Early to bed, early to rise

I climbed into bed early and was out within a few minutes. But that means that my body woke me up at 4:00 a.m. Arrrggghhh.

So here I sit and type at our kitchen counter eating Shredded Wheat with blackberries. I love blackberries. They have got to be my favorite fruit now. I remember passing blackberry bushes on the way to school when I was a high school kid. They are green prickly bushes that you don't want to tangle with. So it was always a graceful dance, plucking the blackberries when they ripened. I never thought that the bushes might belong to someone. Like, for example, the homeowner who watched me pick their fruit from their window.

But I digress...

When I as a kid, my favorite breakfast cereal was LIFE. Great stuff. Now? Now it's too sweet for my taste. Shredded Wheat is like LIFE without the sugar. The wafers are slightly bigger. I get the three-in-one packet kind of Shredded Wheat. They're not bite sized. You have to break them up as you drop them into the bowl. That's part of the fun. I like to breakup the "hay rolls." That's what they remind me of: hay rolls. You know the kind I mean. They are those huge rolls of hay dotting the green fields off the long stretches of highway in the country.

Anyway, I went to bed early and now I pay for it.

It's been insane at the Enterprise. I'm drawing ever more frantically. Every minute the diagrams change because someone wants me to add this or that to make it complete. I've got another new boss. How many have I had since I joined in 2002? Six or seven? I burn them up very quick. I guess I push my bosses pretty hard.

It's time to get rocking...it's 6:20 and time to book!

...dave
My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can. -Cary Grant

Shots

Getting ready for China by preparing with shots.

...dave
My doctor is wonderful. Once, in 1955, when I couldn’t afford an operation, he touched up the X-rays. -Joey Bishop

A Tale of Two Cats

I've finally figured out why our cats are so different -- Snickers and Taco.

Snickers is the kind of cat that wants to be near you but doesn't want to be touched. He must not have had many hugs when he was young.

Taco, on the other hand, wants to be touched. Often he jumps on our bed and winds himself up between Ruth and I so that his chin is resting on my typing arm (often I blog from bed) and his tail is touching Ruth's arm. He's just the kind of guy that likes the human touch.

But here's the strange thing, we raised Snickers. We always put him on our chest at night and could feel him purring. Taco was chased out of the house next store by three nasty cats that nearly killed him.

Now, Taco spends more time at our house then he does at our next door neighbors. I don't know what we are going to do when we move. Should we ask them if we can keep him? He's never over there so I don't really think it could matter.

Taco is a cool cat. He lets me pet his paw pads. Snickers will draw his paws inward if I try that. Taco will drape himself over just about anything, me, the chair, the edge of the bed. Snickers will curl himself in a ball on something high so that he can see whats going on. He doesn't trust anyone.

Sometimes Snickers will lay right in our office doorway, like he's garding the entry. He'll swack (swich + whack) his tail while he watchs us type on our computers. Nothing goes unmonitored with him. Taco? He's usually draped in our lap, paw and leg extended and chin hanging over the edge of the chair.

Today I caught Taco draped on our kitchen bar stool absorbing the morning's sunbeam. I grabbed this photo sliding around on our wood floor while Ruth made breakfast.

He's absolutely content.

...dave
You can't own a cat. The best you can do is be partners. - Sir Harry Swanson

Everyday Sketching

Here are some silly sketches I've made in the last few weeks.

The idea here is to sketch everyday. Why? It's a stress reliever. Just like anything else, sketching everyday will mean your sketches will get better. People are not born with drawing ability, it's developed and practiced everyday.

I am thinking that if I'm not too intimidated, I'll try sketching the sights and streets of China. It would be a great ice breaker and I'd carry home some interesting memories.

I guess my silly sketches have gotten somewhat better. Although I've always liked to draw, sketching everyday is a great way to improve my drawing ability quickly. I used to think I needed to carve out hours to do a drawing. Often the finished results were not what I planned. Sketching everyday means that the result doesn't have to be a frame-able work of art, it may even be unfinished, but it's a way to improve my ability sooner just using a few minutes in a day.

Now I carry the sketchbook with me everyday. I'll draw my eggs in the morning, a chair in the afternoon, or something on my desk in the evening. It's become sort of an obsession. Even if I don't have my sketchbook, I'll use my work journal, napkin, or even a 4x6 index card laying on my desk.

It's surprising what you can draw in just five minutes standing in a post office line or waiting for your hot water to boil in the mornings.

It doesn't matter what it looks like when you're done. Think of it as therapy. Many of my sketches are horrendous, but once in a while I'll get it right. If you keep a small sketchbook, you can look back at your progress. You'd be surprised at your progress just over a week or more. I know I was.

Dad had a construction accident one morning and pulled his fingers right out of their sockets. Now he is doing therapy to gain back the movement. I had pulled my thumb back skiing and had an exercise ball. As a drawing exercise I drew up how to use the sand-balloon and sent it with the 4x6 card attached. Here are the quick sketches I did. I even tried my hand at watercolor. Ruth bought a watercolor-a-day calendar that came with six colors. By mixing yellow and a touch of black I got a tan skin tone. It's amazing how relaxing this little effort was for me. I think dad got a kick out of it. He sent me a few photos of him using it.

...dave
When prosperity comes, do not use all of it. ~Confucius

Planning what to do in China

We are getting closer to the trip. It's just 13 days away. We don't have any idea what we are going to do in China other than visit three cities. Ruth doesn't want to plan, she just wants to play it by ear and be surprised. She's for a serendipitous approach.

But I'm thinking that if we just breeze in and don't plan anything, maybe we will miss something really grand.

So at lunch I started reading. I found that in Beijing there are back streets with gates that if you smile politely the local people will let you tour. There are parks and lookouts to visit in and around the Forbidden City.

Then I got to wondering what the local people think about all the visiting foreign devils (yep, that's what they call us).

There was another interesting place that caught my eye. It's called Echo Wall. It's a concave concrete wall that will carry a whisper from one side to the other. Trouble is, there are often so many tourists yelling it's hard to test a whisper.

We've done most of our shopping now. I'm going carry on and Ruth is doing a check-a-bag. I've been reading all about taking and packing a single bag. A great site called www.onebag.com has some fantastic suggestions. It describes the art of traveling light. It has a checklist you can download and illustrations on packing your single carry on bag. Very cool.

But here's the thing, I may just lay out all my junk the night before our travel and decide to go ahead and pack a roller and check the bag. Who knows?

Which reminds me very little of the stewardess that asked the guy sitting in first class if he wanted her to stow his bag in the overhead bin. To which he replied: "Nah, this time let her sit next to me."

...dave
The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. - Augustine (354-430)

Photo School

In preparation of our trip I decided to get some photo schooling.

I went down to the library and picked up lots of books and even a video on photography.

The video was entitled: The Absolute Best School of Photography.

It wasn't. I didn't learn one thing! I fell asleep watching it. That's how absorbing it was.

How can a video say it's the last word on photography?

Even the example photos were horrible. I've seen better pictures on a Wheaties box. It was ridiculous. It was painful.

It's not like the guy wasn't trying. He was. He talked about bounce flash, focal lengths, f-stops, apertures, depth of field, golden squares (although he didn't call it that), and what to carry in your bag.

There was one point in the video where he had all his lenses out on a table and one by one he placed them in his huge bag. He must have had 20 lenses. It must have weighed 30 pounds when he loaded up the bag. But the painful part was picking up each lens and telling us what focal length it was and how he'd use it. It must have taken 10 minutes to run through this little monologue.

He could have been teaching us about double exposures, cloud painting, light painting at night, cityscapes, panning, neutral density, split neutral density, and motion capture.

Instead I saw star filters and multi-image filters, neither of which I ever use.

Maybe I should do my own video. It would at least be more entertaining to watch.

...dave
Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter.  ~Ansel Adams

Chinese Class Gathering

We had a great time last night at the Chinese Gathering for both the first and second class of students. We had lots of great food (hao chi) and fun (hao wan). Ruth even made fresh sushi. My single contribution was the chicken tenders. I made them using our Hamilton Beach Indoor Grill. It's really easy. Ruth already marinated them so I just stuck them on the grill and pushed the timer to 3 1/2 minutes.

As the sun began to set we found a cool tree and posed for some photos. The Wang family came out the best I think. It almost looks like it was taken in a studio. They are very photogenic.

You can view the slide show here or click on the picture above.

...dave
Do vegetarians eat animal crackers?

What's in your junk drawer?

I think you can learn a lot from looking in people's junk drawers. Everyone has a least one, maybe two. You know the kind of drawer I'm talking about. It's that drawer in the kitchen or garage that you just toss stuff into. What's in your junk drawer?

I don't know why I don't throw the stuff out. I don't use any of it, and never will. But somehow it's reassuring to open it up and stare inside at some of the cool stuff I used.

Like, for example, the calculator watch. It's kinda cool really. It's got little buttons just like a 10-key calculator, except a little smaller. You could reconcile your checkbook, calculate your computer's disk space,or even keep a total of the items in your shopping cart at the grocery store. So many cool uses for this watch. The great thing about it is that it's waterproof. I used it when we went to Hanauma Bay in Hawaii. (That way I could total the fish that swam by.)

But I had other things in my junk drawer that were really cool. For example I have some mini-disks from my Sony CD player. Yes, it's true that was before the iPods, but still it's sort of nostalgic looking at them now. I used to get great pleasure out of filling up a re-writable CD with some 30 songs. That was cool back then.

I've also got some old travel chargers for my old Palm devices by Palm Inc. before they were bought out by U.S. Robitics and then bought back again. Those were the days when I could fit my entire rolodex on one device.

I know it all sounds so old fashioned looking back from these days. I suppose my Blackberry will join the junk drawer haunts someday soon. But its all so sad really. Here were cool, electronic devices that seemed vital at the time but have become like Woody in Toy Story, they have been abandoned by their owner for the much cooler toys, like Buzz Lightyear.

And so I close my junk drawer for now only to gaze upon it once again at some future time and smile at the useless items I still can't seem to throw out.

...dave
Things ain't what they used to be and probably never was.  ~Will Rogers

Time for Tea

Maybe I haven't mentioned this before but . . . I really love White Tip Earl Grey tea from specialteas.com.

I was first introduced to it by Kevin Walker in California. I was telling Kevin that I have to get off of coffee, at least for a while. My system was shutting down and I needed a replacement.

He said: "Wait right here and I'll be back in five minutes. You'll drink something that's fantastic!"

He was gone in a flash while I sat outside in under his trellis of posies. The sun was setting, his outside water feature was calming and I began to close my eyes and rest.

I heard Kevin say: "Try this."

I opened my eyes to a carmel colored cup of hot tea. It's fragrance was divine. Kevin had placed a very small amount of sugar to give it a sweet honey taste.

Kevin told me he has this tea each morning before starting his day. I was hooked.

In appreciation of Kevin's suggestion and gift of some of his tea, I wrote this poem.

Some six years later I'm drinking the same liquid.


I use a simple tea infuser, a 10 cup white tea pot, electric tea kettle, electronic tea timer, and of course, White Tip Earl Grey.

It's great any time.

I still drink my Peets Coffee in the morning and after a heavy Italian meal (Blend 101 is fantastic), but I still have my tea anytime.

...dave
Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea? How did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea. -Sydney Smith

Getting Old

I think I must be getting old. I KNOW I'm getting old. As the sun goes down I find myself looking forward to going to sleep. It's true. Sleeping is now my favorite thing to do.

I remember that when I was young I'd beg to stay up.

Now? Now I can't wait to get into bed and go to sleep. I look forward to that time of the day when I put socks over my low circulation toes, when I put my little knitted cap over my receding hairline, turn up my heating pad, and fall asleep watching the 10:00 news.

I believe the older I get the sweeter my sleep.

...dave
Life is something that happens when you can't get to sleep. -Fran Lebowitz

Pipe Dream

I couldn't get to sleep last night, coughing and all. I've been sick a bit.

So I was channel surfing when I stopped at PBS. PBS had a special drive asking for membership. They were "giving away" a DVD from Animusic if you contributed $75.

They played all the tunes from Animusic but I found that my favorite was Pipe Dream. Animusic is digital music with digital animation.

I found Pipe Dream online here. (Takes a while but you will not be disappointed.)

Wow. What fantastic work. It's eye AND ear candy. It's wonderful. It'll take a while to download but it's really worth it, believe me.

Wow, all I can say is "WOW"!

...dave
Help beautify our dumps, throw away something pretty.

Why'd you take so much time off?

When my friend first asked me that question regarding the pause in blogging, I couldn't help but remember Stephen Wright's lines:

I was on a ski lift when the guy next to me says:

It's been a long time since I've been skiing.

Me too, was in an accident. How about you? Why'd you take so much time off?

Just got out of prison. Want to know why I was in?

Not really. No, go ahead, tell me.

I was sent to prison for pushing a guy off a ferris wheel for absolutely no reason.

I think I may remember you.

...dave
It is hard to understand how a cemetery raised its burial cost and blamed it on the cost of living.

Back Again

You might of thought I was finished but alas, I guess not.

Yeah, I've spent some time away. Kind of a hiatus I guess.

Got a call from a friend who said: "Hey, where's the blogs? I've been counting on them! I read every one. Sometimes I print them out and read them to my friends." She needs to get a life.

I mean spending time reading a blog about nothing. That's as bad as watching a show about nothing. Wait a minute. That's how Seinfeld made HIS millions. Maybe there's cash in my future.

No really. I was just taking some time off. I mean, let's face it, even Michelangelo had to stop sculpting long enough to find more marble. (Not that I'm related or anything.) It just makes sense that after 365 days of blogging I'd need to go find more raw material.

It's not that nothing has been happening or anything. Lots of craziness at work. Like, the Enterprise is talking about off-shoring lots of work, people are panicking, some are saying: "What about me? I've been here for 12 years." Yeah, well, that's the way it goes these days. Trying to stay ahead of the pack so that you can stay employed is the greatest skill you need. Or in the spirit of Who Moved My Cheese?, it's time to lace up those sneakers.

Truth is, according to the book, The World Is Flat if you don't work in a service job, you'd better get one because all the jobs that can be digitized will be off-shored within five years. (That's kind of a general quote or the gist of what he said anyway.)

Me? Oh I'll just keep on drawing pictures at work. Lots of boxes and lines that represent processes and interfaces. It's a great life. (Just can't believe what they pay me for this kind of stuff.)

I've also been sketching some. I've been following Danny Gregory's site. I also bought his book, Everyday Matters. He's big on getting people to sketch, regardless of your talent. If you want motivation, read his The Creative License.

...dave
Don't waste your time on a woman, who isn't willing to waste their time on you.