new years and such

New years is only one thing for me this year! a 3 day weekend WOO! Mums in Victoria right now, visiting with Aunty Dewey. Wonder how Deweys CT scan went....
Sunday We're meeting mummy at the Lougheed mall to  do spot of shopping. There was a Nightmare before Christmas wallet there that I saw when we were Christmas shopping. My wallets a little chunky for my smaller bag.
I'm waiting for my Zune HD to com in the Mail. Due Jan 6th, so Jeri will be able to pick it up on the 7th... Hopefully. EEEEEE! So exciting!
I'm going to die waiting for it :)
I've had an encouraging response to my Copic class so far. within 12 hours of sending my email blast out, I had 3 People enrolled! Just great! I really gotta get cracking on the stuff I need for it...lol...
So I got the Michael Jackson Experience game for christmas, and I finally got a chance to give it  go. Its not normally my type of game (not much of a dancer lols) but it's fantastic! it's a great game! played it for over 2 hours.
Whee!

anyway, watching little house, going out for breakfast tomorrow morning if anything is open!

Christmas!

I'm on my new net book :D mini little laptop of cuteness! still getting used to the keyboard being so tiny, lol.
I don't think i slept at all, and I got up at my normal 5:30am, but waited until 6. :>

Besides my little laptop, I got a little lap desk that my new lap top sits on perfectly! it's got a cute little cupholder that perfectly fits a can of coke, hee hee :D

I also got the Michael Jackson Wii Game, so excite! In my stocking I got a little pouch shaped like an eggplant, chocolate, groovy earmuffs, and tons of socks! Temple & jeff got me a bodum travel tea press, and a bag of tea!

----
Boxing day, we attempted to hit the malls; I wanted to get a case for my new laptop. I should have brought it wit me because it didn't fit. width was ok, length was not. boo! dissapointed because the were really cute cases. woolly plaid.  well.
got a neat spider ring, and the new Michael Jackson CD today, so I'm happy 'bout that, even though sme guy budged in front of me at Future shop. I count not beating the shit out of him as my charitable contribution for boxing day.

Gurukitty Studios: First Day of Winter Contest

Gurukitty Studios: First Day of Winter Contest: "It's the first day of winter! We wanted to celebrate our favorite season with a fun contest. Before we begin, let me taunt you with the priz..."

Nice comments

"I love that you are armed with Copics and not afraid to use them.. you will pull out colors to color things and I am like sayyyy what.. then it turns out so cool looking. When I grow up.. I wanna be like you and not afraid to step out of the box and grab colors that I normally wouldn't and just play." - Tracy S

Sometimes people don't realize how much of an impact their comments will have on people, but THIS...this made me SO happy!

Life Drawing Models Needed

 

Opus North Vancouver is looking to hire Life drawing models of all genders, shapes and sizes for un-instructed life drawing sessions to be held in 2011.

Clothed and nude models are needed, as well as props and well behaved pets.

 

The sessions are not instructed so the model would be self directed regarding pose lengths, props, etc. Models would be expected to provide artists with a nice variety of poses and pose lengths (we do have a pre-made schedule if you aren’t comfortable with that).

We would like the classes to be about 3-4 hours long each, and we are looking for weekend and weekday models.

 

We are offering 20$ per hour and we like to book our models a couple months in advance, if possible. 

If you have any questions or need more information please call:
604-904-0447 ext:2110

To speak to the Store Manager Ann, or the Coordinator Jeri 


You can also e-mail your portfolio/resume and cover letter to:

Ann Mountney
Store Manager
amountney@opusframing.ca

CC to: opus.nvan@opusframing.ca

Tattoo, accomplishing nothin'

I'm getting This dino tattooed on my arm this Friday. Varian's going to do it for me. After work sometime. Should be interesting...

I've also jsut dyed my hair pink without gloves on. my fuchsia hands are really distracting as I type, and Veggie keeps licking them. Must be the fruity scent.

 I'm trying to write a resume, while Erica is working on my cover letter for a temporary position in the company I work for. I highly doubt I'll get it, I'm sure many more qualified people will be applying, but you know, cant miss an opportunity. I should really accomplish more on days like today, but instead I feel unaccomplished :<

 

Headphones

I need suggestions for great headphones (in canada) for less than 50 bucks if possible.

I've gone through so many in the last couple years it's not even funny right now. I had the skullCandy Low rider headphones for a while - my first paid the connection to the jack part got a loose wire so it flickered the sound - repeast scenario for 2 more skull candy headphones. then I had one Skullcandy pair actually snap at the band.

That was it for skullcandy for me, then I got a couple other ones, ear buds which are evil and other ones, then finally bought these Wesc Headphones. they had a replaceable cord, which was its selling feature to me, plus a metal band, not plastic. So then yesterday on the skytrain home, the cord by the jack started making the sound flicker on the one side again... now that i go to try to find a replacement cord, HMV (where I bought them) doesn't stock the replacement cords! Go to future shop he says... know what future shop has? HUGE long COILED ones.

 

Ug, what to do....

well, I cant worry about that now... Got copic classes to do....

Christmas shopping!

Just got back from a big ol' christmas shopping adventure!

we went to Lougheed Town Centre to do some Christmas shopping for mum and ended up buying more BIG presents and her stocking is still empty. so we're still at a loss for stocking things and funds run low... Tomorrow we are heading down to mums to get her tree set up and we're bringing all the presents over there too. we forgot to mail things today, and I forgot to get Brendas paint, but I'll do that Tuesday, and still mail it Tuesday, it will be okay. I have enough I'll mail all the stuff up to temple as well. i think that will cost a fortune, unfortunately. we tend to overbuy because we shop early, but then we would rather overbuy than under buy you know...

Still need a Secret Santa present for work, and I have a few other things at work to purchase as well.

Probably should have gotten some christmas cards out to people... Hmmm....

we also came home to find we had a button order! Excite!

Jepi's working on that right now, and I'm going to make dinner.

4 days off, slaving away

Busting my butt lately getting ready for my Copic Classes. I have to have most everything ready by the first of January since that's when I really start advertising and accepting students. I'm making banners for the CDAC, a poster to hang up at the art store, and the quay etc, and then of course, the videos, and art work for the course. On top of that, I need to create a supplies list and other stuff like that. All the Literature for the course. It's a  LOT of work. I've got 4 days off right now, so Friday is for final christmas shopping, saturday is for visiting mum, and sunday and monday are dedicated to getting this class together. I need to make a list of all the things I need to do. I like my Remember the milk extension on Chrome, but i crave a more advanced to do list...

Saturday at mums we're putting up her Christmas tree :> that should be fun. I also have to try to return a very expensive gift that I don't have the receipt for because someone said "I want ____ for christmas" so like the darling I am I run out and drop 70$ on this item to get it for the person in question, just to see that OH, they have it already! GREAT! Of course, as confident as I was in this gift being perfect, I threw out the receipt. Oh well.

Right now I'm just waiting on Jeri to get on the seabus, then I'm going to walk down and meet here so we can go get some shopping done, and some supper to for sure!
I'll blog lots this weekend i think :> 

Copic Classes

In early 2011 I will be starting Online Copic marker classes on the CDAC. I will strive to make them universally applicable to all purposes not just illustration or crafting. They will be entertaining, stimulating and informative, and I think they're a pretty unique angle for markers.

For the most part classes will be affordable, 1 month long, have at least 1 assignment, free digital images, and a give away at the end of the class. you will receive a completion badge for your blog or website as well.

if you think you'll be interested in the classes please feel free to fill out this short form to be informed when enrolment begins.

You will not be emailed for anything but Copic classes hosted by myself.

Please help me by spreading the word to your friends for me, I'd really appreciate it!

I'll be cross posting this to all my blogs, so I apologize if anyone watches more than one blog, you'll be bombarded. 

Body worlds sketching contract?

Hopefully tomorrow afternoon I'm heading to the Body Worlds Exhibit in Science world Hopefully to do some sketching but this thing you have to sign in order to sketch has some pretty... alarming requirements. These last 4 for example:

1.         The Institute for Plastination (hereafter referred to as “IfP“) shall grant the artist/art student, upon presentation of a valid I.D. and/or student card, the permission to make drawings, sketches and paintings (hereafter referred to as “works“) in the aforementioned exhibition. The works are to be used exclusively in private context. Any other use of the works, such as book illustrations, advertising activities, Internet pages, in art galleries or any other commercial purposes shall be subject to the prior written consent of the IfP.

So I can't post my own drawings on my blog without a NEW legalese document if I like them, this means. I don't think this is what I signed last time. Last time it only said I just couldn't SELL my images of the body worlds sketches, which I understood to a point.

2.         The signatory undertakes to send, free of charge, copies or photos of the sketches/drawings to the BODY WORLDS press office, at Science World, 1455 Quebec Street, Vancouver, BC, V6A 3Z7 or by email to p.saunders@bodyworlds.com within two weeks of the artists visit.

I HAVE to send them copies of my images? I don't even normally scan all my images. this seems pretty ..unfair.

3.         The IfP leaves it at the artists discretion to present prints of his/her works and to conclude a separate agreement with the IfP, should the IfP be interested in using these prints. Irrespective of these provisions, the IfP requests every artist to provide the IfP with prints which will be used exclusively for internal documentation purposes. 

If they like my drawing I have to give them prints for their offices?? 

4.         Should the artist fail to comply with this agreement, he/she shall undertake to pay a contractual penalty of US       $5,000, to the IfP. This contractual penalty will fall due even if the IfP should ascertain at a later point in time that information which the artist provided was incorrect.

UM....$5000 for keeping drawings in my sketchbook?!

This is all a little bit strange to me. 
Granted I'm not an expert in legalese but I read it as English and think I get the meaning of it... sure they're protecting their rights as the plastination is an art form in itself, I can see that - but do I have to sign away MY rights as an artist to respect their rights? seems odd.

I just noticed they only have after hours times listed as thursday to saturday! that means that Jeri wont be able to make it to the afternoon one tomorrow, as it does not exist as we planned.. this is upsetting.... Wonder what we're going to do about that.

Headache

I'm burnt out.
I have had a headache since I woke up - not uncommon.
Yesterday I worked the Frame sale (normally my day off) and while it wasn't the worst experience of my life, it certainly wasn't the best.
It was Freezing cold (I'm still trying to raise my core temperature), Filthy, and crowded.my jeans are terrifying with how much dirt is on them, I have a ton of mysterious bruises that showed up as well.
I've been working so hard. Moving boxes and stuff at mums house for her move, renovations at Opus and thne the frame sale (unloading skids, loading skids moving frames) I was moving heavy stuff for 8 days straight. Today's my day off then I have the shipment to do on Tuesday. I'd kill for a week off. SOON.

I'm also pretty frustrated with life in general. It seems like there is no one who actually listens to me. the people that should often brush me off, or ignore me - especially in the company of specific others.
Normally when someone says something that I find incredibly hurtful I will say something - despite the fact that I get LAUGHED at most times, or told I'm opinionated or over-sensitive (as if that matters in the value of feelings - they're felt either way and when someone says "you hurt me" that shouldn't just be ignored) but last weekend I said nothing. I regret it, but I think I'd regret it more if I said more at the time. I'd rather bawl in bed for 3 hours once in a while than be laughed at or ignored by the people who are supposed to love me.
Well anyway, according to them I don't know what bad times are, so what am I so upset about? I don't know. Maybe something's in my eye. That must be it.

I've been asked to host a Colouring Contest over at the CDAC so I'm working on setting that up. It will be December 16th I think. I'm also working on setting up some paid online copic colouring courses as well. That will be in the new year.
I'm debating the continuation of the Digi Stamp selling as well. I don't sell much and it's a great deal of work coming up with images for it.
I'll focus on comics  I think.
I need to organize and standardize my work for Hello, Albertosaurus soon. it's sorta... eveywhere right now.
guess I should do that now....
First, a shower to warm my poor bones.

32 days until Christmas

Good Times

3 Day weekend! My stat for remembrance day is this weekend, so It's very nice! Next weekend my mum is moving into a new apartment so I have a 3 day weekend then too, but it's hard work days off- not quite the same.
Yesterday I got the bulk of my Christmas shopping done. Jake and Fin are done as done can be, Kirsten is done, Temple & Jeff are sorta done. Know what I'm getting, just a matter of getting next payday. All I really have left is Mums and I've got 1 so far, and ideas about the rest.
We were in Toys R' Us yesterday looking for the Imaginex Spinning octopus and Dragon boat accessories for The Pirate ship and Dragon Castle that Mum bought Jake and Fin. We found the Aisle and there are 2 women with 2 or 3 kids there debating over some of these imaginex things. They were blocking our way so we were looking from where we were to see the octo and the dragons and either me or mum spotted the octo and said "oh theres the Octopus" and pointed. the Blond bimbo mums look at me and do not move. Clearly there was competition there. The shelves were pretty bare, and the big sets were on sale so I believe it had been fairly picked over. The women didn't move, just looked at me.
Eventually mum went around and "'scuse me" squeezed in, scooped octo, saw that there was dragons behind and scooped that too.
The woman glared at me, I just smiled and walked away.
I don't actually think the Dragon goes with the castle, but it's a dragon, castles a dragon - kids don't care.
Satisfying. Amazing though the shopping frenzy already about, considering it's really only a week into November. People are shopping earlier this year. I'm delighted to see this personally, as my second biggest pet peeve on the planet; the Scrooges who complain about Christmas due to Cost, Crowds or Selection.
All 3 of these things can be reduced or eliminated by shopping early. I'm not rich by any means but I spread out the cost of shopping by not trying to cram every present in on one pay cheque! I do small things for several months. This also means I don't end up with the last of the items all damaged on the store shelves.

Personally I think these people ENJOY being miserable. Some people do! You'd have to really, if you know it's coming all year and you don't do anything about it.

In case you're wondering my BIGGEST pet Peeve are the ones who complain about "consumerism" and "commercialism" at Christmas. Look up what it REALLY means before you start throwing it around. Christmas isn't the part that's commercialized - its YOU.

So today, I'd like to get some new Digistamps up in my shop but I'm at a loss for ideas apparently :/
I'd kill for some Oreos right now.
I think I'll have a nice hot shower :D

This woman is So clever.

Lady: "These books that were on your shelf here and here " *gesturing to the sketchbooks - some colours are 50% off, others are regular price* "I'm going to take them off your hands for 5$ each" (car Salesman tone)

I looked at the shelf noting the MAJORITY of her pile is the colour that is NOT clearance, and thus is actually $12 each, and only about 7 of the ones she had were actually clearance priced

Me: "no, sorry, that's just not going to happen"

Lady "yes, i know how it works, i know about the mark up you have *wink*, so you can give them to me for $5 each"

Me: "...No sorry, I cant. They're already discounted 50% for those ones, and I'm not able to have it go any lower."

lady: *wink wink* "you don't want me to take these all off your hand, so you can get more stock *wink* for 5$ each?"

Me: "No, we wont have trouble clearing our stock. No one here is going to put that price any lower for you. It's already 50% off, it's not going any lower"

Lady: "I'm an accountant, I know how it works. *wink* You can do it for me."

Me: "No I really cant"

Lady: "are you the owner here?"

me: "No I'm the leader in charge today"

Lady: "Oh leader in charge, I like that *wink* it's a good answer"

me: "..."

Lady: "I'd like a call from the owner"

me: "no, it's her day off. That's why I'm here"

Lady: "okay then, Well i guess we wont take them then"

Me:"okay, bye"

Then she told her friend they were going to try across the street.

They bought tape.
They don't sell those books across the street. 

Guess what? No, thats not helpful

Recently I've had several people innocently try to lead me down a path of what they would preceive as a successful route for my carreer.

Let me clarify something to you non artists out there.
Every artist has a style, theme, niche whatever, that they are good at, enjoy doing, and excell at. That goes for every person on the planet - some people do well in some areas while other do well in other areas. Sometimes these areas are similar, that doesn't make them interchangeable.

Example: Bob is great at fixing bikes. he can make a bike from scratch if he can find all the parts. Bob is a mechanically minded person, can add electric motors onto the bikes and make tons of crazy stuff with bikes. There is no doubt Bob is an amazing technical guy.
Do you ask Bob to repair your car?
I should think not! Yes it's a technical thing, yes they're both a form of locomotion and yes, they both go on the road.
(Side note: Dear firefox, or Blogger: when I hit Enter, go DOWN a line, Not up)

So, as an artist, the same sort of analogy will apply.
I'm a Comic artist and Animator. Why would you expect me to do landscapes and be confortable doing that for a carreer? Why do you think this is a logical solution to the struggled of being an artist? you don't think the landscape artist didn't struggle too, before they started selling work?

What a ridiculous suggestion. I know people mean well, but do they realize how FUCKING INSULTING it is to tell me what I am doing will never make it? That what EVERYONE ELSE IS DOING will make me successful? You can't possibly.
I guess it's the people who took the "easy" road that are the ones that suggest this. Of the people who actually suggest this route for me the only one I can think of that actually likes her job is my Mum. So should I be taking the advice of 6 people who hate thier day to day job?
I think NOT!
It is fully possible to be happy in your carreer! It takes as much work as any other job, no matter what you do.

You are given ONE LIFE to live and there is no fucking reason you can't be happy and prosperous in your carreer except your own self doubt and lack of ambition.

I WILL be successful, and I WILL be happy in my carreer, whether you believe in me or NOT!

My Desk - Copic Cases

Don't doubt my nerdiness.

I just spent ...oh, about an hour with tape, and rubber making a Copic display case, LOL.

What I did was tape the 2 72piece hard cases together, then using Amazing mold putty rubber, I made a foot on the front of it, to be places right behind the grove where the lid sits. This makes it lean back on an angle so the markers don't tumble out.

The Various refills are 2 bins taped together but the foot isn't rubber and isn't permanent because I can't easily pull them out of there. It's not a real refill case, just a sketch marker cases. Snug.

anyway, sharing is caring.

Bummed!

Lame! my class I was going to take, The graphic memoir at Emily Carr was cancelled because not enough people enrolled.
Lame, I was looking forward to it. Well, that jsut means I'll be going full steam on hello, Albertosaurus.
Going to go make a tutorial. COPICS!

OH YA!
I Love that X-press it blending card so much, but the shipping on icopic.com is insane for Canadian orders so I sure wont be ordering through there! I tried a special order through Opus and it's the same price as the "special" price on icopic! I ordered a ream of it! I'm just stoked about that! I've already got more paper than I could shake a cat at, but I love that stuff.
I have 5 reams of Aquabee paper already and several packs of Copic Illustration paper...lol

anyway, now my Canadian friends know they can get it within Canada and if you're near an Opus location, no shipping either :)

Another day, another fire alarm

I think if we worked out an average, there would be around 1 false alarm in our building a week. That fire alarm goes off so often. No one in our building goes outside. The odd time I've gone down there are maybe 4 people down there, and most look like they're just coming home and were forced to stay outside.

Really, it's plain ridiculous.

At any rate, 2 people have stopped following my other blog MarkerGuru. I wonder why...
 It's hard to get support for these types of things.  Well I guess I can't please everyone. Trying to slap up a little tutorial here.. having some issues getting good photos. Tomorrow I'm getting a lamp and daylight lightbulb so then I can do nice tutorials with well lit photos, hooray! maybe I'll hold off on the tutorials until then....
hmm...I'll colour my Copic Challenge image which is rather cute, if I do say so myself :P

Something I enjoyed today

So At work, we put our bathroom out of order permanently due to 5 or so massive blockages in the toilet causing overflow. So either customers are abusing our good nature, or the plumbing is failing. Either way, we can't spend our days pulling customers shit out of the toilet every day - as a result it's out of order.

There's the back story. It's relevant.

A customer comes in today, and asks for the wash-room key. I said "sorry, it's actually out of order just now." The woman gets all fluffed up and is like "I spend so much money here, I'm a good customer blah blah blah, the world owes me a living" I said, I'm sorry, there was a Waves (coffee Shop) on the corner if she needed one, I knew they had a bathroom. Then she goes all fluffy again about "I'm a regular customers I shouldn't be sent across the street to go to the bathroom, I spend lots of money here.. blah blah blah I don't mean to take it personally but I think this is terrible... blah blah blah" and I said "We actually aren't required to have a public bathroom here, but it's just out of order for now" and she goes off huffing and puffing. She says she's got some paint on hold so I pull it for her and then she wants to go fart around in the aisle some more. whatever.
 Already irritated by the woman I head off and start ringing in the next customer. The bathroom woman lines up behind the woman I'm helping and says "Must have been a theft issue, or something for you to put it out of order" (she interrupted the customer I was helping to say). I was getting annoyed and said "actually it's the plumbing or something...." and continued helping the person in line. Bathroom woman is like "OH... well you should get that fixed I mean, I know you can't do anything about it, but you should pass it along so it gets looked at" and I said "They're already on it...." (Like, Fucking DUH!!!) and she says "oh that's good" and carries on about how horribly inconvenienced she is. I said "Look, It's not a malicious thing, we didn't go in there and mess up the plumbing just so you couldn't use it, It's beyond our control, It's just OUT of ORDER for now, and hopefully it will get fixed."  Super irritated by now. Then she starts in on "Do you know when it will be back up?" and I said no, I didn't know if it would EVER be back up. She rambled on as she wandered away, and luckily I was able to escape at that point.

What on EARTH makes a person act like that?
Why the fuck do people think that the people who had to shove their arm elbow deep into their shit to try to repair the toilet, should give a flying FUCK that they have to cross the street to take a piss?

Before you run and bitch out someone in an art store for not having a public bathroom remember this - By law, we are not required to have a public bathroom; only food service places have to. The bathroom Opus locations provide for you is a bonus! a COMPLETE bonus! Consider yourself lucky that people are willing to deal with public bathrooms at all so you have a place to go to.

PS: She doesn't spend much money at Opus, I didn't recognize her at all - The woman she interrupted however was a very good customer.

Productive day

Been Fairly Productive today.

I cleaned out the area that could possibly considered my bedroom if I had one. Then I rearranged and cleared my desk off so that I could use it as an art table as well as a computer desk.

So now I've moved my speakers to the side, took some of the boxes off the back that were making a raised shelf, and pushed my monitor alllll the way back, put my lamp in a useable space, and now all i have to do is put my Tablet in my knitted cosy, and put my keyboard on the floor to do art up here :)

Kinda messy. Has some of my Copic stuff on there because I just finished a drawing and didn't clear off my desk. Water dish, Spica pen, Copic Opaque white, and my nightmare before Christmas lamp and little Jack skellingtons all over the place. HAHA! I'm happy happy happy with it. now I just need a good daylight lamp to clip to it and I'm golden!

I also finished a contest entry for my work Christmas card. Turned out rather cute I think ;)

Working out some things with Ericas logo's I'm doing and things are going well. I'm actually doing things on my to do list!

Next weekend is thanksgiving here in Canada, and Kitty and I managed to both have the Monday off so we're going to go to mums and make delicious things. Perhaps all the root vegetables I left at mum's will still be good and we can include them in our delightful feast.

Somewhere along to way while I was cleaning today, I lost my keroppi garbage can. Now I hunt him.

It's one room. cant have gone far.... 

Sleeeepy

So tired D: I've got a nasty cold I'm trying to ignore. I'm doing a lot of life replanning.
Conflagration for one, has taken a back burner for a while while I rethink it. Given the lack of good help from people, and the grisly failure of getting help from the few who do volunteer I am not going to be able to make Conflagration into a film. I'll never be able to make a proper go of it in as a film. I've got high expectations of this project and I desperately want it to turn out extravagantly no matter what medium it's in.

I plan on the trailer still happening and possibly some short animations now and then but I'm leaning towards the full project taking main form in the shape of a comic.

I'm going to slog through Hello, Albertosaurus before I go finalize that thought though. Just so I can see what it's going to entail for a large scale project.
In addition to that, I believe Conflagration would be either trade paperback's or Graphic Novels, possibly multiple issues, and not available online to view.

Frankly, despite poll results saying people want to support artists, the plain and simple fact is people will not buy in print what they can get for free. Daqueran has been a good experiment for us. It's got a pretty decent on-line reader base, many people are passionate about it, but the sales don't reflect the number of readers at all. I know most people can't afford to purchase them, that's understandable, but every reader can't be so poor.

Both Conflagration and Hello, Albertosaurus will be print only with most likely a 1 chapter preview, or something like that. I wouldn't be able to put the amount of work Kitty puts into Daqueran just to give it away like that. I'll come up with supplemental comics to give away for free on-line, but big projects we can't afford to make a loss on every single one. So enjoy (and support) Daqueran while it lasts.

As we make more convention appearances with more comics, hopefully this will increase reader bases of all our comics and improve this.
Anyway, none of this is official announcements on the status of things with GK studios, just me rambling on and on.

My Digi stamps are going well so far I think!
I've made a few sales, and my blogs getting to be popular (not compared to other blogs, but comparing to the last few days of growth). I'm pretty pleased with that. Give me reason to break out the drawings more often!

I've updated the layouts on most of the blogs - gurukitty studios & marker guru most notably.
eventually I'll tackle this ugly one too.

bed time... realz.

Gurukitty Studios: Convention appearance: Comix and Stories

Gurukitty Studios: Convention appearance: Comix and Stories: Check out our new blog, and come see us next weekend at the Comix and Stories convention....more

5 alarm stress D:

UG! the last.. month or so has basically been hell.

I'm stressed...

we have one week until the convention and we're our of screw eyes to make more Tik cell charms I'll paint up what we got but I'm a little concerned about stock.
I think we need more sketchcards though...

ya anyways.
Going to meet mum and temple in the morning for some breakfast at ihop. Then moms going to Avram's wedding with temple in the afternoon.

1 . 0 15 : 55 : 07
weeks days hours min sec

to Convention :B

the internet

WOW! I was just reflecting on how LONG I've been on the internet, and one Point of reference I have for my time is when I created the Quilting bee. Some of you might know it. It's a cutesy little thing that expanded into a really big sort of social network. I created it Feb 18th 2000.
That is 10 ...nearly 11 years ago!
I remember having to give it up to people who could maintain it full time because I was graduating from high school and didn't have time to manage the hundreds of submissions coming in. The quilting bee being handed over to Kimi was one of my last real ventures with playful website making. I was well into making my comics, and we registered our first domain name for what would become our studio around that time.

But wow... It's almost 11 years old! blows my mind. I remember Geocities coming out and popping up websites all the time on there. If I recall correctly, I had around 6 websites on the go at any given time.
Tub Bunny, The itty bitty kitty trailer, Guru's magical pencil, CopyCat jail (vigilante justice!).. Oh those were the days! Tables, and iframes, and all that crappy html stuff that was so wonderfully fun to do :D
We recently found and old account dated (last update) 1996... HHAA! Bad anime omg :B
We used to scan all our sailor moon pictures from our comics and post them on the internet. I remember saying to my friends that there was a "serious lack in good sailor moon pictures on the world wide web". HAHA! Oh the irony, now there is too much! I also remember a nasty little hand held scan man scanner!

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS: Windows 3.0
RESOLUTION: 100, 200, 300, 400 dpi
MAXIMUM SCANNING WIDTH: 4.13 inches
GRAY-SCALE LEVELS: 16, 64, or 256
SOFTWARE INCLUDED: ANSEL, Windows 3.0-based image editing/scanning software; also DOW-based scanning-only software with restricted features.

:lmao:
I remember straining to meet those requirements! LOL

It's funny how nothing has really changed about websites, designing and all that. It's just trending styles. Pixels out, reflections in. what trends will be next?
I've been LOL'ing for a half hour googling these things! I think i still have a ribbon from our dot matrix printer too!
I'm not old, Technology just moves fast, and having a Dad that was a tech junkie helped!

ANd going through DOS to play Duke Nukem
c:\run\dukenukem

something like that... I don't remember.

Bed time! :rofl:

Staff show.

So last night was the staff art show. It was wonderful.
Jeri sold a few comics which was nice, and we got to see everyone's work. It was really neat :D each staff member had 5x8' of wall space to post our outwork however we wanted.


This is mine and on the right is Kitty's wall space. We each put up some art work and sketch cards. No one bought my sketch cards of course, but Kitty sold 5 comics! That was a nice little treat! We really only brought them to show them off a little, since that's where all of Kitty's art work really is.
I posted a copy of the DVD my animation is on, for some reason, HAHA!


There was also a table set up in the middle where we put business cards and things that couldn't hang on the wall. everyone took some buttons, and browsed through books and portfolios. Aside from the fact there was also food on the table (which I object to, as we just had tons of food, and we also had artwork on the table,  and I found it really disrespectful to have people eating over the art), it was really neat!
We had 2 little sections set up with our books and business cards.

 

Kitty had comics, the World of stories book (we both have published illustrations in) a bin of buttons, a Tik plush, business cards, sketch cards and some Fan Fair Fest flyers.

Tik is definitely a talking point, HAHA!

I had less, just a copy of World of stories, some flyers, business cards and some of the Daqueran buttons that featured my drawing.
In the future I'll have more stuff to feature about my own projects, but for now, This is what I got.

I wont post pictures of the other artists sections because it's really not my place to display their art work without permission but I was particularly in love with Reetta's work, she had an Animation Background up and some nice life drawing, Margot had some magnificent textural paintings up. I just adore them! Diane has some phenomenal classic looking paintings with a nice modern twist to them. She's really a magnificent artist! Maria's Work I've always been in love with and I got to see some new pieces from her. Varian Had a neat little sculpture of himself pushing a frame off the wall. It was awesome! I was really impressed with everyone's work.
I'd do it again, with way way way less food next time.

Right now I have a pretty powerful headache I've got under control and I'm going to spend a minimum of 3 hours I've got a timer on celtx) working on my screenplay.. I've yet again re worked the beginning.

canvas roll WOUND

I dunno if anyones ever seen the large canvas rolls where you buy canvas by the foot? they have 150feet of canvas on them and some of them can weight... well A LOT!

Margot and I were trying to put one of these rolls up on the rack today.
of course it was a heavy weight (10 Duck canvas) and it was a monsterous roll.
so we got it on on the table, shoved the pole through the spool and we lifted it up alright, but when it came to getting it in the slots, we were both about 2cm too short, and we couldn't do it!
it slipped and dropped and I caught the pole as it fell through the middle, but my arm was leaning on the edge of the notch (which is an L shaped piece of metal) and the weight of the canvas roll pulling on my arms forced it down on the metal and it made a nasty gash on my arm.

It's only 1.5cm long but keep in mind it was created with PRESSURE on a BLUNT (but kinda pointy) piece of metal.
That's the kinda pain I don't like.
It looked Super nasty when it was new, and it was really deep. It's had butterfly band-aids on it for a while and wrapped in gauze. It looks much better now, but man it touches Everything and stings like a bitch.

Another delightful scar, in a few weeks. <3

Stormy

Jeri and Mum took stormy to the vet in Surrey on Saturday and had her put to sleep. I'm feeling pretty guilty about it since she was so sick, but she was still mobile and stuff. it felt wrong. people always say "you did the right thing". How the fuck do you know?

Anyways, I've been live streaming like crazy lately. and I figured out how to manage my library, so all my multiclip files are all playing as one file now :) It's great.

Watch live streaming video from guruubii at livestream.com

Well, I made delicious rotini casserole today, cleaned some of the carpet, livestreamed 2 different things (copics and animation). I'm going to make dinner for Jeri before tackling DIP on the film :)

LiveStreaming and Good times

So, after watching Touched Venus's livestream broadcasts, I decided I wanted to do it myself. I've done several now, and it's very entertaining.SO far I've done 2 Marker walk through and animation walk through! It's much easier to broadcast from the screen than from the camera, that's for dang sure! Eventually (maybe this Sunday) I'm going to get a new camera so I can offer clearer traditional art videos. my Gcube camera just doesn't cut it.

So I've decided that I'm going to try to broadcast every Monday. Monday's my regular day off, so I really should have something to do art wise on that day every week, whether it's my animation or some traditional art.
The best part of it was how it forced me to focus. I wasn't constantly checking my email and twitter HAHA!

Anyways, here's my channel :) Watch on Mondays

Watch live streaming video from guruubii at livestream.com

Markers and sick days

Hee, so we get 3 pay cheques in July, which means one is "free" (meaning we don't have to pay rent from it) and since it also sort of corresponds to the inventory sale at my job at Opus, it was a perfect opportunity to spend tons of money on markers. I have 44 Copic Markers on hold! Hee! I also have a cutting mat which we badly needed, a smaller drawing board (my big one has resin all over it, and cuts because we always cut on it, hence...cutting mat.. LOL) I got a couple Art Stix in white and black to do details on my markers, and ... what else....oh 3 Copic various inks, some colour Eno replacement leads, a couple Golden Fluid acrylics for painting stuff for the Convention ...and ... golly that must be it?...haha! Obviously the markers are my highlight. I haven't added them to my copic list yet, because I don't actually own them yet, but I'm going to list here what I have on hold :>

C0, C2, C4 - cool greys
W5, W3, W1 - Warm Greys
N5, N7 - Neutral greys
YR24, YR23, YR07, YR15
Y32
YG01,YG67, YG95, YG93, YG13
RV34, RV11, RV19, RV09
B00, B14, B06, B23, B34
BV23, BV31
R12
G02, G28
BG000, BG45, BG15, BG10, BG11, BG49, BG32, BG02
E02, E49, E21, E97

Phew~  I needed a lot of the BG colours because I only had a couple. I think I have almost all the ones we actually stock at my location right now.
That will bring me up to 133 markers! Long way to go, but you know.. It's a growing thing!

Yesterday at our staff meeting we got our choice of some free (slightly irregular or damaged) stuff that was in the store that we wanted cleared out before the inventory count. I managed to snag a big roll of Aquabee Super Deluxe paper, which is the same paper in my sketchbook that I love! I also got a couple sheets of Hahnemule 300lb printing paper that has a few creases in it, but can be easily cut out. I was excited about that too, since its pricey paper I wouldn't normally buy, but it was nice. I also got a bottle of Fluid acrylic that was half empty cuz it got squeezed by some idiots unattended child... Love my job! Lots of the other staff got some really nice frames and stuff as well! I pulled aside a frame for Maria that I thought she'd like too. I hope she does :) (Maria's away, so she didn't attend).
I woke up today with a migraine, but my Advil was at work. Not being the type to call in sick, I cried through my shower (making it worse) and got to work, and pretty much barfed my morning away.
So it took a long while to get Advil to stay down. I did manage to get a lot of section work done through the barfing though, and good thing I didn't even try to call in sick (not that I would have) because I wouldn't have been able to - someone else did. My only hope was to go home a wee bit early and sleep it off, but those hopes were dashed. Ann was pretty sick too but we all toughed it out through the day. We're troopers. I eventually got my migraine (which was more nausea and blurry/double vision and light sensitivity than pain this time, thank god.) to a bearable pain level and I sort of enjoyed the rest of the day. Thank goodness most of my morning is me being there alone before the store opens, so I can keep all the lights off. That helped I'm sure.
Also a good thing Ann anticipated that the other person would call in sick; She came in early, (her and Jeri were going to come in late, because they have to stay late to put up the sale signs for inventory sale). Without her there, It would have been just me and Reetta to open the store (Chelsey phoned to say she slept in but she got there before we opened anyway, so we were lucky about that.) Long day for Ann though.

I'm hungry now. I put off eating all day because of the barforama morning, but now I'm all starved, and Jeri won't be coming home 'til later. Tomorrow is the first day of the huge inventory sale at work as I mentioned before, so we have 3 days of massive crowds of people clearing out our stock at Opus! I'm pretty glad for the break in doing stock transfers, that's for sure. I'm excited to be doing Data entry instead of counting this year. It sounds boring I know, but it's nice to do something slightly different. ROFL. Hope I don't make too many mistakes.

Mama bear Absorbing sunshine

My mamabear (Viddies, my cat) is being super cute right now, sitting in my lap bunking the top of her head on my chin and looking up at me. I always love when animals come and deliberately seek your attention without wanting food or water or something. I know she's only here for the cuddles. There is something awesome abut having a connection like that with a different species. Kisses for Mama Bear <3

Who's Bad

My Mum and I went to see Whos bad at the River Rock Casino yesterday!
 It was really amazing! The performers were very passionate. There were 2 big screens on either side of the stage that played various clips of the real MJ including Captain EO, The Wiz, and moonwalker as well as his videos and some stuff I suppose they put together.
The whole thing opened with a video set to Oh Fortuna which was epic. It's actually on the Dangerous Short Films DVD as well.

I posted a Pile of pictures on facebook, and I'll add more videos later.
I even got a video from when he dropped the Mic :P

New layout

I got a little crazy on blogger, and redid the layouts of 2 of my blogs; This one, and Experimental Guru. I think they look pretty swell :)

SO since.. Friday evening we've had no access to deviantART. I contacted Shaw and they said that it's a known issue and they're working on it. Ya well, that doesn't really reassure me too much... but whatever. There's nothing I can do about it, but what concerns me more is the fact that I'm slowly losing the rest of my internet. MY Hootsuite wont load and a few  other internet things I do where I need a client are slowly falling off the shaw radar. Wonderful.....

So ya, As I mentioned in my other blog, Marker Guru, I've been Copic Certified! I took a one day work shop yesterday and it was neat! I really liked it! I'm going to spend the rest of today doing laundry and converting my little swatches into usable resources for my resource book, and then blogging about it (lol).

Pictures: Nine Fish With "Hands" Found to Be New Species

Pictures: Nine Fish With "Hands" Found to Be New Species

RAD :D

Keeping up on blogs

I wish there was a way to follow PEOPLE as opposed to following just BLOGS with blogger. For example. I have 4 blogs, so if people want to follow ALL my blogs, they have to follow each one, instead of following just me.
Maybe check boxes?
Anyways, I get a 3 day weekend this weekend, and I'm stoked for it! God save the Queen :D

I'm trying to make a better effort to follow other peoples blogs.. .rather, read the blogs I follow. I miss out on many posts because it isn't in my face everyday, So I've reinstated iGoogle as my home page and included google reader. so every time I open the internet, your blogs are in my face :D GO me!

Zoo trip

Yesterday we went to the zoo! Mum, Jeri, Dewey and Darnell. It was a combined Mothers day, Darnell's Bday, and our birthday trip. It was awesome because it was sunny and bright so all our pictures were turning out wonderful!
Darnell was more excited than we were so it made it more exciting too!
I think we got to see every animal this time, even if the Eurasian Lynx was a bit aloof. We went by his exhibit at least 10 times, then the last thing we were doing was taking the train around to catch the animals we missed, and as we whipped past the lynx he was laying in the grass. I sort of got a photo of him but it was no good! we ran back after the train and saw him moving around in the background but no photo opportunity, but at least we saw him.
The arctic Wolves were also very tough to get photos of, but we did walk by and see them sleeping by the fence, but not very clearly, then on the train ride we saw them sleeping out in the grass, and I got good photos off the train (that in itself is a miracle!)
Going to upload all the photos as stock on Gurukitty.

tattoo! Inked

WHOO! just got back a little bit ago from getting my tattoo.

LA!

Looks so badass! you can see more photos of it on facebook.

So pleased with it!

Gene @ Granville Custom did it :)

Birthday Weekend in Stanley Park

we spent the day in Stanley Park and the Aquarium with mum today. It was much much fun but I forgot to put my memory card back in the camera before we left so I didnt get many pictures ROFL.
We went into the 4D theatre which was really cool. I love getting sprayed in the face and punched in my back while watching 3d Movies.
It was fun. I'll be renewing my membership in a couple weeks when we go back.
For some reason, I went to renew my membership and they said I'd lose half a month if I renewed today because my membership doesn't expire until the 30th, i assumed it would just extend me for a year. so weird.

anyways, off to do some airbrushing with Copics :>

Conflagration Tattoo

This is going to be tattoo'ed the length of my arm this month!
I'm getting my quote, and making my appointment on the 11th.
I'm scared of the cost HAHA!

What do you think?

Easter and copics

So I registered and paid for the Copic Certification course. Man they only give 3 days of a window to pay once you've been accepted, which is tough to do for some people. With all the holidays my money transfers have all been delayed so I had to ask mummy to use her credit card. The course cost more than I thought but my job may pay for it. Get reimbursed. We'll see.

May 30th, I'm excited.

Going to be heading out as soon as Erica calls to hang out with her today.
I've been eating Oreo's all day. I didn't realize how much I like them.

Happy easter.

oooof

been in an oddly comfortable position most of the day. I sit on a cushion on a short coffee table because I have no chair for my computer, but its hard on my back to not be able to lean on something, so I propped up some boards reclined back and put the tablet and keyboard both in my lap and Viola! I finished scene 6 for the Tik Short. WOOT! as soon as I'm done rambling, I have to tackle those other 6 check marks on my production list then I'm done this silly thing at last!
my 3rd animation short.

I reset all my tablet keys to be controls for my most used Tools on Toon Boom Studio. It sped things up immensely. Wacom thought about making the controls reversible to the left hand side of the tablet which was brilliant, but programs still haven't figured out how far away some keyboard short cuts are from the free hand when you're left handed :/

had the day off work today because Chelsey needed to switch shifts for some time off she needed, and so here I am.

Jesse introduced me to new music today - Lily Allen. Very nice music. It's like hello kitty swearing! haha! wonderful!
My favourite song so far is "Fuck you". Yeah.

Found out that despite my assumption that I'd hate her, I actually like Lady Gaga too, but I have to wait 'til I can get a itunes card to download some of those.

Wonderful because I was craving something new and some of the stuff I've gotten just .. wasn't cutting it. need to reorganize my music on my Zune.
back to work...

Watching a cat die can sure make you think...

... what a hypocritical society we are. We end an animals life to be "humane" because its pointless to suffer with no hope..."yes we can extend her life for a year, but she will be in pain and it's cruel to let her suffer" they say, but at the same time people with terminal illnesses beg for death and are denied the "humanity" we give to cats and dogs. In the same breath people put so much more value on human life! Killing a cat is nothing compared to killing a human. injecting a drug into a cat to kill it because it's in pain is legal and in fact it's cruel to let it suffer, but that same action on a primate in a suit is murder?

Checkers, the cat that was put down this Sunday had cancer. she was losing weight fast, barely eating or drinking. low energy, trouble breathing, all that fun stuff humans with cancer experience. Even so, Checkers happiness never faded. She had a zest for life like no other cat. She came up to me and rubbed on my hand and purred non stop. It didn't seem to matter to her that it was all her energy to do that thing. She loved life. More than any other cat I've seen, Checkers loved life - no doubt about it. She wasn't begging for it, she never complained and she got what humans are capable of asking for, without needing to be asked.

But it WAS the right thing to do. It was horrible to watch her die, to see her realize that her life was ending, but she was indeed poorly, and there was nothing to make her better.

I believe it is also the right thing to do for people.
If I'm shitting myself, in constant pain, begging for the end - I should have the right to end it.
Fuck religion! If it's YOUR religion that's fine for you, you can suffer as long as you like.

I just think its funny how "humane" doesn't apply to Humans.

Checkers

So last weekend mum phoned us to tell us that she called the vet because checkers was looking a little under the weather, losing weight etc. and it turns out the Vet has known since November when she had surgery, that she has cancer.

Frustration aside, we now have to take checkers in on Sunday to have her euthanized. We've all (me mum and jeri) had a really hard week of crying and thinking about poor Checkers. Mums waiting for sunday so she doesn't have to do it alone, and so we get to see Checkies before its done. She's very weak though.
The week has been too fast too. I hate that it ends with the end of checkies life.
she's an awesome little kitty, I will miss her so much.


To combat the evil that is coming on Sunday, we're trying to come up with something fun to do on that day to take our minds off things.

To bad the Olympics are stopping us from doing anything downtown. I'd love to get some use out of my Aquarium membership before it expires... I'm debating renewing it.

anyways, thats why the films going a little slow... I'm just deflated.

Robert Carlyle

Woot! today was a weird day!
First of all my special order of 5 packs of 11x17 Aquabee marker paper today (dropped a chunk of cash on that LOL) I've stocked up because my store can't special order that size anymore. I have 6 packs of 50 now.

So ya, Robert Carlyle was in Opus today! It was awesome. Kitty rung him in and he was very nice.
It took me a while to know who he was. Jaime was talking about him saying she was excited and getting quite exasperated that no one knew who he was Ha! Once I actually saw him, I knew almost right away who he was.
Very cool, very cool :)

Vampires: The Darkside on Facebook

Vampires: The Darkside on Facebook

I'd appreciate if everyone would come join my clan :D I need a clan of 50 before I reach level 13!

C'mon people, how many times have I joined things for you?

:D

Thanks!

Eye ball Turmoil

So on Wednesday I flopped in bed, and something rocketed into my eyeball. it irritated so bad it made my eye swell, and a blister form on the surface of my eye.

The next day I ran to the optometrist right after work and he said I had a severe allergic reaction to whatever flew in my eye. so I cant wear contacts in that eye until my next appointment on Tuesday.

So I've not been able to animate at all this week. I've been trying to get drivers to make my Toonboom storyboard I paid good money for work on my computer. I meet and exceed all the minimum requirements but I still get a harsh brush lag. it's getting rather annoying for me :<

We're going to Fanfairfest in September, that's pretty exciting eh? we've got our table already and we're planning to have some fucking sweet merchandise. It's going to be a massive, and I mean MASSIVE convention so if you're the Con type, you might wanna make a trip ;)

Stuff and such.

SO, I've become a busy bee!
Mostly I've spent way too much time moderating groups that really have very little activity, but I'm wanting so much to play with my groups that I fiddle around all day.

---

#Daqueran

I've been working a lot on the animated short I hope to have done by mid Febuary. It features Tik and for the first time ever, Daqueran! And Daqueran is going to talk! That's pretty exciting isn't it?

You too can audition for the role! we have 11 submission so far, and they're amazing! I cant begin to describe the joy of going through these auditions and picturing daqueran saying them. The best is when we start thinking about hte body languate that can go with the voice to make it really funny!
Here's the News article for the voice auditions and if you check out :devgurukittystudios: you'll get the most up to date information on the project!

I'm finding it a little odd to be doing rough animation in ToonBoom since I'm so used to PAP LOL, but it's really supposed to be a "quick" film, and it was the easiest to do it this way.

---

#conflagration-film

I've seen a few new members there and I really appreciate your interest in my project. It really is something I want to be proud of! In a week or so my paypal should clear for the purchase of Toon Boom Storyboard so when I get that, I will be starting over with the storyboard. doing each panel in Photoshop I found quite awkward. There's something to be said for being able to work on the next panel right next to the previous one and being able to generate the animatic right away is a HUGE time saver. it turns a 2 step process into 1! I really love the Toon Boom line.
I'm also waiting for my Rough animation program PAP to get my licence switched over to my new computer. They're taking a while this time. Last time they replied in the same day, and this time I've been waiting since Friday. It concerns me that it's taking so long...:fear:
I'm super stoked to get into the storyboarding! One area I am kinda concerned about is the Backgrounds and the effects.

Effects: for the effects, as the name suggests, I'm going to need to animate some fire now and then... I know several people who do what I want to do but are less than giving when it comes to sharing techniques. The effect they get is Exactly what I want to do but god, I cannot figure it out.
They use Adobe After effects (I have it - CS3) and they do clean animation leaving the frames as black ink with the fill white, and an alpha channel - I know that much because I prepared the frames on a friends film once that used this technique, but I don't know how to work the After effects side. how do you make the fire transparency and glow? and then how do I apply that to one layer of animation? so if I import a layered scene with the one layer I need the effect applied to, what do I do? I find that program quite cumbersome... but I'd really like nice effects in the film... the other thing I need of course is smoke... I wonder if I could manage with feathering and Alpha channel in Toon Boom studio? it sure wouldn't look as Grande, but no one seems to know how to do what I'm trying to do, or are unwilling to share.
Backgrounds: Not really something I excel at, and also I want to do them in Photoshop since I want to be paperless for the production, but also I want it to be easier to make adjustments etc. I wonder if I should see if someone can help me with BG's in my style but maybe accomplish it better than I could... I dont know though, I'm getting frustrated with depending on people. I feel like I spend an extraordinary time promoting and pimping and really not getting much from it... anyways...

---

#Gurukittystudios

If you have a film for your studio please affiliate with is! It will be great! A network of artists studios! :la:

---

#freelancers

We are open for submissions and we have some awesome profiles up!

We plan to make another template for Literature artists and also voice actors! We'd really love your feedback on the group and please go join!

---

Well thats all the rambling I have to do... gunna go animate.

Finally :D all settled with new computer

Phew, I finally got my computer! Its an HP, with a 1 TB hard drive, 6gb ram, and a nice monitor and a soft keyboard! I'm so happy. I've been installing all my programs. right now downloading itunes and Quicktime and adobe reader so that my Toon Boom can work and I can set up my itunes account. Installing Zune software and backing all my music up on my portable hard drive so i can move it to the new computer :)

Once i get everything installed I'll be golden! golden! it will just take a while to do all that HAHA!
 I think I've transfered my important bookmarks!

Uh oh! I have 64 bit windows 7 and quicktime isnt compatible with 64 bit but its required for toonboom!! I hope i can figure a way around thing >.>

FIASCO

Theres no other word for it. Getting this computer has been emotionally, mentally and physically draining.

So after we bought and exchanged the first one, they wouldn't test it in the store for us so we brought it home and sure enough the second computer had the exact same problem! so back we go (It's pouring rain and a long walk with that HEAVY computer!) and this time get a refund! Fed up. So we roamed around and I found an HP computer with  6 gigs of ram, 1 TB of hard drive space, decent video card, and a good monitor. I got that PLUS a 3 year warranty (which I'd normally scoff at), and I paid to have them set it up for me as well! if there was something wrong with this one I wouldnt want to lug it back too.

SO they're setting it up now! and I'll pick it up in an hour!

My shoulder and arms are aching, and I'm just exhausted....just spent.

but in an hour I make one more agonizing trip down and back and pick it up and it will be ready to go! jsut plug that sucker in and start piling my programs on :) Cant wait.
gunna make some food, even though I'm too exhausted to be hungry, jeri wants food.
then out we go!