Halloween Masks

Having trouble pulling together a halloween costume at the last minute? Click here for some very scary masks that you can print from Forbes.com.

Can a klutz be a potter?

I was busy with other things (trimming, glazing, etc) in pottery class last week & didn't get to throw anything, so I went in on Saturday morning to throw some bowls. My "assignment" from Julie was to throw some bowls that were uniform in size and shape. I laughed out loud and then said of course, I'll give it a shot.

So I did. My results were not great. So here are my excuses: I was working with a new clay, which seemed quite different to work with. Julie said I was ready to upgrade from the recycled clay. Oddly I felt less pressure with the good ole' recycled clay. My other excuse is that I was working in different room. The kids’ class was in the room where I usually work so I couldn't use my favorite wheel. Apparently the combination of the new clay and a different room & wheel completely threw off my mojo.

I glazed some stuff and threw two bowls in class last night. I tried a different shape. They were interesting, but still not great. Someone else was using my wheel, so I had to use a different wheel again. And that new clay was still giving me trouble.

I am not usually a person who resists change. As a rule I embrace it. Apparently that does not apply to pottery.

I wonder if it matters that I am a completely uncoordinated, confused-ambidextrous klutz? Can a klutz be a potter?

Pottery is so different from anything else I've ever done. All of my jobs have involved processes, analysis and quantifiable results with measurable timetables. I have had my creative tendencies through the years, but the analytical part of me has kept a pretty tight rein on the creative part apparently.

So I find myself getting frustrated with pottery at times. I don't know if I'm really getting it. I don't know if I'm wasting my time. If someone would just tell me, it will take XX months for you to really get the hang of it... that would be great. I know it doesn't work that way, but I want it to.

I guess I just hate being so completely new and inept at something. I suppose it's probably good to try new things as you get older - you know, keep the mind fresh and all that.

Ghost Story

A co-worker was put in charge of collecting ghost stories to post on our new intranet. Part of our building was built in 1998 and the rest in 2001. There has long been talk that the "old" part of the building was haunted. For about 5 years, my office was in the old part of the building. I never saw or heard anything and I'm not particularly fond of ghost stories. But I felt bad for the chick in charge of this project b/c she hadn't received any stories, so I zipped one off. Certainly not a literary masterpiece, but I cracked myself up at least with the sort of cheesey, retro style of the story. Anyway, here it is:

I was working in my office late one night on the second floor of the clubhouse -- the OLD part of the building, the part that dates all the way back to ’98. Back to a time when people lived by different rules. Some say the putting green was a native burial ground, some say the pond by the 18th hole was used for dunking suspected witches in the witch trials, some say it was the sight of a bloody Civil War battle where countless young men lost their lives battling their own brothers.

At first I did not believe. I was a skeptic. The fact that no one wanted that nice big, comfy office should have been a clue. But I was too arrogant to notice; I thought Lady Luck was looking out for me. Well, someone was watching me… but it wasn’t Lady Luck. I never admitted it until that night, but I always felt it. And at times I would hear things. I would hear a creak, or a scritch, or a hissing. Sometimes the sounds would get to be too much and I would call Engineering to check it out but they never found anything wrong. They told me the creak was just an old building settling; the scritch, they said, was the magnolia tree blowing in the wind against the building; and they told me the hissing was defective speaker in the a/v system.

All that awful wailing and screeching… they told me THAT was the air conditioning unit. I forced myself to buy into all of their excuses. The fact that the Engineers would never stay for more than two minutes and would ALWAYS come in pairs should have clued me in. But no, I still didn’t believe.

There were other strange things as well. The eyes on that painting. You know the one -- the painting of the young lad dressed in blue knickers. If you’ve ever seen it, especially at night -- you know what I’m talking about. Those eyes. No matter where you went, those eyes were always boring into your soul.

Don’t forget about all the things that went missing… I’m not really comfortable going into any detail, but there were things, big things that disappeared from that second floor accounting office.

But I digress… I was working late. It was dark & cold outside. It was common for me to use the stairs outside on the east side of the clubhouse when leaving, especially at night when there were no golfers. Before putting on my coat and grabbing my keys, I went to the exit door to check the iron gate at the bottom of the stairs. It was usually unlocked, but I didn’t want to chance it. I was squinting in the darkness to see, when I felt a sudden push from behind! I nearly went over the railing, but I grabbed on just in time. I was going to have a nasty bump on my forehead the next day though. I wasn’t sure what to think. I was a little creeped out but tried to convince myself I had just slipped on a piece of paper or something.

I tried the door. It was shut tight and locked from the inside. I was contemplating what to do next. I was wishing I had just brought my coat and keys with me -- I could have just gone straight to my car. All those stories I’d heard about what went on here years and years ago were stirring in my mind.

I would have to use the house phone in the clubhouse lobby and wait for FLS to come unlock my office. Why was there no light in the stairwell anyway?? I shivered in the cold and started to make my way down the stairs in the dark when I heard the metal gate clang shut a half a floor below me. I started to panic. I called out, “Hello??!!” No answer. I was practically running down the stairs when I felt that same push from behind again. I heard what sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard; I saw a flash of amber-colored light, then blackness.

I awoke some time later. Looking at my watch, I realized an hour had gone by. “Wow,” I thought, “this side of the clubhouse is really deserted in the winter after dark.” No one noticed me lying there on the ground at the foot of the stairs for over an hour. I was a still feeling a bit woozy as I pulled myself up on the handrail. I wanted to get the heck out of there. As I was making a beeline for my car, I reached into my coat pocket to make sure my car keys were there.

Uh, hold on… I didn’t have my coat and my keys when I got locked out of the building.

I have no idea what happened that night, but I can tell you that I stay out of the clubhouse at night.

The Office Re-Cut (HILARIOUS)

Halloween Decorations

I'm not big on Halloween. Never have been. Debi wanted some decorations. After my company's fall festival, there were hay & mums & such that were going to be tossed. I brought the stuff home and tossed it in the front yard & threw the kids' pumpkins on the pile. She seems to think its some sort of masterpiece. ??? Anyway, here it is:

Even Adults Can Catch On Fire

Yesterday Amelia went on a field trip to the fire station. She was recounting the trip over breakfast this morning. She told us you have to "get low and go" if there's a fire, so I asked: "why should I get low and go?" Isabel jumped in (as big sisters do) and said "because even adults can catch on fire." What more can you say about that?

Mugs

Went to pottery class last night & picked up my finished mugs. I made a variety of sizes and shapes... still looking for one that speaks to me. Anyway, I promised I would post some pictures of some of my pots so here they are; I'm including a sample of each of the glaze combinations I tried.

Wonder what he did wrong?

Meinem Geburtstag, Teil 2

I went to my sister's house for a belated birthday dinner. Penny & Valerie whipped up a very tasty German dinner (German food & beer is sort of a tradition for my birthday).

The evening started with Amelia & Isabel playing dress-up with some Halloween stuff. Amelia makes a pretty scary witch.

Isabel is not quite as scary, but a cute witch nonetheless.

Lots of good eats: pumpernickel bread, sauerbraten, German potato salad, bratwursts, potato pancakes, sauerkraut, and other tasty treats. Penny & Val really outdid themselves!

It was a great evening! However Val & Steve did get a bit chilly sitting out on the deck as you can see by their contrasting kilts.

We had a few good laughs over the pink, prognosticating, plastic Jesus (3PJ for short) that a friend gave me. It's a pink, plastic statuette of Jesus with a magic eight ball type answer cube built into the bottom. Some of its answers are "not a chance in hell" and "I died for this??".

We also discovered that being a mom has taken it's toll on Debi's ability to tell a dirty joke. She was trying to tell her signature joke for the first time (obviously) in a long time and she started off telling a very unfunny, cleaned-up version. The kicker is that she didn't realize she was telling a cleaned-up version until I pointed it out. I guess it's true that if you don't use it, you'll use it.

She was able to get her act together eventually, so she's still got it. It's just a bit rusty. If you haven't heard Debi tell her Little Red Riding Hood joke, you should.

Click here to view the other pictures on Shutterfly.

Fall Festival

We went to my company's annual fall festival on Saturday. I was on the committee, so I helped plan & execute the event. It was a lot of work, but it was a fun event for the adults and kids. Here are a few pictures of Isabel and Amelia enjoying the festival. They had a great time (but when don’t they?). They said they especially enjoyed the scavenger hunt.

Glazed

I glazed 20 mugs and a couple of bowls last night. Hope they all turn out OK. I took my test tiles home last week so I could become one with them. Glad I did. I decided which glazes I wanted to use which saved me a lot of time standing around in the studio scratching my head. It still took quite some time to glaze everything. By the end of the night, I was beat.

Birthday

I had a great birthday weekend! Here are the highlights:

• Went to Isabel’s Parent-Teacher conference (which was a very happy occasion)
  
• Went to a great pottery sale where I saw a lot of impressive work and met some interesting people
  
• Went to our good friends’ kid’s 1-year old birthday party


• Had some of my most favorite meals (waffles, tortellini all vodka, buffalo chicken & shrimp, bourbon barbecue shrimp w/ sweet potato fritters)


• Watched football (Dolphins lost L, but at least the Saints won J last night) all day yesterday
  But best of all, spent a wonderful day with my lovely wife and my sweet kids (Penny & Mark stopped by too)


• I got lots of hugs and kisses, some pottery (of course), Stephen Colbert’s new book and the kids both made me tye-die t-shirts (which I love).

Here are the signs Isabel had taped to my CHAIER (that’s how we say it in the South) when I came to the table for breakfast Sunday morning.

The Barn Sale

We went to the Carolina Claymatters Guild's annual Barn Sale on Monroe Road in Charlotte on Saturday. It was a beautiful day for a pottery sale. The day started off cool enough for a long-sleeved shirt and the sun was shining brightly. Later in the day it turned warm, but not too hot.

I was impressed with the work I saw. It's amazing that such a wide variety of beautiful pots can all start off with the same lump of clay. I saw my usual pottery buddies there: Jen, Ron, Julie, Amy, Corine, and I finally met Greg and Adrienne in person. I am impressed by their work, as always.

We didn’t have the time to visit with every potter at length and we had to rush by some booths that were crowded but there were a few things that caught our eyes:

• First, we met Robert Hovis, who digs his own clay in Lincoln County – I know some potters do it, but this is the first person I’ve met who does it.
• Debi got quite a kick out of buying a turtle (Amelia’s “symbol” at school) from Deann Segal (Over the Hill Clay Studio in Rock Hill).
• She loved Robin Gail Beckett’s purple glazes (Debi is a maniac for purple and you don’t see a lot of purple glazes for some reason).
• Debi bought our first hand-made plate from Kathy Jones. It was a simple affair, with a nice lip (to keep your peas from running off your plate) in a mostly solid deep green. Just the kind of plate I might make if I could make plates.
• We were both very impressed with Roger Strom’s glazing technique – he sprays on his glazes, with the pot on the wheel which results in a very delicate and beautifully blended banding effect in mostly blue & green – MOST interesting.
• Then we bought a coffee mug from Valerie Hawkins (for my brother-in-law, Mark). Most of her pieces have the white clay body showing on the outside, with very delicate leaf imprints, with black glaze in the little grooves, on the rim and inside. The black & white effect was quite striking.
• I was very impressed by Fred & Debbie Rust’s (Rust Pottery) work, but unfortunately, I didn’t get much time to examine it. The short time I spent in their booth (in the Barn), I was blinded by the light shining in between some beams. I will have to check them out more carefully next time.
• We bought another mug for Mark from Doris Thomas (the Mudd Dabbler). Mark said he wanted big mugs with big handles, which would accommodate his entire hand. Doris has the biggest, most accommodating handles I’ve ever seen. The form of the mug was quite nice and she had glossy glazes in a variety of colors. We chose one that was a blue and dark red/maroon. Turns out, this was Penny’s & Mark’s favorite. I was just thinking, the Mudd Dabbler sounds a bit like a superhero (or super villain) name, doesn’t it?
• Then I saw Gary Rubin’s (Potluck Pottery) booth, down on the end, in the Barn. All of his work was nice, but there was one mug in particular that called to me from across the room. It wasn’t so much the form or the handle (Debi thought the mug was too big) but it was the glaze. It had a matte finish and was mostly a light mottled brown w/ some other glazes lightly applied (brushed on I would guess) in just a couple of strategic locations for a dramatic effect. I didn’t buy it, but I should have. I don’t think Clayworks has a brown, matte finished glaze like that – bummer.

We picked up a brochure for the Carolina Pottery Festival at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds on 11/10. Hopefully we can go to that and see some of these potters and more.

Selling Pots Online?

I am taking the day off from work today (a little birthday present for myself) and one of the things I'm doing with my day is putzing around the internet, looking at various art/pottery stuff. The sheer volume of information on any one topic available on the internet still amazes me. I could make a full-time job out of reading pottery blogs and visiting potters' websites & online galleries. Anybody willing to pay me to do that?

Anyway, one of the artists I visited was selling her stuff on this website called Etsy (Etsy sounds like a nickname for Etta Belle) -- "your place to buy & sell all things handmade." It looks like a pretty cool place to sell stuff online without having to go through the hassles of setting up your own online store.

Seems better than eBay because it's not an auction (you set the price) and people who shop on Etsy are obviously looking for quality, handmade items. Also seems like it would expose your work to a lot of potential new customers.

They give you your own web address. You can customize your Etsy page so it has the look & feel you want (presumably you could make it match your website/blog so the transition from one to the other is seamless). There's no charge for setting up the website, I think you just pay for the items you list.

Anyway, if you've wanted to try selling some of your pots (or other handmade items) online, but didn't know where to start - maybe this is a good place.

Here's the link to Etsy's homepage: http://www.etsy.com/index.php.

Here'a a link to one artist's Etsy store that I was checking out: www.oneblackbird.etsy.com.

I'd be interested in knowing if anyone decides to give it a try. Let me know.

Geez, I sound like a commercial for Etsy, don't I? Maybe they should pay me a commission.

The Hotel Biz

If any of you have ever wondered what I do for living - this is a fairly accurate representation.

(FYI - this video clip is about 10 minutes long)

I AM a fan

I'm sure I will get a LOT of grief for this, but I am a die-hard fan.

Bowls, Pies and Blogs

I did not get around to glazing anything in class last night. I got all of my bisqued pieces waxed (so I can start glazing first thing next week), then we discussed our new test tiles. My favorite: white over mystic moss. My least favorite: mystic moss over warm jade. Then I threw a couple of bowls. I've been concentrating on mugs and handles lately so I hadn't thrown any bowls in quite some time. It was good to throw a bowl for a change. And it seemed to flow more easily than I remember. Maybe it's good to take a break from a form.

Blogs are a funny thing... I read the entry about Elaine Spallone's blog on Jen's blog just a day or two ago. Then last night at class Shari was making a pot that looked sort of like a really big pie dish, which prompted Julie to tell us about a friend who made a huge apple pie. I said: "oh yeah, Jen's friend Elaine made that huge apple pie - I saw the picture on her blog." Then an hour or so later, I actually met Elaine Spallone at the studio.

Maybe it's not so funny; maybe you had to be there.

Americana

Has anyone tried this new joint in Pineville called The Americana? A friend sent me this link, but I've heard no personal recommendations. It sounds like a cross between Hard Rock Cafe and Cracker Barrel. I like the idea of a casual venue that always has some interesting live music. I'll be interested in hearing a first-hand account.

Happy Birthdays and Mondays

A crazy busy week last week. I barely remember it.

I have pottery class tonigt so I'm thinking about what I did last week and what I'll do tonight. I put handles on some mugs. I'm pretty sure they were the worst handles ever made by someone over the age of 5. Oy vey. It was the first time in 2-3 months I made a handle and apparently I was quite rusty.

I glazed my test tiles too. I'm excited to see those as I tried some new combinations and I hope to glaze my mugs tonight. Only one class left after this one. Man, the time flies. I think 6 weeks is too short - I want to do a longer class next time if I can.

Went to dinner on Saturday night for Debi's birthday. All the best people came. A few good ones had to stay behind w/ their kids (we were all with all of our usual babysitters). Luckily a good friend of mine from work was able to watch my kids.

We went to the Cajun Queen on 7th Street in Charlotte. We enjoyed it a lot. It was an old house (with not much parking). It had a good bit of character (reminds me a little of the original Garden Cafe). The tiny little bar and the dining area on the 2nd floor were quite noisy but we were on the new patio, so we didn't have to contend with noise. I was expecting more of a dive, so I was pleasantly surprised. But it's definitely not a quiet, romantic sort of place either. The food was very good. Pretty darn close to authentic New Orleans food.

I only did one stupid thing the entire night. When the bill came, I added on the standard 18% - 20% tip, not realizing they had automatically included it. DOH. Debi mentioned after we got on the freeway. Can't believe I fell for that one (especially in my line of work). So the server got a REALLY good tip. I might be steamed if it were lousy service, but the service was top notch and we did have a great time, so it's all good.

Mondays should just be removed from the week. Can we replace them with something else? I actually was in a good mood this morning (for a Monday). I was all chipper, with a spring in my step and a song in my heart. I went out of my way to be friendly and to assist others.

But Monday Karma paid me back by crashing my computer and hosing my network connection to the server in the corporate office. I have spent at least 30% of my day waiting for something to load and/or re-booting my computer. There are other things I could gripe about but I'll spare you.

Anyway, lots of birthdays -- Debi (this is it babe, the official end of your bday period), Finn, Matt, Zack, Brandy, Collin, Brent, Jeff, Kelly, Rick, Brian, Joe, Me. Wow, I know a lot of cool people who are Libras. Happy Birthday to us all!

The simple truth about aging

Opera anyone?

I’m always intrigued by the world around me. Here's a new intrigue for me - Opera.

I’ve never really thought I liked it, but I realized I’ve never really tried it. I don’t want to be like the guy in Green Eggs and Ham, ya know?

Maybe it's just the death of Luciano Pavarotti that got me thinking more about it. I just found out opera season starts soon. I think I'm going to drag Debi to an Opera. Anyone else game?

The good news is that they have cheap seats (as cheap as $15). So, maybe I'll be in the nose-bleed section behind a column. Who cares? It will give me a chance to check it out without paying a bundle.

Below is a list of upcoming Opera Carolina performances. I haven't decided which one I want to try first. Anyone have any thoughts or recommendations?

Roméo et Juliette
October 18, 20 & 21, 2007

Aida
January 31, February 1, 2 & 3, 2008

Amahl & the Night Visitors
December 22, 2007

Don Giovanni
March 27, 29 & 30, 2008

Die Fledermaus
May 1, 3 & 4, 2008

Love Notes
February 16, 2008

A window...

http://play.blogger.com/

Shortly after Blogger launched photo uploading two years ago, one of our engineers whipped up a web page that would show us the pictures that were being uploaded in real time. The result was fun, often beautiful, but above all, compelling. We couldn’t stop watching.

Over the years we’ve kept this photo scroller as part of the Blogger offices, on a monitor or projector, as an interesting (distracting?) slideshow, and a reminder of the diversity and vivaciousness of Blogger blogs. The fame of the scroller spread within Google, until one day we were asked, “so, when are you launching this?”

“Um...,” we replied. But we knew a good idea when we heard one. We got our UI people to come up with buttons and fadey effects and we got our engineers to make the whole thing fast and robust. A bit of work later, and now we can share it with all of you: http://play.blogger.com/
Blogger Play will show you a never-ending stream of images that were just uploaded to public Blogger blogs. You can click the image to be taken directly to the blog post it was uploaded to, or click “show info” to see an overlay with the post title, a snippet of the body, and some profile information about the blogger who uploaded it.