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Update.
Posted 12 years agoHey, everyone. I figured it's about time I break radio silence and give all of you an update about where I'm at. Things have been extremely rough in the past couple of months. To make a very long story short, Cory lost his job and we lost our insurance. He's employed again, but the new job has no insurance. Still, we tanked financially and no insurance means no doctor visits and no meds for me. I thought I could handle not having meds, but things went downhill so quickly it's almost comical.
We're in the process of trying to get me in to see a welfare-based doctor. I don't want you guys to worry. I've been in a very bad, dark place these last few months, but I swear I will improve. I will get past this.
To all of my commissioners, I am so sorry for all of this, and you're all saints for putting up with me. I cannot thank you enough for your patience and understanding. I'll try to be in contact with you soon so we can work things out.
To everyone else, thank you for your continued support. It means so much to me.
And again, I'm sorry.
xoxo.
HD.
We're in the process of trying to get me in to see a welfare-based doctor. I don't want you guys to worry. I've been in a very bad, dark place these last few months, but I swear I will improve. I will get past this.
To all of my commissioners, I am so sorry for all of this, and you're all saints for putting up with me. I cannot thank you enough for your patience and understanding. I'll try to be in contact with you soon so we can work things out.
To everyone else, thank you for your continued support. It means so much to me.
And again, I'm sorry.
xoxo.
HD.
Update, and about rush jobs (an apology!)
Posted 12 years agoHiya, everyone~ I really need to get down to work today, so I'll try to keep this short.
I'm pretty far behind on work, as you guys have probably all noticed -- Havok & Hijinks is running alongside my main queue and I have been trying to manage my time a little better. I'm buckling down with new rules on how much time I spend on what and I hope it will help.
A regular client of mine who has always been honest, patient, and awesome with me, recently e-mailed me with a concern about my rush order process -- namely, that it seemed a little too easy for people to be continuously and unfairly skipped. I had rarely ever had more than one person ask for a rush job within a two or three month period, so the efficacy of my procedure hadn't come into question before. I'd changed the cost and method for doing it several times while attempting to make it both affordable for my clients who really can't wait, but also not so prohibitive as to prevent anyone from hiring me just because they were in a hurry...
But I had two rush jobs pop up just before this client hired me and I can see how that must have been really unfair to everyone who was ahead of her, too; though she actually wasn't skipped via rush order, I remember did finish a Naoki piece ahead of hers on a rough "art block" day, so she felt the sting. Everyone who was skipped twice could have come to me with the some concerns but I was clueless -- so I'm really glad she brought it up with me.
I'm a scatterbrain who can't cook because she will burn boiling noodles, so it didn't occur to me that people who have been waiting patiently might get really annoyed if it's that easy to jump to the top of the queue -- costly or not. I think a client should be allowed to do it, because it really does suck when an artist you like is constantly booked and you're on a time crunch... but I needed to have a rule about how many rush orders I can take, or how many times you can be skipped. It's my fault for not looking ahead to all possible situations and thinking about it. Again, rush orders have only come up maybe five or six times in my five years at FA, but I still should have made it a priority that the process wasn't harmful to regular customers.
So I've changed my rules about rush orders. If you're in the normal queue and waiting, you can ONLY be skipped ONCE, whether by rush order or by my idle hands (that doesn't count pieces that get completed while I'm waiting on a response from you, though; I gotta keep working!). That means if someone has hired me and wants to leapfrog to the front of the line, they may do so, but if you got skipped, you're immune to getting skipped over again. This will allow for rush orders but avoid a possible "back-and-forth skip war" (which hasn't happened yet, but I realized under the old rules it totally could have!). If I skip you because I just can't handle your piece right now and MUST complete someone else ahead of you (sometimes it happens; I struggle, I need a day to think your piece over, I have to wash my brain out), you get your little red X and even a rush order can't skip you.
So, the new rules:
1. It's $5 per person in line to skip ahead, no matter what type of commission it is.
2. If you have been skipped, you're immune to being skipped over again, so the longest additional time anyone can be made to wait is the time it takes to do that extra pic.
3. So, in conclusion: if the list is 12 people long, and a new person rushes to the front, the next person who wants a rush order is only able to skip anyone at the bottom of the list who hasn't been skipped over yet (if any). This limits rush orders, but it's fairer for everyone else.
Basically, it's leapfrog with immunity after you get jumped. It's like Survivor plus Duck-Duck-Goose, but less drama, more pizza rolls. (Because I say so.)
I hope this is a good compromise and I invite anyone to weigh in on the new policy here in the comments. Questions, comments, suggestions, all are totally welcome! I apologize to any of my clients who might have been irritated by the sloppiness of the old method and I will try to make sure I make it up to you.
Thanks to the client who was honest enough to bring this up with me. I really am sorry she had to and that it took me a week or two to get around to retooling the policy, but I hope it's better late than never.
And I wish I could be posting all the Havok and Hijinks stuff, but while I haven't signed an NDA, I know I gotta keep that stuff mostly on the DL (though I'll ask
anzel when I can start posting stuff, since I think it might help generate buzz and you guys AREN'T GONNA BELIEVE HOW AMAZING THIS GAME IS).
♥
Now, back to work!
xoxo
hd
I'm pretty far behind on work, as you guys have probably all noticed -- Havok & Hijinks is running alongside my main queue and I have been trying to manage my time a little better. I'm buckling down with new rules on how much time I spend on what and I hope it will help.
A regular client of mine who has always been honest, patient, and awesome with me, recently e-mailed me with a concern about my rush order process -- namely, that it seemed a little too easy for people to be continuously and unfairly skipped. I had rarely ever had more than one person ask for a rush job within a two or three month period, so the efficacy of my procedure hadn't come into question before. I'd changed the cost and method for doing it several times while attempting to make it both affordable for my clients who really can't wait, but also not so prohibitive as to prevent anyone from hiring me just because they were in a hurry...
But I had two rush jobs pop up just before this client hired me and I can see how that must have been really unfair to everyone who was ahead of her, too; though she actually wasn't skipped via rush order, I remember did finish a Naoki piece ahead of hers on a rough "art block" day, so she felt the sting. Everyone who was skipped twice could have come to me with the some concerns but I was clueless -- so I'm really glad she brought it up with me.
I'm a scatterbrain who can't cook because she will burn boiling noodles, so it didn't occur to me that people who have been waiting patiently might get really annoyed if it's that easy to jump to the top of the queue -- costly or not. I think a client should be allowed to do it, because it really does suck when an artist you like is constantly booked and you're on a time crunch... but I needed to have a rule about how many rush orders I can take, or how many times you can be skipped. It's my fault for not looking ahead to all possible situations and thinking about it. Again, rush orders have only come up maybe five or six times in my five years at FA, but I still should have made it a priority that the process wasn't harmful to regular customers.
So I've changed my rules about rush orders. If you're in the normal queue and waiting, you can ONLY be skipped ONCE, whether by rush order or by my idle hands (that doesn't count pieces that get completed while I'm waiting on a response from you, though; I gotta keep working!). That means if someone has hired me and wants to leapfrog to the front of the line, they may do so, but if you got skipped, you're immune to getting skipped over again. This will allow for rush orders but avoid a possible "back-and-forth skip war" (which hasn't happened yet, but I realized under the old rules it totally could have!). If I skip you because I just can't handle your piece right now and MUST complete someone else ahead of you (sometimes it happens; I struggle, I need a day to think your piece over, I have to wash my brain out), you get your little red X and even a rush order can't skip you.
So, the new rules:
1. It's $5 per person in line to skip ahead, no matter what type of commission it is.
2. If you have been skipped, you're immune to being skipped over again, so the longest additional time anyone can be made to wait is the time it takes to do that extra pic.
3. So, in conclusion: if the list is 12 people long, and a new person rushes to the front, the next person who wants a rush order is only able to skip anyone at the bottom of the list who hasn't been skipped over yet (if any). This limits rush orders, but it's fairer for everyone else.
Basically, it's leapfrog with immunity after you get jumped. It's like Survivor plus Duck-Duck-Goose, but less drama, more pizza rolls. (Because I say so.)
I hope this is a good compromise and I invite anyone to weigh in on the new policy here in the comments. Questions, comments, suggestions, all are totally welcome! I apologize to any of my clients who might have been irritated by the sloppiness of the old method and I will try to make sure I make it up to you.
Thanks to the client who was honest enough to bring this up with me. I really am sorry she had to and that it took me a week or two to get around to retooling the policy, but I hope it's better late than never.
And I wish I could be posting all the Havok and Hijinks stuff, but while I haven't signed an NDA, I know I gotta keep that stuff mostly on the DL (though I'll ask
anzel when I can start posting stuff, since I think it might help generate buzz and you guys AREN'T GONNA BELIEVE HOW AMAZING THIS GAME IS).♥
Now, back to work!
xoxo
hd
up and up and up, infinitum
Posted 12 years agoHonestly, you guys...
things had been really terrible for the past few months, and that's why I haven't been posting much, just trying to make ends meet without bashing my face into the glass plate of my desk. I kept looking at my front page and seeing that my last piece was always three or more weeks ago and I felt horrible, horrible guilt.
Truth is I've been working on an amazing card game for Epic Slant Press, writing a novel on the side, but even then, I haven't been working many hours each day. I'm trying to work more, feel better, to just be more of a person, and the fact that I'm not creating more has made me feel really bad, but every time I post something I've felt this sense of trepidation like "they're going to hate it, I haven't been as good as I once was, I don't deserve any kindness"… and then the responses are just too, too amazingly supportive.
I don't deserve it. You guys are great.
Just know I'm going to work harder to stop sleeping 16 hours a day and drink more water and not spend 3 hours a day on the couch watching gossip girl as long as I know I've got these awesome people encouraging me to be a better me.
X3
i love you guys. i don't deserve you. i really don't.
xoxo.
things had been really terrible for the past few months, and that's why I haven't been posting much, just trying to make ends meet without bashing my face into the glass plate of my desk. I kept looking at my front page and seeing that my last piece was always three or more weeks ago and I felt horrible, horrible guilt.
Truth is I've been working on an amazing card game for Epic Slant Press, writing a novel on the side, but even then, I haven't been working many hours each day. I'm trying to work more, feel better, to just be more of a person, and the fact that I'm not creating more has made me feel really bad, but every time I post something I've felt this sense of trepidation like "they're going to hate it, I haven't been as good as I once was, I don't deserve any kindness"… and then the responses are just too, too amazingly supportive.
I don't deserve it. You guys are great.
Just know I'm going to work harder to stop sleeping 16 hours a day and drink more water and not spend 3 hours a day on the couch watching gossip girl as long as I know I've got these awesome people encouraging me to be a better me.
X3
i love you guys. i don't deserve you. i really don't.
xoxo.
Things are bad, but carry on... With cuteness!
Posted 12 years agohttp://youtu.be/kDNsMhxypvM
Was hanging with
limecustard and she gets every channel ever, which includes the Korean pop channel, so I managed to catch this. Just about shrieked. I've lovingly nicknamed the hands up dance move in their "Mercy" cover as the Catgirl Dance. Sorry, I just dig SNSD.
remma is responsible for this. (Girl, I got your text, I just keep forgetting to respond because my answer is "I can't figure out my own color calibration, but I'll let you know as soon as I get my own shit together.")
You now know my guilty pleasure, FA. that one's free! <3
Was hanging with
limecustard and she gets every channel ever, which includes the Korean pop channel, so I managed to catch this. Just about shrieked. I've lovingly nicknamed the hands up dance move in their "Mercy" cover as the Catgirl Dance. Sorry, I just dig SNSD.
remma is responsible for this. (Girl, I got your text, I just keep forgetting to respond because my answer is "I can't figure out my own color calibration, but I'll let you know as soon as I get my own shit together.")You now know my guilty pleasure, FA. that one's free! <3
We got an eviction notice, but we're working it out...
Posted 12 years ago…it's mostly my fault. Well, my mojo's fault. We got an eviction notice today because we are a month behind on rent.
I was lucky enough to catch the landlord's assistant as she was trying to leave the note -- I popped outside to grab the mail. It was cold but we stood outside to discuss it. I think she could see the total lack of shock but feeling of helplessness as she handed it to me. She really hated having to deliver the message, and was really sweet. I don't know if I could have made it through that exchange without crying if she hadn't been so great about it.
She explained that they don't want to kick us out, that they just need to figure out what we can possibly do... that the bill was up to $2700 but she wrestled him down to $1800 for us even though she hadn't ever even met us before. This is an artsy part of the city and they really don't do everything by the book; our landlord, for example, is just a guy who owns a few houses and manages things in his own way.
I kind of flopped down on the stoop and said, "is this... final-final, or can we possibly figure out a way to make this right?" She said we just needed to get in touch with them and figure out how to work out some kind of payment plan.
So the bad news is, while I've been doing better health-wise and have been able to get out of bed and get things done a lot more, it hasn't really been fast enough to make up for the serious lateness on a lot of our bills. The good news is that we got in touch with them and it seems they are possibly willing to let us work out a payment plan instead of filing an actual eviction on us.
So... I'm working through my queue as hard as I can, and we do have money coming our way, but it's going to be rough. Anything anyone can do -- donating for credit for future commissions or hiring me -- would really, really be appreciated.
★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★
Donations welcome here, for future
commission credit or just for kindness.
★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★
It's been bad for a while, but I really always feel shitty about even asking. I know I need to work harder to actually crank my work out, but if that weren't such a struggle for me right now, we wouldn't have such issues in the first place. I feel badly for Cory. He's really had to pick up a lot of my slack. But I really am willing to work as hard as I can. I'm sorry that I've kind of let everyone down a bit with my slowness, but I promise to just keep doing my very best and trying to stay positive.
I hope everyone's holiday season has been happy (and most of all, safe! The weather has been crazy!) and that your upcoming year is much better than 2012. ♥
xoxo
HD
I was lucky enough to catch the landlord's assistant as she was trying to leave the note -- I popped outside to grab the mail. It was cold but we stood outside to discuss it. I think she could see the total lack of shock but feeling of helplessness as she handed it to me. She really hated having to deliver the message, and was really sweet. I don't know if I could have made it through that exchange without crying if she hadn't been so great about it.
She explained that they don't want to kick us out, that they just need to figure out what we can possibly do... that the bill was up to $2700 but she wrestled him down to $1800 for us even though she hadn't ever even met us before. This is an artsy part of the city and they really don't do everything by the book; our landlord, for example, is just a guy who owns a few houses and manages things in his own way.
I kind of flopped down on the stoop and said, "is this... final-final, or can we possibly figure out a way to make this right?" She said we just needed to get in touch with them and figure out how to work out some kind of payment plan.
So the bad news is, while I've been doing better health-wise and have been able to get out of bed and get things done a lot more, it hasn't really been fast enough to make up for the serious lateness on a lot of our bills. The good news is that we got in touch with them and it seems they are possibly willing to let us work out a payment plan instead of filing an actual eviction on us.
So... I'm working through my queue as hard as I can, and we do have money coming our way, but it's going to be rough. Anything anyone can do -- donating for credit for future commissions or hiring me -- would really, really be appreciated.
★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★
Donations welcome here, for future
commission credit or just for kindness.
★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★
It's been bad for a while, but I really always feel shitty about even asking. I know I need to work harder to actually crank my work out, but if that weren't such a struggle for me right now, we wouldn't have such issues in the first place. I feel badly for Cory. He's really had to pick up a lot of my slack. But I really am willing to work as hard as I can. I'm sorry that I've kind of let everyone down a bit with my slowness, but I promise to just keep doing my very best and trying to stay positive.
I hope everyone's holiday season has been happy (and most of all, safe! The weather has been crazy!) and that your upcoming year is much better than 2012. ♥
xoxo
HD
my favorite movie is...
Posted 13 years ago:D
I'm thinking of having a screening some time next month when I have the space in my schedule. Because everybody should see Rushmore at some point. I was lucky enough to get to drag my ex to see it at Discovery Green (a giant park where they sometimes show movies on a big screen) when they showed it a couple of years ago. they had a costume contest. My husband is the only one who really gave it his all, and came as Max Fischer. He won the contest and a $100 Ikea gift card. and his picture in costume in the Houston Chronicle. He was the spitting image and it was hilarious.
Yeah, Wes Anderson is weird, but this movie is just... if you asked me to list 100 movies everyone should see before they die, I admit I'd have to see some of the classics before I made the full list, but I guarantee you Rushmore would be on it.
It was filmed in my city (Houston) and the public school "Grover Cleveland" was filmed at Lamar, where half my friends attended (as did the ex we dragged to see the film). X3 That's not the reason to like it, though. It's sweet and hilarious and sad. It's 14 years old now, but all the more reason for me to prompt you to see it now!
I'm thinking of having a screening some time next month when I have the space in my schedule. Because everybody should see Rushmore at some point. I was lucky enough to get to drag my ex to see it at Discovery Green (a giant park where they sometimes show movies on a big screen) when they showed it a couple of years ago. they had a costume contest. My husband is the only one who really gave it his all, and came as Max Fischer. He won the contest and a $100 Ikea gift card. and his picture in costume in the Houston Chronicle. He was the spitting image and it was hilarious.
Yeah, Wes Anderson is weird, but this movie is just... if you asked me to list 100 movies everyone should see before they die, I admit I'd have to see some of the classics before I made the full list, but I guarantee you Rushmore would be on it.
It was filmed in my city (Houston) and the public school "Grover Cleveland" was filmed at Lamar, where half my friends attended (as did the ex we dragged to see the film). X3 That's not the reason to like it, though. It's sweet and hilarious and sad. It's 14 years old now, but all the more reason for me to prompt you to see it now!
My missing mojo... something finally clicked! ;_;
Posted 13 years agoIt's back. ;_; It's finally back. My pizazz. I don't know where it went, but it just clicked today and it's back. I'm actually so excited I'm making myself a drink after a successful day of frustration-free painting. I can't wait to show you guys. ♥ At last, I'm finally out of this hell!
Nevermind, my commission form IS freaking out :(
Posted 13 years agoIf you submitted a commission form to me after September 20th and I haven't answered you, I didn't get it. :( I just thought no one was inquiring, but I've been having spotty luck testing the form all day. If you sent me a form since then and you haven't been answered or put on my docket (with the exclusion of Sunhawk), please comment here and let me know! :/ I'm trying to sort it out. Eesh.
edit: I saw that it records form submissions elsewhere on my blog dashboard, so I don't seem to be missing any. I think a client is having problems on their side somehow, but I can't figure it out. :( Oh, well. I'm so frazzled today!
edit: I saw that it records form submissions elsewhere on my blog dashboard, so I don't seem to be missing any. I think a client is having problems on their side somehow, but I can't figure it out. :( Oh, well. I'm so frazzled today!
Mixup with my commission form ;) (Don't worry, I got them~)
Posted 13 years agoHey. So guys, I'm a doofus. I changed the e-mail address on my commission form and then PROMPTLY FORGOT about that, so I didn't realize I was getting commission requests from a dozen folks.
See what I'm like without my meds? It's like I have an evil twin, but she's not evil, just incredibly stupid.
My sincerest apologies. I'm answering ALL of your forms today!
And the good news is: I'm back on my meds, officially, today. I feel so much better. Thank goodness the nightmare is over!
I'll spare you more exclamation marks. ♥
xoxo
hd
See what I'm like without my meds? It's like I have an evil twin, but she's not evil, just incredibly stupid.
My sincerest apologies. I'm answering ALL of your forms today!
And the good news is: I'm back on my meds, officially, today. I feel so much better. Thank goodness the nightmare is over!
I'll spare you more exclamation marks. ♥
xoxo
hd
♥ ancestry
Posted 13 years agothe lovely ladies in my family tree.
I get my meds back in less than a week, THANK GOD. it's been an awful few months. I don't even have money to put my halloween costume together. but. this gave me a big smile.
second from the right is my grandma eloise. i take after her. why was 1951 so glamorous? i know it had its issues, but damn, every photo i see is just like, LOOK HOW AWESOME WE LOOK. haha.
from L-R my great aunt bonnie, aunt wanda, my grandma eloise, and my great aunt merrill at age FIFTEEN (OMG) (who shared the picture with me on facebook — yay for old ladies with computer skills!). my dad's side of the family is like nonexistent, but my mom's side of the family seems only to produce girls, weirdly. lol.
if you have any photos from your family tree, please share them. i'd love to see.
xoxo
m
I get my meds back in less than a week, THANK GOD. it's been an awful few months. I don't even have money to put my halloween costume together. but. this gave me a big smile.
second from the right is my grandma eloise. i take after her. why was 1951 so glamorous? i know it had its issues, but damn, every photo i see is just like, LOOK HOW AWESOME WE LOOK. haha.
from L-R my great aunt bonnie, aunt wanda, my grandma eloise, and my great aunt merrill at age FIFTEEN (OMG) (who shared the picture with me on facebook — yay for old ladies with computer skills!). my dad's side of the family is like nonexistent, but my mom's side of the family seems only to produce girls, weirdly. lol.
if you have any photos from your family tree, please share them. i'd love to see.
xoxo
m
In a pretty big bind... (╯︵╰,)
Posted 13 years agoI'll keep this short and sweet!
Okay, so rent is due in 8 days. I don't know if I mentioned this, but Cory lost his job of 9 years last month, and he worked really hard to get a new job — and he has been working that job for a week and he LOVES it, and it's going to be a great job, really. Better than the one he had. So that's great.
Problem is, I was having issues without my Cintiq and as you know, had to drop $300 to fix it (special thanks to cobalt-blue for helping me recoup a little of that, you don't know how much that meant to me). I was working very slowly, if at all, and so I have had a bit of a backlog and I'm only just starting to get through it. That means new commissions are a little ways away, and I don't expect anyone to jump right in with me until I've chewed through a few more of the ones on my list right now.
Our phones have been turned off and our internet is probably going to follow pretty quickly, which is going to make life pretty tough. That, though, I could deal with for a few weeks... but if we don't have rent, we're going to get evicted faster than you can say "what, already?"
I'm out of my ADD medication and to get it again will cost SO much money without insurance (we will have insurance again in 3 months--we lost it when Cory lost his job). So I'm working au naturel, I suppose. It's tough, but I think in a few weeks I'll be used to it if I need to be. I'm so used to it, though, that my energy levels have REALLY plummeted. But normal people do it every day, and I'm determined to do it, too.
But yeah. Rent. Rent is important. People have suggested I do some quick sketches for cash, but I honestly don't want any of my currently waiting clients to throw tridents at me for it (and I think they'd deserve to). But I sketch so slowly that I've been loathe to try it anyway.
And you might expect me to slop through my commission queue with little care for the results because I'm desperate, but I'm not lazy and I don't turn in crappy work if I can help it. That's just not a thing I'm ever going to be cool with, no matter how desperate I get. I will go sell newspapers by the highway before I do that. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
I honestly didn't want to post a journal like this, and I've been considering it for a week. I don't want to become one of those assholes who relies on FA friends every time things get rough. I try not to punch that card unless I'm desperate. But after a week of consideration, this counts.
So, if you'd like to commission me now, or just want to help me out, I'll leave this here and assure you I'm doing all I can to work in spite of the fact that I don't have my meds right now.
Okay, so rent is due in 8 days. I don't know if I mentioned this, but Cory lost his job of 9 years last month, and he worked really hard to get a new job — and he has been working that job for a week and he LOVES it, and it's going to be a great job, really. Better than the one he had. So that's great.
Problem is, I was having issues without my Cintiq and as you know, had to drop $300 to fix it (special thanks to cobalt-blue for helping me recoup a little of that, you don't know how much that meant to me). I was working very slowly, if at all, and so I have had a bit of a backlog and I'm only just starting to get through it. That means new commissions are a little ways away, and I don't expect anyone to jump right in with me until I've chewed through a few more of the ones on my list right now.
Our phones have been turned off and our internet is probably going to follow pretty quickly, which is going to make life pretty tough. That, though, I could deal with for a few weeks... but if we don't have rent, we're going to get evicted faster than you can say "what, already?"
I'm out of my ADD medication and to get it again will cost SO much money without insurance (we will have insurance again in 3 months--we lost it when Cory lost his job). So I'm working au naturel, I suppose. It's tough, but I think in a few weeks I'll be used to it if I need to be. I'm so used to it, though, that my energy levels have REALLY plummeted. But normal people do it every day, and I'm determined to do it, too.
But yeah. Rent. Rent is important. People have suggested I do some quick sketches for cash, but I honestly don't want any of my currently waiting clients to throw tridents at me for it (and I think they'd deserve to). But I sketch so slowly that I've been loathe to try it anyway.
And you might expect me to slop through my commission queue with little care for the results because I'm desperate, but I'm not lazy and I don't turn in crappy work if I can help it. That's just not a thing I'm ever going to be cool with, no matter how desperate I get. I will go sell newspapers by the highway before I do that. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
I honestly didn't want to post a journal like this, and I've been considering it for a week. I don't want to become one of those assholes who relies on FA friends every time things get rough. I try not to punch that card unless I'm desperate. But after a week of consideration, this counts.
So, if you'd like to commission me now, or just want to help me out, I'll leave this here and assure you I'm doing all I can to work in spite of the fact that I don't have my meds right now.
★ Here's the Tip Jar! (donate, or ask for credit on a future piece!) ★Cintiq is old, but fixed. ♥ WORK WILL RESUME EXPEDIENTLY.
Posted 13 years agoI HAVE MY CINTIQ BACK ♥
I sent it in for repairs. On the off-chance that it would cost less than $500 to fix, I spent just about every dime I had shipping it out to Washington to see if they could fix it. Turns out it was the CONVERTER BOX that was broken. All in all, $300 to ship it and have it repaired, but I couldn't afford even the extra $200 for a cheaper, brand new replacement, so this was the optimum solution--otherwise, I was just going to have a brick on my hands. It needed to get repaired whether I was going to use it or not.
Saints be praised, I'm finally going to be able to paint again. I'm so sorry about the gigantic wait, you guys. Thank you for being so awesome. The tablet PC is still wonderful for sketching, inking, and dab-painting, but I was just moving so slowly, and I really need my laptop to be able to record and stream while I work because the tablet can't handle very much.
Be ready for lots of work again!
I sent it in for repairs. On the off-chance that it would cost less than $500 to fix, I spent just about every dime I had shipping it out to Washington to see if they could fix it. Turns out it was the CONVERTER BOX that was broken. All in all, $300 to ship it and have it repaired, but I couldn't afford even the extra $200 for a cheaper, brand new replacement, so this was the optimum solution--otherwise, I was just going to have a brick on my hands. It needed to get repaired whether I was going to use it or not.
Saints be praised, I'm finally going to be able to paint again. I'm so sorry about the gigantic wait, you guys. Thank you for being so awesome. The tablet PC is still wonderful for sketching, inking, and dab-painting, but I was just moving so slowly, and I really need my laptop to be able to record and stream while I work because the tablet can't handle very much.
Be ready for lots of work again!
so THAT'S why I've been feeling so terrible!
Posted 13 years agoI have no common sense, ladies and gentlemen. ;__; Danni is always saying "you need a nanny!"
I didn't seem to realize that my latest batch of ADD meds has just seemed... off. Too intense, even if I was taking it every day without skipping. I tried that, to see if I could build up a tolerance, but it was no good. After a couple of weeks on this batch, I started staying up for 2 days in a row, sleeping for 15-16 hours at a time... no matter what I tried, I couldn't make myself sleep sooner and I couldn't get myself out of bed any earlier. If I did, I felt drugged and exhausted, and would just wind up climbing back into bed. It honestly has felt like the entire month of July up until this point has been about a week long...
But I finally figured out that it wasn't just the smaller house (and subsequent lack of exercise since I don't need to move around much--my treadmill is still shut up against a wall because we have NO room to lay it out... I'm working on that) that was making me feel tired, it was the medication. Past two days I've been breaking the capsules apart, splitting the powder in half and drinking it in water. I didn't think it would work, but the night before last, I only slept 8 hours, and last night I went to bed at 9:30 PM and woke up at 5 AM, bright-eyed and bushy tailed. I think I'm cured!
So, yet again, common sense could have come to me weeks ago, but I had to be desperate and thoughtful to figure it out. GEE, SPEEDY MEDICATION MAKES YOU STAY UP A LOT AND GET CRAPPY SLEEP. Derp.
I've also sent my broken Cintiq out for repairs. They seem to think it was just the cable that is broken--barring that, it's the board inside of it. Both are replaceable for around $150. This Cintiq goes for $1000 now, but I knew if I could get it replaced for around $200 it'd be worth keeping it around another couple of years, since the backlight seems to still be okay. I love the tablet PC, but 256 levels of pressure sensitivity is really starting to make things difficult for me. I've never been a "dab and paintover" painter the way so many people I admire can do — I am just used to relying on pressure sensitivity and blending to get my stuff done, so the tablet has been making getting decent results difficult if I was going the old way... so that's why I've been so slow.
I've tried tweaking the pressure curve profile and even just trying to learn to paint in some other way that doesn't rely on pressure sensitivity at all, but that's part of why I haven't gotten any other work done lately. Cross your fingers (and if you have any tips, send them my way).
xoxo
I didn't seem to realize that my latest batch of ADD meds has just seemed... off. Too intense, even if I was taking it every day without skipping. I tried that, to see if I could build up a tolerance, but it was no good. After a couple of weeks on this batch, I started staying up for 2 days in a row, sleeping for 15-16 hours at a time... no matter what I tried, I couldn't make myself sleep sooner and I couldn't get myself out of bed any earlier. If I did, I felt drugged and exhausted, and would just wind up climbing back into bed. It honestly has felt like the entire month of July up until this point has been about a week long...
But I finally figured out that it wasn't just the smaller house (and subsequent lack of exercise since I don't need to move around much--my treadmill is still shut up against a wall because we have NO room to lay it out... I'm working on that) that was making me feel tired, it was the medication. Past two days I've been breaking the capsules apart, splitting the powder in half and drinking it in water. I didn't think it would work, but the night before last, I only slept 8 hours, and last night I went to bed at 9:30 PM and woke up at 5 AM, bright-eyed and bushy tailed. I think I'm cured!
So, yet again, common sense could have come to me weeks ago, but I had to be desperate and thoughtful to figure it out. GEE, SPEEDY MEDICATION MAKES YOU STAY UP A LOT AND GET CRAPPY SLEEP. Derp.
I've also sent my broken Cintiq out for repairs. They seem to think it was just the cable that is broken--barring that, it's the board inside of it. Both are replaceable for around $150. This Cintiq goes for $1000 now, but I knew if I could get it replaced for around $200 it'd be worth keeping it around another couple of years, since the backlight seems to still be okay. I love the tablet PC, but 256 levels of pressure sensitivity is really starting to make things difficult for me. I've never been a "dab and paintover" painter the way so many people I admire can do — I am just used to relying on pressure sensitivity and blending to get my stuff done, so the tablet has been making getting decent results difficult if I was going the old way... so that's why I've been so slow.
I've tried tweaking the pressure curve profile and even just trying to learn to paint in some other way that doesn't rely on pressure sensitivity at all, but that's part of why I haven't gotten any other work done lately. Cross your fingers (and if you have any tips, send them my way).
xoxo
"If I'm a monkey..."
Posted 13 years ago[ Holydust and her significant other discuss her inability to be intentionally humorous. ]
My husband, Cory, and I, sat around when we were both totally sleep-deprived, and this totally typical discussion ensued. He jokingly made fun of me, and I attempted to say something to the effect of "then what does that make you", but I botched it. The following is the totally typical conversation that ensued.
Marriage, y'guys.
Pt 2:
[ Holydust is tormented by Cory as he tries to tickle her, she grabs his fingers and winds up being manipulated like a 'retarded puppet'. ]
My husband, Cory, and I, sat around when we were both totally sleep-deprived, and this totally typical discussion ensued. He jokingly made fun of me, and I attempted to say something to the effect of "then what does that make you", but I botched it. The following is the totally typical conversation that ensued.
Marriage, y'guys.
Pt 2:
[ Holydust is tormented by Cory as he tries to tickle her, she grabs his fingers and winds up being manipulated like a 'retarded puppet'. ]
Apologies for the art drought.
Posted 13 years agoJuly 21, 2012 @ 9:52 PM:
I actually didn't intend for this journal to wind up being a debate session, but I suppose it couldn't be helped. ;) The other artist and I have resolved the matter privately. I learned a handful of lessons in this and I think things turned out all right, so I'm grateful.
While it seems the commenting has died down, just in case, I ask that everyone take any future discussion on the matter into private and let the journal be. :) Thanks!
July 17, 2012 @ 6:27 AM:
Things have been tight here. I had a piece finally completed, but I'm being told I was misled by my client, and I had to remove the image to avoid infringing on someone's intellectual property.
No need to worry about it. I learned something, these things happen, and I'm not going to throw a fit and make a big deal about it. It does make it harder for me to accept commissions from new clients, though; every time I'm worried about whether or not the character they're sending me in reference is really theirs, or something else. There's just not a lot of ways to check up on these things if they don't just own up to the fact that someone else owns it. In this case, though, I was told a name, and I should have just sucked up my shyness and asked her myself. I apologize.
Again, no need to make a big deal about it. I'm disappointed in a lot of people, but live and let live.
New art will be forthcoming in the next week or so. Sorry for my slowness.
I actually didn't intend for this journal to wind up being a debate session, but I suppose it couldn't be helped. ;) The other artist and I have resolved the matter privately. I learned a handful of lessons in this and I think things turned out all right, so I'm grateful.
While it seems the commenting has died down, just in case, I ask that everyone take any future discussion on the matter into private and let the journal be. :) Thanks!
★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★ · ★July 17, 2012 @ 6:27 AM:
Things have been tight here. I had a piece finally completed, but I'm being told I was misled by my client, and I had to remove the image to avoid infringing on someone's intellectual property.
No need to worry about it. I learned something, these things happen, and I'm not going to throw a fit and make a big deal about it. It does make it harder for me to accept commissions from new clients, though; every time I'm worried about whether or not the character they're sending me in reference is really theirs, or something else. There's just not a lot of ways to check up on these things if they don't just own up to the fact that someone else owns it. In this case, though, I was told a name, and I should have just sucked up my shyness and asked her myself. I apologize.
Again, no need to make a big deal about it. I'm disappointed in a lot of people, but live and let live.
New art will be forthcoming in the next week or so. Sorry for my slowness.
birthday video (tipsy in a tiara!) :D
Posted 13 years agowe had my 30th birthday at Downhouse, a Darwin-themed pub here in Houston. ;3 I thought it was appropriate!
you'll recognize the collar, but the rest is probably new! :D but pretty halter dress -> knot -> makes nice collar go all askew constantly so that you wind up not giving a shit. so my pretty collar wound up cocked to the left for most of my party because i got tired of people reaching over and adjusting it. wah.
i'm so bummed, though, you guys... my husband surprised me with a beautiful claddaugh ring, the most amazing design i've ever seen -- AND the second box i opened for him was a totally different claddaugh design which i realized was for him... but.. he got down on one knee in front of all of our friends and gave me the big public proposal i never got and...
...;; apparently someone screwed up and it didn't get recorded. ; ;
but rest assured, it was totally sweet and everyone awwed and it was all i could have hoped for. either way, here's a stupid video of me introducing my closest friends at my 30th birthday party while half-drunk on gimlets. enjoy. poke fun. for the record, the crack about "one of the square states" is a "i'm from texas, all we know is texas" kind of joke. ;3 we have bad humor here.
weirdly enough, FIVE PEOPLE (including me) in this video have FA accounts, even though furry had nothing to do with this outing. you guys know i'm more furry-hag than furry -- more an icky pink human who loves her furry friends than an actual furry herself, but it seems the more i make it obvious that this is my day job, the more they come out of the woodwork! :D yes, my husband is one of those and he isn't active (he got the account to support me and was around long enough for a few girls to hit on him, but that's it, lol), but one is an active artist (see if you can guess) and another has quite a furry social life of his own. ;3 giggle. i love finding out that people in my normal friend circle are furries i didn't know about or having to REMIND myself that they have their own ties to this subculture because i'm so used to just thinking of them as (insert name here). bahahaha.
Bad luck and scariness. @_@
Posted 13 years agoThis move has been harder than anticipated.
So we did come up with the 3 months rent (first month and then two months' worth for a security deposit, on account of our terrible credit). The place is... disappointing, to say the least. For what we're paying each month, I didn't expect the floor to be uneven plywood painted dark brown. >.< We scratched it in three places on the first day.
We're in the artsy part of town. Houston has no zoning laws, and that's part of its charm -- living in the Montrose area means you're within walking distance of any number of highly rated coffee shops, resale shops, and anything else you can imagine, but it's one of the oldest parts of town. Think SoHo, but more spread out and with less money put into it. The only people who live here are artsy young types, but it directly borders some of the scarier ghettos, the inhabitants of which wander through from time to time. It means I'll always see young, hip people I might like to hang out with just wandering down my street, but I'm also fully aware that it's a lot less safe than the small, Northeast Texas town I grew up in where everyone leaves their doors unlocked.
It's different. Any houses here are old, and half of them are businesses. Again, that's supposed to be part of its charm, but I've never been terribly Bohemian, and I never really fancied living in a shitty old house paying ridiculous rent just so that I could be within walking distance of record stores and coffee shops. Not my thing. It's my husband's thing. He's in hog heaven here, and I'm happy for him, but it's rough for me. I'm not exactly being converted.
Everything smells like pesticide. Most of the windows are painted shut (fire hazard) and some are painted shut with the window latches half undone. We're working on that. The remnants of an old ADT security system are still in place, but it's broken. The spring on the screen door is missing, likely when the painters took it off to go in and out. I guess they took it with them. Our bedroom door is seated about two inches too high, so there's a three inch gap between the bottom and the floor, and it sticks so horribly if you shut it that we're forced to leave it open. There's only room for the sugar gliders in the living room or kitchen, and there is no door between the bedroom and kitchen, so I'm forced to keep them in the living room because they're adorably noisy little fur bats at night. So ther's been some sleep deprivation as well, thanks to the crappy door.
Three rooms, all linear. Living room, hallway, bathroom to the side, bedroom, kitchen. It's a duplex. Just a house split in half. It's a depressing, tiny layout, but it's only so bad right now because we had a lot more stuff than we thought. I'm having to get rid of a lot of things I don't want to part with because I have no place to put it. No garage, no attic, no basement.
No dishwasher. (I guess I'm the dishwasher.) No room for a washer and a dryer. The drawers in the bathroom reek so horribly of pesticide that I am going to have to buy white vinegar and take them all outside to wipe them down. There is almost no closet space, such that I'm having to get creative about ways to store what we do have (and we've had to abandon a lot of our clothes because there's just no place to put them).
No peephole in the front door. I have to keep a mirror hanging around the doorknob so I can see who knocks. Doorbell is broken, so our internet only just got set up yesterday because Comcast tried to use it on the first day after we got here and then left. So that's why I haven't been around for the past week -- sorry. Broken doorbell = no internet.
One of the windows has no locking latch, so we had to get creative about blocking it. I've been trying to figure out how I can save up for a security system and some additional tweaks that will allow me to sleep well at night, but it's going to be a bundle.
The first night I was okay. Second night, I couldn't sleep and got weirded out -- if I'd had internet I probably would have been fine, because I could have distracted myself, but I wound up sitting in the living room, boxes piled all around me, and I just cried. I felt so unsafe and I didn't know why. This area isn't really THAT bad... but it is definitely full of old, creaky houses, and a criminal element isn't totally absent. That morning I cried so hard once I went to bed that I woke Danni and Cory up, and they spent an hour consoling me and trying to help me get to sleep.
I was better after that. I felt like there was really no reason to worry, and I chilled. Then, the next day, a supreme example of my horrible luck occurred.
Around the time Cory gets home from work, I heard a key turning in the lock. There was some frustration, clearly, and since I was standing right there and had no peephole, I stupidly assumed it was Cory trying to get in (probably holding on to stuff as he has been each day, thus probably needing assistance). I said "hold on!" and opened the door.
When I opened the door, though, it wasn't him.
I was startled. A strung-out looking middle-aged woman seemed just as startled to see me, but because I was so confused I didn't put two and two together. She immediately asked me if I had a glass of water.
If I hadn't been full of sudden adrenaline my brain would have reminded me that if she had wanted water, she would have knocked, not been fucking with the locks on my door.
I told her I would get her some as I started to shut the door. She asked if she could sit inside the doorway. I said "no, I'm sorry" and shut the door promptly, locked it. I was shaking really hard. My brain started to make sense of the situation, and as I went to get her the water I pondered just not actually opening the door again.
For some reason I felt like I needed to. This is the dangerous part of your brain that doesn't want to be rude to someone who may really need help, but really should be ignored at all costs. Thankfully, I ignored it when she asked to come inside, but I still opened the door, handed her the water, and shut it quickly.
I was all right after that... then, ten minutes later, I realized that not only was she still sitting on my porch, she wasn't drinking the water, and she wasn't leaving.
I started to panic.
I hadn't seen any real signs of mental illness yet, so my mind conjured the worst. I thought, "she is waiting for someone. She's waiting for someone...maybe several someones, someones who will just break down the door and take what they want, and I have no way to defend myself, and the locks are shit, and the windows are shit, and I'm stuck and I don't even have a back door to bail out of."
I was petrified. She was just sitting two feet from my front door, and I didn't know what I was going to do if I turned out to be right.
I wound up holing myself up in the bathroom with a huge knife, barricading the door, and calling my husband to ask him what I should do. I kept an eye on her through the bathroom window. She just sat there for 15 minutes, then started wandering around our yard. I started to get the (comforting) feeling that she really was just mentally ill or strung out on drugs and wasn't planning to try to break into my house, but she kept disappearing past the view of the bathroom window and I was too scared to leave.
We called the cops and Cory rushed home. By the time he was almost here, I'd realized she really was either totally crazy, or an incredibly good actress, as she stacked leaves on the walkway and played with an acrylic wand she found in my yard (the kind you open blinds with). She didn't even leave when he came inside the house.
I felt stupid because our neighbor is a young, friendly paralegal who lives in the unit right next to us and almost never leaves the house, and if I'd gone and gotten his cell phone # like I'd intended to, I could have called him over and saved myself 45 minutes of worry. He showed up as we were talking to the cops. We exchanged numbers and he told me that he's really never experienced anything even REMOTELY like that in this house, which only reinforced my fear that I just have truly, truly awful luck.
Even so, I'd really like to set up a better alarm system. It's gonna run me $200, but I think I can swing that. The one I'm considering would be portable, so if we move I can take it with me. Wireless and cellular based. And there is NO external lighting around any of the windows, which makes me horribly uneasy. So im going to work really hard to get money to install some motion sensor lights in those areas. I'm sure I'm being overcautious, but it's more about being able to sleep at night than worrying about legitimate concerns.
I just wanted to get that out. -_-; We have internet, finally, I have my desk and art stuff all set up (mostly) and am finally getting back on track. It took like two weeks and it was hell, but I hope everyone understands and that no one is too mad. It's been a rough transition for me.
My birthday is on Saturday. I'll try to take pictures. Thanks for reading. ; ; Love you guys.
So we did come up with the 3 months rent (first month and then two months' worth for a security deposit, on account of our terrible credit). The place is... disappointing, to say the least. For what we're paying each month, I didn't expect the floor to be uneven plywood painted dark brown. >.< We scratched it in three places on the first day.
We're in the artsy part of town. Houston has no zoning laws, and that's part of its charm -- living in the Montrose area means you're within walking distance of any number of highly rated coffee shops, resale shops, and anything else you can imagine, but it's one of the oldest parts of town. Think SoHo, but more spread out and with less money put into it. The only people who live here are artsy young types, but it directly borders some of the scarier ghettos, the inhabitants of which wander through from time to time. It means I'll always see young, hip people I might like to hang out with just wandering down my street, but I'm also fully aware that it's a lot less safe than the small, Northeast Texas town I grew up in where everyone leaves their doors unlocked.
It's different. Any houses here are old, and half of them are businesses. Again, that's supposed to be part of its charm, but I've never been terribly Bohemian, and I never really fancied living in a shitty old house paying ridiculous rent just so that I could be within walking distance of record stores and coffee shops. Not my thing. It's my husband's thing. He's in hog heaven here, and I'm happy for him, but it's rough for me. I'm not exactly being converted.
Everything smells like pesticide. Most of the windows are painted shut (fire hazard) and some are painted shut with the window latches half undone. We're working on that. The remnants of an old ADT security system are still in place, but it's broken. The spring on the screen door is missing, likely when the painters took it off to go in and out. I guess they took it with them. Our bedroom door is seated about two inches too high, so there's a three inch gap between the bottom and the floor, and it sticks so horribly if you shut it that we're forced to leave it open. There's only room for the sugar gliders in the living room or kitchen, and there is no door between the bedroom and kitchen, so I'm forced to keep them in the living room because they're adorably noisy little fur bats at night. So ther's been some sleep deprivation as well, thanks to the crappy door.
Three rooms, all linear. Living room, hallway, bathroom to the side, bedroom, kitchen. It's a duplex. Just a house split in half. It's a depressing, tiny layout, but it's only so bad right now because we had a lot more stuff than we thought. I'm having to get rid of a lot of things I don't want to part with because I have no place to put it. No garage, no attic, no basement.
No dishwasher. (I guess I'm the dishwasher.) No room for a washer and a dryer. The drawers in the bathroom reek so horribly of pesticide that I am going to have to buy white vinegar and take them all outside to wipe them down. There is almost no closet space, such that I'm having to get creative about ways to store what we do have (and we've had to abandon a lot of our clothes because there's just no place to put them).
No peephole in the front door. I have to keep a mirror hanging around the doorknob so I can see who knocks. Doorbell is broken, so our internet only just got set up yesterday because Comcast tried to use it on the first day after we got here and then left. So that's why I haven't been around for the past week -- sorry. Broken doorbell = no internet.
One of the windows has no locking latch, so we had to get creative about blocking it. I've been trying to figure out how I can save up for a security system and some additional tweaks that will allow me to sleep well at night, but it's going to be a bundle.
The first night I was okay. Second night, I couldn't sleep and got weirded out -- if I'd had internet I probably would have been fine, because I could have distracted myself, but I wound up sitting in the living room, boxes piled all around me, and I just cried. I felt so unsafe and I didn't know why. This area isn't really THAT bad... but it is definitely full of old, creaky houses, and a criminal element isn't totally absent. That morning I cried so hard once I went to bed that I woke Danni and Cory up, and they spent an hour consoling me and trying to help me get to sleep.
I was better after that. I felt like there was really no reason to worry, and I chilled. Then, the next day, a supreme example of my horrible luck occurred.
Around the time Cory gets home from work, I heard a key turning in the lock. There was some frustration, clearly, and since I was standing right there and had no peephole, I stupidly assumed it was Cory trying to get in (probably holding on to stuff as he has been each day, thus probably needing assistance). I said "hold on!" and opened the door.
When I opened the door, though, it wasn't him.
I was startled. A strung-out looking middle-aged woman seemed just as startled to see me, but because I was so confused I didn't put two and two together. She immediately asked me if I had a glass of water.
If I hadn't been full of sudden adrenaline my brain would have reminded me that if she had wanted water, she would have knocked, not been fucking with the locks on my door.
I told her I would get her some as I started to shut the door. She asked if she could sit inside the doorway. I said "no, I'm sorry" and shut the door promptly, locked it. I was shaking really hard. My brain started to make sense of the situation, and as I went to get her the water I pondered just not actually opening the door again.
For some reason I felt like I needed to. This is the dangerous part of your brain that doesn't want to be rude to someone who may really need help, but really should be ignored at all costs. Thankfully, I ignored it when she asked to come inside, but I still opened the door, handed her the water, and shut it quickly.
I was all right after that... then, ten minutes later, I realized that not only was she still sitting on my porch, she wasn't drinking the water, and she wasn't leaving.
I started to panic.
I hadn't seen any real signs of mental illness yet, so my mind conjured the worst. I thought, "she is waiting for someone. She's waiting for someone...maybe several someones, someones who will just break down the door and take what they want, and I have no way to defend myself, and the locks are shit, and the windows are shit, and I'm stuck and I don't even have a back door to bail out of."
I was petrified. She was just sitting two feet from my front door, and I didn't know what I was going to do if I turned out to be right.
I wound up holing myself up in the bathroom with a huge knife, barricading the door, and calling my husband to ask him what I should do. I kept an eye on her through the bathroom window. She just sat there for 15 minutes, then started wandering around our yard. I started to get the (comforting) feeling that she really was just mentally ill or strung out on drugs and wasn't planning to try to break into my house, but she kept disappearing past the view of the bathroom window and I was too scared to leave.
We called the cops and Cory rushed home. By the time he was almost here, I'd realized she really was either totally crazy, or an incredibly good actress, as she stacked leaves on the walkway and played with an acrylic wand she found in my yard (the kind you open blinds with). She didn't even leave when he came inside the house.
I felt stupid because our neighbor is a young, friendly paralegal who lives in the unit right next to us and almost never leaves the house, and if I'd gone and gotten his cell phone # like I'd intended to, I could have called him over and saved myself 45 minutes of worry. He showed up as we were talking to the cops. We exchanged numbers and he told me that he's really never experienced anything even REMOTELY like that in this house, which only reinforced my fear that I just have truly, truly awful luck.
Even so, I'd really like to set up a better alarm system. It's gonna run me $200, but I think I can swing that. The one I'm considering would be portable, so if we move I can take it with me. Wireless and cellular based. And there is NO external lighting around any of the windows, which makes me horribly uneasy. So im going to work really hard to get money to install some motion sensor lights in those areas. I'm sure I'm being overcautious, but it's more about being able to sleep at night than worrying about legitimate concerns.
I just wanted to get that out. -_-; We have internet, finally, I have my desk and art stuff all set up (mostly) and am finally getting back on track. It took like two weeks and it was hell, but I hope everyone understands and that no one is too mad. It's been a rough transition for me.
My birthday is on Saturday. I'll try to take pictures. Thanks for reading. ; ; Love you guys.
Gotta come up with $1400 in one week. D:
Posted 13 years agoOn the plus side, that "I won't be working for a week" thing turned out to not be true. I've been back to working on art today. Cory said he needs me to focus on making money and not on packing, so I've been hitting my comms pretty hard.
But we had to pay a DOUBLE deposit on the new place, and also we have to pay the first month of rent... so that's three months of rent in one week. That's... admittedly a lot of money.
We are really cutting it close, and I'm not 100% sure it'll be possible yet. But since I'm actually nearing the end of my commission queue soon, I thought I'd go ahead and let everyone know that I AM open, of course, and will be happy to at least promise everyone sketches before they have to wait too long for the finished product (as I've been doing for the past month or so, when I come within 3-5 slots of them).
So, if you want to help me out, please consider hiring me! And there's always the tip jar.
I'm thinking we MAY be able to make it happen, but it may require a payday loan (ugh) and my birthday is going to be pretty cruddy. I was planning on buying a nice sundress for my party, but now I'm like hm, maybe I shouldn't do that. *haha*
Anyway! Back to work! <3
But we had to pay a DOUBLE deposit on the new place, and also we have to pay the first month of rent... so that's three months of rent in one week. That's... admittedly a lot of money.
We are really cutting it close, and I'm not 100% sure it'll be possible yet. But since I'm actually nearing the end of my commission queue soon, I thought I'd go ahead and let everyone know that I AM open, of course, and will be happy to at least promise everyone sketches before they have to wait too long for the finished product (as I've been doing for the past month or so, when I come within 3-5 slots of them).
So, if you want to help me out, please consider hiring me! And there's always the tip jar.
I'm thinking we MAY be able to make it happen, but it may require a payday loan (ugh) and my birthday is going to be pretty cruddy. I was planning on buying a nice sundress for my party, but now I'm like hm, maybe I shouldn't do that. *haha*
Anyway! Back to work! <3
holydust singing and playing her ukulele. laugh!
Posted 13 years ago[ Me practicing Marceline's Fry Song (the original version) from Adventure Time ]
since i have to take a week off, take some time to poke fun at me. two takes, and you can hear my laughter from the first in the 2nd, so... fuck it, i can't edit audio!
it starts fucking weak, but i promise after the first 2 measures it's less sad.
i've had my ukulele for three weeks and i don't sing, and this song is JUST BELOW my range so there are lines that make me go all off key and shit. i honestly haven't recorded myself singing anything since i was 18. so over ten years. try not to laugh TOO hard.
still. :D adventure time songs! ....try not to crucify me, though, k? :D i know i don't sing like
lilyness but i haven't had any practice!
since i have to take a week off, take some time to poke fun at me. two takes, and you can hear my laughter from the first in the 2nd, so... fuck it, i can't edit audio!
it starts fucking weak, but i promise after the first 2 measures it's less sad.
i've had my ukulele for three weeks and i don't sing, and this song is JUST BELOW my range so there are lines that make me go all off key and shit. i honestly haven't recorded myself singing anything since i was 18. so over ten years. try not to laugh TOO hard.
still. :D adventure time songs! ....try not to crucify me, though, k? :D i know i don't sing like
lilyness but i haven't had any practice!okay, productive time is on hold. moving time is go.
Posted 13 years ago:D i did hit my stride in the past two weeks, as you guys hopefully noticed, but now is the time to pack all of my stuff and spend every day selling, tossing, and packing all of my belongings, relocating, and unpacking them. so i will not be posting for the next week or so. i hope you understand! :D here's to having a new place all to ourselves.
(think of a clever subject, pretend it was mine. <3)
Posted 13 years agoOh.. Mah... Glob, you guys.
So. We were planning to move, I know I told you that. I had some artist's block but I apparently got over that today. 11 hours of work when I haven't managed more than 3 or 4 in a day in the past month... sleep deprivation (and hardship) seems to really kick my inner badass into gear. But yeah.
We had our hearts set on this one place, and if anyone reading has been reading my shitty journals for the past few years you might remember that whole bullshit with our electric company screwing us over like a ten dollar lady of the night. That came back to bite us in the ass with this place. Cory told me today that our credit reports had turned up my student loans and the electric company's ridiculously outrageous like $9,000 debt (for which we are still considering seeking legal counsel to fight off, considering that we basically were using NO POWER WHATSOEVER FOR SIX MONTHS and still had $800 electric bills every month. I remember telling the customer service guy, "We couldn't rack up that kind of bill if we were running a fucking underground CASINO on the ROOF--what the hell kind of sense is this making to you?!").
Well, thankfully, the real estate agent went to bat for us with the owners and convinced them to let us pay a double deposit (sucks, but them's the kicks). She explained that student loans are kind of everybody's burden right now, and that the electric company thing was totally us getting fucked in the ass. She explained we were nice, sweet young kids who totally are financially responsible, but our credit history is totally suckfest, and they agreed to let us move in.
So. We are getting the place we wanted. I don't have to live in a gunsmoke part of town. We will have wood floors. We will have a neighbor who is a paralegal. We will have a cute little front lawn and a porch and be five minutes from our very best friends in town.
We are having to bust our asses to come up with the money, and it is going to suck royally for a really, really long time. We're going to be broke and desperate, but we will at least have our own place and we will hopefully be on our way to being grown-ups.
...I think my original point of posting this journal was to say "look at me, I'm making shittons of commission queue progress now that I'm not packing boxes 24/7!" but I kinda blew it. Again, I've been up for about 24 hours. Yeah, 24 hours, exactly.
I'm gonna go watch some Adventure Time, finish off Sovy's commission and send it off and then conk out for god knows how long! <3 Love you guys. You are my sanity. xoxo.
So. We were planning to move, I know I told you that. I had some artist's block but I apparently got over that today. 11 hours of work when I haven't managed more than 3 or 4 in a day in the past month... sleep deprivation (and hardship) seems to really kick my inner badass into gear. But yeah.
We had our hearts set on this one place, and if anyone reading has been reading my shitty journals for the past few years you might remember that whole bullshit with our electric company screwing us over like a ten dollar lady of the night. That came back to bite us in the ass with this place. Cory told me today that our credit reports had turned up my student loans and the electric company's ridiculously outrageous like $9,000 debt (for which we are still considering seeking legal counsel to fight off, considering that we basically were using NO POWER WHATSOEVER FOR SIX MONTHS and still had $800 electric bills every month. I remember telling the customer service guy, "We couldn't rack up that kind of bill if we were running a fucking underground CASINO on the ROOF--what the hell kind of sense is this making to you?!").
Well, thankfully, the real estate agent went to bat for us with the owners and convinced them to let us pay a double deposit (sucks, but them's the kicks). She explained that student loans are kind of everybody's burden right now, and that the electric company thing was totally us getting fucked in the ass. She explained we were nice, sweet young kids who totally are financially responsible, but our credit history is totally suckfest, and they agreed to let us move in.
So. We are getting the place we wanted. I don't have to live in a gunsmoke part of town. We will have wood floors. We will have a neighbor who is a paralegal. We will have a cute little front lawn and a porch and be five minutes from our very best friends in town.
We are having to bust our asses to come up with the money, and it is going to suck royally for a really, really long time. We're going to be broke and desperate, but we will at least have our own place and we will hopefully be on our way to being grown-ups.
...I think my original point of posting this journal was to say "look at me, I'm making shittons of commission queue progress now that I'm not packing boxes 24/7!" but I kinda blew it. Again, I've been up for about 24 hours. Yeah, 24 hours, exactly.
I'm gonna go watch some Adventure Time, finish off Sovy's commission and send it off and then conk out for god knows how long! <3 Love you guys. You are my sanity. xoxo.
it never ends! D:
Posted 13 years agoSo, we thought we had until August to find a new apartment and move out, but Cory's stepdad told the landlord we're moving out by the end of this month. :/ So we not only have to find a new place, quick, that doesn't make me terrified for my life, but we have to pack all our things, get rid of a bunch of clutter, AND move in, in a month. :( So that's stressing me out. And I've been gone a lot because I'm struggling to tidy up and pack and do all the horrible stressful moving stuff that needs to be prepared for.
On top of that, two days ago I had my first allergic reaction :( I thought it was something way worse than it was because I had no idea what was wrong, but it turns out I had contact dermatitis from a first-aid spray that had benzocaine in it. Since I'd never come in contact with it before, it took two days of use before the allergy finally appeared (since your immune system has to figure out what it is, prepare, and then attack trying to fight it off), so by then I didn't realize that the spray was the culprit, and had stupidly continued to use it.
The irony is that I used the spray on two or three very minor flea bites, and wound up with a horrible rash up and down the insides of both my arms and on my neck (from my hands spreading the chemical around) that absolutely drove me crazy and made focusing on anything else impossible for almost two days! It's a good thing that my closest friend is a doctor or I would have gone crazy.. X3
The third night my arms were itching so horribly badly that I couldn't sleep and actually wound up crying for a few hours in misery. ; ; I saw a doctor yesterday morning and she confirmed that it was an allergy and told me to take OTC allegra and get a stronger hydrocortizone cream. Today it's much less terrible, but I've been having to keep my arms away from my body and that makes doing anything useful (like art or moving) very difficult.
So I'm sorry I've been useless! But oh gosh, you do not want to see my arms right now.
Gross. Gross gross gross. :( Right now my arms look like when I had chicken pox as a kid. :( Wish me better, you guys!
On top of that, two days ago I had my first allergic reaction :( I thought it was something way worse than it was because I had no idea what was wrong, but it turns out I had contact dermatitis from a first-aid spray that had benzocaine in it. Since I'd never come in contact with it before, it took two days of use before the allergy finally appeared (since your immune system has to figure out what it is, prepare, and then attack trying to fight it off), so by then I didn't realize that the spray was the culprit, and had stupidly continued to use it.
The irony is that I used the spray on two or three very minor flea bites, and wound up with a horrible rash up and down the insides of both my arms and on my neck (from my hands spreading the chemical around) that absolutely drove me crazy and made focusing on anything else impossible for almost two days! It's a good thing that my closest friend is a doctor or I would have gone crazy.. X3
The third night my arms were itching so horribly badly that I couldn't sleep and actually wound up crying for a few hours in misery. ; ; I saw a doctor yesterday morning and she confirmed that it was an allergy and told me to take OTC allegra and get a stronger hydrocortizone cream. Today it's much less terrible, but I've been having to keep my arms away from my body and that makes doing anything useful (like art or moving) very difficult.
So I'm sorry I've been useless! But oh gosh, you do not want to see my arms right now.
Gross. Gross gross gross. :( Right now my arms look like when I had chicken pox as a kid. :( Wish me better, you guys!
oi! what a month!
Posted 13 years agono art in a while, guys, i know. it's been kind of a crazy couple of weeks. we had a guest, we're moving very soon, the guest meant that sleep was almost nonexistent so i spent most days running on 2-3 hours until she left (which is the primary reason i haven't been around), and i also got a ukulele. :D
things should be returning to normal minus that whole moving thing, but hopefully that won't put too big a dent in my life since the PLAN is to prepare each day a little at a time... we don't have a great track record on that, though.
anyway!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9469674/Lin.....me-24hours.mp3
laugh at me working on the adventure time theme song before i'd even had my ukulele for 24 hours (but with at least 5 hours of practice under my belt). good lord, the fingers on my left hand feel like i stuck them in a jar full of rusty pins and novocaine. (i've never played an instrument before two days ago :D) note that i couldn't even get through a third play through — that was about 25 takes in and i just was like OKAY, stop now. ow.
it sounds as bad as it does because by then my fingers were MADE OF PAIN and just holding down the chords was causing me to make THIS face >o< i'm having to strap band-aids to my fingers to do my art because just pressing keys and tapping things out is like HOLY COW THIS IS NOT FUN. i can't leave them on when i play, though, or i'll never build up callouses ;_; ow. ow ow. but at least it makes working on art less painful. in a few weeks hopefully this won't be an issue! >.>
i'm learning marceline's french fry song and the only real problem is the B7 chord (first pops up at "so come on back and be my bud"). my fingers just do not want to go there. the D7 gave me a little trouble but at least the A string is accessible with my tiny pinky reach, but the B7 is like HAHAHAHAHAH FUCK YOU because I somehow gotta get my pinky all the way up to the C string with my hand wrapped all the way around the neck. cory keeps telling me to just lay my entire index finger across the 2nd fret, but then the E string doesn't wanna do its job. :/ I GOT THIS THING *BECAUSE* I HAVE SMALL HANDS, WHY AM I HAVING SO MUCH TROUBLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aFI.....eature=related
i can play it fairly well, until i get to the B7. then it's like *record scratch* i know, practice practice, i've only had the damn thing for 72 hours. everyone says i'm doing really well for being this much of a beginner but i am definitely seeing what makes people want to do the same song for a week straight because it's so frustrating not to be able to switch chords quickly.
by the way, we both got ukuleles — I named mine Violet, after the sister in the Incredibles. not to be out-dorked I prodded him into naming his Dash. So, our ukuleles are Violet and Dash. Mine has a little pink ribbon on it to mark it because his is strung for the left-hand and it was REALLY confusing when I picked up his and wondered why it sounded totally busted.
ALSO!
I made this today, because I couldn't find a good version. Spread it around. :D (Upload elsewhere tho, please!)
PIZZA!!!
things should be returning to normal minus that whole moving thing, but hopefully that won't put too big a dent in my life since the PLAN is to prepare each day a little at a time... we don't have a great track record on that, though.
anyway!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9469674/Lin.....me-24hours.mp3
laugh at me working on the adventure time theme song before i'd even had my ukulele for 24 hours (but with at least 5 hours of practice under my belt). good lord, the fingers on my left hand feel like i stuck them in a jar full of rusty pins and novocaine. (i've never played an instrument before two days ago :D) note that i couldn't even get through a third play through — that was about 25 takes in and i just was like OKAY, stop now. ow.
it sounds as bad as it does because by then my fingers were MADE OF PAIN and just holding down the chords was causing me to make THIS face >o< i'm having to strap band-aids to my fingers to do my art because just pressing keys and tapping things out is like HOLY COW THIS IS NOT FUN. i can't leave them on when i play, though, or i'll never build up callouses ;_; ow. ow ow. but at least it makes working on art less painful. in a few weeks hopefully this won't be an issue! >.>
i'm learning marceline's french fry song and the only real problem is the B7 chord (first pops up at "so come on back and be my bud"). my fingers just do not want to go there. the D7 gave me a little trouble but at least the A string is accessible with my tiny pinky reach, but the B7 is like HAHAHAHAHAH FUCK YOU because I somehow gotta get my pinky all the way up to the C string with my hand wrapped all the way around the neck. cory keeps telling me to just lay my entire index finger across the 2nd fret, but then the E string doesn't wanna do its job. :/ I GOT THIS THING *BECAUSE* I HAVE SMALL HANDS, WHY AM I HAVING SO MUCH TROUBLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aFI.....eature=related
i can play it fairly well, until i get to the B7. then it's like *record scratch* i know, practice practice, i've only had the damn thing for 72 hours. everyone says i'm doing really well for being this much of a beginner but i am definitely seeing what makes people want to do the same song for a week straight because it's so frustrating not to be able to switch chords quickly.
by the way, we both got ukuleles — I named mine Violet, after the sister in the Incredibles. not to be out-dorked I prodded him into naming his Dash. So, our ukuleles are Violet and Dash. Mine has a little pink ribbon on it to mark it because his is strung for the left-hand and it was REALLY confusing when I picked up his and wondered why it sounded totally busted.
ALSO!
I made this today, because I couldn't find a good version. Spread it around. :D (Upload elsewhere tho, please!)
PIZZA!!!
Getting used to the new tablet PC :3
Posted 13 years agoSo, you guys know that my Cintiq 12wx died, and rather than opting to replace it with another tablet, I was encouraged to try a tablet PC this time around. :3 Obviously, it was going to be well worth the risk if the benefits panned out. I'm not quite ready for a full review of the ASUS Eee Slate EP121 yet, but I'll share what I've concluded so far.
-I've seen people complain about the battery power, but I think these people are forgetting that they're dealing with a pretty powerful tablet PC here, not an iPad. Three and a half hours of battery power to be totally untethered while drawing has been pretty fantastic. I also can't think of a lot of situations where I'd NEED to be away from an outlet for that long... curled up in my bed, sitting on the living room couch, or anywhere else (even at a table at a con) will most likely have an outlet, and if it doesn't, 3.5 hours isn't a terrible sacrifice to make for mobility and power.
-That said, it's not going to compare to the new laptop, obviously. I am using Sai and may really never end up pushing the tablet to its limits. If it can handle Photoshop or Painter, I'd have to be very gentle with it. Regardless, since the thing is a glorified sketchbook for me, I don't intend to push it too hard -- and it CAN be upgraded if necessary.
-The pressure sensitivity is obviously lower than I'm used to on the Cintiq, but this can be balanced with a slight alteration in my process and the acquisition of a nicer pen. :) Which I plan to get, as the default one has no buttons. I wasn't really using the ones I had on my Cintiq pen, but the next point will explain why the lack of a button on the default pen has been tricky.
-No express keys! Ahh! :D I am spoiled. I need undo (at the bare minimum -- and I am willing to use the right-click function on the pen for this, if I must... if there's only one shortcut I can have, Undo is that shortcut). I need pan, zoom, brush size, and recently added to my arsenal -- toggling transparent color on/off (mostly for sketching/inking). Right now I am making do with the Bluetooth keyboard and an awkward positioning of my left arm to keep it handy, which means I'm not steadying the tablet with my left hand the way I'm used to. Again, this can be accounted for if I find a suitable, small, very minimal keypad that I can perhaps affix to the leather case so that I'm mimicking the accessibility of those buttons.
Other than that, that's it. Sai is very quirky on the tablet, and doesn't like to let you access the taskbar while it's maximized. It also doesn't handle dual touch very well, so I haven't figured out how to keep touch functionality activated while I'm trying to paint. That's Sai's fault for ALWAYS having some temperamental issues, though, and I have a feeling I'll figure it out pretty quickly.
The good news is, sketching and inking on this thing is actually incredibly relaxing and very easy. The bad news is, I'm basically starting over from square one learning to paint. So, my clients will hopefully be forgiving if my painting is a little slow, but you all will be seeing nicer, faster sketches from here on out, as I will enjoy doing them much more. If worse comes to worst, I will figure out how to use the Intuos to color until me and the tablet have had it out and practiced together a bit more. ^_~
★ THIS IS RELEVANT! :D ★
Stephen Fry: What I Wish I Had Known When I Was 18
http://www.openculture.com/2010/05/....._i_was_18.html
-I've seen people complain about the battery power, but I think these people are forgetting that they're dealing with a pretty powerful tablet PC here, not an iPad. Three and a half hours of battery power to be totally untethered while drawing has been pretty fantastic. I also can't think of a lot of situations where I'd NEED to be away from an outlet for that long... curled up in my bed, sitting on the living room couch, or anywhere else (even at a table at a con) will most likely have an outlet, and if it doesn't, 3.5 hours isn't a terrible sacrifice to make for mobility and power.
-That said, it's not going to compare to the new laptop, obviously. I am using Sai and may really never end up pushing the tablet to its limits. If it can handle Photoshop or Painter, I'd have to be very gentle with it. Regardless, since the thing is a glorified sketchbook for me, I don't intend to push it too hard -- and it CAN be upgraded if necessary.
-The pressure sensitivity is obviously lower than I'm used to on the Cintiq, but this can be balanced with a slight alteration in my process and the acquisition of a nicer pen. :) Which I plan to get, as the default one has no buttons. I wasn't really using the ones I had on my Cintiq pen, but the next point will explain why the lack of a button on the default pen has been tricky.
-No express keys! Ahh! :D I am spoiled. I need undo (at the bare minimum -- and I am willing to use the right-click function on the pen for this, if I must... if there's only one shortcut I can have, Undo is that shortcut). I need pan, zoom, brush size, and recently added to my arsenal -- toggling transparent color on/off (mostly for sketching/inking). Right now I am making do with the Bluetooth keyboard and an awkward positioning of my left arm to keep it handy, which means I'm not steadying the tablet with my left hand the way I'm used to. Again, this can be accounted for if I find a suitable, small, very minimal keypad that I can perhaps affix to the leather case so that I'm mimicking the accessibility of those buttons.
Other than that, that's it. Sai is very quirky on the tablet, and doesn't like to let you access the taskbar while it's maximized. It also doesn't handle dual touch very well, so I haven't figured out how to keep touch functionality activated while I'm trying to paint. That's Sai's fault for ALWAYS having some temperamental issues, though, and I have a feeling I'll figure it out pretty quickly.
The good news is, sketching and inking on this thing is actually incredibly relaxing and very easy. The bad news is, I'm basically starting over from square one learning to paint. So, my clients will hopefully be forgiving if my painting is a little slow, but you all will be seeing nicer, faster sketches from here on out, as I will enjoy doing them much more. If worse comes to worst, I will figure out how to use the Intuos to color until me and the tablet have had it out and practiced together a bit more. ^_~
★ THIS IS RELEVANT! :D ★
Stephen Fry: What I Wish I Had Known When I Was 18
http://www.openculture.com/2010/05/....._i_was_18.html
Today is the first day of an awesome new era for my art. :D
Posted 13 years agoThe Asus tablet PC that Maher sent me is arriving today. Any hour, really. He wouldn't let me save up the $1000 it's worth, but I didn't expect he would. Everyone who helped me, you guys have my undying appreciation and devotion. I hope to be able to do something for each of you very soon!
I am fully behind the notion of making my commission work a mobile process. I love my office, but having the ability to go outside in the sunlight, go with Cory on his band practices, agree to see my friends when they ask if I'm going to emerge from my cave, etc. and be able to simply bring my commission work with me everywhere is a very, very good development that should see my turnaround time picking up IMMENSELY.
Hell, even those "I don't feel so great" sick days will no longer be an excuse, as I can very easily just roll over, pick up the tablet, and work without ever leaving bed.
If it works out, I'd be very happy to maybe see about posting more information for any of you who are considering dropping money on a tablet but could potentially go for a full solution for a little more. I really think it's worth it... the Cintiq 12wx cost me $2400 back in the day, and this tablet PC retails for $1200... you do the math!
So, for those of you who've waited this far, I promise you'll be rewarded with not only the work you paid for, but a much speedier turnaround time and a much cheerier me!
I'll keep you posted. <3
edit: This day just took a turn for the weird. X3 My ex-stepsister (we were siblings from when I was 4 and she was 8 to when I was 13 and she was 17) just commented on the same Facebook thread that I did, a mutual friend (her cousin, my childhood best friend). We're talking in FB chat. So. Weird. So weird that someone can be your sibling, live with you that way for 8 years, and then never see you again.
I am fully behind the notion of making my commission work a mobile process. I love my office, but having the ability to go outside in the sunlight, go with Cory on his band practices, agree to see my friends when they ask if I'm going to emerge from my cave, etc. and be able to simply bring my commission work with me everywhere is a very, very good development that should see my turnaround time picking up IMMENSELY.
Hell, even those "I don't feel so great" sick days will no longer be an excuse, as I can very easily just roll over, pick up the tablet, and work without ever leaving bed.
If it works out, I'd be very happy to maybe see about posting more information for any of you who are considering dropping money on a tablet but could potentially go for a full solution for a little more. I really think it's worth it... the Cintiq 12wx cost me $2400 back in the day, and this tablet PC retails for $1200... you do the math!
So, for those of you who've waited this far, I promise you'll be rewarded with not only the work you paid for, but a much speedier turnaround time and a much cheerier me!
I'll keep you posted. <3
edit: This day just took a turn for the weird. X3 My ex-stepsister (we were siblings from when I was 4 and she was 8 to when I was 13 and she was 17) just commented on the same Facebook thread that I did, a mutual friend (her cousin, my childhood best friend). We're talking in FB chat. So. Weird. So weird that someone can be your sibling, live with you that way for 8 years, and then never see you again.
