I've been doing a lot of painting this semester. I took a painting class, and bought some acrylics, and an easel, and it's just been so wonderful to work with all the colors and the smoothness. And the ease at which you can suggest details, and make things look like what they're supposed to with maybe just a few quick flicks of the wrist...

It's wonderful! Hopefully I'll find the time to take good pictures of my paintings and put them up here to display.

I wish I could do more drawing here in Peru. I really haven't had much energy for it, though I have been vaguely inspired once or twice. I have probably three sketches to show for my time here, none of them complete.

I can't wait to get home and start back on my new life. I can't wait to move up north. I can't wait to meet the people I'm going to meet, because I've met some good people down here in Chimbote, too. I find myself noticing all the nice guys, and I think, yes, there are nice guys out there. There are people that I can get along with and I don't have to meet them on the internet. Frankly, I don't trust the emotional health of people who do most of their socializing online. And I only really trust two people I have met online. Which is why, when I started messaging again after certain... events, I got a new alias and didn't transfer over my old list, just gave it to people I know in person.

I should have a point in here pertinent to my art and the website. I guess what it is is that I feel like I am really living life now. I am so priviledged to have been able to travel to exotic places. Hopefully I can still make it to Ireland in January. I am definitely inspired, but here in Peru I have done more writing than drawing. Maybe when I get back home I will have the energy to draw, and I really hope so. I think that my life now is so much richer than it used to be. I was stagnating so badly I can hardly bear to think of what I used to have, and all these things that were kept from me by subtle emotional manipulation. No offense, hon, but it's true.

Soon as I get home I am going to get another website. This isn't running away from my past, as anyone who knows my name can find me online, but I think I want something a little more refined and mature. I don't know if I will keep Pools of Mind up any longer, at least as a domain. If I have another domain I don't think I'll want to pay the registration on two of them. The only reasons I would keep it would be sentimental. I can certainly have an art section labeled "Pools of Mind", but since I am branching out into fiber arts and I will have to have a portfolio online for my Bachelor's degree in Biology, I think a different format would be more appropriate.

Well, my reasons for making this entry are mixed, and I think I am tired of being on the computer, so I am going to cut this off here.

You know, I had this energy lately, and I was drawin' up a storm, but somehow it's just run away from me. I want to draw, I really do. And I did this cute picture of a girl with kinda fuzzy-looking butterfly wings behind her. It turned out pretty well. I wish my Painter was working so I could finish that picture that I was really happy to be working on. The huge one, you know? It really was sucking my RAM dry, taking forever to do the watercolors. But I was willing to go with it, you know? But now I can't find my Painter disk.

Maybe I'll scan my fairy girl before I leave the country. Hopefully. =)

Man, Peru is going to be so cool. I'm going to bring my sketchbook. Maybe get inspired. Get ready for some Peruvian artwork, ladies and gents! ... (in three months, that is. Ha ha ha.)

On another subject, I find myself drawing more erotica than I used to. Don't really know why, but I'm having... some success. Unfortunately, you will never see it here. So sorry. Perhaps some artistic nudity, but you'll have to be satisfied with that. Maybe I'll hang some up in the bathroom. ;3

I really need to get more RAM for my machine. Here I am sitting on a nice processor/botherboard/video card combo, a gaming machine set to run DOOM3 whenever it is that I feel like spending the money on it, and I've still only got 512 MB of RAM, the same RAM which has been dragged everywhere and God-knows-where. Although if that was detrimentally affecting it it wouldn't work at all, I suppose. In any case, I need to get some student loans to cover these expenses that I keep making. Adobe and Macromedia and, ah... personal entertainment. (*cough* Forever Knight DVDs) But, really, what's dragging me down is having two storage units. There's only a couple things in the one back in Burnsville, but with my mom's moving herself, and school, and pow wows, who has time to go get it?

The point being, I suppose, is that I'm working on a very, very large picture (and getting a thrill off of saying how big it is, heh heh), and it's taking me forever to color because poor Neo-san (my computer) is choking on the sheer mass of it.

MAN! I have to get some film developed, too. More money! But once I do, I'll have alpaca pictures and be able to get the other section up. Hoorah!

I ordered Adobe Creative Suite through my school's student licensing program. I got it for $200 bucks (retail is $1,200!!!), and when the newest version is released for students late next month I'll be able to get a free upgrade. *.* I've been, like, drooling all over myself in anticipation. The check just went out in the mail this morning, though, so it'll be probably next week when I get it in the mail. Oh my gosh I could just explode. This has the newest versions of Photoshop and Illustrator with all their juicy features.

I've been drawing so much lately! Comparatively speaking, that is. It's great. I have such creative energy flowing through me. (Ha ha ha at 2 in the morning I'm working on my blasted website.) And I've made some nice yarn. I want to be able to dye it. I'd like to take the fiber class at my school. Someone told me that it was hard to get into, but my roommate Chassidy said that I could talk to the teacher directly. And I'm sure if I went to the woman directly and was like, "My mom has a herd of alpacas, and I have one myself and I have a spinning wheel, man I would love to take this class and it is totally relevent to my life," she would probably give me a write-in card. WOO-YEAH!

Oh man, life is so bloomin' awesome. Which means GOOD ART COMING. I have a really nice picture in the works right now. Ha ha ha, the resolution is like 3000 x 6000. I am insane. This thing is gonna suck my RAM bone-dry when I start to color it. *cackles*

Wow, this StatCounter thing is awesome. I can see some real specifics about where people are going, how long they're staying at my site 'nstuff. Too bad I can't see who it is, though. ;3 I can tell, however, who's using search engines and what keywords they used to get to me.

Once I get my internet set up at home today, I'll be able to put in a blocking cookie so that it won't chart my personal visits, so I can view stuff without taking up space in my visitor log.

Yes! I am WATCHING you! Hahahahaha! (I seriously am not, it doesn't tell me squat.)

Well, since I haven't updated this ruddy log in OVER A YEAR, I figure it's time I started again, especially since I'm working on my website once more.

I'm feeling pretty darn good lately. I've started going to pow-wows again, and I got some music this past Saturday (well, my mom got it, and I jacked it to burn and return it), and it's just so nice. It's hard to explain. But I'm also really enjoying getting back into my artwork again. I'm hoping to be able to do some more of my digital artwork, but my Photoshop isn't working (I think it's something to do with my fonts folder), and it makes it difficult to format anything when I'm using only Painter 6.

This guy asked me for my number at the pow-wow, and I'm like. In shock. I don't think I've ever been so obviously hit on before. I mean, I must have just been like exuding this aura of STAY BACK all these years. He said I "seemed like an interesting person". Hyuk!

I have another story idea bouncing around in my head. Preliminary title is "The Cleansing", but I'd had some other title in mind and forgot it... started with "de-" something. Argh, it's frustrating. But it's based off of a dream, and I actually have an ending to the story before I start! I think that's my biggest problem when I try to write stories, is I have a good premise but no ending. So... now I have an ending. And I have a main character, and I'm gonna figure out how to make the beginning. I hope I can do a decent job of it!

And... by the way? I'm going to be redoing this blog design, so ugh! you won't have to wait long 'till its decent. (Hopefully... I'm trying to get internet at home.)

Well, let's see. My site was due for a redesign after I got the domain up again, but... It hasn't worked out. I have no time to myself! *laughs* If I'm not working, I'm running errands, or I've got friends over... But mostly it's because I don't have a working copy of Photoshop on my primary machine. Ouch!

I promise, once I get Photoshop running again on this computer I will redesign my website. Plus I have to figure out how to work those style sheets to make it easier to change the format without reformatting every single picture's page in their entirety!

I don't know who filled out the form for my website at this Amateur Artist webring page, but I figured I'd join it anyway. I get home from vacation and there's this e-mail with my code. I'm like, "huh?"

Luckily, I managed to do some drawing while I was out of town. Not much, but enough to scan and put up after I get home from work. : )