Tiny Wings, I curse you!!!

I have an app on my phone called Tiny Wings, and I have been trying to get to island 9 for like ever!!! I almost made it, I was on the cusp, and then I didn't.

UPDATE: I just did it, so I take back the curse, for now. The next thing I need to do is also proving to be a challenge, so the curse is still valid, I am just suspending it for the moment...

Choo Choo!

As you may or may not be aware, I have an app on my iphone that I use as my alarm clock (one of 3 alarms that I use). It uses the motion sensing ability of the phone to figure out when I am in deep, light or REM sleep and it can start to wake me up when I am in light sleep so that I don’t wake up groggy. As an added bonus, it tracks my sleep patterns and records any noises during the night. I got this app mostly for the alarm clock functions, but I knew that I talked in my sleep, so I thought it would be cool to see what I actually say. I was reviewing the recordings for Tuesday night, and there were some brief bursts of babble and half scentences, but about halfway through the night, I came up with “Ch, choo….choo, choo, choo.”. Sometimes I say the weirdest things. As usual, I don’t have any recollection of what was going on behind the eyelids that inspired the locomotive references. Perhaps I was on the Orient Express, or living out some deep seated desire to be a locomotive engineer? Who knows. I wish I could actually save these recordings to share with everyone, but this app does not have that ability. If I can figure out how to record my nightly monologues, I will post some.
On the pottery front, I went down to Cactus Arts to pick up some better brushes for this shellacking nonsense. Having never used shellac, not even to refinish furniture (I’m a water based refinisher), I did not know what kind of brush to use. I originally picked up really cheap natural bristle brushes (wrong, wrong, wrong). I have since Googled this topic and have found out that nylon brushes work best, as the denatured alcohol (a very polar solvent) will not affect the nylon bristles like a natural bristle brush. For $1.99 each, I picked up 8 brushes of various sizes and shapes and I think they may just work.

I have not used them with shellac yet and am anxious to try them out.

kinda funny and not pottery related at all

I downloaded an app onto my iphone the other day called “Sleep Tracker”. The idea is that when you plug your phone in and lay it beside you on your bed at night, it will monitor your movements (thrashing/flailing) at night and listen to the sounds that disturb you (ie: babbling, snoring, burglers, aliens etc...). Then, when you wake up, you can look at your sleep patterns in a graphical format and actually listen to what noises woke you up, or that you made. I turned it on Saturday night and this is a transcript of my night....snoring, snoring, snoring (I have to admit it, I do snore...a little), rustle rustle, mumble mumble mumble....”fhaoptjgksau everywhere....They’re Everywhere” (I sounded a little scared there) “ha ha ha ha” (couldn’t have been that scary ‘cause I laughed right afterwards)...got a little boring for a while, just deep sleep, and then....”hpepjaehse epilepsy and stuff”.....(WEIRD)

I thought this would be a neat little app. I know I talk in my sleep, & I have actually woken myself up in full conversation. I have not been remembering my dreams lately either. Sometimes my dreams are quite vivid and I will remember them clearly the next day, but not so much now. I thought this would jog my memory if I could listen to what I say at night. So far, not so much, but it was funny to listen to. I also thought I might be able to figure out why I wake up in a twisted knot of sheets and covers. I must wrap them around me really tight and then roll over and over and over until they are a hopelessly twisted mess....no clue yet as to how that happens.

Boy do I feel dumb...

Yesterday I was at the studio, and I thought to myself "I should take a video of myself throwing with my new phone that takes video". I go get my phone, turn it on and it is charged up and ready to go. I go get a couple of buckets and a lump of clay to prop the phone up on, but when I get back, the phone wont turn on. I try a hard reboot, nothing, so I think, maybe it ran out of juice and I was mistaken thinking it was charged. Oh well, so I continue on throwing, but it is niggling at the back of my brain. So I clean up early, go home and try charging it, nothing, wont turn on. I have only had this phone for a week and a half, what the heck is going on. I get in my car, drive to the Apple Store in Market Mall (takes oh, half an hour in weekend traffic to get there, and it is hot out and my back is starting to sweat). I walk in and it is mayhem, everyone is ooogling the ipads (they are pretty nice) and I finally find a blueshirted apple whiz to help me. She asks if I did a hard reboot, and I tell her that I did and it didn't work, and it wouldn't charge etc...Well, she preformes a hard reboot, just to make sure, and whaddaya know, it turns on. I guess I didn't hold the buttons down for quite the right ammount of time for the hard reboot to work.....doh!

oh the horror

Well, I was teaching on Tuesday, and I promised I would take pictures of what I have been working on lately, but as it turns out...I forgot, but It wouldn't have mattered anyway, 'cause I would have taken the pictures with my phone, and I guess that when I was getting in my car to go home, I dropped my phone in the parking lot, drove away, and didn't realize I didn't have my phone until I got home and wanted to use it about an hour later. So, I search everywhere, look in the car, but it isn't there, so I drive back to the studio (this is all at 11:30 at night), check the studio, not there. Phone the phone and run outside to see if I can hear it in the car, but before I even get there, I hear/see it ringing and glowing in the dark on the pavement where I was parked earlier. This would have all been ok, except that it has been raining pretty steady for the last couple hours. So I dry the phone off and decide to attempt to dehydrate my phone in a container of dry rice. Worked for my dad's BlackBerry, why not my iphone? Well, it still is not working, and it has been almost 2 days. I went to the nearest Rogers Wireless store last night, got a loaner flip phone. Good grief Charlie Brown, I have to text/e-mail the old school way, so I don't. Anyway, long and the short of it is I get to upgrade to a new iphone 3GS, but it is going to seriously damage my bank account. They should really make water proof phone cases. If the rice method does manage to fix the phone, I will sell it to someone I know would like it. He has a 1st gen iphone from the states that is not nearly as good as the newer models, and his screen is cracked.
I will be teaching a full class of 12 newbies on Friday, but if I get a moment, I will take some pics with my camera and post them.