Dream Journal Illustrated: British Library’s Gutenberg Press

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I’m starting a new service where I illustrate people’s dreams from last night.

From my friend:

The British Library let me run off a bunch of flyers on their Gutenberg printing press.
I don’t think they have a Gutenberg press.
And whatever I playing with wasn’t a Gutenberg.
but.
Yes, I dream in moveable type.

Cat at the British Library

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Dream Journal Illustrated: Astronaut at Japanese Mall, with Bear

I’m starting a new service where I illustrate people’s dreams from last night.

From my friend:

Last night’s dream: I was an astronaut and was in Japan (which looked like a futuristic Glendale Mall). I bought a training manual and a sandwich, but hadn’t learned yen-to-dollars yet, so I paid $60 USD for the two. I still had my big poof of hair and had concerns about fitting it under my helmet. There was also something about a bear, and, towards the end, a conversation with a friend in New Orleans about his newborn. I can’t even begin to analyze that mess.

Japanese Mall, Astronaut, Bear

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Myers-Briggs Personality Test Result

Myers-Briggs Test Result
INFP

I don’t remember getting this test result in the past, but I’d have to search my Facebook timeline for the last time I took it to see.

Who knows how long that test page will be around, so I’m copying the whole INFP results here:

INFP PERSONALITY

INFP personalities are true idealists, always looking for the hint of good in even the worst of people and events, searching for ways to make things better. While they may be perceived as calm, reserved, or even shy, INFPs have an inner flame and passion that can truly shine. Comprising just 4% of the population, the risk of feeling misunderstood is unfortunately high for the INFP personality type – but when they find like-minded people to spend their time with, the harmony they feel will be a fountain of joy and inspiration.

INFP personalityBeing a part of the Diplomat (NF) personality group, INFPs are guided by their principles, rather than by logic (Analysts), excitement (Explorers), or practicality (Sentinels). When deciding how to move forward, they will look to honor, beauty, morality and virtue – INFPs are led by the purity of their intent, not rewards and punishments. People who share the INFP personality type are proud of this quality, and rightly so, but not everyone understands the drive behind these feelings, and it can lead to isolation.

All that is gold does not glitter; not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither; deep roots are not reached by the frost.
J. R. R. Tolkien

WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE, BUT KNOW NOT WHAT WE MAY BE

At their best, these qualities enable INFPs to communicate deeply with others, easily speaking in metaphors and parables, and understanding and creating symbols to share their ideas. The strength of this intuitive communication style lends itself well to creative works, and it comes as no surprise that many famous INFPs are poets, writers and actors. Understanding themselves and their place in the world is important to INFPs, and they explore these ideas by projecting themselves into their work.

INFPs have a talent for self-expression, revealing their beauty and their secrets through metaphors and fictional characters.
INFPs’ ability with language doesn’t stop with their native tongue, either – as with most people who share the Diplomat personality types, they are considered gifted when it comes to learning a second (or third!) language. Their gift for communication also lends itself well to INFPs’ desire for harmony, a recurring theme with Diplomats, and helps them to move forward as they find their calling.

LISTEN TO MANY PEOPLE, BUT TALK TO FEW

Unlike their Extraverted cousins though, INFPs will focus their attention on just a few people, a single worthy cause – spread too thinly, they’ll run out of energy, and even become dejected and overwhelmed by all the bad in the world that they can’t fix. This is a sad sight for INFPs’ friends, who will come to depend on their rosy outlook.

If they are not careful, INFPs can lose themselves in their quest for good and neglect the day-to-day upkeep that life demands. INFPs often drift into deep thought, enjoying contemplating the hypothetical and the philosophical more than any other personality type. Left unchecked, INFPs may start to lose touch, withdrawing into “hermit mode”, and it can take a great deal of energy from their friends or partner to bring them back to the real world.

Luckily, like the flowers in spring, INFP’s affection, creativity, altruism and idealism will always come back, rewarding them and those they love perhaps not with logic and utility, but with a world view that inspires compassion, kindness and beauty wherever they go.

Famous INFPs:

William Shakespeare, J.R.R. Tolkien, Björk, Johnny Depp, Julia Roberts, Lisa Kudrow, Tom Hiddleston, Homer, Virgil

Fictional INFPs:

“Frodo Baggins” from The Lord of the Rings “Anne of Green Gables” “Fox Mulder” from X-Files “Deanna Troi” from Star Trek “Wesley Crusher” from Star Trek

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New Year’s Resolutions – 2015

New Year's Cats

My theme for 2015 will be “Simplicity.” My goal to shed clutter in all areas – streamlining, simplifying, focusing on the important and finding a state of zen. Some things I hope I can accomplish:

  • Be more active – painting, cleaning, organizing and discarding are activities that will help.
  • Finish writing and figure out how to market my novel
  • Do a lot of reading
  • Get siding repaired & house painted
  • Get the guest room organized
  • Rip ALL the CDs!
  • See my sister and her kids
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2014 Year in Review

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For our household, the year 2014 was overshadowed by Stephanie’s mother passing away in mid-May from cancer. She didn’t want an obituary, funeral or memorial service, but I’m unable to let go of the year without acknowledging the kind of person she was. This song makes me think of her.

Stephanie’s mom was well-read and very connected to literature and political issues, had a strong sense of empathy, justice and equality and cared passionately about making the world better. We lost a guiding light for how to observe and attend to the moral arc of the universe.

Cecily

2014 did have some wonderful and bright moments during the year. My younger brother got married in June in Jamaica and we traveled with the family to attend, which was much needed vacation and happy event with family.

We spent some time riding on the cultural trail and enjoying Indianapolis, which is really coming into it’s own as a creative cultural space. We saw several local theater productions that I really enjoyed. I stumbled across The Art Assignment and fiddled around with doing some creative works for that, although I never had much time to get it done.

Our own marriage because officially legal this year in our home state as same-sex marriages were legalized in Indiana and many other states as well. To celebrate we went downtown to hand out flowers to couples who were able to get married for the first time.

Stephanie delivering flowers for same-sex couples getting married

My nieces and nephew are getting a bit older and more entertaining (that’s what they’re supposed to do, right? entertain us?). In the fall my dad and step-mom Carol came to visit Indiana and we all stayed at the West Baden Springs Hotel in southern Indiana, which was a real treat, and visited Holiday World Theme park. Stephanie’s niece Raven came down to see us with her BF Chris and we took them to the Zoo and Dave and Busters.

Stephanie got a mostly full-time editing job at the end of the year that will go through March and hopefully beyond that if things work out well. She seems a lot happier and more fulfilled, which is awesome. Stephanie also knitted a bunch of hats this year to sell and a friend’s clothing shop, which kicks all kinds of butt, and she’s been working in a retail position for a friend of hers that does makes and sells homemade goods, which means Stephanie has continued to be introduced to cool people who are doing creative and entrepreneurial things in Indianapolis.

Stephanie at Pride

I finished NaNoWriMo again, for the fourth straight year, thus proving I can write a lot of stuff down. I took some writing classes at the Indiana Writer’s Center, went to the GenCon Writer’s Symposium, and a took a one day writing workshop put on by Writer’s Digest. I feel like my writing is vastly improved, and I hope what I’m working on now will actually turn into a real thing.

The end of the year started looking up, and we were able to spend time with friends and enjoy ourselves.

We had a funny happy problem in October and November – we had a mama kitty and four kittens living under our deck. This is the second time we’ve had this issue (the first we never caught them and they moved away.) This time we succeeded in catching all the kittens and mama kitty, and we found homes for the kittens with our friends. Mama kitty got fixed and is in a swanky heated kitty shelter on our front porch, complete with heated water dish and regular food.

I really enjoy what I’m working on at work these days, and I think it will have some impact on how our company does, which I hope is a good thing. I traveled to Denver and Chicago for work this year, and Stephanie went with me to Chicago to enjoy the town.

On the personal designing stuff front – I sold an absolute TON of stuff in my Redbubble online store – and I pledged to donate everything I made from the LGBT collection to the Indiana Youth Group (I’ve done this the past two years). This year my LGBT store exploded and I made almost $200 bucks that will be passed along to that very cool organization.

Looking over last year’s resolutions or “goals” – I did much better than I expected. Aside from these:

  • Get siding repaired & house painted
  • Get the guest room organized
  • Rip all the CDs – we’ve had our music library in a state of limbo for years. It’s time to get this done.

I did very well at most of the goals I set last year. And there were household things that came up that we accomplished that we didn’t expect – we had the deck rebuilt when part of it collapsed, and I rebuilt the grill because it needed new innards. And we did lots of other fun stuff around the house, including gardening, knitting and caring for the pets – Spike, Huckleberry, Dru, Annabelle and the fish.

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The Naming of Cats

by T. S. Eliot

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there’s the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James,
Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey–
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen, some for the dames:
Such as Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter–
But all of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that’s particular,
A name that’s peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellylorum-
Names that never belong to more than one cat.
But above and beyond there’s still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover–
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.
When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in a rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought, of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

from Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats

Smudge Kitten

Noro, Truesdale, and Purl

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Jamaican Sun

We are headed to Jamaica tomorrow for my youngest brother Gary’s wedding. This is incredibly exciting because we’ve had a lot of traumatic stuff going on lately, including Stephanie’s mom’s long illness and death from liver cancer on May 19th of this year. We really need a vacation, we need relaxation and fun and frivolity and time away from home and work.

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Things I’ve been doing lately (instead of blogging)

Things I’ve been doing instead of blogging:

  • Taking a scene writing class from the Indiana Writer’s Center (I also took a world building class at IWC taught by Maurice Broaddus). I don’t know yet if this is helping me write better, but it is helping me procrastinate.
  • Taking a sewing class from Crimson Tate our local fabric store. This is because I need to brush up on my sewing skills so I can hem my own pants and such. My rudimentary junior-high home-ec skills need some refreshment.
  • Getting a head-start on gardening. The winter was so harsh that I couldn’t wait to plan what the gardens were going to look like. So we got a load of mulch early in March and put it down on the front flowerbeds before the spring bulbs came up. Also, I started flower seeds in a mini green house, and I’m getting the kitchen window ready to use as a cold-frame to start herbs and veggies. I’m growing some lavender, two kinds of butterfly flower, indigo and a climbing passion flower.
  • Reading more fiction. My sleep doctor told me to stay away from computer screens in the evening so I can sleep better, and it really works. So I’ve been reading more print books and less iPad. Now I wake up at 5:30 am instead of 2:30 am, and I feel more refreshed. Also, I’ve finished more books. We’re reading Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge, which in retrospect was a bad choice on my part. It’s a bit of a slog.
  • Therapy. No worries. Just dealing with stress from things that are beyond our control to fix.

IndianHeadTestPattern16x9

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New Year’s Resolutions – 2014

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As I’ve done with years past, I’m going to put down some goals instead of resolutions. If I don’t make them because life intervenes, oh well. But

Work: those goals I’ll share with my boss. But I have high hopes and am working on a project I really like.

Health:
Eat healthier and be more active.
2012 was a great year for me activity-wise, but not on the food front. 2013 was not so much in either category. But I’m going to bring it back around in 2014.

Creative:
Create as much as I consume.
I’m counting work with this because that makes it an easy win, but also writing, knitting, blogging, photography, website design and t-shirt design fall into this category. As long as I’m doing something productive and satisfying, I’ll be happy.

Loved Ones:
Spend time with people I care about & go somewhere warm
This one should be easy; we’re going to a destination resort for my brother’s wedding. I’m excited; Stephanie and I have never done a beach vacation before.

Household:
Get siding repaired & house painted
Get the guest room organized
Rip all the CDs – we’ve had our music library in a state of limbo for years. It’s time to get this done.
Sell the scooter – we don’t use it and need the space in our garage
Simplify

Financial:
Put away money for a new vehicle
Save $6,000 above and beyond retirement savings
Set up a Roth IRA

Reading:
I’m participating in the Read 26 Indy challenge this year, where I pledge to read 26 books in 2014. So far, there are 17 books on my “2014 must read list” on goodreads. I want to leave the list open-ended, because there are bound to be some great books in the new year.

Rather pedestrian goals. Nothing about taking over the universe or moving mountains or curing cancer. Those are all on the secret, alternative list.

stop-acting-so-small

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2013 Year in Review

So, what all did I get accomplished in 2013? Let’s start by looking at my goals for last year.

These are really more goals than resolutions; they are things I’d like to make priorities to focus my energy and money on. If I don’t get them done, it’s cool; this is a big pile of ambitious. But these are all areas I want to make progress in for the coming year.

750 words a day – more days of the week than not – not even close, but I did do a reasonable amount of writing.
Finish novel – nope. Although now I think this is a good thing. I have a renewed sense of ideas for it.
Start new novelI’m close to finishing this new novel, and I’m actually pretty thrilled with how it’s going. I need to finish up here in January and start showing it to people to get feedback and ideas.

[various work-related goals; not shared here] – I’m really happy with work, suffice it to say.

Get insulation done – We were cautious about major house expenditures due to Stephanie’s job, but this will happen in 2014, for sure.
Get siding fixed – ditto.
Get house painted – ditto.
Get guest room organized – this one I’m disappointed in. It really needs to be done.
Get bed frame for our bed – we did. It’s nice.

Save 10,000 dollarsAbove and beyond what we put away for retirement. We’ve done pretty well at this one, even with Stephanie not working for part of the year. I don’t know that we did $10,000 but we were close.
Get a new computer Really? I did that this year? Seems like I’ve had it forever. I love it.

Get split down to 2:00:00 – that was really unlikely.
Get an ergDone. Very nice to have at home, too.
learn sculling – yeah, I don’t know. I was very frustrated with rowing this year for several reasons.

Read more books I own – I read 36 books last year, so I think I did pretty well. Many of them were graphic novels, but some of them were some heavy-hitters.
Buy new books on e-reader – eh. Changed my mind on this one. I’d rather read a book than an ebook.
Read first Proust book – Nope. Definitely this year.

Knit pillows – I did a large amount of knitting this year, but didn’t get around to pillows. We helped with two different cool yarn-bombing projects that were very fun.
Knit hats – follow design – did lots of hats this year.
Learn color work – also a non-starter in 2013, although I hope to do a small project in 2014.

Photo scanning & organizing – This is a rather herculean task that I don’t know if I’ll ever get to.
Design 20 new shirts – I definitely accomplished this one.

Overall, my goal was to create as much or more than I consume, and I did a good job of advancing my agenda there through a variety of different outlets, both personal and at work. I don’t know that the create/consume balance was equal but each year I’ve gotten closer, so I’m happy to have at least advanced that agenda.

We’ve had an up-and-down year emotionally. Stephanie’s job hunt was hard on her, as you might expect. She did ultimately find a job that she’s quite happy with. It comes with a lengthy commute that isn’t ideal, but we’ve managed to adjust our schedule to make that easier, and I’ve taken on more of the food preparation to make it easier on her. I haven’t quite hit my stride in the cooking department, but we’re managing.

Our cat Lucy died this year. We don’t know what was wrong. She had just had a vet visit and while they thought something in her blood work was off, they didn’t indicate it was life-threatening. It’s strange not seeing her and we miss her all the time.

Lucy
Lucy

Spike continues to hold on, despite his heart problems. At the beginning of the year he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, and we began giving him medication. We didn’t expect him to make it through the year, but he has, and he seems to be doing pretty well. Unfortunately, it’s a looming issue that we know it won’t last, and my best little man will not be here at this time next year.

We also found out that Stephanie’s mom has cancer, and is very ill. That has been very difficult. For privacy’s sake I don’t want to say more, but this fall has been rather hard and I don’t expect the coming year to be easier.

On the bright side, we have a new niece this year. My older brother and his wife had a baby girl named Corbyn. That brings the tally of nieces and nephews up to eight, which is awesome. I think babies are intended to give us hope that the world doesn’t become more terrible and frightening as we get older. That sort of works. Mostly.

We also took a road trip for a family wedding in New Jersey, which was nice because we got to spend time with some of Stephanie’s family that we haven’t seen since we got married. At the end of the year I tend to think about people and connections more than accomplishments so those are the activities that I cherish.

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