When I first saw these results I chuckled because, well… let’s face it: I don’t have the figure of someone who is starving. But then it made me think about other kinds of hunger and need, and I have to admit that I have starved quite often over my lifetime and it still influences the way I am today. I’ve felt intense hunger for attention and acceptance, a sense of power, romance, adventure, wellness, wholeness, and much more. Some days I still do. I think most of us could be classified as “starving artists” when you look at it that way.

See? And you thought these quizzes were shallow and silly. Sometimes I actually learn something from them. :)~

My section of Masterpieces will have two required texts, and the course I am offering in Outsider Art will have three. All are fairly indepth reading, and one book (that each class needs) is a manual on writing about art — because they will be doing a few short papers and essays.

I suddenly feel like some old skool hardass teacher. I don’t know when this happened to me. It will be interesting to see how the students react to my syllabus and list of class expectations. Hopefully they won’t all drop out after the first meeting. Heh.

Still, I’m seriously starting to wonder just how soft this department has become in the past ten years since I went to school there. I’m hope I’m not too much of a shock to their system.

ps. You know what else is true about that quiz? I can NEVER keep track of my pens. Or pencils… or paintbrushes.

Arrrrrrrgh!

December 29, 2002 | 3 Comments

It?s been a frustrating day.

The memory card in my digital camera has been acting weird lately — the software on my comp hasn?t able to read it, which is the first problem I’ve had with it in 4 years. Agent J wanted to take photos of the progress he?s made on the studio construction, so I thought I?d be a Nice Wife and drive across town to get another memory card. The smallest one available was 64mb and cost $30. Mind you, the original card was only 8 mb, but of course, bigger must be better in my way of thinking, so I bought the huge honkin? thing.

I get the card home and load it in the camera. J takes all of the photos he wants, then asks me to download and process them on my comp. Once again, the Nice Wife in me says: Sure, honey… no problem… *big smile*

Now the comp won?t read the new card either! What the hell?

So we figure perhaps the batteries in the flashpath adapter must be getting too low to read the insanely massive amount of storage space on the new card and they probably need to be replaced. Being the cranky bitch Nice Wife that I am, I hop back into my car and drive alllll the way across town again for the stupid batteries. It?s ok, I tell myself. It?s a gorgeous day and it?s rather nice to be out driving around and going on wild goose chases instead of being at home and breathing construction dust. Ahem.

By the time I was at the 4th store searching for what must be the rarest of all !@#$%^ types of batteries on Earth, I was ready to start smacking the hell out of anyone who got in my way. Store clerks, booger-picking kids, little old ladies ? it didn?t matter; if they got between me and those batteries, they would be eliminated. Fortunately, I didn?t have to go all Fargo on anyone?s ass. I found one battery at store #4, and the second one I needed at store #5.

Nice wife? goooood wife, I mutter to myself all the way back across town.

Bah! I get the batteries home, load them into the flashpath adapter and the damn thing still doesn?t work! No matter what I do, the photos J took will not transfer onto my computer.

?Did you format the new memory card before you put it into the camera and handed it to me?? asks the Hubby.

DOH! Now he asks, that smartass.

Formatting the memory card. That?s probably a necessary step in the process, I suppose. The original memory card that came with the camera was apparently already pre-formatted, because I know I?ve never done *that* before. Rizzarazzafrickenfracken?

I attempted to erase the photos from the card and format it, but no dice. They are on there forever.

So, as it stands, I bought a $30 memory card that is now worthless, I bought $8 worth of batteries that I evidently did not need, I spent hours running around town among After-Christmas-Sale lunatics in search of said batteries, the flashpath software still isn?t performing correctly, and the husband had the nerve to POUT because he has to re-shoot the photos all over again. After I buy another memory card, that is. Yuh huh, riiiight.

I think he needs to get a little fresh air himself tomorrow.

I can?t believe I am enduring all of this without the aid of a good piece of chocolate.

Sobering

December 29, 2002 | 3 Comments

Last night we received a phone call from one of guys that J works with. He was calling with the news that a mutual friend from the office, ?Tim?, had been killed in a terrible accident. It was one of those freaky kind of things, too. Tim had been out ice fishing with a bunch of guys and they were walking down some train tracks, heading back to where their car was parked. He was walking ahead of the group. The rest of them heard the train coming, but he didn?t, and he was run over and killed.

J?s pretty shook up about it; that in itself is upsetting to me. He is usually such a rock. We haven?t dealt with an unexpected death very often, and this is the first time one of us has lost a good friend to such tragic circumstances. Tim used to come into J?s office almost daily to gab and joke around, and he was always a kind and generous man. That place just won?t be the same without him.

It’s very sobering, especially in the middle of all of the holiday celebrations. If you are the praying type, please say one for Tim’s wife, his family, and friends.

The world has lost a very special person.

The Friday Five and The After Christmas Stuff

December 27, 2002 | 1 Comment

Well, I am glad The Friday Five is available this week — it’s the only thing that’s giving me a clue what day it is! This week’s questions are about the upcoming New Year’s holiday.

1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year?
Working out of the depression that had a grip on me from January until May ? it was my worst episode to date. Then after that, getting a teaching position.

2. What was your biggest disappointment?
A friend of mine let me down in some major ways, but we?ve been able to patch things up again. Now our relationship is even better than before.

3. Will you be making any New Year’s resolutions?
A few.

The first one is a biggie: To re-focus more of my energy on my continuing weight loss efforts. It?s been incredibly hard to do lately because most of my available mental and physical resources are going towards preparations for school. Fortunately, the special holiday foods haven?t been much of a problem. I?ve been able to keep my distance from the demon, sugar, so I consider that a very important victory. But it?s time to get firmly back on track with my program again.

My second resolution is to continue going to sleep at a decent hour each night, even if that means having to take my medication to do so. Everything in my life runs more smoothly if I am well rested.

The last one is to actually send all of the paper greeting cards I buy for people. The problem is that I buy them a couple weeks before the event, and by the time the big day rolls around I realize that I forgot to send the darn thing. I?m amassing quite a collection. In fact, I might not even have to buy any new ones this year ? I can just choose from the vast and varied selection in my desk drawer. Oye.

4. Where will you be at midnight? Do you wish you could be somewhere else?
Probably sitting in the backyard, in the dark, listening to all of the guns and fireworks go off at the stroke of midnight. I?ve always enjoyed doing that.

If I could be anywhere else at that time, I think I?d want to be visiting my older sister, Laura, and her family. Their house it always a fun place to be during any holiday and I?m pretty sure they have a good time on New Year?s Eve.

5. Aside from (possibly) staying up late, do you have any other New Year’s traditions?
I always kiss the guy closest to me and give him a big hug when the clock strikes midnight. One time, a few years ago, I was alone on New Year?s eve? except for my hamster, Bobby. He got the smooch that year. I could tell he was real impressed. :)~

I used to like to watch New Year?s Rockin? Eve with Dick Clark in Times Square. Nowadays the show is filmed in so many locations and time zones that it gets rather tedious. Plus, today?s popular music totally sucks, so that makes for a sucky show, too. Everything is hip hop and gangsta rap. Pffft. It?s much more fun to listen to my own music and rock out.

Awww, yeah…. DJ Pink ? word to yo? mama.

It?s going to be awful, I just know it. Every Dubuquer and local farmwife who haven?t maxed out their credit cards already will be at that damn mall looking for bargains, bargains, BARGAINS! There?s just something eery about the frenzied look in the eyes of power shoppers ? it?s savage and creepy. And I won?t even go into how brutal the fight for a parking spot can be. I?m convinced that?s why all of the farm wives drive their hubbie?s enormous, mud-sloshed trucks into town when they go shopping: the pure intimidation factor it gives them in the parking lots. Evil rural bitches.

Oh, well. I?ll just have to suck it up and out-bitch them if necessary. We all know I can do it; even in a 4 door sedan.

I have so many holiday emails and letters to respond to over the next few days; I think I may as well make it an official tradition to send good wishes to everyone between Christmas and New Year?s ? that?s when it always gets done anyway! At least if I call it ?my tradition? I can feel less guilty about being so behind in my correspondence. *cough*

I?ll call it The Combined Winter Holiday Greeting Week. Yeah, that?s the ticket?

And I?ll even label one of my desk drawers with that title so I know where to shove all of the cards I?ll forget to send.

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