Late Afternoon Near the Fire Line

Have come down with the flu. No energy to write, but surprisingly, energy to paint. I knew when I saw the sun reflecting off a white surface through the smoke, how to paint this…

Late Afternoon Near the Fire Line

The Lesson of the NaNoWriMo

Don’t stop.

Don’t ever stop.

If you stop, it gains on you.

Never, ever, ever stop. Genius doesn’t matter. Perfection is an illusion. All that matters is the doing.

Goal reached before bed: 12334 words.

Goal before the next bedtime: 14427 words.

Saving all my words for NaNoWriMo…

But I added a link to the chart widget that explains what the heck it means…

It’s BAAAACCCCKK….

Yes, NaNoWrimo is here again. 50,000 words or bust….

[if nothing else, it’s made me change the images in the sidebar —>

Category: Along the Artist’s Way

Working through Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist’s Way,was a life-changing experience for me. This category is intended to record my status as I continue to practice the principles and exercises I learned there, and also in her follow-up book, The Vein of Gold. As of today, on the plus side: 

 

* I’ve been keeping up with Morning Pages for many months. 

* I’ve been doing my Artist Dates on a regular basis for months as well. 

* I’ve been following my medical food plan for two days. 

 

On the minus side, my record in self-care is not great: 

* I’ve not been getting enough sleep. 

* I’ve not been eating well, until 2 days ago. 

* I’ve not been doing the Daily Walks recommended in The Vein of Gold; which counts twice, both in spiritual discipline and in self-care. 

* As for Weekly Walks, forget it. Hasn’t really happened since January. 

 

I’m posting this, not because I really think anyone cares about whether I’m following my eating plan or walking daily, but to have a PUBLIC record of my progress, or lack thereof, in these matters. 

 

Update 10:41 PM – What was I THINKING when I posted this morning? Ahem. It’s important to me that this is public to keep myself honest with me. I’m really bad about rationalizing this stuff. I plan on making an entry in this category whenever something significantly changes; i.e., my self-care gets better (or worse), I follow through on some recommended exercise (or abandon the attempt.) I’m hoping that somewhere out there in blog-land I can find a buddy or three to communicate with about this.

SAW THE RUSHES TONIGHT!

Yeehaw!!!!! They ROCK!

Yes, I DID lose my loops, and earlier than I hoped (but not as early as I feared). And there WAS a bit of light leakage early in the second roll. BUT — Thanks to finding my frame rate dial set incorrectly, I re-shot everything that I needed to re-shoot. It’s all dead in-focus. It’s all correctly exposed. The titles kick butt – better than any others in the class so far. The slow motion really looks good.

I played with the idea of getting my unedited footage telecine’d so I could digitally edit it in parallel and have a copy to post on the web before September — but el Professor vetoed that, in that he REALLY doesn’t want to know if I do any such thing. VERY strictly against LAVC policy. *sigh* I may yet do it, but only as a backup — this thing of working on reversal film and therefore having NO backup and physically cutting the film itself is nerve-wracking.

But if I do that, then I won’t be able to start editing until, possibly, Tuesday. This telecine-now idea occurred to me this morning and I asked about it at Yale, but their telecine machine is booked through tomorrow — and they’re not open on the weekend. So it would be done Monday at the earliest, which would eliminate Saturday and possibly Monday as editing dates. So — I think I’ll pass.

On a related note, Mari brought me a lovely album of prints of the production stills — and there were many great shots I didn’t have! I’m missing 24 photos because she was having trouble sending them to me. She’ll resend them as soon as practical, so I’ll have even more wonderful photos on the web site.

Running on empty…

Today – Interviewed a student for assistant position. Practiced physically cutting and splicing film.

Bottom line — I’m as exhausted as I ever get. The heat wave here w/no A/C in the house hasn’t helped. And tomorrow I have to go pick up my reels and find out what’s on them, as well as pass a practical exam for film splicing.

Lest y’all think I’m whining — I wouldn’t do anything differently over the last two weeks. I’d just like to try this sleeping stuff I keep hearing about… understand that it’s nice… 🙂

No-assistant Blues

A little whinging ditty, like many blues songs…

Well, she up and quit me last Monday night late.
Yeah, she up and quit me last Monday night late.
Now I’m stuck with doing all the work that I hate.

The uh, stuff in my office, well, it’s piling up high.
The uh, stuff in my office, well, it’s piling up high.
Can’t find what I need though I know it’s nearby.

More work and less leisure are the things that I’ve got.
More work and less leisure are the things that I’ve got.
But some time to do hiring, that is what I have not.

Errands…

I finally got the film to Yale Lab! and also got my editing gloves. Since I went to try editing at school, I now know WHY you need editing gloves. Still, I’ve done more physically difficult things this semester already. Prof. Swelstad didn’t get (or possibly didn’t recognize) the email postcard announcing the production stills website; so I’ve sent him another at his request. Still need to clean up my camera reports before turning them in Thursday, but I’m almost caught up with all (except reading).

Back to … lucrative work.

I’m not going to call it a Real Job any more. It’s not my real job — I’m a filmmaker. It’s lucrative work that enables me to learn more about filmmaking. Nyahh.

But I’m way behind the 8-ball there. Grading piled up, assistant quit, had to quit a committee. Need to get paperwork in for “flex time”. Tenure committee chair is nagging me regarding some website work, and that means he’s in my office and there’s something else that I need to do that’s not getting done. But then, interacting with him and all my other colleagues is part of the job.

And then too, I’ve committed to teaching this summer. I’d rather go to PA boot camp — not that I think I’m qualified yet. But teaching will pay for the new air conditioner which we desperately need in the 100F-plus temperatures this “spring”.