Well, I haven’t actually done it myself but I did manage to go visit a glass blowing studio, so I guess that almost counts. It looks absolutely fascinating. Maybe someday, after I retire and win the lottery, I could afford to buy blast furnaces and all the huge machinery that seems necessary for this craft . . .
So I broke down and bought a new camera while I was in Japan a few months back, and have since taken thousands of pictures and reinvigorated my interest in the hobby. Unfortunately, I bought an external HD to store all of these glorious 10 mp images, and then lost it, but hey, I’m having fun anyway, and happily I’d already uploaded many of my favorite shots to Flickr.
I’m going on a cruise to the Bahamas for 4 days. The downside is that I have to work, but hopefully not so much that I won’t be able to enjoy the trip. I’ve never been on a cruise before, and in truth I don’t think I’d ever go unless I was being paid for it, but it should be interesting at least. It’ll be nice to get away from the cold and dreary grey skies everyday here . . .
I found this thing at a fair somewhere in the Northwest I think. Its a “found objects” sculpture of an alien, using bicycle chain, spark plugs, wrenches, wood screws and various other bits of metal.
I’ve been having some weird problems with my camera, but every once in a while it works and I get inspired to take a few shots. Something else I’ve done recently is finally get prints made of some of my favorite digital photos from the past few years and put them in interesting frames on my walls.
Majorca, Cleveland OH (Med. seafood)
Fix, Las Vegas NV (Asian fusion)
Gaylord’s, Las Vegas NV (Indian)
NOBU, London, UK (Japanese)
Mi Tierra, San Antonio TX (Mexican)
Electric Lotus, Los Angeles CA (Indian)
I bit the bullet this afternoon and bought a renters insurance policy from Allstate, for about $20 a month. I’ve invested a good deal of money recently in my living environment, and finally, for the first time in my life, I have some pretty nice stuff. I guess its only natural that paranoia affects you more if you have something to lose. Anyway, I took out a modest policy that should cover me if my place gets robbed while I’m away on business (my main concern), or if it catches on fire somehow. I’m frequently away from home for weeks at a time, and I already feel like its a load off my mind to have the policy in place.
I finally decided to just go for it, and painted the walls of my bed- and living rooms. I went to the local DIY store, and looked through the samples until I found a couple colors I liked, and bought 2 gallons. I used color-wash brushes, and did a couple very light coats, until I ended up with a really nice textured effect. The bedroom is a kind of mint-mossy kind of color, and the adjoining living room, through the French doors, is a darker putty kind of green. It totally changed the whole feel of my place, and I’m really glad I did it. No more boring white apartment walls!
I found an old coffee table and an end table at a local Salvation Army store, the pair for 39 bucks. Both were in pretty bad shape, cigarette burns, loose legs, peeling varnish, and generally kind of sick and yellowish looking. I bought a bunch of sandpaper sheets, and stripped them both by hand, standing outside of my kitchen door in my tiny little yard. I cleaned out the hardware and tightened up the legs. It took days—I did a couple hours at a time, but eventually the wood was clean and pale white. Over the next few days I applied multiple coats of stain, the all-in-one kind, until I finally ended up with a very deep chestnut color, with almost golden wood-grain highlights. I’m really happy with how the tables turned out, and it was really satisfying to complete the project, and transform the old beat up pieces of furniture into something nice. I keep fighting the temptation to put on just one more coat . . .
For some reason London always makes me think of curry. I lived there for a little while as a child, and have been back several times as an adult, and always liked being in London. Expensive as hell, but lots of things to do and look at. It just feels kind of cool being in London, the heart of all things English.
Sea World, San Diego. I was on a special tour and they allowed us to interact with the dolphins. Amazing the way they just seem so intelligent. We were shown hand signals to make the dolphins do things, like chase a beach ball, or throw it back. The moment in the picture is when one of the dolphins kind of beached itself and let me touch it . . .
I lived in a 3rd world country, Lesotho, for 2 years, and I think it provided me with an invaluable education into the realities of life people not living in the 1st world face every day. They say that 2/3 of humanity lives in what we call the “3rd World,” though I doubt many people really understand what that means . . .
The local drink very strong, very sweet black coffee out of little cups, served hot even in summer. The language is Portuguese, not Spanish. Beautiful women, feverish nightlife, surprizingly big cities.
Gut-wrenching poverty, hot and steamy, friendly people, millions of 3-wheeled motorcycle taxis. “Drug Smuggling is punishable by Execution” is stenciled on the walls of the airport, in the customs line. The nice hotels all have bomb-blast barriers in front of the main entrances. Kind of a scary place, honestly. I was there in March, 2004.
I’ve always been fascinated with the colors and textures of glass, and ever since a pot-head buddy in high school talked about blowing glass for a living, its kind of hung around in the back of my mind as a potentially very cool thing to do. Not for a living as much as for personal enjoyment. I figure the worst I’d end up with would be an interestingly colored and shaped lump of glass. . . and at best it might even be something I could use, or hang on the wall, or at least give to someone else. Of course I’m not really sure what all goes into such an undertaking—I have these vague images of of big ovens and bearded men blowing into long tubes . . .
How realistic is it to get into glass blowing as a casual hobby?
Last minute, discounted flights to Costa Rica; pack light, wake up in the sunshine and rainforest with parrots and monkeys before you know it . . . no tv, laptops or phones for 3 solid days . . . come back with a tan and a smile and the need to sleep for a few days . . .
I have the opportunity to travel a LOT, but lately I’ve burnt myself out on taking pictures, and kind of gotten out of the habit of doing it. I want to get back into it and start getting some of my shots framed . . .
Tickets from 1991 in MA, lived overseas for 8 years, failure to appear notice, probably will take a lawyer and a good chunk of cash to clear up, live in TN now, ARRRGHH this has been haunting me for 15 years and I wish I could just write a check and have it all go away . . . but all the DMV computers (in the world, probably) cross reference . . .
