Thursday Art Walk 319

In Which I Experiment More With Paint.Net

So a few things:

1. Today is very gray and grody. Ech. Not my cuppa...
2. Coffee tastes great
3. The Monoprice For Kids tablet I have is not compatible with the software and computer I'm using, so I 'm in the market for an inexpensive tablet. I may have found one, but I'll look up more reviews...
4. I think I kinda like playing with layers and transparency in Paint.net
5. I like dinosaurs.

So without further ado, allow me to show you the fruits of my stupid labor: Dinorar

Dinorar base sketch; digital; 2020

Dinorar progress; digital; 2020

Dinorar!; digital; 2020

Yes, his toes are a bit messed up, and yes, you can still see the sketch layer, but... I'm kinda okay with that. Worst comes to it, I'll just go erase that layer lol!

But yeah, that was done 100% with a mouse! If I'm that okay with mouse only, I think I'll be able to do even better once I get a functioning drawing tablet.

What do you guys think? As far as very early digital attempts go, how is it?

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Talk About Tuesday 318?

In Which I Blather

It's been a heck of a month, guys.

It's both flown past and stuck around way too long.

The less said about how much this all sucks the better. You all know it sucks. You're living it, too.

Small consolation.

Still, I've been making progress in my artistic endeavors.

• I'm learning digital art (finally). I suck, but you have to be bad at something in order to get good.
• I'm making good progress on my book!
• I'm learning how to exercise without hurting myself.
• I'm learning new ways to play Breath of the Wild.
• I'm trying to figure out how to stream when all I have is a fairly... meh laptop.
• I learned how to use watch2gether
• I'm relistening to The Legacy Music Hour, my favorite podcast!

On the other hand...

• I'm losing track of what day of the week is what
• I'm bored out of my mind half the time and stressed out of my mind all of the time
• my sleep schedule is literally dead
• I don't like sucking at things before I get good at them so it can be hard to keep my spirits up
• I've started way more crochet projects than I'd care to admit...
• I haven't cleaned my room yet. I should clean my room.
• At least my hygiene hasn't slipped. Yet.

So yeah, it's kind of a bummer Tuesday. I woke up to snow (SNOW IN APRIL WTH), it's cloudy and bleh outside, and I just want things to go back to normal.

Which isn't happening just yet. I know I have to be patient. The more patient I am, the easier it will go.

I'll be restarting daily updates in May, guys - possibly with a new look if things pan out.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Thursday Art Walk 317

In which I made food art and have some updates for y'all

I ordered a pizza today, and in honor of this momentous occasion, I have made an art:

"Pizza Time"; Sharpie on legal size printer paper; 2020

But pizza isn't all that's on my mind today, because yesterday was a nightmare for a shocking amount of wrestlers and other employees of the WWE. Essentially, a bunch of really cool people (Hurricane, Fit Finlay, RUSEV, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows...) were axed with little fanfare via text message. All this as Vince McMahon is now one of the most powerful business men in America. Disgusting as all this is, I think the news that hit me the hardest hit today: We have lost Howard Finkel.

Finkel was one of the best announcers to ever grace the squared circle, and if you don't know who he is, I strongly suggest looking up videos of him. I guess there's one hell of a PPV going on in the afterlife because it feels like all the coolest guys are gone now. Mean Gene, Howard Finkel, Bobby Heenan... it's been a rough several years.

There's no word on a cause of death, and Finkel was only 69 years old.

What a bummer of a day.

I hope the rest of today goes well for all of you.
I hope you have good food and aren't too lonely.

I love you all.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Fiber Monday 317

In Which I Have Had A WEEK

So. It's been a while since I've said hello. This post is going up way later than I meant it to, and boy do I have a lot to talk about lol.

1) I got an early birthday present from my awesome partner:

This is my Starry Tato mug!

Since the Quarantine started we've been a little worried about how May will work - hopefully we'll be allowed to get together after the 30th, but with how bad this illness is and how quickly it spreads, it's better to be safe than sorry. Since my Birthday is in the 2nd week of next month, my partner decided to send my gift early :)

The mug is, of course, based on Starry Night by Van Gogh, but the bunny is @worriedpotato, an Instagram-famous bunny we both follow and love. Fitting, since my childhood stuffed bunny, Benji, is currently guarding my partner's noodles :)

I love the mug, and after letting it rest for a few days, I washed it up this morning and had my coffee in it.

Here is the problem.

You may be able to see from that photo that said mug of coffee is precariously perched on the side of my desk. I went to pick it up and on the turn to get it to my mouth, I just... let go for some reason. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the weird fruit fly that got into my room...

Regardless, coffee everywhere. Thankfully I use a pillowtop mattress pad to boost my bed's comfort level (the mattress suuuuuuuuucks), so that and the fitted sheet caught 90% of the coffee.

That left the other 10% to soak into my butt and my pillow.

Ugh. Not a happy morning lol.

But I grumbled and gave out and tore the sheets off of my bed and threw them in the wash. For the second time in 2 days. Because yesterday was Sheet Washing Day.

*sigh*

Anyway, I decided I'd get some work done on my crochet projects this week:

This is actually a very dark red crochet thread, not pink!

That's another delightful little headscarf I'm working on there, and it's maybe 95% done!

I swear, the photo flipped itself :(

This dragonfly headscarf is probably 50% done :) I like the pattern, but it can be a real bear!

And finally, this is my Lady Sibyl shrug... I promise there's been a little progress.

Sadly, Lady Sibyl has been largely neglected. I will be working on her more, today, but aside from that, I think I'll mostly just be watching a guy struggle to beat Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on Chaos-Mode lol.

Here's what else I've been up to:

• I made a cooking video yesterday, so if you missed it then, here it is now lol.
• The banana bread was baked on Friday or Saturday, I believe
• Unfortunately, yesterday was kinda crappy, despite being Easter
• I didn't realize that my dad needed a shower in the morning so I took one - instant heat with the old man
• Repeatedly in everyone's way no matter what
• Every time I went downstairs I got more anxious
• Nearly had a panic attack at dinner
• Dinner was very delicious, though, and hanging out with my partner in our chat made the whole day worth it
• I didn't qualify for the stimulus cash. Ah well. I'll just apply for more grants.
• I did succeed in selling a computer last week, so that was cool too
• I received a pack of 5 bricks of black garlic oil tonkotsu ramen!
• I ordered a 12 pack of mustard mayo yakisoba that shipped today
• I played more Pick Crafter, Coloring Pixels, and Merge Magic
• I read a little
• I worked on my novel a bit more :)

All in all, this has been a productive week, and I hope next week is even more productive with hopefully far less strife in my family.

If I go completely silent online, guys, don't get too alarmed, but please understand that my area is currently being hit with a pretty massive storm - heavy rain and winds up to 65mph (105kph)! Scary stuff, especially considering the tall trees lined up neatly with my windows...

Stay safe out there, guys.

Stay inside if you can, and cover your face if you can't.

We'll get through together, apart.

Love you all.

Go Enjoy Something,

FC

Talk About Tuesday 316

In Which I Blather About My Day/Week

Today is a fairly nice day - the sun is peeking out from behind puffy clouds, the stiff breeze keeps the bugs down, the birds are going bonkers outside, it's somewhere in the upper 40s/lower 50s (between 8.5 and 13℃), one of my neighbors keeps driving his crappy truck that sounds like a mail truck around for some reason, and I am grumpily awaiting ramen that might not arrive until sometime around the 28th...

Still, that means I won't be eating all of that Tonkotsu ramen by myself...

Regardless, here's what I've done so far today:

• I drank some coffee
• I tried to convince my cat that I was not a pincushion
• I got into a lively argument with said cat about whether or not she liked spaghetti
• It turned out that she thought my spaghetti leftovers were the source of the fishy smell. The spaghetti was not the source. That was my mother's lunch - fishsticks being cooked in the toaster oven.
• I had a second cup of coffee
• I crocheted some dragonflies into a headscarf I'm working on.
• I ripped out three rows from said headscarf because I'd botched two of them - neither of which was the row I'd been working on at the time >:(
• I was so annoyed by this that I did 25 assisted pushups and 12 squats.

I'm a bit tired today because I stayed up pretty late watching videos with my partner on watch2gether, a website that lets you share videos with a person or people! Say you want to watch a YouTube video with your best friend, but they live in Colorado. You go to the watch2gether website, open a room (which is super easy), and then you copy/paste the link for the YouTube vid you want to watch with your friend into the search bar in the Room. Click your video, pause it, and add your friend to the room. They'll be able to chat, video chat, interact with the video (play, pause, etc), change the background color, etc. You'll be able to do the same.

Once your video is done, maybe they want to show you a video from Dailymotion or something - they can! All they have to do is copy/paste the link to that video into the search bar et voila, you have another video to watch together.

Each room only lasts 24 hours, so you'll probably have to open up a new room every time you want to watch stuff with your friend(s), but I don't believe there's much of a limit to the number of people you can invite! There's all kinds of websites you can share from, too, and that selection increases incredibly if you download the plugin for Chrome. So go try it - it's a blast.

It also didn't pay me for this (I'm always very upfront if there's money involved - I like bragging about getting paid), so you know this is just an excited person blathering about something they're happy to know about.

A huge thank you goes out to Wolf Friendo and Llama Friendo, who told me about the website.

***

NOVEL UPDATE: I've written 859 words since April 1. Half of those were last night lol.

***

As for the coming week, here are my plans:

• I'll probably be watching a lot of stuff with my partner this week as a way to stay connected (and yeah, I'm really glad that video chat and watch2gether exist!!!)
• Thursday should include some Art from moi, but we'll see.
• I hope to have another 850+ words done by next Tuesday, so keep an eye out for that ;)
• I'll try and keep myself honest about physical activity, too. Hopefully I can get more pushups and squats done from here on out :|
• Gonna try to do more crochet this week, including disassembling the rat's nest my poor stash has become. It's seriously a wreck, and I am ashamed :(

I'm pretty pleased with the work I've done so far. I look forward to doing even more work, and I hope to have part 2 of the novel finished by May :)

How are your guys' projects going?

Are you keeping yourselves fed and clean? If that's all you can do right now, then that's fine, guys. I'd rather you guys be alive than be stressed out trying to finish a project. If you're reading this, that means you're alive, and that makes me happy. See? You've already pleased one person - you're alive and that's what counts.

I love you all.

Go Enjoy Something!

FC