Thing of the Day: Assassin's Creed I

So I was doing great on my goal of writing several pages when I got up in the mornings... and then my stupid brother bought me Assassin's Creed I and II at MicroCenter for ten dollars. Terrible idea. I installed AC1 on my shiny!new!laptop and have subsequently not been writing. At all. For like an entire week. This is bad. So this morning, I closed down the game and opened Chapter 2 back up and wrote some actual pages and felt better about myself. But now it's lunchtime and the game is calling...

Whatever. Point being, it's a pretty cool game, although I made the mistake of watching my brother play AC2 while playing AC1 myself, and got a little disenchanted with poor disabled Altair who can't swim or assassinate from hiding spots. It's sort of depressing. That being said, HAYSTACKS. They are my newfound love. I adore how you can jump off a really high tower and land safely in a haystack with a little "flump" sound. It's hilarious when the guards are chasing you and you break their line of sight and then "flump" into a haystack and they're scratching their heads and trying to figure out where you went. I love haystacks SO MUCH. However, playing any sort of action game on a laptop is basically a heinous idea. Mousepads are not built for it. I need a real mouse for this, people. So bad. And a bigger screen wouldn't hurt either. But I would feel pretty beasty if I could say that I played through all of Assassin's Creed I on my laptop.

Have a crappy sketch of Altair. His name, by the way, should have an umlaut over the 'i' and is pronounced "All-tie-EER." Those hoods, man, they're freaking irresistible.

Hokay, back to work. Sorry I'm so very distractable.

Oh, and I forgot to mention - I applied for this job the other day, because the company sent me an extremely ambiguous letter in the mail, and I had to go to this tiny office in a sketchy part of town and do an interview with an overly-cheerful lady. I did get the job, which was selling kitchen knives, but both my mother and I had objections to me, a not unattractive nineteen-year-old girl, going into strange people's houses and selling them knives. It's just not a good equation, you know? So I turned that one down, even though I'm poor. And then, when my mom called the cheery lady to tell her our objections and decline the offer, the lady was all "well, in all my years of working here, we've never had an incident" and my mom was like "yeah, but it only takes one, and I'd rather my daughter not be your one and only incident, thanks." I'd prefer to live, personally. So I'm applying to Michael's now, where I'd be selling art supplies instead of kitchen knives. Thank you very much.

And by the way, I sold almost all my girl toys at that sale. All that's left is most of the Ello, because almost nobody bought it, having never seen it before. That's fine with me; I'll box it up for my kids. Or maybe just so I can play with it some more.

Commander Kip
*covers one eye* "How does Fury see these things?" "He turns."
Normal is overrated!

Firefly

Marathon was friggen awesome, no surprise there, and now I have the urge to do nothing but work on my River Tam costume for the workshop. The plan is to make boot covers. I suspect the plan is flawed, on account of a devastating lack of materials... but that is the plan nonetheless. Brenticus had never been to Olive Garden before, so we went there for dinner on Thursday and brought the little sibs. That day, we watched nine episodes. NINE. It was brilliant.

So that was fun. But now, I have got to dig into this second draft. I temporarily abandoned the last chapter of the first draft, just because it was being difficult and moving slower than I wanted, and I figure the second draft is more pressing at this point. I have Chapter One roughed out and about four and a half pages of Chapter Two. It is SO DIFFERENT this time around. I'm confusing myself. It's probably a terrible idea to start the actual writing without doing a crap-ton of outlining and research first, but whatever, I'm kind of doing that as I go, which is why it takes two hours to write four pages. Bad bad bad. Oh well, it's going slowly, but it's going.

Also, just saw Avengers again with a gal from school. Just as awesome the second time. Loki is prettier than Thor, the end. And then the other day, I finally sat down and watched Thor, discovering that while it is basically a crappy movie (much like Green Lantern), it has pretty people in it, and several of the characters from Thor played key parts in Avengers. In addition to Thor and Loki, Selvig, Coulson, Fury and Hawkeye all had pretty big roles in Avengers and I didn't know who they were - frustrating. I should have just made myself watch Thor a long time ago. My bad.

Also, Worlds of Fun. Basically, best day of my life. Got up and wrote four pages, trucked on down to WoF, there all day, had a blast (although Liese's boyfriend spilled my very expensive root beer and I got a fantastic sunburn on the backs of my legs, because seriously, who thinks of putting sunscreen back there?), got attacked on the way home by this huge hornet that flew in the window of Brenticus's mother's van, picked up more root beer, went to Liese's house and ate lettuce and Oreos, walked to the park and climbed a tree (among other things), went home and watched four episodes of Firefly and imbibed much root beer, and crashed hard. We may or may not have sung the theme song at the top of our lungs every time it came on. May or may not have, meaning, we definitely did. Definitely. Next day: nine episodes and Olive Garden, as well as a side trip to HyVee for more Oreos, heck yeah. Next day, the remaining two episodes and the movie, as well as the bloopers and deleted scenes. AND THERE WAS MUCH REJOICING.

Then I got to go see Lady Arin because she had her homeschool graduation and I gave her a very disjointed and messy present and randomly stayed the night and got eaten alive by mosquitoes, but all of that was worth it because I finally got those pictures we took back in December! And they are super awesome. 'Specially the ones of Milady wearing my period clothing, and filling it up far better than I ever could, lol. Downside: I still can't fit my swollen feet into shoes. Literally, there are so many bites that my feet and ankles are actually swollen. Getting better now, though. Except I just tore a muscle in my back yesterday when I jumped off a low wall at the park, trying to keep up with my brother, who was sort of doing parkour. Oops. I keep forgetting that I am no longer young, spry, and springy. Whatever, it's healing, and I know not to do it again.

Tomorrow there's this kid's toy sale nearby, and I'm going to try and get rid of most of my girly toys. I'm keeping a few Barbies and a few Groovy Girls for my own potential daughters, but almost everything else is bagged up and ready to go - all of the Ello (that was a chore), the rest of the Barbies (the ones that weren't missing heads, hands, or feet), all the Barbie furniture and accessories, the majority of the Groovy Girls, and all of the Clikits. There's already so much more room on my shelves! And I just dissembled and packed up the Playmobile castle that's been on my floor my entire life so my mom could store in it my grandma's basement. That kind of made me sad, but I couldn't get to the shelves behind it, so it had to go. However, I can play with it again when I have children, so that's okay.

Ooh, I just had a fabulous idea for a costume for the OYAN workshop involving a black cloak, a wide-brimmed hat, skeleton keys, a flintlock pistol, and my beaky carnival mask! *shifty glittering of eyes* Clearly, it's gonna be awesome.

Lessee, what else? Oh yeah - finished my physics book yesterday! Huzzah! Oh, and I also have a job interview set up for Sunday evening, which I'm passing nervous about. It's for a sales position, and although I've talked to the company like three times, I still have no idea what I"m supposed to be selling. You guys, I am poor. I need a job so bad. If anyone knows of a place I could apply, drop a comment and I will give you delicious cybercookies. Thanks!

I should go write some Chapter Two now. This post is getting squirrelly. Sorry for all the useless information.

Commander Kip
"That man is playing Galaga. He thought we wouldn't notice. But we did."
Normal is overrated!

NEARLY THERE...

I've promised myself that I WILL finish the first draft of Erimon Hill before the 18th of May, because that only gives me one month to write the ENTIRE second draft in time for the OYAN workshop, which starts on the 18th, I believe, of June. I suspect this is an unrealistic goal. Especially since the whole plot will probably change, and I'll have to outline all over again, and add stuff, and change stuff, and it's gonna be a mess, I can already tell. But THAT IS MY GOAL. Basically, nobody bother me until then. I will be attending a few (read: four on the same day) graduation parties between now and then, and Brenticus and I shall have our Firefly marathon, and I will be at Worlds of Fun, but other than that, I SHALL NOT BE DISTURBED. On pain of death, you understand.

And now, some pictures of Andra.

Andra making a displeased face. Perhaps because I decided that clothing is an unnecessary distraction from her lovely face. Or perhaps because that's just how her face looks all the time.

A fun little doodle. The word "formal," in this case, has nothing to do with anything. Ignore it.

 The hood! I've been meaning to draw her with the hood, and I continually forgot for some months, and then in English class one day, I remembered. Yay.

 And here I must mention that I don't remember exactly when in the story this happens, but at some point (or perhaps several points) Andra is indeed forced to her knees by some bad guy or other. Notice here how said anonymous bad guy is completely invisible except for his wonky arms. Because I'm awesome. Or lazy. Or both.

 Here I decided that Andra needed to grow a consistant face, so I proceeded to draw her like twenty times. It was an entertaining exercise, although I'm not sure it entirely served its purpose. Oddly, I think the one that looks the most like her is the one with her hair down and wearing a dress. Odd, because she almost never looks like that. I also have to point out that the thing on her leg in the top right corner of the page is her new and shiny leg brace, which I thought of a few months ago, which led to a complete reimagining of the story world. Thus complicating the second draft like no other. *raaage* Italy didn't help. Or maybe it did, depending on how you look at it. Certainly gave me ideas.

 Here's the brace for realz. It's a strip of metal strapped to the back of her leg and a stirrup-ish thing that corrects her turned-in ankle. I like it way better than the stupid modified boot. So there.

 Anybody remember her handmaiden, Hollie? This is her. I will probably be changing her name, but in any case, there she is.

And there she is again, being sad. And there's Andra, trying to make her feel better. Aww.

  And look, the new version of Fable! He looks sort of Italian now, I think. There's a reason for that. I'll explain shortly here. First, I would love for you to notice how very well all of those hands came out. *happysquee*

NOW, the Italian influence. Here's what I'm thinking. The generic backwards fantasy world which these characters have been inhabiting until recently is exceedingly backwards and generic. It's mightily embarassing. I know I can do better. After returning from Italy, I had the brilliant idea of bumping up the time period from medieval to Rennaisance and changing the base cultural/geographical model from England to Italy. So now it's a parallel Italian Rennaisance-type setting, and there are subsequently a whole bunch of lovely factoids I can apply, such as: the practice of building cities on top of hills, with a fortress or church in the middle and streets spiraling down from there, in order to be in a defensible position against the barbarian hordes; the strong presence of a central church/religion (it won't be Catholicism, I'mma make it up); a genius inventor person (not Da Vinci, but someone modelled on him) whose inventions were applicable enough to become the primary form of technology, like Italian clockpunk, I guess; a self-contained seat of political/religious leadership, separate from the rest of the country (like the Vatican, but actually Kyria); sacred symbolism, as in the case of the four winged creatures that represent the Evangelists existing as actual species (although I'd rather have six as a sacred number, so I'd have to think of two more types of winged creatures - I'll have to brainstorm some more); the presence of the Romani people so that I can still have my lovely gypsies; and several others that have temporarly slipped my mind. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's gonna be completely awesome.

On another subject, the bro and Brenticus and I went to see Avengers in 3D on Thursday. I was truly expecting it to suck, but actually, it was super beasty and hilarious, and now I really want to see it again because it made me laugh so hard. Also, I love Loki's pretty face. Not so much his duck hair, but what can you do. You guys, I have the hugest weak spot for pretty men and clever humor. Hence my ongoing infatuation with X-Men First Class, I suppose.

I'm out of school now, by the way, but no less busy for it. At least, it seems that way to me. But, DONE WITH HIGH SCHOOL YAAAY! *danceparty*

Commander Kip

"Wait, you need a plan of attack!" "I have a plan. Attack."

Normal is overrated!

Thing(s) of the Day: Pogo, pus recent news

I stumbled across these cool videos a week or two ago and decided they were too cool not to share. This guy, Pogo, takes sounds clips from movies and strings them together to make these whimsical melodies. Admittedly, not the kind of thing I habitually enjoy, but I especially like these two (he's done some nice Disney ones as well.)

Mostly I like this one because, you know, Lord of the Rings. It's awesome already. Plus, I find it vastly entertaining that Sam and Elrond scream on the exact same pitch. Anyone else amused by this?

And as for this one, it's got this darling intricate melody that is incredibly catchy, yet I can never seem to remember it later. And by the way, A Little Princess was one of my all-time favorite books when I was a wee lass just learning how to read. A Secret Garden as well. Ah, childhood. Strange to think back to a time when none of the books I read had crazy fight scenes or kissing or anything in them. And now they all do. Lol.


In other news (several things):

(1. I have recieved a very nice financial aid package from St. Olaf, including their highest piano scholarship and second-highest art scholarship, huzzah! *mops brow* Great heaping load of stress off right there, thank the Light. And as for the li'l bro, he got accepted for the Piano Academy there this summer even though he's technically a year too young. They really liked his audition tape. So yay.

(2. My mommie more or less required me to apply for the Great Conversations program at St. Olaf, which is basically a combination of core classes for your first and second year in which you read/analyze/discuss great works of art and literature, beginning with the Ancient Greeks and Romans and progressing as far into the present day as the professors feel like going. It's extremely comprehensive, as well as extremely hard to get into, because if I remember correctly, there's only forty spots. You write an essay, and that's all they have to go on to evaluate you. I wrote a crappy essay, my mom edited it, I wrote it again, she made more edits, and we worked it along until both of us were fairly happy with it. Apparently it was good enough, because I made it in. XD Thanks, Mommie.

(3. I just found out that an art piece of mine won some Grand Award thing in the Shawnee Mission district art show. Tomorrow I have to go to the awards ceremony, and it's gonna be on TV and stuff. I think that means I have to look pretty or something. Crap. *shambles into the corner, muttering to self*

(4. So my chamber choir always has their progressive dinner thingy the night before State every year, mostly to discourage kids from partying late, since we have to ride the bus at a ludicrous hour of the morning. We went to three different houses and ate them all out of house and home. I sat at a table full of boys at the second house and we had a heated discussion about whether the Avengers movie is going to suck or not. (I, personally, fear the suckage. I mean, the Iron Man movie was lame, Thor was reportedly lame, Hulk = whatever, Black Widow didn't even get her own movie, Captain America had a weird ending... basically, the precedents are not good. We shall see.) Anyway, after the dessert course, we did a scavenger hunt that led us on a merry chase all up and down my choir conductor's neighborhood. We had to cross a creek in formal wear. It was bloody brilliant, although I did accidentally dip the hem of my dress in the water when I was leaping from rock to rock in the pitch blackness, since I sort of forgot my flashlight. Whatever, I found out this morning that my team won. Peachwave gift cards. Heck yeah. Although I have massive cramps in both legs because we RAN THE ENTIRE TIME and I am woefully out of shape. Like woefully. As in, borderline extremely fat. At least, it feels that way to me.

(5. Got up at five a.m. this morning to get on a bus and go to Emporia with my chamber choir for State (our performance time was 8:40 a.m.) We did really well at District - got a I rating with like 74 points out of 80. Today at State, we got a I rating with 79 points out of 80. So that was cool. Although I'm totally dying right now. I'm so spoiled - I'm hardly ever out of bed before eight anymore. Yes, I know I'm spoiled! Quit smacking me! I WILL MAKE YOU BLEED!! Ahem.

(6. At the used book sale last week, or whenever it was, I was fortunate to encounter the entire Star Wars: Jedi Academy book trilogy, which I immediately snapped up, because they were like fifty cents apiece and I can never find all three of them in one place. Just finished the first one, Jedi Search, last night. Ah, more nostalgia. I love Han and Chewie. That is all. I remember when I watched the movies with my parents for the first time, and every time a new character came on the screen, I would be all like, "Is that a good guy or a bad guy? It's a good guy, right? What are those little hooded things? Are they nice? Why do people always fall down when that black-cape guy is around?" Imagine me saying all those things in my reedy small-child voice, and you can probably imagine my parents repeating over and over, "Just watch the movie and see!" Oh, right, book sale. In addition to the aforementioned Star Wars books, I also picked up a copy of Divergent, because I decided I liked it enough to own it; Delirium, which my book-buddy friend at school is currently raving about; I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You, which Lady Arin has been bugging me to read for ages, and I finally read it! There, happy? I'm sorry, but I think I missed my window. I probably would have enjoyed it far more if I'd read it when I was fourteen. Now I was like, Holy crap, this chick is such a fifteen-year-old girl. So. MUCH. I swear, she uses the word "totally" like twenty times a second. But granted, there were a few funny parts.

(7. Other book stuff. Recently finished both Hamlet and Lord of the Flies for English; enjoyed Hamlet quite a bit, but not so much the other. Lord of the Flies just reminds me of the mutated love child of Lost and Peter Pan. It's rather frightening. But mostly just gory. Gorier than I tend to like. Not a huge fan of skulls splitting open and brains spilling out, thanks very much. However, I am also simultaneously in the middle of Incarceron (borrowing from my school book-buddy) and A Game of Thrones, which I like so far. I've had a few spoilers on account of my brother having watched several episodes of the show at my grandparents' house, but it's still a rich read. Dawww, Bran! *huggles the little climber* Dude, I really want a direwolf as a pet. Especially one that would defend me from jerkwad snotty princes. That would be freaking awesome.

(8. I am amassing a list of things I need to read/watch/play/do before college this coming fall. It's gonna be a super busy summer if I even attempt to get through it all. The list currently includes: finish all three Tomb Raider games (probably too ambitious, but oh well); finish Twilight Princess; play through Portal; have Firefly marathon with Brenticus; watch every episode of Teen Titans ever created; watch Aladdin; play Assassin's Creed (probably just the first one - there's no way I'll have time for all of them); paint up the spare Nerf guys I have lying around in my room; oh yeah, clean out my room so the bro can live in it; SEE MILADY; play more Skyrim (although that's quickly losing its glamour - plenty of better things to do); take another crack at Myst V perhaps; write second draft of Erimon Hill (hopefully BEFORE workshop, but seriously, can I make that happen? Probably not); read moar Shakespeare (specifically Macbeth, The Tempest, and Romeo and Juliet... that's my own personal list); sell a bunch of my old crap; get a new computer; work at the Taekwondo studio and earn some actual monies; watch Scott Pilgrim vs. The World; go see shiny new movies coming out (Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit Part I, and others); catch up on movies I missed in the theater (John Carter, Sherlock Holmes 2, and whatever else); eat lots of Peachwave, cuz I doubt they have those in Minnesota; get my Ipod situation fixed (we don't have Itunes on any of our computers anymore); prepare for my graduation showcase/ceremony in early August; and basically hang out with my family and high school friends as frigging much as possible. *gulps down some air* Whew, I thought I was going to asphyxiate there for a second. See how much stuff that is? I could not sleep a single minute this entire summer and still not get around to it all. Ack, so much stuff!

But first, school. I am so done with it, guys. Please. Take it away.

Commander Kip
"Are you guys done yet?" "Shut it! This is going to take HOURS. HOURS... and HOURS."
Normal is overrated!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone sketches

Hokay, so, first off: remember when what I said about "so little homework lately"? Yeah, that's gone now. I don't know why teachers think it's a good idea to pile on the homework for fourth-quarter seniors. Surely that must know that no one's going to do it. So basically, real life is eating me right now and my posting schedule has been subsequently lame. I apologize. Here's a little thingy to keep you satiated in the meantime. Sketchies of Karou and Akiva!

 These three are my faves (the rest are more or less crap) - Karou with the paintbrush in her hair:

 Akiva, in all his kohl-ish glory:

And some kissing, because that one scene was super hot.

Awright, I dunno what they did to Blogger, but clearly they fixed something that wasn't broke because my formatting is all jakey now nothing is working the way it should and I want my mommy and what was wrong with the old version? It should not have taken fifteen minutes to make those pictures and text sit where I wanted them.

This is stupid. Maybe I should boycott. Just, you know, 'till they put it back the way it was.

Back to the ever-present schoolthings...

Commander Kip

"Hey, we were calling to wish Grandpa a happy birthday!" *long pause* "...Oh. *another pause* ... That's today?" "Yes, Mother, it's your husband's birthday. Can we talk to him?" "Oh, sure, here he is." "Hey, Grandpa, happy birthday!" "Oh, that's today?" "Um, yes." "Good thing you called - I forgot all about it!"

Normal is overrated!

You may have noticed that I tried something

and I'm not sure I like it. I *ghasp* changed my blog. The background, heading, color scheme, all of it. I was going for summery, but somehow ended up with Eastery. It would appear that I accidentally matched the color scheme to that heinous watercolor in the last post. Bad. Bad bad. So this look will quite possibly not stick.

Really, the reason I changed it was because I was tired of my old background, although I loved it, and also my dad taught me some cool things about Paint.NET that I wanted to test out. Hence my fancy new header. I'll stick it up here so there's some record of it when I inevitably change it again: Certainly more professional that the last, and far more legible-er. But not really the colors I want on my blog at present. Ah well. Try again.

(Eventually. I suddenly have many things to do, which is forcing me to ignore this debilitating case of senioritis and get actual things done. It hurts me. I just wanna lay around and watch Youtube, now, is that so much to ask? Apparently it is.)

See, even my blog posts are lame. I truly wish to be absolutely lazy these days. Fourth quarter sucks. 'Scuse me while I go cry into my Spanish homework.

Oh, but remind me, when I get a chance, to talk about A Game of Thrones, which I'm finally reading, and the massive-scale Erimon Hill rewrite, which will happen before the workshop IF IT KILLS ME, and some fun things I've found online recently, and also that artwork thing I sometimes do. I have a stack of doodles THIS BIG *holds up hands about a foot apart* to show you people.

I love how I always make lists of the posts I want to do, and then I only do like the first one or two on the list. I suspect this time will be no different. Well, too bad.

Commander Kip
Ooh, cop uniform? Yummey.
Normal is overrated!

HAPPY REBIRTHDAY

It's Easter, you gaiz! I heart Easter. Have a crappy watercolor! It's Stewey from the IUW. 'Member him? The angry rabbit? Well, now he's even angrier. Might have something to do with me dyeing him blue and tying a pink ribbon on his head. Hey, I never claimed I knew how to watercolor. Hence that heinous mess of colors up there.

Also, since it's Easter, have this video.


Usually I am not a huge fan of Christian music as a genre, because many of the songs are very basic in structure, but basically I just like Adam Young's voice. It's, I dunno, clear. And hopeful. It has a simplicity that I find lacking in most modern pop stars. Not a ton of vibrato. I like that. Yay Owl City.

Now, CHURCH! *dashes off to make self presentable*

Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it!

Commander Kip
I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.
Normal is overrated!

Thing of the Day: DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth

I wasn't planning on this particular Thing of the Day, but there's life for you. Always throwing wrenches and crow's feet and sticky grenades in your plans. Silly life. Annnyway.

My friend from school lent me this book, DIVERGENT, and I started it yesterday and finished it... yesterday. So I wanna talk about it for a sec. (By the way, it's set in dystopian Chicago, and I've been to Chicago, so nyeh. 'S cool to read about a city you've been to. Like when Percy Jackson accidentally blows a hole in the St. Louis Arch and stuff while fighting a chimaera. But that's sorta beside the point.) Point is, this particular dystopian society is separated into five factions, which people sort themselves into at the age of sixteen depending on their personality. However, the protagonist, Beatrice Prior, also/later known as Tris, doesn't fit nicely into any of the factions and is therefore considered Divergent, which is the same thing as "extremely dangerous to the government," because she can't be controlled. Apparently, Divergence is very rare in this society. Now, here's what's funny. My parents have raised me Divergent all my life. They sat me down and gave me a big serious talk about divergence right before I started public school. My whole family is majorly divergent. So reading about this chick who was raised in a theoretical box and whose life is constantly in danger because she's just discovered that she's Divergent is fascinating to me. It's like, whenever she thinks she should just fit in and do what her faction is doing, I'm going, Nooo, that's not the way to do it. Do your own thing, Tris! In fact, I believe that if everyone were more Divergent, the world might even be a better place for it. Instead of hordes of sheepul who do and think whatever theyr'e told, we might have a community of aware people who know what's going on in the world and aren't afraid to speak/act differently than perhaps the government wishes they would. In the book, the five factions are based on the qualities of selflessness, kindness, knowledge, truth, and courage. You have to pick one. You don't get to be all of them. But one of the characters, Four, says he wants to be all of them, and that everybody should be all of them. They can't work as well independently of one another. Here's me in total agreement, you guys.

And get this; just for kicks, I took the faction quiz in the back of the book, which is supposed to determine which faction you would be in, and my results were... inconclusive. I had answers in every category. I can't be classified. I'm Divergent. I KNEW IT! And the really funny part is, Divergent wasn't even a choice in the results. Just the five factions. They didn't actually build Divergence into the quiz. Isn't that interesting? And the even funnier part is, I took the quiz before I actually read the book, and I didn't know what it meant, at first, that none of my answers matched any one single faction. Then I read the book and I was like, oh, I get it now.

So basically, I'm so glad my parents didn't raise me in a way that lets other people put me in a box. I like being Divergent. Yay padres especiales! It's wasn't a particularly well-written book, slightly sub-par to Hunger Games, I would say; but it did make me think. Which is good.

Now I gotta go clean the house and vacuum up some wasp carcasses before the fam gets here for Easter tomorrow. Later, all!

Commander Kip
"What if they solve the case first?" *derpface* "Nah."
Normal is overrated!

My Dog

Just showing the class a bit of blogging.
This is sooooo easy!

Cute DOG!

Worpress blog! (UPDATED)

So, you guys, mi padre asked me to start a Wordpress blog in order to compare it to Blogger - difference in function, usability, look&feel, etc. Do Kippy a favor and comment over there so she can figure out how the comment system works!

http://therandomosityexperiment.wordpress.com/

I'm only running this experiment for two weeks, because Padre needs the data by then, and after that I probably won't use Wordpress anymore, just because I don't actually want to spend my time running two blogs at once. You all know what a hard time I have keeping up with just the one. XD So that other one is only temporary. Just for the sake of the experiment.

Thanks in advance for your help, you gaiz!

*****

UPDATE: Never mind! It only took one post on WordPress to convince me that Blogger is way better for me right now. I have deleted my WordPress blog and abandoned the experiment. Or completed it, whichever. My dad suggested this; after hearing all the difficulties I had just making the first post, he was all like "dude, delete the stupid thing. Obviously, Blogger is way better." So yes, never mind. Yay Blogger! And thank you, faetroubador, for commenting on The Randomosity Experiment, even though it only existed for a few days. I appreciate it!

Commander Kip
"It's like a combination Easter and birthday party. *pause* *face lights up* REBIRTHDAY!"
Normal is overrated!

So little homework lately...

This is dangerous. I can just feel the senioritis coming on. I suspect I might have a particularly strong case of it because I've technically been in school a year longer than everybody else (even though I've done less math.) But whatever, since there's so little homework at the moment, and I've got all my scholarships and so on, I'm just chillin' out and trying to get over this Italian head ick and playing some Tomb Raider and blogging more than usual. No complaints here. I mean, I could be studying for AP tests or doing physics or something, but seriously, if no one makes me do those things, am I actually going to do them? No. That would be ridiculous.

Portals, yay! Have some gooey Anabeth and Thaelen for breakfast. I think I'm finally getting better at drawing hair! *partytime* Anabeth's hand is tiny. Whoops. Oh well.

As soon as I got back from Italy, I realized that Erimon Hill already has a lot of Italian things in it. More on that later.

You guys, this post is lame. I'm sorry.

Ooh, but I have another Fail post I could do over on Epic Fail! If I remember. Maybe.

Getting excited for the OYAN workshop. Brenticus and I are definately doing some coordinating costumes. Like Firefly, and possibly Dr. Horrible. 'S gonna be awesome.

Commander Kip
"Hey, what do you think of moving to a new school?" "NEVAH! YOU'RE NOT MAH DADDIE!"
Normal is overrated!

Thing of the Day: The Hunger Games movie

It's the Thing of Yesterday, actually, but who's keeping track? I'm posting about it today. Because I can, or whatever.

So guess what?

THE MOVIE WAS AWESOME.

I'm serious. It was. Sure, there were minor discrepancies between it and the book, but aren't there always? Yes, because how are they gonna stuff the whole story into a two-hour film otherwise? (Lord of the Rings doesn't count in this discussion - truly the only movies that were "as good as" the books.) People always gripe about how the movie wasn't an EXACT REENACTMENT of the book, but srsleh ppl, the movie would be like five hours long if they did that. See why books are awesome? Because they're easy to carry around, and they hold more hours' worth of content than movies do. A movie is not the "ultimate form" of the book - the book itself is as close to perfect as the story will most likely get. The movie is just cool because it's a visual interpretation of the book. With books-turned-movies, I try to hold the two separate in my mind and appreciate each for their strengths. For example, Percy Jackson. Fun book. A blast, actually. Movie: also a blast. But COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. But still really cool. Now, some books-turned-movies are truly and seriously terrible, such as Eragon. *shudder* That was just a bad movie. But back to the topic.

*SORTA SPOILERY, WATCH YOURSELF* Hunger Games made an interesting movie because they could show stuff Katniss couldn't see in the book, a minor downside of first person POV. We got to see the Gamemakers messing with the game in a tricked-out control room thingy with touchscreens and holograms all over the place, and it was super freaking cool. They also showed, on several occasions, President Snow and Seneca Crane in a rose garden, discussing how the Games were progressing and how to contain Katniss while still putting on a good show. There were several little added things like that, things we missed in the book because we only ever saw what Katniss herself saw. It was cool how they fleshed out Seneca Crane's character, because he's not physically around much in the book, but in the movie they gave him this fantasic fancy beard and a center part in his hair and he looked freaking awesome.

The only thing that actually bothered me about the movie was the shaky camera work. I know it's supposed to look gritty and immediate, but really it just gives everyone a headache. Something else that bothered me, but not nearly as much, was how little time Katniss and Peeta spent in the cave. In the book, that's where they develop most of their relationship, but in the movie, they had like one kiss and that was it. Huh? There could have been more making out, in my opinion. Some of the stuff they abbreviated, I was fine with; like, nobody actually wants to watch Katniss flail around in the forest for three days looking for water. Boring. And certainly nobody wants to listen to Cato screaming for hours and hours while the mutts tear him to pieces. Gross. But I do think the cave part could have been at least a little more substantial.

Whatever, I'll stop spoiling the movie for you. I thought it was awesome. Can't wait for the next installment!

And to celebrate this momentous occasion, look what I found. The first drawing I ever did of Peeta and Katniss!

I think they're supposed to be on top of the Cornucopia, but then again, my drawing skills were less than fabulous in 2009 (this sketch is from my old sketchbook; I've found so many fun little unfinished things in there!) The first time I read the book, I was under the impression that the Cornucopia was an actual cornucopia, except really big and made out of metal. Well, yeah, whatever. The point is, there are plenty of things wrong with this picture, but I like it for sentimental reasons. Peeta has always had beautiful hair in my art. XD

Commander Kip
"I mean, she's just leaning against the tree and then Peeta's like, 'BREAD!'"
Normal is overrated!

Aurgh... So... many... PICTURES...!!

Between the two of us, my mom and I took over a thousand photos in Italy. O.o Which means it's gonna take a while to sort through them in order to get a coherent blog post going. I'm so scared, you guys. How am I gonna choose a few pics to put in the blog out of the hundreds and hundreds we took? Augh, it hurts usss!

So in the meantime, yuu can haz fanarts. You're welcome.

I read Pure by Julianna Baggot on the plane home from Italy, and it was strange and beautiful and riveting, although not as much so as Daughter of Smoke and Bone, hehe. But still very cool. Lots of weird stuff going on. For example, the main character, Pressia Belze, has a baby doll head for a hand. Srsly, it's fused to her wrist - is that not brilliant? (Apologies for nassty awkward scanner shadow, rawr.)

I also read Chime by Franny Billingsley on the way to Italy, and it was also strange and beautiful and had swamp monsters and hot boys in it. Pretty cool.

And now I've come down with the head yuck - some kind of head flu, perhaps? - that everybody had on the trip. I tell you, I think my mom and I were some of the only people in the group who were not sick during the trip, and that's only because we made it a point to go out and find us some salad at lunchtimes. I've been flailing around in bed for the past two days, skipped school and everything, and it sucks and stuff, but mostly I'm so glad it held off until I got back. Whew. Bullet dodged. And even though I'm not completely up to par at present, I AM GOING TO SEE THE HUNGER GAMES TODAY AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO STOP ME. Srsly, don't even try it. I will make you bleed.

Finished Season 4 of The Guild yesterday, and lemme tell you, that show makes me laugh aloud more times per minute than anything I have ever watched. Gamer humor, you know. I am a fan of it. And Felicia Day. I'm a fan of her too.

I should prolly go take a shower before I have to sit in a crowded theater with people I know and respect, or they shall no longer respect ME. Showering when I'm sick makes me dizzy, not sure why, something to do with the heat and humidity perhaps, so I'm sure I've acquired quite a stench by now. My hair looks like an oil slick. Better go attend to that. Later, dudes. *shambles off*

Commander Kip
"Well, Tink and I have a secret weapon, hmm. Blake and Gabby, keep collecting cotton for Auntie Tink. Kill the monsters!" "Killa monfers!" "Boys are stupid!" "Boys are stoopid!"
Normal is overrated!

Buon giorno, ragazzi!

Just returned from the most spectacular ten days of my life in Italy. Srsleh, my mind is still blown. Also, my feet hurt. And I can't show pictures yet because my stupid computer is stupid. So instead, you get this video.




We saw this guy playing in the street in Rome, and I was enthralled. The instrument is called a hang, pronounced "hong," and it reminds me of the hybrid child of a singing bowl and a set of bongos. Wot. But I really like it. Kinda looks like his hands are dancing. Apparently these intruments were recently invented in Switzerland or somewhere and are very rare. Whatever, it was freaking awesome.



And yes, for those curious ones among you, I did indeed purchase a Venetian carnival mask, and it is a sexy beast. Just wait till you see the pictures. I really hope I get to see it again, because as of right now they've misplaced our luggage, and everything we bought was in there. So mad. So. Mad.



But anyway. More about Italy later. The bro trashed my room while we were gone, so I gotta go clean it or something. Later, peeps.



Commander Kip



"I am not unglued!" "You're slightly unglued." *deep breath* "There. See? I'm perfectly glued."



Normal is overrated!

Off to Italy... TOFRIGGENMORROW

I might be freaking out just a little. This post may, therefore, end up being a little haphazard/disjointed. Sorreh.

Yes, we're on a plane first thing in the morning, so here's a quick peeksy at some old Portals-themed whatnot. I found these in my old sketchbook. Excuse crappy scans.

Thaelen and Anabeth dancing in a faery hall (to this tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzhzraXuoyw) Thaelen looks unlike himself, but I nailed Anabeth's face for a change, bazinga! And this is a scene I've attempted before, with even less satisfactory results; when Thaelen leaps down out of the tree and tackles Anabeth to the ground to save her from being shot. You can maybe tell I gave up on Thaelen's clothes. I'll get it right someday, I swear!

Kay, back to packing. Ugh, the weight limit is 42 pounds for the checked baggage. Srsly, 42 pounds? You're joshing me. How am I supposed to get my weapons overseas with a stupid weight limit like that? *puffs out exasperated sigh*

While I am in Italy I shall take a bazillion pictures and also purchase a carnival mask in Venice. So there. I don't care how expensive it is, I am buying one of the ones with a ridiculous huge beaky nose. Don't even try to stop me.

Shoutout to Lady Arin, my dearest, who is turning eighteen this weekend!!! *MASSIVE DANCEPARTY* Milady, I am working on your present, I promise. Hey, now you can buy cigarettes and look at porn and stay out past curfew! Isn't eighteen an awesome year?

See y'all after spring break!

Oh, and homework struggled to get itself done yesterday because I discovered The Guild on Youtube and it is SO FUNNEH. SO INNAPROPRO. BUT SO VERY FUNNEH. It's about these six gamers, three dudes and three chicks, none of whom have lives, who meet each other in person after like two years of gaming online together. Frighteningly enough, it reminds me of my brother so much. *terrified*

Commander Kip

"It's about destroying the status quo, because the status... is NOT... quo. The world is a mess, and I just need to... rule it."

Normal is overrated!

scholarship portfolio

Hai peoples! I wanted to do a Leap Day post, just for the novelty of seeing the date in the header, but no. Schoolwork instead. *makes horrid face* In any case, Leap Day aside, I'm leaving for Minnesota today for my FREAKING SCARY scholarship auditions. So yes. I am very afraid.

Pippin wanted to see my portfolio, so here it be!

ApiphobiaFor Wonder
Archaeology Installation

Hailey

The Spatler

Save the Ice Cap

Myself

My Stuff

The Hunt

Forty-Five-Minute Glass

I may come back and edit this post with descriptions after the trip, but I can haz no internets until Monday, so you'll have to wait, at least until then.

Adios, y'all.

Commander Kip

Oh my goodness, look at my wrist, I gotta go.

Normal is overrated!

THERE. DONE.

With my stoopid senior paper, which has been eating my life for a couple months now. This is the outside of the giant envelope the paper went in:
And that's me, celebrating.

I actually finished this a week or two ago, and then didn't post forever because despite what I said in my previous post, I haz no motivationz. Because I fail. Stoopid senior paper sucked all the motivationz right outta me, I think. Along with my soul.

It's my own fault really because I decided to do Beloved by Toni Morrison and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, both of which are difficult books to comprehend. My themes were magic realism and nonlinear time, because I'm crazy and those were the most challenging things I could think of to compare. Yay. No, actually, I did those two in particular because there are elements of both in each of the novels, but in different forms. The novels, I chose because I'd already read them both this year and had done some work on them already. I definately recycled sources from the OHYoS paper I did at the end of first quarter. My secret. Don't tell anyone.

And since that all boring, I solemnly swear I'll post something interesting soon. I really was planning on posting more Valentines pictures, but all those half-finished drawings in my sketchbook seem bent on staying half-finished. At this point, it's looking like you're going to get either another random Thing of the Day, or a million little doodles that have nothing to do with anything, or that drawing of Ewin I did a while ago for Pippin, or my scholarship art portfolio for St. Olaf. Well, maybe not that, since it's more school stuff, and we've all had quite enough of that after this post, I think. Anyway, I'm babbling. I'll shut up now.

Oh, I arbitrarily watched the first Narnia movie again last night, because my brother was at a sleepover and my parents were having a James Bond mini-marathon and I was feeling productive because I'd gotten a bunch of homework done at school already. So I watched it, just cuz. And I was laughing because all four of the main actors looked so little! They were so young in that first movie, 'specially Skandar Keynes. He was tiny. Crackup. Plus, I was freaking out because I realized that the guy who plays Tumnus was the same guy who played Charles Xavier in X-Men First Class. There may have been some contained squeeing, just a little.

And I then I went downstairs and ended up watching Tomorrow Never Dies with my parents, because my sneaky father coaxed me into it with offers of popcorn. I couldn't refuse. It's funny because every single James Bond movie does its opening credits to some famous person singing a jazzy song with inexplicable dancing ladies who aren't even in the movie and random special effects. I think it's supposed to be provocative, but it just makes us laugh. And then I freaked out because it said in the credits that this particular provocative opening thingy was sung by Sheryl Crow, and I was like "OH MY GOD I'VE MET HER!" Which I'd forgotten about until just then, because I didn't realize it was important at the time. My chamber choir sang for her at the beginning of the year. I don't remember why now. So there, I've met a famous person!

And while we're still talking about movies here, I sort of accidentally saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at my grandparents' house the other day. It was an accident, I swear. Unfortunately, it was three hours of retarded dialogue and giant robots throwing themselves at each other and Megan Fox waving her cleavage around. In other words, a waste of three hours of my life. The only redeeming part of that whole movie was the ancient Decepticon with the beard. He was legitimately funny. Other than that, whatever. I still have no desire to see Dark of the Moon at all.

Off to St Olaf on Thursday for scholarship auditions. Turns out I'm a finalist both for the music and art scholarships, so I have both of those to do. Wish me luck and things.

Blargh. Spanish homework. Later, dudes.

Commander Kip

"There is to be no runnin', no shoutin', no slidin' down the bannisters, and NO! TOUCHIN'! of the 'istorical artifacts!"

Normal is overrated!

Thing of the Day: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

I'm gonna do a new thing. I'm calling it Thing of the Day, and it'll be a post about a cool, interesting, or awesome thing I want to share with you guys. This might be a good motivator to get me to post more, you know. Since I fail so very hard at posting regularly. Anyway, the Thing for today is Dr. Horrible! Because it is forty or so minutes of pure win, and it's got Nathan Fillion in it, AND it's free on the Internet. Watch it!

http://www.whedon.info/If-DrHorrible-com-is-down-watch.html

And then Youtube the accompanying musical, Commentary! All the tracks are there, but no video, which is sad. Apparently there's some cool extras on the DVD, if you buy it, but if you're poor like me, Youtube it. And die laughing. It's basically another full-length musical stuffed with inside jokes, and everybody gets a solo. Even the groupies. And, you know, Joss Whedon. I really want a T-shirt that says "Joss is Boss" on it. Really bad.

If you somehow don't have time to watch the entire thing (lame excuse, its forty freaking minutes, that's not even half the length of a real movie) then just go Youtube the song "My Eyes" in the meantime, because it's totally the best part. I HAD TO DRAW THIS.


AAAAAH, it's so adorable and heartwrenching and stuff. *sporadic flail* And Neil Patrick Harris is so cute. Specially with the massive welding goggles on his head. Maybe I just have a thing for dudes with goggles. I just paused the Youtube video to get this still, by the way, so the quality was rather poor and I'm sure I got some things wrong in the drawing, but whatever, it gets the point across. And Felicia Day has a very difficult face. Her skin is so pale, and yet there's these unexpected shadows all over the friggen place. *mops brow* Whew. Anyway.

But seriously, people. Go watch it. There's so many brilliant lines!

P.S. This should totally count as another Valentine's post, because there's definately some romantic interest between the Doctor and Penny, even if it is pathetically one-sided. *sniffle*

Commander Kip
It's a brand new day/ and the sun is high/ all the angels sing/ THAT YOU'RE GONNA DIE!
Normal is overrated!

Valentine time!

Ahoy, me lovelies, it's... not actually Talk Like a Pirate Day, but whatever. As a staunch supporter of the Pirate/Ninja Alliance, I'm entitled to talk like a pirate whenever I please. Daily, even. But, to business! Happy Singles Awareness Day! Here, have a picture of the District Twelve tributes that sprang into being because I'm so friggen excited for the movie! Those gray training jumpsuits are pretty sweet. Not a very romantic picture, but they are a couple after all, so it totally counts. And by the way, my mommie just finished Mockingjay, so now she's read all three of them. We freaked out together. *SPOILAAAR* Poor Prim. And Finnick, and Boggs, and Peeta. Poor, poor messed-up Peeta. She said that was the worst for her, when he comes back messed up, because he was the only one who really understood everything, you know? Gaah, so horrible. And Finnick, egad. He didn't even get a good death scene like Boggs. Hmph. But we did both agree that Gale, who at first I thought should have died, had to live so that Katniss was truly forced to choose between him and Peeta. Well, whatever, maybe that works better for the subplot or what have you, but I still would rather have Finnick around than Gale. Gale just makes me grumpy, which Finnick never does. Mostly because Gale doesn't "get it" like the rest of them do. He's never been in the Games and he just doesn't get it. Makes me really grumpy.

Side note: my mom said she pictured Peeta as very Aryan and angular, with an almost young-Nazi look and really short hair, while her Gale was fuller-faced with soft features. Whaat? My Gale and Peeta are exactly backwards from hers. Interesting. My reasoning is that Peeta is a baker, so even though his family still doesn't eat well compared to the people in the Capitol, they still probably have more food than anyone in the Seam. As for Gale, he's practically starving. His face would be sharper and bonier and I always picture him looking slightly angry, because he kind of is. So there. Peeta in the drawing is my version of Peeta, not my mommie's. With longer hair. Because I say so.

There's my Hunger Games rant for today. Have I mentioned that I'm SO EXCITED FOR THE MOVIE?!! Even if they ruin it. I just wanna see it so bad.

I have several unfinished couples/romanicky drawings that I'll probably submit over the course of the week, just cuz. And I still gotta do that Dr. Horrible post. But first, senior paper. ACK.

Commander Kip
AAAH-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Ah-HAAAAH-ha-haaaaAAAAH-hahaa. So that's, y'know, coming along.
Normal is overrated!

The Weeping Princess

There was an elfin princess who was unfortunate enough to fall in love with a human boy. Her father, the Lord of the Elves, forbid them to be together; but although she obediently tried to stay away from him, the boy sought her out, disregarding the danger. Over time, she gave in and agreed to meet him once in a while, growing bolder as their courtship went undiscovered. Of course, it was a cruel trap. Eventually, after he accumulated more than enough evidence, her father caught them. The boy, he had killed. His daughter, he confined to the forest palace where she has abided ever since. The Elf Lord made it publically known that any suitor of his daughter's - fey or human - would court her at his own risk, and if he did not approve, they would be likewise put to death. The elfin folk whisper about the Weeping Princess, who wears the symbolic markings of deep mourning on her cheek and spends her time confined to the rose-twined courtyard in the center of the palace. Many brash men have tried to seek her, and all have been slain. The princess knows better than to hope - for them to be spared, or better, for them to forget about her, for she can love none other than the first. She haunts the courtyard in silence, still in anguish over the death of her human boy. This was one of those things that starts out as a random doodle of some random elf chick and turns into *GAWRSP* backstory! So yes, there was really no point to all of that nonsense whatsoever. The people don't even have proper names. Anywhoo.

Real post forthcoming. Probably about Dr. Horrible, which I just recently discovered!! IT IS SO WONDERFUL YOU DON'T EVEN AAAAAAURHG.

Commander Kip
What a crazy random happenstance!
Normal is overrated!

fan doodles. have some.

Okay, we totally got RickRiordanRoll'd at the end of Son of Neptune, because we all really wanted something like THIS *flaps hand at picture* to happen, but no! That's Percy and Annabeth having an angsty reunion, for those of you keeping score, and something like this had better happen in the next book, or I will start breaking things.

Speaking of angst, or very near it, Meet Joe Black was an awesome movie. Or specifically, Brad Pitt was awesome in it. He managed to pull off gorgeous, scary, inexorable, clueless, and excessively hot all at the same time. Gah, the peanut butter scene had me laughing myself into asphyxiation. And then at the end my whole family was in tears. It was so good. Although slightly awkward to watch with my parents in some places, but whatevz. Blonde hair with dark roots, by the way, is almost unbearably striking.

Madrigal again, alongside part of a poem we were studying in English. I can't seem to stop drawing her. No wings in this picture because I got distracted/lazy and didn't get around to them.

See, there she is again.

Okay, so there's this thing on Youtube called Merlin's Apprentice, and it's super long, like three hours, and it's a super-messed-up version of the Grail legend about a thief with some magical talent who tries to rob Merlin and ends up learning magic from him, and then he finds out that he's Merlin's son by the Lady of the Lake, who in this version is a big-boned witchy lady who is in cahoots with the barbarians and apparently raped Merlin in his sleep or something. And all of this because she needed a son, or better, a servant who could get the Grail for her. Anywhoo, amidst all the weirdness and terrible acting, there were a couple of awesome kissing scenes in it. Like this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnG_9O5I3KE

And the other good one is when Jack accidentally puts a love spell on Brian, who turns out to be a very horny girl named Brianna, and she like tackles him to the frickin' ground. It's hilarious. I attempted to draw the girls, but neither of them look like themselves.

Yvonne:

Brianna (her face always looks like that):

And now some Artemis Fowl, because everybody loves him. I tried something different with Holly's hair, and Arty's arms are atrocious, and I can't draw weaponry, but you get the gist. I suspect Artemis is fairly useless with a gun (except for that one time in Lost Colony when his aim luckily didn't suck, but that's a HUGE spoiler, so... shutting up now.)

The end. By the way, I've finished all the Christmas/birthday books except Inheritance, which I am plugging away at quite ferociously, and Eye of the World, which I've nearly finished. You know when the Waygate wouldn't open because the key was gone and Moiriane was freaking out (which never happens) and that messed-up TORNADO OF SCREAMING SOULS was bearing down on them, egad, I seriously thought they were all gonna die. I may have screamed a little.
So mostly, every one of those books just left me ravening for the next one in the series, and now I gotta wait till like next Christmas to get 'em.

My mom and I had a Mission: Impossible marathon a few weeks ago. We stayed up till four a.m. watching the first three, then went and saw the new one with the whole family the next day in the theater. They're all pretty awesome, but I specially loved the second one. TOM CRUISE WITH LONG HAIR. *excessive drooling and fanning of self ensues* That is all. And I thought the feisty cat-burglar lady was pretty awesome in that one too. We also saw Troy as a family, which had an overabundence of pretty men in it, including both Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom, although Paris was a total pansy, and Achilles was a gore-streaked war machine - not my favorite of either of their roles, but whatever, pretty. The chick who played MacTaggert in X-Men First Class was in it too, but again, all she did was look pitiful and do a little stabbing at the end. Okay, no, the really awesome movie I saw recently was the first Sherlock Holmes, and it was seriously beasty. Even though Robert Downey Jr. doesn't look very Sherlockish to me (I tend to think of him as tall and almost spindly thin), he is certainly a boss. Same with Jude Law. I always picture Watson and portly and moustachioed; movie-Watson did have a moustache, but he was not portly in the least. They were both boss ninjas, and there was some really clever things in the movie, stuff that Sherlock does for no apparent reason and then later you find out exactly why he did it. Want to see the second one now.

Commander Kip

*gesticulating dangerously with violin bow* "Get that out of my face." "It's not in your face, it's in my hand." "Well, get what's in your hand out of my face!"

Normal is overrated!

for wonder

Nothing wrong with art for the sake of art. These self-portraits were for class. Good practice, y'know.

Blahblahblah, boring post. Cooler stuffs soon, perhaps?

Saw a bunch of awesome movies recently; more about 'em later.

Commander Kip

"I bet getting stabbed didn't help." "It wouldn't. Getting stabbed never helps."

Normal is overrated!

oh, the brilliance!

Guess what. That's right, ladies and gents, I did get Daughter of Smoke and Bone for my birthday (AND Clockwork Prince, but that's later) and I proceeded to spend the ENTIRE day reading it because I was physically unable to put it down. Well, the entire day except for when Brenticus and his brother were over, but the rest of the day, that's what I was doing. And in case you were wondering, it was FANTASTIC. So very fantastic that it gets its own post. I can't say hardly anything without spoiling stuff, which I refuse to do because you all should read it, but I will say that my first drawing of 2012 was a doodle of Madrigal the chimaera, because she's awesome.

I don't think I made her tall 'n skinny enough, but whatever, she rocks. The best thing about the book was that so much of it made me want to drop everything and draw it. The descriptions of characters and settings were in such vivid and startling color; as an artist, I was itching for a pencil throughout. I suspect there will be more drawings soonly. The other best thing about the book was that it was full of every cool thing I could think of, except maybe ninjas, and there were smouldery seraph dudes instead of ninjas, so that's all right. There were also horns, and weird tattoos, and gas masks, and awkward life drawing classes, and blue hair, and random humor, and teeth in jars, and giant costume wings, and strange awesome weapons, and bullet scars, and frivolous wishes, and tiny scary best friends, and masquerades, and edible glitter, and kissing and stuff. Dude, it was so shiny. Laini Taylor is such a boss. Seriously, go read it so we can freak out together.

Also, I hear there's a movie being made out of it.

SQUEE.

Oh, and Happy New Year. Love you.

Oh, and I go back to school tomorrow. How's that for a weird thought? *is boggled*

Commander Kip

"Oh, gross. Your stomache is full of butterfly barf!"

Normal is overrated!