School is creeping closer and closer now as the days go by. I've started to get my things in order as far as academics go; I'm in debt up to my ears because of my lack of money for art history text books and studio fees, leaving a nice burning hole in my wallet... but I'll deal with that gradually like all the other students.
With only a week or so left of freedom I realise I've gotten seriously behind on my paintings and need to review my French for this coming semester... So much for freedom, eh? :P

Over the course of the coming week, I hope to accomplish as much as I can in order to make the most of what time is left in summer vacation. Hal's blog gave me the idea of making a "to do" list to manage what I wanted to get done (teehee, btw, thanks Hal! :D)

So, here it is:

-get all my art supplies together
-finish paintings (and post the finished result :))
-make use of the two new sketchbooks I obtained (and finally post something on devart)
-review my French (I get to marvel at my own "OUTRAGEOUS AC-CENT"! :lol: Holy Grail for the win...)
-finish writing up the script for my manga... though that's still probably going to end up being forgotten...
-get a JOB! I need to call that post office back ASAP :P
-beat SH4 and Red Ninja (not a really high priority but I still want to beat 'em)
-practise in Photoshop to prepare for my intermmediate electronic media class

That's all for now... hopefully I'll get everything done before the week's out! :)

Oh my goodness gracious, I had a brush with death today!

 Early this morning I was whisked away to Park Safari with four of my friends... apparently I had forgotten we all had plans to go there. Two hours or so in the car and we were there, greeted by llamas and horseflies...
We entered the park and were immediately surrounded by a herd of zebras... I swear, strips as far as the eye could see! Then Gryph and Chibi (two of the four) started feeding them and, oh my... that was it. It was over.
The zebras were all over the car trying to get some of the food, one of them 'accidently' nipping my arm to get to the snacks! In the next few hours, things calmed down a bit as we headed through the rest of the safari area... until we got to the yaks and the longhorned cows nearly gored our car. The deer were vicous little buggers, voracious like no ones business! I nearly lost an eye to the ducks... and those lions were eyeing us in a rather disturbing way. Even though I get sick on rides, I was coerced into going on three because of I deal I made (mostly if I hurled, I'd get SH1 to 3 from my friend Peanut... which I didn't up doing). We saw alot of cool animals and, despite the crappy cold/wet weather, we had a great deal of fun there! :D

Today was a truly lazy day; I sat around and did a whole lot of nothing... I think the most I did today was give Trace a bath (which he didn't seem to appreciate all that much). I didn't seem to have my usual urge to go do research and there was nothing decent on TV to watch to take the edge off the boredom, so I sat on the couch just waiting for something to fall into my lap.
Ironically, a whole two seconds later my mom came into the living room with a box, a huge smile on her face. It turns out she had snuck into my grandparent's house and "borrowed" all their old photographs while they weren't looking! She and I spent the rest of the afternoon sorting through the old pictures... I'll tell you, it was sure strange to see all my older relatives as they had back when they were younger. My grandfather hasn't changed a bit, he still has the same be devillish grin he had when he was in elementary school (in the 30's)! Most of the pictures were from the 50's and early 60's but there were a few from long, long ago...
I was shocked to see an antique photograph of my great-grandfather in the pile. I'd only ever seen what he looked like when he was well into his 70's but this picture was different from all the others I had seen. The picture was taken in the early 20th century (I estimate around 1908-1910) and great-grandpa Ambrose looked to be no more than 21, a tall and handsome gentleman! Sadly, he died in 1963 so I can't go and bug him about how great he looked back in the day...

With these photographs, my mom'll be able to start the scrapbooking process (with copies of the pictures, not the actual pictures :P)... I hope everything goes smoothly now!

I took some time off from the "50's Project" to do something I've been meaning to do for months. I met up with a couple friends and we went out job hunting in the wee hours of the afternoon! :P

Okay, okay... I had my reasons for going; I found out just how expensive my college booklist for this semester was going to be... and, coincidently, so did my mother... :|

We went everywhere; malls, villages, bookstores, the post office... and, of course, the local video game shop! It was pretty productive and I handed out all of my CVs before I knew it! My friends did pretty well, too, handing out as many CVs as I did (if not, more). I can only hope I get a call back or two soon because as good as unemployment has been to me I need it to stop. There is just too much I need to buy for my classes and I know I can't barter my cakes for it all... (maybe some of it... :P)

Labour Day weekend is coming soon and I'll be on the road once again (I don't know how long yet, I'll make sure I post it, though). My grandparents are having their 50th wedding anniversary and the whole family is going to their place in Massena, NY. for the celebration! Now, 50 years together, that's a long time... so my mom is trying to do something really special for them and make up a scrapbook of all things from the 50's, particularly from the year of 1954 (when they were started dating).

Since she knows I love to do this sort of thing, I'm the person she came to first with the idea. My job in all of this is to do some tracking down of facts, looking for all that I can on stuff from '54. I need to get pictures, statistics, newspaper headlines... whatever I can find. This is a really big deal for everyone so I can't wait to the last moment to do the research (I'm a notorious procrastinator that way... :lol: ). This is going to be educational as it will be fun! I mean, my mom has already found a list of slang words from the '50s! Did you know that's where the word "cooties" came from? :P
Anyway, I'm going get started looking things up before I get sidetracked. If anyone knows a site where I can find more information on the 1950's, please tell me! It'll make my time a lot easier. :D
Thanks!

After a short walk to the theatre, I was surprised to see that no one was there waiting for me. Me and my crazy punctuality... :lol:
I didn't have to wait long before the rest of my group showed up and we went to get our tickets. I was really hoping that we'd end up going to see Pirates but the vote was Barnyard instead...
Just another CGI animation extravaganza, right? Actually, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw! I was expecting an over-the-top ridiculously generic storyline... but the story wasn't as generic as I had thought it would be; it's kinda like "The Lion King" with cows crossed with "Finding Nemo" and a dash of Looney Tunes. Not all that bad, funny... a pretty good family film if you ask me.
After the movie, a couple of my friends followed me home and we had rice and curry. They left not that long ago; one picked up, the other I walked (limped) to the bus stop a couple of blocks away... and now, with the "BLAH"s banished momentarily, I have picked up a new ailment; I must've done something walking to and from the next town over because my ankle and foot are swollen... It's gotten pretty hard to walk... but hey! That's nothing I can't handle! Just a little ice and some rest should fix 'er right up! :P I should have a PhD...

Myes, I'm feeling pretty blah now that I'm the woman of the house for the moment. I mean, I'm tuckered right out from painting, doing housework/cleaning/cooking... not to mention I really miss my mom and sis. They've been in the States for a few days but it seems like a lot longer then that so that's got me kind of down... but I'll live. It's only for one more day, anyway! :)
Trace got outside yesterday because my dad was stupid and left the screen door open when he went out for his smoke on the patio. I was freaking out for a good hour while he tried to coax my kitty back indoors... :x He could be a little more responsible! I mean, he's practically an antique himself! :twisted:

Today I might have the cure for the "BLAH"s though! A bunch of friends and I are going to the movies at 5 o'clock tonight to see either "Barnyard" or "Pirates of the Caribbean 2"! I'll post later and let you guys know if the prescription was filled A-OK! :lol:

The all-nighter was a blast! There we sat in front of my TV and played Fatal Frame 3 for all it was worth and Silent Hill 4 while pigging out on soda and sweets to keep ourselves awake and coherrent. Safe to say, it really didn't work all that well; after my third root beer float, it was getting kind of hard to fight off those bloody flying Handmaidens and then Reika... Oh my god, that was funny! :lol:
By the end, it was 6 o'clock at night the next night and we were both drop-dead tired. I got to sleep not an hour later after having supper, just flopped down on my bed and died. Today I feel coherrent enough to type, so here I am!
Gotta go update now! :?

I'm in a pretty good mood now... Why? Let me tell you why... A routine trip to the Blockbuster rental place down the road has scored me two new games! :D
Okay, so tonight I'm having a Friday Fright Night at my place (aka having a fellow horror gamer over and playing SH and FF relentlessly until dawn) and I wanted to go out and get a few games. LO AND BEHOLD! as I stood there in the game section, I saw 'Silent Hill 4: the Room' and 'Red Ninja: End of Honor' sitting there, lonely as can be! It was a sale and (as any typical girl in a store) I gave into the temptation. It only cost me 15$ a game, which was a decent price in my opinion. I've played SH4 before, but not Red Ninja, but I heard it was good so I went on a hunch. I just looked up RN and saw the ratings... but I won't let that deter me yet! (I mean, it's all a matter of opinion... I wonder what mine'll be?) I can't wait to get this thing started tonight! Tee hee hee!! :twisted:

True to my word, here are the products of my day's work; A double chocolate fudge cake for my mom (not to mention a clean kitchen :lol:), a painting of a fire nymph and a second painting of a mermaid (see the tail? :P)! Okay, the paintings aren't really done yet... I still have a lot to do on both, but I figured I'd post them anyways! Hopefully I'll have both of them complete by week's end, then I can move onto a different project (some sketching perhaps? :D).

There they are: cake... :)

...Mermaid... :D

...Fire Nymph... :P