Wednesday. To bed after ten, up at six with the alarm, feeling reasonably good. Be nice to have this become a habit: the head clear, the vision reasonably under control, to breakfast and back in good shape before eight. It rained fairly hard last night, was sprinkling as I drove to breakfast, the sun now poking through what look to be dark and reasonably dramatic clouds. They're still saying rain through the week and I have no doubt they're right, but a little sun this morning couldn't hurt.

My guitar lesson is coming up and I think I have a lunch with some of the old coworkers at APL this noon, although I haven't heard back yet on the time and the place. And there's a computer drawing tablet due through UPS. I have an old one acquired five or six years ago that I've not used in some time, but after the Photoshop classes I decided I was ready to go whole hog. This drawing tablet, a Wacom tablet, is my idea of going whole hog. At least at the price.

So, maybe post a note to the mailbox for the UPS truck if it arrives while I'm out, ask that they buzz the apartment manager to have him accept the damned thing and sign, let the day unfold. I spent quite a bit of time upgrading one of the artandlife sections yesterday and the day before, it needs more work today. I'm liking this. Maybe a good sign.

Later. A fumbling sort of a guitar lesson just now. Some days your on, some days your not no matter, it seems, how the practice has gone. Hand position on the frets fingering the chords. It evidently takes some time to get it right and I don't yet have it right. But I'm getting there. My instructor is encouraging, which makes me think he's in the right business, best to encourage the student and not always come down too hard with the truth.

That's your reading of your guitar lesson?

That's one reading, less positive than many another, not necessarily anywhere near the truth. Best to encourage yourself no matter what? If being more upbeat gets you playing, gets you playing more easily, that's the way to go and I'm just, you know, whining. Life on the whine, here in Oakland.

At least there were no UPS deliveries while I was gone so I'll still probably be here when my tablet arrives. Haven't heard anything about lunch other than it's to take place today in Pleasanton in what you'd think would be another hour. I suspect lunch is off. Probably for the best, we have other things on our plate.

Later still. Still no UPS, but a long session now in Photoshop manipulating photographs, running across some portraits I'd taken in 2006. These were done for a friend, a nice enough portrait and a good one to practice at balancing color, getting it right. There's a set of steps you need to follow if you want to have consistent color across a group and I've not been good at that. There's always a time to start.

Consistent color? How about accurate color?

Now, now. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Later again. I hope this Intuit Wacom tablet, which is a bit bigger than I was expecting (I was worried about that), is something that I'll use from here on out. It's useful in making really fine adjustments to photographs, I've used one in the past, but in going through maybe half a dozen old photographs to try it out this late afternoon and into the early evening it's, well, not yet all quite dropping into place like a good tablet should.

Where have we heard that before?

You can't move forward without stubbing a few toes.