January 25, 2018
Ugh! I hate everything!
Well, okay. Not everything…
I’m just frustrated because so many bad habits I have are so
ingrained in me. And I don’t realize it sometimes until after the fact. For
instance: recently I bought some batteries for our bathroom scale. They’re
these disc format batteries and for the longest time we (my wife and I) have been
intending to get these batteries. A couple times we’d go to Walmart to get them
and they’d be out of the ones we needed. My wife finally ordered some online
only to realize when they arrived that she ordered the wrong ones. They’re
number CR 2032 and she got something else.
Well, in my travels, back in late 2017 (November?) when I was
running around trying to film scenes for my impulsive film* featuring John
Karyus (before he moved back to L.A.), I was at Walgreen’s buying a memory card
for the video camera I was using (and borrowing) and, coincidentally, I saw the
batteries we needed for the bathroom scale. However, I barely had enough money
for buying the memory card so I couldn’t buy the bathroom scale batteries at
the time as well. Finally, weeks later I made a point of buying these damn
batteries.
I went to Walgreen’s. They still had them. I got them.
YAY!
I brought them home, I told my wife, and I was a conquering
hero (yes, apparently there’s a lot of leeway in the definition of “conquering
hero”). I put the batteries somewhere to be dealt with later. Now it’s later
and I HAVE NO CLUE WHERE I PUT THOSE FREAKING BATTERIES.
ARGHHHH!!!
Typical Kimmel
situation. No organized manner of putting things anywhere. I just… put them
down… somewhere.
Hence, my mature Ugh-ing and Arghhh-ing here.
January 27
Still haven’t found those damn batteries (of course, I
really did only a cursory search of them).
Meanwhile: Holy crap, only a few days left in January!
Time waits for no man.
January 28
I still hate
everything.
But I got a couple things done today.
Well, one thing,
so far. I moved the little fridge out of the far corner of the basement and
moved it closer to my bed. Yes, I live in the basement of our new house. This
clears space for the other three file cabinets to come from our old house (we
moved in August but still have to finish moving crap out of the old house and
getting it ready for sale). Also, I now have a side table (aka small fridge)
for my bed! I also moved my dad’s telescope (actually my telescope when I was a kid, but I never really used it) out of
the far section of the basement as well and stuck it in another corner of the
basement, but a corner which I’ve cleared up a little to accommodate this damn
dusty astronomical instrument and where it’s a little more conveniently
situated in terms of being actually out of the way now. It’s just some
re-organizing and a little bit of actual organizing some of my junk where it’s
supposed to go. Although, to be honest, really not that much and there’s so
much more to do. But moving this fridge was something I meant to do for at least
a week and I kept putting it off. So, that’s one less thing…
I’m trying to better appreciate the fact that I have a much
more convenient situation conducive to creating art than Pam does and I should
embrace that advantage and run with it. Oh! Who’s Pam? Have I mentioned her before? Pam and I have been supposedly
working on a comic book for well over a decade (!) with no comic book to show
for it yet (!!!). We call ourselves the Apple Corps Comic Book Club. She lives at home with her parents and an older sister who
has two kids and Pam has far less space available to her in order to create.
So, I have no excuse to be wasting time is what I’m saying.
So, I’m trying to enjoy this luxury of having my own living
space and, therefore, my own creative space.
I SHOULD BE MAKING ART.
God, I hate me.
January 30
Alright, this post is all over the place, so let me attempt
to wrap things up here.
Tomorrow is one of my rare work days where I start in the
afternoon and get out in the evening. So, I’m going to take advantage of not
having to work tomorrow morning by watching at least one of the several movies
I’ve DVRed tonight. Our DVR queue is at over 30% full and I’m continuing my
(bad) habit from our old house of impulsively recording movies and never
seeming to actually getting around to watching them. So, I want to try and
address that.
I’m also suppose to re-read a chapter of FROZEN fan fiction
that my friend Laszlo sent me in order to send him feedback. I already offered
him some comments and then he addressed those comments, so now I want to
re-read the chapter with that in mind.
I’m also supposed to be doing this drawing as a challenge
that me and a guy from work are doing. The work dude’s name is Tim and we showed
each other some drawings we did. He has some ambitions to be a tattoo artist.
We decided to try and do some drawing together, so to speak. This is our first
attempt. Right now, we’re alternating who suggests what to draw and Tim got the
first choice. Channeling my days at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh (AIP)(and
ca. 1978-1980 – cripes, I’m old!), I’m considering these challenges as
“assignments” as I try to get into a mindset and routine of drawing and
ultimately re-doing my art portfolio.
Everything in my portfolio is really from decades ago and
for good reason: pretty much everything I created of any value to show anybody
was from decades ago. Except for an unexpected epic drawing I did as a poster
for a local film, MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE, by writer/director Rhonda Parker, a
friend of mine. I did that at the end of last summer, finishing it in September,
barely in time for the film’s premiere. But, seriously, that’s it! Everything
else in my portfolio is from the 80s or
90s. It’s pathetic!
Anyway, our first drawing “assignment,” courtesy of Tim, was
to create an alien landscape. Well, we talked about this almost two weeks ago,
like, Monday, Jan. 22. We gave ourselves a week, so theoretically, finishing
these drawings by Monday, Jan. 29.
Well, I didn’t get mine done at all. The most I did was
actually draw the outline of the box on the paper to define how big my drawing
was going to be. Then I lightly penciled a couple lines horizontally to
supposedly indicate where my horizon line was going to be and then maybe half a
dozen words scribbled in around the page (and in the box) where I thought some
things and details should be. That was the extent of my “drawing.” I finally
showed Tim this on Tuesday and he said, “Well, you did more than me.” He then
admitted that he rather impulsively suggested this “alien landscape” subject, that
it was the first thing that popped in his head. I admitted landscapes are not
really my thing, that I was focusing on aliens foremost and sticking them in a
supposedly alien landscape. But I do have some specific ideas. I just have to
see how it translates in the execution.
February 2, Groundhog’s Day
SIX MORE WEEKS OF WINTER!?
Ah, nuts to you,
ya chubby rodent! NOTE: Specifically, the chubby rodent in Pennsylvania, a
groundhog named Punxutawney Phil. Apparently, there are almost half a dozen
other meteorologically-minded mammals who have achieved some sort of regional
celebrity status in North America who predicted an early Spring, so who knows?
Getting back to drawing.
I started off this post annoyed and with good reason: every
New Year’s day I am hopeful for a new start to re-invent myself as someone with
less foibles or downright character flaws and also to have made some more
creative accomplishments. It usually seems a futile ambition.
But having said that…
As of this writing, I have been to work on time 13 days
straight, something I’m proud of and also rather astonished I was able to pull
off. And believe me, there were a handful of days that were really close calls.
But still, I have a solid streak going on here.
As I mentioned above, I did do a brand new piece of artwork
last summer. Considering the stressful circumstances it was created under (i.e.
our move into a new house), there was no way that piece of artwork should have
come into being, but it did; and on top of that, it turned out to be one of my
better and detailed drawings. It isn’t perfect and it still seems somewhat
unfinished to me, but only in terms of my original ambitions, so that is also a
positive accomplishment by me.
So, those are two specific items I can list (and somehow have
pulled off!) in terms of both creating better routines/habits and also
achieving some creative goals. I just want to be more consistent at maintaining
both and achieving even more in each category.
Is that so much to ask for?
Hahahaha!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
