Two, Two, Two Days In One

...or, what I did today.

(For those who get the title reference: Saturday mornings: Tarzan? or Stooges?)

Beginning with three alarms. Two kids to two schools. Pete, me, divide and conquer. Apparently, winter holiday is over.

With coffee-- made notes for a program lecture. Read two articles in Make magazine. Ordered a material sample from a company mentioned in Make.) Then answered emails/calls.

Angie and I started the studio day with a walk. So weird here, considering the weather all around us. Clouds are rare in the desert, so on days like today, I take photos. Tomorrow she can take a photo of me. I wonder what I'll say.

Photos above, but not likely in this order:

Clouds

More Clouds

This is Angie (who says 'nice clouds)

Snowy Mountains with Clouds

A Very Cooperative Bunny (not interested in clouds)

Some Rushing Water (Used to be clouds)

Aunt Beru's Place (looking east, where clouds are clearing.)

I have now typed 'clouds' often enough that it looks strange and misspelled.

After clouds:

I worked on the designs for Valentine gift boxes and tags. Set a time frame for direct gift shipping. Numerous other things on the Valentine checklist.

Ben and I worked out more of the mechanical details for the Strange Machine sculptures that will accompany the Neil Gaiman stories. Discussed wood and lighting choices. Set up a time frame for materials and building, which will be sooner than later, to give me enough time to install the art and painting. We drank too much coffee.

Made a decision about another glass case---what to do with it, when, and where to store it in the meantime. (several of these decisions have to be made to clear space, which we've clearly run out of.

While we talked, I cast three pairs of rats and Ben sorted table clutter into bins. The new tabletops will go in tomorrow morning.

We measured and moved and sorted and made satisfyingly noticeable progress in the reorganization of the studio. The chaos now at least looks like the chaos of sane people.

Ben made lunch for us. I can't remember what the dish is called. It had rice and vegetables, and a sausage made of rice and crawdads. It was delicious and had a nice texture, but I'm not sure how I feel about the crawdads. I like shrimp, and I know that where the 'bait line' intersects the food chain is relative and subjective. But after today, I'm fairly certain mine runs right there between shrimp and crawdads. Anthony Bourdain would likely be ashamed of my tiny-mindedness in the matter of crawdads.

The rest of the day was divided into illustration work for the first Poppet book and creating a framework so Angie can organize illustrations and reference photos for other book projects onto disk.

There's more. So much more. But I'm slipping into the 'it's time to stop and I need food' mode. I am definitely not planning to work this hard tomorrow. Sheesh!

While getting juice for Orion, I ate a slice of baloney without even thinking about it. Sheesh. I'm trying to not eat that stuff. Oscar Meyer, why must you torment me?

Anyway. That's sort of how the day went.

Possibly "What I Did Today" is actually worse than no blog at all, but that's all there is and there isn't any more.

g'night

Orange you gonna stay on target? Don't shave that Yak!

I start the morning by surveying the holiday carnage rife in every room of our home, in every corner of what used to look like an art studio.

A familiar feeling, like looking over a deep abyss, steals over me. I ask first the question of where to begin?

I could motivate myself with a nice bit of panic. No need. I have coffee.

Deep breaths instead.

It's reset time for the household and for the studio. This means there are long lists of things to prioritize, delegate, schedule and do. This year we have several large projects and many smaller ones and more humans involved. After the New Year holiday we'll 'hit the ground running'. We've been gearing up to this for months. Now, here we are. A bit scary, a bit exciting.

The good thing is that we work smarter than we used to. The good thing is that there is lots of work to be done. The good thing is that we are aware of many terrible things around us.

The good thing is that we will make every effort to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. The good thing is that we'll accept our human responsibilities without wasting time on guilt. The good thing is that we'll marvel at new technology. The good thing is that sometimes we'll screw up. The good thing is that we will make art. The good thing is that we're traveling through space and time, living our lives. The good thing is that it is we and not me.

They are all good things. Like the oranges I picked from our front yard today. Bigger inside than out, worlds unto themselves. But too many good things can roll us over if we don't stay on target.

Creative sorts of people tend to go off on tangents. This is often a good thing---my best ideas seem to happen when I'm busy at work already. But side trips can eat up our time, get us lost.

This sort of wandering, (particularly bad for types like me who tend to approach projects like we're fighting fires) can lead to distraction and frustration. One of the best bits of advice I've ever heard on this subject comes from life hacks Danny O'Brien and Merlin Mann.

In an article from Make Magazine (I cannot say enough about Make) they write:

"Solving the world's problems is something good hackers achieve, often as a side effect. But you don't have to spend all your time lost in your own life's subroutines - even if that's where the best fun is to be had."

If you find yourself deep in plans for the coming year, or trying to clean up the mess from the last, you might want to give things a closer look before you start. Seems to me that we could all use a good refresher course about yak shaving.

The new year approaches with all that comes with it. I think I'll use these last few days to clear my head, breathe deeply and stretch. It's never a good idea to run (or swim!) without warming up and stretching.

I know many of you are standing on similar starting lines. I'd like to hear your plans and ideas for implementing them.

Here we go again...