Artistic Frustration (by sarah)

Last night I saw once again the most fantstic moon, it was a pastal tangerine colour and it was in a twilight sky, just above the horizon and it was huge. It hung there like the proverbial eye and the trees below were bathed in golden light from the setting sun.

But would Alaric turn the van round to go get the camera? Would he even stop to look at it - no!

This is the bane of my life when it comes to photos - I know I'm not exactly brilliant and I would probably have blurred it anyway but hey the moon was hanging over our valley!

I had a similar problem when the snow was on the ground - Dad didn't understand that I wanted to stop the car to get out and take photos of the whole of the bowl shaped bit with like all the built up bit in it - covered in snow. I had asked Alaric to come out and walk up to the main road to take pics as with my pelvis and back I can't afford to be out in the snow falling over on my own but he wouldn't.

Its not their fualts they either just dont see it or do and are genuingly busy but I find it so frustrating along with people talking constantly at me when I'm trying to write, paint, make websites and other things.

And as for having my projects moved or my pooter used when I'm not there - that really makes my blood boil - only becuase people don't know where the fragile bits are or the fact the laptop is on its last legs and has a tendency to crash if you do certian things and it takes me so long to have everything set up to work its a right pain if I have to restart.

I am feeling alittle bit frustrated and am trying to claim back my work space in the office but its slow going.

On the plus side I saw a shooting star last night with a green tinge to it and a cloud that looked like a rabbit or hare running under the moon.

Business and Art (by sarah)

To a certain extent I feel that my business stuff with the website building etc... is not going to well - I came up with the plan pre-flood and was working on then and back then it was a needed service and would have probalby taken off but now isn't then and things have changed.

Basically I missed the boat but am still vaguelly paddling in a lifeboat, there is a chance still that things could take off and I hope they do. So far this year I've earn't a grand total of £350 and $300 for the company - this is just not enough and I am sad.

Also £100 of that is not yet paid and the $300 we are having issues getting it from google.

On the plus through sending out business stuff to do with making websites and the cross over of science and art etc... I have had people ask about computer case modes - this is making your own case for the computer.

Now I am not going to flit from one project to another so the webstuff is still on but I do alot of creative crafty stuff anyway so I thought I might have ago at making a nice case for one of our computers. Then I will have something I can show people on the off chance of getting some custom for it - randomly there is more interest being shown in this potential project than in what I'm actually trying to establish as a business.

I am feeling a bit low that my blogs are earning more money through adds than my ability to make nice websites is. So then I start to think maybe I should use my art for business more but then I reign myself in fearing stretching myself even further than I already am.

I also have a business questonaire I shall post soon - if people could possibly fill it in and send it back that would be great.

Also what do people think about having personalised computer cases and the such like? I'm currently looking at it as a fun project but Al seems to think there is some proper potential there.

Wiggly Pets are Back (by sarah)

As some of you may know I make Wiggly Pets which are friendly little creatures and who have been woefully neglected by me since the flood in 2007. There blog has lain forlorn and un-updated since the end of that fatefull summer.

This was mainly as I had helped them get a few weeks ahead in their stories and then the chaos broke and I just had no time, no internet and no house but we got back into the house halve way through last year and I still somehow failed to help them start blogging again though the stories where there! They have been blogging off-line waiting for me to get my act together.

So I am back dating their posts and will be putting them up at a rate of one or two stories a week (hopefully).

So at long last the second part to Mystery is there and waiting to be read!

Tech Adventure Feb 2009 (by sarah)

Saturday saw us at the 3rd Tech Adventure in Bristol at the Trinity Centre. We attended the last one in the summer which was loads of fun and useful besides.

This one I got up at 6 am for and me and Al were wending our way to Bath by 7 am - why Bath I here you cry when it is in Bristol? The answer lays in the fact we have a van and that we had volunteered to help the organisers this time.

So we arrived after only a minor getting lost incident and begain loading the sound equipment and assortments of other tech gear.

We drove to Bristol with our navigator and then after a quick unload headed off to pick up John Honniball who has an amazing collection of old computers which I somehow failed to take a photo of 🙁 He also had a cool bubble car outside his house!

Oh and I had had to try and repair my glasses and had managed to cover about 30% of my hands with superglue - I was not a happy bunny.

The exhibits themselves where fun and I think I'll need to do some seperate posts for some of them plus I have vidoes I need to sort out of them.

There was a motion sensitive BB gun, with a targeting laser.

Guys with hand controlers that meant they could produce sound from motion resulting in me wanting to play with the concept and come up with a theatre production :/

Me reading Geek poetry and giving away Wiggly Pets to those who counted the correct number of programming languages in my poem.

The cutest robot ever which behaved like an animal, the camera looking like a little hamster nose and which maybe good research for a book me and dad are writing 🙂 Just a little fun fiction.

There was a random pirate duck but then what sort of event is complete without a mascot?

A 3D printer which had me @ndy who we dragged up from London, and Alaric all got very excited about.

Here are some of the things it made! It can make parts of itself too which is kinda cool 🙂 I really really want one for various craft applications.

There was a Wii set up, more old computers with ancient games on, a logic puzzels and game table, a swap shop which seemed to mainly consist of things we had brought with us - of which fortunatly all but one thing went from, DJ dudes, people with guitars and filming equipment.

Of course Andy got roped into cabling without even being asked if he was a tekki!

Plus there was a talk on high performance from computers - by a guy who was there last year - I ended up actually asking questions and talked to him afterwards - I feel this definatly deserves its own post however!

Alaric's Chicken Scheme T-shirt arrived just in time for him to wear it for tech adventure which he was really chuffed with - again somehow I failed to take a photo - sigh!

More Snow! (by sarah)

These steps were cleared off by me and this is what fell over night onto the pre-existing 6 inches.

If this keeps up then I will have to build an army of snowmen like I did when I was young - the story is chronicled by Yellow Monster in A Tale of Snowmen I and II.

This had been my plan with the memories of it ending up in the local papers and things but unfortunatly Dad and Jean saw to it that my snow women was knocked down by a bombardment of snowballs. I also had to cancel the meeting that I had had to cancel with the last lot of snow!