Saturday, September 02, 2006

Sat
2
Sep
2006

New Problem

I was working on my Popcorn Garland yesterday and ran into a new glitch. The yarn skein I was using was all knotted inside. Grrrr. I hate it when that happens. It took me hours to get it untangled. I ended up having to cut the yarn in a couple of places because the knots were so tight. Oh, well. I was going to have to cut it anyway to get more beads strung.
Sat
2
Sep
2006

What is my Passion?

An interviewer asked me recently if I could have any job in the world, money not a consideration, what would I like to be doing? The fact is, I don't know. When I started design school, I thought I wanted to be a designer. I loved playing on the computer, making web sites and learning new code. I still do, I just hate doing it for other people. They ruin the fun of it for me. They make it a chore. It's not design anymore, it's just churning out crap. The best job I've had so far was the production artist gig at the screenprinter (before they really started going downhill). It didn't pay enough to live on, however.

I wish I could find out what it is that I am passionate about. Marcus has and I'm a little jealous. I was reading on some site last week that if you find your passion, the money will come. Great. The fact is right now I'm stuck. I'm angry. I'm cynical. I'm jaded.

I hope I figure it out soon, though. I'm tired of spinning my wheels or driving in reverse. If I have the good fortune of living to 80 or beyond, my life is only half over. I'd really like to enjoy the time I have left on this planet, not dread it.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Fri
1
Sep
2006

Where the Columbines Grow

Yesterday I was going though a box of stuff from storage and found some newspaper clippings that my mother had saved. One was from where someone had written into the paper asking if Colorado had an official song. Well, it appears that the state legislature in 1915 adopted a song called "Where the Columbines Grow" as the official state song. There's an mp3 on that site of some elementary school kids singing it. They lyrics are cool, but the melody is totally lame.
"Where the Columbines Grow"
by A.J. Fynn, 1915

Verse One
Where the snowy peaks gleam in the moonlight,
Above the dark forests of pine,
And the wild foaming waters dash onward,
Toward lands where the tropic stars shine;
Where the scream of the bold mountain eagle
Responds to the notes of the dove
Is the purple robed West, the land that is best,
The pioneer land that we love.

Chorus
Tis the land where the columbines grow,
Overlooking the plains far below,
While the cool summer breeze in the evergreen trees
Softly sings where the columbines grow.

Verse Two
The bison is gone from the upland,
The deer from the canyon has fled,
The home of the wolf is deserted,
The antelope moans for his dead,
The war whoop re-echoes no longer,
The Indian's only a name,
And the nymphs of the grove in their loneliness rove,
But the columbine blooms just the same.

Verse Three
Let the violet brighten the brookside,
In sunlight of earlier spring,
Let the fair clover bedeck the green meadow,
In days when the orioles sing,
Let the golden rod herald the autumn,
But, under the midsummer sky,
In its fair Western home, may the columbine bloom
Till our great mountain rivers run dry.

I was checking out some of the rest of our official state emblems. Um, we have a state tartan. There is also a state fossil. Who knew? Methinks the legislatures have had too danged much time on their hands.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Thu
31
Aug
2006

100 Facts in 100 Days - Day 11

#11: I am a klutz.
Thu
31
Aug
2006

Have You Ever…

So have you ever had a zit or ingrown hair in your nose and it hurts like hell but you can't do anything about it because it's really up in there and it's itchy and making your nose run and your eyes water and all you want to do is rip your nose off your face because at least you could get to it and make it stop?!!!

Yeah, me neither.