Stylus Aquired!

Something that I've been wanting to get for this blog for a long time has finally dropped into my lap. I bummed a stylus pad off of an associate and it's a lot of fun. This is my first drawing using it, and also my first time trying out GIMP freeware, which is basically a superior version of Photoshop (because it's free!).

Looks like I've found a whole new level of procrastination.

Last final is tomorrow at 1:30 PM and then I'm done with school for a few days. Huzzah!

Buckeye Donuts (They Serve Gyros)

Sometimes I get bored and open up the street level option on Google map. After a marathon session of cramming for Spanish, I decided to find out where my final was being held this afternoon. One thing led to another and I was soon cruising the streets around campus in first person perspective.

Since the pictures were taken on different days, sometimes there is a jump in the weather halfway up the street, from sunny to dismal overcast two doors down. Ironic that a good stretch of High Street is overcast and miserable-looking, as I rather enjoy some of these places.

I took a screen shot of Buckeye Donuts seconds before it sank into an icy swirling hell. Always enjoyed getting my grease and/or sugar fix there day or night. In and around this establishment an interesting blend of folks can be found: local artist-types, college students, hobos. Regardless of the upscale developments taking place all along North High, this place still lives on, asserting its cozy eccentric weirdness at everyone who walks by. I hope it stays that way.

Circle Swim and Traffic Patterns

While browsing the aquatic center's finals week schedule I came across this little gem: the OSU Lap Swimming Etiquette! This is a hoot to read, and is mostly filled with proper traffic maneuvers between two or more people in a lap lane. They claim that a lane can accommodate up to 8 persons as long as the etiquette is followed.

Yikes.

Lifeless Ordinary

Disclaimer: Cleaning the studio usually precedes starting a new project, so this is more of a stream of consciousness post. The idea was just leave the blog open over the span of the evening in order to keep coming back to record different things.

I begin by drilling three screws into the wall in no particular order. The spacing is not premeditated.

Take a drink and get started.

The drill is very loud, but I've already started. Sheepish, I finish driving it in, even while picturing our neighbors lying in bed on the other side of the wall. I switch out the drill and push the last two screws into the wall with a screwdriver. It's quieter, but my arms ache afterward.

What next?

Now I'm just fuddling around, hanging different objects from the points. Waiting to see how long I can go before breaking out the glue gun, forcing myself to discover new methods. I use rubber bands, wire, and finally, scotch tape....

...And:

Screw this, I'm getting the glue gun.

One rule of thumb I use is that load-bearing supports get put together with screws and liquid nails. Currently, now this thing is hanging by old rubber bands. Unfortunately the wife has taken the camera with her on the road trip, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Rapid Fire!

Thought I'd see if I could generate a relevant blog post in under ten minutes. Here goes...

Wife left this morning for a wedding about 5 states away. She will be gone all weekend. I have only one objective during that time: study.

Goal for the next seven days: ace all of my finals, especially Spanish, which has secretly been kicking my butt these past few weeks because I've gotten lazy.

The enemy: procrastination. He's a worthy opponent, clever in that he will usually disguise himself as something worthwhile and important, say like getting my warhammer miniatures built and painted, or like hanging out with friends. Sneaky, that one.

Alright, ten minutes up. Today's picture is about separating the upper and lower halves of an alligator through the process of osmosis.

En Otre Realms

I was nudged quietly to get on with writing a blog entry this week, and so some powerful elemental force has carried me to a computer on the 5th floor of Baker Laboratories to peck at some keys for your amusement.

We had a pot luck at our house last night, though I felt more like a spectator than participant. I had just come back from a math test that that burned out some of my social circuitry and wasn't really in top party form. Instead, I spent a good portion of the evening sprawled on different comfy chairs with a vested interest in the variety of dishes available.

For the past week or so I've been suffering from an affliction that I have coined as coffee creep. Despite my daily cup of coffee, I've been hit by fatigue and headache come early afternoon. The only way to feel better was to have a second cup. See, coffee creep requires that I consume an ever-steadily-increasing amount of caffeine in order to function at optimal performance throughout the day. Otherwise, there's the headaches, fatigue, and deep-seated annoyance at all lifeforms.

So I'm taking a break from coffee this week before my head explodes and a hellish tide of caffeine-hornets pours out of my neck cavity.

You still drinking three cups a day, Jeff?

Missing Teeth Paradigm

Often I will have dreams where my teeth get knocked out and I am trying to figure out what to do. This is most likely karma or guilt because I once knocked out my friend's teeth in high school. (Total accident involving a thrown baseball if you're curious)

Too bad all our wonderful myths like the tooth fairy disappear out of childhood. Adults don't believe in fairies. Instead we believe in dinosaurs and Chuck Norris.

Mom and Mike came up to visit this week, which was pretty neat. They took me shopping and I got some much-needed t-shirts. I ended the day on the couch with leftovers from Bob Evans, a glass of wine, and British hilarity. Thanks to Jeff for Spaced, even though the audio is ever-so-slightly out of sync on this version, they're still the most watchable DVD's we own.

Finals week is fast approaching, and all I can really think about is swimming. The lanes in the RPAC lap pool are wide enough to drive a car down, and yet I am always amazed to find people standing forlorn on the deck waiting for a section of pool to open that they can have all to themselves. I always offer to share my lane with these aquatic refuges, who oft look bewildered as they try to puzzle out the meaning of the word "share." I can't blame them for their confusion though; our culture understands less about sharing than we would care to admit.

That is the way of it.