Category: Just Because

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A Collection of Classics

I don't fly much any more—especially since COVID but also since 9/11 and the ensuing security theater apparatus that was put in place—but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the beauty of classic aircraft and the livery of my youth.

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I Love The German Language

After three years of high school German, I was fluent enough by the time I started college that I probably could've gone to Germany and had little difficulty navigating social interactions, but the old adage, "Use it or lose it," is very apropos when discussing learning (and retaining) any foreign language. To my credit, I've tried over the years to get back into it, but with mixed results. When I run across a phrase (like the one above) that I struggle with ("knallen" had been long forgotten), all I can say is thank the gods for Google Translate. (It's not perfect, I know, but it does help someone like me who has just enough knowledge to end up saying something really stupid if I relied solely on memory.)

When I worked at the hospital many years ago I had quite a few enjoyable (if somewhat broken) discussions with a nurse who was a native speaker. She encouraged me at every turn to improve my grammar and vocabulary, even going so far as to supply me with German print magazines. Sadly, she quit before I ever got back to a comfortable conversant level, and thereafter it all fell by the wayside.

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This is One of the Reasons I Stopped Painting

I mean, other than the obvious reason I give people; that the Muses have permanently left the building.

Digital art is something that's fascinated me since its infancy. I suppose I should have tried to get into it back in the day,  but I never seemed to have the necessary computing hardware or the funds available to purchase a digitizing tablet which was a requirement to do anything serious. (I mean, have you ever tried drawing with a mouse?)  Now that I do have the means to get what I need, I'm so hopelessly out of touch with the medium that I get flummoxed by simply opening Adobe Illustrator. I have a very basic knowledge of Photoshop – mostly photo retouching and creating simple, text-based images, but nowhere near the level of expertise used to create the images above.

Also, my particular painting style is now a filter available through any number of graphics programs, so…why bother?

A new initiative at work—being pushed by the new boss—is professional development. Before COVID hit and the world shut down, I was scheduled to take some beginner Illustrator classes, but that fell by the wayside. Now, apprently it's not considered "essential to my job," so it's not happening.

So if push comes to shove and there's no way of avoiding training, I'm going to opt for some additional Microsoft fucking Sharepoint crap since our entire web presence is based on it and my immediate supervisor—who has a hard-on for the platform—insists on assigning me tickets related to it because I "need to get up to speed."

Yeah, whatever.

Speaking of that, as of our last team meeting in regards to this initiative, I'm supposed to be focusing on my personal "career trajectory." Honey, my career trajectory consists of getting the fuck out of there and retiring in something like 945 work days.

Yes, I'm counting.

Sorry, I didn't mean for this to turn into a work rant.

(BTW, the artwork above is by Tim Razumovsky.)

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Happy Saturday

I can feel the cool breeze across my face.

We had a storm—well, several storms—move through last night. The light show was spectacular and we got a good drenching as well. It seems that this year the monsoon is making up for the past couple where it was nominally absent. I understand that Tucson (about an hour and a half to the southeast) has gotten more rain this year than they have as long as they've been recording it. Phoenix as well seems unusually wet this year, something I am definitely not complaining about—even if the humidity is insufferable the day after those storms move through.

 

More rain is predicted for this evening, followed by a good chance of more the middle of next week. Should I wash the car tomorrow to seal the deal on that?