Weeds, more personal Work, and Whatever else

Let’s see. This evening, after dinner and before the rain, I spent an hour or so pulling weeds. Not all the weeds, but one particular type of weed my grandfather is allergic to. Well, when other weeds were in the way of me getting to the weeds I was after, I pulled them too. Many of these weeds were only a foot or two tall, but there were many that were taller than me. Many over seven feet tall. I figure that when the weeds get to be seven feet tall, it’s probably time to think about cutting them back. Of course, after about an hour of this (after a day running the store, after a too-short night’s sleep) in the heat, I started to get a little confused and stopped. How confused? Well, there was a tree a little over seven feet high, maybe two inches thick at the base, with leaves somewhat similar to the weed I was looking for. And I attacked it. And mutilated it, trying to pull it, and then… well, it’s still in the ground, and may survive, but when I worked out it was a tree, I decided it was time to call it quits for the day. Oh, but somewhere in my delerium I shot a few pictures with my phone. Thus, the new Virtual Webcam shot.

I’d been building up to it slowly, but last night I took a big … well, it isn’t a whiteboard exactly, but … the concept will suffice. I took this big, re-writable surface which happened to be broken into six major blank sections and labeled it to represent the six weeks of my calendar. And then I filled it in with the things I’d like to get done, and when. Setting tangible deadlines and scheduling time for the different activities that are priorities for me. I have several hours every day in which I can do my own thing, and some days there are more, but I haven’t been accomplishing things at an acceptable rate. So now I’ve got this chart. And I’ve color-coded my current priorities: ‘Art’, ‘Writing’, ‘Comics’, and ‘Movies’ each have their own color of dry-erase marker. At a glance I can see that each week has all areas addressed (or not) or that (for instance) in weeks 2 and 3 of next month (month 4, for those of you who haven’t quite worked out my dates yet) I’ll basically be working solely on finishing the re-write of my novel – those weeks are almost all red. I can see that I don’t have enough ways to work on building toward making movies yet, so there isn’t much green on the chart at all. So I made a note to myself to start special-ordering books on the subject at the library, but I want to get this novel re-written first – that’s my primary, time-sensitive priority. I want to get the novel ‘finished’ by mid-August at the latest so I can send out some advance copies (probably electronically, maybe one copy to myself bound) to be proofed before I launch it publicly. I’m babbling now? Fine. But I’ve got a plan and I’m going to stick to it, and it means a whole set of new stuff should hit the site September 1st. Or 2nd.

No, probably the first.

So, I just watched Gattaca again for the first time since it was in theatres, and I must say, it has a sad ending. Sadder than perhaps I remember. Oh, and dad, I was wrong, M2 does come out on DVD in mid-October. Though… I think I may instead of buying that, sell my copy of the Matrix and buy the inevitable 3-pack when it comes out.

I’m trying to go to bed earlier and get up earlier lately. See if I can get some of my own stuff done bright and early in the morning… or maybe do Grandfather’s stuff earlier and get an early afternoon start on my own stuff. Extend the useable day, anyway. Less of this staying up late, sleeping in business. Early to bes, early to rise, makes a man … something… I just can’t remember what. I’m too sleepy.

Did I mention that I’ve begun work on my stangnated correspondence Art class? Yeah. If I do at least one unit every two weeks (I may be able to get up to three units done a week if I apply myself … and do less of everything else) I should be to the unit on “Cartooning” in … just under six months. (Or at the above mentioned extreme rate, a month. Ha! They don’t mail stuff out that fast. Must be two months. Ha!) On the chart, I gave myself until the end of the week (on my calendar; ie: until the end of the day Monday) to get the Perspective unit done. For today I was supposed to start the Perspective unit. I hadn’t opened it before today. An hour or more before I closed the store today, I’d read the entire unit, done all the Self-Check mini-tests, all the drawing assignments fit to do (there were a couple where they were basically repeating themselves into tedium, which I skipped… then again, I learned all of this in elementary school) or about 90% of them, and had even done a rough sketch of the final “Examination” assignment. I’m supposed to draw a building from a real building, showing construction lines and using proper perspective. The only requirement of the building is that it have a slanted roof with parallel edges so I can use a Trace Vanishing Point. So, like an hour tomorrow afternoon. 20 minutes if I only want a ‘B’. But now I’m off to bed. In the morning I shall see how I feel and what time I wake, and either do the drawing in the morning or … lemme check the chart … work on a comic… which I shall not specify the nature of at this time, but which, according to the chart, you should see online no later than the end of next week (8/2/03 on your calendar).

Oh, and anyone who can provide me with a satisfying explanation of David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr. gets a special prize. If you can get a clear, satisfying answer from Mr. Lynch himself, your prize will include something extra special.

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Teel

Author, artist, romantic, insomniac, exorcist, creative visionary, lover, and all-around-crazy-person.