Kind of like a Day of the Dead for me, as I don't really celebrate Hallowe'en as such, I am just conscious of it. Mostly I just drive to the family graves a day ahead to beat the road rush.

Drive was so pretty. Cold, but so clear and so scenic. This country is damn beautiful. When my dad was young and had this cool editor, the editor would ask all field reporters to take photos of all crossroads marks, crucifixes and suchlike.. The favorite entry of mine in my favorite book also talks of a similar man - a professor from the capital, who either chose or was sent to the countryside instead and there established a fire brigade, 'farm women' society, bee-keepers club, he documented all folk songs, dances, local rural customs, photographed all landmarks, and so forth... My kind of a man, certainly.

Driving, Piček and I fantasized about trips we'll be taking, driving around, taking photos, stopping in cool towns.. I could plot a whole Europe two-month road trip from the top of my head, for every day. My dad's village is in this quaint, very pretty area and we always stop at some relatives or friends or whatever they are and it's never a bother, because the lady of the house makes a killer strudel.

It was a lovely day. We're too lazy to make actual trips, although we have ample energy to conjure and plot them :p With bikes, hiking, driving, even with kites, lol. Summer, winter, epic, heroic, you name it :D

haha

Ha, am almost out of debt. Almost, almost. No, okay, I still over loads to the printers and haven't enough to meet the next month's tax, but I paid off a major bill today and as far as I can tell, I won't be getting sued this week yet :p Parents put me in a stupid spot with sis, saying one thing to me and another to her regarding the same piece of finance - *always* the slippery slope - but they paid for the trip tomorrow and we'll have enough to fuel the car, change the oil and buy some of dad's favorite meat products from his favorite butcher. Wish more people would come along :( It's bound to be a lovely trip :)

My next commission ought to pay off next week, earning me a toner printer - just in time for me to be able to mail the exhibition invitations! Woot! :D

Off to help Piček fix the flood now. The TV we got is keeping him so bedazzled (Buttons! What is it about men and remotes?) that we managed to flood the bathroom meanwhile. Ah, well.. World's in balance, I suppose :p

Wishlist du jour

Things I really really need.

Well, no, okay, things I really really want, but to an egomaniac, that's not much of a difference..

A camera. Preferably a Mark.

Kindle. Not vital for my perseverance, but vital for my reading lately, as all the books I want to read are downloaded and I hate reading off the comp_screen.

A very good electrical drawing board.

A very good (versatile) drawing and photoshop program. Or at least the key for it, as I've downloaded about a dozen and cannot crack them. Hacker I am not. Though, hey, I nearly finished writing the code for my own blogger template. I wonder if it'll be the end of the world?

Maybe a gun. But not really. Maybe definitely the Maine Coon. :D


I think the reason I want some of these things is not so much to become their proud owner, but because they bring along a certain responsibility that changes their surroundings. Camera would make me take pictures again, full throttle, photoshop and drawing panel would teach me a whole new style of drawing, the cat would make me clean up my desk more often :P And what is more cushy than lying on a sofa, embraced with your  love, wrapped in a blanked like a falafel, watching evening news, and a wolverine purring on your thighs, demanding to be tickled behind the ear, cutting off your femural circulation... :D   In the end it all  comes down to how you go to bed in the eve. :P

Hellooouu. Hell, I've been so wild lately i think I've never been closer to a heart attack...

          Not really expecting it, I came into some money.. See, it's not MAKING money with art that would be an issue, because I do, it's that it's gone in an INSTANT. Luckily I'm not one of those authors who receive an up-front and block out, as there is more where this came from :) Not SO much, but enough to suddenly grab all the bill slips and pay for the past three months of debt, pay off a former room-mate AND (Grandma sold some of the cards - it's winter season, things are picking up....) buy some winter clothes for Piček and moi, hands shaking, so thrilled to be able to spend again. I was going to get myself a Kindle instantly, but then I thought this is not the time to stop wishing for it, so I arranged to buy Piček a TV instead. There's stuff he's been wanting, like a good gaming mouse and something he could watch all those pre-paid channels for (I've never been a TV creature, so I have no understanding for wanting it, but he seems to really do, so... And a mouse, for Pete's sakes. It's just a mouse. Sure, I couldn't afford to do it two days ago when I was crying how poor we are, and I am just as penniless today, but at least in the middle I could afford to buy my boyfriend a tiny gadget that'll make his game more fun. It does sound like a good idea to add fuel to the fire already burning than try and start a whole new one. He got me a smoothie maker for my birthday, knowing I really want one - the opportunity to give me a Kindle should remain his...

Which leaves us with my latest sadomasochistic fetish - browsing for the camera... When did I so unwittingly switch alliegence from Nikon to Canon?? I have seen Marks II (oddly reviewed better than the IIIs??) sell for 2000 eu and IIIs for 3000.. They are probably stolen, box and all, but, you know, fuck it. Who am I to be above thieving. Lens may prove to be another interesting investment, but... Ugh... browsing, seeing that  awesome machine, imagining its weight in my hand... I can almost SEE what it would be like looking through it...

By the time I can buy one, I'll have the whole concept for the book finished in my head. Gods know I have plenty *almost* finished books right here on this desk. ..

But you can't rush a good thing. If it's not ready, it's not ready. Rush it tomorrow.

Oh My Fkng GoD?! KINDLE TURNED GLOBAL!!!!??!


:D


:D


:D

LOOOOL  Nathan Fillion's character in his latest show, the lovably obnoxious crime fic writer Castle dresses up in Mal Reynolds costume for Halloween :DDDD And his teenage daughter comments 'Didn't you wear this like five years ago?'  So cute! :D

Shows this week were surprisingly good. Some are still on trial period, so it's hard to decide if they're just warming up or if these are the last struggling gasps of an aged marathon runner (say, Stargate Universe), but some ( kmm kmm *Lie to Me* kmm) are very very good. I've gotten as far as 'Light' for SG-U and 'Grievous bodily harm' in Lie to me. I finished the True Blood's second season, turned on by the obvious choice of lusty interest, and showed Dogville, the fast-forward version + the finale to Piček, who has banned me from watching such cruel films until my nightmares stop and am now on a diet of Kung Fu Panda and Family Guy.

Maintenance day, so I'm turning myself on by browsing the current camera market... It's cold and it won't be light enough to draw (yes, I'm drawing again; I've managed to finish three card designs yestereve, though the third one is fickle and refuses to come out the way I want it. I want it clear and minimalistic and it seems dull but if I add anything, my basic idea is gone :D Fickle fickle fickle)

My skill and ambition have been upgraded, so I need a camera that'll keep up - in this case even lead a little. I don't just like the Mark III because of the way its name sounds, (same way my favorite gun is called CheyTac), but it's the Aphrodite of cameras to date - flawless by moral criteria. Of course by the time I can afford it there will be a Mark IX out and I'll be able to have cushy wishes all over again :D Wishing rulz!

I read about a lens - a small, cheap, plastic thing, the Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, practically useless for anything else, but ideal for studio portraiture. I've never cared for specific lenses before. One-size-serves-all was usually a way to go, as I was far more often on the field than indoors - and who the heck would carry around TWO lenses? Porky used to live in a sock.  

I think I'm starting to understand how DeviantArt hits work... Will get right on it :D

The Dollhouse episode about Priya/Sierra was kind of cool - just enough of the annoying lead and plenty of the odd Nepalese beauty - at the moment my favorite kind of beauty..

The other day we had a fight again, Piček and myself, about how no matter how much I do, we simply don't make any money (NOT actually true, but I was being a jerk, so.. In those moments I need to make things worse before I can start feeling better). Supposedly gran is bringing me quite some today, for selling the cards, but that's gypsy logic - she's bringing me more money than I gave her cards to sell. It's hard to decide what to do with it... Reasons against taking it are a) it'll be thrown in my face at some point, b) I'll put myself in the family money feud again, c) I don't want it and reasons for it are a) I need it, b) I miss gran and c) it will be less dramatic if I play along than if I refuse it... Drama.

An old colleage from the army duty days is offering me a few commissions - she wants call cards, a logo and a book... Call cards would pay for the printer toner, logo would pay for my 'manager offers' and the book.. well... if paid, the book will pay for the camera. Which is probably good enough proof it's too good to be true.

The 'manager offers' are a part of the argument - Piček and will each try two completely new ways of selling stuff.. So I've written this letter... Small, heartfelt, cutesy friendly letter about the greeting cards and coming X-mas season.. Traditions, cooked vine, scent of cinnamon in the air... I plan to make it look really original and send it to about a 100 big firm managers and suchlike - folk who are bound to need cards for the employees. You never know. It just might work...

Yay, second season of True Blood downloaded just as I got up!... I love stories taking place in Louisiana, I love the colors, the trees, the clothes and of course that sexy black magic in the air. Always wanted to live there and if I ever come into money I'll build myself a house not entirely unlike that of here portrayed Maryann. Spacious, simplistic, full of art and a nice cooling garden that'll feel like it could be in Caribbean or Greece or Spain.. I'm fairly certain I'd fuss and be out of my mind thororgh the entire building process and Piček would just let me be, knowing I am never happier then when I creatively fuss :D

Uu, forgot to mention yesterday - my momma got such pretty porcelain coffee cups for her retirement, really posh stuff (it comes from the studio that offered a set to the English Queen when she was visiting, but I'm not saying this to drop names, I'm just saying it's really pretty, even in my jealous opinion :p) Only thing I hold against the couple that makes them, is they keep giving the sets such fancy French sounding names, as if they were embarrassed to be from around here. It turned my stomach when Trump's latest trophy wife did the same thing - denied her origins and made herself appear Austrain. Austrian, for the love of all that's gardened and yoddelly!

No idea when I turned so patriotic, lol, but my father will be very proud :) I never know whether to be happy when he's amazed at what nice things I am able to produce, or be upset that he's amazed I can make nice things. Slippery slope, that, fatherly love. :p