The small star that shines far in the night sky

I have two requests that I wonder if anybody can help me with... One is a wishlist item I'm trying to track down for my sister... Does anybody happen to have any episodes of the Angry Beavers cartoon series? I'd like to buy her a box set or something, but the only ones I've found are like $40, which is just too much... It'd be cool if I could make her a DVD of just a few episodes, even, because I think its really just a nostalgic favorite, and not really something she has to has to have... ya know?

The other request is stranger still... Eva's husband passed away a little over a week ago. There's a lot going on about that, including the possibility that she and her mom might stay with us for a while, as they search for a new home back down here in Orlando. The thing is, her mom speaks only Mandarin Chinese. There will be times when Eva is gone but her mom stays here, or stays alone in their new place, like when Eva's at work or something. Eva's told me many times that her mom gets bored or lonely... so I was thinking, what if I could track down some media in her language that she could enjoy?

So I was wondering if anybody happens to have any versions of their favorite movies... in Mandarin Chinese. I know some of you are kinda obsessed (and I mean this in a good way!!! LOL!!) with your favorites, and so maybe you've collected versions of your favorite movies in different languages, and happen to have some in Mandarin Chinese. Anything would be great. I'm thinking mostly along the lines of Disney movies, really, but anything would be good as long as its not you know... porn. XD

I know, I ask for a lot... lol. But any help would be appreciated!!! :D

I just stumbled across this, while reading an article on MSN.com - It took me a minute to realize that this is two different ads:



hahaha...

I want to send out Christmas cards to everybody this year toooooo!! :)

Usually I just ya know... send 'em. But it just occurred to me how disorganized I've become with all my phone numbers, addresses, etc... so I'm asking...

ADDRESSES, GUYZ?? If ya want a Christmas card this year... which, who doesn't?? ;) hehe.

Comments are screened! ^_^

In other news... I'm making hard work for myself. Putting away all my Hellboy, Wicked, and Harry Potter stuff, to make room on my shelves to display my Nightmare Before Christmas collection. My room is such a horrendous MESS though!!! Ugh. -__-;;

lol, ok, I get it! You guys wanna see SpookyCon photos? You got it!
( Spooky Empire's Ultimate Horror Weekend! Photos! Round One!! )

That's all the pics for now - I'm on Mom's computer, and these are the only ones I have access to, at the moment. Well, that's not true... I've got all of them up on my facebook, but I'm too lazy to go transfer them to my photobucket so I can post them. BUT SOON, I PROMISE! Besides, its getting late and I have a kinda big (or so I hope!) day tomorrow, and this car ad to my right keeps popping out at me and is getting super annoying...

So g'nite! And... more pics soon! Glad you guys have such interest in seeing 'em! :D

-ing.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! Hope its a wonderful day and you positively gorge yourselves with the pure joy of it all... XD

I'm getting ready to host my first ever fully do-it-yourself (myself!) art and craft show this weekend. Tired am I of trying to find places to show my stuff around town, most of which want way too much for fees to set up, and that sort of thing... so I'm taking matters into my own hands and doing it yard sale style! :)

Also... I need your input, here! - I never did post the photos from Spooky Empire's Ultimate Horror Weekend, and I wonder if anybody even cares to see them, at this point? I'll post 'em if ya do! Just... geh. I never posted the ones from our trip to RI/CT 2 years ago, either... heh. But yeah, let me know, and then they'll be forthcoming!

A man who saw my work and spoke to me at Festival of the Masters about possibly commissioning me to do a portrait of his son has actually come through and begun contacting me about that. That is SUPER awesome! And... I really need to get back to him. :)

In not as happy news, Eva's husband is in the hospital, in ICU. On what amounts to life support... the machine's breathing for him. His COPD, emphysema, and other lung problems all piled up, then he got pneumonia on top of that. Eva's a complete mess over it, and there's absolutely nothing I can do to help other than to let her know she can call me any time of day or night, and I will do anything I can to help. Which is nothing, right now. But if and when something does happen and she loses Bud, she's going to need a lot of help and support. She'll be moving back down here to Florida (from Georgia), and so we'll help her with that. His family isn't even around now, in what are probably his last days. Its just so sad. Poor Bud, even though I don't know him at all, and very much poor Eva. I feel so bad for her. :(

And... Bryant's coming over for turkey day tomorrow. I invited him, but then we got together last week and... ugh. It was like a full day of one reminder right after another just how much of a pure and complete ASSHOLE he can be. I mean, I don't think he really does these things on purpose, but... he can be so self-centered, sometimes. Has like, *no* imagination. Doesn't say "thank you" for anything. And I've known all this for a long time. Its just sometimes it really gets to me, and I start wondering if I really do still have feelings for him or not. Or if I do, WHY on earth I do. Its values like these that I just don't know if I can overlook a lack of, in a person, when it comes to the possibility of them being a significant other. Which I'm probably deluding myself into thinking will EVER happen, with him. Ugh. It gives me a headache to even think about it.

So, its time to do a meme, real quick. Stolen from feral_grinn:

Put your music player on shuffle, and write down the first line of the first twenty songs.
Post the poem that results. The first line of the twenty-first song is the title.

Dear Marni, I am so sorry:
The broken clock is a comfort
Pick me up in your arms
I'm being dragged down, down by the hand
Shiloh, is your name Shiloh?
I conjure up the thought of being gone

Lets have some fun, this beat is sick
Von Neumann probe programmed to multiply
All around me are familiar faces
Oh, Johnny wishes he was famous
Things you see in a graveyard

Hand me your hand, let me look in your eyes
Out from the night, from the mist, steps a figure
Distant flickering, greener scenery
I am in love with you
I can't feel nothing at all

Caught a lite sneeze, caught a lite breeze
You can depend on certainty
Your love is nothing I can't fight
Recollect me darling raise me to your lips
Help, I have done it again


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well that was a fun distraction. ^_^ In case you couldn't tell, I have a lot of REPO! soundtrack stuff on my playlist... XD

And now... Goodnight! :)

...but I return with some good news!

I WON FIRST PLACE IN MY CATEGORY AT FESTIVAL OF THE MASTERS AT DOWNTOWN DISNEY!!!



heeehehehehe! Yup. Last weekend! I chalked on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, for a total of about 25 hours of work. I chose to chalk a master work this time, art noveau master Alphonse Mucha's painting, titled "Fruit," from 1897.

Erica Hulbert showed up, and I hadn't seen her in 8 years or more. I got to meet her new man, Jim. It was so great to finally see her again!! Jen and Mike both came to show their support too, and of course its always great to see Jen. :) I felt really lucky when they called my name for the award, to have a whole group of people there cheering me on. ^.^

( Without further ado... PICS! (or it didn't happen, right? ;) )

All is well on this front. Got the flu, but I'm on the tail end of it now and feeling much better. Working at Spirit Halloween was fun. I may have one more day of work tomorrow... have to call and find out. It sucks getting sick when the employment is temporary to begin with. Blaagh!!

Oh man... I can't believe Halloween is OVER already, for another year!! :(

Ah well... ( I still have all my SPOOKY CRAFTS!! Earrings, bracelets, and hair clips!! )

Totally frivolous post time!

So... I'm an incredibly silly Steph, and I bought me some things...

1: BIOSHOCK!!! :D And I'm currently re-playing it! ^.^ I made it through the entire "welcoming" and the whole Medical Pavillion thing, on medium mode, though it was very sloppily done and I died a LOT. When I played the first time on 'easy,' I made it through the WHOLE GAME with only dying TWICE! ...So yeah. I fail... XD But I replayed most of the Medical Pavillion part tonight, and got some stuff I'd missed, and made it through with only dying once. So... I'm improving?

Funny moment: I came across a teddy bear sitting on a cabinet in the dentistry area. Mom was sitting on the couch next to me, and she loves teddy bears, so just to get a rise out of her, I shot it! She was in the middle of giving me hell for it, when I turned around, and there was a Nitro Splicer RIGHT BEHIND ME!!! O_O I literally jumped and SCREAMED out loud... XD Mom said that's what I get for shooting the teddy bear... lmao!!

2: REPO! The Genetic Opera! Sensing a theme here? I don't know what it is that draws me to these sorts of entertainments... bloody, gory, and genetically enhanced. *I'm totally normal! I swear! ^_^;; Haven't gotten a chance to sit down and (re-)watch it yet, but hopefully soon!

So those are my toys I bought for myself so far. I've also put aside a few things at work, so I can grab them when the store goes on 50% off, and I get my employee 25% on top of that...:

* A bottle of liquid latex! Its $17 a bottle, so I figure I'll grab it while I can for much less, and hopefully it'll keep for next year's zombie gettup for Spooky-con. ^_^
* A pair of rather amazing spike-heeled Converse style hightop pump/boots. FOR MY SISTER. No chance in hell I could wear those things... holy crap! Yeah though, that's gonna be a Christmas surprise for her. She came in and tried them on and loved them, but wouldn't get them for herself. ^_^
* A pack of skull bracelets - totally gonna cut them up and use the beads for my craftiness! :D

*I'm totally normal! I swear!...

* Finally, and what I'm most inexplicably excited about... SKELE-TWINS!!! :D :D I found two POSEABLE, (almost)fully-jointed SKELETONS! They're doll-sized, so about 18" tall or thereabouts. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!! The biggest one is just a regular naked skeleton, and then the slightly smaller of the two has on a black cape. I'm endlessly amused by these silly things... XD They're only $6/each but dude? 75% off!! So they're stashed in the back room in a bag with my name on it, for when the sale hits. YAY! I kinda equate them to those "Super Dollfie" dolls, except for you know... Halloween-obsessed crazy people, like me! :D They're totally gonna hang out in my room all year though. LOVE THEM. Only thing is, they're not ball-jointed, so their posability is limited in their spines, hips, and shoulder joints. I don't know if the heads turn or not. But the elbows, knees, wrists, and ankles are hinged and pose nicely. DOLLIES, YOU GUYS!! XD

Oh yeah! I took some pics on my phone! They're sitting on my purse:




Closeup:


Wheeeee toys!! ^.^

A few more pics from work - This guy was getting together with 3 friends so they could be the four Teletubbies... XD He was GENUINELY excited that we had the "Tinky-Winky" costume for him... wooowwww...


This is my long-time friend Brittany! I think I mentioned her before - randomly ran into her, after 10+ years, at Spooky-con, then we ended up coworkers when I got hired at Spirit!

I always have thought she was so pretty. ^.^

A touching moment at work - I got all teary-eyed and squishy about this after it happened - We're taking donations for Arnold Palmer childrens hospital. Everyone who donates gets to put their name on a paper pumpkin, and it gets added to the wall behind the check-out counter. A guy about my age came up and checked out, and showed me his military ID with his credit card. He asked if I was surprised to see that, and I was. He told me he was going back overseas in May, and I wished him luck. And then he filled out his donation pumpkin and left... and for some reason when I read his pumpkin, I got all wishy-washy. Hard to read, but its his full name, United States Marine Corps, 2nd maintenance... and some letters I can't make out.

But yeah... for some reason, it really got to me.

...

TOYS, GUYS!!

I have a thing for skulls and skeletons. I've always known this, but this year? This Halloween? Its become REALLY REALLY obvious...! ^_^

/totally frivolous post!

My photo post from Screamfest/Spooky Horror con has been delayed due to lack of time. Within a few days of the con ending, I got hired at Spirit Halloween store! :D Its temporary employment; they close shop around November 2nd-ish. But it has been a lot of fun so far, their cashier system is easy to learn and navigate, and apparently I do really well with it. So they are keeping me on that, so far, which is awesome because I'm not really good at helping people find things or try on things... so, front of the store selling the stuff? I can do that. ^_^

Plus, Brittany works there! Randomly ran into her at the con - it was the first time I'd seen her in about 10 years. And now we are coworkers! :)

So... hopefully I'll get to post the pics later today. Ray wants help with a school project, and we may possibly put up our Halloween decorations today at some point, finally. ^_^

Yay!

Check out the Thriller dance, and some of the footage from REPO! :D

...

I just came across this comment on my friend Craig's facebook. He was posting about being excited for Halloween. (I get to be part of his haunted house this year! :D) - Somebody loves their punctuation! But also thinks that more is, well, more. The comment:

Can't wait, for "Halloween", this year?.. You are, counting the day's, down from now!!.. I know it's your bested event, of the year?!... Good luck, now and see you, on "October 31, 09!!.. It's a "Saturday Night", this year!!.. Have a nice party this year!!.. Enjoy it!!...

Sorry, I just had to share that... XD

This year's Zombie walk costume:





Me w/Bill Hinzman:


More soon! :D

SCREAMFEST/Spooky Empire's Ultimate Horror Weekend (see why I call it the former?) was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ... as has come to be expected. ^_^

It starts: I'M SHOWING UP ON YOUTUBE ALREADY!! :D This year's zombie walk costume was my old Publix bakery uniform! And I am ALL UP IN this video!! Seriously - Count how many times you spot me!:



EPIC, huh?? :D Other highlights - at 0:14, the guy with the beard on the far left? He is SEVEN feet tall! I got photos with him, and he was really nice. He ate two of my zombie cupcakes. ^_^

At 0:38, its Bill Hinzman (WHO IS AWESOME!) - First zombie that appeared in George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead." (I've met him there at both of the other two times I've done this zombie walk/attended Spooky etc. con, but this time? HE SIGNED MY COPY OF NotLD!!!!! *Squeeeee!!* I jumped up and down I was so thrilled. Ray was like, "He's still standing right there, and he can see you, you know." I'm like, "I WANT him to see me!!" XD) He's posing with David, who's a really nice guy I met who came to the con with his girlfriend Layla, all the way from Puerto Rico! Can you believe that?? I hung out with them for quite a while during the con. They were awesome. :)

At :45, a collection of Michael Jacksons, and an acquaintance of mine, Bart. They were part of a group who did THRILLER! It was really well done and fun to watch. John Landis was there, as was one of the original dancers from the video - the girl who was MJ's girlfriend. You'll see John in the video, but I didn't recognize the girl...

Right after that - YOURS TRULY! Hahaha... nice zoom in on the nametag! Wonder if my former coworkers will see this... XD I did my makeup myself this year. Not bad, huh? ^_^ And yup - Zombie cupcakes! Their faces melted in the heat though. :(

At 1:05 if you pause, you can see my sister in the background on the far far right with a purple bandana on her head. Mom is right in front of her with dark sunglasses, then there's me, a new acquaintance also named Stephanie, in red right in front of me, and another new buddy, Martha, the short lady behind her! :)

I uh... have an odd little minor crush on our zombie walk emcee, the guy with the chainsaw and then the bullhorn. Standing on top of his rather fierce/fabulous hearse. I saw him without his makeup for the first time this weekend... cute! Way out of my league of course, which is why its a minor crush. This would be me with the thing I have for odd and charismatic characters. This guy really knows how to get a crowd of zombies fired up, and he does it with style. And then there's the whole rockabilly/hotrod hellraiser thing... and... yeah. Weird, I know. ^_^ I told him at the walk how much I appreciated him starting us off last year by yelling, "LETS GO SCARE SOME NORMAL PEOPLE!!" - I found it most inspiring, as that's one of my favorite things to do... XD He humored my dorky appreciation very nicely, and let me get a photo with him... Cool guy. ^_^

Love the skeleton/ribbon cutting "ceremony" ... XD

Bill Hinzman leads the pack at 2:20!

Face time with our extremely tall cupcake lover at 2:29, then John Landis at 2:32 (with the red tie)

Zombie Shrek & Fiona (and Donkey!) at 3:16, and my friend Denna with her bright pink hair in the background - she's in this in a few other places too.

"...Brains. Nom nom?" lol!

The aforementioned couple from PR and myself at 4:40!

Here's the photo gallery link that's mentioned at the end of the video. I've got a shot all to myself in there too!! :D One thing about zombie walks - Better not be camera shy!! ^.^

The Elvira in the photo gallery? That's a man, baby.

The black Michael Jackson in the thriller dance pics and in the video? That's a girl, baby. She's also an extremely talented dancer; Ray and I saw her in a shadow cast performance of "Hairspray" a while back. ^_^

The baby being held up by a lady in a green dress at the very last second of the video? That's a zombie baby, baby. I got a SWEET closeup shot of her with my camera. Wait til you see it!! XD

Like I said - LOTS of photos and great news/memories to share later on. A list of highlights so I don't forget, most of which will be expounded upon:

*Partying with Bill Hinzman!!
*Experiencing "Zydrate" Jello shots (prepare for much babbling from me about REPO! The Genetic Opera, too!
*Spiked Gummibears
*Drunk Steph!
*A performance by Enigma (Yup, the blue guy with the puzzle tattoos! He was there again!)
*Penguin in the pool
*A crazy awesome band called Psychocharger, who got nearly naked on stage!
*HUGE fake eyelashes, hairfalls, & a footwear malfunction
*A new friend named Danni
*Florida's Skunk Ape... XD
*Meeting Steve Gonsalves from TAPS!
*Meeting MAX BROOKS, who signed BOTH of his books for me!!
*A really weird but fun stunt show
*Meeting Jon Schnepp, producer, director and voice actor of METALOCALYPSE!!
*Dana Snyder's short film "Terror Phone," and his very odd way of running a panel... XD
*MEETING Dana Snyder!!! (MASTER SHAKE!!)
*MEETING TERRENCE ZDUNICH!! (Writer/"Graverobber" from REPO! (!!!!!))
*All kinds of art opportunities for me
*MAKING money at a con, instead of spending!
...
*Sadness that its all over. :(


K. Time for sleep. I'm still going on only 3 hours of sleep from Saturday night after having Martha (1:05 as mentioned above) and another new friend, Danni, hang out in our hotel room with us until nearly 5am... its now... O_O ... 4:45am Monday morning!! Wow. Hey body? You really have given up on trying to get tired and sleep normally, haven't you? Yeah. I'm nearly wide awake still here. Jeebus.

Getting ready for Screamfest/Spooky Empire's Ultimate Horror Weekend this weekend has taken up all my time and completely occupied my mind... Its going to be SO DAMN COOL!!!! I can't wait!!! :D I just wish I had costumes all planned like last year, and wasn't just doing a last-minute Zombie on Friday and being myself for the rest. But its ok! Its still going to be fantastic! I signed on at the message boards earlier in the week and have already started to make a bunch of new friends. Somebody's bringing ZYDRATE syringe Jello shots, guys!! OH SHI-! (REPO! The Genetic Opera! Seen it? YOU SHOULD! ^.^)

I really want to thank everybody for all the recent comments on recent posts, with my recent creations and stuff, recently! THANK YOU EVERYBODY!!! I'm going to go back and have a comment-answering marathon pretty soon here... I promise!!

Meanwhile - Check out this amazing video!! A "tilt-shifted" day in Disney's Magic Kingdom! Its so magical. I mean, it really shows you what a truly amazing place Disney is. Only thing I don't like about it is that my cute, adorable Spectromen are gone in the Spectromagic parade, and have been replaced with scary-ass face characters. :( Which you can hardly tell in the video, but I know... and I miss the old style adorable Spectromen.

Anyway! "Tilt-shifted" video. Basically this means they did that awesome effect where everything looks like its in miniature. So, so cool! :D

http://www.gadling.com/2009/10/02/tilt-shifted-day-in-the-life-of-disney/?icid=mainmaindl4link4http://www.gadling.com/2009/10/02/tilt-shifted-day-in-the-life-of-disney/

See ya after SCREAMFEST!!!!! :D

dragonfare? Remember when I said I was going to do a Manatee cake, and you asked if I could? Well I didn't want to answer until after it was made, just in case I found that I couldn't! But apparently... I can! :D


Manatee Cake by *webmyrcury on deviantART

( Jewelry sets - Necklaces with matching bracelets and/or earrings! )

Do you remember the poll I put up quite a while ago, asking which version of Ravenclaw's colors everybody liked best? Well, it had something to do with the stuff behind this next cut... I couldn't decide which colors would look best in the necklace, though, so I ended up going with a blend of both, for Ravenclaw...
( Finally revealed - A set of four Hogwarts-inspired lariat necklaces! )

And... that's everything! ^_^

Um... beware lots and lots of photos?

( Art pendants, which I may have already posted some of, but now they've on matching beaded strands, and there's at least one new one! )

( Big, bold, beaded bracelets! )

I'll put the rest of my newest creations in another post, to avoid image overload... ^_^

...Mom and Ray are gone for a while, so its nice and quiet in the house. I really should work on the huge website update I've been putting off for months, and post up all my newest creations on there, on here, and on Etsy. I just got done taking pictures of all the stuff I made last week...

...But the weather is SO NICE today! And David Wellington's Monster Nation and Monster Planet just arrived from the library, and I'm itching to read them.

...Hell with it. Its already been months since my last update. It can wait another evening. Right? Right.

**ditches interwebz and goes outside**

EDIT: Heh... I posted this to Craftgrrl and got myself a bit of a slap in the face. Apparently I'm an offensive white girl. Or something.
http://community.livejournal.com/craftgrrl/12803241.html?view=146620073#t146620073

Mmkay, so I want to show you my latest creation, and ask you for some thoughts, ideas, and inspiration!



( So I want to be a Voodoo Priestess of sorts, for Halloween... )

I never hear from anybody anymore!!!

Bryant told me he'd take me to go see "9." And of course, he backed out of it. Says he'll download it and bring it over so we can watch it. Gee, and here I was looking forward to going out and seeing it in a theater, like real people. Seriously, I don't know why I put up with him. And for the record, I'm going to take myself out and see it before he pulls that shenanigans, so that I can be like, "Oh no thanks, I've seen it already." -__-;;

That's my bitch for the day.

Now! I need to know some things...

1: If I sent you a star... um... ILU guys, but... am I gonna see any of 'em return? XD
2: DO YOU LOVE DR. WHO?? Because I do!! Tell me good things about it, but please no spoilers, I'm only on Season 3, episode uh... 3 or 4. POST YOUR LOVE. Squeeing is allowed and encouraged!!
3: What are you up to lately?? 10 words or less, just chime in with something quick and witty because I want to hear from you!
4: I'm all like, lonely and stuff, can't you tell?? XD
5: Wanna see copious amounts of photos of jewelry creations I've made lately? Because I'm on a real jewelry making kick, and there'll probably be an avalanche of them, soon!

6: What do you think of this song? Massive Attack: "Inertia Creeps" - I love it. SO MUCH. Its so sexy, with the heavy bass and the drums and the whole bit... Oh God. LOVE. :)

I'm invited to Jen's birthday party on 10/03, and she wants me to make her a cake. A Manatee cake. A cake in the shape of a Manatee. o.O

I'm trying so hard not to get depressed lately. So hard. It just seems like I have absolutely nothing to look forward to, and I'm just wasting time on this planet. I still have no idea what I'm doing with my life, besides making stuff every day. I'm going to an information session for SCAD on 10/11... Looking at the sheer EXPENSE of schooling there, is enough to freeze me in my tracks. Some more. -__-;;

7: Did you go to art school? Was it worth it? Talk to me about it! Should I go?

...Random shard of grey rubber on my desk is random...

So anyway... say Hi to me?

Tiz late. Sleep time is nigh. Or like, now. G'nite.

Got this from feral_grinn:

1. Name (and what should I call you?):
2. Birthday:
3. Where do you live:
4: What are you studying/What's your job:
5. What makes you happy:
6. What are you listening to now/have listened to last:
7. Why you're reading my LJ:
8. An interesting fact about you:
9. Are you in love/do you have a crush at the moment or name an important person in your life:
10. Favorite place to be:
11. A favorite quote:
12. Best time of the year:
13. Weirdest food you like:

RECOMMEND
1. A film:
2. A book:
3. A song:

FANDOM
1. Favorite Fandom:
2. OTP/OT3:
3. Icon/Fic Journal:

PLUS
1. One thing you like about me:
2. Two things you like about yourself:
3. Put this in your lj so I can tell you what I think of you?


~~~

Also, I'm on a jewelry making kick right now. Anybody got custom orders? lolz... **needs money** ^_^;;

A video I made (Tiz my CAKES!) :


And a video I LOVE!! Silly Symphonies, "The Cookie Carnival" ... aww... :D

I checked PostSecret late this week. (Just a minute ago.) This one is enough to make me cry all day. :(

Hey LJ land... Just wanted to post quick and say I'm still alive.

That's about it for now.

I started making some lists, last night. This helps me concentrate on things, sometimes. One of the lists I started making was my "Bucket List. Yep. My list of stuff I want to do before I kick the bucket.

...It was actually a decent movie too. 'Cept I don't particularly like Jack Nicholson.

Anyway... Since my LJ friends are some of my favorite people in the world, and since I like keeping track of stuff like this on LJ... I present to you, my Bucket List. From the strange and silly, the frivolous, to the bigger and more meaningful... Here goes:

* Wander into Kane's Furniture Yep. Did this one. I wanted to put it on my list, for a while before I actually wrote the list. Just always thought it looked like a cool place from the outside. And it reminded me of a game show that was on in the 80's. Bonus! Ray and I played hide & seek on the top floor... XD Big kids, that's us!!
* Have my beautiful dream wedding
* Have a great marriage to go with it!
* Get my eyebrow pierced
* Have at least one full sleeve of tattoos At least one arm full, if not both.
* Be a tattoo artist even if its not the career that lasts forever
* Work at Disney
* Have a gallery showing of my artwork
* Take Hip Hop dance lessons
* Touch, pet & feed a Giraffe
* Touch, pet & feed an Elephant
* Touch, pet, feed & actually be in the water with a Beluga Whale
* Visit New York City (and see Wicked on Broadway, if possible at the time)
* Visit jesskat in Holland
* Visit England
* Ride in the top deck of a double-decker bus
* Swim in a spring inside a cave in some far off remote beautiful place.
* Go to Disneyland
* Get a Daily Deviation on deviantART
* See Our Lady Peace in concert again and hopefully see them perform "Innocent" again
* Meet P!nk


That's it for now... Shall definitely be adding to this later on. :)

Tonight's "America's Got Talent"? EXTREMELY disappointing. What a bunch of CRAP! ... Grr.

I have been feeling a lot better since the other day. Which is good. I have kinda come to a point where I feel like I've got a decent amount of clarity on things. And... I feel like I'm at a crossroads right now.

I... don't want to go into a lot of detail and further posting about all this, because I feel like the more I talk about things, sometimes, the less I actually take hold of them and make them happen. So I'm doing an experiment in keeping my big mouth shut? ... Yeah.

Um... SO! Anybody into the soundtracks of weird 80's movies? With Prince in them?

I give to you my favorite songs from the soundtrack of "Graffiti Bridge." I have yet to see the movie... lol... but I have always loved the soundtrack. And somebody on yousendit_ actually requested one of them! So here you go, in the order they appear on the cd:

"Elephants and Flowers" - Prince
"Round & Round" - Tevin Campbell w/Prince
"Thieves in the Temple" - Prince
"Still Would Stand All Time" - Prince ... this one, I'm pretty sure I've posted before... but I love it, in all its strange and somewhat dreary yet hopeful glory. ^_^

Let me know if you take any. And your thoughts, if you have some. :) Enjoy!

Annnnd... yeah. I'm gonna do some stuff, then hit the hay. ^_^

9 Gatherer Alert Crab by *webmyrcury on deviantART

:) The shed in our backyard is all crappy inside... the floors, I mean. Made for some great photos of my 9 creature. ^_^

Just had a long conversation with the family. And I've decided to stop feeling like shit.

And I created my first creature for the Beasts of 9 contest, today. ^_^ He's very cute and quite awesome. Better pics soon, but for now, crappy cel phone pics:





Yes, he's made out of a plastic toy machine bubble! And other stuff... :D

Thanks for your thoughts on the previous emo post. Sometimes I just have to vent all my insecurities and uh... spill my guts. I'm on shaky ground with things still, right now, but I can see some light at the end of this particular tunnel. Time to stop walking away from the few opportunities I do have, and try to make the most with what's been given in the hopes that more will come along. I'm being vague, but I'm also pretty tired and aim to not stay up all night tonight...

So yes. Creature! ^_^

Hmm... Will Steph be entering this here contest? Why yes, yes I believe so!

Duuuuude!! Make a creature out of FOUND OBJECTS?? I'm THERE!! :D :D

One more thing to add to the previous Hellboy collection post - ( A customized ceramic Cow statuette, which goes by the name of Agent HELLCOW! )

Also, he has a fine feathered friend who'll never cry fowl! This customized creation was for privytodoom, who is *obsessed* with Blue Beetle, but she owns every damn thing related to the guy. So what to do for birthday presents?? Well, she loved Hellcow when she saw him, so it seemed only natural to scour the local yard sales and second hand stores to find similar fodder for customization. After a few days of searching, I turned up a rather cute little bank that was quite ducky! Yellow ducky! Some paint, paper clay, and aquarium marbles later, he became... ( Blue Beetleduck! )

I hope to do more of these in the future. I can see a whole line of barnyard heroes... hehehehehe... :D

...let me show you it... ^_^

I said a long time ago I was going to post up some pics of my room. Well, I took the pics. I even uploaded them to Photobucket. And then I promptly forgot to actually *post* them!

So, inspired by junoluver's awesome Pokemon collection diorama post - ( Here be my Hellboy shelf diorama... twice! (25 640x480 pics) )

I'll be posting lots more pictures soon! I just figured the Hellawesomeness needed its own post. ^_^

Taking a moment on my birfday to update about my birfday! :D

First of all, THANK YOU EVERYBODY for all the birthday wishes!! You guys are awesome!! <3 Between LJ and Facebook, its like a good-wish-'splosion! :D Thanks thanks thanks!!

My mom and my sister, with help from Justin, built me a CUPCAKE TOWER!! O_O It is GLORIOUS! And they had it all built and assembled and loaded up with FIVE DOZEN cupcakes, all on the table in time for everybody to arrive here on Saturday for my b-day party! :D The cupcakes were lovely too - all swirly with DINOSAUR sprinkles and.... AND!! STAR sprinkles!! :D All Lisa Frank rainbowtastic awesome...! :D :D :D Seriously, the yellow frosting and the orange are like, NEON. Beauuuuutiful!! :D

And then Jen walked in and put a big bunch of balloons on the table next to the cupcake tower! MORE color and awesome pretty!

And then... and thennnn...! (Warning! Mushy girl moment ahoy!) - Bryant brought me a beautiful mixed bouquet of flowers! ^.^ One single red rose bud with colored daisies (my fave!) and carnations and irises and other little flowers I'm not sure what to call, and a little purple feather thingy stickin' up too... awww! I about melted. Seriously. Nothing makes me feel quite as special as flowers on my birthday. And they were from my guy thing. :D hehe!



The party was awesome! We swam, we played Apples to Apples. Bryant and Justin cooked up some amazing awesome burgers for everybody. Brent didn't get eaten by ants. Keith came, and he gave me a Fridays gift card, yay! Colleen gave me a bunch of awesome Coco Pink soaps, which smell awesome. :) :) I have a LISA FRANK birthday banner hangin' across the kitchen entrance! And Jen got all kinds of balloons which got hung all around the house, AND she covered the driveway, walkway, and most of the back porch with glitter confetti... hahahaha...! XD Awesome, but its also now tracked in all over the whole house and keeps randomly getting stuck to me. XD

Bryant came back over yesterday for more burgers and cupcakes and general hangin out. :)

I had a lovely drive out to pick up Justin on Saturday morning, but took my life in my hands to drive him back Sunday afternoon - Not only did I take a wrong turn and end up in tourist traffic, but I drove straight into a horrendous big scary downpour. Total whiteout on the road; the glassy surface of the road reflected the white sky and white rain, making it very difficult to discern where the WHITE lines were. The PT Cruiser became more of a cruising BOAT going down the road. It was scary...! But I made it home alive.

There's a little pile of presents in the living room waiting for me. I just got to open a few of 'em! Ray got me 3 Hellboy comics - part 1, 2, and 3 of 3, of a story arc called "The Crooked Man." So yay I have a whole story arc to read now! :D I got some Lemonheads candy (my fave, lol!) and some emory boards for my nails... XD And some plastic skeletons to have fun with! Its the little things, really. My family knows me. :)

Yayyy its mah BIRFDAY! hehehe. The shuttle didn't go up last night, but may go up tonight. Well... 1am, so technically tomorrow... but I'll still be awake, therefore it'll be going up on my birthday! :)

I feel all special and awesome. <3

I can haz b-day party today? Yes. Can haz. ^_^

HEY RAIN!! You are going to stop, yes? YES. Thought so. :)

Wuuuuuuug... :( Dreama's got fleas again. :( :(

I've started doing some simple bead necklaces to go with my painted art pendants. They're looking lovely so far. :)

Went out last night to Orlando Rocks at House of Blues. We missed "Johnny Plastic & the Rubber Band," but got there in time to see "Black in the Mind," "Mr. Bella"(!!!YAY!!!), "Irrational" and finally "In Violent Times." Whom we didn't actually get to see...

IVT got on the stage and started playing the first song of their set. Ray and I were up in the balcony, at the time. We had never seen this band play before. I was sitting there thinking how awful the lead guy and a few of the other guys looked in their tight skinny jeans, and how the lead singer had a really whiny voice and I was glad I didn't pick up one of their free cds. Suddenly, one of their equalizers or whatever the equipment is, and electronic box thingy with switches, dropped to the floor of the stage, cords scattered all over to the edge of the stage and down to the floor. I figured it had just fallen, and one of the backstage guys came running out to retrieve it while the band carried on. Then came the chaos...

The lead singer stopped singing and said on the mic to his bandmates, "Stop stop stop! Everybody stop!" The drummer carried on for a bit, but finally stopped. People started running out from backstage, and jumping off the stage at the front. I started hearing the people around me saying, "He's not getting up!" I had had a few drinks, so my reaction time was slowed a bit, but I finally asked the girl in front of me what had happened. Apparently, their guitarist had been jumping around kinda close to the edge of the stage, didn't realize how close he was, and FELL OFF! This is like a good 5' drop, at LEAST, straight to the floor...

I asked Ray if she'd seen what happened, but she said she hadn't been paying attention to anything but how awful the band looked in their skinny jeans... XD

Eventually, one of the other guys in the band got on the mic and told everyone the show was over because the guitarist wasn't getting up. Someone in the crowd yelled out "IS HE OK??" - to which the guy on stage said he was, but they were going to take him to the hospital. Ray and I were there for quite a while, hanging around afterward, and the guy never got up. EMTs came and checked him out and stuff, but he still was just laying there not moving...

We finally went outside, after a bit, and were just standing around and stuff. Some people asked me to take a picture of their group for them, and I did. Then one of them asked if he could take a picture of my boots, because he thought they were really somethin. I was wearing my shiny black "bitch boots," as I call them, which have about a 4" sole all the way around. So I let him take the pic... lol random?

Anyway, we went and got some munchies at Perkins afterward, and were still in disbelief over what had happened... XD All the bands we've seen there over the years, Rob Zombie, Killswitch Engage, Jet, Disturbed, Sevendust, Guano Apes, and Stabbing Westward, just to name a (very) few - yet the carnage happened at a hometown local rock show... Wow. XD

I'm gonna go check IVT's myspace to see if they've commented on whether the dude's ok...

Saw Repo! The Genetic Opera yesterday at Bryant's house. It was pretty awesome, though somewhat hard to follow. And the singing of EVERY. SINGLE. WORD. of the show... was pretty distracting. I kept thinking of everyone I've ever known to say they don't like musicals because they can't stand people singing at each other to communicate, and thinking that it was musicals like this one where they DO do that, that give musicals a bad name. Like... Wicked. Is, needless to say, a bloody fantastic amazing awesome perfect superior show, and they *don't* sing every single line to each other, there are speaking bits supplemented by songs to amplify the importance of... the important parts... Or at least that's how I see it. Same with RENT and Lion King and Chicago, etc. etc. ...So anyway... Repo. It was cool! Its the kind of awesome that I enjoyed at the time of watching it, connected to several of the songs in it enough that they're stuck in my head the next day, and so then find myself thinking about the show more today than I thought I'd be. Um... which is to say that when stuff gets stuck in my head, it means its good.

I don't communicate very well.

Anyway, Repo was cool. I'll shut up now.

Making this post via my cel phone under an overpass. Out with mom and Justin and got a flat tire. Lol. Oh life.

lol posting for no other reason than to show off the icon I just made... XD I'M OBSESSED, OKAAAYYY? XP

...wow, two of those in a row. Hmm.

Anyway, hi! :)

Heyyyy here's a list of stuff!

** Between Mom, Ray, and myself, we voted for Jeanine on So You Think You Can Dance a total of 652 times tonight!! O_O If she doesn't win, I strongly declare shenanigans. SHENANIGANS!!! I seriously don't see why the judges keep saying Kayla's so talented... She's... floppy! Jeanine is SO much more graceful than Kayla... I don't get it. -__-;; But yes. 652 times!!!! :D

** Listening to Sia, right now. Not bad! Also, listened to Imogen Heap for the first time today. LOVED that. I'd heard some of her stuff before, here and there, but the whole album is gold. I love it. :)

** PEOPLE DOING STAR-ARTS FOR ME!! They finally got sent out today! Expect them sooooooon. :D

** Making a Moogle birthday cake tomorrow, for Ray's man. So she can take it down to Miami this coming weekend and break up with him. Uh... o.O Well, I get to make another fun cake anyway! ...O.o

** I need to do more art. Lack of that lately makes me :(

** Bryant's starting a new job, and culinary school. The job starts next week, and school in September. I uh... don't know how I feel about this. I know that I sorta feel like the last of the Mohicans, here. Everybody's schooling, everybody's working. 'Cept me. And I still don't know what to do about it. -__-;;

** Ray & I went to Blue Springs with Jen and Mike this past Friday. It was AMAZING!! And super super cold, of course. Beautiful though. Especially when we were at the head of the spring and it started raining. We got to the edge, along the rock face and under the overgrowth of trees, which made sorta a natural umbrella for us. Jen and I later swam out to the mouth of the spring and watched the rain from under the water's surface (dove down and looked up)... Breathtakingly beautiful. COME VISIT FLORIDA so I can take you there!!!

** Inspired by junoluver, I am now contemplating a group cosplay of Splicers from Bioshock, for either Spooky HorrorCon in October or MegaCon next year. Hopefully enough of my local comrades who are into Bioshock will join with this, and it shall be super epic. So far, there is enthusiasm to this end. :D

** Its almost 3am, and therefore time to hit the hay. G'nitey!