Friday, July 28, 2006

   Back in Business!!!!
Hey everybody. How’s it going?

As you may have been hoping, I have some good news. =)
Guess what I’m typing on right now.
Yep, it appears I have my computer back. =D

Since Tuesday the 18th I had no access to my computer, but as of today I’m back in business. =)
If you read the post before this one from last Saturday, you’d know the whole story as to why my computer was gone and how rough that situation was for me (though it’s a shame that apparently only 2 people read it, though, considering how big a deal it was =/ ).
Meh, regardless, I’d really like to thank thelostsindar and Vankala 86 for their lovely comments that gave me support and hope during a time I really needed it. ;) You guys are the best….

But anyway, as you’d know by that previous post, I was facing some dark times in terms of my artistic and emotional development. But now it appears I’ve reached the light at the end of that tunnel, and that makes me extremely happy.

On top of getting my computer back, I also have a bit of what may be even better news.
My mom recently purchased a newer, more powerful computer, and as she was planning she’ll soon install that newer one in my room soon and move this computer into my little brother’s room. =)
Though, I must say, this change has me a bit worried. You see, the newer computer is not only more powerful, but it’s also designed to be a gaming computer (powerful graphics card, etc.). This is all well and good, but as I explained in my previous post, my main concern for the computer in my room is using it for my artwork as a drawing aid. I don’t play computer games at all really (aside from Rollercoaster Tycoon, I much prefer games on a videogame console), and it’s my brother and mom who play games. Having the new gaming computer in my room has me worried that it’ll mean I’ll be displaced from my desk more often than I already am. As I explained in that previous post, this desk and computer is where & how I study and draw. I’m contemplating suggesting I keep this computer and the new more powerful one go in my brother’s room. But Hell, maybe I should at least try out having the gaming one in my room. Maybe it’ll all work out, hopefully.
I’d appreciate any prayer you could send my way on that matter. =)

Anyway, in a related story, my birthday was earlier this week. ^_^
Tuesday to be exact (the 25th). My parents took me out to Applebee’s to buy me a small steak dinner and a chocolate milkshake (my favorites!) for my birthday Tuesday night.
For those curious, I got a 9 oz. sirloin with broccoli and fries (they didn’t have onion rings -_-‘ ), then for desert I got a chocolate milkshake and finished it off with Applebee’s complimentary Birthday Ice-cream. The employees came out and sang to our table and everything. ^_^
That night I was so full of steak and ice-cream! *o* I haven’t been that full in a good long while!

Oh, and now for what you’re probably most curious about; what I got for my birthday. ~_^
Well, they gave me my lovely presents after dinner while I was waiting for my shake (my brother and sister got an Oreo shake, by the way).
My little sister gave me two statues she had sculpted herself at a friend’s party she’d been to recently. Considering she’s only 8, it’s cute to receive stuff like that from her. ~_^
My brother presented me with a Beatles T-shirt. It’s an extremely nice one that’s white with a red profile logo. Gotta’ love The Beatles!
My parents then gave me a lovely long-sleeved shirt for this coming fall that was black with a green Metallica logo in the center! ^o^ I’ve been in desperate need of a Metallica shirt for a while now, so that was a nice present. (This shirt features the “Load” and “ReLoad” Metallica font, as well as the Metallica Ninja-Star. My mom says it was a choice between that and the ugly St. Anger T-shirt with the orange skull that has the hammer through it, so I’m glad she picked this one. ~_^ )

But the best of all was the last present my parents gave me that night.
For my final gift, my parents got me………..*drum-roll*
………Adobe Photoshop 9.0 CS!!!!!!!!!!!!.
^o^ AWESOME!!!!
Photoshop is what I asked for, so I’m ecstatic that I got it!
After getting the free trial for Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 a couple months ago, I’ve been lusting for another chance to use that awesome program. That software is a God-send for editing my scanned artwork, and my mom will have it up and running for me once she gets the newer computer installed in here.
^_^ It’s a good thing too, because I have a fair amount of art that I need to edit and submit here, a lot of which are various presents for people here on The Otaku. ~_^ I’m glad I have my computer back, because I have a lot of surprises to share with you guys now. Heh heh, you’ll just have to wait and see…..

As for other news, Josh is currently un-grounded again, so I spent Wednesday night over at his house for an overdue sleep-over (we haven’t had one for all of this year! *o* The last time I was over at his house was in 2005!).
If you’re in a hurry, you can probably skip this recap and save reading it ‘till you’ve got some extra time since it’s just a play-by-play of what went down during our sleep-over.
As for our sleep-over, Josh took the time to demonstrate the gameplay of his newest video-games for me. He showed me gameplay from Black and Kingdom Hearts II, both of which left me rather impressed (even though they’re not exactly new since Josh got em’ back in February and March when they came out. This was just my first chance to see them. @_@ ).
Josh’s mom made us her special Pineapple & Ham pizza (our favorite! *o*) and let us rent a movie. We rented Dawn of the Dead (the 2004 remake, by the way) and watched attentively while we ate pizza.
Dawn of the Dead was quite enjoyable. It’s good to get some well-made zombie movies under my belt, considering how much I love drawing zombies. ^_^
Anyway, the movie was great, and I highly, HIGHLY suggest it. I hate gory movies, but the violence in Dawn of the Dead was stylized in a way to not be gross or nauseating at all. No parts made me cringe at all. The head-shots were excellent, and the zombies themselves looked spectacular (though they were a tad too energetic for realistic zombies. But….that’s just a personal opinion).
The movie had a lot of good humor and a lot of sad parts, so it was a well-done flick. There was a lot of cussing, but unlike Kill Bill it wasn’t so much as to ruin the experience. The cinematography had its down-points, but it also had its ups such as use of color and lighting at different times of day (besides, not every director can be a Spielberg).
The film also did a nice job of creating that sense of emergency and crisis as you watch the world descend into chaos at the fault of a global plague (zombie movies are essentially disaster movies, but with
There’s unfortunately no happy ending (which I kinda’ prefer, like Shaun of the Dead), and a few parts are a little stupid, but it’s still definitely worth seeing if you’re interested.

Anyway, we finished that movie around 10:30, and then went down to the kitchen table to draw (we were going to watch Pulp Fiction, but we decided we’d rather use our time together for some drawing time). We ended up doing that through most of the night. I did a few doodles I might just scan sometime soon to show you guys. ~_^
We went back up to Josh’s room about 4:30 AM and slept ‘till 2:00 PM Thursday afternoon. I woke Josh up by balancing an empty Coke can on his head and then throwing coasters at him like ninja-stars. This made him laugh when he woke up.
We had to go to Josh’s school (which is the school I went to for kindergarten through 8th grade *sniff*) for Josh to work out this coming year’s class schedule with one of his teachers, which took nearly an hour.
We were finally able to get to Barne’s & Noble’s for super-short manga-run for about an hour before Josh’s mom drove me home around 6:30.

Josh has lent me his DVD containing the 3 Love Hina movies. I watched the Love Hina series on DVD last summer, but am only now being able to see the movies.
I watched the “Spring Movie” last night, which is basically the anime’s loose retelling of the group going to Parakelse Island in vol. 8.
Not surprisingly, it wasn’t very good. -_-‘ The anime seems to do everything it can to make seeing Love Hina animated a painful experience, all the while failing to make any sense at all plot-wise. It was clever for Akamatsu to feature himself as a guest character in the series, but it still fails to capture to magic and humor of the Love Hina manga. But what can you expect from TV Tokyo; the lovely people who brought us s-CRY-ed? *sigh*
Josh warned me before hand that there’d be singing involved, but even so it was still more than unpleasant. >_< If there’s anything I can’t stand in an anime, it’s when the characters awkwardly start singing out of nowhere. @_@ Nyamo was cute just as she was in the manga, but when she started singing I said out loud “Oh, sure, and while you’re at it why don’t you just go ahead and light my balls on fire?”. XD

I now have 2 features on the DVD left to watch: The Love Hina Christmas Special, and apparently an extra episode from the series; “Episode 25”. Hmmmm, I wonder what that’s about……

Allrightie everyone, I think I’ve bored you enough for one day.
Sorry this post was so long, but I had a lot to tell you guys about that happened in my week absence and the fact that I have my computer back is obviously big news as well.
Thanks for all your prayer and comments, and I’ll check back in with you guys tomorrow. ~_^

Here’s today’s Art-Feature.
“Donuts for All” by pu-sama:


Even though it was back on the 14th, I wanna’ dedicate this Art-Feature just like the previous one to Erin-chan’s birthday. I of course would have done this closer to her actual birthday, but I obviously couldn’t do so this previous week with my computer gone.
So, consider this a mildly late dedication to you and your recent birthday, Erin-chan. b^_^

The woman known as pu-sama has always been one of my favorite anime artists when it comes to a more refined approach (though this isn’t the best example of that, you’ll see it when I feature more artwork from her later).
She’s a big fan of Hellsing, and more recently, Death Note.
Here are some smooth sketches she did of L; one of Erin-chan’s most favorite characters. ^_^
Erin-chan mentioned how she enjoyed L’s demeanor in that he always seems to be nibbling something, most often doughnuts. Here we see exactly which quality she’s talking about.
L seems like a cool character and all, but if you ask me it looks like he could really use some sleep. Like a more docile form of A Real Dead One’s Eddie, he looks like he’s sleep-deprived and now running on sugar.

Anybody else here a fan of Death Note?
Would you suggest it as something I might like?
Comments (5)