May 2023

I guess this is a yearly blog. Here's some things I have recently done:

1. I found 55 3.5 inch floppy disks while I was cleaning a closet. Lifted content off 51 of them using my 2009 MacBook Pro and LibreOffice.  1 was unreadable, and 3 went to RetroFloppy. RetroFloppy did a great job. I was hoping for old writing of mine, but most was about when I was an active Civil War reenactor in the early 90s (secretary, database of participants, research). I sent it to a friend who is still doing that. 

2. Am currently scanning 101 drawings into my computer, for use in the webcomic I've been planning for years.

3. Underpainted a ceramic cat that is to take the place of the Cami and Bear ceramic banks. I was unable to find the originals or repair them. The new one is going to be Cami and is much more realistic and not a bank. When I'm ready the next one will be fired, and I will paint it to look like Bear.

4. I am still writing my final manuscript and am about 1/3 done. I need to edit the timeline a bit. Some of my "cut to new scene" are out of sync, if I can use a film analogy to the printed word. I've also started using (again) a software called WriteRoom. It's very no frills, but does format well to Pages or MS Word. The screen looks like an old green lettered computer...has other "focused" formats, too. I like it because the distractions are gone. I listen to YouTube with one open window and use WriteRoom with another, if I'm on my iMac. I can partially cover any chat or distractions with the open WriteRoom window.

That's not a lot. Since Queen of Everything Chyna cat doesn't do much housework, I do it all myself. She is a specialist at purring and snuggling, and sometimes, unfortunately nipping and yowling. Yesterday, she turned 16. Never found out what the mass on her stomach is (she wouldn't do well in surgery), so I give her medication hoping and praying for the best. She has gained her weight back over the last 2 years.

 

 January 8, 2022

I won't talk much about the last two years, the news is full of stuff about it. The only relevance to this blog is that things s l o w e d down. I can't blame it all on the you-know-what. 

I had two surgeries, left shoulder (August 2019) and left hand middle trigger finger (October 2019). I think an old blog, right before I graduated Columbia College Chicago may have foreshadowed this. If I reached 190 frames of animation, my right hand swelled up. Less than 8 minutes @24 fps. 

I found out in March my cat Chyna has a tumor on her pancreas, most likely cancer. Being 14, and having trouble with her dental anesthetic, I've decided to do what I can without further surgery (biopsy). She's doing really well 10 months later on daily meds. She's very bonded to me, but also sharing love with anyone who has visited. Or owning everyone who enters, just like the Queen of Everything should.

Ok, then. I can't complain compared to what most of my friends and family have endured. I did get pretty lazy about stuff. I don't have TV in the apartment but the internet stuff began taking too much of my time; you know, the brainless stuff. There are small diversions and there is wasting time, and the fine line between the two.

I did read all seven Bookmobile Cat books by Laurie Cass and Hollywood Spy by Susan Ella MacNeal. I think about 7K pages in all, probably a record for me, in less than 3 months.

I did buy a TerraTrike (no spaces) tadpole recumbent*with a Bosch pedal assist (e bike) in October, because the you-know-what caused shipping and  manufacturing delays. The bike folds and fits into my Little Old Toyota Yaris. Nice! I only had one chance to ride it in the parking lot, before wind, rain, cold, and weather stuff had me bring it inside. Now, I'm trying to get it rigged to a SportCrafter roller so it will be a stationary bike for the winter. Leveling the trike seems to be a problem. I can't think of any apartment I've lived in that was level. I had an upstairs room in LaCrosse, which was tilted such that a person was closer to the ceiling on the west side and farther away on the east!

I still draw. I'm being drawn (is that a pun?) to do more pencil and paper than digital. I bought a bunch of colored pencils and use Copic Markers with them. I use my iPad much more than my Cintiq. Animation teaches a person to sketch "loose" and using layers for "clean line" is good for this. Like typing, the idea I can move, erase, and revise without destroying anything like paper, is good practice. 

Moving forward, and I hope all of you are, too.

*recumbent trike: a three wheeled bike with a "lounge chair like" seat.  I could no longer balance to get a two wheeler moving. My BikeE was a recumbent but had two wheels. With the trike, I can just "walk back" around the pedals and sit. Trikes can be "deltas" like the trikes most of us had as kids (triangle shaped 1 front wheel and 2 rear wheels) and "tadpoles" (2 front wheels and 1 rear wheel). My friend Cindy explained that a tadpole has a big head and a tail, (for some reason I couldn't picture it before) and added, "And you needed a blind friend to tell you this?"