I finally uploaded an 'indefinite hiatus' announcement to Dream Like Destiny. After not working on it for so long, it really had to be done. But I feel like a part of me just died. Like I've just officially ended a six-year relationship. ;_; It hurts.. kind of a lot.

I got an email yesterday from a film student in New Zealand who said she's interested in using Dream Like Destiny for her final project. She said it would be for a miniseries or a pilot for a TV show, to be filmed in live action over the next six months.

I've had offers for things and stuff over the years (one of the coolest was a figurine making company, who said that I could come to them at any time if I changed my mind - I definitely will someday!), but.. wow. What can you say to film? It could be some kind of scam (I've gotten plenty of spam that referenced my comic).. but what if it's not?

Luckily I have a coworker who went to film school, and I consulted him about it this morning. I've written back asking for more information, specifically for a pitch as to her vision and scope for the project.

Part of me hopes it's not a big thing. I don't want to advertise DLD while it's on hiatus - that's not fair to the readers. And while I don't want to lose out on a great opportunity... I don't have any idea how to negotiate things that film people need to negotiate, or who I could talk to for that education. ^^;;

Anyway.. I'll keep you posted. I thought y'all might find it interesting. :)

Happy Monday!
Here's a comic.


(This page took me forever to color, I might mention. Shading (but it turned out so nice..) and background.. But I made a nice leaf brush in Painter that will make it easier to paint leaves for backgrounds. And some new grass brushes.. Ugh, I hate backgrounds.)

Try not to fall over dead, people, but I've got the next page of DLD in the queue (as of a couple hours ago, even), and it will be up on the site tomorrow. Midnight, I guess. (This early updating thing is somewhat unfamiliar to me..)

It was a really good idea for me to take my laptop to LTUE.

I had trouble sleeping this morning - I woke up a couple of times way too early and had a hard time getting back to sleep. Maybe it was the snowplow scraping our parking lot outside my window.

But there are lots of things to be happy about today, and I woke up very cheerily.

Even driving to work in the snow wasn't so bad. Yes, I slipped and slid all over the road, and it was a little scary. But stepping outside where everything is silent, with the snow falling quietly and nobody else around... It's really neat. I wish I had time to enjoy it instead of being at work.

Today I get to spend my lunch break fabric shopping. I'm going to check Hancock first, because I haven't looked there yet, and if I don't find anything I really like I'm going to check at Jo-Ann's and probably just go with the blue jacquard I was considering on Saturday (but didn't have time to get cut). I saw some gorgeous trim there, too, with blue roses on black and silver, and it might work really well. I just need another trim and an accent color for the inset pieces of the dress, and something for the sleeves (maybe I'll use the same fabric from the inset - we'll see).

Also, my LAPTOP CAME THIS MORNING!!! It's so cute!! I can't wait to get home and install software on it (which reminds me, I need to get an ethernet cable for it, too), so I can start working! I have a comic page all ready to color, and it's the perfect maiden project for my new Tablet PC..

^_^ Lots of exciting things today. I hope everybody's day promises to be as good as mine!

I've just added three actual chapters of the Fantasy Fair to illustar and updated the timeline. And was late to Church because of editing them.. ^^;

Also, I have just finished inking the next page of DLD! Yay! I'm about to scan it! Now to see what the next scene requires...

What's new in my life these days? I guess I'll just muse at you for a while. (Hehe.. Muse..) Which reminds me - comics.... I've been working on the next DLD page. I took it to Church and worked on it and made some good progress. (Curse you, backgrounds!!!) I have one large panel left to draw, and the rest looks pretty good so far.

( Website musings )

I've been playing way too much WoW lately, too. And the last few days have had me sneaking/riding around Un'Goro Crater collecting stupid soil samples for *two* separate quests, and dodging dinosaurs that are up to eight levels higher than me. Hehe.. ^^;; It's a good thing I've got the patience to play a rogue, because otherwise I'd never manage to pull off these higher level areas.

Also.. I bought a laptop. On eBay. It's a Toshiba Portege M200 Tablet laptop. ^_^ My brother aadon has one, and I likes it. It will be mostly used for writing, and probably for comicking, and for bringing to social events so I can hang out with people and still feel like I'm being productive. And you know, all my other friends have laptops.. I just want to fit in. (The fact that it will run WoW is just an added bonus.)

I'm sure I was going to say more, but this entry has now taken me all day and it's time to go home. I may edit it and add more later tonight.

PS~ My icon has just reminded me to tell you that I received a Transformers pillowcase for Christmas from thesassywench, and I seem to sleep much better using the Optimus Prime side than the Megatron side. Go figure.

Yay! It's the best month of the year!! The weather's turning nice (i.e. cool and autumny), the leaves are turning, I'll get to see snow again, and the holiday season is about to start! I think I need to put George (my electric jack-o-lantern) in the window tonight. Or maybe on the balcony, because my headboard blocks most of my window, so there's not much room. (George the jack-o-lantern is the physical personification of my imaginary "scape-ghost".. He's a very jealous scapeghost, and we blame him for all kinds of stuff around the house. Like leaving lights on or hiding things.. But he's very fun.)

This weekend was crazy. Friday I was running from 9am til about 10pm - I tripped and fell at Target and have a nasty bruise on one knee and a nasty tile-burn on the other, but made it to Salt Lake and back on my own with no other incident of note than that the wedding was lovely and that I drove around in the parking garage for half an hour before finally managing to stalk an old lady coming from the elevator in order to kife her spot - and ( Saturday wasn't much better. ) And after that we ran to Blockbuster and checked out a whole bunch of movies - Stomp the Yard (because one of the dances at the show was a stomp and I was curious - sadly, it wasn't as good as I'd hoped), Miss Potter, Bend It Like Beckham, Hero, and Pursuit of Happyness. All movies that I hadn't seen and wanted to.

Yesterday was more relaxed, thank heavens. I stopped by Parker's house after Church to borrow his DDR (I'm feeling rather Rubenesque lately), because isauraoktobre's version has stupid American songs on it and if I'm going to DDR with any significant effort, I need the good Japanese stuff. (Sorry Gwen. You know I love you anyway.) And then I talked with Gwen about my comic for, like, an hour and a half, and she helped me organize the next few scenes. (Btw, if you didn't get the hint under the cut, the new page is up!) I figure if I know where I'm going, I'll be able to move faster with the updates.

Then we watched "Miss Potter" - which was very sweet - and I really, actually felt like painting! I got my desk all situated to jump into oils again, then discovered that a year and a half of inactivity had cemented the caps on my paints (and several of my brushes are dead), so I had to use acrylics instead. :( But still!! I painted! It's not terrible (and not finished), but it's good practice. And I need subject matter. I have plenty of photos I could use on my computer, but that means I need to buy new ink for my printer (or a new printer, if they don't make the ink for it anymore - it's pretty old) in order to use the photos. Guh. And rent is due today too..

Anyway, that's plenty for now. I decided to number my posts for a while, out of amusement. Check out the new page!!

So.. it's been an interesting week. Yes, I'm writing after one, I have work tomorrow, and I should be in bed. But I took a nap today because I felt so wonky, and that's why I'm up. I guess. And I just finished reading Inverloch, which had a HUGE twist and ended very well and is just so darn PRETTY!!!

Oh, and guess what I've been doing this weekend?

Nope.

Wrong again.

Okay, since you wouldn't ever guess right - I've been working on the COMIC!! Hahahahaaa!! I told you you wouldn't get it. I've earned the right to use my Zubic icon. *hearts* Even though he's not in it. The page was mostly drawn on Wednesday, drawn the rest of the way on Saturday, and penned today during church. And then scanned this afternoon and I started with the coloring already, but I was watching "Just Like Heaven" at the same time and feeling wonky off and on, so it's not done yet. And I'm also going to throw in some blame to isauraoktobre for interrupting me every couple hours to read me more of her new story. Which is pretty cool, but still. Interrupting me and the comic.

I also have to throw in a disclaimer as explanation for any wonkiness you've noticed in the last few days. You see, I went to the doctor to get checked out after the 'accident', since I was having headaches and finger troubles, and he gave me a painkiller and muscle relaxant and said it's probably muscle strain. At first I didn't notice any difference, but it seems that the longer I've been on the stuff, the weirder I feel. I was totally out of it at church, and I think Gwen was scared. So I'm taking a break tonight to see how I feel without it, and whether it's made any difference anyway.

Mostly it's just been fun to tell people I'm on drugs as explanation for any weird behavior.

By the way, I had a great time this weekend! Thanks for coming over, all y'all, for Avatar on Friday and the Stupid Movie Brunch (and subsequent chat) on Saturday. It feels good to have friends to do stuff with!

New page is up, finally!

And I drew this DLD picture yesterday at Church, and thought I'd share it.


In other news, as soon as I get off work, I'm going to sleep for three hours. Or at least 30 minutes, ugh. I just can't function today.

I just watched a couple of interviews Stephenie Meyer did while she was in Italy - you can find the link on the front page of the Twilight Lexicon, and there are some neat stuff in there. One question was whether the Mormon idea of marriage in any way related to Edward and Bella's love, and it was an interesting answer. :P Another interesting question was about fanfiction - Stephenie had a really good answer to that, too. She mentioned Alphie's "The Lion and the Lamb" story, which is her take on Twilight, from Edward's p.o.v., and said that so much work and planning goes into a story like that, and a fanfiction author can never claim the rewards for it. I feel similarly. But anyway, watch the video because there's more to the answer. And I adore just.. general discussion about the characters and the story. You guys are great for me to talk about my stories with so that I can understand my worlds as well as Stephenie knows hers.

In other news, I worked on the comic yesterday. I promised the mailing list an update on Saturday. My friend Steffanie came over last night (with her husband and her 9-month-old, who's just darling) to help me brainstorm a bit of comic. We talked mostly about Darren. Hehe. Some lovely tension is about to come in.

While she was over, I decided to attempt to put my new desk together, but discovered I need a screwdriver for it. And I need a hammer for my bookshelves, so they're still in the box, too. So after work today I'm going to stop somewhere and get a couple of tools so I can finally get the rest of my room organized. And get to drawing and painting! I'm so excited to finally give myself a little art area, for just creativity, my very own little space.. It may be just what I need. My first projects are going to be a mermaid for my coworker's daughter, and the Leading Edge stuff. Maybe I'll take requests after that, if I still need ideas. (Oh, and I need to try my hand at the Twilight characters, too.. Guhh.)

~~~

I would like to take this moment to share with you some of my favorite jokes.

~I once met a man from the Styx
Who wanted to write limericks.
But he failed at the sport
Cuz he made them too short

~What's hard and red and bad for your teeth?
( Answer )
What's hard and white and bad for your teeth?
( Answer )

~What's green and furry, has four legs, and if it fell from a tree, it would kill you?
( Answer )

I put up a new DLD page last night (2am), by the way.

And while I was working on it (and also this morning at church), I planned out the next two or three pages. And somehow came up with a brilliant idea that fits together two events I'd been hoping to include. ^_______^

I love it when things fall into place like that.

What news? DLD has a new page up!

And here's a little concoction that came about somehow at FHE tonight. A very twisted, disturbing concoction we're going to call "Earl from Rivendell." (Inbreeding among elves produces facial hair?!?)

As for other news, ( work, Anizona, moving.. )

Oh, I also found out today, by calling the Bookstore, that in order to buy the Adobe Suite student version, I have to be a degree-seeking student. So unless I go to grad school or do another bachelor's, or something, I'm out of luck. And another $800. ARGHHHH!!! Why couldn't I have had the money when I was still a student!?!?

PS~ Today I'm wearing my "Mind the Gap" shirt I got in London. ^_^

PPS~ PROOF! HAH! (Screencap'd from my Facebook..) This totally makes me giddy. I'm such a nerd.

I'm working on the next comic page! More Mat and Jeremy, again. But here's a lovely preview...!!!! ♥



Also you should see this Star Wars/Foo Fighters video and this Star Wars/Franz Ferdinand video. They're pretty funny. Brought to you by my brother Garrett.

Now back to Avatar....

It's been a long time coming, I know. But I flat-colored the new page tonight and put it in the queue. It should be up shortly.

This whole scene really amuses me. ^_^ (And those of you who were at my War Conference.. weren't expecting it! Muwahahahahaa!)

Yeah. Going to bed.

First, congrats to my brother aadon for finally finding a job! I hope he likes it, even though I think the hours are unhealthy.

For myself, I had an idea tonight to look up the classifieds in the Provo newspaper. I found - *gasp!* - TWO jobs that are graphic-y and IN PROVO and right up my alley! Both of them need to have resumes/applications faxed, which I can do at work tomorrow if I do the resume/cover letter tailoring tonight. (The thing I'm mainly concerned about is that they won't be able to interview me until I'm actually there, and I don't know if they'll want to wait that long. Sigh. But we best apply anyway, right?)

Y'all remember the car accident I had a year and a half ago? Well, I don't think I mentioned that we're still having issues with it. The other insurance company finally offered us a settlement, but it was WACKO and offered full half the money - we're talking five digits - to some guy who was in one of the cars that hit us (or one of the cars that hit one of the cars that hit us, I don't remember), about whom one of the EMTs at the scene of the accident said, "Why is he even here? He's fine, we said he could go!" Anyway, this morning I met with our attorney to sign paperwork and get briefed. He was very nice, and said that my part in it should be resolved in a couple of months at most, even though my sister's (as the worst hurt, and with continuing complications) will take a lot longer. Mom mentioned maybe I could use the restitution money, when it comes in, to buy a (used) car; Dad said it probably won't be that much. We'll see.


In other news, I've finally got the next page of DLD almost completely pencilled. There are still some things that bug me, but I'm not sure what they are, so I might just throw in the towel and break out the inks tomorrow. More hot!Mat and hot!Jeremy on this page.. Yum! (And though I must admit that Jeremy looks an awful lot like the cute redhead in my ward, I can attest that Jeremy, like Mat, has been around for YEARS longer than I've known said redhead. I have witnesses!!)

And also speaking of art.. I left a comment on aimo's latest lj sketch dump (she's pretty much the *standard* when it comes to KotOR fanart) that it had been so long and I was happy.. And was replied back with a "And when are *you* going to put up another KotOR comic?" Gaaaah!! So I decided to tackle my unfinished sketches with new resolve; I've got several that have been half-done for months!

Oh, and look. I've used up too much time typing this entry, and I'll have to tailor the resume tomorrow. **SELF: MUST TAILOR RESUME TOMORROW!**

Today everybody, it seemed, had things to do. My little sister went to Flagstaff to play in the snow for her Winter Formal day activity (when did it get so elaborate??), and my mom drove. My dad went with one of my brothers and his friend to Fry's Electronics to pick out hardware for the friend's new computer. One brother spent the whole day at his friend's house, and another one is at a movie with a couple of his friends.

So while my last brother played Nintendo DDR upstairs, I sat down to actually work on the comic. Before starting, I rooted around the house for a movie to put on for a little background noise while I worked - something interesting enough to be enjoyable, but not interesting enough that I would forget to draw.

I came up with "Master and Commander", one of many movies my dad randomly bought without any of us having seen. (Seen them? Seen it? Where's my grammar!?) Anyway, my plan utterly failed. Three hours later, there was still no progress. In fact, I had erased a good portion of one panel with the intention of redrawing it better, so technically I had REgressed. ^^;

Such is life, I suppose. But it was a good movie..

( Fantasy Archetype Meme )

Edit: And also, this and this are quite fun. Even though I'm not really a Simpsons/Futurama fan. :P Made by the author of Saturnalia, which has long been on my links page.

DLD has a new page as of about 1:00 last night. I haven't spent much time on LJ for the past few weeks (I'm sure you've noticed T.T), so I forget to mention it.

New page, btw. I put it up today. It's colored, but not shaded. And I tried doing it a little differently to see if 'faster' would also mean 'lower quality'. Do any of you see a difference (besides the obvious lack of shading)? I may have to test it myself and see what I think.

After putting the page up, my sister and I got to work - it was our mom's 50th birthday this week, and dad and the two of us have been planning a surprise party. People will be here in half an hour, and dad will bring mom back shortly after that. I hope it all goes well. I never threw a surprise party before, so I'm kind of excited. I hope she's well and truly surprised. And happy.

Oh.. and something interesting that happened this week. Besides the 9+ hours of overtime I had to pull. I lost a big commission yesterday. But after thinking about it seriously and honestly, I decided it would be better for the project if I just withdrew. It was too much work for me, for the point I'm at in life and my career. The commissioner was gracious, but probably was quite relieved that I wouldn't be holding it up anymore. Part of me is sad.. Disappointed in myself for not finishing it, for not doing more of it, for waiting so long to figure it out. But part of me feels this amazing freedom, like maybe I could start painting again, or drawing KotOR stuff, or other things I've wanted to do for so long but felt too guilty to do.

And then, after reading the reply from that commissioner, I noticed another email in my box, from an old roommate whose boss apparently is writing a book and looking for an illustrator. The very same moment that I lost one, another one comes along. And now, I look at this miracle warily - is it a test to see if I've learned my lesson, if I can keep my self-promise to not take on anything else until I've finished what I have? Or is it a chance to overcome this problem I have with finishing projects? Of course I'll reply with my portfolio - there's always the chance that I'm not even what they're looking for, so why get all worked up about it? But still.

New page, btw. Today I did the flat colors on the previous page, too, and will probably shade them tomorrow-ish.

Yesterday I got off work a little early (instead of working 9 hours with a lunch break, I worked 7 hours *without* one, yay) so I could go out with Hayley. I hadn't really gotten to spend time with her since she was married in August. Before we went out to eat we stopped at Cheyenne Mountain so I could get a t-shirt and poster, and while we were there I got the name and number of the recruiter. So now I know *who* to call to follow up on my application, even if I have no idea what to *say* to her..

I definitely would rather work for them than for my current job, but things actually went pretty well this week. I have friends there (which makes the day better), even if most of them spend the day talking about how much they want to quit..

And also, as far as updates go, last night my mom met the Boy's family at the high school football game.. And now I'm advised by both his mother and his aunt not to give up, because he's really shy. But really fun when you get past that. Well, he said hi to me at Institute the other night.. Maybe I'll try again.

Also, I'm thoroughly enjoying the huge bucket of popcorn I bought at work. (But I think the brothers have been "sharing" it while I'm gone..) I may have to get another one.