No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on March 16, 2011

But there is also the usual laundry and household chores that need to be done to keep house and home in some sort of order.

So there is a balance that needs to be struck which can be difficult to do but needs to be done.

I am rereading Flow. I read it when it came out back in the 80s. It is an interesting theory of how we work through thing and how we get “into the zone” while working. Multi-tasking goes by the wayside but I don’t know how much of Multi-tasking is useful and how much is temporary distractions from the main task at hand. I use to be an advocate for multi-tasking and I did a lot of it when stage managing but now I think that we might be overdoing that just a bit.

We have a lot more to distract us these days thanks to the Internet and smart phones. I hate to use the simpler times phrase but there was a time that you couldn’t get a phone call in your car unless you were very wealthy. The Internet didn’t exist for everyone. Personal computers were a thing of science fiction.

But we do have a choice whether to be distracted or not. It can be hard to step away from the keyboard for a bit especially when you are riled about something that someone said but I think we all need to do it on occasion. You may not be able to do it at work because that is part of work, but at home maybe make some time to not be connected into everything.

I am going to give myself about an hour to noodle around on the Internet in the morning and then I am going to get off of it until later. That might give me more time to get other things done in the real world which I feel like I am falling behind on.

My brackets are in and I didn’t go with a lot of the popular teams with the exception of Ohio State which is my pick to win the whole thing.

I saw something on some show this morning about Mom Caves. Boy that would be great to have. I have a room but I have to get it back into shape so I can use it.
I have a feeling I am going to be doing a lot of cleaning this year.

I am grateful for focus without panic.

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Posted By Kathleen David on March 15, 2011

Today I applied for the 2011 DragonCon Art Show. My biggest concern is that I uploaded examples of my work but they are not professional photos of the pieces. I may go back and redo those pictures that I still have the pieces for. The problem is that there are several pieces that I no longer have in my possession and, of course, they are some of my more current work.

The DragonCon Art show is one that I jump through a few more hoops to get into. It gets my work out in front of a very diverse audience and I get a lot of feedback on the pieces that helps me work on the next set of pieces.

I know I need to get into the habit of getting archival photos of my work before it goes out of my hands. I have gotten better than I was a number of years ago where I have no record of what I made. Part of that had to do with being before digital cameras existed for the common folk. And the other part had to do with my lack of foresight about making a record of my work. Some photos I have of my early work were taken by friends and others were taken by me. I should scan them in and post them somewhere. I have my first set of Doctor Who puppets (post McGann), Pinhead, Peliquin (from Nightbreed), little Morpheus, and the Klingon Quartet.

Keeping a record of what you create is something I encourage. I honestly wish I had been better about it earlier in my career.

There are also some simple ways to make your photos look more professional especially if you work in 3-D. One is building a cheap Photo Light Box. There are a number of tutorials all over the net. Many of these use relatively cheap materials to create the space. A pretty good one that I found can be found at DIY Photography Light Box for under $40. Instructables has a few as well but I haven’t looked through them.

I may pull together my kit and get some better photos of my work. I need to get either a tripod or a ladder to put my camera on since my previous tripod died a valiant death after one of the legs was snapped off.

I am grateful for the record I do have of my earlier work.

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Posted By Kathleen David on March 14, 2011

Is anyone doing a March Madness competition? I know I did one last year with a group and it was fun.

The Brackets were announced yesterday and I haven’t looked at the final sheet yet. I figure I will get to it sometime later today. Monday is my rather full day with various things that need to be done in a certain order.

Haven’t heard anything about any of the jobs that I applied for in the past two weeks. One is at Randomhouse in the Children’s department which I would be very good for and the other is at TOR which I would be awesome at. I would really like to get back into editorial work full time.

Any suggestions for Crafty Tuesday?

On another note I will not be going to LunaCon this year. Just too many things piling up on top of one and other to make it feasible for me to go this year. So may be next year.

Fig is a hidey cat. She likes to hide in and under things. Her favorite places are paper bags and under a pile of stuffed animals. We figure that this was learned behavior before we found her since she was a stray up until that point. We just have to be careful that we don’t accidently step on her and watch out for toe attacks.

Got Ariel back up to college after Spring Break. It was nice to have her home for a week. Caroline was very happy to spend some time with her big sister.

Still adjusting to the time change. And I still am not happy about the extension of Day Light Savings Time. It isn’t saving any energy because I have to turn on lights in the AM because there is no sun. It worked better with the original dates before the government extended it.

There are a couple of things I need to do about DragonCon starting with getting my contract into them. Then there is the Art Show which has opened the juried part of the site for anyone who wants try to get into the Art Show. I am sorting out my images for this year. The rules are pretty strict as to how old a piece can be. I just hope I get in this year. I have some ideas that are really cool.

Getting the day started now that the coffee cup is empty. Have a good one y’all.

I am grateful for smooth travel without delays.

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Posted By Kathleen David on March 12, 2011

We don’t have to go anywhere this weekend and, considering the past month, it is nice to not have anything on the docket this weekend.

So most of the things I am going to do are going to be around the house things that need to be done along with some yard work if it gets warm enough.

Quiet can be a good thing. The most excitement I plan on having is taking Caroline to see “Mars needs Moms” which she wants to see. Peter is going to take Ariel to see the Red Riding Hood film at the same time.

Tomorrow I plan on it being a very quiet day with some crafty work that I need to do.

I am grateful for both the exciting weekends and the quiet weekends.

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Posted By Kathleen David on March 11, 2011

I am sure that by now you have heard about the earthquake in Japan and the Tsunami that followed heading for the Americas.

I have already had a couple of friends check in or confirm that other friends are OK in Japan. I haven’t heard from the Hawaii contingent but from what I can gather it was not as bad as they thought it might be. Then there is both Central and South America which are next but with some luck the damage will be minor.

Caroline and I finished the project yesterday.

(For the VI readers: This is a picture of Caroline looking at a stuffed leopard seal head that we created which is attached to a white paper plate. There are four index cards hanging down from the paper plate with her answers to her teacher’s questions. The seal head is grey with black spots with large black eyes and a large mouth.)

I think it turned out pretty well. We also agreed that leopard seals are pretty vicious carnivores.

Today is going to be rain until it stops and clears up. I thought it was going to do so but the clouds have turned dark again. Most of what I want to do today will be indoor activities. And most of that will be postcard work. I have all the materials and about half of them more than half way done.

I am grateful for any good news coming out of the disaster zone.

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