No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on January 7, 2016

I hate being sick. Right now I have a head full of mucus, a persistent cough that is so hard I am tossing my cookies, and I am running a low fever. I know about how long this is going to last since Peter started this about two days ago and given his time of recovery, I have about another two days of this. Personally I am hoping for less.

So far Caroline has managed to dodge this one. She has rehearsal for the Little Mermaid and hasn’t been around much. Today she has her flute lesson and a couple of other things she needs to do. Busy kid.

Right now it is hard to put two thoughts together. I feel like my head is full of cotton stuffing. I am making lists to not forget things that I am promptly forgetting. A grocery list is the primary focus on this but walking from one room to the other causes me to lose things unless I concentrate. Got a lot on my mind I guess.

I need more coffee before continuing this day.

Winter has arrived and it is cold around here. I am waiting a day or so before taking down the holiday lights. I turned them off last night because it was 12th night and when I went outside it was very dark on our porch. I want to be able to breath without the air hurting my lungs.

It is indoor projects for me today. Laundry needs to be done. The larder is looking pretty bare and we are starting to run out of some staple products for dinner and the like. I have puppets to sew and a novel to write.

However if I can’t get my nose under control, I may declare it a rare ‘me’ day and just sit back and do next to nothing. Maybe that will cut my sick time down. Right now I am huddled under a blanket with another across my lap and cats keeping my feet warm.

Stringing thoughts together feels like I am pushing through molasses.

Cleaning doesn’t take much brain power. I can put myself on autopilot and get some stuff done.

There was a study done and redone that says we, as humans, do better with les choices over all. Too many choices and we tend to dither a lot before deciding on something. Too few and we feel constrained by our choices. There is a sweet spot where we can make quick decisions given a certain amount of choices.

Right now I could use fewer choices I think since my brain doesn’t seem to want to process anything other than sniff and cough. So I will direct my brain to the task as hand and see what I can get done.

Hope you are healthy. Being sick stinks.

I am grateful when I can get the thoughts to stream correctly.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 6, 2016

Yes, it is the imaginary birthday of a made-up character.

I plan to celebrate by reading a few of my favorite stories from Sir Arthur’s works.

This past Sunday PBS aired the one-off Sherlock: The Abominable Bride, which was taking the modern version of Sherlock back to the time period it was originally written. With all the Victorian trappings and social mores and commentary on each.

There were copious nods to the Jeremy Brett version including parts of the title and end sequence. A lot of ‘wink wink nudge nudge. Aren’t we clever’ going on. The translations of some things that they do in the present are translated nicely into the past.

Overall I enjoyed it. I really don’t mind that we got played at one point or rather several points. I had fun watching it and isn’t that the bottom-line for this sort of thing to be entertained?

I have gotten a lot of entertainment from Sherlock Holmes over the years. I have had stories to read, film and television to watch, and radio drama to listen to.

This past year for DragonCon I did several sets of the characters for the Art Show.

My Art table at DragonCon 2015

The only ones I didn’t get done were the set from Elementary. I sold the Basil/Nigel set at DragonCon.

My favorite version remains the Granada series, which is probably closest to the original works as I am going to see.

So the toast today is The Detective.

Happy Birthday Sherlock, long may you reign.

I am grateful for all the people I have met because of the works of Conan Doyle.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 5, 2016

Well first off would be to finish the 2015 projects of which I have a few and then go onto my year long build to Dragon Con with a few other projects sprinked in.

Right now I have
Aquaman
Captain Hook from Once Upon a Time
The C project
Rebuilds of Holmes and Watson for the set for Farpoint
And mystery project #2

Depending on some information I get in the next week or so, I might have three puppets I need done before mid-July.

I have decided to do more female puppets this year. I did Missy, Zelena, and one other last year so I have more experience.

And yes there is a Doctor Strange puppet in the works. I just need to see better photos of the costume to do it. I may do a movie Mordo as well. I do so like what I have seen of the costumes.

I have another doll project I want to experiment with. I have an idea that I am still rolling around in my head. If I do it, it will be the first doll I have done since Peter’s stroke. I feel I need to get back to that art form.

Caroline and I have pinky sworn about two projects she wants to work on so those are in the mix. And she want to make more dragons for conventions and the like.

I might take up a drawing challenge just to work on my drawing so I can get from a negative to a bare positive. I think the only thing that is going to help me is practice and maybe another discussion with Bill Sienkiewicz who is the only person on the planet that could explain negative space and I almost understood it.

Writing I have plenty to do plus some ideas that I need to write up as well. Never thought that would be on the list but it is.

Caroline does want to cosplay Rey this year so that’s up on the decks too. The costume is so simple and so complicated at the same time. It’s the staff that is going to drive me nuts.

Right now I have a pile of cut cloth and some heads formed out so that is where I am starting for this year. I’ll report back with what I have done next week.

I am grateful that I have so many creative options and people to consult.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 4, 2016

Not really but there is a study out that says that messy creative people are the best people in the creative world. Weeeelllllll not really that either however messy is no longer a bad word. There is a difference between messy (unorganized) and filthy (not good for one’s health).

I first came across this theory a couple of weeks ago in one of those internet “if you like this article you might like the following”. It has apparently been kicking around for a while since I found the study being discussed in 2013 in the New York Times and in 2014 in Scientific American.

I am not a neatnic. I would never win a clean house contest. I don’t have a place for everything in my house. It is more a zone. I do clean things up and organize the chaos to a point but we have a lot of stuff that is being used for various projects. We have books and papers that are in use. I have cloth and foam for the puppets. Caroline has her toys, school supplies, and books. We have keys and electronics for the car and for the house. I get the place clean and it slowly slides back into chaos until I pick it up again.

However I can find things and if I place something I make a mental note of where and can get back to something I have seen.

I think the Scientific American article really explains it best and can be found here.

When I read about the four stages of creativity, I swear I must have looked like a bobble head because I was nodding a lot while reading. That article basically sums up how the creative process works for me.

I do a lot of it in my head. I sort things out. Discard that which won’t work and figure out what would. I think that is the longest part of my process. Once I have the pieces in place I go for creating it in this world and deal with anything that might crop up once I get things out of my head. I do better if I have all my pieces at hand so I can go smoothly from one to the other.

My chaos works for me and allows me to be the creative person that I am. I know it probably wouldn’t work for others. I am fortunate that it works for Peter as well so we live with the chaos knowing that once a project is done, it is put away for the next set of chaos.

So being messy is not a bad thing nor it is a good thing. It is just a thing and for me allows me to be creative without worrying about the chaos when I am creating. Just as long as I can find my eyeball box or the tools that I need, it is fine.

I am grateful that my method of creating is not a strange as I thought it was.

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Posted By Kathleen David on January 3, 2016

Today is John Ronald Reuel Tolkien’s 124 birthday.

Funny thing, I was having a conversation with some people not too long ago about the influence of Tolkien on the world today, which is quite great.

And I have met a number of folks who are huge Lord of the Rings fans and have never cracked the source material. That might sound unusual but I have found quite a few Sherlock Holmes fans who have never read any of the original stories that Conan Doyle wrote.

Then there are the people who are fans of other authors who cite Tolkien as one of their main influences as a writer. I’m not saying that if you are a fan of these other authors, you are going to enjoy Tolkien but know that you are reading what they are writing because Tolkien wrote.

Fantasy role playing both paper and electronic would not be the same if it had not been for Tolkien. Heck, TSR even created a character class that was so close to a Hobbit that they emphasized that the character was skinny and hairless below the head so as to say it was different. The TSR version of Ents are a whole other tale in itself. Gary Gygax didn’t pussyfoot around about his love for Tolkien and his world building skills.

We got a number of decent films out of it and a couple of what were they thinking but the ratio is pretty good. The visuals worked for me and it was cool visiting the set for the Shire in New Zealand before they started filming the Hobbit.

For me personally, I will always associate Tolkien’s work with my father reading to me. We would sit down and he read me the Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring. It was my personal time with my father which I treasured since I had two brothers and a sister in the mix. He would do voices for the characters and was consistent with the voices through out the books.

The day before I went to Girl Scout camp on year, we read Frodo’s trip across the Ford of Bruinen. The chapter ends with a wave of water sweeping the Nazgul away and that was it for a week. I had so many speculations in my head and I hoped that Frodo would be all right.

Since then I have read and reread many of Tolkien’s works including some of his academic papers and essays. Could he have used an editor? Well at times yes but over all you know what you are getting into so it is a minor quibble.

Tolkien has influenced me in many ways. His work has become a touchstone for me in my creative endeavors. I have made a number of good friends thanks to his writings.

So on his 124 Birthday, the toast is the Professor.

I am grateful for Tolkien’s work even the parts I don’t care for much.

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