Happy to Be Here *

HTML for Babies - Yes. I bought this for my nephew. XD

A good warning about Scrivener, Dropbox, and backups.

35 Great Resources for Compass and Sass - Web geek stuff.

Ugh. So much work to do! *flees*

New blog post: Wisdom from The Hulk. I highly recommend writers to read the rant FilmCriticHulk wrote about The Hero's Journey and Three-Act story structure (linked in the Journey rant). It's good food for thought!

Also for the writers out there... Tutorial video showing Dragon Dictate being used with Scrivener! OOOH!!! *_* This could be VERY useful!

STUNNING depression this week but I'm wandering out of it. Hormone-powered roller coaster. Whee!

Yay! Friday! I hit my snooze alarm TWICE this morning and luxuriated in the Friday morning feeling.

Last night I sketched Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and I'm pleased with how my first attempt came out! Those of you who know me from my comicking days probably know how much I loooove drawing lips and curls so Cumberbatch is pretty much my dream guy to draw!

I wrote five more pages of comic script last night and surprised myself with an innovative bit of magic! I'm not 100% sure it's what Eder would do but even if I don't use it for this comic I'm keeping it in mind for future stories. My goal is to have this comic finished/published by the end of the year; we shall see how doable that is because I also want to finish the first revisions of my novel by the end of the year which means I need to have the first draft written by June.

I know I said I was going to work on That Red-Haired Girl but I think I need one more year of distance before I can tackle listening to Gran's recorded conversations. Emotions are hard to plan for! =C

I nearly signed up for Art Walk to sell my paintings but then I sat back and thought about what is already on my plate and how much I would HATE having to sit outside selling my paintings for three days and ruled against it. I'll just continue to stockpile larger paintings and sell off the smaller, easier to ship, paintings. I don't know how it works but maybe if I get enough paintings with a unifying theme I could do a little show somewhere? Is that how it works? I need to sit down and paint the last six of the Evil Eye Tree series then I can start on the next series which has to do with folk art animals with stylized human faces sewn on. No, I have no idea what it's supposed to mean, either. Like so many of my ideas, this one came to me in a dream.

I'm dieting again but not to great effect. XD I keep cheating! I'll make it to where I want to be, I'm just not willing to kill myself to get there.

Oh yes, I have a Pinterest account now and you may find this board I'm putting together interesting because it's all about teeny homes! *swoon*

For those ladies interested in a community of artists/writers who help look after each other but aren't too keen on a commune idea... I have stumbled across something called a Pocket Neighborhood and it's ~fascinating! Links are on that board.

First up! I'm offering my 2010 personal Christmas card design for sale! If you liked it enough that you thought you'd like to use it for your Christmas cards it's now available!
EDIT: DOH! I don't know where my brain is at this week. I can't offer that image for sale as that would be copyright infringement. Derp.

I'm considering this ergonomic mouse for my next peripheral device. Looks like it could be a wrist-saver!

How to Fix Internet Embarrassments and Improve Your Online Reputation.

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Hey guys!

Holiday Cards through moo.com are 15% off and if you use the code CARDSYAY on checkout you'll get ANOTHER 15% off!

Offer is good until October 20th, 2011.

If you're interested in self-publishing your own comics and you're not sure how to go about it, Love Love Hill is a small dj circle with a tumblr and lots of good advice! Ah, it makes me nostalgic!

I've been branching out on my television shows lately:

1. 2 Broke Girls - I've watched the first two episodes and had to turn the second one off before I finished. I really wanted to like this show but it has problems.

The Good: It passes the Bechedel test! It features two girls from different classes who can actually get along and aren't backstabbing each other over a man! Wow! They want to open a cupcake shop together! They DO have conversations about things other than boys. Yay!

The bad: There's also a lot of casual racism that puts my teeth on edge. I get it, they live in Brooklyn and hooboyhowdy there are a lot of immigrants in Brooklyn, amirite? *stabby stabby* Apparently, I'm not the only one ruffled by the racism:
- Press Tour: Is CBS' '2 Broke Girls' racist?
- Is ’2 Broke Girls’ Racist?
- I’m fed up with Hollywood using Asian stereotypes for cheap laughs - the end of his post includes posts to others

Yeah, so, third episode aired and I see the summary is the girls go thrift store shopping (cue rich girl being horrified) and they wind up feuding over the same top. *sigh*

2. Warehouse 13 - I'm a sucker for shows about objects that kill. Remember the old Friday the 13th television series? I was allllll over that action as a kid! Warehouse 13 is sort of like that... I saw the first episode of the third season, which probably isn't the best place to jump in, but I managed to keep up well enough. There were three, nay, four cursed objects in this episode and while the characters didn't all appeal to me the creativity behind the cursed objects did!

The objects:
- Jimi Hendrix' guitar. Not quite sure what was going on there but it was shooting out lightening and had to be played using Jimi's slider (?) to calm it down.
- The Lost Folio was cursed by an actor who desperately wanted to act in Shakespeare's plays but was denied time and time again. He cursed the folio in such a way that if you were presented with an illustration from the folio you would die like the character in the illustration. Cue being bitten by an invisible snake (Cleopatra), stabbed by an invisible knife (Caesar), and other deaths from Shakespeare's plays.
- Statues of Zeus and Hera tossing lightening bolts at each other because they're in the same building together. XD Apparently, their feud is still going strong over Zeus's infidelities.
- A green scarab beetle that came to life, fell to the floor, and burrowed through the cement. We haven't seen what the consequences of that one will be yet. XD

So, the show is about secret agents who look after a huge warehouse (think the end of Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark where you see the Ark being stored in a vast warehouse at the end of the movie) of artifacts and between trying to figure out what the stuff in their warehouse does they also hunt down other artifacts that activate and start killing people. I can dig it!

3. New Doctor Who - I'm only watching for Chris Eccleston. >_> I've seen the first two episodes. I think it's very much got the flavour of old Who and I like CE's portrayal so far. Please tell me this first season of new Who isn't where the Doctor crosses the line from being affectionate with his little sidekick to falling in love with her? I still don't care much for that idea.

4. Mad Men - Yeah, I can't watch this show. One episode in and I'm so angry I want to punch things. I understand it's a period piece and it's not meant to glorify the misogyny of the time but I cannot tolerate how the women on the show are treated. I cannot tolerate the thought there are people out there who like the show BECAUSE of how the women are treated. I love the fashion and will continue to follow the show through fashion blogs but for the sake of my blood pressure I'm not watching any more.

5. True Blood - I saw the first episode of this season and that pretty much killed my boner for this show. Writers, that was a clusterfuck.

6. American Horror Story - This comes out tomorrow and I am crossing my fingers in hope it will be watchable. Essentially, it's a haunted house story! This has me clapping my hands with glee and worrying about the sustainability of the concept. Haunted house stories usually get one, maybe two, episodes in a bigger story or are featured in an hour and a half movie; a whole season dedicated to a haunted house... makes me think this is going to be more than your average haunted house. There's got to be more than one ghost, there's got to be more than one traumatic event, and there HAS to be a lot of conflict between the family members or it just isn't going to fly for a whole season.

5 minutes from the show
io9 has a rundown of the characters and trailers. Spoilers ahoy!

The dudes who put Nip/Tuck and Glee together worked on this show.

I'm not sure they can get a second season out of it but I'm hoping it'll be a heck of a ride for the first season!

Today I attended the UX Web Summit and now I have two browsers full of tabs so here is the mother of all link blogs! Sorry for the lack of organization but I have a guest coming over right away. I'll try to get these organized over the next day or two.

My brain is FULL!

Banishing your inner critic

Using comics to present information:
The presentor's web site
Google Chrome comic by Scott McCloud
GoodUXBadUX.com for examples of user experience
Comic creation sites:
Strip Creator
Pixton

Web Goverance
Web Goverance in higher ed

You've heard of the various ipsum sites to create placeholder text but what about placeholder images? How about placekitten.com? XDD

Experience Design Models: Minding the Gap Between Ideas and Interfaces

Making the Web more awesome

Brain Traffic blog

The Rockley Group

Usability.gov

Amateur Gourmet

Woodgrain portfolio case for loads of cash but it still looks cooool!

Balsamiq.com rapid wireframing tool

Deconstructing a textbook

The Trivialities and Transcendence of Kickstarter

Seductive Interaction Design

New Work City

The most amazing transforming furniture EVER

Living in a 78sq.ft. apartment

I admire this woman.

I'm also really enjoying reading M.R. James. Thank you flemmings  for posting about his work! I think what makes M.R. James' stories so creepy is that he rarely offers a full explanation of what we're being told is happening or why.

...it's put me in the mood to rewrite two old ghost stories; The Bloody Prints of Blueberry Manor and The Apple Trees. I'd sort of set them aside because I wasn't entirely happy with them but I think I know what I can do to change them and make them really scary!

And now... to keep reading about advanced WordPress techniques.

Nice art!

Nice house!

Nice job, gamers!

Nice privacy violation, Facebook!

Nice comic!

Have a nice day!

You can pay with a tweet to buy a little mini-binding guide! So cute!

7 Best Practices for Improving Your Website’s Usability However, this line, "Front-load keywords in webpage titles, headings and links by using the passive voice as an effective writing device." made me cringe. I spend so much time tearing passive voice apart it hurts to think I should use it on purpose.

Ooh! Guideguide for Photoshop to set up grid patterns for Web site designs!

The Pitfalls of Not Pricing Art and Craft Work Properly - o_o I'm looking at youuuu my friends. And with the help of a mirror, I am also looking at me. o_o Some good ideas there! I'm already leaning towards making prints or smaller paintings of larger works that I can sell for less money but still keep the big painting priced accordingly.

You know, if I were actually working on paintings. *eyeballs the empty studio*

I WOULD LIKE TO TRY THIS OUT! - Seems like a good sit to stand desk!

This bag is amazing but there's no way I can afford ninety-three pounds for a bag. Unless I sold some stuff. Hmmmm... lookit all the pretty colours! *shiny eyes* Nuuuu... that's ridic moolah!

Tonight... I plan a painting. And stare at my novel outline again. And see if maybe the novel outline can be finished. There's a few places where it gets all murky and they need to be resolved in the outline before I actually start writing.