Panting over Painter

I’ve just felt generally excellent all day, not sure why. I weighed in at 273.5 this morning, lowest weight of the year, back to where I was in late November, before I stopped exercising. Didn’t work out today, except for doing ab crunches (three sets of 20 Hot Point, two sets of 20 penguins).

I forgot to bring The Paths of the Dead along when I went in to Manhattan, so I sketched people’s feet. Nothing really worth scanning. Bought the fifth (last) issue of Paul Pope’s 100%, and the first of Tokyo Pop: Bangkok, which I probably won’t bother following.

Downloaded and installed the demo of Corel Painter 8 while watching the season finale of Angel. Which was excellent, BTW; Angel’s been consistently better than Buffy for the past two or three years, and the difference has never been greater than this past season. I’m watching Buffy now mostly out of loyalty to the show it once was (and because it’s going to end soon).

Anyway, Painter. Man, that program kicks ass. Photoshop is really good, but damn, there’s just no comparison! Within five minutes I was sold; just wish I had enough money to feel good about buying it. (Sure, I can write it off as a business expense, but that saves me a fraction of the cost at some point in the future, not now.) Was pissed to find that the demo, in addition to having a 30-day limit, is also crippled — no saving, printing, exporting, or using the clipboard. Suckage! Why the fuck make the program useless for doing actual work if it’s got a time limit anyway? If I’d been doing some actual drawing, rather than just futzing around with the tools, and then discovered I couldn’t save my work, I’d be hella pissed. As it is, I’m only slightly pissed. (And they couldn’t prevent a screen capture!)

Heavyhands, week 2, day 2

• Weight: 272, back to my low of last November (and, in fact, my lowest adult weight)
• Walked for 30 minutes, doing four sets of 30 flyes, lifts, and overheads.
• Heartrate stayed stubbornly in high 130s to low 140s for first five to ten minutes, then climbed up to high 140s and low 150s, with occasional peaks as high as 158.