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Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.
-- Robert Frost
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Blog Posts for "my life"
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There's comes a point in every project where you're knee-deep into it and it seems like an ever-increasing amount of work and you know you have aspects of it yet to figure out and it's a bit daunting. But you keep putting one foot in front of the other. That's how a project comes to pass: one step at a time. And then there's my favorite part of the project: that part where things are really coming together and you begin to see it as it really is...  From that point forward, it gets fun and easy. Effortless, almost. A couple of months back, I mentioned that I was undertaking a secret project. A few people know about it, and it's been an evening and weekend effort, stuffed between time with my beautiful wife and the kids. Lots of imagination, scenarios, a few meetings, emails, coding, analysis, and - most importantly - optimism. I do a demo of it this week to my partners, and with their tweak requests and the last phase of coding, I'll have not much left but testing and previewing to customers - who've already expressed interest and want to see it. Nice when that happens before you even finish. Today, as I finish each two-hour shift of programming, I get up from the chair and bounce around the house, excited. I feel like I could stop bullets... I love this part of projects. |
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Our two boys are graduating this year. I went out tonight and took their senior pictures.   Nick's turned out well. I'm pleased with the results. Tyler's pictures showed more of his style. The next one isn't so much a senior picture as it is just a good picture.  And this:  His grass shots will probably be his senior pictures...    It was cool to do this with them. We might shoot some more later in a different light. |
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Painting will be sparse in the next month or two as I shift toward left-brained activity (hence, the more analytical, political posts these days... that and the campaign and congressional stupidity is too good to pass up...) I've signed on to do a super-secret project in my spare time and I'll be cooking on that for the next few months. I'll post up photos and highlight other artists in the interim.  |
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I "finished" with tags and stories. You can check it out here. I haven't tagged every post appropriately, but I will be. Just as I'm not done entering all of my favorite people, places, and things in the Thumbs Up section. Lots to do. I say "finished" above because all projects are never really done; you just find interesting places to pause. The one thing I want to do yet with tags is to set up RSS feeds for them. But it's nice to have them working now. The one page on the site not done at all is the Search page. Because beatcanvas is my own doing, I can set up search for both posts and for the comments made. I don't think other blogware allows for search of comments. But frankly, all of them should. I had lunch with a friend today and we discussed an idea that I gave him two years ago and more recently two months ago. He's the PR guy for a local business I know pretty well, and he gets it. He understands that the world is participatory. Businesses ignore these trends at their peril. But good for him and the company he represents that he is on the ball. |
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I broke in my new shoes with a long walk this evening, during which it drizzled and I witnessed the most spectacular rainbow. A full circle, it was, with a second rainbow begun on the outside of it.  I took this with my camera phone. It takes decent pictures, I think. Lots of thinking during my walk and a few phone calls. Nice to get out, and it was cool to be damp for it. Yesterday, I went to my friend's house (Tamara) and watered her tomatoes. One had even turned color.  Summer is wonderful. I love these images. As I spend my time on vacation this week just being at home, I'm using the time to retool. I'll know more when I come up for air, but some strong directions emerge. We'll see if life will allow me to go in those directions.  I'll drive where I'm allowed. Fun! Oh, and one other thing. Kelly turned me onto Matt's site the other day. You really must visit it, if just to watch the video. (Kay, are you reading? You would love this!) Not only is it infectious, but the song is amazing. I ordered the CD, which is by Deep Forest. It's out of print, but I managed to get it through Amazon. |
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This past week, we released the projects web site that I've spent the last two months building at Wells. There is still work to do, but the site has been very well received and surpassed the expectations of many who said that such a large web site could not be built in such a short time. Woo hoo! This past week also turned out to be my largest work week yet, but Nick and Aaron have now returned from their time with their Mom and with the project released, I'll be scaling back. It was fun, though... The work also brought me a job offer now officially made. That's flattering, but I may have a second offer in the next week and so I'm waiting to hear of that before deciding what to do. I'll definitely take one of the offers. Wells is a good company and I like the people and the environment. Lots of opportunity. Time to set in some roots. It's also time to set aside my developer hat. Programming is an occupation where I can create something new every day that I work, which makes it very exciting for me. I love that. I've been a programmer for 12 terrific years, and I'm good at it. But it's time to move into something else and grow myself in a different direction. For many reasons, I think now is exactly the right time for that to happen. So... this evening Austin and Jacob come on over to spend the night and we'll go romp around at a park tomorrow. Then Jacob gets to celebrate his birthday - twice in one week! - because Nick and Aaron weren't able to be here for the first party. Cub's in heaven about it already, I know. Bari is making him a cake of her own design (which she's good at). Life is returning to normal after a nutty summer of mostly work for me. Once again, I'm surrounded by my kids and working a regular week, grilling chicken on the patio, and looking forward to a bit of art. Oh, and Nick has informed me that he wants to learn to paint. Wonderful :) |
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I came to work this morning to find a huge box on my desk. I received this lamp/magnifying glass in the mail.  I wanted it for when I'm painting from a photo - better light, greater detail. I've plugged it in and the light is so clear it seems almost abnormal. But then I'm accustomed to the yellowing effect of "normal" indoor lighting. The magnifying lens has a nice sheath for it to protect it from scratches. The clip is quite strong. I picked that for mobility. Plus my drafting table in my bedroom can tilt, so a clip-on light will move with the angle of the surface. If you need to do detail work on your artwork or hand crafts, for $70 (that includes shipping), it's worth it. Good product. I think I'm going to use the light to restart my current painting. I want to paint bigger. I'll finish up the current effort as a simple 4x6 picture that I can frame and give to someone, and then work on a larger scale, like 8x10. |
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As I sit here listening to my newly downloaded Vivaldi (which reminds me of staring out into the misted rain from a wooden chair in an Oregon coffee shop long ago...) it's been a great day. And by the way, Vivaldi feels like perfect music for painting. I'll try Mozart out for that too. It's odd, because when I write, I usually listen to Peter Gabriel's Passion or some other ambient kind of music, but that doesn't seem to work for painting. I've been sugar-free since around May 17. The weight is just dropping off me. Check out these before-and-after pictures... the first one is taken in the fall of 2004, and the second one this evening.   And the only thing I changed was that I dropped sugar from my diet. So with full conviction I say that if watching SUPERSIZE ME meant anything to you, then read this $7 book, Sugar Blues. Or, read this link on the dangers of sugar. I received an email from someone earlier today who informed me about Splenda, also known as sucralose. "Tastes like sugar because it's made from sugar," as the ad campaign goes. You can read all about it, but here's a quote: Sucralose is chlorinated carbohydrate. It was initially believed that sucralose was entirely excreted after consumption. Because chlorinated compounds (such as DDT and other pesticides) may be stored in body fat, that Splenda was not absorbed initially diminished these health concerns. But the FDA determined that up to about 27% of sucralose can be absorbed by the body. Thus, this new information ignited concern over the dangers of elevated chlorine levels in the body. They add chlorine to sugar, and this synthesized sweetener is in part absorbed by your body. Is chlorine good for you? Not at all. Keep in mind that there are no long term studies on humans to discern the effect of sucralose on the body/mind. I'm steering clear of it. I'll eat grapes.Took the day off and ran all over Des Moines to get stuff done that had been long neglected by me. Among many things, I bought new paintbrushes at The Art Store, took my glasses to get new lenses at LensCrafters ($240 just for lenses!! Yikes!), and biked to a board meeting for the software company I started back in 2002. The company is almost completely dead now, but I may get one last check for about $1,000 out of it. If so, I'll use the money to spend on a new bike, I think. Today, I had to run to the bike shop to get a new spoke, which is the second time I've had to do that in the last month. And the steed is looking raggedy anyway... My bike choice? Gary Fisher's Big Sur.  I know it doesn't look like much, but it's a solid fat tire bike and I'd load it up with a rear wheel rack so that I could carry around my new painting sketchbox, which I ordered and bought for myself in the last two weeks.  I also got the tripod for it. Sweet! So, off to la-la land and then tomorrow, painting, with classical aural wallpaper. |
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