FACT 150 – akemashite~

well well well, we’ve all made it to 2010, have we? or at least, most of us have. the (great?) MJ and the (actually great) peter jennings notwithstanding, most of us seem to have woken up ready for the aughts to end and the teens to begin. (^_^) my new year brought with it the validity of my vendor’s license and the joy of tax-exempt sales! i taped it up to my wall right above my bookbinding goods. so i can feel special, that’s why! apparently it worked, since i’ve made two books so far today. i went to the store and made my first tax-exempt sale, so i felt all kinds of special. (^_^) the new year brought my brother a bit of fancy as well. that, my friends, is one of those fancy YUDU machines. now, i’ve heard that a few hardcore screen printers are getting their panties all in a bunch because it doesn’t require a super committment to utilize, brings their tidy little craft to the masses, etc whatever. just the way i feel about that silly letterpress gadget. and just like that silly letterpress machine, i think The Masses will find that it does not bring mass production of fine quality goods into their kitchens or living rooms or whatever. the letterpress thing has plates that crack, a relatively small press area, and does indeed take a bit of practice on in order to pull good prints off of. same with the YUDU. in fact, michael and i are still on a learning curve with the whole emulsion process. (^^;) it /is/ fun, though. our first several attempts super failed, but after narrowing down the problem to a screen that wasn’t totally dry and a faucet that does not generate cool water (the water it /does/ generate is so hot it was melting the emulsion right off the screen) we seem to have gotten a general hold on things. (^_^) in other news, i realized the other day that it had only been two weeks since my graduation ceremony. i believe i may have mentioned this? well yesterday i got to make it official. i was filling out a survey for the army of women thing (a breast cancer research thing, for those unacquainted among us) and there was a question asking what my highest level of completed schooling was: I GOT TO CLICK THE COLLEGE GRADUATE BUTTON!!! OH yeah! (^_^) i was so happy, i took the above screenshot. there was a trending topic on twitter (ttttttt) for new years about what we were all doing #10yearsago, and i realized that exactly 10 years ago, i had just finished my very first quarter of college. this year, i have just finished my very last quarter of college. that? makes me damn happy. (^_^) every time i think about this stuff, i grin like an idiot. (^_^) if i put one more smiley emoticon in this post, it may explode. (^_^) huh. guess not. (^_^) the other thing i’m doing with my time this year is writing. i mean, a lot. over on dA, i’ve joined the #LITplease group, and they’re running a tri-part contest to celebrate their opening, so i definitely have to enter that (theme: HELP WANTED). then i heard about this rockin’ fiction forum called the rookery and i thought, with a name like that it’s gotta be awesome! so i joined that, and now i’m about to fall off the cliff into their january challenge (theme: uh, actually no theme, but we’ve been paired up for a collaborative experience). and then i caught wind of this thing called the Art House Co-op. they’re running… well, actually, they’ve got a bunch of projects all going on at once, but the one i’ve signed up for is the Fiction Project, where they send you a moleskine cahier, you fill it up with Story, and then you send it back to them. the subsequent collection gets put on the shelves at the brooklyn art library, as well as a gallery hop or two. i was like, yes please! so i signed up for that, too. so, that’s two (hopefully short) stories due before the end of this month, and one that’s due not too long after that. yikes! … okay, seriously, when i write it out like that, it’s kind of scary! good thing one of those This Month stories is with somebody else. in fact, i’ve got to go reply to that Somebody Else’s forum PM! the post where they paired us up was… um, slightly odd? so i’m hopeful. this is gonna be awesome! ~meredeth. -is contemplating a new website design. .

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.