Thanks to sqlrob over at Livejournal, I have the Spore Creature Creator demo running on my non-Leopard system! With some tweaking to two files, the demo can be run on Macs using OS X 10.4.11, maybe even others if you have all the other requirements. First you do this, and then you do this. Probably won’t work when the full game comes out, but at least I can goof around and waste time with the demo … which is exactly what I have been doing.

Also, if like me you hate things running fullscreen, here are the commands to toggle between windowed-mode and fullscreen:

Command + Return: Toggles the game between windowed and fullscreen modes.
Command + Tab: Minimizes the game when in fullscreen mode.

And, here’s a video of my first creature creation!

Not all fabrics must be washed before sewing.

With that said, and a load of fabrics in the washing machine, everyone should wash their fabrics before sewing. The reason is to make you look at the fabrics and realize whether or not they are something that needs to be washed first, and knowing that is something that comes from experience of working with fabrics and knowing how they react with washing.

For the first time ever, I can wash fabrics at home, without having to walk to a laundry room or drive to a laundromat, so why not develop a good sewing habit. Which isn’t to say I will always be washing fabrics before use, because I am lazy and I know what I can get away with.

Anyway, I have some light blue and bright red batiste and two obnoxious calico prints in the washer right now. I had planned to make two shopping bags with it, but I just noticed the light blue matches the blues in that stupid canvas I have been working on, so now I have to explore an idea first. Exploring ideas is the number one reason I never get anything done, after all.

I should be in bed. I have got to go to the grocery store tomorrow, no matter how I feel about it, and I already know I am not going to feel like going … which is why I am watching Slime People again and washing fabrics at 2:30 am. I hate my sleep cycle. Well, at least sewing and doing laundry is something I can do in the middle of the night without disturbing you-know-who.

Yippee! It took no time at all to get the machine cleaned up and the tension adjusted. In that brief amount of time, I was reminded of the reason I replaced that machine with a new one, other than wanting a hundred different stitch patterns. The bobbin chamber has to be the most annoying bobbin chamber ever designed. But, the machine works great, so now I can plan what it is I want to sew. Then I can take my small amount of mad money and go buy a few patterns and the notions I’ll need and get to it.

I don’t know why I had so many problems with that machine the last time I had it out a few Christmases ago. I guess it had less to do with an actual problem with the machine and more to do with feeling a lot of pressure to have to make a bunch of presents with stuff I had in the house and not wanting to do it. In fact, I don’t think the machine was giving me any problems at all. I think I just got frustrated and angry about the situation and put it back in the closet.

Well, I’m not frustrated and angry now. I am so excited and looking forward to doing some sewing!

Anyway, here’s my White machine. It’s very basic, but Lin got it at a thrift store for a bargain price when one of my Singer machines needed to go in to the shop for the hundredth time and I got sick of dealing with it (and paying for it).

Of course before I can sew anything, I will have to get back into that damn closet to get to the fabrics. At least those are all on the top shelf and accessible … and Myu hasn’t made a total mess of them yet.

It figures I finally have the next step on that damn canvas in my head, and it’s an outdoor project requiring good ventilation and protective gear. I always discover the next step late at night, and it always involves something I can’t do late at night. But I do have the next step for that damn canvas in my head, and I even believe it might be the final step as well.

I’ve only been working on it since February 4th. This painting has been slow in coming, but I believe I have found my style, my niche, my artsy angle. I have, at the very least, discovered something that can lead to a cohesive collection of paintings, the sort of which one might, say, show somewhere. Maybe even a whole body of work. I think I have found an artistic direction that will satisfy both my inner artist and outer artist, and that it is finally leading me in a fulfilling direction.

And yes, there is an inner artist and an outer artist living in my mind, and they are two totally different artists. One of them is perpetually wanting to paint sheer photographic perfection while not doing a damn thing to attain that skill, and simultaneously enjoying finger painting and finishing a painting in a day or two more than anything else … oh, and bright colors straight from the tube. One of them likes to wallow in the past, dredge up regrets and emotions of all sorts, and spend a really long time pasting that feeling together with glue and paint .. and words, she really likes using words and letters and numbers. I’ll leave it to you to guess which is which. Doesn’t really matter anymore, as I have found a way to make both of them happy and get them working together. Finally.

I might even be able to write up an actual, honest-to-goodness artist’s statement again. Whatever will I do with myself?!

None of this means anyone else is going to like it, or appreciate it, or even understand it. Or … want to look at it or buy it. One can hope though, right?

So that’s what I have been thinking about while really wanting to work on the next step of my canvas, but not being able to do anything about it right now. I should go to bed, but as I predicted earlier, I am not at all sleepy or tired. Damn my insomnia and screwed up sleep schedule! It must be time to watch Slime People. A stupid old horror flick will be just the thing to take my mind off the canvas. It might even bore me to sleep. I’ve never seen Slime People before, so I can’t judge my reaction. If nothing else, I can always change my mind and watch King Kong vs. Godzilla, which I know puts me to sleep within 30 minutes. I still haven’t seen that one all the way through.

It would figure E-on Software is offering all the add-on modules for Vue 6 Esprit for half-price right when I don’t happen to have $100 to spend on software. I could get all three modules I’ve been wanting and needing for $88 plus shipping! I haven’t been posting anything much of what I have been doing with Vue 6 since I got it, but I have been doing stuff with it. The problem I have with the software is that the things I want to do with it I can’t do without those three modules. Some aspects of Esprit are a little more limited than I expected.

Well, yet one more thing to be grumpy about this week. Maybe I can scrounge together enough money to get them by July 6 when the sale ends, or maybe I can decide on just one of them I have to have and get it.

Grrrr.

Postcrossing: “send a postcard and receive one back from a random postcrosser somewhere in the world!”

Looks and sounds fun. I always wanted to get into some of the swap things, but money being what it is — virtually non-existent in my life — I couldn’t afford to do so. I can probably afford to send out some postcards though!

This afternoon’s anti-bordom activity, other than pestering the cats and tormenting myself by watching Food Network, was playing around with bamboo. It is one of the materials around here we have far too much of at any one time. Without further ado, I present the end result of hours of bored goofing off … a bamboo bud vase.

Digging through a plastic storage container filled with ephemera from my early school years, I found something too funny not to share.

It dates from about third or fourth grade, and yes … it’s Spock dressed as Santa. The assignment seems to have been to draw someone I thought would make a good Santa Claus and explain why.

The back reads thusly:

I think Mr. Spock would make a good Santa Claus because he is logical and because he has pointed ears.

Not enough early childhood drawings of Mr. Spock? Behind the cut is another one.
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“You have to have the time to feel sorry for yourself in order to be a good abstract expressionist.”

American artist, Robert Rauschenberg, died today at the age of 82. I don’t often mention my favorite artists or the ones who have influenced my own work in any way, but Mr. Rauschenberg has always been at the top of a very short list. I am saddened by his passing.

You can see some of his works here and here.

Rauschenberg on YouTube, discussing art and his erasing of DeKooning works: