I should have gone with my instincts and taken a digital art break. Broken in my new acrylic paints, or the watercolors that have been sitting idly by my desk for over a year now.
But nope. I had to go and get my stupid self invested in yet more digital art – two drawings in the painting stages, and two drawings waiting to be scanned – instead.
Which maybe wouldn’t have been such a problem if my Surface pen hadn’t died.
Ok, well, it’s unlikely that the pen itself died. It’s probably just an issue with the battery, and to that end, I sent my wife a link to a set of AAAA Energizer batteries to add to our Amazon cart (I send little things like that to her because her account has Prime, and I am loathe to pay shipping for literally anything if I don’t have to).
She, however – and trying to be helpful, of course – disregarded the link I sent, because those batteries wouldn’t have arrived until the 28th. So instead, she bought a package of batteries that arrived yesterday.
Problem is, they’re Amazon Basic.
I absolutely fucking hate Amazon Basic batteries. We bought a bulk pack of them to use in the wireless keyboard we have linked to our Smart TV, and despite the fact that their only job is to keep a lightweight portable keyboard – that gets minimal use, and is switched Off when not in use – alive, it doesn’t evenmanage to do that for more than a week or two at a time. It’s un-fucking-believable. So when I opened the box, I was already annoyed.
Then I had to spend over an hour trying to figure out if the reason why my pen still wasn’t working was the Amazon battery, the Bluetooth driver, or a problem with the pen itself. Seeing as how I can double click the top button and still launch Paintshop Pro, it’s likely that, yeah, it’s the batteries fault and they literally came already half fucking dead.
Oooh, I am pissed.
Luckily, I found my back-up pen – the one with the wonky nib that I have to secure with masking tape, sure, but the masking tape is holding up and this pen is rechargeable, so at least I don’t have to wait to get the next new pack of batteries to resume work.
But my wife owes me like ten bucks for the wasted cost of the Amazon Basic batteries. For real. So frustrating.
—
January has flown. We’re in the midst of mid-terms, which is always exhausting, and I am job coaching a new internship starting Tuesday, which is exciting and a little nerve-wracking, as always. I’ve not been out in the field (so to speak) with students since the beginning of the pandemic, so it feels good to be back doing something that has been such an integral part of my job (and one of the highlights of my job, quite frankly) for such a long time.
I’m also waiting on responses for two zine applications that I am excited about, but which I am fairly certain I am not going to get. Still, you never know unless you put yourself out there.
I’m hoping 2022 is treating you well thus far.
Stay safe and sane, find things to do that you love, and please, for your own sake, make sure to always buy the name-brand batteries.
Cheers.
All Your Crooked Heart 