>So here I am, whiling away some time while Karisa plays Super Paper Mario. I just downloaded the Gimp and put together some pictures of three journals I made last weekend. They’re more of the same, of course, but I like matching papers and trying to get things just right. These three have the decorative paper covers, of course, but they also have the new-and-improved cloth-reinforced hinges and 100% cotton paper pages. Because I love making books that are this awesome. I feel like they could be better, but I’m still working out some kinks. 013 came out fine, but 014 and 015 ended up with their covers overlapping the textblock so much that I worry about the ends of the binding getting accidentally cut, so I think in the future I’m going to make my covers so that they’re about flush with the textblock on the sides that are adjacent to the hinges. Okay, so enough about my stuff, here’s the pictures:

Left to right, these are 013, 014, and 015.

013 is as simple as it gets with black and white paper on the cover – something elegant for the front, something writer-ish for the inside – and heavily waxed, variegated deep-red floss for the binding. I actually made the covers for 013 over a month ago, which is why they happen to be the right size. I had three textblocks set up, and one of the cover sets I made last weekend was experimental and didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to, so I’m going to give it some love before I make that book.

014 is some kind of safari look, another travelogue kind of book I suppose. The paper is actually a heaver linen texture, but the way it’s printed, it looks like large-grain leather and has huge photogenic appeal. Look at it, doesn’t that texture look real?

015 is the guitar journal. I’ve had it in my head for some time, inspired by the wooden logo that fell off of a CD-60 acoustic dreadnought case about six months ago. I held onto it just in case, but then I felt it was safe to use as an embellishment for this journal. Cool guitar paper for the front, technicolor wood bullseye for the insides. . . Karisa says that reminds her of the Who, and that’s cool with me. I want to find something else cool with it, but I refuse to go over the top with embellishment. I like to keep it simple, but I don’t want to get bored with it either.

So anyway, I’m feeling the eyestrain. I spent serious quality time with Metroid: Other M on the Wii this morning, mainly because it’s the only time I have to play video games. I beat the game, and then after the credits, Samus “forgot my phone” Aran decided to go back to the ship on which the game took place to retrieve a mysterious something, I don’t know what. I figured, hey, why not pick up the power-ups that I missed the first time through? Yeah, I couldn’t find the first three, even though they were blinking on my map right in front of my face. Then I ran into something very ugly, something I had to get past to progress, and after the twentieth time of not killing it, I got very, very angry.

I said things to the television that I have not said to it in a very, very long time. I said the “F” word more times than I can count, sometimes using two or three variations of that word in a row. I worry sometimes that the neighbors downstairs can hear me, and then I realize that they probably have their own crap to worry about. I turned the game off and gave myself some space to breathe. I defeated Queen Metroid, I’ll get this ugly dude. Next weekend. One thing at a time.

As proof of my usual good nature, here’s a picture of cats I took earlier with Retro Camera Plus for Android:

Niko, photogenic as ever, could be an LOL cat, but Lola is more of an FU cat. Look at that face!

Over the next two and a half Mondays and two and a half Tuesdays, I’ll be watching English teachers in action at Horizon Middle School and Mandan High School. Starting tomorrow. I have to be somewhere by eight in the morning. Bummer. On the other hand, I’m getting PTO for those days, so I get to come home and actually do homework, instead of getting it all done at the last minute, yay! I should come home and play video games. Halo. That would teach me for taking three classes in one semester. That would teach me good. I’m going to be an awesome English teacher, I know it.