Good morning. Hello. How are you? #1128
New Kacey Musgraves, the mysterious world of being at the front of the school dropoff line, using Illustrator for the first time in forever, Walmart run, found a spring
Good morning. Hello. Friday. God. Thank god. Rough week. I am so tired. I have today off, but I also don’t really get today off. Shame. But it will still be quieter, so I can get some work done, so that is good. And Jane’s not sick! Welllllll…. she’s not as sick and she really wanted to go to school and she promised if she did cough she would cough into her elbow so I took her to school. She was so excited, we were ninth in line to get into the school. In your face, G Wagon lady. Getting there early was very exciting because I got to observe the detailed mechanics of how the line starts and how the kids get in, etc. Those kids want to get into the school so bad. They are all grouped up at the door, and one kid is, like, swinging on the door handle like a monkey or some shit. And the parents? I mean, the second that door unlocks, and the kids start filing in, all eight cars in front of me were just out of there. Those people have places to be. Jane loved it, though, she was in the middle of all the kids doing her happy hands and bouncing up and down with excitement to get into the school.
Really was something.
Listening to the new Kacey Musgraves album, Deeper Well, out today. It is, you will be happy to hear, way better than the first single. Actually it’s kind of an amazing, mellow, alt country folkish album in the style of Plains or The Highwomen. It is good. I am excited. Especially fond of “Jade Green.” I have four more tracks but honestly even if they are garbage we got 9 solid ones, so I am happy. Thank you for delivering in the end, Kacey. I should never have doubted you.
I was in this sort of liminal, between-phases work state yesterday where I had to sit still, waiting out a gap after one storm and before the next. And so I decided to get away from my computer, cuz I was getting antsy and I did my Walmart run on a Thursday, mid day. It was far more busy than Walmart at 8 AM on Friday, my usual time, but way less crowded than same time Friday. The remodel is a mess, getting worse, was not done “this month” last month, so I guess I’ll just have to endure this until the “grand reopening” in May. I found two of the Sterilite bins that had disappeared for a while, that my workshop storage system relies on, so that is good. The Quaker Oats Squares recall has not yet worked itself out. There is still no Caffeine Free Diet Mt Dew but I suppose I need to renew my efforts to get Aspertame out of my life after the newest research once again confirms the stuff is garbage.
I also stopped at the other grocery store because Walmart has tried to bait and switch me on my organic peanut butter, swapping in the natural peanut butter, from the same brand. They are two different SKUs, the organic is obviously healthier but also maybe 20% more expensive. But Walmart just got rid of the Organic and upped the price on the Natural and hoped you wouldn’t notice. Nefarious! But you can’t fool this 70’s mom diligent price conscious shopper, no siree. I see you, Walmart.
So while I was at the other grocery store, there was this woman, maybe close to 70 years old, spitting image of Judi Dench, but specifically Judi Dench in her role in the Fast and Furious series. Like this lady was in black, head to toe, miniskirt, and black patent leather, thigh-high boots. In her 70’s, at the Lowe’s Foods in Chatham County, NC, Thursday afternoon. Shit yeah. I aspire to such greatness.
Yesterday I endeavored to use Adobe Illustrator for the first time in, oh, twenty years. Thirty years. Something like that. And, man, I am still confused about some things. I get the two arrow pointers, mostly. Except I still can’t, like, select the point in a line and move a single point to change the angle of a line. I am so dumb. But the thing that really gets me is text manipulation. I just want to be able to do two things that are mind-numbingly easy in Keynote:
I want to be able to click on a text box, and then press some single key on the keyboard to “insert” the cursor into the text box so I can edit the text without having to click on it again in a very specific place. Because my text boxes are very small. And it is a pain to zoom in to the point where the text box is big enough to click into it. I feel like there has to be a key command for this, but a survey of the Illustrator key commands on the Adobe website seems to indicate there isn’t. Which would just be insane.
I want to be able to make, like, a blue text box with white text in it, without making two separate boxes. This also feels like it absolutely has to be possible but for the life of me I cannot find a setting for it, even after watching two different tutorial videos.
I feel so dumb not being able to figure out how to do these things. When I was 20 or so, I got into “the biz” because I just learned every command there was in every desktop publishing app, took a test at a placement agency (love you forever Aquent fka Mactemps), passed with flying colors, and starting getting jobs. I had zero portfolio really. Maybe a few rave flyers. But learning the apps was easy. You could just poke around and figure it out. Can the kids still do this? Have I gotten old and impatient and dumb? Or have the apps gotten infinitely more complex? I wonder if there is graph somewhere of the total number of commands and settings in Illustrator, mapped over time from 1990 to 2024. I bet the app is… 5x more complex? 10?
Even so, I bet both are true. It’s more complex and am getting dumber (callback to previous GMHHAY insert link here).
Anyway, I did this because I am slowly turning my attention to the attic studio, and I do not have an accurate floorplan, and I will need permits, and since I sprung for a structural engineer, I can give him the plans, he can sign off on them, and the county has to approve them, basically. Plus I need to get a lighting plan to the electrician so we can do whatever electrical we need to before the pray foam goes in. I have a floorplan that came with the house, but it isn’t real, it’s a made-up room that you could put in the attic one day. So I have to make one from scratch.
I should suck it up and learn something like SketchUp right now and do this whole thing in 3D. It may come to that. But right now, I am starting the way I know how. In 2D. Anyone ever done any major remodel or build and make a whole structure in SketchUp? I assume I can take 2D floor plans and put em into SketchUp down the road? I don’t even know if SketchUp is the way to go. I don’t know what I’m doing here. On the YouTube videos, these people always start their DIY projects by being all like “so I did this full 3D render and now I am ready to get started” and I… just… Well, I don’t know how to do that. I haven’t used a 3D app for, like, thirty years or something.
I would like to go on the record and state that the purchase of six or so very cheap back scratchers and sprinkling them throughout the house was one of the most brilliant things I have ever done and I cannot recommend such a move strongly enough.
Okay anyway, couple hours of work today then weekend funtimes, so much exciting gardening stuff. Plant the second rows in all of the greenhouse beds (going for succession planting this year on things like the carrots and lettuce), connect up the data finally, maybe trench the rest of the way to the pump house for the Cat6 cable.
And we have friends visiting yay!
Oh! Emma found a spring! On our property! She stuck a PVC pipe in it and pure spring water is bubbling out like the oil did on the opening credits of Beverly Hillbillies. It is amazing. I think we need to get this water tested. Very exciting.
Here. Check out this lovely, mellow, moody track from the new Kacey album. It is one of the nicer ones on there. The album is done now. It got better toward the end. I am happy.
I hope your weekend is just ducky see you Monday.
i, too, am happy with the new Kacey. it would have been nice for the actual record to arrive today but i can wait until wednesday. her music always feels like sunday mornings to me.