2/1/12 Resolution Post

January- Nutrition: I did not finish my January resolution! I tried three of five new recipes. Trader Joe's didn't have any spinach, and then I didn't really want to try Black Bean Brownies in case they took all day and came out gross. But, I managed the part of my resolution wherein I took supplements and (mostly) didn't miss meals. This is the postcard I sent to Hershey, PA for the postmaster to postmark and remail. I sent it as a line drawing and was going to paint it if I succeeded in my resolution, but I need more colors in my January so I painted it anyway. 

 Next up: February- Yoga. I had a hard time drawing this since classic yoga postures look generic to me and I didn't have a model to make it fresh. I drew a pretty fair imaginary half moon pose- the toes are planted in the actual posture, but it looks more like a moon to have them pointed. It is going to Half Moon Bay, CA, for its postmark. I think this is the only postmark I'm sending off for this year that will be from a town I've visited. HMB is pretty, like everything on the 1, and I believe it does not have a craft store or art store.

I managed several minutes of yoga this morning by running a hulu beginner's yoga video in the background while I got ready for my passport photo. Putting on nice clothes and doing simple makeup took a long time since I'm not used to it any more. 

One week down

So far I do not like working for the USPS. This comes as a surprise, because I am very good at enjoying things and I love the USPS. But the Hayward main post office is not like a club for philatelists and deltiologists (that's postcards) and artists who are together manifesting a mail art renaissance. It is much more like everyone is pushing carts around in a big hurry all day.

I am the youngest person there, and am one of five custodians. I sincerely and wholeheartedly expected to enjoy my stewardship of the Hayward USPS premises. I do not know why I spent the entire week counting minutes and clicks (the post office is on 24 hour time and each hour is marked in hundredths. I like thinking about clicks elapsed but minutes remaining, to make it seem faster. my arithmetic is improving a bit) until I could go and sit in traffic.

I like sweeping, and I like mopping, and I like wiping things down. I like not having any customers and I like wearing the polish off my boots. I like having coworkers. I have been trying to work out what I don't like, and I guess it is that I feel insecure and like I have no one to talk to. Everyone is busy, and no one is new, and no one is young. I don't want to go into some of the offices I am supposed to police because the doors are closed and I don't want to bother anyone.

January Resolution Update

My January resolution was to focus on nutrition. I'm halfway through January, and have made half of the recipes I planned to try. But, I have not been buying the groceries that make me feel energetic, light, and healthy, like nutritional yeast and coconut oil and couscous. 

I gave blood the other day and my iron is high (this was a nice surprise, since I have had trouble keeping it up in the past) but so is my blood pressure. I am not going to worry about that since I didn't do any prep like skipping caffeine or calming down. Still, it is a good call for proper stewardship of my body. 

I was sooo excited when this arrived.

  It's my resolution postcard arrived from Hershey, PA. Every month I am going to make a postcard representing my resolution, and mail it to the postmaster of a town with a relevant name, so he or she can mail it back to me with their local postmark. 

The only reason for this is it gives me something fun to do at the start of the month to kick off the resolution, then it gives me something to look forward to for two weeks, and then when it arrives it reminds me to stick to my resolution.

This resolution is too gradual and easy for the short timeline of a month of focus, so I am changing it a bit. I will still make the remaining healthy recipes, but I will also eat a little bit of protein every morning and pack myself good & balanced bentos for work. I got my bento book out of my storage unit, and I am excited! 

New Artistamps

Artistamps are little works that mimic postage stamps. Sometimes they are issued for a nation of the artist's own design. This little set are experiments that explore US postage, informed by the USPS. 

The top left is from a stamp collecting catalog. I carefully cut out the printed perforation and the printed subject. Now they are a pair of frames, to suggest that anything they frame is a forever stamp. The top right is made from a business reply envelope. I like that the security houndstooth suggests perforations as well as the barcode that makes zazzle stamps (custom printed legal postage) usable. I love that barcode- if custom stamps didn't have a horrendous barcode I would have purchased hundreds by now. As for the rest of the artistamps, the blue ones are from a stamp I carved to plant as a letterbox. The mammoth is drawn on a gutter (blank square from the corner of a sheet of stamps) that is partly machine perforated and finished off with my hand perforations. The tin man is drawn on the back of a USPS forever stamp.

I am pretty excited about the tin man stamp. As far as I know, I have just invented using legal postage as a base for imaginary postage. On an envelope the artistamp becomes a secret, but  a clear postcard displays both the legal and the fictional postage.

 Here are both sides of the stamp, and here is the extremely awesome Kansas Statehood commemorative stamp. I just want to use these for everything. The colors are so fresh and bold.

These are for a swap, so I packaged them up safe in a glassine envelope taped to a clear postcard. 

Portholes for the Sub

Today I worked a little on my car. I thought the next step was a second coat of gold, so I didn't want to spend the money until I found work. And then I got a gift certificate from Blick for Christmas. But I didn't spend anything after all, because when I was evaluating the car today I decided the next step was some portholes fashioned after the stained glass rose windows you get in cathedrals, and ended up making them with things I had on hand.  

 The silver one is sharpie, and the copper one is vinyl. I had never used a French curve before and it was easy to get the hang of.

Getting the copper one onto the glass was super hard. I started at the left corner and everything got all broken and tangled. I put it right but it's still wrinkly. I am afraid they just look like designs rather than like windows, because there is no light streaming through them. They look very much like windows from inside. 

I must have spent ten hours of my life just thinking of names for this thing. I think there might not be anything to call it. Some things are like that. I know it's a super-terra, but it has been since Nissan made the blank. (That is what plain action figures are called before you paint them, and I invented calling cars that before they get art on them, because I have the hang of words.)  And of course I've got to name it myself. Maybe this is why, against probability, boats have all got the worst name. 

2012 Resolutions

This year I am setting monthly resolutions. I read that this is a good way to get a lot done. I'll use some months to set new practices in place that in theory will continue past their designated month. Other months are self contained. Last year I did my resolutions faithfully until May. A net gain, and also a failure. To keep on track this year, so that my last 7 monthly goals get a chance, I am doing something kind of finicky with mail, called remailing:

At the 1st of a new month, I will sit down with my resolution and write it and draw it on the front of a postcard. Then on the back of the postcard I will put my own address, and draw a little calendar of the month. Then I will put this postcard into an envelope and address that to the postmaster of a US town with a relevant name. From what I've read, this will get the postcards postmarked with that town's name. I am not sure this is correct, because letters posted in my town get the postmark of the mail sorting center, not the town, but I am willing to try it. And every day I will yearn for the postcard to turn up, and that will keep me on track to completing my goal. When it does turn up, I can record my daily progress on the calendar I've drawn.

January: Learn to cook new healthy foods. Focus on having very balanced nutrition.
Hershey, PA

February: Practice yoga every day. Learn about yoga resources or theory.
Half Moon Bay, CA

March: Go on an adventure.
Globe, AZ

April: TBD
Truth or Consequences, NM

May: Wake up at sunrise, because it is sunrise.
Morning Sun, IA

June: Take time to meditate every day. Do not learn any more meditation theory.
Bliss, NY

July: Swim! Swim until I am worn out, until I can't get out of the pool without using the ladder.
Neversink, NY

August: Spend 40 hours on my current artwork. (track hours)
Paint Lick, KY

September: Be a better global citizen. Conserve resources, share wealth, pay attention to what is happening to everyone.
Blue Earth, NM

October: Take ice skating lessons.
Snowflake, AZ

November: Practice cello 20 hours.
Stringtown, OK

December: Submit JET app.
Satsuma, AL

This method does not seem to promise the wonderful cumulative effect of working on something consistently for a year.

One of the job boards I check is the one the unemployment office referred me to, caljobs. I lost my caljobs password, and I forgot my security question answers.^ I know I haven't forgotten my first car or the job I wanted when I was a kid, so maybe I am capitalizing differently. I feel like it's rude for the unemployment job board to ask about my dream job. Anyway, the website was down tonight so I felt free to hang out on the swap bot website.

I haven't looked at who is sending to me in the Christmas Card and a Teabag Swap but I thought they might be international since I haven't gotten anything and domestic mail is the quickest (On swap bot the swaps are a round robin or random or something- you don't exchange things with a partner). I sent three cards to the US, one to Finland, and one to the UK. I planned not to look at my senders, so as to be surprised, but I am glad I looked because now I can anticipate mail from the US, Spain, Thailand, Australia, and the Czech Republic.

I was reading my senders' profiles, not for any reason, and two of them stated really strongly that they don't accept unwrapped tea bags. I read all the profiles of the folks I sent unwrapped tea bags to, and none prohibited unwrapped bags so everything is fine, but I feel bad because I have changed my perspective re the appropriateness of unwrapped tea bags. Factory wrapped is the way to send tea to strangers. I was just so excited to share the seasonal Trader Joe's Candy Cane Decaf Green Tea. It is so good. It tastes a little bit like a candy cane and not really like green tea. I guess I don't know what it tastes like. It is my favorite flavored tea, and last year I never stocked up and I had to hoard my last box for months and when I had used it up I didn't throw away the box until I moved. I just kept the box in my cupboard-- it has a narwhal on it whose horn has an ornament tied on with string-- and when offering tea to guests I would point it out.

I have a new project in mind and pretty international stamps will help it lots. The project is a stamp collecting album dollhouse book, made from a dozen oil paintings. The stamps will fill picture frames and so on. I have got as far as ripping the pages out of a book and drawing bricks on the spine and back cover.

^Okay, I figured it out. I made a super hard password to spite the uber demanding password requirements. So, that will show caljobs. Like, it said my password had to include characters from 3 sets, but wouldn't accept my password until I added a character from a fourth set. It was at the limits of my password generating abilities, and people who are a lot less computer literate than I are relying on this service.