Spring already, spring

It's gorgeous out today. I'm being disciplined and sitting at the computer studying. (Well, not right now, but that's another story).

After a couple weeks of on-and-off-again rain (which is what we call "winter" in California), it soared from nippy 60s into the upper 80s for the last few days. Today it is 77, which is my definition of perfect weather.

Here's a manipulated shot of the orchid budding. FINALLY! Kittie and David gave us this plant several years ago, and it floundered and never quite took off until we gave it a deep enough pot to live in. To the left is a shot of the plant from last June, when we repotted and, on the right, a picture from today. I had to stitch it together from two shots, because I couldn't get the whole plant into frame.

The buds are hovering about seven feet off the ground and have taken about three weeks to develop, but it looks like they might actually open on the first day of spring, which would be such good karma (but don't ask me why).

The studying is going well, and I'm finding out where the holes are in my knowledge of the graphics programs I have to be certified in. Like Photoshop: I have to study up on the animation functions in Photoshop.

ANIMATION!? Nobody uses Photoshop for animation; there are too many other programs out there better suited. But I have to learn enough about it to pass the exam. I forgot how dumb school is.

Steve and I took a day off yesterday and went into Hollywood to the Arclight theaters (the one with the Cinerama Dome incorporated into it) and saw "Avatar" in 3D. It was very beautifully done. The 3D was tastefully executed and, as with every other James Cameron movie, it was a half-hour too long. He is a very self-indulgent director. Just because you're a genius doesn't mean you can be tiresome.

Anyway, I don't see 3D taking over anytime soon. Most movies are better shown in 2D. Or perhaps my eyes are turning into old farts, just like the old folks I knew as a kid who said color movies were too garish, and they longed for the good old days of black-and-white and the studio system and Nazism and white supremacy: Zany old folks!

After the film, we went to the cafe at Arclight for dinner and got seated in what I call "the throne," a booth table all by itself in the far corner and a focal point of the room. We ate and watched the fabulous people congregate at the bar for pre-film drinks with the other fabulous people. I love Hollywood. You always see a few women dressed with painful trendiness, their hair perfectly tousled and they're with guys who look like white gangsta wannabes, sporting the grubbiest of clothes. I guess that means they're supposed to be geniuses, too, and dress that way to demonstrate their intense rebellious nowness.

Well, I've got to get back to the business of becoming certifiable. (And I'm nearly there, believe me.)

I'm trying to post on the blog a little more often than I have in the past, so if you don't get pictures, or the entry is really short, the overall strategy is to get people checking here more often by offering clever (if unnecessary) entries at least once or twice a week.