Small Update

It's been a fun day spent with family and good food. An interesting way to get to know a new person is to play the game Would You Rather and listen to their response. One of my husband's cousin's introduced her boyfriends & thankfully he is a game player with good answers.

Hope everyone remembered to set their clock back last night. We did so there is no funny story about showing up anywhere an hour early!

RED

My husband and I got to have a date day of sorts. We started with a matinee movie with 1 free ticket & a free small popcorn. Who doesn't love free? We added 1 ticket & 1 large cherry coke to share.

We chose to go see RED with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Mary-Louise Parker & Helen Mirren. All the way around a fantastic cast! it's an action comedy with lots of loud shooting & very little language. Honestly, its says its rated PG-13 for action violence & brief strong languages but neither my husband or i remember there being any language. Now, it could be stated that we watch R rated that are heavy in language and in comparison it just didn't register on our radar. Either way it's a very fun movie - not a constant laugh out loud but i chuckled a lot.

Type Collection

I've been collecting wood and lead type for about two years now. Currently they're just a collection and haven't performed anything functional. I do have grand plans for some of the wood type but we'll see if i have the nerve to use them this winter.

Brought to You by the Word ON

I got lost today in the world of YouTube. Best thing I found was Grover from Sesame Street performing a spoof of the Old Spice commercial. Both are funny entertainment!

The Artist Way

I've joined a group of other creative people that are reading through The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. We meet on Wednesdays to discuss that weeks chapter. I've read this book on my own before but i didn't do anything she suggested. No morning pages, artist dates or writing out the tasks at the end of the chapters. This time around i'm gaining much more incite actually participating in the full lesson. I'm not doing it perfectly, i have yet to complete a 7 out of 7 days of morning pages, i've forgotten to do an artist date 2 out of the 3 weeks and thought about the task questions but not written the answers. At least with the group accountability I'm feeling more committed to the whole process of becoming an unblocked artist.

Reading Summer 2010

When a bibliophile is thrown into long empty days*, they can easily be filled with crimes, detectives, the fanciful and the undead.

Bookshelf: Read

Violetkey's favorite books »

Start of November

Let see how much writing i can get done this month. I'm participating in National November Writing Month & National Blog Posting Month. Good luck to everyone participating!

one post down 29 more to go

Redesign

Right so, apparently i still have a blog. This is kinda a test post to see what its like to have an image and a "read more" text. I don't think blogger supports thumbnails with short posts. Not sure how i feel about that considering i keep going between blogger & wordpress. Wordpress supports posts with thumbnails. So, don't mind me as I test.

Home again, home again...

It was a delightful 2 days at the beach. Came back with a light sun burn even. The bad news is we think that the old fuji digital SLR i've been using for a few months has kicked the bucket. We load the batteries but an ERR flashes on the display screen. At least i still have a decent point & shoot until we can figure out if the fuji really is dead.

Friday Beach Day

It was a beautful & sunny drive leaving Portland. The good weather continued all the way to the coast.

We arrived early evening to the hotel & I enjoyed a little relaxation. Its a new hotel for us & so far really enjoying it.

Had a nice long walk on the beach after dinner. Enjoyed dessert with the sunset. We have a great ocean view from our balcany as long as we don't look down at the roof of the hotel's pool room.

This is a great continuation of my birthday celebration.

(All photos are from my phone which isn't the best)

27

Sister's text message to me:  "27, right?"

Me: "Yep. Weird huh?

Sister: "Very"

That pretty much sums up how i'm feeling about turning 27, very close to 30. Thirty feels a little bit like a looming deadline but for what i'm not exactly sure.

Tonight I saw How To Train Your Dragon in 3D - it was very good all the way around. Enjoyed the plot, the way they dragons were designed, the voice acting, the 3D treatment. Highly recommended.

I'm off to the beach for the next few days. The dogs are going with us but we have little dogie sedatives for Z who is a crazy ball of anxiety in the car. She is so filled with anxiety the drugs don't even make her sleep but at least make it tolerable for her to sit there and not fight against her dog seat belt or whine & bark the whole 3 hour trip. We're bringing raw hide and treats & her favorite ball to play with on the beach to make up for the car ride.

Uplifting Advice

Something I was given to think about:

Why not me? Why shouldn't I be the one to claim a fulfilling life? Why can't a miracle happen to me? Because honestly it can be, i can have a fulfilling life & a miracle can happen.

This is my update of what happened yesterday

Yesterday was Tuesday as you probably know. I was able to spend a few hours tutoring a friend on the finer points of how to use Photoshop. Overall that was very successful, i was able to explain tools & processes and he was able to reiterate back to me in his own words what i just said, proving that it made sense. This also was a good experience for me to know that in the future i could offer services as a tutor. This has gone down on my long list of: Possible Ways to Make Money

First Day of the First Full Week

Monday was a product first day:

- Went to the gym for the first time in about a year. I was shocked at how busy it was at 9am but thinned out by 10. I figure i'll go at various time to see which options are the best.

- Did the dishes when I realized i need a clean coffee pot and there were dishes in my way. Plus, i had the realization i had nothing more urgent to do than clean the kitchen.

- Figured out exactly what i'm eligible to do or not do while collecting unemployment. I'm encouraged that they allow you to earn some income and still collect (of course there are rules about how much i can collect etc.). I was further encouraged when i talked to a woman who recently was on unemployment and how easy it was to go to a building to talk to real people about training classes, resume reviews and more. 


Yea for productivity!

Pretty View

Lovely view of Mt. Hood that I can easily see by looking up ;-)

Look Up

 
The theme for May at NaBloPoMo is Look Up and i've chosen to participate this month. It is an apt theme for me because on Thursday I got laid off from my job of 3.5 years. There is nothing like being pushed out of a comfort zone to re-exam what i want to be doing. This was the end of my first traditional 8-5, cubical farm, with benefits & 401K job after college and so I imagine I can only go up from here.

With it only being about 60 hours since i got the news the most enlightening thought i've had is that; this is the most free time I've had since childhood. Especially considering the past 9 years has included a combination of college (year round), homework and work (worked part-time in school & then full after.) I know I will spend a fair amount of time looking for a new job but i'm pretty excited about having time & energy for some personal projects that have been stewing away for ages.

If you're participating in NaBloPoMo for May let me know, i'll come visit.

Cirque du Soleil

Yup, I want to go see Kooza the Cirque du Soleil show here in Portland. Its good timing, I can ask for it as a birthday present. If you want to watch a promo video: click.

Time-lapse

Steampunk fashion has come to my attention over the past couple of months. Personally, I think it's a great combination of Victorian fashion and industrial and scientific bits.

This is an impressive time-lapse of a 6 hour book cover design using a steampunk theme. I'm now interested in reading the books by Gail Carriger.



I original found this from the Bookliciousblog (all about books) and the original article from Orbits Books here.

From the Orbits article i found the Clockwork Couture "a fine steampunk clother". I've found a few pieces of jewelry I'd like owning. Plus, this blouse is beautiful!

photo from: Clockwise Couture

Polaroid coming back!

Thru a series of links from twitter i some how landed on this article from Photography Bay about how Polaroid is releasing a new under $100 dollar camera this year! Exciting news for anyone who missed the Polaroid era but wants in on it now.
Polaroid PIC 1000 � Photography Bay | Digital Camera Reviews, News and Resources

An alternative, immediate purchase could be the Fuji Instax Mini Instant Camera which has these tiny 5x5x2.5 inch size photos!

Photo credit: Photojojo.com 

I pretty much want both. 

I used to play Board and Card Games as a kid

Connect Four
I remember playing this a lot with my brother and my dad.

Checkers
I'd play this alot with my sister, who is older and i'd get upset when she'd beat me - which was a lot.

Clue for Kids
This was one of my favorite games to play with my best friend. I'm still very fond of the adult version.

Hungry Hungry Hippos
Fun times trying to get those little white marbles!

Uno
This was played with just about anyone in the family that agreed to it.

Audrey Niffenegger's Follow Up Book {Her Fearful Symmetry}

Somehow i missed the debut of Adurey's second book release after The Time Traveler's Wife. I loved TTTW, read it three times and that is rare for me to do. Thought i'd pass along the news in case anyone else hadn't realized the release of Her Fearful Symmetry.

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