Well it seems I've infected my husband with the love of photography, so that's what I've been doing lately, lots of shoots. Specifically underwater, since the pools will close soon and I wanted to make sure I got my underwater stuff done. I did a half-assed mermaid which we took some video of and posted on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZlGjinTWR4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIVsnfecUy4
Which I'm pretty happy with. I know 100-something views is pretty small change for Youtube, but it's only been a day since I uploaded it, so we'll see. I'm hoping to use it as a sort of marketing thing.
I've also been really wanting to do some animations lately, and I have a couple in mind, so I'm going to try to push forward on that. Maybe I can actually get myself to finish one for once. :P
My last post was really positive, I'm afraid I'm going to have to burst that bubble a bit. While my hubby just started his new job and loves it, I haven't heard yet from Picture People. I called them, but the manager that was there (who I think isn't the permanent manager, they've gone through like three in the last few weeks while they're training the person who will be there permanently) just was like "okay, we'll get around to it". So, if they haven't called by tomorrow I'm going to call again. I'm giving them some leeway since they are going through basically a company-wide rewrite of their image and policies, but come on. Not only that but several of the jobs I've been doing lately, people haven't bothered to pay me, like a month later. I hate playing bill collector.
So aside from those stresses, I've been doing great lately. I'm one of those people that loves being busy as long as it's something I enjoy doing...so the more photography I can do, the better.
Oh, and the hubby's hand healed up perfectly, he doesn't have any pain or loss of feeling or motion. Thank God. Again.
My 22nd birthday is in a little over a month! I'm actually dreading it. I don't have any friends and any reason to celebrate except for that I'm one year closer to death, which isn't really something to celebrate in my opinion. I know, morbid. Can't help it. The hubby's birthday is right after mine (we're 9 years and 9 days apart in age, how weird is that?), and then in October we have our 3 year anniversay, and November is our one-year wedding anniversary. Lots of shit coming up. I hope we have money so we can buy each other stuff. I want a Canon 50D so badly I can taste it. :P
Also, I got this "game" for the DS, MyLanguageCoach for Japanese and I've been heavily into it lately. I've already learned all the hiragana, I'm learning some katakana, and I've gotten through like 60 words and some sentence structure. It's complicated at first but when you get the hang of it, it's really fun. I have a hard time memorizing things so the hiragana has been hard, but I think I'm doing well considering I've had it for like a week and a half. I'm still interested in working on it, which for me is a huge coup. I want the MyLanguageCoach Mandarin Chinese, and once we have the money I'll get it. :D (That's right, we don't even have $30 to spare these days)
I think that's it...I guess this is a weekly blog, haha. Wish me luck, guys. I feel like I'm finally starting to be where I want to be.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Trip to Seattle and other fairly interesting tales
So, we just got back from Seattle. Aside from being a tiring ordeal where my brother drove me crazy more often than not and my family couldn't have fun even if you ran them down with clown cars, it was satisfying enough. My opinion of the city is very high; so far the only downside really has been that downtown was a nightmare, and the highways (as in all cities), tended to be crowded. It's amazing how 8 months in a relatively nowhere town will make you forget about rush hour traffic. :P Oh, and the hotel was horrible, but I'll get to that.
We stayed in Tukwila, and down the street from us was an amazing mall that my husband and I instantly fell in love with. It had three levels and damn near every store you could think of. We spent every last cent we had there, lol. Oddly enough, every place we ate at that wasn't fast food was ridiculously good; we went to Cheesecake Factory and I ate so much I actually had stomach cramps, then we went to this little fish bar near the Seattle Aquarium (which was a disappointingly kid-oriented and kid-filled disaster) and the food there was really good. Then we went to Olive Garden and THAT was really good too. Even the mall fare was better than average. Even the ZOO FOOD was awesome! I ate at this little faux-Chinese place and had the best damned orange chicken I've ever had. Speaking of which, the zoo was pretty cool. :) The actual enclosures weren't as good as the San Diego zoo, but it was almost as big and had less uphill.
Now, the hotel was the Courtyard Marriott and it's the worst place I've ever stayed at. They charged you for the "complimentary" bottles of water they put out (though the actual charge is in small print on the neck of the bottle), a single Drumstick brand ice cream cone was $3.50 (!!!!!), there were no vending machines, the bed and pillows were hard as rocks, the internet was crappy, and they charged for the safe at the front desk since they claim no liability for whatever valuables are lost or stolen in their hotel rooms. The rooms didn't come with a "do not disturb" sign so that the maids wouldn't come in and rummage through our stuff so we had to call up to the front desk to get one. I haven't unpacked yet so I don't know if we are missing anything but the general important electronics are still here.
In Bellevue there is the best Whole Foods I've ever been to. They had live ethnic music, an incredible section devoted just to freshly-made food, and the general cool Whole-foodsiness that I miss so much being here in Richland. It was very green there, too, trees everywhere.
It had such a great energy, and the demographic was really wide. In the mall especially there weren't just a few small families walking here and there in a sea of one specific race, but a literal equal mixture of most of the major ethnicities seen here in America. I hope one day the hubby and I can move close to Seattle. I loved it there and can't wait to go back to see the things we didn't get to see.
So, now on to things that happened before the trip.
The hubby sliced his hand about a week ago and had to go to the emergency room. He's getting his stitches out tomorrow and we were worried for a while that he wouldn't be able to use it, but he's got full strength and full feeling back in it so thank God for THAT.
He's leaving the mechanic profession and has gotten another job already, annnnnd I got a job as a photographer for the Picture People in the local mall. :D Not only that but I've gotten a few good deals as a freelancer lately and have actually been making money (finally) on my photography and retouching. I'm speaking with a local boutique owner/clothing designer about doing some long-term photography for her, so we'll see how that goes.
I'm excited about all the opportunities we've been getting lately! I think things are finally starting to turn around.
Also; for those of you who have known me for a long time, I'm not an easy person to deal with. I have wide emotional swings, I don't deal well with stress and I tend to explode when I can't stands no more. This trip would have been an absolute horror if not for this sublingual liquid B-complex that the hubby insisted we get before we left. And let me tell you, it does WORK. So if you have stress problems or emotional problems, seriously consider adding a B-complex into your supplement regimen if your multivitamin doesn't contain enough.
I also made these cool little vials that I wear around my neck; one has essential oils and herbs, and the other has semi-precious stones, both to help with positive energy and luck. Seems to be working so far. :)
We stayed in Tukwila, and down the street from us was an amazing mall that my husband and I instantly fell in love with. It had three levels and damn near every store you could think of. We spent every last cent we had there, lol. Oddly enough, every place we ate at that wasn't fast food was ridiculously good; we went to Cheesecake Factory and I ate so much I actually had stomach cramps, then we went to this little fish bar near the Seattle Aquarium (which was a disappointingly kid-oriented and kid-filled disaster) and the food there was really good. Then we went to Olive Garden and THAT was really good too. Even the mall fare was better than average. Even the ZOO FOOD was awesome! I ate at this little faux-Chinese place and had the best damned orange chicken I've ever had. Speaking of which, the zoo was pretty cool. :) The actual enclosures weren't as good as the San Diego zoo, but it was almost as big and had less uphill.
Now, the hotel was the Courtyard Marriott and it's the worst place I've ever stayed at. They charged you for the "complimentary" bottles of water they put out (though the actual charge is in small print on the neck of the bottle), a single Drumstick brand ice cream cone was $3.50 (!!!!!), there were no vending machines, the bed and pillows were hard as rocks, the internet was crappy, and they charged for the safe at the front desk since they claim no liability for whatever valuables are lost or stolen in their hotel rooms. The rooms didn't come with a "do not disturb" sign so that the maids wouldn't come in and rummage through our stuff so we had to call up to the front desk to get one. I haven't unpacked yet so I don't know if we are missing anything but the general important electronics are still here.
In Bellevue there is the best Whole Foods I've ever been to. They had live ethnic music, an incredible section devoted just to freshly-made food, and the general cool Whole-foodsiness that I miss so much being here in Richland. It was very green there, too, trees everywhere.
It had such a great energy, and the demographic was really wide. In the mall especially there weren't just a few small families walking here and there in a sea of one specific race, but a literal equal mixture of most of the major ethnicities seen here in America. I hope one day the hubby and I can move close to Seattle. I loved it there and can't wait to go back to see the things we didn't get to see.
So, now on to things that happened before the trip.
The hubby sliced his hand about a week ago and had to go to the emergency room. He's getting his stitches out tomorrow and we were worried for a while that he wouldn't be able to use it, but he's got full strength and full feeling back in it so thank God for THAT.
He's leaving the mechanic profession and has gotten another job already, annnnnd I got a job as a photographer for the Picture People in the local mall. :D Not only that but I've gotten a few good deals as a freelancer lately and have actually been making money (finally) on my photography and retouching. I'm speaking with a local boutique owner/clothing designer about doing some long-term photography for her, so we'll see how that goes.
I'm excited about all the opportunities we've been getting lately! I think things are finally starting to turn around.
Also; for those of you who have known me for a long time, I'm not an easy person to deal with. I have wide emotional swings, I don't deal well with stress and I tend to explode when I can't stands no more. This trip would have been an absolute horror if not for this sublingual liquid B-complex that the hubby insisted we get before we left. And let me tell you, it does WORK. So if you have stress problems or emotional problems, seriously consider adding a B-complex into your supplement regimen if your multivitamin doesn't contain enough.
I also made these cool little vials that I wear around my neck; one has essential oils and herbs, and the other has semi-precious stones, both to help with positive energy and luck. Seems to be working so far. :)
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Hatha Yoga and Bellydancing
A few days ago the hubby and I picked up a bellydancing DVD (I had one a few years ago but it disappeared - it was a good one, too!) and I just got around to giving it the once-over today. Pretty good; I like the idea behind it, but her teaching style leaves a bit to be desired. It's tribal fusion bellydancing (which heretofore I had not heard of) and doesn't seem that dissimilar from the "normal" style you see a lot.
I'm going to try to get into a routine, now...I don't know how well it will go, but at least I threw my body a bone today.
So, I noticed in the warm-up she was doing some form of yoga. I decided that if I was going to do yoga, I'd break out the book my hubby has and do the form he recommended. (He doesn't do it himself, claims not to be flexible enough) So I did, and boy was it invigorating! Now I know why people do it, you seriously can feel the difference in your body even after one try as long as you don't take it as a joke. Now I can't want to find an apartment, I really want my own space and my own time to be able to do it instead of having to work around their schedule and worry that someone will walk in.
It turned out what she did wasn't that different, but where the TV was sitting it was easier to glance at the book than be rushed through the positions.
I wish I could cast off my habits, my cravings, my laziness...I wish I could remember and force myself to take my vitamins, I wish I could get up early and do yoga, and then my bellydancing, I wish I could take away all artificial stuff and oils and preservatives in my food....some day. Some day I'll be natural, some day I'll feel better. I know that what I do to my body affects it.
On another note, I have Nickelback's "Burn it to the ground" stuck in my head. Nickelback is another one of those bands that I don't think people give enough credit to. Yes, I know that two of their songs sounded similar. And if you listen to the lyrics of a lot of them, the guy who writes for the band is a bit of a sleezball. But these days they're making some good music, and the frontman (his name escapes me at the moment...Chad, I think) has an interesting voice.
No pictures today, sorry guys. :P
I'm going to try to get into a routine, now...I don't know how well it will go, but at least I threw my body a bone today.
So, I noticed in the warm-up she was doing some form of yoga. I decided that if I was going to do yoga, I'd break out the book my hubby has and do the form he recommended. (He doesn't do it himself, claims not to be flexible enough) So I did, and boy was it invigorating! Now I know why people do it, you seriously can feel the difference in your body even after one try as long as you don't take it as a joke. Now I can't want to find an apartment, I really want my own space and my own time to be able to do it instead of having to work around their schedule and worry that someone will walk in.
It turned out what she did wasn't that different, but where the TV was sitting it was easier to glance at the book than be rushed through the positions.
I wish I could cast off my habits, my cravings, my laziness...I wish I could remember and force myself to take my vitamins, I wish I could get up early and do yoga, and then my bellydancing, I wish I could take away all artificial stuff and oils and preservatives in my food....some day. Some day I'll be natural, some day I'll feel better. I know that what I do to my body affects it.
On another note, I have Nickelback's "Burn it to the ground" stuck in my head. Nickelback is another one of those bands that I don't think people give enough credit to. Yes, I know that two of their songs sounded similar. And if you listen to the lyrics of a lot of them, the guy who writes for the band is a bit of a sleezball. But these days they're making some good music, and the frontman (his name escapes me at the moment...Chad, I think) has an interesting voice.
No pictures today, sorry guys. :P
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Been an artsy fool lately
Yeah, so I've spent like every waking moment the last couple of days doing nothing but art. Lol. I'm a bit burnt out, but it was a long time in coming. If you just want to see teh artz, just scroll down and ignore my rambling :P
Lots of stuff happening in the next week or so. This place I interviewed at last week is giving me the runaround, so I get to call them back on Monday...tomorrow the hubby and I have to go look at an apartment, pick up my Magicolor face paints, and visit ANOTHER apartment to hedge our bets. And do something with pistons. Hubby is trying to rebuild my car, so...Iunno, I don't pay that much attention. He knows what he's doing. Back to apartments; since I just found out that my grandmother is coming to visit on July 5th, I'm doubly determined to be out of here before then, and I actually do have a couple of promising leads. Thank God. Aside from that, the kitties get to go to the vet on Tuesday of next week, and on Saturday I'm going to a cat kennel in West Richland that needs part-time help. Well...it's actually less part time and more, like, 5 hours a week, lol, but hey, that's money. Or at least that's the way the lady I talked to made it sound.
I've been all about the music lately, too. Working on my art seems to require music, otherwise I just can't focus. Isn't that weird? Been mostly listening to Korn (Word Up, Twisted Transistor, Make Me Bad), Sum41 (the only songs anyone knows them for :P), Three Days Grace (Pain, Animal I Have Become) and Evanescence (Sweet Sacrafice). I've also discovered this song by Puddle of Mudd, Psycho. Awesomeness. Puddle of Mudd really doesn't get its props, I think. Yeah, they were on MTV for a while and whatnot but I never see anyone listing them as a favorite band. Well, damn it, I'm throwing my beans in with them and I'll officially say I'm a Puddle of Mudd fan, so there! :P
New icon (I'm not sure if the animation will play, but it's really cute :P ) 
"If you tell anyone about this, I will gut you like a fish and eat your balls." 
Lots of stuff happening in the next week or so. This place I interviewed at last week is giving me the runaround, so I get to call them back on Monday...tomorrow the hubby and I have to go look at an apartment, pick up my Magicolor face paints, and visit ANOTHER apartment to hedge our bets. And do something with pistons. Hubby is trying to rebuild my car, so...Iunno, I don't pay that much attention. He knows what he's doing. Back to apartments; since I just found out that my grandmother is coming to visit on July 5th, I'm doubly determined to be out of here before then, and I actually do have a couple of promising leads. Thank God. Aside from that, the kitties get to go to the vet on Tuesday of next week, and on Saturday I'm going to a cat kennel in West Richland that needs part-time help. Well...it's actually less part time and more, like, 5 hours a week, lol, but hey, that's money. Or at least that's the way the lady I talked to made it sound.
I've been all about the music lately, too. Working on my art seems to require music, otherwise I just can't focus. Isn't that weird? Been mostly listening to Korn (Word Up, Twisted Transistor, Make Me Bad), Sum41 (the only songs anyone knows them for :P), Three Days Grace (Pain, Animal I Have Become) and Evanescence (Sweet Sacrafice). I've also discovered this song by Puddle of Mudd, Psycho. Awesomeness. Puddle of Mudd really doesn't get its props, I think. Yeah, they were on MTV for a while and whatnot but I never see anyone listing them as a favorite band. Well, damn it, I'm throwing my beans in with them and I'll officially say I'm a Puddle of Mudd fan, so there! :P
Tattoo finally stopped itching, for the most part. It's almost entirely healed. Which is great, I get to go through the whole process again because it needs to be touched up. When I said, "yeah, the pain is getting pretty intense, we can just touch it up later", I didn't realize I'd be condemning myself to like 6 solid weeks of itching. I might put it off though since I have to do the whole underwater thing before the pools close. They open in June and close in August, how fucked up is that? I guess being in San Diego I got a bit spoiled for that, although it really doesn't make much sense considering it's hot as all get-out long before June, they could easily open them 2-3 months earlier. Oh well.
So here's the new arts (if you want to see bigger versions, go to http://goddessredd.deviantart.com ;
New icon (I'm not sure if the animation will play, but it's really cute :P )
A new pic of Redd and Vegeta, yay :D
Redd's not very subtle.
Redd's not very subtle.
"If you tell anyone about this, I will gut you like a fish and eat your balls."
I guess Aia isn't very subtle either. xD
Redd's new design! I'm gonna change the bodysuit though, it actually came out a little TOO revealing.
Design for a demon.
Design for one of the twins Redd had with Virgil, and below him, another demon.
Monday, June 15, 2009
The poor woman's corset and other tales
So I am in the process of making what I've dubbed the "poor woman's corset". I found some cheap material at a local Joann's Craft Store that is closing and decided, hey, why not, let's learn how to make a corset. NOT AS EASY AS IT SOUNDS. Lol. Since I'm still not all that great at sewing I decided instead of wasting material, I'd just cut up some old jeans, spray it with hairspray and elmer's glue, shove some wire in it and see if I can't make it work. I do eventually want to learn how to make a corset the right way, but I'm also ridiculously lazy.
Well, laziness isn't entirely the reason. Even after looking at patterns and online tutorials for hours, the physics of it still confuses me. So I figured I'd make a throwaway one so I could get a feel for how it all works, then make a real one. It's drying right now (and the house stinks like hairspray, blech), but I suspect I need a higher grade of steel, something thicker that won't bend as easily, since the wire I used buckled when I tried it on and made nasty wrinkles. Not good.
In other news, it's coming down to the wire (er, no pun intended)...less than two weeks left and the hubby and I still don't have an apartment. I'm starting to panic a little. I really don't want to have to stay here much longer. He and I and the cats are crammed into one and a half rooms (the half-room being used as storage for things that would normally go in the kitchen, living room, etc) and it's getting pretty tiresome. Oh there's lots of apartments available, don't get me wrong. But very, very few of them want to allow a tenant with three animals. For some reason the general limit in this area is two. Go figure. As much as I'd love to get rid of Little Stink, I doubt anyone would want her, and she'd probably have to be put down. And I'm not going to kill that cat just to get an apartment, no sirree.
Other than that, not much going on. A little starved for human contact; I've had the voracious urge to do a photoshoot recently, but with the tat still healing I need to wait at least another week before I can get in the pool with it.
Oh crap, that reminds me, I'd better email Adrienne and Danielle and set a date for the betta fish shoot!
No pics today, sowwy. I'm lazy. :P
Well, laziness isn't entirely the reason. Even after looking at patterns and online tutorials for hours, the physics of it still confuses me. So I figured I'd make a throwaway one so I could get a feel for how it all works, then make a real one. It's drying right now (and the house stinks like hairspray, blech), but I suspect I need a higher grade of steel, something thicker that won't bend as easily, since the wire I used buckled when I tried it on and made nasty wrinkles. Not good.
In other news, it's coming down to the wire (er, no pun intended)...less than two weeks left and the hubby and I still don't have an apartment. I'm starting to panic a little. I really don't want to have to stay here much longer. He and I and the cats are crammed into one and a half rooms (the half-room being used as storage for things that would normally go in the kitchen, living room, etc) and it's getting pretty tiresome. Oh there's lots of apartments available, don't get me wrong. But very, very few of them want to allow a tenant with three animals. For some reason the general limit in this area is two. Go figure. As much as I'd love to get rid of Little Stink, I doubt anyone would want her, and she'd probably have to be put down. And I'm not going to kill that cat just to get an apartment, no sirree.
Other than that, not much going on. A little starved for human contact; I've had the voracious urge to do a photoshoot recently, but with the tat still healing I need to wait at least another week before I can get in the pool with it.
Oh crap, that reminds me, I'd better email Adrienne and Danielle and set a date for the betta fish shoot!
No pics today, sowwy. I'm lazy. :P
Friday, June 12, 2009
Tiger makeup experiment
Today was pretty boring...except that I got some new makeup, the Revlon Colorstay Liquid Eyeliner Pen, and I tried it out on an idea I had yesterday; makeup based off of a tiger. I'm really happy with it, actually! Here's some photos from today.
In progress;
And final;
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Well here I am
I've tried various blogging utilities over the years but now that I've officially uninstalled Trillian with the promise to myself never to reinstall, I need some sort of outlet.
This will mostly be a braindump for everything that makes up my life - that's why I called it, "IMHO".
So! I'd better get right into it.
I got my makeup brushes today - I ordered (apparently from Hong Kong which explains why it took so long to get here) them a couple weeks ago to help my new interest in learning makeup artistry. They were pretty cheap (like $7-$9, I don't remember exactly) so I'm surprised at the product I got. They're really, really soft, they look sturdy, and I like the sort of carmelized crimson color of the handle. I don't know much about makeup brushes, so I have no idea if what I got is actually good or not, but we'll see. I also have no idea how to use them...but that's what the internet is for!
Speaking of makeup, I've been doing it on myself for years (only recently have I gotten any good though), but I never really had the chance to play with it on another human. Until yesterday! I met this girl, Adrienne, through Craigslist I think, she's a local teen who wants to model, weeks ago, and we finally got around to meeting yesterday. A local hairstylist was supposed to show up as well but she bailed. We were gonna set up for an underwater shoot I want to do soon (can't for the next few weeks due to my new tat, which needs to heal and STOP ITCHING), and I wanted to finalize the hair and makeup for it.
It. Was. A. Rush. Omg. I love doing makeup on other people. It came out pretty cool, but I still need practice.
I don't think I can use actual eyeshadow on her though; in the pool it would just melt. So I'm gonna go out today (after I'm done with this post actually) and go pick up some Ben Nye Magicolor bodypaint that I saw at a local party store. I also need to get veggies for the hubby, but that's beside the point.
Here is a picture of the makeup brushes;
This is the makeup design (still a little amateurish, but the lighting killed a lot of the detail and I didn't want to use the flash...I'm photographer first :P), on Adrienne;
Just another shot of the beautiful Adrienne :D;
Aaaaaand a kitty to round off the pics. Kito was being so cute, and as soon as he saw my camera come out, he decided that it was time for a bath. How typical.;
This will mostly be a braindump for everything that makes up my life - that's why I called it, "IMHO".
So! I'd better get right into it.
I got my makeup brushes today - I ordered (apparently from Hong Kong which explains why it took so long to get here) them a couple weeks ago to help my new interest in learning makeup artistry. They were pretty cheap (like $7-$9, I don't remember exactly) so I'm surprised at the product I got. They're really, really soft, they look sturdy, and I like the sort of carmelized crimson color of the handle. I don't know much about makeup brushes, so I have no idea if what I got is actually good or not, but we'll see. I also have no idea how to use them...but that's what the internet is for!
Speaking of makeup, I've been doing it on myself for years (only recently have I gotten any good though), but I never really had the chance to play with it on another human. Until yesterday! I met this girl, Adrienne, through Craigslist I think, she's a local teen who wants to model, weeks ago, and we finally got around to meeting yesterday. A local hairstylist was supposed to show up as well but she bailed. We were gonna set up for an underwater shoot I want to do soon (can't for the next few weeks due to my new tat, which needs to heal and STOP ITCHING), and I wanted to finalize the hair and makeup for it.
It. Was. A. Rush. Omg. I love doing makeup on other people. It came out pretty cool, but I still need practice.
I don't think I can use actual eyeshadow on her though; in the pool it would just melt. So I'm gonna go out today (after I'm done with this post actually) and go pick up some Ben Nye Magicolor bodypaint that I saw at a local party store. I also need to get veggies for the hubby, but that's beside the point.
Here is a picture of the makeup brushes;
This is the makeup design (still a little amateurish, but the lighting killed a lot of the detail and I didn't want to use the flash...I'm photographer first :P), on Adrienne;
Just another shot of the beautiful Adrienne :D;
Aaaaaand a kitty to round off the pics. Kito was being so cute, and as soon as he saw my camera come out, he decided that it was time for a bath. How typical.;
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