Update: Woggies #1 and #3

Woggy #1 Update: BC Trip Scrapbook

I can now check some items off my Woggy To-do list:

X wait for photos and scrapbook cover,etc. to be delivered
X plan scrapbook layout
X create any needed text or other related content
X paste up first 7 days of trip

Things left to complete this woggy project:

• paste up remaining 5 days of trip
  
• punch holes in the pages
  
• assemble scrapbook
• clean up the disaster zone left behind by this project
• sit back on my couch with my scrapbook and reminisce about my fab trip

Woggy #3 Update: Learning Calculus

As often happens with true progress, the latest burst of activity towards completing this woggy came in a completely inadvertent and unexpected fashion. Having finally moved into the 21st century by getting an iPod nano for my birthday, I was looking to try out all of its various features, and stumbled across the iTunes U section of the store, in particular the completely free Calculus class offered by MIT's open courseware. So I figured what the heck, why not download? Of course as the entire point of me visiting the store that day was to find some sort of content other than music for my nano, as a test run to see if I could figure out how to make everything work properly, I had to upload the first lecture and try it out to see how everything worked. So before I knew it there I was sitting in my living room, watching the tiniest professor in the world give me a first day intro lecture all about derivatives. Once it was over I suddenly realized, hey! Look at that I've started learning Calculus finally!

I can now check some items off my Woggy To-do list:

X order calculus video class
X actually begin watching calculus class
X finish watching Lecture 1 (and understanding it!)

Things left to complete this woggy project:

• download and print out supplemental materials for this class
  
• watch, take notes and do any problems required for Lectures 2 - 16
  
• donate some money to MIT's open coursework program for goodness sakes!
• download the second Calculus class in the series
• repeat steps 1 & 2 for second class
• go and read all those physics chapters I couldn't read before I understood Calc!
  

Update: Woggies #1 and #16 are almost complete!

Woggy #1 Update: BC Trip Scrapbook

I had been informed about a month ago that the site which is hosting alot of my old photographs has changed its policy to require you to buy something at least once a year or they might dump your archive. With my dumping date looming, I had alot of incentive recently to get some sort of a photo project going. The digital photos most obvious for this task was my collection of photos from my BC Adventure Vacation that happened last August. All of my photos were already on my computer, and I already knew I wanted most of them printed out as actual real life photos for my scrapbook project.

So it took a lot of time, but I sorted through all the photos and picked all the best ones and/or the ones necccesary to tell the story of our adventure. I uploaded them and made captions for whenever I get around to emailing the online album to everyone. And of course I started thinking about how was I actually going to get all of these photos put together. Now, it turns out this task itself became a major life distraction, as I discovered a site selling all of the vast array of things that the scrapbooking industry has to offer. It took alot of strength, and I had to resist many cute, shiny sparkly things that would certainly serve absolutely no useful function in my life (such as the Happy Camper wooden die-cuts pictured here...), but I did finally end up with a pared down order of just the essential items needed for me to put together something close to what I originally envisioned. So now, I only have to wait for my items to be delivered, and I can get to work on the fun part, which is the making of the scrapbook itself. This should not take too long to complete, but only time will tell...

I can now check some items off my Woggy To-do list:

X Select photos for printing
X Get photos printed
X look for a suitable book/binding system
X buy book/binding system

Things left to complete this woggy project:

• wait for photo and scrapbook cover,etc. to be delivered
  
• plan scrapbook layout
• create any needed text or other related content
• paste up/ assemble scrapbook

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Woggy #16 Update: New Bed

Lately on two separate independent occasions unrelated to either the purchase of a bed or each other, both my husband and I were each able to visit another local furniture store that also happened to have beds for sale, and we both actually happened to each look at the beds that they had there. Through some great miracle of the cosmos, my husband and I not only came to the agreement afterwards that we did not need to look in any further stores than the two stores we had thus far looked at, but after some brief discussion, we actually came to amiable agreement about which actual bed we each preferred to buy, AND, miracle of miracles, it happened to be the same exact bed.

Topping off this miracle sundae with some fabulous fruit, we even both went to the store together this weekend, and actually followed through with the actual purchase of the actual bed. Now all we have to do is wait for the shipment and delivery, and then actually do the final assembly of the bed after it arrives. It hardly seems any trouble at all that the bed is apparently somewhere in South America, and will be taking up to 14 weeks to get here!

Items I can check off my Woggy To-do list:

X go to more stores to look at other possible beds
X decide on a bed and buy it

Things Left To Complete This Woggy Project:

• wait for shipment of our bed
  
• put our new bed together
• say, "Hey, doesn't our new bed look great?!"

Woggy #18: Homemade window shade

Seattle is infamous for its dark and dreary winters. What is perhaps not as well known are our bright and cheery summers, of which I am beginning to be reminded of again at very early hours of the morning through my upper bedroom window, which under most circumstances brings a welcome amount of extra light into the room. The exceptions to this welcome would be during late spring and summer early hours of the a.m. when the sun peeks through and tries to wake you up, or on bright moonit nights, or perhaps on an evening when a neighbor with a porchlight is staying up to all hours...

In recent groggy mornings, as I have clambered in the wee hours for my eye pillow to shut out the light, I am reminded of a long overdue woggy project that I began a summer or two ago, which is to create a lovely, decorative but importantly functional window shade to cover this upper window when sleeping assistance is needed.

I considered the various prefabricated options, but the unusual shape & size of this window, joined with the way the window is normally used, really made most conventional alternatives difficult to find and rather inappropriate to the task. The solution I ultimately came up with was a decorative shade that could be raised up and out of the way like an awning when its use was not required.

I remember coming up with a complete design for this project, and some patterns, and I measured and cut out all sorts of fabrics, pinned, sewed, etc. I began working out exactly what sort of hardware I'd need to attach this shade to the window area, and was feeling pretty psyched about the whole project in general, most especially as this would mean complete sleepytime peace without need for an eye-shade, which I have never found to be completely comfortable.

However, it was at just around this time that a large and unexpected construction project began on my apartment building (yes, the self-same one that originally interfered with my bed frame woggy...) Since this would be involving among other things the tearing out and replacement of all our windows, I carefully folded this woggy up, bagged it, labeled it, and put it up on a shelf for safekeeping until all the window construction business was over.

Over a year later, when all work was complete, I was so busy restoring order to the chaos of my construction-ated home that pulling out another big project was the last thing on my mind. so the project sat and sat, up on the shelf.

Now that the longer days are on us again, and I have sufficent time and energy to devote to the shade, I've pulled it back out in the hopes that I will actually get some solid sleep at least a few nights before the end of the summer rolls around. Unfortunately, the notes I left for myself regarding my design plans are a bit scanty. So it will first take me some time to figure out exactly what was the design I was going for, or at least figure out some way to make all the pieces I already cut out work in a new design.

I have hopes that a dark and cozy slumber will be ours again someday...

Things Left To Complete This Woggy Project:

• lay all the pieces out and figure out a general idea of the intended design
  
• draw up some specific pictures to indicate how everything is supposed to look
• begin sewing all of the items which are already pinned together for sewing
• pin the rest of the pieces together following the design
• sew all the pieces
• put the various layers together and sew up remaining seams
• Make a list of necessary hardware
• buy necessary hardware
• Install hardware and attach shade to hardware
• Put shade down and enjoy a lovely complete night of sleep!

Updates! Woggies #8, #10, AND #16!

Yes spring has sprung, and it's verdant atmosphere has brought about updates in not one, not two but three woggy projects, all within the past two weeks!

Woggy #8 Update: "Lil' Me"

With my notebook-buying obstacle out of the way, and my proper time-era enhancing pandora station created and at the ready for inspiration, my mind and hands were set free to begin with the drawing. After a small bit of research to verify a few additional time-accurate details, I started my concept drawings and began the intro to my first book. I was a little slowed for a bit after completing the introduction, trying to decide what the story for this first episode/issue would be, but after a bit of brewing I was able to successfully work out a storyboard for the whole issue.

At this point all that is left is to sit down a little bit each day and continue the work on the final, finished-drawing versions of the storyboard for this issue to be finally complete. Time intensive to be sure, but right now the road is clear and straight up through the end of this book. Hooray!

I can now check some items off my Woggy To-do list:

X Dig up my old plot and story notes, and my folder of character drawings
X Sketch out a plot for my introductory episode/book
X rough storyboard the book

And for the record, I have begun working on:

• draw book #1

Things Left To Complete This Woggy Project:

• finish drawing book #1
• admire fab new book!
• repeat process for several more books
• research publishing graphic novels/ comic books, including self-publish options
• begin sending out stuff/ doing whatever initial stuff i need to do to pursue publishing of first few books
• continue making more books
• consider creating a dedicated website for the books
• write more to-do steps

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Woggy #10 Update: Understanding Comics

In the course of me working on the drawings for Woggy #8's introduction, I ran into a bit of a problem figuring out how to represent a particular action sequence that was very important. Considering how to solve the problem, I thought immediately of Understanding Comics and figured there would probably be something in there that might help me figure out a good approach.

Funny enough, the place where I had stopped reading, or more specifically the chapter I had bookmarked as the next one to begin, covered exactly the topic I was needing to read about. So that afternoon, while I had pulled the book off the shelf thinking I would just flip through to a section I had already read, for a few references and words of advice, I ended up instead sitting down and reading a whole new chapter of the book. In this way I not only learned what I needed to know for Woggy #8 right when I needed it the most, helping me solve my problem & inspire me, I also inadvertently completed a new step towards completing Woggy #10 at the same time.

Items I can check off my Woggy To-do list:

X Take book off shelf and begin reading again
X Consider buying another book from the graphic novel section! (actually did this a while ago, as mentioned in the last Woggy #8 update)

Things Left to Complete This Woggy Project:

• Set aside an evening or afternoon
• Read more of book
  
• Repeat until book has been finished

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Woggy #16: New Bed

Completely unrelated to the above two woggy updates, I am happy to finally report progress on this woggy. A lovely spring day brought us out for a walk in the park, and subsequent walk home right past one of our favorite furniture stores down the street. While there we both saw a bed frame we both liked and discussed it as a possibility, and found a fab couch on super discount, which after a half-day's thought, resulted in our decision to buy it.

While it was a couch purchased, and not a bed, those of you looking at the poster above might have noticed these are not unrelated. A new couch in the house brings about a quite urgent need to remove the old one, especially when one lives in a small downtown condo. Mind ever-quick, I jumped on this opportunity to point out that we would probably save alot of time and effort if we added the box spring and old bed frame to our flyer, since we already knew we were going to get rid of them.

And thank you, terrible economy, someone has already offered to take both of these worthy objects off our hands and out of our house within the week.

Of course, this means that from now until the date of bed frame delivery (to say nothing of all the steps in between) we will be sleeping on the very basic and chic "mattress on floor" layout, the ultimate in minimalist bed furnishment. But no one said progress was without its downside...

Items I can check off my Woggy To-do list:

X go to a store to look at a bed
X put our box spring and frame up for give-away
X give away our stuff to give-away person (ok, this one's almost checked off..)

Things Left To Complete This Woggy Project:

• go to more stores to look at other possible beds
  
• decide on a bed and buy it
  
• get our new bed delivered
• say, "Hey, doesn't our new bed look great?!"

Update: Woggy #8

Back in October, I had mentioned my Lil' Me (working title) cartoon was a woggy I had hinged much of my medium-term professional aspirations on. Well, especially since this is a woggy I truly have my heart set on actually completing someday, I have come to face certain facts over the ensuing months, and have thereby decided to drastically alter the path of this little tadpole's future.

In fabulous amphibian fashion, this Lil' Me cartoon project does hereby officially transform into the shape of ... a comic book! Yes, seeing all the technological and other hurdles before me, and the inevitable complications of the task that are impeding this project's progress, while all my fab concepts, characters and ideas continue to chomp at the bit telling me to just hurry up and get on with it already, I've decided the best way I can get on with this in a way that will allow it to fruit into reality as close as possible to my vision is to create a comic book series instead. (how's THAT for a long sentence!! Take that, Mr. Dickens!)

All of the essential elements will still be there. The characters and stories can stay the same, and it works fine with an episodic format. the only thing that will have to be missing will be my fabulous theme song, which was the seed that started this whole project in the first place, but I will probably figure out some way to make that work in a comic book. Or, maybe I'll just sing it to myself while I'm drawing.

Best of all, I can return to the format I prefer anyway, which is the drawing on paper. In an instant I have erased all technological hurdles in my way!! And, even better, With me getting all my episodes out in comic book form, it will still be possible for them to be one day picked up as an episodic cartoon, with someone else doing all the fancy-pants work and me just letting everyone know the general idea of how everything should turn out.

I first started to think about this as a possible solution to my problem when I saw the movie Persopolis (which by the way is really awesome and I really reccomend you go see it if you haven't), most especially when I saw the DVD extra where they went behind the scenes and talked about how the movie began as a graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, who also co-directed the film.

I've mentioned elsewhere in this wog that I've always been drawn to graphic novels and comic books, but have always felt a bit like a fish out of water whenever I was around them. My recent purchase and reading of Best American Comics 2008, as well as Lynda Barry's highly inspiring and wildly creative What It Is (which I am still in the middle of), have helped me find some more courage in that area, helping me to see this art form as a medium that might be just right for me, especially in the case of my "Lil' Me" story.

Then a defining moment came one day when I heard my sister, who works as a professional graphic artist, mention how much she'd really like a drawing tablet, which she does not actually have, causing me to look over at my dusty and paper-buried graphic tablet on my work table, considering exactly how long had it been since I had last used that thing anyway? And would I ever in fact be really using it for anything more than a glorified mouse before it became obsolete? Surely it could be put to better use by a professional who actually would use it everyday (i.e., my sister). This was in fact the most defining fact of the many facts I had brought myself to consider over these past several months.

Then on a recent visit with family, I found myself saying to my Grandma, who had just asked me what projects I was working on, that I was making a comic book of the cartoon I had told her about before. So there it was, I realized. I guess that's really what I was going to be doing, after all!

The last hurdle that was standing in the way of this official transformation was the purchase by me of some actual blank notebooks. Being a writer I have many blank lined notebooks lying around the house, but up until today I had no blank blank notebooks anywhere. Whenever I draw or "doodle" as I like to refer to it, I usually use either blank computer paper, or my favorite, sheets of white "typing paper" (or as they call it now a "writing tablet") which are quite nice for drawing on, but come in a tear-off pad, which is not very useful when trying to create a cohesive work of many pages that follow each other. I'm happy to say that I purchased not one but two blank notebooks today, of the size and binding I like most in their cousinly lined-paper forms, and am now officially ready to embark on the next phase of this woggy adventure.

I hereby rewrite my woggy to-do list...

Things Left To Complete This Woggy Project:

• Dig up my old plot and story notes, and my folder of character drawings
  
• Sketch out a plot for my introductory episode/book
• rough storyboard the book
• draw book #1
• admire fab new book!
• repeat process for several more books
• research publishing graphic novels/ comic books, including self-publish options
• begin sending out stuff/ doing whatever initial stuff i need to do to pursue publishing of first few books
• continue making more books
• consider creating a dedicated website for the books
• write more to-do steps
  

Woggy #17: Family Tree

At some particular point in the last year, my sister-in-law, who had been doing some extensive family tree research on my husband's side of the family, uploaded her research to a popular family tree website, and invited us all to have a look. This of course inspired me to create a tree of my own, filling out my half of our family tree.

For a week or two, I began working regularly and diligently to expand my tree, taking advantage of the free trial membership the site had. I decided to go ahead and sign up, paying a monthly fee, thinking I would see this thing through in a month or two, culminating sometime after the holiday season, when I would incorporate all the info I got talking to all my extended family and/or receiving their replies to my organized letters that I would include with the yearly card and newsletter.

I have of course forgotten about this woggy project entirely until about last month, when I was reviewing my finances, and again this past week when I was visiting my family and thinking about the various details I might want to know about my family tree. I have yet to even formulate the sorts of questions I'd like to ask extended family, let alone create any sort of letter, organized or no, that could help me gather additional information to add to my tree.

Meanwhile, I continue to pay monthly fees to this website, sure that I'll be finishing this project up any day now, and have no need to switch over to the yearly fee structure. (It's obviously this sort of wishful thinking that keeps these folks in business.)

Things Left To Complete This Woggy Project:

• consider switching to the yearly fee structure..
• finish up doing as much research as possible given the info I currently have
• figure out what sort of info I need to try to get from whom to fill out the tree
• send out letters/emails/etc. to get info and photos from pertinent family members
• update new info as it comes in
• finish up doing as much research as possible given the info I get
• Do any needed external research
• Complete the tree as much as possible
• print a final copy, send to family members, etc.
  

Update: Woggy #13 Complete!

After many, many hours of enjoyable work, I'm happy to say that this miniaturely giant woggy has finally been finished! Whatever Lego fan actually posted somewhere that he completed this feat in a mere 10 hours either has a faulty sense of timing, superhuman building power, or must have employed a large army of miniature robots to complete his task.

My final hours of project completion were assisted greatly not only by my small Lego workmen supervisors (see three of them helping to the left), but also by my Velvet Underground-seeded Pandora station, which I feel helped especially pulling me through all the delicate, frustrating, and slightly nerve-wracking moments connecting all the large component parts to one another.

And baby it was allright
And it was alright
Hey it was allright

Unexpectedly, the worst moments came not from placing the large central dome, which unlike all my previous attempts at handling it, did not fall apart or lose any tiles in the process, but from the plugging in of all the exterior building pieces to one another. As soon as I would get two plugged into each other and attempted a third, I'd find the second and third pieces come together only at the expense of the first two pieces coming apart. After an of absurd series of together-together-apart, together-together-aparts, I did finally succeed at getting them all together into one comprehensive whole, and only a few minor and non-lethal break and repairs.

In the end, the final result was pretty impressive. Hugely impressive in fact, and now I am beginning to consider the question my husband first asked me when I brought the Taj Mahal set home, and that is "Where exactly are you going to put that thing in our place?" I had decided not to worry about that trivial detail until after it was finished. For now, this Ottoman looks like a good place, though obviously not a permanent one. Anyway it sure looks great, especially when I put a light inside and the fountain from my city set in front of it. Who needs airfare? In that perspective the cost of this project now seems downright economical!