Monday Sketch Diary

I have not been making as many sketches as I thought I might. I do enjoy making them, and it relaxes me, but like many of my little hobbies, it has the potential to develop into a distracting obsession. So I've only made a few since the last time I posted them. I thought I might as well put them up there, though, now that I've collected up a decent number.


The plaster medallion was from National Geographic, one of my favorite sources of images when nothing around the house catches my eye. Imitating on paper the plaster imitation of wrinkles in clothing was a frustrating, but also interesting, challenge.


Flowers that Pocket of Bolts brought me. They were red and gold, very jaunty and autumn-looking. I drew them in an unusually freehand way (for me), not copying each individual petal and leaf like I usually do, but I really liked the way they came out.


Baby sea turtles have a pretty wretched chance of making it all the way. I copied this "at random" from National Geographic, but if you had a mind to analyze this you could probably tie it to job market insecurity...


A very quick sketch, again from National Geo. Yeah, I know, the little fellow looks pretty nervous. Well, it is a sketch DIARY after all.

Debatable

Pocket of Bolts and I went out to a bar to watch the debate on Friday. It was actually the first time I had ever watched an entire presidential debate. I surprised myself by actually finding it interesting. Between my occasional perusal of the Economist and my guarded enthusiasm for Obama, I may just be able to work up the determination to be a responsible citizen and... well, keep myself informed, at least a bit.

I've had some down time this weekend, not a very productive few days but--well, being on the academic job market is like running a long distance race. You can't sprint all out for the whole distance. Tomorrow I'm going to get up bright and early and have a good work day. I resolve it.

Whirlwind

I spent last Wednesday and Thursday back in grad school town. It was a last minute decision to go: I got a cheap ticket from priceline only a few days before and took off. I managed to meet with two professors, four grad student friends (separately), one non-grad student friend, and two grad student non-friends; I also attended a reception, attended a job market information meeting, and coped with two six AM flights, the second one involving me staying up all night Thursday because of how far grad school town is from the nearest major airport. As a person who deals less and less well with stress, I found it overwhelming, but I did somehow survive even enjoyed parts of it in a breathless and intense way. Anyway, it was really good that I went.

Since then, I have been working as best I can. Job applications are coming due very soon. I am sweating most now over the cover letter. My self-promotion spigot never put out very generously and now it seems to be broken. I guess I've finally found the one thing that's more stressful than working on my dissertation. Writing seems (relatively) pleasant by comparison. Not much else to say for now.

Postcards from SF, Day 2 (Marriage Celebration)

Postcards from SF, Day 2 (Hike)

On the day of the wedding, R* and T had arranged a hike, complete with box lunches and string backpacks to carry them in. We went in groups, but at least a couple of the groups met at the top (Hill 88). It was a fairly strenuous hike, but there were some lovely things to see. This is only a small selection of the many photos we took!

Postcards from SF, Day 1 (8/30)

I've been back from R*'s wedding in SF almost a week and haven't managed to make a post, so here's a quick one about the trip.

We had to get up early on Saturday for the flight and were delayed in Minneapolis where we had a connection. Airport CNN made us both gag, being non-stop coverage of McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. Which btw I consider a very scary choice. We finally did make it to SFO though where we succeeded in finding the bride's sister, with whom we were sharing a van to the hostel. This is the view we saw out the door.



It was amazing seeing people from high school, people I hadn't laid eyes on in about a dozen years.



R* and T (the groom and bride) had arranged a bus into town for the rehearsal dinner. On the way over the famous bridge, I tried to snap a picture. Not the best picture ever, but it did come out kind of interesting I thought.



Here are the bride and her two sisters at the restaurant, three graces. I liked her sisters quite a lot, and her too of course. They are such quirky and interesting people all.



Dinner companions. They are so photogenic!!