Hello, my name is Sandy. I'm an artist in Perth, Western Australia.

Last night, I dreamt that I was offered a very generous redundancy package. Must have been the spicy Korean BBQ I had for dinner, coupled with my recently-redundified friends flaunting their carefree lifestyles.

When farewells were done with, I had a good long dream-think about what I was to do with the rest of my life. I’m 644 words into my 1500 word essay for school and about a lecture behind in each unit – this working-and-studying thing is proving quite challenging. I dream-decided that I would get a job to stay too busy to piss away my dream-severance pay, but part-time so I’d still have enough room for library school and sport. I’d get eye surgery, advance my mortgage repayments and go for a holiday in Tokyo.

All this put me in quite a mood when I awoke to the worst alarm clock in the world.

I’m not unhappy in my job; I don’t mind the work, I like getting paid, I like being able to afford food and games. But every now and then I feel a little trapped in a web of interdependence and get curious about what would happen if I accidentally stumbled on that big ol’ reset button.

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if the world reset – say, a zombie apocalypse or clash of the Titans. When all the unpleasant shit undead and war stuff blows over, how would our survivors rebuild society? Would they remember what they didn’t like about ‘what it was like before’ and avoid those things, or would they come to grips with the idea of those ‘necessary evils’?

How would they determine worth, social hierarchy, etiquette… Would there be enough people who knew how to hunt, gather and prepare food? If all the needles were destroyed, how would they improvise to make warm clothes for winter?

Would they bother with libraries and web design and essays? And how long before they decide it’s time to improvise some beer?

Damn, I could really go a beer.

Permalink. Posted 30 March, 2011. Tagged: dreams, library course, thinking too much.

My cup is runnething over something chronic this week:

• Finish my tute for one of my school units
• Catch up on reading and tute work for the other unit
• Start on some print work for a mate
• Get some artwork done (I’m feeling stagnant)
• Football football football
• Games games games

And that’s not even all of it, just the headline acts. Thought I might take a break to re-center – revise (and share) some things I’ve learned about how stay motivated in spite of the stress.

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Permalink. Posted 25 March, 2011. Tagged: happiness theory, motivation, thinking too much.

The Tawny Owl is a medium-sized earless owl, stocky in build with excellent directional hearing. They eat mostly rodents, which they swallow whole, but may extend their diet to other birds – including smaller owls. When tending to a hungry nest of owlets, they will occasionally hunt during the day, but are otherwise nocturnal. (source 1) (source 2)

Pictured above is tonight’s Tawny Owl of Feeling Shitty at Technology because I’d planned to catch up on this week’s uni reading, but the Curtin Uni study website is down.

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Permalink. Posted 16 March, 2011. Tagged: bird watching, birds, holidays, old man things, sketches.

Each year I accumulate in my adult life feels like a year’s worth of regression into childhood.

At 12 and 13, I had awful teeth – leftovers from an early life of sweets and neglecting my dentist’s advice. At 14 and 15, I had the worst skin – acne. At 16 and 17, I had braces – yes, I attended my Year 12 formal and got what were supposed to be glamorous photos of my nubileness… with braces.

Big fuckoff metal braces too, because I felt guilty for my parents having to pay for my expensive dental treatment and couldn’t bring myself to choose the more subtle, delicate ones.

That didn’t bother me as much as I expected it to. I guess the skin and early childhood teeth ugliness desensitised me a bit to vanity. What did bother me a lot – and I still bear psychological scars from – was the pain. THE PAIN fresh from the sterile office of the orthodontist.

But I bit down, grinned and bore it; holding onto the idea of having lovely teeth forever after and never needing horrible braces again…

Garrrrrffkkjljljljlkkkkkkkrrrrrr.

The dentist said I have not enough premolars and too many canines. Too many canines because my baby teeth are still in there on the verge of falling out. He said it’s healthier to have a normal set of teeth, so I don’t screw up my bite. So I’ll need implants. And for that, I’ll need braces.

I had a weird dream a few nights ago; dreamt I was 17 again, wondering why I’ve spent all this time thinking I’m a 29 year old working adult when I’m still finishing school. Maybe it’s an omen; a sign that it’s okay to regress into that first-time optimism about this dental affair.

It’s 8-something on a Sunday night. Think I might floss soon.

Permalink. Posted 13 March, 2011. Tagged: beauty, braces, health, memories, teeth.

New plan – to cut back to half-time study so I don’t get smashed by work.

I feel a bit defeated, but I’m reminded of some good advice someone gave me a few years ago:

You don’t have to do everything.

Granted, this was with reference to me killing myself running up and down the field, chasing the football from one opposition player to the next – but I think it applies IRL as well. Week 1 of uni has barely begun and I’m already feeling a ten ton weight on my head. I’m finding it hard to relent on this because I like doing stuff – HEAPS of stuff – and beating the odds. But you know… blah.

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Permalink. Posted 2 March, 2011. Tagged: happiness theory, library course, thinking too much.