reading – Ink, Yarn & Beer

What Lies Ahead for 2024?

This past year I have focused a lot on painting and various media for art work. Watercolors, acrylics, portraiture in pencil, oil pastels, gouache, and probably a few others. I started my “Not Taken Vacation” series, which still needs to be completed, with pen and ink. Rewarding as this has been, and the gains I know I have made, I have also missed adventures in other areas. In 2024, I want to continue working on art work, as it is my first love, but other areas for creativity and exploration, have fallen to the wayside, and I miss them.

If I were to just list some of the things I missed doing and want to continue to do, I think I would begin to feel overwhelmed . . . but let’s see what a list will produce.

Sewing?

Knitting?

Gardening?

Photography?

Hiking?

Travel?

Reading?

Cooking and baking?

Exploring?

If I look at what I have been playing with to date, I am knitting, taking a few photos, and sewing. Most of my “reading” is really using an audiobook and listening to it while I knit. I have a number of sewing projects on hold because I have been lacking in time to focus, but that is really silly as I have everything in place and ready to go at the sewing table. I have a tabletop ironing board I can put on a countertop, so why not?

Being a Libra, indecisiveness is the norm. This? That? (Yes, laugh if you like at astrology, but sometimes it is too true!) Experience shows me that just starting something is usually all I need to get out of my slump, whatever form it may be taking and just

So, Wuzzup?

Wuzzup?

I have been following my New Year’s resolution pretty steadily. Painting, photography, study, socializing, reading, and doing things I enjoy. Somewhat scheduled, somewhat not. I kept a record for about a week of what I did in the morning and afternoon – in between which was lunch and a nap usually – and thought about how I felt about my day. In general, I found I enjoyed each day a great deal more. I didn’t do the same things every day (other than the usual boring daily routines), but found I did enough to find satisfaction.

Doing some watercolors was satisfying. I hope to do some later this morning before heading out to meet up with a friend. I haven’t done any gouache this year, but that is also on the agenda. Here are some of the paintings.

I also read some fiction – a favorite novel from the 1940s – and started some nonfiction, a book about photography I received as a Christmas present, Behind the Camera. It’s nice to sit outdoors with a book and a cup of coffee or tea, put my feet up, and read. The weather has varied from chilly to warmish, and so have I!

Add to that, I have been learning about a camera which I recently bought: a used Pentax (Honeywell Asahi) non-MLU (mirror lock-up) 6×7 camera. It has been frustrating and fascinating. First, the thing weighs in about 5 lbs. Lugging it around is amusing. I pulled out a tripod. It takes 120 film, and you get ten 6×7 images out of it – supposedly. Out of the 10 exposures I made, only 3 came out, and all came out under-exposed. No idea why.

As a result of these mishaps, I loaded up more film, and logged every picture I took. And did it with a second roll, too. I bracketed my images as well as varied exposure factors to get the same picture exposures (i.e. 8 @ 1/30 then 5.6 @ 1/60) using Lomo Color Negative 100 film. I took the two rolls yesterday morning, and dropped them off around noon.

Here are the three images from the first roll, which is Portra 400 – what a waste!

Pentax 6×7 Kodak Portra 400

Yashica D – Fuji Pro 400 H

I am really curious as to what comes back from the photo lab – hopefully fairly soon. If these are also dismal failures, back the camera goes to the vendor!

So, nothing exciting in my life, like flying to Paris for lunch on a whim. But, some satisfaction, and some frustration, just like real life!

At the Children’s Library

I decided to load up a roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 and have it pushed at the photo lab to +2. I had done this with Ilford HP5 with good results. Here – did they push it or not? I am completely unsure!

We have a wonderful library where I live. There is a huge children’s section, separated from the main library. Child-size chairs and tables, activities, fun books and research books. I go there often just to enjoy what kids (and big and old kids) get to read. This statue is outside the entrance to the children’s library, one of a small number of statues found scattered around the grounds.

Ramping Up

Moving from the idea of putting in a lot of time painting to writing was a big, important psychological and creative shift. Choosing words over color was pragmatic: I do not have time to paint. I do have time to write. I can write early in the morning, at work, outdoors on the patio, at the library, or sitting on a bench in the park. In short, I can write just about anywhere. Painting, not so. But I can sketch.

This morning, I am going to my first of (I hope) many meetups with a local group of writers. We were sent stories and excerpts to read and to critique – what works, what doesn’t work – with the admonition to do more than say, “I like this!” or “This sucks!” Giving reasons for a like / dislike helps the writer, but it also helps the critic get in touch with his own writing.

Of course, we all have our preferences for reading matter, but reading things which are not to our liking is no reason to push it aside. My own prejudices have steered me away from otherwise good literature . . . just because I was told “You will like it!” or, worse, “You should read it! It’s a classic!”

I hate being told what I should like, should believe, and should do in any form. It’s the word should that makes me say “No!” immediately.

And sometimes, I am wrong. Thinking about what makes something work creates a different mindset in the reading altogether. I’ve learned something prior to even getting to the first meeting!

Listen or Read?

Eyeglasses

Getting older means eyesight changes, and with eyesight changes come some choices. Do I read a book, and then wait for hours before my eyes can focus at a distance again, or do I listen to a book while I do something else so I don’t have double vision afterwards?

A bit of history: I am myopic, and have small cataracts. I live in earthquake country. I love being able to see. When one gets older, eye muscles are not as adaptable as they used to be. I am also extremely picky about my eyes – even with my myopia, I always was able to correct my lenses to 20-15 (or however you write it). Now I can only get corrections to 20-20. Not fun. I also have a macular pucker and oodles of floaters; I see my retinologist every year for stability checks.

So what’s with the “earthquake country” comment? Well, someone is bound to point out that lasik could solve a lot of problems. My return is eye surgery? Are you nuts? Cutting my eyes? What if there were an earthquake in the middle of the procedure?????

A bit neurotic, eh?

Audiobooks are a great listen when a great reader tells the tale. Awful voices, wrong voices, ugly voices, poor cadence when reading, etc., all make for a bad experience, and make a good read not so enjoyable. However, the downside to audiobooks is all you do is listen. That is, unless you pick up something to do, or go to the gym, or work out on the elliptical, or go for a walk, or knit, or make dinner and hope you don’t drop you ear buds in the soup or go to the bathroom with the ipod in your pocket and have it fall in the toilet with everything else you have deposited.

I know, I’ve done it.

All alone, audiobooks are not a physically active experience. Reading a book is a physically active, multi-sensual experience. Look, read, look at pictures, admire the type font, enjoy the layout, read, turn a page, enjoy the smell of a new book, turn the book around to see what something is, sit, become involved in another world, think about it later. Can you multi-task when reading? You bet – but why?

I am reading again, and double-vision be damned. I miss the experience. I just wish I didn’t walk like a drunk afterward.