The Fluffbucket Diaries

Actually going to bed before midnight for the first time in almost a week. Grateful for it. And grateful for the holiday weekend respite from work.

ICAD 31/61; no prompt. Newspaper clippings and glue.

There is something oddly soothing about a quick and dirty collage with old Sunday papers.

ICAD 30/61; no prompt. Pilot G2 bold pen, glitter pen, shimmer-type marker.

Another early posting, and another neurographic doodle; experimenting with a new marker that draws a silver line with color outline. And yes, I bought the new marker after seeing countless Instagram ads for such “Doodle Dazzle” pens.

ICAD 29/61; no prompt. Pilot G2 bold pen, glitter pens, metallic bronze Sharpie.

Posting this a day early. Colored in a blind contour drawing of the sunflowers on our kitchen table.

Looks like I’m recovering well from the California carb binge. Weighed in at 235.8 pounds, or 3.2 pounds down from last week – and 1 pound down from my weight just before we left. This makes for a 47.2-pound loss since January.

We’ll see how long it lasts as I begin another rough work week.

Meanwhile, I removed two rings on my right hand because they kept slipping off. And I really need to get some new pants and even skirts because the old ones keep slipping. I guess this is a good problem to have, but it’s annoying nonetheless.

ICAD 28/61; no prompt. Pilot G2 bold pen; metallic paint Sharpie.

I’ve cranked out a small stockpile of neurographic doodles over the past few days; this stuff is addictive.

ICAD 27/61; no prompt. Acrylic paint-splotched background, blackout newspaper text, magazine clip.

Tiptoeing into a bit more collage using the piles of magazines and newspapers I’ve stockpiled for months.

ICAD 26/61; no prompt. Acrylic paint splotch background, magazine/newspaper scraps.

Summer is for reading.

Queasy and crampy today. Haven’t felt like this in months. Given the past week at work, it’s clearly stress-related. It’s gonna be rainy all day, so I’m inclined to spend this Saturday hunkered down while creating art, watching baseball, and maybe catching up on snail mail.

I’ve already made one planned tweak to the home office (elevated the monitor shelf), and I need to organize the office a bit more before starting my work week early late tomorrow night.

Grateful for Friday. Rough work week. Cramping up a bit.

My work week begins again Sunday night. Too much to edit. But in the meantime, I intend to relax and work on my art.

ICAD 26/61; no prompt. Sharpie, Pilot G2 bold.

More fun with neurographic doodling. I have several cards of just neurographic blobs that I may or may not fill in or color.

ICAD 24/61; no prompt. Black and silver metallic Sharpies; cheap glitter pen.

My very first attempt at neurographic art. One of the nice things about this ICAD business is that I’m discovering all kinds of cool approaches.

I look forward to doing more with this method. And in a related development, I am also now completely strung out on Sharpie fumes.

I’m beginning to see how people work themselves, quite literally, to death.

ICAD 23/61; no prompt. Craft acrylic paints, metallic Sharpie, collage from Sunday New York Times.

The Wacom drawing tablet I ordered for F arrived a day earlier than expected. So, she’ll be able to use it for most of her weeklong Zoom class on video game character creation. Now that she creates most of her art digitally, I’m excited to see what she does with this new tool.

As I expected, I gained back a little weight after 5 days of setting aside the carb limits while in California. Now up to 239 pounds, or 2.2 pounds over the last time I weighed myself.

I still kept up the discipline of logging my food, even if I ended up at more than 100 grams some days over my daily 100-gram carb limit.

Back on the wagon the past few days (though I’ve lapsed into my recent tendency to forget to eat during work hours). Also need to jumpstart my activity levels.

Reminding myself that I’m still 44 pounds down from where I started in January. Onward.

ICAD 22/61; no prompt. Pilot G2 bold pen.

Up late with work. Decided to wind down with an attempt at blind contour drawing, basing it on the striking face of an artist profiled in the Sunday New York Times.

Stayed up a while to put together some collaged backgrounds for ICAD pieces and watch the early part of Sunday’s Padres game.

Got to hear tornado sirens go off from far west of here, as well as thunder loud enough to remind semi-deaf old Winslow that he dislikes thunderstorms. (He remains wedged against my ankles under the desk.) Fortunately, any funnel clouds out there managed to skirt our area.

It’s 12:30 a.m. Off to bed.

ICAD 21/61; no prompt. Acrylic paint, washi tape, printer paper.

Yeah, I know. Another David Lynch quote. Wasn’t planning to use one again for this project till I came across the doughnut washi tape, and I remembered the quote.

Not one of my favorite cards once I slapped together the elements, but what the heck.

Relieved to see the dispensation from the Sunday Mass obligation remains in the archdiocese. Still in re-entry mode today and dealing with some minor residual discomfort. Finally understand the idea of feeling anything – including pain and tiredness – in my bones.

ICAD 20/61; no prompt. Craft acrylic paint; printer paper on card stock; inchie made with repurposed cardboard, printer paper, Pilot G2 bold pen, glitter pen, and a tiny square from a doodled-on church service program.

Another David Lynch quote; I need to remind myself of this a lot lately. I’m not a massive fan of Lynch’s films (though I adored “Twin Peaks” when it first surfaced on network TV back in the day). But I appreciate him as a thinker.

Spending my Saturday catching up on Padres games and making a flaccid effort to clean my home office.

We flew to California a week ago today; we returned home early Thursday morning. I ate half the breakfast burrito my sister insisted on bringing to me less than 24 hours before, then dragged myself to bed to sleep off some grief, anxiety, and the pain of long hours crammed in a winged sardine can with a thick piece of cloth over half your face.

Catching up on whatever news I can stomach (which, these days, isn’t much). The news item that was the biggest gut punch for me: the latest round of buyouts at the Tribune – the first under Alden Capital ownership.

There’s so many familiar names among these buyouts, I’m starting to realize that pretty soon, only a tiny handful of people I worked with nearly 20 years ago will be gone.

Among them: three columnists for whom I built websites when I landed at chicagotribune.com in the late 1990s, including Eric Zorn – who was especially kind and patient with me and will forever be in my mind the tallest, most interactive columnist ever.

Godspeed to the folks who are leaving. And God help the people who are left.

I still have a lot to process from the past week. Today I spent a great morning over breakfast doing a bit of processing with one of my dearest friends. Not sure how much processing I’ll do in this space, though. My greatest anxieties stemming from the week will likely remain analog and offline. I have enough to write about online.

The airline we flew provides free entertainment to distract us from the cramped seats, the aforementioned long hours in a winged sardine can, and the discomfort of lugging all of your possessions in a carry-on to avoid the $30-per-bag fee for checked-in luggage.

I took home two obsessions, thanks to this free entertainment: David Byrne’s “American Utopia” concert film (directed by Spike Lee) and the Apple TV+ sitcom “Ted Lasso.”

Somehow, “American Utopia” made me feel okay about growing old, even though the “Stop Making Sense” movie provided the soundtrack of my college years more than 30 years ago, and this latest concert film reminded me of that. Byrne has aged, like we all have, but that hasn’t kept him from making joyful, energetic, and insightful art. I watched “American Utopia” on the way to California and during my return home, and it buoyed my spirits when I needed it the most.

The flight only offered the first two episodes of “Ted Lasso,” and when I got home, I went ahead and subscribed to Apple TV+ so I could binge watch the final eight episodes. It didn’t take long. (I only binge watch archived baseball games on MLB.tv, so this was a first for me.) Much has been said about the power of niceness that the show depicts, and that’s part of what I adore about this show. But the titular character demonstrates more than that; there is a resilience and stubborness in Ted Lasso’s optimism, even in the midst of his own sadness and anxiety over his failling marriage. Some critics say, well, this is fiction and not real – but why must so many shows be hard and cynical? We get enough of that in real life.

I don’t watch much TV or many movies; the critically acclaimed stuff strikes me as cynical or overwrought or trying too hard to be woke or meaningful, and I’ve had my fill of that. (Much of what passes for news or punditry also feels overly earnest or a vehicle for cynicism, and I prefer to consume such content in small doses.) I’m just hoping “Ted Lasso” doesn’t take a dark turn in its second season, which starts next month.

I ate my weight in carbs while we were gone. I didn’t eat as much rice as I might have six months ago, but I thought nothing of all the tortilla-based and bready, sugary stuff that made its way into my grazing. I think I ended up maybe more than 100 grams over my 100-gram carb limit at one point. But I still logged everything.

Not alarmed. I decided weeks ago that I would go easy on myself this past week. I fully expect some weight gain when I weigh myself Monday. In the meantime, I’m back on the wagon and watching my carbs again. Onward.

ICAD 19/61; no prompt. Acrylic craft paint, metallic Sharpies, printer paper on card stock, stencil.

Turning my penchant for collecting things to quotations for my artwork. My zillions of likes on Twitter and Instagram usually mark quotes I appreciate. Time to mark them in analog form.

ICAD 18/61; no prompt. Inchies with acrylic paint, cardboard, and doodles; metallic paint pens and glitter pens.

Mosaic-type thing with a couple of cutouts from my daughter’s church doodles.

ICAD 17/61; no prompt. Pilot G2 bold pen; cheap Target glitter pen; parking receipt from a few hours at the beach.

Wasn’t thrilled with my doodle background, so I plastered our parking receipt onto it. It’s something, I guess. Wandering around the beach where I spent some time in my childhood was a highlight of our time away.

And with this, I’m caught up on my ICAD cards. Still in a post-travel fog, though I’m still happily able to relax with artwork and yesterday’s White Sox game streaming from MLB.tv. Just plain physically weary, and my right big toe is oddly swollen and numb, though it seems to be improving.

My head hurts. The emotional and physical exhaustion of the past several days is catching up with me.

I could use more sleep.