Saturday, June 17, 2006

  Hey everybody. How’s it going?

Sorry for my absence lately, but I’ve just been particularly unhappy with the community here for the past couple days, and was just a bit too angry to post. Plus, not much has happened in the past week, so there wasn’t anything to interesting to talk about.

So, anyway, when you saw me last, it was last week when I was sweating over my Chemistry Final.
Well, guess what I made on it…..

An “A”.
=D That’s right. I got an “A” on my Chemistry Final. The Exam I was worried most about. =3 Thank you to all those who prayed for me. ^_^

I got all my exam scores back the other day, so if you’re interested I can show them to you all.
On an odd note, all my scores were pretty much the opposite of what I thought they’d be (case in point, Chemistry). :p Did that happen to any of you?

Anyway, Josh has been gone for the past week (up in Charleston), and he’ll be gone all of this week, too (the beach with Jess).
=/ Sucks, neh?
However, to keep me occupied while he’s gone, Josh has loaned me his weight in anime, so there’s a silver lining to it. XD

Here’s what he loaned me:
-His series Box-set of Neon Genesis Evangelion
-His Cowboy Bebop series Box-set. <3
-Ruroni Kenshin Vol. 9 (I’ve already read this one)
-Ruroni Kenshin Vol. 10
-Ruroni Kenshin Vol. 11
-Ruroni Kenshin Vol. 12
-The Neon Genesis Evangelion Movie
-The Matrix
-and the Vampire Hunter D Movie

I’ve only been able to watch The Matrix so far, but man, that was one Hell of a movie!
I’ve only been able to see bits and pieces of it up ‘till this point, so finally seeing it in its entirety was a major thrill! ^_^
Man, I love The Matrix. Kind of dark, but it has such a deep, philosophical premise combined with such amazing special-effects and hard-hitting action…. It’s a shame more people don’t like it.
Anybody else here a Matrix-fan?
Meh, now I want my own belly-button bug. XD
Anyway, I’ll have to get The Matrix: Reloaded pretty soon, now. I wanna’ see the story continued!

As for EVA (Neon Genesis Evangelion), Josh has wanted me to watch that for a while now. He says it’s deeper than any book he’s ever read. And remember, Josh is a heavy philosophical reader like I am, meaning he found it to be deeper than Lord of the Flies, Dante’s Inferno or The Chronicles of Narnia (all of which are stories that I’ve read, with the exception of Dante’s Inferno).
As you all know, I love deep symbolism above anything else in a story, so I hope he’s right.
Anybody else here an EVA-fan besides Living Doll?

Oh, and speaking of Josh, I showed him his birthday-present before he left. =3 He liked it a whole bunch. Heh heh, my first time drawing something like that….
I’ll be submitting that pic here on The Otaku in the near future, but I have another pic to submit here before that. It’s a piece of fan-art (for a pre-existing anime), but of course with a Logan-kun style twist to it. =) You all know I just have to be creative with stuff, even when it’s fan-art.
Keep your eyes peeled for new submissions in the coming days.

Oh, and speaking of artwork, please forgive me if I’m still yet to comment on a recent submission. -_- I’ve been mostly focusing on catching-up with all of Erin-chan’s submissions, so forgive me if I haven’t gotten to you’re art yet. But I assure you, I will get to it soon!
This stupid-ass time limit my mom installed doesn’t make commenting on artwork much easier. It’s hard to relax and comment when you constantly feel like you’re being timed. >=( Stupid parents and their obsessive control-issues….

Anyway, sorry for the long post. ^_^;
Here’s today’s Art-Feature…
“Simple Beauty”, by Youkai Yume:

Personally, I think “simple” is the wrong term to describe Tohru’s kind of beauty. “Simple” almost sounds like a degrading way to describe her. Personally, I think “pure” beauty works far, far better.
I’m not a Fruits Basket fan yet (I may be soon, though, if one of you can push me in the right direction! =3 ), but I love this artwork. This piece is absolutely beautiful, in my opinion. I’ve shown you Youkai Yume’s work before, but this piece is one of my personal favorites by her, and it’s not even an anime I’ve seen yet.
The soft textures used for Tohru’s dress and especially her skin give this piece an angelic and ethereal quality. The use of negative-space is positively excellent, and the use of stark whit for the background works much, much better than a grassy backdrop or anything else in my opinion. That white combined with the use of shadows also creates the illusion of a soft but illuminating light.
The rose-petals were also an excellent addition and were spaced perfectly apart in terms of distance. The artist did an excellent job of not cluttering the screen with them. Plus, the bright red works well with the abundant pinks and whites.
In my honest thoughts, Tohru positively glows in this piece. A lively but calm essence can be seen in her crystal-blue eyes. Yuki sits atop her left shoulder here, well-incorporated into this piece. Kyo, in an unusually peaceful state, sits curled on her lap, also excellently incorporated into the piece’s feel despite his contrasting orange fur.

But I wanna’ hear what you guys think. What are your thoughts on this piece and the parts I mentioned? Agree or disagree? What is it that you like about it?
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