I'm pooped. And I've been in my pajamas all day. So far I've only gotten like a fourth done of what I wanted. Oh well. I still have time. I did manage to finish my Ride a White Swan piece. Yikes. Glad it's done. Three to go! I'm so happy two of them are all inked and flat colored.

Got my re-do of the MST3K shirt from Spreadshirt.com...waaaaayyyy better on an American Apparel T. I wouldn't suggest getting shirts made by Bella. But yeah, I'm gonna fuckin' rock that thing sometime this week. I really have to get the whole show on DVD. So happy.

My adviser didn't show up for an appointment I made with her for figuring out my schedule. I'm kind of annoyed. It's next to impossible to get her to show up. I remember constantly having to wait for her at her office. What the heck is she doing all the time?! It's bad enough that they've switched everything that's required around in the concentrations, I have no idea what I need to take anymore. Hopefully I can catch her soon. And this time I am not showing up at the allotted time for juniors on registration day, I'm showing up with the seniors so I don't get fucked over again. They can suck on it. I am not having a repeat of last semester.

Went to see Mike Birbiglia on Friday with my siblings and a...friend. Sort of. Well the show was fantastic, and so were Meg and Mike. I've seen Birbigs twice now and loved him both times. Now I'm pumped for Eddie Izzard in January!

Homework time D: I'm gonna be tied up with it for a while...

Aw man, it's already past Halloween? Total bummer.

I just had the craziest weekend. I certainly drove quite a lot. Let's start with Thursday. After class, Jess, Matt, and I went to the gym, after which Jess and I headed for my home since I stupidly had part of my costume shipped there. We had dinner with my family and watched Velvet Goldmine and Flapjack. Next morning, very early, dad made us french toast and we headed out to do some shopping. First stop was Bananas; Jess got a sweet hat and I got a sweet coat. Then a party store for the final touch to Jess's costume. After some arts and crafts, we headed up to Jess's house where we carved a really stupid looking pumpkin and Andy did some homework. Finally we headed back to the dorm to get ready for the Halloween Bash!

I love that dance every year. It is such a blast. This year Kara, Jess, and I went as an Alice in Wonderland group - I was Alice, Jess the Mad Hatter, and Kara the Queen of Hearts. We were so awesome we actually won a collective second place in the costume contest! Somehow we'll have to split a $10 gift card to the store and deli three ways. Dancing was awesome, and food was good. JB was the Riddler, and that was super cool. I went straight home but didn't get to sleep till midnight, and since I was exhausted and had work at 7 the next day it was a poor combo.

Then yesterday, I worked, took a nap, and headed over to Newburyport with Kara and Jess for dinner! We ate at Oregano's, a really nice pizzeria. Looooved it. And I love Newburyport, I've never been there but I'd totally live there. It's everything I've ever dreamed of in a city. Brick-paved alleys, few cars, warm lighting, beautiful port, everything I could ever dream of. Gonna be doing my research. And it's only a half an hour away from Gloucester! Too cool.

This week will be sleeping and homework, both of which I've been severely ignoring for the past four days. I have some wicked ideas for my illustration project, and while they're not exactly what my teacher is looking for, I think it's too good an idea to pass up. I have to do some research on packaging and vinyl record sleeves. Trust me, it will be so cool.

Baaahhh I don't know anymore. Wednesdays are such a downer, especially if they're gross and rainy.

I'm getting really tired of illustration IV. No matter what I do, it's never good enough. Honestly, I know I've met with sexism in the classroom before, from all sorts of angles, but it's really incredibly frustrating when it's over something this important to me. Apparently I'm not as good at this as several of the guys in my class, and neither is Jess. I've put all of myself into my concepts and my art, and yet it's not good enough. Apparently "this is a concept class" means "write crappy children's stories" in teacher talk. My first concept was a story about women dressed like birds who treat each other poorly. And she thought it was better than my tribute to glam rock through fashion illustration, something I actually care about. Wow, cliche boring story or awesome visual clusterfuck? Just trust me, woman. I will blow the socks off my guy friends.

It really drags you down. J. Simon did that to me last semester. I got no positive feedback from him and he couldn't even remember my name after three and a half months. It's so frustrating when you're trying your hardest to please someone else with something you love and it just gets nowhere. I want to get better at illustration more than anything, but I don't feel like I've been improving much in the last year. I have to do it all on my own, and I don't like that the classes that are being paid for aren't helping at all. I'm doing fine in digital illustration, which is weird because my entire series in ill. IV will be done digitally. I want to feel like I'm learning something! All I've gotten is assignments, no lectures or demonstrations on how to be a better illustrator. And now one of my friends is being singled out by the teacher for side jobs. I want illustration jobs. Why not me? Is he better than me?I feel like I kicked his ass these past couple of assignments, so why not me? None of the other kids are getting these jobs either. I hate it when teachers play favorites.

Sigh....just venting a little. I'm watching the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre while working on my homework. Tomorrow Jess and I are skipping the second half of class for therapeutic reasons and going to the gym. Matt bailed on me today so I just didn't go...I think it's because since I started again my eyes keep going wobbly at odd intervals. Maybe a good rest will put a stop to it. Friday is the dance, and Saturday is Newburyport with Jess and Kara! Good times. Hopefully it will all go well.

So I've been to the gym twice in the past week. Feeling good. Managed to get through an hour today with my buddy Matt. Tomorrow with Jess! Soon I'll look like Batman. Hopefully not soon, actually.

I really haven't done any homework for days. And I'm loving it. I'm just about to start on some small anatomy work. I slept all day Friday, went to work from 7 till 3 Saturday and Sunday, and went to the Burlington Mall on Saturday with Jess to shop. It was nonstop for a while there. I decided to stay home last night and left for school this morning. Good night sleep.

I hope to have my first of four final pieces done for illustration by the end of this week. I'll probably get around to it Wednesday night. Bah, I have the next few weeks to work on them anyway. Hopefully I can stay on task.

Man, I can't wait for this week to get rolling. It's gonna be a blast.

Hmm...today was just not a happy day. I don't know if it was because I wasn't dressed at all how I'd liked to have been, or if I was just in a funk, but it sucked. Don't really want a repeat of today. I hate being a 15-year-old in a 20-year-old's body.

What do I have to look forward to? Hmm...oh yeah! My Alice dress arrived! Jess and I are gonna have a mega Halloween, like we did two years ago. It'll be sleepover next Thursday, followed by movies Friday, the dance Friday night, and I'm sure we'll get working out in there somehow. I'm pretty pumped for that. Not for getting up for work the next morning.

Work is so...ick. I haven't really hated my job before. Now I know I do. I think I'm definitely transferring back to Danvers. The Gloucester store is just terrible to work at. They are so hateful of the new cashiers and baggers, and they jump at any chance to shove the "rules" down everyone's throats. Yeah, having my ponytail over my shoulder because I've been moving around is against dress code. Fuck you guys. I'm going back to busyville, where at least they don't treat newbies like shit. And I'm not new. So shut up.

Let's see...all I wanna draw is ladies. Pin ups. Lolitas. Whatever I fancy. But NOOOO I have to do homework >:( All this homework is really dragging me down. I loved how over the summer I got to draw what I wanted to draw. Maaaaan. I wanna draw sexy ladies. I'd draw sexy dudes too but they have no fashion sense and flat bodies. Boooring.

I come bearing pictures! And I'm not posting my mesh of a vespa scooter, that process is retarded.

First some sketches! Hooray! I have one failed attempt at an illustration assignment. Here's the second part of the pirate lolita series, her name is Nor'easter. And the third part of the series, whom I have yet to name. I think I'll do these guys up in SAI, so I can get a little more used to the program.

And now some finished art! These are all class assignments, in my Ill IV class we had to think up three different stories and illustrate them, keeping in mind that we'd do four more illustrations for one of the stories. This was my first, a story where women dress like birds and act catty to one another. The second was just an illustration of an oiran, because they are so awesome. And the third is the story I'm gonna go with, I titled it Velvet Goldmine. I'm doing a series of fashion illustrations based on glam rock. They're all gonna have some references to glam rock acts - this one has a Bowie pin, a necklace resembling Ziggy Stardust's face makeup, several things pertaining to the lyrics of the song Velvet Goldmine, sunglasses like those of Marc Bolan's in the Ride a White Swan video, and a scarf inspired by the pants of Noddy Holder of Slade.

Busy week! I'm gonna sit down tonight and watch Velvet Goldmine, draw, and relax. I think I fucking deserve it. Nutty times.

Y'know, I actually have a bunch of sketches and a few final class illustrations I could post, but I just can't get around to scanning everything. I'll probably put a few things up on Monday or Tuesday.

Busy week! On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I have midterms. One test, one presentation, one final illustration plus three print outs. Siiiigh. I hope I have time to hang out with friends/go to the gym/go shopping once the bulk of my midterms are over. Fortunately I'm having a good time working on my illustration and the presentation.

I downloaded SAI the other day to try it out since a) it's free and b) every digital artist and their mom is raving about it. So far from experimenting, I really love the ink pen tool. I am such crap at digitally inking it's insane. But the SAI tool is really smooth and works super well, maybe I can do more purely digital stuff. WE'LL SEE.

Did I mention I'm going to see Eddie Izzard again this January? Well I am. And I am stoked. I'm going with my good friend Lacey and we are gonna get all dolled up and ride the train in since the venue is right at the station. It's gonna be off the hook! Yes.

Now to watch Conan and go to bed so I can wake up super early for work tomorrow D:

Having a pretty good time here at the ol' dorm. Finally stuck to an idea for my illustration IV assignment. Decided on oiran or the highest class of Japanese prostitute from the Edo period. Got into the mood by watching one of my favorite films, Sakuran. That Anna Tsuchiya is amazing. In any case I can't wait for this to be finished so I can start worrying about my third one.

Been watching Hercules the Animated Series pretty much nonstop for the past few days. I've had a set of CDs for a couple of years now that I got off of ioffer.com, but it was a sad set because it was 9 DVDs in paper cases and there were several missing episodes. Fortunately I checked back on that site last month and lo and behold, the remastered set had been released! It is indeed a glorious day. I gotta say, this is definitely one of my favorite shows of all time. I love every character (especially Herc <333). Happiness abounds.

I might be doing an Alice in Wonderland theme for Halloween this year with my friends! Just the thought of it makes me all tingly. Last year they did Peter Pan together and I was pretty jealous despite the fact that I was Harley Quinn, mostly because I've never done a group theme before. Hopefully this will work out! I love Alice. We gotta get together and discuss it, then I need to invest in my costume.

And jesus is it difficult to download Maka Maka. I need this amazing comic people!

You guys you guys, I just fell in love with this picture by Ming Doyle (_ming). I mean that's not to say I don't fall in love with all her pictures. Just this one especially. I wish I was a cute dude so I could dress up as Kon-El. His design is my favorite. Gawd people why aren't they drawn like this in the comics?!

School wore me out today. I'm glad I'm going home to relax tonight. I have a bunch of homework but that isn't really scaring me. It's all easy stuff, and since 4/5 of my classes meet once a week I have so much time to do it all. :D I think the only hurdle I have left to jump is the move to the Gloucester MB. It shouldn't be driving me crazy but it is. I guess it's because I know so many people in Danvers that I'm kind of sad to leave. At least it will be over soon and I'll be able to afford all the crazy expensive stuff I like to buy.

Someone has to watch the Thief and the Cobbler with me!