the ghost kids

There, you see, I haven't died. Much. And you know what else? I've survived my first year of public high school with only minimal damage. TAKE THAT YOU ROTTERS.

And I've not been neglecting my sketches either... just haven't had time to scan things. I have the hugest pile of papers to comb through now. Thank me and drop it, there's a good audience.

This was during one of our work periods in history when I should have been writing up my final project and decided not to. Haaa, that was such a good decision. Anyway, I know you know Xandria (the girl - she's on there twice), even though I changed her design a little bit, and you might remember Damien (Star Wars shirt), whose last name just went away, because I've drawn him before too. The guy in the basketball jersey is BJ, and he doesn't have a last name either, but anyway, he says hi. I've yet to come up with a better design for the dead girl, and her name might also change, so nothing to say about that yet. All I know is she definately has red hair. She has a little sister also, whose name is Dreadful. Sweetest little bundle of joy you ever saw.

Muches more stuffs to follow, once I figure out why the scanner hates me so.

Don't remember where I saw this, but it's from the LotR soundtrack and is very pretteh, and also a little haunting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9AOTMNoFKY

Uich gwennen na 'wanath ah na dhín.
An uich gwennen na ringyrn ambar hen.
Boe naid bain gwannathar, boe cuil ban firitha.
Boe naer gwannathach...

Oh, by the way, I saw Phantom of the Opera for the first time the other day. LOVELOVELOVE. So gooood. All the songs are stuck in my head. Except the one Christine sings with Raoul; can't remember that one at all. Prolly cuz I can't stand Raoul. He oughta just go and fall in a death trap or something. Oh wait. Lol. But seriously, what's with the short-term memory loss? Didn't Madame Giry JUST GET THROUGH TELLING HIM where to keep his hands? But noo, he forgets, within like ten minutes. Snarl. Such a stupid cow.

Anyway.

Also, Pirates 4. Nuff said.

Commander Kip
"I hope everybody saw that, because I am NOT doing it again."
Normal is overrated!

the MPE Homeschool Graduates of 2011 tell a story

This is kind of an excerpt from a longer account, but anyway.

THE RULES: Tell part of a story including you and the person to your left. Nothing raunchy. Other than that, anything goes.

There was this magic wand, you see, and it was totally all over the place.

My end of the table sounded something like this:

Jacob: After being mauled by the bear, I magically didn't die because the magic wand beamed me aboard the Enterprise, where I met the captain, John, who shot me with a phaser-

All: *roars of laughter and applause*

Jacob: - which made me drop the wand.

John: I went to pick up the wand, stepping over the dead body of Jacob -

Jacob: Dude, you phasered me. There would BE no body.

John: - stepping over... whatever was left of Jacob -

Me: Ashes. Or atoms.

John: - the ashes of -

Me: Remains!

John: - of Jacob's... remains, and picked up the wand. But then my backstabbing first officer attacked me because she wanted the power of the wand for herself... uh, yeah. That would be Kasha.

Me: *mutters to self* Hmm, I would do that. *out loud* So I wanted this magic wand in order to take over the universe and crap, so I stabbed John in the back with a giant knife. But he didn't die, because Peter intercepted the knife! Like, whooooo - squelch, gak - *demonstrates*

Peter: *whispering aside* Whoa, so you stabbed me and it went all the way THROUGH my body and stabbed John, or something?

Me: *whispers back* Yeah, it's a really long knife.

Peter: *aloud* So I'm mortally wounded and bleeding everywhere, and then Kasha spontaneously combusts because that's how things roll in this story -

Me: Hey now. What'd you do that for?

Peter: - Kasha spontaneously combusts and drops the magic wand on me. But then the wand heals me -

Me: - Dangit.

Peter: - and also transports me to a beach in Costa Rica where I run into...

You get the idea. IT WAS SO FREAKING INCREDIBLE. And then after it was over John goes, "I should have made you a Klingon," and I was all like, "Dude, yeah, I would be an awesome Klingon!" and then that whole end of the table got all distracted talking about Star Trek.

I love homeschoolers.

Yay.

Commander Kip
"French maidens drive Dodge trucks." - a Calebism
Normal is overrated!

what could it be?

I can haz no idear. Wait a minute... I think it's a... it's a...

...miniature teepee, of course. I mean, duh, what else would it be?

Clearly, yardwork bores me.

So little teepees happen. This is all the clippings from the various bushes and grasses we cut this spring. That freaking pile just dominates our patio right now.

No, I warn you in advance, this post has nothing to do with anything. I went to a fashion show SME was putting on at the Arts Incubator downtown, and there was a decomposing squirrel in the alleyway, which I unfortunately have no pictures of, but I did get pictures inside the building. You guys, I want to have my wedding there. Pleazthanks. I mean, look at the windows that open onto the backside of a wall!

And look, a trolleything for no reason and a door about half as wide as me!

We had to go up three skinny low-ceiling'd flights of stairs to get up there. It was such the coolest. And on a completely different subject, here be mah puppeh. Laying on my new bedspread and making it smell like dead things. He says arr-ruh.

We saw this light fixture in some restaurant on the way to Minnesota earlier this year, and I was like "DUDE, I need one of those in my castle!" (Surely, by now, you've heard about my castle.) It's all brassy and steampunky and made of win. Plus I was reading The Buntline Special at the time, which didn't help. I can't recommend that book to you gaiz in good conscience, I have to say. It was sorta inappropriate.

This is what I'm working on in art class right now. We're doing linoleum block prints under copper plate prints under laserjet photo transfers, and it is going to look so WICKED COOL. That was a blind contour drawing of myself I did for my linoleum prints.

I like those three on the right at the top, most especially the orange one.

And here is a veloceraptor some guy in my art class made out of molding clay and a wooden building block.

Here another girl was reaching for it to smush it up, but I got a picture before that happened. Yay.

Mmkay, that's all the random junk for now, people. I have other things to show you eventually though. Muaa. Probably not this week, cuz this week is going to kill us all.

Commander Kip

"But don'choo slap me no more!"

Normal is overrated!

Lady Arin's birthday present.

I gave her some fanservice for her birthday. You're welcome, darling. XD This was too big to stuff in the scanner (it's the size of a small poster), so I took blurry ridiculous pictures. Yay. Here, have some closeups in no particular order. Farid and Dustfinger:

Murtagh:

Jace Wayland:

Vo Spader:

James Potter:

Kartik:

Talon Rathersting:

and Jesse Tuck:

I think Tuck was my favorite. He came out so friggen adorable. Although I really like Farid and Dustfinger also, and Murtagh. Murtagh is such a bunch of win. If he doesn't turn good again in this next book that's coming out, I will cry.

More later, perhaps? I'm in an expansive mood cuz I finally got pics off my camera AND I got my piano recital over with... not the best I ever played, but whatever, it's outta my hair now, thanks very much.

Just watched Mulan for no particular reason. I do love that movie. Y'know, little red dragon that sounds like Eddie Murphy equals mythic pwnage. And Shang does have a lovely singing voice.

Commander Kip

"Whew, that was close." "That was VILE!"

Normal is overrated!

yes, I still draw, in case you were wondering.

A lot, actually, but I just now scanned this stuff the other night. I hate my parents' scanner, by the way. Have I mentioned that before?

Gawsp, a border AND a background?! No wai! This is Tajadeo, and I have no idea what dark recess of my mind he popped out of. The picture oughta look more awesome in color, if I can manage to color it the way I'm imagining it. More backstory to come with the colored version.

Here Lies Arthur, by Phillip Reeve, was a very strange book all told, but I did like this scene. Sorry I fail at Peredur's face so very badly. Gwyna looks okay.

This dude is mine. He was one of the ones who spontaneously appeared in the steamverse mess, and his name is Proffessor Jeremy Biddle, and his job is to stitch up all the gaping wounds and stuff. I stuck him with Commander Green's crew for that very purpose, haha. And also to annoy the heck out of Jackson, because I have a feeling they would hate each other in a brotherly kind of way.

Zomg, pen. Erasable pen. But still.

Had to draw the Lost Hero gang, especially Piper, because they are too much fun.Thalia looks awful. Ignore her.

Practicing some DYNAMIC POSES for Anabeth, since she's been hanging around so much lately. Elfy-eared Anabeth is a leetle beet of a spoiler, I suppose, unless you're Lady Arin and you already know what happens.

Currently reading the third book of the King Raven trilogy by Stephen Lawhead, and loving Will Scarlet and his pretty wife Noinina so very much. They're so freaking adorable together. And Scarlet is hilarious also. Best dialogue in the history of the universe.

And lastleh, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor is coming out fairly soonish! *hopping about madly with impatience* Can't wait to read it!!! From what I hear, there will be horns and pretty clothes and blue hair involved. So. Freaking. EXCITED.

I'm attempting to draw something rather out of my usual comfort zone right now. We'll see how it turns out. Also, there's pictures on my camera that need to come off so you can see them.

This next week is going to be INSANE. I am so extremely terrified right now. Aaaaaargh.

Commander Kip

He must have gotten up on the wrong side of his Hail Marys this morning.

Normal is overrated!

can't catch ME

and make me a man! Nobody on the PLANET loves Peter Pan as much as I do. Even though he's totally not speaking with me at the moment. I need to draw him MOAR. By the way, this is how I picture him when reading the book; I somehow managed to NOT channel Jeremy Sumpter while drawing this, which took a mighty effort, I can tell you. Not that I don't adore Sumpter!Pan, but I'm still happy I remember what he looked like before I saw the movie.

Genesis Mary Pike, Miasma division. Repetitionrepetitionrepetition... will eventually nail that haircut... And you may or may not remember Tide. I could swear I've drawn him before, but then again, I might just be losing my mind. Whatever. Here he is with his epic fairy staff of DOOM. Also notice, no wings because he's a WATER FAIRY, duh.

And here we have a hobbit. A girly giraffe-necked hobbit. I could not for the life of me tell you why.

There's a ton more stuff I wanna showya, but my parents' scanner quite clearly hates me with a burning fiery passion (reciprocated by me, of course) which means that whenever I scan something, I have to first figure out where it saved, then convert it to JPG and rename it with an actual name instead of "scan000002" or whatever stupid name the scanner gives it. *RANT etc.*

Um, what else? Oh yeah, How To Train Your Dragon. Saw it with my mom last night. It continues to pwn mah soul. I just want to hug it and cuddle it and squeeze it and and and... or I could just stop now.

Commander Kip

*divebomb* Toothless, what are you DOING?! We need her to like us!!

Normal is overrated!

the Iron Dragon

ZOMG, people, ACTUAL ARTSES! *epic gawspage all around* Miracle, innit? I would like you all to meet my friend the Iron Dragon. Say hello. Quite the beast of a shotgun, isn't he? I painted that woodgrain on by freaking hand. Took forever. Had to go to the art store and buy myself a smaller paintbrush, cuz the one I had just wasn't cutting it. And since this beastie has so many moving parts, some of them simply refuse to stay painted, no matter how many coats of sealer I slather on there. Rawr. I must say, however, that it makes a very satisfying noise when you cock it, like "snick snick crrrrr-rr-rr-ack snick THONK" or something like that.

The new and different color scheme that happened here is mostly a result of me with a stack of new paints and absolutely itching to try them out. Bought some actual BLACK last time, woot! And gold, and russet, and silver, all of which I used here, along with some of the umber I had before. I also picked up some unbleached titanium, which is roughly the color of bird droppings, and now I can't remember why I bought it. Oh well.

And I just saw Treasure Planet again, by the way, and I still love it so much. The QUOTES, aaah, there' s so many good ones! *reduced to incoherent gabbling in the corner*

Commander Kip

*fires pistol at random* *hits chandelier, which takes out catwalk, which sends pirates falling to their doom* "Did you actually aim for that?" *outrage* "You know, actually, I DID?!"

Normal is overrated!

irrelevance

is the order of the day here. Listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psuRGfAaju4

Dude, I want an old electric keyboard with a button labeled 'magic'. Jealous much.

I blame this strange music phase I'm going through entirely on Reedfrost. *smites*

That is all, and I know it's boring, but I'm so busy right now and none of my art is scanned and yeah, we'll get there. Eventually. Sorry everybody.

Also, I love Lady Arin. But you all knew that.

Commander Kip

Dude, look at this. It's, like, a BULGE. It's EMBARRASSING.

Normal is overrated!

testing this out...

testing, testing... dude...



Did it work?

Hmm...

Commander Kip who just discovered Wordle
*sees pizza box* "Really?" *box empty* "No, not really."
Normal is overrated!

see what you can make of it

Ugh, this was so hard to make and it SHOULDN'T have been. All I had to do was rub dirt all over everything, and there was me trying every way I could think of to dye those pieces. I wash my hands of this stupid installation. Literally. Don't get me wrong, I had a blast stink-bombing the art room and spashing around in mud up to my elbows. But I'm glad this is over with.

Might I add that I LOVE HOW IT TURNED OUT?!!!

I was trying to make something that looked like samples from an archeological dig. I think it worked. YAY.

School starting again, blaargh...

Commander Kip
I bequeath to you my axe.
Normal is overrated!

not dead yet - *ghasps for air* -

- but getting there pretty quick. I NEED MY INTERNETZ, PEOPLE. Or bad things happen.

I was in Minnesota with my mom over Spring Break, and while I actually did have internet there, I was forbidding myself to even look in its direction because I'm WRITING CHAPTER TWELVE, BLAST IT ALL. I promised myself I'd finish it by the end of the break. Well. That's looking unlikely, but I at least want to push past the spot where I got stuck last time. Momentum, I tell you. Momentum is key!

And look at me, sitting on my booty in front of my blog screen. So productive.

Gads, I really need to call Lady Arin. She probably thinks I've died for real this time...

OH I FORGOT - I've read some books during break, including the first book in the new Heroes of Olypmus series, The Lost Hero. BAAAHAHA it was so much fun. I love Leo and his magic toolbelt of doom and his giant mechanical dragonthing. Yay.

Commander Kip who has way too many things she's supposed to be doing right now
She wanted me to betray you guys, and I was like, 'Pfft, right, I'm gonna listen to a face in the potty sludge.'
Normal is overrated!

documenting the epicness

Grr, pics not showing up in the right order, as per usual, but ANYWAY, I had fun at Lady Arin's house. Even though I was sick. *tries to glomp the Lady without breathing all over her*

They have a swing on a hillside. In my opinion, EVERYBODY should have a swing on a hillside. I almost DIED swinging on it. My own fault; that coat is too slick to wear in a swing, I though I was going to slide right out and fall to my death. XD

And now...
MY MISTCLOAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the rest of my costume, but MISTCLOAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lady Arin is so good to put up with me and my silliness. She took about fifty billion pictures of me leaping off those steps, and in almost every on of them my hair is getting caught under my nose and I look like I have a ridiculous mustache. Anyway, there's my knives in there too, which used to be a heinous evil pair of death scissors, except I took them apart and now they're my knives. And I do love them so.

We had a wonderful random time. We watched movies (When Harry Met Sally, BWAAH so cute), ate awesome chili, slept more than usual, talked about whatever, took ridiculous pictures that involved me wearing a giant pregnant-lady nightgown with a pillow stuffed down the front and Lady Arin waving one of my pistols around whilst the sidekick gave her bunny ears, spent some time flopsying about in the woods, climbing trees, toting gear, shooting stuff, laughing way too hard at everything, doing slightly dangerous or stupid things like swinging on random vines out over the creek, without knowing whether said vines would hold my weight or whether I could actually keep a grip on them. Luckily, I somehow managed both. Oh, and there was also a swamp involved, which Lady Arin magnificently drove us through at least five times while I was there. WITHOUT GETTING STUCK. And then we'd go zinging out into the road like a friggen slingshot. It was such an adventure... you don't even know.

So that pretty much sums up my epic weekend at the Lady's house. Then I came home to an absolute boatload - no, an ARKLOAD of homework because we've had like six snow days and we're so so so far behind. And then my cold went away! *skips about squeeing*

Oh, speaking of skipping and squeeing, listen to this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joIbYX11aLY

It's hilarious, because I actually really like the lyrics, but I can't take the thing seriously because of that super dippy tune; all I can think of is little hearts and rainbows and smiley faces like one of those Japanese pop music videos. Whatever, it makes me smile. *smiles*

Commander Kip who actually didn't have time to make that blog post... *sheepface*

*yells across entire house* DO YOU EVER THINK ABOUT KISSING?

Normal is overrated!

back from Lady Arin's

and just itching to post some pics, but can't because they're not on this computer yet. A couple of completely unrelated sketches will have to do.

You don't know this person. Her name is Genesis Pike, and she is SO HARD TO DRAW and I feel like an idiot for giving her such a difficult haircut. WHY WHY WHY?! This was my first attempt. As you can probably see, I failed. Although I do like how her wingpack came out. That blasted haircut. Slightly better this time, and poor Gen looks more like herself.

Third attempt, and I can already tell that her hair will be impossible to draw head-on; it's got to be from the side or a three-quarter angle, or there's no flipping way.

So then I wanted to draw all of her gear... I guess I have to explain who she actually is now. The weird steampunk thingy sprouted an entire military force overnight, you know (remember that giant gob of stuff about Keera Jenkins and the rest of her team?) and Genesis was spawned out of the churning molten mess that resulted. She's some kind of elite paratrooper-type person who's supposed to swoop down from above and mop up the hairier situations, hence the wingpack. So she's like, a flying ninja Marine or something. I gave her a pair of shock pistols that fire concentrated bursts of electricity, but they can also be loaded with pellets filled with knockout gas or whatever (check out the ammo belt.) Story-wise, she's kind of an older sister figure for Keera, who was only fifteen when she joined the military, and Gen took her in and showed her how things were done. Gen's got an interesting personality: she acts decidedly cool towards most of her comrades; she's level-headed and doesn't talk too much; she moves like a ninja or a panther or an amorphous liquid, whichever you like; she enjoys her job; she narrows her eyes and tilts her chin up when she's angry; she acts gentle most of the time but is seriously beasty in combat; and she can do flips. That's pretty much it.

Oh, and in case this matters to someone, I drew this picture on the back of a piece of history homework. During class. *sheepface*

And now the nonsense. I have no clue who this is, but I like his (her?) ears. Androgynous elfy for the win!

Very very bored with ACT prep work. As a result... things like this happen. I like floofly wings.

Random blue thing. Sorreh. Math bores me, and then spacegirls start jumpin around in the margins.

This actually makes sense (sorta.) My girl Xandria, the best friend of the guy who is in love with the dead person. You've met her, I think. She wears odd clothes. I changed her bangs; I think I might like 'em better this way.

ELLIAN RETURNS! Oh, my poor neglected Portals people. She came out looking WAY angstier than usual. But I guess I can't blame her, since she's supposed to, you know, save the world and stuff.

Percy Jackson. I've never felt the urge to draw him before, but I found an artist on DevART who draws him perfectly. (BurdgeBug. You might have heard of her. She's so beasty.) And there was a picture of him in a hoodie and swim trunks, with awesome shaggeh surfer hair, and I was like WHY YES THAT MAKES PERFECT SENSE. And then he hopped out right after I finished this gigantic heinous math review in my ACT book. Waving some skewed weapons, and whatever. But I was so happy to be done with the stupid math, I was feeling generous and let him stay.

Oh, I had a very frightening Idea with a capital 'I' for Portals the other day. Lady Arin's heard about it, but I don't think the rest of you have.

It wants to be a video game.

WHAAAT?!!! *falls over* How did this happen?! Oh yeah, because I can't seem to write a linear storyline to save my life, and the Portals plot follows all these different people all over the friggen place and it's just the biggest mess ever. But see, video game plots are supposed to do that, because they're open-ended and the player gets to choose where to go and what quests to take, so the writers have to make sure to follow every single plot bunny that crops up and write out every path the player could possibly stumble across. And my everywhere plot kind of does that already. Also, I have two main characters with very different feels to their storylines. Ellian is a ten-year-old kid, and has ten-year-old thoughts, feelings and mannerisms. She gets herself into ten-year-old sticky situations, but nothing terribly life-threatening or scary. There are no enormous gouts of blood in her story, nor are there impossible emotional conundrums that only an older person could experience. Yeah, she ends up with a lot of responsibility and has to eventually save the world, but she doesn't have to do it alone; there are a bunch of other people who help her out along the way. Because she's a ten-year-old kid. Anabeth, on the other hand, is nineteen and her story is substantially darker. Her friends (and enemies) are all older. There's a lot more drama involved with her, and although I haven't explored her story quite as much yet, I just know there are bound to be some fairly epic gouts of blood. So I thought, there could be a screen at the beginning with a picture of Ellian and a picture of Anabeth side by side, and a little blurb under each; like for Ellian it could talk about her a little bit and then say something like, 'for a more light-hearted and fun adventure, difficulty: moderate' and then for Anabeth, talk about her and then say 'for a darker, more dramatic adventure, difficulty: hard' or something like that, and then depending on which one you click, that's who you'll play. And there should be an option within the game that lets you switch back and forth between the two storylines just in case you want to play them both. I played a game like that once, where there were two characters and you could switch back and forth between them whenever, and the one you weren't playing would stay right where you left it, so when you came back to him/her, he/she would still be in the same place.

Raise your hand if you're still awake. *looks around* *no hands* Hehe, thought not...

Saw the new Star Trek last night, and Sahara the night before. Such good movies, you guys!

Commander Kip

I've never beamed three people from two locations onto one pad before!

Normal is overrated!