Up at 3:15 am.

Was thinking about last Friday...went out with Ariel to Sauvie's Island to hang at the beach. Water was cold, but the sun was out and it was downright warm. Sand was hot; so hot it was difficult to walk on, barefoot. The sky turned slightly cloudy after a short time, and that brought a really nice relief. Ariel's dog is just a 7 month old puppy, and he's rather rambunctious. Ariel had difficulty controlling Renzo, so I kinda took him under my wing and got him to settle down on my lap and sleep under my towel for a bit. Fair warning, a day pass to park on Sauvie is $3.50. Grab an ice cream bar at the little store right off the ramp when you drive there, and pick up your pass at the same time! It used to be, that you could go to Joe's Sports and buy a year pass, but seeing as Joe's is going out of biz, that's not workable, eh? If I remember correctly, the year pass is somewhat bogus, because it's an annual pass for each year, no rolling clock. If you buy an annual pass for 2009 in December, you're screwed because it's only usable until through Dec.

Anyway, I probably shouldn't have taken that nap between 8 and 10 tonight...I meant to go to sleep and wake up earlier than my seemingly usual routine between 11 am and 1 pm. I thought I'd be more productive if I got out of bed in the early morning and ran around like a regular workday.

Have been working on several light shade ideas to get produced via Ponoko's services. The process is a bit slow - working in sketchup and then exporting to render in kerkeythea. It took me some time to realize it, but I finally figured out the correct settings to render with good quality and much faster times. It's become apparent to me, that my design skills and ideas are proportionately scaled to the experiences I have gone through, and all the things I absorb eventually find their way into my subconscious decision-making on aesthetics. As a result, I figure I can only get better as I dip my toes into designing all sorts of things from graphics to furniture, etc.