pira

All is quiet on the Eastern-front....a.k.a Dial-up Purgatory....no seriously, it took 12 minutes to load the *update page* here in my journal. You can't imagine how long it took to just GET to IJ....and let's not speak of sending a single email. *face in hands*

I have the internet on almost all day it seems....a few tabs open and loading ~ so that I can bounce from tab A to B to C to D and then start again. I tend to do chores around the house while they are thinking about showing me a letter or pulling up info. I've also flipped through almost an entire year of no less than 3 womens' magazines that my mother's friend dropped off ~ tearing out recipes that will probably never be used, but it gives me something to do while the modem thinks slow thoughts.

Your question is then ~ what am I looking at online?

I am stalking Doll sites/forums....*cough*

ANYway... have no words to describe my time away other than *brain-in-neutral* ville. Beyond the cleaning, feeding and watering of the pigs, horse and geese....I am but a doorman to domestic pets.


Let the cat in.

Let the cat out.

Trip over the dog.

Let the cat in.

Let the cat out.

Repeat.

All. Day. Long.


Teh Bob came up to visit on the long-weekend and was going quietly insane watching the grass grow.

*heh* I know the feeling.

He couldn't STAY on the farm for an entire 24-hour period. He just couldn't do it. He bolted out of here at 10 pm one night (of the one day we didn't go anywhere) to the casino a half-hour away because he needed noise. >D

I WAS tres amused.

Teh Sprog is easily enough entertained with LEGO and his dvds though.

I have a few kimono disassembled and am almost finished Mariko's Secrets and am half-way through 2500 Years of History Unzipped. Beyond that.... nothing to do but count down the days till I'm hauling rocks at home.

....hard to believe I'm looking forward to that. *0__o

ANYway....for all of you whose journals this modem can't find...see you the 11th!

Well I took down the barrier this morning that blocked the driveway from anyone parking on it and yeaaaaaaay we have a flat surface!!

Of course my garden is a mad jungle and I still have a lot of rock/brick/soil to cart around and rearrange ~ but that's an August job. I am off today to the farm to do some animal-sitting for a few weeks as my parents go on their driving vacation.





One last kick at the dollie can before I bolt for dial-up country ~ here's Dude trying to explain fundoshi to Monk....

At some point their names just sort of gelled. I'd always sort of thought of them in those terms but never voiced the names...then I started actually talking about them and that was that.





Off to pack the car with assorted projects for myself during the week that I'll be alone ~ the 2nd week will probably see friends and/or family members drifting up there. SO I'd best snag those few books I'm about 3/4s through and just grind through them so I can check them off my list.

I've the old BBC series on dvd, The Camomile Lawn to watch too :)

...saw it on t.v. years ago (1992). My cousins in Australia scrounged up a copy of the book for me at a garage sale of all places, when I couldn't find it here to read in the library nor could I buy it (in those pre-internet days) as it was out of print ...really looking forward to some scotch and reminicing with Mary Wellsley's characters *^__^* T.T.F.N.

The postman left a box today and I forgot entirely that it's contents was slowly making it's way across the Pacific to me.

The contents were a pair of chairs....for dolls of course.

The are a fantastic red pair ...modern faux leather and ridiculously reasonable....and 1/6 sized.

I pounced on them when HobbyLinks was doing their inventory and listed them.....and I seem to have bought the last pair.

Anyway...since I was in a *why the heck not * mindset, I photographed opening them with...a doll.

( Dude takes a seat )

I was playing and it suddenly occured to me that this whole nude dude thing was driving me a bit nutters and how hard could it really be to make a version of fundoshi (traditional Japanese underwear) for the boys...at the very least a type of one.

Not hard at all...

Took me whole 10 minutes flat out. To do it the fully wrapped through the legs 2x version becomes too bulky at this diminutive size in particular since there is no real...way to wedgie the material in place (so to speak) and the point of the exercise is that it's one piece of cloth that is just tied.

It will probably be the least amount of time I spend on anything I do with these guys.

....of course the lovely, lightweight cotton kimono lining I used made the job that much easier but I have to wonder if the person who originally wore the garment could EVER have imagined that part of it would end-up as doll gotchies >D


( fundoshi )

Read Takehiko Inoue's REAL at the gym today.....oh wow. IF this isn't nominated for an Eisner I think there is something really wrong in the world of comics.

From the same manga-ka as SLAMDUNK, we have another basketball story ~ but this time off the bench our storyteller is providing the reader with less silly, shonen sports hoopla and...if you'll pardon the court slang....LOADS more balls-to-the-wall drama.

A story about a number of young men and women, whom for various reason find themselves involved in wheelchair basktball (on or off the court) doesn't sound like it could grip the reader but.... oh my goodness ....it can and it does!

I had doubts ....but don't any more. This is a two-thumbs up read!

In other reading we have Nanae Chrono's beautifully drawn and genuinely entertaining vampire romp; VASSALORD.

Vampire stories seem to be in fashion these days and I haven't really thought much of them thus far ~ but Vasslord is different from the rest. First off ~ the artwork is just plain good. Secondly ~ the stories genuinely have their amusing moments and the definately don't take themselves too seriously. That's not to say they are stupid ~ *coughTrinitybloodcough* ~ rather they are just a whole lot of fun and you can't help but think that they manga-ka is having a blast. It's fluff, but good fluff!! *^__^*

Totally obsessing with this cover art on Volume 10 of Kizuna ~ in other words someone put the hose down the rabbit hole and it's a bloody mudslide down here!!

Have decided on a head and body for Ranmaru (far right) and will paint the face and crop the rooted hair to suit.

I have spent WAY TOO MUCH time agonizing over 1/6 scale watches for Masanori (2nd from left) too....but I found his suit.

*did I mention that before??*

AND in other news volume 2 & 3 of Kizuna LUX arrived today along with volume 1 of Borders (her new series) and I got caught up with the story (as much as I can make out from the piccies ) and OMG the smexing!!! The additional story in the LUX additions has Ranmaru & Kei going crazy against a hotel window (ala Viewfinder) AND I am now convinced she is restarting (or rewriting) K2's stalled/mothballed Guns & Roses series into a more updated men & guns/ spring & autumn tale here! HOLY NOSEBLEED!

*snaps fingers together loudly in the direction of the scanilators*...come ON girls ~ faster faster!! >D

....dolls aside...Howthef**k am I going to create those four chairs?

*wanders off to the gym pondering papermache and things*

I've posted my Bonsai-Boy photo story to the doll forum and they seem to like it.

I did a bit of a cleaning up of the script and found I really am enjoying this more than I had thought possible.

At the gym today, as I was mindlessly going through my routine with the weights ~ I started scripting another story...except it's a couple chapters down the road...and now I have to write up what leads up to that moment.

The sceneio is thus: Monk (bald boy for lack of a better name..) has found out he's going to be co-splaying Masanori from K2.

I am going to approach these guys as if they are dolls with fully independent personalities of their own but are acting out the wishes of SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED. Their reactions and subsequent commentary will be the storyline. It's a dolls' point of view we're talking about here and as I am discovering...they are a pair of smart asses.

....yes. Yes I am having TOO MUCH FUN. :P

If this all seems freakish to you ...don't worry...it's just a side of my leaking out that has been dormant for a while. I used to do similar things with magazines in my youth. I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago who still has a box filled with *stories* I'd cobbled together (like collages in comic book form) of us as superspies in high school. >D

*hums to self*...'I donwannagrowup-I'matoysRuskid...lalalala'

**EDIT** ~ Have found a Obitsu head for Masa that I can easily enough modify with appropriate eye colour and scars, and a wig for Kai to go with the head, which I'll paint...and a slender obitsu body for the uke :)

*do-do-do-do-do-do-do-doooo*.....now to dig around in my drawers to see if have the appropriate scraps to make yukata for them. *^___^*

Yakuza in yukata....mmmmm-mmm-yummy.

Oh no......

It finally happened...all the random doll stuff just hit me like a freight train and not only have I tripped & fallen down the rabbit hole, but it seems I've discovered a mission;

Customizing Obitsu into Kizuna dolls....

In particular Masa ....(drools at the thought of painting a dragon tattoo on an Obitsu body).....I might toss him a Kai if he gives me a hassle.


This all makes sense in a weird and wonderfully twisted sort of way >D


...In other news ~ finished the drawing for Alyx Shaw's Forbidden Fruit piece and fired it off to the editors.

I joined a forum the other day, one that is generally about these dolls and not make/model/type specific ~ which most other forums tend to be...in a doll-nazi sorta way.

ANYhoo ~ I discovered something there when I was poking about ~ people take pictures of their dolls and even better...the do *photo stories* with them.

It's all great fun to see what people do with their variety of dolls and when I introduced myself and my Obitsu (model) boys and J-doll...someone remarked that the fellas looked like they wanted clothing and were waiting patiently for me to cough some up.

That got me to thinking and my creative itch needed scratching immediately ~ so while the guys were paving my driveway today I got busy ....below is the image rich tale that evolved from that thought.

( Dolly photo-story )

Something about when it rains, it pours....

I have finally worked my way down from the heights of a self-righteous snit I'd wound myself up into ~ but am still ignoring drawing because I want to be totally grounded before I redo anything...and so I am playing with the dollies (you'll see why later) when the doorbell rings.

It's my pavers ~ today is the day.

This is good...and this is bad....because I will need to park on the street for a week (now I'm trying to get a hold of city hall to register our vehicles for overnight parking...)...and I would have prefered to do this when the other half was out of town and we didn't have the hassle of jockeying for two spaces out there...but I digress....this also means I HAVE to get going on the garden retaining wall...less than a week before I leave for the farm.

BUT WHATEVs....so I'm moving my car and the Post Lady drives up and jumps out of her truck to stop me ~ I have a package to sign for.

OF COURSE I do.

It's the last box from Kyoto (and oddly enough the first one I mailed)....with a Big fat sticker on it saying it's over 50lbs.....

*0__o what exactly did I put in there???

( contents below )

Sunday I was out of town all day in T.O. ~ the 60th birthday of a family friend ment much schmoozing and wondering how it was that I was included in yet another small gathering as part of the extended family....

...I must be a hellavahermit when people burst into tears when I actually show up at something. Seriously embarassing...again....=__=...

I know I need to work on my *staying connected* skills, but dayum.

ANYway ~ speaking of working on things ~ if you click on the little image (of Alyx Shaw's character, Tiff) you will see what I have been slogging at on my pc yesterday. 12hrs, several forgotten meals and one hand cramp later I am only half way done.

I am showing you a close-up because it occured to me, again, that I'm an idiot to fuss about the littlest detail (like the eye colouring) only to have the work finally appear online the size of a postage stamp ~ so people acknowledge the character probably has eyes, but the subtle shading is totally lost on everyone but my hand muscles. *face palm*

Seriously though ~ I wouldn't invest this many hours in anyones work other than Alyx. I will easily have doubled the time it takes me to do the artwork by the time I'm done it ~ but her stories have always made me happy over the years, and she deserves it.

IRONICALLY ~ I get word from one of the editors this morning, that the synopsis for the series I was (am) working on will be in this week...and the author sent a note through them that my work has been appreciated.

....give or take a YEAR. And now she's hopeful I'll illustrate a specific charcters yadda, yadda, yadda.

Oh...a request?

I am thinking...stick figures for you lady. >P

Anyway ~ gotta get the kid off to camp and then back to playing with my stylis...

....serioulsy....if I didn't have to get up early and get him out the door, I'd have probably worked through the night. THIS is why I don't DO much art ~ I totally resent having to deal with family when I get in *the zone*.

I've started on the peice for Alyx Shaw's story in the upcoming issue of ForbiddenFruit.

I won't be able to work on it again till Monday ~ but now I have the sketch atop which to build....this is going to be a riot. (you'll understand once you see the final illustration)

*^___^*

....yeah I'm going to be a very bad girl all next week. Good thing the kiddo is off to camp when am colouring things..*cough* ..at my pc. >D

Just got a notification that Vassalord vol. 1 has been shipped, which tweeked me to the fact that it was time for my monthly sweep of pre-orders to see what was available (as in; hunt down the next issue of series I collect on amazon/indigo-chapters).

Going down the list I was thrilled to discover that Volume 8 of LOVELESS is FINALLY making it to our shores in English!...DUDES! This was on the shelves in Japan last summer!! A YEAR? It's taken you guys a full YEAR to cough-up the next copy? NOT like every chapter in that volume wasn't already available in anthology form and they had to draw it from scratch!!!?

*face palm* Tokyopop I know you guys are a bit scattershot right now...but seriously.

(o__(o ......I suppose I should just be grateful it's not on the *cancelled* list.

Before I dash outta here to take Teh Sprog to his soccer tournie, I thought I'd give a rec for possibly the most distrubing but timely comic books series I have EVER READ.

Seriously folks ~ even if you have to beg, borrow or steal it, I can not emphasize strongly enough how important writer, Brian Wood and artist, Riccardo Burchielli's current work;DMZ is.

If you are an American. READ. THIS. COMIC.

It will freaking blow your mind & leave your brains splattered on the wall behind you. Holy Shite. Holy f**k. Holy omg why did I ever resist my friend (uni lit. prof) Andy's advice to read this?

Absorbing. Though provoking. Shite disturbing. CURRENT.

sildil if not for the library hun, scope this out for yourself. I'm still moping my grey matter up and I can't wait for the next volume to arrive. EVERY TEENAGER ON THE PLANET and their PARENTS should read this!!!!!...geez this thing should br required reading in school!!!

Last night one of the editors at Forbidden Fruit Zine ~ sent out the signal to artists, that they are getting the new issue cobbled together and if anyone on their list of contributors is interested to let them know, blah blah blah.

The series I am working on should be a go, but due to a slight snafu, it's not entirely certain I will get the story in my hands to know what exactly it is I am illustrating, before I leave to go farmsit and I return after the deadline.

SO I requested to see the list of story summaries and pounced on one that reminded me of the first artwork I ever did for them ~ One I'd felt was too rushed on my part(very tight timeline for me) and I was never satisfied with the result. This story was scifi as well, and I enjoy something out of the box.....

...and when I was greenlighted on the tale and opened the authors draft I almost fell off my chair.

It's the sequel to that first story I illustrated for, Alyx Shaw's Life Out There. BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!

Colour me happy *^___^* (and amused once more by that serendipity thang)

It was a sunny day and I decided that since today was the only one when I'd have time to actually do this until next week(busy but also the weather fairy says rain rain rain)...best to just drag them all out onto the back porch and get it over with.

THEN I can pack-up the ones to go on the shelf after sorting out the bunch to go to the farm with me for immediate dissected, when I am sitting around *farm sitting* at the end of the month (for 2 weeks). Good way to kill gobs of quiet time...

Yep. Trying to keep on top of those mad *cough* organizational skills of mine and not allow these things to clutter my newly cleaned up floor!! HAH!

That is at least...the plan. >D


( fabric spam )

*^___^*

Gotta love it when you scroll down your flist (and half of mine is RSS feeds from various blogs I follow) and find one of the Gayboy-bloggers has just discovered Theban Band's slash artwork bigtime, indepth, and is musing on Boromir x Aragorn images... and that this pairing never occured to him. He likes it....but why did he never see the potential Boromir held?

Man is this a case of someones GAYdar being SNAFU'd when watching LoTRs? The *vibes* in the *My-Captain-my-brother scene* were rather like a waraxe over the head....how could that pairing be a surprise?!

Having said that...maybe it's just a matter of taste. Gondor slash was always a small fandom compared to anything involving the eternal twinks of elfland...maybe that's a gay-thing AND a slasher-gal thing.

It just occured to me...it Kind of makes sense ...calling an elf a twinkie, as both their shelf lives are abnormally long :P

That aside...I had just assumed that since the blogger shares lots and LOTS of piccies of beautiful MEN,that he'd have naturally seen that pairing. Boromir was THE one that made me sit up in my seat (at the theatre) and go *OMG....a MAN!!*...as if I'd not seen oe in about a decade. *fans self at the memory*.....mmmmboromirxaragornpurrrrrrr

Mother nature giveth with one hand and taketh away with the other.

I am staring at the long term forecast for this week and realize that I need to just suck-it-up and not complain.

See my front porch, and various other wood/metal things outside just got painted yesterday.

The weather had threatened rain but it dodged us in the end and today it going to be glorious and perfect for curing of the said paintwork.

....but from tomorrow thru the weekend ~ when I am parental unit on duty at my sons' soccer tourniment (husband is off on another roadtrip with the Middling sprog)...it's going to be pissing down with rain...thunderstorms even.

*grumbles but acknowledges payback when she sees it*