Just another day in the Grand scheme of things

Randon night time notes

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 02:42:33 GMT

I want to watch Aliens

I'm alone in my house

It's after dark.

I've turne don EVREY LIGHT in the Apartment.

Let see how far into the movie I make it.

I really need my brain checked but HOLY SCMOLY do I love Aliens.
More than I love sleeping apparently.

.. . I want Bishop fanart.
I should draw a comic where Bishop is the 5th Cylon. =P

I also paid 10.0 to have 100 icons. I FINALLY BROKE DOWN.
But I like my icon and I want to use them. And I like other people's icons and I want to use them (when allowed)

My Watercolor Workshop

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:52:05 GMT

Just FYI: I will be ding a watercolor Workshop this Saturday in Dallas at the Portus Harry Potter convention.

Are you going?

If you are come to my Watercolor Workshop! Saturday, 4:30-5:50pm at Dardeneles Theater

I'll be going over various watercolor tips and techniques.

The focus of the workshop will not be how to go from a sketch to a finished painting because there are many tutorials like that on the web, and done way better than I could do. Plus you can't do that in an hour. What I've noticed though, in those tutorial, is something like using salt only gets mentioning if the artist used salt in their picture.

So what I want to do is to demo tips and tricks and show off what various things you can do and all the wild and crazy things that can be done with watercolor rather than focus on "how to make a painting"

This is more "things you can do with watercolor"

I hope this will give people ideas and a wider variety of skills to pull from.
'Cuase you know style isn't just how you draw characters, but how you paint, so hopefully this will give people ideas on how to use paint.

And it's applicable for anything anyone wants to paint: figures, still life,non representational abstract etc.

If you can bring your own supplies that'll be great. Due to cost I can only provide cheapo watercolors.

Stresssssssssssss . . and Harry Potter art

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:26:57 GMT

I just spent from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm working on the Hp Art Project.
*collapse*

Now I have to work on my Watercolor Workshop for Portus.
If I hadn't already worked on it, I'd almost want to pull out I'm so frazzled, but what the heck I can babble about watercolor and it'll be fun. It's mostly demonstration anyway. And I only feel like that right now because of STRESS.

I need to go buy the paper and chop it up and I need to make sure the cheap-o watercolors work will enough to have them at the demo to be played with.

I did finish some examples of paintings painted with specific watercolor techniques.

These are 8 separate pieces, and the originals will actually be fore sale at the watercolor presentation if you want one. They 10.00. at the workshop.

They'll 15.00 at the art swap (unless the Portus team determines they are not general enough, but hopefully they are ^^). Yes, yes I am kinda bribing people to come to my watercolor demo? Why?

Also, is anyone else gonna be in Swap at Portus?

Tell me this is fake?

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:36:55 GMT

Ok I don't have a lot of independent verification on this, but I thought I'd put a link up so those of you this might affect can dig deeper than I can at work (and hey for all I know this is already hot on LJ, I have a heavy LJ filter on at work and see less than 10% of my F'ist ^^)

Judge Orders YouTube to Give All User Histories to Viacom

I'm not a big proponent of illegal downloads, but sfgkdshgdfhgsd this does not make me happy. If real, it's a dragnet. Viacom needs to have specific accounts or names or videos or something. -_-

Esp considering the site is international.

Crawl under Rock and die time

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:19:15 GMT

Well i just made a critical mistake on the Hp-Ar-Project.

At some point around 11/24/2007 I started saying the art size should be 8 X 11 RAHTER THAN 8.5 X 11.

So now I have to work out how to fix this and how bad this is and I just feel awful because so many people are putting so much into this. *head desk*

I mean I KNOW mistakes will happen, but this is kinda a big one.

Deviantart Drama: AKA why be original when tracing works just as well?

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:46:43 GMT

So Deviantart had a contest to create an anime poster for Anime Expo.

The winner was IMHO not the best but that I'm ok with. I just found it ironic that with all the bitching the DA admins have done about anime over the years they picked THE MOST streotypical and least creative look of all the entries.
But it was cute.

HOWEVER (cue the drama bell)
Turns out the artists TRACED the character in the poster from an official anime image and did not change it enough to not be recognized immediatly upon being posted as the winner.

This really underscores an argument DA has been having for a LONG time with its users. Are traced works acceptable? I can certainly see if you manipulate enough photos into enough different affrangements then it might be ok to do a trace of that unique arrangement. On the other hand, tracing one anime character so exactly from a poster that people recognize it almost immediatly upon it being posted? Seems a a bit skeezy to me.

Oh and btw I love all the 'OMG I took an illustration class and this TOTALLY would hve been ok' comments. Really? I took one and this would have gotten me bounced out of the art department. .

I get what they are saying, in some cases an illustrator can trace, but usually from ANATOMY BOOKS not . . . not like this.

At least I hope not. If we can I'm working way to hard on my art. I can just start tracing glockgal's artwork and recoloring the hair and changing the cloths and the winning the money with it!

-_-

I almost wish though that this had gone up at anime expo. That would have been hysterical

DA represented by cheaply traced generic anime art.
Hysterical.

Ghostbusters Manga 0.o

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:05:53 GMT

Tokyopop Releasing GHOSTBUSTERS

. . .
Yup that's right EVERYTHING is now Manga.

Ok personally I like manga, and can find the style interesting but after the abomination was the Star Trek manga(GRRRRR to that mess)I'm seriously worried about this.

The image of Dr. Venkman worried me even more. Ray look sok, Winston looks ok, Egon looks . . . sorta ok, Venkman WTF did they DO.

*sigh* I'll porbably go look at it and judge when I see it, but my pre-judgement is to be nervous. I hope the story is ok. I honestly don't think I'd worry so much if it was ANYONE other than Tokyoopop but Tokyopop's original releases have never impressed me much.

The Indiana Jones films are more about fun than intellect. The Sky is also blue!

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:18:57 GMT

So I read an article online about the Indiana Jones moves in which some film academic spent 4 webpages explaining that the Indiana Jones films were not high on the intellect content and significance.

I'd make more fun of him except he began is whole thing by saying he was going to intentionally miss the point by a mile. I'm curious then why anyone would intentionally miss the point of a movie by a mile and then criticize it.

Indiana Jones and the Meaningless Void:
If You Really Want a Quest for The Holy Grail, Try Looking for Significance in an Indy Adventure

He also never really gets around to answering anything actually interesting. Like for example: OK so the movie slack intellectual significance, proper character development and are largely escapist in the worst (or best) sense of the word.

So then what causes the significance of the movies? You can't say there is none because if there was none then Indiana Jones would have ended at the first movie and no one would have cared about a sequel let alone a 4th sequel darn near 20 years later.

So clearly THERE is significance, just not in deeper meaning in the movies.

I also found this bit interesting for a fannish PoV:

"Star Trek" fans write. Harry Potter fans write. "Star Wars" fans play dress-up. And what do Indiana Jones fans do? They are the ultimate "Making of . . ." technical geeks, wanting to know everything about storyboarding, stunts, squib explosions, editing, matte backdrops, sound mixing and John Williams's musical scores. They almost never want to know about character development or theme

And then he writes this:

We entertain ourselves by entertaining you.
The biggest Indiana fans do the same. At considerable expense and with varying degrees of believability, they make their own movies and post them online (or sell them to one another), the further adventures of Indiana Jones, in which they cast themselves in the lead.

Sooo which is it? The Indiana fans are 'uncreative*' tech geeks or they dress up and make movies (which involves last I checked writing a script . . . and dressing up)

* hmmmm ok he could also be saying that there is nothing of value for the fans to jump from andwrite stuff far as Trek and HP fans do. But then . . how does he explain the A-Team fanfics? I mean I love the show to death but but it is pretty close to the Indiana Jones films in terms of escapist fun over intellectual content. But the fan s have no problem writing WAY WAY WAY more serious fics in rather large quantities.

Long LONG overdue Law and Order SVU Fanart

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 17:31:19 GMT

Well, I figured because I devote so many man many MANY MANY hours to watchign this show, it deserved tome Fanart.

Good things bad things, things that happened because I was distracted by Law and Order SVU while drawing this. but overall, not bad for the first time to have ever drawn him.

So I went a little more cartoony on her. I love her so so much. Total girl crush on her. She just kicks all kinds of ass.

They are the best platonic couple ever on TV.
And if they ever become canonically romantically involved you will hear my cry of anguish froma round the world ^__^

OMG my child hood is raped. . . literally sorta.

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 22:45:06 GMT

Anyone ever watch a 80's cartoon Called "Dinosaucers" about evolved Dinosaurs from space?
I loved it. It was up there with Ghostbusters in terms of 'shows I must watch." Love it. Really loved it. (Ichy was my favorite ^__^)

Right so, I though HEY I look this up on Deviantart and see if anyone does any fanart for it.

Now I need some serious brains bleach because Lo and behold "Dinosaucers" it not a work safe search in deviantart.
Sarah Spencer of Earth,has gladly become the loving sexy slavegirl servant and pleasure toy to Dinosaucers (everything is covered but not work safe)

It ONLY GETS WORSE
Stupid fucking pervert fanboys GDIAF.

There was actually some decent fanart just not enough to warrant the trauma. *cry*

For once it's not the Bride's who are self entitled!

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:58:15 GMT

So I was reading wedding articles on MSN.com (yes I was HUSH) and there was one that had some things that just caused my jaw to drop and the sheer entitlement issues people had.
And for once I don't mean the Bride's. I mean the guests'.

"My wife and I recently went to a wedding on a Sunday evening, and we had to be at work the next day. The ceremony was at 5 p.m., the reception wasn't until about 6:30, and dinner wasn't even served until 8. The meal was finished around 9:30, and most of the guests were not from the area where the wedding took place. We left before the reception was over, and still didn't make it home until midnight."
--John, 35, New York, NY

Ummm wait. was the wedding time a last minute surprise? Did they change it on you? You know the wedding is late in the evening. You know the wedding is Sunday night. If it's such a big friggen deal to you . . . arrange to have off. That's way god made vacation days -_- Or even a few hours off so you can go in late that day or skip the wedding.
But don't whine that OMG the time was convenient to ME.
I promise you they were not thinking of YOU nor should the couples plan their waiting date and time around the work schedules of each guest.

I've yet to go to a wedding the ends prior to Midnight. I use my vacation days.
Yes, Sunday is odd, but maybe Sunday meant somethign special to the couple. It seems very selfish to bitch because the wedding date and time inconvenienced you.

"I hate it when the bride and her dad or the bride and groom stop halfway down the aisle for a photo op."
--Frank, 31, Ann Arbor, MI

Ummmm it's a nice photo op. I totally want that photo op. You don't like it, you don't do it at your wedding. -_-

THIS ONE GETS ME THE MOST! Of all the self entitled miss the point, wtf complaints.

Am I a Cheap Date?
"Guests should never be expected to pay for drinks. You would never host any other private party and expect your guests to pay for their own alcohol."
--Elizabeth, 25, Frederick, MD

"I hate cash bars. It's like sending your wedding present COD."
--Susan, 28, New Fairfield, CT

"I'm sorry, but limited bars are generally a bummer. Ditto for wine drawn from a tap."
--Liza, 25, Cincinnati, OH

HOLY SHIT. DO you have ANY CONCEPT of how much an open bar costs? Not to mention an UNLIMITED open bar? The only wedding I've gone to with an actual open bar was from my financially well off nearly 40 year old cousin (which admittedly was nice). But these snide comments about not having a open bar? Ridiculous.

And for the record, at private parties in my neck of the woods, you bring your own drink, or at least a drink. The host is NEVER expected to provide all the beverages unless the part is VERY VERY small.

This one actually makes me mad because it makes it sound like the guests came for the free booze or like they have no concept of how much it costs. I'm not a huge fan of cash bars myself but I understand why my they couple have 'em!

Just uggh.

Don't Strand My Man
"The worst is when you're in the wedding party and your date doesn't know anyone at the wedding, and has to sit at a different table than you."
--Jennifer, 28, Chicago, IL

I survived it.
It was interesting, but Brandon and I made up for it later on the dance floor.
There no reason you need to be made part of the wedding part just because your date is. Seems a silly complaint.

"I went to a wedding recently, where, after dinner, the waiters passed out cigars. About one quarter of the guests took them, and within fifteen minutes the place was filled with smoke. It was disgusting, and I left."
--Andrew, 46, Los Angeles, CA

Again, this is what the couple wanted soooo get over it.
One night of smoke will not kill you. I endured a smoke filled bar that I darn near could not see in to support a friend's poetry reading. Suck it up and remember it's not about you. -_-
Seriously wedding is not planned for the benefit of YOU.

Cake-smashing, by far, is so replete with subliminal messages that I'd so rather not bear witness to during a wedding that I think it best be banned. This ritual is uncomfortable to watch, totally passive-aggressive, and not at all the zany, jocular show the couple thinks it is."
--Amy, 25, Middletown, CT

"The whole cake-smashing-in-the-face event makes me wonder if the couple is just getting out their aggressions from all those pre-wedding quarrels."
--David, 51, Atlanta, GA

OHHH get over it prissy pants. You think it should just be banned? fhfhkl It's funny. If the couple is playful like that let it go. Seriously Amy and David, I wonder if you have issues in that you think everything must have secret messages. Sometimes cake in the face is just funny.
And can be fun after a stressful day (I would think).

That said baby, you get cake on my ress and I will come after you ^___^

I think seriously the one I can't get over is the drink complaints.

Pimp:

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:34:12 GMT

Do you need amazingly wonderful art on your walls?
You know you do.

Wouldn't your rather have original art made just for you than b one of the thousands that owns that same friggen print from that commercialized art store down the road?

For a totally reasonable fee, andreanna can help beautify your home with original art!
See her commission info here

She's got a lovely lyrical style to her art, with gorgeous bright colors, and a unique figurative style. If you need something cool for your room/dorm/kitchen/living room etc go trade her money for art!

Seriously she's asking less for art than some people spend on a meal. And the art lasts longer!

ETA
bzzinglikeneon made me

IF YOU READ THIS YOU HAVE TO POST AN ANIMATED GIF IN YOUR LIVEJOURNAL BECAUSE THOSE ARE THE RULES!

Snagged this off the sci-fi forums.

Harry Potter Book Thoughts

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:29:54 GMT

I'm sure this has been gone over a lot but what the hey.

What did you think of Hermione’s decision to screw with her parent’s minds in order to protect them from the Death Eaters?

To me that was an interesting decision on her part that played nicely in with the repeated slogan of ‘For the Greater Good” (or something like that, I have no book on hand).

Certainly she felt she acted in her parents best interests, and in certain ways, she is correct. As muggles they are targets already. As the parents’ of one of Harry Potter’s best friends, they are HUGE targets. Her decision also has precedence given the Death Eater’s tendency to kill whole families.

But at the same time it was hugely presumptuous of her and really re-arranging a person’s entire life memories is not small thing. Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but my feeling was she just did it. It would be a whole other story if she sat down and explained the dangers to her parents and the agreed upon that course of actions.

Which honestly is IMHO the best choice, but I don’t think she did that.

She may have acted for the good of her parent’s but she also denied them the truth and denied them a choice and I find it very interesting that JKR had Hermione do something like that because I feel it very much begins to cross over into the line of thinking that well to be frank Grindewald seemed to have.

I find it totally in character though, Hermione IMHO, tends to be the more ruthless of the three when she feels she is morally justified in doing what she is doing.

I don’t think she’d ever go totally over the line or anything, and certainly she was in a hard position, but I feel it was a very disturbing choice.

I also feel it interesting btw, that there was never even an attempt to see if her parents could contribute anything. (I was once told that JKR had said in an interview you can’t shoot a wizard even if you catch them off guard because WHY I don’t know. Protective magic or something which I think is crap off the top of her head, so I don’t know how much muggles could do compared to just how powerful a force JKR sometimes makes magic (but yet it can’t fix Harry’s eyes?)

There was an interesting chance here to work with muggles, learn what they might have to offer, or at least let them know, but there is this whole since of infantilism or something in the Wizard attitude toward muggles.

Kinda reminds me of the European attitude to American Natives.
Did you now btw, that the early European explores assumed that Europeans had existed in the Americas before them because they figured the giant Mayan pyramids MUST have been built by Europeans and then over run by the childish backward native peoples as there was just no way those natives had the intellect to build those structures

That’s the same kinda prejudice I think the wizards show again and again toward muggles

Printer, Pin Ups, and Dance

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:47:21 GMT

So tried out the new printer.

It is a thing of awesome.
I tested it with the Girl BA and Girl Murdock pictures, so it was fuzzy but they were also only 96 or so DPI.
I printed out a small part of a 350 DPI pictures I'd scanned in and it looked amazing.

What I couldn't figure out was how to print without a border of white. The printer printed without it in the shop so I know it can, but I just gotta figure out how, which is why god gave us manuals.

The scanner . . . I don't know. I scanned some magazine images and I felt like it gave me those odd patterns where my other scanner would not have.
I'll have to re-scan an image I scanned with the old scanner and see what goes on. That might also be a sitting thing for all I know. Anyway, I'll see. I also need to scan in some artwork and compare since its ability to scan magazine images of Richard hatch is not the primary reason I bought it =P.

In trying out the new printer/scanner I scanned some magazine images of Richard Hatch and Dirk Benedict.

See what I mean about the pattern?
I love the photo though.

Don't know exactly what it is, but this makes me want to go write BSG fanfiction . . . or make BSG fanart. It's a very interesting expression to me, especially in the eyes (which are really green here!)

He just looks like a young Face here. I don't know what this is but this totally reads as a very young Face, probably planning some kinda con. *L*

And in other news:
So You Think You Can Dance

This season is blowing my mind. To we really have to send people home? They are all so damn good and I love watching their routines.

This show kicks American Idols ass. Singing shminging the Comic Book Character Dance last night alone was more entertaining than most of an AI season?

However . . . I can't stand Mia Michaels. She sets my artistic bullshit radar off big time. Plus, I often get the feeling she's sexist or something I don't know, but about 85% of the time I feel she's massively biased against the girls.

I LOVED when Nigel interrupted her and called her on the whole "fake smile" BS and then Cat asked the dancer (was it Courtney?) what she'd been directed to do and LO it was to smile just as she'd been smiling.

Anyway, nothing against her choreography. Her dances are damn good, BUT her crits make me skin crawl and I just think she's full of annoying artistic emo bullshit.

Aside from that, I really want Comfort to kick it up a notch. I love her and I want her to stay but yesh, she and Chris is it, do keep being weaker than the rest *sigh*

It's so hard to picka fave on this show though because they are all so amazing.

sdklfhalskhfa ARGH

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:34:08 GMT

WAIT? WHAT?!

The Supreme Court on Wednesday cut the $2.5 billion punitive damages award in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster to $500 million.

. . . .
US Governemnt, why do you continue to be made if fail?

The dun fucked it up. Make them pay.
Seriosuly, it's not like they do not have the damn money.

If THIS is the cost of lower gas prices, I'll keep 'em high right now, thank you very much.

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:38:03 GMT

So last night I organized all my financial records.
Fun times. Took forever. I'm horribly disorganized.

I find a check. And at first I think it's a "check"
You know, those "here have some more debt" checks credit card companies like to send, which promptely get shredded.

Upon closer inspection . . . it's a real check. Some kinda YAY you graduated and have thousands in loans type incentive check.
For about 500.00.
Made out 10/26/2006
With no warnings of being void in 90 days.

So uhhh yeah.
I'm gonna go depost it into my savings via ATM.
If the bank later sees the date and flips or the check is denied, then well, I have it in my savings and they can have it back. If not, I have 500.00 dollars.

I also have a really good lesson in why I should pay more attention to my mail -_-

Other than that.
I need to send art work to HP Art Project layout volunteers.
I need to send the last list of names to the last contact volunteer (no I'm not behind on getting lists out, I realized Monday night I needed one more person; I saw her acceptance this morning; list tonight)

I need to also get my cousin's art framed and matted.
And I need to print my father's poem out on nice paper and paint on that a little.

Which means I need to set up my NEW PRINTER!
YES! New printer! I no longer have as 5 year old broken Lexmark printer.

I now have a brand spanking new Epson RX595.
This makes my artistic heart gleeful.

I shall make bookmarks or something for Portus I think.

Actually, does anyone know how to make buttons?

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:15:15 GMT

The Big Read thinks the average adult has only read six of the top 100 books they've printed below.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read 6 and force books upon them.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (umm parts of it)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (WHAT? Do I not get to credit them one by on 0.o)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis (as oppossed to the Chroinicles of Narnia? WTF list writer people)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
~~42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown~~
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75>Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell (DUDE!!!! THEY LIST THIS BOOK! OMG! YAYZ)
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (List you already covered this!!!)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Comments on the List
MEH! They wasted two spaces by listing
Chronicles of Narnia AND Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and then the complete works of Shakespear AND Hamlet.

So I add two book I have read:
1. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (who is not n this list I notice, For shame list makers)
2. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

3. Oh and to replace the Hack job that is the Da Vinci code: <
Fahrenheit 451 By Ray Bradbury
DAN friggen Brown was on the list and not Ray Bradbury *twitch*

Also Jane Austin is way over represented. Seriously now. She's a good writer but Good Lord.

My rats tails looks like Agent Krycheck's eyes.

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:52:04 GMT

On of my rats has a tumorous looking lump that appears to be hosting the black oil slick alien ooze from X-files.

No seriosly.

It's come from three masses on his tail, which I though, ok tumors. He's a rat, he gets tumors. He's old as sin for a rat too, so I wasn't worried that he had masses on his tail.

UNTIL THEY BEGAN TO BLEED X-FILES ALIEN OOZE *head desk*

Now we go to the vet because I need to know what this substance is before it posses me and forces me to lock myself in a room with a space craft.

Or you know in case it actually is something bad in real life *sigh*
(and if any other rat owner has an idea or has seen this before let me know 0.o)

Starbuck/Apollo Sketches for Starry Diadem's Mask Sequence

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:11:16 GMT

I thought I'd share some Apollo/Starbuck sketches I did at work (yes I bring markers to work on occasion ^^)

All of them relate to starry_diadem's Fanfic The Mask Sequence

I think I'm most happy with the Masked Apollo on the bottom right. I actually like the look of the mask in that one and Apollo and Starbuck's expression.

I also am particularly happy with the ink work of the Starbuck Stannor/Apollo picture. Been a while since I inked, so I was happy. And I feel Starbuck came out awesome in that one. ^__^
I've no clue if I got Stannor right at all and his hair looks a bit like it's in dreads and not really what was described in the fic, but they look kinda neat.

The color Apollo IMHO is one of my weaker Apollo portraits but I do like the expression so it works for me on an expressive level, which makes up for a lot of the places where I feel I botched the likeness.

And then the top left is just kinda . . there.
It's ok but it doesn't thrill me.

The text is just story ideas/ I'm being allowed to work on a fic in the Mask universe (YAY) and the writing is snippets that came to my mind.

X posted on bsgslash

Oh HEY WAIT!!!!

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 01:29:22 GMT

See this link?" It goes to Richard Hatch's myspace (yeah yeah I know, but no it really is him).

Scroll down a little.

*CRIES*
MY BATTLESTAR COMIC.

Someone reassure me that is not the end of the world?

I mean he's so totally fan friendly and that comic is so totally is not the Starbuck giving Apollo a blowjob comic. I really should be ok.

It's just kinda . . . I DON'T KNOW *shakes head*

It's Weird!

Project Stress

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 22:49:15 GMT

Christ Christ Christ

I just spent the afternoon trying to prepare the "need to contact" for the wonderful people who are helping me with this for the HP-Art_Project.

I should have had this done Monday, but between life and surprises and just the mind blowing work that was so I kept not doing it . . . it got done today.

Gah.

I think the part I'm most worried about is the printing. I still don't have a printer I like, professional people say using more than one printer is bad, so that kinda leaves . . . .

Crappy local places of which Kinkos sucks the least. Alpha Graphics sucks less in quality but I had to use them for school and they were shit service and fucked up some files.

I'd be freaking out over the book but tudorpot seems to know what she is doing, so if I can just get the materials to her and pay for some decent book bending that'll go well. I'm hoping after paying for all the paper and printing, leather can be afforded.

I'm hoping I can find some layout artists who wants to help layout 412 works of art.
I'll probably have to see about paying that person as well 0.o

412 . . . shit.

From a stressed PoV I sometimes I regret doing two people a chapter.
I think the idea is nice and I absolute think it should have been done considering what the project is meant to be about, but it's a logistical nightmare 0.o

Sometimes I just want to say FUCK UNITY. Layout and print your own page 0.o
But yeah, no. Trying to look as good as possible here.

Anywya, stress and crazy and logistics aside, This is fun I adore it. The folder if art for this project I have just gives me goosebumps and will look SO AMAZING when done.
But it's also one of the biggest things I've ever done in fandom and it's pressure.

And I delegate badly. I have got to learn to delegate and stay on top of this or I will loose my mind.

SCI-FI MADDNESS!!

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:04:47 GMT

OH MY GOD

No way.
No Way.

The Last Starfighter: A MUSICAL

Oh holy shit I aave no words. I'm listening to the preview of each track and I don't know. It's goofy but it's not bad. I don't know.

est *ROFL* lyrics:
"It's a Zandazan. Doing things only a Zandazan can.
Jumping inside your body, making it do naughty things it doesn't want to do."

BRANDON!!!
I want to see this. If this ever comes to Dallas I want to see this!

I just bought the main theme to the Movie for 89 cents.
Was debating on getting the entire movie soundtrack album but it's ohhh $300.00 on amazon.com. 0.o

Some Fanart sketches

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:36:34 GMT

A collection of doodles I've done at work (and sometimes messed with in PS)

You have from left to right, Baby Apollo, Peter, Ginny on top then on buttom, Apollo, Harry, Remus, Another Baby Apollo, and Starbuck.

(click to see a larger image)

Also:
Band of Brothers makes an interesting radio show.
*sigh* I can't get pictures on my computer so I just listened to it as a collaged all that in photoshop.

I am imagining the Dickwad Captain to look like Ross (from Friends).

Original Art: Child's Play

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:59:05 GMT

COMMISSION DO NOT TAKE. For anything.
Thanks!

This was done for my cousin's babys' room. She is having twins (boy and girl) She said she really had no preferences, just kinda match the rooma bit and that she looked the traditional kids book images.

It's watercolor, collage paper, and string (which made scanning in four parts a bitch)

The Really Large Version

ETA:
In one of those "life is interesting moments"
The artistic inspiration for the children was drawn from an illustrator whose artI ran across in a book store in Salem during The Witching Hour.

Her Name is Tasha Tudor, and she does these lovely whimsical children that are similar in theme, and the visual inspiration of her work helped me avoid (to some degree) the anime influence that I know my cousin is not into.

Ok the irony:
I was looking her up to make sure I got the name right, and found that Tasha Tudor died yesterday, 6/18/2008, as I finished this paiting 0.o
She was 92.

Feaky weird!

An exercise in Misdirected Rage

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:59:22 GMT

You want to see some misdirected rage? Here goes.

I am mad at a relative, but I can not say to them the things I think need to be said.
That relative lives in Montana.
Dirk Benedict lives in Montana
Dirk Benedict was on Battlestar Galactica.
Read comment about NEW BSG that irks me every time

So rather than going "ah isn't the world made more interesting by diverse opinions" I'm going to rant on the comment, because it's related to the New BSG, which is re-imagined from the old BSG, which stared Dirk Benedict, who lives in Montana, which is where my relative lives, and I can't rant at them.

Clear?

BSG has reinvented the science fiction genre, moving it from childish fantasy into the realm of adult drama .

You know I mentioned before about yes I do have a bias I can't overcome, which is part of why I can't get much into the New BSG. I have this huge mental block of bias.

The bias isn't related to the old show.

It's related to comments like the one above.

Every time I hear that I lose a little more interest in this show.

First off though, let me be clear, this really isn't about whether the show is good my liking it. It's about that stupid phrase, why it biases me against the show, and why I think it is symptomatic of what hurts sci-fi in general. I certainly do not begrudge BSG the Hugo award for Water (or was it 33? Either way, both eps were excellent sci-fi). So I'm not trying to say the show is bad Sci-Fi or worse than any other sci-fi show.

But here's my issues:

For me, BSG didn't re-invent the genre. The fatalistic tone of the show is a logical product based on the evolution the genre has been undergoing science Star Trek aired in the 60's with an optimistic response to the fatalism that inundated the genre at the time.
Well we just swung back to the fatalism is all.
We have been doing that for the last two decades.

Realism is not new to sci-fi at all 0.o.

As a fan of the genre it really does make me sad (and mad) when I hear people say this show re-invented the genre because that statement sells the sci-fi genre so short and perpetuates the stupid idea that sci-fi is usually for kids.

Which is what's been holding sci-fi back.
Not lack of drama. Not lack of realism. Not lack of adult ideas and concepts. Not lack of well written well acted characters. SCi-fi is held back BECAUSE people so harshly judge sci-fi that yeah, many actually do think BSG re-invented the genre because they have been blind to the good character driven drama that existed pre-BSG.

Why other dramatic sci-fi shows were overlooked is simply because critics see the costumes and the trappings and look no further (HA! Sci-Fi is the watercolor of the TV genres *L*)

And I really think if you went back in time and put everyone into purple jumpsuits or something, but changed not one other thing, you'd see th critical praise dry up. Because critics see the trapping of sci-fi and just turn their nose up.

I think that the only real revolution I'd give BSG credit for is being the first sci-fi show to realize the trappings get in the way of critics and mainstream audiences seeing the drama.
So people on BSG dress like 21st centraury Americans. The sets could be (generally) on any given drama show, sci-fi or not.

I don't read "re-inventing the sci-fi genre" into this.
I read "embarrassed to be in the sci-fi genre" into that!

A interpretation btw, which is only underscored every time someone says something like "Oh it's not really sci-fi. It's a drama" (I'm looking at YOU Mr Olmos!).

People it IS sci-fi. And it's IS dramatic.
The two have never been mutually exclusive and the two HAVE been combined before.

The show isn't doing anything Babylon 5, Space Above and Beyond, Crusades, Alien, The Prisoner, and many many other sci-fi shows and movies have not already done, at least in terms of realistic characterization and extrapolating real human responses to science fiction situations, and using said situation to explore human nature. To me, it seem as if people are willfully ignoring all these earlier sci-fi shows and acting like Star Trek is the only sci-fi to ever exist!

Yes ok BSG is not Star Trek. That is certainly true.
And if someone thinks Sci-fi IS all Star Trek and Star Wars then yesh, BSG will blow some minds and show exactly what else Sci-fi can be.
But it dind't "re-invent" it. It didn't even invent it. It just is some guy who like JMS before him went, HEY! Can I do some adult sci-fi instead of laser tag sci-fi? Ok yes? Ok here.

So, I feel like saying BSG re-invented the genre because OMG it's DRAMATIC and has characterization spits in the face of the shows before it.

And saying things like "oh it's not sci-fi it's a drama" just spits in the face on the genre period. -_-

In terms of things outside plot, characterization, acting, pacing etc (you know normal considerations) the fact that Ron Moor says he re-invented sci-fi, Katee Sackhoff says this, Olmos says this, and MANY MANY of the shows fans say this . . well THAT is really the number one bias I have against the show and the one that is hardest for me to get past.

So um yeah again, if you like the show that's fine. If you think this show is the best sci-fi show ever to be be made also fine. My issue isn't with those statements. Those are normal enthusiastic fan statements. I say Babylon 5is the best sci-fi show ever all the time So no issues at all there.

It's just with that phrase and me trying to explain why it gets under my skin so much.

And also just me blowing off some steam.

And since I'm not locking this or anything let me get my normal mantras out of my way:

1. I saw the New Show BEFORE I saw the Old Show. The new show did NOT rape my childhood.

2. I'm not bothered that Starbuck is a girl (why does no one ever ask if the Lack of Athena bothers me? Maybe I'm just really pissed Apollo has no sister? Ever think of that? Why is it always about Starbuck? I think Richard Hatch asked the same thing in 1978 *L*)

3. I do not categorically hate the new show. Some of it does interest me. This is just a rant against the phrase.

. . . I need to do angry art or something.
But this was kinda a fun exercise in . . . beating a dead horse *head desk*

ETA:
1. Apologies for how I intially went about quoting the phrase. I cause hurt where I did not mean there to be hurt :( It was silly and tactless and I coulda made this whole point without doing what i did intially

2. I went through this WHOLE post and EVERY comment confusing the words genera and genre
Feel free to comment on these things (or point and laugh) when I do 'em, otherwise I never learn *blush* I seriously didn't even realize I was using the wrong word *head desk*

*ack*