Here's something I couldn't pass up. It's a Street Fighter meme by robaato.deviantart.com... check his page out... it is AWESOME! Anyway, I Street Fighter-ized myself and per the instructions, tried to make it look like Alpha art as much as possible. That was the art that pretty much shaped my way of drawing... but I still can't emulate it.
<br />New World Champ by *Azularia on deviantART
*Big Sigh*
I got some bad news... and some good news.
First things first... the good news.
My car has been brought back from the dead and is up and running right now. My dad checked it and said that the engine looked okay but the oil was old so I have to get that checked soon. All it needed really was a jump and gas... then he asked me if my gas gauge was working to which I replied, "Yes... but I drove for half an hour when the little needle was on the red line once and the car didn't stop." I just knew my dad was cringing on the other side of the phone. That showed how ignorant I was and still am of car stuff. Just imagine when -- and I said WHEN not IF -- we have hover cars and they just stall... the consequences of having your car die would be A LOT more severe. Oh... and I guess I graduated from the University of Iowa... but never mind that...
...Now for the BAD news...
Yes, my car has been revived but is in critical condition right now. When ever I turn on the A/C, the radio, or just pretty much drive, it smells like gas. I initially thought that it was just because I was dealing with the gas when my car stopped... but it still smells strongly of it after a while. Not only that, but I filled it up on Monday so on Tuesday, when I went to work which is about 10 minutes away from where I live, it was full. Fast forward to Thursday, with no driving in between, and the needle went down to the third line... WTF? Either I'm losing gas or have to get my eyes checked because I'm reading the gas gauge wrong.
Speaking of eyes, I broke my glasses on the last day of classes. It was actually pretty stupid. I was sitting on the floor with my laptop because there was a spider the night before on the sofa... I'm deathly afraid of spiders, even tiny ones. So that's why I was sitting there. My eyes were tired so I took off my glasses and set them beside me with every intention of putting them right back on in a few seconds. However, the phone rang. It was pretty loud and gave me a good scare. I stood up immediately to answer it... but it was a telemarketer so I sat back down. That's when I noticed it. I had heard the "crunch" when I was walking to the phone, but it never dawned on me until I saw it, that the "crunch" were my glasses breaking under the weight of my sneaker clad feet... embarrassing.
I was tempted to tell someone who asked me "What happened to your glasses?" that I was saving a small child from a ninja. We were using all kinds of karate and ultimately his nunchucks hit my glasses -- not my face, because I'm just THAT good at dodging -- and knocked them straight off my nose. Anything but, "Oh... I crushed them whilst departing from my temporary work station to answer the phone". Not only is that explanation boring but it made it seem as though I had some sort of personal vendetta against my glasses and broke them because they had wronged me... or something. However, that would have been lying... and being the semi-good girl that I am, I couldn't do that.
Needless to say, I pretty much spent two weeks without glasses and I don't think that's a good idea, especially now that I have to take an ibuprofen almost everyday for the headaches I'm getting. They're not even that bad... I'm just a wuss.
Take all of this and add to it the fact that now I am officially out in the real world and no longer have an excuse to live at home. Well, not until I really get my car fixed, that is.
Wow... it looks like I have more bad news than good news. Maybe that's telling me something.
Either I'm a negative person... or bad stuff just happens to me.
P.S. The hinge on my laptop is still broke... but it works like a charm and plays Syberia just swell!
Oh... my... goodness...
For the second time in my life, I had my car just stop in the middle of the road. The first time was in Connecticut about five years ago. I had a 1993 Ford Taurus that I had bought for just 700 dollars. I was going to Three Rivers Community College, lived with my dad, and had a 'job' as a pianist in his Latin jazz band... pretty cool for a 17 going on 18 year old fresh out of college.
I had just come back from a piano lesson in Norwalk and was going back to New London which was approximately an hour. Half way into my trek back home, my car started to slow down. I pulled over into the side line and turned my lights on alerting everybody that my car was acting up. Apparently, I had so many things on my mind that I hadn't put gas in my car and completely overlooked the fact that the needle was on the red 'E'.
I was hysterical, trying to start my car up and banging my head against the steering wheel when the engine would start but just fizzle out seconds later. Suddenly it hit me, I'd call my dad. I had misgivings about calling the police in a state that I was completely new to. I talked to my father, on the verge of tears. He was a bit pissed because I was expecting him to drive an hour to help me get gas--earlier that month, I had locked my keys in my car while on campus and again I called him. Later on, he pulled me aside and asked me what I'd do in the same situation and I couldn't call him or my mom. I just shrugged and didn't think that would happen... but oh how wrong I was.
Fast forward to Tuesday December 7th, 2010. My car, a 1997 Chrysler Concorde LX that I had bought with my own money and was just a tad bit more expensive than the Ford Taurus. The previous owner was a professor at the University of Iowa and had installed a 6-CD changer in the back. The windows and locks were automatic and it was a pretty big car.
It broke down on my way to work in the middle of the intersection. Luckily I was close to a gas station so I went to get some gas. I returned to where my car is and by now the police where there... I wondered if somebody had called because of my car. Unfortunately I didn't have my phone, so I couldn't call them myself. Apparently there had been another car that stopped just a little ways away from where I was and they were called there. They saw me and offered to sit behind my car until I got back from getting yet another gallon after the first didn't start my car.
Well, that extra gallon didn't help and the officer even tried to start the car for me... to no avail. They called me a tow truck and I even sat in the back of the police car... I intend that to be the last time. It was uncomfortable, but at least it was warm.
A two truck was called... 80.25 to have the car towed back to my house. After an awkward fifteen minutes of sitting in the towtruck, we arrived at my house and the car was placed in the driveway off to the side as I always parked it. My dad had to pay the majority of it... but at least I have it back.
I was just so angry at myself. I knew I had to change the oil but never had the time or money and now if my engine is burned out, that would mean the end of that car for me. Lord knows that I won't have the money any time soon for a whole new engine. Whatever... that car wasn't that great anyway. It had a good run... obviously that run was longer with the previous owner than with me... but it was good nonetheless.
It's not official yet but...
R.I.P
Chrysler Concorde LX
June 11, 2009 - December 7, 2010
Well, I'm back!
I've been neglecting so many things since I last wrote and during Thanksgiving break. I told my dad that I couldn't go to his place for Thanksgiving because I had so much stuff to do... which was true. If I want to graduate in December, I have to get my second grade options in, paying off my u-bill, and pass my current classes, class discussions -- art book projects, some Italian show and tell thing. I also work, granted it's only 15 hours... a little more during Thanksgiving break, but still... it's work.
Well, the idea was to get everything in... but something happened to my plan.
I had all intentions of doing all that stuff... really I did... but after going to school for four months without a break and nonstop homework, I just wanted to relax. Maybe that's another reason for not driving two hours to and from my dad's. I mean... I wanted to relax and REALLY relax. I just felt like being completely sedentary that whole week... but even that wasn't possible.
I know, I know, "responsible people don't do what they want, but what they have to do..."... well... I was responsible for about three days.
My brother came home on Tuesday and all my school plans went down the drain. True, he practically lived downstairs in his room occasionally coming upstairs to fill his face with food, or borrow some video games to play in the 'cube downstairs, but he was still there and for some reason I went from being OK with doing work during Thanksgiving break to "Oh hell no, it's my break and I'm gonna f*cking enjoy it!"
I had to work Thanksgiving day... bummer. I had to buy sparkling grape juice before going home when I got off work... took me 30 freaking minutes to find some stupid wine bottles filled with grape juice. I mean, you'd think they're in the back with the booze... but they're not!
It never even occurred to me, until circling the grocery, soda, and wine aisles, to check the Christmas Shop aisles and there they were. Sitting on an end cap... all one flavor, but I didn't care much. I spent half an hour looking for them. Honestly Wal-Mart... why put them in with Christmas wrapping paper and all that crap? Even though it's all festive, I say the fake wine should be either with the juice or real wine... I'd make a good department manager if I do say so myself... except for when people come to me with their problems about so and so assistant manager. Solve the shit on your own!
We went to see Megamind on Friday... I loved it! Baby and kid Megamind were so cute!
I had to work on Saturday... but after that, I brought the PS3 from my room into the living room since the TV there is much bigger and I hurt my eyes squinting to try and read the text on my TV. I wanted to play Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks... but curse Sony and their non PS2 compatible PS3s. Lets see... I played LittleBIGPlanet instead the rest of break. Awesome game... still haven't finished it yet. I'm on Grandmaster Sensei's last level... I get to duke it out with the oni!
Well... break wasn't as productive as I wanted... but it was enjoyable!
Well, next Monday is when our second book project is due and once again I have fallen victim to that dastardly disease... procrastination.
I think it was two weeks ago when we went around in class and presented our book concepts. So many people had good ideas and everyone around me seems so... artsy.
I'm not an art major, I'm a Spanish major but I do like to draw and I would love to have some kind of career in it... but, that's just it, I draw and want to illustrate stories. I'm not a photographer, I'm not some clever text artist or whatever those are called... if they even have a name, I can't take a photo that some one else has taken and make it into my own project without it being flat and boring, what I know about photoshop is limited to sketching with a tablet, maybe digitally inking, and coloring... that's it.
Our instructor says he wants us to do the work that we want to do, but he'd at least want us to try and branch out... okay. What I want to do is write and illustrate. My first book was a story that I rewrote from one of my Spanish creative writing classes and illustrated it. Should I do another illustrated kid's book? Will that be too boring? Will that mean I wasn't even trying to branch out?
I really want to learn Illustrator because it's what some artists I really like use for digitally inking and adding in speech bubbles, making logos, things like that. So my initial idea presented two weeks ago was to make a book that was a sort of compendium of illustrator text tutorials that I have tried. But... I have the text and what will I do to it to make it artistic?
Did I mention that we have to have image AND text somewhere in there... I hate that stipulation.
Anyway, I scrapped that idea and went with a similar idea to just use photo effects in photoshop AND illustrator. I'd pick a word then take a photo and try and manipulate the image to represent that word... does that make sense? Ex. words: Liquid; Image: A head made of water or something like that.
I figured that would be too hard so I'm going back to illustrating.
...Why the hell is this so difficult. It's infuriating...
My next idea is to take a few words from a song, that will be my text, then I'll illustrate either an image from the song or that phrase I picked out from it... not exactly sure on the small details yet. I think I'll stay with this idea... it's better than the above ones.
I dreamt something... and it was sort of strange.
A couple days ago, I watched some Paranormal show on TruTV. It went through some videos of sightings that I thought were obviously fake (Aliens, witches, odd looking 'fairies', some 'ghost' kid that appeared in the hallways of a hotel when it could've easily been the own family's child)... but one really got me shuddering.
Shadow People
I wasn't fully paying attention, but some guy had put video cameras in his childhood house. There was one video that was just an image of a chair in a closet. After a few minutes or so, you could see this faint shadow gradually forming into a humanoid shape and finally it stood up before fading away... creepy.
My first thought was that somebody was behind the video camera and was sitting down and standing up slowly. However, it was too precise, faint and faded in and out too abrupt that I don't think it could have been a person's shadow on the other side. Still, that doesn't mean that it couldn't have been faked.
One of the paranormal 'experts' said that shadow people, while rare, are a manifestation of negative energy and they're usually malevolent spirits.
Anyway, that and the fact that I recently played Nancy Drew: Shadow at the Water's Edge which made me think of the vengeful spirits --yurei-- in 'The Grudge', 'The Ring', and 'Dark Water', was probably what spurred on this dream.
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DREAM: let me just note that this was on Halloween
PJ Franklin (Jordana Spiro) from My Boys on TBS was in a Bates-like motel with all her friends from the show. She was sharing a room with her boyfriend, Bobby Newman (Kyle Howard) but PJ was sleeping on the bed and he was sleeping in a chair because they got in a fight for some unclear reason.
Something happened during the night and when PJ awoke, she found boyfriend Bobby dead (This was unclear also... but he was dead and she was crying) She was distraught and went into the bathroom to get ready to meet her friends and tell them the bad news when the iconic horror film moment happened. She opened the mirror cabinet thing to get her pills (Don't know what kind) and then closed it and...oh no... she saw a pale ghost with stringy hair and black eyes. She screamed and ran out of the room.
Some other stuff happened and random people who are not from the show died. I think Bobby came back as a zombie. PJ and Brando Dorff (Reid Scott) were walking outside the motel. For some reason Brando had a chainsaw. Either Zombie Bobby or some random ghost jumped out of the bushes then went back in them, but this made Brando so scared that he took the chainsaw and beat PJ into the ground.
Brando was about to run away after he realized that he killed his new girlfriend, but she rose up from the ground as a ghost/vampire and sucked on his neck, instantly killing him. His body fell to the ground and she stood on it, Captain Morgan style...
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That's it... that's where it stopped. I don't even know why the characters were from My Boys
I was freaked and it didn't help that I heard a strange noise downstairs.
END
...Well it's true...
Instead of trying to learn the language by myself from books, CDs, etc. I opted to take a class filled with people you may or may not like who can make fun of your pronunciation... let's not forget professors who come across as condescending and know-it-alls because they're frustrated with how little we know or how short our memories are for remembering something said literally a second ago. (I like my professor though)
Usually, that's how you learn a language... in a class setting. Still, you have to work at said language to be able to continue to say that you speak and comprehend it. Still... next time I'm gonna learn a language by myself on livemocha.com... but that's for another post... maybe.
So...I have decided to write my next post in the little Italian I know so I can guarantee that I won't forget it.
Any Italian readers of this blog (which I doubt I have) feel free to make corrections or else I'll make the same mistakes.
Here goes...
And why not write it in Spanish too because I'm forgetting my first language and that's just sad.
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ITALIANO
Ieri era il mio compleanno. Non ho avuto niente perché io ho lavorato ieri sera. Dopo il lavoro, ho recivuto un text dalla mia buona amica che mi chiedeva se ho votato nell'elezione di medio termine... *sospiro*... non mi sono voluta un buon compleanno. Ma gli altri miei amici mi sono voluti un buon compleanno. Grazie tutti!
In ogni caso, non ho votato perché non ho avuto il tempo dopo il lavoro né prima quando ero all'università. Non mi piace la politica comunque.
Ma la mia mamma mi ha compruto una focaccia con glassa di formaggio cremoso... yum! In seguito... sono andata a letto.
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I just read that out loud and didn't like how I sounded. I sounded like a little girl... I guess that has nothing to do with pronunciation though.
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ESPAÑOL
Ayer era mi cumpleaños. No hize nada porque trabajé anoche. Despues del trabajo, recibí un text de mi buena amiga que me preguntaba si voté en la elección de mitad de trimestre...*suspiro*... no me deseó un feliz cumpleaños. Pero mis otros amigos me desearon un buen cumpleaños. ¡Gracias todos!
De todos modos, no voté porque no tenía tiempo despues del trabajo ni antes cuando estaba en la universidad. No me gusta la politica de todas maneras.
Pero mi mama me compró un bizcocho con glaseado de queso cremoso... ¡yum! Luego... me acosté.
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There we go!
Moral... or whatever... if you're taking a foreign language and want to continue with it so you could communicate with other speakers of that language... you need to practice. It won't just stay in your brain and be perfect whenever you decide to take it out.
It depends...Are we sharing information, electronics, CDs, books, feelings... what are we sharing?
If it's information like "What time is it?" or "When is so and so getting married?" then sure, I share with pretty much anybody.
If it's books or anything else I can replace if they get broken or not returned... I might share. I'll pretty much share those things with family that way I have no qualms about annoying the hell out of them until they return my shit. But fortunately, my family doesn't want any of my stuff... so that's no problem.
However, when it comes to electronics and things I really, really, really value... you can forget sharing. I don't want to share my PS3, digital camera, laptop etc. with anybody trustworthy or untrustworthy because if they break it or don't return it... I'll be pissed.
Sharing feelings? I'm not so much into that. Recently I had to share my feelings with my father. He's been conditioning me to share feelings for 20 years and I'll tell you... never worked. I need to work on that because I suppose that it must be done some time.
Well, I commend HerInteractive on this one! I'm not even done with the game yet but I like it so far. I loved the movie Dark Water, the American version and the original Japanese version (my fave!) and this game immediately reminded me of it. As well as The Ring, which I haven't seen but have heard of, and Saw, which I haven't seen either... actually... I don't even know if it's like Saw at all.
Maybe I'm just easily scared, but so far it's creepy and I can't play it at night. Well, I can play it at night, but I need my lights on. Also some odd sound outside my window while I was playing sort of frayed on my nerves... that and the crash downstairs. I don't want to give anything away, but I will say this... but I didn't go down to check on it... I know what happens in horror movies. I think I'd survive one of those nicely.
The music that starts out all traditional and then becomes sort of... creepy with uneven almost random notes and varying intensity does NOT help ease the spookiness of this game. Every turn you take, you keep thinking, will I see a ghost? Will something spontaneously combust? Will I see those creepy twins from The Shining?
One thing I don't like though, and this is pretty much for all if not just the recent Nancy Drew games, is the fact that she's really nosy and pushy. I honestly think that she could garner at least some information by observing people and not asking insensitive questions... but even after that, the characters she interacted with are still their cheery selves and it's like she never even asked anything. I mean, that's not real at all... but I still LOVE the games. If I were this family, I 'd kick her the hell out! Maybe I should run that by HerInteractive... but then again, I don't want to seem pushy either.
I'm also playing this without a walk-through (except for when I don't want to bother with Sudoku or even *shudder* master Sudoku) mainly because I've been relying on them quite a lot instead of really thinking hard when I would seldom use them earlier on in my adventure gaming experiences... I missed that. Also, I kind of want to savor the game for a bit. I've been waiting far too long for this one and I don't want to finish it so quick.
Also, the whole idea of a ryokan -- traditional Japanese inn -- is sort of spooky. Not even just a ryokan, but even a modern hotel with dim lighting like I once was at in the mid-west. You never really know what happened before you decided to take a trip and stay there. I mean, obviously millions of people would've stayed there. How many of them were murdered or simply died of natural causes? How many were murderers, rapists, electrocuted? Most likely they would have unfinished business. More importantly, would they come back as benevolent ghosts or malevolent ghosts? You never now.
And on that note, I end this post.
Happy Early Halloween my kiddies...
UPDATE: I'm done! That is both good and bad. Good because I now know what the next game is and I've had the pleasure of playing this awesome game that kept me on my toes. But it's also bad... or rather... sad because I have to wait for the next game and I have nothing scary to play until then.
Maybe it's the fact that Halloween's coming up, but I really want to be scared. Usually I'm trying to keep myself from being scared.
Strange...
This is partly my fault really. We had three or more weeks to do a book in my Digital Design for Artist Books class, but being the chronic procrastinator that I am, I put it off until the week before it was due,more specifically, it was put off until Saturday and Sunday. I think I did a pretty good job for having done most of the work in two days.
The story was one that I wrote a while ago for a Spanish Creative Writing class last semester. I liked it, however, I had to adapt it to a picture book... which meant I pretty much changed the whole story. I think I like this one better.
All I have to do now is cut and adhere the cover and then I'm all set. I hate some of the illustrations, but I can't change that now.
For more added stress, I have a quiz in my next class. It pretty much sucks because we had to watch a movie on our own time... who does that? Why not just watch it during class time? Seriously though, I haven't seen it yet and my prof. says that there are some questions about the movie on the quiz... just my luck.
On Friday, when I had all intentions to start my book, I had to do a stupid annotated bibliography... I really don't see the point in them. They don't help me at all... but I understand that some people swear by 'em. That's not me though. I had to finish it by 11:59 and turned it in at 11:52... bad timing... but at least it was done. That's the class where I constantly watch myself because the prof. knows my mom.
I do understand that if I hadn't put off any of this, the feeling of hopelessness wouldn't be that great... but it's a habit that I find is very, very, very, very hard to break.
On another note... the new Nancy Drew game comes out tomorrow! I already pre-ordered the download which I'm regretting not pre-ordering the boxed version so I could have played it during the weekend.. but maybe that was best not to have it on Saturday because of all the stuff I had to do. I commend my foresight.
Anyway, a good friend of mine already has it. She didn't pre-order it but bought it at Best Buy... which I think is against the rules, but whatevs. Needless to say, I'm not talking to her until after Tuesday... that's not cool in my book for some reason. :) Just kidding... but not about the ignoring her until Wednesday part.
I think it's safe to say that any homework this week will be put off even further due to the game. I blame HerInteractive and Nancy Drew. It's never my fault!
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