And in creeps the morning

I finally finished my first one!

I wish there were better ones in a line with "zombies" but oh well. I'm trying to get better at chibis! ETA I just noticed somehow Rodney's shirt never got shaded?? Erm...

Also I know I keep griping that I never have weekends anymore, but seriously! Today I addressed wedding invitations for my friend's daughter because I can do calligraphy. I did three before the nib broke (>_<), so we went to Hobby Lobby...but on the way we stopped at my friend's house to check on his cats, where she noticed her tire had a weird bulge, so we went to the tire place, and since it was going to take an hour, we went to a resale shop and to Cold Stone Creamery, then finally to Hobby Lobby. So that was, you know, four hours. Then I got about 1/4 of the envelopes done before my hand gave out. Which took...almost three hours? Plus there are place settings...nnnnhhhhh....But she's feeding me, so that's okay. But there went my day.

Enough blather! Time for bed. Kitten agrees...Pheenie, that is. She has started crawling in through the collar of my shirt and falling asleep on my stomach, which is both endearing and really weird. Think kangaroo. It was okay when I was wearing sweatshirts, but now that it's warmer, it's really strange to have her in my t-shirt. I hope she'll realize when she gets too big for it.


I couldn't help but snap a photo...though she's all tucked in now and snoring....

I walked into my bank yesterday and saw a notice that it had been shut down by the FDIC as of 4:00 pm for "bad business practices." But also that it would reopen Monday as a branch of another bank, not to worry, business as usual.

But because of a US Cellular snafu (they sent me an automatic payment notice and they charged me twice what they should have), I went online to check my bank statement.

Hooooooo boy. My bank statement is...interesting. All of the stuff from yesterday and today is messed up. My paycheck deposit shows up twice (yay!) and my US Cellular payment doesn't show up at all, despite the fact that the US Cellular people think they've been paid (though it's still the wrong amount and they're crediting me, stupid computers).

Weird.

Anyway, gotta go to Chicago now to babysit my two nieces for the weekend! Also eek!

Wow--it's been so long since I finished any fanart! I've been working on this for a while...too much other stuff going on, though, and I don't know how that keeps happening. Anyhoo--



You can do the usual click and look at the medium size or go to my deviantArt and see the larger image here.

Here's another quantum mirror alternate team--this one consisting of Rodney, Jonas, Vala, and Rya'c. They NEVER get sent on diplomatic missions, lol.

I think the next team has to have Martouf and...??? I dunno, I usually pick one character first and build the others around it. The last one was centrally Geeky Sam, this one was Jonas. And I try to include some of the lesser-used characters. I think I have way too much fun thinking about it.

I got my card for cliche_bingo and I'm happy as a clam. Genderswap! Time travel! Apocalypse! Zombies! Robots! I could squee forever. The problem will be getting a line...all of my favorites are spread out. Pooh. Blackout, perhaps? Of course, since I'm doing art (all art? Maybe not?) I'd have to draw "bad sex," hahahaha. And figure out what "fusion with another fandom" means. And "Canon AU." I think I know what that means. Maybe. Rod, yeah?

I have been sucked into Facebook...though I ended up chatting with an old friend for hours. She's just getting into Stargate, and that makes me really happy, because she writes fanfic and understands.

political re-post: If you're on twitter, set your location to Tehran and your time zone to GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location/timezone searches. The more people at this location, the more of a logjam it creates for forces trying to shut Iranians' access to the internet down. Pass it on please.

Passing it on.

Let's see...There's a great blog containing pictures from Iran's capital Tehranlive Nice, since the foreign media can't broadcast. Amazing shots, too (especially since I listen to NPR but I don't watch TV).

Link the second: minerals close-up very cool photos, though navigation at the site is a little weird...the ticky boxes in the left column don't work, it seems. Still, it's worth browsing...you know, if artsy photos of minerals that look like landscapes and sunsets appeal.

Mmmm...kitten's name. I think I'm leaning toward "Apophenia," which is the tendency to look for patterns where there aren't any (like in her fur, though it usually refers to conspiracy theorists). I can call her "Pheenie." Yeah, it's odd, but fitting, and it sounds like an old British name to me. I kept trying to find a fitting name for what her fur looks like, but there isn't one, plus there's the whole conspiracy to give me more cats. I HEAR ANOTHER KITTEN OUTSIDE RIGHT NOW AND I'M IGNORING IT. I think it's across the street, anyway.

OOooh, and speaking of which...there's an auditory version of that, too. Like, when you're in the shower and you think you hear your phone ringing, but it's just the water hitting a certain pitch or where your head is in the shower stall, but your ears insist it's your phone. Same thing. OR, in my case, now that it's summer, realizing that having crickets as my ringtone is a really really bad idea. I've gotten up to get my phone from the kitchen twice now even though my phone was right next to me. And it's not even really crickets yet outside, just insects and birds, but I hear my phone.

*sigh* I should be coloring GI Joe comic books for the online project I got sucked into over a year ago but I have a kitten asleep in my lap. Her evening nap started late tonight.

I need to think about what I should name my bat cat. Basically her personality is either awake and biting or sleeping like the dead. She got out of her closed room last night, much to the dismay of my older cat (the new younger cat, Jewel, would have been fine with that but she was in the kitchen/basement last night). Anyway, how did she get out of the room? How did she get up onto my queen sized bed? She is going to be a terror.



( behold )

Crazy flowers!

So I didn't ever realize, or else I wasn't paying attention, but when purple coneflowers are just starting to blossom they all look different. Even though they all end up looking the same once they're fully bloomed, the color and petals while they're starting out are just...I took oodles and oodles of photos last week.

like dis!


And this:


(I really hope these show up as small previews in everyone's journals...)

Anyway, ( a few more, image heavy )

I ended up with about 20 pics I was happy with. Gonna have to choose which to post at deviantArt. Love my manual focus on the inexpensive little Pentax camera o'mine.

Take that!


Unfortunately she goes for my nose and ears as often as my fingers and toes. It's a good thing kittens are so cute.

Anyway, there's this great site about a book on the ten dimensions...anyone who writes alternate universe type stuff should check it out. There's a pop up menu and a "the Ten Dimensions" option that goes to an animated video explaining what all the dimensions are. I got lost in the middle because he seems to kinda skip the sixth, but it all made sense (sort of) at the end. Neat stuff.

And...I have a weekend HOME--the first in a long long long time with no programs or anything. MAYBE I'll get something done. Maybe I'll play with cats the whole time. Maybe I'll play golf?

Who'da thunk I'd use my crazy cat lady icon so much? Guess who has a kitten in isolation in the library (I make generous use of that word here)?

My next door neighbor called again. He caught one of the kittens in his garage but couldn't get the other one. He hasn't seen that one since Saturday but has had the one he caught for two days now. He can't keep it, though, so...

Yep. In my library. In my defense:


I think it must be the same litter as the one I saw Friday, though that one seemed a little smaller and its eyes were still blue, I think. This one has green eyes already, which means it's at least six weeks old.

I also brought home my previous cat, Doctor Jones (don't laugh, I didn't name her) last week, and she and Jewel (momma cat) are not getting along yet. So I have three cats in three separate areas of the house. I basically just go from one area to the other petting cats. As soon as the vet clears the kitten, though, I think Jewel will be more than happy to bond--she got to peek in once and didn't hiss but was very interested. We'll see.

Some day soon I promise to stop being boring and talk about something other than cats. But I'll still probably post pictures because, hey--kitten.

I couldn't imagine I'd get to sleep last night hearing the cries of little kitty, so I went out again at about 1 am, thinking if the kitten was out there I'd bring her in. She kept getting sooooo close to me but never quite close enough to grab. While I was trying to catch her I heard a mew behind me...kitten ran straight at me, brushed up all along my leg, and right to momma, who was sitting on my porch steps.

Of course I put out food and water for them and cracked open my shed...maybe they'll stick around for a while.

Update update: My next door neighbor (on the other side) just called me and asked if I wanted the two kittens he found in his garage. *sigh*
It sounds like they might be from the same litter as single kitten, but maybe momma forgot where she put them? Does that happen?

1. My friend's sister had another batch of kittens born in her barn. That makes three litters. They rent the house and these are all strays who apparently think the barn is the place to raise kittens.

2. I came home today to a kitten (5 weeks?) in my bushes. Adorable tortoiseshell. Black face with one little splotch of orange on her nose. Fed her, gave her a box with a towel to sleep in (on its side, she seems to like it), left her there hoping mom will come back. If she's still there tomorrow... Unfortunately I'm going to be in Chicago overnight so I don't know how that will work out. I guess being in a nice finished room in my basement will be better than being outside. But she's crying constantly and I can hear it in the house--she sounds so sad.

3. My friend at work who also had stray kittens born in his barn asked me again if I wanted any. Ack!

It's like a kitten bomb went off around here.

I dunno why I sign up for online trading card swaps when I have other stuff to do. I guess because ATCs take about 1/2 hour...no big investment, but I still feel like I've accomplished something. And when I've got girl scouts and graduation parties on the weekends and my 4 year old neice's dance recital (that should be hilarious) coming up...there's just not enough time for getting a longer project started :(

ALSO I'm still working on sorting craft and scrapbooking supplies. But I'm almost done.

Anyway, I did an elephant, thought I'd try some of the brown almost cardboard-like cardstock, India ink, and watercolor. Liked the effect, and started wondering what else I could paint on that paper. Here's my favorite:


I went through a bunch of old National Geos lately looking for pictures. That's a woman picking cranberries. I dunno why I liked that one so much, but I was very sad to send it away.

ANYway, I also had an art badge with girl scouts Saturday, and we made bubble paper, then after they left (okay, and again at work on Monday when I was "cleaning brushes") I made more. Some of it turned out really neat. Even though it's Tempra paint, there's metallic in every mix, either gold, silver, or copper. But I ditched the bubble part and messed around with neat results.

( this way more art )

This is what I aspire to. Mmmm...electropunk.

What? Omg, there are so many started and unfinished SGA drawings on my lappy! Some of them I may finish, like Sam (which is technically SG-1 as it's from Moebius), and that Ronon (did I finish that? I can't remember? All I had left was the gun and sword, come on!). But seriously, can you say, "Style-what style?" That big dark-lined Sheppard was drawn over a screen cap, which I don't normally do--that would be why there's detail in the vest and whatnot. I think I was trying to figure out how his hair actually goes. And what happened to Teyla? I need to draw more Teyla.



I know people post this kind of thing at Deviantart all the time, but I don't know. Maybe in scraps.

I picked up "Ham On Rye," a semi-autobiographical novel by Charles Bukowski (most people identify him with his beat poetry). I bought the book out of the children's section at a small bookshop, thinking, kid's book? Really? Uh, NO. It's very deceptive, as it has a drawing of a child on the cover, but within the first 20 odd pages there's a ton of foul language, references to alcoholism, rape, prostitution, and really derogatory remarks about Asian people (from the dad; takes place in the 1930s). Yeah, so...probably not something that needs to be in with the books for 8-12 year-olds. I was horrified to think that some kid somewhere was reading this. As a regular old novel, though, it's good.

I signed up for the sgabigbang as an artist this year (yay), so I figure I'd best get some artwork up in my journal here soon. Anyway, I browsed the entries of some of the other people signed up to do art and friended a couple of people (and +watched on Deviantart). Always fun. But it's been all kittens and random stuff here lately. Maybe it's time for a big sketch dump. Hmmm...

My friend brought home a kitten from his sister's barn, a little Siamese.


( cute within )

Is Facebook evil?

I got an email today announcing that my brother had invited me to be friends on Facebook...the only problem being that I don't have a Facebook account. I followed the link anyway and it logged me onto a page with some other name and birthdate. I found all kinds of FAQs and posts, but no way to contact Facebook about this. Seems like once someone takes an email address, it's attached to the account forever even if the account is deactivated, and of course you can't create another Facebook account with the same email address. Facebook says if you get an email about an account creation that you never started not to hit the link (unh, on page five of the FAQs is too late, BTW) but...did that count? So I'm trying to permanently delete this account (can't) and getting frustrated. I go back to my gmail inbox only to see several new emails from Facebook (you've created an account! --but I didn't!-- Welcome to Facebook! You've requested your account be deactivated!) but...the original email about my brother's friend invite is gone. It's not in my inbox, nor in my trash. No email. UR CREEPIN' ME TFO, FACEBOOK.

So in the end I had to reactivate the stupid account, change the password, change it to my real name and birthdate, and then I gave up and added my school and stuff. This could be a Facebook tool, easily...set up accounts under what may or may not be real email addresses, just like spam, and when people get the confirmation emails they freak out and the only thing they can do, since that email address is attached to the account FOREVER NO MATTER WHAT is adopt the account or give up that email address (or...not care, I guess). Did I have to know the original password? Nope. Security question? Nope. I just had to have access to the email address it was set up with. And now I have a Facebook account, see?

Feeling a little better about everything now. I'm not so mopey or emo and I've bonded a lot with momma. One of my coworkers walked in on Monday and asked, "Who wants kittens? I've got six in my barn!" It made me a little sad again, but we did talk about me taking one after they are weaned so that momma will have company.

Oh...and I officially named momma "Jewel." Um...after the character in Deadwood. Which, if you've seen the show...well...the cat just reminds me of her. She's always making little "mep" noises (a very very noisy cat) and follows me around but refuses to jump up on things (not sure if she can jump? Maybe it was just the birthing and she's sore?). She gets up on my bed, though...but has never gotten up on anything else in the house. It's weird.

Hey--for the couple of you who took me up on the offer of scrapbooking and random stuff--I'm still workin' on it! Got a little distracted...

Also from mbeancntr

( Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. )

Little kitty died tonight.


( guilt, rant, sadness )