Susan Barrett Price's Blog, page 49
June 12, 2010
June 9, 2010
Beating Bullets Into Wine Corks
or… something like that. Anyway, today's news from the crypt is that we finally sold our collection of Civil-War-era cartidges. Yay! I pocketed the cash and made a dash to the wine store.
A couple drove from Ohio to see the relics. We negotiated a price. They paid cash on the barrelhead. Then Jim and I gazed on as they took the more delicate packets of paper-wrapped man-killers into plastic coin tubes and padded them with cotton.
I labored hard on this sale, taking dynamite photographs (see...
June 6, 2010
Clash of the Mental Titans
My challenge today is to lock my technological wit in a room with my creative wisdom. Hope they make love not war.
When I asked Maria how she want to review my book project, she said online. Easy enough to send her a .pdf, right? But, no. I want her to be able to make comments as she goes along. I'm laughing! I'm crying!! I'm… confused…
My tech savvy takes me only so far. As soon as I see javascript or just add this simple PHP code, I blank out.
Fast-forward, I'm going to post a new blog that...
June 5, 2010
Week In Review: Strawberries Are In!
Just got back from the Public Market with Maria, where we bought the first of the local strawberries — nothing sweeter or juicier. (But I do like dipping them in cinnamon sugar.)
It capped off a week where we're beginning to experience the beautiful summer here — starting last Sunday with a long drive through vineyard and lake country.
I'm still fussing with tech, but also found my way back to writing. Full week review>>>
June 4, 2010
My New Morning Routine
For months I've been jumping out of bed and checking my email first thing. Could there be something special there? An ebay sale? And sometimes it just sets me down a path that distracts me all morning and I never get anything creative done. Morning is my most productive time.
Last week I felt like one of those mayflies that just perch on top of the water, held there by surface tension. What happens to them? A fish bobs up and eats them. My goal is to go deep, where the big fish are. Swim with ...
May 31, 2010
Susan's Information Infrastructure Whatever
I know everyone will be super-excited to hear that I finally got file-sharing to work on my home network. For the moment.
I didn't really mean to spend hours of obsession over this. I had given up on file-sharing between WALTER* and TRAVELER** months ago and was only trying to find the least obnoxious way of sharing project files via the cloud (aka the internet). But then I did obsess. And just when I was closing in on my elegant cloud strategy, my T: drive (TRAVELER) showed up again on...
May 29, 2010
Week In Review: Phoning It In
How is it you can be productive on a creative project without feeling particularly creative? Part of me nags that I have to seriously adjust my practices to tap into the deep waters (to catch the big fish). The other part reminds me that this is what productive creatives do — they get out the product whether they are on fire with inspiration or not. Set up a schedule and just do it.
Got up early to meet Maria for a 6 A.M. visit to the public market — first time this season — a great Saturday m...
May 28, 2010
Grumbling about a houseful of computers that don't speak to one another
PROBLEM: I'm perpetually annoyed that my computers won't file-share. McAfee "tells" me they are competing for network loyalties, but WTF — I only have one wireless network (operated by Roadrunner, no router needed). Do I need to dump McAfee? I am also mildly obsessed with back-ups, as if the world would end if all my precious files disappeared. What are my resources for storing critical files online? So I draw little schematics.
SOLUTION OF THE MOMENT: I signed up for a Box.net account (1 gb...
May 26, 2010
Work In Progress: Illustration
The other day I posted a digital doodle as I tried to come up with a graphic scheme for my Grand Exits book project. Today's illustration is a little more refined. You could say it represents the main dilemma of my story: going vs. staying. Clinging to what might be your increasingly uncomfortable comfort zone vs. facing the scary (watery, turbulent) unknown.
Tech note. I actually spent most of my time tinkering with Adobe Illustrator graphic styles to create "pencil" lines that look like a...
May 25, 2010
Tar Pit Formerly Known As The Gulf Of Mexico
Will the oil just keep bubbling up like a deep sea Kilauea? Like a severed femoral artery on an inaccessible battlefield? As ecosystems die off and hurricanes make it rain tar in Chicago, will we finally have our monument to greed, corruption and bloated Americanism? Its motto could be my favorite "No one could have predicted…" perhaps shortened to "Who knew…?" Or better, "What, me worry?"
I would love to do some wild-eyed finger-pointing, but "the fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars...
