It’s not Art, but an incredible simulation!

Okay, so, here’s the deal: When I was in college, and giant reptiles ruled the earth, I used to paint pictures. I don’t know if they were any good, but I liked them, and I really enjoyed the effort to create them. I got the same kind of mental feeling (many people call it “flow”) that I got when I was deeply involved in creating and debugging software. Some say that creation stimulates endorphin receptors, but I don’t know. All I know is, I had to give up painting for 20 years, while I spent all my free time working for companies that, for all my sacrifices for them, only gave me back more requirements and more demands on my time. I’ve been out of work for a few weeks, now, and finally worked up the will to put paint and brush to canvas again. This is what I painted:

Fuu at Sunset

It’s not really finished, but I never did “finish” a painting to my satisfaction, I just had to stop before I made it worse. This is the first painting I’m going to show at an anime convention (AnimeUSA in Tyson’s Corner), and I hope someone bids on it at the auction. If not, I get to bring it back and show it with my other paintings, and I’ll start work on the next one or two for Katsucon in February. I have a couple of ideas that I want to paint, I can visualize them, but now all I have to do is paint what’s in my head (that’s “all”, he says! 🙂

An annual event: Making a new LJ Post!

Well, it’s nearly 3:00 AM, and I can’t sleep, even though I’m worn out. So many things going on, so many things to do, and even though I’m not working (shrinking bank account for the lose) I still don’t have all the time I want. It’s probably a good thing I’m not working, in a way, because I am able to spend a lot of time studying Japanese. JAPA 330 is harder in many ways than the earlier classes (which is to be expected) but in some ways it’s actually easier. The hardest parts were learning to read and write the alphabets, learning basic grammar rules and learning some common vocabulary, but the way the classes were taught, the rules have built on each other, and after much repetition, I’m finding it easier to think in Japanese. Knowing how to conjugate verbs enables you to build more and more complex thoughts, because the mechanics of the rules are simple and common. There are just a lot of them to keep track of, more so in some ways than English, but less than other languages I’ve tried to learn. I have a hard time listening to native speakers talking in “full gallop” as it were, but I can start to pick out ideas while watching “raw” anime episodes, now. If the person speaks carefully and not too slowly, I can get by, I think. What I have to do is try to build up my vocabulary, because I have a good feel for the rules, and I can recognize them being applied, but I have no idea what some of the words mean. Knowing that someone is using the past tense of a verb doesn’t help if I don’t know what they are talking about doing in the past!

Well, this was a rambling post, and I’m nowhere near being any sleepier, so maybe I’ll work on my painting. I’m getting back into painting pictures, for the first time in 20 years, since my university days. When I started work, I found that I had no time to devote to art (or at least, what I call art) since I and my fellow drones were expected to give up all for the company. If the company had a deadline, we were supposed to work all hours for no more pay, and to sacrifice private personal time to solve the company’s problems. Well, I’m too old and tired to do that anymore, so in future I’m going to spend some of my time on myself. Selfish, granted, but the older I get, the less total free time I’m going to have before I die, and unless I win the lottery, I’m going to have to devote a big chunk of the rest of my life to someone else just to be able to pay my rent and buy my food, so I value my free time more and more highly.

The painting I’m working on is an interpretation of a scene from the closing credits of “Samurai Champloo”, an anime favorite of mine. The closing credits show scenes from the childhood of one of the characters, Fuu, and the scene I’m painting is a profile of her looking up at the sky at sunset on the seashore. It’s a striking scene, and I hope I can do it justice. I plan to have the painting done by the time the next local anime convention starts, which is AnimeUSA up in Tyson’s Corner, in about two weeks. I don’t know if they allow only one artwork for show, but if someone likes it, maybe they’ll bid on it and I can make a bit of money, and they can enjoy the picture. I’m not greedy (although I am a bit mercenary) but if I can make a few bucks while creating something people like to look at, why the heck not?

Well, that’s all I’m going to write for tonight, maybe it won’t be a year before the next post! Anyone reading this, check out my other blog, “Systemic Cheese” at http://systemiccheese.blogspot.com.

Well, this should be interesting…

I decided to dust the cobwebs off of this journal *cough* *cough* and
see if it still works.  It’s been two years since the grand Nerd
Tour, and I’m preparing for another Grand Adventure in 2007.  Yes,
it will be “Nerd Tour 2007: Japan!”  I plan to go over to Japan
with my friend for Worldcon 2007 in Yokohama, and hopefully spend a couple of months just roaming the country afterward. 

I decided to start preparing early, by taking Japanese courses at
George Mason University.  So far, I’ve taken JAPA 101 and 102 in a
brutally intensive Summer session.  Each class lasted 5 weeks,
averaging 9 hours per week of classwork, and an equal amount of
homework.  It was like the proverbial “drinking from a firehose”,
but I managed to make a B in both classes, and more importantly began
learning the language! 

I’ve gotten two of the three writing systems down pat, hiragana and
kataka, and will start learning kanji this semester in JAPA 201. 
My vocabulary is still sparse, and I have a very hard time following
the teacher (she is a native speaker) due to my poor hearing, and my
even poorer brain!  But, apparently I can pronounce the words I
know well enough to be understood, so I guess that’s something!

I’ll try to post here occasionally (I’m not as comfortable with this as
Speaker), to update the world (yeah, right) about the preparations for
“Nerd Tour 2007: Japan!” as I make them, and any milestones I set and
reach.  Hopefully I’ll be able to insert some にほんご as I learn it,
so that anyone who knows Japanese can get a good laugh!  🙂

That’s it for now, stay tuned campers!

Nerd Tour 2003: Aftermath

Well, I’ve been back from the road for a week, now. Back to work, back to most of the habits and some of the chores as before. The last leg of the trip was uneventful, a mere 200 miles in clear weather. Just finished unpacking (I never claimed to be fast at the chores!) and putting stuff away. While doing so, I’ve been thinking about my life, before and after the trip. Living for a month with just the contents of my car has made me realize just how much extraneous stuff I have. A lot of things that have pleasant memories associated with them, and a lot of books that are out of print, but mostly it’s just a bunch of “stuff.” It’s time to get rid of a lot of it, starting this weekend. Fortunately, the trip seems to have given me a lot more energy, but unfortunately, not any more time, so this project will likely take several weekends. But, as I said many times on the road, when trying something new, “what the hey?”

Not long, now!

Made it to Middlesboro successfully, just in time to be almost washed away by a huge downpour from a thunderstorm. It came over the mountain and pounced on the town like some huge monster. Fortunately it was short-lived, and I managed to make it into a fast-food place to eat while the storm flailed about the valley. Today I got up, checked out, and went up to the cemetery out on the edge of town and put fresh flowers on my parent’s grave. Later I was able to locate one of my old friends, as well as some friends on the staff at the local library where I worked decades ago (okay, during the Ford administration). Had a pretty good time catching up on what’s been happening (or not happening) in the old hometown. Headed up into Virginia, and gazed at the incredible scenery along Highway 58 in Lee County. Almost painfully beautiful, green rolling hills, wide farms, laying at the foot of the mountains. *Sigh.* Words fail.

My friend Michelle at the library pointed me to the local real estate paper to get an idea of prices and availability of property in the area (thanks, Michelle! Man, you find some smart people at the library!) One of these days, I’m going to get some old farmland or other good piece of property in the area, and set up my retirement place. The DC Metro area may be where I have all my stuff, but the mountains are where my heart is.

I left the area, and made it up into Virginia, up to Harrisonburg. Ran into more rain, of course. Turns out there was a storm cell that actually kept up with me as I drove from Roanoke up I-81. I may not have to wash my car, now!

Tomorrow: Journey’s End!

Rounding the third turn, heading into the home stretch!

Well, the rain kept me from being able to see a couple of my great-nephew’s games, and residual alien contamin… er, sinus infection symptoms kept me from seeing the other great-nephew’s games, but overall, I had a good time at my brother’s. Got to see all of his kids but not all of his grandkids, we went to see “Finding Nemo”, had a couple of home-cooked meals, and got 4 of 5 rolls of film developed. Also got a little better illness-wise. Sunday afternoon I drove down to my sister’s home, in Manchester Tennessee, where I’m currently using her cable modem (yay!). Had a very relaxing time, finished (hopefully) recuperating. Had more home cooking (yay!).

Now, I’m getting ready to head to my old hometown, Middlesboro Kentucky, where I hope to see a couple of old friends, check out some property I might want to buy around there, and just generally hang out for a day, before starting the last leg of the trip. If all goes well, I’ll post one more LJ entry from the road, and should pull into Alexandria sometime on Friday, giving me a weekend to get ready for work next Monday.

White House calling. No, not that one!

Well, my luck proceeds apace. I woke up in Granada Mississippi, with a fever and a sinus infection. Yet more confirmation that at least one thing
in my life has to be broken at all times. I scarfed Advil, drove as best I could up the road, thru Memphis (missing the turn to I-240, and, thinking
that I would run across the real I-40, drove on into Arkansas, but eventually getting the right road), and on into Tennessee. I managed to make it to my brother’s house, in White House TN, before collapsing. I managed to roust myself due to the magical effects of the smells of home
cooking (soup beans, cornbread, pickle beets), but such was only temporary. I barely made it into the spare bedroom before I imploded.

Today, I got up and was able to go to a local doctor, who basically said, once I had laid out the symptoms and he had poked, prodded, and
peered to his satisfaction, “looks like you have a sinus infection.” He gave me some new kind of antibiotics (new to me, anyway) that claimed
it only needed to be taken for 5 days. We shall see.

Wait a minute, is it really a sinus infection? Was it really coincidence that my car loses electrical power, so suddenly and at the edge of
nowhere, that I have to spend the night at a hotel that just happens to be where my car dies? And was that really a bunch of high-schoolers,
partying in the next room, and was it really an accident that one of them knocked on my door, thinking it was the party? Were they trying to
make sure that I was there, when they called down the mothership? [CENSORED] aliens and their nasally-inserted tracking devices…

At any rate, I missed Graceland, missed taking a picture of the pyramid in Memphis (kind of neat, seeing it in real life), and missed some other
things. I did get to sit in traffic jams twice, once due to construction, and once due to rush hour.

Tonight (rain permitting): watching my brother’s youngest grandson play pee-wee baseball.

“On the Road Again” or, “Going to Graceland”

Whew! The problem with my car last night was indeed a broken alternator. After a sleep-deprived night, I called one of the local Vidor
repair shops, and asked if they could take an emergency repair job. The nice lady on the phone said they could but that it might take
until the afternoon to fix. I told her that I could wait as long as it took, and she said to bring it in. She gave me directions, and I told her
that I might not be able to make it, and if the car stopped I’d call so they could send a towtruck. Fortunately, I got the car started after
checking out of the hotel, and I limped down the service road as far as I could before getting back on the Interstate. The car had enough
power to start, but as I drove down the road, the needle started falling towards the redline. It was only a mile or so from where I got back
on the Interstate, but that was about the longest piece of highway I’ve been on. I took the exit she had told me to take, pulled up to the
light just as it turned green (yes!) and made my way into the parking lot of the garage. I got it parked just as it gave up the ghost. When I
went in, I told them they’d have to push it into the garage.

The guy in charge, who I figured was the owner, took my info and my cell phone number, and welcomed me to sit in the lobby while they
worked. Fortunately, the garage was next to a Burger King, so I told him I’d be there getting some breakfast. I hadn’t finished my C’rsandwich
when my cell phone rang. It was the garage guy, who told me it was definitely the alternator, and that they had one in stock, so it’d be fixed
by 11:00 AM. Greatly relieved, I hung up and leisurely finished my breakfast while reading one of my books (“Mortal Prey”, by John Sandford).
I walked back across the parking lot to the garage, exchanged some pleasantries with the other folks there, and promptly took a nap in one
of their comfy chairs (wasn’t planned, but they were so comfortable, and I was so sleep-deprived)

Once I put the $280 charge on my card for the repair, I got back on I-10 headed east. The trip was completely without incident, and I made
it all the way to Granada, Mississippi, where I’m writing this. And contrary to some comments, this is the first time I’ve had broadband Internet
access the whole trip! It’s so refreshing, being able to actually load web pages again, and download my email, and do all the other net things
a true geek needs broadband to do! Comfort Inn here provides free DSL to each room. Interestingly enough, I saw a couple of truck stops in
Texas that offered wireless Internet access, but I never stopped to try them out. Wireless Internet access at a truck stop. Who would have
thought?

Anyway, Granada MS is about 90 miles south of Memphis, and just for the heck of it, I’m going to stop by Graceland, if it’s easy to do. Then, on
to Nashville to visit my brother and his family!