Random notes from the Chaos

My prolonged absence from the blogsphere these last two weeks has been two parts business to one part laziness, but I wanted to throw out a few random notes before all of this slipped out of my head. Sorry for the disorganization:

• For those of you who missed the awesome garage sale at our house last weekend, there is probably going to be another one mid-September. Watch this space for more details. I’ll probably advertise so if any of you need to sell some stuff, let me know and we’ll set it out.
  
  
• The magnificence that is Mary is leaving us. She got offered a sweet gig on the east end of the state. Since she’s been so good about watching our kitties when we had to be away, we’re fostering her cats until she can get a place that will allow them. If you’ve never stopped by her blog, it’s something to behold… oh, and she also apparently paints or something…
  
  
• If anyone who reads this has a passing interest in web development, I found a nice introduction to design patterns while researching something else this week. The article is a little old, but the fundamentals it reinforces are older than the internet.
  
  
• Roy had another of his blender classes today, this time on UV mapping. We had a little chat about how to proceed with future classes and it looks like he may start the series over this January as a Saturday class. If you know anybody or anybody who knows anybody who’d like to learn 3-D animation, they’re not going to find a better deal than a free class with free software from someone who actually knows something about the subject.
  
  
• I’m due for a bonus check at the end of this month and I was thinking about spending a little of it on buying some astrophotography equipment (and throwing the rest at my very scary credit cards). My mom used to teach astronomy and she got me interested in the subject when I was a kid, but I’ve not pursued it much as a hobby since I moved to a big city. As it stands, I’ve already got a good camera rig for it, but I need a telescope and an adapter. I’m not really looking to spend more than about a hundred to a hundred and fifty bucks to get started with (which I know severely limits me), but if anyone has any suggestions for what to buy or what to avoid, I’d love to hear them.
  

...and lastly, I'm seriously considering podcasting my art reviews from now on. Not just because I'm in love with the sound of my own voice, but since I teach podcasting, I feel like I should be doing something with the technology.