Coffee and Absinthe

2008 is the Year of the Rat.  Which animal year were you born in?

Both me and my fiance are born in the year of the rat, so this should be our year. Unfortunately, I can't really remember if fortune was on my side or not the last time the year of the rat rolled around, so I don't have any kind of precedent to go by.

I normally use trillian for my IM client. Lately, I've been using the alpha testing phase of what will become trillian 4, astra. Hooooowever, as things usually go with alpha-phase programs, after updating to build 70, astra has decided to stop working altogether. It just won't load up. I get the splash screen and a little "ATTENTION" icon and that's it.

I'm not getting any help on the forums and my help ticket has yet to be responded to, so in the mean time I'm using pidgin. It's not quite the same, but it's entirely free and gets the job done. Uses less memory too.

The thing I miss most about trillian is metacontacts. They make your buddy list so much more tidy. :(

So, as some may know, my current webhost, DreamHost is under fire for a MASSIVE billing fuck-up that happened yesterday and has cost a large number of customers hundreds of dollars they weren't supposed to owe until later this year. I've written about my own experience with this issue on my Squid Rocket blog, although I didn't really end up having anything more than a pang of anxiety and a wash of relief over the situation once I found out what had happened.

Honestly, I'm not sure what to make of this. Obviously, it's an enormous error and is quite serious. DH might go bankrupt do to the fact they're going to lose a lot of business and likely a lot of potential new customers thanks to this turn of events. My own faith is shaken, and I was, up until yesterday, a pretty loyal DH customer with no real complaints about the service I'd gotten since mid-'06. I just don't know now. I have a few "backup" hosts lined up in case DH goes down quickly or I just don't feel safe giving them my business once my domain is up for renewal in July.

On a lighter note, my 48 ct. studio stacker set of prismacolor markers got here today from Blick. They're very pretty, and the stackers are a convenient way to store and organize them neatly. I remembered prismacolor stackers from my graphic design course at CCOC, and always wanted one, but I knew back then my mom would never spend money on a large set of those markers.

Now, I need to figure out something to use them on.

With my $100 I got for Christmas, I've ordered a 48 color studio stacker set of Prismacolor markers. I like using markers, but I'm not willing to pay almost $6 a pen for Copics. The natural choice was a much more accessable, albeit maybe a little bit inferior brand, like Prismacolor. Prismacolor markers also mesh well with the colored pencils, which I use often, so that's a definite plus as I'll be combining both in pieces once my order gets here. The markers create a watercolor-like effect but are much easier to control and layer than a brush, as well as drying much faster than paint would, without causing the bristol paper to buckle from the excess moisture.

I ordered off of Blick, mostly because they had the best deal and I really like Blick as a store. This is actually my first time ordering with them, so I'm hoping their service is as good as their deals. All in all, with shipping and tax, the $87 order (I also got a colorless blender marker) came out to $103.90, which is still about $5 cheaper than if I managed to get the set from Michaels when Prismacolor products were NOT on sale and thus the weekly 40% discount coupon applicable. I deposited the 12 or so dollars I had in my paypal to my bank account to cover the shipping and tax, so it's all kosher.

Now, time to look up some markering techniques and brush up on them with the few prismacolor markers I currently have until my brand new set arrives.

2008: Year of the Rat

New piece, and the first of the new year. It's the year of the rat again, and this piece features a rat peering at a couple of Japanese mon coins, which I used to represent the rat sign's tendency to becoming prosperous and having good fortune in life, albeit a little miserly with wealth. This piece is especially significant because I was born in the year of the rat, so there's a personal note attached to this one.

It's also up for sale as a greeting card, which would be excellent for anyone who was born under the sign of the rat and might be interested in quirky little zodiac references.

A while back, Nate had to have a root canal in one of his molars that once had a filling that got pulled out at one point and infection set in the hole left behind. Due to his insurance money running out for the year, we had to wait to get a crown put on the root canal, and it became an abscess and hat to be re-drilled and sterilized. Today, we had to go to possibly get the post for the crown put in, and Nate was worried that it might've been too far gone to save and would need to be pulled.

So, his anxiety began to build over the last few weeks and we went over to Plymouth today for his appointment with him feeling uneasy about the whole thing. Turns out, his tooth is healing well and it just needs another month or so before the insurance can be worked out and it will be ready to have the post installed and the cap put on. Good news, considering he was amping himself up for the worst. Honestly, I'm glad it turned out this way because having to deal with a lost tooth wouldn't be the best way to start off the new year.

Dental stress aside, we got more starbucks espresso beans while we were out today. Ever since the weekend, we've been relying on Dunkin Donuts coffee grounds, which are complete and total SHIT. I'm sorry, but I don't understand why people around here love that crap so much. It's cheap for a reason, folks... because it tastes like garbage and has pretty much no caffeine content to speak of. It's like someone used week old grounds to make a pot of coffee with. Blech.

Working steadily on my first piece for the new year. I'm hoping it'll be done within a day or so.

Maledryadsmall

Just minutes before midnight, and the start of 2008, I finished my final piece of artwork for 2007. It's a complimentary piece to my previous dryad drawing, this one being male.

Prints of this particular piece can be found and purchased here!

Now, I can focus on my resolution: to make at least one piece of completed art a month, every month of this new year. I managed to do it last year, and I hope I can keep it up from now on, and possibly up the ante on myself a bit. Now that I've gotten myself some sort of easel, I should probably be able to produce both drawings AND paintings, which will hopefully double my output.

The year is pretty much over, so here's my obligatory look back on how 2007 was as a whole.

Compared to 2005 and even worse, 2006, this year was actually an improvement. Things didn't go terribly wrong; I didn't nearly lose my footing on my relationship or living situation this year, and no more close family members passed away this time around. I'm enormously thankful for that. I honestly doubt I could've dealt with another year like the two previous and retained my composure, much less my sanity.

This isn't to say 2007 went off without any hitches. I quit my job at Hollywood earlier in the year, due to the fact I was not feeling comfortable with the backstabbing nature of my coworkers there, and the ridiculously competitive atmosphere with no real reward for such. Since, I haven't really gotten another steady job, nor have I really been trying to. I have been freelancing, but that's too unreliable and I'll probably be dropping applications again soon.

There were a few tense moments, mostly regarding Nate's anxiety problems, and stress in the household, but nothing catastrophic.

The trip to Memphis to visit my brother and grandma was a plus. I haven't seen any of my relatives in nigh a half-decade, so it was nice to reconnect to my kin and it gave me a slight sense of returning to that life I left for Massachusetts back in 2002. It was also nice to finally get the chance to introduce Nate, in person, to my side of the family and to let him see what they're like. I also got to meet Lunchbox ( Meghan ) in person, for the first time during our friendship which has lasted almost 10 years now.

I also achieved my goal to rekindle my artistic flame, as it were. I made a goal for myself to produce at least one completed piece each month. I surpassed this goal, and did several minor pieces on the side, in addition to the main finished ones. Next year, I hope to keep this trend up and possibly increase my output, if at all possible.

So yeah. Overall, 2007 is an improvement. I'm hoping, all things considered, this keeps up and my slow recovery from the loss of my mom can continue without anything horrible happening again.