Stuff That Really 'Grinds My Gears...'

[Melizmatic]

Long days, and pleasant nights.

[navarro]

From here the US is an increasingly strange, foreign country that has a largely malign influence on us, but there’s nothing I can do about that.

you admirably sum up how i feel much of the time. except for me, “from here” is north central texas.

be well, let us all be well.

[teknocholer]

Ave atque vale. I’ll miss your non-North American perspective. Maybe our paths will cross again.

[teknocholer]

Pixies aren’t nice.

[chgoliz]

That’s nice!

/snickers

[Wisconsin_Platt]

It was a wonderful Saturday…until I realized it was Sunday.

[gadgetgirl]

Moving along from the Rock Star thread… “shopping as a pass time” has always annoyed the crap out of me. Especially when there are guilt trips added in, like “but if we don’t buy regularly from these speciality shops they’ll go out of business” or “we’ll just hang out; it’ll be fun.”

Just blech.

[Wisconsin_Platt]

Christ. We have enough beading\jewelry stuff we could OPEN a specialty shop.

I’m hopeful it is finally up on the “to be gotten rid of” list as it hasn’t been touched in months.

But, yes, the number of board games I have from, “If you don’t buy from your FLGS, they’ll go out of business” is depressing. Especially the ones that have had the plastic wrap removed, but none of the pieces popped out. I need friends who are willing to try new games.

[gadgetgirl]

Christ. We have enough beading\jewelry stuff we could OPEN a specialty shop.

I’ve got that too, but since it all fits in 4-5 storage boxes I’m not worrying about it yet.

I finished at 6 bags in the garbage today. I estimate that’s about halfway done. Basically, if it’s not permanently mothproofed, nor dishcloth cotton, nor with a specific project in mind, it’s going.

I do like Marie Kondo’s book and its dictum that everything you own should “spark joy” (does toilet paper spark joy? It sure as hell does if you’ve ever run out, and I have). This yarn was sparking guilt, anger, and sadness. My grandmother always insisted yarn should be neither thrown out nor given away, but I think she was also a lot better at planning her projects, and I’m pretty sure she turned down yarn if she knew she wouldn’t use it.

[Wisconsin_Platt]

4-5 storage boxes

That’s cute. I long for the days of 4 or 5 storage boxes. I’d be giddy at the prospect of 4 or 5 large storage boxes.

Three of these and that’s just the beads. Not the Findings.

But I am venting. It’s not like I did not have a hand in buying some of it. (But I’ve had the majority hand in moving it…grumble, grumble, grumble)

[gadgetgirl]

That’s cute. I long for the days of 4 or 5 storage boxes. I’d be giddy at the prospect of 4 or 5 large storage boxes.

I feel for you. That’s where I’m at (even after dumping the 6 garbage bags today, still at) with the yarn. Most of the yarn was in open baskets, which seemed like a nice idea to the person who bought me the baskets, but the truth is that just makes for dusty yarn and no chance of stacking vertically.

[knoxblox]

WAIT, WAIT!
What about donating it to classrooms that do art projects? Special needs? Retirement homes?
Just a thought…

ETA: Underfunded hospital children’s wards…

[gadgetgirl]

What about donating it to classrooms that do art projects? Special needs? Retirement homes?

Just a thought…

Dusty, moth-eaten yarn being given to any of those places would be no act of generosity.

When I say “dusty”, I don’t mean it needs a few quick pats to get some excess fluff off. I mean it’s hard to tell what colour it really is, and that it feels somewhat sandy from the moth poop.

ETA: people saying “give it to charity!” was one of the reasons I put this off so long. At first I was going to inspect each ball and make something out of it, verifying there was no moth damage at the same time.

About 18 months ago I crocheted a queen sized bedspread out of stash yarn and gave it to charity. Queen sized makes it sound like it was a lot of yarn, right? On the one hand it was, but on the other it barely made a dent – only about 2-3 kilos.

[knoxblox]

Ah, well. That’s too bad. :(

[knoxblox]

For context:

A good friend is offering help.
I suggested a crowdfunding effort, most likely a raffle, with art as a prize to hopefully earn enough to skip the phone issue and build the work-oriented computer I’ve always wanted to build.
He’s on board, but I’m waiting to hear his ideas.
ETA: The way I see it, I’ve been work-dependent on this phone for two years at least, and hardly ever use it away from home. A computer would benefit my work much more.

Tl,dr…my phone I work from melted down and I’m trying to figure out a financial solution to building a computer workstation for my home studio.

My proposed solution:
From the outset, I’m not looking for handouts. If you just want to give, fine…I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
I have an idea of making jpg images of sketch portraits for people, I guess $20 US per pop, of which I could easily do two a day. Easily made, easily sent, and I keep both digital files of scans and a hard file of the actual drawings. In case of loss or damage, I could easily resend.

DON’T SEND MONEY YET!
I want to gauge interest prior to commitment and get some feedback.

To earn enough to buy the equipment I feel is necessary, I (at $20 plus PayPal/venmo fee) would need to have at least 150 orders to make 3k to spend on computer and art studio. I think it would be enough to meet my needs. Larger monitor for use in painting, as well as potential online lessons or critique, as well as a computer with graphics power if I decide to do anything like try my hand at digital painting, aaaand also play my favorite mmorpg on my own time.

I think I should gather names or handles to see if I could even gain a minimum of 150 commitments before following through. There is a time crunch, so I’m scrambling for those first 150 commitments as quickly as possible.

What say you all? Does this seem reasonable? Is the price fair? Do people even want sketch portraits from me? Can I even get 150 people? PM me if you want to add your name(s) to the list.
Should we split this off for any feedback? I don’t know how.

ETA: I ran into my neighbour today, who invited me over to meet her family from San Diego. A question came up, would I also still paint paintings?
Yes, I certainly would. Anything to meet my goal. The jpg option is there for people who don’t have a lot to spend, or don’t want to pay high international postage. They can take the image to a local printer.

[kxkvi]

Is Kickstarter or Patreon a possibility? That way people could contribute according to their ability.

[knoxblox]

I figure Patreon could work, too. I also have Google Wallet and PayPal. I just don’t want people to waste their time on Kickstarter if the minimum isn’t met.

Best case scenario, I’m hoping I can get support by March 1st. As it stands, I’m working with the worst loaner phone ever, and don’t have the setup to impress on Kickstarter. I only have my work on Instagram to show.
Personally, I’d feel better if people didn’t have to fork anything over unless I was confident I had enough support from others, too.

[mindysan33]

Having to fully reset my wifi settings on my lappy when I’m forced to update my password every 120 days or whatever it is…

[kxkvi]

I see. I’m not familiar with how these things work!

[Wisconsin_Platt]

After having to shut off power a few times.over the weekend, I discovered my Wireless Router was NOT on the UPS and did not like having power toggled on/off several times and needed to be reset.

That’s annoying. What really grinds my gears is resetting every damn devices access.