Stare the devil in the eyes, salute them like a nobleman

Full plate, huh? In the spirit of insanity I'm also moving while still trying to recover from bronchitis - go me!

So this weekend I move apartments. With luck Dee and I will not discover that, contrary to thirteen years of knowing each other, we hate each other's guts. I'm instead hoping that I can successfully trade computer skills and general hob-nobbery like that for dishes and vacuuming which seem to be my personal demons. In the very least we're somehow unmixy things but that more has something to do with trying to get a handle on the apartment after bronchitis and I quite thoroughly fail at that. Either way I'm massively behind in packing my crap up (I have to be out of current place Sunday) due to the past two weeks of "Hey, my immune system sucks when it comes to respiratory infections!" I blame Bob. -.-

I'm maintaining a World of Warcraft Blog, as well - called Coffee & Demons, centering on a warlock's take on stuff. My happy general writing tone (sarcasm and poorly-veiled barbs included) also make frequent appearances and my lessons I've learned while levelling up my raid-healer twig are also apparent. I've currently set a thrice-a-week update schedule but might scale back later on - it depends on if I get into the WoW beta? Or how much time I have? Or all sorts of things - in the very least the constant writing is reminding me that I love to write so it's quite fun to work on. :)

Tossing the rest of my WoW rambles under a cut since I know most folks don't give two coppers for 'em!
( So I have a twig... )

As for the icon? It's my way of dealing with the "ARGH" of work. Putting in a duplicate request when you state, IN YOUR SECOND TICKET, that someone is already working on it gets it closed for being stupid. -.-

So I found out yesterday that I got the job! :D YAY! I am going to be joining Security! :D

Wooooot.

*thud from the direction of bed*

In a way I never thought I'd see myself doing this. I still love WoW with a huge chunk of my soul but it's either Champions that I want to play or I want to read, write, and draw. Guild drama one too many times has disillusioned me from really connecting with folks, the majority of the people I initially got into the game with are either on EU servers or have long-since left, and the continued heavy favoring of Alliance (and Alliance lore) has just made my Horde heart wither. It's not a goodbye I don't think, because even now I'm missing the possibility of logging in to WoW and I can't bring myself to uninstall it, but it's a pause, a... iunno, a something. The Lore itself is amazing and I still love the worlds it spans but right now the game just ain't my thing.

Feels so odd.

Ah well, at least I have other stuff. Like writing... and drawing... hosting my DA Remix... all that other stuff.

Oh yeah, hello world. >>

( Fare thee well 2009 )

Hello 2010. I'm a day late greeting you officially but I greeted you when you hailed in. I had Hoppin' John's with the folks yesterday and my brother as well. I spent yesterday looking at my art last year, putting together a Summary of 2009 meme and working on a tutorial. I'm working on lessons for students who I've taken on at DA (three of them) and the piece that I'm working on is something that's - well it's a challenge for me as well.

This year is going to be a year of challenges. I'll be renewing the lease on my apartment this year, celebrating a year at my job at the end of March - this is just a year that I look forward to. I want to be at my job for years to come, I love my apartment and as long as I can I want to be living here. I've finally gotten my apartment cleaned, I have a spare bed, I have a coffee pot... I'm set in life, really.

So in this year here are some random assortment of goals-
I will put backgrounds on at least half of what I draw.
I will color more than half of what I draw.
I will CG something at least twice a month and dolls don't count.
I will draw a car that looks like a car.
I will draw a bike that looks like a bike.
I will paint at least once a month.
I will get my druid to 80 and at least 4 other toons to 60. (prolly before February)
I will lose weight until I am actually happy with who I am and I match my mental image of myself to what I know I can be.
I will pattern and draft and create clothing for myself and I will continue to design.
I will go back and make the damn plushies that I owe folks.

Hello 2010, I resolve to make you MY bitch instead of the other way around.

I got into the Google Wave beta! WOOT!

I has 8 invites now.

Why am I up so early on a Saturday?

I'm sorry, your inability to remember your ACD password does not necessitate an emergency on MY part. Or on the part of the Voice Ops team, all of whom you have WOKEN UP EARLY.

Oh well, eye appointment soon. Ish. Soon-ish.

Time to begin making new icons! I've got art I really want to turn into icons so, once I get some Fantober drawn, I'll prolly start working on my two long-awaited (if only to me) LJ projects, custom icons and a custom mood theme made from my artwork. (Since I just use a word I made up Fantober is a project I'm doing which I talk about incessantly on IM and since it's been a while since I've posted anything here, far less often outside of IM) One good nearly three week break from WoW later I am all sorts of energized and revitalized on my many projects and look forward to November with a happiness rarely rivaled by anything. Well it's more of a sedate happiness really but it's a happiness none-the-less.

Now that the month or so is over I can explain what exactly has been going on and why I've been not present much on the face of the earth - Mum's been out of town so I've been helping Dad with his diabetes and health and stuff. So I've been pretty busy every day for a month and now that Mum's back I've got more free time again. Yay! I celebrated by getting my Tauren DK to 60, his professions up to 300+, and his rep to Friendly with the Argent Dawn. He's my third toon to begin the Argent grind and my second climbing-to-endgame inscriptionist. Oi. I am insane.

I've gotten a lot of positive feedback about the recent pic I did for the WoW_ladies Travel Journal so I thought I'd show off the scan of it I posted at DA which I color corrected to be a bit better than the one that ended up being posted to 1001 Journals.

Let Sleeping Warlocks... by =Jateshi on deviantART
Arluthia, Songsmith (my Tauren druid on Moon Guard), and my dwarf who I will NEVER DIVULGE HER SERVER LOCATION!

The discussion spawned an idea of doing a Tauren pin-up and I have to say the idea is appealing and amusing at the same time. Maybe if Blizz would release the damn female Worgen models I'd do a lineup of my future Worgen... *glares at Blizz in her ineffectual way* If I can wrangle a classic pin-up pose with Tauren body then hahahaha, it's totally not my fault.

Writing more, in addition to arting and WoWing. *joys* \o/ I've written two short ficlets so far this month and working on a third centered about The Prisoner. The classic, Prisoner, mind you. And with two snippets I've actually got a foundation for an original sci-fi project once I re-dig-out the design prelims I had and decide what route I want to take this thing. Webcomic? Ficlet? Full on writing project? NaNoWriMo?

Having my beloved Ne-chan come up is a blast. It's been fun, chatting, and makes her moving down so much easier. Because there's still the we-get-together thing which I love. It does highlight that I really should get a better sleeping thing for guests because while the sofa is squishy and comfy you'd get a bad back crick staying for too long. So I need to figure something I can store in the apartment for guests to sleep on. Maybe a rolled lay-bed I can keep under my bed? I've got the floorspace for storing and deploying a twin if I just can figure out where to keep it. I'm not a fan of inflated mattresses though they're good but squeaky-squeaky-squeaky.

Project Runway is addicting and for me, inspiring. I've been, between gabbing and movies and cider, sketching out stuff. A Tudor-inspired runway dress. A drapey cape-thing to go over the dress designed for pregnancy. I'm trying to think of something classy for a dinner party and realizing that I have a bad limitation with either short pleated or long and elegant and nothing in between. So this has to change. I should really start upping my game and making the mini patterns for what I want, too. Because I'd like to eventually get in to making my own clothing and looking at the future of what I'd need. I want to design my own costumes but most of what I design is either RTW or costume. I've got such limitations as a designer that I need to challenge myself and go more. :3 So a random goal - go more. Go more backgrounds, go more flair, go more dramatic, go more everything.

I think this is part of me trying to refit myself into my skin and see how I want to change it. Red hair and a personality aren't just enough, I need to rediscover who I was. I look back at my old designs and see such random sparks of insanity, something beautiful, and where did it go? I want to make clothing that flatters my body but at the same time I want to change my body until I feel like it's my body again instead of this form I exist inside of.

I do care very much for the feedback from others. I wilt and thrive based on a few words instead of listening to what I could tell myself. That is unacceptable as a creator, as an artist, and as a writer. I need to look for feedback but I also need to be able to tel myself something and believe it. I'm taking steps but I need to still do it.

To mis-use a quote, I need to take back myself. I'm going to take back my artwork and writing, my creativity, and take back my soul.

Speaking of, I'm finally back to work on Chapter Three! I've had a lovely blast going back through it, finding my chapter notes, and realizing how much I have to look forward to in the story. There are so many little twists, so many new sections to take my readers (what few I have XD) and so much to show them. So much structure of the Dark Kingdom which I've worked out, so much pulling out from fics that only my Ne-chan knows existed. There is so much I have to show people that I have to take a breath, step back, and remember that in order to keep going I have to first get going again. I think Chapter Three will be shorter if only to finally put a close to the Chapter which has been like a weight.

Who would be interested in seeing these random clothing designs I am coming up with? I'd love to get some help from the costumers I have around me in taking an idea and getting suggestions on how to make it real. I'd also love to just share some of the random ideas I have instead of finding sketchbooks rotting (not literally) with artwork and designs that no one sees, that I never share.

Seeing Dee reminded me that I miss my Lia a lot so <3 A random bit of love for all of my friends (new and old) and I wish I had an icon of love for all of you. I miss talking to a lot of you (Jemz and Gala and Bleak and Judas - all of you from those crazy HP days) and I miss remembering a lot of the insanity we had. I love my friends from the Sailor Moon world but more than a little bit I know I'm hiding half of myself because that fandom is so much younger in terms of sexual explorations that it misses so much.

I wish my fucking body would make up its sodding mind and stick to either having or not having. Please. Honestly, I'm hormonal as fuck and haven't had an urge to actually eat chocolate this bad in YEARS.

Need cool ranch doritos STAT. Dammit, want them so badly that I want to walk out to get some.

Just too fucking damn tired for it.

want doritos.

And the 3rd Bleach movie.

Now.

If I were a cat I'd be curling up on someone's prized possession and shedding fur of the opposite color on it so hard three years later you'd still find hairs.

One, this is the best news story ever. "Great tits acquire taste for bats." The twelve year old inside of me is laughing non-stop.

Two, this post will be for the ladies so men, I'd rec you skip it to avoid TMI.
( Argh, womanly monthly issues )

Other funny things: "Attack of the Help Desk Commandos - they want answers, they want to help you"
We have 4 war rooms. The thought of taking one of them over and launching tactical strikes against offenders who submit help desk tickets with incomplete information is highly tempting.

Filters are getting put together - trying to decide how to handle the people who haven't seen it yet. For those not in the know, please tell me what filters of my journal you'd like to be on.