pink from the sun exposure. It was a nice mellow day of hanging out and enjoying the sunshine. I was melting yesterday as I drove up to San Francisco. 99 degrees! No good for lil me!

I returned to Santa Cruz at around 5:20ish and set about scanning my sketchbook. I finished my current one off whilst sketching the Neil Gaiman signing. It's so exciting and fulfilling to start a new one. Have to have some more adventures soon!

Tomorrow I shall read The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Maybe I'll sit in the sun and read. Get some rays. That'll be nice.

Things are good.

three day weekend extravaganza begin!!

The final little revision is done! Whew! But that feels good. It's all done. The video should be online really soon. Hurray!

We ran a job that had a ridiculous amount of shirts ordered for the amount of effort that it took to print. They really need to order more shirts. I taped screens. I sweated my tookus off. Cleaned squeegees and floodbars. Finished The Five Red Herrings. Damn it was hot. The day ended relatively early in terms of immediate tasks, but I stuck around a but and removed the tape and excess ink from the huge stack of screens. They are now waiting for all the ink to removed and then reclaimed! Odds are that will be my Monday.

Three day weekend! Neil Gaiman tomorrow! I'll probably be spending the night in The City, so expect a report from me Saturday night.

Ohhh I'm excited! Should probably leave around 3/4ish. I'll still sleep in. That'll be nice.

Now I'm going to watch some new television and then tuck into bed.

Also got a very nice letter from Serenity. She is so nice.

Annnnd I treated myself to some more Adagio tea blends + a tea brewer thingy as a reward for finishing the video. I should be set on tea for the time being. Mmmm tea. I want more tea in my life, and I shall have it!

I want to buy more Adagio teas..damn they are tasty

I'm all caught up on Bob's Burgers so I guess I'll go to sleep or something. Boo.

At work my bosses kid took over my job for a little while. Just the catching shirts part of the job. Hopefully I have a few years before I'm elbowed out entirely, still he stopped after about 5 minutes. At least my work ethic is better than that.

We ran plenty more shirts today. Did the fronts and backs on a doozy of a shirt to line up. And another front. Burned some screens. Andrew cut patch fabric. A shorter day, which was nice to have.

I finished another round of edits on the video. Hopefully the FINAL final edits. We shall seeeee.

And I watched Bob's Burgers. Whoo!

Relaxing tiiiime. Though I think I have other stuff to do..err

I stand with Wendy

Did you guys see Wendy Davis' filibuster? I came home from work, heard that this Senator was doing a filibuster to block voting on an anti-abortion bill and I was absolutely riveted the instant I pulled up the livestream. The shouting of the crowd to block the vote as Wendy's right to filibuster was pulled from her. The voting AFTER Midnight, which was the cutoff. Just a radical bit of politics, holy cow! I really hope they don't pass the bill in this utmost slimy way. Major props to Wendy for being on her feet and without food or relief for 13 hours! Amazing woman.

And during all that I ate dinner and working on final animation revisions.

We ran four different shirt jobs at work! The front on one, the front and back on another, the front on a third, and the front and back on these sweaters. Nice and productive. And I found time to coat all those screens.

Solid big full day.

I did it whoo yay/visitors from the east

Saturday:

Set my alarm and got up at around 10ish, and then spent the rest of the day in front of the computer animating. Drew more assets. Scanned them. Edited them. I did spend some time talking to Alana and I got some ice cream. Nums. Late in the day, After Effects crashed when I was a bit too enthusiastic with adjusting a position curve whilst zoomed in. So I got a nice little chunk of time to freak out. I crawled into bed at 4, with all the sequences done in large part, with only a few touch ups. It was a long frustrating day, and I hope to not repeat it.

Sunday:

Slugged out of bed at 10ish and had some tea and got to work. There was tweaking to do (the karate chop scene was key) and colored art to insert and other edits. It lasted a few hours but dang I got all the rendered pieces to Carmen in time! We did it! What a ridiculous turn around but it was turned aroooound!

And right when I got them all to her, Kevin and his friend Yue pulled into town. Kevin as in Komatsu Japan Kevin. He is doing a coast brewery tour, and was cruising through town so we met up and went to Santa Cruz Mountain Brewery. Janet has a growler, so we filled that up with their seasonal IPA. A really nice lavender/dandelion smelling beer. We all got food, Kevin and I shared a sampler of the brewskies. It was a nice little victory luncheon. We parted ways as they headed north (Yue was designated driver for the stretch between here and the brewery up above San Francisco, I forget which one). I took a nap with Joey. Then I went and got shampoo and piles of much needed groceries. Had a bit thing of tea. Started watching Bob's Burgers. Feeling really good right now.

I don't know when the video will drop online, but it shall be soon. There might be a bit of tweaking, but I know that it premiered tonight so that is super cool.

Next week I'm just going to take it every kind of easy.

And Friday I am GOING TO SEE NEIL GAIMAN! AHHHH!! IT'S HERE!