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• Why I haven’t been updating much
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• OutKast – Rosa Parks
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July 22, 2010
Why I haven’t been updating much

On May 12th, my grandfather lost a 10 year battle with severe emphysema. His death has taken the wind out of my sails in a lot of respects.

Eventhough it was inevitable, I still feel as though he was ripped from my grasp. I can only imagine how my mother feels. I’m 3 hours away, and she still lives in the now empty house we and my grandparents called home for 13 years.

My grandfather really stepped up to the plate when my parents divorced and became my father as well. He was an amazing man and a great role model. He was honest, steadfast, and full of depression-era frugality and wisdom that was an endless source of entertainment.

My grandpa was the oldest born into a poor oklahoman family in the midst of the depression. He used to tell this story about how he used to lure their neighbor’s chickens into their yard with a trail of corn, so grandpa could kill them and the family could eat.

When he was 17, he lied about his age to get into the military because his parents couldn’t afford to feed him anymore. He wanted nothing more than to be a pilot, but a tragic drunk driving accident at the hands of his father left him with a caved in chest and missing half a lung. The airforce wouldn’t make him a pilot.

However, he was stationed peacekeeping in japan in the early 50s. He always talked about how much fun it was. He repeatedly told me the only japanese words he learned were “beer” and “women”. He had a photo album of his time in japan, that my grandmother made him hide because it was just him with tons and tons of different ladies.

Alcoholism ran in his family, and until my grandfather gave up booze when my mom was little, he got into all sorts of hijinks. My favorite story was after he (and most of his family) had moved to california. My grandpa was an ambulance driver in southern cali when he and my grandma met. Unable to put down the bottle, he would often drive the ambulance drunk. Once he circled the hospital 5 times with someone in the back because he was so drunk he forgot where he was/how to get into the hospital.

My grandparents met because grandpa’s hospital was near my grandmother’s house. My grandmother’s two sisters were walking home, saw my grandpa and his partner and thought they were unbeleivably hot, so they drug my grandma out to see. My grandma started actively pursuing my grandpa, but he wasn’t interested. She waited through several of his girlfriends before he gave her a chance. 

After they were married, when my grandmother was pregnant with my mom, my grandpa was sent to weekend jail for his massive amount of parking tickets. He went one weekend and immediately had his job transfer him to another plant outside the state to avoid serving the 2 years of weekend jail he had left. He was transferred to southern georgia, and he and my grandma packed up and drove to georgia in the middle of the summer, in a car with no air conditioning. Grandpa said that they had a little bucket with dry ice that hung in the window for a/c. When they were driving through texas, they were literally the last car on a stretch of highway. After they crossed this barrier, the road was literally blow up behind them.

They settled in a small town, raised their children (and some of their grandchildren), and busied themselves with more mundane things. I’ll always remember my grandmother bent over her sewing machine or painting and the quiet times I had with my grandfather at 3am sharing a cup of coffee, right before I went to bed and right after he woke up.
 
<3

May 22, 2010
Where I grew up

My family moved to the country when I was 13. Not that we really lived in the city before that, we lived just barely inside the city limits of a small town in a quaint little subdivision that was stuck in the mid-60s. The neighborhood started going downhill when all of the original owners of the houses began dying, so we moved before the property value dropped.

The plot of land my family moved onto isn’t reachable without driving down at least a mile of dirt road. Dirt roads in south Georgia are iffy things. They’re either primarily sand or clay. Driving on sand is treacherous when it’s dry because there are pockets of deep sand you lose traction in and when it’s wet, it tends to just wash away. When the sand washes away, the county comes out and fixes the ruts in the road with clay. Driving on wet clay is treacherous because it’s like driving on ice. Basically, you’re screwed either way. When I drive smart car down there, the traction and stability control just goes crazy.

Although I was very put out about having to move 30 miles away from all of my friends to the middle of nowhere during the beginning of my adolescence, coming back to visit now I can appreciate the tranquility. I’ve been touched with it now, and deep inside me I’ll always carry a yearning for the smell of wet, green growth and the absolute silence you can only find down there.

This is the trip from the house down there to the nearest paved road. From that paved road, it’s an additional 10 minute drive to get to the nearest town (which borders on being a ghost town). To the nearest town with any stores, it’s 30 minutes. To the nearest proper city? 2 hours.

May 2, 2010
Roosevelt’s new dignified home

I’ve mostly finished Roosevelt’s Mario themed turtle playground. I’d like to put some plants in there, but he eats them pretty much immediately. He’s a pretty voracious turtle.

This is his basking platform, which he rarely ever uses if we’re home. He tends to only bask if we’re not here.

The platforms are made from plexiglass that I cut down to size, covered in the reptile carpet made from recycled plastic which is held on with the hard part of velcro. The platforms are suspended by small suction cups that are shoved through holes drilled in the sides of the platforms. This solution will need to be revisted when he gets a bit bigger.

The reptile carpet is doing really well being partially submerged in the water. It wicks water up, as you can see in the picture, but it’s pretty good about not getting moldy and gross.

The pipes were standard pipes from the home depot. They’re painted with metallic jasmine model paint. The paint is a bit streaky because I didn’t quite have enough. They will be repainted and clear coated at a later date. The short pipe is holding a bubble ring, the tall pipe is holding the heating element. The back of the tall pipe has a couple dozen hold drilled in it that you can barely see in the 2nd picture for water circulation. Roosevelt seems to prefer to hang out on this platform.

That secondary platform obscures the in-tank filter. Roosevelt’s favorite place to hide is to burrow underneath the filter, which scares the crap out of me because i’m scared he’s going to get stuck.

All of the art was pieced together from screen caps of the new super mario bros wii. The background was pieced together from 9 or 10 different screencaps from various worlds. All of the character art was recreated in illustrator. I have access to a vinyl printer/cutter at work, which made quick work of cutting all of the pieces out.

I don’t believe Roosevelt appreciates the mario themed home, but he does seem to like the bubble pipe. All is not lost.

things to do in the future:

• add plants that won’t be eaten in 5 minutes
• automatic feeder camouflaged as a question mark block
• repaint the pipes
• find a better solution to hold up the platforms

April 20, 2010
touristy things

In early March, 2/3s of my lovely future in-laws came down for a visit for a week. It was nice getting to show them around Atlanta and do tons of touristy stuff. And eat out for a solid week. My waistline wasn’t too happy about that.

Both the fiance and I had to work (me moreso than him), so I only got to really spend time with them on the weekend. We visited the new world of coke, which is INFINITELY better than the old world of coke; no wood paneling in sight!

Once you enter this world of coke, you get to sit through a mildly entertaining 10 minute commercial/movie that’s quite possibly one of the most bizarre wastes of money i have ever seen. The entire audience sat there with total “wtf??” faces after it was over. Then the screen lifts up and you walk into an atrium full of natural light. It’s really a beautiful space.

After the kitschy old advertising paraphenalia, you walk through a functioning bottling plant that’s running at a reduced speed. After you walk through the tasting room, you actually pick up bottles that were bottled at that plant. It’s pretty cute.

This is the crazy packaging robot that puts empty bottles onto the conveyor and takes full bottles off.

After exhausting the world of coke (which takes a while. I could sit near the Europe kiosk and watch people drink Beverly all day), we headed over to the aquarium.

I don’t believe I’ve ever mentioned the fact that my future sister-in-law is TERRIFIED of alligators. I can’t wait until my aunt wins in her quest to bring my in-laws down to south Georgia and she loses her shit because I basically grew up in a swamp.

And here is an otter basically using another otter as toilet paper:

After future Mom #2 and sister left, fiance and I decided to use up the rest of their city passes and visit the High and the zoo. The High was really interesting because there was an exhibit on John Portman (the guy who designed Peachtree Center).

Backstory: A few years ago, I was bumming around Sea Island on my way to St. Simons and saw this crazy house. I thought for sure that it was some sort of private resort based on how… utterly insane the pool area was. I snuck onto the beach behind the house to get a better look.

Well, it turns out that this crazy house is actually John Portman’s second home, Entelechy II. I read that he had a residence on Sea Island and immediately thought “I wonder if that’s the crazy house??” and I turned the corner, revealing the scale model of none other.

After the High, we took in the zoo. It was… zoo-like. Stinky and full of animals.

Adorable elephant:

When I was in middle school, I played flute in band (and was first chair for the longest time). At one of the concerts we did, we played a song called “The Dragons of Kimodo”. Whenever I see Kimodo dragons, I hear that song in my head now.

You probably don’t want to watch this. This is a snapping turtle during feeding time.

April 8, 2010
Coming up for air

It’s been a crazy couple of months.

Work picked up pretty significantly. I’ve been scrambling with my freelance clients and at my day job. Just when it started slowing down, I got a call that my aunt died. This just pushed me behind again. I feel like I’m clawing my way to the surface just often enough to not drown.

Here are some funny things that have happened at my day job in the past month or so:

All in all, the day job hasn’t been too bad. We’re instituting a new time keeping system, which is causing a lot of grumbles in the background, but I don’t mind it… and I’ve been killing bitches design-wise. I recently landed the company a pretty major web design job that I’m pretty proud of.

I’ve also finally landed the creative director title with my largest freelance client, which was a long time coming. We just started working with some very important people over in europe that I’m pretty excited about. I feel better about where I am professionally than I have in a long time.

March 10, 2010
more turtley love

Roosevelt has been doing really well. We bought him some plants to munch on a little while ago, and munch he did! Apparently it’s pretty rare for hatchling sliders to want to eat plants, they’re primarily carnivorous at first. He definitely has a taste for the greenery, which is something I certainly don’t have.

Speaking of eating, Roosevelt is ferocious when going after his pellets. It’s adorable!

I’m still working on his mario themed home, but it’s nearing completion. All of the pipes are painted and installed, so are the platforms. I just need to finish adhering the static clings and get some new plants. I’ve posted some in-progress pics on twitter, but i’m waiting to get good pictures before I post anything here. It’ll have to be quick, because he’s capable of demolishing plants quick like ninja.

March 10, 2010
february

February was rather uneventful, other than the second snow day of the year. We actually got snow the first week of March as well, but now it’s in the 70s. Good old Atlanta, and its effed up weather.

I went to work on the February snow day. It didn’t start snowing until lunch and we got off early. I also went to work during the March snow day because it didn’t start snowing until after I had already left my house.

In case you were wondering how one in atlanta clears snow from their tiny smart car, I give you:

The traffic was atrocious coming home in February because it was “OMGSNOW!1″ This gave me ample time for pictures, and a bit of video. Including my laptop flying out of my passenger seat.

Once I actually got on the interstate, things started really slowing down.

January 25, 2010
Roosevelt

The turtle I inherited from my mother is doing pretty great. I’m in the process of building him (I just default to calling things “him” if the sex is nonexistent or ambiguous) a really great, though painfully geeky, aquarium environment. We’ve decided to name him Roosevelt in an attempt to offset the very undignified way in which he will be living.

Although, I’m pretty sure anything would be better than his temporary setup of a beach towel on top of an old log-shaped aquarium ornament and one sad bubble stone. And that setup was likely better than his setup at my mom’s place because she didn’t realize he was aquatic at all. He was just living in sand.

He doesn’t seem to be growing at all, but he’s definitely getting a personality. He frantically claws at the front of the aquarium in the mornings when we feed him and will follow our hands or the food container around. He also tends to play in the bubbles and give himself bubble beards.

I love him, eventhough he’s a turtle and doesn’t know what love is.

January 23, 2010
On the subject of goals…

I’m not really one to make resolutions. I think that ultimately, they cause unneeded stress and disappointment. However, I have started setting yearly goals for myself. I’ve realized that I now have a lot of long term goals, and I make progress on them so slowly that it begins to get unmotivating. So, I’ve decided to break it down into smaller yearly chunks so I don’t get so flustered.

This year, I’m focusing on keeping lists of things. I have a LOT going on this year with the upcoming wedding, acting as creative director for huge freelance client, my day job, and trying to get business off the ground. Keeping lists not only reminds me of what is due, but it also shames me into doing things so I can cross them off. I currently have 3 different calendars on the go with various information on each.

I’m trying to ramp up on my outside work as a move toward either being a full time freelancer or being able to get an office of my own. I’ve been having housewife pangs for a while now. Not that I think I’m cut out to be a housewife, but I do want a gig where I’m not chained to a desk 9 hours a day and can be at home if I want to be. What I really want is to just get business at a point where Kelly and I can start working under the name. It’s something I’m ridiculously excited about and I’m tired of life getting in the way of this particular dream of mine.

I’m also back on the “I really need to lose these last 20lbs” train. It’s really disappointing to me that I did so well losing that 40 a few years back, but this last 20 isn’t budging. A portion of the massive amount of calendars I have on the go is dedicated to what I’ve been eating, my water intake, and gym visits. I also am probably going to try and convince my doctor to refer me to an endocrinologist. I really think that I might be hypothyridic, and pretty much everyone I know who is hypo agrees that it’s a strong possibility.

One of my biggest goals for this year is that I’m going to make a real effort to be a more positive person. I’m going to try to shake the ghost of my late grandmother and try to embrace the fact that I’m a talented, valuable person and worthy of being loved just the way that I am. I’m also trying really hard to appreciate how far I’ve gotten in life instead of focusing on how I feel as though I’m behind. I know the feeling of lagging behind is completely ridiculous, I’m ahead of the game as far as the life script is concerned. I’ve noticed I tend to get stressed and then fall into this ridiculous negative feedback loop where I’m worthless and I hate everything and it’s just not healthy. I think getting into a working environment where I feel appreciated will go a long way, I love working for huge freelance client because of how they go out of the way to make me feel awesome about the work I’m doing.

Lastly, I’m going to try to start drawing again. When I went to Pearl and noticed that they were closing, I picked up a pencil and an eraser. I’m just going to see how it goes. I was planning on forcing myself to draw a little everyday like I had to in highschool, but I simply don’t have the time.

January 21, 2010
Snow day in Atlanta

It snowed in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago. Snow in a huge deal here, because we’re in the south and it rarely snows here. When I first moved to Atlanta, I was all excited I’d get to see snow because it’s much farther north and into the mountains than where I’m from. I rapidly learned that it just gets bitterly cold here with nothing to show for it.

However, once a year we usually get an ice storm that everyone calls snow and the city shuts down for a few days because we have no infrastructure AT ALL to deal with snow and ice. This year was pretty spectacular. I saw snow on the ground from Thursday night until the next Wednesday morning (but only in my courtyard because it’s shaded from the sun).

I attempted to go to work on Friday, but the road behind my building was covered in almost a solid inch of ice and it’s downhill. Smart car made a valiant effort and made it about, oh, 10 ft before I lost traction and almost skidded into another car. I promptly turned back around and decided to wait it out, because if I was having a hard time driving, I knew it’d be terrible out. Watching the news confirmed my fears, there had already been two 20+ car pileups due to the snow that morning.

Since no one had made it into work that morning, we decided to take a walk around the block in the 14 degree weather. Eventhough I’ve now seen real snow, snow in Georgia is still a novelty for me.

Later on that day, we needed to run some errands. These included running up by Northpoint mall. When taking the Mansell exit, we spied this gigantic frozen fountain.

I got so excited when I found out the ice was thick enough to walk on, because all I wanted to do last time I was in Canada was stand on a frozen lake, but it wasn’t cold enough.

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