If I try to get certain things done during lunch, I have a much better quotient of completion. Reading books during lunch has successfully finished a few novels this season. I wondered what else I could apply my lunch time toward accomplishing, and I've turned to drawing.

I've been trying to learn how to draw for a while now, and it's with Katy Coope's book that I have finally become at least partially successful. But I really need to practice if I'm really going to be any good at it. So I've started drawing during lunch.

Using the techniques in the book, I've started pencil drawing and inking during lunch. I'll take my supplied to Burger King (or wherever), spread my stuff out on a table, and start to draw while (or after) I eat.

I've gotten familiar with some of the tools of drawing. For instance, I now know which pencil is softer between a 6B and a 2B. I know that I prefer to draw with an HB pencil. I'm slowly learning which pens are best for inking which parts. Kneadable erasers rock.

I've gotten myself a little circle stencil that I wish was more compact. This makes it faster to draw the basic circles for the head and body parts. If I try to draw the circles myself, they come out all "flat" on one side, and I end up fixing them for a long time to get them perfect. So I've conceded to this one thing that feels like cheating.

I need to try drawing some more faces at an angle. I actually haven't completed a full head yet that isn't looking at you straight on. Soon enough, though, I'll have perfected the straight-ahead look, and will be yearning for the more difficult angled heads.

I've drawn a lot more than what I show here (this is just one page of drawings), but I'm too lazy to scan it and don't want to give away all of my progress. Maybe when I get a few good pieces going, I'll start putting images online regularly. The drawing of the girl from Subway yesterday looked like it was going to be good, but I somehow made her body too wide, and she looks a little strange. Oh, well, there's plenty of paper to try again.

This is an old video I found in my downloads folder. It's a humorous (ficticious) exchange between a veteran help-desk employee and a new trainee, who is learning the ropes on his first day.

"Has it booted up? No, sir, don't kick your computer..."

On Sunday, the five of us (me, Berta, Abby, Mom, and Nana) went into Philly to see Alegria, one of the touring Cirque Du Soleil shows. This marks my fifth unique Cirque show, having seen "O", La Nouba, Dralion, and Varekai.

The show was as good in performance as any of the other shows. All of the performers were the best at their craft. The "manipulation" act was my favorite. It was a single performer who started with one of those ribbons that flows through the air. She then started to do some amazing things with silver-colored hula hoops. My describing the performance is not doing it much justice, but at one point she had one hoop on her ankle (her foot extended outward), one around her waist, and two on each wrist. If you look at the picture I've included from the program (we weren't allowed to take pictures during the show) you might be able to guess that she often contorted herself with hoops whirling about her ankles in that manner.

Otherwise, I think I have seen too many of these shows. It's neat when you can be amazed by something new, and terrible when you've seen it so many times that it nearly becomes commonplace. I was disappointed not to see the russian bars act, since that would have been something new. The strong man act was new, but wasn't too impressive. He did toss a few heavy weights around blindfolded, which I think I may become more impressed with if I let my impressions stew longer.

In this show, the contortion act went on far too long. As I was commenting to my mom, after you see her look at you with her head twisted backward between her knees, what more twisting does she really need to show you?

There was something else amiss in this show, too. I think that Alegria is the oldest show we've seen, since it's been running for over 10 years. As such, it hasn't had the benefit of tuning itself to the audience in its design. That's odd to say since you'd think if it has been running so long that they would have tuned it quite well. But I think they architect the choreography and story well in advance, and don't change it too much while the show is playing. The other newer shows have the benefit of seeing the strengths of Alegria and working with them.

Alegria's theme wasn't as strong as the other shows. Granted, most of the themes of the other shows are pretty obscure or simple, but I couldn't follow a thread in Alegria. And their clowns... Usually, I don't mind the clowns in The Cirque du Soleil. But I couldn't fathom the clowns in this show. Some of the acts were simply not funny or understandable. Maybe I don't get the French phrasing of their humor. Oh well.

Well, the trip was nice and in spite of any of my complaints, the show was well performed. It's always nice to get out under the big top and see what new magic the Cirque Du Soleil has to offer.

I'm not sure what we're going to do yet tonight. It's a gaping hole of entertainment opportunity that I will probably squander. Although I really feel like a nice hamburger grilled at home. Maybe I can convince Dave to pack up his fight sticks and come over to play DOA3. We could even use the gift card Dan gave me for my birthday to get some badly needed controller extension cords. Finally, something worthy of the gift card.

Tomorrow is another thing. I'm running D&D tomorrow, assuming the Earth doesn't end. I'm optimistic for the Earth not ending and so I should probably finish writing up the story for tomorrow's game. This game has been interesting in the planning stages because in spite of not having each night's events planned out in advance, each step of the adventure has long before been scripted.

Tomorrow's game night takes adventurers to the exotic locale of the backwoods of Cormyr, where a rope bridge awaits them. Do they cross it? Do they fall it? How many of the PCs have boots of Levitation and Spiderclimb? Will the hordes of people and orcs do anything to stop them from crossing the bridge? Who knows?! Find out tomorrow in the continuing adventures of... The Onyx Mirror.

We'll probably have to shop for Jen's birthday gift tomorrow, too, since Sunday will be pretty tight. Maybe we could even do that tonight if Dave doesn't want to play video games. Or if Berta doesn't want us to play video games. Hmm.

Ok, so Sunday is going to be interesting. We have tickets (via Mom) to go see Cirque du Soleil again in Philly. This year is Alegria. I've seen quite a few Cirque du Soleil acts: La Nouba (2 times), "O", Dralion, and Varekai. Each one is only slightly different in substance, although the music, decorations, and general theme change significantly. Actually, "O" was quite different from the rest just because of the whole water thing. I wouldn't mind seeing that one again, truthfully.

With each viewing I notice more behind-the-scenes stuff that you shouldn't try to notice if you really want to enjoy the show. At some point I might have to stop going to these because the mystery will be spoiled. It's sadly never as good as the first time. Our first La Nouba show was certainly the best. Those little girls with the diabolos rule!

Our show is at 1pm and we'll probably leave for the city around 11am. We'll pick up lunch along the way. Abby and Nana are going with us, too, this time. I hope Abby likes the show and doesn't get too squirmy.

I wasn't intending on a recap here, but yesterday's events at the hospital were pretty entertaining. We got to see a lot more this time than we did with Abby, I think. You could see feet and hands, toes and fingers. The nurse got the heart on the screen, beating, and measured the length of legs and head size. That machine is pretty cool.

I was thinking that the ultrasound machine probably didn't need to be so big. You could probably put the whole of the ultrasound wand on a PCI card and plug it into a high-end system and do just as well. This thing was the size of an office photocopier.

I'm still waiting for Berta to turn into a blimp. She's still looking quite trim for a pregnant person. She would complain otherwise, but I think she still looks good. What am I saying? She looked good when she was her blimpiest with Abby.

Our wedding anniversary is next Saturday. 6 years. This is insignificant compared to the total time we've been together, which is more than double that. Still, a perfect milestone. (Perfect numbers are those whose factors, when added together, equal the number itself. The next perfect number after 6 is 28.)

Ah, yes. I am some kind of nerd. Now if I could use that power to determine why my office smells like stinky feet in the afternoons... Oh. Wait. Nevermind.