Tidy Up You Lords of Entropy

Man, I've got to clean up and put things in order again. It's never ending this entropy thing. There are always things to clean up or fix. The world is a messy place. Got to apply energy to the system.

One of my bookshelves looks like something happened to it and the shelves are slightly lower on one side. It didn't used to be like this but some funny things have happened to that shelf. It's a shelf I built myself a few years ago out of 1x8 pine. I don't build the prettiest shelves in the world but they get the job done. The strange thing was that, just this winter, I noticed the left side of the bottom shelf had nothing holding it up. No screws or fasteners attached the horizontal shelf to its vertical side board. How did this happen? It's not like the screws fell out. They were never there. Yet the shelf has been standing fine since I built it without the bottom shelf even sagging. Blew my mind.

I lost a few books on that shelf because of water damage when a pipe burst. Nothing important just a few volumes of Essential Fantastic Four. At least the cheap books got wet and not my hardcovers. Water can be evil. Now I have to take all the books of the shelf and see what's making it lean. Got to apply energy to the system.

I've got paper and canvases lying around the studio cluttering things up. I have to find a place for them so I can get some work done. I'm not a neatnik but when clutter reaches a certain critical level I can't get anything done until I make some elbow room.

I have some books that I have to find room for on the shelves. That's always a challenge and the reason why I build shelves everywhere that I can. I also have a few new boxes of comics that I need to put somewhere. I'm going to get rid of them on Ebay someday but not soon enough. They need to find a place to be.

And the tile has been slowly breaking off of my floor. That's been going on for ages and being a crazy artist I've been wanting to make a mosaic where the blank spots are. Of course that means having to learn to make a tile mosaic. I need some tile nippers and safety glasses. And some grout and tile cement and whatever else sticks tile to the floor. More energy into the system.

I have to try out my new brushes and ink too. I bought three new Windsor Newton Series 7 Number 3 brushes last week to replenish my stock but I haven't had the chance to try one out. They should be just as good as all the other brushes of that type I've had over the years but it's always exciting to have a new one. I also bought a brand of ink I've never used before: Blick Black Cat Waterproof India Ink. I hope it's good stuff. My favorite ink has always been Higgins T 100 Drafting Film Ink but it's harder to come by these days. I guess there's not as much need for drafting film as there used to be.

I did finally resurface my drawing table after all these years. I found a cheaper cutting mat ($40 as opposed to $80) that is the bees knees with me. That dirty old Borco / Vyco Drawing Board Cover I had on it is finally gone. The new cutting mat cleans easier and doesn't buckle in direct sunlight. Some afternoons my Borco covering would get wavy if it was a particularly hot day. It was annoying but I lived with it. Not anymore. I applied energy to the system.