a sketch a day - January

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With the box obstacle out of the way, I can now commence on the massive task of cleaning and organizing the garage. I seem to always leave such a huge mess after every little project, and I can't stand the mess any more. Time to try and get really serious about the actually going through the mass heaps that's been piling up in the house and garage.


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Today has been a manic depressive day. I get these every so often and they keep me up late and I forget to eat. It's quite annoying, actually, for it makes me really tired after how ever many nights. It all started last night and today, all I did was being obsessive about finishing a box before Saturday. It's still days away, but I just can't help it. It has to be finished, and I'm still going to work on it after this blog. What should have been a simple box has been turning out to be quite a monster. I keep adding more and more details that I really am not quite ready to spend time on. It's like designing on the monitor, you keep changing things and nothing is focused and thought out properly.


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Seems like the annual event of uncertainty is again upon us at work. With a major project cancelled near the end of last year, a major franchise moving to another studio, and on top of that, a mandate from the top brass to outsource a large percentage of all production to overseas, it's not a big surprise. Additionally, people are not moved off to projects that they are supposed to, like me, will make people wonder. It was around this same time last year that the big axe hit the chopping block, and a lot of heads rolled out the door. I guess when the day that I go into work and find the security doors wide open like the previous year, yet again, more heads will be a rolling.


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Another night of sketching at a local book store with a friend. Sketching people while they're not looking is actually quite hard, since you can't predict what they are going to do. Because you don't want to let them see you staring at them, you have to take a glance in their direction every so often and try to capture their pose as quickly as possible. After all, you don't want to have them thinking that you're some kind of weirdo or stocker. Most sketches are incomplete, but sometimes, someone stays still long enough for a decent sketch. Sometimes there's an interesting individual that has to get sketched because they have an interesting face or pose. I'd suppose the more I do this the better I'll get.


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Pretty tired this morning, so hauling a heavy box full of paints to the workshop was not going to happen. So instead, I carried a sketch book, a pencil, a pencil sharpener, and an eraser, which is much, much better. This way I take care of the daily sketch early and have time to clean up from the night before from the GOG assembly. It was quite a turn out, too, for only two members of this geeky club did not show.


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When the new roof went up along with the new rain gutters, the noise that the rain water made draining down the newly installed rain gutters were so loud that they have caused many sleepless nights. Eventually, you gets used to it. But every couple of seasons I would notice an absence of that rain gutter noise. That's because they were clogged, and that's not good. Water getting under the eves is never good, for dry rot damage is awfully expensive to repair. And so, it is that time again when the absence of rain gutter noise means a cleaning is required, and it is unfortunate that it is me that have to get up on the roof and clear out all the gutters. And today was that dreaded day. How does so much crap get twelve feet in the air is quite mind boggling. And by crap, I mean really dirty and sometimes smelly crap. This stuff is black and still slimy from the last rains and gets to be three to four inches think in some places. It stays so moist that moss grows on the surface. Sometimes, while digging that crap out with ones hands, for there's no other way to get it out, I would find earth worms living in it. How the hell do earth worms get twelve feet into the air and into a metal rain gutter?!?! After the gutters, comes the cleanup of this "crap" from being tossed to the ground and that's quite a chore in itself. It's pretty much sweeping up mud all along the perimeter of the house and in the end, you have a garbage can that weighs a fickin ton and black stains where the stuff fell!

After half a day of gutter cleaning and sore hands and knees as a result. A few hours was spent working a new series of wooden boxes that I've started making as gifts for friends. I've made a few in the past and wanted to do it again. This time I want experiment with different designs and different wood combinations to see what I can come up with. Although I do some quick sketches of what I'm thinking, it's all pretty much random as to what the finished box will look like. Art direction pretty much changes every time I look at what I'm actually doing. A new blog will be started as a record of the final results for prosperity.

After working on box gift number two, I get cleaned up and go meet a friend at a bookstore. We sometimes get together on Sunday nights for an hour or so of people sketching. It's kinda fun drawing people doing their reading, or coffee drinking. Tonight the bookstore was so crowed that we could not find seats. Instead, we went to the food court and sneakily draw people while they're eating. Drawing unexpecting people is not easy, they move too much!

From the drawing session, I head off to a farewell dinner for a friend who's leaving for his newly appointed Air Force assignment to Korea. This friend has been in Germany for the past four years and regrettably, I have not had the chance to go visit him. Sorry, bro, I'll try and make Korea before you're done. So this has been a full day of activities and it's time for rest.


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Why are people just so stupid. Seems like we are constantly catering to the lowest common denominator. Take for example, results of a focus group test for the latest iteration, yet again, of the Godfather game for PS3. Players were going through a new level where they need to plant a bomb in a house and get out before it went off. Well, I guess a lot of players panicked and try to get out through locked doors. Now, if you are not smart enough to get out the same door that you came in from, then you should get blown up! If that's not intuitive enough, then the fact that locked doors have a different texture on them, as well as a missing "glowing nob" should give one a clue. But, no, instead, I have to sacrifice aesthetics and cover them with curtains so players won't get "confused". It's a video game for Christ sakes! You can afford to die a few times and learn a thing or two for the next level! Maybe it'll even help with life's tribulations by figuring things out the hard way. Must there be constant hand holding through everything? Social Darwinism is a nice ideal, but never really existed. Enough said.


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Things that I want to blog about, sometimes just don't seem to make any sense once they are written down. And so, I delete it and file that thought away for another time when they are a bit clearer. Anyway, today is a friends' birthday, so happy birthday to you!


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