Only one bottle left, but of the ones I can reorder the Alpineglow and the Cranberry stay my favourites.

We tried The Mead of Inspiration tonight. Very complex flavor, and Clara and Marianne determined it would be nice chilled. It's missing the spiciness that drew everyone to the Alpineglow in the first place, kind of a mix between it and the Olde Mead (It also had a bit of a floral taste.) I wouldn't be adverse to drinking it again (in fact, I find myself taking a b---



---reak to go into the kitchen and pour myself another glass...^_-)

Despite the fact that we still have the Cyser to imbibe, I'll be placing an order with more Alpineglow and Cranberry. (the cyser is sold out, and ergo isn't a reordering option.) I want a bottle here for when my mom and sister are in town at the beginning of august.

Oh right. and you too, Emily. I guess you can have some.

Tags: boozahol, mead, online ordering, taste testing, whut
Topical Aura Level: tipsy

OK. Just a bit of back story... Here at Unnamed Company we've been pushing for life drawing sessions for a while. "It will overall improve our art" we say, "and it's a good team-building exercise!" and of course "The rest of Unnamed Company gets to do this!"

so we pushed and pushed and pushed and eventually we were told "Gratz, you got it!" and so every other Wednesday we'd travel up to the university and get to draw naked people for four hours.

...

A little bit more back story: I've been doing life drawing since I was sixteen. I'm twenty-four now if that gives a bit of perspective to that. Formally (with classes) I've done about five years of this stuff, and I'm still not a master (Who is, really). But I was a little bit perturbed when I discovered this was a class. With an instructor. We'll call her T for now.

The first day started off bright and shiny. We received fancy new art supplies (Yay! a full Staedtler pencil set! Conte! Pastels! pour moi? :D) and then we got an outline.

An outline?

We didn't sign on for a class. We thought we were just getting an opportunity to study the model and work on things that we recognized the need to work on. But apparently we were being taught, and I think that T was under the impression that we were accountants or something, because it was a beginner's class.

I put up with the first class. We had a fantastic model that I wasted by drawing without looking and with my left hand for four hours, but I was pretty much done with that crap by second class. I get so few male models that I was going to take advantage of every one I get (wow. That sounded bad.) And, really, I was being complacent until she started Doing It Wrong.

"Today we're going to study perspective!"

Just as a quick note:


(n) : a view, vista or outlook; the appearance of depth in objects, especially as perceived using binocular vision

So I'm thinking 'yay! Contours and interesting poses where I can study foreshortening!'

"And you can use whatever sighting techniques you want to get the perspective correct!"

'Cool, I was pretty good at that back at CATO... they had me tutoring the guy next to me ...'

And then she told the model to just stand there with his hands at his sides and proceeded to get annoyed if we didn't use the head counting system. This, of course, meant that she would wander around the room and draw on top of your drawing the 'head counts' she was seeing.

For the non artists on the list: head counting is a way of determining proportion by measuring the size of the head with the end of your pencil and your finger, then counting how many units of that measurement are in the figure. It's a Greek method, and there's a lot more to it than that (like how it was used in idealizing the form) It also doesn't work if you're sitting below the model. (This technique was designed to be used if you were on the same plane as the figure)

So backtrack. We were told we were doing Perspective, which is the appearance of depth in objects, but were in fact doing Proportion, which is relation between elements and a whole... or, yanno, the size of his arms in relation to his torso etc. And we were told we could sight however we wanted, but were being bitch slapped for not doing the head counting system.

Right.

She was drawing over people's sketches (Like I said) and when she came up to mine, she decided we needed to count heads together. So I watched as she counted... And noticed something interesting. She was dropping the tip of her pencil on an angle, which meant that as she counted, every head was shrinking. This would be great if it was a top down view, but it was a slight bottom up (meaning that if anything, the size of the unit of measurement should have been growing as she went down, for proper perspective... but whatever.)

I called her on it, after she triumphantly announced 'Nine heads.' (PS: Back to the Greek Cannon system, eight and a half heads was called the 'heroic' figure, and was used almost exclusively for gods... This guy was tall, but no god... The human form is generally between six and seven and a half heads and I at least was counting seven and a half WITHOUT DROPPING THE END OF MY PENCIL THANK YOU.) and we had a bit of an argument which consisted of T saying 'no I'm not' and me going 'yes, you are!'

She came around a couple other times, but by that point my ear buds were lodged in my head and as my fellow Hen-Housians know, I can hear nothing of the outside world when they're in. So It looked like I was completely ignoring her (Which wouldn't be surprising considering our arguing earlier, but out of character for me to be honest.)

In two weeks we do this again. God grant me the patience...

Tags: stupid instructor, whut
Current Location: k-town
Topical Aura Level: blah

I bought a dress. Strapless formal, in espresso colored satin, boned with zipper back. It actually looks good on me, and it fits almost perfectly. (sliiiightly loose in the bust, but not enough to warrant a fitting.)


This after hours of discouraging plodding around kelowna looking for something to wear to the staff (formal) christmas dinner party (at the Grand Ballroom). I'm vaguely shaped like a potato, so if it's not involving a bodice, which few commercial dresses not counting the ones in prom and bridal shops are, I look like a potato in expensive fabric.


I wouldn't normally blog about this, but you know me and formal. I skipped prom because of the hassle, and if I had gone, I was considering a tux with tails instead of a dress. It's so retarded. Clara, Carmen and I are getting appointments for next friday to get our hair and makeup did, and I'm very much considering a pedicure... for y'know. Wearing sandals or something. Closed toe makes Jesso weep. And I like Toepolish.


on the other side of things, I'm playing Not-Warhammer with the company's VP today at lunch. And I forgot to bring my dice. :/

Tags: geek in a dress, whut
Current Location: werk
Topical Aura Level: amused
Middlin Soundtrack: Legend of the Seeker, the melodic strains of Erin

Arbitrarily went to The Level tonight for the pre-Halloween-Saturday clubbing experience. My feet hate me (I wore shoes that are too narrow. It felt like I was attempting to slice my baby toes in half with the edges of the sole.) The guy at the door let me, clara and carmen in for ten dollars, because the cover fee was five each and clara had thought the 'go in costume, get in free' rule applied that night.

No.

Anyway, so nothing much happened beyond that. I had a long island iced tea, but couldn't afford any Brightly Colored Things That Come In Test-tubes because of the SUPPLIES!Cover fee. Landis showed up with a couple friends, and Was Awesome. Aaron showed up with his girlfriend too.

And then I went home and took off my bodice. That is totally the best part of the entire thing. :D It's like AHHHHH. FREE BOOBS.


Oh, and Patrick is drunk. Because he imbibed too many beers, because Mandy wanted to see him drunk. And now he is sick in bed and she's nursing him. I laff.

anyway, not much boob content here, just thought I'd write that to draw you in.

Tags: boobs, whut
Topical Aura Level: tired

D:

Behold, the trailer for the film 'The Seeker', which once upon a time was supposed to be 'The Dark Is Rising' (an adaptation of the novel by Susan Cooper, classic kids fantasy, and a darn good book.)

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/theseekerthedarkisrising/medium.html

I sat there going 'the...hell?'. If I hadn't known what it was, I wouldn't have even began to recognise it. When the guy (merriman I presume) begins rattling off will's super-powers, I couldn't even laugh anymore. D:

Eccleston! WTF DUDE!


And here's a list of everything they changed. Warning, the list is long, and there's no reason for most of these changes.

http://community.livejournal.com/authorblog/5880.html#cutid1

Tags: bastardscripts, movie, plotfucking, whut
Current Location: home
Topical Aura Level: hell...
Middlin Soundtrack: Voodoo Child- Rogue Traders

I'm going to steal ideas shamelessly from Katpants for a moment, but things are coming up and I'm in need of some extra cash.

The basic plan is as follows: for 25$ CAN, you get 5 500x500 full CG character portraits, of the characters of your choice (Yours, mine, your friend Debbie's... just not copywrighted characters, please.)

That's 5$ for a finished commission, which is an incredible price for any commission. My going rate these days (and I'm talking my Zamoof! work, which is (indeed) commission) tends to be upwards of 75$.

anyway... so...er... Anyone interested???

Tags: art, commission, whut
Current Location: Howse
Topical Aura Level: hopeful
Middlin Soundtrack: Nighthood Theme

Because i'm so severely lame, and I wanted to write them down before I forgot. XD

Miranda Otto (Eowyn, Lord of the Rings) as Victoria Conrad
(Well of Shadows, Lady of Freedom)
Total no-brainer. Eowyn and Victoria are very simliar characters to begin with and the way Vick's face is described is a perfect match with Miranda.

John Simm (The Master, Doctor Who new series) as Pre-Gambria Razman (Definately Not Cannon*)
Because he's energetic, skinny, and has this shit eating grin like whoah.

Young Alan Rickman (Specifically Hans Gruber in Die Hard) as Cliff
(Dark Rapids Chronicles - The Five Quarters)
But if he says 'little do you know', we're obligated now to stab him in the throat.

Young Daniel Day Lewis (Gangs of New York) As Kirus VanTrel
(Krell, Pretty much every campaign, ever...)
Because Cody said so.

Sendhil Ramamurthy (Mohinder, Heroes) as Cade Braeden
(Well of Shadows)
...Because he's hot and I'm vain.

Young Kevin McKidd (Vorenus, Rome) as Rune Braeden
(Definately Not Cannon*)
But less 'grrr' and more 'ah.'

*Definately not Cannon being random dialogues between cody and I that have no bearing on reality.

and i'm off. in the Lamemobile. Doing 100 Lames per hour!

Tags: mymanta, whut, woo
Topical Aura Level: amused

So we've had two more sightings of the mystery spider (yanno, the toonie sized one that scared the shit out of us...) so I took it upon myself to (urg) look it up on teh interwebs. I really want to know what this thing is, considering that besides our freak sighting/killing of it... Clara took out ANOTHER one in carmen's room, and Emzor had the pleasure of meeting one.

As far as I can figure, it's this freakish realative of the Wolf Spider that has decided to move into the south of BC. Zora hespera. If you google it, and image search, it's the one with the loooooong legs. Basically... We and Vancouver have it, and no one else in the world does. >_>

On the other hand, every resource i'm finding about it (and other spiders that look like it) say it doesn't bite unless provoked (though they didn't say if it was venomous or toxic...) So, on that note, i'll make sure I just kill it in one blow. -_-

Tags: bleh, guh, spider, whut
Topical Aura Level: tired

Ok, well, it's that time of year again to be searching for roomates! Carmen, Clara and I have a free room, for anyone who's interested in living in the Kelowna, British Columbia area.

COOL STUFF:

-Rent is about $312.50, with $60 utilities per month.

-Kelowna's lower mission area, practically next door to Okanagan College and on the #8 route which goes straight to the UBC Okanagan campus.

-15 minute walk from groceries, fast food, video rental, clothing stores, trinket stores, liquor stores, and an assortment of pharmacy

-#8 route goes past orchard park mall, and we are also on the #1 bus route, which goes down town. Both places are the largest bus transfer hubs.

-Dishwasher, washer and dryer, and air conditioning.

-Wireless internet available. We also have a land line phone.

ROOMATE WARNINGS:

-Diverse range of religious beliefs, from Agnostic to practicing witch, to Christian. Must have an open mind in regards to such things, or not give a shit. either way, will not put up with intollerance.

-We're all girls (except for cody, but his apartment is seperate.) this doesn't mean we're adverse to boys taking up residence in that room, but it's a warning. Boy would have to share a bathroom with two women.

-No minors. We really don't want to deal with that. We are 21, 22, and 24... Younger is fine if you're mature.

-Uni people welcome, but note: Most of the house has graduated, and the anyone who hasn't is on their last year.

-We play dungeons and dragons. We will not put up with mocking on that fact. On that note: we would love it if any potential roomates wanted to play too.

-We're tidy. This doesn't mean pristine, but we don't like a sty. Your room is your own business, unless it starts to smell and/or threatens the damage deposit.

-We're not interested in Cable/Sattelite/channels of TV. We watch a lot of movies, but that's about it.

-We're fairly quiet. We have lots of people doing lots of different things during the day, which means that when other people are home the music needs to be at a lower level. Exceptions for parties, in which everyone participates (hopefully.)

-We have a novelist, two illustrators, a teacher in training, and a randomly crafty person living here. Creativity is an asset.

If you're interested, or know anyone who is, email me at cothesteve@gmail.com

Tags: help, house, kelowna, roomate, whut
Current Location: Kelowna
Topical Aura Level: busy
Middlin Soundtrack: Talking

Icon not used for entertaining value, but for the fact that it just...er... kind of happened in session.

Rooke is officially gone AWOL. Not sure if it's completely permanent, but I suspect next time we see him actually being him, it'll be just before he dies. Until then, he bleeds from the eyeballs and is shackled into his own skin. Which is awesome. Sad, but awesome.

We battled about a bajillion ogres/droon soldiers tonight (and well into the morning.) which is quite the feat for a bunch of low level mystics (in case you don't know, the gimmick of our campaign is that all the PCs must be Wizards. Which means iddy bitty HP and no tank.) We lost Rooke, Ted, Amara's sister and cousin, Symphony The Elf, and King Conrad. Almost lost Kirus (despite his plot protection), AchDeep and Jolly Tom.

Sick part is, entire battle I only fire off one spell. People kept cornering me in Melee the entire night. >_> I mean, yes, Fastosus DOES rule, but wow I'd really like to do something else. Even shocking grasp would be great.

So now Phage is good... Jolly Tom survived, she's still pregnant, and she didn't even have to worry about AchDeep.

Kaali lost her father, but Kirus and Amadeus are fine and she's gained a new puppy.

I (as Cade) am dealing with everyone around me mourning. Victoria lost her pretty-much-brother (the king), and my daughter is...er... seven... so she's also crying buckets. Me as Jess cried. D: But I always do.

And Amara is stuck alone in her room with a creepy fire elemental.


On the upside, Victoria is very pregnant. WOOO. RUNE EXISTS! AND HE MAY OR MAY NOT BE THE MYMANTIAN EQUIVILANT OF JESUS! Because, er... Rune is the Child of Light. and Sable is the Child of Darkness. and Razman is the Child of PHENOMINAL COSMIC POWER. and whatever it is that Kirus and Kaali spawn will be the Child of Emo.

Tags: dnd, mymanta, whut
Current Location: howse
Middlin Soundtrack: Carmen jingles when she walks up and down the stairs