OK, that’s not entirely true. What is true is that I sold the photograph I had up at this month’s Vox show!  (Man, I love saying that!)

Yep, that’s Chris, the reluctant model for one of the Utata Iron Photographer projects. And speaking of Utata, guess who is part of their new Code Ninja Strike Force? That’s right – me! And that is their title, not mine - these are my people! I’m told I’ll be paid in cake. That’s cool.

In other big news, in the paying gig world, I am the new Code Artist for Sweet Blog Design! I am so happy to be working with some of my favorite bloggers.

I sold a photo. I am a Code Ninja/Code Artist/geek. I think that covers it.

No, this has nothing to do with the new senator in Massachusetts. I’m talking about my brain! The right hemisphere has taken over and I am creating like a demon!

As I mentioned, I’m not taking a computer programming class this semester. And apparently dropping that Rails class threw a switch in my brain! Not only has the right hemisphere taken back control of my brain, it erected a wall one night while I was sleeping. The left hemisphere has been shut out. And is in black-out conditions. I can’t even think about programming and websites. Which is a shame because I do have some coding work to do. But everytime I think about it, things get kinda of fuzzy and I suddenly have an idea for an art project! Weird huh? I seem to to be functioning  in a very strict either/or mode. Long gone are the days of thinking in if/else statements. Now I ponder whether the highlights on that stamp should be silver or gold. I like it. And since the creative muse if often fleeting, I’m gonna ride this wave as long as it lasts.

(and please note that language is a left-brain trait)

Wha? Oh no, she’s speaking in tongues again!

According to the Geek-to-English translator, that means: My semester finished the week of Christmas and I received an A in my PHP and MySQL Programming class!

Woot!

That means I am “quite pleased”.

And my gift to my family this Christmas was my decision to not take a Computer Science class next semester. Not because this was a hard class, in fact it was surprisingly easy compared to that evil JavaScript, but I’ve got a couple projects in the hopper that I need to be working on. And yes, those projects will involve PHP and MySQL. It’s all about the if/else statements people!

Chris would say that I’ve finally come over to the dark side. I would tell him to “byte me!”

Next up: Why I think they switched babies on me at the hospital…

Hmm. Remember last year when I declared I was never going to take another programming class ever again?! Yeah. Well, last month when I said I was starting my Programming with PHP class, why didn’t you gently remind me of this? Hell, why didn’t you just start hitting me over the head with a toaster?!!

At first I thought things were going to be ok. PHP seemed to make a lot more sense than JavaScript ever did. But that optimism was short lived and PHP done went and broke my brain this past weekend! I spent most of Saturday trying to get my little program to work. As my head was starting to ache, I finally gave up and went to bed completely frustrated. So it was no surprise when I woke up Sunday morning with a wicked bad migraine. Fun. Of course my assignment was due Sunday at 11pm. At 8pm, after another nap, I turned on the computer. As if that wasn’t painful enough, I gave my program another couple attempts – nope, wasn’t happening. I just could not figure it out. Had to turn it in anyways. Double ouch.

Yesterday I started the next assignment, which includes having to read 5 chapters! I read 2 and called Chris. I was not getting it. He ordered me to go the bookstore to get another book on the subject. And I’m pretty sure that’s going to help. Seriously. What didn’t help was taking Kyle with me. Damn, that boy would not shut up! So I bought him ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. “No, I will not buy you the whole series tonight!”  – jeez. And then Kyle fell in love with the dude working the cash register. Ok, maybe not “in love” but he certainly seemed to like him. The guy – who kind of had a shorn Seth Rogan thing going on – commented that Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a classic and one of his favorite books! He then agreed with Kyle that I must have spent my childhood living under a rock because I’ve never read ‘Where the Wild Things Are’. sorry. And then (and I missed this) the dude put his hands together and gave us a little bow! And Kyle thought that was the coolest thing ever. I heard about it the whole way home. We also discussed when and how the Buddha gained enlightenment. Kyle kills me. What a kook.

And because I know you are as worried about my grade as I am, I am happy to report that the teacher email me back saying that I was really close. Gave me a couple pointers and voila! I got the program to work. I am ashamed to admit how happy this made me.

The left hemisphere of my brain has been ruling the roost lately and it’s left me very quiet. Not one little ounce of inspiration to write anything about everything that’s going on. My creative muse has been trapped under my 5 lb Dreamweaver book. And then, last Friday morning, the right hemisphere of my brain tried to stage a coup and almost killed me in the process with another wicked migraine. Stupid brain. But on Saturday the visual part of the design process kicked back into gear, so maybe we can get a little balance here.

I’ve been immersed in pools and code. Car pools, swimming pools, test servers, databases! No wonder I’m feeling a bit stretched out. And I went and signed up for another class at Sierra College in the fall. Web Programming with PHP. Oh yes, this should be fun for all of us. JavaScript was fun right?! It only broke my brain and ruined my eyesight. But apparently everything I want to do is done with PHP, so what’s a girl to do but learn another programming language. Joy.

But classes don’t start until next month. Before then I really need to get my shit together. Life without Positron is turning out to be a hard adjustment. I don’t know how to manage my time yet. With swim lessons and soccer camp complicating the mix, I haven’t had a chance to get into any kind of routine. I feel like I should be “working” at every minute. I’m still trying to do too many things at once and am not getting anything finished. Well, I’ve gotten a few tasks completed, but not that damn resume.

Damn. I have been unemployed a total of 10 days and I’ve gotta tell ya – I’ve never felt busier. And this isn’t a good happy busy – as in conflicting lunch dates. It’s not even the generally dreaded “work” busy. It’s more like a “soccer-mom” busy! And that becomes an all too real description tomorrow when Kyle starts his week-long soccer camp! A not-so-small part of me is dying here people.

So, adding to the now longer drive to the babysitter’s new house in Roseville (20 minutes each way!). I will have to drive Kyle across town to the other end of Lincoln by 9:00am and then go pick him up again at noon. Throw in week #2 of swim lessons on Tue, Wed, and Thurs in Loomis and I’ll be driving back and forth and back again from about 8:30am to 3:00pm. And that is going to suck. I’m not going to be able to get anything done with that kind of schedule. And I’ve suddenly got a lot to do. 

All the work I’ve been doing on designing the new website for dawnblanchfield.com is going to have to simmer on the back burner for a bit. A gentleman that Chris works with has hired me to build him a website! And that is fantastic of course, but (there always is one) the site he needs is not a simple static HTML site. This one will need log-in capabilities, a data-base, forms for user data input, and searchable results. Woo boy. Luckily I’m a learn as you go kinda gal, cause it looks like I’ll doing a lot more programming right out of the gate.

In addition to all that, I still need to update my resume, edit photos in Lightroom, choose the photos for the VoxSac show to print and frame, and do the always present laundry. I haven’t even thought about picking up my camera to make some new images. And I have that Lighting Workshop with Joe McNally at the end of the month. The day after my birthday! Damn, I forgot that I have a birthday coming up. That is bad. Oh! and my wedding anniversary is in 6 days! Crap. I am losing it people.

I keep recalling a painting I did long ago (early ‘90s) that depicted a figure being pulled in opposite directions by its arms while large blackbirds pecked at its head. Cheery no? What can I say, I was heavily influenced by the German Expressionists and that must have been how I was feeling at the time. It was never a ‘finished’ work, but a loose sketch done to ‘paint out the demons’ as I was prone to do. I ended up reusing the canvas some time later. The only evidence it ever existed is that you can see part of it in the background of a photo taken during that time. But the image keeps popping into my head. That’s probably not a good thing…

Alrighty then. What I didn’t acknowledge in the last post was that after I mentioned restoring an old photo, I thought about putting up the before and after shots. Wait – that’s not the bad part. Where it really gets sick is that my next thought was – “Can I write a JavaScript program to change the before image to the after image when the user’s mouse moves over the photo?” And then I seriously considered attempting it. I am not well.

So to distract you from my shocking confession, I give you this:

http://www.blogger.com/img/videoplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DqAAAAOF-u9WtopylwZ9XHAqIS4Qz9pNLSCDVY-OUzEkRPyd59NsXwF08GSrM-y3o3ARZWgKip2K_-sqv6n-CSNl25T2QeYfNjT8jJBv0e4I7_Fq741WAJVd5lge8YMDaOk7Vp03O9dDKqMJSirXRy3ncRk-KhEJZCvdMJlyYIoLOQ_fR6sjeM0V2Am4yh3TXbm_-t8S1F8C2VfsJHY_9_rx2jRaBu4hZthUyjV8aer8rPzLr%26sigh%3DxERa1JKKP5K5EmWokEJJLbAc0JM%26begin%3D0%26len%3D86400000%26docid%3D0&nogvlm=1&thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer2%3Fapp%3Dblogger%26contentid%3D9f5150f3efff1cec%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw320%26sigh%3DwpufhVpOKcZCTWpLuN7C9LfnScE&messagesUrl=video.google.com%2FFlashUiStrings.xlb%3Fframe%3Dflashstrings%26hl%3Den

Cute eh? Well, I wasn’t kidding about that feedback!

http://www.blogger.com/img/videoplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DqAAAAEbqiT-pXmimn7VDny7-dKpFGFrozUo234X0qfMsDX3NxcrjME8JpCjyZr5P1oplbU5I8nnLfEaArW19C8sveyvALGYXIGfUbFmO_fZTcMVy5MWu4dxpSBLYVjkD8_se_aFmFcypn6GoUZ1Y1CMiMogklfcrhfyArQe49FhWm06UCaV8y7LFNxD0IWeC44k1o3433_ReBZy63RWsxzId87BBkR0Tpof0OJRp2-j0wzeB%26sigh%3DH-BrgAE7Bhu3dhPlqiEYZ7LqwJo%26begin%3D0%26len%3D86400000%26docid%3D0&nogvlm=1&thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer2%3Fapp%3Dblogger%26contentid%3De61d66f2d48eefb8%26offsetms%3D5000%26itag%3Dw320%26sigh%3DZWjAzHvjWTHGmuQGf4GXLwnQYLE&messagesUrl=video.google.com%2FFlashUiStrings.xlb%3Fframe%3Dflashstrings%26hl%3Den

Apparently people have noticed the lack of inane chatter coming from my direction. The always lovely Julie T actually called me yesterday morning to check up on me! Too much quiet broken only by vague tweets and cryptic Facebook updates had her worried.

We then proceeded to natter on about the current financial crisis; concluding with the obvious need to exhume Milton Friedman and beat him about his rotting head and shoulders with copies of the $700 billion dollar bail-out package.

Oh yes, I can paint a pretty picture.

But I don’t want to get into that here. It is affecting my little family in a very direct way and the past couple weeks have been stressful to say the least. So between all that and being busy with school and kids, I just haven’t had much to say. I also wonder if my new medication (trying the preventative thing for the migraines) contributes to the quiet. It hasn’t really stopped the headaches yet but it’s only been 10 days. So we’ll just give it some time.

Still struggling with Kyle and his homework. Is it really that hard to put your name on a paper? Really? But he hit a beautiful double out to right field during his game last Wednesday. That was cool. And Erin is a crazy baby. She started spinning in circles yesterday. Thankfully it was her whole person spinning around and not just her head! I wonder about those 2 sometimes. I’ll try and get a new video up over the weekend.

And my Web Programming class has taken a turn to the hard. No more HTML/CSS here is how to make the given content pretty. Oh no, lets move on to some actually programming! With JavaScript we can make things happen! Like causing my brain to actually have to think. Damn, I remember that unpleasant feeling. And what is that smell?!! Of course, been-there-done-that Chris snickers from the side-lines.

My office building is filled with toxic fumes. I came home from class last night and WaMu was gone. I think that covers everything.

Wow. Didn’t mean to disappear down a black hole on ya. But this has been a strange week and I don’t think I’ve fully recovered yet. And really, I don’t even know what I would be recovering from. Headaches, new medications, stock market woes, JavaScript, being a brunette… wait – that change is good. I think. Hard to tell when no one says anything either way. Kyle is calling me Goth, which is pretty damn funny. Hey, is it too soon to give him the Sandman books? I just added Neil Gaiman as a friend on GoodReads. I’m rubbing bandwidth with the big boys now.

What else. Didn’t see Coleman Barks. Totally ok with that. (I’m not ok with the fact that I can’t find the copy of his CD I made years ago) We went to the circus last Friday. Fun, but exhausting. Erin does not sit still even for lions and tigers and bear oh my. Or the tigers, elephants, and small white horses that we actually saw. I took some pictures –shocking, I know. Look for them around Thanksgiving. Tonight I have to take my Chapter 10 test. JavaScript really gave my brain a workout. Wish me luck. Cause when I do poorly, Chris suffers.