This is where practice can lead...

Passion is the resolve to move beyond mundane and ordinary by spending hour and hours being mundane and ordinary until you are finally extraordinary and beyond.
Beatboxing!  I wouldn't have expected it to become an art form...it's something I picture young males doing to attract women.  Clearly, it has evolved.

My Week In Review

My Week In Review

February 20 - 26, 2010

I got a new haircut - shorter.  No color.  As my hairdresser says - the grays are highlights.  (shrug)

My place in the world has changed.  I'm adjusting.

I visited First Unitarian Church in Portland

Runny nose, scratchy/sore throat, weak...allergy to cat hair, or sickness?
My Dad's birthday this week...he would have been 85 (he died 26 years ago).

Paid more attention to the Health Care debate - health care summit.

Listened to old episodes of This American Life on the way to and from work this week.

Day off on Friday (today) - created some art (I think the last one really looks like a painting...hmmm)

How Christian Were the Founders? - NYTimes.com

How Christian Were the Founders? - NYTimes.com

Some artsy stuff...

Here are the backgrounds I've made this week along with a couple of first attempts at adding something onto a background (where the rubber meets the road!).  These are on canvas board.

The Week In Review

The Week In Review
February 19, 2010

ISee this week's Bill Moyers Journal about judicial corruption.

BILL MOYERS: Over the course of a long career in journalism, I've covered this story of money in politics more than any other. From time to time, I've been hopeful about a change for the better, but truth is, it just keeps getting uglier every year. 

Those who write the checks keep buying the results they want at the expense of the public. As a reputedly self-governing democracy, we desperately need to address the problems that we've created for ourselves, but money makes impossible the reforms that might save us. 

Nothing in this country seems to be working to anyone's satisfaction except the wealth machine that rewards those who game the system. Unless we break their grip on our political institution, their power to buy the agenda they want no matter the cost to everyone else, we're finished as a functioning democracy.

In this I am sympathetic to the people who show up at tea party rallies asking what happened to their jobs, their pensions, their security — the America they believed in. What's happened, says the political scientist Sheldon Wolin, is the increasing cohabitation of state and corporate power. 

This is why I find the supreme court ruling so preposterous and ominous. Five radical judges have taken a giant step toward legitimating the corporate takeover of democracy. "One person, one vote" — stop kidding yourself. As I once heard a very rich oilman tell congress after he paid $300,000 to the democratic party to get a moment of President Clinton's ear, "Money is a bit more than a vote." The huge sums of money that already flood our elections will now be multiplied many times over, most likely in secret. 

Just this week, that indispensable journalistic website Talking Points Memo.com reported that an influential Washington lobbying firm is alerting corporate clients on how to use trade associations like the Chamber of Commerce as pass-throughs to dump unlimited amounts of cash directly into elections. They can specifically advocate or oppose a candidate — right up to election day — while keeping a low profile to prevent "public scrutiny" and negative press coverage. We'll never know what hit us, and like the titanic, we'll go down but with even fewer lifeboats. 

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I've made several art pieces this week that I think are okay.  I tried to take some pictures of them to include in the blog, but they didn't really turn out so I'll do it later this week maybe.


The Olympics started this week and I watched some of it.  Although I have a difficult time feeling 'the flow' of the Games as televised, there are some exciting stories.  I remember now that short track speed skating is fun to watch.  And I thought biathlon was fun too.  During the week I didn't watch too much.


I'd have to say this was another quiet week.  Both at work and at home.  I've learned some lessons that I hope I can internalize and benefit from.  


Hmmm...that's all I feel like sharing for now.  I think there's more to share, but I'd like to do it with an efficiency of words, which requires me to spend a lot of time thinking about it.  But, I'm tired.  


So, bye for now.

The Week In Review

The Week In Review

  Saturday February 6 - Friday February 12, 2010

**The heading is in violet and yellow-green because that's what I've been dreaming about this week...the complementary colors and how to use them in a painting.  
**For the second week in a row, my eyes have been tired.  I haven't felt tired, but my eyes are.  Maybe from watching too many art videos on the Internet?  Or maybe I'm more tired than I realize?
**This week has one major guest star:

Little Kitty has come to stay with me through March.  She's not so little anymore, but I don't think the name "Normal Kitty" has as much ring to it as "Little Kitty", so she remains Little Kitty.
**I purchased a Flip HD Mino camcorder.  It was an impulse buy at Costco.  I tend to enjoy purchasing things for my 'gang of friends' and I to have fun with.  Sadly, I've never had a gang of friends.  Nor do I expect to create or join one.  Anyway - if the need ever arises, I have a camcorder in my purse.  
**I've also been carrying the smaller camera in my purse lately (yes, it adds to the purse's weight).  Oftentimes I read about people saying they carry their camera with them wherever they go so they don't miss out on a great photo opportunity.  Normally, I'm on my way somewhere or its inconvenient so I still haven't used it much.  This week, though I was on my way to work on a foggy morning.  I passed by a stand of trees where the sun was peeking through and it looked like a cool picture.  I took the time to pull over, find where the best view was, jump out of my car, and get the shot.I'm disappointed with the result, because it looked so much cooler than this.  The sun was like a perfect circle in the sky but hazed over with fog.  And the trees looked desolate.  This picture is ordinary and not interesting.  The sun isn't even showing up.  I'll add photography to my list of things to get better at.

**As mentioned earlier, I tried to use complementary colors in my art this week.  It was eye-opening.  I felt like a dolt because I didn't understand what I was supposed to do.  Art and color and being creative have become foreign to me.  It's a big challenge for me, my emotions, my spirituality, my personal development, my fulfillment...yes, I feel it has huge consequences in my life; creativity is what life's all about - Love has no meaning without action and action is creating, life's purpose is to learn to be spiritual in a physical world, and, as a soul, I feel I'll develop and learn important things if I can push through what I perceive as limitations and become the creator I know I can be.  But, it's really not easy to keep pushing through - my psyche is bruised and bloodied from the effort.  Down but not out.  All I can say is I'll keep trying and it turns out I'm a very slow learner.
**I've had to start moderating comments on this blog.  I'm getting comments that are links to what I assume are nefarious sites.  Sigh.    I don't advertise the site so there's not a lot of traffic.  I have one friend that will comment every once in a while.  Rarely I received a spam comment, but since they were so few and far between I didn't worry about it.  But, now they're coming in a few a week.  Yuck.  Moderating only means I can reject a comment that comes through.  And they don't appear on my site until I've accepted them, I think.
**I've become victim to.............

Orange flavored milk chocolate balls.  I can't stop at just one.  They're on sale all the time.  2 bags for $4.  What's a girl to do?  I'd feel better if it was at least dark chocolate.  Sigh.
**I'm still reading "A Year in the Merde".  I watched a little more television the last couple days because my TIVO is getting full.  And I'm still being quiet at work.  
**Honestly, this week has been difficult - one frustration after another.  I feel I can't do anything right - art, photography, book binding (I couldn't even cut my paper correctly and it looks like crap).  I had a thought earlier this week...
"There must be some reason I am the way I am, and it can't be just to make other people look good." 
I can only hope that's true.

How I Met Your Mother - The Perfect Week.

I finally got around to watching the last two episodes each of How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory this afternoon.  I'm surprised I forgot to watch them earlier because its usually a nice end to Monday.  Watching art videos has surpassed general television watching?  Peculiar.
Digression:  I'm a television person.  I've always watched a lot of television.  I identify as a person who watches television.  I'm not a pro, or even a skilled amateur; I'm more of a hobbyist.  As a television person, I'm surprised by how much I DON'T watch television lately.  I've asked this question before and I'll ask it again...have I watched less television lately because 1) I'm getting older? 2) Television shows aren't that great anymore? 3) Being on the Internet is an equivalent substitute?  I don't know.
Speaking of the quality of television shows, I'm writing this blog entry specifically to say that the How I Met Your Mother episode called "The Perfect Week" made me laugh so hard I had to pause the playback so I could catch my breath!  That rarely happens to me.  It was a great episode.  I don't want to remember or think about it anymore so if I watch it again I'll have a good reaction to it.  But, I want to remember that I liked this episode particularly and overall, I like the show quite a bit.

UPDATE 3/19/2014 - I just saw the episode again, and well...I had two or three out loud chuckles, but I have no idea what made me laugh so hard the first time.  It just goes to show how unpredictable comedy can be and how much it relies on what the viewer brings to the show on any given day.

The Week in Review: Saturday January 30 - February 5, 2010

The Week In Review

Saturday January 30 - February 5, 2010

• I learned that if I paint on the pages of my Moleskine journal,  I need gesso first.  Otherwise the paint soaks right into the paper and it's hard to manipulate.
• I was moved by GMA's Weekend America segment "Your Three Words"  Here is the link to the page...the one I heard used the song "Surrounded by Your Friends" by a band called Hooray for Earth.
• I watched A LOT of art videos from Julie Prichard's online art workshops...Layer Love and Super Nova II.
• Then, I signed up for Super Nova I.  I'm gonna make a book!
• I repotted my two plants - first time!  (I've had them for years though; I'm ashamed it was the first time)
• Walked to Fred Meyer's early Sunday morning and listened to the sound of silence.  Beautiful.
• Talked on the phone to sister, mother, MFJ.
• Wished my niece a happy birthday in the morning before work - I think she was still asleep.
• Season premiere of LOST! Yay!
• I got nice feedback for my Color Beyond the Basics - Lesson Three assignment.  It made me cheer!  I was very excited.   
• Felt like being quiet at work - didn't talk too much - stayed busy.
• I discovered the magazine Elephant at the bookstore - I love it!  It's an art magazine.  I purchased the first issue.
• On the way to work I heard a phrase that later on, in a small meeting, I was able to both remember and say aloud at the most appropriate time.  How often does that happen to me?  
• The phrase?  "When all is said and done, more is said than done."
• Went to a presentation about Sharepoint by a local IT training company on Thursday (after work until 7) with 'the guys'.
• I was very tired most of the week - especially my eyes.  I ate an orange and an apple or two.  
• I made an Amazon order (and received most of it already!) - a selection of Sharpie White and Black water-based poster paint pens which I could never find at any nearby store, and three DVD's; Doctor Who Water of Mars, Doctor Who The End of Time Part I and II, and Season Six of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
• I sampled all the writing pens and pencils I've purchased recently.
• Otherwise I watched television, continued reading my book "A Year in the Merde", slept and worked.

Lost Season Six Episode One

The picture is from the scene in last night's season six premiere of Lost that made me say YEEOW, out loud, to no one!
Oh - he's a good actor.  I've been a Locke fan from the beginning.  I'm reminded that I'm a fan of Terry O'Quinn as well.  Look at that face!!  It's giving me the shivers just looking at it now.  HA!
While I was watching the episode, I wondered if I'd be interested in watching the DVDs again once I know the answers.  Episodes that don't even provide clues to the mystery - will they be boring to watch again?
I don't know yet - the last episode will tell the tale, right?  I thought I'd watch the whole series over again before the final season started, but then I didn't.
It occurs to me, though, that I like having an overall understanding of what's going on and not remembering every little detail.  I may not immediately understand the significance of every little thing that's said, but it makes me pay attention all the more, which ups the intensity level.
I'm happy to be led down the path.  I guess its because I trust they're taking me somewhere interesting.
So far so good.

I hope, at the end of this season, I'm not saying to myself "But, what was the point?"
I'm reminded of the Umberto Eco novel "The Name of the Rose".  There was a mystery, and puzzles, and grand ideas that played into the mystery and appeared to point to something really big and strange and wonderful.  Then, in the end, it was nothing.  At least as far as I was concerned.  It was all too mundane.
However, I spoke about it briefly to somebody else and they thought it was the best book ever.  I got the impression it was because the story was a vehicle for discussions about religious fervor and .... ?  I can't remember much else of what it was about.  The point is, the plot was the vehicle for meditations on larger issues, not a theory describing the larger issues. (I hope that makes sense)
From what I've read in the blogs, that might be the deal with Lost as well.
Some say they'll appreciate the series even if no questions are answered because they've been able to think about faith and destiny and other large issues.  The journey will be its own reward for them.
Others want answers and will be disappointed if not enough are provided (we already have one answer from last night's show).  For them, the destination is where the value of Lost will be found.
I have appreciated the show so far, but its because I want to see what all this leads to.  There's my fun, trying to figure it out before its spelled out for me.
I'm afraid I'm one of the people for whom the destination must make sense and have some value in order for the show to have been worthwhile for me.
It's not very Buddhist of me, is it?  Okay - I'm not really Buddhist, but I'd like to be.
Last night's season opener - good episode...some questions answered, understanding clarified.  No problems so far.
No spoilers here.   And now I'll read what other people are saying about the premiere!