Thursday Random Stuff

Just a few random things.

I am so much better today than yesterday. I am normally a fairly healthy person. I get a cold every couple of years or so and I've had the flu once in my life. It almost killed me - but I survived and I haven't had the flu since. I was 17. Anyway, it will be a while before I revisit Chinese food, I think.

Three years and 5 days ago I had a stent put in my heart. I had been having a strange pain in my neck that didn't seem to want to resolve itself so I went to my Doctor and she examined me. There wasn't anything obviously wrong, so on a hunch she gave me a nitro tab under my tongue and I felt better. I was ready to go home - but she said, "Do you want to go to the hospital in the fast ambulance or the slow ambulance?" I said I didn't want to go at all, but she was insistent. The Fire Department ambulance came and took me away. Two days and many tests later they found a blockage in the left circumflex artery in my heart. It was hard to find because it was round the backside of my heart. But find it they did - a 95% blockage. Everything else was (and is) fine. They inserted the stent through the artery in my right thigh. Pretty darn cool. And I continue to be fine.

I bought my first 'good' camera in 1978. A Konica T4. Along with several good lenses. There was a time when that camera put food on the table and a roof over our heads. I had started a business called 'Picture This' and I took in-home portraits and group photos. I still have the portable backdrops and studio equipment I used.

I am an Artist. A little over a year ago I started taking a class in Drawing and Sketching, the idea behind that being that if I learned something of Art and Composition it would help make me a better photographer. That class led me into an Oil painting class and I found I had a voice in me that wanted expression through paint. I am learning how to give that voice an outlet.

I am a writer. The writing, I have have found, is an expression of the same voice that wants to be heard in paint. Only now I'm learning to paint with words. The styles it seems, are similar. Sparse, leaving the imagination of the reader/viewer to fill in the details. Why did I wait until now?

I love my new Mac. This operating system is as stable as a rock. And I am finding lots of good application software to do the things I want to do. I may have to bite the bullet somewhere down the road and actually buy an upgrade to my Photoshop CS2, which runs in Windoze, but get the upgrade for the Mac. I have found an open source piece of software called Celtx which I am using to prepare the movie treatment of 'The Kid', along with the screen play. And I cannot believe I just said that. That is so far beyond anything I have ever expected to do.

Some have wondered at the time I have to spend on this stuff I do - painting, writing, blogging - while working a full time job and getting stuff done around the house. Well, Annie provides child care for two little boys, ages 6 and 8. She's been with them almost daily for the last four years. For the last two years, their Dad has been on his own. M is my best friend. K, their Mom, used to be Annie's best friend. The four of us were very close. K left M to become a practicing Lesbian. She has the boys every other weekend. M works a job where he has two days off during the week. The rest of the time, the boys are with Annie. She comes home in the evening exhausted from dealing with two little boys - who are BOYS. Her condition (EDS) makes it difficult for her beyond what it really should be. Thus the nightly back rubs - and hands and feet and whatever else hurts. But she is gone a lot. So I have time on my hands.

I had thought, originally, to do a 'Thursday Thirteen'. But I'm out of gas, for the moment. I need to eat something and then want to work on 'Sarah'. Speaking of Sarah, I have a question. When I did 'The Kid', the story was serialized, and each segment was tight - it had a beginning, middle and end. Each segment sort of stood alone. But 'Sarah' is a much bigger story and the 'scenes' in the story are going to vary greatly in size - the opening 'scene' is 3300 words, 3 times the average episode in 'The Kid'. Are y'all going to want to read scenes of 3300 words? Will you have the patience for that? Will you tolerate short scenes when that's all there is for a week? And what if the story isn't a 'weekly'? What if I have to skip a week - or two - in order to get the next segment ready? Will that be okay? I need to know how you want me to do this. What will you stick with me for?

After all, push come to shove, I write for you, to see, to look at, to tell me what I have done pleases you. Without you, the audience, an audience, MY audience, I may as well spit in the wind, tug on Superman's cape or pull the mask off the Lone Ranger. Without you, there is no point. You help me make a difference. You make me feel as though I am contributing something to the world. It has been said on someone's blog, recently, that "Human beings are happiest when they are active and creative; when they feel they are contributing something to the world." You make me happy.

You give me ...

Peace.