Backdrop of life

Driving to work this morning the sun was hitting the mountains just right to make them look as if they were the background to a painter's perfect painting.

It doesn't happen very often that the mountains look like that, but it always makes me think.

I wish that I would have had the time to stop and take a picture for you all. There really isn't any way to describe how it looks. I mean you can imagine a realistic oil painting, where the mountains stand out from the sky and everything is vibrant. But it would be different for you than what it really looks like.

It almost calls to your soul, and begs you to stop and appreciate the perfection of the moment.

Maybe I should have stopped this morning.

Once I got to work we discovered that a bucket placed below a leak next door had overflowed, and most of the area around the desk was wet.

I spent close to to hours with a wet/dry vac getting as much water as I could out, and even still the carpet is wet. But no more would come out when I gave the vac to the guy next door so that he could use it.

After that the day has pretty much been boring. I got the confirmation that my tax returns were accepted. Now just to hope that the refunds come in quick. If I pay my laptop off before the 23rd of feb I won't have any finance charges for it, but if I don't I'll have about $300 more in finance charges to pay. And my refund should just pay off my laptop.

Moving on... I am thinking of heading over to Hobby Lobby in a day or so and picking up a sketch pad and one of those art sets that has the pastels and pencils and other stuff in it. The urge to draw still hasn't gone away after the dancer, and in fact it's gotten worse.

See what all those nice comments did.

But if I'm really going to draw it would be better for me to do it in a notebook so that the drawings don't get badly crumpled or lost. And I'd like to add color. Anyway, we'll see.

Later all.

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That time of year...

All of my tax info came in on time this year. Good. I hate it being the middle of Feb, and wondering where that stuff is.

I know I'm in the minority... I just filed my taxes this morning. I don't particularly know why I got into the habit of filing as soon as i had all of my info, but I did. I guess it's really a good thing. I get my refunds a lot quicker, and the servers on taxslayer aren't bogged from heavy traffic (yes, I prepare my taxes on the internet. I have for several years, and taxslayer is awesome).

I think it took me all of an hour, and that was carefully looking everything over. Now just to wait for that acceptance email. I guess the only worries I have about that is that this is the first year I'm not a dependant, and this is the first and only year that I'm claiming the tuition adjustment. I don't know why I never put in the tuition stuff before, I just never did. I just hope that it doesn't raise any flags now.

In other news... Hastings had a sale this past weekend. I went in search of used games, but the ones I really wanted they told me they don't carry anymore. But I did end up with some game guides. I had a book coupon that pretty much said that until noon it was buy 2 books get one free. Since game guides are usually $15 each I used the coupon on that.

After that I went to some game stores. I did end up with one game, even though it wasn't one of the ones I really wanted, just one that I want. And I ended up with 2 more guides, which I lucked out on and one ended up being half price.

After that the weekend pretty much turned into a weekend filled with gaming and anime. I did some spot cleaning around the bird cages, and that was it.

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Guest HNT

I haven't been feeling too good this week. Allergies mostly, but there is other stuff mixed in.

Anyhow, my brother got ahold of my camera during christmas. He took some random pics, and i found this one of his foot on my memory card. I think that makes it fair game. And since I'm not really feeling up to posting pics of myself this week, I give you...

My Brother's Foot

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better on the face

ok. Got my better camera out, and was able to get a non-blurry pic of the dancer's face. Thanks for leaving nice comments about her yesterday. I'm trying to force myself to not crumple drawings and actually maybe (one day... when hell freezes over) get confident about sketches like this.

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Early Morning Doodling

Sometimes creativity takes over, whether you want it to or not. I had been having this strange urge to draw the past couple of days. Even though I have no drawing skills whatsoever.

Anyway, I finally let the urge take over this morning. For once I didn't crumple my drawing.



and a close up on the face.


Sorry about the blur and the photo problems, only have my cheap camera with me today. May have to scan it in to show ya'll properly.

I'm actually kind of pleased with the way she turned out. Probably the best I've ever done.

Too bad she was supposed to be a swordmistress instead of a dancer. Oh well, sometimes things have to change.

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Weekend, Etc.

So my Aunt Sarah's new online drama project started. If anybody's interested in reading a new story from the beginning here is a good chance. Head to http://newdrama.blogspot.com/.

I'm now amost 20 hours into Kingdom Hearts. That's what happens when I play all weekend. The sad thing is that I kow that is barely a drop in the bucket where that game is concerned. I wouldn't be surprised at all is I managed to go over 100 hours of play before I finish. And I could easily go longer if I decide to do some of the optional stuff.

I also managed to finish watching the box set of Point Pleasant. DAMN!!! They took that show off the air right before it really got good. And what should have been the season finale was awesome. Too bad they didn't continue the project. Seeing what happened next to devil chick would have been good. If you didn't catch the series when it was on TV, I think that the $30 odd for the set isn't bad. And even if you did catch it, I'd still buy the box. The last five eps that weren't shown on tv are worth it.

Maybe Fox will pull a Family Guy type of deal and bring it back. Wishful thinking, I know. But I really enjoyed the series, and would continue to watch it they brought it back.

In other news I don't think I am going to go dancing tonight. I'm just not feeling too well. It makes me sad, I always look foward to dancing. But I can barely stand today without doubling over in pain, and even that is only being controlled by medicine. Don't ask. I'll be fine in a day or so. It's just something I have to deal with.

That's all I can think of for now. Later all.

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Brave HNT

So for this HNT I decided to post more of me than most of you have ever seen. Granted, most of me is clothed, but believe me... THIS IS BRAVE. Especially since I nver look good in photos.

So this HNT, rather than having ya'll click through to the full post, I'm just adding a linky here. So click this one rather than the one at the bottom. I'm hoping that this my be a suitable solution to me to keep my HNT here.

HNT Pic

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Since BS Asked...

Since BS asked, the games I have so far are final fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts. I also have final fantasy IX, which I have had for a while. I just didn't have a way to play it until now.

I spent about 3 hours playing KH last night. I've kinda got mixed emotions about it, mostly because I'm having to start over.

To clarify, I had been more than half way through this incredibly long game before Luke and I split up. And since I didn't have a memory card of my own if my save game still exists from then he has it with him. Maybe I can borrow the card for long enough to find out next time I see him.

I think the hardest part of buying this system so close to the release of the PS3 is bulding up a games collection. Most of the games I want are actually PSone format, and getting harder to find every day. And then since I play mostly RPG's, I would also want the strategy guides for them. There are some games I cannot imagine using a strategy guide for (The Sims), and then there are the RPG's where you could spend hours trying to figure something out and actually use the guides, not to mention the bonus goodies.

That's a lot of money, that I don't have.

At the same time... I am actually happy with my purchase. This is my first new system in close to 7 years. The last system I bought was a snes, and that got sold to my brother when me and Luke moved in together. And until this the only system that I still had was my sega genesis (blast from the past).

I guess here soon I'll have to make a run to hastings and to game places to peruse the used games sections. At least that'll help a little. Unfortunately I don't think I've ever seen used guides with the games. I hope I'm wrong, since nowadays the guides for those games are more expensive than the games themselves.

In the meanwhile... maybe my amazon ads will start to get some traffic.

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Boredom and Stuff

I need to talk to my boss. I have invoices that I need to send out, but haven't yet because one thing or another needs to be looked at and fixed before I do.

But I haven't seen my boss since friday, and he was too busy then to look at them. I have a slight hope that we may get some stuff looked at tomorrow, but I know better than to count on it.

In other news: The toys r us in santa fe is closing. I went in yesterday, and bought myself a PS2. The discount wasn't much, but for a brand new system I knew that I wouldn't be able to find one any cheaper since sony doesn't have any plans to come down on the prices. I put it, some games, mem cards, and extra controller and stuff on a CC. I know that I shouldn't have, but I've been wanting one of my own since Luke and I went our seperate ways.

SO far today my brain has been in a blah mood, so I've spent a few hours on amazon playing with my recommendations. Mostly marking the i'm not interested box. But at least that gets a little of the crap out for when I actually do care to shop from that list later.

Eh, I guess that's enough dribble for today.

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On reading blogs

I've noticed that reading blogs can sometimes be straining on my eyes. On some it's just a matter of font, and increasing the text size often helps. For some reason, I think it's just because my eyes don't have to work as hard.

But I've started to notice that I really can't read more than 2 or 3 posts on the minima black template before I start seeing lines. Something about the text on a black background is incredibly hard on my eyes.

Of course that sucks for me. Minima black is a popular template, and I bet almost a third of the peeps on my blogroll use it. Heck, I even have it as the template on one of the blogs that I set up.

Oh well, I guess that's why you don't often see professional pages set up with white text on black. Just too hard to read.

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HNT, anti-valentines, and other dribble

SO I'm trying to decide something when it comes to the HNT posts. Since this is my main blog I wonder about the continued posting of these pics here. No, don't worry, I would continue to play, just on a private blog. I don't even think that it would be an issue, except for the point that I am at in life. Having just got out of college, and still in the job finding process I worry about potential employers being put off. Even though I'll admit that there isn't much I can do at this point. But I also worry about potential buyers of my book (yes that amazon ad that never changes) being put off by it.

I know that these are things that I should have thought of in the beginning, but they are what's bothering me now. I guess I'll decide what I'm doing soon enough, and don't worry. I'll let you all know.

Another HNT concern I've been having is that I am getting so many nice comments, and yet since I'm on dial up at home now I have a hard time getting to go around and look at everybody else's HNT pics. And since the page loading takes so long even if I do look at them sometimes I have a hard time commenting. I do try though, and I'm sorry that I'm not commenting more.

Finally, the other topic in the title of the post. Anti-Valentines. Cafepress is having an anti-valentines contest. The rules were posted today, but we all knew about the contest a few days ago. I had been busy working on some designs, and have even posted a few here for readers to see (scroll down a little to see). But any hope I had of even having a chance in the contest was dashed when I saw that the winners would be determined by sales. I just don't have the visitor counts or anything else to even start to compete. Either way... I guess I'll finish making the desings that I've already got planned out, but I don't think it'll do any good. If you want to see what I've got besides what's listed below than check out Phoenixwaller Designs and click on the anti-valentines section.

Ok, if you waded through all of that I guess you know the drill. Click on for the full post with pic. And if you need to know what HNT is about, then click on the HNT button in my sidebar.



A side view from the same photography session that produced last week's 'butt boobs'. Thanks to Nikki for taking the pictures.

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Realization

I have come to a realization about Bumper Sticker Rant. I can either pay for everything out of my own pocket, and do it all as a hobby. Like I have been doing...

Or I can make it into a money making venture, for minimal work over what I had already been doing.

This realization came to me as I was looking at out of pocket expenses for the rant. So far I've invested something like $10 (plus a camera that is small enough for me to keep in my purse), that's for the domain and I'm throwing in a few dollars since the community page is now residing under my domain on a hosted server.

I'm already tinkering with the idea of expanding the BSR store though. I have already picked up another cafepress extension... bsrant, and in a couple of days I'm going to expand that into a premium store which will focus on bumper stickers.

for now I'll try it out for a month. Tack on another $7 to those expenses. But the potential for more money coming than going out will increase with that.

I guess my biggest qualm is that when I set up the rant I wanted a community feel to it. It'll have been a year in may, and at the time I had this absurd though of pluggin all the money right back into it. But I now realize that I can't really make it into a community without branding it, and branding it will be increasingly hard without doing something to get the name out there. And the easiest way to get the name out there is to go this route.

I still plan to plug some money back into it, but I think I need to get over these qualms and just do it. I just need to realize that if I'm successful in this, really successful, I may end up making more money than I can plug back into it. And if I'm only mildly successful than at least it will pay for itself now.

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Anti-Valentines at Phoenixwaller Designs

Valentine's Day is coming, and with it comes all the hearts, flowers and candy that we have come to expect. But what about those of us who have a more cynical nature, and can't get into the spirit of the holiday?

Well, not to fear. Anti-valentine's day stuff is popular now too. And Phoenixwaller Designs has some great anti-valentine's day designs to celebrate.

Here are the first of the anti-valentine's designs, and keep checking back, because there are more to come.

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Bumper Sticker Rant

Sorry about not posting much lately, I've been working on a community page for bumper sticker rant.

Now I'm happy to admit that it's ready.

Check it out at: bsr.phoenixwaller.com

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Why I HNT

If all you want is the pic of the week, then scroll down and click through for the full post. But if you want to know a little more about why I decided to participate in HNT then read on. And if you still need to know what all of this is about, then click on the HNT banner in my sidebar.

I can be a strange person. I hate needles, with a passion. And yet I force myself to give blood. Why? So that I desensitize myself to the needle. I still can't bring myself to watch when they stick it in, but once it's in I do ok now.

What does that have to do with HNT?

HNT is a similar thing for me. I hate having my picture taken almost as much as I hate needles. I'm not a very attractive person, and seeing myself in any picture only reminds me of that.

But I'm learning to accept that it is nearly impossible to avoid the camera. So I need to desensitize myself to the flash, and get over my self-image problems.

HNT is similar to giving blood because in both cases I have decided to do something beyond what would normally be encountered in order to desensitize myself. Just like medical work would never require a needle that big (seriously, that thing is huge), you wouldn't expect pictures of yourself to be 'half-nekkid'.

Anyway... it's probably more than any of you wanted to know, but it's something that might as well be said.

So with that out of the way, click through for today's pic. Happy HNT all.



I call this the 'butt boobs' pic. Mostly because, while it's obvious that those are boobs, the way that I was holding them made them almost look like a butt. :-)

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Been Busy

SO due to some sugar induced hallucination I've been rather busy these past few days with a project that may very well be futile. But I'm offering it up anyway.

I've been designing checkerboards to go into my shop. And while I must say that they are rather neat looking, I fear that the sheer cost will drive potential buyers away. But I'm hoping that they go better than I am expecting right now.

Anyway, if you want to see some examples and read the ad I put over on the DTSS blog click on the click for more link.

Later.

Introducing a new line of gifts at Phoenixwaller Designs. Speciality checker sets in fun colors or patterns.

Choose from sets made for breast cancer survivors or awareness, sets for ladies who wear red hats, or just fun colors or patterns.

These sets are perfect for any checker lover. The large sets can even be held to a vertical magnetic surface (fridge) with the magnet pieces. The other bords can be worn as shirts or carried as a bag for a game wherever you go, or as a unique expression of your love of checkers.



Of for the full selection please visit the Games Section of Phoenixwaller Designs.

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