This and that...and the other thing...
Jul. 22nd, 2024 08:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatThe frustrating thing about drawing? Is sometimes I can do it, and sometimes I can't. It's a funky talent. In order to draw something I have to be able to clearly visualize it and use the correct medium and be in the right headspace, or its just crap.
I'm an intuitive an artist - this means I can't create on demand all that well. Frustrating. Also kind of gets in the way of being a commercial artist.
I was trying to draw a fairy today and couldn't do it. Of course I was at work and I was doing it with a pen in a lined journal - which poses all sorts of issues.
I need something to ground it off of - I think.
Found a few pictures of ceramic fairies on Amazon that may work? I'm considering buying the figurines. The 3D aspect may help me.
On the plus side? I've written about twenty pages by hand of my new story - which is currently being told in journal format. I'm hand writing it in a journal. The internet is distracting me. And I'm less self-conscious hand-writing it for some reason or other.
***
In other news? I don't know about anyone else? But I'm thrilled with Kamala Harris as the Democratic Candidate. She's actually the candidate I voted for in the 2020 primaries or wanted to. I did my research and she checked all my boxes, and in my opinion fit what I wanted in a President of the United States.
I can't talk about this past that.
***
Paris Olympics starts this weekend, and several new sports have been added:
* Break Dancing
* Skate Boarding (I thought it was already there?)
* Sport Climbing (this is basically climbing artificial rock walls?)[In bouldering, athletes have limited time to climb 4.5m high walls without ropes in the fewest attempts possible. Speed is a one-on-one elimination round race against the clock. In the lead event, athletes are tasked with climbing as high as possible on a wall over 15m high in 6 minutes.] - also premiered at the Tokyo Games (because I remember watching it.)
* Surfing (which was kind of already there?) Surfing is back at the Olympics, but you won't see any surfers hanging out in the Olympic village. The surfing competitions will take place nowhere near Paris or anywhere else in France. The Olympic surfers will be catching waves more than 9,000 miles away from Paris in Tahiti in French Polynesia. The surfing competitions begin on July 27, and the medal events are scheduled for July 30.
*3x3 basketball
Not all basketball is played at full court, as proven by the 3x3 basketball competition that was first played four years ago in Tokyo. Former BYU star Jimmer Fredette leads the men's US squad, who will be looking for its first 3x3 half-court gold after failing to qualify for the Tokyo games. Meanwhile, the women's team will look to repeat at gold medal champions. The 3x3 competitions start on July 30 with men's and women's finals set for Aug. 5 at Place de La Concorde.
* Kayak cross
In kayak cross, four kayakers will race against one another as they navigate six downstream gates and two upstream gates. It'll be the first time in canoe slalom in which athletes race against each other instead of just the clock. I'd have to imagine whacking your opponents with your paddle is against the rules.
Go here for more. And it's complicated now to watch it, unless you have a subscription to Peacock.
They've added Men's Artistic Swimming and Women's Boxing to the categories as well.
I may just cave and get a subscription to Peacock. There's other things to watch on it. And cancel Max, which is more expensive.
It starts July 26 and runs through August 11, I think. I like the Olympics. It's actually the only Spectator Sport that I do enjoy - mainly because it features sports that I enjoy watching - such as swimming, diving, break dancing, climbing, artistic swimming, gymnastics, track and field, surfing, rowing, kayaking, skate boarding, cycling.
I'm not really a fan of the "ball" games or "ball" sports. I don't understand the appeal of a sport where a ball is fired at you out of nowhere. Possibly being hit by them has something to do with this? And spatial perception issues? But 90% of our year-round spectator sports are basically ball games.
****
I've joined Stich - now I need to get up the guts to participate in it. Prior to actually paying for it.
I'm trying out new social groups - to meet folks. I'm looking for companionship, not romance. If romance should happen? Fine. But I'm not looking specifically for it - too frigging stressful. I just want friends to do stuff with.
***
Books
* Decided to loan "Dreadful" to sci-fi cowker, who informed me that he'd let me loan it to him, on the condition that he could return it to me. Which is fine. I have various places that I can deposit books. Little Libraries, and my Basement Library.
* PenPal - this is a creepy horror story that was started on Reddit and finally tightened up and published. My only quibble at the moment with it - is the premise? Or set up? A kindgergarten teacher has each kid in the class write a letter, with their address, enclosing a picture of themselves and a dollar to pay for stamps. They are to put it in an envelope, attach it to a balloon and send it off into the wide blue yonder or the surrounding area. With the view that someone will find it and write back enclosing a picture of where they live. Each picture will be collected and put on a map. This will help foster community building and connect the kids to the broader community.
Okay, I don't know? But I honestly can't imagine any teacher or school for that matter allowing that? Or the parents going along with it? I certainly wouldn't. I'd point out to the teacher - that anyone could get that information.
So I'm wondering if this the writer's metaphor for the internet and various children's relationship to it? In a way - we are all sending messages out by balloons, albeit not with all our personal attention attached, well not always.
The horror story is psychological - and by recollection of an adult of a child's memories, and his mother's. It's vague in places, and very much from a small child's perspective, which makes it far creepier than it might have been from an adult perspective? Interesting narrative style and highly affective.
* Battleground by Jim Butcher - this is book 17 in Butcher's Dresden Files. Audiobook. And damn, there's a lot of fight scenes with monsters. I find fight scenes kind of boring in books. They are - let's face it - a visual thing? Kind of like sex scenes. After a while it gets repetitive. There's only so many ways you can fight something - regardless of what it is.
This book is dragging. Harry is basically an incredibly powerful Wizard at this point, and fighting his way across Chicago - fighting everything from evil Giants, to insane fish monsters. With monsters from fairy land assisting. And most of his spells involve fire or blasting things, or he fires a gun. After a bit, I lose interest.
I prefer the books that focus on solving a puzzle or mystery, or are more character/relationship focused. If I wanted battle sequences? I'd be playing a video game. (And no.) I've never been a fan of reading or watching battles. It was my problem with Game of Thrones as well. I find battles boring and kind of frustratingly painful. I'd rather watch a foot ball game.
That said, it still has characters I enjoy, and I like the noirish underpinings. Harry is getting further entangled with Queen Mab - the Queen of Winter, along with his apprentice Molly. And he has some serious issues that may or may not be resolved with the battle. Surviving is the least of his worries at this point.
***
Smartwatch is doing a fantastic job of monitoring my sleep and fitness.
Better than the phone did.
From it - I was able to ascertain that I do not have sleep apnea. I slept 6 hrs and 37 minutes.REM was 1 hr. 27 minutes, Core 4 hours 27 minutes, Deep 43 minutes, Awake 11 minutes. Not bad. Apparently I awoke intermittently after deep.
Exercise/Fitness? I walked 3.51 miles today, burned 696 calories, Exercised for 36 minutes, Steps 6,743, 6 flights climbed.
Also tracks my heart rate, but alas, not my blood pressure. Nor can I sync it without the blood sugar sensor. But other than that? It's cool. It tells me the weather, the time, the date, the temperature, my heart rate, activity, and monitors my sleep. Plus connects to all my phone apps. And gave me instant alerts on transit - so I was able to change my commute and take the Q from Atlantic Avenue Station as opposed to being delayed waiting for the G.
Liking this new toy. Still figuring out the other one. (Weird, I expected it to be the opposite - but what do I know?)
Off to bed, I think - maybe read for a bit. I want to get to bed earlier, so I can hit my goal of 8 hours of sleep each night.
I'm an intuitive an artist - this means I can't create on demand all that well. Frustrating. Also kind of gets in the way of being a commercial artist.
I was trying to draw a fairy today and couldn't do it. Of course I was at work and I was doing it with a pen in a lined journal - which poses all sorts of issues.
I need something to ground it off of - I think.
Found a few pictures of ceramic fairies on Amazon that may work? I'm considering buying the figurines. The 3D aspect may help me.
On the plus side? I've written about twenty pages by hand of my new story - which is currently being told in journal format. I'm hand writing it in a journal. The internet is distracting me. And I'm less self-conscious hand-writing it for some reason or other.
***
In other news? I don't know about anyone else? But I'm thrilled with Kamala Harris as the Democratic Candidate. She's actually the candidate I voted for in the 2020 primaries or wanted to. I did my research and she checked all my boxes, and in my opinion fit what I wanted in a President of the United States.
I can't talk about this past that.
***
Paris Olympics starts this weekend, and several new sports have been added:
* Break Dancing
* Skate Boarding (I thought it was already there?)
* Sport Climbing (this is basically climbing artificial rock walls?)[In bouldering, athletes have limited time to climb 4.5m high walls without ropes in the fewest attempts possible. Speed is a one-on-one elimination round race against the clock. In the lead event, athletes are tasked with climbing as high as possible on a wall over 15m high in 6 minutes.] - also premiered at the Tokyo Games (because I remember watching it.)
* Surfing (which was kind of already there?) Surfing is back at the Olympics, but you won't see any surfers hanging out in the Olympic village. The surfing competitions will take place nowhere near Paris or anywhere else in France. The Olympic surfers will be catching waves more than 9,000 miles away from Paris in Tahiti in French Polynesia. The surfing competitions begin on July 27, and the medal events are scheduled for July 30.
*3x3 basketball
Not all basketball is played at full court, as proven by the 3x3 basketball competition that was first played four years ago in Tokyo. Former BYU star Jimmer Fredette leads the men's US squad, who will be looking for its first 3x3 half-court gold after failing to qualify for the Tokyo games. Meanwhile, the women's team will look to repeat at gold medal champions. The 3x3 competitions start on July 30 with men's and women's finals set for Aug. 5 at Place de La Concorde.
* Kayak cross
In kayak cross, four kayakers will race against one another as they navigate six downstream gates and two upstream gates. It'll be the first time in canoe slalom in which athletes race against each other instead of just the clock. I'd have to imagine whacking your opponents with your paddle is against the rules.
Go here for more. And it's complicated now to watch it, unless you have a subscription to Peacock.
They've added Men's Artistic Swimming and Women's Boxing to the categories as well.
I may just cave and get a subscription to Peacock. There's other things to watch on it. And cancel Max, which is more expensive.
It starts July 26 and runs through August 11, I think. I like the Olympics. It's actually the only Spectator Sport that I do enjoy - mainly because it features sports that I enjoy watching - such as swimming, diving, break dancing, climbing, artistic swimming, gymnastics, track and field, surfing, rowing, kayaking, skate boarding, cycling.
I'm not really a fan of the "ball" games or "ball" sports. I don't understand the appeal of a sport where a ball is fired at you out of nowhere. Possibly being hit by them has something to do with this? And spatial perception issues? But 90% of our year-round spectator sports are basically ball games.
****
I've joined Stich - now I need to get up the guts to participate in it. Prior to actually paying for it.
I'm trying out new social groups - to meet folks. I'm looking for companionship, not romance. If romance should happen? Fine. But I'm not looking specifically for it - too frigging stressful. I just want friends to do stuff with.
***
Books
* Decided to loan "Dreadful" to sci-fi cowker, who informed me that he'd let me loan it to him, on the condition that he could return it to me. Which is fine. I have various places that I can deposit books. Little Libraries, and my Basement Library.
* PenPal - this is a creepy horror story that was started on Reddit and finally tightened up and published. My only quibble at the moment with it - is the premise? Or set up? A kindgergarten teacher has each kid in the class write a letter, with their address, enclosing a picture of themselves and a dollar to pay for stamps. They are to put it in an envelope, attach it to a balloon and send it off into the wide blue yonder or the surrounding area. With the view that someone will find it and write back enclosing a picture of where they live. Each picture will be collected and put on a map. This will help foster community building and connect the kids to the broader community.
Okay, I don't know? But I honestly can't imagine any teacher or school for that matter allowing that? Or the parents going along with it? I certainly wouldn't. I'd point out to the teacher - that anyone could get that information.
So I'm wondering if this the writer's metaphor for the internet and various children's relationship to it? In a way - we are all sending messages out by balloons, albeit not with all our personal attention attached, well not always.
The horror story is psychological - and by recollection of an adult of a child's memories, and his mother's. It's vague in places, and very much from a small child's perspective, which makes it far creepier than it might have been from an adult perspective? Interesting narrative style and highly affective.
* Battleground by Jim Butcher - this is book 17 in Butcher's Dresden Files. Audiobook. And damn, there's a lot of fight scenes with monsters. I find fight scenes kind of boring in books. They are - let's face it - a visual thing? Kind of like sex scenes. After a while it gets repetitive. There's only so many ways you can fight something - regardless of what it is.
This book is dragging. Harry is basically an incredibly powerful Wizard at this point, and fighting his way across Chicago - fighting everything from evil Giants, to insane fish monsters. With monsters from fairy land assisting. And most of his spells involve fire or blasting things, or he fires a gun. After a bit, I lose interest.
I prefer the books that focus on solving a puzzle or mystery, or are more character/relationship focused. If I wanted battle sequences? I'd be playing a video game. (And no.) I've never been a fan of reading or watching battles. It was my problem with Game of Thrones as well. I find battles boring and kind of frustratingly painful. I'd rather watch a foot ball game.
That said, it still has characters I enjoy, and I like the noirish underpinings. Harry is getting further entangled with Queen Mab - the Queen of Winter, along with his apprentice Molly. And he has some serious issues that may or may not be resolved with the battle. Surviving is the least of his worries at this point.
***
Smartwatch is doing a fantastic job of monitoring my sleep and fitness.
Better than the phone did.
From it - I was able to ascertain that I do not have sleep apnea. I slept 6 hrs and 37 minutes.REM was 1 hr. 27 minutes, Core 4 hours 27 minutes, Deep 43 minutes, Awake 11 minutes. Not bad. Apparently I awoke intermittently after deep.
Exercise/Fitness? I walked 3.51 miles today, burned 696 calories, Exercised for 36 minutes, Steps 6,743, 6 flights climbed.
Also tracks my heart rate, but alas, not my blood pressure. Nor can I sync it without the blood sugar sensor. But other than that? It's cool. It tells me the weather, the time, the date, the temperature, my heart rate, activity, and monitors my sleep. Plus connects to all my phone apps. And gave me instant alerts on transit - so I was able to change my commute and take the Q from Atlantic Avenue Station as opposed to being delayed waiting for the G.
Liking this new toy. Still figuring out the other one. (Weird, I expected it to be the opposite - but what do I know?)
Off to bed, I think - maybe read for a bit. I want to get to bed earlier, so I can hit my goal of 8 hours of sleep each night.
no subject
Date: 2024-07-24 02:14 pm (UTC)Except for a few events that I'll be watching on NBC, I'll be watching most of them through the NBC Sports app. We keep ultra-basic cable because we get cable/landline/internet as a package (and we need the landline because we have to fax things to government offices), and that lets me access the NBC Sports app. Otherwise I'd be signing up for Peacock too.
no subject
Date: 2024-07-24 05:02 pm (UTC)Update
Date: 2024-07-24 10:04 pm (UTC)Re: Update
Date: 2024-07-26 04:04 am (UTC)Re: Update
Date: 2024-07-26 01:39 pm (UTC)Re: Update
Date: 2024-07-27 03:37 pm (UTC)I may subscribe to Peacock to get around the commercials, then unscribe in a few weeks, also ditch MAX. But truth is I can only watch so many of the events anyhow - I have a job, and should probably do other things. There's so many.
I want to watch gymnastics, diving, swimming, track/field, skating, surfing, rowing, and break dancing. Rowing may be difficult to grab. But it is the one I'm least interested in. Also speed cycling.
Re: Update
Date: 2024-07-27 03:44 pm (UTC)Re: Update
Date: 2024-07-27 04:47 pm (UTC)Apparently the three channels are NBC, USA and E!. Fencing is on USA.
I agree about beach volleyball - NBC's programming folks seem to love it. It's on USA, NBC and E!
That and water polo. I'm not a fan of the ball sports. I don't watch them normally.
I've just been recording for today - and I already feel overwhelmed. Mother got the ping-pong ball, which I couldn't find.
Re: Update
Date: 2024-07-29 02:06 am (UTC)