So ends video game week.

     This week I spent way too much time with Mario. I am now seeing bricks and coins in my head. I dream of castles where you have to escape the rising lava while avoiding flying turtles. Plus, I'm pretty sure that I need glasses and blood pressure medication now. Despite all that, I enjoyed the week. I could come home, veg out and play games without shame. Ben (BF) helped by also playing video games. His game of choice was Worms. He is more skilled than I am at games.
     In the middle of mad gaming I had to take a day off. I was getting so frustrated at being stuck that I had to take a day and cool down. My thumbs were sore and I was jumpy in real life. It  was like an owl was gonna come out of nowhere and kill me in real life.  I had to be vigilant. After my day off from Mario, I got much better. I easily beat the level I was on a progressed several more.
     So did I beat the game? Sadly, no. I got to world 8-6. I had one more world, one castle and then the big end battle to complete. So i feel overall good about my accomplishment. I hope that it helped my hand eye coordination (but I doubt it). Will I finish the game anyway? Yes, after a week or so off. I'm afraid that my brain would explode if I tried it now.

Next week: In honor of upcoming Valentines day it is going to be chocolate week.

Van Gogh week a hit.

    Van Gogh week was better that hoped. I read a ton about him, tried to sketch wherever I went and painted. I kind of wish I would have gone step further, though. Painted outside more. Maybe got into character AS Van Gogh. But I didn't... so maybe another time.
     The biggest challenge I took was to make a self portrait in his style. I titled it "A Portrait of the Artist in Summer." I worked in acrylic instead of oil because I wanted a faster drying time than the weeks it took Van Gogh's to dry. That created the problem of it drying too fast. So the resemblance is not the best. Actually it looks more like me at 16. Plus the paint kept drying a little darker than I wanted, hence the "in the summer" part. As a side note: I was a terrible model. I kept moving my head and changing the light source. Will opt for someone better next time.
     This painting took me approx four hours. I wanted to keep it quick and not linger because Van Gogh was a speed demon. Over his ten year career in painting he completed over 900 paintings.  During one of his "crises periods" (his mental breakdowns were characterized by hallucinations, anxiety and extreme lethargy) he was institutionalized for 70 days. He was not allowed to paint the first two weeks. He still finished 70 paintings and many more drawings. Wow. So I worked hard and fast. Here is the result-

    Next week I am giving myself a break from the intellectual and my goal is to complete a video game. It will hopefully be Super Mario Brothers on Nintendo DS.

Note: I still had a whole red snapper left from my initial start to the week of learning to prepare fish. Ben (bf) and I stuffed it with artichokes and crab, covered it in herbs and baked it. It turned out delicious, but of course the bones were a problem while eating.