OYAN SW: Day Number the Next One (day 2)

Gettin' these done, y'all! 

My notes from that day:

Day 2

(1.    I am carrying a shotgun and wearing a monogoggle, and they are both a huge hit.

Mr. S: So, that goggle... does it let you see into my soul?

Kip: Yes. And your innards.

Mr. S: How do you tell the difference between my innards and my soul?

Kip: Well, one is squishy and the other is not.

Mr. S: Ah. That’s interesting.

Kip: It’s a precise and unexpected detail!

Mr. S: High five.

(2.    Good conversation with Dewey, Brenticus and Writersblock about Avengers. Sorry, Dewey, but I still think Loki’s prettier than Thor.

(3.    Jeff Gerke is awesome. Great advice about how to craft the first 50 pages of a novel.

(4.    One of my unicorn children makes us an awesome critique group sign for the door of the Snowbarger room. It’s a zombie unicorn, and now instead of the Glory of Unicorns, our group is the Gory of Unicorns.

(5. Many steampunk pictures are taken. Also, Brenticus magically slides his folder under a locked door. 0.o

(6.    I am ambush-adopted by Queen Jane. Good thing, too, because she’s one of my lovely unicorn children.

(7.    I spend hours and hours painting over a piece of navy blue cloth covered with Christmas teddy bears in order to use it for my Jedi costume the next day. I am up past two-thirty A.M. Snuffles beats me to bed, and I fall asleep before I get the painting done. So not fair, because Snuffles is wearing her Weeping Angel tomorrow and it’s done already.

Brenticus and I with the TARDIS

everybody holds my shotgun (except me)

our lovely sign

Sharpie and I being awesome

a gorgeous costume

two gorgeous costumes

more steampunk ladies

all of Jane's siblings (except me - she recruited me shortly thereafter)

Apparently, Day 2 was supposed to be Celtic Day, but I didn't get that memo. So steampunk instead. Nothing wrong with steampunk. I did, in case you were curious, take off the monogoggle during critique session because it was rather difficult to read with it on. And if you were also wondering why I was wearing like five watches, it's because I'm a time-traveling steampunk mercenary and I need to know what time it is in all the different timestreams I pass through in my adventures. My unicorns made up a name for the character - what was it again? Alexandria something. Whatever, it was friggin awesome.

That was Day 2, and we haven't even hit the Doctor Who yet. Oh boy. Be excited.

College is awesome too! Today I had my first classes. Luckily, the only early-morning class I have is 3D art. I can handle that. Yay.

Also, I love mail. Send me it, and I will send you some in return (when I have time.)

Commander Kip
"It was nice, not dying with you."
Normal is overrated!

OYAN SW: Day Number the First One

I said I would, and I did, get the pictures I needed from Snuffles! So now you get OYAN posts - whenever I have time to work on them.

Right when we got back, I immediately wrote down the coolest things that happened each day so that I wouldn't forget. Here's the first of it:

Day 1

(1.    UM, THERE’S A TARDIS ONSTAGE. WUT. In his opening remarks, Mr. S. makes mention of this fact. “Some of you are probably wondering why there’s a TARDIS onstage, while others of you are probably like, ‘Duh. Why wasn’t there one last year?’”

(2.    Snuffles is a steampunk elf. We spend several minutes in the morning trying to get her ears glued on.  Mr. S. notes that seeing Carlie with ears is not even weird anymore.

(3.    Firefly fun. Six or seven people recognize Brenticus and me as Simon and River Tam! Regano is also Simon. I have two brothers! And my hair is abominably greasy; leaving the conditioner in works like magic. One of my opponents in Ninja this evening reportedly says, “Crap, we have to play against River freaking Tam!”

(4.    Brenticus’s lemur evolves into a lemurcorn. It’s super effective. Also, I am mocked during our critique group because of how much I freak out while Brenticus reads his first four pages.

(5.    Not so cool, but it should be noted – Isaac sits me down outside the Lounge of Tipping and forces me to watch an entire episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. My brain is now permanently scarred.

(6.    Our dorm room independently decides that dim, flickering, horror-movie lighting is in order. I attempt to make a holster for my shotgun in the gloomy murk. Snuffles, to our delight, discovers the desk lights. Huzzah!

the Tam siblings

life-sized TARDIS

Brenticus and Leafy

the marvelous S's

steampunk ladies

the front of my folder

That was the gist of day one. Basically, it was freaking fantastic. More to come!

Commander Kip
"TARDIS, Time Lord, yeah!" "Donna, human, no."
Normal is overrated!

...and I'm in!

To college, that is! This is my first night in the dorm. I adore my roommate - she's from Shanghai and the cutest thing ever - and I met a ton of cool people today! Tomorrow I say goodbye to my family and shoo them out of town. Shoo, family, shoo. No, I'll miss them. Maybe. XD

So I sort of accidentally built a sonic screwdriver.

I didn't mean to, honest! It just happened. Unfortunately, it doesn't light up or make noise or have moving parts, and my dad already rolled over it and broke it in half (I fixed it, no worries) and it's completely unnecessary because my legit River Song screwdriver came in the mail today, but whatevs, it's pretty awesome anyway. Cool story - today, I was hunting through the halls trying to find someone who had a screwdriver I could borrow to put the batteries in my screwdriver. Sonic-ception! Bwaaaaum. Sad story - the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who came out TODAY, and I was doing mandatory activities at the time and couldn't watch it. SO SAD. But, no worries, I still have most of Season 4 and all the specials to keep me occupied.

More later about collegy stuff!

Commander Kip
"I'm being extremely clever up here and there's no one to stand around looking impressed. What is the point of having you all?"
Normal is overrated!

Mini-vacay squared!

But first, BRUISED. EVERYWHERE. Gaah, black belt testing. I am in such horrible pain right now. My right arm is basically a mass of bruises. But I passed, so yay!

Speaking of horrible, I badly want this T-shirt:



Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), I just spent all my monies on a Doctor Who t-shirt and a sonic screwdriver, but when I have monies again, I'll be sniping this one straightaway.

In any case, the bro and I finally went to see the new Batman, and it was freaking epic. Mostly because Joseph Gordon-Levitt was in it as young, clever police officer John Blake. Actually, like half the cast of Inception was in it, which was brilliant. And during the ending, when I realized who the John Blake character was supposed to be, I was like "WOT. This is perfect!" I squee'd a lot. Yes, Reedfrost, I am most pleased. You said I would be, and I am. Oh, and Catwoman was awesome too. I liked her flippy cat-ear-gogglethings.

And now, the lake!

Brenticus and his two sibs.

There they are again, doing Avatar poses. Except for Hazmat, who is derping out.

And there I am. Remember that drastic thing I did? Yeah, it was chopping off my hair.

In our very nice condo, there was a pull-out couch/bed in the living room, which Mary decided to hide under and be an alligator. Okay then. I love Mary.

There's me in a kayak. I very cleverly wasn't wearing a swimsuit, so my shorts got rather damp.

There was a lovely playground by the lake, which we descended upon after getting attacked by fish in the actual water.

We got to ride go-karts, which was a blast. There's the five of us under the go-kart sign.

That was the serious one; here's the silly one.

So yeah, I had a marvelous time, and we watched a lot of Doctor who, and it was fantastic. And I cried a lot, but that always happens when I watch Doctor Who. Nothing to worry about. XD

Anyway, then I got home, unpacked, repacked, and went to Lady Arin's for our LAST GRAND ADVENTURE. And it was EPIC.

First off, they have a trampoline now. I'm doing the Weeping Angel hands. Don't blink, Milady!

 And then the sidekick threw things at my head. Why? No idea.

 We also gallivanted about downtown and I purchased some skirts. Cuz I totally needed more skirts. We also went to the library and capitalized on their free Internet so I could thieve some pictures from Arin's facebook. Muaa. *steeples fingers*

 Then we were silly. Oh wait, we're always silly. But this time we were silly on camera.

And then we were cute!

And then Arin was gorgeous. Wait, she's always gorgeous. *glomptackles Arin*

We also watched no less than eight episodes of Doctor Who. That's most of Series 5, ladies 'n' gents, because Arin, given the choice between Tennant and Smith, leaned towards Smith. I guess I forgot to tell her that Tennant was also in Harry Potter, though briefly. Ha! While we were waiting for my mom to pick me up, we made a Doctor Who crossword. Out of Scrabble tiles. Because we're cool.

Speaking of Doctor Who, I finally got ahold of Voyage of the Damned, so I scooted right along yesterday and just finished Planet of the Ood. Whoa, angry Ood are creepy. Actually, I take that back. Ood in general are creepy. Must be the mouth tentacles. Yeah. But you know what bugs me about the Ood? The Doctor always says the Ood are good... which they are, right up until they get possessed by an evil consciousness (like Satan and House.) Which always happens. That's the trouble with being a telepathic subservient race. You get possessed all the time. Sucks. But angry Ood aside, I love Donna so much. She's so sassy and I just love her. And I love how she's not romantically interested in the Doctor, cuz for heaven's sakes, that's been done. She's just sassy and awesome. Go Donna!

So this is my last day at home, and I miss it already, but I'm so excited for St. Olaf at the same time. Lots to do today! There's no way all my crap is going to fit in the van. Bother. Well, back to the last-minute preparations! Flyin' the coop, that's me!

Commander Kip
"So what happens if the gravity fails?" "I've thought about that." "And?" "And we'd all plunge to our deaths. See? I thought about it."
Normal is overrated!

Things of the Day: Paper TARDIS and YouTube/Mp3 converter

S'up, dudes. 

So, I just returned from the lake with the family of Brenticus, and my hair is all stiff with chlorine still, but I had a freaking awesome time. More about that in a sec - first, the Things of the Day!

Thing 1: Fold your own miniature paper TARDIS! (Source: http://commanderkip.deviantart.com/favourites/50909446?offset=48#/d3dvtvd) I saw this on DeviantART and immediately had to make myself one. Props to CyberDrone, who figured out how to  do this! By the way, Brenticus's sister, this was totally gonna be your birthday present, but when I printed it, my parents' demented printer turned it pink. So now you can print your own. XD

Thing 2: a site that converts YouTube videos into mp3's - huzzah!

http://www.youtube-mp3.org/

Once you turn it into an mp3, go into the Properties menu of the mp3 and make sure you fill in the name, artist, genre, etc. Yeah, it's not a perfect system, but it's fairly straightforward all the same.

So yes, the lake. It was a last minute type of thingy, and I have to thank Lady Arin for being flexible and letting me move my days with her to later in the week (I leave for her house tomorrow.) That way I could do both. Both is good. We had some sketchy weather down there, and the water was sorta cold, but we did watch a lot of Doctor Who (I cried - more than once) and sing songs in the car and play Ninja and Groundies and My Cows, which I was terrible at. Also, right before we left, I did a thing... but I'm not telling you what it was yet. It was a rather drastic thing, but I like it. I think.

Also, they lent me Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian, which is the last-ever book in the Artemis Fowl series. (No spoilers. I haven't read it yet.) I know I'm gonna cry at the end, even if it's a happy ending. Funny how I got into the series as a kid and now it's wrapping up just as I leave for college. Impeccable timing, Mr. Colfer, quite impeccable. ArtyxHolly forever! *geekface*

Oh, by the way; my graduation ceremony/reception combo deal went smashingly. I didn't fluff anything too bad, the Takacs Project was a big hit, and the reception was a blast. It was almost surreal for me, seeing all the people I love, who didn't know each other, in the same room. Got to catch up with some peeps who I haven't seen in ages, like Reedfrost, Dan, and my old pal John (I made my two Johns shake hands - WEIRD.) I also got to see Arin, Ereka, Gecko, Pippin, Amzi (briefly), my cousins, and Brentalope/his siblings. I even got to bring a few of them home for questioning a midnight snack later. Poor Arin - I think we scared her a bit with all our shooting and screaming, but that's what you get when you put me, Brenticus, Reedfrost, Hazmat and my brother in a room with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and only four Xbox controllers. Screaming and shooting WILL ENSUE. And boy, did it ever. My brother's voice gets very shrill when he's angry/gaming, let's just leave it at that.

Now it's like two in the morning, and I have to finish my thank-you notes in the morning and pack for Lady Arin's. Egad.

Commander Kip
"You're doing it, you sexy thing!"
Normal is overrated!

see? not dead.

Proof: PICTURES! I drawled them. Here, have some Jedi. It's little!Obi-Wan and bossy!Siri Tachi. I love the Jedi Apprentice series so much. Jude Watson, you are my childhood hero.

 Look what I found. It's a Mockingjay comic! It's obviously quite old, from my last sketchbook, but I thought it was interesting enough to post even though I never actually finished it. (Check out my super-realistic spray of blood. Not.)

 And here's another one I never got around to finishing. It's David and Zanna from the Last Dragon Chronicals, in their Arctic gear from the third book. I also tried to draw a polar bear, but it kind of didn't work.

 Yet another one I gave up on. Madison from the second Charlie's Angels movie. Remember I told you I was planning on drawing her? Well. There you go. Guns very not accurate. Not that people care.

 And here we have some thumbnails I did when designing my Talk like a Pirate Day poster for my Drawing II class.

 I ended up with this. The finished poster will be on display in glorious color at my graduation reception! Which my mom is not particularly happy about - she says this image is inappropriate. I'm like, dude, you see more skin than this at the swimming pool. And as for the beer, everybody knows drinking is bad. Get off.

 I saw Moonrise Kingdom with my parents a few weeks ago, and I thought it was oddly cute. Here we have the two main characters, Sam with his shotgun and coonskin and Suzie with her lethal lefty scissors. There were some great quotes in that movie. "Why do you hate me?" "I dunno, maybe because your girlfriend stabbed me in the back with lefty scissors!"

 Remember a while back I read a book called Pure by Julianna Baggot? I found this sketch when I was emptying out my room, and it appears to be characters from that book. Pressia Belze with the babydoll-head-hand and... what's his name... the guy with birds embedded in his back. Why can I not remember his name? Anyway.

 Mortal Instruments! I felt the need to draw happy City of Bones stuff after reading City of Lost Souls and being all "Really, Jace? REALLY?" So here's Jace and Clary on the flying vampire motorcycle, because that scene was flippin' awesome.

 And here they are again, except Jace is in pain this time. Because he's hot when he's in pain. This is right after they fight the Forsaken in Clary's apartment and Jace gets his arm broken. Clary's hair looks really dark in this picture. Whoops.

 And now a Firefly/Doctor Who crossover, because it makes perfect sense. Say the eleventh Doctor popped up early in River Tam's timestream, maybe right after she was taken by the Alliance academy, to do some tests on her extraordinary brain. The conversation would look something like this:

"Hokay, Rivvah, let's have a look at that brain of yours."

"Stop pointing that thing at my head. My brother is a way better doctor than you."

Here's Liz Ten from The Beast Below. I adored that episode, partially because Liz was so beasty ("I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically... I rule.") and partially because it's Future UK... on a giant spaceship... controlled by creepy automatons and mind-wipe technology. It's just awesome, okay? It just is.

 And this episode too! Thank you, Neil Gaiman, for making this canon. The Doctor's Wife has the best lines, and the Doctor is so cute with his bitey mad lady. Forget River Song - Sexy and Eleven forever!

"It means the smell of dust after rain."

"What does?"

"Petrichor."

 I had to sketch this scene from Flesh and Stone, because horny!Amy makes me laugh and flaily!Doctor can never figure out what to do with his hands while kissing. He just waves them around like "HALP I'M BEING MOLESTED GET OFF ME WOMAN" because he's basically a nine-year-old. I love Eleven so much.

I am sorry, you guys, but apparently I cannot draw David Tennant. I've tried three or four times, and his face refuses to cooperate. This is as close as I've gotten, and it still doesn't look like him. GAAAAAH. *rumbling growl of frustration* I would also like to say that I cried pretty hard during Doomsday, but probably not as hard as Rose. When they cut back to the Doctor in the TARDIS with that single tear running down his face is when I really lose it. Even thinking about it is just... gah... *shuffles off, bawling*

NOW NOBODY BOTHER ME UNTIL AFTER SATURDAY BECAUSE I'M LETHALLY BUSY UNTIL THEN. Thank you for your cooperation.

Commander Kip
"It's all very Harry Potter." "Wait until you read the seventh book. Oh, I cried."
Normal is overrated!

moar vidyoes

Because vidyoes are kewl.

The first one's StoryGirl's, the second one's Regano's. THEY'RE BOTH SUPER AWESOME. See if you can spot me in them!



Hard to miss me in this one. I'm doing my LotR dance, which is basically flailing around pretending you're in the thick of battle.



Last week was nuts, because my parents and I had the baroque music festival at William Jewell. It was a blast, but still nuts. Sang some good musics. Now this week, I'm freaking out and scrambling to get my stuff done for graduation because I procrastinated all summer and now it's HERE and I'm not ready and AAARGH etc. I feel like my whole summer has just been one big emergency after another. The minute I finish one project, there's a slew of other ones I've been neglecting. After graduation, I have black belt testing to prepare for and packing for college. Woof. And meanwhile, everything I own is still piled on the living room floor while we switch my brother's and my rooms. Getting dressed in the morning is an adventure, lemme tell you.

I am also currently sad, because I'm in the middle of Series 3 of Doctor Who and the next disc won't play. Grr, stupid library dvds. So I've put it on hold again, but now I have to wait. *kicks things and grouses to self* On that note, however, I still don't know how I feel about Martha. I like her okay, I guess, but she seems slightly hysterical to me, like, "Oh, look, we're in danger again - better start hyperventilating and screaming for the Doctor!" And I dislike the way she throws herself at him. Or maybe I just miss Rose still. That's probably it. Martha's all right. (Although I'm really excited for Donna, because from what I've seen of her so far, she seems like a boss.)

Commander Kip
"Verily, forsooth, egads!" "No... don't do that."
Normal is overrated!