Oscar turns 83

I just finished watching the 83rd Oscars, and I must say, very little of it was much of a surprise. I came into it about an hour late, so I missed quite a bit, but I think I caught the important things.

First of all, out of all the movies up for nomination, I have only seen three of them (Toy Story 3, Black Swan, and Inception). But, from what I have observed, the people who have won an Academy Award for their efforts have truly deserved it. That's why I say I was barely surprised by any of the winners.

Natalie Portman, I know, really did an amazing job in such an incredible film, and it's about time she's got something to show for it (other than a movie, obviously)! I also thought it was pretty cool that Trent Reznor won the Award for best original score for The Social Network. My brother and I were talking about it (being big fans of NIN), and he said ten years ago, he never thought he would see Trent on stage accepting and Oscar. However, why wasn't Tron: Legacy nominated for best original score? I think it should have been! Ah well. And of course, The King's Speech, which won numerous awards including best director, best actor, and best picture. I have been wanting to see this movie, and now I guess I really should.

Hosting the show this year were Anne Hathaway and James Franco. I thought this was going to be such a good pair, with lots of laughs and debauchery, but no. Anne Hathaway was good, but James Franco was a little off. He barely smiled or laughed, and almost robotic in a sense. I was a little disappointed in that. Frankly, I thought the promo was better. Also, just a side note, how many dresses did Anne Hathaway need to bring?! I mean, they all looked gorgeous on her, but wow, wardrobe change galore.

Well, that's another year at the Oscars come and gone. It feels like I just watched the 2010 Academy Awards last month, and I'm sure this year will fly by just as fast.

Happy Belated Birthday, Zelda!

It was the 25th anniversary of the birth of the greatest series of games ever made: The Legend of Zelda (I know, it was on the 21st, so I'm a little late). I cannot express how much I love this game, and you have probably heard enough of it already, but it's true! It is arguably one of the greatest fantasy worlds ever created, with a plethora of devoted fans worldwide, and for 25 years it has held a special place in everyone's hearts. No matter how many times they recreate the story, it is always exciting and at times even challenging. And not to mention how much we all anticipate the release of Skyward Sword (it's going to be sooo goood!).

Here is a piece I have been working on lately, and I just recently finished it in time for the special day. I plan on doing some more Zelda inspired pieces, so stay tuned!

So, Happy 25th birthday, Legend of Zelda! I look forward to many more years ahead!

The day I cooked for myself

I only wish I was getting paid while watching two movies at work, but nope. That's not how the world works, apparently. What an outrage!

So I'm back on my couch, after a long uneventful day, just chillin with my boy Coffee (as in my cat). I did, however, make a delicious dinner for myself. I made stir-fry! I actually got off my ass and cooked something for once (including veggies and tofu!). So proud. I usually just heat up some chicken nuggets and fries. But I did that last night, so I thought I should actually try this time. And it was good! Noodles were a tad undercooked, but I was satisfied either way. Now I'm fuuull.

OM NOM!

Back at it!

Back at work today! And it was one of those days where I just sat drawing and reading, but I was in a great mood today, so it didn't really matter that I didn't do much.

I'm reading an awesome book by the amazing Olivia Munn titled Suck It, Wonder Woman. Yeah, that's right. It's full of random stories of her crazy life experience, and definitely full of her hilarious charm. I usually don't follow/care about famous people, but she is just seems so genuine and is just trying to get by like everyone else. She does't consider herself a celebrity, and just has a funny outlook on life. Anyways, so it's a really funny book (and sometimes sad, I almost cried reading it today). I would quote a really funny sentence, but I forgot my book at work. It had something to do with Yoda, and it was really funny. Just take my word for it!

I also drew the most epic thing today for my boss/good friend Sarah. She kept saying that she wants to get it tattooed on her, and I was hoping that she was joking, but then started to realize that she might actually be serious. This specific drawing, I will not let her get tattooed. A revised version, with more magic, sure. WHAT IS IT?? A Dinocorn (which, I just Googled, and someone already has thought of!). However, I think my version is much more magical. Sarah is biased towards Triceratops (which I'm sure all Sarah's from the late '80s are, thanks to The Land Before Time), so I fused it with a unicorn (Sarah's favourite thing 'on this planet'). Aaand...

Tada!!

Yeah, I wasn't 100% sure how to go about this, so shut up! I did this without even checking out the proper anatomy of a Triceratops! Whatever, it's awesome. By the way, Sarah is now embarking on an amazing journey called a promotion to Regional Manager. Yaaay! Congrats to her, she really deserves it, and is probably one of the only people capable of such a task. I could never do it in a million years. It is going to be an interesting couple of weeks for everyone at the store, adjusting to such a huge change, but it's going to be good!

Catbooth

Don't be fooled! Getting cats to stay still to take pictures in Photobooth is NOT EASY!!

Except when they're sleeping like babies!

So much time, so little to do

I have a three day weekend! What I am going to do with myself for these three days, I have no idea. Actually, now it's just two, cause yesterday was day one. Troy and I went for breakfast, for the first time in awhile, and we decided to check out a 'new' diner in my old neighbourhood. It used to be a place called Nellie's, but a bunch of shit went down with their diners and now a few of them have either closed or have been bought out. This new place is now called Mission Diner, and both the interior and the menu have had a nice facelift. There are still a few things lingering from when Nellie's was around, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. I enjoyed my breakfast (traditional eggs and bacon cause I'm plain and boring), and our server was extra joyful, which is always good, right? Also, their menu had a bit of humour in it (see picture below).

Now, today all I have done is lounge around, watch re-runs of So You Think You Can Dance Canada on TV, and clean. My mom is leaving for a week to spend time with my grandparents, so I will grocery shopping with her later tonight. Tomorrow, I have no idea what to do. Gwen and Kelsey are away on trips (lucky!), and Troy works all night. I guess it will just be a low key weekend to myself! I usually don't mind those, as long as they are somewhat productive. Maybe I'll do some painting if I'm not too lazy? Oh, who are we kidding, I will probably just end up playing the Sims 3. UG! I'M SUCH A LOSER!!

If anything exciting happens, I will be sure to take the time out of my 'busy' schedule to let you guys know!

Gun Metal

Today was a better day! I got to work on an awesome tattoo that I haven't seen for awhile, so that was fun. I love it when people come back to get their epic pieces worked on (hint hint). Joking! I know tattoos are expensive, so I understand if clients can't afford to come back right away, but heck, I need to pay bills too! Well, sort of.

Anyway, after work today I went to a magical place called Wal-Mart with Sarah. I'm sure you've heard of it. I can just hear my mother's voice now, "Don't shop there! It's evil!". No, my mother is not a conservative 'Higher Being' worshiper, she just boycotts the place because of unfit treatment of their employes, or something. I never got the whole gist of it. They just have really good deals! And they have everything-and I mean everything. Like, a Justin Bieber night gown. And Sarah and I just discovered: a dance floor! WHAT!? I know! It's crazy! Only during renovations though. That shits' only on for a limited time!

On our little excavation we found lots, more than we needed. So much, in fact, that we both had to throw things out of our (generously supplied) baskets at random points all over the place! It was madness! Granted, they did have conveniently placed section full of Valentine's Day chocolate right by the door, so when you first walk in the first instinct you have is to grab as much of it as possible. Because, well, you need it, right? But then halfway through your shopping extravaganza you realize, "Fuck, why is there so much fucking chocolate in my basket? WHO PUT THIS IN MY BASKET!?" As if you don't remember the aforementioned chocolate section. That's what I call taking advantage of vulnerable customers! Which, in any case, is good for business, I suppose. I didn't let go of my 'needed' pack of Reeses' peanut butter hearts until I was at the self-checkout! Will to say no: 1, Overwhelming weakness for Reeses' PB chocolate: 0. HOWEVER, I could not resist the shiny charisma of the Gun Metal or the Black Platinum nail polish. Had to have them. I've always wanted nail polish that made my fingernails look like they are made of steel! That, and $0.97 Hello Panda (not to be confused with Hello Kitty) candy. Thank you, Wal-Mart, even if you are as evil as my mom says. I will listen to her one day...

Pow! If you really look at this picture, it just looks like my abnormally large hand is poking my eye.

Weird Day

Well, this is post number two of today, which I don't normally do, but I just feel like blogging.

Today was...weird. As I mentioned this morning, I was dead tired from my night last night, but I didn't think it would throw my whole day off like it did. I couldn't quite pick out what went wrong, but I think I just had one of those days where I'm a little off which makes me paranoid and frustrated. As soon as I got to work everything just felt tense, or something, I don't know.

Sometimes I feel like everyone is mad or annoyed with me, for some reason that I can't figure out. I'm sure that's not the case, but it's just that feeling of isolation that I hate. If I get the slightest hint of this sinking feeling, I start to blow it way out of proportion and I myself am the worst for putting myself down. It's so bad, and I know I shouldn't do it, but it's just the way I react to things. I start feeling shitty about myself, and it makes things worse. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does, it sucks.

I'm feeling a bit better now that I just ranted a bit. Thank you blog, I can always count on you! I think I might take a quick nap just to get that extra bit of sleep in there. Tomorrow is another day, and it will be a better day.

The Photo Shoot

I did it! I did my first photo shoot! And it was so much fun, but sooo tiring. I don't know how people do it everyday. I even had the whole sha-bang: make-up artist, stylist, and photographer. I brought my own dress, it was the whitest thing I own (after all, this was a bridal shoot).

After the formal bridal look, which took 5 minutes to shoot, we did something a bit more fun. Ben made my make-up a little crazier, and Jeannette (I hope thats her name?) made my hair bigger and zig-zagier (yes, zig zags!), and we went to town! Well, actually this was all in Ben's living room, but he had the coolest props to work with. I posed with a guitar, a skull (while sitting in a fuzzy red fabric covered chair), a taxidermy rat, 'wine' (we didn't have actual wine, so it was food coloured water), antlers, a full body skeleton, and more with the red fuzzy fabric (which we called a dead Elmo skin). It was exactly what I had hoped! There were so many awesome shots, and some shots were just silly. I laughed a lot, so I'd say the majority were of me, well, laughing, or making strange faces. But it was all in good fun, and they were happy with the result, so yay!

Hopefully Ben will be sending me a good chunk of pictures, (there were over 600 I think, and they only choose 30!), so I will post those when I get them! I did take a picture of the make-up and hair (or what was left of it) last night before taking it off, so you will get to see that now. Just a fair warning; I was dead tired and some of the make-up smudged and the hair mostly fell out when I took the picture, so the actual photos look much better!

Well, now after a very short night's sleep, I have to get ready for work! I really hope I get to do this again! It was so much fun!

Shots and Milk Tiger

Today I did pretty much a whole lot of nothing, but I slept in due to a late night of karaoke. Yes, karaoke again. And this time I even sang-by myself. I know! Crazy! But we went to a random little bar far out on the other side of the city called Shots, and it was a bunch of older (but very talented) karaoke-rs, so I mustered up some courage to sing in front of people I will probably never see again. It felt great! Once you do it a couple times, it gets less scary. And I used to be one of those people who refused to sing, even with other people! Although, I won't sing by myself at a bar where I know a lot of people. Nooo way! It's just so much more nerve racking, people judge you (or at least it feels like it), and if you do screw up they are more likely to make fun of you. That's just how I feel about it anyway. But, you know, baby steps. But I really wish I had a video of me singing, that would be something. Ha!

And tonight I went to a little cozy lounge/bar called Milk Tiger with Gwen. I have never been there before, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it! It is so small, but very inviting, and they have excellent food. Like, the Belgian waffle with vanilla ice cream and syrup that I had! Yum! Seriously, the fluffiest, and tastiest thing I have ever had. It was well worth the $6! I also drank so much water, I feel like I might explode. But that's good, right? Lots of water? Maybe not the exploding part. Very messy.

Well, tomorrow is my first photo shoot type thing! A friend of mine is in school to become a make-up artist, and he needs someone (moi) to pose for a bridal look. So, wish me luck! I'm sure it will be fun, I have aways wanted to try it. I just hope I can do a good job!

Most delicious thing. Ever. Nom!

Adventures in Paper Folding

So tonight was step one in the experimental 'bucket list' that my friends and I have created. (By the way, this isn't something that really pertains to us dying someday, these are just things that we want to do in general. I call it a bucket list because I'm not sure what else to call it! Got it? Good. Ok, let's carry on.)

The first thing on our list was to learn some origami. And let me tell you off the bat, it's not as easy as it seems, and it makes you really really tired after a while. And sometimes, things just don't make any sense, and suddenly your rabbit looks more like a llama. But, it's all a part of the experience, and in good fun. So here are a few pictures of the things we made, with the descriptions of what they are to follow (and trust me, you might need to read the descriptions!)...

Gwen and her fox.

My rabbit and I.

Kelsey, her squid and friends.

Rabbits!

A dog...box. The hardest thing to make.

Giraffes!

The whole gang!

Squid and clams!

Foxes! And I made a nine tail fox for kicks.

Crows!

Um. Cacti! Yes, I know..

Jumping frogs! Kelsey's kept doing a head stand,

and Gwen's didn't even jump.

And that was our origami experience! And if you asked me to re-make any of these, I probably wouldn't remember how. Too many folds, too many lines. But it was fun! I'm not sure what's next on our list, but Gwen is going on tour for awhile so we might not get back to it until she's back. So until then, buenas noches!

One Hundred

I just realized, or rather, my dashboard informed me, that this is my 100th post! My little blog, all grown up. How exciting! Quite frankly, I wasn't to sure if it would even get this far. Turns out, it did. I really like blogging, even if I have nothing interesting to say, it still feels nice to write/type something down. Plus, if there are any people out there that read this, I like to share my little life with you. It will get very exciting one day, I swear!

The aforementioned 'bucket list' actually is a go! We're getting together tomorrow to commence our mass knowledge journey. And what better way to do so other than learning Origami? I don't know! But it will be fun! There will be pictures and posts to follow, so don't worry your pretty little heads.

There really wasn't much point to this post other than to announce this wonderful milestone. So, I've decided to take an honorary picture of, what else, another mug! Yup, that's right, one more mug to add to the collection. Only, this one is much cooler. See, the Cheshire Cat disappears-yes, disappears-when you add anything hot. Because it's an Alice in Wonderland mug! I love it! Genius.

Curiouser and curiouser!

Our Sort-of-bucket-list

While sitting around with my two good friends last night, we have decided to make a list of things that we didn't know how to do, but wanted to learn how. We thought it would be cool if we got together once a week and tried something new, just for the sake of trying things out. So we compiled all of our ideas (from the simple to the outrageous) into one list, and oh boy is it ever a long list. Just think of how knowledgeable we will be after learning so may things!

Unfortunately, I do not have the list, my friend Kelsey does, but I would like to try to remember some of the things that I came up with, so bare with me here. Let's see...

Origami, bake a delicious cake from scratch, build a robot (yes, a real one! sort of!), velvet paintings, organize an art show, cross country ski, make a quilt, sew clothes from scratch, learn another language (not sure which one..), magic tricks, archery, and much much more.

There are endless possibilities, but we were thinking more of crafty things that are either free or inexpensive. But there are definitely some things that are a long-term commitment, but could be worth a shot! I actually really hope we try some of these things, if not all. It's time we start living life to the fullest and not just focus on one thing our whole lives.

Riblits

I worked on two rib pieces this week, and both clients were huge troopers. They sat through a few hours, although the end was a little tough, they got through it without too much squirming!

I'm supposed to draw some flash for the studio, just for something for those undecisive customers I guess. I don't 100% agree with displaying flash, but if it will give people some ideas then sure why not. I'm going to try to make them somewhat original and easy to change to keep them unique to every person. At least it will brighten up the place!