DragonBlog

Jewelry Class, Project #2

I finished the 2nd project in my jewelry class tonight...

The picture turned out a little dark, but you get the idea. The little leaf earrings are around an inch in height and I made the sterling silver french hooks they are on as well. They are silver and copper, itty bitty pieces I cut and put together painstakingly. This project was a real challenge and honestly - it didn't turn out quite as I had imagined when I drew the initial design. They look nice enough, but are paper thin as I had trouble when I went back in and filled in holes where the solder didn't quite meet when I put all the pieces together the first time. While the last project came out perfect in the end, I don't feel quite as pleased with these. They are done however. Any more work on them will actually damage them beyond repair at this point. On to the next project.

I spent time finishing up possible designs for the next project once I finished up the last buff and polish on this one. But my teacher decided that all my designs were too simple! Now, personally, I prefer my own jewelry to be simple, elegant designs that aren't too gaudy or busy. Thus, I have been doing my own designs to reflect that. While the pieces I've done so far have been complicated to make - they have not been complicated to look at when they were done. This next one will be slightly different. I went back to the drawing board (my little sketchbook) and started making some other designs that have passed the teacher's complexity meter. Now I just need to draw up a few more and then decide which one to start on Thursday. I've got three drawn so far. One of them is has potential. We'll see what happens.

I know there was other stuff I wanted to blog about, but I can't remember it right now. At the moment, there is a plate with bagels on it, lightly smothered in cream cheese, and calling to me and my grumbling stomach. For some reason I always come back from jewelry class hungry. I think it's because we eat dinner so much earlier on those days.

G'night!

Current Mood: hungry

First Project Complete!

I recently bought a really expensive book on eBay. I got a good deal, considering that the book usually retails for around $130 new *gasp, cough, choke* (although the price recently dropped at Amazon.com) and I paid $60 plus shipping *much, much smaller gasping, coughing and choking*. But it really IS the compendium of all things involving metal jewelrymaking. Yesterday, I spent some time perusing through some of the sections pertinent to the problems I've been having in class - you know, the ones the teacher won't give me any help in solving? Mostly problems buffing the nicks and scratches out of the piece - and lo and behold, tonight I was able to finally finish the first project piece! I credit the book for helping me figure it out. Thus, I am now able to give you the following picture of my finished piece:

Yipee! *bounces around the room a little*

Just for reference, the piece is approximately 3 inches in height. Since size may vary depending on your monitor and the window size within it, and I didn't exactly worry about trying to make the picture sized to "actual size" in the first place.

Now I can move on to the the complicated pair of earrings I've decided to do for my next project. I've already cut the teeny-tiny little bits of metal for it. Now I just have to make them all fit together snugly, like a miniscule jigsaw puzzle that has to withstand heat to while it's pieces get soldered togther without somehow accidentally blowing all the bits off the table in the process...

Oy. My head (and fingers) hurt just thinkin' about it! But at least it's under way...

G'night!

Current Mood: creative

Haircut, and the first day of class...

Today felt like a short, frazzled kind of day, as I rushed about getting ready to meet Brian at the hair salon we now go to so I could get my hair cut. Unlike with his, I deliberately left the camera at home. I was not getting it cut from such a dramatic length as Brian did, so I didn't feel it was a big enough deal to make people take pictures of my mug. I do like how it turned out - slightly different from my usual bob/wedge cut that I so often get when I go with short hair, but not so drastically different as to feel weird when I look in the mirror. Now I'm tempted to color it again, even after I had decided not to. I tend to like having some red in my hair more when it's short. Makes me feel daring. We'll see. I'd love to do the foil stuff I was discussing with the gal at the salon today, but it sounds like the way I really want it would cost $70, plus tip and any crap I buy to take care of it afterwards. As much as I'd LOVE to do it, I doubt there's really any room in the budget for it, especially after driving Brian's car to class today - I'm thinking he needs brakes soon. They work, but they are kinda joltingly bumpy???

I had Brian meet me there as the LAST time I got my hair cut I went by myself and everyone but me HATED my haircut. This time I took no chances - I went to a decent salon instead of a local joint and I made damned sure Brian was there to give the a-okay on what kind of style we were picking. It seems that so far everyone likes it, including ME. This is a good thing. Hopefully when I style it after it's been washed, it will still resemble what she made it look like too. That would be nice.

After the haircut, we grabbed some fast food at a Wendy's before swapping cars (as opposed to moving the car seat to his car for a lousy three hours) and he took Jareth home while I headed off to my first jewelry class.

After ten or more years since I've been in a jewelry lab, I felt a bit intimidated by the machinery in there, but not so much to make me at all worried. Class was short tonight - mostly introduction to the class stuff and a homework assignment to draw out some designs for the first project which we will dive into on Thursday. I'll have to remember to get a picture of the first piece of work, assuming it turns out okay, once it's done. There's six projects throughout the semester, and we got an overview on what they will be. I'm excited. I already have to sort through some of the ideas I've got milling about in my mind and figure out which ones would fit best with the different types of things we'll be doing.

Anyway, that's today. Tomorrow I run errands and try to get further on a project I'm doing for Brian for his work, since I've not gotten anything done on it in a few days. Tonight, however, I'm hoping to get to bed early.

G'night!

Current Mood: contemplative

Small World...

Oh, wow... Mrs. Ljung left a comment on my blog! I guess I'll be sending an e-mail out tonight, telling her more precisely who I am. Or, perhaps I should think of it more as who I was, as I'm certainly not quite the same person I used to be back in high school...

I've been doing my posts on To Our Children's Children regularly for some time now, although my Brian has *ahem* slacked off a bit on that one. Then again, his habit is to tend to the blogging in the morning and he'd have to get up awfully early in order to do half the stuff he'd like to be doing on a regular basis. So I try not to bug him about it too much.

I'm currently into the section on "college" now, which is kind depressing, as the completion of my bachelor's degree still eludes me. I won't knock the importance of my Associate's, as it has given me a step up on the pay scale and job market from time to time when I've been working, but it still isn't the oh-so-coveted bachelor's that I wanted so very badly. Having my health smack me back down the last time I tried to go back didn't help either, so my answers on this chapter might be a bit short and to the point. I just want to get through it. The idea is to go back in ten years and answer them again, so maybe by then I'll have more interesting things to say anyway. I am planning on taking some more credit classes next year at one of the community colleges. It might be on a variety of subjects though.

But, for now, I'm off to tuck in my little boy. He's going to bed late tonight since we rented one of the Harry Potter movies and I kind of overslept a little this morning anyway.

So, until tomorrow...

G'night!

101 ways reasons to smack Bill Gates...

I feel a blog coming on...

101 reasons I'd like to smack Bill Gates.

Ya.

The program I'm working with at my job is Microsoft conceived, and then "modified" for this company's use.

The poor souls in programming have already started to hack it to make it useable by us poor folk who have the job of transferring a whole lot of old web site content into the new system.

Every image file, for example, has to be uploaded one at a time. The same with all the .pdf files too...

This company uses a lot of images and .pdf files in their site.

You'd think it would be easy to just ftp a bunch into a folder or something, but this isn't Front Page. I saw Front Page. That's what they're moving out of. I like it much better than this new system, but there's reasons it will make it easier for the people in individual departments who don't need access to page design and stuff I guess.

In the meantime, it seems like it's a relative nightmare for everyone transferring the site over.

It's not actually a nightmare for me though. Oddly enough, I'm finding it kind of fun. It's still more engaging than "here, type this memo and fax it to our corporate headquarters". And far more engaging than copy. swap. copy. swap. copy. swap. coallate. repeat.

But I'm still tired. Pooped. Short on time.

Tonight was drawing class too. I drew a goblet (read wine glass with water and a spoon in it). The base still doesn't feel right, but the rest doesn't look half bad. If I ever have time again, maybe I'll scan it. More likely I'll do something better before I actually find that kind of time...heh.

Anyway. More tomorrow maybe.

G'night!

Art Class...

This has been one of the busiest weeks I've had in a while, I think. And next week is only going to get busier. I guess over this next month we'll be seeing if I still have it in me to do the work/home/etc thing or if I've become far too attached to working in my PJs.

I suspect there will be more coffee.

Much more coffee.

Tonight I had class. It felt weird, going off to somewhere all by myself. I felt somewhat awkward, and a little bit guilty. I know I have no reason to feel guilty about leaving my son and husband to play together for one evening without me, but I still felt those pangs, as if I was being selfish or something.

But it was still fun. So nyah. Ya hear that guilt? Nyah!

Mostly work on shapes and shadows and a little beginnings on perception. And I've got a few more supplies I need, which gives me a great excuse to go to the art store! Yay!

Anyway, it's been a long day. I also got all three certifications today for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. I passed with flying colors, and they told me I should be proud of myself. The only trouble is, those three programs just come easily for me, and for some reason I have a hard time patting myself on the back for anything that comes easily. If I haven't worked hard to get it, it must not be well done? I scored more than enough to qualify, and I never did find time to bone up on them before I tested today. I had planned to, but then I was also competing with the 100% my husband managed to get on his PowerPoint certification test. In the overall scoring, he managed to beat me on all three, actually. Which is fair, since he was the "working spouse" for so long and used those programs daily and all. But I was still competing. Heh. I may not have beat him, but I do feel I held my own. I've got my certificates anyway.

On a final note, before I close on blogging for tonight, warm wishes/vibes/etc are being transmitted on a karmic level to "Griffin" (who commented here a while back, and is a friend of mine from long, long ago) who had a biopsy done on his knee today. I'm hoping it turns out that it will be a cinch to fix whatever nastiness has been causing problems for him. *virtual hugs*

More chit-chat another time though, my brain is fried today.

G'night!

Class & Shtick

Well, it's official. Today I signed up for an art class. No credit, just a "continuing education" class where I can learn stuff. Yipee! Drawing I, here I come! Well, okay - on the 26th anyway.

I also appear to have hit potential jackpot with the advisor I talked to over there today. I had an appointment, as the letter I got said I needed one. Once I got into the office with the advisor, however, we started chatting and I found out I actually needed to be one office over paying a fee and getting registered right off. But I did get a catalogue, in case I decide to take some credit classes as well at some point. Although credit classes there will cost a pretty penny, as I'm out-of-district, which apparently raises the price per credit hour by 3 times the in-district fee. Ouch.

I happened to get the advisor who was retired, but filling in for someone on vacation right now. By the end of our chat he'd given me his home phone number - no, silly! Not for a date or anything! - so I could get in touch with his wife who is in an art "guild" nearby. Basically, it sounds like a club that gets together and paints stuff - furniture, plates, whatever they enjoy. His wife teaches too, and I guess there's a lot of opportunity to learn new stuff. He also told me about a shop in a nearby town that has art classes as well. Great guy! I think I seriously lucked out! I didn't get a chance to call his wife this evening, as we were out for most of it, but I plan to try tomorrow sometime. We'll see what comes of it.

I'm so excited!

*bounce, bounce, bounce*

The other thing I've been really excited about lately is Quick Shtick Writing. I need to fix it so the older story is on a different page, in order, so that it's easier to follow the links on this one. I guess that's the next web redesign I'll be doing I guess, although not for a bit yet. The story we're on, however, is going much differently than the last one. We're writing a fantasy this time, and it seems to be following a slight horror/disaster theme too. There may even be potential to toss in a little romance as well, who knows.

We're writing more than a paragraph at a time during this one, and it often takes me about an hour to put my entry down each day. We're writing "segments", which gives us more leeway to follow through with a thought, instead of leaving things dangling about all the time. It's also helping us flesh out the characters more, I think. We are talking to eachother a bit more on this one, discussing possible things going on in characters' minds and events that could happen in the future of the story, but we're not setting anything in stone. The last completed paragraph, for example, introduced another character after we'd already thought we'd covered all our main ensemble cast. Stott, a fisherman's son, was needed to be introduced in order to give our townsfolk (and our readers) a preview of what's coming to their town. I'm afraid we put the poor guy through some relative hell in the process, however.

I'm still finding this back-and-forth style of writing to be a thrill. This story, we've agreed recently, has potential for re-edit and possible publication once it's finished. Unless it goes dramatically downhill at some point in the future, I think it has potential. Well, *I'd* read it, anyway. Although I do agree that it would need some editing before it would be ready to be sent out to publishers.

Man, this week is just chock full of blog material, but I don't want (nor have time to) write the inordinately long blogs to cover it all. It's interesting how one week can be dirt dry of anything to really say, and another can be too busy to take time to type it all up.

But, I'll get to more tomorrow maybe.

G'night!

Ed-joo-cay-shun

Yes, I now have reason to add an entirely new category. Because, sitting out in the mailbox is my application for one of the community colleges near me. I'm sending them a check for $25, non-refundable, and a filled-out form asking them to consider allowing me to pay them for some "continuing education" classes.

In other words, those night classes available for nits like me who don't give a damn if they're getting a degree (since I already have and A.A., and that's the best they could give me anyway), but just wanna learn stuff. I'm hoping to start taking a drawing class near the end of August.

They had a "credited" night class for Drawing I, but it occurred to me that I'm more likely to meet people my own age in a "continuing education" class. I hope so anyway.

So, tomorrow the mailman will come and take my nice white envelope away, and then maybe I'll get a response before the end of the month even. They don't even need transcripts if you're just taking non-credit stuff. Which is nice, since I don't know where my spare copies are. And I most certainly couldn't find my SAT/ACT scores if they wanted them, but there was mention on the application that they waive that for old people, like me.

Old? Pffft! Never!!!

Nonetheless, I still need my beauty sleep, and I want to have time for a wee bit of writing tonight as I didn't have time for any today, and likely won't tomorrow as it will be "errands day".

G'night!

Career Choices

I have this little problem... I can't seem to commit to a career choice. A while back I wrote about how my heart lies in the theater, and that's true, but it's becoming less and less of a viable choice for me.

More than ten years past graduating from high school and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I wish for immortality sometimes, so I could just pick one for now and try the others later if I want, but that isn't an option. Even if it was, I wouldn't want immortality alone.

Okay, so here's the list of some of the things I enjoy:

Theater
Writing
Business
Art
Music
Power Tools
Computers

You'll notice I don't mention my husband on the list. That's because he's one of the few things I've MADE a commitment to in my life. I married him, and that's a lifetime commitment, as well as a commitment for as long after as the universe will allow. He is my better half, my anchor, my miracle. He is my shining point of light in the sullen grayness of our universe. There's no question in my mind about that one.

But what to do about the rest of my life?

Let's go over the list in reverse....

Computers:
A hobby. Something I enjoy messing around with. I put my computer together from the plastic box on up, and enjoyed looking over motherboards and such online to choose the right one, but I don't have the desire to stay perfectly current on all the bits and gizmos that go inside a machine to make it a career. Programs come and go for me. I'll get interested in web design one month and then two months later it will be desktop themes. I'm not consistent enough in that regard to focus.

Power Tools:
Another hobby. I like to make stuff from time to time. The real problem with this one is that my geometry was incredibly bad in school and I doubt all my corners would line up to make stuff actually viable for sale. It's fine for me to build stuff as a home project and then fix it when it doesn't quite line up, but no company in their right mind would hire me to put something marketable together. I guess that also rules me out in the set-building aspect of the theater world too.

Music:
Can't read music. Plain and simple. Or, at least, I can't seem to transpose music onto an instrument. I took a piano class in college and my teacher was amazed that I could type so effortlessly but I couldn't seem to use that skill to turn sheet music into beautiful chords with the keys of the piano. The only reason I didn't fail the first class was that I memorized the piece and never looked at the music once during the final. The second class was one I dropped out of as it wasn't mandatory and I didn't want the failing grade to affect my GPA. I don't know if I can sing worth a damn - I sure belt it out when I'm alone in the car, but that doesn't mean I'm hitting the right notes, and nobody has really heard me sing to tell me if I am or not. I resign myself to my CD player and the enjoyment of the artistic creations of others for this category.

Art:
Love to paint. Problem is, I'm pretty sure I suck at it. It makes for a great hobby, and I can paint furniture okay I think, but I will most likely fall into that "starving artist" category pretty darn quick. Other art projects are also fun - sculpture, jewelry, etc. - but again, like with the computers, I'm inconsistent about what I'm currently interested in playing with. Makes for another nice hobby, but not a career.

Writing:
This is one of my consistencies. I do always come back to my writing eventually. I have stuff I wrote ages ago that I'm still keeping to come back to. Poetry and stories mostly. I have a children's book that I just need to finish revising and then send off to a publisher. I think I've just never had the confidence to pursue this as a career. I've always gotten good grades on what I've written in the past, as well as positive feedback from my peers when I've written stuff in classes. I guess I have always felt as if I needed some negative feedback so I'd know where I needed to improve, as I'm never sure that something is perfect enough to actually send out somewhere. I did have a poem published, although it's the kind of thing where you have to pay for a copy of the anthology it's included in.... Perhaps a college setting could help me in this one. It's a definite possibility.

Business:
I'd love to own my own business, but I don't think I'd want to study up on how to do it as I tend to disagree with how others are doing it everywhere I go. I'm a more creative person and I feel like this could be a more rigid environment than I'd like in the learning sense. I might pursue owning a business at some point, but I don't think I want to spend two to four years studying up on it first.

Theater:
Ahh... my poor aching heart. I often come back to the theater, but I don't remotely have the confidence in myself in a physical appearance aspect to compete with the billion other actresses out there trying to get jobs. There are other jobs within the theater career choices though. I've already ruled set construction out, but stage manager or something along those lines could be fun. The problem is - how many jobs are there out there for stage managers? I don't want to travel, as I'm about to settle down and start a family and all, and I loathe going into the city - which is where all the work will likely be. As much fun as this would be, I'm starting to realize that it's not a serious career choice for me.

Which brings me back to writing. With the option of someday owning and running a business - possibly my own theater - one day way off in the future after I've become a successful writer? Well it's a dream...

I just hope all my prior college credits transfer... I'd hate to have a geometry class ruin a potential writing career.