So, I decided today that if Castle doesn't sort itself out nicely in the upcoming season that I have my own canon to fall back on from where it left of.

Basically, Beckett is no longer on the force so she becomes Batman with Castle's funding (and him as sidekick!).

Adventures ensue!


[Season premiere next week, eeeeee~]

I belly danced for a kitty today.

Apparently this is as entrancing for kitties as it is for humans.  He sat on the table with massive eyes not able to decide whether to watch my hands or my feet.  If my hand motions came close enough he'd stretch out a paw and beckon with me. :3

(One of my dance songs came up on the mp3 shuffle that I use to time my visits you see.)

I think I shall have to bring my jingly belt for him next time and see what happens!

I have a few updates over at ze webpage again.  Including of all things a -gasp- comic update.  o_o 

I know, its pretty startling.  I blame the 4 years on my original laptop dying and my replacement never working well enough for me to use functionally.  My brother built system is still a bit of a learning curve, but I can actually get work done on it!  Page 18 and 19 (forthcoming) are totally dedicated to Dana because he still hasn't forgotten about my comicing after so long.  Thanks Dana!

Everything so far is linked on the main page.  I'm going to try and get back in the habit of blogging on occasion too.



I so need to get my banners updated too, though universeflux does still work as a link.


Edit: *scowl*  I finally have updates and for the moment my website seems to be having issues loading.  *sigh*  If this happens to you, please be patient and try again later.  T_T

Edit edit: Until I posted that.  Now it works fine.  REALLY!!??

Are we sure this is the first day of spring and not the first day of summer?  I just delivered papers in t-shirt, capris, and sandals and was too warm.  Really.  Mid-march?  In Canada?  Alrighty then.  At least in Alberta the weather like this had an explanation - Indian summer or chinook or whatever.  In Ontario this is just weird.

I'm just waiting for the blizzard in July.

Well hey, apparently I have to injure myself in order to update here.  Between sewing and computering and just general tension I managed to sleep on my arm all wrong to finish it off and its excruciating today.  My dad even used his first aid training and put my arm in a sling.  Its... aggravating.  It's muscle pain down through the side of my neck and into my shoulder.  Can't draw, can't sew, can't mouse or play video games.  I can type one handed though.  Somewhat.  I'm out of practice.

I'm so out of touch with my productive routines that it too is kind of painful.  I gave up on my waste of space paperweight/'laptop' and had my brother build me a custom dealy in January.  Its noisier than my laptops and has lots of blue lights but the monitor is HUGE.  Also rotatable.  Not that I have room on my desk to make use of that function for now but itcan rotate from the standard _ orientation to the vertical | orientation.  Actually I haven't played with that at all yet either... mostly I've been playing too much Morrowind with it.  *somewhat sheepish*  Between that and non-stop pet jobs this past weekend has been my first 3 days (almost) totally free since November 2011.  Its been good, but constantly steady, it was nice to stretch out and take up some time for my own projects again without having to keep an eye on the clock at all times to keep on schedule.

Cosplay was going really good too, until my arm got borked.  Cat and I are doing Fire Emblem costumes this time with spiffy armours and stuff.

Ah, food is ready.  I may end up posting more if I can't find anything else to occupy myself with this evening.  >_<

Can you please recommend me a computer system that will not have me wanting to become a luddite and renounce all technology as a lost cause.

I have just gotten my laptop back (for the last damn time so far as I'm concerned) from yet another failed repair with Futureshop of my not-yet-3-year-old HP expensive gaming/art crap machine.  Not only are they unable to repair it, they are unable to identify a problem.  It took them another 2.4 weeks to figure nothing out.  Unfortunately for me (since the store is very apologetic and yet unable to do anything for me) the fact that I have identified several system crashing issues repeatedly for them does not count.  I am enraged.  I am so }bleep{-ing done.

Replacements:

Basic criteria:
- able to create large digital art files, high quality scans, and photo editing therein; aka happily run clunky photoshop program
- work smoothly with my wacom tablet
- a streamlined user interface not loaded down with crap freebie programs that I can't uninstall
- compatible with my current programs that I actually do use, (Morrowind, word, photoshop...)
- able to print text documents without crashing, also scan, scanning would be nice
- less than $2000 inclusive for a botched system that will run my life until I give up on it
- being able to play Portal 2 on it would be nice.
- not a hp laptop. I miss my old compaq laptop from before compaq was bought out.
- reliable; I would like it to last me ~5 years barring explosions.
- if laptop, 2h+ battery life is preferable
- must run -quietly-

I use my (fictional) computer to:
- type, lots
- create digital artwork or format high quality scans and photography
- research
- internet mail/blog/maintain online art galleries
- run an etsy store / run and organize a small business
- build and interface my html website
- travel (if laptop) or support a netbook companion pc thing (if desktop)
+ game on occasion (not much lately)
+ play dvds/media/music while working on other programs

I'm daydreaming about putting my laptop in the road and driving the truck over it repeatedly.  Specific recommendations for replacements are greatly appreciated.

I don't even know where to start looking.  I did a crapton of research for this laptop and it has been a waste of an investment since I could have picked up a $500 machine that would have worked better.  I don't even know.

*defeated Ruth is defeated*


Edit:  If you know someone who keeps up with the latest tech specs for fun feel free to pass this request on to them, I would greatly appreciate the advice of someone not in a sales position.  I would be happy to do up an art piece of some sort in exchange for the research and help figuring out what system to invest in.

If you're unfamiliar with what kind of art things I do:
brightlingworks.ca
brightling.deviantart.com
brightling.etsy.com oh wait no, that one is MIA until I have a reliable computer

Computer was in briefly for some initial diagnostics and fixes then sent home for testing and abuse.  It's still not working so I go back in when I get the chance and leave it for extended diagnostics.  Actually had the most helpful walkthrough yet with what the technician was doing because he actually did them with me and explained and asked things appropriately.  How refreshing.  Computer still doesn't work though. :P

Since I had it back for the moment I ended up typing up story notes so I can organize them better and figure out what sections need to be worked on next and edited together.  I'll print a hard copy before the computer goes in again so I can work on that.

However, I just realized I've been typing non-stop from my notes for over 4 hours.  o_o

No wonder I'm drained and hungry.  There's still 12+ pages to type up.  I've already layed out more than I thought I guess.

Here's to randomly sorting things out, sketching rough scenes, and making notes as they arise for a story.

Wow.

So.  My computer is malfunctioning the same way it did when I had it in the shop for a month back in March with a few new tricks added in.  Aka randomly shutting itself off while I'm in the middle of working on something and wiping any memory of the experience.  Freezing when I try to save an art scan.  It probably only hasn't been malfunctioning for this long because I've been avoiding it like the plague for anything more complicated than checking e-mail and the occasional word document.

Then I tried to use it like a functional piece of equipment again.  Oops, my bad.

Theres a reason I haven't had much digital art here for you since my old laptop died.  And have been storyboarding in a paper notebook.

Good thing I bought the extended warranty which will expire next February.  Time to go back and hurl it at the employees again so they can do a hard-reboot that will fix nothing.  Again.  Unless they can actually fix it for me which would be splendid and new! :D . . .

One more faulty repair (aka, if this doesn't work) and they claim they'll give me a new machine.  Lets hope taking advantage of that process works better than my computer does.  *is not convinced yet but would love to be pleasantly surprised*

Pah.  Time to go finish pulling out any files I've changed since the last repair backup so they can trash them all again.

Not bitter.  Not bitter at all.  *hiss*


ETA: Forgot to state the obvious -- may not be available online for a bit again, will borrow family computers for basics in meantime.

So here's some of what I've been working on recently for you faithful lj followers.  Two hours, two computers, two scanners and my brothers assistance later I finally have some reasonable digital files that don't permanently crash my computer.

These are two (completed-ish) watercolour illustrations for my story/book about Ever (the girl), Pace (the boy) and their adventures.  These were started in my August Haliburton art course, Illustrations for Childrens Books, and its been highly suggested that I do actually work towards getting something published.  Here goes I guess.  o_o  Who knows if these'll make it into a final work but they certainly help me envision some key scenes.  I expect I'll continue working on more in this series of illustrations to help the story progress to its conclusion.

Preview  --> 

( Full images behind the cut...Collapse )

Now to make a lightbox so I can get some decent photos of my dratted jewellery!  ^_^;;