posters, pictures and pixels... oh my!!

i spent the balance of the day fighting with the poster design. but eventually i got something that i feel comfortable enough to submit for approval.

it has become apparent lately that it is time for a new machine. uploading, copying and or organizing my digital picture files are far too RAM intensive for the machine i have now. and that doesn't even begin to cover the challenge of working on a 3' x 4' poster. frankly all the calculations was giving my computer fits. which meant that i was having fits my damn self. it was one 'application not responding' error after another and trying to save the file was no picnic either. it is not uncommon when i am designing for me to have illustrator and photoshop running concurrently. trust me when i tell you there was no concurrent today.

my hand in digital poker has been played. interestingly enough it was one of the first shots i took. no wait it was the first shot i took on the first day i went out. i went out on three separate occasions and i just never got the shot i wanted.

sometimes you get an image in your head of the shot you want but try as you might it is just not there. and even though you have taken some shots that are esthetically pleasing and interesting in their own right, because you didn't get the shot you have in your head, you just aren't happy. it probably isn't a bad thing to go out with a target shot in mind as long as you are smart enough to shoot other things while you search for the elusive shot. you just can't let yourself get so focused on what isn't there that you overlook what is.

i also had a decent word count today 135 words. i will take it!!

you can't always get what you want

one of the hardest things to do, i find is to force creativity. it doesn't matter the medium. you can't force a good shot. you can't force yourself to write an engaging scene and you sure as hell can't force yourself to design something.

unfortunately for me i was trying to do everyone of those things today. if i had to grade my level of success using the standard 1-10 scale i think i would be generous if i gave myself a score of 3 or better.

i tried to used the ontario trails councils website to help me locate interesting sites along the trails systems for photo opportunities. today's excursion along the etobicoke creek turned out to be a bust. also i have to deliver a poster design monday and i am currently flying without a net. i don't have a concept, i don't really have an idea and so far it is an exercise in futility. as for my story i seem to be blocked again. for the third day in a row i have struggled to put together 80 words.

here's hoping tomorrow is a better day, creatively speaking.

i was a human miche-sicle

when you ride and live in the frozen north, you really can't afford to be too picky about the days you choose to ride. generally as long as it isn't teaming out, as long as the heavens are not awash with lightening you really should consider taking the bike. i am not going to mention snow and or hail as i trust you are all wise enough to make that distinction without my help.

today was one of those days when i opted to ride. suffice it to say that 7:30 a.m. was not the warmest time of the day. unfortunately that was the time i started out for work. i was maybe 15 minutes into the ride when i noticed that the tops of my thighs were cold. ten minutes after that i started to tuck my fingers under the fairing to keep them warm while i was spotted at the lights. i think my teeth were chattering by the time i hit the wide open farmland 15 minutes away from the office.

i am happy to report that i wasn't the only nutbar who opted to ride in today. the general manager came in on his sport bike as well. we agreed it was pretty effin' chilly out and spent most of the early morning in sweaters while the rest of the staff wandered about in t-shirts, shorts and sandals.

another slow writing day with only 80 words to my credit.

caution: severe zipper damage

i rode the bike to work today. when i ride i wear my draggin' jeans, bike jeans with kevlar padding as added protection. i carry pants for work with me and when i get to the office i change.

it was during the change process this morning when things went terribly, horribly wrong. somehow my zipper self-destructed and i was faced with a dilemma. i decided that i really had no option other than to put my draggin' jeans back on and sweat profusely for 1.5 hours until the stores opened.

it was one hell of a start to my work day i will not lie. i suppose the upside is that i got a good deal on a new pair of pants and i was really only out of the office for .5 hour on my shopping expedition.

in other news i simply could not concentrate today to save my life and i have only put in a lowly 80 words. i hang my head in shame.

maybe tomorrow

scotty we need more power!!

well i almost had to compose this blog post entirely on my cell phone. almost an hour ago we suddenly experienced a full brown out. even though the power loss was a momentary dip and everything came immediately back on my computer went a little nutso. i could not get the internet back up no matter how many times i rebooted my modem. but i am happy to report that i was finally successful.

as far as writing days go, today was one of the better ones that i have had in a while. i was able to add 320 words. that coupled with the fact that i am still very pleased how well the current scene is progressing. go me!

oh and stay tuned. my father was already complaining to me today about 'de dayamm skwirrel dem,' so i predict there will be more fun and frivolity as my father does battle with the neighbourhood rodents. and why am i suddenly thinking about the bill murray character in "caddy shack"?

the morning after the day before

the bruins fan did not disappoint. he went in to work early on a day he was not expected to be in the building. he went in, i suspect only to stir the proverbial pot.

he sprayed some sort of fixative onto the rubber welcome mat in front of the building. he used the fixative to 'paint' the bruins logo onto the mat. when you first you look at it, it looks wet, when you look closely you notice the logo.

between the outer and inner doors he had a flag sitting on the welcome mat. he tiled 15 sheets of 8" x 11" paper to create this masterpiece that he affixed to the carpet with clear packing tape. as soon as you walk through the inner door you are greeted by yet another 15 sheet tiled flag. the second one you could not miss as it was taped head-high on the cubicle wall.

i don't think he did anything else. although i can't imagine where he found the time to do all that he did.

i include, for your amusement a picture of the bruins floor mat.

only 140 words, i fear my 'clever' is broken.

tomorrow is going to be interesting

as the work day progressed there was a certain amount of trash talking that occurred between the two camps. the leaf fans vs. the bruins fan. the bruins fan really didn't say all that much today, he feared that his team was on the ropes.

the leaf fans wanted to put something on the outcome of the game. the suggestions i heard the bruins fan had to wash the leaf fans car. the bruins fan had to wear a leafs jersey and blue face make-up.

i say that tomorrow will be interesting because the bruins fan is the one with the better sense of humour and who seems to pull the better prank.

280 words. i still have a ways to go with the first draft, i am still quite a ways away from the end. i as starting to wonder exactly how long this thing is going to end up being.

the day that wasn't

well i was itchin' to get back out there with the nikon. particularly because the poorboi decided that i won our last hand of pixel poker. which means it is my turn to deal, shoot first and pick the subject. however mother nature had other ideas. the first time i tried to leave the house with the camera she threw hailstones at me. the hail storm didn't last very long and the weather improved and i thought i might still get chance to shoot. no such luck she decided to see how i felt about sleet. i am not a big fan and so the camera and i went back home.

the weather improved again and i tried again however this time there were even bigger hailstones followed by another down pour. i decided i was beat and gave up. perhaps i will have better luck next time?

294 words.

stretchin my digital muscles

the poorboi and i took our respective nikons out into the 'back of beyond' to do some shooting. first i should qualify what is the 'back of beyond' for me is still very much the big city for the poorboi. what would constitute as the 'back of beyond' for him involves tents, canoes and goin`potty in the woods. since i will not use a port-o-potty you can be damn sure that i will not be dropping trou in the woods... but i digress.

he taught me a few more 'tricks of the trade' and i am thrilled at how well some of the shots turned out.

but as always here are a few for your viewing pleasure:

and i added 285 words.

wtf???!!!

we lost power a little over an hour after i arrived at work this morning. a transformer servicing our area either blew, caught on fire or both. rather than sit in the dark we were told we could leave and we were to return when the power was restored.

i was on my way back to work friday afternoon when i saw, what i still cannot believe i saw.

i was heading west along highway 401, near trafalgar around 1 p.m. the westbound traffic was moving well but the same could not be said for the eastbound traffic. eastbound travelers seemed to be lined up like sheep, i can only assume that i happened to notice what i did because of the dense traffic.

in the eastbound lane, closest to the guardrail, was a man astride a white sport bike. it was not the fact that there was a rider that shocked me but it was the fact that sticking over the top of his helmet was a stem and a seat. as i pulled alongside the motorcycle my eyebrows disappeared into my hairline. it appeared that the dude was somehow transporting a unicycle! since westbound traffic was moving i didn't get a real good look but it appeared as though he somehow had the thing strapped to his body.

i have seen some strange things before but this by far was the strangest. i can't for the life of me imagine how he could even control the bike at highway speeds. i can honestly say it would not be anything i would be willing to try.

194 words today.

the difference a day makes

today i added 230 words. it was an addition that i was far more pleased with than yesterday's effort.

yesterday was not a good day all round. work was far more trying that usual and the glute/ham/adductor injury kept me out of the gym wednesday. so i really should not have been amazed or disappointed by yesterday's difficult writing session.

work was not nearly as frustrating today. one minute i am sitting there practically spinning my wheels and the next flying down the proverbial highway at mach 9 with my butt cheeks on fire. the spinning wheels occur when the client is unable to decide what they want until they have seen countless options and colour variations and we frequently re-visit concepts previously discarded.

i really shouldn't worry too much about the constant revisions, the longer it takes them to approve a concept the longer my contract lasts. but when a gemini is surrounded by indecisiveness and forced to make endless revisions... it can make the poor s.o.b a little nuts.

the war of the words

there are some days the words are just not there. most times i have an idea where to start, sometimes i even know exactly the sentences i want to use. but on the days when i am blocked it is brutal. i start sentences, delete them, start another in its stead and it generally suffers the same fate.

unfortunately today was one of those days. but the challenge is on so i battled on and put down 210 words.

hopefully tomorrow is a better day.

the added benefits to pixel poker

pixel poker is the name of the camera challenge that i am in with the poorboi. we are really only into our second round of play and already i am starting to see how i will benefit from this game.

for the first round the poorboi shot amongst the tree. he managed to do so in a way that there was some dynamic lighting coming through the curtain of trees. i spent a couple of hours in a park along the lakeshore last sunday trying to locate a shot with a similiar feel. i went into the 'game' with a target shot in my head and that shot wasn't available. i ended up trying all sorts of angles to see if i could somehow frame that shot with what was available to me. i was forced to be far more creative than if i was just framing a shot and pressing the shutter.

the poorboi's second round shot is a close-up of flower buds. what makes the shot is the fact that the background is completely out of focus. the only portions of the image that are clear are the flower buds and the strands of a spider's web.

after work i took the camera into the backyard and experimented a little bit. i was pleasantly pleased with some of the images that i was able to capture. of course i would be remiss if i didn't mention that there were many a shot that didn't work.

i still intend to go out on the weekend and see if i can find anything better but i also have a couple cards up my sleeve from tonight's effort that could work as well.

this game of our's was by far, one of my better ideas!

160 words were added to the story tonight.

a couple of the rejects:

it's a mad, mad world

last friday i heard one of the craziest news stories i had heard in some time. an oregon man who referees recreational soccer gave a yellow card to a 17 year old player during the course of the game. the 17 year old snapped and retaliated by punching the ref in the head.

the refeeree went to the hospital for what they initially suspected to be minor injuries. except it turned out to be not so minor as the man lapsed into a coma and died from his injuries.

the part that really blows my hair back is that this was not the first time the ref was attacked, nor was it the first time he was injured seriously. he'd suffered broken bones in prior attacks. broken bones!! i do not understand the man's desire to keep refereeing games. but mostly i do not understand the actions of the 17 year old.

i hope you like wearing orange kid.

in other news i added another 180 words but i am ultimately not happy with this evenings efforts.

d100 day four

i managed to get out with the nikon today and i snapped about 30 frames. i have to admit that i was fairly pleased with the images. unfortunately there was the image that got away. i really wanted to shoot a picture where the trees formed like a natural curtain that led the viewers eye directly to a body of water located off in the distance.

i had my body of water, what i did not have was a dense enough wall of trees. i am sure such an scene exists near me, i just don't know where it is. perhaps i will find it on a future excursion?

i leave you with a few pics from today's efforts.

and for those keeping track 310 words today.

so you think you can dance... scarborough

i spent several hours at the bike shop today waiting for a mechanic to be free to re-install the bottom fairing on my bike. one of the bolts must have snapped and the fairing was resting on pipe. a hot pipe equals smouldering melting fibreglass. i took the fairing off last weekend to protect the part from further damage and my father in a bid to 'help', unbeknownst to me, took a hacksaw to my bottom fairing. luckily he didn't cut much and when he told me what he had done i fought the urge to strike him.

as i mentioned it was a long wait but i was not without entertainment. my favourite moment was watching one of the mechanics attempt to get the attention of a customer who was in an intense conversation with another. the mechanic called out to the guy a couple times but the conversation continued. the mechanic started moving sideways and waving his arms while he called to him. still nothing. the mechanic broke out into a little soft shoe number. nada. he tried tap dancing. zilch. something that resembled michael flatley's lord of the dance routine. diddly squat. finally he went up en pointe raised his arms somewhat gracelessly overhead and proceeded to perform some sort of ballet tour de mechanic. naught.

i on the other hand nearly fell off my chair.

true story.

170 words.

international female ride day

the international female ride day was established back in 2007 and although i had a bike and a license back then it never worked out that i could ride that day. but this year the weather was perfect and the my new bike was raring to go.
it is about a 30 minute commute by highway. when i used to head east to work i rode through very populated areas and it really wasn't very cold for long. i quickly realized when work relocated to the west end that things were very different heading the other way. the wide open stretches of highway made for some very chilly riding in the early morning hours. so i had no intention of going anyway near the highway this morning and that was a wise decision on my part. it was still pretty chilly when the posted speed limits were 70-80 km/h. i can't even begin to image how cold 110 km/h would have felt.

the picture below shows my new baby elektra, as she waits patiently for five o'clock p.m.

i am pleased to report an additional 330 words were added to my story today. impressive considering that i had to stop writing in order to do a little research.

thirty days hath may??

well actually that isn't true at all but once again it is challenge time!

i have let my basketball story stall out for far too long. it really has been difficult to move forward while i seemingly wait in vain for a response from either of the two basketball 'experts'. but it is really important to me to finish this thing and to that end 'the bloke' and i have embarked on yet another 30-day challenge. so i dug out the story, scraped off the moth balls and added a respectable 460 words.

i also have another challenge of sorts on the go. this one involves digital photography. 'the poorboi' and i will be taking our respective nikon's out into the universe and snapping pixels at will. well only if will is doing something really interesting. it occurs to me that i should go to the camera store and pick up a new camera bag. if i got a backpack style bag it would be easier to take the nikon with me when i went out with elektra.*

so looks like things are going to be busy in here again for the next little while. go me!

* the name of my '06 ninja

an update on where things stand in the land of miche

today was the first workout done by yours truly in about two weeks. now if you don't know me very well you are probably thinking that two weeks off from the gym is no big deal. but if you do know me you are probably well aware that such a long layoff has had me completely out of sorts. messed up to the point where i have been making a lot of errors at work. luckily the errors have been caught by either the marketing manager or myself before anything was printed but since i am generally not unreliable at work this turn of events has frustrated me greatly.

the other thing that i have not mentioned in a while is my basketball story. first i had interviewed a woman who played collegiate ball, who played travel ball in the u.s. and who coached and refereed basketball games. i felt that she was an excellent source to help me with the details that would add necessary realism to the tale i was trying to tell. after our interview, i completed the section of the story that involved the in-game action. my 'expert' had offered to read through the chapter and give me some honest feedback. the story was delivered and i received confirmation from her that she had indeed received my email. unfortunately that was the last i had heard from her and subsequent contact was ignored.

my first assumption was that the story was so horrible that she couldn't comment and chose to ignore me rather than try to set me straight. i understand and appreciate difficult it is to give constructive criticism especially if one struggles to find something positive to say.

those who are supportive of my writing endeavour's recommend that i not read too much into the lack of response. my brother who is a basketball coach of a boy's team gave me the contact information of a woman who coaches a women's collegiate basketball team. as the head coach i feared she would be too busy to help me herself but i thought perhaps she might be able to direct me to someone who had the time and necessary experience to help me out.

as luck would have it the coach offered to read it herself and she also offered to answer any questions i might have. i happily sent the chapter off to her after a re-write and i waited. and i waited. and still i waited. as more time went by i was convinced that the story was just that bad. i toyed with the idea of giving up. i considered shelving the story with the intention to attend the 2014 SEC tournament in atlanta. i thought perhaps if i saw the game live i might be able to see where i went wrong.

once again my support unit assured me that i could not and should not give up. my brother and 'the bloke' both felt it was imperative that i try again to reach out to the head coach. i was fortunate to have a couple people offer to read the story for me. although i appreciated the offers and subsequent show of support i am convinced that i need to run the story past someone with experience with the collegiate women's game.

i am not concerned about the validity of the conflicts in my story and am fairly confident of the entertainment value of what i have written. my concern is if the player contact during the 'game' is accurate to how the women's game is played. the basic difference's between the sexes means that the men's game of basketball in may ways is vastly different from the women's game. what men are able to do on the court differs greatly from what the women do. a fact that is further illustrated by the difference in their respective audience bases. simply put the men's game is far more popular.

there is also a huge difference in the women's game when it is played at the high school level versus how it is played at the collegiate level and differs further between the collegiate divisions. in the u.s there are three basic programs: division one, the level of play with the most skilled player who likely move on to pro careers in the WNBA or overseas. division two consists of players who aren't as skilled as their division one counterparts and. if a division two athlete goes overseas to play professionally they play exclusively in division two leagues. finally there are the division three athletes and i will be honest i have no clue what becomes of those players upon graduation.

anyway after exactly four weeks without a response from the head coach i sent her a follow-up email, to date five days have past since i sent the email and sadly i am still without a response.

so where does that leave me? that is one hell of a question and frankly i am conflicted on how i am going to handle it. do i give up? do i shelve the project and get my ass to atlanta for the SEC tournament? do i finish the story and keep it to myself or do i finish it and let anyone who reads it know that it has not been 'blessed' by a beta reader?

decisions, decisions

setbacks suck

i know that i things have been all kinds of quiet here on the blog front but once again i've had a setback to contend with. a few weeks back i felt something peculiar deep in the back of my left leg while in the leg press. it was either an injury of the hamstring or in my glute-ham tie-in.

i took days off. i trained through the pain. i soaked in a hot tub. i applied ice. i massaged the injury with a tennis ball. all of my efforts were, as they say, for nought.

when i worked out in the east end of the city i used a massage therapist who was very good. he was always able to get into the muscle fascia and dig out any and all knots. unfortunately work moved from the east end to the west end and try as i might the commute was next to impossible to make. no matter how much time i allowed for the trip it would take at least 30 mins longer. so i would frequently arrive with 15-30 minutes left in my appointment.

it was harder than it should have been to find a massage therapist out in the west end. especially since i didn't have any contacts out in the west end. when the injury became too acute to ignore i tried the online equivalent to opening the phone book and picking a name. which led me to 'european massage' and based on their website all of their massage therapists were well versed in deep tissue massage. i called and booked an appointment with olga. how could i go wrong?

well i wasn't on the table five minutes when olga mentioned that i probably needed a therapist who did deep tissue massage. i was confused because her online bio listed deep tissue massage among her specialties. i asked her about that and she said that all of the therapists had areas that they specialized in. i asked what she specialized in but never did get an answer.

my other complaint was she seemed disturbed by the fact that i had not removed my bra. it was only a 45 minute appointment and i went for treatment of a specific injury. i was pretty sure treatment would take the entire 45 minutes.

olga stuck her elbow into my glute/ham tie-in for a little while and i was able to put on my pants without pain. i booked an hour long follow-up appointment with elizabeth. again based on her online biography she was well versed in deep tissue massage. elizabeth she spent the balance of the hour treating my neck, my triceps, my calves and my back and she kept running in and out of the room with hot packs. she barely spent any time at all working on my injury. needless to say that was my final experience with 'european massage'.

thankfully the guy out in the east end started doing saturday appointments. i went and saw him yesterday. he spent the entire hour working on my injury stopping only briefly to wipe the sweat from his brow. he used his knuckles, his elbows, his thumbs and this zany looking implement called 'the thumper' that reminds me of my dad's belt sander. after he was finished i was able to move my leg with far less discomfort.

it has been two weeks since i have last trained i hope that i will be back in the saddle come tuesday.

courtesy of my buddy the poorboi, i am now the proud new owner of a nikon. i have been trying to figure out the wonders of digital photography and have gone out on a couple of occasions with the camera. instead of a trip to the gym i went to a marina out along the lakeshore and shot the above pic. enjoy!