The perils of screenprinting

One of the perils of being a screen-printer is that I often catch myself checking out other people's chests.

Today, I'm pretty sure I gave the woman in the Smith College tee-shirt at the gym the entirely wrong impression.

V for v. good

Went to see V for Vendetta last night.

Loved Alan Moore's Watchmen when I read it a few years ago, and even though I'd seen billboards for V for Vendetta I didn't put two-and-two together that it was Moore's work until friends suggested we go to see it and I looked it up.

I think if the promotions played up the Guy Fawkes mask a bit more, I would have figured it out sooner.

Natalie Portman did an awesome job, as did the British voice of the Harry Potter novels, Stephen Fry.

I found one of the major plot-twists disturbing, the romance implausible, and I really hate knife fights, so I have to give it three stars.

But I highly recommend it, nonetheless.

Spring cleaning

I've been a very bad blogger, lately, and I think it's because things are going well in my life.

I'm done with my spring cleaning, which involved reconfiguring my wireless network so I can route Pottercast and my entire music library through my stereo speakers.

The audio sounds great, but for some reason the audio encoded with downloaded iTunes video doesn't transmit through the wireless network. Must be encoded differently. Anyone who's more of a techie than I know what's going on, here?

The spring cleaning involved painting, moving furniture, changing art rearranging storage and pitching, donating or selling anything I haven't used in the past year. Wow, does it feel good to come home to a clean and uncluttered apartment every night. Taking my CDs out of their jewel cases and organizing them in albums helped me rediscover some old favorites.

I've also managed to keep a new flowering plant alive for two weeks, and it has two new buds on it. Perhaps I have a latent green thumb, after all. While cleaning I made room for the funeral plant the staff at my job sent me last year when Grandpa died, and when I was at my folks' this weekend my mom and I repotted it into a larger planter that matches my decor. It's way too big to fit in my car, so my parents are delivering it next month.

I finished and delivered a huge screenprinting order and I'm in the final stages of a pro-bono freelance project. The money from the screenprinting will be very helpful for my later-this-year new car purchase. I have another freelance project which I'm ready to start and two more potential projects.

So things are good. Plus, I voted today in the Illinois primaries, so I feel particularly civic.

What's weirder?

• My mechanic sending out a monthly newsletter that has very little to do with cars, car maintenance or road trips.

• Me, randomly selected from a group of customers to win a mini-vacation.

(Let it be said that I have no idea what this mini-vacation involves. My guess is it's an off-peak mid-week package from a mediocre Chicagoland hotel. But I could be surprised.)

The state of the Abba report

2006 has been a very good year, so far.

After last year, which was the worst of my life thus far, things couldn't be better this time around.

It's a welcome change. Things are looking up at work. For me, at least. I'm not sure all of my colleagues are as pleased as I am with the way things are changing. But for me and my work, I'm finally feeling trusted and respected for the expertise I have and the acutal work I do. I'm doing less drudgery and more editorial and creative things. My paycheck is a little fatter, this year, too. Which is a welcome change.

I have a healthy batch of freelance projects in the works, too. These are challenging but fulfilling.

I've been mostly keeping my resolution to get to the gym 3-4 nights a week (except for the week I had the flu). I'm noticing muscles and feeling quite a bit more confident about my appearance. The gym's the only place where I can wear a sleeveless shirt this time of year, so I've been taking advantage to show off the tattoo.

Three friends and I have started a Tuesday night dinner club in my neighborhood. Those of us in the group represent three different religions, so very often our conversations tend toward the inter-religous.

I've just learned that friends who live nearby whom I thought might be moving are staying.

I'm going to stop teaching ESL on Wednesdays. I love teaching. But I've done it for three-and-a-half years, and it's time to do something new with my Wednesday nights.

I've joined a study of the Biblical books of Luke and Acts. Which will be a new thing for me. I've done plenty of academic study of the Old Testament, but have spent very little time on the New Testament.

All in all, things are a-movin' and a-shakin' in good and creative ways.

Stay tuned.