I visited the Norton Art Gallery today. Funny how they have the thing hidden away in Shreveport... its so huge... but you don't really know its there unless you drive down this little side street. I walked in and was greeted by a little old curator. He was nice and enthusiastic, holding open the door for me and proffering a pamphlet. I smiled and walked out of his sight, but to no avail. The place was crawling with brown-coated fellows like him. So many bored curators, tense at the sight of an actual person walking around amongst the canvas and glass. I could feel their eyes on me. They asked if they could help, and I could see how much they would love for me to ask them a question. "Which of these engraved guns is the oldest, can you tell me?" "Was this artist influenced by the poetry of Walt Whitman?" I was in a bit of a hurry, so I really had no questions to ask. Plus, a lot of the art was pastoral and western, themes which I really don't care for in paintings.
I was taken aback by the room displaying old dolls. I turn a corner and meet fifty or so blank stares. I honestly can't see why these monstrous things were ever given to children; they're almost as tall as my sister and they all wear these inconsolable grimaces. Everything in the doll area was under glass and lit with a cold fluorescence. I was creeped out.
Though, I suppose did enjoy some of the larger canvases in the gallery. There was one that covered a whole wall, showing a mountain scape and a tiny little monastery hidden near the bottom. Its something you don't get to see often, these huge landscapes. They have just enough sky in the picture to give you an expansive feeling, as if you were truly looking out the window. Nothing has been cropped out. I think that's something that's being lost in art because of computers... margins. With digital media, everything has to fit in less than 1280x1024 pixels.

I'm plodding along through my finals. Taking tests is so dull. To break the monotony, I dance in the empty elevators as I move between floors. (It's all about stopping just before the door opens again. Not being seen. Those waiting faces on the other side must suspect nothing). Of course, the class that will be meeting the longest is the one I have to wake up earliest for.

Hm, why was I posting again? Oh yes. Do you all see that staticy "network" window flickering over there on the right? Well, I've thought of something to put there. Though I'm going to have to work a bit to get it to work.
My goal is to create a little blog syndication page. That way, whenever any of my network members post on his or her blog, part of that blog will also publish to this site. I feel its a good trade, since it will both drive traffic to the sites of my friends as well as give me an easier way of checking them myself. Of course, I'm going to have to hunt down some kind of RSS aggregation service... and assuming I can get that to work, I'll have to badger all of you into turning on your RSS feed in blogger... but if everything works out I think it'll be a nifty little site feature.
Right now I'm not much interested in networking blogs of people I don't know in real life. (But even if I don't know you... you can post your blog in the comments and I'll read you and try to get to know you better. ^_~)

More fanart goes up with the next comic!

Love and light to all.  ¶ 22:11

It's amazing what you can pull together on a Sunday night if you don't ink everything. Not the best comic lately, but as I was sorely tempted to skip... it's better than nothing!

When you call someone as often as Jeff and I call eachother, you end up leaving a lot of messages. You know the drill; they all sound something like: "Hey ___. This is Heather. I was just calling to talk. Call me back. Bye."
Which, if you have to listen to more than once a day, can kindof become tedious. To break the monotony, I've embarked on what I like to call the Quest for an Original Voicemail.
My first experiment was a short clip of freestyle rap (which would look unquestionably nerdy typed out here... but trust me, it was rather smooth once I started flowin. Really.) Another time I sang a message to the tune of the Superman fanfare. And once I just rapidly repeated the word "bean" about sixty times in succession, and hung up. Jeff always calls me back laughing when I do these things. I mean, it really couldn't be anyone other than me leaving this mess on his phone. So why waste more than ten seconds with extensive "I love you"s? (The love is implied by the constant calling, afterall.) The Original Voicemail is just an added bit of sunshine.

Rachel was in town this weekend. She and I use this time to assimilate her mountain of photos into scrapbook pages. It makes me want to scrapbook too, but since I'm all digital, I want to make my pages using photoshop. This proves to be a real pain, seeing as my camera is too old to produce anything of usable size. Perhaps someday I'll buy a fancy camera like the Portrait Studio's (work has me craving one, afterall), but until then, its just me and the compy.

My finals begin this week. Lara artistically posed me to represent this time of the year (though Micro was last semester...?):
  ¶ 22:27

A comic! A comic! Even on Elo, the man can get you down.

Tonight I went to Yeero Yeero for the first time, (even though I've passed the place a lot in the past, this was the first time I've actually tasted the food). It was very delicious, but more interesting was the decor on the inside. My entire family agreed that this restaurant was having an identity crisis. The outside is white plaster and bright paint, with a drive-through window. The inside is high wooden chairs and marble top tables with small tea lights to eat by. Grecian busts and urns are up on high plaster valences, and they serve your foil-wrapped food over gold-lacquered charger plates. What an oddity! Is this a fast food place, or a sit-down restaurant? Either way, I loved my gyro.
I wish I lived on that side of town. All the restaurants are better.

Before the Greek I wandered around Hobby Lobby. That place is a dreamworld for me. I could spend the rest of my life making meaningless, overpriced crafts (or as my cousin Andrea refers to them, "hands-on projects"). I bought a star pendant for my neck, since I'm fond of stars. As I stood looking at all the little silver jewelry kits, I thought of how neat it would be to have a charm bracelet. I've always wanted one of those, the kind with the silver chain and countless little figures suspended every which way. (Not those flat European charm bracelets. Those are boring.) I think I'm going to ask for charms as birthday presents. Really, you can't go wrong at Hobby Lobby; they're 68 cents each. ^_~

Monday I have an advising appointment about classes next year. I've taken every possible course in the pre-clinical curriculum, so I have to ask this councilor to put me on a special list in case I don't make it into upper division next fall. Then I'll be allowed to take some of the nursing classes anyway, and won't just have to sit around for six months and fall even further behind. I envy those of you who are actually graduating in four years... my own graduation is so far away. Not that its anyone's fault but my own, of course. Mostly, I'm just eager to support myself. Right now, a hundred dollars is a whole lot of money for me. Then boom goes my tire! (Thank God for kind parents.)

I've added a link to Rachel's blog in my link section. Hopefully she'll update more often than all the others do. I don't know why everyone else's are so empty... blogs are wonderful. They are a link between friends, first of all (unless you are emo and use your blog to whine about how much your life sucks). But they are also a link to yourself. Sometimes I wonder if I've been somwhere before, or if I've felt a certain way about something in the past. And then I pull out a book or click a link and see my words. And I realize there is continuity to my being. There are cycles. Nothing's really changed. It's comforting.

Journals and blogs don't work unless you use them. A post twice a year doesn't say anything about you. Don't think you have nothing to say in them. Your life isn't as mundane as you think it is, I promise.

I have to stop myself now. I could keep typing forever about what is unfolding in my life. About my Memphis summer, about the *other* comic I write that few of you have ever seen, about the fact that my contact lens keeps rolling up inside my eyeball and making it hard for me to see the screen.

But forever is too much to read. So you'll just have to speculate.  ¶ 00:19

I've been working really hard this week to build you a better website by the time I get my next comic up. (Which will be this weekend!)
First, I moved my comic back here from keenspace. (Chris very kindly made this possible for me, and I want to give him credit for that. He has my thanks. He deserves yours as well! ^_^)
Second, I've been trying to build a gallery to put all my new fanart in. (I would've done this sooner, but decided it would be totally disingenuous if I put up the gift pics before the new navigation script.) Unfortunately, I've been having just about the worst time EVER trying to get a gallery script to run here. I refuse to just manually link all my pictures... that would take FOREVER. So, when I finally found this automated gallery thing I jumped on it.
And of course, after I installed it I find out my host is running an out of date PHP. I cant use the code.
I'm not really angry very often. And even when I am, its mostly like "That is so irritating". But the gallery makes me angry. >_< The most important thing, though, is to let you see the fanart I've recieved. Its the only thing in the gallery now, so click the art link and see some cool stuff.

Oh, and I blew a tire today when I caught a curb. So lame. But that one didn't make me mad so much as embarassed.

Anyway. Rather than whine more, I'll be artistic. Its better.

~~~

Rain, rain, rain. Lightening storms. Days of water. Nights of roaring skies.

The shapes you used to see in the clouds, the dinosaurs and profiled faces... the running horses and dancing men... they are screaming at you. At 4 AM they wake you, loud enough to rattle the mirror on the wall. (If you were in the kitchen with a candle, you'd hear the dishes vibrating. But you aren't. You're in your bed.) The blankets have never felt so warm to you as you turn onto the other side of your body and push your ear down into the pillow's warm, magnetic silence.

On the mornings you have to wake up early, you curse the heavens for their thunder. You believe that rain is chaos, that storms are chaos, and the chaos has poured down into your life in the form of water. Beating your house to keep you awake at night. Showing you a miracle when you wanted a dream.

But.

Today is not a day for early waking. Today you slept in one more hour, and rose after the sun. And out on your doorstep? Green!

Water has a way of making the bark blacker and the leaves brighter. When you move down the forest pathway, things seem less substantial; an impressionistic fuzz has collected over your vision. All the colors of the world bleed together like dilute paint, and you can see yourself reflected darkly in the puddles on the pathway. Your faceless shape obscures a gray sky and the only color in nature's mirror is the brilliance of the leaves. The Green.

The earth is eternal. Or it's at least the most eternal thing we can experience. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.

And the rain continues. Here, in the darkness. The rain keeps coming down.  ¶ 23:46

Its very frustrating to me that I didn't do a comic this weekend. >_<
I actually scripted this one early... I just went out of town. (Though for a good reason; I was on the fanciest of anniversary dates). Another frustration: I have no comic sketchbook. The old one is completely filled! I plan to rectify this soon and put up something worthwhile this weekend. Until then, frown intensely. (Though you cannot possibly be more unhappy with my lack of progess than I am.)

Before I talk about my weekend, let me first say hello to the few of you who've wandered over here from the midlands. I love that comic, and its spontaneous linkage somewhat awes me. I hope you all find something to enjoy here as well. And I love comments, so click the button and let me know you're here (if you like).

Now, for my weekend. This Saturday marked seven years of dating Jeff. (A lucky number ^_~ ?) He and I ritually go out and spend Far Too Much on a meal to celebrate our anniversary. This year we outdid the last; it was delicious and beautiful. Behold Cafe Le Jadeite, haven of pacific-rim cuisine.
The fact that it tasted good is a given, but what was surprising was the variety of new and unusual flavors I encountered there. Imagine this: a soup with a pumpkin base, mixed with crab meat and baby shrimp. Also remarkable: Jeff had shrimp in an apple-ginger sauce. When I tasted them, I wondered why I had never tasted a combination of these two things before; they were so very RIGHT together. Pumpkin and seafood. Apple and ginger. Gods, but I DO love the foods.

Jeff and I also decided to go ring shopping, for the fun of it. (Nobody get excited, it'll be years yet, trust me.) Unfortunately, we picked just about the most expensive jewelry store in Houston to go looking around in. I can't even convey how beautiful the engraved rings were, they were astounding! I didn't know rings this beautiful existed! (Nothing like your mother's or grandmother's band, I can tell you that!)
Only one problem though... they were also over $14,000 apiece. I can't believe that salesperson actually took us seriously when we walked in! Maybe we look older than we really are? Anyway, we laugh about it. $14,000 my @$$. ^_^

I suppose you deserve something for reading all that. Something pretty to look at. Okay. Here. (Be sure to mouse over it and get the proper zoom.) It was inspired by this quote: "When you get to heaven, all the dogs you've ever had come running up to you". All questions of faith aside, I had to wonder at that statement. What if all you owned in your life were fish?

Have a less-than-stressful week friends. This week between my paper and tests, I'll try to stop being such a comic-slacker.  ¶ 00:02

A year and a day, beloved. In honor of the comic's creation, some wallpaper for your computer. You know you want it. Everyone's in it! It includes cake, see?

  ¶ 20:03

Okay, the 71st comic is done. (Like the backgrounds? They're the Sullivan's pics of Europe. With purple foliage.)
Some have expressed confusion over why Toren is as pissy as he is about his situation in this one, and why he is treated so badly. Well. I'm getting there. ^_~ The next comic shows us what the average citizen of Elo thinks about Outworlders and Inai. Rather than explaining things here, I'll wait and explain them there.

So. As I have said before, this is an auspicious week. For two reasons.
The first is that April 4th is my comic's birthday. Dream is Destiny is a year old! Everyone celebrate! The second is that April 9th is Jeff and my anniversary. Jeff and I are seven years strong! Everyone celebrate! Because of these two things, I am a happy girl. I reflect on the fact that life is good, and am thankful for what I have. A good reason to have a party!

Unfortunately, I'm going to be mildly preoccupied with a paper for the rest of the week. Little time for parties or art I fear. Though I'm not terribly disappointed, since I've been going absolutely ART CRAZY for the last week.

For example, I made this shirt. That is a heart on the left sleeve.


Also, I sculpted a statue. She's not that great, but boy was it fun to play with clay!!


I've drawn a lot too, but I'm too lazy to put those up just yet. Maybe I'll make a birthday wallpaper or something? That would be SWEET.

I always have a creative project going. I can't help myself. I hope I'm always so driven to make and make and make (which is another way of saying "play and play and play" ^_~). I hope I'm always this passionate about my silly little distractions! They really bring me happiness. Not so much the because of the final results... more because of process of creating them.

Oh, before I go, I want to let you guys know that Chris has made the AWESOME script that will allow me to host my comic on this site once again. I'll be moving everything back here sometime very soon, once I make a dropdown menu that is easy to maintain. Thanks Chris!

Now, everyone go out and toast my two special days!  ¶ 22:41

Most of the comic's art is done, I'll just have to assemble it and put it up here sometime tomorrow.

In the meantime, meditate on what two important events that are going to take place within the next week, and try to guess what they are.  ¶ 01:20