the fauxnies

I put on my black cat socks, and that was as Halloween-y as I got today. It just isn't my holiday.

Work was spent doing three things:

1) Heat transferring images onto safety vests, which was more time consuming than usual because the machine kept over heating and I'd have to unplug it and let it cool. Not so bad, just little delays.

2) Heat transferring images onto safety hats. Easy peasey, lemon squeezey.

3) Helping apply a vinyl wrap to the side of a thingy. Tricky. Hold of holding taught of vinyl, but not too taught.

Got home tired and a bit chilled. I finished A Casual Vacancy. VERY depressing book. I almost cried while listening to it, right at the end. It's tragic indeed. Started The Eyre Affair, which is fun and such an odd but lovely universe to listen to.

Since I've listened to so many audiobooks, thought I'd give out some faux awards:

Best All Around Book of the Bunch: Reamde by Neal Stephenson

Best Stephen King Novel: 11/22/63 (runners up: The Gunslinger & The Drawing of the Three)

Best Narrator: Jeremy Irons reading Brideshead Revisted

Worst Narrator: Jim Dale reading The Night Circus (he came off as a bit too husky and strained for voices that, to me, needed to sound more youthful)

I Have No Interest In The Main Character and Can’t Be Bothered to Finish: The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco

Holy Shit That Was Dismal, Why Can No One Be Happy?: A Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

Best Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Book: Equal Rites (honorable mention to Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Wyrd Sisters, and Pyramids)

Best Wimsey Novel: Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers (runner up Whose Body?)

Best “I haven’t read it in a while, I should give it a listen”: tie between Neil Gaiman’s American Gods and Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens

Best Interesting World Builder: Jasper Fforde with The Last Dragonslayer (runner up: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde)

Best First Book In A Trilogy, Which is Unfortunately Followed By A Dissappointing Second Book : A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

Best Douglas Adams: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

Best Sketch Comedy: That Mitchell and Webb Sound (runner up John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme)

Best Audio Comedy: Cabin Pressure by John Finnemore

Most Likely to Be Listened to Next: Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde.

Likely to be listened to soon: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, The Fall by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan, Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett, Forever Odd by Dean Koontz, The Waste Lands by Stephen King, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, Unnatural Death by Dorothy L. Sayer.

Yup.

Spent the rest of the night relaxing, eating chips, chatting online, watching telly, and generally staying warm. Tomorrow is Thursday! Already! Gee.

the light at the end of my flashlight

Work was slow and spaced out. Lots of odd little things. Set up a job, but we haven't run it just yet. Put back the squeegees. Organized. Cut some stickers and things. Burned and taped some screens.

I twerked my leg a few days ago, I don't know how though. But there is a bruise on my foot. Don't remember banging it on anything. My bad knee has gone back to being my bad knee, and my hip feels funky. I don't like it. I don't exactly work a job where I can keep off my leg. Hmmn. Ah it will get better.

Met Daniel and his friend Wes for the 7:30 showing of Cloud Atlas at the Del Mar. It was lovely! I was a bit iffy towards the movie because they make a bunch of white actors look Korean, but they use the actors in just about every story (there are six different stories told during different parts of time, and each is told in tandem with one another), and they make all of them into different ethnicities. Though yellowface and blackface is still...yeah. Beyond that, it was really great. The cast was excellent. Lots of great roles, lots of great shots, good effects (aside from the makeup, which was a bit awkward). It made me feel really happy. The stories were uplifting but also sad, but also funny. It was well balanced and well paced, which is quite the feat with a two and a half hour long movie. I enjoyed it. I have the book, so...now I have to read it! To get the full shebang!

M cellphone fell out of my jacket pocket, so I had to wait for the movie to end to find it, my penlight was a bit too bright and I didn't want to distract people with my searchings.

Now I rest. Another day, more excitement awaits!

but seriously, nothing seems to get better for these characters

Yay! I got out of work early enough to go to Monday Game Night! Yaaay! Had the onion and bacon pizza. The make your own pizza thing is so customizeable, it's pretty awesome. Andy, Rob, and I played this Game of Thrones card game that was very complicated, but I got the hang of it near the end, and almost nearly won. Lots of rules that change quite often, but I managed. Nearly four hours of gaming! But it was a good time. I like getting out and playing games. Makes for my kind of social night.

Work started a bit late. Broke down the press, cleaned squeegees and screens, listened to A Casual Vacancy, which continues to be depressing. The Eyre Affair is next in my queue, and I'm excited for that. Not that I'm excited to be done with A Casual Vacancy, just that I am excited about what is coming down the audiobook pipe line. I become more literate day by day. Hurray!

Also weeded some vinyl and pressed some hats. The weather was nice. Seems like the weather is horrible everywhere but here.

There was a football game on at Woodstock's, and people in the restaurant would periodically cheer. I guess the team they were supporting was doing well. Mmmhm.

October has been a pretty good month for me. Kudos to you October!

soonday

Rocky Horror Picture Show was sold out, so Ray and I ended up staying in and watching Hot Fuzz instead. Nothing says Halloween Party Weekend like Hot Fuzz. Hahah.

Finished up my bacon with another big tasty scramble. Mmmm. Tidied up my room a little, and because game night in San Francisco was off, I went up to San Jose to hang out with Steve. There was a Mythbusters interactive exhibit at the tech museum, so we went to that. Tech museum/science museum. One of those. It was fun. I've never seen Mythbusters, but it was fun to play with some of the things they had on hand. I also found I was able to dodge a paintball fired from 100 feet. Good to know! I had protective gear on, so I didn't get hurt when when other paintballs hit me (I also had a riot shield, haha). After the exhibit, we checked out the rest of the museum and fiddled with all the music displays, and light things, and power things. Reminded me of the Pacific Science Center. Except there are far fewer kids on a Sunday night.

We got some takeaway at this little vegetarian place, and it was quite the tasty meal. I need to figure out how to incorporate garbanzo beans into more things. Garbanzo beans are great!

And this time, I actually got Steve's suggestion for the easiest way to get back to 17, and made it home in good time. Normally I get lost in San Jose (because the GPS refuses to find a satellite there). With directions, it was easy!

I start work a bit later tomorrow, so time for Sunday night television! The Walking Dead, Homeland, Dexter, Boardwalk Empire, Downton Abbey, Misfits...well I only have time to watch half of those. But yeah.

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.

1/3 of a year.

It was 8pm for what felt like forever, and all of a sudden it is 1am? Dang.

Today I worked a regular persons shift of 8 hours. Started with setting up screens to burn. Then I burned them. Part of the way through I did a palette change and cleaned the sleeve palettes. Then I resumed burning the rest of the screens. I coated the remaining screens as well. Now there are mucho screens to burn, which is good because there are several more things to burn come tomorrow.

After that I...oh I fired up the heater and set up the sleeve job and...there was something I think I did between those two though. I didn't clean squeegees or reclaim. Didn't tape screens. Hmmmn. We didn't get to printing till later on. AH oh well, it will come to me or it won't.

Caught some shirts, then did another palette change.

Listened to Clouds of Witness. Felt like some Wimsey.

Back home I did laundry. Awww yeah Thursday night. I'm working Sunday. Not sure what I'll do with my Saturday. I need to run some errands. I'm starting to get an at home screenprinting set up started, so I need to find the clamps and figure out what kinds of lights to use for exposing...among other things.

Remember Ma and Pa to bring my screens down when you visit! Also my zine library. My zine library is a plastic tub next to my bookshelves. Also that art case thingy we made is on top of it, bring that too.

My first day of work was June 13th. Been at it for four months now. Seems much longer. Maybe because it is so fast paced? Should figure out the date I moved to Santa Cruz. Yay for having a blog to keep track of these things.

screen queen

The milk chocolate covered toffee popcorn from Trader Joe's is quite tasty. Mmmm.

Another long day at work. When I got home, I sat down and had no intention of moving for a while.

I finished listening to Pyramids. I've now listened to so many Discworld books that I've lost touch with what is actually reality. They are good but tend to repeat a bit...time to move on to Snow Crash or Good Omens.

Cleaned all the squeegees and floodbars at the start. Then I coated some screens. Then I reclaimed a big stack of screens with the new and not busted pressure washer. The ones that were prepped for discharge ink and had been sitting for a whole took a looooot of pressure washing. But I got it done! And then I cleaned and burned some screens. And reclaimed a few more. And ended the day with one more final coating of screens. Used up all the emulsion and mixed up some more. I think there are about 30 more screens that will be burned, and all of those will need to be taped, though Stuart has been taping. A lot of jobs to be done! Hurray!

Nice to be pulling some long hours. Tiring, but nice.

soft skin but not in a good way

Work is wrecking my hands. Well, the skin on my hands. My digits have spent too much time in water, what with washing out screens and cleaning screens, and reclaiming screens. Too much prune fingers. My cuticles are a wreck. I don't want to wear gloves ALL the time.

Today was a busy day. Burned a stack of screens. Coated the screens from last night. Stuart brought his electric, but less powerful, pressure washer so I reclaimed some more screens which will be coatable tomorrow. Taped some screens. All this stuff takes a lot of time. I need to time myself, so I can give good estimates as to how long certain tasks take.

Finally went grocery shopping after work. Just got my staples. I need to make another enchilada casserole, so that I don't have to put a lot of effort into lunch making for a while. I think I've just become not sick of eating it from the last time I made it. HMmm.

Back at home, I put my feet up and had some pasta. Yum nums.

what a Monday

Uhhhgggg. God. Had one of those days at work. So I'm having a beer now. And will probably have a beer later. So I am blogging now.

The first chunk of my shift was spent weeding vinyl stickers. That was all right. I listened to John Finnemore's Souvenir Program and Pyramids. It is tedious work but at least I stay dry while doing it. Then came a couple screens to burn. That was all right. Have a rapid succession of big jobs coming in, so it should be a busy couple weeks, so that is good.

Then came the end of my shift. And it was time to reclaim (after spending the time cleaning the ink off the screens and prepping them). I made the mistake of getting all the screens nice and wet and goopy with ER-45 before really kicking the pressure washer into gear. It was on for all of 10 seconds before a hole burst in the hose. Heat had burned a hole in it, and there was no plugging it. Tape? Nope. Bike repair kit patch? Nope. We (bossman Chris & I) ended up wrapping a piece of aluminum in the patch and taping THAT to the hose and that, well it didn't repair it but it stopped it enough to keep it from showering the both of us. Though by that point, both of us were well and truly soaked. Oh and did I mention that the sun had gone down and we had the illumination from spot lights to go from? Because that was also happening. It was one of those stressful times that goes right past anger to hilarity. I'm quite pleased at how I was able to keep my head instead of crumbling in frustration. We ziptied the handle on the pressure washer (my idea), so that it was never accidentally released, which would put pressure into the hose and thus put more pressure on the patched leak. We managed to tandem reclaim the stack of screens in record awesome time.

I mean seriously. Dang. What a shift! I love my job because it is always changing. Better or for worse. Hahha.

So I returned home, popped open a bottle of beer, and jumped into some clean clothes. Now I am going to relax, watch some TV, and forget my worries. Tomorrow is another busy awesome day.

And I love it.

Shit, still need to buy groceries....ahhh I'll do that tomorrow.

is October halfway over already?

What a lovely Sunday! I slept in, which was nice. My body needed it, what with the wedding and the previous week of fighting illness. It was good to sleep in like that. I'll be going to sleep shortly.

I helped clean the house a bit, as Janet was having a big birthday shindig thing for her friend. Lots of people. I cleaned the floors and made sure all my dishes were out of the sink. They came over at 4ish, though I was upstairs being antisocial. Though I wanted to socialize, but I gave the company some space...and then some more space and then I had been up in my room for an hour and a half and by then I was like "ahhh jeeze, probably too late now." But I had plans to meet Ray for Looper and some after movie drinks, so that got me out of the house. Still, I met a couple of the guests and they were quite nice. Though some of the guest's kids gave me odd looks.

Looper was just as enjoyable the second time around. Such a great movie. I saw it at the Regal 2, which was tucked into a complex I've yet to explore, but is right next to Trader Joe's. There are lots of areas in this city I need to explore. We had drinks at The Poet. At the first dinner we had, it was someone's birthday, and yet again another familiar happy birthday song was rung out. Fun how that goes. There was a pub quiz going on and the questions were quite tricky. The teams were already established by the time we arrived, so we just listened in.

It was a nice night. The weather last week was gray and Pacific Northwesty, but it went back to calm California.

Had a very nice Sunday night. Now I shall climb into bed. Another awesome week starts! I need to make a to do list.

Yay for Jenn & Steve!

Jenn & Steve. October 13th, 2012. Yaaay!

Did not enjoy getting up early, but did it I did! And I found my camera, hurray! Put on my fancy dress, did my makeup and my hair, though my hair didn't quite work out in the long run. Ah, oh well. I still looked nice. Though it isn't about me, it is about Jenn and Steve! But here is a picture of me anyway:

Lookit those roots! My natural hair color sure is coming in quite obvious. Got some wine for the shindig and then up I drove to Woodland. I took no wrong exits, paid one toll, and got caught in no traffic. So despite leaving a bit later than I'd have liked to, I still arrived with plenty of time to spare. The wedding was at this little house, and the shindig itself was all outside. Lawn set up, lawn ceremony. It was a potluck food thing, and it all came together quite nicely. I made acquaintances with Benjamin & Amy and Gillian (who made Jenn's dress) & Henry. We played bocce and bean bag toss and croquet. That was fun (they had it set up). Ate lots of food. Had a couple glasses of wine. Celebrated my friends and their love. All that good stuff.

My leg hurts from all the driving, but I got back all right. Ah what a day! It was beautiful too. Warm and sunny. Not a Washington October, that is for sure!

And my calendar is now pretty open in terms of engagements and things to do. Hmmm. Oh, have a bunch of drawing to do. Yeah. Personal projects.

good and dark and acted oh so well, just how I like it

Noooo! I can't find my camera! I last had it in Kings Canyon, but I never used it. Did I leave it on the desk top? No, I'm pretty sure I double checked for everything. I barely used it, and I think it remained in my bag. I must have just set it somewhere I can't recall. I'll look for it come morning. My dress is laid out, got my tights. The weather is supposed to be warm, so maybe I'll bring the tights but not wear them unless it gets cold? It is a just under 3 hour drive to Jenn & Steve's wedding tomorrow. It is at 1, and I'll leave at 9:30. That seems good? I won't be going through San Francisco, just through San Jose. I have Pyramids to listen to (the next Discworld book) so that is something.

Today I set up the job right when I got in, ran it, set up the next one, ran that. Sure the boss looked and okayed my work, but all was well. Ran the shirts on another job as well. Getting a really fast loading time. Booyah! And weeded some tricky vinyl. And did some cleaning. Got out at 5, so a little bit earlier.

Steve and I had the standard dinner and a movie plans. Sort of my go to thing. We met at Santa Cruz diner and each had half of what we ordered and half the other. Bacon, avocado, and Jack omelette (aka the California) and banana walnut waffle. Sounds like a good dinner to me. The movie was Martin McDonagh's Seven Psychopaths and it was different from the trailer, but in a good way. Funny, dark, and the actors were great. Sam Rockwell is very underrated, and was quality in this role.

Got an early start tomorrow. Should be lovely. Hope I can find my camera. If not...oh well! I'm sure I'll show up in other people's photos.

'illian('s)

It was rainy again! Santa Cruz has become the Pacific Northwest! Noooo! It was so warm last week. Ah, oh well. Just have to wear a sweater. Though it clicked at work why I get more ink on me. I'm shorter/smaller than my coworker and boss, and so to navigate the equipment I have to get closer to it and reach around and all that fun stuff. I get closer to it all, and thus get more ink on me. I just don't have the reach. Could improve my dexterity though.

Put emulsion on some screens, some of which I patched before. Burned a couple screens. Broke down the press. Stuart taped screens. Ran a couple jobs. Two color, pretty easy. Gave the bossman some apple juice, which he liked. Everyone likes Seabeck Apple Juice. I should design a label for it.

Back at home, I was quite happy to put on some warmer clothes. Then I went to Lillian's to meet Ray, another of those online acquired fellows. Lillian's is an Italian restaurant and it was pretty good. I had the risotto. The chicken was a bit dry. Ray, he is a business major at UCSC, and was pretty nice. After dinner and dessert we walked down and back on Seabright, because it ended up being a clear night.

My fingernails and nailbeds look horrible. Ink encrusted and chemical affected.

Man. Almost 1? How did that happen!

take that body, you ain't getting sick on my watch!

Feeling better today, though I was still congested and snuffly. Though considerably less so from yesterday. It was actually rainy and gray today! Damp and cold! It was nice to hear the drops on the roof.

At work I burned some screens, but did not tape them. We ran the front and backs of one job, sorted some shirts, I reclaimed the screens that were waiting to be reclaimed. I suspect first thing tomorrow I shall apply emulsion to them. A nice long shift. It was gray but not raining when I was reclaiming (I do this task outside). At least I have the company sweatshirt to wear now. Sort of wish I had work pants, but my legs don't really get that cold.

Back at home I bundled up, ate some pasta (I eat almost the same thing day in day out, it's easy to not get bored of ones food if you don't pay attention to eating it), watched Sons of Anarchy, which was hilarious, and Sakamichi no Apollon, which was okay. Not as good as Cowboy Bebop.

Got some busyness happening these next couple days. I'll keep you posted. Because, well, what else am I gunna do?

illness? oh no you won't get me!

My nose was runny all damn day. Didn't really feel ill, so there is that. But something could be just around the corner...going to go to bed early. Give my body plenty of time to rest up and recover from whatever it is that it thinks it has. I haven't been properly sick in five years, and I'm not going to let my body break that record!

I got a work branded hoodie. Boss said I was welcome to more apparel if I wanted it. Booyah! Though I'm fine with a few shirts and a hoodie...for now.

Spent a good chunk of the work shift mixing ink by eye. That was....difficult and frustrating. But we got it in the end! And printed some sleeves. And cleaned some surfaces.

Got home late. Had some pasta. Bundled up and got all warm.

not A not B then C or I don't understand this game at all

Uhg, I'm really congested and I don't know why. Blergh.

Worked a pretty easy shift, and started near Noon. Not a bad way to have a Monday. Burned some screens, taped those screens, and cleaned some squeegees and screens. Listened to Spoon and Wyrd Sisters.

Back at home, I put on not work clothes and went to game night at Woodstock's. Yay for pizza and beer! A winning combination. Played Saboteur and then Pandemic (which was great) and Ergo (which was impossible to understand). Three and a half hours of game play just about! Afterwards I did a grocery run and returned home and put my feet up.

Don't have any obligations till the 13th. Pretty good.

Still don't understand the congestion.

telly and tumblr

Ahhh a day spent doing nothing of consequence. How lovely. Got up around 10. Had breakfast. Got caught up on the Internet. Well, spent all day doing that. And caught up on television. Had the house to myself so it was all quite quiet. Neglected to go grocery shopping. I'll do that tomorrow.

Elementary, CBS's modern take on the Sherlock Holmes stories with Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes and Lucy Liu as Joan Watson, is quite cute. Lots of chemistry between the two of them. I dig it. Watched Downton Abbey. I'd rather watch it with Mom, but that will have to wait a month and a half. I suspect time will pass all too quickly.

October is already a week over and it feels like it just started. Blimey.

Work tomorrow! Yay! I start somewhere between 11 and noon, so that is nice.

bears? pfft give me something new!

I just caught a case of the woozies. Too much travel, too much irregular sleep. I am back in Santa Cruz and ready for a nice lay down I reckon. Today was very much the full one.

I got up after Ma and Pa but before Nate and Helen. I had breakfast with Ma, though she had already had hers. Then we three returned to the restaurant with N & H for their breakfast. I drew some portraits in my sketchbook while they ate their breakfast. Helen is quite nice. I like her.

Ma checked out of the cabins and we went to the visitors center and watched the video again. I got the Sequoia National Park WPA inspired postcard. I collect them from the parks I visit. I should get some Ikea frames to put them in. I think some of the standard size Ikea frames fit the postcard sizes...?

Anyway. The day started with the Grant Tree. Got a refresher in how massive these trees are. They are indeed massive. And then we climbed Moro Rock again. Which was tough on my gams, but it was again a spectacular view and well worth the climb. A bit more crowded this time, what with it being Saturday and not Thursday (or whatever day we first went up the rock). Still, no where near Yosemite crowded. We had a snack afterwards. Then we went wandering along the paths around Crescent Meadows. There were many unmarked Y's and several viewpoints that went without a plaque, so we took no notice of them. We saw many burned trees to Ma's chagrin. Nate took many excellent photos. He is better with the camera than I am. I can admit that. When we made it back to the car after our meandering U journey, we drove on to Sherman. The biggest tree in the world! It was much the same as the first time we saw it. Got some better photos though. Then we headed out to Lodgepole. I got another stamp for my notebook and we had our daily ice cream break. And some bears wandered by. More bears! Wow!

We finished the day with a partial trek up to Buena Vista Point. It was another beautiful view of both sides of the ridge, and a great photo opportunity. Tomorrow I'll upload some photos for y'all to enjoy. Right now I'm tired.

Nate and Helen brought me back to Santa Cruz. We stopped and got In N Out in Fresno. Mmm burgers. Love burgers. We listened to music and a bit of John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme. Got back at 11, which isn't that bad of a time. Everything seems all right in the house. Now time to tuck into bed. I have a lot of relaxing and catching up to do tomorrow.

What a wonderful vacation.

October Fifth

Today was the least busy day thus far. I had a French Toast breakfast. After breakfast we went to Lake Hume, which is in the National Forest but not the National Park. The only thing that really separated it from being part of the park was that the path contained  a lot more litter and there was more private houses around. We took the several mile hike around the lake, which was nice. Partially dirt, partially paved. We had our obligatory ice cream break at this Christian Camp that was on the lake. Yum yum.

Back in the car, we drove down some of the other roads but came to private property, so we went back to the cabin for a respite. Ma and I showered and watched Downton Abbey. Dad napped. We took another hike up to Panoramic Point, and continued on the Fire Ridge trail. There were a couple deer on the side of the road. Back at the cabin we had a light dinner of rice cakes and crème cheese and wine and other assorted edibles. We watched Horatio Hornblower while waiting for Nathan and Helen to arrive.

The pair arrived at about 10:30 and all was well. Now for a day filled with adventure! And driving back to Santa Cruz

bears and badges

Typical Thursday. Climbed a rock. Saw some bears. Got sworn in as a ranger. Ate some candy. Whateverrr.

The showers here are nothing great. Most certainly not hot enough. At a bit after 10 we headed into the park to have some fun. I found a National Park shirt that I liked. I’m going to cut the collar out of it and turn it into a tank top, because I like the back design more than the front. Reverse it. We started out with the General Sherman Tree walk. Now that is a big tree. Thick and tall. Not the tallest, but certainly the biggest in terms of mass. It was a nice walk down and around. From there we went to the Giant Forest Museum, and got a Junior Ranger Packet to fill out. I completed the 13+ section (24 years old certainly counts as 13+) as we walked along the Giant Forest Loop. Saw some good trees. Identified some more trees. Back at the Museum we listened to the Ranger talk and afterwards I turned in my packet and got sworn in as a Junior Ranger! Yaaay! I even got a badge. How cool is that?

At the 4 oclockish time we went to Moro Rock. It was 400 steps up to the top of this rock. Thankfully there were plenty of rails. It was a nice walk, though we went quite high up. A well winded walk up. There were monks in Saffron robes up at the top. It was a dynamic pretty view. Probably my favorite trek of the trip thus far.

We squeezed in a just under 2 mile walk to Tharp’s Log after that. The Log was a cabin that was built around a fallen log. Pretty neat dwelling. On the way back I heard some rustling in the woods, so I stopped Ma and Pa. And out in the woods not too far from us was a mama bear and her cub. Very cute. We sang to make her aware of us and off she went into the meadow.

An hours drive back, it is time for dinner! What a full day. I should sleep well I reckon.

waders and walkers

Mom and Dad both go up in the night and made the biggest racket opening the door and whispering to one another. Thought they were being quiet but they were not at all. We ate breakfast at the restaurant. Mom opted out, I had bacon, eggs, toast, and hash. It was pretty good. Kept me sustained for the day.

We stopped by the visitor center and I got a patch with a quail and my usual WPA postcard. I should put those in frames. Little Ikea ones.

There were some nice big sequoias, but we were not allowed to get close and hug them.

And then we drove into Kings Canyon. The national park is divided into two sections. It is a pretty nice decent. Nice and warm.

At 12:30 we stopped at Boyden Cavern and took the 1pm tour of said caverns. They were pretty nice. Shasta Caverns had greater variety, but it is just neat to be inside rocks like that.

We drove on through. We stopped at Grizzly Falls for lunch. We went to a meadow and dad took a different way back, and ended up having  to wade through the river. I got photographic evidence.

Ma and Pa took an ice cream break and I napped in the car. I was pretty tired, and I don’t know why. Back at the cabin, we finished watching Avengers (we started watching it last night). Thus far we haven’t taken any major hikes. Maybe that will change tomorrow. I also haven't sat down and done any proper drawing. Hmmm./

omelette starters

We have arrived at Kings Canyon National Monument State Park Sequoia…place. Errr Sequoia & Kinds Canyon National Parks. We have rented a three bed cabin, because Nate and Helen will be joining us on the weekend. We shall hike and have fun. Yup.

Ma and Pa arrived at my place at 10ish. We had brunch at the Santa Cruz Diner. It was DELICIOUS. I had the Capitola omelette, which has ham, cheese, and bacon. Dad had the Monterey which was avocado and mushroom. Mom had waffles and some of dad’s omelette. It was all scrumptious. After that we went to the Mystery Spot to see what the mystery was. And it was a weird place of strange gravitational pulls. There was a guided tour of the place, with lots of optical illusion demos. Quite fun! And we got bumperstickers afterwards. I don’t know what I’ll stick mine on. Hmm.

From there, we gassed up the car and off we went to the canyon place thingy! We had an ice cream stop, and a quesadilla stop, and the heat got over 100. Quite toasty, but generally nice. Some great scenery was beheld. I took a couple mini naps and was awoken when Ma and Pa bickered about directions. They made it up to me with ice cream. I’m easily won over like that.

Got to the park at a bit after 6, got our cabin. Now we shall get something to eat, and maybe enjoy some vino afterwards with some television. That is what I call camping!

work and work and grumpers

My internet wouldn't connect for a while this morning, so I didn't find out till later in the afternoon that a redraw of the face was in order. So I spent the day drawing and drawing and inking and scanning and all that jazz. It left me quite stressed and hungry and grumpy by the time I met Ma and Pa at their hotel. We are going camping! Well, cabining. We leave tomorrow, but they came into Santa Cruz tonight. We ate at Ideal Seafood, but it wasn't all that good. The clams were chewy, and the burger was just a burger. Ah, oh well. I have a bland palette, so I can eat just about anything and not grumble.

Afterwards, we walked back to my place with my bowl and jade plant (which has grown so big!) and I showed them my house, and drove them back. Now I'm relaxing. The new drawing wasn't quite improved, so it's going to be edited on the client end of things, though it will be my work that is edited around a bit, so that is fine. If I weren't camping, I could draw some more. But I am, so I shant. Ah oh well.

I'll have my computer, there should be wifi? If not...well I'll be writing up my adventures, so maybe you'll get a big post on Saturday of my times and adventures.

yay! art!

Going to rest on the sketch. I think it looks good but I am also a bit tired. Have to give it the morning gander. Be all refreshed and stuff. And daylight helps.

Slept in. That was nice. Really, really nice. Had breakfast. Watched Doctor Who. Cried during Doctor Who. Chatted with people (online). Worked on art. Snacked on snacks.

Tomorrow I shall do more art. Well. I'll finish this. And it will be awesome...hopefully. Nah. It will be.

loops and knots

Looper was a fantastic sci-fi movie. So well done. Well shot, great actors, just all around excellent. I was giddy leaving the theater with how good it is. Had dark humor in the right spots. A well realized future without going over the top with explanations. The characters were many shades of good and bad, and it wasn't just one good guy versus one bad guy. Layered. All that good stuff. Really excellent.

I met Steve for Pho before the movie, up in San Jose. There was an accident on 17, but going in the other way. I felt bad for the miles and miles of slow moving people. It just went on and on till I turned onto 280.

Work was good. Got the job set up, ran it. Boss and Andrew were off doing other things, so I cleaned squeegees and floodbars and listened to Wyrd Sisters. Pretty good day.

I'm on another wee vacation. Looking forward to some rest and some seeing of the parents and some seeing of the sequoias. That'll be nice.

need to find my focus

Got some revised sketches sent off BEFORE MIDNIGHT! Whooo!

At work made a couple flubs. Need to be more on the ball! Get my head in the game! Pay attention! Come on Trillian! The stereo at work improved today. Much better sound. And by that I mean the new one is louder. And MP3 players can plug into it (well, iPods, I don't think mine will). So that is neat. Ups and downs. Still, I wake up and go "yay work!". I don't mind getting up, I don't curse the alarm, and I don't like being idle at work. I like how there are always things to do. Even cleaning I like. I cleaned a bit. I set up a job. Ran the shirts. Ran some totes. Weeded some vinyl.

Got back lateish. Had a little diner. Worked on art. Washed my work clothes. Got a busy couple days coming up. Might have a Saturday shift.

cameo & turban

A little sketch preview of something I'm working on. Yaaay.

Going camping with the parents next week as I'll have some time off work. Yaaay! Just going to head south a bit. And when I say camping, I mean we are renting a cabin and are staying in it.

Had a dream that I was running the towel job and everything was going wrong. At least in my dream my boss was really nice about it. So that is a subconscious blessing.

Caught a few jobs at work. Set up a couple as well. Cleaned some things. Removed vinyl. Wore my hoodie because it was a bit chilly. Nooo! This is California! It is not allowed to be chilly! But generally a good day, though I was really tired. Like my brain was just....wanting to take a nap. I've been having trouble focusing this week. I don't know why.

Worked on art. And now it is late, but I want to work on it a bit more.

tootie

Ohhh I ate a bit too much cheese today. I'm giving new meaning to the name "Little Toot". Hahah.

Anywaaay. I burned a bunch more screens at work. And taped them up. And we ran a few jobs too! Nice and easy ones. Single color. No fuss. We have a couple multi color jobs waiting to be printed, just waiting on shirts. I'm learning a lot about the sequence of things in running a business like this. Don't know if I'd ever want to run a big business of my own, but it is pretty nifty to be a part of.

Went grocery shopping, because a lady needs to eat. Pasta and seaweed and more carbs. I eat pretty much the same thing constantly. But I eat a lot of apples and bananas and I drink orange juice, so that is good! Yay for eating well?

Worked on art stuffs. Still need to make more progress before I send off the next stage of things.

Ma & Pa, have y'all figured out that thing yet? You know...the thing with the stuff?

there are some plans in the works for October

Work started at noon, on account of boss running some errands. It was a burn and tape screen kind of day. As they were on 305s, it took some high intensity washing to clear the image but clear it I did. And tape up I did. 12 screens? About that. I also unpacked some shirts. A short shift, but a good one. Got some jobs coming up. Whooo!

Talked to Ma and Pa again after work. They are grinding apples to make juice. Tasty, tasty juice.

There is going to be a tenth season/series of Red Dwarf. I looked it up. That show started in February, 1988. I am barely older than that show, and we are both still going. Amazing.

I didn't get up to much tonight. Took it easy. Making a to do list. Have a lot to do...on Tuesday.

goobers

Finally got down to drawing and wow all of a sudden it it 1:20am! Got some good drawing done, could have achieved more but I didn't. Tomorrow. I have a good feeling about this sketch stage.

Today I slept in. Had a nice scramble. Watched the Emmy's. Yay for Aaron Paul winning! Can't believe that Sarah Palin thing was better than Sherlock and Luther. Cannot believe it. Such good acting and writing in both shows, and they got nothing! Still, Community didn't get any nominations. Boo.

Talked to Ma and Pa on the phone. That was nice. They adore that new kitty so much.

Yup.

oh and I got some beef jerkey

I tried to sleep in, but I only made it to 10:30ish. Ah, it just wasn't meant to be. Had oatmeal, and a fried egg sandwich, and some quiche that Janet made (she is so awesome). I went to Target and got some things like soap and toothpaste.

Felt a bit groggy and headachey earlier in the day but that seems to have passed.

Doctor Who was good. The Bletchley Circle was AMAZING! Watching Parade's End. I didn't accomplish much today. Just sort of took it easy and all that. Tomorrow I'll get down to drawing and things.

Now I'm starting to feel tired again.

oh and the soundtrack was swell

Arrived at work at a very good hour, unfortunately there was not much for me to do. I cleaned some things, and went home. The seps were not ready to burn. Monday should be a consuming day. I was given the heads up that there would be leaner weeks. Just have to keep an eye on my expenditures during these times. But I don't really have expensive tastes. Movies, the occasional burger, books...that is about it.

So with my super abbreviated Friday, I kicked back! I washed my car, because it had bird poop and pollen on it, and now it looks nice and shiny. I did laundry. I tied up a bit. Kicked all the way back.

Had my leftover Chinese food for lunch. Had some pasta later on. I saw the 8pm showing of The Master, and it was pretty intense. A really beautiful, well shot film with great performances. I don't quite know what to think of the story, but damn was it nice to behold.

Won't see the midnight movie, Drive. Feeling a bit tired. Have been feeling a bit tired. Some sleeping in will do me good. Probably.

Have art to work on this weekend! No other big pressing plans. Art is good though. Yay art.

Kim Novak's eyebrows are amaaaazing!

I cleaned up the new vehicle at work a bit more. Weeded more stickers. Coated screens. Burned and taped up some screens. The weather continues to be nice in Santa Cruz. I put on jeans when I get home from work, but I make do with shorts and a shirt through the day just fine. So that is nice.

After work, I met Ryan and Cassidy at Yan Flower, a Chinese restaurant, and we ate dinner and talked movies and stuff. After that, we saw the special showing of Vertigo at the Regal 9. That was awesome. I've never seen Vertigo before, so it was great to watch it for the first time on the big screen like that. Now I must watch more classics!

Wednesday doodles

At work, I ran the sleeves, and caught some shirts. I cleaned and reclaimed some screens. I weeded some vinyl. Helped roll some vinyl. A nice mix of things. Started listening to Mort, having finished Equal Rites.

Back home I doodled a bit. I doodled this:

And this:

Annnnd this, in response to a Annie's struggles with painting:

So there is that. Robin is moving to San Francisco soon, so that will be awesome! Have to figure out what I'm bringing to the wedding. Hmmmn.

knit & perler

Spent the night playing with Perler beads. You know, those little plastic beads you arrange on small pegs and melt with an iron to form shapes? Those things. So much fun! Made a few little things, just to get a hang of it. Pretty fun night. Course, I have a very relaxed sense of fun. Heheh.

Joey came up and settled in my bed for a while, so I had some company. She made a big fuss of it when Janet tried to get her to come down stairs.

At work, I rolled this roll of paper off the laminator. Double handing this roll, always holding it up as it got heavier and heavier, and rolling it with your hands? That is a tough work out, I tell you what. Also rand the sleeves on a job, and taped up some screens, and burned some screens. I got a lot of ink on my arms, but none on my shirt. My shirts are considerably less messy than when I started. Whoo!

After work, I made a grocery run. Yay for food. And I installed better anti-virus on my computer. Then I broke out the perler beads and cut loose.

Is this what I expected my life to be like, at age 24?

Dunno. Yes? Maybe?

"I'm an American. Have gun, will travel."

Monday! And I enjoy my job, so I never wake up going "uhg". Sometimes I want to sleep a bit more, but who doesn't? Anyway. Got up, showered, had my breakfast and prepared my lunch. Went to work only to have my boss say "you didn't get my text?". "....what text?" Turns out he was doing an install in Carmel and there wasn't anything on the docket for the day. So I went home to enjoy the day off. Whooo!

And I checked my phone and BOOM there was the text. I'm pretty sure I checked my phone before I left? Thankfully it is a short commute.

Watched the new episode of Downton Abbey. Such fabulous costumes! It is 1920 in the show now, so that is pretty fun. And Mom's favorite Shirley MacLaine is in it.

Watched that. Had scrambled eggs.

Worked on thumbnails. It was pretty nice to have this extra day off, actually. Gave me just enough extra time to do some things. Still need to do some grocery shopping though, I'm out of apples. I can do that tomorrow.

And tonight I went to the game meetup at Woodstock's! Chris, Andy, and Alan were there, and I met Peter, Alissa, and Karen. After I consumed my pizza and beer, Andy, Alan, Peter and I played Evo. I came in a close second. The next game was with the seven remainders, and it was Saboteur, this card game thing where you secretly sabotage others in the game. That was fun! I tied with Karen for first place.

So after three hours, I returned home and finished up my thumbnails and sent those off. All is well!

there can be only one

Another weekend day spent over the hill! This time all in Redwood City.

Though first I slept in till noon. Because I'm worth it.

I also found out that there is another Trillian. At PNCA. Who is an illustration major. DAAAANG! I should challenge her to pistols at dawn.

Anyway, I had lunch at Pamplemousse in Redwood City with Luke. Who is Luke? Well another of those online fellows. He would be the....fourth? Hahah. Though some may be more reoccuring than others. Luke is studying biology (or some subdivision of it) at Stanford and has been all around the world and generally was pretty cool. I had a bacon avocado turkey sandwich and it was amazing. It was a nice little luncheon followed by a little walk around the area. A nice day for it.

After that, I went to Nathan's and played Guild Wars 2 and watched Breaking Bad and drank lemonade and caught up on sibling stuff. Good times.

My GPS is having issues detecting the charger, so I got back to Santa Cruz on purely memory. I need to figure what its deal is, so that I don't have to struggle to get around north of highway 17, provided I continue to hang out with more people above the hill. Hmmmn.

sunshine on my skin

Most of my posts start at the start of my day, because that is easiest. Got up, had breakfast, as it is the weekend and I'm not working and it is Saturday I watched the new Doctor Who episode. Had some more food.

Then I hopped in my car and headed over the hill to San Jose to spend the day with Steven. You might remember him as being the dude I saw Lawless with and walked around Santa Cruz. Anyway, this time I went up to his area and walked around it with him. San Jose reminds me a lot of other places, but only for a couple blocks at a time. We played frisbee a bit and talked about Discworld and the Bechdel Test. Had dinner, and then brewskis at this new opening place. There was a Reddit meet up of sorts going on, so we shared a table with some other Redditers and talked about stuff that is relevant to the Reddit types. It feels good to know I can be randomly social with people. We shared poutine and it was good, but I want to have proper Montreal poutine. Afterwards we watched the Edward Norton movie Leaves of Grass, and it was an odd, darling, weird little movie. Norton is a great actor who isn't in nearly enough movies these days. My GPS had a dickens of a time finding reception when I was leaving San Jose, but it eventually did.

Tomorrow I'll be back over the hill. Hanging with Natey.

Though have some stuff I want to get done in the morning time.

HUGO STIGLIIITTZZZ daa naaaahhhh

Just got back from another Midnight Movie at the Del Mar! This week's choice was Inglorious Basterds. The thing about my blog is I have a record of the past five years of my life, and I can go back and access the specific date that certain things happened. The first time I saw Inglorious Basterds was August 22nd, 2009 with Katie and Tom. Here was my then review:

"Inglorious Basterds had more action in the trailer. Seriously, all the action in the movie would take up about 7 minutes worth of footage. It was brief and sudden when it happened. Still, having a little violence punctuates the power of the moment. A lot of talk but good talk. Some random moments occurred that are clear indicators that it was a Tarantino flick (HUGO STIGLITZ!! comes to mind). I enjoyed it though I might not watch it again for a while. Good shots, good black humor."

I've watched it a few more times between then and now. It is true that the action happens very quick. The build up is very slow and intense, and when it pops it POPS and is gone. All the dialogue scenes are much more intense upon further viewings. Maybe because one knows when they are coming to an end. It was a good time, and I am glad I went out for it. I was going to meet up with Daniel and Ryan, but the former wasn't up for a midnight movie and the latter was stuck at a fair. Hopefully not stuck on a ride or something. That would suck.

At work I coated screens and did a good job of it. The bossman acquired a three wheel, one seater, with a truck bed of sorts little vehicle. Sort of like a tuk-tuk, sort of like a meter maid, sort of like a Reliant Robin but not really. It is AWESOME! There are plans to wrap it in awesome vinyl. I hope he goes bright. But to wrap, you must remove previous vinyl, which there was. So I learned how to remove vinyl! I us...okay my train of thought went elsewhere for a second. Anyway. I used a heat gun, which I very nearly burned my thigh with when I absent mindedly set it in my lap.

After work I worked on sketches and type and I ate pasta. Have some plans for tomorrow, and Sunday. Yay for the weekend!

get up, stand up

Just spent the night chatting with Ryan and Cassidy at The Poet, after seeing a chunk of standup at The Blue Lagoon. Lookit me, knowing people and going to places! Anyway, at The Blue Lagoon, every Thursday is stand up night, so that is pretty neat. Ryan, one of those online fellows, said that his friend was performing and invited me along, and since I had nothing else going on tonight I went. I sketched most of the performers and took note of a few of the jokes that I liked. Some of the stand up people were pretty dead in the water, but some were awesome. Cassidy, Ryan's friend, was really good. Afterwards, we three went to The Poet and I had a "Black Adder" which is Guiness and cider. Pretty good little drink. I managed to get some laughs, we talked about Doctor Who and other nerd stuff. I sketched a bit more. I made a really good drawing of Ryan that looks a lot like him, too bad I can't scan it. All in all, a really awesome night. Since the stand up is free, I'll probably go next week as well, and invite Daniel along. Tomorrow is Inglorious Basterds at the Del Mar! WHeeee!!!

At work we finished the jobs on the table, and I broke down the press. So a day spent half catching, half cleaning and reclaiming. It was a nice, warm day. I discovered some sugar at work, so my tea was much nicer. At least I hope that was sugar. And I hope it was fit for consumption...well, I'm not dead right now so I assume it was and is. I take a lot of minor unnecessary risks.

I wish I had a kitten. I wish I wasn't mildly allergic to cats. I just want something to cuddle right now.

But hey, I'm making friends! Awesome!

'ello there Claire

I've been having a rough time sleeping lately. Well not lately, just these past couple days. Very restless and I don't know why. I don't drink except in the morning.

Work was consumed with one job. Lots of learning happened! I switched the heat flash from 2 to 3, and the friction from tightening and struggling with the knobs has given me three lovely blisters. I've named the one on my palm Claire. Hopefully Claire heals all right and doesn't burst prematurely.

Ran the front on the job. Switched and taped the screens. Oh, the shift also started a bit late. I also registered the screens and did a pretty good job at it. I'm getting better! Whooo!

Had pasta for dinner. Now I'm tired. That day went by fast.

grumpy in SC

I got majorly sidetracked, after work, driving in circles around town trying to find that damn Safeway and eventually gave up. I executed a perfect parallel park between two cars, but even that didn't alleviate my grumpers attitude. I don't like going in circles, and all these stupid U turn/no turn lanes in California. So hard to get going in the way you want to go! Grrr argh. So the rest of the night was a bit of a wash. I've got a bunch of stuff in my hair right now because I'm testing out something, that hopefully will go the way that I want.

At work we ran some jobs. I coated some screens.Weeded some stickers. Not the most involved of days, but its all good.

Finished off my tuna for lunch.

Tonight was a bit of a wash.

Whistling Karla

A video I recorded last night. Such an amazing talent!

Work started late, and it was just me. I cleaned some screens, weeded some vinyl, tidied up, cleaned the stuff in the sink. Brock stopped by, but he is now working as a screenprinting rep! So he won't be working the weekends with me! Noooo! I liked our occasional weekend shifts. He gave us a free degreaser sample. It smelled like flouride bubblegum. Which is to say that it smelt better than the chemicals.

It was a shorter day. Monday's typically are. Ahhh yay, work is now in a "typically" time. Falling into a rhythm. Listened to mostly music.

Got home and didn't feel like the game night. Boo anti social me! I cooked up the rest of the fish, ate it, watched Parade's End, and kicked back. I'm kinda sore from all the Sunday salutations.

awesome day!

Had an awesome wonderful day! Was all up in San Francisco with my favorite people: the band members of Odd Owl and their friends who are becoming my friends slowly but surely.

Alarm went off at 7, was out of the house at 8:20. Magic! Filled up my tank and away I went to the great North. Well, the great slightly more northern. It was a nice ride and there was parking on the street. Boom, easy!

Carmen took a nasty spill on her bike, so I helped her haul some stuff into her car. Then we were off to Steve's! From there we rode to the venue (the street outside Candybar) and unloaded the car, and Carmen took the car back to Steve's because it was Sunday Streets, which is where they shut down some of the streets to cars. So we quickly unpacked and got the car out of there. Then we moved the stuff to the back and once it was all secure we went back to Steve's (which is Steve and Erin's and their roommate....ohh I've forgotten his name, he is German but it isn't a-FABIAN! He is name is Fabian. Okay). Anyway, it is multiple people's place. Because like many dense cities, there are as many people as possible crammed into houses.

Hung out there. Phil arrived. Josh showed up. We chatted and snacked and chatted some more. It was nice.

At 1ish we went back to Candybar (everything was all in the same neighborhood, just a few blocks from one another, OOHH earlier we dropped a speaker and stand off at the house that the second gig of the day was to be held). I mostly held guard while things were getting set up, and hauled this and that.

The set was awesome! Some of the tunes sounded different live. They played on the street, and lots of people congregated and listened to many of their songs. I danced a bit along with Erin and Dina and Robert. Dina petted many dogs. It was fun. It was warm. It was outside. And Odd Owl ROCKED! They always do, but yeah.

They broke down the set, and we hauled the equipment the couple blocks to the Wigg Party House Party Party thingy? It was another instance of getting things to a place and going back to Casa Steve and Erin to chill for a bit.

The Wigg Party shindig was full of nice people, though I mostly hung with those I knew. Steve had set up the entertainment and Julia, a street performer, was first. She has a beautiful voice, is talented on the accordion, is a superlative whistler, and can juggle AND balance on a ball? Her set was lovely.

Steve played some awesome diddys on his guitar.

The next guy whose name I have forgotten was also swell.

Then Odd Owl! Though it was the same set just about. OH! They had a cover of Very Superstitious which was awesome. So quality. It was quite chilly in the backyard of the house, where the show was happening, so we danced to get warm. I had my arms around Erin and Tanya and we did a three lady kickline. That was fun. I danced and ate corn and chatted and they sold some merchandise and I gave out my card. All was awesome. It was corn on the cob. Dina, Robert and I cheers'd each other with our corn, though it turned into a bit of a sword fight. My kind of party!

All was awesome today. Josh dropped me off at my car. I got back at a reasonable hour, and since I don't work till noon tomorrow I get to sleep in a bit.

Yay!

GH w/ D.L.W. & OO & G

Oh maaan. I went to Pizza My Heart to meet Daniel for lunch, and while in line this guy just rubbed his shoulder against mine and when I gave him a clearly "what the fuck?" look he said, "you haven't been harassed that much, have you?". I just sort of sputtered and looked around for Daniel to show up.

Uhhhgg creeper. There are some weird burned out people in Santa Cruz. Too much sun.

But after that, lunch was nice. This is the same Daniel I met at the game shindig and later met for We burgers. We chatted about families and linguistics and television and Japanese game shows. I never thought about the differences between the words holiday and vacations. The former is typically for days off and the latter for trips and relaxation, though I use both interchangeably, whereas some don't use holiday at all. It was a nice afternoon.

Doctor Who was fun. Did my laundry. Went grocery shopping. Worked on some sketches. I've feeling quails. Quails are in right now for me. That and echidnas. Still working on some sketches, though I have to be in San Francisco by 9:50 at the latest tomorrow. It is a hang out with Odd Owl and other cool people day! Hurray!

Ohh I'm yawning. Sleep soon.

where is Hank Hill when you need him?

Today was a very short work day due to some sort of unforseen circumstances. Nothing bad! It just abbreviated the day. Monday should be busy though.

We got some shirts done. I cleaned some screens. Like I said, short day.

Got out early but didn't get a lot accomplished with that time. Bad!

Ate a tuna sandwich for lunch. Talked to Madeline.

Are there no 40 foot smoking distance laws in California? Every time I am on Front and Pacific I always leave feeling choked out by the smell of it. Bleh. Saw Natural Born Killers at the Del Mar. Midnight showing. Talked to a couple foreign students in the line. Got to use a bit of my much neglected Japanese.

It was quite a weird movie. Weirdly shot. Just...odd. Violent but I'm pretty desensitized to stuff now so err.

I feel funky. Damn that cigarette smoke! In the future, I won't arrive so early to the showings.

fishwife

I pan fried up one of the tuna fillets. Go me! And it cooked through and through. And it was tasty. And I squeezed a bit of lemon over it. Go Trillian, being all learning new cooking stuff even though she is 24 and a half. When did I become 24? That seems strange.

Anyway. So I did that. And I felt good about doing that.

Work was work. But isn't it nice to say that? I've settled in, I know how things go, I am part of it. I still ask questions and confirm things. We ran a couple shirt jobs. I burned and taped some screens. Since I found out my new mp3 player saves your place in audiobooks (there is a separate menu for them! and it saves your place! perfect for me!) I've been listening to Brideshead Revisted at a slower place. I am almost done though. Might go back to a Discworld book. In the mood for something light hearted.

Weekend coming up. I have some plans. Midnight movie probably. Go up "over the hill" as they say in reference to going from Santa Cruz north on 17.

Kelly Green

Oh maaaan. Janet made a mudslide cake thing. And she saved me a slice! It was so good! Ohh she is awesome. Joey was looking at it expectantly, so I told the doggie that it was horrible. But that was a lie. It was so delicious. Best housemate EVER.

So apparently you can get a working visa for New Zealand? Like you can stay there for a year and work....sort of tourist but not really? Something to consider as a means to get to another country.

Work was good. I ran the press. Printed some shirts. Talked to Cara (Kara? Carah? Karah?) who was catching. Ran some towels as well. Coated screens. Patched some screens. Weeded vinyl. Helped with the laminator. Full work day. Have lots of gunk under my nails. Wasn't the cleanest of work days.

The boss gave me some smoked tuna, so that was my dinner. Need to cook that uncooked fish he gave me. Tomorrow, I'll cook it tomorrow. And hopefully not give myself food poisoning from undercooking it.

I need to work on some thumbnails for a drawing. Yup yup.

something smells fishy, actually it doesn't because fish doesn't smell until it goes bad

Just moved my clothes into the dryer. So awesome having laundry on site.

My boss went fishing over the weekend and gave me some of the albacore tuna that he caught! What an awesome dude. Some of it was cooked already, so I had that for dinner. Booyah. I'll cook up the rest of it in the next couple days. Just have to figure out what method. I called mom and dad for recipes, but they had conflicting responses.

At work I cleaned and reclaimed screens and weeded vinyl. A mellow short shift, and it started later in the day so I had time to consume a big breakfast.

Work, called ma, ate tuna, laundry. That was my Tuesday.

"grr grunt" was all he said

Labor Day, Labor Day! Gaaah I'm no good with three day weekends. Give me work! Thankfully work is tomorrow.

I did stuff today, which was nice. I got out! And my housemate saw me leave, which is good. Because when I go out and in when she is gone, and she comes back and never sees me leave...well I don't feel judged by her at all, just that no, I am social to an extent! I leave the house!

Anyway. Was meeting another of those online fellas for a movie and food. Steve! We caught the 4:30 matinee of Lawless at the Del Mar. The movie was pretty neat. Guy Pearce and Tom Hardy stole the show a bit. The costumes were awesome. The dialogue was good. Hardy's character's lines were a bunch of grunts and expressions. That man is built like a slab of beef. Just, massive. Good actor though.

After the movie we got some burgers and chatted about travel and games and things. We spent the rest of the night walking down to the boardwalk and up and down the beach. It was a nice night for it. A bit hazy. The lights of the boardwalk were quite pretty. Steve's in computers. Nice guy, nice evening.

Breaking Bad had an awesome finale.

Work tomorrow! Yaaay! Cleaning, reclaiming, probably burning. Booyah.

I miss work. I don't like three day weekends.

Spent a bit of the afternoon sitting on my porch and drawing my neighborhood from my vantage point. That was enjoyable. The drawings are in the post, headed to some destinations. I don't like to hold onto my art. Hahah. I also wrote up a few postcards and those are in the mail. It is good to keep up correspondence.

I need to buy more stamps. Have stamps, will mail.

I cuddled with Joey the dog a bit.

Near the end of the day I started to feel a bit weary and poorly once again. Not quite a cold. Just a sort of weakness. Need to eat more vegetables or protein or something like that.

Oh the shirts I ordered came in the mail yesterday. They are REALLY COOL. One is glow in the dark. So cool. I don't have a picture of me wearing any of the shirts and I can't be bothered to link to an image of what they look like. Either way, I am happy with my purchase.

I'm going to go to bed. If I am tired, why force it?

Check out my sheeeeelves

My current Tetris shelf set up.

Woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep. Well, 9am ish. I was showered and fed by 10. Weird. Still felt really tired. Probably because I was up late and up early.

I watched the new episode of Doctor Who. It was good! Scary, a bit relationshippy, but it seems to have a lot of promise in this new up coming season. Had some pasta for lunch. I went grocery shopping and got my usual staples.

Today I was feeling very Marvin the Paranoid Android. Just sort of tired and glum. Not getting out didn't help. Ah oh well. There is tomorrow. And the day after. Then back to work!

I like work.

Man, almost 1am already? Time really flies when you take a nap.

out and about, and then back, and then woosh out and about again! twice! in one night!

Just got back from the Del Mar. Went to see a midnight showing of Super Troopers with this guy Ryan, who I met on that site with the people on it that isn't Facebook. We met a bit before hand and walked around downtown and he pointed out this and that. He has been in Santa Cruz most of his life, so he knows whats up. There are midnight showings every Friday and Saturday, so I think I should make regular appearances and get in with the locals and make friends. There were two Taylors and an Adam who sat behind us and they were chatty and nice. The movie was pretty silly. A good thing to watch late at night.

My shift at work today was a short one. Caught shirts. Broke down the press (a term for removing all the squeegees, floodbars, and screens), set up the next job, caught and boxed that. Cleaned the squeegees and floodbars, removed the tape and scraped the ink from the screens. I left them to be cleaned on Tuesday. Three day weekend!

For dinner I met up with Daniel, one of the guys from the Monday night game group. We met at Betty's, though we both showed up at DIFFERENT Betty's. Oooops. He is really nice. We showed each other our sketches, talked about language and Japan and tactics for making friends in a new city.

I accidentally took Seabright back (on my bike) instead of Murray, but I know Seabright runs parallel to Ocean, so all I had to do was turn left on Broadway and that intersects with Ocean and zoom I was home. It wasn't that far out of the way. Glad to know I know how to get around a bit.

The late night movie wasn't planned till after dinner. It was a nice impromptu thing.

I still want to see Cosmopolis and Lawless.

Thursday already?

Did some uber taping on a job. And some tandem burning. Seems like we have a big job coming up! We normally don't tape like that unless it is a high volume. I caught shirts. I listened to Jeremy Irons read Brideshead Revisited. Damn that man has a nice voice.

Had a salad for dinner (turns out my lettuce had been moved to a veggie drawer. Thankfully I noticed this BEFORE it went bad). Hard boiled some eggs to make an egg salad sandwich. I've had so many pb & j sammiches. I'm not sick of them, but I want to add variety before I get totally sick of the easiest thing to make in the morning.

Yesterday, and the day before, it was pretty hot in the studio. Today it was a bit chilly but I was near the heater so whatever. Movement warms the body!

Tomorrow I have some evening plans. Hurray! With someone else! Hurray!

I need to draw something. Well, I have some things on my slate to draw. I really need to to-do list the stuff I have to do...BOOM just made the list.

I wonder if I have a three day weekend? Hmmn. I don't really care if I don't.

breezing through them books

Weeding! That is the term for peeling vinyl. Weeding vinyl. That thing. I did more of that. I almost drove up to San Jose for a pick up, but that didn't happen. I caught and boxed shirts. I picked vinyl off these signs. Not the most eventful of shifts.

And not the most eventful of nights. Talked online with people. Washed dishes. Washed my sheets. I need to start taking some further initiative. Sunday and Monday were initiative taking days, why not Tuesday and Wednesday?

I finished Whose Body? I like the character of Wimsey and will probably listen to more of his adventures and mysteries in the immediate future, but now I have a copy of Brideshead Revisited that is read by Jeremy Irons and Jeremy Irons wins all. Such a great voice.

peeler

Today I learned how to remove cut vinyl thingies from their vinyl! And I learned whilst peeling the excess from our really complicated logo. So many little bits, so many ways to muss it up. Vinyl trial by fire. Still, good to acquire even more skills. I finished The Light Fantastic and started Whose Body? a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery novel. Wanted a change of pace.

Earlier in the shift I burned and taped some screens and coated a fresh batch. Getting better at it!

But most of the day was spent peeling vinyl. It went by pretty fast actually, once I got the hang of it. There is still more to peel. I'll also learn how to put them on the other stuff, to make them transferable to things, though I think I've figured that out.

Back at home I chowed down on carbs and put my feet up. We have all these screens taped, but no shirts are in the shop. Either a weekend shift is coming up oooor....I don't know.

game on!

Guess who was social tonight? I was social tonight! But thanks to a different website. On the Santa Cruz sub-forum on Reddit, someone posted about things to do and ways to meet people, and someone mentioned a board game group that meets at Woodstock's Pizza every Monday, and lo and behold, Woodstock's is a quick bike ride from my house. So I decided, provided I got out of work not exhausted or too later, to check it out.

I worked a three hour shift today. Just clean up and reclaiming, and it started late.Very mellow. After work I washed my car, and now it looks quite pretty. It was getting a bit pollen-y.

So yeah. I rode my bike over to the pizza place. First time riding my bike in this city. Not two minutes was I out before someone said, "I like your helmet." Polka dots win again. There is a bike path along the river, which keeps one off San Lorenzo, which is nice. Really easy bike ride. Not really anything in the way of hills.

Oh, in regards to the cable bike lock (responding to Dad's phone message in my blog instead of calling). You could mail me another care package, or put it in Nathan's luggage when he visits. Either way.

Anyway, back to today's narrative. The table of gamers was obvious, mostly on account of the games they were setting up. There was Alan, Andy, Jeff, Jim, Chris, Daniel, and Kathleen. Boom, remembered their names. We split into two groups. Daniel, Andy, Alan and I played Evo, while the others played some other game that I've forgotten the name of. Evo is this sort of complicated dinosaur evolution thingy thing. It was fun and I won! I had a lot of dinosaurs on the board during game play, so I got a lot of gold from that. We played Seven Civilizations next, at least I think that is what it is called. I came in last. Still, it was fun. I like these sorts of games, though they take a lot of instruction. But now I know two games! And if I have the time, I'll be back next Monday. Everyone was really nice and welcoming, and the pizza was good (feta and chicken, my usual pizza order).

Rode my bike back. A really easy ride too. What a nice night! I'm being social! Yaaaay!

what I hinted at yesterday is...

Okie dokie. Soooo. I decided to give online dating a try. All though more for the meeting people/getting out of the house and checking out the area aspect of it than the finding someone to date part. Went with OkCupid because it is free, and if Carmen met Josh on it, then there should be some really awesome people? Anyway. I have good instincts and know how it goes: meet first in a public space, let someone know where you are going, set a good end time. Among other cautious things.

So today I hung out with Amir in the Stanford Library. Amir is a TA for the English program at said fancy college, and is starting work on his dissertation. Smart stuff. And he showed me the tea cupboard, and let me have as much tea as I wanted. I only had one cup, but I could have had two. It was a beautiful day, and we walked around the campus and talked about books and perception and travel and linguistics and all sorts of topics.

Not a bad little meeting, not a bad one at all.

Afterwards I went to Redwood City and hung out with Nathan. Ate a burrito, drank soda, talked video games, saw what my painting looks like matted and framed (it looks GOOOOOD), and watched an episode of Breaking Bad.

All in all, a pretty good Sunday. Now I await Breaking Bad.

Tomorrow I start work a bit later, so an extra sleep in day is nice.

cleaning house

Got my paycheckola, and since I definitly have enough to more than cover rent I went shopppping! For paper towels, Draino, car soap, and other household things...because I'm an adult and I have to buy those things instead of tickets to Disneyworld. All though actually I wouldn't buy that anyway. I did get some Seagram's Sweet Tea flavored vodka, because you can buy that sort of thing in Californian Targets. That and lemonade, which when mixed together makes for a lovely drink. I also got a new MP3 player! Now my tunes are easier to access. Hurray! It is a little clip on thing and should serve me nicely. Amazing how the same size mp3 player in the iPod line of things costs $80 more. Why spend that much more money? I don't understand.

Anyway. Ran them errands. I wanted to wash my car, but a doucher parked way too far across our driveway for me to feel safe getting in, so I parked elsewhere, which ended up being too far away from a hose. So my car will go dirty another day.

I scrubbed the bathtub though. It was looking grubby. Cleaned the little no slip thing and scrubbed away the stuff that had collected under it. And poured Draino down the drain. It was draining slow and I couldn't get the stopper off to try and dig out the culprit (probably hair). So I poured down some chemicals and 30 minutes later it drained like gangbusters. It is back to looking nice again. And draining nice.

Had a scramble for a late lunch and half an avocado creme cheese sandwich for a late dinner. Had my Arnold Palmer as well, and that was tasty indeed.

Got some plans for tomorrow. I'll tell you about them after they happen.

Oh and I watched the first episode of Parade's End. It was awesome.