my fun has ended

on the way back from the gym today, i guess i picked up some road debris. i wonder if i have tools to take the tire off? do they still patch innertubes these days? now i remember why i didn't like biking.

long pose

blah.

the model was fine, the pose was fine, i was in a pretty good spot until i realized the foreshortening on her face would make doing a portrait really tough. oh well, there's always next week. i went back to the large pad tonight and used a different pencil than the past few weeks.

make pretty pictures

this is a graph made from the html of jayfish.blogspot.com



make your own here. fun!

wine tasting

saturday, my girlfriend and i went wine tasting. it was really the first time i had done it as the last time i actually went to wineries, i didn't drink wine at all. we had a great time. the weather was colder than we both expected but it was still pretty nice. we stopped by a grocery store and grabbed some things for a picnic.
the first winery was pretty good, no charge for the tasting and it looked like there was some club stuff going on. i tried my first port and it was pretty good. even better after a bite of chocolate! i ended up buying a cab and a small bottle of port. they had a picnic area so we took a break and tried to load up on some food. it was a little windy and i didn't bring a jacket so it was a fairly quick meal.
the second winery was super crowded! we didn't see an immediate way to get a glass for the tasting so after standing around looking lost for a few minutes, we decided to split. too crowded and not very organized.
the third was a really tiny place, the tasting room looked like a living room but smaller. they had some pretty good stuff and i ended up getting a bottle of the estate cab.
number 4 was pretty fancy, they charged $5 per person for the tasting but allowed a shared tasting. this was the most expensive place of the day but it was cool to have them run through the different wines. i think we had 7 total and my favorites were the semillon chardonay and the meritage red. yeah, i got one bottle of each. they also had some gourmet mustards that were really tasty too.
the last stop was one that my girlfriend had been to before. when we got there, we were one of 2 couples. when we left, there must have been 5 or 6 plus a few single folks. the lady pouring the wine was running all over the place. there was a $4 charge or each of us for the tasting but we must have had 9 or 10 different wines. some were good, some not so much but as we were at the end of our tasting, a guy came in to help out the girl pouring wine. he seemed like he might be the owner or something. after we finished off our last one and gave him the rundown of what we wanted to buy, he pulled a tiny bottle from underneath the counter and told us this wasn't for sale yet but he had entered it in a few competitions and i have to say, it was the best! it was port so it was sweet but it was soooooo yummy! all by itself. he said it'd be available in 6 weeks or so, so i think i might need to make another trip just to grab a bottle or two of this one.

what a great saturday!

oops, i did it again

i rode my bike in again. 2 days this week! whee! too bad the wind was blowing so hard...

i went to see the 3rd installment of the x-men today during lunch (okay, a loong lunch). i wasn't impressed.

i need a bike

last thursday was "ride your bike to work day" so i tried it. i've got an old bmx bike and even though i only live 2 miles from where i work, this was the first time i'd ever biked it. it was easy. it took me just a little bit longer than when i drive but it made me think that i should be trying to ride to work more often. i did it again yesterday and i'm realizing i need a better bike. yes, it's only 4 miles round trip but i sit so low on the thing and i'm sure it looks like i stole it from some 15 year old. i guess i need to troll craigslist or the classified ads.

hmmm, should i bike in to work again today? my messenger bag was *really* heavy yesterday and i need to take all that stuff back with me today. plus it'd be nice to run errands at lunchtime. i guess the bike will have to wait.

i was really happy that my gf came over last night after bookclub. i was missing her a bit and even though she came over late, i kept her up even later 'cause i was talking non-stop. have i mentioned how hot she is? freaking beautiful. :)

long pose

turns out tonight was the same model/same pose as last week. eh. i was looking forward to something different since i wasn't really happy with the pose. i did have a different sketch pad this time, it's a little smaller ~9 1/2" x 11" or something like that but it was also much more rough than my last pad so i wasn't able to get much of the details. not that i got that much farther than last week. :)

time waster of the day

i haven't found any nekkid people yet but i'm still looking...

infinite zoom

uh oh

i feel a new purchase coming on...

nike + apple = love

probably sick of hearing this

but as she was making dinner for me last night, i was thinking again that i'm so amazed at how well my girlfriend and i communicate. this is something i haven't had with past relationships so this makes me incredibly happy. we both tend to overanalyze things but as we do it, we talk about our thoughts out loud and to each other. so not only do i get to know what she feels but why she feels that way.

i think communication was a large part of what caused my past relationships to fail. either on my part or theirs, it was those things we held back that we shouldn't have. those things we were afraid of saying, unsure of the reaction we'd get. those things we knew would set the other person off so we kept quiet. things that should have been brought up to make life easier.

one of the best things my gf and i do is talk before we go to sleep. laying next to her with the lights out, it's just voices. thoughts. feelings. we both remember things from earlier that we forgot to bring up. we talk about silly television shows. we talk about other people. we talk about work and friends. it sounds hokey but this makes me feel grounded. like the base of our relationship is growing and getting stronger.

i hope everyone finds someone like this.

laughing yoga

man, this is the best! i feel like i just worked out!

laugh with the yogi


...don't feel shy!

the weekend

whew! even though i haven't done much, it feels like the weekend has flown by. friday night, my gf and i ate some leftovers before we jetted out to grab my mom from the airport. we then drove her out to my sister's house where she'll be staying for the week. it's funny how 2 granddaughters has made her come out here more in the three years than the entire time i've been here. it's not a bad thing, just a funny observation. she has such a great time with the little girls. she even brings a special pan to make madelines with the older of the two. too cute.

saturday, i had stayed over at my gf's so i made some breakfast. just eggs and tofu "sausage" (i overdid it on the cheese in the eggs, whoops!) then she and i headed out to watch the a's against the giants. she's an a's fan (i'm a new recruit) but even so, we were pretty happy to see barry bonds tie babe ruth's home run record. i'm still pretty proud i got a shot of it.



too much sun at the stadium (even though the weather called for clouds all day) meant she and i had headaches (hmmm, was it the beer?) after the game so we zonked out when we got back to my place. a little over an hour later, we managed to get moving and went back to her casa so she could feed her kitties. we had some veggie potstickers and edamame plus, i made us a couple white russians a piece(!). needless to say, we were both pretty loopy as we watched the season finale of the o.c. and a few jeopardy! episodes. i think we finally made it to bed by midnight. btw, i really like white russians. very tasty drinks!

on sunday, we had plans to meet up with a tribe of friends for a special event. that went really well and i think everyone had a pretty good time. after than, my gf said she really needed to do some laundry so i let her go home while i ran off to a couple of stores looking for parts for a lighting project i'm dreaming up. i'll probably blow a breaker or something but i really like to get crafty every once in a while.
see? the weekend flew by!

hope everyone else out there had a good one!

no fair, i had this idea too...

a scale that can hook up to your pc so you can track your weight loss/gain.

neato scale

japanese television

is really bizarre. funny, but bizarre.

speaking of tattoos

80 year old woman gets a tattoo

"She had the words "DO NOT RESUSCITATE" tattooed on her chest."

...interesting idea.

long pose

my new sketchpad is 11"x17" and i think that might be a little too big for my normal speed of drawing. for example, tonight's drawing. i didn't get to the feet, the head, the arms... i kinda missed a large portion of it, huh? maybe i'll hit the art store before next week to see if i can grab a slightly smaller one. anyway, here's what i was able to get to tonight:

sculpture

not much to report, i got called out of class again to work. i'm in the process of trying to cut the bust in half so i can hollow it out. the clay had dried up a bit more than i expected it to but luckily, it hasn't cracked. i misted it with water and bagged it tight so hopefully it will soak up a little moisture and make the splitting easier.

whee!

spf

it's all about 2. what that means we don't know, but this is what kristine has asked to see...

1. Something you have 2 of.
2. Something you wish you had 2 more of.
3. “Two”

this one was difficult. so many possibilities...

1.) Something you have 2 of.
shoes were an easy choice and vans are my shoes of choice. they're pretty cheap, come in all sorts of colors and i can buy them off the net without having to try them on. yay!



2.) Something you wish you had 2 more of.
i wish i had 2 more hours in the day. i want more time to sleep. more time with my girlfriend. more time to get things done. more time to play. more time to eat. more time to enjoy the sunshine. more time to take photos. more wha? that's more than 2? oh...



3.) "Two"
you hardly see these guys anymore but i've always liked them...



well now, that wasn't 2 hard. did you play 2?

i kinda wish this would happen...

opinion piece from sfgate.com. bring on the $6 gallon of gas

long pose

last night was the long pose session. it went okay. the pose was okay but since the model was rather thin, it was a little difficult to get a good angle (as you can see; her pointy shoulder). i'm pretty happy with the values on her torso/butt/legs but would have liked more time to get the rest of her legs in. the lighting wasn't on her head hardly at all and she had a difficult hairstyle to reproduce. in general, it's not bad.



sculpture on monday was what i expected. i already knew who the model was going to be and i've sculpted her many times. i don't think i've kept any of the sculpts though as they never seem to be compelling. i spent the class time trying to hollow out the sculpt from the first session. it had already dried more than i wanted so i was really scraping dust. maybe a dremel tool would be a good idea. or some rasps. i'm not sure what i'll do for the next 3 sessions since i don't plan on sculpting from the model. maybe i'll work on hollowing out the portrait since that will probably take a loooooong time.

interesting product

if it wasn't $70, i might buy one.
powerbreathe
another linky

...i'd like to see if it really does what it claims.


oh yeah, best movie ever!!!

(next to showgirls, of course.)

spf

happy cinco de mayo!

for this weeks spf, the very random and very odd kristine wants to see these things:
• Body of Water - think big or small…it’s up to you.

• Something with Flavor - yes, another wide open one

• Plant your Ass - where you park it…

so here's my pics...

1) body of water - i decided that since i live really close to the ocean, the bay, and a lake, it's best i just take a picture of a drop of water. in this case, it's a few. they're sitting on a hard drive platter. it's pretty neat that you can see what's outside my office window in the drops so i've left it a little big if you want to click on it.




2) something with flavor - jeez, this was hard. i looked all over my house but nothing really jumped out at me with flavor so i snapped these sad little sweettarts.



3) plant your ass - it's kinda hard to make out if you didn't know what it was but this is the stool i sit on every day at work. it's called a swopper and it's supposed to be good for your back. i end up slouching on this just as much as a regular chair though


there you have it. thanks for stopping by!

20 questions

stoled from the lovely zerodoll

1. You have $10 and need to buy snacks at a gas station; what do you buy? prolly a sprite and something with chocolate. rolos perhaps? then of course, a box of... nevermind.

2. If you had to be reincarnated as some sort of sea dwelling creature, what would you be? how about one of those giant squid! or maybe a giant sea turtle that lives to be over 150 years old! (duuuude, call me crush)

3. Who’s your favorite redhead? pippi longstocking? nah... raggedy anne? nah... i can't think of any.

4. What do you order when you’re at a pancake house? i'd probably go with a couple of eggs over medium/hard, a short stack of pancakes, a couple strips of bacon, and some whole wheat toast. plus a large orange juice. :) ya know, the classic.

5. Do you own any naughty toys? i own all sorts of toys.

6. Have you made out with anyone on your blog roll? as a matter of fact...

7. Describe the last time you were injured. Injured how bad? well, my achilles is kinda hurting at the moment. my guess is i didn't stretch enough before running on the beach. but in general, i cut myself shaving a lot.

8. Tell me a weird story from your high school years: how about the one where a group of us won an art contest and our teacher never told us there was a cash prize?

9. What is the wallpaper on your cell phone? um... default?

10. Soda?nowadays, it's mostly sprite, 7-up, or ginger ale. occasionally, i'll get a root beer but really, i'm trying not to drink much soda.

11. Flavor of pudding? is there anything other than chocolate? if so, i don't wanna know about it.

12. What type of shirt are you wearing? i'm kinda liking these american apparel tees. hmm, maybe i need to gift some of these. hubba hubba!

13. Prescription medication? once you get to be a certain age, it's difficult to not need something.

14. If you could use only one form of transportation for the rest of your life what would it be? i'd like it if my legs worked so, walking? other than that, maybe one of those beanies with the propeller on top?

15. How many people are on your blog roll? crap. making me open up another window and making me count! um... 15?

16. How many people on your blog roll(s) do you know in real life? 5

17. What are you listening to right now? back in love by ltd. oops, now it's the cutting crew. really, i'm all over the place with music.

18. Most recent movie you watched. thank you for smoking

19. Name 5 things you have with you at all times. wallet, keys, watch, um... clothes? i don't *always* have a camera with me but i try...

20. Name a teacher you had the hots for. i can't remember a specific teacher but i'm pretty sure i had the hots for a lot of the tutors/teacher's assistants/student teachers.

adjust the heat

on your food. an adjustable hot sauce sprayer.

cracker

from here: linky
(sorry zerodoll, there's no z.)

long pose

blah. frustrating. i think i almost wore a hole in the paper by erasing her face so many times. it's still not what i want but i'll leave it be and move on. funny, i made her fatter this time around. maybe she ate a lot since last week? i like the proportions on this one more but i think i had a better likeness in the last one. oh well. next week is a new week.

haha

for lunch i had a cheeseburger and fries. i had a big pile of mustard and ketchup for dipping. i took out my point and shoot camera to take a pic and into the mustard it went. yay! i think i got it mostly cleaned off but just now (2 hours after lunch) i noticed i had a big fat mustard stain on my jeans. whee!

...no wonder i kept smelling it.

sculpture - session 3

this was the final session with this model. i was hoping to get further along but am pretty happy with what i was able to accomplish. there still needs to be a bit of refining on the face (especially the eyes) and just an overall sweep. i got a few pointers from a couple of the other sculptors so that was helpful. the teacher is good but it's nice to have fresh eyes on your work. as a bonus, the model said he liked my sculpt and asked if he could give me an offer for it. yay! i'd still want to hollow it out and get it fired (and i've got tons of other things to fire) then i'll email him and see if he still wants it. this would be my first sculpture sale. anyhoo, here's the beef: