Three Day Weekend

Part of the morning was spent looking out the window wondering when it was going to rain. Whenever I am on the computer I am less than three feet from a window so I can see and hear whatever is going on outside.

I like being able to look out the window when I am on the computer. Its a nice balance between the online world and the rest of reality. In front of me a monitor brings me images of things that I may never see out my window while I can hear the wind blowing through the trees through that same window. Reality is to my left and something beyond reality is on the screen.

Some people are probably wondering why I was home. The answer is that I was on vacation. Since the Fourth of July falls on a Saturday, we had the option of taking either Friday or Monday off instead of losing a paid holiday. I chose Friday as my day off and decided to get some serious time in on the computer.

Since I knew it was going to rain the computer time grew and grew. My interest in the space program is still going strong and I went to as many NASA sites as possible. Two hours quickly went by as I read about the planets in our solar system and the various space shuttle missions that have happened. Then I took a break to eat something and logged back on for another two hours.

Then the thought that it might be time to redesign the look of the journal came to me so I tried a few new layouts. Its sounded simple enough, but I got more and more frustrated the longer I worked on it. So what started out as a nice relaxing day became one of frustration. I still have a few ideas for a new look, but they probably won't surface this month.

Those few hours of frustration from trying to design a new look is very me. Whenever I start something vaguely creative, I never have a complete image in my mind. There is a partial idea of what I want in the end, but its never fixed. Random things happen along the way and I look forward to this part of the process. Very seldom do I know what the end result will look like when I start a a new project. Its as if I want something to happen along the way to make the end result better. Maybe I just don't want art to be structured, because in my mind order takes away the emotional content of a painting. Creativity is often seen as an escape from order so I must be doing something right.

The Aldrin book confirmed my belief about going to the moon and coming back. When he returned he felt that there was nothing else that he could do that would be comparable with going to the moon so he became severely depressed. Obviously not all of them were affected this way, but I think that might be how I would react if I were in the same situation.

Now that I am done with the Aldrin book, I think that its time to try something different. As much as I like the space program, I need to read something else for a while. Its time for fiction again.