Mad William

Ready Or Not...

Yesterday was our first day of Kindergarten.

How, when, who...

Our Mr. Man can not possibly be old enough for school. I'm not ready for this.

Of course he took it all in stride. Barely a moment of apprehension. Turns out I was making him nervous all week with the constant questions. "Are you excited?", "Are you ready?", "Can we practice your writing and reading again?"

Daaaaaaad! Can we stop now? Let's play something. I'll be fine.

But you...but, but...

I'm ready already.

And he was. We took a few packs of glue sticks for the class. It was the only thing I could remember from the 'needs' list. Mr. Man handed them to his new teacher and told her, "You can keep these. My dad said we have more for home." as he wandered off to find a tiny chair.

He sat between two other boys. On his right was the class crier. On the left...(I'm sure he's a nice kid, but his parents had shaved his head. Who shaves a 5 year olds head?)was the kid totally opposite from crier. Out going and excited.

Mr. Man looked at the crier, looked up at me with a look of "WTH?" and then to Buzz. Buzz looked at Mr. Man and said,"Hey, do you want to play with these blocks?

"Sure, that'd be great.

"Ya. We should be friends."

"Ok. Let's play."

And that was that. The pure simplicity of childhood. It was beautiful. Except for the crier. He just would not stop. I sort of felt bad, but you have to learn to face the world or those other kids will eat him alive. Kids can be brutal.

I was one the last parents to leave after drop off. I wanted to make sure everything was alright and check out the other kids. I wanted to check out the other parents and see how they handled it all.

Other people frighten me. That's all I gong to say for now. They frighten me.

The very worst part of watching my son grow up, is knowing that one day, that pure simplicity that can and should make childhood the most wonderful place in the world, will be gone. Eventually, he will forget those simple pleasures and be like most all of us. That I find painful and very sad. I hate that I even think about such things.

I should just let it all be and encourage him to be a kid, and enjoy all of those simple things, as best he can, for as long as he can. I will remember his childhood forever, even if he doesn't. And I have pictures.

It just pisses me off feeling like this. It totally justifies a lot of what my mother does. I can just hear her voice, " You just wait..."

I hate it when she's right.

Not, ready.

Dear Apple,

Steve,

I wanted you to know, I love almost everything you do. I am a huge fan of the machines, gadgets, browsers and everything else you do and have done. And I very much appreciate the six months of free service with Mobileme.

However, Mobileme is still one giant pile of steamy crap!

Mobileme has NEVER worked the way we were told it would. There are CONSTANT disruptions to service, it is down more than a two dollar whore and I am forever getting error messages for absolutely everything I need to do, not to mention how often I am just disconnected for no reason what so ever.

Even though the error messages say that a copy has been save to drafts or where ever it should be saved, do know what? IT NEVER SAVES SHIT!

Please, Steve, have at least one of your minions spend some time working on the numerous bugs and glitches that Mobileme still has. Or at least put dot mac back on line. In all the years I used dot mac, I never had a problem. EVER.

The few bells and whistles that mobileme has that do work are not enough to make up for the amount that still doesn't, and hasn't ever worked.

Steve, you're better than this. And quite frankly, I expect more from you. If this was MS, I would take it in stride because we expect MS to suck. But you're Apple baby. Please, do something.

Sincerely,

A once satisfied, growing ever pissed off customer.

Story Time...

It has been brought to my attention that my posting has slowed. Thank you Christine, I'm alright.

So to speak.

Let me share a story.

A piece of paper is relatively strong and equally as fragile. It can be used over and over if it's cared for. Use a soft pencil to write and it can be erased and written on again and again before it wears out. You can fill the paper with everything important.

The paper can be used for a variety of other things besides writing and drawing, such as wrapping for other objects. It can be wadded up and used for padding or filler. You can fold it to make shapes or objects. Of course if you wad or fold, the paper will never fully recover. The wrinkles and folds will always be a part of the paper from that point on. Some will fade over time, but they're still there.

Some times the paper gets torn. You can leave the tear and work around it. You can continue the tear until you have two pieces of paper. You can tape it back together.

If you tape the paper, it can be stronger and last longer than the original paper. Of course it will never be the same. You will have to use something a little more permanent it you want to write over the tape and you might never get the writing or tape off again.

At times there are many other people that all want a piece of your paper. They get grabby and pieces of your paper might get torn off. Sometimes, you can get those pieces back. Other times, they will be lost forever. Your paper will never be quite whole again.

You can even burn your paper to provide heat or light. All be it fleeting as your paper will burn and disappear quickly. You can even use to ash to draw decorate or even fertilize or compost.

Functional but not the best use of your paper.

The only way to keep the paper safe is to file it away someplace where it will never be used. No writing drawing folding wadding ripping tearing taping losing fading ever.

Safe.

But then you have taken away every thing the paper was supposed to be. It will never see it's potential. Never see joy sorrow pain pleasure love hate ugly beauty ever.

Sad.

If you can remember what's important, and care for your paper, be firmly gentle, your paper will bring years of pleasure and fond memories until it's recycled and used again or returned to the earth to feed a future piece of paper.

Unless it's just dumped in the trash and wasted.

Monsters, Love Sleep Overs...

Tonight was our first sleep over. Mr. Man had a friend over late in the day, and in the midst of playing, they asked if Friend could stay the night.

Now the only thing wilder than a sugared up five year old boy is the addition of a sugared up six year old boy.

After a couple of strange glances at one another and a, "It's alright with me, if it's alright with you?" We agreed.

So we called Friends mom to make sure she was alright. She was extremely nervous. Much more so than Friend.

We let them play and stay up late. I started off being the strict Dad and tried to reel them in a bit. I was quickly reminded that they are small boys having fun. No harm. Yet. With in minutes Mr. Man was crying. They were rough housing on the bed and some one hit their head on the solid wood head board.

No blood, no dents, no blurry vision, everything's good. Carry on.

Then the girls from across the street decided to drop in. Kid count: 1 - 6 year old boy, 1 - 5 year old boy, 1 - 5 year old girl, 1 - 4 year old girl. We are officially suburban parents. How the Hell did this happen?

That's right. Sheer disaster waiting to happen. With in a few more minutes the 4 year old girl was crying and wanting to go home. Fine with me. They are kind of little Princesses. Back to two boys.

Then we end up with Friends dog as well. It was across the street, some one's gone, long story short, we now have the dog too.

Well the new dog is terrified of our cat Fat Louie, which we now call "Cat", an other story.

With in a few minutes Friends dog has taken a leak on the bath room floor while the boys are taking a bath. Great.

Friends mom realizes that now she is missing her son and her dog, calls us to see if she can at least have her dog back for the night. After the wizz, you bet. The sooner the better.

A couple hours after bed time, around 11:30, Friend wakes up and wants him mommy. We try to distract him with a movie and some laughs. He falls asleep on the sofa, rolls over and lands on the tile floor. Now he really wants his mommy. We do a group hug thing and some more laughing and diversion, but Friend has had enough. He wants to call home.

We did. Friends mom didn't even hesitate to say, "I'm on my way". She only lives two block away. I swear she was here in about 45 seconds.

Honestly I felt bad. I was wondering what we did wrong. Then I remembered my first sleep over. It was a frightening thought to be away from your family for the first time. I don't think I made it all the way through.

So in the morning I will try to explain to Mr. Man why his Friend is gone.

Monsters, of course.

The Studio Plunder...A History, Part Eleven...Fini

I will apologize in advance, this is going to be a long one. But its also the last of the studio plunder. In no particular order.

It was toward the end of 2003 that we found that we were about to become parents. I will never forget how fast that stick turned blue. All three times.

A few days later, after I regained feeling in my limbs and started to think about it, I became fascinated with all things tiny. Having always been big, small was something new to me. All of my work for the next year became small. Tiny. Miniature.

My work had become an exploration in mini. The largest of the works was about 4 x 6 inches, which felt too large for them at the time. Most of them were about 1 x 2 to 2 x 3 inches. I explored all kinds of subjects. A few in color, most in pen and ink.

I still produce a mini now and then, just cuz. You can make minis any where. On the backs of business cards is one of my favorite places.