Journal/Blog

Trying to catch up....

Once again, like a bad penny I keep coming back! It's been a busy time since my last visit.

I've gotten into fly tying and have been ordering materials left and right. I finally have enough now to tie quite an assortment of flies, now comes the need to sit down and do it. I started tying a pattern the other day but found I was missing one item. I got in something similar today but none are the right color, black. But some of the pieces are transparent so I'm going to get out my fat pointed sharpie and make it black. I don't need much...and using sharpies is a highly recommended method to get the colors you want.

I also got a Cricut machine. This is basically a cross between a laser engraver and a cnc machine. I can install pens to create all types of designs or I can install various cutting knives to cut out designs in vinyl, cardstock, paper, cardboard or even very thin balsa wood. It uses a rather crude software which utilizes vectors for drawing. The advantage to a vector system is you can resize your object without distortion. If you paint or draw something and try to enlarge it, at some point it will begin to distort and show small blocks (bit mapped graphics). Unfortunately, it seems to be rather simplistic. Therefore I am in the process of learning how to use Adobe Illustrator. Adobe is the famous name behind Photoshop and since I use many of the applications, I am somewhat familiar with the user interface. Of course, drawing uses different terms for common items...such as "art board" for the canvas associated with Photoshop. Since I am paying for the suite of Adobe products, I might as well use yet another. There is also Inkscape, basically the same as Illustrator except it is free...always attractive. But, I had to flip a coin and since I already have access to Illustrator as well as it being an industry standard, I went with it. So today I was working on a tutorial for it.

Unfortunately, I spent a lot of time looking for things. One of them being my graphics tablet. Actually, I have 2 of them but I was unable to find either one of them. I hope tonight the gremlins will bring them back out of hiding. I want to use one because I have a logo that I wish to cut into vinyl to use as decals on vehicles. It isn't simple though and will have 4 colors, white, blue, light blue and red. And of course, one piece of vinyl won't do it, I'll need to do what they call "layering". I have a vague concept of the idea but other than that, I know little more than the word. However, Youtube is full of tutorials. There are thousands and thousands of "makers" in the world doing this type of stuff...and that means there are at least hundreds of videos of how to do it. All I need is time and motivation.

Motivation is a current issue. I developed a pain in my side and it isn't going away. It gets to be a major issue when I am laying down. I had an ultrasound done last week and the liver, pancreas, gall bladder, bladder and right kidney all appear to be normal. Meanwhile, I've been taking pain meds. Those reduce my motivation and also lead towards depression so I try to avoid them. In this case though, things aren't working out that way so I contacted the doc today and she is putting in an order for a CT scan. Right now she doesn't have a good idea of what is the issue...I don't seem to be able to make any movements that make things any worse...or any better.

My shoulder has flared up as well. I saw the shoulder doc early last month and everything was good. A week later though it became quite tender. I'm a shoulder sleeper so by the middle of the night, between the shoulder and the opposite side, I'm not a happy camper.

Meanwhile, I also became incorporated. I'm hoping that at some point I can generate some photos/videos that people would be willing to pay for. I don't have any delusions of becoming an overnight sensation but perhaps I can get something with an emotional appeal. I see a guy on facebook that I believe lives in Louisiana and he takes photos that really draw me in. I feel nearly anyone can take the "post card" type images but this guy has images that really trip an emotional button in me. These aren't exotic photos taken from far away places but are all local to his area. I would love to be able to create images like those...and those are ones that I feel I could actually sell. Time will tell.

As if all that isn't enough, I am doing an online course for starting a business as well as one for magazine writing. I'm hoping to put all these things together successfully. Only time will tell.

I think that is a wrap for today.