OK, to follow up from yesterdays post.
I was working on my next Monday ProjectSubmission while having a couple of beers. I actually have another idea, but it’s very technical and involved a lot more planning.
But while trying to work it out I stumbled on doing this…
Ripples
Very similar in someways to this old drawing I did years and years ago. Back when the earth was young…
ripples the first
But I think I stuffed up the lighting. I want the light source, to be from the top left corner, even though to top left is in shadow…
The main problem is… I think that involves shifting the lines that are shaded. However, that’s really hard when you have all these intersecting lines. It’s really hard to keep track of what’s what, especially after a couple of beers. I’m starting to suspect some sort of maths may be involved, to determine the number of circles and distance between them to make things easier.
But then again maybe not…
So any advice people?
So there is this training program at work, for the 2IC role within the different teams. I imagine it’s to keep us all excited that there is a career path for us, but they don’t want us to get too excited and actually think about management positions because, after all we don’t have a degree in ‘introducing policies that will end up being useless or detrimental and have to be revoked in 6 months.” Plus, god forbid if someone with a little knowledge of actually what goes on gets in the position where they may have some input on a important decision.
Anyway, I applied cause there was so little to do, I thought it might fill in time. Plus there is a little bit of a pay bump which is never to be sneezed at. Unfortunately, it means just doing a lot more reports and paperwork and things like that. Basically anything too boring and repetitive for management or team leaders to do.
Yesterday, I received an email saying I’ve got an interview for the program.
I’m now trying to remember why the hell I sent in my application. I’m not convinced the benefits are worth all the hassle.
As part of the interview process, I’ve got to give a presentation including “the 3 top issues I see the company has.”
I’m tempted to do one about the impending invasion by the aliens from the planet Xzzffaght. Cause really, if humankind is enslaved, it could really affect the 4th-quarter projected outcomes.
My friend would refer to this as a CLM (Career Limiting Moment).
Still the idea tickles my funny bone. I may be unemployed soon…
So you would think as the person credited with coming up with this months Monday Projecttheme, I would have been chock full of creative ideas…
Sadly, no.
So my first thought was “AHHHH! I HAVE NO FREAKING IDEA! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO? STUFF THIS, I’M GOING TO BECOME A HERMIT!!!”
But as it turns out, lonely mountain tops really don’t get good internet connection.
So stuff that!
Anyway, panic attack over. I started thinking about ideas.
I had two ideas. One, upset looking person surrounded by giant faces. I dismissed this almost instantly as being too cliché.
The second, was simply the words in a speech bubble. Looking very cartoony.
I had the idea of doing it in really bright colours, giving it maybe a Lichtenstein effect. I wanted to counter the negative sounding phrase, by having this bright, innocent looking image.
Happy with this idea, I did what I do best… procrastinated. Normally not a huge problem for me but this time when I did start to work on it, my heart wasn’t in it any longer. See for yourself…
Sunglasses may be required!
Really, it wasn’t happening…
Also, I recently had seen the John Brack exhibt at the Ian Potter Centre. I had been really inspired by what I consider a fascinating show. John Brack’s work and philosophy had evolved so much over his life and there was amazing examples of each stage. So I had a lot of insperation and I wanted to try some things that had really stood out to me.
Then in May 31st, I got a message that ‘a simple tune’ and one of her friends were going to the cinema that happens to be right near Bar Nancy. The place that got me inspired for the storybook theme. I decided I was going to go with my cliché idea, but change it to introduce the elements I had been thinking about since John Brack. Hell, I’m pretty sure I said to someone just last week, that just because it’s a clichie doesn’t automatically make it invalid…
I turned down the invite to the movie but said I’d be in Bar Nancy when they got out.
I walked up, got my first beer and spent 15 minutes doing a rough pencil outline. I knew I only had a couple of hours, so had reconciled myself it was going to be a pretty rough piece.
Sadly, no.
Really, I had intended the floor to go on much further, but rushed my composition a little too much. Also, I’m not convinced about not continuing the crosshatch shading in the disapproving faces… but I wanted to avoid making them looking too mean or evil. I was hoping for a sadness about being stern. The denied figure was put in to a pin stripe suit, partly because it was another Brack influence, but also because I wanted the position (cross legged) to be childlike yet wanted to avoid it being seen clearly as a child.
A.S.T. and her friend got to the bar as I was doing the bottom left hand corner. I was probably a little rude (sorry!) and I refused to put down my pen until I’d finished what I was working on.
All in all, there is a heap I would change if I was ever to do a second draft, but I’m happy for the 2-2.5 hour piece that it is.
So I’ve been quiet, I know. I just don’t have a lot going on I want to share.
Take that!
So I was going to save this for later, but for lack of anything better to say here is a couple of more pictures I scanned from that old photo album.
I love this one for some reason. The one with the kids seem the most… weird!
A year ago I discovered August Sander. I love these old photos for the same almost surreal emotional feel captured in some of his works.
I would recommend anyone to check out his work and read about his fascinating life.
One last photo. I like this one just due to the ‘I’ve just come from the opium den’ expression.
I think I know where I get my genes from…
Ps. On a totally unrelated (no pun intended) note. Any feedback on the last couple of all lower case posts? Annoying? Didn’t notice? Too ‘80s?
so, i’ve already had wordpress imply that i’m some sort of smut peddler
now, when i talk about visiting my family and family secrets, this is what wordpress links me with…
Oh, it's on!
who needs trolls?!?!
p.s. i got so bored at work today, i figured that i would try to post this in my lunch break. apparently work has decided that would be too exciting and blocked my ability to upload images to wordpress.
either that, or wordpress has gotten tired of all this dancing around and is officially declaring war on me. my next post will be from the trenches!
it’s a perfect example of how my week is starting off.
like i’ve decided to open a new account with a different bank, i got to the front door of the bank and realised i had no idea if i would need proof of my address. or id. or money.
so i thought i’d check their website and found i didn’t even need to go to the bank. you can start a new account online and i doubt they worry about you feeding your latest bills into the dvd tray of your laptop to prove where you live. in fact the only thing you need if your tax file number. which i really couldn’t remember for the life of me. fantastic.
honestly, if i was ever in a science fiction movie and i needed to stop the self destruct sequence, i’d run to the override computer (through all obligatory hallways full of pipes venting steam) only to be spending the last five seconds going;
“now was it 344 or 334?”
then *ka-boom!*
moral of the story, don’t ever trust me with your spaceship… or something.
p.p.s. i have no idea that if your postscript become 3 times longer than the original message, you have some sort of moral obligation to swap them around. i plan not to lose any sleep over it!
p.p.p.s i have no idea what’s up with the text formatting. wordpress really, really hates me!
one of the things i found interesting when i was back in tassie, was an old family photo album. i’ve never really had any connection with my family history, but i do love some old photos.
but this had something extra to it. a mystery.
to start off, here is a picture of the interior cover. it’s near illegible to me, more because of the writing style and faded ink. but it starts off with the date my great grandmother got married and then lists the birth of all her children.
Inside cover
what got me really interested was the bottom of the page. it looks like someone’s name has been scrubbed out.
there is no record of any children after the name that is listed above. strange, but then one of the pictures inside is this…
as you can tell the face of the baby has been nearly scratched out. (here is a rough highlight.)
add to that, that this is one of the few pictures in the whole album that actually has some hand writing on the back of it. part of it also looks like it’s been scrubbed out.
now the obvious answer was maybe some young kid got to it and in a fit of sibling rivalry tried to removed what ever sibling had ticked them off. it would explain why the picture was defaced rather than thrown away.
my response is, ‘true, but stfu. let me have some mystery in my life!’
the problems are that there is that there looks to be an extra entry on the registry at the front, where there are no official records of another child. hardly any photos inside have any inscriptions to let you know who is who, or when the photo was taken. so basically, considering the multitude of possibilities what may have happened here and the lack of information, i think this might be a mystery that will never be solved.
still, i would love to here any theories anyone has. even if they are just an overly dramatic made up story.
So, I’ve talked about work before, here is one thing though I haven’t mentioned.
My work three different modes;
a) insanely ball-tearing crazy
b) moderate
c) quiet as the grave.
The problem is the ‘insane’ part last around 5 or 6 months of the year. Moderate can last 1 to 3. Which leaves in a best case scenario, 3 months of it being more quiet than that time at the party when you were trying to comfort the host by reassuring her by publicly saying what a complete arse her ex-boyfriend was, only to remember someone told you they got back together last week.
We’re in a quiet period right now. I’ve source some work from other departments, but even that’s dried up at the moment. So now I’m being paid to mainly just sit around on my rather ample butt.
Some of you may think that’s not a bad wicket to be on. However, let me assure you, while I wouldn’t object to the occasional day of peace and quiet, a couple weeks of it can be maddening.
Part of the problem was there was a round of redundancies thanks to the world financial check bounce that’s been in the news of late. It’s not really sure if there will be another round of redundancies or not. Put simply it’s not a great time to be doing nothing.
Added to that, we have actually been told that there is a high chance of our internet usage could be ‘monitored’ during this period. Not that matters, after 3 days, I can’t find more than 15 minutes worth of stuff to keep me entertained.
Also, we’ve been told it’s important to ‘look’ busy. So, it’s not like I pull out my sketchbook or work on anything on the computer too long that is obviously not work related.
Basically, if there is no work to do, I can’t do anything productive.
Mr Sketchy 