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10/31/2006
Almost November already!
Tomorrow, I will be starting NaNoWriMo, and the idea is to write 50,000 words in the space of a month. Oh. My. Goodness. I can't believe I'm doing this. Part of me is very excited to get started, and the other part of me isn't ready to try to dump that many words into sentences in such a short time! I mean, I thought writing my thesis was like writing an encyclopedia, and yet that was only around 25,000 words. Now I'm lining up to write double that, in half the time! At least this one is going to be a (sort of) fantasy novel, so for now I can basically just write whatever and make stuff up, and I don't need to find a reference for every sentence I put in there. This will be cool!
The only downside is that I have a lot going on in November. Concerts and rehearsals galore. Hopefully it won't hamper my creativity too much.
And speaking of creativity, I'm pretty much finished my painting of the main character of my novel-to-be. I think I'm stopping here with the paintings though. One character was enough. It sure took a long time! This one is a 12x16" acrylic and I think I made every mistake in the book when I was painting it, but luckily my new acrylics are at least partially water-soluble (even after it dries), so I can sort of erase mistakes somewhat. Thank goodness! The photo's below. The colours aren't quite accurate because I can't use a flash (glossy finish) and it's nighttime, but anyway this should give an idea of what I was working on.
Anyway, so that's about all I have to report at the moment. I'll let you know soon how well this whole NaNoWriMo thing is going. :-)
23:56 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
10/19/2006
Don't go shopping when you're hungry!
Everyone knows the saying, "Don't go shopping when you're hungry", but usually the context is "don't go grocery shopping when you're hungry."
Well, I discovered the corollary: "Don't browse the cookbook section of a bookstore when you're hungry." I might not be quite as rich now, but at least I'm now the proud owner of a really nice Comfort Food cookbook where I can see myself making nearly every recipe! Anyway, I bought it off the bargain books rack, so it's not SO bad, but still. If you're on a budget, eat before leaving home, and stay away from bargain bins. :-)
17:30 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
Of Bows, Paints, and Plots
First up, an update on the bow situation. Both my bows are basically foobarred - for the bow whose tip is broken, it can be fixed, but only by a specialist, and only for more money than I originally paid for the bow in the first place. My backup bow, which is less seriously broken, is worth so little in the first place that it too, would cost more to fix than I paid for it. Soooo, now, I have to go bow-shopping, which is not my favourite task. It's not terrible or anything, but it's tiring. Plus, I don't have wads of time, as my only operable bow now is a borrowed fibreglass bow. I played on a fibreglass bow for a number of years when I started, but after playing on a much nicer bow for the last few years, going back to fibreglass is painful!!
Not that it matters at the moment, as my cello is sitting in the shop at the moment, getting a sparkly new bridge put on it. It's odd though - now that my cello isn't in the house, I feel kind of antsy, like something is missing, and I'm itching to play it. Which is strange, because if it *were* here in the house, it would be an uphill battle trying to convince myself to practice! The thing must kind of be like a comfort blanket. :-)
So what else is up? Well, I'm hard at work trying to plan my NaNoWriMo novel. It's getting out of hand I think! :-) I decided the other day that I would like to paint a portrait of my main character. I haven't painted in quite a long time, and I have a nice set of professional-grade acrylics I bought a couple of years back and never used. (Prior to those pro paints, I was using the craft-type acrylics.) Soooo, after priming an artboard and painstakingly tracing a face onto it (getting that face right was quite the ordeal!), I got started with these new acrylics. Initially I just took out my sketch book and made swatches of all the different colours, both straight out of the tube and watered down, to see how they would behave. I was using a palette which had already been used for other things, and this is how I discovered a unique property of these new acrylics: they can be re-dissolved once they're dry. With the craft acrylics, once they're dry, that's it: they're totally permanent, creating a plastic film. The professional ones, though, don't. Which is lucky, because after I was done with the swatches I went back to the artboard and started painting my character's face with a thick coat of paint - and realized it looked terrible. If this had been my cheap craft paints, I would have been totally screwed. But with these new paints, add a bit of water, scrub a bit, and you can more or less make the mistake disappear. Yay! The painting's not done yet, but hopefully it will turn out well.
So back to the NaNoWriMo story, things are going well. I need to nail down the plot a little better, but at least I'm still enthusiastic about the story. The only downside is that my main character has very little in common with me, which means he's an expert on lots of stuff I know nothing about (mostly boating-related, as he's a boat builder by trade). I must be the only person in Ontario taking sea kayaking books out of the library right before winter! I can't wait til November, when I can start writing the actual story! Woohoo! :-)
13:15 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
10/11/2006
Cello: An Expensive Hobby
Like cars and houses, it looks like musical instruments have their expensive moments that you just can't predict. Tonight was one of those nights...! The tip of my cello bow broke right off! Luckily someone else had a spare bow, because this is the type of break that will make your bow instantly unusable. I do have a spare bow, but it's broken also! It's been broken for several years though, and I just never got around to getting it fixed. Looks like tomorrow is going to be the day!
I have quite a number of minor repairs that need to be done, so I guess I'll just bite the bullet and get the two bows fixed and rehaired, as well as getting a new bridge cut for my cello. My current bridge is warped in two directions, which probably isn't that healthy for the sound.
I sure hope the bow I just broke won't be an expensive fix, but I have a bad feeling about it. It's likely a high-stress spot on the bow, so who knows, it could just break again later. Not to mention the resale value of my bow just plummeted to bargain basement levels... Luckily it's not that expensive a bow (cost me $300 originally), but it's still my baby and I can't believe this has happened! *sniffle*
Goodbye, meagre savings, I'll miss you! Hello, more intense job search...
00:32 Posted in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this
10/04/2006
Getting on a roll
Well, in the basics, much is the same today as always. However, a few small things are cropping up, enough to make life interesting.
Starting a month from now, I'm going to participate in NaNoWriMo, where I'll try to write a 50,000 word novel in the space of one month (November). I've got a vague beginning of a plot, a few ideas for stuff that happens in the middle, and am not quite sure how it will end, but hopefully it will all work out well. I have a couple of solid, interesting (I hope!) characters that I really like, so we'll see what happens. This is going to be a fantasy novel in the sense of multiple dimensions, ghosts, and what appears to be magical powers (but turns out not to be magic). It should be interesting, because I haven't really ever written anything that was specifically fantasy, and I've barely even read any fantasy stories at all. However, this is the plot that spoke to me, so that's what I'll write. I'm excited!!
Job-wise, I'm still looking, though today I ran across a job posting from a company I've applied to once before. That job wasn't a perfect fit and they never asked for an interview, but this job description nearly looks like it was lifted from the cover letter I sent them last time! Weeeeiiiird. That doesn't happen very often. I think I'll apply again while I'm feeling lucky!
Cello - well, this is going to be a lot of work but things are coming along. We had a sectional on Friday with the Parkdale cellos, and I think we made some good progress. Yesterday we had another sectional, followed by some strings-only coaching. We got our fair share of flack (and maybe a bit more!), but the coach had good things to say. I think though, the music is a bit too hard for this orchestra and we're more on the survival level than the finesse level, but it was a good experience all the same.
And, last Friday, I got a $100 cheque in the mail for no apparent reason. It was kind of puzzling, but I guess my philosophy is, deposit now, ask later. :-) Certainly better than $100 invoice for no apparent reason!
In a few days it's Thanksgiving (here in Canada anyway). I can't believe it's so soon! The leaves are starting to turn colour, the weather is cooler... summer's gone, and winter's around the corner!
Anyway, this should be a busy autumn, which is good because I like being busy. Up to a point, that is - I don't like crazy-busy, just happy busy.
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