Body & Home 15 Oct 2005 11:48 pm
kaleidoscope
I made a kaleidoscope today! Or perhaps I should say, I assembled a kaleidoscope today, at a kaleidoscope-making class led by Thea Marshall, working with elements of her Kaleido-kits. We also learned to do a little glass-cutting and flame-sculpting, and we touched on some kaleidoscope-related math, physics, and history.
This thing is awesome. I must make kaleidoscopes out of everything now. Yessssss. But first I have to stare into this kaleidoscope for a while longer. So hypnotic. So mesmerizing.
Josh bought me the class as a present for my birthday. Isn’t he swell? Weeks ago I saw the listing and said, “Oh! Kaleidoscopes! This class would be great as a birthday present for me!” and then I promptly forgot that I said anything, so it was a marvelous surprise.
This was the first time in years that I’ve signed up to do something for more than a couple of hours that’d require me to function semi-intelligently. I packed along my little folding chair, just in case we were in some godforsaken chairless lab (we weren’t) and a cell phone, just in case I had to call for a ride home early (I didn’t). I managed to keep my brain going and even twisted some glass near the end of class without setting anything on fire. But when I got home, I crashed immediately and intensely for two hours and didn’t un-grog for at least another five hours. So this sedate 5-hour class was kind of a big deal. I was fading pretty fast at the 3.75-hour mark. That’s not a complaint; I was curious to see how I’d do. Josh says, “Better than I thought you would!” Excellent.
on 16 Oct 2005 at 12:04 am 1.mizducky said …
Cool! I adore kaleidescopes. (I have a couple cheapo ones somewhere–wonder where they’ve gotten to?)
on 16 Oct 2005 at 8:58 am 2.Mia said …
That’s so excellent!
on 16 Oct 2005 at 9:34 am 3.cissa said …
That sounds really cool!
on 16 Oct 2005 at 2:54 pm 4.Cam Sculpin said …
And today I slept in until 2:30 in the afternoon. Good lord. Okay, not ready for grad school yet.
Kaleidoscope: still mesmerizing.
on 17 Oct 2005 at 9:01 am 5.MC said …
2:30 in the afternoon is par for the course for gradschool, actually…
It’s the long hours and nagging students/professors that is the tiring bit.
(So, thinking of going back?)
on 17 Oct 2005 at 10:42 am 6.Cam Sculpin said …
Once in a while, yeah, I do. I believe I’d mostly enjoy getting my MFA, and I might wind up being a better poet. But the hours would still be too long for me, though I’m a lot closer to being able to do it than I was last year. Maybe next year I’ll start thinking about it more seriously.