Art by Fuzzy

Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz

Back From a 2 Month Hiatus

Well, it’s been almost 2 months since I’ve even looked at my website.  I’ve had some news items to share but apparently not enough time to share them.  Not a lot has happened in the studio since my last update but plenty has been happening in the “real world”.  Track season came and went.  My team finished 7-2 on the season and we ended up 4th at the conference meet.  I finished my class at IUSB.  I finished my duties as a Reading Recovery teacher for the year and completed all my paperwork.  I began another season of grass mowing and other yard work.  I spent some time on the Internet studying fantasy baseball stats and getting used to Firefox.  I finished the yearbook at school and worked on the Black Lab website and finished a few minor graphic design jobs.  Now I have to finish my required technology days before summer break officially begins.  Then I’ll have to take another class at IUSB.  In the near future I hope to get back into the clay studio on a regular basis.  Today I worked on my trimming chuck.  Tomorrow I hope to finish it and get some clay ready to throw.

Now I’m sitting here at the old computer that I’ve pieced together.  It started as my original college computer (2000 AD) so it’s far from top-of-the-line.  I added some RAM, bought an LCD monitor and laser mouse while browsing garage sales and bought another Linksys USB adapter from ebay.  I decided Windows ME wasn’t what I wanted so I installed Ubuntu 8.10 and even got it onto the wireless network here at home (mostly by pure luck?).  Now I can surf the net while my wife is “doing research” which looks suspiciously similar to finding coupons on the Internet.  Ubuntu has run smoothly so far considering the ancientness of my machine but I haven’t exactly been editing video or playing the latest video game.  I plan to get a little more experience with Ubuntu and the world of Linux and the universe of Open Source software this summer.  First step: figuring out how to use my printer without unplugging it from the main computer and plugging it in here.  Second step: downloading and installing some of the 304 updates that the little red arrow says are available.  I better get busy…

Happy Easter, Goodbye Spring Break

Well, it’s one of those good news/bad news posts.  The bad news is that I must return to my day job tomorrow (which really cuts in to my studio time and sleeping in time…)  The good news is that I am writing this post from the comfort of my own home.  Yes, that’s right, we have stepped into the 21st century here at the Schwartz household and got ourselves a high-speed internet connection.  We were going to ditch Comcast but they offered us a DVR and internet package at a reasonable rate so we’re going to stick with them until they jack up the price again…

We got ourselves a Linksys router and adapter from Best Buy (thanks to everyone who gave giftcards as a gift) and I got our wireless network set up so we didn’t have to move my computer or run a network cable up the stairs.  We returned the usb adapter to Best Buy after I got the same item on eBay for exactly half the price.  So the good news is that I have quick and easy access to my website but the bad news is that I have quick and easy access to the Internet which could distract me from getting any real work done.  The middle school track season is under way as well so I will probably have minimal free time for the next few weeks.  At least I got a few things done over spring break including an order of senior pictures, taking pictures for our church easter egg hunt, some yard work and finishing the shirt design for our track team.  So now I have to get to bed since I have to wake up before 10:00 tomorrow morning…

Mid Winter Update

Well, it’s been a while since my last post so I thought I should give a quick update so you don’t get too worried.  I just started my next class at IUSB.  I bought myself a new game to distract me from getting things accomplished.  I shoveled snow and tried to stay warm on the snow days that we had this past week….

I’ve also been working on a couple projects all at one time.  In the clay studio I’ve been working a few items much larger in scale than anything I’ve previously done on the wheel.  I got a book from the library about XHTML and CSS so I started designing a new site.  I’m also trying to set up a time to go paint some dogs on a wall for one of my friends.  As I was typing this I helped my wife set up her own blog to use for her kindergarten class.  Once I finish some of these projects I’ll try to put up some pictures….

Random Happenings Of The Past Month

Well, here is my monthly post…  Apparently it’s already November.  The school year is flying by.  Cross country finished a few weeks ago so now I have a little “extra” time during the day.  I’ve been keeping myself busy though.  We had a new well dug at our home a few weeks ago which left a couple piles of dirt in our front yard.  I hauled those away and got our yard ready for winter and organized the shed over the past week or two.  Amanda and I took some engagement pictures and some family portraits in the past week.  I’ll post some examples when I get them processed.  Here and there I’ve been able to pick up some clay and throw a couple pieces.  Every Tuesday I’m still going to my Content Area Reading class at IUSB.  We have to do a research project but I got to pick any topic.  I am researching whether I should mix my own glazes.  I’ll post the results when I find out more.

Apart from all that I’ve been watching the Wolverines and Lions lose on a consistent basis, avoiding politics, and a couple days ago I took a class to become certified in CPR.  So I can’t say I’m bored…  I’ll post some pictures in my next post.  Thanks for reading.

Happy Anniversary

I just wanted to say “Happy Anniversary” to my fantastic wife.  I couldn’t do it without you.