The Jack Noodle Journal

Hey, how’s about that awful snow storm yesterday?
Yeah right.
I think I saw three snowflakes. Those weather persons shouldn’t get our hopes up like that.

As the end of the year approaches I have begun to reflect, think of goals, resolutions and strategies for next year. I love planning for a new year.

I’m going to make more artworks next year. I promise.

During this slow work week I have been thinking about doing some professional illustration work. I could totally do that sort of thing. Really. I just need to apply myself. I need to be a good salesman as well. I need to find some niches to stick my work into.

I need to draw, draw, draw, draw.

I have been trying to think of ways to bring in more money once baby arrives. I’m also trying to figure schemes that I could work on from home. Tapping into ones innate ability, strengthening it and milking it seems like a good place to focus one’s energies. I need to expand upon and enhance talents I already have instead of starting a new direction this year. 2008 won’t be the year that Noodle goes to law school.

Last year during this new year reflecting time I was all pumped up about video. I still think video is fun and something I enjoy working on, but I have backed down quite a bit from it. The effort plus time spent for results achieved equation doesn’t square with me entirely. I would achieve more successful results, applying even amounts of effort in a faster amount of time heading down the illustration rabbit hole now is my thinking.

We’ll see.

Somehow I found this website a while ago. I have been studying it again. I think it’s Italian. I’m not sure what they’re saying. The site has hundreds of cool European science fiction cover illustrations. Great stuff to spark up some inspiration. I really like the grainy airbrushed 60s and 70s sci-fi look. I’m going to try to mimic that sort of style for some of my illustration projects. Almost a color pencily look.

From some of the book covers I found artists who I liked and have been googling their names. Oscar Chichoni is one of those finds. His stuff is really cool.
Yes, I would like to be able to do stuff like that some day.

I have been looking at Corel Painter X. I’ll probably get it next year. I think it would be fun to become a pro on that program. I had an older version of it on my now inoperable PC. I would be way more into using painter now that I am a Wacom tablet user. The program is really fashioned for stylus work. You can do some awesome artsy effects using painter.

So becoming a sturdy illustrator will be one of goals for 2008. I’ll think of some more New Years resolutions and get them down here in the next few days.

No, really.
Back to work for three days and then holiday again?
Stinks.
I don’t want to be at work today.

I wish I didn’t have to work for a living.
Wouldn’t it be nice to live for a living? That sounds like a good self-help guru line. I should trademark it.

I could have used my vacation days to take the rest of the week off, but I’m saving them all for an action packed April.

It won’t be too bad. There will be a skeleton crew in and the workload will probably be light.
Only 3 days.

Yes, yes. Ho Ho Ho!

I hope all of you boys and girls are having a peaceful, rest filled, joyous holiday.

We had an awesome Christmas Eve. Actually just K, the belly, the puppy, the other puppy, the kitty and I. We had a lovely dinner and watched a couple of movies. We were thinking that we should make it a tradition that we have Christmas Eve at home from now on and try not to be at anybody else’s house. We’ll see how that works next year with the baby having a holiday schedule full of guest appearances.

While enjoying our quiet evening, we were listening to the Christmas music on the radio and the Man Who Fell To Earth came on with Bing Crosby and sang their awesome Christmas tune. I think it’s one of my favorites. A little bit of strangeness to bring folks like me into focus on the true meaning of the holidays. What? I says to K, “Hey I bet you they have the video of that on YouTube”.
Oh, but of course.

This is a Christmas to remember.
Our last Christmas before the kiddo.
Probably the least chaotic it will be from now on.
You can have it though.
I can’t wait to see the holidays through junior or juniorette’s eyes.

Today we are heading out to the land of my birthright. Beavercreek Oregon.

The books have already been talking about it and I think it’s been true. With the baby coming I am finding myself hyper-sensitive to all of the family issues, connections, behaviors, relationships, interactions and histories. I’m not sure if it’s good or bad per se. I’ve noticed a couple of things already this season getting under my skin a bit that would have rolled off of my back last year. At the same time though I don’t feel like I’m sweating the small stuff as much. Who knows?

Alright. Well, lets all pray for snow now.

Gosh, I know. I know. I think you are required to attempt some sort of title with a pun in it when writing about the show.

We just finished up the last three episodes of Lost season 3 on DVD last night. Oh man.
It has been haunting my every waking thought since. That and the fact that have been blowing my snot filled nose all night.

Season 3 started off pretty wobbly and then ended totally solid. Didn’t it? I’m sort of confused. Did I think It was awesome or not?
Did other people like the end of season 3?

Many cliffs were left hanging.

I won’t give anything away (hopefully) but the episode “Greatest Hits” just killed me. It’s making me teary eyed now! God, am I a mess or what? Maybe it’s the cold. Maybe it’s sympathetic pregnancy hormones. Oh the waterworks! Something about it though just made me SO sad!

I was starting to get annoyed with the flashback mechanism that they use in every episode. I really wanted them to stick with the action and the mystery on the island and stop the cutting to flashbacks. That is of course until the punch in the stomach series of flashbacks at the end. They shut my flashback bitching down in a hurry.

It’s pretty cool now because for the first time since the show has been on I am actually all caught up and up to date. I can look at all of the show theory, and fan websites I want now and not have anything spoiled. First place I am going to go is to wikipedia and read all of the stuff on that Dharma Initiative page I have been skipping.

So January for the start of season 4? I don’t know kids. I’ve only watched a couple on television during their original broadcast. I don’t know if I’ll start watching season 4 on television. The idea of having to sit through commercials is a bit of a buzz kill. Maybe I’ll wait for the DVDs again. That would be such a long wait though!

I’ve heard whispers from people who heard rumbles and whispers from people who know real people connected with the production of the show and like it or not the Hollywood writers strike IS going to be causing some damage to the show’s 4th season.
We’ll see I guess!

Okay I have got to get to some chores now.
Christmas fun starts today at 2 in the afternoon this year and we have lots to do before then like shop for Christmas gifts.

So… weak…

Oh man. Is it Friday yet or what?

I have been plagued with The Castichell’s sickness this week. I don’t know if it is full blown yet. It’s kind of one of those grinding constantly in the background illnesses. I’m achy with a scratchy throat.

On Tuesday we had our office Christmas party. I know, right? On a Tuesday? It was pretty alright. My goal was to not be the star of any Christmas party legends this year. I succeeded.

The party ended up at Ground Kontrol, which was cool. I had never been in there before. It’s like Flynn’s Arcade in Tron.

I was magically cured of feeling sick while at the party but was hit with it again come Wednesday morning. One of the good things about having your company holiday party on a Tuesday night is that when you are green under the gills on Wednesday, it’s okay because everyone else is as well.

Happy Birthday to me!

Yep.
I’m 35 this year.

I am finally feeling like an adult now.
All grown up.

Thanks to all the fun folks who celebrated with me up in Shelton this weekend.
I had a good time.

After K wakes up from her nap I think we are going out for a birthday dinner. mmmmm…

I am having quite a bit of trouble getting the time to write this week!
It’s not that I haven’t wanted to. I’ve actually started a couple of posts like this one but didn’t get enough typing minutes in to finish them.

Anywho…

I heard or saw or read something the other day about the on going writer’s strike down in Cali and how that and other factors are causing the broadcast networks some pain.

I don’t know. I’m having a hard time feeling much sympathy for giant television broadcasting networks or mammoth record companies and their continual moaning and groaning these days.

Who needs them.

I’m sure I would feel differently if a family member or myself had a paycheck coming from either industry and might actually be demanding that someone throw the poor dinosaurs a vine so they could pull themselves out of the tar pit.

It’s a great time to be a consumer of media products. We have more and more entertainment choices than ever!

I actually think that the writer’s strike could go for another 3 years before my TV viewing would be affected. At the Noodle Compound we have been getting our episodic fixes from all of the TV series available on DVD. We don’t subscribe to cable and the broadcast networks could go dark tomorrow for all we care.

Last week we finished up season 1 of “Dexter“.
We have been squeezing “Twin Peaks” episodes in here and there.
This week the first couple of discs of “Lost” season 3 came from Netflix.
“Big Love” season 2 was just released.
We are still waiting patiently for season 3 of “Battlestar Galactica“.
Friends have said that we need to start watching episodes of “The Wire“.
We still haven’t seen “Deadwood“.

Hmm… what else?

Oh yeah. We still are on season 4 of “The Sopranos” so we still have the remainder of that series to watch.

So I guess the writer’s strike will affect us once we catch up with all of those shows. We’ll be pissed then that Lost ends at season 3 because the strike hobbled season 4.

Man, that’s a lot of TV. I should turn everything off and just read a book instead.

Hey there. How was that for a weekend? Too short? Ah yes. They always are.
My weekend was pretty okay. I would say there was an average amount of activity.

On Saturday we went and hung with the Marcy family. Mr. Evan has turned 14. We were there wishing him a happy birthday.
Gosh, do you remember when you were 14? I observed Evan quite a bit on Saturday (hopefully not in a too creepy of a way) and tried to compare my 14 to his 14. He seems more pleasant than I remember being. I think 14 was probably my last year of jerk-freeness. I wasn’t a bad kid by any stretch but I think 14 was the start of me getting into what I would be getting into. I can’t believe I was ever Evan’s age. He still seems like a kid. When I was 14 I felt like I was mature adult by then. I guess I wasn’t.

We figured out why I don’t remember too much of Evan as a baby. I was an intoxicated 21 year old when he was a baby. Argh! Time, time, time see what’s become of me.

Holy crap! One day I will be the father of a 14 year old!

I found a stack of photos that my grandmother (God rest her soul) gave me. A couple of the pictures were of me at my 15th birthday party. I think that’s what got me headed down the “try to remember 14″ lane. Also in the stack is a photo of my young parents in front of their mobile home together. Grandma didn’t have any dates on the picture but after quizzing Ma and Pa, Ma remembers exactly what year. 1972 and she is pregnant with me. They were a lovely 70s couple. My mom was cute as a button.

My dad is 23 or so in the photo. As a soon to be first time father myself I have been staring at the photo trying to get a sense of the joy or terror in the 23 year old’s face. I suppose I’ll ask him what he was thinking back then with a baby on the way, but a 57 year old remembers it differently than his younger counterpart in the photo. Even if I did take a time machine back to 1972 to quiz my young father, I don’t think he would be able to give me anything useful. I will be a 35 year old father and a 23 year old father would probably be more seat of the pants-ish than I am comfortable with now days.

It’s a good photo of first time parents that I will definitely be gazing at more as the months continue to progress.

No, not really.

We went and looked at some First Thursday products. Can you believe it? I’ve actually been to First Thursday now twice this year. I am turning into quite the debutante.

I had a better First Thursday experience this time than last. Last time I was lamenting the fact that I couldn’t find anything. I discovered that I needed to go down a block further than last time. We figured next time we should start down lower on Everett and work our way up.

I saw some pretty good stuff and some just alright stuff. There was quite a lot of illustration looking pieces at the places we hit. We saw some painters but I think I was more impressed with the illustrators. There was a couple of video installations that were kind of cool to see.

What brought us out for the evening was a hanging at the Blackfish by Alicia’s friend, ex-coworker, acquaintance, Sue Tower. Very clean, meticulously crafted work.

There were quite few people out looking at the art. We finally got over to the Compound gallery to feel the vibe and check out the art by the girls that I heard last month were must sees. Sweet stuff.

I was very excited to see Carson Ellis’s work at Motel. I love her stuff. K and I were thinking that a Ellis piece would be awesome hanging in a baby room. Hmmmm…

It was a pretty successful night of gallery viewing. First Thursday satisfaction for me comes during the drive home when I find myself agitated that I’m not making art.

I got 2 emails from friends out of state this week asking me how we were holding up after the storm. I was kind of befuddled. Storm? Then yesterday I heard NPR talking about the Pacific Northwest’s great storm.

I guess there was a big storm over the last weekend. Lots of flooding.
I’m not trying to be coy or a smart ass, I actually really didn’t know that the Great Storm of 2007 was as bad as it was.

I still don’t know. I’m going to get up to date, log on and read up on it today.

I haven’t caught any local news in the last 5 or 6 days.
Of course I noticed that it was really windy and rainy. I just didn’t notice HOW windy and rainy.
I’ve been in doors quite a bit.

Last Saturday K and I slept all day. A human growing inside her was her reason for sleeping all day. My excuse is that I am lazy.

We actually had a pretty active Sunday to make up for the Saturday.

I have been in my own little world as of late.
It’s nice in a weird and kind of scary way that a certain level of naivety is still possible in our wired up universe.

I’m very sorry for any of you that have suffered during the storm. That sucks.