I think I am ready for the new year and to jump back into things. The idea of taking the holidays for reading and not trying to work on anything else has been really helpful and mostly motivating.
I haven’t finished quite as many books as I had hoped when I started out with the idea of spending the holidays reading. Though, as of this writing, they aren’t quite over and I consider the time between New Year’s Day and the next workday to be part of the holiday as well, so I still have some time. I did finish up a couple of books that I had been working of for a while. I was really glad of that. One of them was a re-read. I was reading the first Harry Potter book again because even though I have seen the movie dozens of times since I read the book, the book is different than the movie and since I want to try to ready Harry Potter in German I thought I should read the English version again. Of course, English vs. American is possibly up for a debate. I’m not going to go there.
One of the things I have been working at, consistently since I got my iPad is learning German. There are a few reasons for this and probably the best one is because I have been trying to learn to speak and read German since I was in high school and I am determined to do it. I’ve been using duolingo.com to learn and I am making progress. At least I am being consistent. I finally figured out that the way I approach my lessons there will work for other things I’m trying to learn. And yes, I have started Harry Potter in German. It’s going to take a while. There are a lot of words I still don’t know and have to figure out, guess at, or look up as I go.
The way I approach my German lessons is to do just two lessons a day, minimum. I can do more if I feel like it, but if I’m not up to it I just get in the two lessons. This is working out really well for me. Much better than how I had been trying to approach things where I was trying to assign an amount of time that I had to spend on whatever I was studying. And for whatever reason, the amount of time I thought I had to spend on something each day was at least an hour. I don’t know about you, I really only have 24 hours in my day and a good chunk of that is taken up by either sleeping or working and I also have to feed myself. So, if I have 3 things I want to learn and think I should put and hour to each every day, well during the week, that doesn’t really leave time to even eat most days. So I’m going to try doing what I do for German for my other studies. This only just clicked with me. I haven’t been doing it long enough to know yet how well it’s going to work. Given I have study for work I need to get going on starting next week, and I have so many Udemy courses that I want to work through, I figure it is worth a try. And I am trying to keep it reasonable. I’ve got the German, the study for work, and one other course, whatever it is. Right now I’m finishing, or trying to finish up the Rhythm Guitar course on Udemy. I’m almost half way through it so I might as well.
Still a work in progress.
The reading has been interesting. I finished the Harry Potter book and a book on the future outlook of the Space industry. I also started and finished a book on the history of the Bayes Theorem. That was really fascinating. It is even relevant to my day job. Its history and recent events and events involving it, I think, have a lot to do with some of the amazing improvements, and progress we have seen in the last 25 or so years. It was worth the read.
I started one book that, while it did keep me reading it, it turned out to be a bit demotivating for me. Instead of being inspired by it, or fascinated, or energized by it, it was enthralling the way a train wreck is. You can’t look away and yet it isn’t an uplifting thing. When I realized that I decided I didn’t need to finish the book. I have moved on. I now have three books that argue for my attention each time I sit down to read. And that’s about the norm for me. So things are currently right with my literary world.
Even though I said I was spending the holiday time focusing on my reading, it isn’t the only thing I have done. I have done a bit of experimental cooking, with a few more experiments still to come. And I have worked on a couple of pieces of art that tugged at me and said either, come work on me, or you need to draw me now. I’m really pleased with both. The one that has tugged at me to be worked on is the painting of the Mantis Shrimp. I have it now to the point that I am ready to start on the background. I was a little surprised as I worked on it and made areas darker and more saturated, how it was coming along and how nice and bold it looks. That makes me feel good about the direction it is going.
I’ll add more blue next time.
The other piece of art, the one that said draw me now, was an anthropomorphized carrot. Yes. A carrot. With a face. It also said it wanted me to use Procreate on the iPad. So I did. Hey, some pieces know exactly how they want you to approach them. When that happens, it is best not to argue. It was a really fun thing to do and to use Procreate because though it is one of the reasons I wanted the iPad and learning to use it is a goal of mine, it isn’t always the most intuitive tool for me to pickup and work with. Doing that piece also inspired me to look for some digital painting courses or tutorials. I found a couple that look interesting at Udemy and watched some of the previews, and learned something. Just from the previews. So I’ll be looking into one or two of those for either Procreate or Photoshop or both.
I also came across an artist on Instagram whose work I have really enjoyed watching in speed up mode. It has me reconsidering my feelings on painting. And thinking about, considering, giving it a try again. Though not right away. I think I’ll learn digital painting first, less mess. I think that is the key to trying most things. Finding something about it that makes you think or wonder if maybe you could do something like that, or if that style, technique, skill, whatever, might be the answer to what you needed for something you wanted to do. I have had that happen with cooking for sure.
I generally cook to feed myself. I don’t treat it really as a creative expression. Though my sister does. Oh my. It’s a good thing we are several hours from each other or my scales and my jeans would be groaning. Anyway. Though I will get in a routine eating the same handful of meals for days or weeks, I get a little bored with that. A couple of years ago, I happened on a cookbook that has recipes from the game World of Warcraft. Having played the game, I thought this was fun and some of the recipes looked interesting. I got the book and I have tried a few of the recipes and some more than once. Like the bread recipe. That is one of my favorites. I recently came across a cookbook for Star Wars Galaxy Edge, which from what I have read is the Star Wars area at Disneyland and it’s a big hit. I’m not a major Star Wars fan, I have seen the main nine movies as well as Rogue One, and I have been watching The Mandalorian. So when I first saw the book, I was thinking of it for someone else. Then I poked at the contents and some of the recipes looked fun and interesting. Like Polystarch Portion Bread. It’s a single serving of bread made in the microwave. Really. So I ordered the cookbook and have been trying a few of the recipes. And I think the bread is pretty good. I have also tried one of the drinks. It’s non-alcoholic and I won’t be drinking that again. I might make it for someone, I won’t drink it. It tastes ok. The ingredients are migraine inducing for me. So, no. Now the blue, blue cheese dressing is quite tasty and a nice change from the lemon vinaigrette I have been making for a couple of years now. In fact, I’ll be having on my salad again this week because, yum.
Of the movies that were premiering of various formats over the holidays the one I have been looking forward to the most was ‘Soul’ from Disney and Pixar. This did not disappoint. I was originally drawn to it because of its musical, jazz in particular, theme. And the previews looked interesting. Then Disney+ had a show about some of the creators and artists behind some of the different animations and I found that interesting. There are at least two people featured in that who worked on ‘Soul’. The story is great. It’s impactful and inspirational. And the music is great. I will be watching ‘Soul’ again at least two more times and probably more. I want to watch it and focus on the art, the visual style, and animation. And I want to watch it to pay attention to the music. The background and ambient music as well as the music when it is the focus of the scene. Jazz is the style of music that I aspire to be able to play on guitar. I don’t spend enough time practicing it. Maybe I will start to change that.
I had one final success to finish off the year. That project to mount the bicycle racks is complete. My neighbor picked up the requisite drill bits and we were able to get the holes drilled and the screws in and the bikes on the racks. And then they came to my garage and helped me with mine. So. Three bike racks successfully mounted and three bikes off the floor. That was a big win. Now I need to clean my garage.
This one has wanted a lot of attention lately.
Going back to the music from ‘Soul’ for a moment. One of the things I lamented after I moved to Charlotte, was that I couldn’t seem to find a good Jazz station on the radio. Over the air radio has a lot of things here, including a really good Classical Music station. I just haven’t found a good Jazz station. I had not really recognized what a loss this was for me until recently. I have some CDs, yes, CDs of different Jazz artists and they work for short bursts but if I want to put on music to just listen to with a variety and not have to worry about they don’t quite do it. Yes, Spotify has Jazz as well, and that is ok. What I like about radio is the thing that I think some people must not like. I like the occasional commentary offered by the DJs. In a lot of cases I get to learn something that adds to my appreciation of the music. I finally gave in and added my SiriusXM to my Alexa and get to see how that works out. It has, so far, been a nice treat.
And that’s the year ended and a new one started. There is no telling how things will go this year. I hope for everyone that it is a good year, happy, prosperous, and peaceful. As for what I have in mind next. As I mentioned, I have studies for work to get started on. I want to be a bit more ambitious with that this year and I think with a new study approach it can happen. I have art pieces that I want to do, and new things I want to learn there as well. After some of the things I’ve worked on recently, and some of the things I would like to learn, I am reconsidering pieces that I had planned on creating. I may choose not to create them, or I may approach them differently. As for the music. I’m not sure yet. I’ll of course keep playing and practicing because I like to do that. I may spend more time with the surf guitar music that I so enjoy, and I may start to dip my fingers into learning to play jazz. Those are just the main things I’m looking at for the near future. I have no doubt I will find additional things to get into.