Purls O' Wisconsin

No, those of you waiting for the newsletter haven't missed getting it.  Time was mysteriously sponged up by other activities yesterday and today; I'll get the newsletter out tomorrow...

Most of those "mysterious activities" are painfully boring and not worth my recounting here.

Suffice to say, though, that I enjoyed tea and conversation with a friend this afternoon.  And I invested hours this morning, trying to come up with The Perfect Titles for some works in progress.  And this evening, I registered for Smithsonian lectures for the next few months.  Topics of those lectures include Vermeer, Baseball Umpires, Glial Cells, Greek Archeology, and Mithridates.  I'd like to think that shows a relative diversity of interests on my part :-)  (The lecturer on Greek archeology is one of my favorites; he's one of the few speakers I'll pay to listen to for an entire day.)

Oh!  Just to prove that I am a writer, I have an article in this month's Romance Writers Report (the magazine published by Romance Writers of America.)  The topic is "Coping with Crunch-Time" and it gives strategies for, um, coping with crunch-time (with deadlines for contracted works or contests or other writing-related crunches.)

And I posted my monthly post over at SFNovelists yesterday, discussing my take on New Year's resolutions, of both the writing and general-life variety:  http://www.sfnovelists.com/2010/01/04/day-late-dollar-short-or-how-i-make-new-years-resolutions/  (Feel free to drop by over there and comment - no registration necessary!)

Mindy, ready for dinner

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
210 PM CST MON JAN 4 2010

( Read more... )

SNOW IS BECOMING LIKELY ON THURSDAY. OVERALL CONFIDENCE IS
INCREASING. AT THIS TIME...ONE TO TWO INCHES OF SNOWFALL
ACCUMULATION ARE POSSIBLE WITH ISOLATED LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNT NOT
OUT THE RANGE OF POSSIBILITY. STAY TUNED FOR FUTURE UPDATES.

PROLONGED VERY COLD TEMPERATURES ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE THROUGH
THIS WEEK. FOR THE LATTER HALF OF THE WEEK WE ARE LOOKING AT VERY
LOW WIND CHILLS FOR THURSDAY NIGHT...FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY
NIGHTS INTO THE EARLY MORNING HOURS. WINDS CHILLS COULD DROP DOWN TO
BELOW ZERO INTO THE NEGATIVE SINGLE DIGITS.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

ACTIVATION OF STORM SPOTTERS AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT IS NOT
EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

$$

08

Skip to the end. I bolded it. :p
-----------------------

000
FXUS64 KBMX 041527
AFDBMX

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
927 AM CST MON JAN 4 2010


.DISCUSSION...

BACK WHEN I MOVED TO ALABAMA IN JANUARY OF 1990...I FREQUENTLY
HEARD PEOPLE REFER TO HOW COLD IT GOT AROUND CHRISTMAS TIME A
MONTH EARLIER. AND THE WAY IT WAS DESCRIBED TO ME WAS THAT IT
WASN`T AN ALL-OF-A-SUDDEN ARCTIC BLAST THAT CAME IN. IT WAS MORE
LIKE A GRADUAL CHILL DOWN...A FEW DEGREES A DAY...BEFORE YOU KNEW
IT IT WAS DOWN INTO THE SINGLE DIGITS. THAT`S A LOT LIKE HOW
THINGS HAVE BEEN HERE LATELY...AND WILL CONTINUE TO BE THROUGH
MUCH OF THIS WEEK. CONDITIONS THIS MORNING ARE INDEED COLD...BUT
IT DOES APPEAR WE WILL BE GETTING EVEN COLDER.

THERE ARE ALSO A FEW LIGHT ECHOES ON THE RADAR SCOPE TO OUR
NORTHWEST...WITH SNOW FLURRIES BEING REPORTED AS CLOSE AS
GREENVILLE MS AND MEMPHIS. THAT SNOW APPEARS TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH
A SHORTWAVE TROUGH ROUNDING THE BASE OF THE BIG UPPER TROUGH
ACROSS THE EASTERN STATES. MODELS DO DRY UP THE PRECIP AS IT TRIES
TO PUSH INTO THE SINGLE DIGIT DEWPOINTS HERE IN ALABAMA. I TOYED
WITH THE IDEA OF ADDING SOME FLURRIES INTO THE FORECAST TODAY FOR
THE WEST CENTRAL AND SOUTHWESTERN COUNTIES...BUT DECIDED AGAINST
IT BASED ON THE DRYNESS OF THE SURFACE AIR MASS.

COLD ADVECTION CONTINUES TONIGHT...AND MORE COLD HIGH PRESSURE
SETTLES IN. HARD FREEZE SHOULD EASILY BE EVEN MORE WIDESPREAD
TONIGHT THAN THIS MORNING...AND AS SOON AS CURRENT HARD FREEZE
WARNING EXPIRES WE WILL PROBABLY NEED TO UPGRADE THE WATCH TONIGHT
TO A WARNING. BUT AS THE SHAM-WOW GUY WOULD SAY..."BUT WAIT
THERE`S MORE."

AS IF DEALING WITH THE COLD WASN`T BAD ENOUGH WE STILL HAVE TO
CONTEND WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF WINTRY PRECIP ON THURSDAY...AS
ANOTHER SHORTWAVE ROUNDS THE BASE OF THE LONGWAVE TROUGH. BUT THE
04/0000Z MODEL RUNS PAINT A LESS CERTAIN FORECAST THAN APPARENTLY
THE PREVIOUS RUNS DID. I DID CONTINUE THE HIGH POPS FOR THURSDAY
AND THURSDAY NIGHT...AS I DO THINK THERE IS A GOOD
CHANCE/LIKELIHOOD OF MOST SPOTS GETTING AT LEAST 0.01 OF LIQUID
EQUIVALENT. BUT THEN AGAIN... I DON`T FORESEE A LOT OF PLACES
GETTING ANY MORE THAN 0.10 EITHER. SO ITS NOT QUITE TIME TO GET
TOO EXCITED ABOUT A MAJOR SNOWFALL. PLUS...THERE IS AGAIN SOME
QUESTION AND UNCERTAINTY REGARDING PRECIP TYPE IN THE SOUTHERN
PORTION OF THE FORECAST AREA.

AND QUITE FRANKLY...I THINK THE MAIN STORY WE NEED TO BE SELLING
FOR THE END OF THE WEEK IS THAT OF THE COLD (WHICH COULD
POTENTIALLY BE DEADLY) RATHER THAN THE SNOW POTENTIAL (WHICH
LOOKS MORE LIKE AN INCONVENIENCE IN COMPARISON). ALL SIGNS POINT
TO SINGLE DIGIT LOW TEMPERATURES BY SATURDAY AND SUNDAY MORNINGS FOR
MUCH OF THE OUTLYING AREAS...AND 10 TO 15 DEGREES IN THE CITIES.
ONCE SOME AREAS GO BELOW FREEZING THURSDAY AFTERNOON OR EVENING...
THEY MAY NOT CLIMB BACK ABOVE FREEZING UNTIL SUNDAY AFTERNOON.

AND IF YOU ORDER NOW (BECAUSE WE CAN`T DO THIS ALL DAY)...WE`LL
INCLUDE ANOTHER POTENTIAL WINTER WEATHER THREAT EARLY TO MIDDLE
NEXT WEEK.

/61/

I'm spending today putting together my first newsletter for 2010.  It will include the cover art for the next volume in the As You Wish series, along with a link to the first chapter of that book (which will be in stores in April.)

If you don't get the newsletter, you won't see those things for another month.  So.  What do you think?  Want to sign up for the newsletter?

If so, go to my website - www.mindyklasky.com - and scroll to the bottom of any page to use the convenient sign-up form!

Mindy, woman of mystery

Well, it's time to wrap up my bookshelf list from 2009.  As always, I didn't read as much as I would like, and my 2010 to-be-read shelf is overflowing.  (In particular, I want to read more nonfiction in the coming year...)  Nevertheless, I enjoyed a number of the books that crossed my path - even if I take out the ones that didn't make it past the 50-page test.

If I had to choose a top 5 for the year, comparing apples to oranges, and being totally, 100% subjective, I'd choose:

THE HUNGER GAMES, by Suzanne Collins
THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL SOCIETY, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA, by Michael Pollan
CROSS MY HEART AND HOPE TO SPY, by Ally Carter
MY LORD AND SPYMASTER, by Joanna Bourne

Without further ado:

( Behind a cut, for those who don't care to read the whole list... )

Today, I had auditions for the last of the kids in Mockingbird and wow!  Apparently they don't ever have kids read out loud in school anymore.  They were all stumbling and stuttering.  I finally had Bina come out and do an improv exercise for us.  That helped, a lot.  One of the kids was weird- he asked a lot of questions and that wasn't so bad.  But his response to my answers were somewhat...mouthy.  I told them-no Southern dialect and he said, loudly, WHAT??????

I was stunned.  I don't think I will cast him.  If he's questioning me now what's he going to be like during rehearsals?

I laid down at 5 pm and work up at 8:20.  I would feel guilty except I didn't actually go to bed until 4 am due to an allergy attack.  So annoyed.  Nothing that I can figure set it off.  Hadn't eaten anything for several hours, been in bed for an hour before the attack.  So weird. 

Today, we finally mailed off my mom & grandma's Christmas presents.  Which I stupidly just realized I didn't photograph.  I didn't make them, but Tawny's husband did.  One was a coat rack and one was a wreath both made out of horse shoes welded together. Certainly not my style but I think they will like it.  Counselor R LOVED the coat rack I gave him.

I also finally addressed my Christmas cards.  I filled out the insides like at the beginning of December but never addressed and mailed them.  Oh well, the season that keeps on giving, I guess.

And I finally got my emissions tested...it was due in, ummm, October, I think.  Apparently today was the day to get all the shit done I have put off.

I think I'll go make something arty now.

Wow! Apparently I have not posted here since spring of 2008. The internet has such a bizarre permanence. Here is the exact way I felt about a situation over 18 months ago, still just sitting here for me to walk back up to and consider.

I'm still at the job I found shortly after that post - doing basically the same type of work for a bowhunting accessories manufacturer instead of a contract blasting company. No, really. After a year and half there I'm still not making what I was, but it's keeping me in beer and skittles as it were. These days, that's plenty to ask.

I went on that vacation I'd planned right after I quit that job, with my mom to Virginia. I also went with my husband to Vancouver Canada last July, and spent the last two Thanksgivings in Hot Springs, AR - just for the hell of it. No family there, just romantic weekend away style.

I went back to Weight Watchers and have lost 33 pounds. In the last year I've made a lot of progress on my house, pitching out scads of useless stuff and getting things fixed up, painted and so forth. I'm feeling pretty good about life in general, and the prospects that lay ahead for 2010: following through on the remaining 30 pounds I have yet to lose, a backyard vegetable garden, continuing the exercise and eating habits that will let my next vacation be less colored by my sore muscles and blistered feet!

The only resolution I'll try to keep is to make more time for things that bring me joy. Happy New Year!

Graphic Design images

1. Piper Mardi Gras
2. Piper Halloween
3. Media is the Message
4. SCT's logo
5. 1 SCT poster
6. Darrel's website
7. SBDC down in economic times brochure
8. Help is around the corner brochure
9. Whimsy logo/banner
10. Chopstick menu
11. NxLeveL design stuff?

Other art images

1. Voodoo doll
2. Money Jesus
3. Batik
4. Photography
5. Bookart
6. Starry Night floor
7. Cypress tree
8. Photography
9. Maybe the Beatles collage if it's done and turns out cool
10. One of my illustration pieces from Illustration class
11. A printmaking piece

What else have I done-some sewing, some quilt piecing.  A mosaic for Wendy once. I think that by going half and half, it shows variety which you need as an art teacher.  I do have those animations I did...I don't think they are good enough for a grad school application though.   Btw-notice none of Crazie's stuff is listed under the design area.

Jeez, this is kind of scary-people will be judging my art. I mean, y'all think I'm wonderful but you are my friends.  Now for complete strangers to do so?  Ugghhh.

I heard back and I can submit my images for grad application digitally.  That makes life MUCH easier.  Now, I just have to find what I want to do. I think a mixture of things.  Of course my graphic design.

Also, I am thinking my Starry Night floor and the cypress tree.  A voodoo doll.  (I'll have to make one because I have never photographed one well enough-it's really a shame I never got decent pics of the bride and groom).  I need some of my batik work. My statue of the money-Jesus. Maybe some of my photography?    I am thinking 10 images of the graphic design stuff and 10 of other things.  Now to figure out what kind of other things.  Decisions decisions.

We have a calendar from last year that's all Beatles' album covers.  I think I'd like to do a collage that has all of them on it with stencils of the four guys painted in the white space and some of the other great shots of them as well.  That's as far as the idea has gone but since I'm up, I wanted to write it down.

I keep getting friend requests from VERY Christian folks.  Why?  I am pretty sure there's nothing on my profile that screams, "Here's a kindred Christian spirit."  Perhaps he's trying to save my soul.  Although I don't think I say anything that is more than irreverent-however, I could be wrong there.

Yes, we have three friends in common- Walt Minnick, a local motivational speaker who has taught for me and the former (or perhaps current) owner of Boise Weekly.  Not exactly bosom companions. And his isn't the first, I have had several of them over the past few months.  Are they trying to up their friend totals?  It's weird.  I could understand if you shared my politics or something but so far as I can tell, they don't.  Honestly, I was a little surprised considering the other groups and stuff that he was a 'friend' of Walt Minnick.  It's odd.  Not enough to keep me awake odd, but odd.

Plus you get to hear him read it.  Go here.

I strung some beads for the necklace I got from dolphin_daze .  I'll photograph it tomorrow.  It's nowhere near the work that auronsgirl  and husband do, but it turned out alright.  Speaking of which, I should photograph the pretties for those who haven't seen them in person. I love all my new necklaces, thanks ladies- auronsgirl (and Joey)  &  dolphin_daze , I get compliments whenever I am wearing your creations.

And btw, got a movie watched almost all before midnight, so good day for the start of the year.  Let's hope it continues.

Ok, I started the ball rolling. I e-mailed the grad college director and asked "Slides?  Really?" Ok, I was much more polite but honestly, slides?  Who the fiddely fuck does slides any more?  And more importantly- what the hell am I going to do to get slides?  Can you get them printed from digital files?  

I need three letters of recommendation.  I know Karen will do one.  I expect Counselor K would write me one and since he used to be the pres of Albertson's College, that might be good.  Tom surely would have written me one but alas, that's not gonna work.

Ok, I think I'll go art something.

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

2010- everyone's talking about it.  It's been an interesting year.  Some of it has been kick in the gut awful, but that awful led to my husband being really happy-so I guess I am happy about that. For the most part, my friends have had a sucktacular year and for their sakes, I am happy 2009 is behind us.  It started all shiny with a new president and high hopes.  And while I still have those hopes and don't really have much to criticize on the Obama-front, except the fuckwits on the other side being complete horse's asses.  I hope the economy continues its slow climb out of the recession.  It won't go where it was, and I really hope folks aren't hoping for that.  It was unrealistic when it happened and it's doubly so to think it will again.

As 2010 dawns, I find myself seriously considering grad school.  As in the deadline is January 15 for Fall.  Holy crapola.  I am not sure I can get my shit together by then, but we'll see. What I would dearly love would be to able to afford to attend some fancy place and get my Master's in Art History.  Finances decree that I continue at BSU in Art Education-which isn't a bad thing at all.  Just.... I think Art History would be cooler. Plus, it would be fun to travel a bit.  If I'm gonna dream-how about grad school in Florence?  Greece?  Now there's a nice dream.

I have been busy at the theater working on Dilemmas with Dinner, which opens next week.  I have been painting a lot-today saw me doing one of my perennial 'wood' floors.  Yes, I'll post pics, but strangely, it looks like my other ones.  Although I did manage to keep the 'boards' a bit straighter this time-the floor doesn't warp in a gentle arc like every other time.

They say that what you do on New Year's is what you will continue for the year, or what you were doing NYE.  So, NYE, I spent at a party with theater friends.  Today, I spent time on the internet, reading in the bathtub and creating a faux wood floor.  I now have three hours to get some other art in.  That's not a bad bit of premonition for the year:

• Time with friends
• Internet (it's a given)
• Reading
• Theater creations
• Art

Yeah, I can deal with that.  Well, on to another day my friends.  I posted my wishes for the year that were Neil Gaiman's 2001 wishes and they stand and are quite lovely:

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

I woke up this morning and listened to a segment on public radio about Umberto Eco and lists and an exhibit regarding lists-in-art-and-history at the Louvre.  That segment seemed particularly fitting for me to launch a new year.  I am a list maker, barely reformed enough not to add "wake up" and "brush teeth" to my list, so that I know I'll have things to cross off in short order...

As a list maker, I am also a resolution maker.  Typically, I set goals for myself on my birthday, but this year, I'm setting some targets, starting today.  They're private for the most part, focusing on flaws I see in myself that I want to work on.  Nevertheless, I *have* set rewards for myself for achieving certain progress points.  Here is one reward I'll reap along the way:

http://www.socklady.com/adult-cotton-socks.php

(I bought one pair of the tulip socks when I discovered them while holiday shopping; I look forward to adding others to my collection!  I've always been a big sock fan, but I have long feet, and a lot of decorative socks are short (e.g., calf length), which always looked silly with trousers for the office.  Now that I wear mostly jeans and sweat pants, I can expand my sock wardrobe with impunity!)

So.  What rewards do you intend to give yourself for deeds accomplished (be they resolutions, goals, or just necessities) in the new year?

Mindy, glad to be back!