Ridiculous Opinions #256
Happy Saturday!
We are back in action today, getting ready for school to begin next week. I have been teaching since 1995, with a couple of years doing other things there in the middle. What have a learned in all of that time?
That I’d rather be doing something else.
But who cares? Let’s focus on a few other things today. Right now, my wonderful family is ALL TOGETHER here in our tiny little apartment, and the world is right, at least from my perspective. Abbey flew in last night and Harper arrived with us, so there is an unparalleled energy in the house that makes me VERY happy. Harper is going to be staying with us for a while now that she is a UNIVERSITY GRADUATE and Abbey is here for two weeks before she heads back to the toil of animation school. Joy all around!
This school year is going to be my year of PROJECTS. Of course, every year is a year of projects, but my goal this year is to make physical things. We started this summer by beginning the process of making a Maurice the Beaver muppet. It’s not done yet, but I have a PLAN for this thing and I’m currently working on a Tony the Rabbit muppet as well.
The good news is that I learned a new skill in doing all of this, and that is that I can now sew. Don’t mess with my sewing skills.
That’s my main focus. However, I will also be learning to do a bit more 3-D modeling over the year, with the idea of creating miniature models of things that occupy my brain. I would still like to create a series of action figures, so I’m learning how to build a few 3-D sculpts, with the hope of doing some 3-D printing of these objects. It was my ultimate goal to do this over the summer, but something happened with my brain over the summer and I didn’t do any of it…
I blame this on social media and the allure of my phone. I spent WAY too much time on my phone this summer and not in a healthy way. Whenever I had any free time, I would say to myself, I’ve earned this, and spend my time scrolling through endless news feeds or playing mindless games. It reached epic proportions over the course of the last month, so I have made a few changes.
As of earlier this week, I am no longer carrying my phone in my pocket. I’m putting it in my bag, where it belongs. It sounds stupid, but anything I can do to prevent the absent-minded grabbing of my phone when I’m bored is something that I think is important. If there is an emergency or I have a phone call or important message, I can use my watch.
What this does is prevent me from wasting copious amounts of time on absolutely nothing. My phone has been used a crutch for a very long time, an excuse to turn my brain off and just consume things. That’s not good and it appears to be something that is happening more and more to people lately. It’s slightly concerning in this day and age where someone can make an attempt to assassinate a presidential candidate and we don’t even think about it anymore. Seriously, when was the last time you thought about that? And it was only a month ago!
So, that’s where my brain is at currently. Maybe it’s something YOU should think about as well. Here are a few random pictures that occupy my brain at the moment. The art is from Miki Montllo, an incredibly talented artist from Spain.
My current mood…
