that horrible thing called free time . . .

I know, I know.  Free time is that thing that is long sought for, complained for and so on.  And lately, I’ve had a lot of it, and it’s driving me nuts.  I’m just one of those people who can’t stand not having something to do.  I always have to be doing something cause if I’m not doing something, well, bad things tend to happen.  I get curious, I take things apart, I get snoopy and, just plain, get into things that I should be into. 

I would be writing on one of my stories but I seem to be stuck and can’t seem to get past these points in my head.  The only thing I can do is wait for my brain to work through them.  Of course, there’s always schoolwork but a person can only work on that so much before she’s ready to murder someone.  I had been crocheting but I finished my project.  I made a sweater for my dog for when when it will get cold in the winter.  Leave me alone--my dog was born in Las Vegas and for the first 5 years of its life we lived in Louisiana so until we moved here to Kansas, he had never deal with cold and snow before.  I was trying to crochet myself a pair of socks but that was a bit of a failure since I couldn’t figure out to modify the pattern to fit me correctly and now I don’t have enough yarn for any interesting project.  The house is as organized as it can be, considering the fact that I just have to get rid of stuff to goodwill and whatnot.  I have been practicing with my bamboo flute and my Irish tin whistle, but I can only practice so much at a time before my dog cries or until my kid takes the instrument from me to try it for herself.  I have also been reading but again, if I keep reading at the rate I’m going I won’t have anything in this house to read soon.  I would paint again but it’s not really something you want get into with a 2 year old around. 

Do you see the lengths I go to keep myself busy?  I need another creative, constructive project.  I may have to take up cross-stitching, since crochet was a bust.  I mean, really, what does one do with free time?

Into the Wild

I recently watched the movie Into the Wild.  It’s a true story about a guy who gives up life from a well-to-do middle America family.  He just graduated with a nice college degree and could have been on the fast track to a cushy job, and instead decides to thumb his way across the country for about 2 years.  He does this with as few belongings as he could, no money, the writings of his fav authors such as Tolstoy, Thoreau and Jack London and a journal of his journey.  He disappears on his family, gives himself the name of Alexander Supertramp and meets up with different people in his travels.  His ultimate dream is to live in the wilds of Alaska.  He does make it to Alaska with no compass or map, where he lives 112 days on his own, until he dies of starvation. 

He died a stupid death.  Going into the basic wilderness without any major survival knowledge and serious supplies was basic suicide but you kind of got to give him credit.  He decided to see if he could make it almost solely on his own balls and I kind of admire him for it.  He had a dream and he went for it, come hell or high water.  Most people definitely don’t have that sort of guts. 

As for me personally, I’m working on my dream.  I want to be a writer.  I’m writing my own story.  I am my own Alexander Supertramp.  I wonder how many people can say that?

the sketchbook project

In my wanderings of the jumbled mass called the internet, I happen to stumble upon an interesting thing being done called the sketchbook project.  arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject
Basically, for $25, they send you a sketchbook.  You pick a theme beforehand and you then fill the sketchbook up with your artwork.  You send it back to them and it becomes part of this library of sketchbooks that goes on an art exhbit tour.  People can visit this art exhibit to look through all these sketchbooks that people have done and even check out the sketchbooks like a library. 

I think it's a pretty nifty idea.  It gets you to be creative, which is always a good thing.  It's an interesting way of getting your art out there into the world.  I don't in any way consider myself an artist but I like to dapple in doodling.  I think it might be fun to do.  I haven't quite decided whether I'm going to do it but I may bring it up with my husband and art is his passion.  I think it's something anyone should consider doing. 

movie makes & remakes

I find it funny that we're in 2010 and we're basically reliving the 1980's. Movies these days are all about reliving childhood. They made 2 Transformers movies with another in the makes. There was that GI Joe movie a while back. The Smurfs movie as a live action flick is going to be released sooner or later. The Karate Kid got a really weird modern day makeover. There are a whole bunch more. It's kind of nice having such obvious homages to my childhood pop up like this but at the same time I can't bear to see these movies hack up what was so dear to me. It's a double-edged sword. I love that they're bringing new life into the old stuff and introducing new audiences to what is already there but they have a tendency to chew the old material into bits and pieces so that it's barely recognizable anymore. It hurts the soul. I can't bear to watch most of the newer movies.

Especially the movies that were made from books. I hated movie the Dark is Rising, the Seeker movie. I absolutely loved the books by Susan Cooper while growing up and when I heard a movie was being made I was so excited til the more I heard about it the less I liked about what I heard and then when I saw the movie, I wanted to cry (I was pregnant at the time, leave me alone) and throw tomatos at the screen. It was absolutely horrible. It was almost nothing like the books. The same for the Queen of the Damned movie from Anne Rice's book. It was absolutely nothing like the book. They were like we got the title and a few names so that's all we need to make the movie. There is a reason those books are so loved by people so when you change the material so much, it's not a surprise that people will hate the movie. The point is--Stick with the original material people!