Tuesday, October 3, 2006

random ramblings of the college kid
whoo alliteration. sad thing is, i didnt mean to do that. geh, moving on then.

ive been having a lovely time studying, and will continue to do so all week. see, i have a lab practical in zoology on friday. this is a bad thing. the average on the last one was 60%, if that gives you a hint. (i was actually above that). none of us are reassure that this is the "easiest" practical for the year. granted, it involves less of microscope slides and more taxonomy (identification), which is much easier.

to add to the fun, i have a mid-term in chinese on monday, as well as a test in music. as those of you taking a language know, a language mid-term isnt as bad as another class, since you have to keep using what you know. still, with well over 100 vocab words to learn, thats going to be fun.

in happier news, i finished my portrait project for art. it was supposed to be due tomorrow, but most of the class hasnt even started yet. so, theres one project of mine out of the way. looks pretty good too. at some point i hope to get a picture of it and stick it on dA.

quote of the day:
“I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it.” -Mark Twain

all hail the master of the intelligent insult.

{inu}
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Friday, September 29, 2006

still alive
hm, seems like more than a week since i last updated. ah well. been busy, as could be expected. not as debilitating as last year, which is a lovely change. with only one truly difficult class, my life is much more enjoyable.

what else is there to say about college...i do believe ive convinced my roommate that getting up and turning on the lights at 5:40am on a weekend is generally frowned upon. tho 7am isnt a whole lot better. cultural differences aside (shes korean), i get the impression that she studies a liiittle too much. fortunately, her other friends agree with me, so i dont feel so bad. shes too nice for me to just yell at her to turn the fricking lights off.

chinese goes well. i can more or less coherantly introduce myself (or someone else) and ask for directions. among other things. im actually finding it a lot easier that french. for one, there are no verb conjugations. also, the past tense consists of adding "le" after the verb. thats it. nice, eh? sadly, us poor americans are vastly confused by the writing.

for once, i update sans art. not home this weekend either, seeing as i have to play at the parents weekend concert tomorrow morning. i actually dont have any finished art anyway. id like to draw something, but i have several projects im supposed to be doing, so i feel bad if i dont work on one of those. but i dont really want to work on one of those. know the feeling?

theres still 2 spots for free art on dA. no one seems inclined to claim it.

quote of the day (or week, as it were):
“Science has not yet told us whether madness may not be the sublime form of intelligence.” -Edgar Allan Poe

why? because poe is awesome.

{inu}

edit: thanks for 2700 hits
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Thursday, September 21, 2006

busy
has been a busy week or so for inu. had a zoology lecture test friday, and had a zoology lab practical monday. did pretty good on both of them, actually. somehow. hard class. had a quiz in chinese tuesday and wednsday, with another tomorrow. have to do my homework for that today.

in good news, today is my free day as well as sundae thursday. yay for sleeping in then having ice cream.

just a question, if anyone here read stephen king, have any of you read "pet semetary"? i just finished it. i was led to believe it was horrible and terrifying. frankly, it wasnt. creepy, yes. mildly disturbing, sure. scary? nah. maybe its only scary if youre 13 or something. or maybe im just not bothered by death and undeath. *shrug*

in other news, on my dA account, im doing a rare offer for free art. doodles only, since i really dont have much time to color. 5 slots, 3 have been claimed. so, if you have a dA account and want something, go claim it. and no, i will not give you anything if you only say something here, since im not offering art here. k? k. um, if you dont have a dA account, i may make the same offer on here at a later date.

quote of the day:
"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure." -Jack E. Leonard

yay for intelligent insults.

{inu}
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Saturday, September 16, 2006

art!
its not much, but i put up easily one of the best colored pieces ive ever done. since i can now post larger images, you can actually see it a bit better. but i still gave the dA link for a much better image. so please, go check that out.

{inu}
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Tuesday, September 12, 2006

story snippet
finally, liana and i have moved far enough in our proof-reading to post something here for you to see.

please note, were putting this here because we really really want critiques. please something more than "ooh i like it!" or "this sucks you idiots!" were trying to make this as good as possible, and wed just like to know what people think.

this is from the beginning of our story (chapter 3 or so). it involves our usual characters inu and liana. at this point in the story, they barely know each other, and have been thrown together by chance. not going to say much more, as i dont want to give anything away. (there will be pictures linked throghout for character/creature refs)

WARNING: VIOLENCE

The group of eight spirits fanned out, cornering her against the water. Their bulky forms resembled a smooth blend of feline and canine shapes, the heavy limbs well muscled. Split horns framed their faces, one branch curving up, the other curving down to the sides of the blunt muzzled face. Long tails twitched behind them, keeping half the group balanced as they rose to their hind legs.

"Hello demon. What might you be up to in these parts?" one spoke as he rattled the unique necklace around his throat that every draevin wore. It always contained a topaz gemstone surrounded by silver. "I'd suggest you drop those weapons. You are sorely outnumbered. Your death might even be painless if you cooperate." The blunt feline face curved upward in cruel amusement.

Inu shifted her stance and raised both blades. “Do you honestly think I’m that stupid? You’d slaughter me as painfully as you could even if you caught me off guard.” She scanned the group, trying to gauge when they would attack.

"Face it, mutt. There are eight of us against one of you; even a higher-ranking demon such as yourself can't win under such odds."

*Two,* the thought resounded in their minds as the black dragon stepped out of the shadows. The draevin spat on the ground and stepped back. "So be it, devil. You will both die for your foolishness."

Inu kept her back to Liana, trusting the dragon to keep the draevin off of her by sheer bulk. She lunged at the leader, blades aiming to rip his gut open. Retractable claws slashed at her face from the side as he darted back out of the way. Inu spun to counter the two trying to flank her.

Liana roared and slashed, cleaving a draevin's head in two. Her tail whipped at one of Inu's opponents, causing him to fly back and hit a tree with a sickening crack. Brown eyes rolled back into his head, revealing the whites of his eyes as he went limp.

Inu looked over and attacked the one that was harrying Liana from behind. Her sword drove completely through its body and she kicked it away into its companions. Claws scored across her unprotected back, leaving burning lines of pain. She whipped around to take the offenders head off, but it skipped back out of her range.

Liana's green eyes blazed and the leader's features turned to horror. *Stop fighting or your leader dies.*

He shook his head abruptly and Liana felt his mind adapt to her assault, blocking her out. Fire erupted around Inu’s blades and she attacked him while he was distracted.

Another draevin leapt to meet her with blades of ice. He had scored two hits before Inu's mind registered who was attacking her. A flick of his ice sword and Inu found her dagger lying in the grass.

Inu tightened her grip on her sword hilt, trying to throw off the chilling cold that was spreading through her. The fire faltered briefly before blazing up again and spreading to encircle the draevin, trapping him within easy reach. Their blades crashed together, chips of ice and sparks flying.

He watched in dismay as one of his blades melted into a puddle of harmless water. Just when Inu was about to deliver the final blow, two more draevin came at Inu's sides to shower her with petals of ice. Icy pain speckled her skin and she was driven to her knees under the assault. Her fire dropped and the draevin with the ice dagger rushed her, spurred on by his two companions.

Inu was forced to take the defensive as they continued pressing her, scoring more hits as she fought to hold them off. Red eyes blazed with mad fury and fire exploded violently around her, driving them back. When it cleared, they found themselves faced by a black creature, a terrifying blend of canine and reptilian characteristics. Inu snarled and attacked with fang and talon.

The surge of energy registered dully in Liana's mind. That better not be her way of telling me she needs help. I cannot afford to look away right now. She yanked her mind reluctantly from the leader's and pounced with outstretched talons. She cursed mentally as he dodged yet again. Is there no way to kill these slippery creatures?

Inu’s snapping fangs and long claws ripped apart the draevin facing her before they had a chance to counter her attacks. She lunged at the two attacking Liana’s flanks, driving them back and keeping herself between them and their leader.

Liana bared her fangs, snapping and slashing as he dove under the attacks. *Vermin!* she sank her teeth into his arm.

He jerked away and saw one of his remaining companions fall under Inu’s claws. He gave a sharp growl and the one living draevin retreated from Inu. With their numbers balanced, it was pointless for them to keep fighting. With a final snarling curse in his own language, the remaining two melted back into the undergrowth.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

thank you very very much if you read all that. we would really appreciate if you could give us some good comments please.

~inu and liana~
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Saturday, September 9, 2006

ah weekend
how i enjoy the rare days of doing nothing. classes are getting more intense, so i enjoy the weekends even more. granted, i do have to spend some time working, but not terribly much as of yet.

since i do have a bit of time, i wanted to get back to drawing for my own sake, as im tired of doing still-lifes (lives?) for my art class. id been doodling in my sketchbook, and came up with a rather avian dragon thing. i liked it, so i redrew it and colored it. i dont think ive ever colored something so bright and vibrant before. its based off of a resplendant quetzal. so, bright colors, the long tail feathers, etc. i believe i ended up using half a dozen shades of blue and green for the layering, in addition to several shades of red, gold and purple. but im pleased; i did full detailing on the fur (yes hes furry) as well as individually detailing each feather. this would be why i started it last night at 7, worked until 12, then picked it up again and finished the background in 2-3 hrs today. so much time, but so very worth it. i want to show him off, but again i lack a scanner. (note to self, keep this in mind at christmas) so anyway, my brightly-colored little quetzal dragon will hopefully be uploaded next weekend.

ok, enough bragging from me. i thank you for putting up with me. its not often that im really proud of my work.

quote of the day:
“He who hesitates is a damned fool.” -Mae West

nice, blunt and to the point. what more do you want?

{inu}
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Thursday, September 7, 2006

^____^
liana and i finished writing our story! (neither of us wants to say 'book' until we have a hard copy in our hands) but yes, our as of yet unnamed full story is now writen. nothing said there for revising and whatnot. thats going to take a long time, knowing us. this is easily the best thing weve ever written (individually or together) and were proud of it. it was nice to write something other than our fanfics. those are fun, but it was great to be able to write things set in our own world with our own rules. (tho coming up with those led to some bizarre conversations)

we debated back and forth about putting a little segment up on here to see what you think, but we pretty much decided to wait until we revise further. we dont have a summary yet either. however, since im pleased and want to show off, im going to stick up the art ive done for this. you should recognize some of these. we have 5 races: demon, sira, draevin, rithalen, human. these include both races and characters (no humans, you know what those look like):

Jigoku Inu - main character, demon
Liana - main character, demon
Axis - main character, sira (desert-dwelling reptilian race)
Rithalen - sentient plains species
Draevin - "spirit" race

more (such as the other main character) coming when i get the time and a scanner.

man i hope all that worked. *always makes some sort of coding error* anyway, there you have it. more updates as they become necessary.

quote of the day:
"The road to disaster is ordered by the righteous, planned by the well-meaning, and paved with their good intentions." -Tayledras proverb, Owl Flight, Mercedes Lackey

the quote relates, i assure you.

{inu}
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Tuesday, September 5, 2006

weekend
my weekend summary was weak. as i said, we finally got our jetski back (now that summer is over, of course). liana and i drove it into the ground, and it was fun. since it had so much work done on it, it runs so much faster and smoother. it has a lot more pick-up to it now. amazing, the thing runs like new and its 9 years old. this is the only problem weve ever had with it too. tis a good jetski. some of our friends have a deck boat, and we went out with them. i managed to convince liana to try water skiing, and she did. it was amazing, she got up on the very first try. water skiers know thats hard. it was fun.

and of course, the obligatory mention of steve irwin. (im sure most of you have heard) our beloved crocodile hunter was killed this weekend. he was stung by a large sting ray, and the barb punctured his heart. im sure we all remember when he first showed up on animal planet and discovery. him and the more recent guys like him are a major factor in my interest in animals and conservation. not to mention how i know a lot of the random facts i do. he'll be missed and remembered.

quote of the day:
“It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.” -Albert Einstein

{inu}
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Monday, September 4, 2006

lake
had a good time at the lake. got to finally have our jetski back. went out with some friends on their boat, and taught liana to waterski. it was amazing, she managed to get up on the very first try. we were all impressed.

hm. apparently all the art i submitted friday is now gone. well then, its going to be awhile before i can get that back up, seeing as the files arent saved on my comp. however, its all up on deviantart, so go there if you want to see everything. (the link is in my profile)

i still dont have a roommate. i expected someone would move in over the long weekend, but im still alone. granted, i enjoy having the room to myself, but if someones going to move in, id prefer they just do so already. i know there are people that have to move around and i know they arent allowing single rooms. so im just waiting for that and wish they would hurry up already.

in other random news, the story liana and i are writing is nearly done. we hope to finish writing within the week (she has family over, so well be somewhat limited with time) its going to take us a good while to revise it, then were going to find people to review it for us. our ultimate goal is publishing, but were not deluding ourselves into thinking thats going to be easy. after we start revising, i may post a little snippet on here.

{inu}
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Friday, September 1, 2006

art
oops. put art up a few hours ago and managed to not say anything. should all be up now. tho i have no idea why the thumbnails dont show up. all the images are there if you click on them. odd.

{inu}
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