Monday, September 22, 2008

PMS + Menopause = Dammit!

Massive mood swings this evening. REALLY don't need this. Feeling absolutely useless. Crying my eyes out.

I know this'll pass, but it's a real crapper right now.

So I decided to share it with y'all too.

Actually, I guess you can't call it a mood swing if it's only going in one direction.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Fun! My first blog upload via my cellphone and folding bluetooth keyboard!

Okay, so I told you earlier this year that I was looking for a portable/folding keyboard for my phone. After searching high and low I can honestly say there's nuttin' to be had except discontinued models on Overstock and Amazon. I decided to go with the Think Outside Stowaway, whose company has morphed into iGo and is only doing portable power solutions now. You can still find their support pages and download drivers, but that's it. No technical support - if you can't make it work, you're SOL.

I got it in very quickly and already had the driver downloaded and ready to go. It's working fine, as this entry demonstrates.

The whole thing makes me wonder whether I'm the only person on the planet who wants this capability, or whether they've decided the phones with thumb-boards are the way things are going. I'm a touch typist and I want to be able to use that skill to get the characters input. That said, I wouldn't mind the luxury of both. The whole idea, after all, was to be be able to have blog mobility.

I already have my Flickr uploads maximized with ShoZu, which is an excellent mobile product, by the way.

I'll be experimenting with posting remotely and see if the process is too cumbersome.

Ciao for now!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Thereby Hangs a Tale...

Worked on a birthday present for my Girlie Goth niece. I've had the various bits around for a while so I decided to finally try one of those glass pendants with solder around the sides that have been popular lately. Mary (The Niece) at one time had pink and purple striped hair, so I decided to go with that color scheme plus, of course, black.

I wanted to do a more Illustrative style picture, so I went with the "big-eyed waif girl" look that is also popular right now. This was also partially inspired by an ATCard I received in trade from altermyworld at ATCsForAll.com.

Click on the picture to see a detailed photo of the finished piece...

I was working with 1" x 1" glass squares, so the painting was officially an "Inchie". The painting took about two hours start to finish - turned out alright for my first attempt at the genre. I do wish I'd thought to put in a mini-mat to keep the glass off the paint...the white gouache is probably going to lift at some point. But then again, with Mary's penchant for losing things, she may never see it happen!

Once the watercolors were dry, I sandwiched the pic between two craft squares and added the metal tape that the solder is applied to. Then I went out on the balcony to solder. Ten minutes later I was back inside trying to figure out why the solder wouldn't stick to the metal tape. It literally beaded up and fell off! Crap! I had used a silver colored tape, so I decided to try some copper colored tape that I also had.

This time it worked. However, the soldering iron had a heat-up, working temp, cool-down, heat-up cycle that made it take FOREVER and I accidentally applied too much solder. It was hideous to say the least! (no, I didn't take pictures).

So I checked a few magazine articles (you know, those EVIL articles that make it look like you could do this in five minutes and sucker you in...) and decided that the extra solder just had to go. Trying NOT to scorch the painting in between the glass, I set it up in the third hand and tried to time the next working temp cycle, then slid the tool down the side of the square and literally swept the excess solder off onto a wet sponge. Woot! This could work!

However, with the wonky soldering iron it took waaaaay too long to get the job done and I finally said, 'good enuf" and used the Dremel to give the remaining solder a brushed finish.

Handed it off today and was please with the positive response! (She especially liked the cleavage...go figure!)