Now that's terrifying

Dear Friend,
I don't celebrate Halloween. Beyond spiritual reasons, I personally find a holiday in which children disguise themselves and then proceed to beg for candy by threatening to harm someone if they are not rewarded to be absolutely disgusting.
However, that doesn't mean that I don't find October 31 scary in its own right. It's scary because the very next day is the beginning of National Novel Writing Month! Each year, October 31 is the last day that I have to wonder if I'm really crazy enough to write a novel in a month. If you've never done it before, you don't know how both exciting and terrifying it is.

I have decided this year that the task of writing a 50,000 word story isn't enough for the month of November. I also have chosen to add an art project to the mix. Every day of November I will attempt to draw the one thing in this world I hate drawing: People. I will attempt various degrees of realism (mostly leaning to the cartoony spectrum) but they will all be people.

Also, I'm not planning on telling anyone that I'm doing it. When I say "anyone" I mean my parents. The idea this year is to write and draw in addition to my normal life. I don't want to use these projects as an excuse to slack off on my work and chores. (This will be extra interesting since we're having Thanksgiving company this year!)

November is a month of adventure! What are you going to do in it?

"What's a sick day?" Art

Here he is, finally. Eliot. Not the best picture of him. It looked better before I scanned and colored it. I need to learn how to actually digitally color, rather than just dumping color in spaces with the bucket tool. Well, I am still learning, and practice makes perfect or some such.

Do you hear me talking to you?

Dear Friend,
I'm in mania about Muppets. Yeah, I've been watching all sorts of Muppet related stuff. It has led to the strangest thing, though, I read Labyrinth fan fiction. I don't remember ever watching the entire movie, but I read some fic. Nothing I'd recommend. I don't tend to find Jareth "dreamy," instead I find him quite creepy. Most fans of that film... well, they disagree with me.
I've tried before to get into fan fiction, but it just doesn't stick with me. Even the best written story eventually loses my interest. I'm beginning to wonder if I have a short attention span.
Anyway, the muppets. I just love the music they used on the Muppet show. It was all so weird and funny and sweet. I've had Jamboree stuck in my head for over a week, I think. Other favorites would be You and I and George and Cottleston Pie. I really enjoyed the Roger Miller episode, because that dude had some weird songs. I was also tickled to recognize the voice of Alan a'Dale from Disney's Robin Hood. I always loved that voice. I've always liked what I guess would be classed as novelty songs. The muppets had a good mix of "real" good music and just plain fun.
Did anyone else notice that the opening of the Muppet Show was on this week's LOST? I was pretty distracted by that. I don't remember what else was on the screens during that scene. I probably should have paid better attention.

I'm going to try to do something with my Livejournal account. I gave up the Deviant Art. I was far too needy for that. I'll find other ways to share my art that aren't as prone to popularity contest-ism. I don't need another way to get obsessed with who isn't talking to me. I've started using my Twitter a little more often. I've got that locked so the pervs can't read my oh-so silly thoughts.

I bought some super cool, too dang expensive art markers. I've used them a bit, but I'm still practicing. I'm glad I had a half-off coupon. Discounts rock.

Easily distracted

Dear Friend,
Every day, as I go about my life, I think of interesting topics to blog about. However, every day as soon as I turn on the computer my brain seems to say "Ooh, shiny!" and get lost in the glitter that is the Internet. I then, after having gone through my e-mail, facebook, various blogs and discussion forums will hit the New Post button on blogger and think, "Why am I here again?" Today, as you see, is no different.

I wish I could blog while riding in the car. I become especially creative while in the backseat of my Mother's car as we drive down the highway. Everything worth going to around here seems to be at least a half-hour drive away from us on the highway. My parent's have toyed with the idea of naming our property Cartegena since we love to use the quote "Angel, you are hell and gone from Cartegena!" from Romancing the Stone. And, truly, everything is hell and gone from our home. And so, when our little family decides to go do something I end up in the backseat, wishing I had my laptop or my sketch book. However, if I had either of those I'd end up feeling queasy and carsick. For some reason I started getting nauseated by windy roads at the age of 23, it was odd. I used to be able to read in the car. Maybe that's why I get so creative in the car now, I don't have anything to distract me from my oh so brilliant thoughts.

I wish I had more consistency in my drawing. I'm attempting to do something with Eliot, my little cat cartoon. I kind of want to make him a comic strip or some such, but I can't imagine a comic involving one solitary character. I would draw "My girl" (he calls his owner My girl, apparently because he can't be bothered with learning her name or something) but I truly and utterly fail at drawing people. I can draw animals, cartoony or otherwise, till the cows come home, but my people frighten small children. I am practicing, but it seems with little progress. I suppose I could draw other cats for him to interact with, but from my life experience cat's don't tend to get on well together. In any case, he's the first character I've drawn in years that seemed to come ready with a personality as soon as I drew him.

Weird, isn't it, that I could draw something myself, look at it and feel like I've just met an actual personality. Maybe I'm nuts. The strangest part of it was the fact that I could figure out what his voice sounded like, despite the fact that in my head most comic and book characters don't have voices, I just read them in my own voice. One of these days I'll work up the motivation to go down to the office and scan a few pictures of Eliot so that people know what the heck I'm babbling on about in my blog.

"Oh no, she has another obsession!"

Dear Friend,
I'm using the moments between Super Bowl commercials (you know, when actual football is happening) to post here in my blog. I've something I wish to share with you, whether you end up looking at it or not. If you do want to look at it, feel free to use the links in this entry.
So, I've started looking at DeviantArt again. There are some people that I like to check for new art on a somewhat regular basis. I've noticed a couple of these people had a certain artist's series in their listed favorites. I decided to check it out and that's how I became a fan of Lackadaisy. I mean, come on, Cats in Prohibition era Missouri running a Speakeasy? How was I not all over that from the beginning. I'm kidding, of course. The only thing in that last sentence that really got me to give this a second look was cats. I'm seriously mad about cats.
I decided to give it a go from the beginning. And the art kept me going until we got past plot development into character development. I am nothing if not "character driven."
Anyway, the first thing that grabbed me was Rocky. In typical fashion, I adore the enthusiastic wimp musician with the smart mouth and poetic phrases. When I started picking up on an unrequited love, I was sold. Oh, and he may be a bit of a pyromaniac? Or not, but he does to like his "Sweet Justice." Yeah, just about everyone in this strip has some mental and moral issues.
On the mental and moral issues note, I need to bring up Freckle. Don't let the baby faced adorable looks fool you, that kid is messed up. He derives far too much joy from discharging a weapon. That could be why he got kicked out of the Police academy. I love him, too. These two cousins are pretty much the main characters in this comic.
I love the character designs that the artist is using here. Her work is amazing to me. I enjoy her sense of humor, too. I am beginning to notice a trend in my entertainment; I love serious subject matter handled in a frivolous manner. For example, this (Organized crime and cats), Psych (Murder and humor), Chuck (spies and more humor), Pushing Daisies (death and quirkiness) and a few others. Anyway, I keep trying to decide who my favorite character is, but they're all so great. Just about all of them make me want to scratch them behind their ears, but with a lot of them you know if you tried you'd get shot or strangled (especially with Viktor and Mordecai, but they are so cute!).

So, check out this comic. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Issues

Dear Friend,
I've been just shy of posting something self-pitying on almost every site, forum, board I am signed onto this past week. I don't know, life just seemed so unreasonably empty. I was dealing with personal issues in my head, and then people in my life decided to tell me the problems they had with me on top of it. The fact that I had been attempting to fix that myself didn't help the fact that it was out of left field to hear about it. I have two ways of dealing with this sort of thing: get really angry or cry. As usual, I cried. I was on the verge of tears for two days.
I'm over it.
I do still have one issue I am dealing with. I have finally restored my "trust" in Victoria (which, by the way, is what I named my computer. Yeah, she has a name now) but the internet isn't being very obliging. Before I had the stressful experience of needing to restore everything on my laptop due to a virus I used to spend hours online. I now don't needlessly stress about viruses, but the internet isn't as entertaining as I used to think it was. Seriously, Facebook, blogs, DeviantArt, message boards, Youtube, and even shopping has been so dull this time around.
Yeah, I guess I'm just asking too much.
I have found a new activity. I've discovered a character I can draw. He's a cat. I can tell from these drawings what his personality is like, but I haven't named him yet. Pretty soon I'll learn how to use the scanner and put up a picture of him on here. Maybe DevArt, but I doubt that one. He has just a little ball of a tail. The funniest thing is I know what his voice sounds like. Yeah, cats don't talk, but he's a cartoon cat. In a move that's quite typical of me, he sounds like a Rob Paulsen voice. I, however, can't think of a character Rob has done in this voice that I'm thinking of. Hmm, the research would involve lots of cartoon watching, poor me. I was being sarcastic, if you couldn't tell. Maybe I'll do a comic strip involving him in my spare time. Then again, maybe one day I'll forget all about him. I wonder if I should call him Max. Hmm, no that's not quite him.

Insert witty title here

Dear Friend,
I have been tossing around the idea of participating in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, google it for fun) this year. However, I don't know that I can come up with an idea that justifies an entire novel, or dredge up that much dedication or an attention span that will last an entire month, or keep such an activity from pulling yet more time from activities I should be doing instead, i.e. laundry, cooking, dishes, vacuuming; you know the sort of things that keep a house livable for all involved. I've already got so many things that I want to do, creativity and artsy sort of things, that I don't know that attempting to write a novel in 30 short days is wise. I've got (at the moment I'm typing this up) 4 more minutes until the month begins. I suppose there's always next year, but we don't know that for sure do we? Suppose they do away with the concept in '09! Suppose Christ returns before then! Suppose, well, suppose anything you like. Is this the way I'll carpe the diem this year?

Probably not.

I've become somewhat hooked on Deviant Art. It's a great site for those inclined to wish they were frighteningly talented artists (which I wish I was) or those inclined to learn how to draw or paint by looking at what other people who do draw or paint do. (which is something I myself do, Wow!) Honestly, the best sort of "lessons" I ever got in drawing was by sitting next to and watching a very talented friend of mine during classes in college. You know, when I should have been listening to lessons. I think that's part of what I love about drawing though, you can draw while listening to someone talk. Kind of like Tetris, I love tetris because I can listen to music while I play and not feel like either the game or the music is slighted.
But anyway, DevArt. I don't have a scanner of my own, so I don't have an account there yet, but maybe someday. Seeing some "fan art" has gotten me to look at a few things differently, such as the Animaniacs and the Mad Hatter. (Spell check is loving me and my non-words tonight, I tell ya) Most of the people I follow closely are or were students in art school. I just don't want to go to art school, I like finding my own ways of drawing. Besides, unlike the Warner brothers, and sister, I don't like drawing naked people.

As you can probably tell by my randomness, (oh, my goodness, apparently, according to spellcheck, randomness is a real word, whereas spellcheck is not) and run-ons it's late, and I'm slightly giddy. If I decide to write a novel, I can start now.

Dear friend, sleep, like me, is your friend. I will now attempt to become better acquainted with it.

If you like Batman, and don't hate animation, I've got a film for ya!

Dear Friend,
I just finished watching, for the second time in a day, "Batman: Gotham Knight" which is a set of short, animated films set between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Now, I didn't like The Dark Knight, but that has proven to be "above" my like or dislike. I felt it was too dark, and should have been rated R. (I consider TDK to be my first R rated movie, now, so there you go)
Gotham Knight, now is also rated PG-13, and I felt it came by it honestly (even if there is one shot of a guy being shot clean through the head, a very clear shot at that) and it was bloody. Not a lot of cussing, though I did get to hear Rob Paulsen say "Son of a *****"; quite a strange experience. (I almost felt like Mr. Opportunity was cussing at me. Ok, just kidding) But, quite seriously, though animated, this isn't meant for the kiddoes, ok?
Anyway, beyond content issues, There are 6 different shorts, written and directed by different people, and animated by different Japanese studios. It's anime inspired, so don't expect lip-sync. Do, however, expect interesting visuals, which change each story. Only the voice actors remain the same through the entire film. The shorts are loosely connected, but each could stand alone if it needed to.

The First, "Have I Got a Story for You" is much like the BTAS episode "Legends of the Dark Knight" and frankly I think the TV show one was better. I admit I was put off my the animation style. While the backgrounds were stunning, the people were grotesque and ugly. It did serve the story well, with the differing interpretations of three kids descriptions of their encounters with Batman earlier that day. It was a solid start.

Next, "Crossfire" was animated in a dark, shadowed, comic-book style. It showed two cops in the Major Crimes Unit, discussing Batman as they take a prisoner over the "Narrows" and then end up in a gang crossfire. The story was good. It was maybe my third favorite. Lots of gunfire, as well.

Then "Field Test", which despite a rather confusing story that caused me to wonder what was going on exactly, wound up being one of my favorite shorts on the disc. It was very "anime" style, and I liked the design of the batsuit. They even managed to make Bruce Wayne a decided "pretty boy" that you'd never expect to be Batman. (see icon stamp on this entry)

"In Darkness Dwells" was OK, to me. The sewer setting lent itself to a gritty, unattractive drawing style. There was a brief fight with Killer Croc, so brief you wonder if it was needed. It also had Scarecrow, yet it didn't seem to be like the same character from the live-action films. It was one of the more disappointing shorts in my opinion.

"Working Through the Pain" was my second favorite story here. I again like the style of drawing, and the backgrounds were beautiful. It was slightly bloody for my taste, and I had to look away a few times. My dad was disappointed by the end of the short, but I liked it's emotional nature. I do admit, it doesn't feel like much of a climax, though.

"Deadshot" ranked high in my opinion, too. It's style was interesting, and though it was violent I couldn't look away. The shot of the Ferris Wheel was gorgeous. I found the plot obvious, but maybe not everyone would.

I enjoyed this DVD, and would recommend it to Batman and animation fans alike. I liked hearing Kevin Conroy as Batman again. Watch it if you can.

Perception Personality Test - Really interesting

Your result for The Perception Personality Image Test...

NFPS - The Guru

Nature, Foreground, Big Picture, and Shape

You perceive the world with particular attention to nature. You focus on what's in front of you (the foreground) and how that fits into the larger picture. You are also particularly drawn towards the shapes around you. Because of the value you place on nature, you tend to find comfort in more subdued settings and find energy in solitude. You like to deal directly with whatever comes your way without dealing with speculating possibilities or outcomes you can't control. You are in tune with all that is around you and understand your life as part of a larger whole. You prefer a structured environment within which to live and you like things to be predictable.

The Perception Personality Types:

Take The Perception Personality Image Test at HelloQuizzy

"Beautiful word clouds"

Dear friend,
If you read any other blogs then chances are you've seen this little trick before. If you haven't, then I'm glad to be able to share Wordle with you! I'd seen this on a couple of blogs before I tried it today. I was amused by my "big" words, "Think" "Pretty" "Also" "Beautiful" and "Just". Simply out of curiosity I ran my brother's blog and felt a little guilty that one of my big words wasn't God when one of his was.

Anyway, here's mine!
title="Wordle: Friend's letter">

New Layout, so why not post?

Dear Friend,
I felt for a richer color scheme, and to get rid of any sort of media related images in my intro and title. So, what do you think? I love the rose picture, but am a bit concerned that it is, well, huge. We'll see how I take to it.
I also wanted to stop using the Robin Hood banners because, although the artist who made them made them really well, the show sucks. I haven't truly watched it for the past month. I've had the TV on, and looked up when something "interesting" happened (usually when Much or Gisborne were on screen) but even that has been getting to be too stupid. I have been told that Much tells Robin off in the finale, so I may keep trying, just to see if my favorite character finally gets a backbone.
I'm looking forward to seeing Wall-E this Friday. I'm hoping to see it before the "kiddy" crowd sees it, because though I love animated movies and kids, I'm none too fond of them put together. I also want to see Wanted with Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy. Now, there is a contrast. Strange thing is, I've not seen an R rated movie yet, and since the first PG-13 movie I saw sucked, I've held out on watching one until I had picked a great movie. I've decided that the Godfather will be the first R movie I watch. I just need to find the time to watch it. The problem really is, I'm a wimp. No, really, I watch the AFI countdowns and when they show clips of the Godfather they always show the same clip of people being shot in the head, and this one clip that obviously is deemed suitable to air on prime time TV sends me into shock! How I'll get through that entire film I don't know. Then, if I find that I can't make it through the Godfather, I doubt I'll make it through Wanted, rated R for "strong, bloody violence" throughout. Yeesh.
I'm actually slightly apprehensive about the next Batman film. I'm such a wimp.

Why do I consider this big news?

Considering all the things that are going on in the world right now, why do I feel the need to link all my readers to this newstory? The guy who invented Instant Ramen died.
I have no idea why this seems so momentous to me. Maybe it was his quote in the story about the world not going hungry. Maybe I'm grasping at material for this blog that isn't "woe is me, mylife sucks even though nothing's wrong, wah!"

Personal fluff, my parents and I went to the national Gallery of Art today. I've come to the conclusion that modern and contemporary art reminds me of Sesame Street. I have no idea why. It just does. I got to be in the same room(s) as my absolute favorite Monet paintings, which was just plain awesome. I've also discovered that I actually like Andy Warhol, who knew?

Till Next I write!

Happy result

You Are Impressionism

You think the world is quite beautiful, especially if you look at it in new and interesting ways. You tend to focus on color and movement in art. For you, seeing the big picture is much more important than recording every little detail. You can find inspiration anywhere... especially from nature.

What Art Movement Are You?

Ok...............

Couldn't think of a title, sorry. It's been a week since I last wrote, and I'm sure more important stuff has happened to me than what I'll be writing about here, but that sort of thing is why I keep a spiral bound journal on my bedstand.

Started knitting a poncho last night. My friend and I are making the same pattern with different colored yarns. Proud to find that I knit faster than she does. Petty, but true. My friend's mom also showed me how to blanket stitch the "Starry Night" fleece panel I got awhile ago. Van Gogh was weird. But I love impressionist paintings. I plan on having a Monet themed room in a while. Wish I could afford real Monet paintings, but since I'm only working part time on a modest income, I'll head to Hobby Lobby for prints. Yay!

Ick, just saw a picture of the Man-bat from the new show "The Batman". Ugly.
I actually hate "The Batman". I hate the new character designs (look what they did to Catwoman!) and what they did to the Joker. Sure the first glimpse of the Joker was creepy, but after that, he just got stupid. The real Joker isn't stupid, he's smart and funny and evil, all rolled into one purple suit. Not a clown straight jacket. And I want to know why everyone in Gotham suddenly has ninja skill, even the Penguin. It's just... stupid. But that is only my opinion.

Hah! After the Bible study thing I went to on Tue I actually had an interesting conversation with two people about whether Batman of Superman was better. We were getting way too into it, but she said she prefered Superman, I can't let that go unchallenged, now can I? At least he agreed with me.

My use of pronouns could get confusing, since I refuse to use real names online. Especially if I'm ever going to have people I actually know reading this. I'll try to stay clear on who is who.

Ok, more randomness. What's with the relationship shows on cartoons lately. We have Danny Phantom, a show that frankly I don't watch, but happened to see a few times, with an episode where he falls in love with Sam for one episode. Then Kim Possible in an episode where she (and Shego, if you belive it) loses it for Ron (Shego loses it for Drakken, which is more disturbing. I've been compared to Shego, and took it as a compliment, she's let me down, even if she didn't really mean to). Did hyper "shipper fanfic authors" send in these scripts or what?

Way too much TV talk in this entry. I apologize for living my life in front of the idiot box on weekends. Maybe this Wed. I'll write my thoughts on "Lost."
Really being sarcastic today, watch out. (Shego, what have they done to you? Your hair was in a ponytail!)