I managed to squeeze in some free time to doodle out something Whoish (because that's all I seem to draw nowadays) and Christmasy. To all of you, have a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!


(click to biggify)

May the Holiday Dalek bless you this season with tidings of joy and extermination celebration.

So I'm on my flight back to CA, but I almost didn't make it. I'm a paranoid flyer at the best of times, so I gave myself 2.5 hours before my departure. HOLY FUCK that wasn't enough time. JFK was a madhouse. There was only one security checkpoint. It wasn't till I got all the way to the front that they opened a second one. My flight, thankfully, was delayed, but I arrived just as they announced last call. I haven't run like that in ages!

All I need is to make connecting flight in SLC and my bag to transfer, then I can relax. I am starving and Delta's food selection is crap. Not even "Shaun of the Dead" playing on the TV makes me happy.

So in a fit of both “I’m fed up with working!” and “Holy shit, it’s snowing!”, I decided to take an impromptu vacation wander out in the Snowmageddon and meet up with basalt and doven late-ish last night.

I also wanted a good excuse to play with my new camera.

( It’s the Snowmageddon! )

It’s not pretty anymore. Maybe this is the incentive that I need to stay inside and work. Last day! LAST DAY until I come back in a week to work on it some more.

I was wandering around the Internets (like I do every day) and I came across this. Thought it was interesting and thought I should share.

( You Know You're an Animator When... )

And basalt and I were trying to psyche ourselves up for animating yesterday, because, let’s face it, it’s the holidays and I need a break from working. So she drew this for us for inspiration, and I need to pimp its awesomeness (click for bigger!):



And yes, she did animate, too! No slacking off there! UNLIKE ME.

I have discovered the magicalness of B & H on my adventure of Christmas shopping/shopping for self. How did I not know about this amazing store?! I just want to keep buying shit just so they can send it down on their awesome trolley system. ALL STORES NEED A TROLLEY SYSTEM.

And yes, I ended up purchasing a camera for myself. Will be testing photos for it in the near future, though all I ever do now is sit and work in my bedroom. That’s not very exciting.

I only just realized that Christmas is seriously right around the corner. I’ll be in CA from the 22nd till the 28th and everything post-holidays is booked solid. At this point, I don’t want to do anything but sit around and be a sloth, and possibly sit in the hot tub for a bit to unwind.

Is it wrong that I’m already keeping a list of things to purchase AFTER Christmas? basalt and I were flipping through “The Art of the Princess and the Frog”. Droooooool.

Okay. My day-and-a-half funtimes are over. Back to work till I go home to Californialand. Weep.

Also, this is quite possibly the cutest Ashes to Ashes fanart I have seen in a while. I particularly love the one of Sam and Annie on the swings in the foreground, with absolute A2A chaos happening in the background. OH SHOW. *hugs*

On a sad note, Roy Disney passed away today. ;____;

So, I saw “The Princess and the Frog”. I’ll be honest and say that I was WAY more excited to be out of the house and seeing my pals than the movie itself.

( Spoilers! And capslock! )

And now, I'm going to watch FERNGULLY. This is a total lie. I'm going to watch "Sleeping Beauty" first, THEN "Ferngully".

Thank you all for the warm birthday wishes! basalt came over to make sure I wasn’t alone and brought delicious cheesecake with her. We putzed around and watch 30 Rock and Law & Order and stuffed our faces. Then gina_r_snape and elrina753 completely surprised me by showing up on my doorstep with cupcakes, they too making sure I wasn’t alone. <3

So I did have a surprisingly good birthday, considering I was sure I’d be spending it on my computer, animating all day. I didn’t do a lick of work at all! AND NOW I’M SCREWED.

Now, a question for you all. And I'm not trying to sound like a spoiled brat. My parents sent me a rather nice check to spend on a Cintiq. However, they gave me enough to cover half of it. While that’s still a nice sum of money, I’m hesitant to fork over a good deal of MY money towards it at the moment, considering I don’t know how I’ll be supporting myself in February. And a pal has offered his smaller model to use, so I’m going to fiddle around with that before I make any decisions.

I’m thinking about looking into a new camera. My old one, a Fujifilm FinePix F20 SE, was decent enough, easy to use and took decent pics, but unfortunately, it got wet at HW and now the flash doesn’t work. I figure it’d probably cost the price of the camera just to get it looked at/fixed.

ANYWAY, any recs? I’ve already had one pal suggest a Canon G10, but I don’t know if that’s going to be a little more complicated than a point-and-shoot, you know? All I basically want is something fairly simple to use, that takes nice quality pictures, day or night, and something somewhat smallish that I can stick into my purse rather than carry around a giant carrying case. I’m pretty dim understanding cameras… sooooo yeah. Any suggestions would be awesome!

So gina_r_snape and I decided that instead of celebrating my 27th birthday today, we're going to celebrate the 20th anniversary of my seventh birthday because I'm actually taking half of tomorrow off (GASP) to go see "The Princess and the Frog". Because, you know... that's way more fun than going drinking like I should be doing or something.

Olllllllllllllllllllllllllllllld.

Before I look like a huge wench, I wanted to say thank you to zombres, taraljc , and artic_fox for my adorable vector snowflake cookies. I know they’re just pixels on the screen, but it does make me smile. I NEED TO CLING TO THESE SMALL MOMENTS OF HAPPINESS.

macbeemer asked me questions for the Borg Meme and I’ve only finally come up with answers. Hurrah! I’m going to be an ass and not play along fully by posing questions to anyone else, just because 1. I have no time and 2. I’m shit at coming up with questions.

( Answers ahoy! )

I can't concentrate on freelance today whatsoever. So have this ridiculousness basalt sent me last night that left me dying of laughter (probably NSFW due to language).



EDIT: Oh crap, this got me going too.. I am not going to get ANYTHING done today.

gina_r_snape FOUND ME MORE NESTING DOLLS.

She is my favoritest person in the world right now.

OMG, I am relieved and in a much better mood. Now let’s see if I can hit my deadlines.

On Saturday night, we ended up in the bar, like you do. We grabbed a few tables together and promptly started the drinking. I brought down the Ten Doctors nesting dolls in hopes of more shenanigans like how there were at Hurricane Who, and I knew Mr. Gary Russell wanted to see them. Nick Briggs had joined us at the table and asked what was in the box. I took out the dolls and I started setting them out. He jokingly commented only until I took out the Tom Baker doll “Oh, they’re from Doctor Who!”

Anyway, night goes on, Gary joins us and starts teasing me about the dolls and me basically giving them to him. I knew he wanted them (he had told me so on Facebook) and I knew if we continued our banter, he’d eventually just give in and buy them. But even if we continued our banter, I’d probably eventually break down and give them to him. He kept teasing about how he’d put them on his mantle and show them off to everyone in Cardiff if I’d give them to him.

So time goes by, Gary gets distracted by other folks (which happens, naturally). And in the most beautiful move ever, my pal Robert Smith? swoops in and buys them out from underneath him. At the price I asked for. Well, he paid $145 in American dollars with an additional five dollars in Canadian because I loved that they had hockey players on the bill (plus, sadly, I think the Canadian dollar at the moment is worth more than the American. THANK YOU, ECONOMY). Of course, within minutes, Gary comes back to the table and discovers what had just happened. It’s one thing that someone else bought them, it’s another thing that it was Robert Smith?. Gary calls him a rude word and I still haven’t heard the end of it. He keeps “threatening” spastasmagoria and myself to call Cardiff and inform them of a certain web comic (even though apparently, they ALL know about it O_____O) and they’ll send the Cardiff Internet Ninja Assassin Squad to shut it down.

Though, it sort of works out for me. Gary has commissioned me to make another set just for him in time for Gallifrey, which I'm considering going to, because apparently attending a third Doctor Who-themed con within six months isn't enough. Now to find more DIY dolls, because I seriously doubt Urban Outfitters still has them in stock. PURCHASED. With a bonus set just in case I come up with another idea.

EDIT. PS. I had to clarify for one person already, so may as well fix it. Gary is lovely and joking around during all of this. No hard feelings! Well, maybe some leering towards Robert's direction...

EDIT AGAIN. Because rarelylynne told me to, the most passive-aggressive autograph ever. And I love every bit of it.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd we're back. I'm dead on my feet, I'm hoping I haven't come down with something (even worse, infected everyone I met... don't want the Shearman flu turning into the jigglykat flu!

I had a blast. I'm having a hard time thinking of what the highlight(s) of the con were, though the Ten Doctors Nesting Doll "Bidding" War and mrsdrdavison cosplaying Verity (the Cover Girl from CDTL) were most definitely amongst the best.

And now, to go pass out for a while.

All right, kiddos. I finished my freelance more or less on time (FUCK YEAH), my bags are mostly packed, I had a psuedo-Thanksgivingy dinner last night (mmmm, turkey melt), and I'm off to Chicago for Whoish shenanigans! Behave while I'm gone.

<3!

I’ve been stupidly busy, hence the lack of updates. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the US, and instead of traditional turkey, potatoes and pecan pie, I’m venturing off once again to Chicago for more fannish shenanigans. A part of me is really bummed out about not doing Thanksgiving again, especially how last year’s with macbeemer & Company was quite awesome. Oh well.

I was hitting a low point earlier this week with constant sitting on the computer and doing nothing but animating, so Jeanne and Niki kidnapped me to head out to an old skool ice cream parlor in Forest Hills. Sooooooo good. We also ducked into a chocolate shop and picked up some turkey-shaped chocolate lollipops. The area around there is SO NICE. But it was all I needed to feel motivated.

I stayed up ridiculously late to finish two Sekrit Projects, which I’m about to run out and take care of before wrapping up my final animation file before the “break”. See? Isn’t my life so exciting that it needs to be documented? -___-

I’m looking forward to tomorrow because I’LL BE SEEING SO MUCH OF MY FLIST THERE. And I’ll be on two more panels and talking about DRAWING STUFF.

HAHA, BBC America is promoting THE SHIT out of the Christmas special. I love that I found this on the DWNY webpage.

Three minute clip for "The End of Time" part 1

( Spoilers )

I rewatched Waters of Mars when lovely elrina753 came over to watch.

( Minor final thoughts, then I’ll shut up. )

It also doesn’t help that we watched Star Trek right afterwards and elrina753 filled my head with far too many doodle bunnies, so all I want to do right now is draw fanart. I ended up not doing any animation yesterday because I just wasn’t feeling it, so now, I’ve got to push push push till Thanksgiving where I’ll get to take another break.*

* I say “break” because going to a con isn’t the same as taking a break. It’s not very relaxing! And I have so much stuff to do beforehand BESIDES working my ass off.

I love the newscaster's hesitation, like he's thinking "Are you shitting me?"

Well, here’s the con report. My memories are fading already, and I’ve conveniently omitted a lot of things, but I hope this gives a nice overall look as how stuff went down. If you read all of it, you get... um... my thanks.

( Let’s get on with this shindig. )

So yeah! Good weekend. After all the hints and spoilers I’ve heard about the specials and S5, I can’t wait. Especially for S5. And now, apparently, spastasmagoria and I will have a panel at ChicagoTARDIS as well, unless the schedule will get changed. And I’ve already been asked to draw next year’s program cover, so now I’ve got a year to figure how what to do for drawing Six and Jamie. Suggestions?

My answers to dark_aegis’s questions from the Resistance is Futile meme (I’m not going to pose questions to anyone, just answer the ones I need to)

( Answers! )

I suppose I should... I dunno, EAT or something.