Trying not to feel guilty about things unfinished. Books that I haven't picked up in weeks. Blogs I haven't written. Browser tabs, PDFs, and publications I haven't gone through. Work tasks rescheduled ad infinitum. I know that having that basal level of anxiety leads me to procrastinate the prioritized in favor of the mundane. And …
120V AC ➡️ 5V DC: Soldering and Electronics 101
At the end of my last challenge where I did 10,000 pushups in 30 days, I mentioned that I wanted to dust off my engineering diplomas and dive back into the world of circuitry. Despite three of my four diplomas saying 'Engineering' on them, most days I don't feel like a real engineer. While my …
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See 10, Do 10,000: A COVID-19 Pushup Challenge
Like for most of the world, April 2020 imposed a special set of restrictions upon my challenges and everyday life. I am extremely grateful that neither myself nor any of my family and friends have been among the 200,000+ who have lost their lives so far. But having found myself stuck inside, I knew that …
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One Month Drawing Challenge
As a quick recap for anyone who hasn't be following, I started out 2020 stating that I would do twelve, one-month challenges. January's challenge was to resurrect this blog and write a post every day. February's challenge was to dust off my Sony a6000 camera and take a photo every day, while working to establish …
Final Details
After the previous improvements to my celebrity drawings, I wasn't sure what to work on for the next week before attempting my second self-portrait. The first day I was a bit burned out, so I made some FBR sketches to keep the streak going: 22 March, 2020 - Some days you just keep the streak …
Paperazzi
My first week and a half of the challenge had been spent focused on the head and its different individual features. But to improve my self portrait, I needed more practice. So I sought to practice on photos of others, and in our society, it isn't hard to find a multitude of photos of high-profile …
Book Review – How To Change Your Mind
I first heard about Michael Pollan’s new book about six months ago, but it wasn't until I was reading it that I remembered this wasn't the first time I had read his writings on the subject. A few years ago in a New Yorker article entitled ‘The Trip Treatment’, he talked about the beginnings of …
Art and Anatomy
Currently, there are two exhibitions of 'Art & Anatomie' celebrating the 800th anniversary of the medical school in Montpellier. The 'Faculté de Médicine' here is the oldest still in existence in the Western world and was where Nostradamus did his studies in the 16th century. For the exhibit, they are showing drawings over the centuries …
Getting A Head
After my first self portrait attempt, I'm trying to deconstruct the process and to establish a meta-learning protocol for how to improve over the next month. Some stages will emphasize basic fundamentals, such as drawing shapes, that are universally applicable to any kind of drawing. Others are more specific to drawing the human form, and …
Self Portrait Sketch: Part I
For the first day of this challenge, inspired by another blogger's challenge, I thought I would give a self-portrait sketch a try. That way I can do another one at the end of the month and compare. So I found an old picture and in 40 minutes came up with this: Day 1: First Self …
Chortles and Harrumphs 