The Otaku Gene

IMPORTANT!! IMPORTANT!!

2007-11-01T18:30:00.000-07:00

I have finally gotten a domain name/website!

This will replace BOTH my Livejournal and Blogger!

There will still be blog posts and sketch updates and stuff, but this is also host to my portfolio and writing collection. Please update your links and/or subscribe to the RSS if you want to keep up with me!

Photoamusement

2007-10-24T21:07:00.001-07:00

We found a perfect Deardorff Large Format Camera in the closet at school today. Worth about $1,700 dollars. HOLY FSTARKING CRAP. We hope the principal will let us sell it on eBay or something.

We also set up our studio to take portraits. Right now we're just working with two lights and nothing else. No umbrellas, no bounces, nothing else but the flash on my camera. It's pretty ghetto and makes for some funky lighting that ultimately didn't please me, but it's a start.
So here's some stuff I did for photo:

(Click for larger if you can't read the text)

Kids are two Photo III kids who had nothing better to do.

A New Member of the Family

2007-10-14T20:25:00.000-07:00

Meet Inky, 160gb iPod Classic. First one I've bought for myself.

I could afford the iPod, but not the Applecare, which was an additional fifty bucks... it's worth it, but now i'm fifty in the hole.

But hey, movies! I've been putting trailers on my iPod while it loads all my music.

-Flip

A Suprise!

2007-10-13T20:37:00.000-07:00

Remember This Post from a few days/week ago? Well, I had sent a letter to him same day I posted it, saying how much I loved his first book, Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time, and how much he had inspired me when I was little.

I got a handwritten postcard from James Gurney!!

Omg I was so stoked. :) I am so happy. Totally made my day.
*dances*

-Flip

An Unpaid Job

2007-10-13T07:19:00.001-07:00

Here's a doodle of the Lord:

He has a mouth now.

Today I might go to school and help Mrs. Whelan wade through our three closets full of old photography equipment.

I swear, it's like Christmas every time I go in there. We find so much stuff that I wish we had last year, but since the photo teacher two years ago left in such a hurry, everything was just thrown off into a pile and left uncounted. So we have a bunch of stuff, like developing tanks and a freakton of trays, plus three color enlargers and one large black and white one. We also have some old-timey antique equipment and really obsolete stuff that we can't use anymore.

So our plan is to go through, salvage whatever we want and can use, and the rest we're going to sell. We got the OK from Dr. Smith and Dr. Geihs, so the proceeds will come right back around to the photo department.

This is really cool for me. I found our backdrop stand, plus three rolls of backdrop paper, two of which weren't even out of the packaging. I'm now the one that's also in charge of all our 'Calls' from around school. I've got the sole responsibility of taking pictures for the Student of the Month display and all that crap, while the rest of my class learns Photoshop and fights with our extremely crippled computers. I get an extreme amount of joy and sense of accomplishment out of my Photo II class now. :)

A Rant

2007-10-10T15:28:00.000-07:00

I've been a member of Deviantart since I was about 12. That's four years I've been faithful to them through everything.

Deviantart used to be a great service. Many tutorials, stock photos, and intelligent people, beautiful art, and a great social network for other artists of different mediums.

Recently, I don't know when, because I don't seem to remember them pointing this out, they have turned on the Mature Content Filter for anyone under 18. I'm 16, and have never turned the filter on. DA does not post pornography, but artistic nudes and sometimes references to drugs or violent images come across my radar. They do not offend ME, and my parents have thus far always been cool with it. I'm kind of pissed off because all of the sudden, I click on something and it says "You cannot view this until you turn 18."

Nobody told me this. There was no news post.

I post my grievance in the forum, and I'm instantly flamed with "I really don't care anymore" and "What's with all these diaper-changing complaints lately, grow the f*ck up"

Seriously, I addressed my complaint in a civil and adult manner, and these people are treating me like nothing.

I'm seriously in a shaking rage, mostly because of the response I got.

So, I quit DA today, once and for all. My drawings are taken off, and my photos will now only be displayed on Photobucket. Any drawings I do post will probably be either here, or on a seperate sketchblog if I so choose to make one. I might actually get to work on a portfolio site within the next few months...

Holy hell I hate people.

-Flip

Good things!

2007-10-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

Well, good things may be afoot. This is May as in "Unicorns MAY exist, but until we kill one and eat it, we'll never know."

Firstly, there's a new section in the school newspaper titled Campus Life, or something of that nature. With a new section, they need a new section editor. I've since volunteered my extra time, and I'm feeling hopeful. Most of my Journalism class is Freshmeats, and I'm a Junior, so I have seniority over them. Plus, I'm taking three English classes this year. It's not really a section I'm ecstatic about, but it would be pretty friggin' sweet to be able to work on the paper.

I won't be a staff writer, but I still get to do something. :D

Also, last year I took the PSAT, which is a requirement among highschool sophomores. Apparently I scored high enough to get the attention of some smaller schools and institutes around the states, but I haven't enticed CalArts or the Brooks Institute of Photography. I did however get a letter from University of Nevada, Reno saying that since I placed so high on the PSAT last year, I should take it AGAIN this year, to see if I can be a finalist and win a four year $60,000 scholarship (Or, $15,000 a year) from the National Honors Society or something.

So, I have until next monday to register at the bank for the PSAT. It's only fifteen bucks, and not that hard. The only problem I have is the math part, and I still didn't fail. I take the real SAT at the end of this year, and this should help me prepare for that too, I guess.

Here's some art since I still don't post enough. :> I have some new ceramics pieces that need to be fired once we get the part for the kiln.

Gurney Journey - Dinosaurs!

2007-10-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

I remember reading Dinotopia when I was real little. I loved the illustrations in the one hard-back book I had, and before I really read it, I only looking through that book just to see the pictures. I had the first one, I think. Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time

So I was so stoked when Drawn! had a post about James Gurney's Blog, Gurney Journey. He has a lot of tips and tricks, and I had no idea that Dinotopia was still going so strong. I'm going to have to pick up some of the books and look through them.

His stuff is really fantastic and immediately made me think of Artlad. :)

Autism Strikes Again

2007-10-01T14:08:00.000-07:00

Today started off normally. The printer was out of ink, so when I tried to re-print my Creative Writing homework, it was all fuzzy and faded and stupid looking. Then I left it at home. Awesome. Luckily I had it saved to my thumb drive, so I could print it out in Photography. Other than that, the day went by with little problem. Nothing interesting happened.

So when I got on the bus to go home, Fletcher is obviously agitated. He's hitting his head and fussing, but nothing too serious as we first pull out of the parking lot. Then, he starts hitting harder. I was afraid of him knocking himself out, maybe a window, or hurting anyone (Bob forbid, the Bus Driver.) so I have to leap out of my seat and hold down his arms while he kicks and screams and keeps trying to hit himself.

Now, I may be older, but my feminine genetics and lack of dietary regularity have put me somewhere between 90 and a 115 pounds on a bad day and good day, respectfully. He's taller, chubbier, stronger, and much more ferocious. So while I hold his arms and scream at him to stop it while the Bus Driver and Aid look at me. When I have his hands, he stomps his feet and kicks and tries to get into the aisle to fuss even more. My new fear was that he would kick the fire extinquisher or hurt the Bus Driver or Aid, so I pull him back up in his seat as best I can (Causing my back to twinge something fsking bad) and scream at him to stop. He's hitting his head against the seat, just hell-bent on causing himself bodily harm while he bellows and screams for any reason. I don't know what set it off, but I know my hands are still shaking 30 minutes later, and I was afraid he was going to break my arms or something.

So that's an example of how bad he can get. That's not the worst, however. I know, because if it were the worst, I wouldn't have been able to stop him. And then I don't know what I'd do...

Halo 3!

2007-09-25T05:27:00.000-07:00

At long last, after years of waiting and weeks of suspense, last night just felt like Christmas... Boyfriend and I were so excited we could hardly sleep (even though I ended up dozing while we texted back and forth) And finally...

We got it! I got up about 1 and dad let me play two levels. We ended up playing until three, then I went to bed for two more hours. I'm kinda dozy, but not defeated like I usually am. I have a friend that stocks Bawls so if she brings me a bottle I should be more than set for the day.

And so far my review: Effin SWEET.

I got time to putz around on the computer, but I should really put some food in me.

Sketchcast!

2007-09-24T18:27:00.000-07:00

I thought this would be a nifty little tool for Artlad and MM. :3

NaNoWriMo! and My Little Secret

2007-09-22T17:45:00.000-07:00

Who's participating in NaNoWriMo this October? I am!

Wow. That means that the concept of Candour is about a year old, and it STILL hasn't been really written yet. Jeez.

Perhaps I can get something down this time.

(I'll be suggesting this to my Creative Writing class on monday.)

Also, on the mention of suggesting something:
Walk Now: Cure for Autism is doing their Las Vegas walk on December 1. I've taken it upon myself to start up an actual Team in honor of my little brother. You can make an online donation for the cause- finding the cure for Autism, or for us specifically, even. I wanted to keep this a secret from my folks until the walk.. but that's so hard. I'm not a secret keeper. (I doubt they read my blog anymore anyway XD)

So I'll keep the link up on the right, and if you could pass us along to all your friends and family and maybe throw us a few bucks, that would be greatly appreciated. Look around the site! Chances are there's going to be a walk for you sometime in the future. I'm also going to be pitching this at school.. I plan to go pick up one of those new iPods at the Apple Store, and have a fundraiser at my highschool- whoever donates the most money during october and november will get the iPod. Or something like that.

So that's what's been under my hat this month.

How to Bleach Stencil a Shirt

2007-09-22T08:40:00.000-07:00

Boingboing has an article on How to Bleach Stencil a Shirt.

I've already done something like this, but it didn't turn out so good. I tried to bleach "Otaku" onto the back of my zip-up hoodie. Problem was, I used regular printer paper as my stencil. My second mistake was leaving it on, so the bleach soaked up into the paper and ruined the positive space of my stencil.

So I think I'd like to try something similar to this. I'll be making designs and having some fun with it. :)

Hiatus Broken, and Fletcher's Bad Day

2007-09-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

Circumstances kept me away, but I'm back for now, I think.

So it's been almost five weeks of school, I think. Maybe four. I don't really keep count... But my schedule is cemented to the point where I can use my photographic memory to get to place to place, and not really rely on remembering the room numbers (Always a problem when I have to sign a pass or something, but I hate paperwork and avoid it at all costs anyway.)

So our schedules are split up between odd and even classes, I think I mentioned that before. A bulleted update is as follows:

-I have 3 English classes, so I'll be earning 3 English credits this year. I only need four to graduate. Woo for me!
-Photo II is not so much a class anymore as it is a studio job. My inner pretentious voice likes to say I am the executive know-it-all (Because I am) and authority on all digital cameras, plus computer software. Which is true.
-As Photo II is mostly us catering to the rest of the school for all its photojournalism needs, I've been asked to go to a couple away games and take sports photos. I don't know if I will, but it's an offer and that itself makes me happy.
-Journalism I is possibly one of my more boring classes. (Along with US History and Algebra, all of which happen on the same day) And while I can understand the necessity of learning the history of Journalism, I just wish we could write more. Learning about Tinker and Hazelwood, and the parts of a newspaper are fun up to a point...

~*~
As for recently, nothing has really happened. Today, Mom took Dad to Lake Tahoe for his birthday, so the Grandparents are here to supervise my brother and I. All was well until I got to my sixth period class, and I had to leave to go calm Fletcher down as he was having a meltdown. I came in and he was sweating and red, but he wasn't screaming or hitting. Mr. Balint, his 'teacher', was holding him and walking him around the cafeteria while four other people- two more Special Ed teachers, plus the campus Policeman and a Hall Monitor (I mean, seriously? The campus police?) Just stood there and watched. One of them tried to stop me, but I just kind of barked at him, "I'm his sister."

Everything went okay. He was calm. Mr. Balint was rubbing ice packs over Fletcher to calm him down while the other teachers asked me if there was any certain way to calm him down. I couldn't think of any that would not be socially and publicly distracting (I.e., pinning his arms behind his back or something, which is sometimes necessary when he's violent enough) so I just said no.

So I asked Fletcher what he wanted.
"Go home,"
"Fletcher, we can't go home. Mommy and Daddy aren't there, but Grandma and Grandpa will be there when we get off the bus. Then we can have pizza. Do you want pizza for dinner?"
"Marco's".
"Yep. We'll have Marco's Pizza for dinner."

And the administrators standing by looked at me in almost awe. It was really uncomfortable for me to see their reactions, like I was speaking to some wild animal and magically calmed him down. I know it's difficult to work with kids like my brother... but when I have to be pulled out of my class to do something they should be able to handle, it makes me feel wary.

I make it sound a lot worse than it really is. In the end, my Grandpa came and picked us up. I left with them without even signing out, so the school is probably going to call me and once again warn me about being truant, if I'm truant more than three times blah blah blah go to court, all that jazz. I'm sitting at home now, typing this up. Fletcher's calm, grandparents are sleeping. It's quiet, and the weekend is about to start... hope it goes better than it began.

PS:
SEASON THREE OF AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER STARTS TONIGHT!!

I have been waiting for MONTHS I am so stoked. This show is the best kids show I've seen in a long time. It's taken the space in my heart that used to be occupied with shoes like Fullmetal Alchemist and Cowboy Bebop. If you haven't followed it this far, you should pick up the DVDs and watch them. Great characters, great story, great animation. Great HEART. The biggest thing lacking in kid's shows today.

So watch it! I demand it! Great for all ages. :)

Yet More Developments

2007-09-03T08:16:00.000-07:00

Things apparently keep on rolling. I've been getting help in terms of babysitting. Basically just being offered tips on what to do and all that, and sometime soon I'm hoping to go to the YMCA and take a course to get certified for CPR, where I can then legally do it.

I also filled out an online application for Part-time/Seasonal photographer at Bernhard and Williams, with training included. So if that goes through and I can make it there, (The studio is about 8 miles from my house, says Google Maps.) then I could very well have an 'internship' at this place, which does the senior portraits for my school, as well as regular student portraits for the yearbook. They're coming in next week, I believe, so I can probobly bug some of them to see what I need to be hired.

Moving on Up

2007-08-31T18:06:00.000-07:00

It's the conclusion of my first week of Junior year, and as such, I bear gifts of promising news.

-Tyler and I have Creative Writing together one day, and lunch the other. Not the best situation, since we obviously can't socialize in class, and lunch is only 25 minutes long, but hey. We aren't complaining. It wasn't looking likely that we were going to get anything together for a while.

-Some idiot (Or possibly a badly coded program on the computers) put me in the third period MALE weight training class. In case you've followed this blog for a long time and never found out, or have just started reading and never gathered, I'm completely lacking the plumbing and/or genitalia to classify as such. So I spent three days of my week sitting in the gym doing nothing surrounded by meat heads and weightlifters. All the other, less classy girls were jealous of me. I mean, what girl wouldn't want forty other guys slobbering all over her with teenage impulses?
Ah, you see, I've been taken for a year. And I'm also very terribly picky.
It did pick up last time though, when I was surrounded as they watched me sketch one of the guys that asked me to draw him. Turned out nice, and he was pretty psyched. It made my morning. :D

-In conclusion to the weight training fiasco, I have since been switched into Journalism I. I never really considered it, but it was the only elective I was willing to take that wouldn't screw up my schedule. My first class is on monday.

-And finally, since our Photo II class is so small (And two of the kids out of fifteen are actually Photo III- the only ones left) I seem to be able to talk to the teacher much easily. Mrs. Whelan is new, and only knows analog photography and darkroom techniques. Digital and stuff is not her forté, which is a disappointment to me, but not a problem. Her husband teaches Biology, and wants someone to document his class. I volunteered and explained to her that I have the equipment, skill and time to do so. So I will end up doing that next week, plus it is very possible I will be paired with the Graphic Arts lady that makes the school newspaper, and I'll be doing portraits of special people and documentation of special events. Hopefully I can add some life to the photos and make them NOT look like mug shots :P

So, in celebration, I give you some pictures of one of our many class pets in my Anatomy and Physiology Honors class, Left-eye the old, slow, half-blind leopard gecko. (Click the images to go to my Flickr and see bigger versions)

As Far as School is Concerned

2007-08-29T05:29:00.000-07:00

First day was the boring initiative day... we got our schedules, stayed in home room for two hours, then had a bunch of 25 minutes classes throughout the day. Had to go to all eight periods and get signed in.

Second day, I go to my A day classes, which are 1, 3, 5 and 7. (AP US History, Weight Training, Algebra II H and Ceramics II, respectively.) Some smart person, or computer, put me in the male weight training class, which is not even an elective I asked for. So coach Cochran wants me out of there before next week. Hopefull third period will be taken up by a drawing class, then most of my day on A days would be spent occupying one side of the school.

Today I'm going to B day classes, 2, 4, 6, and 8 (Photo II, Creative Writing, AP American Literature, and Anatomy and Physiology) and I'm very excited, because for the most part, they're all teachers I like, subjects I enjoy, and I have Tyler in at least one class. (Which would be creative writing.)

Mistakes so far on my part have been few. I was fairly good about writing down my schedule, since they give you one copy and you have to give that back on the first day. But I wrote down Algebra and Literature backwards. So I took first lunch, as you would take for the Lit class, and went in, and very stupidly realized fifteen minutes into it that I was in a freshman and sophomore reading class. So my teacher (Who is very sweet, nice, smart, and small. :D) sent me off to Mr. Nyugen, my Algebra teacher. Popping in halfway through class, I manage to struggle through a review packet and a student questionnaire at the same time, then I go to lunch. (Again.)

Tyler isn't as happy, but then, he had a rough first day anyway. 3 hours in registration. And I have to go in there today to get my third period changed.

So, just an update on life.
(Please forgive possible spelling errors in this post. It's 5:45 in the morning and I gotta go in thirty minutes. Sleepeh!)

Surgery Update

2007-08-24T18:05:00.001-07:00

So, I got six teeth removed at about 9'o'clock this morning. I hobbled to the car, stumbled around, and just kinda chilled out.

Then I had to get rid of my gauze so I could try and drink my shake, and some of it had gotten stuck around my newly installed brackets. So while trying to pull out this soggy, bloody gauze and right as dad was coming back with rubber gloves to help me, I passed out.

Just. Like. Zonk. Really wierd.

So all day I was confined to the couch before I could fall all over the place, even though I know I won't. I'm fine now. Had some sugar in me, since I figure most of the problem was that I was fasting for six hours prior to the whole deal and I still couldn't eat for a few hours anyway. It's been ten hours and the local anasthesia still hasn't quite worn off. I can't feel my lower lip, and I'm desperately craving cheesy bread. :(

I got pain killers. Might end up using them later.

So yeah... interesting day.

2007-08-24T10:55:00.001-07:00

Just ogt out of it. Extremely ... eh. Not disoriented. I can walk and talk just fine (cetp for gauze in my mouth) but typing is another matter.

god damn six teeth gone. I got pain killer medicine and the ladies in the office snuck a packet of top ramen in my bag. Sweet.

Also, my dogtor was really buff and scary with the hugest jaw bones I'd ever seen. But i liked him. he was cool.

should be a fun week at schoo.

Orthodontosaurus

2007-08-22T19:14:00.000-07:00

Thing is, I've got bad teeth. Cross bite, over bite, crowding, pretty much the whole works. We've known it for years that I would need braces. I just never thought I'd have to decide in fifteen minutes.

We go into Dr. Fuller's place, and Dad and I are greeted with a quirky little parking-space sign saying "reserved for Flip and Family" and dad immediately is in giggles. That is SO cool, he insists, and I'm just a little put-off. I couldn't help but think Oh god, this is one of those places that tries to appeal to the inner kid. I tell you, my cynism wasn't wrong, but it also didn't stick the entire time...

So we go in, and while Dad is filling in the questionairre, I'm filling out my own that they give me. What kind of music do I like, my favorite foods, favorite sports, what have you. They finally come in for me, and I get the regular Pano scan and the other x-rays needed. And. Boyo. The exam room I ended up in looked like a deep-compression chamber. The seat had a custom apholstury with a tank gauge on it and everything.

So while they take pictures of my teeth (And dad is in more giggly hysterics taking pictures of the "zombie face") I guess I'm more relaxed. Or, at least as comfortable as one can get in a dentists office.

So the girl comes in and jokes around. She notices the shirt I'm wearing ("I'm a sucker for a Latin Boy". I still feel silly wearing it in public sometimes.) and says "Sorry, we don't have any here."

Lol. Told her I had my own.

So then we wait a while to see Dr. Fuller to discuss what we need to do. I had gone in thinking this would just be a consultation and we would just talk. I had been scheduled for wisdom teeth extraction on friday, and possibly a surgery to correct my jaw. But Dr. Fuller mentioned that if it were his daughter, he wouldn't. He'd seen complications, and people go into depression because they didn't recognize their own face afterwards. So instead we reached a comprimise, which involved taking out two teeth behind my eye teeth, my canines. So, since I was already scheduled to take out wisdom teeth in two days, he said I should just get the other teeth out and get it over with.

And the braces gotta be in before I get them taken out.

So, in short, after discussing it further, and finding out I have two and a half years of orthodontal care ahead of me, I got the braces.

I feel very silly to say that I couldn't help but think of the scene in Revenge of the Sith where Vadar rises up, all decked out in his helmet. I almost giggled.

Now I'm just sad that I couldn't eat much steak. :( The brackets keep my back teeth from touching all the way.

Like Moon-boots only AWESOME

2007-08-19T17:06:00.001-07:00

You can find out more information on these nifty little bouncy legs at Poweriser Pages. I want some! They look like so much fun!

EDIT:
Here's the website of the US dealer. Oh man. If I wasn't saving up for a Macbook again, I'd so get these...

The Nightwatchman - Alone Without You

2007-08-17T20:31:00.001-07:00

Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave), now working under the name The Nightwatchman, saw a preview screening for Michael Moore's Sicko and was so inspired, he went back to his hotel room and wrote a song. It ended up being featured in the ending credits of the movie.

I didn't like Tom's guitar bits in later Audioslave albums, but for the most part I feel he is an incredibly talented dude. It's nice to see him still doing what he does best even without the help of Brad and Tim. He's still doing his politically minded songs. And this particular song is a nice little acoustic thing. Quiet. Which is an interesting change of pace from what I usually hear from him.

So I guess I'll have to pay more attention to "The Nightwatchman"

Anatomical Tattoos

2007-08-15T13:48:00.000-07:00

Street Anatomy has a gallery of some stupendous anatomical tattoos. The first and the third are my absolute favorites. I really enjoy body mods and have come to admire people who do them. I know my parents don't show as much appreciation for them, or for my enjoyment in them, but I'm not going to stop loving wonderful skin work. Plus, a lot of those show a definate amount of skill involved, and the artists should be commended.

And think, it could be worse. They could have been all BSOD or Zune tattoos.

Via Boingboing.net.

Ps, I think someday soon I'll do a roundup of my all-time favorite tattoos and mods.

To Call Upon

2007-08-08T16:03:00.000-07:00

I made this because I needed a business card... The back isn't made up yet, but this is the front. I want to print it on a nice rough paper so it should have more texture when it's finished. I just need to establish a permanent portfolio site and what not.

I can't wait to finish this. :) I'm rather proud of it.

(click for a bigger picture)

In Regards to Cephalopods

2007-08-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

I truly have the best boyfriend ever. :)

Knowing full well my obsession with Octopi and Cuttlefish over the past few months, he picked this up for me at the Seattle Aquarium :D :D (I also got a Mariners shirt from their most recent game at Fenway park. What a tense game!!)

But yes. I forget what started it, but I have been occupying my art with more of these cuties. I even had a little webcomic in mind with a Giant Octopus named Homer and his caretaker Odessa. Never went anywhere with it... but it was the center of my obsession for a long time. I've also got designs for my ceramics class involving cuttlefish teapots and minimalistic octopodes. I might sell the teapot I make this year if it even comes out nice. :)

So yeah, thanks to my Tyler I have my very own Homer. :D

More art!

2007-08-03T19:54:00.000-07:00

Four posts in a day! That's more than... well, usual.

I enjoy inking in flash and using muted palettes. Here's my three different alter-egos. Flip, Caleigh, and... Flip/Caleigh. o_o

An Otaku Chaser

2007-08-03T14:57:00.000-07:00

I don't think my site is really otaku enough. I don't focus as much on the japanese aspect of it... but I can't think of a better name now.

OH WELL.

I lived on the moon is a beautiful short animated by Yannik Puig with music from Kwoon's "Tales and Dreams". It's very dreamlike and soft with a sort of quiet intensity later on in life. Watch it, and then scroll down the page to read the creator's thoughts on it. Beautiful animation!

Angsting and Blogging

2007-08-03T14:49:00.001-07:00

Our neighborhood is nice upon first glance. Most the lawns are trimmed, we aren't living in squalor, and most of our neighbors get along most of the time. There have been domestic disturbances here and there, cars on bricks for months at a time, and one notable instance of a neighbor a street down being arrested and evicted for growing pot in his backyard.

But walking home today, I saw my next-door neighbor and one time best friend noticeably... big. Not chunky big. Pregnant big. Like, eight months in. And this saddened me to realize that she is only three DAYS older than me. Over the past year I know for a fact she had been heavily into pot and drinking, and even though she had long sworn never to do pills (Her real dad died of overdose) she had started up on that as well.. On the one time I had gone into her house after not speaking to her for two years, she even showed me her stash of ecstacy and weed. (She knows I don't smoke, but she still offers me some now and then.)

It's incredibly frustration to know that these people are not bad. They are not evil. But they aren't SMART. They don't want to be. It won't matter if I move away, because I'll always be surrounded by people like this.

I guess because Tyler's in Washington and I'm not it's making me miss it more than ever. Seattle's culture is filled with art and smart people and other things I can identify with. It's not oppressively hot- people don't get heat stroke after being outside for ten minutes. And... I remember when I was smaller, we always talked to our neighbor. We weren't the reclusive shut-ins we are now.

I don't know. Random ramble.

Autism and Thomas the Tank Engine

2007-08-02T18:04:00.000-07:00

This Snippit on boingboing interested me. Ever since Fletcher and I were both little, I can remember him being drawn to Thomas the Tank engine. However, I don't quite know if he's interested in the same way that the article suggests. I think he's mostly more interested in the aspect of the train itself, not the stims that come with it. (I remember we also used to watch Theodore the Tugboat as well, which had similar characters) And now that he's older, he has actually grown out of it. He doesn't watch the tapes like he used to, and he's more into the more intricate and detailed models of engines (Particularly BNSF engines and switches, as of late)

I figure my parents will think differently, but it's just my two cents.

Little Annoying Monster

2007-08-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

>

This is Cholo. He is my boyfriend's baby. Tyler loves this little guy to pieces, and Tyler's Mom hates him to death. He's a chihuahua/cocker spaniel mix and isn't quite yet a year old, and boy does it show. He's definately no Blazey.

I'm a little bitter right now because this little buttmunch woke me up at four in the morning by humping my head.

And I'm watching him for a week.

200 pounds of wasted Cowpiggen

2007-07-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

Went out in the garage today to get another mini pizza for lunch, and noticed the meat freezer was open.

Frick.

Turns out a box of spring rolls stopped it from closing, and whoever was in there last didn't bother to check if it closed all the way.

So Dad and I pulled out all our meat (Not even a few weeks old, there was plenty of it from our last delivery) and threw it away. Bacon, steak, a few chickens, some cornish game hens, plus frozen veggies and other things we keep in there when our little freezer can't fit it.

So we en't to happy. The garbage man doesn't come until monday (And I really wish dad would just take it to the dump instead of wait four days for our meat to rot) I just bleached out the inside and wiped off all the blood and stink.

Mom is going to flip.

More art stuff

2007-07-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling kinda meh lately. I wanna photograph people, but the only person I ever see regularly is Tyler, and he doesn't like taking artsy pictures.

Also, here's a random photoshop doodle while I was bored.

-Flip

Boom Boy

2007-07-14T20:51:00.000-07:00

Between my newest obsession (Wii- Codenamed Roland) and my obsession of 1.3 years (Boyfriend- Tyler, of course) I hardly get anything done art wise. Sometimes I can multitask with my guilty pleasures, but I do feel guilty. Sitting in my pajamas at three in the afternoon playing Twilight Princess while on the phone with Mr. Clingies McLonely makes me feel extremely greasy and gross and... Otaku. The bad kind of Otaku.

But, sometimes I can get interested in something long enough. Recently it was a new idea conjured up by The Boyfriend called Boom Boy, which had recently been inspired by a lot of Gorillaz and Tank Girl. (The art, specifically, done by a talented man call Jamie Hewlitt.)

So Boom Boy was a comic project he wanted to do, and I was willing to help because the character intrigued me so much. But unfortunately, my style is nowhere near what Tyler wants...

It's hard, to balance my style with my longtime admired artist. Not particularly proud of the image, but I was proud of the concept at least. I might try to tackle this another time when I'm more focused.

-Flip

Deer Doodles!

2007-07-13T18:14:00.000-07:00

I took a break from playing Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess today to draw some deer. Obviously inspired by their rather interesting goats.

And here's the same thing with an interesting photoshop effect applied to it.

-Flip

The Consistency of Hamburger Helper

2007-07-11T09:14:00.001-07:00

It's hard to be mad at my dogs, seeing as one of them just had a biopsy and the other is just old, fat and stinky. They're both getting up there in years.

BUT STILL. Is it necissary to find MY room the perfect place to vomit your half-digested food while I'm in the shower??

And worse yet, I had to dig through it to find out whodunnit, trying to find pills and such. (Didn't find any pills what so ever, but in my defense my room smells like a dead human covered in bleach now.)

(Click for bigger grossness if you so wish. And since that first one doesn't have a controller in the vicinity to tell you how freakishly big that is, it's the size of 2 of my HANDS. I swear one of these dogs is really a cow with another set of stomachs now.)

In all seriousness, I really hope this isn't a sign of one of their medications backfiring or what ever. I don't like the idea of them being in any more pain than they might be, being all fat and arthritic. Still doesn't take away the temptation to btch about it anyway.

-Flip

Weeeeee!

2007-07-07T19:07:00.000-07:00

((Life is incredibly perverse. I got this game and my extra controller, but my Wii won't get here until tomorrow, or Friday at the latest...))

Getting back to the Otaku side of things, I didn't wait to go see if I could grab one at the local gaming store (Seeing as they only stock two at a time, and they sell so fast.) I spent 400 bucks (As opposed to 200 bucks average retail) just to get my Wii. Also bought this game, which was close to 50. My total was pretty near close 500. I think I went over by 9.

I still want Viva Pinata. :D

-Flip

Women throughout the Eras

2007-07-06T11:44:00.000-07:00

Here's something cool:

I love how they look alive.

Found via Drawn!

Cool Photo :)

2007-07-05T21:12:00.001-07:00

Hey, I took this with my telephoto lens this afternoon.

For as long as I could remember, we've usually always had hummingbird feeders around the house. One of our regulars in Arizona was a little female with one foot, I think.

So yeah, took this. :)

-Flip

Some more doodles

2007-07-04T10:02:00.000-07:00

I recently joined Conceptart.org in order to hone my skills some more. My main interests are the tutorials and the Creature of the Week challenges. Last week's was themed "Summer Plague", and it closed before I could finish. So here's some progressive ideas of my creature called the Camel Wolf.

A picture

2007-07-02T12:59:00.000-07:00

Portrait I did out of boredom. Layne Staley, singer of Alice in Chains.

Summer Checklist

2007-07-01T11:43:00.001-07:00

Hey, so now I'm a third of the way through my summer vacation. The hand that was wounded in TKD last monday is getting better. Bulleted list, I choose you!

-I've got about $450 saved up. Thinking of getting a bunch of stuff... A Wii, Guitar Hero II, Viva Pinata, clothes, art stuff, or maybe even an acoustic bass... Hmmm...

-I also got my drivers permit about two weeks ago, and haven't gone driving since. This needs to change- I have a year to get my license!

-Got Dad's old (product) red iPod Nano. It is rocking, I love it. Decided to keep my old cell phone though, since I'm more adept at SMS texting. 1000 whenever minutes, free nights and weekends, unlimited texting... Mmmm yeah. :)

-Saw Ratatouille last night- LOVED IT. It was amazing! I was astounded at the level of detail and clarity of all the characters and environments. I would LOVE to work at Pixar.

-Tyler is begging me to go see Transformers with him on wednesday. Glad I got this kid to embrace his nerdy side, because it's so cute. :) And we're still going strong. This month should mark a 1.3 years. Or something like that, I gave up on math for a while...

-I'm scheduled for all AP and Honors classes next year, for the first time ever in my life. I've never really been brave enough to take on those classes, but after much coaxing from my peers I'm going ahead and doing it.

-I am jobless! I need to start selling my art and designing logos or something.

That's about it so far. Trying to keep up with TOG

iPhone Camping

2007-06-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

So Dad and I camped for the iPhone today. Here are some images that turned out nice. (The only ones that turned out nice, out of... like 50)

Okay, so this guy randomly came up to me and let me try out his tilt shift lens. It was awesome. and Dad say that he was hitting on me.

This is just one section of the line. Dad's the one in the salmon colored shirt on the bottom right hand corner. There was one other section like us behind us, and eventually a line that went outside.

These are some of the guys that were sitting in the hallway to the exit. There were probobly more about an hour later, since this is not all of them.

Guys in the very front of the line were fscking celebrities. Real cool.

First guy out with an iPhone!!

I'll let Wood tell the story. I'm kinda tired now.

"But, you're a GIRL."

2007-06-27T09:03:00.000-07:00

One of the few reasons I have to not like Disney.

It's kinda scary, not seeing a lot of female artists for games and animated movies featured on interviews and such. But that's not going to stop me. I would love to create games like Prince of Persia, Gears of War or Halo. Rigging, modeling, animating, texturing, I'll learn it all. (My ultimate desire is to do character concepts though.) And not any sexist studio is going to keep me from doing that.

via boing boing

Where do I begin?

2007-05-04T19:53:00.000-07:00

Basically, today was a nerd fest.

I heard about two weeks ago that Stan Lee was coming to my local comic book store, Comic Oasis. My boyfriend and I were looking forward to it ever since then, and today I played hooky and dad took us both over there at about noon. Signing wouldn't start until 1, but already the line/mob wrapped around the complex.

So we waited for a super long time. On wednesday, dad picked up three copies of Spiderman #539. Only, they were variant covers, exclusive to our store. Only about 5000 made. (The original #539 is already on eBay for about 100$, dad says.) So Tyler has a copy, I have a copy, and so does dad.

They were horribly rushed towards the end, because Stan Lee had to go at about 2, having a red carpet premier at the Palms for the opening of Spiderman 3. So in the beginning, they were letting us take pictures, but "Be quick!" They kept telling us. Then when it got to us they really rushed us- people were milling around the store, there was a documentary team inside, and people pushing us to get out. So I got mine signed first.

(You can click to see a bigger picture)

Then when I tried to get a picture the idiot in front of me wouldn't move, so I have a poorly framed picture.

But it's authentic!

Then we saw Spiderman 3 in theatres, had fun, and. Yay. :) Spent the day with my two nerdy guys who are probobly sick of me by now.

Going to go do some fanart, if I can muster the umph.
-Flip

Class Rings woo!

2007-04-24T16:34:00.000-07:00

My Ring

So a representative from Jostens came today and tried to sell to us the idea that highschool WASN'T going to be the best years of our life, but we might as well make them the best we can. I was never really sold on the idea of class rings, since I'm not very spirited for my school. But today, I don't know... maybe the salesman got to me. So I designed it online, filled out my form, and what you see is what it should look like. :D Hematite and white lustrium, costing about $230. I have to clear it with mom and finalize what's going on the inside of the band, then on tuesday the whole ring ordering business will be completed.

So yeah. I'm actually kinda happy. I've been wanting something dainty for a while. X)

-Flip

Welcome to the World

2007-04-23T18:33:00.000-07:00

The Eclair

Many congrats to MM and family. They're now the proud relations of this darling little tiny thing, born Saturday. :)

And since, I've been inspired to bring The Otaku Gene back up. So as of now I'm tentatively back from my months-long hiatus, and I come bearing apologetic gifts of art, photos, and not-terribly amusing stories.

So to recap these last few months/weeks:

I auditioned for the Las Vegas Academy
I was mailed a rejection letter
I've been promoted to Green Belt
I've purchased my Photoshop CS3 Upgrade
I've come in contact with my closest friend/soul sister again
The Boyfriend and I have been together over one year since March 20
I've finally filled out a job application for Comic Oasis, and submitted it yesterday (Sunday)

I'm sure there's other things, but for now that's really it. I'll try to put something creative up in the next few days.

<3
-Flip

PS: There's been talk of Stan Lee being at Comic Oasis on May 4, with is the day before Free Comic Book Day. :DDDD Nerdfest!!

Some more art!!

2006-10-20T20:53:00.000-07:00

I make dorky faces. So yeah. I broke out a sharpie, hooked up my crappy little Art Tracer Jr., and plopped on a 3x3 reference image of Calvin and Hobbes doin' their boogie. I love this shirt. Problem is, since it's sharpie, it'll fade as it washes. So I'll have to keep touching it up.

I've been doing alot more photography and writing lately. In Photo I, we're getting used to our pinhole cameras. I should post a tutorial on how to make them. They're really super fun!

I have one image. We have to expose it on photo paper, so it comes out all negative and wierd looking. And you have to sit there for a really long time (Like, a minute. Which isn't too long for me, but my classmates don't like sitting still. What with their ADHD and all) just to expose the image. Which makes for some really cool effects if someone walks through your view. You get ghosty images and it looks really. frickin. awesome.

So I took advantage of this and when I made my first exposure, I put my hand in the view for 30 seconds, and then took it out. :) Observe:

When we learn how to make positives, you betcher I'm going to make this look all cool.

As for other photos, I only have a few. Drawings lately have been kinda blah. I'm having art block. I'm collaborating with my lovely on a graphic novel he plans to write. I'm doing concept art for characters and environments, and once he has a couple scripts written up in the proper format and proofread, I'm going to help him look for an artist. Maybe I can persuade the two of them to make it a webcomic.

I'm also participating in NaNoWriMo next month. I have a plot that needs tweaking, and I've been practicing. Here's one of my practice paragraphs to try and get typing really fast:

The club bounced merrily as people inside let go of inhibition and let themselves fall easily into the lap of comfort. In the company of strangers, most people felt they could trust these unkowns more easily than their own family or lovers. Outisde at the edge of the cliff where the broken down warehouse that the club was within, one woman swung her legs across the side. Long since lost her shoes to the heights and the depths, her bare feet were free to the cold mist. This club was in such a remote place, it was difficult to understand how anyone had found it. Yet somehow she did. Somehow by following her feet she had come to this place on the edge of the sea and there she knew she would stay.
The men swayed slowly, under the influence of countless things. Some of the women as well were experiencing flashbacks and euphoric moments as well. But this woman, sitting by herself, was sober. Above the influence. Just letting her thoughts guide her through to Serenity. Club Serenity on the edge of the Eternal Ocean. A place where the ghosts came to watch the fish dance on the shore before being swept away in neon colored waves. This woman watched half-developed images of people moving through the slow frames of life as they pulled at each other and fell the floor somewhat awkwardly and made drunken love. By herself, she sat vicarious to their pleasure, equally content in her solitude.
She stood slowly, stepping carefully around the people and expertly navigating the currents of populace as if she were a trout going upstream. She never once touched one of the phantoms, and nobody so much as saw her go through. Her black cocktail dress left faint black lines in someone's vision as she stepped up the stairs, padding carefully on the balls of her bare feet. Even if the music wasn't blaring, she would remain inaudible.
What was it about this place that made her feel so complete. She felt pleasantly empty, without a care in the world. Nobody else cared either, not even looking up as she stepped into a room where yet more couples groped and caressed in the darkness. Nobody stopped her when she flung the windows out against the ocean breeze, seeing that they were surrounded on a precipice of rock in the middle of a toxic sea.
Here, the ghosts found refuge. The refuse of heaven and the unwanteds of hell came here to make do with the immortality that they now had. Free to sin but forced to stay.

18 minutes and 436 words. Prompt was to think of some place I would like to stay, but obviously I twisted that around. :P Writ to the tune of "Fresh" by Daft Punk.

And photos!

Tyler had I have been together for 7 months today, and he got his braces off today as well. :)

-Flip

Bad Me

2006-10-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

I'm bad. Bad bad bad.

I do blog, but not here. I try to put only interesting stuff that applies to the world here. My LJ is mostly for emo stuff and things that I have to announce here and there.

But I did find cool things!!

Remember Last.fm? It gave you a playlist of what you were listening to at the moment? (My dad has one on his blog, but it doesn't update anymore. I think he forgets to turn on audioscrobbler like I do)

Well here I have something that looks kinda like a windows media player. (To the right, the black and pink) It's an .mp3 player from Loudfusion.com. (Here I turned off autoplay, since I hate it when it does that, and I haven't finished adding stuff to my playlist yet.)

What Loudfusion is as far as I've figured out is just a place where myspacers can put more annoying codes into their profiles to annoy their friends. But I like it because if I need to, I can just point someone to here or to my profile and tell them "Look for this song and listen to it! Doooo iiiiiit~"

Like right now. Listen to Anna Begins by Counting Crows.

Doooo iiiiiit.

The sound quality is pretty good. But I have a file or two that just doesn't play, which is okay. People seem to upload multiple files.

I dunno. This is probobly one of those "useless things that girls put on their computers" that my dad always nags me about. But I think it's fun, and gives you something to listen to if you want, and if I happened to post something long for once. (Hah.)

Now, as for a life update.

Before, I tend to be in the odd groups of people. The ones that weren't really popular, weren't really pretty, but it was still a big group and quite a few people floated in and out of the clique. There were subcliques, sistercliques, all sorts of cliques connected to it and through that, we would find multitudes of individuals who matched our interests.

Then I went to that dumb charter school and had no friends for a year.

Well, it seems that group found me again. Since the beginning of the year I would sit by myself at lunch. However, as of Friday, I was taken pity upon and was commanded to come "Sit over here". Which I did.

The group as it is is smallish. There's Megan (Or "Weasel") And her girlfriend... Andrea, I think her name was. There are two or three other girls who I didn't really catch the name of, and I just kinda sat there with my iPod and felt accepted.

It felt better than loathing people. That's for sure.

So, Flippy found her group again. She needs to re-dye her hair. And she needs to upload some more art.

I will later... Right now I got a bunch of little projects and I don't know how to coherantly blog them all yet without them not making sense.

And I sense a big change coming up in the next few months. Not sure what it will be or if it's good or bad... but I have a feeling. And I don't get them very often at all.

-Flip

Apparent Neglect II

2006-10-01T17:27:00.000-07:00

I got a $600 dSLR. It's a Canon EOS Rebel XT, and I love it. I just need more photo oppritunities. I'm going to start taking it to school once we're given our cameras for Photography, so I can just say "Oh this is for photo"

Here's my boyfriend being a dork

And here are some doodles. I'm having a real artblock lately. All I can really manage are doodles at school.

I also got a project in Ceramics that I'm almost done with. It's a bank. I'll share photos of it when it's done, and then I gotta think about what I'm going to do with it. I think I might auction it off, because I don't really want it. :|

That's about it.
-Flip

My update.

2006-09-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

Alright. So. Life.

As for me, I'm not in that school anymore. I'm in a regular school for 5 days a week, for 6 hours a day.

A jebus, this place is crowded. It's regarded as the 'ghetto school', even though there are several places here that have that title. It still doesn't change the fact that yes. It's pretty ghetto.

My art class (Which I plan to drop for Photography) is so poor. We're limited to Crayola markers and Prang Colored Pencils. Granted, the school district only expends something like... 30 dollars per student? Yet still. We could at least have a window.

Yeah, my electives are Art, Ceramics and Rimprov (Rehersed Improv. Am I one of the only ones who sees irony in that?) And my core classes include P.E II, Geometry, World History, Chemistry and English II. And all of those, with the exception of Chemistry, is purely feminine.

And to quote Jeff Foxworthy: "I am swimming in the Estrogen Ocean."

Socially, I guess I'm doing good. I guess. There are still people who choose to try and befriend me anyway, but I think I've established that I'm not like that around people. I don't like talking about boys and backstabbing, so I generally don't like people to talk of such subjects. Lunch, I sit by myself. Which is cool. I don't mind it at all. In fact, I prefer it.

Yeah, social hermit.

And I also happen to own a new Canon EOS Rebel XT. About $600 worth of camera. It makes me very blissful, and I try to use it as best I can.

My guitar also came, a month after I ordered it. So Sae and Sol sit together in my room, Sae being loved more for the moment because I need a new amp plugin for Sol. The current one is buzzing like made and sounds like a nest of hornets when I try to do anything with it.

Still in TKD. Orange belt. Sparring is fun, and Barry wants me to come in on Saturdays for the extreme-team workout. I was going to go yesterday, but my parents decided to go buy my dad's new Honda Ridgeline, which I'm surprised he hasn't blogged about yet.

Hmm... what else.

I've started picking up on Avatar: The Last Airbender. I know Nickelodeon is almost all the way through the fourth season, so I'm freakishly late on the uptake, but I'm about 3 episodes into the first book, and I'm liking it. Sokka for the win. (And I do believe prince Zuko talks with a lisp XP)

Mmm. Corndogs.

I'll post a link to all my art when I can.

Peaceaout
-Flip
(My first post was on 7-1-05, and it's 9-17-06. I've been keeping this blog for over a year. X) )

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO WOOD ON WEDNESDAY.
(and coincidentally happy 6 month anniverssary to Tyler and I. :) )

Supercamp Day 3

2006-09-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

We got up, and even though at first I was still exhausted, I didn't feel tired once we got rolling. I was however really aching in my knees. But none the less, we did what we had to. Mostly we got ready to pack and all, and the Teens were enlisted to help strike the tents.

omfg. nobody listened.

What they were supposed to do was to empty their tents of EVERYTHING, and we would come through and take them down, pack them, and throw them in the trailer. Noooo. They left stuff in there, and took everything down THEMSELVES, but left us to roll them up and pack them away. So eventually everything was in different bags, and we were sorely annoyed.

But, after a while, we just rolled them up and threw them in the tent, leaving them to get sorted out at the school.

When we weren't screwing around with the box and Mr. Steven:

So we rode back up with Mr. Springer, I dozed a bit with Tyler in the car, and we came home.

-Flip

Supercamp Day 2

2006-09-10T08:58:00.000-07:00

(I've really fallen behind on this. I'll just wrap up day two and day three and then get on with what's new in my life. School only gives me so much time for blogging anymore. :( )

We lined up, and were then excused to go do our chores and brush our teeth. Breakfast we had pantone colored pancakes. And after just one, everyone else lost their appetite for some reason. Squad five (The one that had Tyler and Timmy, the Emerald Knights) and Squad six (The Serenity Vipers, my team) had dish duty, but I forgot if we actually did that.

So first challenge for points was the Water Chugging Competition. Squad six won it, and were thusly awarded the Staff of Honor, which had six years of team history and headbands strapped to it. That was the whole point of our competitions - To earn enough points at the end of the weekend to have our squad leader's headband on that staff of honor.

We had it most of the weekend, but lost it at the very end during the egg relay. :\ We were so close. Nelson's team got it.

After the water chugging competition, Master Prevos took us on a four mile hike, which was supposed to take an hour and a half, but ended up around two hours or so. Big Kids helped Itty Bitties, and I fell in love with a little five-year-old brown belt named Mirai, who was such a trooper and did not once complain. We climbed a steep hill with almost no hand-holds, and Tyler was given Barry's backpack with chains and told to run with Master Prebos.

(I ran too, and almost managed to keep up, but I was out of breath very quickly. XD I was consequently very proud of Tyler.)

Our trip up the mountain was punctuated with water stops and every now and then a stern telling-off by Master Prebos, miss Schomer, and miss Deal. These included topics such a rock throwing and showing respect and giving the staff to people outside of your squad. (Which is not a good thing, and since it happened twice in my squad, we got six points taken away. I carried it almost all the way back because of this.)

I was amazed at how the Itty Bitties/Little Ones were keeping up with the teens, and all the others in the middle were behind in a large clump. After another telling-off about keeping up and keeping hydrated, I ran back and forth multiple times to keep head count of my squad and make sure everyone drank every time I passed by. Finally we made it to our midway point, and while we got yelled at again about keeping quiet and listening to higher ranks, we also had a potty break and learned a cheer that we would chant a good way down the mountain.

Superkids know right from wrong

We don't fight but we are strong

We can kick and we can block

We can make this whole world rock

Sound off one two,

Sound off three four,

Sound off one two three four one two

TAEKWON!

This resulting cheer and many others screwed up my voice for the rest of the weekend.

When we got back, we ate lunch, and had two more challenges (The Egg Relay and Tug-Of-War)

Our team stayed in the lead for a while, but on our first round of Tug-Of-War, some people not in our squad picked up our slack and thusly disqualified us for cheating. So on our second try we got the uphill side, and I was in the front, since the last time we went up, little Courtney got pulled across the log and scratched up her tummy. (I also fell in a bush that was in the middle, and scratched up my back. XP)

So for this round, the other team pulled hard, and I was pushing against the log with my knees up to my ears and my back hurting like crazy. So, we lost. XD I admit I gave up after the second time of falling on a pinecone and having it poke me somewhere where pinecones have no business being.

Then dinner, and again time for the fire. We talked about integrity and communication, and we all heard stories about respect and all those things that the little ones would need to learn of. S'mores were passed around, and Tyler and I tried desperately to keep warm, even with the smoke of the fire constantly in our face.

Once the Little Ones went to bed, we all kept up our somewhat spiritual conversations and stories, and also shared our dreams and goals for the future. I feel really great, since mine was listened to, and they encouraged me to go for it instead of re-think it and shoot for something more realistic.

Tyler went to bed earlier tonight, and so did I, but after a long conversation with Shakaria that deeply depressed me (But helped her in the long run, since she needed someone to vent to) I got up and headed to the fire again. There I met Master Langdon's son, along with three other new people, one of which will be a senior at Cheyanne this year and has offered to help me out. We talked of more adult things, including Master Langdon's time in jail. (Which was rather funny, since she was only there because she missed her court date to show pictures of the sprinkler system that they thought she didn't have.) We suggested popcorn, so Master Langdon and I went up to the kitchen to start the fire there.

And... nobody showed up. XP

So I talked to Master Langdon and later her son as well about random stuff, including my thing for tattoos and piercings and how I want to be a clean, reputable tattoo artist. Eventually Master Langdon's Son (Now MLS, as I'm tired of writing all that) took 'pity' on me and invited me to join him and everyone else at the fire on the other side of the camp. (This is after Master Langdon also inadvertantly spilled her vodka in her shirt, and talked for a long time doing the drunk hover dangerously close to the fire.*)

More loud talking with more of the adults. MLS was terribly nice and really awesome, and really easy to get along with. Hell, all of the adults are. Mostly because they don't hold back their stories, and they don't hide or censor anything from me. Because of this, I felt more inclined to respect them all.

Eventually I planned on going to bed, since it was once again two in the morning and I was cold. Shikaria came and told me some of the girls had to go potty, so I escorted two girls to the bathroom all the way across the campsite and came back, then went back to the fire to say goodnight. Shikaria came back again, and informed me that one of the girls had an accident.

This ordeal would last another hour and a half. In the dark, we tried to establish who's sleeping bag got wet, which was Courtney's and supposedly mine, though later I found it wasn't wet at all. (And I was mad at this fact.)

So I helped get the girls extra bags, and even though the tent smelled like pee, most of them got in and bore it really well. One girl however, had this tactic of 'zoning out' and did not listen to either Shikaria or me when we asked, then pleaded, then loudly commanded her to get back in the (fn) tent. I ended up just shoving her in and zipping it up behind her.

So then I was left with the dillema of nowhere to sleep and nothing to sleep with except a blanket and my pillow. Luckily for me, MLS let me crash in the back of his minivan. So I got about an hour of half-sleep, and got woken up by cries of "MARCO! POLO!!"

Super Kids Camp Day 1

2006-08-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to post this for a few days, but Blogger was giving me trouble. So without further ado, I give you my agenda from friday to sunday the 20th

SUPER KIDS CAMP.

We got there a good 45 minutes early. First, mom wanted to get snacks to share, and then we went and picked up Tyler. So Tyler and I hung out in front of the school until Master Langdon showed up. Shortly after, everyone else came up and the teens (Who at this point were Nelson, Ted, Tyler and I) helped pack wood and get squared away. Packed about 8 boxes of wood, which are all broken boards that students had broken throughout the year. Only, the boxes were left outside all year as well, so they were falling apart badly. We also grabbed a few trunks from the obstacle course. One of which Tyler dropped on my hand, scratching it up and bruising it pretty nicely. I was fine, but he was still extremely apologetic. How sweet. :)

Once everyone was there, we wrote names on bags and pillows and things that needed naming. I came in handy with my large bag of sharpies, and once we were ready, we piled into the car. Nelson, Tyler and I rode with Mrs. Springer, Ryan's mom. We thought we were lost, but it turns out we didn't yet come across the turn. So after about 45 minutes we got there and helped unpack.

First time lining up, we were assigned squads. Somehow I got chosen to be co-captain of squad six (Later named the Serenity Vipers) and when we did the challenge to find our headbands, we were white. The first day was rather uneventful. We ate sloppy joes for dinner and just hung around. Timmy, one boy in Squad five (Tyler's squad, which was mostly boys except for Courtney, who was little and adorable and whom Tyler was very protective of) came up and announced "I love you." and explained he had a crush on me. He's like, seven. So at the time it was cute, so I smiled and joked and hugged him, and he and Tyler half-fought for me. This would continue for the rest of the weekend, and each time get progressively less cute and more annoying. Especially since Timmy had respect issues, not being a Taekwondo student.

Unfortunately, since we ate late, we had no time for s'mores since the little ones had a curfew at ten. Younger than 10, they went to bed at 10. 10 to 12 year olds went to bed at 11, and the teens had the privelidge to stay up as late as they wanted. Everyone though had to be up at 7 in the morning. Miss Deal shared the story of the Gummy Lion with us, which is a horrible tale about this old mountain lion that despises loud noises. But since he is so old, he has no teeth, so all he can do is gum you to death. The littler ones were horrified. The teens were amused. We later regretted ever going along with the story, since some of our kids were up till four in the morning freaking out about every little noise and moving shape outside the tent.

(I also had a nightmare about the Gummy Lion during the 5 - 20 minutes I got sleep that night, but mine only had two legs and no eyes. *Shudder* )

So, the teens eventually were left. Everyone left the fire, so it was just Tyler and I sitting there, keeping it warm and sharing a very small blanket. Master Langdon joined us and we talked and had fun. Shared our stories about almost setting our houses on fire. Then we were invited into Barry's (Master Prebos's) minivan, where somehow 8 people were squeezed in. And we stayed there until about 1 in the morning, where we got kicked out because Barry wanted to sleep.

And instantly, we didn't want to do anything. It was way too friggin' cold up there in the mountains, and some of us hadn't layered yet. The low was 32 degrees farenheit, and it certainly felt like it. So I climb into my tent which is littered with all the little girls and thier stuff, tried to find my bag amidst the chaos in the dark. The guys who were about 15 feet away, stayed up and played blackjack for a good long time, seriously pissing off the girls in my tent, even though I told them to ignore them and just go to sleep.

And somewhere in the middle of the night, someone had to pee, asked for my light, and smacked me in the face.

At this point, I decided screw it, I'm going outside.

So for another hour, I was up and sitting outside. Tyler joined me shortly. As did the other kids. Finally it came time to line up at 7 in our squads, and so began day two...

(To be Continued)

-Flip

Death of Rats

2006-08-16T17:13:00.000-07:00

Some art

2006-08-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

I should really start saving up for that new DSLR camera I've wanted for a while. My current camera really likes to cover everything I like with noise.

Anyway, here's two pictures I got while visiting the boyfriend's house today.

Haley, 3 years old, adorably cute. My parents always comment on how cute she is.

Boyfriend's littleboycat. Has no name other than "Kitty".

That's what I have edited so far. There are others, but they don't seem to want to cooperate. I'll try and do what I can this week.

-Me

Rambling entry

2006-08-09T17:17:00.000-07:00

Well, lately (As in, for the past two hours) I've been obsessing over Carlos Santana.

Rock is my main genre. But I also like to try and get out of it, because after a while, System of a Down, Godsmack, and Metallica begin to lose their appeal. So for the past month or so, I've been trying to get back into the bluegrass of Nickel Creek (Which is not hard at all, the furious mandolin playing of Chris Thile is enough to get you going.) And like I mentioned, the beautiful riffs of Carlos Santana. :)

Tyler has also introduced me to Chris Cornell's first band, Temple of the Dog with the song Hunger Strike. I'm not really a rock scholar, but I know that Chris has been in three bands thus far, (Temple of the Dog, Soundgarden, and Audioslave) and if I'm not mistaken, Temple of the Dog consists of the artists from another band I've not heard of, called Madseason, who split up to become Alice in Chains and Madseason.

or something like that. This is what my boyfriend's been teaching me when he can.

And the lead singer of Alice in Chains, Layne Staley, died in Bellview, Washington. Hometown of my boyrfiend.

But you can't quote me on anything yet. It's already confusing enough as it is.

I got off topic now, but I'm not sure what the topic was to begin with..

Oh, and on another note: Pat's Desert Music Store has not called me once when they said they would. I thought I'd have my guitar a week ago, and they said they'd call me on monday (Which they didn't) so I called them yesterday, and the girl who handled my order said she'd call me around 4 whether they had it or not. No call. So I'm starting to get just a bit annoyed. :
And I'm signed up for a year of Tae Kwon Do, and had day 7 or 8 yesterday. I almost have my first form down, I have to memorize my philosophy (Chonji) and maybe then I can test this month. Though I don't know any of my one-steps, and I barely know my second form.

:P But I'm going to camp on the 18th, so hopefully I can take pictures and blog that.

School starts on the 30th. :| *hides*
-Me

Sad

2006-08-02T13:04:00.000-07:00

Riot is brokededed. ;_; It seems all the sudden he forgot about his superdrive and refused to spit out a CD that was stuck in there. *sigh*

Dad told me that it could have been a DRM CD that cripples the computer, but I don't remember putting anything like that in there since I got moved to the big computer.

Which now sucks, because now I have to burn

Nickel Creek and Catch 22 for Tyler
Nickel Creek and the Wicked Tinker for Mrs. Langdon.

In other news, I found out that round kicks in Taekwondo are the most fun thing ever. :) Especially when you get to kick the heavy bags. Tyler is able to kick his partner back, but I'm not nearly as strong yet. I still get a satisfying 'CRACK' noise though. :)

So I got back for day 4 today. :)

-Flip

Update on my guitar >:

2006-07-31T07:54:00.000-07:00

So when we went to the store to go get my guitar, it turns out that they one they had left in stock had a warped neck. So we put 139$ Down, and I still gotta pay another $139.50 when it comes in at the end of this week.

Here's what it's going to look like, hopefully though.

It's the same model as my mom's, with an electric pickup should one decide to go on stage or blast the house with acoustic riffs.

Mom doesn't like the fact that she's repairing her guitar for 35$, (The neck was broken) and I'm still getting an acoustic of my own when I can just play hers.

My reasoning for it is, well, that's HER guitar. Dad and I bought that FOR her for Christmas. Guitars, being another creative outlet, are something you just don't share. Everyone I've talked to who owns their own acoustic or electric knows what I'm talking about. It's just not the same if it's not something that's yours. And what's more, instead of being a gift, I'm working for this one.

And I don't want lessons. I'm already in Taekwondo and looking at dance classes. I would have no time. Plus, I get much more self-satisfaction when I figure stuff out on my own. I can tab okay, but I play chords mostly. (I think I know 10, if I can count them all correctly) My fingers are getting faster, which I'm sure pleases my boyfriend, so we can do those five guitar lead-ins for all his Metallica songs once he gets more people with him. Right now, all I know is the beginning part of One. But that's okay. It's his favorite.

Which also brings me to point out my extreme pride in him for reconnecting with his music. He's written about 8 - 9 songs in the past year or so, and he's been talking more about upcoming albums, and teaching me about the musical history of some bands like Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, Rage Against the Machine, and Audislave (My personal favorite band.) It makes me really happy to see him so into something like that, to see him creating stuff. He's a writer too, but I think he likes playing his guitar and singing much more.

(Wow, this post turned out much longer than I anticipated.)

-Me

technorati tags:guitar, music, geekage

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Finished Picture

2006-07-27T17:58:00.000-07:00

There's the final image. :)

Family and I are sitting around, listening to Alanis Morisette. I'm supposed to go get signed up for Tae Kwon Do at 7 or 7:30. Woot! :)

-Me

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Some art

2006-07-26T20:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a screenshot of something I've been messing with in Photoshop

Referenced from a photo of my boyfriend that I took that turned out kinda blurry. I just got bored and tried to practice painting in Photoshop. I still have to get used to the idea that everything looks worse before it gets better. :P

He's really trying on his ~~beard~~ Sol patch. :\ And he wants a real eyebrow piercing. But other than that, this is pretty accurate.

He's playing my yellow guitar, but I think I'll paint it either black or red, his favorite colors.

I know, he seems like a delinquent. XP But I love him.

-Me

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GASP

2006-07-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! :)

My hair is pink!

Hooray!

That's all I have to say!

-Me

This Weekend...

2006-07-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

Well, everyone went to Arizona for The Brother's birthday. I rode with Dad in the truck, as I usually do, while my brother went with mom. The first few hours before Kingman are as always, dull and boring, with nothing interesting to report. We stopped at Sonic and saw a BNSF. (Burlington Northern Santa Fe, a species of Train that the brother loves)

Back on the road.

We made it to Wilhoit with almost no hassle at all. I slept most of the time that time, since Dad was listening to Science Friday's podcast, and none of them were really interesting me. I also only got about 6 hours of sleep, so the nap was nice.

We then got to my grandparents house, went with Grandpa to Kirkland and Skull Valley to wait for another BNSF, didn't find one, had a small party with presents and cake with two of my aunts when we got back. We got train after train after train, and an iPod nano. The rest of the evening I spent being sick. :P Then I slept on the couch.

So eventful, eh?

The next day, I slept in as long as I could. But between Jack's cold nose* prodding my shoulder every time he passed by, family talking at the table not 8 feet away, and feeling really hot, I couldn't really get more than maybe half an hour out.

So we went to go look for a train again, and as we got on the old dirt backroad in Skull Valley, Dad stopped the car and told me to get out, "You're learning how to drive."

I honestly thought he was going to forget. I didn't really believe him when he told me we might do that this weekend. So, a little nervous, I went around the back of my dad's Toyota Ranger and sat in the front. Arranged myself, set the mirrors up, put on my seatbelt, and stared warily at the stick to my right.

After starting and stalling the stupid thing about five times, I managed to get to a lurching start. I eventually got somewhat used to shifting and slowing down/stopping. I did not in fact, run us off into the ditch like my dad was afraid I would. I did go through some sprinklers while he madly rolled his window up, exclaiming that I am "My mother's child".

Then we got on the blacktop, and after starting, and stopping, and starting, and stopping, we met up with Grandpa and Mom. Who later then told everyone that she almost started crying.

(Oh please.)

They saw a train, so we missed it. Then, they went to go home, and Dad told me I was going to do a three-point-turn.

Heheh, no I wasn't. "Turn turn turn!" "I am turning!!" "NO YOU'RE NOT!!"
So I didn't do a three-point-turn.

The rest was rather uneventful. I got over some train tracks, then we went home. After hanging around there until about 11, we went up the hill into Prescott to pick up my mom's chairs and meet up with Rachie (My big sister). We ate at Blimpie's, talked for a while while Dad went and got munchies for the ride back, then headed back home.

(She also got me this. :) )

The ride home was just as uneventul. There was a wreck that we happened to catch the traffic of, so we were stopping and going for a long time while dad yelled at all the people. But we made it home without incident, and spent the rest of the evening on our computers, as always.

So there you have it.
-Flip

And here's a picture of a wild rabbit for you all to goggle over. :)

technorati tags:trip, arizona, family, long

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"We just got pooped on by the Mac Fairy"

2006-07-21T23:07:00.000-07:00

We are a Mac Family. Period.

The only time I ever used a PC was because I was desperate for my own computer. And that itself caused enough headaches.

And, SUPRISE. We got a new addition to the MacFamily. Bringing our total number of working computers up to 6.

This is my Mom's new laptop.

And if that's not enough, The Brother got a brand-spankin-new iPod Nano with Mom's student discount.

Sometime next week, I'll be ported over to the Big Mac, and The Brother will get Riot (AKA the Mac Mini).

And hopefully by the holiday season I'll have my own Macbook. Black. Her name will be Serenity.

Quote courtesy of my dad.

And if you wonder what he looks like.

Wonder no further.

-Flip

technorati tags:mac, nerd, family

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Illustration Friday

2006-07-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday is a site that offers a word or idea each friday, and you have a week to come up with an illustration matching it. Haven't really explored yet, but it looks promising. :)

-Flip

technorati tags:art, llustration, challenge

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Let's give this one more shot...

2006-07-18T17:13:00.000-07:00

I'm not really a hat person. I think they're cool, but recently I just don't wear them. Cowboy hats seem to be a recent hit, because I can find them everywhere. But I'm still a fan of those so-called 'commie-hats', of which I've owned 3.

But if any of you remember, I recently set my last favorite hat on fire. (Unfortunately, I don't know where that post is. It hurts to read my archives.)

Not to fear though, I got a new one today. :)

I promise, there will be art soon. Or something nerdy. Either way.

-Flip

March of the Penguins gets Lost in Translation

2006-07-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a funny Youtube clip I found. Dad suggested I blog it. I need to get back into the rut of blogging. I fell out a few weeks ago.

Since for some reason I can't embed videos into my posts, you can have the link right. Here.

I got some art for everyone. I'll work on getting all that in one place. I also gotta fix The Otaku Gene. (Both the blog, AND the comic. :P)

My sin is procrastination.
-Flip

I'm not dead yet!

2006-07-15T22:01:00.000-07:00

Hi folks. I'm still here and alive. I got some work to do artwise, but I keep getting distracted.

Until then, observe how Flip is a spaz in the face of love:

-Flip

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Our Thoughts to You

2006-06-30T16:54:00.000-07:00

Sending some positive mojo to MM from all of us at Oceanside Nevada. We hope Blazey comes back safe and sound and none the worse for wear.

(Graphic Via James E. Blogwick.)

Mom, Dad and I will all be thinking of you MM. Stay safe!

-Flip

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Oh, the things men do to their bodies.

2006-06-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

Axe has released a new body wash and fragrance called "Snake Peel". No idea what that's like, but I'm sure as soon as the school year starts back up again, at least one classmate will have some. However, don't you think they could have packaged it a bit more convincingly?

(You can click the images for a better view)

Can I get a collective "Eeeeeeeeew"?

-Flip

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Nerdy Family

2006-06-14T17:54:00.000-07:00

When we play games like Jeapordy! together, I'm usually a little interested in some of the answers we answer in unison. Like recently, under the categories Books to Movies, we answered "Planet of the Apes" in perfect harmony. And when both Mom and Dad corrected me that no, those are not Amobea in War of the Worlds (Crappy movie that was) but in fact, Paramecium.

So here's something else that made me go "Huh!" in interest.

In case you haven't been following, The Hanso Foundation is part of a real life interactive game tied in with Lost. We found a bunch of clues so far, but I keep forgetting to check in with Dad and see all of what he's found. :\ They did something similar to this prior to the release of Halo 2, starting with the 'I Love Bees' website.

I dunno. Just some interesting insight.

-Flip

technorati tags:nerdy, family

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Black Toilet Paper?

2006-06-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

I honestly don't know what to think. Does black toilet paper need to have such an exquisitely designed flash website?

Via Fark

Sketch dump

2006-06-10T09:11:00.000-07:00

I realize lately that I've been deviating from the Otaku part of my blog. I should get on that.

But for now, I have a bunch of sketches for you all. :)

You can click on the images to see the bigger ones, I think.

(I'm trying to use Flock again, since it does all seem convenient. I don't have to go through tabs to copy and paste a URL.)

This is the first of like... 14. This started off last night's batch. I felt like drawing a muscular monkey type dog. I dunno. I kept thinking "Take THIS, Japan. Now you'll have a COOL anime/game/merchendise idea. Dog monsters and their kids. We'll call it. Er. Canimon. I don't know."

Obviously my brain wasn't in gear yet. Everything looks really stiff, and I was not making myself laugh.

Second sketch of the dogmonkeything. It has a fauxhawk, and makes a "Rooowr?" noise.That one arm in the middle is the only thing on this page I like. :

Some Van Halen came up in my iTunes playlist while I did this, so here's the second contender. He's a kickboxing greyhound. Thing. I do NOT like his arm. I think his head and boxers are the only thing that kept me from scrapping this. o_o And I tried drawing his kid, but it was gross. :P

I started getting a little more loose/wierd around here. I usually abstain from drawing poop and brains, since I think it's childish. But really, that's what was in my head. It had to be done. I like the skidding flip in the right corner.

This time, some of that "Best of Led Zeppelin - Volumes I & II" stuff I got for Tyler came on. Trampled Underfoot starts out so crazily, this is the first thing in my mind when I heard it. Took all of three minutes to do, and this guy is my favorite. (The song kept skipping. D:)

More of the same guy, this time to the lyrics of Hotel California. Which was, again, what was on. That car looks like udder crap. :( But you can still kinda see the coolness of the guy there, with one elbow on the door and driving the... crappy car with one had. :P

Sad gnomey looking guy. He should have been scrapped, but I thought it was still kinda cute. (3 Doors Down - Here Without You was the inspiration)

Let's move on...

I like the figure in this one. And yes, I've done this. I've laid in the middle of my bedroom floor as I'm getting ready for bed to fix something on a picture because it just looked 'wrong'. Coincidentally, that was one of the same nights I was up until 2 AM.

I don't draw cool guitar-playing black guys enough. They're really fun to do. And I know he looks bluesy and he's singing a Marc Cohen song. That's just what came into my head. :P I don't think about the influence.

Caricature of my lovely boyfriend, a random sketch of Ed from Cowboy Bebop, and this is when I noticed I was drawing in a really low-light environment. But if I stopped to turn on a light, my inspiration might dissipate. :P So that was the end of tonights session.

The rest of theses are all from earlier this day/week/month

Thumbnail sketches of part of my Eden Under story, explaining how the main antagonist, The Queen, becomes a zombie. Dad helped me on her story a bit, so I'm hoping it will translate well into a comic. :P

More of trying to feel loose with my art. I only like her head, everything else is gross. :P

Same session. I like the faces. The tree is okay. The eagle is so crappy. XP

----------------

So that's all I have right now. I spent a fair amount of yesterday working on the Otaku Gene comic, which will officially go live on July 3 (mark your calenders, kids!) with updates every monday-wednesday-friday. I have 2 finished and uploaded, ready to start showing up on time, and I have another one that I'm close with. I'm kinda happy with how the website looks right now, but I think I need to reupload the higher quality .jpgs soon. :P The ones that are up now look blotchy and like they're being attacked with artifacts.

So today, since Krystal decides she hates me and never wants to see me again, I'm going to work more on The Candy Tree. Maybe go see Cars with the family if that is indeed what we are going to do. My boyfriend's out partying, and won't be back until 10 tonight. :P But I'll see him tomorrow. (YAY)

How much do you think I could fetch with a folder full of my sketches? (These included?)

I'm saving up for a new Macbook (Black, and I'm going to name her Serenity) and I'd like to have some spending money on the side in case I'm out with a friend and have to buy them food or something. (My friends are so nice - I'm always running out of cash and they always spot me. I gotta stop doing that.) I even set up a paypal account so I can start taking commissions.

Well that's it for now. I'm going to go take a shower and get to work more on the comic. Maybe play some more Prince of Persia and see if I can beat it. :P

-Flip

technorati tags:art, dump, sketches

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Rocky Fuller

2006-06-04T18:12:00.000-07:00

I wish I could show you guys this cover, but Rocky Fuller's cover for the July '06 issue of Highlights is so cool!

This preview is really small, and I'm sure some of you will be really unimpressed. But Rocky Fully had no formal art education. Each character has a distinct line of motion, they're whimsical, and strangely still realistic though they're definately cartoony. My favorite are the cows, but all these caracters are fun to look at.

See the mouse with the 'singing in the rain' reference? and the John Travolta frog? Also: How does a horse play the guitar?

Just some neat stuff I find IRL. :)

-Flip

Buckle

2006-06-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

Buckle
Originally uploaded by Flip Garrison.

My camera has kinda been acting sick lately.

I've had it for about a year an a half. It's a 4 megapixel Casio Exilim I got for Christmas. I used to take a bunch of arsty photos with it (Of course, they were all cropped and colored in Photoshop) but lately I just take it along for documentation and blogging.

Well, since the quality has been really crappy lately, I decided just to reformat everything. I went through and set stuff up differently, and took a random shot. Which happened to be my belt buckle.

Hopefully I can get more inspired over the summer, because I'm really liking the idea of art photography now that I can do it. XP

-Flip

Woop

2006-05-31T11:07:00.000-07:00

I left you hanging a few days ago. Not like it matters, but it's all sorted out: I'm staying down in Vegas for the summer.

This means I can look for a place to hire me, get dance lessons with the Boyfriend, work more on the Otaku Gene comic. All that fun stuff.

So, speaking of work. I've been trying to do some of the stuff I'm behind on. Re: The Candy Tree

TGGoC was several months ago and it's still not done. x___x I didn't even accomplish much, but I know that SOMEWHERE in our entertainment center, Princess Mononoke is awaiting to be popped into the DVD player for a glorious night of satisfaction.

But I'm rambling and getting ahead of myself.

Here it is now, with a blue wash layed out where I need it. Up next: the deer and the turtle. I'll stop by Blicks sometime later and pick up a few more shades of brown and green, plus a tube of white. Because the thing with the metal tubes of acrylic paint, is that if you aren't careful (Or even if you are) They will bend too sharp, get a hole in the side, and inevitably squirt white crap all over you when you least expect it. Or, at least that's what happened to me. So I need a new (plastic) tube of white. And some other colors.

The thing about acrylics is that... I'm learning as I go. :P I spent a great deal in 8th grade painting lots of large scale things with tempera paints, which aren't really acrylics. I still never got a good hold of them. They're great to work with on a large scale however... I never got used to trying to put tiny little details into a 4x4 square of cardboard.

So there's progress going on.
-Flip

How Geeky am I?

2006-05-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

Try it yourself.

I scored a 73%. I think my dad can get all the way to 100. I'll be daft if he scores lower than me. XD

That's right. That's a challenge now.

-Flip

It's true.

2006-05-25T09:14:00.000-07:00

Ew...

Even though the school year is coming to a close, I just don't feel the hype about summer vacation. Some people are even graduating. But here, I'm having a hectic time winding down. I still have some algebra to finish, not to mention a couple finals which I'll get out of the way today. I can do the algebra at a really slow pace and get mostly half of the problems right, but my biggest problem is I get anxious. I get a little jittery when I have to plot a linear graph.

However, this year I actually learned something there that helps me time and again. Converting fractions into percents. It helps me so much when trying to determine how badly I did on one algebra assignment. XP

And next year, I'll be switching back to a real school, as opposed to a charter. The crowd won't be that different, it just means I have to go to school EVERY DAY with certain felons and drug addicts of the same genre as my neighbor. At least I can always have a teacher to look forward to in the mornings. These mornings I just get up at ten and piddle around, which is likely why I'm failing so horribly.

I also found yesterday that they are employing a strict dress code. I wouldn't really call it a total uniform, but we're restricted to fitted clothing of any solid color so long as it's navy, khaki, white, or optionally, yellow. No jean material, no t-shirts with slogans or logos. No hoodies. Which, if you don't know, are the staple of almost every teen's wardrobe. I myself own two yellow hoodies, plenty pairs of jeans, and not a single white shirt. (I've sworn off navy forever, don't ask me why. I just don't like it.) So, it should be interesting.

My whole gripe with uniforms is that it stifles our individuality. Highschool is mostly a social thing, not just there to learn. As my sister put it, we go there and learn how to create relationships. We decide who we will like, who we won't like, who we stay away from (Which for me and my soon-to-be-peers, is everyone)

Meanwhile, The Boyfriend is going to the Charter School I just came from, since his semi-high-profile Magnet school kicked him out just because he failed a Tools for Success class because THEIR computer wouldn't read HIS powerpoint. It was either that or move back up to Washington, which doesn't appeal to either of us at this point in our lives, nor does it ever unless we're done with community college and are finally on our way to moving to a more doable climate.

So, it's a little hectic. Plus, this summer instead of go up to Washington for six weeks and parade around in Rennaisance Fair costumes, I've decided to stay down here so I can look for a part-time job either at Comic Oasis or maybe across the parking lot at Gamestop. I'm not working fast food, I don't want to get a health card. But I do want to go somewhere with some bit of nerdishness still associated with it. Only problem is, I have yet to tell my grandparents about it, and they're expecting me in two weeks...

(Insert cliffhanger, only because I have to go to P.E.)
-Flip

Free Comic Book Day

2006-05-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

Oh, I thought today was gonna suck just like every other day.

I had cleaned my room and rearranged it, started progress on the GGoC challenge (The Candy Tree?) and as such, bored with nothing to look forward to other than seeing Take the Lead with Tyler tomorrow. I tried to nap. No luck. I doodled. It pacified me only so much. I rocked. No such luck, since my folks don't appreciate my always blaring music. So, as a last-ditch attempt to keep my brain still in my skull, I read Fark for... the fourth time today.

I happened to come across Free Comic Book Day, and flipped out. I checked our area code, and sure enough, the nearest comic book store Comic Oasis was participating. So I told Mom I was leaving, strapped on my blades and pretty much flew out the door.

As soon as I got there, I could hear the raucous calls of nerds and their Magic the Gathering tourney. I popped in and said hi to Daryll, I think his name is, and he pointed me to the table with the free comic books.

What first caught my eye was Penny Arcade's first book (I do believe) And without even stopping to ponder, I picked it up. I also picked up a few others, and a Batman battleclix or whatever it's called.

Faced the stupidity of some people as one kid walked by and knocked a bunch of comics on the floor, and sighed despairingly along with another nerd about the rudeness of some people these days. Then took the chance to sidle through the rows to see what they had in store.

I found Lions, Tigers and Bears number one, which I was dissapointed I couldn't buy. (I only brought money for the free ones. Read: 0$) But it was still cool to see that they did have it in stock. I also happened across Marvel Zombies, and almost flipped out again. I'll have to keep an eye out for it next time, since this one was number 5 of 5, and featured zombie Spiderman and Mary Jane in her zombie-fied wedding dress.

Then I loitered around the front door for a while, got to talking to Daryll (Who looks remarkably like Dave Lister) and he mentioned he may be able to offer me a part time job over the summer. This makes me happy. :D

So, pictures.

Here's the deer. I swapped the turtle to the other side and had the deer look up. Also made him look more like he should live in candyland.

Here's the bunny. He's going to be made of chocolate with a creme-puff fluffthing on the top of his head.

Batman figure, not even two or three inches tall.

Batman and Superman. LOVE the cover.

Penny Arcade

This one looked interesting.

As did this one. Like the cover for this one too. Woverine looks awesome. :D

The only Manga on the table.

And on an unrelated note, I got my hair cut and colored on thursday.

Observe:

Ignore the lack of expression. But there you have it! Bangs for the first time since I was of the smaller persuasion.

The Chibi People

2006-04-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

There we go. Progressive... progress... of my cartoony self.

And to make up for those bad pictures of myself earlier:

Dad and I, circa... what... 1994?

:)
-Flip

Another Evolution Story - Darwin's Flip

2006-04-28T20:01:00.000-07:00

"Girl Next Door" by Saving Jane was playing for three hours while I sketched, scanned, inked and colored this baby. I was going for a background too, obviously... but, you can see just how well that turned out for yourself.

(Ugh. I hate it when Photobucket sticks that stupid link in around my image. Photobucket's gotten stupid. XP)

So this one, I've gotten more comfortable with drawing cartoony people. I should really go through and find all the pictures of the evolution of my "frogman" style humans. They started about 3 years ago as a spoof of the Powerpuff girls or something, but were nowhere as cool as bleedman's doujin (which I found sometime last year. I gotta remind myself to keep up with the stupid thing. XP)

In any case. My littler persona has changed quite a few times. At first, it used to be so lame I can barely stand it now. Flannel shirt, cargo pants, sunglasses, and a chain wallet. But the worst part was the socks and sandals. (Everyone still pokes fun at me about that fasion faux pa.) (I doubt that's correct.)

Here's a photo! (You can barely see my feet, but trust me. I'm wearing socks and sandals.)

GROSS

Then I moved on to a grey hoodie, hobo gloves, and a commie hat. Luckily for me, I went on and bought brand-name Vans skate shoes, though I was not a skater by any means. My hair was still short too. (This was around... Oh, 7th grade. So 2 years ago.) I was also one of the most antisocial people. Especially with my baggy cargos and yellow homemade Flip shirt. I was a colorgoth.

Oh, and people hated me for some reason. I kept getting snide comments as to my sexual orientation. Which were more often than not, incorrect, false, and downright wrong. Just because i had short hair, wore baggy pants all the time, and chose not to talk to people because I felt I owed it to society for making ME a bitter person.

Ah, preteen drama.

Oh wait, I have a picture from that summer...

(Airport. About... 7 in the morning? Prior to an excusion up to Washington with my other half. What the hell is that around my neck??)

Then, 8th grade. I was as close to a senior in that place as I could be. And I think I came away with a pretty good impression on people. They still thought I was a lesbian, just because they'd never seen me with a guy, but whatever. By now my hair had grown out to my shoulders, but I cut it early on in the year and died it blonde. I also wore black a lot of the time, and had these insane gothpants I think I mentioned once before.

Oh wait, I have a picture from that period in time.

Please God, let someone shoot me.

Well, now I'm a bit more careless about what people think or perceive right now. (The lesbian thing has stuck with me though, and people sound suprised when they hear I'm dating Tyler, one of the most popular guys in my school when we went there. I swear he still has a fanclub of about thirty.) I even collected 3 skirts, and a dress. Which I do wear once in a while. Around the house. Never really have a reason to wear them anywhere else. XP

I guess I'll get around to scouring the internet for all my past incarnations of my cartoony self. And we can see how well they match with these photos. Hm?

This rambling entry has come to an end.
-Flip

Current Project

2006-04-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

My current goal artistically is to put together a portfolio. I have a few small pieces chosen already. (I think...) but this one by far is my favorite, even though it's not done.

"If he hollars let him go" 24" x 18" on Bristol board. Regular mechanical pencil and kneaded eraser

It's a tiger. I don't feel I've done nearly as well on my past referenced art, but it's been a while. This one made me happy. I'm just having problems with the texture and placement of the stripes.

Here's a better image:

(My scanners still dead, so pardon the reletively bad photo.)

EDIT:
Here it is, 30 minutes later with stripes and some more shading.

Closer to the end. Still need to putz around with stuff.

In any case. That's what I'm up to.

Currently saving for a large canvas and a bunch of media for my Giveaway of Crap challenge. I think I can get the canvas this weekend and start the sketch. Thinking a watercolor wash for the sky and the grass, pastels for the tree trunk, colored pencil water colors for the animals, and... I dunno... Pink tissue paper pressed on to the tree to make it look like leaves? *Shrug* I'll figure it out soon enough.

-Flip

(Also, here's a photo for you guys.)

The Evolution of my Musical Taste

2006-04-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

(Or an otherwise pointless ramble that has no point)

I remember being of the smaller persuasion, sitting in my sister's car, looking at the cassette tapes and wondering who the heck 'Insane Clown Posse' and 'Smashing Pumpkins' were. And whenever we did listen to her music, it generally made me uncomfortable. What with the screaming guitars, the loud drums, and the nonsensical words. And she usually played it REALLY loud. At least to my little ears.

I grew up listening to the one country station we had in Prescott AZ, but when we moved to Sin City, I found 94.1. Through that, I found bands like Matchbox Twenty, and got more and more into the rock side of pop. (I officially started out on boy bands, like Hanson, Backstreet Boys, N*Sync, and BBMak. The only one's I'm not ashamed of are Hanson.) But then I grew to love all the other people we listened to, such as Edwin McCain, Big Country (One of my dad's all time favorites) and eventually songs from the Matrix, which turned me on to Disturbed, Saliva, and all those hardcore bands where you're absolutely sure that if you played it backwards you'd hear "Satan is my master he is my lord worship him I eat baby butterflies" or something of that derivative.

Granted, it did take me a while to warm up to the all time classic Metallica, but thanks to Tyler last year, I found a few of my favorites, and can play a few strains on the guitar from One. (He was pleased to hear that I even memorized all the lyrics and could tell someone what song we were reading just from the first line)

Lately I've been trying to find some good Slayer.

One of the things that bothers me though, is when people hear about my musical tastes and instantly place me in that hardcore rocker group - where I also get lined up against the smokers, pot-heads and sexfiends of my age. It's frustrating for everyone, especially when everyone's trying to stand out by fitting in, or fit in by standing out. I just wish everyone knew that recently I got "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira (featuring Wyclef Jean) and I also have countless Nickel Creek songs, not to mention all my Kate Rusby. (Nickel Creek and Kate Rusby being folk singers. Nickel Creek are of the American Bluegrass type and Kate Rusby is Welsh.) I'll generally listen to anything that I don't immediately deem wishy-washy or talking to much about treating women like whores.

And just because some people don't listen to opera and classical doesn't make them not sophisticated.

(I'm just trying to get the Boyfriend to branch out from Metallica and the Foo Fighters. I'm probobly not doing as well this time, as the CD I burned last night is mostly Godsmack and Nickelback.)

I'm also a lover of good ska. I just can't skank to save my life.

I don't know. Random ramble. I'm going back to my dancing.

-Flip

I think he calls her 'Vera'

2006-04-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

The chainsaw, I mean.

Click the image for a slightly larger view.

Inspired by MM's latest post.

-Flip

EDIT:
No, it's name is "Lord Buzzy Carnage McRipSaw, Protector of Girlish Virtue, Righteous Slaying Slayer of Pestilent and Pubescent Male Children and, um, Firewood Maker...Thingy"

Lapse in updates

2006-04-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

Ugh. If you didn't notice, there was a lapse of updates for me. I don't know why. I have no good excuses.

I do, however have art.

Onwards mi amigos!

Done today. It was going to be a design for threadless, but I decided that I would rather keep the rights. (However, I was beaten to the idea.) I still like the idea though. :D

Obligitory cute puppy photo I took at P.E yesterday. That's not me holding him, (his name is Chubbs) in fact it's someone I loathe quite a bit. But I think the puppy balances out the garish red nails.

Photo from our tour down to arizona, as my mom mentions in her blog. There are quite a few more, but the ones with the dandelion are the only ones that turned out artsy enough. This allowed me to practice with the manual focus on my camera. I also fell in that creek while trying to get across shortly after taking this shot. :| Dangit.
(I was a hit at Blimpies though, with my one wet pantleg.)

Practice with pens and ink. Using a 102 crowquill nib I purchased from Dick Blick's.

One of the only good photos of The Boyfriend. This itself is almost a month old. (Or will be, tomorrow.)

This one is actually a year old. Practice with Photoshoppery. (My hair is not that short anymore. It's shoulderlength now.)

And there you have it. A collection of photos and doodles to make up for several weeks of not posting. :D

I promise, I'll get something done eventually.

-Flip

Sick. Stupid Springtime.

2006-04-06T14:07:00.000-07:00

Apparently spring is the time'a'year for all children and teens about my age to start feeling the affects of love, infatuation. Whatever you call it.

Lately, I've just been sick. Not love-sick, (well, maybe) but no, distinctly sick. There's a rampaging cold/flu going about. My brother had it, so did Dad and now Mom and I have it. Last night was an interesting symphony of sniffles, chest-heaving coughs, and general whining. (Most of the whining coming from me.)

Also, I discovered that both Allegra and Ibuprophen, either by themselves or combined, have a profound affect of my reaction time, and how I think in general. I never noticed before, but my spelling and grammer and just general... everything, has been kinda funky lately. Luckily, I can catch mistakes pretty quickly before they turn into something mildly hilarious that I'll never live down.

Like how I decided to spell "baby".

I don't know how, but somehow The Boyfriend and I got on the subject of Young Migets (read: babies. infants.) And I was talking about a onesie that I saw once that was spoof on AC/DC's Back in Black album. Only it read "BA/BY". Which is not what I said. It came out verbally as "BA/AB"

I forget what made it so hilarious, but since then I've not combined Allegra and Ibuprophen, for fear of saying something like that again. Granted, to Him, it doesn't matter one way or the other, as long as he 'ROFL's for a few - five - minutes. But still. One can't help but feeling like an idiot. Like falling down in heels. (Which I've never done.)

So, when I'm not spelling horribly, and not not blogging, I'm doing absolutely nothing but sniffle on the couch and talk for 2 - 3 hours on the phone. (Most of it, me whining. Or... Saying something stupid.)

So, just to let you all know. I'm not dead (yet) and maybe spring break will give me time to get better. Or, it may not. As long as I don't get the Flu, I'm rather happy.

I promise I'll have some art up or something eventually.

-Flip

EDIT: This is not the onesie I was exactly talking about, but it's close enough. The one I meant was black with white text.

But still, it's funny, eh?

Flipbook

2006-03-28T14:47:00.000-08:00

Flipbook is an online animation thing, flashbased. You can post your animations and have people rate them. There's also a downloadable app for it too. :D

I don't have anything up yet, since animation isn't my strong point. XP

But it should be fun!

Joy!
-Flip

Ah, Shopping.

2006-03-28T14:10:00.000-08:00

Few stores give me as great a satisfaction about shopping and blowing my money on things as Dick Blicks. Before, I used to get my stuff at Michaels, which was all good and well, but Michaels is a craft store. I grew out of that, and my mother, being an expert at finding interesting places around the Vegas Valley, found Dick Blicks.

Now, it's my number one resource for everything I need. I like going there, because when someone asks me a question regarding my preferences to materials or what sort of art I make, I can answer pretty comfortably. I feel like such a snob. Like I should be wearing one of those long black turtlenecks and a black beret.

Well, lately I've been itching to use up what's left on my giftcard that my great-grandmother sent me. I also have a Preferred Customer Card. It's supposed to give me a discount, and I'm also supposed to get an additional discount for being a student (Little fuzzy on that bit) but still, it makes me happy.

My current shopping cart includes 2 cases of blue hi-polymer mechanical pencil lead, another pen and nib for dabbling in pen-and-ink, and a pad of Bristol paper.

Now, when I walk into the Apple store, or Hot ~~Taco~~ Topic, I still get a certain warm fuzzy in thinking "I can relate to some of the people in this store."

(Not all, mind you, but some.)

Yet, Dick Blicks gives me that privelidge of feeling snobby. And for the most part, I get treated like an adult.

I dunno. Just some gushing, since I haven't posted anything recently. :3
-Flip
Happy week-i-versary for Tyler and I as of yesterday! <3

Blackhearted Child

2006-03-21T18:36:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, I seem to inherit the initial dislike of people from my grandfather and my dad. (Don't deny it, you said so yourself you're misanthropic.) As a rule it takes me several months to get to know somebody where I will go out of my way to be nice to them.

I also get a little peevish when people decide to IM me out of the blue, since I have my contact info up on DA and here. It's one of the reasons I stopped signing into Adium anymore, because I didn't want to deal with people any more than I had to.

Well, I was on for no more than 5 minutes today, and I got this:

6:25 Tuesday, March 21, 2006
6:25 kingofqueens555
hello DA Person

6:29 Flip
... Hullo?

6:29 kingofqueens555
Welcome Back

6:29 Flip
Hi. Who is this?

6:29 kingofqueens555
Someone in need of help

6:30 Flip
What sort of help.

6:30 kingofqueens555
Yugioh Doujin Project, I need someone to be my hands( easy yes or no question)

6:31 Flip
Sorry, I don't do doujinshi or Yu-Gi-Oh.

6:31 kingofqueens555
you don't have to sound so happy about it you know -rips your tounge off

6:32 Flip
wtf?

6:32 Could not send because kingofqueens555 is not available

SERIOUSLY. I don't think I'm that mean!

Pull your head outta yer butt 'cause I can't hear what yer sayin' bub.

Whatever. Just a moment of Zen from yours truly.
-Flip
BTW, ma and pa. Tyler IS my boyfriend now. Don't sound so shocked. >:P

Fake Eggs with Plants inside?

2006-03-21T10:38:00.000-08:00

Sounds fun!

I'm horrible with plants/seamonkeys/snails (Well, snail wasn't my fault. Mother starved him and then 'Set him free' ¬_¬)
Yet, I am compelled to buy some just for the fun of it! :O

Sorry, slow times right now. End of the quarter, and I still have some projects to finish. I'm not as stressed as I should be. Ugh.

-Flip

-EDIT-

I took some time to re-work the colors for The Candy Tree.
Here's a link
I tried to soften everything and draw attention to the tree. But that deer is making me a little annoyed. Oh well.

The plan is to get a large canvas instead of painting it directly on Hunter's wall, so she can take the painting with her if she moves to another house. Not sure if I'll actually use acrylics, since I never really had that much luck with them. I may try pastels, to keep the softness. Or, do the tree in acrylics and everything else in... I don't know. Still fussing about this particular aspect.

Dang. Those clouds make me happy. :P
-Flip (x2)

An Otaku Holiday

2006-03-15T13:29:00.000-08:00

Eldritch Cake

I'm trying to get in the spirit of celebrating holidays OTHER than those commercially advertised, such as Christmas, Easter, and St. Patrick's Day. Today, March 15, is the 69th anniversary of H.P Lovecraft's death. He's most likely best known for his Cthulhu Mythos, and his short story The Call of Cthulhu.

Celebrate! Go do something eldritch today.

-Flip

The Candy Tree

2006-03-15T09:59:00.000-08:00

The Candy Tree

Well, I have some news as to my project for MM.

Freak had come over a few days ago to borrow our camcorder, and mentioned that Hunter had told him "What [Flip]'s going to have to paint on my wall". He didn't think she was very serious when she said A Candy Tree, but I went ahead and sketched it anyway.

Well, since Freak has such a nice girlfriend, she bought him an iPod, so he was over here loading it up on our computer, and I was left with Hunter to really decide what she wanted. So I showed her the Candy Tree, and we spent the next few hours coloring it (multiple times) until she was happy.

The one you see is the one she decided on, so I'm a little curious as to how much all that paint is going to cost. *_* But hey, it's progress!

The tree itself is rainbow-colored, with multi-colored leaves (Which I may just paint cotton-candy pink.) There's a chocolate bunny, a peppermint turtle, and a random deer with red antlers. The grass needs some color tweaking, so I may just re-do the image with simpler colors. Maybe we can get a grab-bag of candy and stick the wrappers on the wall as well? Who knows.

Oh, and since we've not seen much of Miss Hunter:

Here she is.

Mom suggested that we could also make a Candy Tree for Easter, so that may be something I'll experiment with. But I'm no master chef.

Speaking of cooking, today is the anniversary of H.P Lovecraft's death. I'm walking to the store to get cake mix and decorative frosting. I'll let you all know how it goes after my pothead neighbor leaves my house. :)

-Flip

Sakuramochi - Japanese Sweet Roll

2006-03-12T16:05:00.000-08:00

Sakuramochi

A friend of my mom's at work is married to this Japanese guy, so sometimes she comes home with these Japanese food items (Usually with one of them missing) for me to sample. Today, she brought home some Sakuramochi. I personally don't care for the pickled chrysanthemum leaf, so I peeled it off. But it was very sticky, and generally a mess to eat. (I was using my hands...) But it was good. I couldn't finish it all, the whole thing is about the size of the palm of my hand. It's a good treat.

The recipe according to About.com is:
INGREDIENTS:

* 2 cups glutinous rice
* red food color
* 3 cups water
* 3 tbsps sugar
* 1 cup anko sweet beans
* salt pickled sakura (Japanese cherry blossoms) leaves

PREPARATION:
Wash the rice well and soak in water for 30 minutes. Add a little bit of red food color in the water. Boil the rice on low heat until liquid is gone. Put a lid over the pan and leave it for 5 minutes. Add sugar in the cooked rice and stir well. Press the rice into small round shapes. Place on each rice cake and fold it in half. Wrap the rice cake with a sakura leaf.

And now, for no reason, I'm hankering for some Korean ribs...
-Flip

Onna Otaku - She Nerds

2006-03-11T15:29:00.000-08:00

Wired.com has an article on correctly identifying an Onna Otaku or She-Nerd.

Addendum: I hate rolling backpacks with a fiery passion. Too many times have I been tripped by them in the hallways at my school last year, ending up on the ground amidst much poorly drawn fanart and "Fruits Basket" manga books. If I had my way in the world, I would ban rolling backpacks.

That's it for today. D:
-Flip

Concerning Sequential Art

2006-03-10T17:27:00.001-08:00

Sequential art tells a story. It can be simple like Ojingogo, or a bit more complex like comics and manga with text and such. I've never been real comfortable with that, since I perfer to do more conceptual work, but if I want to have a good portfolio to be a comic book illustrator, then I should get to work on doing actual pages with panels.

Also, I've been working on a post-apocalyptic zombie story for the past 7-8 months, if I forgot to mention. It's called Eden Under, and the heroine is a scrappy and protective woman who shares my first name. It's actual genre has yet to be defined, but I have the feeling that it's going to end up on fantasy shelves, though there is mention of Blackhawks and AK-47s. But, in any case. It's a three parter, the first part being not even a third of the way finished. In the second part, the heroine undergoes a year of vigerous trials to be 'broken' so that The Queen may have a new host. She can't immediately take over the protagonist, for fear of having her soul 'rejected'. It's going to take a while to acctually explain, but I'm at a wall for the moment.

Eden Under has plans to become a graphic novel eventually, which I hope to illustrate myself, maybe as a webcomic. I decided to sit down today and see how long it takes me to crank out a page in a particular style, and it turns out that 4-5 hours is good. The method I used for this one is best described as 'megascribble', and everything is in black and white, since I didn't want to be bothered with color. And I have to say, I like the look of it.

Click the thumbnail to be taken to the DA home of the image. D:

The Queen looks on as The Protagonist falls from her high perch, only to find her current challenge standing over her hungrily.

The snake turns out to be my favorite part, even though I had originally planned to have something similar to that purple hairy dragon thing from Star Wars: Clone Wars. There were other original creatures I opted for, but in the end I settled on a snake, for no particular reason.

I just wish I had the idea to come up with a more complex background, instead of making it look more like a dreamscape. But none the less, it pleases me. :)

I may do more later, but for now, I think it's good.
-Flip

Stikfas! (Arrrg)

2006-03-06T14:28:00.000-08:00

It's official, I have one of the coolest sisters ever. :D Rachie happened across two Stikfas for dad and I. Knowing my affinity for pirates, I got the Pirate and Skeleton set. Dad got the superheros. We should so totally have the ninjas too. :D

Here's the both of them, side by side.

There seems to be a bunch of them on sale now, and they all look really interesting and fun. I like the military ones especially.

And while I'm at it, I'd like to point out Divine Error, since he takes some wonderful photos of his own stikfas.

(And that last image reminds me, FLCL (Furi Kuri, Fooly Kooly) is one of my favorite anime miniseries(?). Canti is possibly the best robot you'd ever meet. Plus, there's a mustard yellow Vespa, and that's automatically got my attention. :D)

That's it for today, I think.
-Flip

Smacky the Squirrel

2006-03-04T20:46:00.000-08:00

Smacky is a very, very grumpy squirrel. I feel he is my power animal.

No, he does not tell me to 'Slide'.

He tells me to 'Smack'.

:D

It's a very fun game. I got to the boss level, but didn't manage to beat the boss. I lost my sanity before then. D:

So yeah, tomorrow I'm heading up to The Mountain with Tyler, where we'll spend a day freezing. :D Woot! I should go to bed now.

-Flip

Yanked from Pops

2006-03-04T12:53:00.000-08:00

You scored as Serenity (Firefly). You like to live your own way and don't enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you.

Serenity (Firefly)

88%

Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)

81%

Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)

75%

Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)

69%

Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)

69%

Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)

69%

SG-1 (Stargate)

69%

Moya (Farscape)

63%

Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)

56%

Enterprise D (Star Trek)

56%

Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)

56%

FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)

38%

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com

Yeah. We scored the same overall.

Wicked Awesome Sculpting Tutorial

2006-02-24T12:21:00.000-08:00

I've never been a real good sculptor, but my last art teacher did mostly abstract art, and didn't spend too long on teaching us how to sculpt. He didn't show us how to make maquettes or anything, and plus, I wasn't really inspired at that time. But oh my debbie, I would love to take a real sculpting class. :O I might take a crack at it sometime this summer when I'm back from the motherland.

Smellybug has two really awesome tutorials on sculpting. As far as I can tell, he's a proffessional. I have a few ideas, since there are several 'species' of undead in Eden Under, my novel of 6.. 7 months. I may try to do one of those. :O

Yeah. It's really awesome to see how that works. :D

-Flip

My Process - Cougar

2006-02-21T17:22:00.000-08:00

I decided to post a quick cap-by-cap of my process for most of my images. :P The subject for this one is a cougar. Biggest cat of the southwest, I beleive.

The sketch. I usually sketched in red, but sometimes I switch around and use cyan or some other color. This time it was pink. I usually sketch really rough and refine as I go, so there is no definate rough or refined sketch. It's just a sketch.

Here's the ink layer on top of it. I duplicated it once since the lines didn't come out as strong as I had hoped.

Flats. I layed in the markings with a soft brush.

Shadows

Highlights

And finally, some post-processing and it's done. This one only took me about an hour, but sometimes it takes me 3-4. I don't usually spend too much time on stuff, since I get impatient and bored. But there you go. :D

-Flip

Glad to be Average

2006-02-19T18:08:00.000-08:00

Ugly Teens more Likely to Commit Crimes

Why did this not suprise me? I'm not sure why...

via boingboing

-Flip

The Otaku Gene

IMPORTANT!! IMPORTANT!!

Photoamusement

A New Member of the Family

A Suprise!

An Unpaid Job

A Rant

Good things!

Gurney Journey - Dinosaurs!

Autism Strikes Again

Halo 3!

Sketchcast!

NaNoWriMo! and My Little Secret

How to Bleach Stencil a Shirt

Hiatus Broken, and Fletcher's Bad Day

Yet More Developments

Moving on Up

As Far as School is Concerned

Surgery Update

Orthodontosaurus

Like Moon-boots only AWESOME

The Nightwatchman - Alone Without You

Anatomical Tattoos

To Call Upon

In Regards to Cephalopods

More art!

An Otaku Chaser

Angsting and Blogging

Autism and Thomas the Tank Engine

Little Annoying Monster

200 pounds of wasted Cowpiggen

More art stuff

Boom Boy

Deer Doodles!

The Consistency of Hamburger Helper

Weeeeee!

Women throughout the Eras

Cool Photo :)

Some more doodles

A picture

Summer Checklist

iPhone Camping

"But, you're a GIRL."

Where do I begin?

Class Rings woo!

Welcome to the World

Some more art!!

Bad Me

Apparent Neglect II

My update.

Supercamp Day 3

Supercamp Day 2

Super Kids Camp Day 1

Death of Rats

Some art

Rambling entry

*Sad*

Update on my guitar >:

Finished Picture

Some art

*GASP*

This Weekend...

"We just got pooped on by the Mac Fairy"

Illustration Friday

Let's give this one more shot...

March of the Penguins gets Lost in Translation

I'm not dead yet!

Our Thoughts to You

Oh, the things men do to their bodies.

Nerdy Family

Black Toilet Paper?

Sketch dump

Rocky Fuller

Buckle

Woop

How Geeky am I?

It's true.

Free Comic Book Day

The Chibi People

Another Evolution Story - Darwin's Flip

Sad

GASP