Kung Fu Panda

I never watched Kung Fu Panda before today, because I wasn't interested. A Dreamworks movie about animals. Not my area of interest.
This isn't some revolutionary story of love.

It just wasn't as bad as I expected. It made me laugh. But I don't think it's something I'd watch again.

Low expectations cause one to be pleasantly surprised or at least satisfied. XD

Whoops I just looked through every picture I've ever been tagged in on facebook...

was I going to do something with my day?

First Real Job

o________o I cleaned someone's house today and earned money.

I'm going back, since I didn't finish.

I need to go back WITH A PLAN to be really efficient and stuff because today I was kind of slow and didn't get as much done as I thought I would and even though I paid attention to meticulous details I still feel like I missed a lot of them. ;~;

Camera repair

Apparently Dad found someone to fix the mirror in the camera for about forty bucks.

That seemed expensive to me, but apparently it's a really good deal, like it would usually cost two hundred or something.

For a few drops of glue and a tiny bit of labor?

And cleaning of course but

I don't understand why that would cost so much. ;~;

Today was kinda crazy, kinda not.

So I squandered my entire morning... basically got nothing done but spent a lot of time on the computer... bleh.

Then I went to meet someone who was kindly letting me borrow a camera and teaching me how to use the fill flash thingy... I understand the concepts now, but I still don't quite know how to /work/ the thing. XD It's still very unfamiliar.

I got a lot of photos today. There were water games so there were lots of dynamic shots waiting to happen... and also a lot of blurry ones. And potential for accidents.

Thankfully my bad camera luck did not rub off on the borrowed camera, and there were no splashes that reached it. There almost were, but thankfully my reflexes were ready. 8)

Tomorrow, I get to help someone clean their house! A real job! :D

This photography thing has been a volunteer thing but it's still a legit opportunity and stuff. It's giving me practice for real world stuff like for when I grow up and do freelance photography and freelance writing and freelance art and (wait I think freelance art is just what most artists do hmmmm)

I need a bucket list.

I must visit slot canyons one day. With a good camera. And plenty of batteries and memory cards. *u*

WHAT WAIT JUNE WHERE DID YOU GO

There are only a few more days in June.

Wut.

Just throwing that out there.

My daddy gave me his lovely camera today.

'course the reflex mirror broke a bit just a few hours later... I think we can get it fixed though. The camera is about nine years old or something, so it makes sense that the glue might not be super sticky anymore.

I just feel like I must be bad luck to cameras. XD At least this time it wasn't my fault (my old camera slipped off my shoulder and fell a foot or so to the floor... it was old and used but it still took good pictures and it made me really sad to lose it...).

The only problem with needing repairs to the lovely camera is that I was using it this week for important officialish things.

My dad talked to the guy in charge though and I get to borrow an (even better) camera. Praying nothing happens to that one either! >___<

(I'm definitely gonna be careful and all, I just feel an impending sense of doom due to previous incidents... XD)

I'm actually going to get to learn how to use a nice camera nicely... so that's cool. :D

NBC yesterday and then stuff from today

I went to a different club yesterday and I feel like I got better pictures in general... though yesterday's craft pictures were the best.

Today I had pesto on tortellini. mmmmmmmm

and I tinychatted with twigly people.

And then.

There was.

The well check.

And they stole some of my blood.

;----------------;

Day one

NBC day one. It went really well!

So, first I missed my turn because the sun was bright and I couldn't read the street signs so I had to pull into a plaza parking lot and come out onto the street a different way. I made my next turn just fine... but like three police cars went down the street while I was waiting to. I was kind of worried. o__o

I couldn't see street signs on half the streets I passed, and once I saw one that had a name on it, I checked the map and sure enough, I had gone too far. Everything looked ghetto and/or abandoned so I had to drive a while to find a place that looked safe enough for a young woman to park her car and study a map. I eventually found this churchy looking place with a nice open parking lot and people coming in and out. So I figured out where I needed to go and started back. This direction, all the streets had their signs so there was no problem. I parked (albeit not beautifully) on the corner and wandered across the grass where the guy volunteers were playing active games with the boys. I found the hostess and talked to some of the people and then IT WAS TIME TO START!

There were actually several photographers there and I'm sure they were more experienced than I and I didn't always have the best angles but I did my best. c:
The kids were really receptive and well behaved for the most part which I wasn't expecting due to the shabbiness of the surrounding area.

I left when it was over and the sun was going down and I didn't have problems getting back at all. c:

Dream job yusss

Okay, so not my /dream job/ dream job. But the best volunteer job I can think of.

See our church does these Neighborhood Bible Clubs around the city for kids and in the past I've just participated, been in skits, helped out with crafts, etc...

But this year I get to drive around to different clubs and take photos.

Yusss.

Thanks to my Dad for the use of his camera...

Man. I broke my poor camera all the way back in March or early April.

I can't believe I've lived without it for so long. I mean, I've had the occasional nuuuuu but I'm mostly over the 'I wish I had my camera darn it!' every five minutes stage.

My iPod takes terrible pictures though. .___________. I've had to live with that and my webcam.

Thankfully my dad is nice and lets me use his camera.

Korra season finale...

spoilers ahead (not too many but blah)




So. Basically my complaint is.

Korra got what she wanted. Mako. BUT MAKO WAS ALL LIKE UNDECIDED BETWEEN TWO GIRLS AND BOLIN REALLY LIKED KORRA ONLY AND ASAMI REALLY LIKED MAKO ONLY AND I FEEL LIKE KORRA SHOULD HAVE TO STRUGGLE MORE WITH HER FEELINGS LIKE EVERYONE ELSE AND WHAT ABOUT BOLIN AND ASAMI'S HAPPY ENDINGS HUH?

Also even though the show is clever and funny it still feels somewhat forced and empty to me...

EXCEPT BOLIN HE'S HILARIOUS
why don't they make characters like this more i mean.
XD

How to express deep and utter despair on the piano

Erm. Today the siblings were being impossibly annoying?

Good morning, cricket

This morning while eating my breakfast cereal on the porch swing outside I observed a formerly still cricket beginning to turn in circles awkwardly and stretch out all of his limbs in unnatural ways. Interesting. Perhaps he was injured or poisoned. Or warming up! Soon enough he lay perfectly still again but his hind legs were outstretched in the air, stiff and mostly unmoving. o___o Something was protruding from his butt (hehe sorry to be crude) that hadn't been there before so I wondered if he was a girl giving birth or perhaps just any gender of cricket er... relieving itself.
It didn't move for a long time so I inspected it more closely. The thing sticking out seemed to be part of his body (so it wasn't going anywhere) and it was very flat, kind of curved, and looked like it had blood on the point of it. o_________________________o
The cricket's face looked like an anime grandpa's with dot eyes, an odd moustache chin thing, and huge eyebrows that stuck off his face (I know they're antennae, whatever). I deduced that he was doing morning yoga and left him alone after poking him with a piece of paper to see if he'd even move. He simply scuttled in circles again and then lay still.

What was the point of this post, you ask?

I DON'T EVEN KNOW 8D

Well.

I just finished my very first model sheet/expression sheet/character design page/character turnaround whatever-you-call-it. It took like a few hours. .___. And I didn't even put effort into the coloring because it's just for reference.

I wonder if I should post it here or start something completely new for this project. Like a new blogger blog? A tumblr? A -gasp- REAL WEBSITE?

Organization is fun.

So today I decided to start keeping my computer on my shelf where I can't open it without purposefully getting it out. I was tired of my computer being the center of my room (and my life!). I've also been setting fifteen minute timers, which I may have mentioned before. Even if I stop and restart the timer after fifteen minutes (like if I'm not done yet) I still have an idea of how much time has gone by.

Because I moved my computer, I had to move my charging cord. Which meant I had to move my iPod charging cord. Which meant I had to move my speakers. Which meant I had to--well, basically, I rearranged my room to have a focus on drawing, not the computer.

So now my desk is the brightest area, my back wall is still covered in pictures (but it's not in the background if I take pictures with my computer anymore... oh well, I can move my computer if I need to take a picture. It is a LAPTOP after all. c: ).

My bed is unmade, but I don't exactly care. After all, it has a Toad plushie, a Mori plushie, a Loki plushie, a (Captain) America plushie, and a stuffed elephant on it! I'm cozy~~~ All that's really missing are a Kaito KID plushie, a Rock Lee plushie, an Italy plushie, a Tenth (or Ninth) Doctor plushie, a Robin (Teen Titans version) plushie, a Pippin plushie, an Applejack plushie, UMMMMM okay maybe I can't have plushies of all my favorite characters because I'd drown in them.

That reminds me of the time when Phillip or Andrew was a baby and Justin and I put all the stuffed animals in his crib... we didn't realize that was dangerous. We thought we were being nice.

ANYWAY

My drawing table is not the best one (it's not very stable) but it works, I suppose. Off to the left side and slightly behind my filebox chair is my lamp (which is falling apart--the plastic shades are brittle and cracked from lightbulb heat...). Just plain on the left is my whiteboard with my to-do list and the contact information for my closest friends. And three cups of pencils, pens, sharpies, markers, etc.
On the right side of my desk is the trash can with three boxes and some other things piled on top of it to make a makeshift table sort of thing where I can set things like my sketchbook or my colored pencil tin--slanty drawing tables don't work well for setting things on. Heck, it's hard enough to keep a single piece of paper on that thing, without tape. On that makeshift table I have two of my dolls--for posing reference. Yeah... I don't have an artist mannequin. XD
Oh, and my Loki action figure is sitting on the bar that holds up the slanty part of the table... kinda menacing. o___o

Even farther behind on the left is this gigantic box that my mom's office chair came in. It's a good box! There's nothing inside, but that's where I can spread out my papers and notebooks. I'll cover up the box with something nicer looking later, but for now I just put my large piece of white foam board in front of it and pinned a picture to it.

Well, that's mostly what I've done.

My textbooks for this fall have been coming in the mail. It's kind of scary and intimidating. Well, I've been on the computer for half an hour, so I should be going.
Maybe you'll get pictures of my new organization tomorrow~

Be looking out!

I've got a comic in the works! Yeah, that's right, a miss manga pasta and co. original!
I'm excited for it.
When I was in middle school, my siblings (and Bethany) and I had these superheroes. Okay, so they were really lame, but The Avengers got me thinking about them again, and I just had to reboot them! My first plan was to make a bunch of goofy stories and publish them in a book--that may still happen--but I realized that the world really needs some more good comic books with heroes who kick butt without showing off their own. XP

Despite the fact that I'm an artist and a writer, I've never been good at comics that go past two or three pages. This will be a challenge for me, but I'm motivated. If I need to, I'll write it story form to grab the rhythm before drawing.

Wish me luck--I'm getting started on my life's work. Wholesome media doesn't start after college. It starts now.

I feel like I should finish with some sort of battle cry. Um.

FOR NARNIA!

AND FOR ASLAN!!!

Today has been productive!

I organized the CDs like Mom's been asking me to do for a while now... heh...

I also slept later than I intended, but before I fell back asleep, I managed to have a morning quiet time... my sleep schedule has been so erratic that I've fallen out of habit, and I don't like that.

I'll be coming up with a schedule to stick to. I'll need it in the fall, so I might as well train myself this summer.
I've been using 15 minute increments to check things on the computer (my timer just beeped a few minutes ago but I'm actually doing something with a point--blogging--and after this I'll get off). I think I'll start storing my computer on a shelf or something so it's not out in the open. It's really a time-eater, and I can usually check everything I need to check in 15 minutes. Then if I have something to actually do (art, blogging, writing, etc) I can allot an appropriate amount of time for that.

Well, I want to do some DDR... maybe play outside... it's nice and dim. But also kind of dreary.

Byebye, hypothetical reader (well, I know Emma and probably Bethany will see this...)

EDIT: well apparently the wii remotes are broken and nobody told me. Blah. Oh well. The new plan is to write a thank-you letter and work on planning for my comic books.

Another one?!

Yes, I'm making a lot of plushies recently.


...WHAT D8

This pouty Loki is from the Thor movie and for me to keep and hug and yup c:

Next up are two Thors for mah buddies. c:

I cut my own hair for the first time...

Other than that time I cut my bangs once.

Not too bad, eh?

A bit short, but hey, hair grows!

I used this razor comb so it has layers in it, but since I blow dried my hair they're all flat and you can't really tell. XDDD

Oki-doki-loki!

Reality and Fiction and all that

Dreamers toe that line that blurs truth and fiction, reality and fantasy. We don't toe the line, actually, we dance on it. A delicate dance of passion and beauty and delusion. A tightrope performance, if you will.
On the one side there is the danger of forgetting to actually live, falling into a complete other world with no solid grounding. The other side is the one where we start realizing that your small 'reality' isn't all there is and that scares you.

It's a beautiful, dangerous tightrope.

There is no mistake that God gave us imagination for a reason. It is a gift, and it can be used for good or for evil.
Many fear fiction. It allows you to escape to somewhere else entirely, though God put us on Earth (to live boring lives?! I don't think so). It makes you lose yourself, it is dangerous, it should be shunned.

While it is true that there are many dangers in fiction, especially if it is allowed to become too real, I also wonder at those who spend their days in the same routine, perhaps more "grounded" than I'll ever be, but do not allow their minds to wander, to create, farther than perhaps a more streamlined way to get from point A to point B.

We are supposed to believe in the extraordinary. We were created by and serve a God who is mighty in battle, overwhelming in love, a doer of what we would otherwise consider impossible. He leads armies of angels in battles and creates miracles big and small. I feel that sometimes we forget that.
Yes, our stories are big. Our God is bigger.

Are you afraid of fiction because it appears to be too dangerous to handle, too consuming to control?
Are you afraid of something bigger and stronger than yourself?
Here's a hint: God is bigger than those fictional worlds. Fiction is actually smaller than we are, because it is inside our minds. If dragons are too much for you, you're going to be pretty frightened by reality. God is bigger and more fantastic and mighty than dragons. You can't put God in a box and forget that he's big and he's incredible and He knows of everything we can imagine and everything past what we can imagine.

So imagination is what helps us to be able to believe
a. that there is more to reality than what we see
b. that there are amazing things are possible

The best part is that the most amazing things are actually real.

Imagination also serves another purpose. Remember how we were created in God's image?
God is a creator.
He gave us that ability to create.

I am a writer and an artist. Creating things and imagining things are practically my life. It's kind of like a sub-creation sort of deal–basically everything I am possibly able to write is some form of fanfiction of the stuff God's already written–but the feeling of making something new is still there. When I spend countless hours thinking about the different facets of my characters' personalities, it reminds me of how God knows us that well and better. He created us, He took care in creating us. He shaped us perfectly in each detail. It's no coincidence that you love grape soda and absolutely can't stand olives. There's sort of a bond between a creator and fiction that resembles the bond between God and us.

It's just, the cool part is that whatever God writes is bigger than fiction.

Whatever God creates becomes real.

Now, I realize that not everyone is all that creative. And that's okay, because God didn't make everyone in the same way. I've noticed that while some people (like me) can get to know God better by imitating him and creating, others get to know him by exploring and discovering what He's already made–whether that is literal exploring or via science or even math–they find Him in discovering how His creation works, etc.
Of course, there are many more categories, but I suppose my point is that imagination is as legit as science or construction or anything else God gifted you with and it's important and shouldn't be looked down upon as juvenile.

The Formal Guide To Being Awkward

To begin, you want your—uh. Maybe you don’t want it. I just said that. Not being assuming or anything. You might not want your best shoes. But uh. They’d be helpful. For the walking. Y’know. Like step 1 and the step 2 and seventy and—well I don’t know to guarantee seventy like if it’s only the number of an octopus… that’s nine right…?

And well by best shoes I guess I meant sturdiest or like, most comfortable and even if that's ten inch heels or crocs or uggs I guess that’s goodish… could you imagine someone with ten inch heels? Like literal heels. On their feet. Made of bones and skin. Not like those sticks I can’t even stand on… well I forgot about the camera. We’re still recording, ri—oh man. Looks dumb I meguess… I meant I mean and I guess but it game out like “mess” or something I don’t even remember… eheheh

Step 1: (or it could be like a wobble or a crawl or a strut I don’t even care as long as your shoes are comfy)

Uh. –whispers- cue please. Hm? Uh… what? –cough- right.

One. Tablemanners. Like manors owned by the nobles in the medieval times and they’re on tables similar to tabletop rpgs—oh, no making geek references? Well I ought to explain myself. Some people make up stories with their friends in games on tables and they call it tabletop gaming, see, and I’ve never actually participated but I know people who do and it’s interesting though I prefer text roleplaying myself and—what my time can’t be up. No there’s like sixty more struts! Steps! Well talk to someone about it! If that’s possible. I can’t—well

So he's done.

For his hair I ended up using a cleaning cloth and craft foam. It's yellower than I wanted, but I also didn't want to wait until I could go to Hobby Lobby or Michaels or somewhere.

For my first plushie, I think it turned out pretty well. The only thing I'm unhappy with is his chin. I tried to make some darts so that his head would be more round, but they ended up making it look all square. XD Oh well. You live and you learn.

Plush

So I spent this afternoon making that America/Captain America plushie. ISN'T HE CUTE?!

and bald...

I need felt. I can't think of anything else soft that will hold the hair shape I want.

This one --->

No Shampoo

I meant to follow up on this so here we go.

Ever since May 6 or sometime around then, I've not used shampoo in my hair.

EW GROSS WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!

hear me out. c:

See, I was wondering why we slather chemicals in our hair all the time. Obviously we survived without shampoo for thousands of years. Then I did some 'research' (replace "re" with "google " and it should be more accurate) and found that there are people who think that shampoo strips the natural oils from your hair (which it does) and then the body makes those oils in abundance to make up for it and that's why you get greasy again. There are people who have gone shampooless and had great results. So I tried it in the month of May. And I also decided to quit all the acne scrubs and medication and stuff. I was just going to trust good old water to clean me up.

The first couple weeks were the worst and got really gross. My hair felt disgusting half the time but I just tried to keep it off my face. (Plus side to this is that I am now in the habit of washing my face every morning and night.) I made sure to keep hydrated. My face was a little worse than normal, but the extra oil was probably the culprit.

It started to even out. Habits started forming. Showers got shorter. After a while I forgot I was doing anything special!

After I slathered gel in my hair (see Loki cosplay somewhere down there) and after I swam, my hair felt funny for a couple of days, but those were kind of minor problems. If anything my hair is more manageable now.

I see absolutely no reason to spend money on shampoo and the extra water needed to rinse it out in the future.

And nobody has told me my hair looked disgusting. My mom probably would have during that one really gross time except she knew what I was up to so she kept quiet. XD

By the way, my face is as good as it's ever been. I've been slipping out of the hydration habit but that's important. I'm actually thirsty right now. NO IGNORING IT I MUST GET WATER

EDIT 8-31-2012: Just wanted to add that sunlight is great for my hair. Sometimes, it will get a little flat or heavy if I've been staying holed up inside, but my hair feels fantastic after I've been outside a lot. Like, the best it's ever felt. Ever.

College

I'm actually kind of excited for it! Today I picked out all my classes. I can't register until Monday, apparently, but I'll be staying up past midnight to register tomorrow night. I found a Public Speech professor with AMAZING reviews, so I really want to get into her class since public speaking is not a strong point of mine. I'll be doing my one required math course (College Algebra, nothing fancy), I'll be getting one of my US History requirements out of the way (I think I found a decent teacher for that one too), I'll be taking English Comp II with my best friend via distance learning (History I'm taking as a distance course, too). And I get to take Japanese I! I'll take Japanese II next semester. Maybe I'll even go on to III and IV if they're offered next year and if I'm interested in taking it farther.

Everything works out so that times are convenient for when people in my family will already be in Austin or when we never have anything going on so I can drive in just for the evening. And I have nothing on Fridays! So I'll have one day a week where I don't have to go to Austin.

I'm just excited.

YomiCon (The photo post)

Link wears polka dot socks!

Bethany arrives!

There were a lot of people in line.

Kankuro makes a face while we wait for the Cosplay Contest to start.

This is the France we were next to in line. Also a Spain or Romano... I'm not sure which.

Selfies are hard with nice cameras. As they should be. Nice cameras are for nice pictures, not duckfaces.

There was a nice inter-season Team Avatar.

This table and another one were piled high with manga at the beginning of the day. It all got traded away until only these few comic books remained! Also, there's the Misty that was quite fond of Kankuro.

YomiCon

Who would have thought that eating two snow cones, five granola bars, a fortune cookie and an apple would make me... ravenously hungry?

I'm currently eating a salad and a small piece of pizza and like two kinds of pasta... I kid you not, when I got home, after I showered, I wanted to eat pretty much everything there was in the fridge. I tried to contain myself a little bit.

So YomiCon was great, but I think they named it wrong. It should have been called FreeStuffCon because I really made out good!
I'll post pictures tomorrow or something, but rely on my words for now and try to imagine it in your mind.
So I got there and pretty much got one of the last parking spots. Even though I got there just before two, when the pre-show started. There was already a line! I could have gotten into the line to get in and waited for an hour, but wearing long sleeves (I was cosplaying Link) in the Texas sun didn't seem so great, plus Bethany had yet to show up. So I took a few pictures and hung out in the shade under some trees and out of the way.

In Texas, weather is actually a legitimate topic and not just idle chatter when there's nothing else to say. So here was today: When I left my house, it was warm and damp. Yuck. I started driving towards Bastrop and it was spitting rain. In Bastrop, it was POURING and the temperature dropped like 10 degrees. Once I drove Highway 71 out of Bastrop, it cleared up again, and got warmer. And it was okay but a bit on the warm side in Austin.

Now that that's out of the way, back to YomiCon. After this tortellini break.

Mmm, yum.

So Bethany showed up and we waited in the shade a bit more and then we got in line and stuff. Someone asked for my email so they could send me a picture they took of me. Bethany wasn't in cosplay yet so nobody asked for her picture. :c
We eventually got inside. I scoped out the place while Bethany transformed into Kankuro from Naruto. (Pictures will have to come later)
I looked around the artist alley (which was basically the art all posted on the library shelves ends). I found four of my things, but I thought I submitted five, which was odd. Lemme check that.

Yeah! My steampunk entry didn't get put up. Weird, since steampunk was the theme this year...

Well here you go. c: NOW THE WORLD CAN SEE IT.

I was kinda surprised at the artist alley. I knew there couldn't be fanart in the mascot contest, but I thought there wasn't supposed to be in the artist alley either. Yet I saw a bunch and the first and second places were even fan art!
The mascot contest winner did a good job, though I think that there were several that could have won at least something (including mine, haha). I was trying to figure out why me and this other girl who did some really nice pictures only got one honorable mention each and no main prizes, but I think I figured it out. She was like 18 and I'm 17, so we're kind of growing out of the age range they're aiming for. I think they didn't want to discourage the younger folks. So I was able to be content with that, even if I would have done it differently.

So Bethany came out and we wandered around, figuring out the place. Bethany brought a lot of manga to trade and I didn't really bring any, but she was kind and gave me a Kingdom Hearts manga to trade in. The deals got better and better as time went on, so I ended up getting a two-for-one deal... I got the first volume of Skip Beat as a free one and then traded in the Kingdom Hearts for this volume of something called "Otomen" which had decent art. A lot of the good stuff went fast! Afterwards, Bethany also gave me a volume of Tsubasa that she had snagged.

We both entered the cosplay contest and got a lot of applause. c: Neither of us won anything in it though.
Here's the video they took. Not great quality, but you can see me and Bethany in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0C91CAccZM&feature=youtu.be
We were in line with a France, so we talked to her a bit. There was a Misty who proposed to Kankuro, but later she decided she loved her Rainbow Dash magnet more.
We did some more walking around and stuff. Those were the main things that we actually did, but we had some good conversations standing in line and stuff.
Near the end we were like "Oh, the bronies panel starts in 20 minutes! We gotta go do that!"
It wasn't exactly what I expected. The audience wasn't very cooperative and the leaders were really quiet... I was also really surprised at the amount of fans who liked all the creepy fanfictions and stuff.
Overall, it just wasn't like the bronies I'm used to seeing on the internet... a lot of them were loud people who didn't listen well.
But I'm glad I stayed 'til the end of it because I ended up getting three buttons and a Fluttershy figure (just a happymeal toy, but I hadn't had the chance to go get one during March so it was kinda nice).
We wanted to go see if they had any leftover kids' crafts after that, but the room was closed and so was the cafe, and basically all the free stuff that was left was taken, so we cleaned up and headed home.

We had a lovely discussion in the car on the way home. Also I'm a bad driver. It's an inevitable fact. Like, I manage to stay alive and safe and not-crashed, but I'm just not cut out for it. My mind wanders too much and I don't react quickly. I can't wait until I live in Austin and don't have to drive everywhere.

It's been a while since I talked about the sky.

When I opened my eyes again, the scene had changed. The sky was greyer, and clouds washed over it. I looked to the side over the warm concrete, losing the heat of the day. Other than the noisy cicadas, rocks were my only companions. The clouds' edge gently swerved against the sky, creating a wispy painting of blue and white and in betweens.
Dim but light enough to see, everything was in cool greys, soothing to the eyes, the fading day gentle to the skin.
The summer evening was not as passionate as the winter night, but in its own right, it was downright pleasant.

(>;~;)>

Today I drove myself to ACC, gave them the last of my paperwork, and talked to an advisor. I'll register for classes in a few days and then I'll just have to buy my textbooks and like... pay and stuff. I also ate a delicious bagel, an apple, some almonds, and some veggie chips. I drank some water. I did this all on campus because I brought my lunch.

Then I went to HEB and got whatever mom had texted me about. There was a crane game in the lobby area.

I usually ignore it but there was a CAPTAIN AMERICA PLUSHIE in there.

It's not that it was a particularly good plushie, but it was still there.
And I was just like "cool, I have 50 cents of loose change right now that I happen to have not put in my little change bank at home yet." So after taking all the groceries to the car and dumping everything out of my bag to find the other quarter, I headed back in.


My aim was perfection. The claw reached down around the Cap's head... and of course it lacks opposable thumbs and the will to pick anything up, so it simply slid off again as it lifted up.

A bit of disappointment grabbed at me, but I walked out with a smile. What else had I expected? I hope they're happy with my fifty cents.

Well that didn't turn out how I thought.

You know those days when everything happens?

My to-do list today was simple and short.
Badges.
Comic strips.
Friday plans.
Blog.

I blogged this morning, and began applying to work at Pizza hut, something I hadn't originally had on my list but needed to do. Then mom decided we needed to go to the bank and set up a checking account for me.
No big deal. 30 minutes or so? Not so.
At the bank, we realized that my drivers' license expired almost three months ago. We hadn't noticed because I had just gotten it about three months before that. But apparently it expires on your next birthday no matter what... or something. I didn't consider it important enough to think it all through. We just had to go to the DMV and ask about it/get it renewed.

Except that we sat at the DMV for an hour and a half waiting. You'd think sitting still with nothing to do wouldn't take a lot of energy, but after that I've just been feeling kind of drained.

I still have to finish applying to pizza hut and record my financial transactions. I want Mom to help me with those. I need to draw comic strips and design badges. I've sent an email about my Friday plans so that's done for now.

But I just wanna sleep. x__x

This is the kind of day that's a bit more stressful to me. I like to keep my schedule open and so that meant I had time to do those extra things, but since I wasn't prepared for them, I'm just kind of burnt out. XD

My seasons take on themes

I think it started with drinks.

Summer 2010 was iced tea, or maybe teamonade or that might have been the summer after. In any case, one summer I loved iced tea.
One winter I loved hot chocolate. Probably winter 2010 since last winter wasn't a particularly sugary one for me.
Seasons just seem to take on themes, and though I can't always remember them, I just get a hunch of what my constants will be for a while.
This summer feels like orange and shorts and superheroes.

I'll be writing short stories about the Silliest Superheroes (my family and best friend's own little imagination adventures from my middle school days). I'll probably see superhero movies since The Avengers made me curious. And I'll be working on further developing an older version of Bethany and I's heroes in general.

Shorts because it's summer and warm and I found a kind of shorts I really like and I feel confident in them so shorts.

Orange because I think it's my new favorite color~ (and trust me, I don't change favorites easily)

I definitely had a blog topic last night...

I got a vaccine yesterday, for meningitis. I hate medicine so it made me want to cry afterwards. After letting a few tears out, I looked at some cool wigs in a jewelry shop while my mom talked to them about some repairs.

We went to the library and I looked at a book about cutting one's own hair (my first attempt shall be after YomiCon!) and found a book on paradoxical statements which I need to go retrieve, actually.

I also modified a couple shirts that were too big.

Today I have to go to the bank to start a checking account, I have to make some badges for the June challenge on TWIG, I need to figure out my friday plans and also my college classes plans, and I need to apply to Pizza Hut for a job. XDDD

I also need to make some comic strips for the poor people who followed me on tumblr because they liked them and I haven't posted any more as of yet.

So today I went to see the Avengers for the second time.

Today I wore my new Avengers shirt which I got from the boys' section of walmart. (The only big people shirts they had were like, plain old captain america shields or whatnot.)

I ate three cupcakes with orange icing. Yum. But also that was just too much. XDD

The Avengers was epic since this time I knew what I was getting into. Last time I knew nothing about anything. I was just along for the ride. Now I want to see the movies for each of the heroes. They look interesting...

I convinced four people to stay in the theatre til the end of the credits.
I was proud of myself.

And the hand dryers at the theatre were hobbit sized.

Sometimes

Sometimes when lots of people <3 the same thing as me

I get territorial (in my mind though I might not voice it)

and I feel like a hipster who doesn't want what they <3 to become popular

Except then I just smirk to myself and remember that when they've moved onto other fads

I will still have the same amount of <3 for what I <3

Because that's how it always works out.

And that's how I deal with others <3ing it (in a sub-par fashion.)