After the Planned Parenthood Walk for Choice, Tina Vasquez emailed me. She asked to interview me on some of my thoughts on the subject. Here is a link to the full article.. you can also see some of the photos that I (and others) took that day.

"When the Assault on Planned Parenthood Becomes Personal"

Pictures from our 2009 visit to Memento Park Sculpture Garden.

http://brandyzzyzx.tumblr.com/post/3557174558/mementopark

I'm on tumblr... if you are, join me.

brandyzzyzx.tumblr.com

So we are preparing for our annual trip to Tucson for the Gem Show. This year, since we opened the gallery, we have decided to shorten our trip considerably. Usually we go for 3 weeks, but this year we have managed to condense it down to 10 days. Still enough time to meet our contractual obligations at the Westward Look Show, visit our clients at the Inn Suites, and participate in the TGMS Main Show.

Tonight I am busy reading Craigslist ads for gem show rentals. We usually rent a bigger house, out of town, with a group of friends, but it always turns out to be a disaster. This year we are just renting a small, 1 bedroom guest house, mid-city. Last year Rocky came with us, but I figured since we were only going for a week and half we wouldn't take him. So my good friend kittymonkey graciously offered to come up to LA keep him company, and house sit.

In addition to everything we always do in relation to business, this year I am participating in the Mineral Exhibit Competition. This will be the first time that I have publically displayed any specimens of my mineral collection, so obviously I am quite nervous. The competition is quite steep, being as this is the most important mineral show in the world... so I am not expecting much. Judging is based on many factors, including the display, presentation, accuracy, etc. These I am confident that I can score high marks in. However, they also give scores to each individual specimen within the case, judging it in relation to "all know specimens of the mineral known to private collections". OUCH. I know that only a few of my minerals are anywhere near "world class", even if several of them are quite nice. But I do have trick up my sleeve.... Actually, 2 tricks.

#1. Most of the cases within my class are going to be mixed specimen displays, showcasing many of the most common minerals. This makes the range of specimens for comparison quite large. I, however, am a specialist collector. I only collect minerals that are black or metallic.. many of which are quite rare, and almost certainly won't be on display in anyone else's case. :) You see where I am going with this.

#2. In going to the mineral shows all over the world, for all these years one thing I can say for certain is that pretty much everyones' display look the same. Anytime there is a unique or different case, it becomes a show highlight. I am going to exploit this phenomenon to my advantage by using an approach that is completely different from any have I ever seen, thus distracting from the fact my mineral specimens may not be the flashiest.

Dear Brandy:

This email/letter confirms that your competitive exhibit request, as described below, has been accepted for the 2011 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show™.

Exhibitor Group: General Competition

Class/Description: Novice, B-11, Thumbnails

Case Size: 2 foot case

Special Trophies:

Setup of your exhibit shall take place between 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. and only on Wednesday, February 9, 2011. Your Competitive Exhibitor Registration Packet must be picked up at the registration desk in the east end of the Galleria starting at 3:30 p.m.

For further information concerning your exhibit, you may contact me at 602.236.4317 during the day and at 480.892.0779 in the evenings. I can also be reached at wlpresmy@srpnet.com; or if you need to contact the TGMS Office, please do so at 520.322.5773 or show@tgms.org.

I look forward to seeing you at the Show.

Best Regard,
Les Presmyk

Today we led one of our monthly public field trips. This one was to the Calico Mountains, outside of Barstow; about 2 hours from Los Angeles. This one was by far the furthest away trip that we have organized through the gallery, so we weren't surprised when only 5 people showed. Whatevs, we have been going to this area to collect minerals a lot lately (Thanksgiving, Xmas, New Years), so it really didn't matter. Our more local field trips usually draw about 10-15 people, so for some place a 2 hour drive away, 5 isn't too shabby.

Field trip days are fun, but very tiring. Getting up early, hiking, lugging rocks, teaching, guiding and explaining. Everyone; Me, Justin and Rocky are beat. On field trip days, we really don't get that much collecting done ourselves. However, we managed to find enough chalcedony "roses" to fill 2 sandwich bags. We promised our friend Ellen at the Culver City Rock Club that we would collect some rocks for use in the "kids rocks" grab bags while we were out. Here is a picture of one found in 2008. http://www.mindat.org/photo-200280.html

I wanna start writing here more.

I did actually think I was going to stop all together, back in September. For the past 3 years I have had billing issues (their bad), this year included. In order for me to renew my account, I have to do all this back and forth with customer service. I don't know what the deal is, but they never are able to accept online payments from my account. So this year I decided to not pursue the problem, because I didn't want to deal with it. This means for the first time since I've been on LJ, I don't have a paid account. This whole deal got me thinking about leaving Livejournal. I am sure you can see why.

But then I became nostalgic. Mostly because I have been on LJ for most of my adult life. (WTF!) Since 2002, when I switched over from Diaryland. (does anyone even remember Diaryland?) Sounds really odd when i put it that way.
I never really left, I still read my FL, and comment... But I have just been so swamped in work, that quite frankly, sitting down to type up an entry just didn't even occur to me.

But now with the new year, things have started to stable out with the gallery. hopefully I be able to manage a couple entries a month.

Well this holiday was uneventful....

St. Nicholas as "Der Weihnachtsmann"
photoshop vector image
web version:
http://www.brandynaugle.com/masonic/st.nicholas-xmas-72.png
print version:
http://www.brandynaugle.com/masonic/st.nicholas-xmas.png

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Next year I resolve to write more and to do more non work/commissioned artwork