josie

Sorry, that was my lazy eye...

So my cousin in St Petersburg owns his house and the one next to him- used to be his mother's. His house is suggested evacuation... hers is mandatory. Nuts, huh? He's staying and family from lower areas in Tampa and farther south are joining him. Most of my Tampa/St Pete friends are out now. Then there's my relative on the water in Ft. Myers... I have a worry it'll either swing north and slam the west coast, or keep going into the gulf, regain power, and slam New Orleans. I'm hoping it just keeps going west and fizzles out.

:blink: Let me be the first to say... that is officially fu*king disgusting. I am not one of the legions of Pumpkin Spice lovers. Nothin' wrong with it, just blugh. Also... gee, wearing an incriminating shirt tonight I guess...

haha go for it for free- d4rk's grabbing it I know, and another user here has a sketch of mine too. No charge.

Yup! It's all a painting. I get a lot of joy out of making stuff like that look like a real 3D object. mm textures and multiply layers...

I've heard that King himself said the ending to the movie of The Mist was better than his own. Freakin' haunting flick. I remember watching it in college- I was under the impression we were watching a "so bad it's good" film, as most King film adaptions are. Nope.. totally had nightmares.

I don't know. Find someone who makes pins and connect them to me??

Made a little thing today

I'm just sick to my gut watching this. I'm definitely most concerned about the police friend. His wife is 5 months pregnant and they have a 4 year old. They're all staying. I think he's insane to let his wife and kid stay. I understand him staying. But I also have a cousin in Homestead, and family on the water in Ft. Myers. The Ft. Myers family is now (finally) considering leaving. My St. Petersburg family is staying. Another cousin is an EMT dispatcher in Gainesville- has to work through it (although she's not on a coast, I still wouldn't want to stick around). I met a lot of awesome people when I did a college program at Ringling in Sarasota, and still am in touch with many of them. None of them are leaving- usually in Tampa, Sarasota. I can barely focus on my work and such. This is all just So Very Bad. Interesting this post is a bit over a year old. Haiyan- I've heard a lot of comparisons of Irma to Haiyan. Similar windspeed and organization. Bad news.

Had that last year. Tweaked it during something inane and it really effed up my aerial stuff. Stretches. Do stretches. Not too much, but keep it limber. Takes a lot of time, unfortunately. My complaint is the hurricane. More and more of the meteorological models are showing it plowing the east side of Florida. Currently, that beast is bigger than the entire state, so everyone's ostensibly in its path. My client/friend/boss/reason I can pay my bills is a cop in North Miami. He said he's as ready as he'll ever be, but between him and my family in St Pete/Tampa and friends in Sarasota... I'm real worried. I have friends burning in the northwest and Cali, friends who lost everything in Houston, and now friends prepping for a beast of a hurricane. Bluh.

Thanks!! He's a really nice, chill guy. 10/10, would recommend! It's 100% the power of Twitter. I poked them and he reached out.

Ties in to my rant about no one using illustrators anymore, but it's also what killed print media. Why pay money for a trusted rag when you can find most of the same information for free online? People hate paywalls. I hate them too. But a subscription can seem more like a club, maybe? I look at it as a patron thing. If it's good work by good people doing honest hard reporting, solid writing, and supporting the community, I'll give them my money happily. It's a support thing. It's smaller. It doesn't feel like dumping your coins into the gaping maw of a newsstand monopoly. And 30 bucks for a year in regards to the Star really isn't much when you think about it. Certainly $4 a month as a test run is the average cost of a cup of fancier coffee. I'll sign up. I liked the welcome/intro article in the Star about this. He's pretty scathing elsewhere in the article as well. "The focus is going to be on quality, not quantity. In terms of numbers, that means we’re aiming for about 50 great pieces per month, instead of the 50 sometimes good/sometimes fluff articles per week you’ll see elsewhere. "

There used to be so much of it. Think of advertisements. I have giant tomes full of ad illustration from the 1860s onward. The golden age of the 1960s, the pinup illustrations and Vargas girls of the 40s and 50s, the 1980s, where pubs like Playboy were good for sexy women AND amazing art. Then it kinda trailed off in the 90s... and now you don't see much of it. You see a lot of what I call "simple" illustration on NPR and other sites- that textured, sort of childlike stuff. GQ uses great illustrators. I see the occasional piece bumping around on video game pubs, or NY Times. But for the most part, illustration isn't applied anymore, it's more fine art- an artist creates a piece and sells it as prints. No media outlets want to/can pony up the bucks to pay them worthwhile. They have deals with photo aggregates- they slide <10 bucks their way and have a lede photo. Why pay over 100 bucks and do the back and forth with an artist when you can Boom. Done. with a photo in a few minutes? And everyone waxes poetic about the nostalgia of vintage sports programmes, they frame sketches in their man caves, but no one in the leagues pays anyone to do them. I volunteer as tribute. Side note, if you like futbol/soccer, check out my friend Mark's page dedicated to illustrators of that sport: http://www.trequartistaclub.com/ Here's an issue of it: http://mailchi.mp/0196ed7f3fb2/european-leagues-are-kicking-off-and-the-premier-league-is-back-with-a-bang?e=13311ce815&utm_content=buffer97528&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer Ah, passion ranting. Sorry guys.

I see people talking in the Risto thread about it. I'm super proud to have my work out there. I talked to the owner after poking them on twitter, and while there really isn't much if any money involved, I feel like it's one of the rare instances where I'm willing to put my work out there for the exposure. A lot of their budget went towards hiring great writers, so we worked out a deal that they can use work of mine that's already done (or some quick work), I get a shout out, and maybe things will change down the road depending on the success of the publication. That's par for the course in the life of an illustrator, but again, I think this is the right place to hedge my bets. Lots of eyes will see it. It's something I love. That's how it is with 26 as well- the artist makes a buck off each shirt sold and that's it. I've yet to break even... but again.. if one of those things gets successful... i JUST WANNA SEE MORE ILLUSTRATION IN THE WORLD DAMMIT!! It adds a unique edge to articles, a bit of fascination. I may be nearly broke, but I love illustration and I don't think I'll ever entirely give it up.

...and there's another storm forming right in Irma's tracks- José. Friend of our family's kids are in the Bahamas on honeymoon...she's offering up to 30k to get them out of there (yeah, they're bloody loaded). Hotels told everyone to get off the islands but all flights are booked solid, and they're trapped. And that is why I will never plan an island vacation in hurricane season... I sure feel for all the people who can't drop the money to get out.

Hurricane Irma. Thing is a Cat 5 now with sustained 175 mph winds. That's INSANE. My main client is a cop in Miami Shores/North Miami area. He's been installing aluminum shutters and getting ready to hunker down... I admit I'm really scared for him and his family. He can't leave, although his wife/kid might. I know we've got some Florida posters here, but I can't remember if any of them are coastal/Miami area. Here's hoping this monster weakens and spins off another direction.

I'm glad I gave that one another chance. Loved it. There are a few episodes that haunt me. Incredibly well done series. My latest binge while I work show is the Tudors. Yeah.. so... that's what the term "history p0rn" is for, eh... lots of beautiful people slamming their beautiful bodies together in beautiful settings, loosely strung together by vague historic plots... but then, that's history anyways, isn't it?

Yeah, my coworker is sitting on top of the kitchen cabinets alternating between sleeping and glaring at me. Some help he is

Just got a gig with a quick turnaround... they need a ton of work by Tuesday. Wellp. Guess I'm working this weekend. Not the sort of job I can turn down, either. This is why my commissions are so horribly behind.

Ah. There's always something out there I miss, thought that was something new. Yeah, I tried ignoring, but it was impossible when my entire FB and twitter timelines were saturated. Even Instagram was full of spoily memes. I mean, I get it, live tweets/reactions are so much fun, but of all the series out there, GoT has the most clout in the unsaid rule of "keep yer mouth shut for a day or two". Which is interesting in its own right, especially since there's no books to read and "spoil" with anymore.. oh well.

Wait wha? What does Bran have to do with that? Did I miss some canon thing about him being gay? I'm out of the loop. Unless you meant Little Bran Games Thrones or something. Haven't seen the finale yet, but it was spoiled by nearly everyone I know who did see it within seconds of its airing. Bleh.

Yep, got a few as well. Working on it. I used to be the chick who could hang with the football team or similarly macho group and crack dirty/offensive jokes that would make them bust a gut. Well, I still can but... I don't. Not as much, anyways. I'm still not above some lowbrow sexual humor or snarky chirping. And I look back on that girl and go, immature, and definitely trying to make up for lack of conventional hotness by being the "cool bro chick" instead. Cringe. Then I went through some in college and the sex jokes lost their appeal. Then I met/got to know all different walks of life, and most of the other jokes lost their shine as well. Humor's a great coping mechanism, but sometimes it's just irresponsible. Mentioned upthread was calling guys "pu$$ies" and purse/women jokes... yeah... those always did bother me. I try not to be the "annoying bonerkiller sjw" at sporting events but those always earn eyerolls from me. Get creative with your insults. You can do so so much better, and be more scathing.

I'd bet money that's a big part of it. I get major flareups that bring on nausea (fairly rare for me) when I'm going through anxiety insanity. Which is to say, most of the last year haha I've had times where I felt horrible but soldiered on and then suddenly other people around me got it... realized I'd had a stomach flu but it's so similar to my daily struggles I ignored it. But yeah, there are dozens of us weirdo emetophobes out there! Yay..? It's seriously one of the reasons I'm afraid to have kids. Kids = schools = constant norovirus and such. Stupid stupid reason, I know. I worry about my mothering/nursing skills while I'm in the other room rocking back and forth... blood? We good. Broken bones? I'm on it. Upset tummy? I'll be out in the back 40 cowering in shame if you need me sweetie, bye...

The 14th is my birthday, so since they'll be reporting that day, can I say I get hockey for my birthday this year??

Bluh, feel better man. I'm right there with you on vomiting. I have pretty bad emetophobia. Sounds of other GI distress freak me right out too. You've got GI problems like me, right? Maybe it's a thing about being so sick of/used to the pain that it triggers it... I'll scurry into the corner farthest away from the john if someone's teetering on praying to the porcelain god. I'll put in headphones and shake. I'm an absolute nut and it's embarrassing. I woke up the other morning to my mom hurling her toenails up. Not sick, just a terrible med she's on and anxiety. It sounds dumb, but if someone's hurling from a non contagious reason, while it still grosses me out, I can handle the situation way better. Pretzles and ginger ale. Those are my secret weapons. Good luck! --- No real complaints today.. just that car insurance, health insurance, taxes (jesus f.c. taxes), and new tires for my car all hit at the same time and I had to dip into my hard won savings today.... God I'm SO CLOSE to being profitable, and then a month like this hits and i'm 4.5k behind again...