Illuminations
The show last night was amazing. The only thing that could have made it better is if I could have taken Yar with me to see it. And now I have a flashing crescent moon pendant to remember the night with, at least until the lights die.
This morning, I got woken up earlier than I’d have liked. Loud grandmother is loud. But I had a nice surprise when I did wake up, so I wasn’t cranky like I might have been. My birthday present from my mom had arrived. A Wacom Bamboo pen tablet with a bundle of software. It wasn’t even supposed to ship until the 26th, and then take five to nine business days to arrive. But here it is, and I’ve already been playing with it. It’ll take a little bit of getting used to, but I don’t think it’ll be too difficult. I just need to break the conviction somewhere in the back of my head that the active area of the tablet equals is mapped to the size of the graphic I’m working on. It’s actually mapped to the entire size of the screen (otherwise how would you access the tools in the graphics software, right?) instead of just the size of the image I’m working on. Currently, I have a bad tendency to forget partway through and then I draw something too large in comparison to the rest and have to undo or erase. I drew a couple quickie sketches just to try out the pen tablet, and when I wasn’t messing up because of that active area=size of graphic misconception, it worked great. And it’s much easier on my arthritis than using a real pen and paper, or brush and canvas. It requires a lot less pressure, so the old injury doesn’t actually complain at all. My favorite graphics instructor was right about that when he suggested I look into getting a tablet. Artwork without pain, and without my arthritic joints locking up in the middle, and without the frustrations of trying to draw using a mouse! It’s wonderful.
Now I’ve got errands to run, but once I’ve gotten those out of the way, I’m going to have to start getting serious about training up my skills with the pen tablet. I have a zillion projects that have been on hold that were too complex to do with a mouse, and I had nowhere to actually sit down and work on them on paper since I have no space of my own. I can finally get going on them, and this makes me very happy.
Degeneration
Today is the day that I go in to have my eyes checked again at the opthamologist, so he can get an idea of how quickly or slowly I’m losing my eyesight, and maybe an estimate on how long it’ll be before I’m blind from macular degeneration.
I am not looking forward to this.
Cirque
I’ve always wanted to see a Cirque de Soleil show live, and never had the opportunity.
Cirque will be doing a show for one night only in Bakersfield on the 23rd. And this time, I’m going. What a nice birthday present from Cirque, since my birthday’s two days before.
If I could take my Yar, then everything would be perfect. But since I can’t, I’ll just have to accept somewhat-less-than-perfect for that night. I’ll survive, somehow. ;)
