I’ve tried a couple of times to write this blog post and have not been able to finish it. I get part way through it and realize that I don’t like the way it reads or that it’s a bit boring. I finally realized why I have been having so much trouble. It’s because in my brain, I’m not working on anything cool so why would I write about it.
It isn’t completely true that I haven’t been working on cool things. I have, just not quite the same and not as consistently. I kept getting stuck. It was having trouble figuring out why I was getting stuck until just recently. First some of the cool things that I have been working on.
It started with a shower. I was in the shower and for some reason my mind drifted to how to model a Christmas stocking. I was thinking of how to start it and all of that. So, of course, when I finished my shower and dressed, I had to try it out. I sat down at the computer and opened Blender and before I new it several hours had gone by. At the end, I had a stocking, just not quite the Christmas stocking I had intended. I forgot to use a reference photo or two.
I still wanted to model a Christmas stocking. You know, the one that looks a bit like a snow boot. This time I looked up some reference photos before I started. I’ve got something much closer to what I want. This time I used a cube to get started, the first time I used a cylinder and had some weirdness with the end cap as I was trying to model the toe area.
I learned with the first one, from finishing the tree more recently to starting it, that if I wanted to use the cloth sculpt brush I was better off to not add a solidify modifier to it before using that brush. I forgot that when I made the second stocking so I ended up fighting with the cloth sculpt brush to get it to do anything helpful.
I may try the stocking again with what I have learned and remembered. Hopefully I will get closer to what I want for it.
I have also done something cool that isn’t on the computer. Or music related. I met some of my neighbors when I was out for a walk. I try to take a walk through part of the neighborhood or at least to the mailbox daily. I try, it doesn’t always happen. And yes, I do wear my mask. Because you never know when you might meet someone or come across someone who needs help. Anyway, I met a neighbor and her daughters. After quite a long chat we exchanged phone numbers for texting and so I could send her some links. A couple days later, she texted me to ask if I know how to put together a bicycle. Not specifically. I can read instructions and figure things out. So off I went to help her. We got it half done that evening before it got too dark and finished the rest the next evening just as it got dark. It turns out that this was the daughter’s holiday project. She wanted to learn to ride a bike on just two wheels. She pretty much nailed it. The next day after we finished it, I got a video from my neighbor of her daughter riding the bike. The next project is to hang the bike racks.
I have managed to setup my Christmas tree. I got it out of the storage and put it together and placed it on the table. It sat like that for at least a week. I considered leaving it that way. Then I decided to pull the box of decorations down off the shelf in the closet. I wanted to see it the lights work. They do. I ended up fluffing out the tree, putting the lights on it and decorating it at lunch one day. Now not only is my tree up, it’s decorated.
So what kept getting me stuck? A cool project that I was working on. I haven’t finished it. It is still stuck. Remember that leaf I did? Well I have this cool idea of something I want to use it for. I need a digital version of it. I don’t want to try to scan or photograph my picture of it to use. So I thought I would make a new version of it starting in digital, using something like Photoshop. I’ve started it twice now. Once I was trying to use my Cintiq and found that frustrating. And just last week I decided to try using my Intuos tablet, which is like the Cintiq only not a monitor, just a drawing tablet.
That was an interesting experiment. I setup my laptop and the Intuos on my dresser in my bedroom. It turns out that it is the perfect height for me to be able to work standing. I did this for a few days. It was kind of interesting and I felt very productive. I also felt like I was doing a lot of work and not getting what I had in mind. So I stopped. And I haven’t gotten much else cool or creative done since. Very frustrating.
I don’t consider getting my new desktop setup to do the Microsoft lessons really that cool. Though, I should. I did do that. I was able to install the software that I needed as well as activate the sandbox for the lesson that I am on. I really should consider that a cool thing. I just see it as normal stuff that needs doing. I still have other training stuff that needs to be setup on it and if I can get it to work, that will be cool. Not just because of what it is, also because it was a pain to set it up on my laptop.
I know, so why set it up on the desktop? Because I realized that, as much as I like working on my laptop and find it really convenient when I am comfortable on the couch, for really digging in and working on something, my desk and my desktop are really more comfortable. And the screen is bigger.
What’s next? At first I wasn’t sure because I had only just figured out what had me stuck and what to do about it. I was still shifting my thinking around and moving the leaf project into the area of my brain where it doesn’t get forgotten, it just gets low power and fewer processing cycles. Now, I think, for the next couple of weeks I’m going to follow a modified version of the Icelandic tradition where they give books for Christmas and then spend Christmas Day reading. I think I’m going to focus the next couple of weeks on some reading. I have a few books started and a few more lined up to read once I finish those. It’s quite an eclectic selection too. I’m excited about it.
After that I think I will be ready to jump back into other things. Like my studies, Blender scenes, art pieces, and some music.
