Art, mostly

OH HAY IT'S MEGAN'S BIRTHDAY TODAY YEY


This is the picture on your card, sorry you didn't get your package today! You'll probably get it tomorrow!

( A big artdump of class!doodles-- lots of dumb pictures of me. Sorry. )

( I MADE A NEW THREADLESS THING? IT'S SO GROSS, DON'T LOOK AT IT XD )



Feel free to vote, if you want to. XD BUT YOU ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION

OH COME ON WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA

Immediate response:


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Say, does anyone out there know how to speak/properly pronounce Finnish? I'd really love to know how to correctly pronounce revontulet. Thanks! :D

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( something dumb and Harry Potter. real mild spoilers for that last book. )

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Rachelle recently got us Chibi Robo and it's infected half the house with its MUSICAL CLEANING CUTENESS. Speaking of which, I, ah. I gotta go... ...

[edit] YES DS SEQUEL YAWESOME

Dammit, RIT. You're the only school that would ever start classes on Labor Day. I can't believe I have a quiz tomorrow. ._. I'm the worst Japanese-speaking Japanese person in the world.

Conrad and I tag-teamed on dinner tonight, which consisted of a slightly modified Country Quiche, fresh (grands) biscuits, and fresh cookies (made from frozen cookie dough). I'm going to try to keep a vow of cooking one or two times a week, Family Dinner Night is probably the best time I have all week.

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( a visual report of my weekend )

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Oh, and I forgot-- thank you everyone who voted on my Threadless design a while back. It didn't do so well in the voting, but I didn't expect it to. Also, there's a $10 sale going on over there for another half hour or something?

I finished finally reading the last Harry Potter book today. Admittedly, mostly so I could go back and finally read buttfacemakani's backlogs.

I Very Badly need to update my Flickr account. I have photos from four conventions from this year that people have been bugging me about as well as lots of Homemade Food photos and Doing Dumb/Mildly Illegal Shit With Roommates photos. But spending the better part of an afternoon resizing pictures is not my bag. I guess I will just have to bite the bullet and do it eventually. But not now.

In the meantime, here are a few assorted photos and scattered art. (warning: image-heavy)

( THIS SUMMER WAS CRAFT SUMMER )

( AT SOME POINT WE WENT TO TORONTO? )

( BLUEBERRY PICKING AND THE SUBSEQUENT PIE THAT FOLLOWED )

( CATS!!! !!! !!! !!! !!! )

( AND SOME OTHER THINGS? )

I was totally floored by the response I got from the last post... holy crap, I didn't know that many people read this journal. (Well, read and not skim it, at least... XD )

I'm really sorry, I just got a job (thank you everyone for the responses on that one, too...) and in fear that my new employers with think something horrible of me, I've locked it. (If you google my name, this journal comes up pretty quickly. It's just not something I want to risk. )

I wanted to give you guys a nice art-post for being so sweet, but I'm already working and the only thing I have scanned-and-not-secret are sketches from the DC zoo from last month.

( So you can have those :D )

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Also, my threadless submission is up! Holy crap! Vote if you want!

Sorry I haven't really been on the internet, there hasn't been an internet to connect to. I've kinda been running around the east coast for the past two-or-so-weeks— Rochester to Hartford for Connecticon to Rochester to Baltimore for Otakon to Bethesda to back home in NJ to NYC and tomorrow it'll be back to Rochester again. I've gotten flack for this in the past, so I'll say upfront, no, I didn't promote myself or any of my projects at the conventions this year. I helped with the Applegeeks table at CTcon, then the combined Applegeeks and Megatokyo (y-yeah, I know) at Otakon. It was fun, but exhausting, and I'm excited to get home. Sorry I didn't say anything anywhere about doing the convention circuit, I really didn't want to get recognized or harassed... but thank you to everyone who did recognize me, you guys were all really sweet. :D

And speaking of internet comics, I seem to be doing the art for all the colored Applegeeks this week. Feel free to check them out if you want? The one that's up now... I don't have my tablet on me, so it was colored completely with my track pad and the lasso tool. YES.

OH--! AND--! ( CATS CATS CATS )

Hmrm, I should get a cat LJ-icon. CATS!

S-SOMEONE PAID FOR MY LIVEJOURNAL ACCOUNT

DOES ANYONE WANT TO STEP FORWARD, I WILL DRAW FOR YOU <3 <3 <3


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I put up another shirt design in the Threadless critiques forum. I might even have the guts to put it in the running this time--!

( Larger version here )

Gah, it is unbelievably humid and we are without A/C. At my parent's place in NJ, I would be able to hang out and draw and sleep in the basement during the summer, but our basement here consists of dirt and spiderwebs and the spiders that live in them and the things the spiders eat. I've been doing my damnedest to stay off the computer— it oozes heat and doesn't seem to be all that pleased by the temperatures, either. My apologies if I reply slowly.

Finally-finally-finally, we have internet at the new place. Whew.

So, I have this 4 lb rump roast in my slow cooker with beef broth, garlic, and onion. It looks like a good portion of the well-rated recipes I looked up on allrecipes.com gave one can of cream of mushroom soup as an ingredient. I've been hearing mixed reviews on what people would like in this roast (granted, I bought it), and was curious: have any of you guys made a roast with cream of mushroom soup? Is it awesome? (I'm mostly looking to you, emmalyon) If you haven't, does it at least sound good?

Hahaha, looks like my account's back to a basic. But my mood icons still work? Hooray!

[edit] Sorry I didn't reply to anyone, today was a busy day and Ananth's been visitin'.

THE RESULT: Due to coaxing by roommates and some internet!people, I did wind up putting in the cream of mushroom soup. About two hours later, I tried the broth and deemed it "ohhh jesus far too salty." (yeaah, you called it, Emma... ) I then drained and dumped about two cups of the broth, put in some mushrooms and carrots to soak up some salt, and boiled down a bottle of whatever beer Mark had left in the refrigerator and put that in. About two hours before serving, I put in some quartered unskinned red russet potatoes, and right before serving, I spooned out whatever broth I could from the slowcooker and boiled it down with some corn starch and made some kinda gravy. Everything was served with rolls, and the roast wound up being pretty moist, tender, and also awesome.

Thanks guys, for all the feedback. :D

Also: I am going to kill every squirrel.

Sorry again for the silence. I've been taking summer classes at RIT and The Big Move is coming up this weekend and I've been having a good time ignoring the internet in its entirety. Ananth visited for a bit, and for a time he was charading as an RIT student in my Short Story class; he's back in DC now and the class seems a good deal stupider in his absence.

I think I had things to say, but I can't remember many of them now.

Visited back at home in NJ over the weekend with JK and Conrad and Ananth in tow, we visited Megan for her graduation party. There were fireworks and VodCherries involved. There might be photos eventually? John Kelly takes a mean picture, and I feel bad for neglecting my Flickr. Looks like Boy beat me to the punch. There is an especially awesome picture of us over here. :D

Say, does anyone know the in-depth mating habits of catfish? Boy and myself discovered a small nest of a few hundred tiny black catfish silhouettes being guarded by two giant black catfish in the shallows of a local lake. They looked rather unhappy that we were intruding. We checked back the next day, the family had long since skee-daddled.

ALSO DRIVING HOME YESTERDAY THERE WAS A PRETTY SPECTACULAR CAR FIRE ON THE EAST 80. OH MAN.

Also, I got some arts.

( Arts (x6) )

[edit]
Conrad Kreyling: Possibly a wizard?
John Kelly: Possibly a giant among men?

Ah, sorry about the extended silence again— finals are a'gettin' pretty close, I've been spending a kind of minimal time on the internet. I have a few drawings, they mostly all have to do with classes. All of the drawings, except for this one:



( The rest gets better, believe me. )

..........

A while back, while simultaneously perusing Wikipedia and YouTube, I came across this Danish full-length animated movie from the 80's, Valhalla. As you might have expected, it is an adaptation of a few stories from Norse myth. It's kind of real charming and real cute.

Here's the first ten minutes of it, you can find the parts two through seven over here.

I kind of really want to get my hands on a translation of the original comics. I bet they wouldn't be all that hard to find in English...

OH MAN YOU GUYS! ALICE DAY IS UPON US ONCE AGAIN! EVERYONE GET EXCITED

In celebration, I'm going to give myself a small gift. Allow me to be somewhat selfish for a moment:

( WARNING: SERIOUS ROMANTIC GUSHING AND PHOTOS OF ICE CREAM FOR DINNER )

Hello, Internet! I am "studying for a midterm!"

Spent the weekend down at my parents' place in New Jersey... among other things, my mom has finally allowed my dad to adopt a cat and my presence was required to help adopt said cat. Long story short, we could not find someone who fit my father's lengthy and specific list of attributes that this cat must have. Namely, it must: 1.) be male, 2.) be two years old or younger, 3.) be half siamese, 4.) think it is a dog, 5.) be named Gonta and be nearly identical to the cat we used to have when I was a baby.

But the weekend was not a waste--! Beyond being able to play with cats all Saturday, my dad made sukiyaki (YES), my mom and I talked about my-birthday-gift-that-will-ensure-that-my-parents-never-do-anything-nice-for-me-ever-again, and I finally got a damned haircut. I do not think I like it? It makes me look kind of like a flapper. An uncool flapper.

Driving up back to Rochester this morning/afternoon was an ordeal, though. There was a constant beating of heavy rain/freezing rain/snow/all of the above the entire way up, the sides of the highway were littered with wayward spun-out cars flashing their hazard lights and emergency vehicles, AND YET I still managed to make it in five hours. Because I have a death wish, apparently.

I, ah. I will do an art-post soon? I have a bunch of scans of things from two-plus months ago, I'm going to have to weed through them and see what I still care about.

..........

In the meantime, I have a meme? It is mildly entertaining, please humor me?

( GUESS THESE MOVIES--! )

( It's been a while? Sorry about that one. )

..........

I'm back! I'll try to keep it that way.

So, despite my (our) better judgement, Conrad and I are a'headin' down for Katsucon. No, I'm not going to have a table, sorry— this one's going to be a social call. It's going to be my first Katsucon, wish me luck.. o_o

If you're looking for me, I'll likely be hanging around the Geeknights or Applegeeks (or Dominic Deegan, if he isn't being rushed by groupies) tables mostly... or running around with Ananth and Conrad trying to keep Conrad from buying pornography for me doing dumb shit. If you can actually find me (hahahaha) I'll totally draw somethin' for you. XD

I know I promised another huge artdumbp, but I don't have the time to do descriptions for that now. Here, have a small comic:


... the origin story of dumpster!guitar

And Megan: You are a goddess among men, for no reason beyond the fact that you are. ♥

Anna Nicole Smith died? That's ... unbelievably bizarre.

... well, that was a useless post. Here, have my birthday in Mayan glyphs. I did a presentation on Mesoamerican writing in my archeology class today, once again proving that I get embarrassingly red and flustered whenever I talk at length about anything at all.



And hey Sett! I got your package, that was totally lovely and unexpected! The shell cracked me up. XD

Now that I have that project over with, I'm going to play Phoenix Wright until my eye-grapes fall out. Or maybe until I finish the third case.

Sorry, Internet. Lately, I've been kinda less-than-interested in you. It doesn't mean that I don't love you anymore. It just means that I love everyone else more. No, don't look at me like that, Internet. I hope this doesn't change anything between us.

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So, in the past few weeks I've:

• Taken to drinking coffee in the mornings. It's not even that I especially like coffee, it just makes me feel more grown-up. And my body tolerating one-out-of-two adult drinks isn't all that bad.
• Finally dug out my old boots and brought them to a cobbler. They're back in full working condition now, with repaired zippers and new heels, and I wear them every day, only partially because they give me an extra two inches.
• Been making Miis like crazy. I have pictures of a bunch of them, but not all of them. The number's up to something in the mid-sixties now. I'm sure that either Brian or I will make a point of sharing all of them at some point.
• Continued to be awesome at Wii Golf.
• Been unable to stop cooing all over the fish. They get all super-excited whenever they see me now. I think it freaks everyone else out.
• Gone and returned from Genericon, where Conrad and I kinda went on a whim and crashed in Ananth and Hawk's place. Also got to introduce Conrad to all of my internet famous friends. Also got to see Jeph again for the first-time-in-like-a-year-or-something. I'm certain that there are a whole slew of embarrassing pictures all over the internets by now. Oh wait. There they are.
• Got to call 911 for the first time when Conrad and I passed a burning building while on our way to aforementioned convention. So that was cool.


In the near future, I'll likely:

• Fold my laundry.
• Keep on ignoring the leaking hole in the window that's hanging out dangerously close to the apartment's file server.
• Never, ever stop being cold.
• ( Never stop geeking all over the Gay Lawyer game. )
• Get those photos to Ananth?
• Read a bajillion chapters of some book? Prepare for design class?
• Eh.

After a good year or so of my and Conrad's whining and badgering over wanting to get a cat, Brian and John finally begrudgingly let us get some fish. We've had an empty tank that's been sitting in the kitchen holding light bulbs for a while, so we decided to do something about it. :D

Our tank isn't especially impressive; I have a huge soft-spot for common comet goldfish— y'know, the kind you win at carnivals and buy for a quarter-a-dozen to feed to your oscar— so we got a few of those. Each of us got one; mine is a spazzy little white one who has a little red crane-crown. We also got a small (likewise spazzy) peppered cory who seems to be getting along with everyone pretty well. Two of the comets don't seem to be very energetic, I think they had a rough tank life and one looks like he was chewed on a bit. I'm hoping they perk up after a while.

Pictures will come later; we haven't finished decorating the tank yet. :D

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In other news, there's a rumor going around that my Christmas gift from my parents is finally a'comin' in the mail today. My Christmas gift being a Wii. This being extremely exciting because for a while there I was convinced that the only thing they were getting me was wool socks, and hey, don't get me wrong, they were nice socks, but really, the only thing they got me for Christmas was wool socks. And a bar of chocolate.

Omigosh, I'm so excited to spend my evening making miis of historical and literary figures. And the cast of West Wing. And Studio 60. And House. And Arrested Development. And 30 Rock. And Firefly. And Scrubs.

Hey, RIT kids. According to Old Man Kelly, RIT IS CLOSED. IN ENTIRETY.

Upon further inspection, everything outside looks to be covered in a thick sheet of solid ice. Also:



I think this will probably be the last snow day of my life, ever.

Sorry I've been missing for a good month now. I kinda lost interest in the internet for a bit of time there. I'll try to be better in the future. >_o

First, I should probably thank the excellent people who sent me assorted gifts and cards for Christmas--!! reiji, ananthymous, bravecows, eto and Sheena, beijing_cloud, mazokuoni, the_and_moose, lennan, bettinamarie, zibbelcoot, thank you all so much for everything! ♥ I hope my cards got to everyone with semi-decent timeliness. Assuming that everyone who got sent a card has already received it, Happy New Year to all you guys! Hope your assorted holidays were a-okay.


Click!

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I've been holding onto this artdumbp for a good month now, and now I can't remember why. Here, you can have it now.



( This one has some male life drawing in it. Click the next cut if you want to skip that. )

( Mostly class doodles, my apologies. )

.... ohjeez, it's simultaneously snowing and hailing outside. I hope my roommates are safe.

Omigosh, Conrad is home.

OMIGOSH. CONRAD IS HOME.

Also.

Also, we collectively kinda dropped $80 on something.

I'll give you a good guess on what.


Correct answer: a time sink.
Also: Judy is totally not left handed. Oops?

( mygod, it's past 3am and we're all still playing videogames. )

( ... and a quick Studio 60-ish aside... )

P'FFT, CLASS. WHATEVER.