Bundling Up (It's Cold Outside) and Learning New Tricks for This Old Dog

With the exception of a quick run to the grocery story, I'm hunkering down at my knitting machine today - determined to conquer that second sleeve so that I can do the neckline and assemble the sweater. I have another sweater on my horizon and want to get started on it, so I need to make serious progress today. Of course, I don't want to go outside anyway - it's cold, and tomorrow will be even worse. After all, I'm still above zero right now (6F/-14.4C) - it's a heat wave - LOL. We're going to be sub-zero overnight and barely above zero during the days until the 14th! I'll be grabbing my scarf to add that one more layer of protection between my face and the cold, for sure! 

I'll be as bundled up as this woman from Philadelphia. I've 
got my long, warm parka, I'll probably reattach the 
hood, and I'll absolutely be wearing my scarf and hat 
(and gloves - absolutely necessary). I always feel guilty 
about having to keep my car outdoors during the days at 
the shop, but there's nothing to be done about that. 

I spent most of yesterday afternoon downloading and installing the Adobe Photoshop Elements program I had purchased for my laptop. I've used regular Adobe Photoshop for more than a decade - love the program - but it's evolved since the last version I currently run, and I had to make decisions when it came to programs for Voodoo. So, Photoshop Elements was what I picked. I use Photoshop every day, and not having a program available isn't an option. Now I get the learning curve for another version and that may drive me a bit crazy - LOL. 

Photoshop vs Photoshop Elements - Elements automates 
a lot of the photo editing process. Is that good? It's not 
bad ... as long as it's still something that I can control. 
I've used Photoshop since the early 2000's, but I'm 
open to change (and I don't have a choice - LOL). 

I also purchased Microsoft Office 365 for Voodoo, but installed that right away. That gives me my Word, Excel and Publisher programs, as well as other things that I really don't use. Of course these are all newer updates than what I've used for years, so again ... a learning curve. 

The life I'm leading is certainly nothing like I had 
imagined while I was growing up. But I really didn't 
have an overriding goal in mind. I think I wanted to 
be comfortable and experiment with art, and I've 
managed to do that. I guess I achieved my goal. 

Remember when you thought when you graduated from (insert grade or school here) you'd know everything you needed to learn and could just forge ahead in your chosen career? What a bunch of hooey!!! You're never actually finished with your education. There's always something else to be learned - a new technique, a new program or a new skill. I guess my computer is keeping me young, because once again there's a ton of things to learn. 

We never truly stop learning new things. I think that's 
one thing that helps us stay young. I'm looking forward 
to learning how to use my new programs because I need 
to have them nailed before I upgrade our older desktop 
computers. 

On that note, I think I need hot tea and oatmeal. Stay warm, be kind, stay safe and please, wear your mask. As long as I don't turn into an ice statue, I'll be back tomorrow. 

Progress - It's more Than Just a Word

By the time DH got home last night, I was pretty much finished getting the new computer set up and functional. I'm still stumbling around Win 10, it's not built into my fingertips yet, but the data is moved and the programs have also seemed to move well. It's not my desktop, it's a laptop, but it's a fun one and after a bit more massaging, it'll be just about perfect. 

I'm still very undecided about what to name my new 
laptop. It's being shy, and hasn't shown its personality 
to me yet, but I'm sure it won't be too much longer. 

My "Lord of the Rings Online" game will need some more tweaking before I can easily play it on the laptop. but DH and I worked on it in tandem last night and got some of the tweaks completed. That will probably take a bit longer, especially because I play it on my laptop as well as my desktop and the two settings have to be identical for it to appear on-screen properly. That's not happening right now, so I'll have to figure out a work-around. I suspect, for this game, I'll have to change my pixels from the 3840 x 2160 down to 1920 x 1080. If I can do that, it will look great on both computers and I won't have the issues I was having with the higher resolution. 

I've been playing Lord of the Rings Online since the original 
beta, more than 13 years ago. I'm not as intense about the 
game as DH is, but I enjoy it. I need to get things arranged 
so that I can play it on either my desktop or my new 
laptop with ease. That'll require some tweaking. 

So the actual migration might be over, but the murmuration of linking my programs between two different computers still needs a bit of work. That wonderful synchronicity that can exist when working in two different locations needs a bit more tweaking. I'll try to get that resolved, as well as understand the laptop and Windows 10 a bit better, at the shop today. 

Windows 10 might be a learning curve, but the wallpapers 
they have for it are stunning. I have been enjoying flipping 
through those, although I'll end up loading my own 
wallpapers down the line. 

So thanks all, for your patience during this long period of indecision and jumping into the dark pond. I think I made all the right decisions, and now I have to find a way to live with the result. Moving forward - LOL. Meanwhile, as we expect another snow of 2-3 inches today/tonight, I'm out of here. Have a wonderful weekend and please, be kind, stay safe, and wear your mask. I'll be back on Monday morning. 

A Series of Questions About The Calendar

I'm so very grateful that it's Friday, because I really need one of these days coming around every week. But it does make me wonder about questions that have been raised throughout "history" - probably more often by kids but questions, nonetheless. 

I guess I'm in a questioning mood today. Here are some
questions for all of you on this early Friday morning. 

Like why do we have seven days in a week? I know how the basic span of annual days arises - it's hard to fight (successfully) with Mother Nature, and the celestial calendar is pretty sturdy and somewhat reliable ... yeah, that! LOL But weeks don't really have to be seven days long. 

Want a more detailed explanation of the seven-day
week as well as a dive into one time period when
it was abandoned? Just follow this link. 

I understand the basic 24 hour structure, or at least the basic concept of splitting time into discrete segments stretching from sunrise to the next sunrise. Of course, sunrise is always changing, days could as easily be made from a format of 30 hours or 20 hours or even 18 hours. Why 24? Some dude in power somewhere probably decreed this and everyone else followed like little mice because you don't want to piss off the ruler. 

Why are there 24 hours in a day? It hasn't always been that way.
Interested in a more in-depth explanation? Follow this link. 

Seasons are pretty straightforward, especially for agricultural societies. You plant in the Spring, grow throughout the Summer, harvest in the Autumn, and starve and prepare for the next year in the Winter. Food shortages are dependent on the previous year's harvest, the number of mouths to feed, and other factors such as how harsh the winter is from year to year. 

Seasons are harder because they are location dependent. In the USA we
are focused on a calendar to tell us when a new season has started. Other
areas of the world depend on other factors such as temperature. Find
out more by following this link. 

Which brings us to the year - the annual run of days which, in many places today is stretched and altered by adding a few days every so often, allowing us to stutter-step back into synch with the Universe. Hmmm - rather arbitrary, but necessary to keep May in the Spring and September in the Fall. 

Fridays are usually pretty good days, all told. I'm going to
try and enjoy this one. 

So my question still stand. Why Friday? Why only seven days instead of a different number. Why, why, why? The questions that occur under fire to an exhausted mind. Have a wonderful Friday despite the questions and I'll return tomorrow unless I freeze into a pillar of me in today's cold snap. Stay warm, stay happy, and enjoy the day! 

Meandering Down A Road Avoiding Crocodiles

So, my friends aren't crazy about my snowfall totals? Or where I live? LOL I can't really say that I blame any of you when I post a chart like yesterday's list of snowfalls. But I assure you that as inconvenient as those snowfalls are, when you live with them and know how to deal with them, they are an inconvenience, but one that is transitory. 

Sledding down a hull is only possible on snow or sand. Don't
have a snow area around you? Try it on a sand dune. Equally
fun, but a lot harsher if you fall off. 

Yesterday's "day off" was actually very busy and somewhat successful. At the urging of several people we had spoken to over the past week or so, I enrolled us into LifeLock - a personal security guard service. Although one avenue offered us a discount on the service, we actually get it at no charge through the fact that I'm a dinosaur and still use AOL extensively, paying a monthly fee to them. LifeLock is one of several N/C benefits for those of us who stick with AOL. 

It's nice to have the service as a no-charge option
for us. It'll take me a bit to set up properly, but
I think it will be a good choice. 

I happen to really like AOL in most aspects. Maybe it's because I've been using their portal since the late 1990's or maybe it's just because I can't stand the alternatives - Gmail, Outlook, etc. Yes, there are things I don't like about each and every incarnation of AOL, but there are things I don't like about other programs too when they go through updates. I learn to work around. 

I'd change paths if this guy was sunning on my
pathway, wouldn't you? 

That's how we learn - we learn by having to find new pathways through the river to avoid the crocodile who decided the former pathway was the perfect place to lurk. We learn by testing our boundaries while growing up - how awful can I be before I'm banished to my room? Why can't I paint on the wall? Oops - bouncing the ball off that wall will cause it to go into the street. 

Think eugenics only happens other places? Check your history. It
was part of US governmental policy for much of the last century. 

We learn good and bad behaviors because of feedback and repetition. Are there people out there who are bad from birth? I don't know, and I really hope not. It's that fear of the bad taking over the good, or the desire to cull that "bad" from society that leads us down the path of eugenics, and that's a word that resonates with fear. And it should. Eugenics was (and probably still is in some parts of the world) a real, governmental program for 'racial purity' and genetic manipulation. It dates down to the long-ago when Gog said "No. We won't join with the people from that valley. They're bad people." He turned his back, led his people elsewhere, and killed any interlopers. 

So, since I really don't want to walk down a negative road today, I'll cut this off here. Wishing all of you wonderful experiences for today. Try bouncing that ball off an angled wall, just for the fun of it. Happy Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Sometimes A Negative Can Be Positive

Returning to my vacation, I spent much of my time in Milwaukee attending a variety of technique classes. I look upon the Show as my opportunity to try techniques that I haven't done before, or revisit techniques that I haven't played with in a while. This year was no exception.

Choosing classes and attending them is like looking at a table of
possibilities. They are all exciting and all vying for your attention.
Sometimes you choose the perfect component, and other times you miss
the mark. 

I had registered for two days of intensive experimentation with anodizing niobium. Niobium is an unusual metal with an extremely high melt point, meaning it cannot be soldered or altered through the application of heat. This means that joins in niobium have to be rivets or tabs or items need to be constructed so that they will be encased in a more malleable metal. But niobium can be colored into brilliant colors by the application of electrical current in a specific carrying bath, and it is that technique I wanted to learn.

Chains and jump rings are a common use for anodized niobium. But I also
have to wonder why? Anodized niobium is very subject to scratches and
wear and each piece of jewelry needs to be kept in a separate bag to keep the
colorized surface from being marred. Chains, by their nature, abrade at each link. 

I already own a rectifier - the box that generates the electrical current through cables that you attach to your jewelry or other items depending upon the type of work you want to achieve. I use it for electroforming, which is the application of copper onto selected areas of an item. I have electroformed glass, other metals, and bone in the past and have had quite a lot of fun playing with it. I was hoping to broaden the application of my tool by introducing another metal into my array.

An electroforming set up uses a rectifier to supply electricity to copper
anodes which are suspended in a tank of a carrying solution. The copper
is stripped from the anodes (in this case, sheets of copper) and the copper
is reapplied via electrical current to another surface, molecule by molecule.
It's a lot of fun. 

Alas, it was not to be. It was not that the niobium didn't anodize beautifully. It was not that I couldn't get these lovely colors on the metal or that the process was difficult, unusually expensive, or so unpredictable so as to make reproduction of it in my studio unlikely. No. It was that I just didn't enjoy the process or the end result. After more than twelve hours sitting in front of a rectifier with various pieces of niobium attached to the electrodes and dipping the metal into the carrying solution, I was bored.

These are the standard colors that can be achieved on niobium
via electrical application. They are beautiful, but this is it. It's really a
very limited palette. I need more color. I love the intensity but I need
a bright red and a brilliant yellow and a Christmas green. 

Yes, bored. Bored out of my mind. The instructor, Marti Brown, was wonderful. The projects that the others in the class made were marvelous and many were extremely inventive and complex. I looked at how variable it was and the color range as well as the order in which the colors had to be applied and decided, NO. So, as I packed up to return to the Cities, I now have some sheet and some wire of niobium, and I have my rectifier so that I can continue to experiment, but as of right now, I'm thinking that this horse won't be joining my stable of techniques. That in itself was well worth learning. I'll stick with my enamels and glass work and leave the anodizing to another artist.

We learned the technique for making these delightful 3-D beaded
starfish in Denise Denny's class on Saturday. I had such fun and got
one starfish and the clasp completed in the class. I have more
beading to do before I'm finished with the project, but the technique
is one that can be used for many things. 

That said, the beaded starfish class that I took on Saturday was excellent and so much fun. It had been ages since I last picked up a needle to make something for myself and my fingers just jumped right back into it quite happily. So with the beading and the soutache cord classes, I had two winners, and with the niobium anodizing I had two fails. All things considered though, it was a highly effective and very fun four days of classes.

Learning and Practice

My day off was rather wonderful in its own way. I did manage to do the repair that I needed to do. I'm a few days late returning it to the customer, but not too bad. I ran all over town to do my errands and still ended up forgetting to buy post-it-notes (how did we ever survive before these little items were invented?) and completely forgot to drop by the comic store *sigh*. But I got the myriad of other things on my long list done and I did treat myself to one thing...

At the archery store/range they taught me the
step-through method of stringing my bow.
I don't think I like that method, so I looked for other types. 

I bought a bowstring for one of my bows! I spent time at home practicing stringing my bow and unstringing it again, and practiced the proper hold and pull for the string. This is absolutely using arm muscles that I haven't used enough recently, so it will take some time to get into the groove. I figure if I practice the basics like this and pull my string as if it is an exercise (number of reps, resting, then pushing for another rep, etc) then by Spring I might be ready to actually shoot some arrows. At any rate, the exercise certainly can't hurt.

This angel is using the brace and pull method. I've been using
this method and I like it better than the step-through method.

Picking up the bow and learning how to string and unstring it reminded me that even though I see something and ask questions, if it is a new process, it still needs to be learned and practiced. Certainly there are some things that may come easier to a person than another. I'll never be a woodwind or horn player - just not. I have no breath control and my lips vibrate too much with reed instruments, making me laugh because it tickles. My string instruments, however - they are my love. I suspect someone who plays trumpet would be unlikely to pick up the violin as a second instrument.

This is a kneel and pull method which I might play a bit with. I'm
still looking for a method that feels comfortable and natural
for me to do, but so far the brace and pull method is what I'm using. 

Muscle control and the ability for fine motor control are learned through practice and repetition. What is hard the first five, ten, twenty or one hundred times will become easier with practice and eventually will become second-nature. I'm asking my muscles to do things that I've always wanted to do, but never had the equipment to do before. It will take time to train my muscles into these new patterns and practices.

This is a vintage photograph of a brace and pull method
in use. The disadvantage of this method is if the bow slips.
The disadvantage of the step-through method is that it can
put uneven torque on the bow as it is being stresses into
its new form.

So as we enter the back-side of the week, think about the things you practice in your daily life. I write every day - that's practice because I'm constantly attempting to improve that skill. I communicate back and forth with friends on a daily or weekly basis - I think that friendship needs to be an ongoing thing, not left to rely on sporadic rain showers and sunshine. I work on my artwork, create new patterns and check out new processes, not only because it's fun but also because it's practice in the various techniques I want to use.

Skills are learned and then refined. What will you learn today?