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.

More fingers...

Just sat through like 7 hours of the 2014MAMAs.
Vastly improved production-wise. Usually the show is plagued with terrible audio, bad camerawork, and generally looking scraped together. At least since it changed from MKMF. So much better this year.
Just needs moar JYJ. :P

Alright. Only a quick post.

FINGER STATUS:

Everything on the de-swell, believe it or not. Ring finger looks trashed and the skin is cracking at the knuckles, but it feels a lot better. Pinkie and thumb de-swelling. Middle finger mild sensitivity. The worst is my index finger. One of the epicenters is right up under my fingernail, which feels pretty hideous. What was that old POW torture? Bamboo shoots under the fingernails? Might feel something akin to that. Lol. That's probably going to take the longest to heal.

Everything else looks to be headed in a good direction.

w00t.

Going to carefully record what happens with that ring fingernail. I guarantee it will look like a battlefield when that sucker grows out.

Something to look forward to!

Pouring rain for days. Lightning and thunder.

Feels like winter.

Awesome.

Oh, and I bought an Nvidia Shield Tablet. *squee*

It should be arriving tomorrow. GET HYPED.

Out!

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.

In the thick of it...

May have been a bit ambitious. Ha!
I've been hunched over paints and pencils and stencils for a couple weeks. Now on the homestretch. I need to get these Project4Awesome art perks ready to ship by next Friday.

Cut up a ton of squares from old printmaking paper.
Mixed acrylics and painted them all for backgrounds.
Below are some progress pictures while I was stenciling the Nerdfighter salute logos.

Stenciled what I could. Everything else is hand-painted and drawn with Prismacolor pencils.

I'm eyeball-deep in this mess now. Lol. It's all the most focused, meticulous, detail-work for the rest.

Still aiming for 45 pieces, but my fingers are starting to get really angry with me. Taping religiously has kept me from a full-blown swelling episode, but there are a few spots that are on the way. Depending on how well my hand withstands the next couple days that number may need to change. We'll see.

Then it will be packaging and mailing. Woohoo!

FINGER STATUS:

It feels as good as it looks. My thumb is unfortunately untape-able, because it's too restrictive. But it has also had far fewer blow-ups than my other fingers, so it's still pretty manageable. The ring finger is a mess, but taping is keeping the swelling down and keeping my mobility. Lots of other sensitive/raw/threatening areas, but all tolerable thus far. I wonder how I'll be in a week!

Time to get back to work.