15 January 2025
It seems to be chillier than usual for January. I'm not complaining.
13 January 2025
Retirement does seem to suit me. Once it really dawns on me that I don't have to go back to work, I don't know what I'll do with myself. Been having nightmares though, I was at one of my previous jobs, and a co-worker from a different previous job was there. I was confused in the dream.
9 January 2025
I've been officially retired for the last 9 days. I've played around with 3D modeling from Adobe Illustrator, and made a simple ring. The first try was over engineered. On the second try, I realized that what I was trying to do manually, could be done in Illustrator without issue.
31 December 2024
It's the last day of the year, it's bonus day 11 for retirement. Officially, retirement starts tomorrow. Happy New Year Everyone!
30 December 2024
Bonus day 10 of my retirement. I'm resting up. Life is good for the moment.
28 December 2024
Bonus day 8 of my retirement. I need a hobby. I know! I'll bug the thernet, or is that possible? I almost thought I had broken this web page, but it didn't happen.
I almost thought I had broken the 3D printer again. Well... I didn't break it so much as put it out of commission for a while. It's working now, and what am I working on? Rubber stamps, and stencils.
I had this idea to print a cane, 36 inches tall, 1 inch diameter at the top, tapered down to .75 diameter at the bottom, sliced to print as 6 inch divisions and with threaded fittings for the joins. I was going to credit the designer that provided the nut and bolt models for the threaded fittings, then find a model (crediting artist) and a cane topper (also crediting artist) and I almost had it. Aside from performing the 3D modeling between Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Dimension, and artificial inteligence, I was almost brain fried when I finished up the 36 inch tapered cane section of the project. Why the AI portion? I needed help on the math so that I would know what the top and bottom diameters should be on each section. Something I should have been able to do naturally, but alas, it's been a long time since I practiced that type of math. So I asked AI to help out with the parameters, and it did a good job. I was gob smacked at the speed and detailed accuracy of the answer. I saved the answer, the way I operate, I will need that type of help again, I'm also saving the files for reference. Then I printed the top segment of a section with the adjoining bottom segment for the fitting and it was great. Nevermind that I had to bulldoze my way through "McGiver engineering" of faux Boolean styles to fit the nut into place. While I was looking for cane toppers, I saw 2 complete canes that could be downloaded and printed. Why do this when I already have 2 canes that I change out on occaision? I want to see how durable a printed cane is. That's all. One of my internet buds suggested that I look into FreeCad, I sat in my chair like a deer staring into head lights, the video he shared did not match the version I was trying.
What did I learn during this hard-headed session of work-arounds to accomplish the modeling exercise? I need to learn CAD. (Sigh) Something else to fill my head with. I have already been accused of being too nerdy and that alienates me from other women. I not smarter than anyone else, I just know different things from other people.
23 December 2024
Bonus day 3 of retirement. I've been taking it easy so far, letting it sink in. As the reality sets in, I realize there's no need to feel any stress. I will have a retirement check coming in.
Don't you find it's the simplist things that trip you up? I had to uninstall an application, the computer fussed at me, "it's open, it can't be deleted while it's open." I start closing down stuff, searching on how to remove the app, and genally annoyed hubby. He'd say "look it up." I'd look it up and nothing seemed to help. So I figured there was something open somewhere, I closed down all the running apps and removed the automatic "open at login" feature, shut the computer down, and set a timer for 10 minutes. IT WORKED!
22 December 2024
Bonus day 2! Yesterday I printed rubber stamps. I need to research how to refine them. I've seen it before. I chose a swashy font to make a name stamp. The P looked backwards when I flipped the letters. Then I spent an hour figuring out it was correct.
21 December 2024
20 December was my last day of work on site. Holidays and leave time will carry me to the end of the year, and then I will be officially retired.
Is this bonus day 1? Feels like it. I feeling the creative urge, and I'm 3D printing rubber stamps.
15 December 2024
One more week working on site, then the rest of the month is filled with Christmas Holidays and approved leave time. I've been counting down since early January of this year. And now, I have concerns. We will see what happens. There is talk of cutting retirement benefits, and health care. At the moment, it's a minor concern, but for those who are just getting by, my heart is filled with empathy for them. How long before I'm in that posistion? Should I be aggressively hawking my merch? If you wouldn't mind, please check out the merch page and see if there's something you like. It is not an aggressive pitch, at this time, it doesn't need to be.
1 December 2024
15 workdays to go, feeling slighly antsy.
16 November 2024
Well, not sure what to say.
11 November 2024
Yay! 7 more weeks. I'm feeling discombobulated.
26 October 2024
Getting closer, almost 9 weeks to go. Monday ticks the 9 week mark, 63 days. Then subtract out 18 for weekend days, takes it down to 45, subtract another 8 days for work holidays, and I'm down to 37 work days. That's just messes with the mind, 37 work days sounds like 5 weeks. I'll stick with the 63 day count down.
Less than two weeks until the election, Please Vote.
21 October 2024
70 days until the end of the year. Then I will be retired. Quick, someone hire me for a part time job.
13 October 2024
How are my days flowing into retirement? Calmness one day, nerves the next day. I'm good, I really am.
11 October 2024
3D has consumed my thoughts, good thing? Badthing? I see ideas, them I see ways to improve them. Guess I should have been an engineer of sorts. However, when I was younger and heard the word engineer, I had visions of rocket scientists working away with little to no creativity. It hasn't been until lately that engineer has taken on a new definition. Clothing engineer, aka fasion design. Then there are things I like to do, like graphic design, which has spilled over into craft engineering. I have beendesigning paper crafts for the Cricut Machine. Now I'm imagining 3D models to print in order to organize art supplies. The thoughts just keep spinning.
24 September 2024
I'm trying to figure out a 3D solution, and I've lost all other thoughts.
20 September 2024
V2 remote basket designed, now there's some trouble shooting to do with the 3D printer.
I am, missing a word, word, word, word. Here it is, I have embraced 3D modeling. When I design in Adobe Illustrator, it will be imported to the slicing software at 10% scale. For example a 10 cm object imports as 1 cm. I have finally started designing at 10X scale, so the the objects import to the correct size when they are placed in the slicing software.
And I'm pleased to announce my latest coloring book, "Faith & Color" has been released and is now available through Amazon. It can be found through the Author link on the merch page.
19 September 2024
The days grow shorter, Monday, I'll be less than 100 days out from retirement. Hubby said that I'll be a two digit midgit. A reference from when he was in the Navy for short timers lees than 100 days from retirement.
THe political climate bothers me. That's all I can say on the subject. Please VOTE! Just so you know, I have issues with both red and blue parties, so you need to decide on your choice for lessor of two evils.
16 September 2024
Well . . . My skill keeps growing. I designed a printed a "Remote Box" and it is a little clunky. Now to work on version 2. It was designed in the for of a 4 bottle carton holder. <Remote box link> Version 2 is planned to have rounded corners. Something I wanted to do when I engineered it. I set up basic design in Adobe Illustrator, and used the Asset Export panel to make an OBJ file. The slicing software said it would open an obj file, but did it? Noooooooooooooo, as least not from Illustrator. I had the basket and the base designed, the handle for the carton was tricky. I noticed that the slicing software would import png files, well it did but it didn't. The cut out for the handle wasn't in the import. Back to obj files, the method I used to get the handle piece was to make it seperately from the basket. In order to get everthing to export as a single object, I had to orient all the pieces with a top down view and group them. The base was on the bottom of the stacking order, then the basket. It didn't really matter where the handle would go, since it was taller than the other pieces.
That was it, the handle was created from a bar, the width of the basket dividers and extruded to 300 mm. WRONG! It had to be put down as a 300 x 125 mm block and extruded to the width of the basket dividers. That way, I could cut out the carring handle. The basket/base combo, and the handle (exported separate from the basket) were imported into Adobe Dimension. I have not used Dimension a lot, and I was unable to get the two pieces to line up to the object centers. OH, I should mention here, that when I create obj files from Illustrator, they are always 10% of the intended size. So in Dimension, I had to scale them up 10 times. I exported each part separately as newer and improved stl files. Why newer and improved? Because newer and improved could be opened by the slicing software. <smirk> I then imported both parts into said slicing software, and lined them up. Even though I tried to merge both pieces, both pieces were clearly separate from each other. (Think, think, think, idea) I should export project from slicing software and see if it is a combined single object when brought back into said slicing software. (shock, knock me over with a feather and pick me up off the floor) It worked, here's the link again for convenience. <Remote box link> I am totally pleased with the results, though the red pen is coming out to plan some revisions.
12 September 2024
I'm getting excited, less than 16 weeks left to the big event. I'm having very creative thoughts. Here's to being a maker for the rest of my life.
9 September 2024
I found a 3D model for a dip pen by "EagleEyeGuy" and had to print it. It doesn't seem to work well with fountain pen ink, runs all over the place. It does work better with acrylic ink. I need more time to work with it.
7 September 2024
trying to finish up another coloring book. i have some greeting card ideas to work on also.
4 September 2024
Shoulder hurts less, and creative thoughts are flowing.
19 August 2024
It's the 19th of August and 19 weeks left. It's amazing how numbers line up sometimes.
8 August 2024
Hurt my shoulder, I shall get through this.
3 August 2024
Getting there, working on Christmas cards, needs some tweaking.
27 July 2024
Need to relearn html. It's easy enough to learn, I just get rusty after a while.
24 July 2024
Life is still good. But politics is a bigger mess. (prayer) Dear God, I still know that you're in control, but what a bigger mess. Please straighten it out.(/prayer)
3 June 2024
Life is good. But politics is a mess. (prayer) Dear God, I know you're in control, but what a mess. Please straighten it out.(/prayer)
Well, it's been so long since I worked on this site, I'm out of what little practice I had with code. Give it 30 weeks, and I'll have plenty of time to fix that. I have decided to retire at the end of this year, the end of December. There will be plenety of time to re-learn coding, get more involved with church, make more artwork, and 65+ free education.
12 February 2024
Well, today I don't know what to say.
6 January 2024
I lost my parents in 2023, don't be sad, they are no longer suffering. Dad was 92, and had 184 birthdays. ( His actual birthdate was in dispute, my grandmother said it was on one side of midnight, the doctor said the other side. By the time the family figured out it was filed for the other side of midnight, the question became fix it and deal with the hassle of correcting or let it stand. It was allowed to stand. Mom was 84, but because of dementia, she had left us long ago. She had trouble remembering who we were, and didn't recognize us most of the time.
This year, I have some decisions to make. Hopefully, the rules don't change. There are indications that while all rules may not change, some are on the table.
5 October 2023
Today is strange. I've been working on a novelty font.