Invader Grunt

On Friday, my boyfriend's roommate received Halo 3. This is a big deal to him, as this boy has been pining after the game for a good year or so. Within minutes of his arrival, my boyfriend and him had started completing the campaign on Heroic mode. I sat and watched, while occasionally working on stuff to keep me from being too bored.

While I enjoy video games, I'm not much of a gamer. I seem to know more about them than the average girl, and I do like them, I just don't have a ton of experience playing. I'm not terrible, but I'm not great either and I have a huge fear of embarrassment, hence my unwillingness to join in playing when people are around. But watching works, and this entire weekend I've seen so many cut-scenes and been witness to many epic battles.

It wasn't until 2 a.m. yesterday that I finally got a chance to play myself, sucking as expected but at least having fun.

Anyhoo, since yesterday was filled with Halo I didn't have a chance to post something for SSS. Which is funny because yesterday was all about visual arts. Nonetheless, today I come bearing a question that has been in my mind since the long hours of viewing Halo 3:

Are Covenant grunts and Irken Invaders related?



The grunts sound suspiciously like Invader Zim and his cronies. They also have triangle-packs on their backs, and are quite short, which is similar to Irken invaders. Grunts are also headstrong little idiots, following any orders placed by their tall superiors.

Study the above photo, play Halo 1, 2, and 3, then watch Invader Zim and tell me the grunts and invaders aren't related!

Drive Your Data

When you work in a remote location, far away from "the office" you end up having to send files back and forth, many many times. At least this has been my experience.

In general, for me these files are huge. Well over the limit of gmail's attachment allowance. Attachments seem pretty limiting as it is, at least with gmail, which is why I need to look for alternative ways of sending large files.

In general, file sharing websites also have limits. Such as Megaupload, which limits you to one download per several hours. Or Mediafire, which limits uploads to about 100-200mb. There is SendSpace, but it limits you're file size as well and allows only one download at a time. There used to be some really good sites out there that were perfect for downloading multiple files in large sizes. Now, not so much.

But there is some hope for us large-file folk, Driveway.com has no download limit and allows uploads up to 500mb.



Creating a free account gives you 2gbs of storage space. This seems like a really good deal. Also, while uploading files can be a big pain, Driveway has a widget for you to directly access your account via your desktop.

This seems like an excellent site for file sharing, I'm going to have to start using it rather than deal with the annoyance of a small attachment limit.

Changes

Well, I think I'm doing it. I'm changing my minor from Film to Graphic Design.

Why? Because I have more experience in graphic design, and I will not be able to take more than a few courses anyway. I won't be able to finish my major, but I think it's better to be a little behind but still have a good base knowledge of a subject rather than start from zero and get nowhere.

Film is intense, so is Sequential Art. I don't plan on killing myself these last few years at college, I plan on honing skills needed to survive and make some sort of living in the world doing what I love. I'm hoping graphic design (with an emphasis on web work) will in the long run help me more.

Let's hope I make the right choice...

Sproose Search

As time goes by I predict we'll be seeing more user-adjusted/created content on the web. There are already several sites that rely on users to determine what is or isn't popular/important. Why not add a search engine as well?

That's exactly where Sproose comes in. This is a really cool idea, a user-determined search engine.


Sort of like Digg, Sproose has users vote on search engine results. The more votes a webpage has, the higher up in the index it gets. Which can lead to more traffic and sometimes, easier searching. For example, if you do a search for "Muffin Mumblings" *insert shameless promo here*, and you really want to find muffinmumblings.blogspot.com, simply click on "I Like It" and you'll vote for the site, effectively moving it up to the top of the index.

What's also really cool is that users can share their voted websites with others, creating even more traffic for the site and linking similar interests.

click here to try sproose!

Eternal Transfer PERSONAL POST

When/if I have kids I'm going to try and convince them to spend their first year of college at a community college. Judging by the cost increase in private colleges and thinking my kids won't be able to get really good scholarships, I'm pretty sure that spending freshman year at a community college is far better financially.

That's what I did, and it had nothing to do with figuring out where I wanted to go, it all had to do with money. The cost for one year of tuition at my local community college was about 1/3 the cost of SCAD. I was able to get a fair number of general classes out of the way too, and this gives me more time to spend on my major courses. I'm really happy I did that, and at the same time I wish I had taken a few more courses before I went to SCAD. Once again, just to get them out of the way. Right now I've got two more classes to take before I can devote myself purely to my major/minor. I'm not looking forward to taking either course, but oh well. I procrastinated and this is what it got me >.<

Today I ended up talking to a girl from one of my classes who also is a transfer student. She had no idea you could still take courses outside of SCAD and get them to transfer so when I explained how to do it, she was pretty happy. I really do think there are some great advantages to taking CC classes before going to your college of choice, and I know it makes more sense when you're at art school.

Nobody at art school wants to take math, and it's really pretty useless when you want to focus on illustration or comic books.

I love not coming here as a freshman. It seems like a big waste of time. First off, you have to do the stupid freshman orientation course where you end up devoting more time than you should to attending useless seminars. My roommate was here as a freshman and she hated the orientation part. She ended up spending time listening to useless lectures on why you should attend classes when she needed to be back in her room finishing homework.

You also get to skip that dreadful year of college where you have no idea what you're doing and what your work ethic is. It's better to spend your first year figuring out how you work in the safety of your own home and without spending $30,000.

Yeah, I'm going to try and press going to community college for my kids first year at school. I don't know how they'd react, but if they're anything like me they'll understand and look back on it as a good decision.

Looking Up Weasels in the Dream Dictionary

Ah dream interpretation. Psychologists love this stuff and I do too. I have a good time relating my dreams to my boyfriend and he does the same. It's really interesting to know what others dream about, and if they are as chaotic and weird as your own.

Of course, most of the time we just listen and comment on each other's dreams. There's no real interpretation or attempt to figure out what that certain part of the dream could mean. Afterwords though, we do notice some common trends that appear. Which leads to actually trying to interpret the dream. Not getting very far in psychology, this doesn't go very well. But after stumbling upon Dream Dictionary I think I'll have an easier time analysing our deepest dreams.

Dream Dictionary is a neat little dream symbol search where you can type in your specific symbol and find out what it means.Or, like any good dictionary, you can browse and happen upon some very interesting symbols.

One of the common themes in my dreams is eating. I tried to type that in but the results were far more specific than I expected. I was hoping to find a generalization of what eating means in a dream, but instead I got all kinds of foods. I had no idea there was such symbolism in specific foods, but now I guess I'll have to try and keep track of what I was actually consuming!

A simple browsing of Dream Dictionary's contents shows me even more specific imagery. I really don't track my dreams nearly as well as I should!

Take a look over there yourself, there's some really interesting explanations. For instance, have you ever wondered what a weasel in your dream may mean? Well, go find out!

Gimme a Reason

Very recently I saw a discussion about art schools and why someone would go to SCAD versus SVA or some other art college. This is a great question I ask almost everyone I meet. Even though I'm in school already and don't plan on applying anywhere else any time soon it's a great way to figure out what other's impressions of other art colleges are.

Coming from the east coast I always ask about schools like Parsons, Pratt, RISD, MICA, etc. A lot of people turned their noses up at those schools because the people are too uptight and snotty. Which I understand, a lot of people have this impression that an art school is filled with dirty hippie painters who will end up living in cardboard boxes when they graduate. This is probably because most schools make the curriculum around letting you just do art. There's no real focus to get a degree, you just paint what you want to and try to improve so you can maybe one day have a gallery exhibition somewhere in your small town.

Whereas SCAD is focused on getting you a job after graduation. Tailoring their curriculum around a career in the art of your choice. This seems to be a pretty common reason a lot of people I asked chose this school.

The other common reason is because they were enamoured with the professors, everyone is really great and very knowledgeable.

Those are probably the most common reasons I've come across. It's a nice experiment and a great way to find out what really makes this school appalling, I highly suggest asking people at your own college what their reason for attending there is. You might be surprised at the diverse answers.

Feeling Comfortable In Your Skin

Being back at school means trying to keep off the weight that inevitably comes with having to eat school meals. Today my boyfriend and I went grocery shopping with the intent of buying healthier foods. We both want to lose weight and working together will make it easier than working alone.

So far we've cut out sodas entirely, and our snacks now consist of celery, hummus and goldfish. We won't know if this will change until November, when we'll both return home to our scales and finally...weigh in.

What's my motivation behind this? Well, it all has to do with my mother. I've kept track of her photos over the years, and I can see that at my age she didn't look bad. But now, she never lost the baby weight, she doesn't stick to diets and well, she's a borderline diabetic. She is my motivation to not end up like that, and also have to spend who knows how much money on all the different pills she has to take and other medical related expenses.

I've talked to her before about obesity surgery, aka gastric banding, and it doesn't look it'll happen anytime soon. Looking at our financial situation at the present time I can't say I blame her for not wanting to seriously look into it. Also, by most accounts she's not obese, but she is quite overweight for her height. It's clearly affecting her health and well being. I don't want her to develop full-blown diabetes, I know it runs in the family but she can avoid it if she works hard.

Also, thanks to America's lovely obesity problem more and more surgery centers cater to that population. A simple search online can lead you to these places, like Journey Lite, which works on making their patients feel comfortable. There's a lot of support there too, including message boards, tips for success and recipes to help ease through the process.

I may mention this to my mom. Gastic bypass surgery is not an end-all solution, but it is a step toward a less expensive and more fulfilling life. My father and I would love to see her back in shape, and I know she would love to have more options in fashion and not spend as much time taking pills.

Who You Gonna Call? Superhero Contest

There's a great contest going on right now at VisArts that anyone can enter and I highly suggest taking a look at it.



Prizes include getting your name in the gallery info for the show as well as having your winning 1 page comic published in the con program guide.

If you know anybody who might be interested in this contest, please do share the info. The printout above as well as more information on the exhibition can be found here

Karma?

I'm a real bitch sometimes, seriously. But I hide it well. My inner bitch only comes out when I'm with the one I love, which is to say, I love him so much I can let myself go. To most people, however, I'm rather nice. I make friends easily, I've never been in any sort of friend fight and I always try to treat any person working for/with me with the utmost respect. I know that this means something too.

When I say "working for" I'm referring to any person who has a job serving other people,whether it be in food, sales, or anything where they have to fill another person's needs. In school I've noticed it really counts. In my mind it's second nature to treat people with respect, and I've noticed that it doesn't go unappreciated.

Where I live we have one convenient dining option for school, a cafeteria that's located literally right underneath the dorm building. I obviously eat there quite often, or at least get food for take out. I haven't eaten one meal there, which is mainly because I've always hated eating in cafeterias and subsequently hate all the noise and people around me, however I've noticed my fair share of terrible student etiquette.

While waiting in line for something to be prepared I've seen kids talking on their cell phones, making these terribly annoying and specific requests of the food (y'know, the vegan skinny guys who want only 7 mushrooms in their dish, no more no less), and generally treating the wait staff like they're poor slime. It's seems so rude to me and I can tell how much the staff doesn't appreciate it just by their tone or the shaking of their head. At times I take pity on them, I mean this isn't a great job and they don't need snotty art school students making it more difficult. Which is why I always treat them with respect. I patiently wait for them to notice me, if a dish is already prepared I don't ask for certain things to be taken out (like if it has onions in it, which I don't really want, I'll still take it instead of having them make an entire new sauce just for me), and I never act like I'm in a hurry and need my food now. Most importantly, I always say, "Thank you".

It does make a difference, I get smiles and cheerful hellos, sometimes I even get more food than other people because I'm always nice to the staff. It's little things like that, random acts of kindness, that I'd like to think help make both our lives easier. I can't imagine being rude to the person preparing your food, I thought that was the cardinal rule of comestible purchase, always be nice. Even if I'm feeling crappy being greeted by the staff in a way that makes it seem like they do want to serve me, is always a lovely experience.

Random acts of kindness are what make living in this world more bearable. Be nice to the people who serve you, no matter how pissed off or tired you are, in the end it makes a difference.

Dragon Drawing

It's been kind of quiet here I guess, not too much going on this past week. I've been pretty boring, spending a lot of my time doing homework or being lazy. One nice thing about this week was the jaunt over to see Frank Warren of Post Secret give a talk. While emotionally draining, it was a good experience and I'm glad I went.

It's shaping up to be a good weekend too, I don't really have any work to do which means I might finally be able to spend some time on my little summer drawing that's been on my back since before VisArts:



It's a dragon, a creature that I rarely ever draw, simply because I'm not very good at it. Of course, to become better I decided at the beginning of summer to start this immense project, with the intent of finishing it before school. Well, when you look at it, it looks like I gave up pretty quickly right? Not quite, see that's not the full image, that's just what I've done so far. I have this entire beastie to tackle:



All of that fur...taunting me like a shag carpet that needs a deep shampooing. Ugh. Slowly but surely I'll finish Mr. Dragon there, if it's the last thing I do.

Hopefully by then my skill will have improved immensely and I'll be able to proudly display this image in my portfolio. Then cringe when I try to count each fur section.

Industrialization

For my English class we have to read many a book by many an old/dead person. This particular class focuses on American Moderns from 1900-1945, joy. I'm not a huge fan of many of the authors or books that we have to read, but oh well, it's a requirement and I'm not completely bored out of my skull either.

Recently I finished Jack London's The Apostate and it brought up a couple questions. For those unfamiliar with the short story, it is about a boy working in a factory (think turn of the century child workers)who has been doing so for many years (I think around...9?) and finally breaks down and moves out. He is the perfect worker, honing his skill over several factory jobs until he becomes as accurate and as fast as the machines around him.

As he becomes better at his job, however, he loses his sense of childlike amusement. He stops dreaming, falling in love, and showing much emotion. He has been drained of all humanoid feelings, and form. Working in factories has given him terrible health and bone problems.


So I ask, in our world today do you think that you could excel at a monotonous job like working in a factory?

I noticed that I actually quite enjoy repetitive work, if I'm making good money and don't have to do much thinking (i.e. filing, writing/printing labels, data entry) I become quite proficient in a short amount of time. Which is why I have wondered what it would be like if I ever worked in a factory.

Not that I'm saying I'd want to, I'd like to avoid that at all possible costs, but if I had to I think I could be quite good at my job. I'm afraid that after a few years I would loose my humanity just like Johnny though.

Relieve Your Pain with Slime!

Being the young, spritely woman that I am, I don't suffer from many chronic pains. Instead I contain years of cynicism that no chemical can get rid of. My parents on the other hand are in fantastic pain all the time. Whether it be mental anguish over their cynical daughter or physical aches and pains from getting older, they are always aching. Thus they are the perfect candidates to try out a new topical pain relief gel, Freeze It.


I caught them at the right time, my father had just come back from backbreaking labour (read: lawnmowing) and was all set to try out another topical pain relief product from CVS. He did a great test using both Freeze It and the generic CVS Icy Hot cream. His findings, presented in his typical scientific way:


"Smeared about 2 grams onto the affected area. Immediately could smell the distinct penetrating odor of the menthol and camphor. The affected area quickly felt cool and the pain subsided after a few minutes, lasting for about 30 minutes.

Notes: Freeze It contains 0.2% camphor, and 3.5% menthol for its effect. Compare it to products such as Icy Hot or CVS’ version of Icy Hot – “extra strength pain relief.” The latter has 7.6% menthol and 29% methyl salicylate, an aspirin-like chemical. The test subject reported that the CVS product applied that same day to the same area alleviated the pain quicker and for a longer period than Freeze It did."

Yes, it's seems a little official doesn't it? Well, he used to be a chemist, so presenting a personal view means turning it into a science experiment for him. Silly wording aside, it was interesting to note that the generic form of Icy Hot worked better than Freeze It.

Also amusing is the colour of Freeze It, which starts out as a bright green reminiscent of gak or slime from Nickelodeon. Which can be a great draw for kids or anyone who's nostalgic for some old school Nickelodeon sliming.



When rubbed in though, the slime colour disappears completely,


So while my father found that Freeze It lasted for about 30 minutes, my mother had a different experience with it. She also used it on her back (which is far less hairy then my father's, thankfully) where she suffers from severe pain. She says that the pain went away almost immediately and an hour and a half later she's feeling good. Another interesting side benefit is that the menthol smell was reminiscent of Vick's Vapour Rub and helped clear her sinuses. I'm not quite sure if the makers of FFreeze It intended for that to happen, but it does seem useful.

Two different experiences, two different genders, two different kinds of pain but in the same area. This is quite interesting. I'm not entirely sure how long my dad's back pain had been going on, but I believe it came about after he put stress on it while my mother's pain is a constant. My father may have gotten better results from the CVS brand, but his pain was a bit more acute I believe.

Experiences vary based on type of pain, but it's certainly worth trying Freeze It out. Price wise you can easily make a decision, as a short price check of name brand Icy Hot goes for about $5 for a 1.25oz cream, whereas Freeze It goes for $10 for a 4 oz tube of gel. Also featured is a handy roll-on version of Freeze-it, which Icy Hot kind of has but sells for around $6.50 for 1.75oz.

Freeze It can be found online or in stores, like CVS, WalMart, and RiteAid. However, if buying from CVS be sure that you don't get the Freeze It hairspray instead, or you'll end up still in pain, but now a bit sticky and your body hair frozen in place for 24 hours. Ew.

Wheely

Ugh, it seems like I keep missing Spectacular Spectral Saturday. Damn you life outside of work!

Well, this will be quick, and filled with images to make up for my lack of time management >.<. At least last week I had a good excuse, I was far too burned out from moving and people to want to upload something graphic.

Nonetheless, here we go.

These images are all part of a little game for the children's section of the gallery at VisArts. They're split up into 3 parts: head, torso area, and legs. What you do is spin a wheel and create your own character.

First up, we have the one I dubbed Princess:


She more of a sorceresses really, what with her passion for telling people's futures and then altering their real lives to accurately match her prediction. In actual reality she's no princess at all, that royal personage has been a fluke, as she slightly resembled the local village diva at one time. Now, the main difference between her and the real princess? Well, that giant tail she has. No princess would have such a lizard-like appendage on her person. But no princess would actually need such a tail to grift people either. "Oh whoops! You tripped on my tail, how terribly sorry I am! Please, let me tell your fortune to make up for it!"


Next up is your typical all-purpose superguy:


Not much to say about him, he looks pretty stereotypical as it is.

At least this next guy doesn't seem so boring. Here's Mr. Piggy:


From the galaxy of Oinker, Mr. Piggy is a gentle giant. Surprising considering how tall and large he really it. When he's not destroying planets or accidentally hitting meteors, Mr. Piggy likes to cuddle up to his collection of stuffed space farm animals. His favourites are Chick and Cow, which he affectionately carries with him at all times, just for good luck.

And lastly, another alien on board, the twins:


The Twins are hot and cold. Coiled together like some sort of terrible Twizzler accident these twins' personality is easily recognized by their colour. We have the cool twin, who enjoys relaxing and has a low temper, and we have the hot twin, who hates most everything and loves getting into big arguments. They may be twisted together but that doesn't mean they have to get along.


And that's it for the wheel really. To see the other set of weird characters you'll have to go to VisArt's grand opening, September 30th.

Pitter Patter

Man I missed rain. For several weeks I hadn't really seen any rain, and now finally it's been raining for about an hour.

This is exactly why I love getting out of classes early. Now I can just kick back, work on homework/VisArts/sleep and listen to the comforting sound of thunder and downpour. The best part is that my roommate doesn't come back for another hour or more, so everyday I get a little time to myself. Privacy and being alone are two very important things to me. Perhaps that's because I'm anti-social and would rather be with my computer than people.

Ah yes, the joys of being a homebody.

Blargh

The first week is almost over and I feel kind of tired. That may be because I've been staying up super late but nonetheless...this is one more week to count down before I get my new laptop. Ooo I'm excited!

So far, school has been okay. I desperately need to get a new sketchbook, all the ones I brought with me are more than halfway full...and filled with crappy drawings that date back to over 3 years ago. Way to go me >.< Dick Blick), so I'll hold off until maybe next week or so. I really don't feel like spending over an hour in line for some dumb sketchbook.

I am looking forward to my classes though, the drawing for sequential course (Sequential Art is my major, otherwise known as comic books) will be awesome, for the professor (like most of the Sequential professors) is a hilarious geek.

The only thing I'm not looking forward to week after week is the inevitable bus ride I must take to get to one of my classes. It's in a building that is quite popular, as all underclassmen (and transfer upperclassmen like me) must go to this building. Hence, the busses are packed. Seriously, people are standing in the aisles. I can't wait for everyone to drop out so I'll be able to enjoy my ride without worry. By next quarter, the bus will thin out quite a bit, but I won't be on it since I seriously hope no other classes take place in that building.

Oh, and I'm still working on VisArts stuff. I really need to finish one particular piece for them too. Damnit.

First Week Back and I'm Thinking About Cheating

Last year I put on a bit of weight from school. That's to be expected of course, first year living in dorms being forced to use that horrid meal plan, even though I wasn't a freshman I still got the dreaded Freshman 15 >.<

Over the summer I worked on getting my weight back down, mostly by doing yoga and trying to lower my caloric intake. It didn't seem to do anything and now I'm back at school and I have to eat the food here or I'll have wasted over $1,000 (SCAD meal plans are anything but cheap). I feel terrible about wasting food, and even worse about wasting money but I really do need to work on lowering my weight, lest I wish to end up like my mother and contract diabetes. Yes, it runs in the family, as does overweightness. I'm just lucky I guess.

Well, in my goal to work toward a more...eh...a less squishy me, I've been scouring the web trying to find a few good websites to help meet my goal. Of course there are thousands of different types of diet websites out there, with all kinds of suggestions on how to lose weight. One of the more interesting diets is the Cheat to Lose Diet, which is supposed to help you raise your metabolism enough so you can gorge yourself on your favourite bad foods every once in a while.

It's an interesting concept, and certainly worth checking out (plus it's free). The creator of the diet claims he lost more weight during the two weeks he cheated than when he was strictly following his diet.

I'm typically against dieting. I think the Atkins and South Beach diets are silly. Once you get off of them, the pounds will just pack right on. I believe more in the old adage of eat less, weigh less.
I'm probably going to check out this diet plan, I mean you have to fill out a questionnaire before you sign up, which asks questions such as what sort of fitness type you are (like, are you a couch potato or workout freak) and what kind of diet would you like to focus on (low calorie is a choice).

Like so many things, I rely on the internet to provide me with what I need. I guess I'll have to add "getting in shape" to that list, but at least I'll also be able to have that extra dessert!

The Long Long Road to ..Smellsville

Ah, the drive to Savannah. Riding along that well-worn trail down 95, listening to ambient music and gazing at all the familar billboards is quite relaxing.

Then the smell hits. The smell of papermills and bad air. The smell that is a sensory "welcome to Savannah!"

It's certainly not one of the things I look forward too in coming here. I rather enjoy my air unpolluted and free of terrible stink. Oh well.

I'm all moved in and pretty much hoping the next 3 months go by somewhat quickly. In all honesty, I kind of want the next 10 months to be over and done with too, I'm rather looking forward to my gift of Lasik this coming summer.

My boyfriend is living in a room on the top floor of our dorm building, with a friend. A rather sociable friend, so this means we will have little, if not any, time to ourselves. I suppose giving up this grand luxury is to be expected when living in a dorm, but I'm sure I'll tire of the socialness rather soon. I'm a terribly anti-social person. Friendly, but I would rather spend time in my room alone then go out with people.

However, so far I'm also rather happy I got an okay roommate. She seems fairly laid back and this should lead to a good school year ahead.

I'm not quite sure what else to say about school. Classes start tomorrow, so hooray I'm one class closer to ending the quarter and getting a new laptop!

I guess I have one more thing to add. I've been feeling a little sick recently. I'm not quite sure if it's my stomach adjusting to the school food or me physically reacting to what my brain's been saying all along. This year will be different from the last.

But I don't think it's a good thing.

Hey life...

... way to suck.

My external hard drive apparently has decided to corrupt itself and render the 180gb of important data on it useless.

What the hell technology? Why are you failing right before I leave for school?

I'm betting that in the next few days my cell phone will suffer some sort of wire outage or small explosion. After that, my watch will turn itself perminantly off.

And then, after a week at school, my battery charger will stop working and thus my computer will die along with it.

Let's see if these predictions come true.

An Excuse to Look Like an Idiot

...it's time to admit something deep and dark and silly...

I have cosplayed. And I'd do it again to dagnabbit, if it weren't for this lack of time, money, and uhm...ego.

I do love cosplay and have several friends who still dress up. I started back in 1999, and would like to think that my little group of Sailor Senshi helped make cosplaying anime at a Sci-Fi con (that still had anime in it) popular. I have won a few awards for my costumes, and gained little to no recognition on the internet. Thus, I have won in the world of cosplaying.

I've stopped mainly because I don't have many occasions to wear costumes anymore. And I rather enjoy drawing a little more than the real creation of the costume. Not to say I don't feel a sense of regret whenever my friends post their newest and greatest costumes, but well..maybe someday I'll pick it up again.

I just need a good motivator. This Halloween costume contest on Brickfish seems to be a good one though. I know I know, it says "Halloween" but in my mind, that means any costume.

Ah Halloween, how I miss thee. A great excuse for me to dress up like a character and not feel weird. I remember fondly my many years spent as a witch, and even my one fateful Hallows Eve when I dressed as James from Team Rocket, along with my friend who went as Ash (from Pokemon). We were such dorks, but we revelled in our dorkery.

I'm entering this Star Costumes contest on a whim. I know I won't win, but it's fun to enter at least.

It's really easy to enter, you don't even need a Brickfish account.

All you have to do is submit a Halloween costume (from your past or present) or even a design image.

Being the weenie that I am, I am forgoing my own created costume and decided to enter in this lovely lady:
Her name is Uli, she rides a cow. I'm rather fond of her costume.



Moo
Cows are round and made for sitting
They are also good for knitting
large blankets that can be tossed over at a whim

Uli believes he makes an awful fighter
and would be far better if lighter
as the cow would be more fearful if it were trim

For now on her axe she relies
and anyone who crosses her dies
A cow is no good at tearing enemies limb from limb
Moo

....This is the reason I don't write poems...

Also included, BONUS COW POEM! written by my lovely assistant:

There once was a cow from the east
he was such a fearsome beast
but one day
to his dismay
he was chopped up and made into a feast

Far superior to my meandering mumbling, but sadly does not address the lovely bovine costume at all. Oh well.

I highly suggest you check out this great costume contest. It's fun to enter, even if you can't create your dream costume. The winner gets 2 three day passes to the Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans, $1000 for travel & lodging, $100 to StarCostumes.com and will be featured on their site.

And if you don't enter, well, please vote for me, for Uli's sake.

Maybe if I win I can make a giant round cow for Uli to sit on. That would be much fun.

Dwight Interviews Zombie

This is perhaps the greatest pairing interview I've seen today. Nay, all week.
Rob Zombie (love him!) and Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office. Great American substitute for Gareth) Discuss stuff and things together on Myspace:

Camera Shy

During this upcoming week I will be deciding what will and will not be important enough in my life that I'm willing to drag it down to Georgia. At the top of list (right after my dear little laptop) is my camera.

Being the cheap college student that I am, I have not been able to purchase a proper scanner, thus the digital camera is the way to go.

I've owned many a camera in my life, but I still don't think I can take good photos. I'm getting there though, as my most recent purchase is a Kodak EasyShare c875. It's not quite scanner quality, but at 8 megapixels, it's getting there.

You never realize how much you need a camera until you're without one, as I've learned. Like all my technology (so it seems) my lovely HP camera died on me not but 5 months ago. Right when I needed to take a lot of pictures for various finals that were coming up. Lovely.

Luckily, my amazing boyfriend's camera still worked and used the same type of memory so I was able to hop and borrow his for the remainder of the school term.

I'm very happy to own this camera, and I look forward to photographing many a project with it in the future. I know that my dream would be to own a really great SLR, like a Nikon D300, but at the moment, that would kind of be overkill for my needs.

Being an art student who is pretty camera shy, I don't really use my digital love for serious photography. I'm not a photographer, I can take a beautiful picture but I'm more on the working with the digital image after side. Like Photoshopping the hell out of a nice photo. So for now it seems like I mostly use my camera to do the following:

1. Photograph my cat looking funny. This doesn't help my "cool" factor at all, but my cat's getting up there in years and I want something to remember him by.

2. Taking shots of my work. It's the best scanner replacement and a digital camera is essential when photographing larger pieces.

3. Reference photos of anything. I'm not supposed to draw from photographs. This apparently is very bad and you don't "catch the true nature of the subject". However, I've been drawing for years from photos and life and so far not one professor has been able to tell the difference. That either means I rule, or I really really suck. I hope it's the former.

That's really it I suppose. I can never take serious photos of myself, I feel too dorky and myspacey. And I always feel awkward taking the camera out during parties or similar events.

My digital camera uses are a little strange, but they work. And I could not live my life the same way without this baby.

Last Physical Day at Work

This weekend has been quite busy and I've failed to do a few things (sorry!), including write about my last physical day at VisArts.

I say "physical" because I'm working from home/school from now on. I'm not off the map, and everyone can reach me via phone or email. I don't quite know if I've doomed myself to some horrible work-fate... The next day after I left I got many phone calls from my boss. So it's nice to know I'm needed, and I certainly hope I'm not needed too much.

The last day was pretty good. Even though I spent a lot of it bouncing from one computer to mine to somebody else's computer. Stupid batteries.

I honestly can't say that I worked on one exact project. I spent a good amount of time during the staff meeting concocting a new cover for a little brochure we're giving out. I'd also say a good amount of my time was spent on the new program guide. Which, since I once again missed Spectacular Spectral Saturday, I feel obliged to share with you:



There it is, in all its Fall glory. How lovely.

Of course, the guide is not complete. I'm still waiting for a few descriptions and images from everyone. I guess my plan of actually finishing one thing that Wednesday failed. Oh poo.

I stayed later than I normally would, so I got to be present when the traditional bottle of wine was cracked open to end the long day. It was a nice end to my summer stay there at VisArts.

My stay isn't close to being over, so expect more bitching, whining, and apathetic posts on the matter.

Huzzah for internet communication!