{"id":15368,"date":"2013-01-31T09:47:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T14:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/hameblog\/2013\/01\/31\/morning-doodlage\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T07:50:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T10:50:13","slug":"morning-doodlage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/2013\/01\/31\/morning-doodlage\/","title":{"rendered":"Morning doodlage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This morning I&#8217;m easing into work by doing some drawing, since I&#8217;m <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.strategiccoach.com\/2013\/01\/the-referability-habits\/\" title=\"The Referability Habits, drawn by Hamish MacDonald for Strategic Coach\">getting to do more and more of it for work<\/a> and want to step up my abilities. I&#8217;m not finding &#8220;The 30-Day Drawing Challenge&#8221; list to be quite right for me, as it&#8217;s not especially evocative of things that chime with my imagination, but I&#8217;ve started it and I&#8217;m just that bloody-minded that I&#8217;m going to finish it!<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>So here are numbers 11, 12, and 13.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Eleven: &#8220;A turning point in your life.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<figure class=\"\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-Z2movyuL100\/UQpLuPJMqII\/AAAAAAAAFxg\/eayZxwIEV4I\/s1024\/Photo%25252031%252520Jan%2525202013%25252010%25253A13%252520AM.jpg.webp\" style=\"text-align:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-content\/uploads\/posts\/1321\/morning-doodlage01.jpg.webp\" id=\"blogsy-1359639323905.5015\" alt=\"\" width=\"325\" height=\"417\"><\/figure>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>That would have to be auditioning for theatre school. But before you get any images of &#8216;Rachel&#8217; from &#8220;Glee&#8221; belting out a Streisand show-stopper for a full auditorium, let me paint this picture instead: An impossibly nervous and gangly 17-year-old singing without accompaniment in a tiny closet of a room tucked away in a far corner of Dalhousie University for a solitary, squat figure hunched in a chair with a slight reek of booze emanating from him.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>I sang the Maurice Chevalier song &#8220;Louise&#8221;, which, now that I look back, seems incredibly hokey and passionless, but I was going on the advice of the vocal coach back home&#8221;&#8221;a quaint little church lady.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>My monologues were&#8221;&#8221;oh God&#8221;&#8221;the balcony speech from <em>Romeo and Juliet<\/em>, because I had something unique to add to that which 300 years of actors had missed. Then there was a modern piece from some non-descript, unheard-of play, which was at least somewhat age-appropriate, if, again, emotionally flat. I&#8217;d had coaching on these from a local theatre director, Ron Irving, who later ended up hiring me for a succession of professional jobs, and has contributed a lot to the theatre scene in Charlottetown over the years.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Still, I got in, and that set the stage, if you will, for everything that came after.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Twelve: Most recent accomplishment.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear:both;text-align:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/-1kiDuGpawOU\/UQpLwL6a3PI\/AAAAAAAAFxo\/hr2rtPl7fY0\/s1024\/Photo%25252031%252520Jan%2525202013%25252010%25253A13%252520AM.jpg.webp\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-content\/uploads\/posts\/1321\/morning-doodlage11.jpg.webp\" id=\"blogsy-1359639323825.7712\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"156\"><\/figure>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p> I saw an audiologist at the hospital last week, who tested my hearing again The results were not great, but not <em>that<\/em> bad, so she gave me a present to use in the meantime: a machine that plays sounds to mask out tinnitus so you can sleep, along with two wee speakers to slip under my pillow.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear:both;text-align:center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/-mYQ3-07GEVY\/UQpzGAY3CqI\/AAAAAAAAFyA\/lPh_wzoZY9E\/s1024\/Photo%25252031%252520Jan%2525202013%25252001%25253A34%252520PM.jpg.webp\" style=\"margin-left:1em;margin-right:1em\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-content\/uploads\/posts\/1321\/morning-doodlage21.jpg.webp\" id=\"blogsy-1359639323901.9768\" width=\"378\" height=\"500\" alt=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>It does actually help a lot to have something outside my head to pay attention to&#8221;&#8221;both to alleviate the annoyance of the tinnitus, but also because I think too much when I should be resting. The only problem with the speakers, though, is that they slipped around as I moved my pillow (which I hug and adjust and wrestle with in my sleep). It&#8217;s like putting a bolo under your head and hoping it doesn&#8217;t wind up around your neck.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>So I got an idea: Sew a sleeve with little elastics to hold the speakers, a cover for the speakers and wire held shut with velcro, and non-slip placemat material on the back to keep it all in place on the bed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Like all my sewing projects so far, it&#8217;s not the prettiest thing (despite being made from the nice owl fabric Craig gave me for our cotton anniversary), but it worked last night. Plus it&#8217;s yet another bit of DIY in my world, which just makes me feel great. I get immense pleasure from interacting day-to-day with things I&#8217;ve made.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thirteen: A comic.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear:both;text-align:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-2OXDH9kgRH4\/UQpLyC90IsI\/AAAAAAAAFxw\/6hCOSoY1pVw\/s828\/Photo%25252031%252520Jan%2525202013%25252010%25253A13%252520AM.jpg.webp\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-content\/uploads\/posts\/1321\/morning-doodlage31.jpg.webp\" id=\"blogsy-1359639323822.53\" alt=\"\" width=\"375\" height=\"322\"><\/figure>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p> Now, I&#8217;m assuming here they mean a comic strip, but, despite having doodled all my life, I&#8217;ve never been a comic strip or graphic novel reader. So the first thing that popped into my mind was Roy &#8220;Chubby&#8221; Brown, a so-called comedian who&#8217;s coming to Wick soon.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>It saddens me that he still gets bookings and has fans, because he&#8217;s an odious personality whose &#8220;comedy&#8221;, as much as I&#8217;ve seen it, is a bin-bag of racism, misogyny, and other bits of toxic waste. His die-hard fans seem to be those who read the red-top tabloids and complain that &#8220;It&#8217;s PC gone mad&#8221; whenever someone pulls them up for delivering hate speech in a joke&#8217;s clothing.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>So there we are. It&#8217;s time to get another coffee and start working on a vector graphic for my client&#8217;s blog. It&#8217;s a beautiful, sunny morning, which is a nice break from the battering of sea-winds and pelting of rain we&#8217;ve been getting. I can&#8217;t complain, since most of the people I&#8217;m in touch with are buried under snow, but this is still a nice change.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Crossing over the harbour bridge this morning (I&#8217;ve driven &#8217;round the roundabout there several times!), I saw two men down on the riverbank, mortoring up the wall. Apparently there was lots of damage and some flooding here while I was away.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Right, I&#8217;m talking about the weather. Time to move along. Regards to you.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning I&#8217;m easing into work by doing some drawing, since I&#8217;m getting to do more and more of it for work and want to step up my abilities. I&#8217;m not finding &#8220;The 30-Day Drawing Challenge&#8221; list to be quite right for me, as it&#8217;s not especially evocative of things that chime with my imagination, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}