Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Random Fact #18

Random Fact #18: When milk expires, it will eventually separate into layers.

Source: Personal Observation


And it's gross.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Writing Papers: Thinking

Warning: Brief Hamlet spoilers.


When I write papers, I often find it useful to notes and stuff. That helps me to figure out what the heck I'm going to write about.

Pro Tip: Don't wait until 9 P.M. the night before a paper's due to start working on it. Even if it is only a 300-word essay. Because then the universe will do everything it can to prevent you from finishing the paper.

Gameday Gifts and Things That Happen On Gameday That Aren't So Fun

Around here, folks sometimes replace the word "Saturday" with "Gameday." College football is king.

And me? I'm in the marching band. So even though I never liked football at all growing up (I was one of those people who watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials), football has pushed and shoved its way into my life, and now it'll probably never go away. That's okay.

Being in the marching band is very time-consuming. We practice for an hour and a half every day of the week, and then we have to get up early for a special Gameday practice. Although I love band with all my heart and soul, waking up early on Saturday mornings is sometimes very disagreeable. However, the clarinet section has a way to make it much more bearable.

We have Secret Pals. At the beginning of the semester, the organizer of the Secret Pals assigned everyone a Secret Pal to buy presents for. Everyone provided her with a list of our likes and hobbies so our assigned Pal could know what to buy for us. For every home game, we go out and spend around $10 on a gift or a bunch of little gifts for our Secret Pal. We wrap the gift and label it with our Secret Pal's name, remaining anonymous, and then on Saturday morning, we secretly slip the gift under the Clarinet Tree before rehearsal starts.

Don't get any crazy ideas about tinsel or bright lights; the Clarinet Tree is not a Christmas tree. The marching band doesn't have any kind of building or facility. We actually go to the Arby's next to our field to use the restroom. It's kind of funny, and it's actually a symbiotic relationship. They let us use their restrooms, and while we're in the restaurant, we smell the curly fries, and suddenly we want Arby's for dinner. But since we don't have a building, each section has claimed a spot around the field to leave their equipment and warm up. This often occurs under a tree (although the color guard, unfortunately, was recently forced to relocate because a huge limb fell out of their tree and almost hit someone). The Clarinet Tree is a big, tall tree on a hill. I don't know what kind it is. It's currently producing some kind of nut that's small and isn't an acorn.

Although the Clarinet Tree is not an evergreen and doesn't resemble a Christmas tree in any way, it certainly looks merry with a huge pile of wrapped presents surrounding its trunk. It's very exciting to finally finish Gameday rehearsal and run over to find our presents. The entire Secret Pal process is exciting for me, even though I have a Secret Pal who's very hard to shop for this year. Usually I get so excited about finding the perfect gift for my pal and wrapping it up just right that I forget that I'm also going to receive a present. It's twice the fun when I remember.

I really have no idea who my Secret Pal is. I think it's a girl. That narrows it down (sarcasm). She (he?) tries to give me hints so I can guess who she (he?) is, but I haven't had any luck yet. I did enjoy the gift bag that my Secret Pal left for me today. A lot of people did a Halloween theme since this is our last home game before Halloween, and my Secret Pal didn't disappoint. However, she (he?!?!?!) found a Thanksgiving gift to include, as well.


In the information I gave to the Secret Pals organizer, I listed foxes as some of my favorite animals, although I wasn't expecting anyone to find cool fox gifts. Lo and behold! It's a fox!

I got started on this after the game (and after my initial crash from sheer exhaustion).


It was fun to color! I colored while waiting for episodes of the Superman animated series to buffer and while listening to Tobuscus scream at some Happy Wheels game or other. Very relaxing. With only four colors, I didn't have a ton of options for creativity, so I basically just copied the picture on the package, but I still like it! Lookit that fox! He's so cute!

I colored this while nursing some very chapped lips. You see, I tragically forgot to bring lip balm with me to the game today, and my lips were dry before we even performed the pregame show. I've got a red mark under my lip the size and shape of a clarinet reed, and it still stings a little. I've applied three coats of ChapStick since returning home, and I'm finally getting some results. Yaaaayyyy! Hopefully I've learned my lesson about football and ChapStick. Sheesh!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

The Graphic Novel Project - Pages Three And Four

BLAAAAAGHHHHRRRAAAHHHHRRRRRIIIHHHHHGGGHHHHHFFFRRRUUHHHH.

I've lost count of how many hours I've spent working on the rough draft (it's only the rough draft!) of these two pages (it's only two pages!) of my final project for my graphic novel class. Now it's very late, and I still have other things to do for tomorrow, and I'm getting hungry again, but at least I've got these pages done.

This is a partner project. I'm doing the art. My partner's doing the words. The way it's working so far is that she writes a rough script, I draw some panels to go along with the script, and then she goes and fills in the speech bubbles and narration boxes.

Ay yi yi. I've had it up to here with this drawing business. And we're only four pages in. Into the rough draft, that is. Originally I'd planned to do just a quick layout on each page to turn in as the rough draft, but then I realized how much work I'd have left to do at the end of the semester when it's time to make the final product (and I'm simultaneously writing final papers and studying for final exams). So I decided I'd put a fair amount of effort into the rough draft and just fix it up later before I ink it (or whatever the heck we decide to do as far as color and stuff. we don't know. we haven't gotten there yet).

And I think that's a good idea, but I realize now that just one page is going to take me several hours. Good thing I started last night, or I'd be in a very bad spot right now!

Here are pages three and four of Dreamlocked, in which the main character is trapped in a dream and must fix the historical inaccuracies in it (in this episode, find Marie Antoinette after she escapes from prison) or she'll never wake up.

That, by the way, sounds like exactly the kind of problem I'd like to have.

There's no text- I'm only the penciler today. If you want, you can make up captions for the panels and leave them in the comments. It'll make me smile.



If you're wondering why it's so dark, I was fiddling around with the contrast on my scanner to make the pencil lines show up more clearly. I'm making progress with technology!

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Sunday Art

Happy Sunday, all. I did a few art things.


A fox made with the crayon tool.


"Nebula." Made with the pastel tool and the palette knife.

Have a great start/end of the week!

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Notebook Doodles



Just a couple o' fun doodles from my Shakespeare notebook to prove I'm still alive.

Brownie points to whoever recognizes the play.

I've got a couple of blog post drafts going, but can't seem to get around to finishing them.

Midterms, y'all.

And papers.