Atropa Belladonna~ Raven (a.k.a. Nightshade)'s Weblog ~
These are the ARCHIVES of NOVEMBER 2004. For more archives, visit the Archives page. For the current Weblog entries, check the Main page.
Atropa Belladonna| Thurs, Nov 25, 2004 (10:55pm) 50 pictures, 25 days. My NoNo'ing is done. Yay me. Ug. I'll do some scanning in the next few weeks. Not sure if I'll display all the gory smears of graphite on dead tree product, but I'll get at least a few. Most (near the end especially) aren't very post-worthy. But, when I get depressed about the quality of my work, I remember that when Shades did NaNoWriMo he wrote a play-by-play of a poker game which his characters were playing because they were bored. It's the quantity, not the quality which counts in these exercises. And I'm kinda exercised out. (Is that the same as being exorcised?) |
| Thurs, Nov 25, 2004 (2:05pm) The following is a dramatic re-enactment. Exact details have been modified for purposes of confidentiality and continuity. No actual orange slices were harmed in the production on this weblog. Kalen: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. There are TEN orange slices, Mommy.Yeah. We're not raising any sociopaths in our family, nope. |
| Wed, Nov 24, 2004 (11:25pm) NoNoNoNo ends Thursday. That's tomorrow for me - probably today by the time you're reading this (or already long gone by). I'm only one day behind. I could be right on schedule if I was drawing right now, instead of posting. But I'm posting while waiting for pics to scan, you see, and I can catch up tomorrow pretty easily. Then I'll start scanning my NoNo stuff. Yeah, what I'm scanning right now isn't NoNo, it's absolutely gorgeous pics from Starling's wedding. But the scanner is working again (it kinda quit for a while after Connor climbed on it, causing both it and the shelf it was on, to fall) and that is a good thing. Ah, scanning done (I type slow). Seeya at BP's, or at the Purgatory game, or whenever. (Scritch & Starlin': I'm posting the pics in my hidden directory, kay? Not the one which starts with 'o', but the actual hidden directory.) |
| Sat, Nov 20, 2004 (11:55pm) Okaaaaay. When you work in the health profession, you hear a lot of stupid questions. Well, okay, "There aren't any stupid questions" right? Of course not. But listen to this one, and tell me if the flashing neon word "STUPID" doesn't burn itself into your brain. "How many times can you have had unprotected sex before you need to start worrying?" Ya know, what really worries me about that question is the grammar. It's not "How many times can you have..." but "How many times can you have had..." Past tense. Yeah. If there aren't any stupid questions, there's at least some very stupid people. |
| Nov 17, 2004 (10:35pm) I had loaded Kalen and Jasen in the van, and went to search the garage to find where Connor had wandered off to, so he could be appropriately processed. He wasn't in the far corner. Wasn't poking things under the work bench. Ah - there he was, behind the van, poking his fingers at the licence plate. So I went over, and poked and pointed with him (gotta encourage that sort of thing, after all. Dirty fingers are a small price to pay for indulging his curiosity and sharing his world with him.) "See, Connor - this is a licence plate. These are letters, and these are numbers. Do you remember your letters, like A, B, C?" Connor furrows his brow and traces one of the numbers with his finger. "That's a number 2, Con man. See, the next one is a 7. And that first one is a 1. Can you read that? Lets do it together: (touching each letter) ONE... TWO... SEVEN." "THREE SIR!" Kalen dutifully shouts, from inside the van. Ah, yeah.... there are days when I love being a parent. - - - Um. Not much else to write. I had something I was going to say, but seem to have forgotten. I did some minor edits to yesterday's post (adding to the Connor report, just to keep my records up to date). Only 1 day behind on my NoNo project right now. A couple of the pics I drew today turned out well and I want to post 'em... but I think I'll try to finish catching up first. I can always post 'em later. Nothing says all the images need to be posted before Nov 25, does it? Just need to draw 'em in that time frame. Kay, s'all. |
| Nov 16, 2004 (11:15am) The Connor Report (plus month 6 in review) Connor didn't have school on Monday, but will have class this Friday to make up for it. So, since we wouldn't be able to do our sensory integration stuff then, I did it yesterday. We went to the mall. We wandered around, and listened to all kinds of noise, from the cacophony of the food court to the quiet of the elevator. We touched many things: shiny glittery Christmassy dresses, stretchy pants, vinyl winter jackets. We petted velvet and poked fake snow at the Christmas displays. We tasted salty chicken and ketchup-y fries and citrus-y orange juice. We looked at metallic-trimmed stockings hung way above our heads, we watched spinning Christmas trees a-blink with lights, and we stared at the world going up and down through the glass of the elevator walls (Hey - bonus points on that for stimulating the sense of motion!). And here's the piece-de-resistance: we went into Body Shop and smelled their candles and soaps and essential oils. Only in Body Shop did anyone actually ask us what we up to. I explained that I wanted the kids (yeah, I had all three along) to learn about different smells. It wasn't too busy or too crowded in the store, and if it was okay with them, we were just going to browse, and didn't need to take up their time as salestaff. The lady said okay, and we were left to our own devices, for the most part. Well, except for one clerk, who (when she heard about our little project from her co-worker) came over and showed Kalen a variety of different candles, and held them for her to smell. That was cool. So in the end, we did end up buying something (the staff was being so good about it, I figured we ought to spend a bit of money too), and we all went home happy. What have we learned? Connor is getting a lot better at looking in the right direction when you point at something. He can even look at you to see what you're looking at, and then try looking in the same direction himself. I don't know when he started doing that, but he didn't do it half a year ago. Connor's noise tolerance is so much better than it used to be. I could even get his attention in the food court several times, and he only covered his ears twice. He DOES NOT LIKE a lot of strong smells. In Body Shop, the only scent he tolerated well was Vanilla. All the rest he kept pushing away with a wrinkled nose of digust. (He did give the orange-spice smell a second chance, though). He did great looking-back-and-forth when we were touching things. That is: I would show him how to stroke a velvet ribbon, he would look at me, I would place his hand on the ribbon and help him stroke it, and he would do it on his own, and then he'd look at me again to see my reaction, and he'd look at the ribbon again, and at me again. He's not just in his own world when he's doing these things.. he wants to see that other people are experiencing the same things as he is, or at least recognizing that he is doing something new and different. He wants to share. That is by far the coolest thing I've been finding recently with him. Other stuff: Connor is back to using words more often. Rarely a day goes by when I can't get him to say at least one of: "Juice", "Oh-oh!", "No no!" or "Night-night". His babble is also sounding more like English all the time. And he's got a lot more emotion in his voice - you can tell when he's mad, or frustrated, or chattering happily, or very excited about something. And, even better, he's starting to pick up on those sorts of things in other people's voices, too. When Kalen sounds excited, he might just go over to see what she's talking about. When the baby cries, Connor might give a "Wah!" of discontent himself, as if to say, "Mom, in case you haven't noticed, that loud creature is making noises again! Do something about it." Connor will respond to his name frequently when I call him (he still doesn't always come, but he'll turn his head, or stop babbling, or do soemthing else which indicates he noticed his name). If I also shout, "No no!" he'll almost always stop what he's doing. For at least a little while. This is serious progress! Eye contact is going well. Many visitors and extended famiy now get treated to a moment or two of eye contact. When I change his diaper, I can usually get 5 - 10 seconds of eye contact, especially when I make funny faces at him. He will even initiate it sometimes, looking at me and sticking his tongue out, or pulling on his lips. We've got a new game we can play: Horsey rides! If you crouch down and make clip-clop noises (or sometimes even without the noises) Connor will climb up on your back to go for a ride. One more than one occasion, I've even had him request the ride himself - while I was making dinner, he grabbed my shirt, pulled me towards him, and started making clip-clop noises with his tongue, while reaching for my back. So cool! - - - (added Nov 17) He's getting better with using gestures, too. He points at various things, especially if he sees other people pointing first, like at pictures in books, or at the computer screen. He'll also nod yes or shake his head no quite often... not in answer to questions, but more to express approval or dislike: he'll shake No when you try to feed him a food he doesn't want, or nod Yes when he sees you carrying the juice container towards his sippycup. Social activities are becoming more popular with him. Connor enjoys playing running games with his older sister (the favorite being "Run around in circles around the livingroom until Mom goes batty") or bouncing on the bed with her, or playing rolling games on the mats in his room. He even had fun taking turns with Kalen at rubbing the baby on the head, when we were lathering up the shampoo for Jasen. We also had a fun game of "dancing and wiggling and clapping our hands" together which he seemed to really enjoy - not just for the activity, but for the presence of others doing the same thing. |
| Nov 15, 2004 (2:05pm) Okay, I'm now officially behind in my NoNo'ing. Only 2 days behind, but still: the obstacle is there. Now we see if I can get over my inertia of laziness or if this all disollves in a puff of "well-i-tried" smoke. I've got 4 drawings (from Thurs and Fri) to scan and post sitting near my computer. Maybe I'll feel motivated to draw some more after posting on those... but I'll have to wait for child-free time to do it. The scanner doesn't work too well when the kids are hitting it or trying to grab my sketchbook off its surface. Funny, that. Anyway, I had to post today because Big News has been revealed: Team DK is expecting an addition to their ranks. And, apparently, they have a weblog detailing their descent into madness: The Official Team DK Weblog, yo (yes, the yo is part of the title.) This will be added to my links bar at the top when November is over and the NoNo pages may be removed. - - - A kid after my own heart I was loading the dishwasher this morning (to clear the counter of last night's dinner plates, because I can not function with cluttered counters) and Connor wandered over to watch. He saw me putting the plates in (every other slot, because our fancy dinner plates don't get clean when they're too close together) and watched with a very serious expression on his face. Once I reached the center of the rack (where the water sprays out) I switched the direction the plates were facing, and kept loading. That way the dirty part of the plates is facing the water-spray, for optimal cleanliness, of course. But Connor did not approve. He reached in and (carefully) grabbed a plate, and turned it so it was facing the right way around. Then the next one, then the next. When he was done, they were all facing the same direction, carefully spaced 2 slots apart and all in a neat row. Satified that the dishwasher was now loaded to his liking, he pushed the rack in, and perfuntorily closed the dishwasher door. Awww. I've got a sweet little obsessive-compulsive spawn. I bet he'll grow up understanding the importance of having one's towels folded the right way. |
| Nov 12, 2004 (12:30pm) Today is Sensory Integration Friday! (No, you won't find that on your calendar.) Sensory integration is a relatively new field of study. It looks at brains and nerves and stimulation and neural processing and all kinds of fun stuff with big words, and complicated machines to study how your brain makes sense of the world. It is of particular interest when dealing with victims of stroke, brain damage, autism, and other conditions where there have been abnormal developments in the gray matter. There's all kinds of fascinating research, but they're just beginning to scratch the surface. That doesn't stop therapists from using Sensory Integration strategies in their work, though: many of the people mentioned above respond very well to sensory integration therapy. Which brings us to this Friday. Connor doesn't have school on Fridays, so I've decided we're gonna work on sensory integration at home today. And, hopefully, every Friday. We'll do things like dancing to different types of music, play rolling games, touching different textures (sandpaper, dry rice, coolwhip, water, etc.) swinging, playing peek-a-boo, feeling shapes, or smelling spices from the spice rack. Not all in the same day, of course, but as much as we can fit in, to enhance his sensory world. We've also been trying to work on social isues with Connor. He's still not very good at playing with others, though his teachers tell me he's making great strides. So, I figured I'd ask Star if I could "borrow" Cassandra for the day, and let her play sensory integration games with Connor. ('Sana's got a few development issues of her own. I can't image sensory integration therapy would hurt her, and it might do a lot of good). Star gladly agreed, and I picked her wee one op this morning. They're having a bite of lunch right now, while I type. Almost finished, I think. So, if you'll excuse me, I've got 2 bouncy toddlers and 3 cans of Cool Whip. How can this not be a recipe for worlds of fun??? |
| Nov 10, 2004 (11:15pm) Two things: (1) The links bar at the top has been shifted yet again to include people's NoNoNoNo pages. (2) I've decided to delete the thumnails of any NoNo images prior to the current week in order to decrease load times and bandwidth and stuff. Links still exist to the scans, tho. NoNoNoNo On to the NoNo scans (click the thumbnails for the pics):  - I used to draw a lot of dragons. Now, as then, I have problems with getting the body to work. But I do enjoy drawing their faces. - Yo Home! What up? - This is my 'face' for the day. Worked remarkably well, I think. - And this would be my cop-out drawing just to fill the daily quota. (I wasn't feeling particularly creative after the previous 3 pieces.) |
| Nov 10, 2004 (12:55pm) Too cool! Somebody out there has something which I drew tattoo'd on their body! I'd been checking some posts on Vargr's LiveJournal (he's an acquaintance from the old Club Virus, who currently lives in Vancouver. We're not particularly close, but I do enjoy reading his LiveJournal entries) and I stumbled upon a comment by someone named Ka_crow. Being a bit of a corvidophile myself, I followed the name to her LiveJournal and enjoyed exploring her little nest of shiny things. In that nest is a list of the pics and icons she uses. If you follow that link, and look approx. 5 pics down the righthand column, there's a photo of a Raven tattoo. I've no clue if it's Ka_crow herself who has that tattoo, or a friend of hers, but it's definitely a tattoo, on a real living person. I drew that bit of pseudo-celtic-artwork some 4(?) years ago. Didn't trace or copy from anything else on the internet, either. It's my original artwork (Though credit must be given where it's due: Foxglove helped me with some of the original groundwork ideas for the knotwork). The tattoo artist did, admittedly, add a little bit of shading where the lines of knotwork cross eachother - probably a good idea, that, because it looks more like woven lines and not black & white line art. But still, it's something I drew, and someone out there liked it enough to make it a part of herself for the rest of her life. Way cool. ...And speaking of drawing, I didn't do any yesterday 'cuz Wally came over and we finished watching the Firefly DVDs. Hopefully I'll get caught up tonight. |
| Nov 8, 2004 (11:55pm) 7th Sea gaming was cancelled tonight, so we had relatives over, and then Cam & Don came over to play Catan, and we watched some Firefly, and we talked Game of Thorns (an RPG being tossed together by Scritch & Starlin'... looks to be quite interesting.) And I drew. NoNoNoNo NoNo scans for today (click the thumbnails for the pics):  - Oooh, baby toes! And baby face, too. Very different from adult faces. - We seem to be on a 'kid' theme, here. First babies, now baby toys. - The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another... (yeah, we've got a stuffed 'Max' doll.) |
| Nov 7, 2004 (10:55pm) It's been a long weekend. There was a course running on How To Read ECGs, which I didn't attend, but several of my co-workers did. Unfortunately, it was across town and let out (both Sat and Sun) at the same time as our shift change. So, on both days I had to wait for my replacement to make it halfway across the city before I could get off shift. And both days we had something happen right at shift change which I got to deal with so I got done late anyway. Oh joy. Actually, the days weren't so bad. We've certainly had worse. But it was just one of those weird weekends. On Saturday I had a patient fall asleep on me while I did his dressing change. Now - I could see someone falling asleep while waiting to get their bandage changed (we were running a 2 hr wait at the height of the day) but during? While I had his foot in the air and was touching him with cold metal instruments, latex gloves, and cotton 4x4's? Weird. I also discovered that receiving an injection (even if medically indicated) breaks the fasting of Ramadan. But one of our patients needed a tetanus vaccination after slicing open his finger on old metal. So, I offered to let him come back after sundown. I also got to give a really cool injection which I'd never done before: Leuprolide. It's a cancer medication, in the same general vein as chemotherapy (the theory being that you deliberately put poison into the body in order that the fast-growing cancer cells suck it up, and then die.) But the injection doesn't come ready-mixed. It comes in two different syringes, each containing half of the compound. You screw the syringes together, tip-to-tip, using a fancy attatchment, and then squeeze the contents of one into the other. Then you squeeze the full amount back into the first syringe. And then back into the second. And back to the first. Basicaly, you squoosh it back and forth between the two syringes a lot to mix it all up, and when it turns into a pasty tan-colored gel, you inject it. Then you dispose of everything in a biohazard container, take off gloves/gown/whatnot, and wash your hands thoroughly. Neat. Today was a little more laid back. I even had a bit of time to relax, so I managed to do a drawing today. (I knew I wouldn't be doing my 2 drawings tonight, not after a long shift at work, and then watching kids while Shades DM'd Dogs in the Vineyard, and then having a Sunday Supper with extended family happening here. The theory was that I'd do them yesterday, but I kinda ran out of time. So then I thought I'd do 'em tomorrow. But hey, I got one done at work, so it's only one extra for tomorrow. I can handle that. NoNoNoNo NoNo scan for today (click the thumbnails for the pics): NoNo 13 - Still Life With Office Supplies. (Hey - don't laugh. I hunted for the objects with the weirdest set of curves I could find. Wacky perspectives on those things, kay?! Alright, not so weird as the angles and curves on the analscopes, but I just didn't want to be caught by co-workers while I was sitting at my desk drawing one of those puppies. I have to work with these people.) |
| Nov 7, 2004 (10:25pm) NoNoNoNo NoNo scans for yesterday (click the thumbnails for the pics): NoNo 11 - Well, here's a person not facing-straight-forward like all the other faces I draw. NoNo 12 - A study in glass and curves. |
| Nov 5, 2004 (8:40pm) NoNoNoNo NoNo scans for today (click the thumbnails for the pics): NoNo 9 - More face drawing, this time non-human. But still in the same just-off-straght-on pose. Must try some different angles/poses/whatever. NoNo 10 - This is me doing a quick scribble to fulfill my daily obligation, 'cuz I've got gamers over and wanna hang with them. Consider it an excercise in speed-drawing. It took 25 minutes, while supervising the kids' suppertime. |
Nov 5, 2004 (3:30pm) Here's my drawings from yesterday. Haven't done anything yet, today, but I hope to draw and put stuff up after I've finished writing & submitting my Purgatory turn. NoNoNoNo NoNo scans for Nov 4 (click the thumbnails for the pics): NoNo 7 - This is the iChick. She's on my Mac's desktop, in all her full-color splendour. My B&W drawing doesn't do her justice. I'm pleased with how the 'wink' turned out, though. NoNo 8 - Pixie sat across from me last night at BP's while I was trying to decide on a face to draw, so she became my lucky victi - I mean, subject. (Don't worry, she got even with me by using me as the subject of her own NoNo pic. Check her page to see that.) Trying to draw a pic which actually looks like someone is tough, btw, so I'm not surprised that it looks less like her than the one I did of my sister looks like Jo. But I'm told that if you look at it upsidedown, it looks more like her. Weird. |
| Nov 3, 2004 (11:50pm) I'm keeping down water, now. This is good. May risk some toast, soon. Or perhaps plain rice. I'm sooo bloody hungry. Anyway, I didn't go to my meeting tonight due to this nasty bug, so I managed to get my drawing done despite most of the day being a waste. NoNoNoNo NoNo scans for today (click the thumbnails for the pics): NoNo 5 - Getting better with the faces. I did, however, cheat slightly on this one. I drew from a picture (not traced - just drew). My sister might possibly recognize the pic, since it was of her when she was younger, and shorter of hair. It's my favorites, but then I always did have a thing for black&whites. As a note: if you don't think it looks like her, that's my fault - not the original pic. I've got a ways to go before I can draw faces recognizably. NoNo 6 - Forgot to get a pic of our pumpkin before I tossed it out. This is (sorta) what it looked like, tho. And special thanks to Anne for the link to extremepumpkins.com |
| Nov 3, 2004 (1:40pm) I don't generally like it when my day can be summed up in two words. Especially not when those two words are: Gastrointestinal Distress. |
| Nov 2, 2004 (11:00pm) NoNoNoNo Not sure I like what I came up with today, but I was being a lazy git and didn't start on my drawing 'til after 9pm. And then watched Firefly while drawing. Yeah... lots of good solid work, here. Well, NoNo scans for today (click the thumbnails for the pics): NoNo 3 - The face is okay, but the hands just weren't working on this one. NoNo 4 - A small perspective study. Child's IKEA chair. |
| Nov 1, 2004 (11:55pm - posted Nov 2 since I forgot to upload last night) NoNoNoNo So, it's November. That means NaNoWriMo for some folks, and NoNoNoNo for a few of us fools. Meant to call the NoNo-ers and remind 'em to, like, post something, but I got distracted. By Pain. I got some dental work done this afternoon (not quite a root canal, but close to it. If I'd left it longer, it probably woulda been a canal) and I am still feeling it. So, here's my NoNo scans for today (click the thumbnails for the pics): NoNo 1 - Faces are something I'm trying to work on, so Ill try to do at least one per day. NoNo 2 - When I asked my Monday night gaming group what I should do for my second picture, someone said "Tentacles!"... so, well, there's tentacles. But not anime tentacles. |
