Yes, I live! The flu seems to have finally left me!


Whoo, and it appears I've missed a bunch while I was gone. WTF is it with the DA designers' obsession to change the damn layout so often?! On the other hand, I ish still happeh 'cause....guess who reached 10,000 Pageviews!!! Thank you everyone!
Boo-yah.


Now for random updates, which may or may not have to do with art:

The vote for you-know-who's name ended with "Julian" winning by a relative landslide... Both here on DA and at home. So, The kitty formerly known as Marishka is now Julian!
_{I'm still holding off on getting him de-nutted, though. I really dun wanna do that to the poor guy.}

Logan would like to report an interior decorating emergency in his living room. The Ogre of the household actually decided to listen to my suggestion (for once) that he get plastic protectors for his "precious furniture" to protect it from Julian's claws. Now tell me, if you were told plastic protector sets were a good idea, would you take that to mean you should duct-tape whole, huge, plastic painting tarps over the couch and recliner? ...And I thought the set looked bad *before*...

Over the almost-month I had the flu, I mostly gelled and watched YouTube (IT WORKS ON THIS COMP! HALLELUJAH!) and found a few Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episodes. Needless to say, I’ve found a new slash pairing, or I probably wouldn’t even have mentioned the show, right?
Only thing is, I’ve had to read Garak/Bashir fics to get into the slashy side of the fandom, as there is very little O’Brien/Bashir to be found. After nearly thirty fics, I’m still not used to the idea of gay Cardassians. Mainly because I’ll never get used to the idea of naked Cardassians. Yick.
(For those not in the know, the Cardies are gray, reptilian-ish, and have scaly ridges. Much speculation has been written of how far down those ridges go.)

And I know most of you reading this are female, but may I just say... Major Kira is SO EFFING HOT. First time I’ve actually seen someone make boots look sexy.
_{Okay, yes, I know Van Helsing had big leather boots on with all those straps, but did you ever notice they’re not really visible in the movie? Only in the promo stills. O_o}

Still working on getting the next part of “Van Helsing’s First Christmas” up on my site. It’s kind of a matter of cleaning my room to make space for the laptop... Being sick doesn’t put one in the mood for domesticity at all. I promise soon!

Now that Holiday hours aren’t in effect at work, I should hopefully have more free time. Keep an eye out for slow updates to the To-Do List Journal Post! Unless the fewer-hour thing is a false alarm. There was talk a while back about good workers getting scheduled for more hours... I dunno how “good” I rank, but if I’m in that category, I might have the same amount of hours as during the Holiday season. We shall see how the next few weeks’ schedules look.

Big favour I have to ask of you guys: By my original writing, not my fanfics, what’s your opinion of it? In any and every aspect - creativity, form, accuracy, imagination, emotion, interpretability, tone, length, overall? I need unbiased, honest critique, so I can gauge where my writing stands. Thank you.
Most of it’s poetry, which should be in its own folder in my gallery now. If you wanna comment, Note, or e-mail, I dun care. Just tell me what your impressions are!

Final bit... Anyone looking for an RPS story challenge? I haven’t read a good one since my LotRPS days, and I’ve got a very... specific plot bunneh in mind. High-rated, of course. Anyone? Any bored X-Movieverse fan happening to read this? I’d write it myself, but then the plot wouldn’t be much of a surprise. And I do love surprises. Sometimes.


Okay, I think that’s it! I’m off to answer messages once again! (Sorry for not being on all week! ) I’m tired, though, so I probably won’t get to very many.
BW out.

Quick post to let everyone know that yes, I did get my new computer, yes it is working BEAUTIFULLY, and yes, I'm still lagging on message-answering, which is because I've gotten my second flu in two months.
It started incredibly fast - it only took a few hours to get into my lungs, which normally takes about a week - and I somehow lost four pounds in 24 hours just by lying in bed. O___o; (Er, looks like I ended up going into that healing coma after all, ~Shockwavecg...)

On the upside, it's only the second day, and it seems to have improved a bit. Talk about speedy. I'm hoping it'll be gone completely by the time I have to work Tuesday.


Another update - I'd like a vote! I thought of another possible new name for the kitty no longer known as Marishka. The new name is from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which I've begun to get into on YouTube. (I'd only really seen "Voyager" up 'til now.)

So, let ze voting begin!



Guybrush (Threepwood) - 2
Julian - 6


For now it'll be Guybrush, 'cause he actually responds to it. I'm not gonna go entirely by this vote, since I have to figure out which name he'll take better, but I'd still like to see what the general consensus is!

And I promise I'll get more message-answering done soon! When i'm feelin' a bit better.

----
EDIT

Anybody know of any pictures of Jennifer Tilly in a nurse's uniform? I have quite a want to see such a pic now.

(I apologise in advance for any ADD-ness in this post. I just got home from work, and my brain's fried.)

Two puzzlements in particular I shall post here - the first and probably more important oddity is that Marishka is not Marishka. Marishka, apparently, is really Guybrush in disguise. Yes, folks, I has a boy kitty, and now that he's old enough, we were able to tell for sure that he is not a she.

The second puzzlement is just a semi-big mess at work that caused me to fall into Emo Mode again. There's not much I can do for now but hope any hard feelings will dissipate, so I guess the matter's closed. Sorta. Leave it to me to end up in the middle of a gay love triangle and still not get any.


Updates, I know, are going slow again. Birdie and Ria, your sewing is getting underway, but I still need the measurements for the piggy hat!
Katie (I can't believe I've never called you Katie in all of what, a year and a half? May I now?), your X-Mas story from last year shall have an update soon! Which brings me to a third puzzlement: My laptop which I thought I had killed lives again! I let my mum look at the serial number to see if my brother's laptop could be fixed with parts from mine, and my ma somehow miraculously fixed it whilst hitting random buttons. SO, this means updates to the fic archive won't take nearly as long as they have been! I have my prized editing program once again!


Now... hopefully, in an hour or so, when we open teh Christmas pressies, I will have my brand-spankin'-new compyootah and be able to get online at my apartment!

May the Christmas Kangaroo visit you all, and to all a good holiday.

They're very to the point, yes, but I'm short on time.

After I finish the last few sewing items on the request list, I am considering making other crafts with what materials I have left over, as I did with the Mount Fuji piece. I will be offering the latter crafts for sale (seeing as I really need the moneys). Dunno yet if the items will be at set or negotiable prices, but I will definitely need to be compensated for shipping.
So would anyone be interested in buying, and does anyone who knows they will be buying have any requests? Requests should be made ASAP, since my materials are limited. (Drawing, Fic, and other copyrighted requests are still locked down, as I can't charge for those.)

(The Stupid Question) Anyone willing to take in the BW and his cat? ...Anyone?
If you need a reminder, I cook, bake, clean, do laundry, sew, do yardwork, enjoy giving backrubs, have a good eye for interior decorating, and come with my own furniture and wardrobe. ... Dang, but that last part sounded like a doll playset advertisement. But the bottom line is, I earn my keep! *puppy eyes*

On a lighter note, I've can borrow a camera after next week, so I'm thinking of trying another YouTube video, in addition to the Marishka ones. Only, I have no clue what to make the video about. Any suggestions? Nothin' too fancy, as I'll have to hold the camera myself or set it down in one spot.

Back to talk of sales and such - If I were to start an EBay account, anyone interested? Among items I know I'm looking to get rid of are an electric guitar & amp, a collection of Troll figurines, and probably all the clothing/jewelry/knicknacks my mum didn't get around to auctioning off last year. (She's an EBay-er on haitus, so all that stuff's just sitting around, not being used.)
Also, as I've mentioned, the Elton John costume would definitely go up for sale. Sunglasses and boa included.

WHAT... is the circumference... of a moose?

--
Quick update for anything else...
- I’m trying to find another version of FrontPage, because I really don’t have time to manually edit my webpages. I have more chapter updates that will go up eventually, and one or two new stories.
- Having had a cold this past week, I had time to stay home and get more video of Marishka! [YouTube] There's another video, too, but DA screws up the link.

Birdie, I still need your hat measurements! Tell me if I need to resend the list, please!
Ria, I’m about to start on your mask. The fabric has enough stretch that I’m sure a one-size-fit-all thing will work.
RogueMarieLeBeau, your bear has hair and eyelashes already, and I’ll be able to start the costume once the other two items are done.

For everything else, keep your eyes peeled for updates to the Request Master List journal-post! I haven’t updated it yet, but I’m hoping to soon.

And, finally, my DevWatch (as in, stuff I’m watching from you guys) is nearing 1,000. There is no way I can get to all of them, so I’m going to delete the majority of them. If there’s anything you’ve put up within the last 8 months or so, I likely haven’t seen it. But, if it’s something in particular you really want me to see, Note me with links, and I promise I will look!

P.S.
_{Guess who was voted the Sexiest Man Alive? *whips out “My Bishie Can Kick Your Bishie’s Ass” button*}

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, (or not,) BW's Halloween Report 2008!

I got to dress up for both Thursday and Friday, which made up for not being allowed to come to work in costume. ^^

(Sidenote: I'm still working on getting my contact lenses out. I've had them in for 3 days straight, and I've never worn them before. Any tips on removing contacts for people with reflexes that prevent them from touching their eyes?)

Thursday was a college party with , who went as (Evo-verse) Lance Alvers, aka "Avalanche".
Our ride also picked up Princess Peach, who had a VERY well-made outfit, but I didn't get any pictures. Among others were Commander Cheif, Mario, a skeleton/reaper with a bone mohawk, a bunch of miniskirted nurses and policewomen, and FOUR Jokers, though no one came as Batman.

And Wolvie was happy because he talked the kareoke guy into letting him close the evening with a song, even though they'd technically stopped kareoke for the night.


Friday was a trip to ze club with a demon and a Spartan, both of whom had me do their makeup.
After putting up with Mr. "I am not drunk!" Spartan shimmying around to loud music while I was trying to paint his battle scars, I had to put up with the same Mr. "I am not drunk" Spartan jumping and dancing behind me as I tried to paint the demon's face. (Note to self - next time, cut the Spartan off at two shots.)

There were some really great costumes at the club, too, including Jack Sparrow AND Barbossa, a Stormtrooper (classic, eh?), a super-tall zombie thing, and a couple others that I can't really remember right now.

Anyhoo, for those interested, I has peektures!

[Avalanche making an earthquake]
[Avalanche & Wolvie] (we resolved to do something slashy!)
[~dwn-wt-vwlz and Marishka]
[Marishka attacking Avalanche]
[Marishka and her papa]
[Avalanche & Wolverine again, before the party]
and
[Marishka's First LOLcat picture] (well done, my young Padawan!)

I also tried to do some movieverse facial expressions, which I think I got pretty close: [link] and [link]


And that's that. No comp updates, really, other than I've deleted the space-hogging antivirus. No more online-ness for the PC, but at least now I can resume fanfics and pic editing/colouring.