Pasithea

Ugh... I just read an obit. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070408/ap_en_ot/obit_hart John Hart, creator of BC and Wizard of Id died.

This makes me sad but not because he was a great artist or anything. Indeed, I don't think either of those strips has been tolerable since the early 80s and it may be only that in the early 80s I was merely young enough to just enjoy reading for the sake of reading and not for it's content.

At any rate, why this makes me sad is that his family plans for the strips to live on. Using the huge archive of his work they have stored from the past fifty years, they can continually re-edit and recaption and splice together old panels and keep the strip alive. Zombies that will continue to devour the heart of the comics page for centuries to come. Worse, made by committee to appeal to their largest possible fan base.

Peanuts, Dennis the Menace, and many others are the same way. Undead corpses reaching out with their withered hands to suck every penny they can find from the american public.

What a sad country I live in. What a sad world I live in. Nothing is new, nothing is original. It's all just corporate logos remixed and resold again and again. How does mainstream america put up with itself?

So... After practicing with prickvixen's guitar for the past week, I've become more and more sure I really wanted my own electric. Softer strings and being able to practice with headphones on until all hours of the night is fantastic and is leading to improvement speeds similar to keyboard.

So... Started looking around to see what was available in my price range and had the type of sound and sound quality I want. Even a week of playing gave me some ideas about that and things to test.

So I went and looked in a few places. First time, just looked. Too intimidated that other people might hear me make noise to actually try out something and play it. Oooh. So many pretty shapes and colors. Easy to get distracted by that, but I know looks don't make a musical instrument...

Oh how this would later come back to haunt me... ( Read More... )

The second day of our journey home, it began to rain. We stopped at the sand dunes of Coos bay and hiked a ways in the wind and spitting rain. It was cold but fun. I hadn't seen big dunes since I had been to Florida as a child. The surf was pretty impressive, the sea cold and gray. Different kind of shoreline up there. All sand. No rocks, no glass polished smooth by the waves and the only types of shells I found were clams and more clams. The bottom drops off pretty gradually there so the waves come way waaaay up the beach and a few times it was a pretty hard run to avoid getting soaked when looking for shells. As the rain picked up, we turned inland a bit to a brakish swampy area. Stacey spotted a really cool beetle trundling along the sand. I stopped him and took some photos then held him for a couple minutes giving him some warmth in exchange (which he seemed to appreciate once he decided I was neither going to eat or squish him) The inlet was something of a bust too. There was the dead torpedo ray laying in the mud and I found a fairly large float from a fishing net but in general it was getting too cold and rainy at that point to really enjoy exploring.

We headed back to the car and drove down the coast through dozens and dozens of cranberry bogs. When we got bored, we stopped at a little shop and Stacey stocked up on several types of mead, sweet berry wines, and jam. The best part for me though was a cut-away in their wall with plexi panes and tubes. It was a bee-hive habitrail. The bees were inside their hive, buzzing away and you could get right up close to them near some wire mesh, feel the air from their wings, hear them, smell them, and see them dance. It was entrancing and they didn't seem to mind my being so close. I admit I've always liked bees anyhow so this was a treat for me. In one area, the court was clustered in quite close. I suppose it's not every day one gets to meet the queen. I paid my respects and then we were on our way again.

It'd begun to rain pretty hard at this point and while we wanted to do more hiking, I didn't want to do it in the pouring rain. Also, we hit the big redwoods a little after dark and I didn't want to wait an entire night to go hike in them so we decided to press on and head straight home.

So... Most of the week has been kind of down I guess. I've been sort of depressive and angsty. Anyhow, yesterday I got Stacey to come visit me for a very very late lunch. We went and wandered around Palo Alto a little. Poked in a bead store and they had a sort of 'drawing sale'. You pull a random card and that's the discount you get on whatever you purchase that day. So... I drew their maximum discount 40%.
So, okay, it's a gimmick and that store is way overpriced but they do have a lot of the sort of beads I like. Rough-cut semi-precious stones. Their tools on the other hand are actually reasonably priced. So I got myself a strand of labradorite stones and a carbide-tipped auger and some little files. Even at 40% off, the labradorite was 2 to 3 times ebay prices. On the other hand, ebay has shipping costs and you can't be certain of the quality/clarity of the stones . So the 16" strand cost me $10 and I'm happy with that. I got some antiqued silver beads to go with it and I'm going to have Stacey pick out a moonstone pendant for a center piece and build it all into a necklace. I think it will look pretty sharp when its done.

After that, we went to school. For a change, my instructor didn't totally hate my work. I guess ostriches are a cartoony-enough animal for him. Or maybe he was surprised that in one evening I could build an ostrich, rig it (with no prior experience) and animate it. Anyhow. not so bad. Last night was one of the best classe sof the quarter I think. He was just discussing stuff with us and talking about the actual animation instead of standing in the front poking at things weirdly.

After school I told Stacey I wanted to unwind and go watch a movie. So we went to see The Haunted Mansion It was fun and I was really enjoying it right up until the climax scene, when I was really into the movie and suddenly... The fire alarm went off and they made everyone exit the movie theatre and stand outside in the cold for a half hour. With the spindown time of the project and the spin-up time of the projector we missed like THE 10 seconds of the movie, and while I could piece it together, the mood was totally utterly shattered. I asked before they started the movie up again if they would rewind like 2 or 3 minutes of it so the audience would miss it and they said 'no'. so I whinged and got two free movie passes out of it. Still kind of sucked. I got all wound up again. Ohwell. I guess I can look at it as just like the beads, I got something massively over-priced at around half-priced making it acceptably overpriced. :)

In retrospect, all in all it wasn't a bad day.

Okay, I know I promised I'd quit being a clothes whore but there is just one more thing I still need to buy. I need a nice winter coat and I had seen this one at Banana Republic that I really really liked but it was just too expensive so I looked and looked and looked for a similar one elsewhere but I just can't find anything that's as nice of material and good a fit as the one I found there... So I lust, I moan, I desire, I found out it's a HUNDRED DOLLARS LESS on their website.

So I'm going to do it...

I feel like I'm turning into evil yuppie woman but but but.... Qwothes!

So... After spending all day in San Fran tromping around and having lotsa fun, I figured out most of what I wanted to buy. While in the city I did pick up four new calf-length skirts, all very simple and basic. IE: Exactly what I was looking for. Also, a warm fuzzy caramel and black houndstooth wrap sorta thingy. Very soft. :) Gleep! I said all this already in a semi-conscious post! Okay. Moving right along...

Stacey's mother is going to skin us alive. :) Stacey's little sister turned 13 a couple of weeks ago and, having met and really liked her, I thought we should get her two birthday presents this year. One toy one 'adult' gift. Sorta to say, 'You're still her little sister but you're growing up'. So... Adult gift is matching gold and opal jewelery. Oval earrings and a teardrop pendant on a gold box chain. The stones are inset so that the jewelery can take a bit of abuse (since she is still a kid afterall) but it's a very adult look, I think. With all the extra cirricular stuff she does, even if Kathy only lets her wear it on special occassions, she'll still get a lot of use from it. Hopefully Cathy won't be too cross with us for it. I told Stacey she could tell her mom it was all my idea if she is, but hey! I'm a weird aunt (Err... sister in law really) Isn't it my job to spoil her? :)


Anyhow, today I started my transition into nicer clothes at work. Cute stripey brown/gray/black/white moc-turtle crew top with nice jeans and boots. I like this look. I figured I'd ease slowly into wearing decent attire rather than go from jeans with holes in the knees, tee shirts, and tennis shoes directly into dressing nice. Attracts less attention that way. :)


Ohohoh! In addition to all the walking I've done in SF this week, last night I DDR'd for an hour solid! I've gotten to this level where I don't get tired and winded anymore and I can exercise almost indefinetely. I'm fluxuating around 185 now instead of 190. Hoping to see the high 70's for the first time towards the end of this week or beginning of next!

So... Getting close to paytime and I'm thinking about fashion again. To destress after work tonight I laid in the floor and looked through catalogs and thought about how to best approach the fashion thing.

I think it's lucky we're going into fall right now. Sweaters and layered looks are somewhat slimming for the pudgy like me but they also look cute if they're a little oversized because I've lost weight, so I feel like I can make a decent investment here and not be throwing out my clothing in a couple months.

Also, fall colors have always worked best for me so that's an added plus. So, I'l looking at a limited palette. I have a lot of brown and olive clothing right now, very neutral colors, I think I'm going to key that up just a little with some wine and dark tan/mustard colors. Still dusty but just a smidge brighter. This eases me out of a dark wardrobe and into something a little brighter. it shoud also coordinate well with the clothes I already have and extend their range. For now I am going to avoid blues, greens, and oranges. I may move towards some of those in my next iteration of dress.

Um. Gonna go with seperate tops and bottoms and layered tops. Mostly solids, maybe a few simple striped or checkered but nothing more complex than that. I am going to build aroud the clothes I have currently, my black clogs and my brown boots. I have other shoes of similar styles and fashions to both pairs but I think I'll get the greatest flexibility if I buy to these two pairs. Now is the time of year to get long skirts and I think I wanna be that look for a bit. I think I've accepted that clothes are more important to me than eating out and buying computer geek stuff for right now so I'm gonna try to put a little into my wardrobe.

I need a light-colored coat, possibly beige. I have to think about this some. I'd also like to get I think two hats (knit or flowerpot type hats, nothing expensive) a light coloured pair of gloves and maybe a scarf. Then there's some jewelery shopping to catch up on. O_O Good chance there's a lot I'll make myself. (Especially after seeing all the inexpensive stone stores in chinatown)

I'm actually feeling amazingly coherent on this. Right now I see the two biggest obstacles for me are 1) Staying focused on my plan and 2) not going 'Oooh! This would look great on Stacey!' and spending all my money on her like I usually do. :}

I am a shoe whore.

I was down to only 3 or 4 pairs that I'm wearing lately 'n' that's just not enough. Stacey surprised me this evening by offering to go with me to Ross. (This never happens, she HATES clothes shopping) I dunno. Wild urge. I went straight to the back 'n' hit the shoes. Yay! I scored like mad! FIVE new pairs! *^_^* Can't beat 6 to 10 dollar range 'n' we're talkin' like Sketchers here (which is one of my favourite brands. :)

I got 2 pairs of Sketchers retros (the red and blue shoes) a new brand I never tried before 'Roxy' (The pink ones) 'n' some clogs 'n' some cut-awayish type pumps. The retros were especially awsome because they came with two colours of laces... Being the proper child of the 80's that I am, I remembered how to double-lace in different patterns. I feel SO Punky Brewster! :D

Being tha exhibitionist slut that I am, I took photos! I'm always taking photos of my upper bits, so here's some of my lower bits! :D (Lower than that, you perverts!!!!)

	Tomato and beige retro Sketchers! These are probably my new favourite shoes. Really light 'n' comy and 80's 'n' school colours for my middle school, making them feel more than a little cheerleaderish and making me wanna go YAY and bounce around like a looney.
	Pink! ... Okay I admit this. I like pink. I don't wear a lot of pink tho. Just little splashes here and there. These are nice and moted and match that whole tee-shirt and jeans look but have a nice summery feel to them. I'll probably wear them a lot for the next month or so 'n' then not so much until spring.
	Bloo! These make me wanna exercise. Eeeg! These shoes are evil. They say to me, 'Let's go jogging!' I ultra 80's-afied the laces with a pattern that it took me an hour to weave and taxed my memories about highschool.
	Comfy, cloggy. These are gonna be good going into fall. They're real actual leather too. A surprise among the vinyl and tennis shoes. I didn't think I'd like em on the shelf cause they have a box toe and that always reminds me of Norman Bates for some reason, but they looked much bettah onna feet. Stacey picked these out.
	Classy or trashy? The court is still out on this one. I have fewer pumps than any other type of shoe. I guess I just don't dress up much. found a real cool gothy slip (seen here) that will probably eventually get worked into an outfit with these. Need darker stockings and somethin ta go over the slip first tho. ;)

All in all, major yay! I got some tops too but they're pretty mundane so I won't be a total dork and post those too. :)

Ooooh. So... This just turned up on e-bay... I Theorhetically, I could get it a ride from San Diego to Conference and then a ride from CF to here, but is it worth it? I can use the one at school. My instructor has also mentioned that he knows of a couple of free ones, though the only one he's mentioned solidly is in Indiana... And an OXBERRY MASTER SYSTEM! (For those that don't know, this is a top of the line animation desk. It is also about 12 feet tall and weighs about 2 tons and is an insane level of overkill for my needs. It's like hunting deer with a howitzer.)

So... On the plus side, it'd be neat and I could do totally traditional animation with it and I'd be useful for my computer scans because I'd have a nice sturdy stationary setup and it has the glass to flatten things. On the downside, I'd have to get it here and it would occupy space. Hmmsky. Gotta think more.

Anyhow, in other animation front news, paka and perlandria came over yesterday night for our first animation group meeting. I was running really behind on making dinner but other than that, I think things went really well. I had a GREAT time working with Paka and felt really productive. We talked abotu his story idea and character designs, played with a couple changes, and so on. It was fantastic, the way I always imagined communal art projects might be. Anyhow, looking forward to doing tests of the characters in the story for next week. :)