Leonland

Third set of sketches

Not as many last week. I was experimenting with charcoal, which has a bit more feeling than the drawing pencil I was mostly using the week before. I'd like to get back to sketching some people this week, but I'm not sure if I'll have time.

Second set of sketches

Here are some sketches that I did the past week. I decided not to pick my most and least favorites and just post a selection of them instead. I've been trying to focus on people, but it's hard to find good subjects (hence the sleepers in the park).

First sketches

Here are the first of my sketches. I've done about 10 of them so far. I'm fairly happy with most of them, given that I didn't expect much.

My favorite one of the week:

I like this one the most even though it's not very polished.

And my two least favorites:

August goal

I've been putting off choosing a "12 in 12" goal for this month because I couldn't seem to commit to one, but today I decided on something. It's another art project, one that I've been mulling for a while.

Do 30 sketches. Each week post my favorite one and my two least favorites.

The reason that I want to post my bad ones is because I don't want to be afraid of doing bad ones. So, I'm explicitly stating that I will have bad ones. I went to the park and did two sketches today. They were really bad, which shows me how out of practice I am and also how badly I need this project.

July goal completed

I just finished Emotional Intelligence, 330 pages. That means that I've successfully accomplished my July goal of reading 500 pages. I'm glad that I read Emotional Intelligence, but I feel that it was a bit too laborious in driving home the point that being in touch with and in control of our emotional state benefits everything we do. Once the book has established what emotional intelligence is (which also takes longer that necessary to explain), it goes into lengthy case studies of the benefits to marriage, heath, child-rearing, and teaching that I think are much more detailed than they need to be.

300 pages down

I'm about 100 pages into Emotional Intelligence. It's not all that engaging, it reads a bit like an academic research paper, and the scope seems a little too broad perhaps, but it's very sensical and is a good guide for introspection and self-improvement.

I'll meet my goal if I can finish it in the next 8 days. Wish me luck!

Started a new book

I've slowed down a little since finishing The Tipping Point. I just started Emotional Intelligence, which I've been wanting to read for a while. It's denser and seems a bit dryer than The Tipping Point, so I'm going to have to be more diligent about my reading to get to my goal, but I think it'll be a good book to have read.

200 pages down

I just finished The Tipping Point today. I started this month on page 80 and it's 280 pages long, so I'm 40% of the way towards my goal of 500 pages for the month. The book was pretty good. By this point, I've heard so much about it that I felt like I'd already read many parts of it. But I still got something out of it. The message about making big changes through small (but not arbitrary) efforts is inspiring and I'll try to remember it.

It's been a while

I decided to try to spend more time offline last month, which is why I've been absent for so long. This month I'd also like to take myself offline a lot as well. My goal for this month will be to read 500 pages from one or more books. Being online is too conducive to multi-tasking, which I'm trying to get away from, so reading is a nice alternative activity.

Unrelatedly, I just posted pictures from Bratislava and Vienna and our recent fantastic trip to Croatia.

Final May Update

So, May is pretty much done and I don't have anything concrete to show for my "12 in 12" project. I did a lot of web-related stuff though, so I think I'll turn this into a 2-month project, since I'm making progress and want to keep at it. I've been doing a lot of work on the redesign of my site, which has been frustrating because I just can't seem to make a decision about how I want it to look. I try all sorts of things and none of them are exactly right. Maybe that means I'm heading in the wrong direction, or maybe I'm nearly there but just haven't found the right combination of colors and graphics. Maybe I should switch gears and focus on the other changes that I'd like to make, like adding some new things and merging all my posts together.

May update

Not much specific to report on my web project, although I've been doing a lot of thinking and exploring lately. I have been focusing on redesigning my own website. I think that I will merge the three main sections (journal, travels, music) into one site, and also add some extra features, which are TBD for now.

Here's a screen capture of what I'm thinking for the new look of my site.

I had originally planned to go with a totally different look, but decided that it might be better to take what I have and spruce it up instead.

I'd really like to create a cool new header, though, so I plan to focus on that this week. The empty orange area at the top is (probably) just a placeholder for now.

First steps

I've been doing a lot of research the last few days for my web project(s). Specifically, I have:

Installed WordPress on a test domain to see if it's easier to manage than Movable Type (I think it is).

Played around with with the Flickr API to find out about grabbing photos from Flickr, rather than manually uploading them.

Created some mockups and color schemes using Photoshop.

It's a fun project, but it's pretty amorphous, so it's been a little hard to manage.

Oh well...

My April project was kind of a bust - the most I ever exercised in one week was twice. I fought this one a lot harder than the previous three, I'm not exactly sure why. Long-term, however, my efforts this month could end up paying off. I've started habitualizing taking the stairs at work and sometimes walking up the giant escalator at my home metro station. I also started playing basketball with my co-workers on Wednesday nights, which is fun and also a really great workout. Keeping these activities up, combined with being overall more active this summer, should at least meet some minimum activity requirements for good health.

For May, I'd like to get back to something creative. I've been getting excited lately about emerging Web technologies and I'd like to get up to speed on some of them. In particular, I've been studying jQuery and Adobe Flash. So, my project for May will be:

Complete a significant Web project.

Some of my initial ideas are to re-design the Travels section of my website or design a new website for my wife. I may also try out some mini-projects that consist of using a particular technology to do a specific thing.

Went for a run

I went for a run today. It was tough, but it could have been worse. It was my first time running at nearby Letna park, which has a great view of central Prague. Next time I plan to bring my iPod, since I think it'll help the time go by faster.

More b-ball

Just got back from two hours of basketball with some colleagues. I wish I could say that I feel good, but I'm exhausted and sore and anticipate that I may feel worse tomorrow. What's so great about exercise, again?