Subtle's Exchange Diary

[The Forsaken Subtle Sin Saint]

Normally, you would only exchange it with one person, but anyone can comment, I don't mind.

I got a commission of sorts from a guy who was supposed to be a classmate in Color Theory, but he dropped the class. He has an rpg system he's working on (his major, btw, is Interactive Media), and gave me the descriptions for some very interesting charas to illustrate for him. He likely thinks I've forgotten, but I've just been having a bit of trouble with life, homework, and family. I'll be posting my work in the galleries here, but they'll belong to him, so no one can use or alter them in anyway without his permission, sorry.

Marina has been going through this phase where she has to argue with EVERYTHING we tell her. She is in this "I know everything, and I will argue about it till you spank me" mode, likely gets that from me. Drives me up the frickin' wall. Having been raised in an atmosphere of Absolute Obedience or Suffer the Wrath of Dad and Mom, it's hard for me not to freak out when she argues. I know she's just being a kid, so I have to watch it, I'm actually a very strict mom. I know, you're like, you, strict?

My sister in Texas is pregnant by her ex husband. Thank God she's not going to get back with him just because she had a moment of weakness. She and my sister La Donna (who lives in Cali, currently hooked up with a woman beater Marine who had better not even think they're gonna stay at my house) are trying to come up here in March around St. Patrick's day for our other sister Stephanie's graduation from college. All of us are in or have completed college now, including mom, but they're all in the medical field except me, lol. La Donna actually introduced me like this: "Hey, this is my sister Cori, the blacksheep I was telling you about?"

Color Theory is the most fun class I've been in so far. Mostly because the assignments have been helping me leaps and bounds with my artwork, but then, all of my classes have, even Comp Lit. I'm really loving Photoshop now that I've gotten over the intimidation factor. I think I'll post some of my recent submissions here in the gallery in Other Art, or whatever the non Beyond related art gallery is called. I did a cute animated koala for Australia Day, all brush tool and pencil tool. It was a bitch to get done, the background is transparent. I had to tweak it more than once before it was close enough that I liked how it looked against DA's background.

Obviously I'm not gonna put my love life on blast, but let's just say that this year's AntiValentine drawing is well underway.

I got a few extra hours week before last, which was nice, because I have to buy the entire Adobe Creative Suite for college in two weeks; if I save most of this paycheck and the next, I'll have enough. Thank God for student discounts, because normally the whole suite costs $800, but as a student I can get it for around $200. Still a hefty chunk of change. Nice thing is that it's a one time expense. They have a huge package for graphic designers which would be great if I could get my tax refund in time to buy it, everything I'll ever need graphicwise and then some, only $695, but I just don't have that kind of cash. Funny thing I keep forgetting to mention is, there's a guy named Frank in my class, and he's really cool, he gives good critiques and has an interesting gallery in DA. I've met five other Deviants in college so far, I would have expected more. I guess a lot of them who are into Residential Planning and Culinary Arts aren't really into the graphics area though, and that's who I've mostly come across so far. I still have my 4.0 grade average, which kicks ass, and I like how we all pitch in and help each other make the grade (the teachers like it too, lol, which is always a good thing.

My mom, oddly enough, is suddenly very interested in talking to me. For those of you who know a bit about her, you know that this is like, "Who are you, and what have you done with my mom?" She calls me up suddenly out of the blue, complaining that I don't call or write (she lives like ten minutes away, lol, why would I write?) and wanted to check up on me. Usually phone convos are limited to her asking about me, brushing off the answer, and giving me a full report of a year in the life of Mom. This time, she asked about college, about Marina, how work was going...it's like an alien swapped her brain or something. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth (not often, anyway, lol), I went with it, and we had a nice convo for the first time in ages. She also before this had called to see if I had any Dimetap, she was watching my niece and the poor sugarplum had a cold. I told her to come get some, and ususally mom only calls or visits when she needs something, stays only long enough to be polite, then splits. This time, she actually stayed for awhile, let the girls (who never get to see each other since Stephanie lives in Boise) play for a bit, and even ate lunch with us, which she hasn't done in over three years. (She used to come over to my house for lunch when she worked at the hospital at the top of the hill and I was a homemaker.) She's been calling twice a week ever since that initial call, various odds and ends, and making sure I'm up to date on the news, since I'm notorious for avoiding any television, radio or newspaper articles about the news. Just makes me scratch my head, but who am I to sneer at a blessing? She's finally acting like the mom I've always dreamed she could be; one that actually gives a damn about me. Halleluiah.

Lord, you'd think I had diarrea of the fingers, lol. I just started typing and look at me go! It's been awhile since I've written in my other blogs, so this will do for here, and those of you watching my other blogs know I just c and p posts from one blog to another, so everyone who knows me and reads them can get the dish no matter which blog they read.

[The Forsaken Subtle Sin Saint]

Had a nightmare that started out as a good dream. I had gone to this strange building to rp with some of the members from here in the website in a LARP. We were setting up color gels for the lights above, because if we put them in a certain order, when they turned on the lights, our chara would appear in 3D. As I sat at one table, Frank showed up (it didn't look like him, but I knew it was him,) and we met and talked for a bit, before someone over head announced that our time slot in the building had been given to some other group (special needs), and that we were to retrieve the color gel sets we made and clear the building. The announcer and his cohorts were laughing at our misfortune, until he heard the orders came from someone he hated, and he screamed, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!..." for so long, we commented he should be in Metalica or something. While leaving the main room, it somehow turned into his house (which looks nothing like his real house, but I knew it was his), and he was looking for a video he had to take back to the rental place before he got late fees. Meanwhile, kids from this special needs group kept popping into his room with us, mocking us because we had to leave, or just getting into his stuff, so while he searched, I distracted them and politely ran them out of his room. I found his video under some stuff on top of his dresser, and while he went out to start the car, I changed clothes for some reason, out of my black jacket, black jean shorts and short sleeve shirt into a blue shirt and bluejean shorts, then was given dirty looks by the leaders of the group, a snobby prissy woman and her idiot male sidekick. I ran into the room where we were supposed to have the LARP, shouted, "¡Que se vayan a la verga, pues!." then ran out to Frank's car, laughing like a loon as the man shouted, "What, what did she say," and the woman shouted "She just cussed at us in Spanish, nevermind what she said!" I tried to get into the car, but he'd parked too close to the curb, so I motioned for him to pull forward, and when I got in the car, I told him what I did, laughing. He was facing away from me, and sounded very ill. He lay back on my chest, and I looked and saw his head had become the head of a Crow, like the Native Americans depicted them in hybrid human state. His head was deteriorating though, and he was dying in my arms. I tried not to cry because he was scared, and asked me to rub his throat for him. I did, gently, and he healed some, his eye becoming whole again, and his feathers bright. Then he found out that back in the seventies, when I was just a girl (dream had it wrong, showed me as a teen in the 70's, I'd just been born irl in 76), and how I'd been in a large gathering, and had healed his father (not his real father, some kind of oceanographer) similarly, and everyone had freaked out about it. The dream shifted from photos and news clippings he'd had in a scrapbook in the car to a flashback, of people surrounding me and a brother and infant sister that I don't have irl. The three of us had taken refuge above a parked ambulance, but the parking brake wasn't on, and it rolled into the ocean, which looked like a man made tank from Sea World. The brother, who looked about 8, tried to hand the baby sister to the crowd, but they dropped into the water, and someone jumped in and kept trying to keep the baby above water while someone found a net and snared all three of them, saving them. I nearly went under with the ambulance for some reason, I'd managed to be trapped inside, then I was outside the ambulance, and a shark was rushing me. I got pulled out by Frank's dad, and then we snapped back to the present. His health was deteriorating fast, and he told me he was taking me home, even though I begged him to let me heal him. "Home" was in the house I lived in when I was 13, and my sisters were all the ages they were when we lived there. I realized that I'd left my change of clothes at the building, and I likely wouldn't get them back, since I'd cussed at the leaders of the special needs group. My sister Stephanie asked where I'd been, and I smiled and told her I'd gotten to spend time with Frank, not telling her how he'd died in my arms (but suddenly was gone from the dream before I'd gone inside). I asked who was hungry, and only Stephanie said she was. I'd been macrameing some tiny spare ribs from a thick twine, and it was flavored somehow, and I was using wood glue to make it supple. I finished the macrame and offered it to her, though there were two long strings on each end I hadn't finished. She popped it in her mouth and chewed thoughtfully, and the flavor somehow ended up in my mouth. I then realized what I'd handed her to eat, and grabbed the bottle of wood glue to make sure it was non toxic, but nothing indicated in the label whether it was or wasn't. She realized the two long strings were hanging outside her mouth, and pushed them all in and continued chewing. I finally realized I was nightmaring, and I woke up, unable to continue the dream.

[The Forsaken Subtle Sin Saint]

Yeah, been awhile, but I'm fairly certain that no one reads this anymore but me. I'll update anyway, you never know. It's been interesting.

If you're an inactive member or you just live in a cave, you probably don't know that the site co-founder (my former so-called boyfriend) decided to leave us. We scrambled, but have covered the loss, and I'm sad to say it leaves more than one of my characters with heavy losses. We're working on moving past it, though a certain member keeps unwittingly bringing up painful memories with a lot of his posts. C'est la vie, I'm fairly thick skinned. I'm still working on getting the ocean rp boards up, and our other admin are still hard at work on the Villain boards. I'd be lying if I said Frank won't be missed, but he left on his own. He was told that if he left, all his charas would be eliminated, and they nearly are; James was mine to start with, so I'm keeping him. Technically, Bjorn was mine too, but I rarely played him before giving him to Frank. Anyway, I guess I need to get off my ass and update the available title charas list.

So far, still have the straight A's in college, but I didn't make the Honor Roll, which confuses me, because I've never had grades this good and NOT been on honor roll; maybe college is different. Anyway, I aced the Visual Conceptions class, the teacher said I'm a natural at marker renders. He's my fave teacher so far, not because he likes my work, but because he always gives us video demos of exactly what we need to do, so there's no question when it comes to assignments.

Marina was sick all spring break, stupid cough that won't go away. Other than that, she's ok, so she had fun. Omar's work had to do a complete overhaul of their plumbing, since it's so old, it became a health hazard, so he had two days off he got to spend with Marina, which was a treat for them both. She and I made Sour Cream Fruit Nut Softies today, and it was cool, she got to use the electric mixer with my help. Speaking of firsts, she got her very own library card yesterday, and she's so proud, you'd think it was a rite of passage or something. My mom is taking her and her cousin Kaela to the state zoo tomorrow, so that should be cool.

The play was a huge success, and Marina pretty much stole the hearts of all the people. She was literally the tiniest and youngest person in the play, and she was adorable. I made her and the doll she borrowed from a friend some matching costumes from 1824 New Mexico for the fashion show, and she was asked to stop and pose for pictures in the middle of the show, lol. She practiced her curtsy a lot, and lots of people asked for her autograph. This of course gave her a big head, and she kept telling me, "Mom, I'm famous, EVERYONE wants my autograph!"

Work is good, I'm getting a lot done, but I kinda screwed up. I was supposed to mail 101 letters for my coworker since she was on vacation, which I did, but she was so rushed for me to do it that I flashed through them without remembering to include the flyer that was supposed to go with them. I talked to the main boss, who helped me get new addressed envelopes (very cool of her) and I typed a short letter of apology, asking that the recipients review the flyer too. She was really cool about it, surprisingly, but then she'd been to the play, and had been mightily impressed by my daughter, and me, lol. She wanted Marina to sign the program too.

Well, for a week, I was a blonde. I'd bleached my hair to get it ready for the color of red it currently is, but it got too brassy, so I gave it a couple of days to chill out. I dyed it red and it looks good, but you can see a couple of spots in the back that didn't get enough red. My hair is long, it's hard to self dye anymore. But had I gone to the salon, it would have cost upwards of $70 to do (yes, I have that much hair). If you want to see what I looked like as a blonde, look here If you want to see me as a redhead, look here Let's hope they're cool with this color at work, it's a lot brighter than my cam will show.

Anywho, I'm going to try to get a lot done this weekend. In addition to my regular deviantART account, I now have a stock photography account. I take tons of stock photos, so I figured I'd open them up for public use. It'll be interesting to see if anyone actually wants to use any of it.

[The Forsaken Subtle Sin Saint]

Things have been very busy; it's been awhile. As I'm sure you're all aware, one of our former members (the site co-creator) has been voted by majority back into Beyond as an entry level player. The site quite obviously has a new skin, which has brought mixed reviews full of laughter and outrage, as well as joy and appreciation. The Villain board is complete and adds a nice element to the site, because let's face it; Beyond is a tad vanilla without villains. Huh, funny how similar those two words are in spelling, now that I see them together. Anyway, I got through my rough spot as the Beatles said, "...with a little help from my friends..." I have never been so touched as I was when I read all the kind and encouraging thoughts you members wrote. Truly you are my best friends.

Marina has been performing a few times with her baile folklorico class (Mexican folk dancing, if you don't recall what that means). They're simply adorable, they get cuter every time they dance. I'm going to buy the dress from the teacher when they are done for the year. She loves it, and we might as well keep it. I don't have enough ethnic clothing for her. I've been lazy about sewing since I started college. She has also been eating better, much to the mutual relief of her father and I. She has been picky for three years now, but just this past week, she's been eating bigger portions, finishing her meals in a timely manner without constant prompting, and will eat healthier and more often. We hope this is a sign that she has outgrown her finicky palette stage.

Speaking of college, my current course is Life Drawing. My first assignment was to draw a nude male and female, front and back views. Until then, I'd never drawn a nude male in my life, and he turned out so ugly. The teacher said it looked OK, but I'm sure she was being generous. I have done muscular and skeletal drawings, but I'm still looking for the right combination of lead hardness for detail. Also, I had to purchase Virtual Pose 3, which is a book of photographs containing many poses of men and women, mostly women, and has a CD ROM that allows you to rotate those poses however you need to in Quicktime. This is an extremely valuable resource, but I wish they'd had a better variation of models. Most of them are skinny females, and there are only two males; one young, physically fit and the other a bit older and not as svelte. I would have liked to see women with fuller figures (not necessarily as full as mine, just more meat on their bones), and a few older ones, as well as more than two male models. Some of the poses are very non traditional, and I fail to foresee any personal future use for them, but they are intriguing nonetheless.

Work is going to get more hectic, but a hell of a lot more fun. Next week, my coworker, three volunteers and I will be touring the local elementary schools and performing a small skit, a live action telling of the book The Best Pet of All, by David Larochelle. I play the mother of a little girl who begs for a dog, and I refuse to allow her to have one. She finally asks for a dragon, and I say she can have one if she can find one. She finally finds one and brings it home, which causes all sorts of mayhem, and we include a small section where we are dancing the Macarena (I kid you not) and the students remain seated while dancing with us, and shouting "HEY MACARENA!" at the top of their lungs at the appropriate intervals. Later, after trying unsuccessfully to get rid of the dragon, the daughter points out that dragons are afraid of dogs, and if we had one, it would chase the dragon away. We ask the teachers to help us cheer the dog on once we get one, and then we promote the Summer Reading Program when the play is done. We performed the play a total of at least 8 times today (I lost count after that, lol), and Monday, we get to perform at Marina's school. I hope her class is one of the kindergarten classes that will be allowed to come see us (they only let two of them out of the four come).

In addition to the plays, when the Summer Reading Program actually starts, I'm in charge of the crafts on Wednesdays. Thank God they hired an assistant for me. She's an elder, but worth her weight in gold. She does the prep work for me, and will be in the room helping me run the crafts, since there are three sessions in one day, thirty kids per day. It's going to be very cool, as I was given carte blanche as far as what crafts to do, materials, and themes (as long as they had to do with pets, since that's our reading theme). I'm going to be exhausted for the next two months, but it's satisfying work.

The principal of Marina's school pulled me aside this week and personally told me that she wants me on the Parent Advisory Board. She apparently values the fact that I have a kindergartner (and therefore can be on the board for years once I join, lol), am bilingual (trilingual, actually, but there isn't much use for French in these parts), and the fact that I'm positively militant about being actively involved in Marina's education. My coworker happened to be standing there when I received the invite and not only congratulated me, but mentioned how she was impressed and pleased that I'd been invited, as she was aware that I'd received a similar invitation (and was actually a board member) when my daughter was in preschool. We Dragons have the mad leadership skills, don't you know?

Anyway, I'm sure there's lots in my life I haven't written, but I've nearly written a book as it is, lol, and I still have homework to do that I've been taking a break from. I have to get up early in the morning, and am loathe to do so, as I'll be spending the day helping my mother with her stupid yard sale (she wants me to be there at 7 am. Yeah, right). I'm praying for rain. Torrents.

[The Forsaken Subtle Sin Saint]

Sick as a damned dog; I've lost my voice. I felt my throat hurting last night, and tried to take some meds that help stave off a cold, but this is no cold. I can't speak above a whisper, and it feels like I have...well, I won't go into the gorey details. Basically, though, I'm screwed. I was trying to get some new info boards up by the end of today, but I have five drawings I'm supposed to do for class, and have to have them done today. I feel weak as all get out, and my daughter is home today, so I have to deal with her running around in top form (read: driving me crazy!)

On top of that, the neighbors upstairs (total pot heads) f**ked up the plumbing when they installed a new bathroom counter, and now my ceiling has been leaking for a week and a half now. The damned landlady said a plumber was coming, he never came, and now my damned ceiling is in danger of completely collapsing. Thank God it's in the kitchen and not the livingroom, cause I'd have to kill them if they screwed up my computer or worse, it landed on my daughter. I'm scared to go in the kitchen or turn on the light in there now. And since I lost my damned voice, I can't even get ahold of the stupid landlord. As you likely are able to tell, I'm using much more polite language than I feel like now, because the censor would be in hyperdrive if I didn't.

[The Forsaken Subtle Sin Saint]

I've had a bad cold that resulted in a terribly painfull cough that has run two weeks and is still going. I'm taking meds, but am constantly short of breath. I have to sleep a few degrees shy of sitting straight up.

So, I'm done smoking. I don't like not being able to breathe. Just thought I'd share that with you guys.

[The Forsaken Subtle Sin Saint]

I stole this from Araia's journal on deviantART and replaced her answers with mine. Feel free to steal it from me and replace the answers with your own.

- If I were a month, I would be: October
- If I were a day of the week, I would be: Friday
- If I were a time of day, I would be: midnight
- If I were a planet, I would be: Venus
- If I were a sea animal, I would be: dolphin
- If I were a direction, I would be: west
- If I were a piece of furniture: bookcase
- If I were a sin, I would be: Sloth
- If I were a liquid, I would be: pure water
- If I were a stone, I would be: hematite
- If I were a tree, I would be: rowan
- If I were a bird, I would be: crow
- If I were a tool, I would be: hammer
- If I were a flower/plant, I would be: Forget me Not
- If I were a kind of weather, I would be: warm rain
- If I were a mythical creature, I would be: dragon
- If I were a musical instrument, I would be: accoustic bass
- If I were an animal, I would be: bird
- If I were a colour, I would be: toxic blue
- If I were an emotion, I would be: solitude
- If I were a vegetable, I would be: spinach
- If I were a sound, I would be: A freight train.
- If I were an element, I would be: Na (salt )
- If I were a car, I would be: Mustang
- If I were a song, I would be: accoustic, syncopated, sung in French
- If I were a movie, I would be: a comedy of errors
- If I were a book, I would be written by: Margaret Atwood
- If I were a food, I would be: Delicious, satisfying, and fun to eat
- If I were a place, I would be: the ocean
- If I were a taste, I would be: sweet
- If I were a scent, I would be: sandalwood
- If I were a religion, I would be: obscure
- If I were a word, I would be: perilous
- If I were a body part, I would be: hair
- If I were a facial expression, I would be: a knowing smile
- If I were a subject in school, I would be: drama
- If I were a cartoon character, I would be: Major Motoko Kusanagi
- If I were a shape, I would be: round
- If I were a number, I would be: 23
- If I were an item of clothing, I would be: black leather duster
- If I were a piece of jewellery, I would be: a gold ring
- If I were a clothing accessory, I would be: a cape

[The Forsaken Subtle Sin Saint]

Well, bit of bragging and congratulating to do.

My thanks and congrats to Araia and Visant for the close race on the banner contest; they won a year and a three month subscription to dA, respectively. The banners that weren't made will be made by me. I only wish I had more member participation in the voting process.

My daughter informed me she no longer needed her library card (being a librarian, I was like, "That's what YOU think!"), but before I could get steamed, she said, "I memorized my card number!" She proceeded to spout off her 14 DIGIT card number perfectly from memory! She's six years old, for Heaven's sake, even I don't have my number memorized! She even used my mnemonic device of typing an imaginary 10 key pad to remember the order of the numbers! My girl is so damned smart.

I bought her a guitar yesterday, she's been begging for two years. It's a 1/4 size, and I didn't even realize it, but my student guitar is smaller than hers! So I taught her the order of the strings and their names, and how to play a G chord. That was great for a first day, she picked up on it quickly. Today, I taught her the different between flat, natural and sharp, and how to hear the difference when tuning her own guitar. She learned how to tune her guitar against both my guitar and the electric tuner. She knows which direction to turn the tuning machines in order to get a more flat or sharper sound of the note, and she has a good ear for pitch. It's cute to watch her tune, she looks like a grunge rocker, the way she leans over the guitar. I haven't taught her anything about how to hold a guitar other than the basics, and she's already developing her own style. It's a cute, solid black guitar, and I got her a case for it so she can get used to taking good care of it. Both our guitars are going to end up as camp guitars (taken everywhere, using the hell out of them, lol), but I want to train her from the start how to take care of it the right way, so that when she gets better, I can get her a more expensive guitar and she won't ruin it. I picked out "Taps" by ear using mostly the C chord, so she is currently trying to learn to play that.

My weekend is split up by work, but at least I got to enjoy myself last night at a club where I sang karaoke. Had some fun, sang "What it Takes" by Aerosmith, "Interstate Love Song" by The Stone Temple Pilots, "My Sacrifice" by Creed, and a duet with one of the members of my website, "Bohemian Rhapsody," by Queen. It was a lot of fun, and I haven't sung that much at a karaoke in a long time. I woke up with a sore throat, lol.

[The Forsaken Subtle Sin Saint]

Well, I bet some of you thought I abandoned you guys! I am truly sorry for my prolongued absence, but as usual during such absences, my soul was partially devoured by a particularly gruelling class. This time it was Computer 3D Modeling and Animation (isn't that an odd title? Of COURSE it's Computer 3D, you know of any other kind?), and I'm SO relieved to be done with it! If you care to see what was keeping me, visit brigettemora.deviantart.com/art/Night-and-Day-My-Workspace-65577275, and view it on Full View. This is not only my most realistic 3D render to date, its a view of my workspace, where it all begins! (Sorry, couldn't resist.) There's a lot missing from the desk (headphones, speakers, cds, modem, stoneware skull holding pencils and smudgers, clock on the wall, Dragon incense burner, wooden box of incense and oils, small blue Dragons and an 80's style desk toy), but I only had so much time and energy! You may note the picture in the frame on the left wall; that is an original drawing gifted to me by none other than our very own MIAKA! I was glad to be able to include that in the render, since it hangs exactly where you see it.

In other news, as some of you know, I attended a kendo seminar back on Sept. 14 - 16. On the morning of the 16th, I was late to class because we couldn't locate the building it was in, and I didn't tape my foot before joining the other kenshi because we were only going to work on kata for the first three hours. That was a BIG mistake. I have plantars faciitis, and it had gotten worse since I joined kendo back in June. When I was halfway into learning the third kata, I got overzealous (hey, I was training one on one with our sensei, what a treat!) and stepped down hard on my foot, ending up on the floor in tears and pain. Fortunately, one of my sempai is a doctor in Boise, and he referred me to a podiatrist who set me up with a proper way to tape my foot (I was close, but had actually been taping wrong all along), anti-inflamatory meds and a night boot. Beats surgery!

Turns out one of his nurses was a girl I went to highschool with. She was a complete snob and rudegirl, but she recognized me and was very amicable. I'll never understand how all my former schoolmates recognize me right away, and I don't recognize them until they tell me who they are, lol. To my credit, she'd done a drastic hair change and now wears glasses, which she never used to do. It was rumoured that she skipped the reunion two years ago because she and her cohort thought no one "cool" would be there, and were stuck up about it. Don't know why her cohort didn't go, but she told me she'd had a wedding to attend that same weekend, or she'd have gone, and found the rumour extremely funny. Go fig.

So, on top of a cold that came of being up all night four nights straight, aggravated plantars faciitis and losing about six vital files at work due to a corrupt disk, life has been pretty hectic. I'm finally getting some downtime today, which is why I'm able to update here in the site and here in my blog. Our other admin, Steele, is unfortunately down for the count until further notice. His internet was shut down, and he has no other place to access it, so he called me (before his phone was shut off too!) and gave me permission to play his characters in his absence. The good news is, this means we can continue with the summit and Hatching Ceremony and hopefully move on to plots that don't require everyone to be able to contribute at the same time. The bad news is, that means I have 25 characters to keep in play! Please bear with me, because I don't know how long this break between classes is going to last, and I do still have kendo and work to contend with, as well as any extracurricular activities my daughter may have.

Speaking of my daughter, she just turned 7 in the end of August, and is now a second grader. She's reading (get this!) manga now, written for kids about three grade levels higher, and actually comprehends and enjoys them! Currently, she's reading Kitchen Princess, which she thinks is very sad (it is, in some parts) and cute (which it is mostly!) She's read the entire Baby Mouse graphic novel series, and read the 2nd and 3rd volumes of the Kingdom Hearts graphic novels (the first was already checked out when she wanted to start the series). The girl is as addicted to reading as I was when I was her age, to the point of where I have to shout to get her attention like my mother used to, lol.

I think that about sums up what's been going on lately. My love life is still nonexistent, though I did get a contact from an old Goth dj friend in Texas who expressed the desire to get closer to me. He actually wants me to move back down to Texas so we can build a relationship, but I can't do that at this point in my life. It's not that I wouldn't like to, he's an awesome friend I wouldn't mind considering developing a relationship with, but I just don't have time for relationships right now, much less the energy to be a proper gf. I explained that to him as kindly as I could, and he was relatively cool with it, other than he felt I wasn't giving us a chance. I don't deny that, but I had to be honest, my daughter, school and work come first right now. He's still in contact with me, still on good terms, so everything's pretty much golden there. Better to be alone and carefree than in a rocky relationship, n'est ce pas?

I will do my best to get back into more frequent posting, but you know how it goes. I again extend full amnesty for anyone else who has not been keeping up with posting, since you pretty much can't post until I get caught up anyway. The amnesty only applies to lack of posting of course, but no one has committed any offenses in months (some of you, years!) That reminds me, I'm sorry I let monthly citizenship rewards fall by the way side, it looks like the reward is going to be the fridge until further notice. You guys all know you're awesome, and if you ever need reminding, pm me, and I'll tell you personally! Thanks for bearing with me!

[The Forsaken Subtle Sin Saint]

Whoa, looks like we got hit by a spammer today, with not one but four posts of digital gibberish in the Villains poll thread. I leave the guest posting available in some threads, because sometimes it's nice to see what non-members have to contribute. Our site is so "unadvertised" though that I'm surprised the spammers found us, let alone spammed that particular thread! I've already deleted them, sorry to disappoint those of you who didn't see them, but you're not missing out on much, trust me. It's almost like a mark in the rites of passage, lol, when your website gets spammed (I know, I'm a total geek...)

Most of you know that Marina turned 8 on Wednesday, and started school Thursday. She had a great birthday (according to her), and she's excited about the third grade because her classroom is "upstairs." Her school has two floors, and the upperclassmen get the top floor. Curiously enough, this year they've lengthened the school days. I think it's in an effort to shorten the school year, since normally summer starts in June, but this year they're released May 28th. Fine by me, of course, though she has an annual talent show she likes to participate in, and she may not be able to do so if she's helping perform the Summer Reading Play for my work like she enjoys doing every year. She may have to do one or the other, which of course will disappoint her, but she'll get over it.

As you know, I FINALLY finished my finals for the 3D class, though it took my entire summer break from school to do it. If you haven't seen it, you may view it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4po8foiPb0 and no, I still haven't had time to add the sound effects. So far, my Speech class hasn't been too hard, so I've had a little spare time here and there. I'm trying to update posts in our main plot, and I encourage all of us who are able to do the same.

Speaking of able, I'm sure you've all noticed the absence of our administrator Steele. I haven't seen hide nor hair of him for months now, and not a phone call or im to even let me know he's still alive. Last I heard, he was having financial troubles, and doesn't have internet access anymore. Unfortunately, that leaves us in a bit of a bind as far as the summit goes. I do plan on playing his characters out of the plot as best I can, but he plays one of the most key figures in the system. I really do NOT want to have to deal with another "let's stop the whole site because Steele is gone," so I'm going to find a way to send his characters on an offworld mission that will keep until I hear whether or not he's ever coming back. I'm officially giving him until December 31st to contact me (on or off site) before writing his charas out completely. It's ugly that I have to do this, but he's left me with little choice. If anyone has any alternate suggestions, I'm all ears, believe me!

On a more personal note and totally different subject, I found out Tuesday that my youngest sister on my mother's side has bacterial spinal meningitis. You can either have bacterial or viral, the former being the worst of the two. She has MERSA (a super virus that can only be treated, never cured,) and other health issues, so the doctors are throwing every antibiotic in the book at this. Your thoughts (and if you pray) prayers would be appreciated; I don't know what I'll do if I outlive my youngest sister, but I don't think it's gonna be pretty.

It unfortunately gets worse; I found out Wednesday that I am diabetic. My mother is diabetic, and has been wanting to test my blood sugar for ages, but we live in the same town and I see her maybe four times a year at most (she's an odd bird, and those of you who have heard about her can see that this isn't unusual for her.) My blood sugar was 353, and you're only supposed to max out at 130. Yikes. So, I'm getting to a doctor as quickly as funds allow, and watching what I eat in the meantime. It's my own fault really, I haven't been taking care of myself as well as I should have. Beyond being obese, my sleep habits are horrid (she says as she posts this at 04:25 MST), and I don't eat breakfast. I'm cleaning up the bad habits and will start exercising more, in an effort to avoid needing medicine. Please wish me luck and persistence.

I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable Labor Day (those of you who live in the US,) and those of you who live elsewhere, just have a great weekend. Unfortunately, I'm babysitting this weekend, and I work next weekend, lol, but today I plan to get a lot of posting done in Beyond, and hope you all can do the same. Cheers!

EDIT: Oh yeah! I almost forgot, here's a pic of me with my latest hair color and the glasses I have to wear now, enjoy!