this week in the art cave

some thumbnail homework: a sketch from last saturday night, done in almost complete darkness: and the latest assignment: a study from the old masters.... and as if that weren't enough, this week is complicated by having my landlord decide to refinance the property, which means he and an appraiser will be at the house on thursday.... so tonight, i'll be getting estimates from gardeners (who had better not flake), to see how ruinous and exorbitant the charges will be to come in and clean it all up tomorrow morning, before the landlord and appraiser show up.

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dear minion

Dear Minion, When you've looked healthy all week, calling in sick on a day which just happens to also be the day before: a three-day weekend a three-day weekend which happens to also be the last weekend of prep for your sideline hobby does not impress me. Try it with someone who didn't use to also participate in said hobby. Or, just ask me nicely for the day off ahead of time.

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why don't more women game?

Not every game out there appeals to all four types of player -- and when one does, like World of Warcraft -- it sells amazingly well.... Not all men love first-person-shooter games and dungeon crawls, and not all women love socially-oriented, puzzle, and soap-opera-type games (I'm looking at you, Stevie Case), but there's a marked preference.... It's a small thing, but when a developer omits the option to make a female avatar, and there's not a very good story-driven reason to do this (e.g. Planescape: Torment), it turns me off to the game.

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time management and the closing of tabs

This bit really spoke to me: "Considering the short work weeks in some places, people who actually want to work hard probably do seem aberrant to those who consider a 35 hour work week too much to bear.... So, for those who think that no one but NO ONE would REALLY want to work this hard…um…well, yes they do, and if you had any imagination at all, you might actually be able to dig down deep into that creative well of yours and imagine people who are different than you are. People you’ve never heard of whose work goes nowhere don’t, which is why they are on message boards complaining about how hard other people work.

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