One leetle Weedle...

Yesterday, I left the house for Pokemon Go.

I have strong feelings about augmented reality being the standard of the future.

It seems inevitable to me that a digital or virtual reality will interface with reality reality more and more.

And I like it.

There is an issue of access for now, the requirement of a device to participate.

But the potential is what I find inspiring.

During the recent ugly month I started reading Harry Potter again. A distraction from intermittent panics. When PokeGo started taking over in the form of strangers meeting, in odd places, at odd hours, to participate in a world that would normally be hidden... all I could think of was how Harry Potter begins. With strangers, part of a normally secret world, congregating at street corners, landmarks, parks, and community centers, to communicate, discuss, and celebrate their apparent freedom from a terrorizing maniac.

There will always be people who will take wonderful things and use them to cause harm, as is and will be the case with Go.

But fuck 'em.

The positivity, the cooperation, the sun and exercise and enthusiastic mutual interest shared by many... seems like that's exactly what we need right now.

I woke to the fresh news of the Bastille Day horror in Nice.

If we will have atrocities like these as a new normal in the west.

I hope we can have a new normal of a positively augmented community.

Even if it's for silly things.

Silly is good.

Shaka, when the walls fell...

Zinda, his face black, his eyes red.

I fucked up.

Yeah, upgrading to Windows 10 was risky, but I understood the risks. I've dealt with computer meltdowns before. And 10 had been tested for quite a long period before rolling out. So I backed up all my files and forged ahead, making the leap from 7 to 10.

For a few days it was wonderful. Fast. Smooth. All positive. Worked on a few prints. But then there was an update among other things, like being prompted to update a few drivers. Cool. The next time I turned on the computer it froze a few minutes after startup. Not your average freeze. A deep freeze. Solidly unmoving and unresponsive and silent. Okaaaaay...

This became a pattern after a few days. Hard freezes intermittently. Sudden restarts out of nowhere. The tower starting to shower beeps at me, unable to start again. More and more hard shutdowns, like pulling the plug on a loved one. Worse and worse.

Scrambling to use the brief uptime to figure out the problem. Rolling back recoveries. Killing problematic programs. Dumping drivers. Scanning all the things. To no avail. Days passed. Worse and worse.

Last night I threw in the towel. Time to restore Windows 7 and pray. Restored it today. Froze at one point, but continued on restart. Windows 7 happily returned. FreeCell in all it's ad-free glory. Got an hour out of it. Doing all kinds of scanning and updates to get everything rolled back.

Freeze.

Oh no.

And again the beeps and struggling restarts. And a fucking cascade of awfulness. And it will no longer turn on. Tried to get it going one more time to backup those few files and do a system restore. But no. It won't turn on.

So, here I sit, pecking out this post via my tablet. Funny about that. It's always worked beautifully, but there was the recall due to battery overheating. I received my replacement tablet a few days ago. It's waiting, mostly untouched. Couldn't stand the thought of activating it and there being some problem. Then I would be computer-less and tablet-less once the kill-switch was triggered on this one. Not about to deal with that potential technology failure after the last week of Windows hell.

Just feels like it's all hanging in the balance right now. I would feel relatively fine reformatting if I could save those few files. But I may never get the thing running again.

Shaka, when the walls fell.

Been playing Fallout Shelter a lot while the computer has been shitting itself. So addicting. It's like the early Sims games before they got enormous and complex. Totally my jam.

Also had another horrible panic/anxiety relapse last week. Felt like a crazed reanimated corpse for a few days, but getting through it was probably good for me.

Kailash, when it rises. Sokath, his eyes opened.

The 100 degree temperatures and smoke haze have cooled and cleared.

Geez. It was a rough week. Lol.
 Don't know why Darmok came to mind, but... ya know, there's always more room for Darmok.

Actually, I bet watching Star Trek would vastly improve my mood right now. Netflix it is!

And tomorrow... tomorrow I duel with Windows...
 The Beast of Tenagra.

Blue moon...

Appropriate to make a 'once in a Blue Moon' post with a Blue Moon. Nothing like arbitrary and flawed human systems to make something special out of something entirely un-special. ^^

Got an e-mail this morning that almost all Nvidia Shield Tablets sold over the last year are being recalled for potential to overheat dangerously and start fires. Mine included. Figures. Rofl.
According the process I went through to register for the recall, I won't be required to send my existing tablet in. They're just shipping out new devices to everyone and as soon as we turn it on, our old tablets will become bricks. Killswitch engage! The fact they can do that is a bit alarming in itself.

Nice that it's so straightforward though. My current tablet has worked quite well. Love the thing. It gets super hot when I run certain games for a while, but I've just been gentle with it and let it cool when that happens. My main concern now is that the replacement tablet, with it's new battery, will have some other problem that my current tablet does not... and I'll be stuck with that or have to get that one replaced too.

Anyway, 2-4 weeks or so to see what I get. *fingers crossed*
Never had a smart device before and never been involved in a recall. Lots of firsts happening. Also the first time I've had my own computer for a big windows upgrade. I did the Windows 10 upgrade first day. Which I'm aware is generally considered to be a bad idea. Smart people wait a year or so for all the bugs to get worked out. 10 was thoroughly tested by the public before launch though and I read up on it a ton, so I just took the leap. Still getting adjusted to things, but I rather like it so far.

Finally some cooler temperatures after quite the brutal heatwave last week.
Going outside to water the tomatoes for 10 minutes maximum and I feel like my skin is frying on the spot. Ick. And the California drought isn't helping matters. Dead lawns are much hotter than living ones. And I don't think I mentioned that our neighbor's fig tree nose-dived into our backyard a while back. It's a sad sight and we lost a ton of shade (and an enormous amount of un-ripened figs). I'll make a post with pictures some time.

Poor figgy. ;__;

Awesome and more awesome...

FINGER STATUS:

IT'S HEALING SO QUICKLY! Historically it has taken at least a full month to recover from that level of blow-up. I took these pictures a few days ago. Christmas tree background. The fingers don't just look dramatically better, they feel even better than they look. I already have full range of motion and minimal soreness. The heat baths, man. All about those heat baths! I have no idea what's happening there, but I'LL TAKE IT!

Project for Awesome is overrrrrr!

It was a glorious time. I got a couple perks. The calendar, which is tradition, and the nerdfighter art perk, which I contributed to. Excited to get someone else's work. Woo. The livestream of night two was hysterically weird and wonderful, which seems to happen every year. Sleep deprivation and lots of fun guests makes for some fantastic chaos.

The total donations is at $1,187,869 right now. And up to $678,402 at the indiegogo campaign page. But it doesn't officially shut down until the 16th. I believe the grand total last year was about $800,000. So, like... damn. Just gets bigger and bigger every year. And this year even had a little blip 'cause it got moved earlier by almost a week at the last minute. Makes me look forward to next year even more. I'll prepare art perks earlier next time!

Took my first selfie on MY NEW TABLET as the donations updated to over a million. So awesome! Not the selfie... the P4A success. Not really a selfie person. But I did start an instagram. It will be mostly art though.

I want to say some words about the tablet. It's the Nvidia Shield Tablet. I've had it for about a week now and I love the hell out of it. Good decisions were made. I'm so happy with it. Takes a lot of pressure off of nighttime work to have seen a bunch of news/social media/youtube sub videos earlier in the day. I can usually get through a podcast while I'm washing dishes. And I'm on a more satisfying fitness schedule. And, most importantly, it's going to work great for checking KPOPPY's responsive-ness (and future sites).

It's dark in here, but this is it:

Comparisons to my computer monitor. My tumblr page and the new responsive KPOPPY I'm working on for launch in the new year. I've been posting highlights of the P4A perks I drew/painted and they've gotten waaaaaaaay more attention than anything I've put on tumblr... other than the first ballet sketch. Really grateful to be part of a supportive/creative community like nerdfighteria.

And the responsive design works reeeeaaaallly well even though I coded it all without testing it on any device. The dropdown menu is a little clunky and I need to adjust some column widths, but otherwise it's great. Gonna add some new graphics and work on a poster for the rest of the year. That's my focus!

But I'm also really excited to get back to drawing already. Usually I can't even imagine wanting to draw stuff after a blow-up, but I'm there! I want to! I'll resist for a while to allow for more complete healing, but I'm itching to get back to work regardless!

It's Junsu's birthday. The fancams from the second Osaka show are absolutely adorable. The next post will definitely be a JYJ post. IT WILL HAPPEN.

Oh, and #hellastorm happened. Lol. We've been hit hard here over the last week in the Bay Area with a Pineapple Express. Rain. So much rain. It's fantastic for the drought, but... rain. SO MUCH.

I've neglected the birds a bit because of it. Gonna remedy that tomorrow. Although, it's raining again I think. XD

Rain or shine.

I just glanced through my twitter notifications. Never did I ever think my most viewed tweet would become part of a worldwide trend of #butfart and #butfartman.

@smartereveryday @P4A Butfarts for Destin. Seeing money under a microscope was never so entertaining as this! pic.twitter.com/KJp5lUVa2B
— AlleyBetwixt (@AlleyBetwixt) December 14, 2014

Life is weird.
That's the P4A night-stream for ya.

Huzzah.

Done and dusted...

45 completed.
WOO!
They're packaged in groups of three and on their way to the P4A perks gathering place. Took about a month of work. Many continuous hours over the last two weeks. Abused my body in the process. A vicious knot over my right shoulder blade. Neck aching. Sleep-deprived. Too sedentary. And my fingers are all wrecked, thumb included. I won't be doing any art for the next two weeks. At least nothing that requires holding a tool of some sort. Might do some Illustrator work since it's just clicking paths into place. I'm typing this entirely with my left hand at the moment. Lol.

Totally worth it though. The Project for Awesome will be in a couple weeks. I'm very happy to contribute to the cause.

Here are some highlights out of the 45.

It's all Vlogbrothers/Nerdfighter stuff. I'm really pleased with the results.

The packaging is cute, too. Little brown paper envelopes with handmade stickers to close.

That's the look of glorious victory.

And also aching fingers. XD
I've even been taping my thumb, which is super tricky to do with the need for so much bend at the knuckle. It's quite furious with me, to say the least.

While working on this, I was reminded that most folks don't have to worry about using scissors or pencils for a few minutes. And also that I used to not have to worry about it. I went 20 some-odd years without having to limit tool use, and now I can hardly relate to what that must have been like.

Sad thoughts.

I'm now in the indecisive mode of how to encourage healing. Tight taping to stifle swelling? No taping? Heat soaks? Ice? Pure rest? Normal use? I wish I knew what it was. I'm tempted to take prednisone, which I know works, but the side-effects are miserable.

Just gonna tough it out and monitor recovery along the way.

FINGER STATUS

Little epicenters everywhere. My pinkie is the first to be fully swelling. Can't bend it much. Ring finger looks like I took a hammer to it. Small puffy spots on the middle finger. It's the least affected actually. The tip of my index finger is beginning to be unbearably sensitive. The thumb also has the hammered look going on at the knuckle, but the worst pain is around the side of the pad.

Mess.

I've had a few nights now where the overall ache and prickling is keeping me awake and it will probably get worse.

It's not all doom and gloom. It was a good test to see how much I can push it while also taping religiously. And I got some fun art out of it. S'all good.

Also got through all of Star Trek:TOS. I'll post on that at some point. Hoo boy. It really never improved. -___-

But next post will probably be about JYJ. I still want to say a few words about the album. Plus, they're currently on a dome tour in Japan and releasing a new single. They are singing Begin during the concert encore. EMOSHINKI. The tears. THE TEARS I HAVE SHED. T___T

Hajimarusaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Oh, and I think I'm switching lanes to the Nvidia Shield Tablet instead of the Nexus 9. Android Lollipop rolled out for the Shield a few days ago and I think that just sold it for me. Waiting to see if there will be any Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals that become the determining factor.

K. I'm done.

At a blistering pace...

U-Verse installed.
HD Youtube videos now take like 3 seconds to load.
Watched Arsenal vs. Everton this morning on the new HD channel.
G.L.O.R.I.O.U.S.

I'm shitting bricks here.
Oh, and Mesut scored again, though Arsenal drew. Everton is very strong right now.
Two goals in two games. Whew! Get it, MÖ!

Eventually, I'll be up on Society6, but I've heard better things about Fine Art America for quality. Giving them a try while I'm green to the Print On Demand kind of shops. Learning the ropes.
First two prints I've put up are the old Calla Lilies print I did in silkscreening and the piece I've been working on for the last month. I'mma try these links they provide...

Asparagoose!

Pretty jazzed with how he turned out. Had a nice test-print done at Costco last week and it looks so goooood! Joy! Still figuring out the pricing over there. You set your own markup and there's kind of a learning curve. I set everything pretty low compared to the general averages on the site, but I might lower some of the smaller size prints. We'll see. Exciting regardless
I'd like to make the asparagoose a part of a series. I just have to think of more mash-ups. Lol.
He makes me giggle.

KPOPPY 2.0 is almost complete. A couple more graphics and updates.

Junsu is singing with Lyn on a forthcoming track. DREAM COLLABO FOR THE WIN!
I love Lyn and I love her love for Junsu. Haha. She's adorable.

We've had freezing temperatures and rain here for the last few days. I'm fretting about the birds. :\

And good lord... my nephew is THE cutest. MOST cutest. Starting to make lots of noise and trills. He's like a blackhole of cute... gravitating all things to him to gaze in awe... at the cute.

>.<

In search of Zen...

ひさしぶりですね。
I'd like to say I've improved. The truth is I just don't know. After a month I was feeling more settled and went out to buy frames for artwork. A store I've been to dozens of times. Picking out frames for my own work. No social obligation or challenge. Positive and empowered.
I started having a panic attack not long after walking in. That damned white-knuckle careen into an abyss. I've barely been out of the house since. I'm a coward.

While the anxiety monster keeps me in its grips I'm occupying myself with various distractions. Late nights traipsing through Netflix instant-watch. The 'new' Sherlock season for one. Re-watching the entirety of Star Trek: DS9 for another. Splitting my attention to the 2x5" scrap printmaking paper leftovers with some cathartic Zentangle-ing. See above... and below.

My dad remodeled my room... years ago. Had to box up a ton of my books at the time to put into storage. Eventually, said boxes ended up in the depths of our garage with the rest of the stored things. My mom valiantly dug out my treasured novel-hoard while looking for her own stuff--my Tolkien collection included. WOOO! Made it through The Hobbit and am just diving into Fellowship. Wildly excited about the first movie. The new trailer is beautiful and fun. Some fans are peeved with the humor. I'm not. I hope for the level of silliness present in the book. Balin looks beyond fabulous.

An interesting thing has occured in Kpop over the last few months. I keep up with new pop videos coming out of Korea on a daily basis, so I saw Gangnam Style when it had less than a thousand views. I've always liked PSY and thought it was brilliant and hilarious and an expertly handled commentary on Seoul society, but never imagined it would reach beyond international Kpop fans and their immediate friends... like every other video we see. And then it exploded in unimaginable ways. Right now it has over 270 million views, got a Guinness Record for the most liked video in Youtube's history, and PSY has been touring the media circuit here in the US. The dude was on SNL. Insane. It likely won't amount to much more than a crazy flash in the pan, but it really doesn't matter. What most Kpop fans love is that the Korean music industry has been trying to 'break into' the American industry for a long time, investing a lot of time and a whole lot of money, unsuccessfully... and PSY, with minimal effort, and no intention of doing so, became a worldwide viral sensation. Glorious.

The only thing keeping me from a truly vampiric schedule is rising early for soccer games. The football season is under way, which is great fun. I mostly keep up with La Liga and Bundesliga. I never miss matches with Real Madrid and the German National Team for my favorite footballer. That brilliant German bug-eyed freak with a magical vortex of a left foot, Mesut Özil. I never tire of watching him. He moves like a freaking gazelle. Real Madrid has been kind of a mess thus far, but Germany is doing alright. Frankly, Mesut could play like crap every match (though he never does) and I'd still watch him. It's the Beautiful Game at any rate... it calms me and I can certainly use some calming these days.

More tangles next time, perhaps?
'Til then.

Still hate Act 2...

Since the last week has easily qualified as the most terrifying in my life... 

let's have fun with nostalgic terror!

I kind of miss Baal runs for the creative names that would pop up in the list. Snowbaal Fight. Baal Bonds. Baalerina. Alas, gone are the days of endless runs and rushes. Doesn't work that way in Diablo III. I painted this dude from the cover of an LoD strat guide... I think. Probably 10 or 11 years old now. I was digging around in some old scans when I stumbled onto it. What a riot.

<--- As of this screenshot, I'm a level 56 Wizard. Haven't played much in the last week though. Been a rough week. And I'm in Act 2, which is a massive pain in the ass in Hell difficulty. I don't know how I'll manage it in Inferno. The combos on the elite mobs are simply impossible sometimes.

But I love the game! I do! It's really fun. It's certainly an improvement on D2 and LoD in a lot of ways. A few issues here and there, but overall positive.
It's also a visual feast. Particularly the later acts, 4 and 5, are just stunning looking. The design is just shiny and gorgeous. Not to mention the cinematics, which are mind-blowing. I pretty much salivated my way through the first play-through. So pretty.

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
Terrible spoiler warning, but avert your eyes from this little screenshot if you don't want to be spoiled. D3's equivalent of D2's Cow Level is Whimsyshire. I could not stop laughing when I saw it. Yes, this is me, killing a 'Chubby Pink Unicorn'. Beautiful. Many lulz are to be had in there. The Barbarian in the lower right is actually my brother. Oh, the lulz.

A wonderful highlight to an otherwise ugly week.

------------------------------------------------

I don't mind putting this on the internet.
I've been starting to get help for my anxiety issues. A little therapy, which is more like exposure therapy since the most angst-inducing thing for me is to talk to someone one-on-one. So that's been a blast. To support that therapy it was recommended to try some medication. I've always been reluctant to go there. I like to deal with things intellectually rather than chemically. But I've been desperate enough recently to give it a try. I was prescribed a low dose of Zoloft to start with. Tried it. Had a bad reaction. A really bad reaction.
A few symptoms: numb/tingling arms/hands, crazy dilated pupils, numb lips/tongue, unable to read or type, unable to understand my dad on the phone when he was speaking perfectly clearly... among other things. Essentially, had a full-on panic episode from the stuff. Ended up calling an ambulance to the house and spent the day in the ER. I was coherent for a short while there. Then I went into a totally disassociated psychotic place... basically my brain shutting down to protect itself. I have little memory of the next 4-5 hours. Yee-freaking-haw.
The whole ordeal was essentially my greatest fear. Like, the ambulance-hospital-medical emergency-shots-puking-scenario while also legitimately losing my mind and self.... worst nightmare imaginable and then some. That was my Dementor.

Been sleeping a lot since then, trying to take it easy. I've had a chance to look up bad reactions to Zoloft on the internets and the findings are both fascinating and infuriating. Apparently, a reaction like mine tends to last a while. Like a month. I'm essentially hyper-sensitized, which is the opposite reaction to what the drug is intended to do. I'll be buzzing for a month. My vision is a little screwy. Very sensitive to light and sound. My arms are tingly and strange. I feel anxious all the time. Scattered thoughts. Bursts of headaches. *sigh* So, yeah, here it is. All my apprehension to take medication... validated in the worst way possible. Awesome.

Recovery will take a while and my life will continue to be derailed in the meantime. I'm thinking the best thing will be to draw regularly and work on fun things. That should keep my spirits up. I'm just glad to feel like myself again... mostly. For a while there, I wasn't sure I'd ever pick up the pieces.

Oh, and I love Junsu's album. I suppose that was a given though. ^^
It's the little things, man.
The little things keeping me going.

A breath...

Immortal Coil

While I try to get myself to stop fiddling with the code on my final site for Dreamweaver I'll post my final silkscreen project. We had to use a photo-stencil for at least one run, at least four runs total, and we were encouraged to have it 'mean' something. Plus, it needed to be a 'photo-collage', so I used my own photos of flowers and trees. Mine is (1) the flat background, (2) a ruby lith cut for the yellow to green blend you see below, (3) screen filler to block out for the crimson to red blend, (4) and the photo-stencil printed with a green to brown blend for the overall design. Happy happy happy with the finished product. I had ten prints of the one posted above and they printed totally consistent.

Pardon the distortion of the design. It was windy outside when I took pictures and the paper was moving. The first image is accurate. I have only two prints of this green one, which I might actually like better than the red roses. Made some other variations, too. This marble down below with just the last run and some others printed on top of previous left-over backgrounds.

There it is... another science-related ode. I can repeat the advanced etching class only one more time and there is the rarely available advanced silkscreen class next Spring. Considering both of them, but I'd like to know exactly what pieces I would try to accomplish before taking them. We'll see.

It's hard for me to think about anything future-ish right now. The anxiety is a daily thing. It has completely derailed me from my already slow track. Trying to keep my s*** together.

Compiling...

 

The end of the semester nears. Two weeks to go. About a week and a half actually. Spread out all of my prints from silkscreen at home to put together the final portfolio. Feels rather nice to have a stack of prints almost two inches tall. Productive class.

Also working on final sites/assignments for CSS and Dreamweaver. More staring at code for hours. My eyes are hating me. They'll hate me more once I start playing Diablo III next week. Ha. I'm pretty well on top of my work, so I don't think I'll have to delay that fun. I'm more excited for it now. Not just because the release is nearer, but because I'm in need of the catharsis.

The last few weeks have been weird. I've always had anxiety issues, but it feels like my brain and body have totally betrayed me recently. Even normal daily things have suddenly become massive challenges. Had to step out of class yesterday to walk around the hall because I was freaking out so badly. Felt like I was going to pass out or have a heart attack and could not get my nerves to settle. Ugh. Part of the problem is that I finally got around to seeing a therapist, which I probably should have done a really long time ago. The sessions, being this focused, one-on-one, social obligation, where I'm required to talk at length about myself, are simply hellish. I pretty much feel like I'm dying the whole time and the dread of the next sessions weigh on my chest like an elephant. Feels bad, man. I think it's doing more harm than good at this point. I really don't know what to do about it.

Turning 26 on Tuesday didn't help. The number is like a punch in the gut considering I more closely resemble a 16 year-old with crippling anxiety.
...
Trying to stay positive. My fingers haven't had any swelling problems, which is kind of boggling. Also got my Art Scholarship results in the mail today. Got even more $$$ than I did in 2010, which is really lovely. Then there's Diablo. Oh, and my favorite person singer in the world is releasing his first solo album on the same day. The concept is wild and over-the-top and clearly inspired by his role as Death in Elisabeth. Intense. So, there's that to keep me going through the home-stretch.

"...lungs that suck at being lungs..."

"Pain demands to be felt."

The alternative substrates project. Open subject matter. We just had to print it on more than paper; shirts, wood, stickers, etc. My design was inspired by 'The Fault in our Stars', by John Green. The main protagonist is a teenage girl with lung cancer. I wanted to do something with ribs/lungs and then something with a starry motif, which shows up repeatedly in the story. So I did this stylized constellation thing with the lungs. Pretty happy with the result. Also printed some variations with prints I already had from earlier projects. Originally, I wanted to integrate the text in the design, but I decided against it... 'Pain demands to be felt' is one of many memorable lines from the book.

The poor, mangled bodies of plastic basketballers littered the carpeted ground: here, a ball palmed by a disembodied hand; there, two torsoless legs caught midjump. Isaac kept attacking the trophies, jumping on them with both feet, screaming, breathless, sweaty, until finally he collapsed on top of the jagged trophic remnants.
      Augustus stepped toward him and looked down. "Feel better?" he asked.
      "No," Isaac mumbled, his chest heaving.
      "That's the thing about pain," Augustus said, and then glanced back at me. "It demands to be felt."

Again, I highly recommend reading it, as long as you have a box of tissues within reach.

 Here's John reading the first chapter on youtube.

Copper love...

Weeeeeeeeeee!!!
I've taken four prints so far. The burr is standing strong, which bodes well as I more forward. Some background to add. Then the transfer onto the second plate, aquatint, and color decisions. Double-drop headaches beyond that.

Since I've found a method of taping my fingers that seems to prevent my swelling problems... I am a lot more inspired to work. Or at least I'm not as scared as I was.
I have three 'braincrack' plates sucking up grey matter.

• 'For science!'. A high contrast twist on the Tree of Life.
• 'Flight'. To a child, a large box is conveyer to every surreal landscape imaginable.
• 'Regatta'. A steampunk vision inspired by the yearly, local, and upcoming Handcar Regatta.

All three require a lot of drawing time. I would be happy if I could finish at least ONE of them before the end of the semester.

Getting a new 23" monitor for the computer. Excited!

Diablo III is in beta. So jealous watching some testers uploading gameplay videos. Eeee!
Too many projects going all at once. Needing to sprint to keep up. I might be headed for a youtube-worthy faceplant, but I'll just forge ahead anyhow!

<3

Lightning-struck Summer...

Above: Old piece. Black construction paper strips, vaguely a la Mondrian.

Nothing special to add. I've been painting and drawing some things for myself and for projects. Once the semester starts I'll post the bits and bobs that I can. The Summer has been mostly me being stressed about all the artsy things I'm trying to get done and not doing them because I'm stressed. That happens a lot. I don't feel like I accomplished much, but part of the slowness is related to concern for my hand and its bouts of swelling. There hasn't been another incident since I starting using vinyl gloves religiously... for everything. But I still think it's at least partly a mechanical thing--not just an allergy thing. It could just be scar tissue. Whatever the case... I'm being careful. I'll draw for a few hours and feel that sensitivity. The skin a little raw. The sense of something foreign in there with my bones. So I rest and wait. Take a day off. Seems okay so I work again. But it's always the same feeling and it worries me. Makes me cautious.

With that caution, I head into my gazillionth semester at the JC. Taking a website building class and Advanced Etching. I should really take silkscreen, but I'm so attached to etching right now that I want one more semester of it. See if I can manage anything I really like.

Big changes in family and their jobs. Speeding right ahead.
Not me. I'm still putting along. Aiming to get my driver's license finally. Practicing with my permit. Trying... no... I will close the deal this time. I will get my license before 2012. Chyeah!


As for the lightning... POTTER!!! Deathly Hallows pt.2 was great. Were there silly additions? Of course. Was time wasted on unnecessary non-canon stuff? Of course. But I thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless. Here's the thing. The books are about Harry discovering his history and his role in it. They are about mothers and their sons. They are about sacrifice and love. They are about Snape. Far more time is spent on these things than on Voldy and his cronies.
The movies, on the other hand, focus disproportionately on Voldy and his cronies... arguably the least important aspects of the books.

IMO: The overarching plot of the series climaxes at The Prince's Tale and Harry marching to his own death.
However, the climax the movies always built towards was the Harry vs. Voldy showdown. Because of this, it's a letdown by default.

In the books, Voldy's death is epic, but it's not the most epic thing that happens at the end. When they translated that to the screen, the death was not epic enough for all that build-up. The movie-viewer is left feeling like, 'that's it?', because the epic book stuff is downplayed or not included at all.

...This is getting long and I didn't think I was going to write about this. ANYway, the stuff that came from canon was really well-done. Alan Rickman is a BAMF. I was pleased with The Prince's Tale. Overall, the young actors did wonderfully. *applause*
For the record, I saw it in 3D and 2D and preferred it in 2D. But the 3D Potter glasses are nice souvenirs!

For giggles.
I started reading Potter in the Summer of 1999. Books 1 and 2 (3 wasn't out yet). That December, I picked up Book 3. Loved everything about them. PoA was such a joy to read! I drew fanart and made my own Potter memorabilia for fun.
Clay figurines included! They're totally crappy, but I love the associated memories and that I cared enough to do it. They are pre-movie, so their look is purely inspired by the American edition illustrator Mary Grandpre and my brain. I'm grateful that I was invested into the books long enough before the movies that the characters are still my own.

When I pick up any of the books to re-read, the Harry in my head looks like he did in 1999. He isn't Dan Radcliffe. Alan Rickman, though I adore him, looks very little like my Snape. I'm glad for that.

Blah blah blah.
Pottermore is amazing. Got registered within the very first minutes of the Magical Quill Challenge and then got my beta welcome e-mail last night... at the end of the first day of the site being opened. The extra stories/information from Jo is priceless, entertaining, and amusing in a way that she has such a knack for.
The Sorting Test is a little questionable seeing as I was sorted into Gryffindor. I am totally not a Gryffindor. Doubtless, the Sorting Hat would shriek, "RAVENCLAW!" before it even touched my head. Ha. That's okay. Ollivander's wand test is completely fantastic and there is a MASSIVE amount of background information about wandlore.

Pottermore:
I am AurorSeer155. Gryffindor. My wand is Cherry with a Phoenix feather core, 10 and 3/4 inches. Slightly yielding. I'm 81% into brewing an Antidote to Common Poisons and have so far earned 28 house points. w00t!

For all of the Potter lovin'... Thank you Jo! <3

let's get digital

For years, I used a mouse to work in Photoshop. It was painstaking, but I was accustomed to it. Then I got a Wacom Tablet and my world changed. There is no way I could go back to a mouse now.


Above is my first whack at the Tablet. Got a feel for it with a little self-portrait.


Summer heat-induced boredom.


A quirky work in progress during a time when I got rather excited about obnoxious colors.


And finally, taking MarbleBlast Ultra far too seriously on my Xbox360. Once a nerd, always a nerd. Geek4life, yo!