Oh, Wait . . .

In all my blathering the other day about the terrible state of my finances and the fact that I might not get the Handmade News job after all (oh, poor me), I completely forgot: my editor at Handmade News (or the woman who will be my editor) is in New Zealand. This means me being in Canada shouldn't be any sort of problem at all. I just have to get the right bits of paper to fill out. Yay!

And today's mail brought my paycheque from About PSP, which means I can pay a few bills and things without having to get out the old VISA. The coolest thing about said paycheque is that, because About, Inc. is owned by the New York Times Company, the envelope is New York Times letterhead. So it looks like I write for the NYTimes, which is pretty darn cool.

And also in today's mail, I got the last part of my print order from deviantART. A while back they had a sale where members could order prints of their own stuff for the same price as Premium Print Account members do, which is more-or-less at cost. I was curious to see what the quality was, so I could decide if I want to offer prints of my stuff through dA. They ship different items separately, even though they only charge a single shipping fee, so I've been getting bits and pieces of my order every week or so. The two images I chose are my two digital illustration pieces (the only ones I had enabled as prints at the time).


I ordered postcards, small magnets and a small print of each one. The magnets arrived first, closely followed by the postcards. Then the 8 x 10 photoprint of "After Hokusai" (above). I couldn't get anything much larger, because the resolution of the original isn't high enough.


For "Orpheus and Eurydice" (above), I ordered an art print, matte on paper. It's 12 x 18 inches, which I think is the smallest I could get. That's the one that arrived today, and it looks fantastic. Woo hoo! I have to say, though, my very favourites of the things I ordered are the magnets. Now I have fridge magnets of my art! Just like I was a famous dead person whose work is cannibalized to raise money for art museums. Okay, it's nothing like that, but they are really, really cool. At some point, I'll order copies of the things I've since enabled as prints, to make sure they look good, too, but first I have to sell some stuff.

Oh, and on selling, the buyer for the last book I sold paid after I sent the invoice, so SteamBook 04 is on its way to Norway! I think I might get a world map and stick pins in it for eveywhere I've sold stuff. Or maybe I'll make a virtual one on my website, whenever I eventually get my website together. It would be cool if I could have one where you could click or mouseover a pin and an image of the item sold popped up. Yes, that would be cool. I wonder how I could make such a thing?

Links for prints: "After Hokusai: 37th View of Mt Fuji" here
"Orpheus and Eurydice, After Dulac" here

Pretty Things

I've just added a new piece of book jewelry to my Etsy shop. I really like this one, and considered keeping it for myself. But I figured I could always make another one.


In not so good news, I discovered this morning that National Student Loans took a $400 payment out of my account that they told me they weren't going to take. I'm supposed to be applying for some new repayment program that doesn't start till this month. Since my repayment started in July, I was told they'd suspend my payments until I could apply for the new thing. But when I talked to CIBC student loans, they informed me I should still have been directed to apply for interest relief for July. So I ended up having to make the July payment on my CIBC loans, too. That's about $600 in payments I had to make because of some telephone lackey's bad information. At least I knew the CIBC payments were going to happen. The other one was a surprise, and one I really couldn't afford. Hence the applying for repayment assistance. I'd really like nothing better than to pay off those loans, but it's not going to happen until I get some more work. Sigh. So I guess my credit cards get wracked up this month. Again.

In better news, though, I applied for a freelance writing gig with Handmade News, a website that does crafting news and articles. I didn't hear anything for ages, and ended up submitting a guest article (unpaid) because I happened to have one already written. Anyway, I just got the contract to sign yesterday! Problem is, all the tax forms are for the States. That's not been a problem for my About.com contract, so I'm hoping it won't be a problem here. I'm kind of worried that it *will* be a problem though. I'd really hate to find out I can't have the job after all. Even if I didn't need the added income, it would suck to lose out on this. I was so excited when I found out I got it yesterday. Keeping my fingers crossed (figuratively), even though it won't do any good.

'Nother Sale

Sometime yesterday another SteamBook sold on Etsy. The buyer chose PayPal, but didn't pay right away, so it's sitting in my sold list without me actually being paid. Not that I mind waiting, but a note from the buyer saying why would be nice. Anyway, I sent them a PayPal invoice, which will hopefully get them to contact me. Hmm. I sound like I'm complaining, don't I? I'm not really. Just thinking out loud, as it were.



Anyway, my very unscientific Etsy vs ArtFire experiment now stands thusly: Etsy 2, ArtFire 0. I'm curious about why. My initial thoughts were that it's because Etsy has been around longer and people looking for handmade stuff go there first. That could be it, though I've heard from others that they get more views on ArtFire, to the point that they consider it well worth it to pay the $12 or so per month to become verified members, rather than the 20 cents per listing plus selling fee per item on Etsy. If I sold enough stuff on ArtFire to equal the fees I'd pay selling the same things on Etsy, I'd spring for the verified ArtFire membership, but so far I've sold nothing.

I'm wondering if maybe one has to get the verified membership first, if that adds enough buyer confidence to get them to buy when they might not buy from an unverified member. But I really don't know. I might try a verified membership for a couple of months during the holiday buying season. Maybe if I do well enough at the Halifax Crafters Market and Word on the Street in September.

More on the D250 Project

I know I said I was going to go backwards in time with my updates, but I wanted to post some pictures of the Democracy 250 project that I shot yesterday and today.

I spent all of yesterday and part of today trimming out the turn-ins on the books and filling the boards in with thin card, so that when the endpapers are put down, the inside covers will be even.


You can see in the photo above that the leather around the edges is uneven. To make the book look neat, it needs to be trimmed so that the turn-ins are the same all the way around. Here's one in progress.


Yes, I got to take a knife to $600 worth of leather. Twelve times in a row. Fortunately, I didn't mess it up.

Sometimes it's not really possible to make all three sides equal, depending on how the leather stretched when it went on, and the kind of paper was used for the endpapers. The paper in the D250 books is handmade, so it won't stretch very much, which means that the turn-ins may have to be left wider at the side. In that case, we just make the top and bottom the same, and the edge as close as we can while still leaving enough to overlap with the endpapers.


Occasionally, the leather goes on so unevenly that there are small gaps where the boards will show once the endpapers are down. They might stretch enough to cover, but just in case, those spaces get filled in with scraps from the leather that was trimmed off.


Once the leather is trimmed, the boards are lined with card to bring them level with the leather.


This isn't something that's always done in bookbinding. In fact, more often than not, it's not done. There's something to be said for the tactility of the ridges on the boards from the covering material. But it does make the book sleeker and neater, and is used mostly for very expensive, special books, which these are.


None of the books are quite finished yet. There are still spine labels to apply, plus blind tooling on the covers and gold tooling on the spines. Here's Joe doing some of the blind tooling.


The rest of today Chris and I spent making some of the lining pieces for the boxes. If I go in tomorrow, I'll be working more on lining the boxes, and possibly on putting down endpapers while Joe finishes the tooling.

And just for fun, here's a shot of the apple I had with my lunch. If you look closely, you can see that the seed on the left is about to sprout into a tiny apple tree. I felt a little bad eating it. Perhaps I should have saved the seed and tried to grow it. It could keep the tiny oak sapling I stole from the graveyard company.

Teensy Tiny Bookses

Well, so much for a good night's sleep. I've obviously got too many things on my mind. Oh well, after a full day's work with books, I might actually sleep tonight. Especially as several of the things I'm anxious about should be more or less resolved after today. Or maybe after tomorrow. Blarg.

Anyway. Way back when I had only been making books a short time, I used to make miniature book earrings and necklaces. They weren't too bad, but I wasn't really that good at bookbinding yet. Then I didn't make any for a long time. When I started at the printshop, one of the things we sold was tiny book jewelry that Joe made, which was naturally much nicer that the stuff I used to make. And because Joe had neither the time or the inclination to keep making them, I took over.



Since, then, I've added a few changes of my own. I accidentally cut a bunch of leather too small last time I was assembling the bits to make a batch, but decided I liked the smaller size, at least for the earrings. I might go back to the larger ones for necklaces after this batch. Then, because I have a big stash of glass and wood and horn and bone beads (I had some metal ones, too, but can't find them), I decided to fancy them up a little.



Obviously, I still need to work on the photography. I'm trying to decide if I want to do them as proper product shots on white, or if I prefer the more organic in-context shots. Or I guess I could do both. It would be nice to have an actual space where I can set up a product photo table, instead of shooting on my desk or on the back porch. No wonder the photos are iffy. Also a macro lens would help. The lens I have isn't too bad, but close-in shots work best when I stand back and zoom in, which means more light.

Joe also used to teach a continuing studies class on book jewelry, which he no longer has time for, since NSCAD has him teaching two credit classes and at least one other con ed class a semester. So he suggested I could teach the workshop, but that I could have it in his studio, thus avoiding having to give NSCAD a cut. That'll happen in the fall, probably closer to the holidays, to tempt people to take the class in order to make a gift for someone. Or something.

Anyway, book earrings are for sale on my Etsy and ArtFire shops. Necklaces will follow as soon as I find clasps I can live with.

So Sleepy

I was going to post a bunch of pictures, but then I looked at the clock and discovered the reason my vision was getting blurry. I have someplace to be tomorrow and I haven't been sleeping well for a couple of weeks (boy on vacation + beer = boy snoring and flailing in sleep = girl not sleeping very well), so I really should get into bed. But before I go, here's a handsome fellow I ran into in front of Superstore this afternoon:



He's a little out of focus--it was really hard to see the screen on my phone in the miraculous bright sunlight we had today. Still, I was able to get nice and close thanks to the little built-in macro lens on my iPhone case. Woo hoo! I love gadgets.

Edit: Warning: If you click on the photo it goes giant-sized. That's what I get for assuming a cellphone photo would be small. Too sleepy to fix it now, but I'll take care of it tomorrow. In the morning, maybe. Good night. It's resized now, so click away.

Updating and All That

Man, I really need to get my ass in gear. About the only thing I've been keeping up with is my deviantArt page. And Facebook. Evil, evil Facebook.

I ran across the very spiffy blog of an old friend (and ex-boyfriend) Tim Rast, and it looks like he's doing really well. I started making books around the same time as he started flintknapping, and his business is so far ahead of mine it's . . . um, I don't want to say "it's not even funny" but I can't think of a better phrase at the moment. I really need to do some real writing. I'm out of practice. Anyway, he always was way more focused than me. I've often wondered where I'd be now if I weren't so easily distracted. But whatever. Go look at his blog and be amazed. Fine work, that.

And it occurs to me that I really haven't been keeping those of my friends and family that still happen by here very up to date, and the whole purpose of this blog was to let everyone (mostly those of you far far away) know what I was up to. That and make a public record of my writing and art so I'd be shamed into working hard. I'm not sure that's worked.

That said, here are some updates, starting from now and working backwards. More or less.

Okay, actually starting from the future, because the first thing I'm going to write about is tomorrow. Tomorrow, I'm off to work in the studio of my former teacher and mentor, Joe Landry. I've been helping out off and on for a big government project called "Democracy 250" which is a celebration of 250 years of democracy in Nova Scotia. To commemorate the event, they put together a big volume of reproductions of documents relating to the history of democracy in the province. And I do mean big. If I remember, I'll write down the dimensions tomorrow, but it's something in the range of 12 inches by 18 inches. Maybe? I'm not very good at estimating measurements. And about an inch and a half thick or thereabouts. So big. And heavy.

I'm not sure who did the compiling and note-making and design and all that for the book, but the 12 copies (plus one extra "proof" copy) were all printed by Image House using special water-based inkjet inks. The scanning is top-notch and the printing looks fantastic. Okay, it would look better if it was letterpress, but I'm a little biased. Inkjet printing always has that slight fuzziness around the edges where the ink seeps into the paper. I think the technical term is "dot gain" but I could be confusing my jargon. Anyway.

The paper was handmade by Papeterie Saint-Armand in Montreal. It's based on their Old Masters line (one of my favorite lightweight papers for both intaglio and letterpress), but it was actually made especially for this project, because the paper needed to be a little more opaque than their usual.

Once the printing was done, the sheets came to us. We had to fold and collate (actually, I missed out on most of that since at the time I was madly trying to finish Dawson Printshop jobs before they shut us down). Then we had to trim them to size, which only meant slicing off a little from three sides on the board cutter. Then collating again, because we were paranoid about something being out of order, which happened in the proof copy due to a printer error. Then I spent a rather long time poking the sewing holes. Then sewing.

I'm afraid I'm getting a little tedious here, and I wasn't even going to go into this much detail. But it's too late now.

Because the books were so large, we had to sew them on a sewing frame. It's just too hard to handle big books with six million tapes (actually, I think there were maybe seven tapes) without the support of a frame. I ended up doing almost all of the sewing, but I got to use Joe's conservation frame, which is designed to make it a whole lot easier to get your arm around the uprights and the text block than a conventional frame, which hasn't changed much since Victorian times. If I were any good at woodworking, I'd make up plans and build my own. It's not a complicated design. Alas, I make books, not tools. If I could make it out of eska board, it would be no problem.

After the sewing, Joe rounded and backed them all and began lining the spines. Joe did all the rounding and backing because he can do it at lightspeed. It would probably have taken me as long to do one as it took him to do six. Or more. After that, Chris (Dunnett) and I sewed the endbands. We used a three-colour pattern, which requires one to have three hands. Or so it seems. Luckily, endbands is something I'm actually pretty good at, so I managed with just the two hands I've got.

After that, Joe glued on the false bands and I cut and sanded them into a nice curve. Then I disappeared into some other work for a while and Chris stained the leather. Joe did the paring--each book took a whole calfskin, and each calfskin costs several hundred dollars. While my paring skills have improved considerably, there's no way I was going to put a knife to those skins.

Again, I was off doing something else when the books were covered and sprinkled. The binding style is Cambridge Panel Binding (click on that and you'll see a photo--the different tones in the leather are achieved by sprinkling more or less or no dye on different parts of the book). Today, Joe was planning to finish up the gold tooling.

Which is a really long-winded way of coming around to what I'm doing tomorrow. I'll be lining the insides of the boards with thin card to fill in the area not covered by the turn-ins of the cover leather. That way, you won't see the usual ridge when the endpapers are put down. Once the boards are all lined, then we'll put down the endpapers. After that, we've got to finish the boxes, as each very expensive book is being housed in its own protective box. The boxes are all done, but they need to be built up inside to custom-fit each book and lined with soft felt. Then they need to dry. I think the goal is to get the bulk of the work done by the end of Friday, so things can dry over the weekend. Then they'll take the books away Monday. Then we can get paid. Which, since the Dawson Printshop is closed and I'm out a job, is a very welcome thing indeed.

Because, of course, this is the month the car insurance is due. And the month I'm supposed to start repaying my student loans (if I believed in god, I'd be thanking him for interest relief right now). Also, there's next month's car payment, and the house insurance (or, rather, the tenant's insurace), credit card bills, etc etc etc. So getting paid is good.

But now I've gone on much longer that I intended and I didn't even include any pictures. So I'll stop now. But I think I'll immediately post again with some images of new work.

Wood Type (Article Published!)

So for the three (or fewer) of you still reading along . . .

I just had an article published at Handmade News: "Wood Type: A 19th Century Innovation Inspires 21st Century Design." It's an unpaid "guest columnist" article, but I've applied to be an actual paid columnist. If lots of people read my guest article, it just might make a difference when the editor is weeding through the huge pile of submissions she no doubt has in her inbox. So please read. If you know anyone interested in type or craft or the history of books, get them to read too. Pretty please? I really *really* want this job.

And for the sharp-eyed and sharp-brained, I do know that wood type isn't exactly a 19th century innovation. Or at least not a 19th century invention. In fact, some of the earliest type was wood (it just doesn't work that well at small sizes). What the real innovation in the 19th century was was a way of producing wood type quickly and easily in many sizes. And with the rise of consumer culture happening at the same time, advertising with big giant type exploded. Whoo!

The absolute hardest part of writing that article was keeping it web-short. There was soooo much I had to leave out. But I think I pulled it off. If you disagree (or even if you agree) do leave a comment, either here or (even better) on the article itself.

Now I'm off to write about PSPs. From super-old technology to super new technology. Technology is so cool. I love it all! Niko the techno-geek.

Sold!

Yeah, so the SteamBook on Etsy has sold. Already. Approximately 3 hours after listing (or possibly sooner--I didn't check until now). So far Etsy is winning over ArtFire, but this is not a scientific test. But now I need to go to the store for more paper . . . I might have just enough for one more book . . .

Aaaaaah!

That is both a scream of "too much to do" and a long sigh of relief.

SteamBook - The Quartermaster's Accountbook

The Quartermaster's Accountbook is the first in a series of pocket-sized blank notebooks inspired by Neo-Victorian Retrofuturism (aka Steampunk).

With one of our "SteamBook" notebooks and a fountain pen (or any other writing instrument you prefer), you'll always have a place to record your voyages extraordinaires, whether you travel by airship, locomotive or paddle steamer (or by Penny Farthing, though I wouldn't recommend pedaling and writing at the same time).


This 3 1/2 by 2 3/4 inch blank book has about 80 blank natural "parchment" bond paper pages and a suede leather cover made from recycled garments. The leather is lined with japanese kozuke paper for stability and laminated on the front and back with wood veneer. The closure is a lovely rusty old key, carefully sprayed with matte varnish to keep the rust from rubbing off. The binding is cross-structure and sewn with sturdy linen thread.


It's perfectly sized for your pocket and hand made to exacting specifications for durability and stylishness. Why use a cheap store-bought notebook that will fall apart the first time an air kraken attacks, when you can use the same make of notebook scribbled madly in by Mad Doctor Sophia Shallowgrave herself?

Available now at Etsy and ArtFire. More pictures on those sites and on deviantART.

Two Seconds of Fame

A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed for an article on the closing of the Dawson Printshop. The article is now up on The Coast's website, or if you're in Halifax you can grab a paper copy (hypothetically until Wednesday next week, but they're free and sometimes disappear quickly). There's even a photo of me (in b&w in the print edition, but colour in the online version).

The State of the Dawson Printshop

Er, yes, it's been a while since I blogged. I had such good intentions of keeping up with it and all that. My plan, you see, was to start an almost-daily blog post about the goings-on at the Dawson Printshop. But then they shut us down. While I wasn't precisely depressed, I felt I needed to be away for a bit. So I spent some time working at home and with my book arts teacher Joe at his studio. But Thursday I went back to the shop to finish up a few things. And I was back again yesterday. I feel better now.

So the Dawson Printshop has "suspended operations." NSCAD is in debt for various reasons (the new Port Campus is apparently only one of several reasons). NSCAD seems to be really, really in debt, and taking cost-cutting measures all over the place. The Seeds student gallery was scrutinized, but apparently came close enough to breaking even on a regular basis that it was spared. The heat was turned off early (it's *still* freezing in the shop). The Dawson Printshop was given The Eye. Instructors and students and friends from the community rallied and wrote letters to the President of NSCAD. Vince, the co-manager who was still around (Carley having returned to BC at the end of her contract), prepared a projection that showed how we had steadily been increasing the amount of money coming in and would probably continue to do so in the months to come. In a bad economic climate we were getting pretty close to breaking even for the month, and we hadn't even been open a full year. We did our best and we did remarkably well selling an expensive luxury product (because digital reproduction is way cheaper than letterpress). In the end, the Powers That Be at NSCAD decided to "suspend operations."

There was talk of finding sponsors for us. There was talk of maybe opening again in a year (and starting all over from nothing as our clients would have moved on to other options, and our word-of-mouth promotion would have stopped spreading). A group of instructors got together and discussed. Even if the shop were never to re-open as a commercial concern, there really, really needs to be a technician in the shop, they concluded. If classes--letterpress, book arts, printmaking and design included--are to keep using the space, the equipment, the type, someone needs to be around to oversee things, to clean up, to help students. At least part time. So said instructors sent a recommendation to the school that this should be so.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed (metaphorically, of course). Vince has gone home to Ontario, but I think he's keeping his fingers crossed too, and so is Carley. So are a lot of people. Obviously I want there to be a technician because I want the job, but it's also because I love the Dawson Printshop. It's one of the main reasons I chose to stay on in Halifax (the other, of course, is a certain cute boy). I'm hoping that someone with the power to actually do something about it will realize the need for a technician and actually decided to hire one. I'm hoping that will be me. But even if it's not, at least the Shop will have someone there.

In the meantime, I'm loitering around, finishing up a few last things, like a couple of greeting card orders from local retailers. And I'll be taking on a few jobs myself. If I have to, I'll pay studio fees to the school. Otherwise, I'll just spend some time putting away (other people's) type, organizing, cleaning the presses and the space, and generally keeping things from descending into the chaos it could so easily become.

The Daswon Printshop is dead. Long live the Dawson Printshop.

What I'm Up To

Visit Artist Books 3.0

Made It

I hope I'm not getting in the habit of being not-quite-but-almost late with comics updates. Of course, I should have built up a bigger reserve of pages while I had the chance. Anyway. Pages 16 and 17 of The Fabulous Forays of Aeryn Daring are now up. You get to see Aeryn in a dress.

Oh, and there are vote incentives now!
Vote for Aeryn and see one of the earliest sketches I did of her.
Vote for Fey and glimpse one of the denizens of Faery.
(And yes, you can vote for both.)

Not Quite Late

I almost forgot that Fey ran out of new pages last week. Oops!

Anyway, page 11 is now up.

This is Not an April Fool

Hmm. That title sounds rather more serious than I thought it would. Oh well.

The voting for TopWebComics has reset for a new month. I think last month Fey was in the 500s and Aeryn Daring was in the 700s. That's not too dismal, really, but means they probably didn't find any new readers via TopWebComics. Anyway, the point of this post is to say you can vote again. Also, I didn't point out last time that you can actually vote for as many different comics as you like, once per day. So you could vote for both Fey and Aeryn every day, plus any other comics you like. If that makes any sense.

Anyway, I have to go get ready to make some books. Need breakfast. And tea.

Vote for The Fabulous Forays of Aeryn Daring.
Vote for Fey.

This time, I'll put up some cool incentives (but they're not up yet; I'll post here whent hey are).

I've Heard This One Before . . .

. . . but it's still pretty funny to see it in comic strip form.

Vote!

I signed up Fey and Aeryn Daring on Top Webcomics. You can vote for them. You can vote for them every day. So, er, if you *like* Fey, click here to vote. And if you like Aeryn Daring, click here to vote. When I'm less sleepy, I'll find something to put up as vote incentives. For now, you'll just have to be happy that it'll make me happy if you vote. Unless you like some other comic better, in which case you should vote for it instead.

More and More

It's Saturday and I'm being lazy. Again. I haven't slept well all week so I have this nagging too-tired headache and huge bags under my eyes. Aaaah! Zombie girl! Oh, wait, that's just me in the mirror.

Yeah, yeah. Whine. Oh poor me. Actually things are good. I wasn't completely lazy today. I did quick Photoshop work on some comic pages and uploaded them. So now Faerie or Bust is going to update daily until March 20. It seemed a little silly to only update weekly when it's several years old and was a 24-hour comic in the first place.

What else? Aeryn Daring updates tomorrow, assuming I get around to uploading the pages today. That's next on the list. I made a Facebook group for Aeryn Daring, but didn't invite anyone to join as a sort of experiment. It's here. Eventually I'll make one for Fey, too. Assuming this one goes well.

Umm . . . Posted the first three Fey covers on my DeviantArt page. Decided I need to teach myself how to make art using nothing but Photoshop after reading The Phoenix Requiem, a very lovely webcomic. Been reading a lot of webcomics in the last while. Trying to get ideas for promoting my own stuff. Also, there is some really, really fantastic storytelling out there for free. A lot of it I would happily pay for in print form.

Anyway, I think I am now just procrastinating and should get the next Aeryn Daring page ready to go before the boy gets home and distracts me. I'm not so hard to distract, after all. (Not that he does it intentionally. He's very good about leaving me alone when I'm busy.)

Oh yeah, we went to see Under the Sea in IMAX 3D. It was fantastic! (Even with Jim Carrey narrating--you hardly noticed it was him.) If you like ocean things, you must must must see this movie.

More Updates

If anyone is still reading this thing, there are new comics pages this weekend.

Fey updated yesterday, Faerie or Bust (a Fey-related 24-hour comic) updated today, and Aeryn Daring updates tomorrow (another 2-page spread!),

Things I Made

I just put a few images of things I've made in the last couple years on my deviantArt page.

I'll be adding more as I get around to photographing and organizing stuff. That should happen pretty quickly now, as I'm gearing up to list things for sale on Etsy. There will be books (blank journals and small-edition artist's books--I'm not quite ready to part with the one-of-a-kinds yet), prints (lithographic, intaglio and relief), photographs (a few actual darkroom-printed, but mostly digital prints from scanned negs, and a few all-digital), and some odds and ends of stuff.

Also, there's a new page of Aeryn Daring up today.

Oh yeah, and I'll be sending out belated holiday present art to a select few folks soon. As soon as I figure out to whom to send what and how to package it for shipping.

Update

New page today . . .

Some Kind of Milestone

I checked my comics' stats on Webcomics Nation a moment ago, and Fleeing Arcadia (an 8-page Fey short) has hit 500 views. Not only that, but The Fabulous Forays of Aeryn Daring--which only went up on Monday--is at 100 views. Woo hoo!

So yeah, the seven-page Prologue of Aeryn Daring is up now (since Monday). A new page will appear next Monday (which means I had better scan it). Read it! (please . . .)



Also, the main Fey series, which I started posting a few weeks ago, is over 100 views now, while Faerie or Bust, a Fey-related 24-hour comic, hasn't reached 40 yet (but it's only been up a short time).

Oh yeah, and if you want to be notified when any of my comics update, you can sign up for the email notification list.

Comic Book Madness

Well, so far I've managed to spend most of the weekend fiddling around with comics, doing a bit of scanning, some organizing of my Webcomics Nation site, and lots of button, banner and logo making.


Also, as you may have guessed from the "a bit of scanning" comment above, I now have a working scanner. Futureshop had that scanner I've been wanting marked down--about $100 less than the original price, which makes it almost $200 less than the new price. And I had a FS gift card (thanks, Dad!). So I splurged. And now I can get to work on some photo projects as well as comics (and explain that weird grocery list I posted way back when). It's very exciting. I haven't actually scanned any photos yet, but I'll start soon. I need to have an application for the grad show in by mid-February, so I need to get at least that one image finished by then (that is to say, scanned and cleaned up and looking fabulous).

What I have been doing with the scanner is making some images for my new comic series, which will debut on Webcomics Nation tomorrow!! My aim is to do weekly updates, but I don't have a big store of completed pages like I do for Fey, so I don't know how long I can keep that up. The drawings are smaller than Fey drawings, though, and I seem to be able to do a two-page spread in about the same time as it would take me to do a single page of Fey, so there may be hope for the weekly schedule.

So yeah, look for it tomorrow.



(Typefaces in both logos are from the fabulous Scriptorium. (Except the text that says "Fey"--that's all me.) Yes, I even paid for them.)

I Always Thought I Was a Geek

Fey!

I'm finally getting around to posting comics online again, but I need a new scanner. My old one works just fine, but in an attempt to get the plug-in working with CS4, I discovered that I'm not sure it was ever working on this machine at all, and the drivers won't install. Not even the newest ones downloaded direct from Canon. Sigh.

So in the meantime, I'm moving Fey over to Webcomicsnation. You'll find all my stuff at http://www.webcomicsnation.com/feynico/ eventually. If you were hoping for new pages, sorry. For now I'm going to be reposting old pages once a week. When I get to the end of them, I'll hopefully have lots of new pages and a new scanner. I will finish this series eventually. I'm also working on a completely new series called The Fabulous Forays of Aeryn Daring. I'm very excited about it. But again, nothing until a new scanner.

The scanner I have my eye on in the Epson Perfection v700 Photo (or the v750-M Pro, except it costs significantly more). Yes, it's very pricey (and I just noticed the price is $100 more than it was when I looked a few weeks ago--I thought the prices on tech were supposed to go down, not up), and it can't even scan anything bigger than 8 1/2 x 11, but it *can* scan negatives all the way up to 8 x 10. I have a crapload of medium format and 4 x 5 negs I want to scan and work with digitally, at least to put them on deviantArt and create a digital portfolio. So. I'll be looking for ways of making a bit of extra cash so I can buy this thing, starting with finally getting some stuff up for sale on Etsy. You'll find me at http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6315023, but there's nothing there yet. First, I have to organize and photograph and acquire a postal scale to figure out how much it will cost to mail things.

Anyway, more soon.

Read This

So I have absolutely no time for anything other than Finishing Final Projects and Work, but I had to post this link:

Why defend freedom of icky speech?

In it, Neil Gaiman says, "Because if you don't stand up for the stuff you don't like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you've already lost."

Please, if you care about freedom of speech at all, read this. (And at the top of my list to do as soon as I have five minutes not earmarked for school or work or basic survival is now: find out exactly what Canada's freedom of speech laws look like. I already know we don't have the same rights to parody as they do in the US, but that's really about all I do know.)

Weirdest Grocery Order Ever

Before anyone asks, yes, I am still alive, just monumentally busy with final projects. It's my last semester, so everything comes down to this. In a few weeks, I'll be done and back to regular blogging, emailing, and posting of comics (ooh, and I have a new comic I'll be unveiling).

In the meantime, here's what I just brought home from the grocery store:

• President's Choice "Green" toilet paper
• pickled sweet onions
• tangy dill mini pickles
• canned bean sprouts
• canned giant escargot
• spicy pepper and herb olive oil (with a big giant pepper in the bottle)
• sundried tomatoes in olive oil
• canned sour cherries
• canned asparagus tips
• canned peach halves
• small decorative glass jar
• frozen mussels in shell
• frozen raw shrimp (unpeeled)
• frozen chicken giblets and hearts
• frozen smoked kippers
• frozen whole squid
• fresh mackerel fillets
• fresh beef kidney

This is definitely the weirdest assortment of things I've brought home, and anyone who knows me much at all knows I have a habit of bringing home weird things. But it's all in the name of science. Or art. Or something.

I promise I'll post again and explain it all. Except the toilet paper. I think you can figure that one out yourselves.

What I've Been Working On

It's an edition of 25, hand-set wood type from the Dawson collection, hand-cut lino, printed on a Vandercook Universal I proof press. Get yours from the Dawson Printshop (and, yes, we will mail it). Oh, and it's 15 x 22 inches, on mould-made St Armand paper with 2 deckle edges.

Big Apple

The Apple Store in New York City.

One More

Yesterday I polished off Introduction to Bookbinding and decided that while it's a reasonable book in its descriptions of how bookbinding is done, it's not really one I could recommend to someone wanting to actually try bookbinding for the first time. Not nearly enough diagrams, for one thing. You kind of already have to know what the guy is talking about in order for it to make sense. Anyway, some interesting differences between what he says and what I learned.

In addition to books, I tend to accumulate unread magazines, which I've also been working to catch up on lately. I'm totally up to date on Fine Books & Collections and the CBBAG newsletter, though I still haven't read the CBBAG journal (first issue!) yet. I'm working on the latest Wired (which I subscribed to a couple of months ago), but haven't cracked the latest Mac World yet (boy got a free short subscription when he bought his iMac). At least I'm not behind on it yet. I have an issue or two of Skeptic, which is a thick tome and tends to get left till last. And then there's a year's worth of Scientific American from when I had a subscription (2006, maybe?). I just got a couple of back issues of Biblio on eBay that I'll start soon, though I'm trying to decide if I should grab a couple full years worth from another seller, even though it means I'll end up with doubles of about six issues (it would also mean having all 3 years worth of the magazine). I have to decide on that soon, as the auction ends late tonight. And finally (maybe--there may also be unread magazines lurking about in here that I'll find as I organize) I have two and and half issues of Book Collector to get through. It's only quarterly, but it's a thick, text-heavy journal that takes me a while to plough through. Even though I could never afford to actually collect most of the books they cover, there is all sorts of useful information for bookbinders and scholars-or-books in there. They used to have actual bookbinding articles, but I don't think they do that much anymore. It makes it worthwhile to look for back issues on ABE, though.

So anyway, aside from reading, I've basically been taking it easy this summer. Probably drinking a bit too much cider, but at least I've been getting lots of sun and bicycle exercise. Today has gone and got a bit overcast, and last week I had to take the bus once due to rain--I'm hoping the sun comes back so I can avoid the bus to work and ride my bike for the rest of the summer.

Work is good. I'm working on a series of "wanted" posters for famous figures in book and print history. Of course I started with William Morris. I did some proofing on Thursday and stuck one of the early proofs up on the shop wall. Apparently, two people asked about buying it, and one was serious enough that she left her card and wants us to post her one when they're done. I hope she's not disappointed that the final poster isn't the same brown ink on off-white laid paper as the proof. Instead it'll be red text and black image on a sort of soft grey almost-handmade St Armand paper. I'll get started on the final printing on Wednesday.

In other news, the boy and I are contemplating a road-trip to the States near the end of the summer. I really need to get to BC to visit everyone there and sort out my stuff that's in storage, but as it turns out, Bill hasn't been to visit his people in longer than it's been since I've visted mine. Plus his best friend will be visiting his family in the same area around the same time and he lives in Japan, so this could be the only time in a long while that Bill would be able to see him. My only hesitation is the cost. Though we will have people to stay with.

The idea is to rent a car here and drive down through New York State, hang out in Brooklyn for a few days (the boy has grandparents and other relatives there), then proceed to Pennsylvania for a bit, where we'd meet up with Scott-the-friend-from-Japan and his wife and kids, and also with boy's dad and littlest sister. Then we'd load up the car with a nice rug and some old type (boy's dad deals in antiques) and head back in time for school. The fall break or the winter holidays, then, would be visiting BC time.

First, though, I have a digital camera to finish paying off.

Nap Time

Oh Yeah

Forgot to mention: If you don't have Facebook but still want to see the pics from Sunday's cycling, there's a slightly different selection of them on my Flickr stream (link to the right, under "Visit Me").

Today is a day to Not Do Very Much

It's one of those days where I either should have just gone to work (I had a choice between today and tomorrow and didn't sleep much last night so decided to work tomorrow when I might be better rested) or stayed in bed. I managed to pour my after-lunch cup of tea on the table, my feet, and six pages of comics artwork. Fortunately, the art isn't completely ruined, just a tad wrinkled and tea-stained on the edges. Still, it was just one more thing on a day when I was already feeling a bit down.

So I've decided I just won't do very much today. Fuck trying to get something done. I tried that, and ended up with soggy art. So I added some photos to Facebook, and I'll write some in this blog. Maybe later I'll do some work blogging and start organizing the content for a "video games based on movies" article. Or maybe I won't. Maybe I'll fire up the PS3 and lay some ghosts to rest, or shoot some bugs, or kill a few infidels, or tear up a racetrack. And maybe I'll go to the post office, which is sort of like getting something done, only it's to mail some BookMooch books, so not really. Or maybe I'll go buy a video game I can review for work, which is also sort of like getting something done, but also not really.

Anyway. On the Finishing Half-Read Books Project, I got to the end of Lost Discoveries a couple of days ago, and have been making good progress on Women and the Book. No more new finds of half-read things, though I think I might be partway through a book on Zen that's around somewhere.

And just so you don't think crappy days are the norm around here, Sunday was a very fine day. The boy and I cycled around Halifax, stopping at the Public Gardens, the waterfront, and Point Pleasant Park before retiring to the humble abode for giant hamburgers. I got a horrific sunburn which is just becoming bearable today, but it was a great day anyway. I put some photos up on Facebook, and here's one of me on the beach (after I put on a long-sleeved shirt even though it was too late for my shoulders):



Photo by the boy, of course (who I have decided should be called "Billy Z" (the "Z" being pronounced "Zee") (I haven't informed him of this yet). And speaking of the boy, here he is:



(I call it "Blue Boy.")

Icons!

Self-Portrait in Bill's Glasses

My favourite photograph so far this summer.

More and More

More finished, more half-finished.

I finished Tom Sawyer, which turned out to be much better in big chunks than in small doses, so two reading sessions later, it was over. I'm still not sure why I had trouble getting into it, but now I'm ready to tackle some more Twain. Well, once I've polished off some more of the half-read books on the list.

And speaking of half-read books, yes I found a couple more. One is The Great Airship by Lt. Col. Brereton, a truly abysmal boy's adventure novel from sometime between the wars (I suspect--there's no date on it). It cost me all of a dollar in a tiny "bookshop" located in a garden shed in New Brunswick. I actually have quite a fascination for boy's (and girl's) adventure novels from around the turn of the century and just after. I have a small collection of them that feature airships and am always looking for more--but I think I'll make this a post all on its own. The book has a certain appeal, despite the terrible writing.

The other book is one I picked up on sale at the book fair when the Congress of Learned Societies was in St John's in . . . 1997, I think. It's called Women and the Book: Assessing the Visual Evidence, edited by Jane H.M. Taylor and Lesley Smith. It's a proceedings from a 1993 conference, published with additional essays in 1996. Very scholarly, which explains why I didn't get very far before setting it aside--I was researching and writing my Master's thesis at the time. I picked it up again last night and decided to start over at the beginning since I didn't remember the two essays I had already read very well. Really interesting stuff, and so far quite readable.

It reminds me, for some reason, of an ex-boyfriend. I had seen a book on Celtic archaeology at the bookstore where he worked one day a week--it didn't have a price, so I asked him to check next time he worked. As I recall, my birthday was coming up, and I hinted that it might make a nice gift, if it wasn't too expensive (though I also suggested that it probably was too expensive). I have a small collection of Celtic archaeology books, and this one was a thick anthology of essays by different scholars. So he reports back a while later and it was pricey, as I had suspected. "You wouldn't want it anyway," he said. "It was really technical and full of charts and diagrams."

Erm. First clue this was not the man of my dreams? (Actually first clue was probably that he was a Christian Scientist, but I did try to be open-minded.) I guess he never noticed that I actually sometimes read scholarly books for fun. And maybe he forgot that my BA is in archaeology. One lesson I learned: it's a bad idea to go out with a man who feels threatened by your intelligence (assuming he finally figures out that you have it).

And Another

Yep, I'm on a roll. I finished Gothic Illuminated Manuscripts yesterday, but then found yet another half-read book on the shelves. This time it's Black Water 2, a short story anthology edited by Alberto Manguel. Really, really great stories, but the book is massively huge. I tend to read short stories in cycles: sometimes I'll burn through masses of them, and other times I don't read any. I've been on a non-short-story-reading phase for quite a while now, so this book has sat on the shelf, page marked about halfway through its 1000+ pages.

In non-book news, today I've rented a U-Haul cargo van so we can help move a corner-cutting machine from my boss/teacher Joe's basement to the Dawson Printshop and collect a couple of free chests of drawers and a massive worktable/corner desk. I'll have to post a few pictures--this apartment is starting to look like an actual home. You can see photos of what it looked like when the boy moved in on my Facebook page (they're in the album called"Cellphone Photoshoot 3 - Moving Day(s)"). Mind you, the furniture is still all second-hand--and a lot of it was free--but well-placed pieces of fabric can do a lot for crappy furniture.

One Down

So I finished Codex yesterday, but discovered several more partially-read books on the shelves, identified by the slips of paper sticking up from between the pages to keep my place.

• Gothic Illuminated Manuscripts by Emma Pirani: Lots of pictures and a fair amount of rather dry text. I'm going to tackle this one while I still have plenty of old-book enthusiasm from Codex (not that I ever really lack old-book enthusiasm).


• Introduction to Bookbinding by Lionel S. Darley: Why, you might ask, am I reading an introduction to bookbinding when I've already read several and have progressed beyond the introductory stage in actual hands-on binding? Maybe because I'm a completist. Actually it's because everyone has their own way of doing things and I always like to see what other people recommend. I've learn a surprising amount by occasionally going back and looking at the basics from the point of view of someone I haven't read before.


• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte: My mother loves the Brontes. I loved Jane Eyre (different Bronte, but they always seemed more like a collective than individuals). I made it through a pretty good chunk of this before it started to get pretty tiresome. Now I'm trying to read a chapter now and then, except I keep losing the thread of the story. I should probably start over at the beginning. Oh well.

Time to Read

So school is out for summer, and my one summer course is over (digital photo, which was excellent thanks to a really great teacher, even if he did only give me a B in lighting last year). Here's my favourite of the photos I did for my final project (an attempt to recreate the Happy Family photos I remember from growing up in the 70s):



I'm actually considering putting that one on the wall, even though I don't especially like having pictures of myself up. Here's another, that isn't as successful in terms of colour, but which works really well otherwise.



I love the one raised eyebrow thing.

But I began this post with a mention of school being done, and it is, until September. Which means I have a little more time. Time to play videogames, and time to read. Recently I've started to get that feeling I sometimes get, that I need to finish all the books I started before I start any more (except I just started a new one yesterday, completely violating my good intentions). So I'm going to concentrate on finishing unfinished books and see if I can't get them all out of the way by the time summer's over. Then I can start accumulating partly-finished books all over again. Whee!

There's never any one reason I don't make it all the way through a book. Sometimes it requires more brain power that I can give it at the time, so it gets put aside for when I have more leisure. Sometimes it's simply the wrong size to easily read on the bus or in bed or in the tub. Sometimes I lose interest, read something else in the meantime and then don't ever get back. Here are the things I've got in progress at the moment:

• Lost Discoveries by Dick Teresi: It's subtitled "The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya" and is essentially a history of non-western science. I've been reading this one on and off whenever I don't need too much brain for other things. It's a pretty good read and I'm well over halfway through. It's not going to be a problem to finish now that I have no school for a while.


• The Lungfish, the Dodo and the Unicorn by Willy Ley: Another subtitled book; this time "An Excursion into Romantic Zoology." It's a fun book about fantastic beasts that are either not real, real but extinct, or really really for real but seemingly improbable. It was published in 1948 and just seems to work better in small doses, which is why I haven't finished it yet. I guess I've been craving something I can consume in big chunks. Mmmmmm . . . books . . .


• Doubt: A History by Jennifer Michael Hecht: I'd only just begun this when I moved, so I never really had a chance to get into it before I had to set it aside. Looks like it'll be a good read, though.


• This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson: A novel about nautical exploration and discovery, in which Charles Darwin is a character. I'm enjoying it immensely, but it fits in the category of "too big to comfortably read anywhere but sitting upright in a chair," though I have made valiant attempts to read it in bed. It's going to require evenings of tea and sitting it the ugly salmon-coloured granny rocker to finish, but they'll be good evenings.


• Tom Sawyer by Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain: I love Twain, but I'm finding it hard to get into Tom. I don't remember Huckleberry Finn being this obviously written for children. I will forge on, though, because the writing is marvelous, and I have a copy of Tom Sawyer Abroad on the shelf that I want to get at soon.


• The Confusion by Neal Stephenson: This is the second book in the Baroque Cycle, and baroque it certainly is. Phew! Really great writing, but very very dense, and not as well-sprinkled with humorous bits as the first book. I'll take me a while to slog my way to the end, but I know it's going to have been worth it (how's that for a convoluted verb tense?).


• Codex: by Lev Grossman. Woo! I love books about books, and this novel is proving to be just the easy read I needed, without being too lightweight. I acquired it through BookMooch, which a recommend highly if you have books you don't need but don't really want to dispose of. BookMooch lets you send books off to appreciative other book folks and use the points you thereby accumulate to mooch new books off other people. It makes it so much easier for me to part with books (always a hard thing, even if I know I'll never read them again), knowing who they're going to, and being able to get books in the mail in return. I love mail. Especially when it has books in it.

Well, this post is getting long, so I'll leave it at that. I think there are a few more partly-finished books lurking on the shelves, but I'll deal with the ones listed first, then go in search of others.

Pen Lust

I have no idea how much it even costs (but no doubt way more than I can afford), but I really, really want this pen. Er, anyone wanna bargain for a firstborn child?

What Am I?

So I had this assignment for art history (Narrative and Craft) last week in which we had to describe a craft object without actually saying what the object was or being too obvious about its form. So here's what I wrote:

I am animal:
I have a head and a tail and a spine, twisted threads like sinews and springy muscles of raised bands to hold me together. I am calf brown.

I am vegetable:
I have leaves and boards and dye of vegetable. I am oak brown and pale brown blank-featured and creamy pale linen.

I am no mineral at all (though I might have been clasped in brass).

My rectangular form would have been familiar to monks, my size comfortable to hold and turn in the hands, my purpose to transmit learning.

I am not living, but my kind have long lives. We are stolen, defaced, traded for high prices and lost at the bottom of seas. We hold the world’s knowledge, but I am empty, waiting to be filled with your thoughts.

I won't say what it is just yet, because of this next part of the assignment, which was to take someone else's description, randomly chosen for us by the TA and do a sketch of what we think the object is. Here's the one I got:

The dance floor was enclosed by fourteen intricate darkened pillars. Halfway up, each pillar had been carved away to create a lattice like motif in which carnations intertwined creating their own dance. The sun was so bright that every metal surface shone gold, even the carnations appeared metallic.

The music started to play and a young dancer appeared. With quick taps of castanets her hands demanded attention. She looked as if she had been practicing outdoors her whole life. Her skin had started to crease ever so slightly from the sun and heat. The swirl of her skirt on her brightly coloured dress was mesmerizing. The pillars then appeared as many dancing legs which became one with the movement of the skirt. As it gracefully flared away from her slender body, only to be pulled in close as if it was an extension of herself. The pirouette movement created a path that brought the natural perfume of the carnations into the air and across the dance floor. The scalloped edge of her dress embellished with the carnations resembled the crochet doilies on the tables back at the hotel.

High up on the hill the scenery expanded like that of the fabric in the dancers skirt. Overlooking the coast, coliseum and the city, the colours blue, green, red, gold and brilliant white created a rich portrait of the land.

A place embellished in its own textures, aromas, music, language and beautiful landscapes. For a lifetime traveller all that remains are interrupted memories of a day enjoying the entertainment of Costa del Sol, Malaga.

Anyone have any ideas? All I can see is a scene, with hints here and there of object-ness. Not enough that I can figure it out, though. I'm feeling pretty stupid, I must say. Someone please tell me it's obvious, and then tell me what it is . . .

Oh yeah, it's due Friday. Blurgh.

Yes We Can

If I was American, and at all inclined to vote, this might have a significant impact on how I voted. It might even get me to vote at all. See, there's some hope for those people to the south.

How Horrible and How Beautiful

I just read this on Neil Gaiman's blog, and thought it was too elegantly stated not to pass on:

"While it is important to learn about the Holocaust," she says, "it is even more important that we learn from the Holocaust."

The most chilling of those lessons, to her, is that extermination, civilization's ultimate betrayal of its own humanity, was the work of highly civilized people.

"These were educated, erudite individuals, thinkers, who came to the conclusion that the final solution was perfectly plausible.

"And then they were able to enlist the help of chemists to devise an efficient gas for extermination, and architects to design an efficient death house, and industrialists to create the machinery of annihilation."

The lesson of the Holocaust is not that human beings are "somehow capable of resigning from their human obligations to one another," she says, but that "they do so out of conscious moral choice."

This is why I think everyone needs to see Night and Fog, even though it is truly scarring.

Bird's-Eye View

Some of you may have seen this already, if you check out my Facebook profile:


It's the big room shared by the Dawson Printshop, where I work, and the NSCAD Design Printshop. Taken with my cellphone camera. From the top of a very tall ladder. That white wall you can see just to the right is no longer white, it's grey. I painted it.

You can just see our replica common press at the top of the photo. It was used to print the replica of the first newspaper ever printed in Canada. It's not that different from what Gutenberg would have used.

What's Nikoniconiknevernikki Been Up To?

School: I've really only had three days of school so far, since I only have classes twice a week (not counting my internship), but it already seems like ages. Intaglio is already intense and exciting and I have too many projects in mind to get them all done. But that's good. I'm starting with a multiplate bookwork with sea creatures and steam. I'll also have to get started on a singleplate/multicolour print. Possibly with a Jules Verne submarine. Sometime before Friday, which means tomorrow after work, I have to photocopy the readings for art history and then read some of them. Or at least go to the library and read them. The class is Narrative and Craft and the teacher is really good (I had her for Craft and Design History).

Internship: Technically, I suppose this could fall under "School," but whatever. I'm working with Joe Landry, who teaches bookarts at NSCAD, has his own bookbinding and conservation business, and currently co-manages the Dawson Printshop. I'll be doing some gold tooling (and also blind tooling) and at some point making a Byzantine binding (complete with brass clasps), but for now I'm building boxes for Joe to have as models for clients and lectures. Lots and lots of different styles of boxes in which one can put books and other delicate things to protect them. I'll probably also be working on some product samples for the printshop at some point.

Work: psp.about.com continues as usual with me not having as much time as I'd like to play/review games. Sigh. Work at the Dawson Printshop so far has been a lot of tidying and organizing while we wait for the fittings and furnishings to be done and installed, at which point we can actually get some things printed. Tomorrow I'll be climbing a ladder to paint a giant wall grey and a tall pillar red. You should see the height of the ceilings in this place!

Social life: What? Nik has a social life? Well, sort of. See I met someone, and he's rather kept me occupied on weekends:



(Incidentally, I'm trying to teach myself to colour balance in Photoshop using curves instead of levels, as they are supposed to be much more powerful. You can judge my success, or lack thereof, from the previous photo. Yeah, I need to work on it more. Probably could also tweak the contrast a bit more.). Movies, wine, talking, etc. Lots of talking, actually, which will probably surprise some of you. Really, I do talk when I've got something to say and someone interesting to say them to. If you really want to, you can see more photos of what I've been doing on Facebook (link in left column), but I currently have my photos viewable only by friends, so you'd have to join and then add me as a friend. Alternatively, I might consider making my photos public. Maybe.

Worst Grade Ever

Last week when I started school I also picked up my grades from last semester and got, as I rather expected I might, my worst grade so far at NSCAD (though not quite my worst grade ever in university, I think). So anyway, here are my grades from Fall 07:

• AHIS 3200 History of Photography: A+
  
• PHOT2500 Lighting Workshop: B
  
• PRTM2100 Relief Printmaking: A
  
• PRTM3106 Intermediate Lithography: A
  

That gives me a GPA of 3.86 for the semester, and 3.95 so far for this degree. Not too bad, I guess.

Random Pic

Xmas trees and way too many presents (some of them contain chocolate . . .). Also, a few boxes not yet unpacked from the move.

Winter 08 Schedule

Unless, things change, which they very well might, my schedule for this semester will look something like this:

Monday

• day off for doing homework

Tuesday

• 9am - 12:30pm (ish) work at Dawson Printshop
• 1pm - 5:30pm Intermediate Intaglio

Wednesday

• internship at Leaf by Leaf

Thursday

• 9am - ? work at Dawson Printshop
• ? - 5pm (ish) internship at Dawson Printshop

Friday

• 9am - 11am Narrative and Craft (art history)
• 1pm - 5:30pm Intermediate Intaglio

Saturday

• more or less free for homework and social life (hey, I sort of have one now)
• possibly some more internship hours at Leaf by Leaf in the afternoon

Sunday

• homework, social life, sleep, etc

So, busy, but not unmanageable. There may also be more work hours at the Dawson Printshop if I seem to be keeping up with coursework and internship hours all right.

And, in other news, if you don't have a Facebook page and want to see various odds and ends of photos I've been posting (summer road trips, pets, cute boys, odds and ends), um . . . you'll just have to get Facebook. I might post a few things here, and art stuff will eventually end up on deviantART (I've started bringing prints home, and hope to get around to photographing them soon), but most of the odd stuff will end up on Facebook, visible only to my Facebook friends. If you don't know how to get on Facebook, I suggest asking the nearest 12-or-13-year-old girl.

And So it Begins

The new semester, that is. Today school started at NSCAD. I don't actually have any classes on Monday, but I went in this afternoon to see about updating my student card (we have to get a new sticker every semester) and find out if last semester's grades were available yet. I also thought I might stop and talk to a few people. Alas, it was crowded as hell in there, the line for student services was crazy long, and none of the people I was going to talk to were around. I said "hi" to a couple of former classmates and the printmaking tech, Murf, and then made my way back home (all three blocks).

I had better luck this morning picking up a parcel and changing my address on my driver's license. I also got another earring in one ear (left one, at the top, cost $3 extra for cartilage, which I determined is because they have to give you two bottles of the cleaning stuff instead of one because it takes twice as long to heal) (gone are the days of being sent home with nothing but instructions to put polysporin on it once in a while). And I bought some new jewelry for my existing piercings--I lost one of my talons not long ago and just had safety pins in, so I needed at least one set. I decided to get new rings for the other holes too. I've got them all in now and they look pretty spiffy. Except I couldn't get my current nose ring out to put the new one in. I'll have another go at it later.

Hang on, I'll get a pic.



It's hard to tell, but the one farthest back is a peacock/multicolour metal with slightly iridescent beads.

Let's see. Other news. The coffee date I mentioned a few posts back went swimmingly, as have various and sundry movies, video nights, breakfasts and used bookstore forays since then. Sometimes I accidentally catch a glimpse of my expression as I walk by a mirror. Usually it's a silly secret smile.

Xmas was nice and quiet, with way too many presents to open (I'm still working my way through all the chocolate). And there are presents still to come, apparently. Thanks to everyone. It was fabulous. Dinner was turkey and a huge assortment of veggies, many of them mashed. Deva's Mum and Randy were over all day, from breakfast of bacon, toast and hashbrowns (Ryan's favourite thing to cook) to the aforementioned dinner.

New Year's Eve involved staying up until New Year's Day drinking wine and talking. Oh, and there was some very silly dancing to the Chemical Brothers sometime around four in the morning (maybe, I really have no idea what time it was). New Year's day involved a lot of sleeping and a late breakfast, followed by, well, other things I won't talk about here.

Everything is bright and well in my world.

Don't Follow Me!

Yeah, so if I message you on Messenger with nothing but a url in the message, don't follow it. Apparently, someone's been using my account to send suspicious links. Like I said, don't follow them, it's not me. I've changed my password, which I hope will solve the problem, but if anyone notices it continuing, let me know. And 'Lena, you might want to change your passwords, too--I think it was a following a weird link from you (or that I thought was from you) that started this.

Update: Everyone's changed their passwords, and all seems to be fine once again.