I have been neglecting my daily C again. *sigh*  I hate blogging when I have nothing interesting to say, so I figure it's better to stay silent, than blog about my dinner or what not.

I have been having a lot of fun learning what my Canon does. And it pretty much does everything. Maybe not cook that dinner, but it does everything else. I have a lot of pictures to post but I need to resize them. I also need to get a photo editor of some sort as well.

I am finding that I either have TOO much to talk about, or not enough to talk about. Too much tends to gridlock my brain and I end up doing nothing. So, I figured I needed to narrow my focus a bit and for that, I did a 3 card Creative Inspiration draw, using my Ancient Italian Tarot.

And yes indeed! 
9 of Wands: experience, intuition, realism
14 Temperance: moderation, pleasant changes, energy
13: "Death": Sudden change, transformation, endings... also, DIG THAT PAINT PALETTE in the bottom corner under Deaths bony foot! CREATIVE ARTS!

I have been trying to figure out what sort of creative body of work I want to do and I am all over the map. My brain gets tired and shuts down and I do nothing.  I need to let go of the less realistic ideas, for now anyway and transform that spazzy energy into something productive. Letting go of old ideas to embrace new ones in a moderate way. I need to follow my intuition because it is almost always correct. Fighting it just ends up wasting my time and energy.

(Deck used, Ancient Italian Tarot which is very Marseilles in feeling but I like it more for the gorgeous art and overall feel. Also, like the Marseilles, it refers to card 13 as Il Tredici, not Death - the nameless arcanum)

I will be moving the Tarot posts to their own tab soon, I just need time to get that all set up. I will be posting info on all my decks and books and thoughts on it all. 20 years of Tarot study takes time to organize!

I was driving home from work last night when I saw a car with really bright headlights up ahead. They looked odd. Then I realized it was because it was a car headed straight towards me, in my lane, going the wrong way!  Holy crap idiot. 

It looked like he was trying to make a turn into a shopping area and didn't quite know where the driveway was, so he drove the wrong way for almost a block before turning in.  Another reason why I HATE driving anymore. Blug. I actually miss taking the subways like I did in Boston,

  On a happier note, these were waiting for me when I finally got home.  I was looking for a very simple and easy to understand instructional book for my new camera.  I have several Dummies Guides and they are totally awesome, but also full of things I am not going to use, whereas, these books, by Henry Carroll, are spot on perfect.

Excellent detail with a photo to illustrate the point and the only charts are the exact ones I wanted, sort of a quick look, "Cheat sheet," if you will.  It made my brain quite happy as it wasn't too much detail, just enough to make the point and that is exactly what I wanted. 

I am looking forward to the long weekend and going out and about finding subject matter to practice on!

* And also a use for bits of my Chinese Brush Painting, Crayon Silly Fish, trying salt with watercolors and my dear departed Betta Fish, Syd Fisheous.

Today was a very low key and rainy day.  I am not actually sure why I am posting other than I wanted to post daily, something, anything, and that I really quite like this piece of art.  

​Namaste

 I was coloring my new work desk calendar at lunch and couldn't figure out why the crayons were doing such a bad job at coloring. A closer inspection revealed the problem.

They were not Crayola Crayons. Nope, these were something like Crayon King crayons. NEVER trust a crayon maker who uses comic sans font on their labels. Just sayin.

Also, it rained today. In fact, it is still raining and there are some nice storms in the overnight forecast. It hasn't rained in months and I loved it.  What I hated were the idiot drivers who get a tad too freaked out and drive less than 10 MPH. Or the super idiots who decide to drive 75 MPH and then slam on their brakes barely missing your bumper. I need a freeking tank to drive here anymore.

I did see a very ugly Lexus today as well. It was Gold. Not that champagne color. I mean C-3P0 Gold. I actually found it by Googling "horrendous Gold Lexus," and it boggles my mind that someone actually CHOSE that color. On Purpose.
And that, is all. For today.

So, I can already see a HUGE difference in picture quality.  And I don't even know what I am doing yet! But just from playing around with the basic functions has given me much better quality and it is a lot of fun!

So, now I am in the market for a small tripod, a picture editor and maybe a wacom tablet for more precision editing. Also, a decent printer that not only prints excellent photographs, but also does a good job with art prints and home made greeting cards.

If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them!

​“Don’t shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like.”
David Alan Harvey

 1977. Christmas. My parents gifted me my very first camera and as Sally Mann said, "It was an instant love affair.*)

I still remember that Instamatic and how the flash bulb smelled after I took a picture. I loved that camera to bits and I am thankful that my parents thought to gift me this treasure.

Then, on my 21st birthday, my parents gifted me another Kodak, this one the Disc.  Another easy to use, but incredibly fun camera to play with.

I took pictures of EVERYTHING. I seriously still have a large box of negatives from all the photos I took. Developing film became very expensive! But there was just something about capturing a moment in time that I loved.

 Since then, I have used disposable cameras and lovely point and shoot cameras and most often, my Android phone.  And I enjoy using them all. BUT!

For the very first time, thanks to many Amazon gift cards, I was able to afford a brand new Canon EOS Rebel T6 kit.
And I am IN HEAVEN!  It arrived today and I am still playing with it. So much to learn as I usually just use the auto features. But now I have the opportunity to really dig in and see how it all works! So very exciting. I am thinking of  taking a class as well to cover more topics.

One day, I will have my very own dark room and the old time 5 x 7 inch large format cameras, thinking about that makes me grin. In the meantime, I have my new toy to keep me busy!

I may never be the next Sally Mann or Ansel Adams or Alfred Stiglitz, but then again, I may just surprise myself!

  Bob Ross is getting some hair!  This was the best work holiday gift exchange!  I mean, it's BOB ROSS.  HAPPY LITTLE TREES - on his head!

On a different note, I have never really been successful at keeping things like this alive, so updates may be embarrassing.

Canon EOS Rebel T6 DSLR 18mp WiFi Enabled + EF-S 18-55mm IS [Image Stabilizer] II Zoom Lens + Canon Professional Gadget Bag + Commander 32GB Class 10 Ultra High Speed Memory Card.

After hoarding all of my Amazon gift cards, it came to my attention that I had enough to make this camera affordable. And I have wanted to branch out with my photography, so this little gem is showing up tomorrow.
I am so excited.  Better photographs on the way soon! I don't think I have updated my photography section in years. *Hangs Head*

Other random things that may or may not happen: art, yoga, redesigning this website, signing up for Twitter - mayyyybe,  joggling (half jog half walking,) reading and I hope, sleeping at some point.

Happy Weekend!

Awhile ago I saw some really fabulous art journals, done on a smaller scale than I am used to doing myself.  They were in a leathery travel journal,   I absolutely love ALL THE JOURNALS and was quite happy with this one.  It smells delicious and comes with a clip and some plastic sleeves as well as refillable paper sections.  I like the heavier craft paper as it holds up well with all of the various media I use.

It is a great size for a page a day art journaling and keeps the creativity rolling! (Did I mention the delicious leathery smell?) It doesn't take up much space either, so that is a bonus if you don't have a lot of room.

* You would think anything involving bacon would be a win...
You would be wrong. Very, very wrong.

When given the chance to try "Lester's Fixins, Bacon Soda," I should have run at the name, "Lester's Fixins."
I have only myself to blame.  This stuff tasted like chemically burnt bacon. Like Carbonized Sizzlean. Like, if you were to put Sizzlean in the microwave for 6 hours along with a drawer of cutlery.
LESTER, HAVE YOU EVER TASTED BACON?!?

Luckily, the Pink flavors came after to save my abused palate.  With Martian Poop being quite berry-ey. And Wink Martindale's fruity concoction tasting, well, fruity-y.  Also, by this point, I was starting to feel a  tad queasy from all the sugar, which I never drink, or eat, if we are talking about Lester's "bacon."

Consider this a public service announcement. I took the "bacon," hit for you. You are welcome.

On a completely different note, I am searching for a decent but not too expensive DSLR camera. Any suggestions?

* SQUEEEEEEEE Super fan girl squeal of joy for seeing her author crush finally!

This actually happened on my birthday back in March 17, but I kept putting off uploading photos and what not.  I managed to get tickets to see Neil at the Segerstrom Center and it was amazing. 

He spoke for several hours and read snippets and stories and kept me totally enthralled by both his amazing talent to tell a story and his VOICE OMG that accent!

He read:
Freya's Unusual Wedding from Norse Mythology - HE DOES VOICES SO WELL!
The Map Maker from the introduction in Fragile Things
Click Clack the Rattlebag ( Google the video and listen - you will love it)
​A Poem he wrote for a wedding
​The Day the Saucers Came (Also google for video)
​Babycakes - from Smoke and Mirrors

​He mentioned a new Neverwhere sequel YAY!

At the end of the talk, he thanked us and received a massive standing ovation. He then said he had never heard of an author getting said standing ovation and "what the hell do I do?"  Of course, we gave him another one!

He also quoted Chuck Jones (as well as Ray Bradbury):“Every artist has thousands of bad drawings in them and the only way to get rid of them is to draw them out.”
This was a response to one of the Q & A. He said like the bad drawings, you have to write them out. I mentioned this to my boss, (I work for the Jones family) and he actually tweeted Neil about it. Not more than maybe 3 minutes later, NEIL TWEETED HIM BACK!!!! *DOUBLE SQUEEEE*

All in all - a wonderful evening for this fan girl!