Realizing A Dream

Due to a twist in fate (or, as I like to think of it, "dodging the slings and arrows") I now have the artist's studio of my dreams.

I remember back when I was 10 or 11, wanting to essentially create a graphic design for a notebook I was putting together. At that point I had no idea what graphic design was, or that you had to have a special program to make text curve around in a spiral or make colors blend one to the other across your font. I vaguely remember spending several frustrating hours one Saturday poking around MS Word looking for the "curvy text" option. FYI: it doesn't exist.

It was another few years before I heard about Photoshop. Lightbulbs and fireworks. I was overjoyed! Until I found out how much it cost. Basically the same as my school trip to Russia.

So here we are, another decade plus later, and I am - hopefully - close to acquiring the last piece to this new studio.

Then I'm going to have to put my creative will where my money is... and make use of it.

WGA Strike

We've been picketing outside Universal all week. My dad had a great idea - wearing my Nike shoes to record how many "miles" we end up picketing. We're in 4 hour shifts. Every day.

In supreme irony (or was this planned?) - I got a call from the ABC/Disney Fellowship people on Monday (that would be day 1 of the strike) saying I'd advanced to the semi-final round of the competition. For those of you who don't know this - the fellowship pays $50,000 for a year while you learn TV writing from some awesome professional writers.

But because of the strike, I can't in good conscience continue forward in the fellowship as it would be accepting payment for writing services from a struck company - even though it's an educational program. I feel like every writer is making sacrifices during this strike, this is one of the ones I will be making.

Because I support my Guild and I believe in what we're striking for. If you don't know by now (or want a really great quick explaination) check out this link.

20 Minute Run

It's been a long time since I've run (over 3 weeks) and this was a difficult one but I ran the whole thing. It was nice that it was less than 100 degrees outside. But still. Ouch.

"Thank God For Memphis"

So there's this website called Song Fight where every week they give you a title of a song and you have one week to write that song, record it, and post it. Then people vote for the song they like best.

This week's title is "Thank God For Memphis" and JB (under the band name "Bad Cactus") wrote an amazing entry. When he played it for me the first time I was blown away by the lyrics. And since then I've found myself humming it over and over. Excellent work, JB!

Check it out (and feel free to vote!). You have until Monday, September 3rd.

Awesome.

25 Minute Run

This run was very very hard. I'm not sure why. But I didn't stop running. Apparently I'm not yet "in shape." :|

25 Minute Run

Another run. I feel kind of light headed, but I'm glad I got the chance to get out there today. Still trying to do 3 runs a week. Especially now that I'm taking next season of basketball off. Storm is crying - I think the kitties are hungry for their dinner. Off to feed them, then hopefully catch dinner with JB.

20 Minute Run

Getting back into running before I completely revert to pre-exercise fitness level. I ran pretty slow - as you can see. Just wanted to make sure I finished this one. Trying to do at least 3 runs a week. This is harder to schedule than one might think.

25 Minute Run

Just got back from Michigan on Monday. Though I took my running shoes I didn't feel the need to USE them. :) It was a great trip, and I had a great time. So green out there! The run today was rough towards the end. My hip has been giving me some trouble and it's aching a little now though it didn't hurt during the run. JB "helped" me by icing it last time. PAIN. I'm afraid to bring it up, but I guess I just did so there's that.

20 Minute Run

I got off my running schedule last week so I'm repeating last week's schedule and moving everything else down a week. I kind of enjoyed the solitude on this run. I'm not sure I enjoyed the route - it was a different one than I normally run but it was kind of creeping me out because there were lots of little bridges and dense wooded areas and it was approaching sunset and I kept having flashbacks from the book "Lucky" that I read recently that I won't go into detail about here. Suffice it to say, I think I'll either run that one in broad-er daylight or with a running pal. I hit the nano button to give me a report on how I was doing with about 4 minutes to go and it said I was running an eleven minute and thirty second per mile pace. Which kind of depressed me so I ran a lot harder for the last four minutes and brought that up to a ten minute and fifty second per mile pace. Which made me think I could maybe try running a bit faster earlier. But I don't want a reapeat of my first 2.5 mile run where I thought I was going to DIE because I started off too fast.

Basically there is still a lot to learn about this whole running thing. Hm. I do kind of love having this method of tracking my progress, though. Yeah for technology, yet again!

25 Minute Run

Got to run again today. It was tough. Kind of a slower run than I'd hoped. But no walking. So that's good.