Monday Gloomy
03.31.08 (5:05 pm) [edit]It's a grey and rainy Monday. I'm taking advantage of this weather to spend the day watching movies in bed.
I watched Flushed Away, a British animated movie. It was excellent...MUCH better than anything Disney's made in ages. Maybe if Disney wasn't so melodramatic with all their productions people would enjoy them more. Flushed Away was a cute story and it wasn't overblown and didn't try to convey some deep moral like Disney is always pretending to do. Ultimately it was a movie that I would recommend for kids and adults alike...very cute. I love the way the Brits make light of the French in one scene. There's all these French Frogs and the leader says "It is time for ACTION!" and all his subordinates yell "We surrender!" and throw their guns down...to which the leader says "Not THAT action!"...very cute. At another point a French frog says "I am French, I find everyone's pain funny except my own!"
I like a good French joke. My dad is French! :)
Anyway, now I'm going to put on "Wild Hogs"...it was one my husband wanted to see, and I'm not as keen on. It may be funny but I suspect it will be too formulaic for me to enjoy. We'll see.
Anyway, spending a day in bed watching movies ROCKS. I forget I'm sick and feel like I'm playing hookey from work!
On the job front, my husband is probably going to take a job that would give him a small taste of what it would be like to be a sales engineer. He's going to do a two month stint in Australia for his work and if I can manage okay with him gone we'll consider the Texas thing. Basically he wants to see that the money is worth the separation from me. He doesn't actually feel that any money is worth being away from me...which is nice, but we both agree he should try it because IF we can manage it for a few years he could really cash in...which would mean we could finally buy that dream home with acres and acres of land and he could then retire early.
Hey if we lived in Texas we could open a large wolf sanctuary. Plus we could weekend in New Orleans if we wanted. Of course that's all "if" it works out. I'd have to come back to Canada for doctor appointments and prescription refills, which would suck. We'd have to maintain a residence in Canada too so I could remain a Canadian for the purposes of income taxes and health care. It is entirely possible that if my husband takes this job that he could be given an opportunity to become a dual citizen of Canada and the US so that he could eventually get the correct level of security clearance to be on sensitive sites. That would be pretty much a dream come true for him...not to be American but to get to finally see all the sites he has been so interested in for his whole life. He's truly a geek. :)
Anyway, that's all pipe dreams right now...he's going to try this Australia thing and see how it goes. It will hopefully be sometime in June or July. If that works out we'll go from there.
Don't Mess with Canada
03.28.08 (5:14 pm) [edit]My husband is very technically savvy. He works with some pretty crazy high-tech computer stuff. He's naturally gifted with this stuff. I met him working at a computer company, but my technical prowess is nowhere NEAR what his is. I am reasonably technical but I never had a computer as a kid and I never really was comfortable with hardware. My husband is a true geek...a technical guru if you will.
The company where my husband works (and where I used to work before I became disabled with MS) is an American company. It's incorporated in the US but has 90% of its offices and staff in Canada. However, in order to be an American corporation, the company had to incorporate in the US...and must maintain a US home office. So they do...in Texas. The home office is also where the sales people work from. The sales engineers are extremely technical but they are also sales people and earn a considerable salary PLUS a considerable commission.
My husband has resisted becoming a sales engineer because he has not wanted to travel but his bosses are now encouraging him to become a sales engineer to move his career forward. Basically his boss said that he's a very valuable employee and they're afraid they're going to lose him (because my husband is stagnating and looking for new jobs elsewhere). So to "allow" them to give him the money they feel he is worth, they want to CALL him a sales engineer but keep him as a sort of technical guru who can go onsite to the customers and not only sell but also fix (when necessary) any major deals or problems.
My husband has the unusual gift of being both technical but still socially apt. He can "shmooze" but also knows everything there is to know inside and out about the software and hardware that the company puts together for their customers. As a result he is actually PERFECT for a sales engineer role but has resisted because he didn't want the word "sales" on his resume. He would rather remain "technical".
So today, because my husband didn't express a lot of interest in moving to the home office in Texas, they are now offering him a new option...he may be able to work from Canada and get away with occasional travel in Texas or at worst, having a bachelor pad there and having to stay over maybe for a week or so every couple of months. More likely he would just telecommute from Canada and only go to Texas when he had to. Of course he'd still be travelling a lot of the time but it would mean that the dog and I could stay where we are. I personally don't really want to move to Texas because I don't know anyone there. I'd be at home alone with my husband travelling all over the US. That would stink....but if I could stay here...well, that's a whole new offer as far as my husband is concerned.
I hope he takes the new job and triples his salary or more. It would be really nice to see him get what he so much deserves and have a job that is interesting and exciting. It would also be nice for us to have some extra money to fix up the house, get a new vehicle and support my budding tattoo career! :)
Skinny Barbie
03.27.08 (7:03 pm) [edit]What's with all the celebrities getting breast implants? For another matter, why do they think they need to be so skinny? It's crazy looking. There's all these skin and bones actresses with HUGE boobs. I personally think that breast implants only look good when they are put in behind the pectoral muscle...a la Catherine Zeta Jones. When they are placed in front, they look like inflated balloons...a la Jenna Jameson. The whole thing is ridiculous though.
We're heading towards this ridiculous beauty standard that is actually more amusing than desirable. I mean nobody wants to be that skinny...well, nobody who is mentally balanced does.
I think the problem with Hollywood is that we only see the beauty. We don't see nearly enough of the aging. I think that as we see more and more stars who started out "beautiful" turn into hideous freaks because of their surgeries, the more we can begin to realize that there is no fighting the aging process and the most dignified thing to do is accept it and take care of yourself in the process. I mean think about it, when was the last time you saw Burt Reynolds or Loni Anderson in the full light of day...or for that matter, Elizabeth Taylor? As these stars age, their plastic surgeries cause them to ultimately look like carachatures of their former selves. It's actually really sad. They would look better as old people if they just aged properly, but after being stretched and snipped and moulded, they just look really bad...like some crazy cosmetics experiment gone horribly wrong.
I think that if we saw more and more of the aging of Hollywood we'd realize that these people turn out to be WAY more hideous in the end than any of us "normal" people do. Old people have a quiet dignity and peacefulness. They have kindness and wisdom in their faces. Old celebrities look inhuman. Their liplines are flattened by collagen and their eyelids are angled more and more tightly until they don't even look human...many end up looking like cats...or fish!
The average life of fame for a celebrity (I'm guessing) is probably about ten to fifteen years maximum and then we don't really hear from them unless they're superb, like Meryll Streep or Jack Nicholson. Aside from the true A list celebrities, all the others seem to disappear. Why does this happen? Because there is no demand for bizarre-faced old weirdos from ages past to be on film...and so they go back to their homes in middle America and we never hear from them again until they die.
So for the fifteen years that they are in the public eye, celebrities want to remain as beautiful as possible so they cut, scrape, reshape, implant, inject and fight to keep it all looking "the same". The problem is that they need to age with their bodies so they don't look like someone desperately clinging to their long-lost youth. That can only happen if they've only done minimal surgery...like Meryll Streep and Jack Nicholson. They've presumably had some tightening done, but we are aware of their aging.
I can't help but wonder what this latest round of celebrities with their size 0 clothing and their DDD chests are going to look like as old people...I shudder. Many will look like skeletons with giant inflated boobs like some kind of gender-bending crypt-keeper. It should make them easy to spot in the old age homes!
Movie Day
03.24.08 (1:21 pm) [edit]Watching movies today...we have one of those memberships where your movies are sent to you in the mail and you send them back when you're done with them. We keep not watching the movies though...so the movies haven't been sent back in a while. Today I'm catching up and sending back the movies so they'll send the next ones on the list. The movies I'm watching today are the third X-men movie and Knocked Up. They both look like half decent movies...easy on the brain movies. Nothing too challenging. So that's Monday's plan.
I'm taking a break from painting or drawing today because I think it's important to do those things when I feel like it and not as some kind of obligation where I do it because I think I have to. I don't have to draw or paint, I WANT to...so I will paint when I'm ready...actually the drawing I do no matter what because I enjoy it so much.
The truth is that I don't enjoy painting as much. I lack dexterity with a paintbrush. I am much more talented a drawer than I am a painter...but I am doing the painting for my tattooist to show her that I can. I actually dislike painting because it's so messy. I do realize though that I need to learn to work with more colour. People like colour tattoos. So I'm getting some books on colouring techniques with coloured pencils. I like coloured pencils and they are are easy to be as precise with as a regular pencil...but the techniques are different. I am going to perfect my colouring abilities with coloured pencils and then go from there. I think that coloured pencil theory can only help my artistic ability.
Today I'm taking a break though. Movie day. As the new movies come in, my husband won't be watching them with me...that's why they've backed up, waiting for him to have time to watch. So from now on I'll have movie day on my own. It's going to be a drag not having anyone to discuss the movie with afterwards, but that's okay. I did a lot of movie-watching when I was single and I enjoyed it a lot...I'll get used to it again. It means that probably twice per month I'll have a movie day when I probably won't have time for drawing or painting. Sounds like a great excuse to take it easy. :)
Spring
03.21.08 (4:46 pm) [edit]Spring is here...Happy Easter, Happy Ostara, Happy Vernal Equinox!
The truth? I am not a huge fan of spring! I like winter, a LOT. I like fall a lot. I even like summer a LOT...but spring is the season of migraines. It's still cold outside, but it's no longer acceptable for me to wear a parka, even though I still feel I need one because of my seizures (from cold temperatures). Spring is damp and cool and stormy and muddy. I am not actually a fan of any of those conditions.
The only kind of spring I enjoy is the kind like we had here last year. It was unseasonably hot and within a few days it felt like summer! Of course then our summer felt a lot like spring (complete with rain showers) which wasn't any better. If it went from winter to summer each year I'd be much happier but it probably wouldn't be too good for the environment.
Spring means migraines to me but this year it also means tattoo school! That's something I'm looking forward to, but I'm also extremely nervous about. I worry about the details...like what if I'm late for class or can't find the location. What if I have a hard time getting up in the morning and can't function properly because of MS. What if I get confused at the train station...all these things play through my mind. I'm going to be so happy to go, but I'm going to be very nervous too. In the end I'll be glad I went, but it will be stressful until I get myself sorted out and into my daily routine.
Nasty Day
03.20.08 (9:01 pm) [edit]I had a nasty day today. I can't even begin to describe how nasty it was because it was just so nasty! I did get some drawing done and I worked on a painting.
I had one of those days where everything I touched, I dropped. This is not so uncommon with MS. It gives people a case of the dropsies. However, the absolute worst thing you can do with a drawing pencil is drop it. It cracks the graphite and makes it hard to sharpen. Today I dropped ALL of my drawing pencils. Not only did I drop them, I dropped them behind some furniture and so my husband is going to have to retrieve them. I can't draw again until he does and I cannot manage getting the pencils because of the stupid MS.
The kitchen gar bage had paint on paper towels and old bird seed and some old ribs in it. I opened the garbage to use it and it all fell out on the floor because the bag was too full. This would not have happened if my husband had bought the correct size of garbage bags. We ran out and instead of replacing it with a "proper" sized bag, he used some generic bag we have for other garbages in the house. The kitchen garbage has its own set of bags but if you use the wrong size they just flop around loosely on the frame that holds the bags. Anyway, I opened the garbage to dump something in it and the whole thing spilled out on the floor and I had to clean it up. I was absolutely in tears because it was so frustrating and made me so angry.
I had a bath today because I was nasty from being a sloth...bleh. Anyway NOW I'm nice and clean and fluffy. It was nice to scrub off the day's negative energy. It was absolutely a horrible day and I am so glad I am now relaxing and waiting for my husband to come home. When I told him about my day he apologized for the garbage bag in the kitchen and he said he'd retrieve my pencils for me. He also said he's getting me a surprise to cheer me up after my day of annoyances. I'm really glad he's able to help me out. I just had one of those days when the MS was acting up and making things very hard to do. Tomorrow will be better.
Today
03.20.08 (12:07 pm) [edit]I'm feeling a bit bloated and unpleasant today. It will pass but it's annoying how often I go through this. I'm also really groggy so far. I've been up for a few hours but I haven't gotten out of bed excpet to use the washroom.
I ordered some books recently from Amazon.com. I have some more that are still in the mail too. The books are all tattoo reference books. Some are actually about the technical process of tattooing and others are art books for using as reference for things like pin-up girls. I have ordered a bunch of inexpensive colouring books as well. Colouring books are inexpensive line art. They make great reference tools for composition ideas, simple line drawings and for use to mock up a colour study. You can photocopy a colouring book as many times as you want and use the copies to try different colour schemes for an idea...even trace elements from them to help create a custom tattoo.
Aside from colouring books and art books I am trying to get myself "artist's references" books. I got a book of human poses and dynamic human poses. This helps me see what a person looks like for example when they're throwing a punch...or running...or sitting. It's nice to be able to refer to something that doesn't have a lot of background or clothing or context. Instead, the models are wearing light clothing or in some cases spandex to allow you to see the way the body moves when they're posing. Artist references are usually pretty inexpensive too. I picked up a reference book for roses, butterflies and some old style alphabets. I can use these references when I start tattooing, but also just for helping me with my drawings. I hope to greatly improve my rose drawing abilities for example.
I also bought myself another artistic reference...the art of Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. It's a book that describes the style and the imagery of the movie Sleepy Hollow. I think that movie is just about the most beautiful thing I've ever watched and so I am really eager to mimic that style. I want to make up drawings that look like they could be Tim Burton's but they're mine! I don't want to just copy his characters, I want to learn his actual style so I can use it in making tattoos. I think they'd be very popular.
So I'm looking forward to getting my shipment of books...some have already arrived. The ones that arrived were fantastic, so I'm eager to get the next bunch!
You know what just popped into my head for no reason? A great idea. Hey Hollywood, how about letting Tim Burton direct a movie based on a Stephen King novel, like "The Eyes of the Dragon"...that would rock.
Healing
03.17.08 (10:29 pm) [edit]My arm is healing. The tattooist managed to bruise me this time! I think I just have a very easy to bruise body...I always have. Anyway my arm went that yellowy greenish hue that indicates a mild bruising. The swelling is coming down, but it's looking great. I think I'm going to heal really quickly this time. She didn't use any red ink this time. I'm mildly allergic to red ink and so she avoided it on purpose this time so I'd get a chance to heal before the final appointment when she'll put the last of the red into the design. It's healing nicely. It should get itchy in a day or two.
Phoenix Photos so far...
03.16.08 (1:51 pm) [edit]Here's a photo of my phoenix ink so far (click here). Here's another one! (click here)
More Ink
03.15.08 (4:20 pm) [edit]I got some more ink work done on my phoenix yesterday. My tattooist filled in the background a bit with swirly greywork. It's a soft black background to really get the colours to stand out. It looks amazing. My phoenix is almost complete. We booked one more session and she's going to finish it up then. All that is left to do is colour in some flowers and tweak the overall look by fixing up some colours that didn't take as brightly as she had hoped. She will retouch those areas to make them pop, free of charge. I'm only paying for one hour next session but I'm booked for three. She'll spend two hours "going over" the whole thing. When it's finished I'll post a photo.
Air Miles
03.10.08 (5:08 pm) [edit]I love Air Miles. Okay I know they're kind of silly and that we'd all be better off if that money was actually used to reduce the cost of things instead of saving up points to buy "free" stuff...but I still love them!
My husband used his Air Miles to buy me a camera today! We already have a nice digital camera, but this one is small and fits in a pocket. It is a "point and shoot" style ELPH camera by Canon (my favourite digital camera company).
The reason my husband got this camera for me is so that I'll have a very small, high-res camera to take with me when I go to tattoo school. He wants me to have something that isn't the size of a brick that needs a special camera bag and accessories and extra batteries for. Our "big" camera is going to have less megapixels too! However, the zoom on the small camera is nowhere near as good as the large camera and the large camera has a lot of fancy features, like an "anti-shake" stablizer function. Basically this camera has a different application. This will be my "tattoo camera".
Even when I finally have my own tattoo shop I'm going to want a camera I can leave at the shop and not worry about it being so expensive that it will be stolen. This one can be kept in my pocket too and whipped out at a moment's notice. Much more fun for "snapshots".
So all of that to say that I love Air Miles because without them, this camera would have cost $180...but we got it "free". :)
Canada's First Tattoo School
03.07.08 (1:31 pm) [edit]The Toronto Tattoo School has a webpage now. You can see it here.
More Snow on the Way!
03.06.08 (4:46 pm) [edit]We're supposed to get a storm that will begin tomorrow (Friday) at supper time and end 36-48 hours later. This could be the "big one". The weather service is calling for 50 cm of snow in our region (that's about 20 inches). I hope we get a full two feet of snow! :) I love the snow. Because I don't have to drive to work everyday and I don't have to do the snowblowing or the shovelling, I find all this snow to be wonderful! I'm sure my husband must be getting tired of clearing it by now, but he says he loves all this snow as well. I think it's fantastic.
Snowed In
03.05.08 (7:40 pm) [edit]We got snowed in last night. The plough came by today but not in time for my husband to get to work. He worked from home today...which was great because he got to hang out with me and the dog. He worked but he also got to take breaks and hang out with me! He loves working from home.
My husband is currently clearing the snow (almost a foot in total) from last night's dumping. Then he has to go to Costco and get some food. We're low on the things that I eat...cereal, milk, seafood. :) I hope he remembers to get some Gummi Bears too!
Sunday Afternoon Blog
03.02.08 (4:20 pm) [edit]Well it's Sunday afternoon. I'm sitting here craving bologna for some reason. I think I'll have soup for supper tonight. Clearly I'm craving salt (bologna) and nothing's saltier than canned soup...well except maybe potato chips but I don't think they'd make a good supper.
Lately I can't get enough sashimi, but I'm trying to limit it to once a week....on weekends. For the rest of the time I seem to be getting by on soup, which is a good thing because you never know what I'll be craving next and sometimes it gets expensive! If soup is working for me, I'm relieved to be able to eat for so inexpensively....aside from the sashimi. :)