So now that a select few photos are uploaded I can move on to - dAmn I have too much to do...

Another three day weekend. Today spent Christmas shopping (hopefully the last of it); I've a photo book to assemble (or, finish shooting and then assemble) and four paintings to soldier through before Christmas.

Eek, people, eek.

Eventually I'm going to scour around and put together a Featured post/article. I'm hesitantly excited about it. Having not tackled that kind of thing in the community yet I'm wary of the headache it may cause but welcome the challenge just the same.

Nothing deeply personal to update with... except, I miss snow. A lot. Christmas is screaming up our asses and my state of mind is still stuck back in Halloween. The weather in this region at this time is frighteningly close to a northern Michigan September/October. Someone send me snow!

Work's been keeping me on a tight wake up, suffer, go home, numb myself with tv, sleep, repeat schedule the last few months. I didn't even manage more than 8k words in NaNoWriMo this year! But I have managed to get out of the house once every few weeks, loaded to the teeth with camera gear. I have a few rolls of film to get developed and about 16gigs of digital photos to throw on the computer and sort through but with a looming 3 day weekend I might be able to post some new stuff! If I can get away from Christmas shopping for a few hours, that is.

What I'm most excited to go through are my White House photos. Last Sunday the missus 'n' I did a photo walk through the District and got some great snaps at Lincoln and the WH. For a beautiful Sunday afternoon 1600 was pretty empty. Maybe 15 tourists total, about 8 police and 8 or so protesters. Cheeky stuff, too. My personal favorite was the homeless man vying for a presidential campaign of his own. Half the protesters didn't care about my presence, one particularly strange weight-lifting man in rubber gloves seemed rather hostile, but the future candidate new how to pose and have fun with the circumstances. My only regret is not staying longer or getting closer to these people; there was an unusual amount of tension on that block in that hour so I thought it best to hang back more than I should've. If anything I'll just have to make it a point to go back as frequently as possible.

Since my battery expansion died on me a few months back I've had to rely on the factory standards in camera energy again which is fine but leaves a lot wanting. I went out for a cigarette this afternoon and found the largest praying mantis I've ever set eyes upon milling about our front shrub. Four photos in and the battery died. Such is life in the ways of the wild. Finally dusted off my trusty old N50, however (whose battery continues to kick strong after, oh, seven years now I'd say) and snapped my first roll of film in probably about three years. There's something about shooting with film that is all around more pleasing.

The reason for the update isn't to touch upon a mantis but rather declare my W.I.P. is "finished" and after said battery charges I'll get a capture and post it here. I'm going to open this one up to critiques because in my mind it's not done. I'm going to ask any of you who view it to leave me a note or comment letting me know what you feel it needs. Fine details often escape me when it comes to a project like this so I'll accept any insight offered!

All of that said, another W.I.P. was started last night. My roommates had a few of their friends over for drinking and games (nothing wild, they're all teachers) so I hid my socially awkward ass away in the "studio" here and got to work on the next piece in my "Relocation" series. It's more than half done already but now that work will start up again tomorrow and I'm lacking painting motivation today it'll take a few more days yet.

Bills have gotten in the way of furthering my Intuos4 fund but I remain undeterred, though patience has settled in and I'm fine without it. Now that my hands touched camera again I'm more than willing to put my pending venture in digital art on the back burner until after the holidays.

With great power...comes great heaps of ab-so-lutely fantastic irresponsibility! In English: now that I'm making a weekly paycheck and entered the whole "adult with a bank account and bills" racket I finally got m'self a subscription here! Actually it's my first real online purchase I'm earnestly proud of myself. *drums on chest* Heh. All childish antics aside it does feel pretty good to finally be a monetarily supportive member of the community. And I'm not actually irresponsible with my funds... I prefer to refer to it as temporarily full of zeal.

My latest painting is almost completed. With the new job and constantly changing sleep schedule it's been hard finding time to sit down with anything. When the time does present itself I inevitably plop my ass on the couch and go slack-jawed over Netflix on my roommates X-Box Live for hours on end. I'm actually taking a break from Netflix to post this actually. What? It's hard to pass up the first season of Star Trek.

It was a really good season.

No, seriously.

...it had the Gorn. And Charlie X, for cryin' out loud! And the two-part Menagerie debacle! I can hear you PFFTing over there!

Anyway. Current WIP should be completed sooner rather than later and posted. I say that quite a lot but I mean it this time. ...say that a lot too... I really, REALLY mean it this time.

...Ooooh I can use skins now! I'm sorry, just having the whole "...candy store" moment.

So I've started working at Staples. Yes, I'm a literal pencil pusher for this term in my life. It's proved to be as fun as I hoped it would and as long as they don't drop me on register duty I'll continue finding the gig terrible. My sleep schedule is all fraked to hell and back and my joints are rather pissed off but there's very little to whine aboot. I'm making enough money to push me closer toward a serious gear upgrade.

Wide angle and fish eye lenses. Eventually I'll hand the ol' D40x down and pick up something else. However, I am beginning to question my loyalty to Nikon. ...ok, not really. But the Lumix GH1 certainly has my utmost attention. Yeah, like I can afford that.

First on the list (after bills and all that cost of living horseshit) I'm leveling the sights on a Wacom. The discarded ideas from Ben's and my start-stop radio play project are fit for web comic mediocrity. So, before Christmas for certain I'll be throwing pages from the Wastetown Charter on here.

Maryland continues to treat me well but I'm pretty damned homesick every other day. I miss large bodies of fresh water, clean air, cheap and ridiculously easy-to-find liquor (oh! Yukon Jack how I miss thee!) and my dog, Raif. And my family and friends too, I suppose. But I really miss my doofus dog...