Monday, November 18, 2013

NaBloNoAtAlMo

Click now for JiffNotes

That's National Blog Not At All Month, which is what I seem to have been following for the past few months. We all know I went to London (and Oxford) for two weeks at the end of August and beginning of September (ooo, look at megalomaniacal me, thinking you all keep up with what I'm doing)--and still haven't bothered to post pictures--muttered something about work being bad--went to a Jane Nicholas class--and made more mutterings about work being bad. That has really been what's been keeping me away from the computer--work, and also this:
 
You are looking at the innards of my Kindle Touch. Its battery died sometime in...September? October? Anyway, I replaced the battery, but in doing so, I knocked a cable loose, which caused it to freeze up randomly. Of course, I didn't know that at the time, so I spent about three weeks figuring out how to "debrick" it (i.e., turn it from a paperweight back into a useful device), running the operator diagnostics on it, and finally taking the entire thing apart in a last-ditch attempt to make it useable before selling it for parts. Well, when I watched the video on taking it apart, I realized how loose the connection is on the cable that's right by the battery, so I fixed it. By this time, of course, I'd already ordered a new Paperwhite. So now Michael has a trusty Kindle of his own. =)

So: Work. Pretty much right when I got back, I was thrust into a project that required all my time and then some. For three weeks in October, the project team was sequestered in a room together and they brought in lunch for us. This culminated with a go-live where we were all up until 2am (fortunately, I was working from home that day). The go-live went off without a hitch! The upside to being holed up in a room all that time was that it protected me from the company's new "noise masking" system. Basically, there's now a constant, loud hiss coming from the ceiling (brown noise, not white noise, if you're interested). IT DRIVES ME INSANE. It was not as loud in the room we were in, but now that I'm back "in the wild," well...let's just say I may not be around there too much longer.

This kind of work stress meant that when I got any free time, I wanted to be outside, away from the computer!! We went to a somewhat cool, somewhat pretentious outdoor art night...
 
...where people danced in urban spaces...
 
tiny dancers are tiny
...became part of the show...
 
...and made artistic statements...
 
This last one was my favorite, actually. It was about people with dementia. The artist would paint with water on the black board, and then sit back down as the memory he'd written faded away. He wouldn't get up again until it was completely gone. I thought it was good art that made you think...unlike the giant milkshake fountain (water colored white) that was supposed to be a commentary on our super-size-me culture. It was just...ugly and uninteresting.

We visited the Botanical Gardens, where the Imaginary Worlds exhibit looked very different from when things were first planted. Earth spirit's hair is grown in...
 
...the bunnies hide in tall grass...
 
...and the frogs have mohawks!
 

We went on a couple hikes. We had gone to Sweetwater Creek State Park, which takes you along Sweetwater Creek...
 
...and by the ruins of a textile mill burned in the Civil War.
 
We took a little picnic lunch...
 
...climbed on the rocks...
 
...and admired the wildlife.
 
When this lovely fella took off, I laughed at all the people with their camera phones capturing blurred dots, because...
 
...zoom lens and adjustable shutter speed FTW!!

The next "hike" was really more of a walk. For some reason we thought we'd be able to drive up somewhere to see pretty leaves the day after my project went live...bwahahaha!! I slept until 11am! So we just went up to walk by the Chattahoochee River near Akers Mill. Stalker heron followed me there.
 
This was a very pretty walk; lots of great moss!
 

I did manage to stitch a little on Friday on my stumpwork piece, but the rest of the weekend I was laid up on the couch. At first I thought I was fighting off a sinus infection, but this feels different. Flu? Random cold? Who knows?! Oh, it's just nonstop excitement here, let me tell you! At least it was a great excuse to watch lots of special features off The Hobbit Blu-Ray. =) Stitching pictures soon!

JiffNotes
I came, I overworked, I got sick. So did my Kindle, but it's better now. Also: Nature!

10 comments:

Jackie's Stitches said...

Wow! You've been buried with work! I'm surprised you wanted to anything more than curl up in bed or rock back and forth on the couch! I'm glad you've found moments in the past few weeks to shake off work.

Chris said...

Wow! Heather, I hope that things are calmer at work and you can enjoy the holiday season. Looks like you have had some great outings.

Richard Rose said...

I was just trying to think where we were while you were in London and Oxford. I think we were in Wales and the southern area of England. We didn't get to Oxford until about mid September.

Annie said...

What an incredibly busy life you lead! So much variety in that blog post. Stress? Yes, but enrichment too!

That noise masking thing sounds crazy. My brother used to use a white noise machine to sleep at night. He got addicted to it.. so beware!

I can't believe how geeky you really are to be able to fix that Kindle. Are you that good as a household handy woman too?

Hope you've recovered from getting sick. You really don't have any time for that!

Julie said...

I am in total agreement with you on Flux Night. This white girl was generally unimpressed. I think Flux Night is for people who ordinarily don't really like art but do like being drunk en-mass on the street.

Marsha said...

I would never think to take a kindle apart, but you're a smart cookie and wired that way. Ooo, Hobbit watching. My daughter and I watched the preview trailer and swooned and giggled when Orlando Bloom showed up. We can't wait to see part two.

Marsha said...

Oh, and the work noise -I get it. I work in a hospital lab where we have lots and lots of medical machines in every dept. there is hissing, belts, and alarms especially going off all the time, not to mention three pneumatic tube systems dropping tubes constantly. It makes us crazy.

Karoline said...

Don't blame you from trying to get as far away from the computers when you could. That night art event sounds good. They do something similar here, I took Rosie this year and she had a blast.

Jo who can't think of a clever nickname said...

These are not photos of London or Oxford!! Waiting patiently...

The heron is great though. As is the moss! I love that you are more excited about the lovely moss than the open air art!

Melanie said...

Beautiful pictures. :)
It's interesting to see the garden again too after some growing time. I definitely remember those cute bush bunnies.
If I took my Kindle apart there is no way it would end up back in one piece. That's all I'm saying.
Also, a noisy noise masker? Yeah. Sounds like the start of sweet, sweet murder to me. (Murder of the machine. Just to be clear.) That's an Office Space movie/printer type thing, yes?

Old Geek-outs