Fern Picture

I swear, I though I was getting over it. But then moni158 opened commissions that I could afford. So I asked her to draw Fern.



I find it kind of amusing. When I ask people to draw Fern, they increase her pretty level significantly. This one especially made Fern look pretty hot. They make her hair nicer and they give her a better figure and stuff. The face is always different too (Though some of that has to do with my drawing skill).
Fern's scar finally appeared in one of the pictures. (Is is just me, or does her tail seem slightly off-center?)
The picture of Mewtwo and Cara is probably the closest. Crystal's version is close too, considering it's a different style (I still think that picture's adorable).
In this one and the other Fern Commission I ordered a while ago, there were comments saying that she looks like Maximum Ride. Which is funny, because my drawings of Fern don't look like Max. Fern's hair is shorter and bushier and crazier. Max's hair is lighter and wavier. Max has brown and white wings while Fern has gold wings.
Oh well. I guess Max is the reason Fern wears her wings occasionally, but Fern isn't influenced by Max in any other ways.

Oscar Winner

I just watched the movie that won the Oscar for the best animated short film.
I can't even explain it, but it's really good. The first half is interesting, but it's not until the very end that it just kinda goes, "whoaaa..."
It's almost like it just hits some part of the mind that you don't even know is involved, or something.
Anyway, it's only 15 minutes. Watch it. Tell me what ya think!

Picky Picky

Thanks Ellen!
Now I can complain about this one book I got from the library. ^-^
So, yes. I've been slowly making my way through the list, and there's definitely a lot of good stuff there so far (admittedly I"m still on the A's). This'll probably be pretty helpful the more I right. Some stuff I know already, and some stuff I hadn't really thought of. But like Ellen, I'm probably more forgiving about some things than she is.
So, there was this one book I added to my "to read" list who-know-how long ago. I don't even know where I heard about it. But I finally got it at the library and started to read it... and it was pretty much EXACTLY everything that she raves against in her story. Daughter of a rich noble doesn't want to wear pretty fancy dresses. She'd rather go walking in the woods, but her dad won't let her. And then I stopped, but it sounds like her dad got drunk and promised to marry her off. It was soo TYPICAL that it just made me want to gag. I read a couple chapters, trying to give it a chance, but there was NOTHING original in it.
Bleargh.

This is a problem I've been starting to feel recently, and I think these blog posts are just making it worse. It's getting harder and harder for me to find books that I really get attached to. Books that have potential just aren't written to my standards, or the characters aren't interesting, or the plot doesn't make sense or isn't executed well. I still read a lot of them, but that by no means includes them in my short list of favorite books. If you go the the "To Watch" list (I keep it updated with good movies/series to watch and good books to read - see the link in the side bar AKA the dooblydoo) you will notice that very few of the books in my nonfiction section are fantasies (even though fantasy is one of my favorite genres).
I think part of the problem is I tend to like books that you can love at all ages (like Watership Down which I desperately need to read again). So, sort of young-adult stuff, but it has to be written well. I read lots of adult books too, but more often than not they're not as interesting to me, or something. Maybe I just am not good at finding adult books that appeal to me. I need someone who's read all the books that exist and can tell me what I personally would like to read. Heheh. Don't we all need that?
Except for Nonfiction. Since those are all true stories, the plot and characters don't matter. They're all true. So there's plenty of nonfiction books I like.

Anyway, Ellen, can't wait to read your character bios! I think I kinda suck at writing bios. I'm not sure I can capture them without actually writing scenes with them or something. I seem to suck at describing my characters. I wonder how you get better at it...

Limyaael's Blog on Writing

Tara asked me to post on Limyaael's blog . Here's the not so 'master' list. There's most of them here, but not all.

Anyway, Limyaael is a fantasy writer, and a teacher of some kind of English somewhere to either highschool or college kids, I'm not exactly sure which. One day Panda told me to read her posts and I couldnt stop. She brings up a lot of good points that are prevalent in most fantasy writing (even in writing that's not so fantasy). So if you're an aspiring writer, or you want to read an opinionated person's opinion go read her blog.

Personally I feel as if Limyaael addresses a lot of really good points in fantasy writing that I usually find myself forgiving. So a book she would call god awful, I'd say wasnt too bad, not my favorite, but not too bad. Regardless, she really illustrates the idea that fantasy has become repetitive and fails to fully branch out and explore. Admittedly this is difficult to do, it's an entirely new and different world.

She also dives into character types, development, backgrounds, and other things, all of which I feel apply to all characters not just those in fantasy. It's really interesting stuff to read, and really inspiring. I just cant think of what to write these days :D

By the way, Tara we have to work on our story. I'll email you sometime this week with a bio of Saleera, Nex, and Zuben. Unfortunately I might have to 'kill off' Kailo. He might appear as a cameo character in there somewhere, or I'll save him for later. Oh and Zuben will probably be in his egg for almost all of the story, just cause :3 So whenever I get that sent out to you email me Ginger, Arith, Shalia,your other character's bios. That way I can get a better feel for the new and improved versions of them.

Cara and Twilight

Last night I had a sort of epiphany about my tablet. I haven't really had much chance to work with my tablet since class started. I'd used it to color pictures that I'd done by hand. I tried a couple linearts on the tablet, but they never turned out right. The Fluttershy I attempted was all wonky and wobbly. When I realized what I was doing wrong, it was so simple and easy that I wonder why it took me so long to realize it.
So, I was excited to try it out today. And this was the result.



@_@
It's soooo much better than the other stuff I've done! Waaaah!! Me paying attention to artist techniques on DA is starting to pay off!
Twilight is sooooo adorable! He needs to be hugged!
Technically that's Cara, not Fern, but I just stuck her in Fern's outfit. They're basically the same person in different worlds.
Auughhhh. I want to draw moooore! But I've spent a huge portion of today finishing this, and I really need to start working on one of my 3 research papers that's due before long.

THE PLUSSHIIIESSSS!

HOW DID I NOT NOTICE THEM BEFORE??????


Hank has both of them. I wonder if John got scared of his. Heheh.

But I also saw this in John's video. It kinda looks like my plushie, but I guess it can't be?

PLUSSSHIEEE!

It's there! In the bottom left corner! The John plushie I made!


I wonder if they swapped plushies and John has the Hank plushie. Now I must go back to the videos and see if they show up in the background anywhere else.

SOO NEW LOOKING!!!

WAAAAH!! Look how much I changed the blog!
WAAAAHHHH! Why did it take me this long to figure out how to do this? O_O
Can you tell what I've spent all evening doing? ^-^ I'll probably tweak a few things until I get it all right.
Please tell me what you think! Can you read everything okay?
The background is a picture I took. I'll probably change it occasionally.
Looks so fancy now!

Avatar - Korra

Hey! Come sign up for info about the new Avatar series: Legend of Korra!

Nuzlocke Update

Another Nuzlocke update. Isn't that exciting? I'll post something more interesting soon. I caught too many Pokémon last week, so I started getting lazy with names.
It was last Friday, I think, where I caught most of them.
In Ecruteak City, I used Headbutt to catch an Exeggcute (male, level 17, Quiet). I named him Envy because someone once compared Envy's hair to a palm tree.
Route 38 I caught a Meowth (male, level 16, Relaxed). I named him Kansuke after the cat in Cat Paradise.
In Mount Mortar I caught another Zubat (female, level 15, Bold). This is where I stated getting lazy. I just named her Zuzu (yes, Zuko's nickname even though my Zubat is a girl).
Route 42 a Flaaffy (male, level 15, bashful). I just named him Amphy after the Ampharos in the lighthouse.
Route 43 a Mareep (Female, level 15, Quirky). Yet again, very lay. I named her Mary. Plenty of people you could say I named her after. I actually forget who I really stole the name from, so I'll just say Secret Garden.
Route 39 a Magnemite (Level 16, Timid). I named him Artoo after R2D2.
Went to the Burned Tower and found a Rattata, but I accidentally fainted it. And I had a name for him and everything.

On Saturday, I played the Pokéathlon a bunch of times to win a Leaf Stone, and I evolved Deku into a Victreebel.
And today we defeated Morty.
Now I'm gonna go after the Red Gyarados. I also gotta go back to Violet and Cherrygrove cities now that I have a Good Rod.

Ignore

You can ignore this post. I 'm just showing something to a person on DA for a possible trade thing.

Nuzlocke Update

Another random Nuzlocke Update. Maan, I feel wiped out. I think I'm just gonna read for a while. Soo much homework I don't even know where to start.

So, on Friday, Tydel evolved into Feraligatr and Deku evolved into a Weepinbell.
Today Zabimaru evolved into Arbok.
I caught Sudowoodo on route 36 (Female, level 20, Brave) and named her Willow. Kinda a generic tree name, but I got the idea from the movie Willow.
On Route 37 I caught a Hoothoot (Female, Level 13, Mild). I named her Anju, from Legend of Zelda. Cause Anju is from Clock Town (In Majora's Mask, anyway) and Hoothoot are said to be good at keeping time.

So, Holo is kinda not a very helpful member of my team. Considering she can only ever learn one attack that's not very helpful. I'm gonna replace her with Willow. Sorry Holo.

Overwhelmed

Feeling really lame now. I'm going to try to use m blog as a therapy by complaining. Maybe I'll feel better after I get it out of my system.
Starting to get hit with all the big projects that are gonna be due this semester. It's starting to scare the hell out of me. Plus When I called to get picked up from the train, no one picked up THREE TIMES. Dad wasn't home even though he knew I needed to be picked up, and Mom just didn't pick up the phone, apparently because she was downstairs. She has a phone downstairs. So I'm left sitting outside at the train station for half an hour. Except the book I had to keep me occupied was Mockingjay. Now, I really liked The Hunger Games. And Catching Fire was pretty good too. Ellen warned me that the books went downhill, but I wanted to finish the series anyway. I was almost done with the book when I was at the train station. And as I was sitting there, abandoned at the station, I was reading all this stuff about Katniss being a #@!##$#!@##$! and it put me in a really foul mood. What was with the ending of that series? Really?
I'm gonna complain about some other stuff now.
A while ago, I heard about something called the "Star Wars Holiday Special." It had all the real actors and characters. How bad can it be? Well, I just watched some of it. It's painfully bad. Was this even made by the same people? o-o
I've been watching some of the Rurouni Kenshin anime too. They change so much stuff, even in the episodes that aren't lame fillers. Why the hell do so many anime have to do that? Stop changing things thinking you can improve on them! That goes for movies too. And the anime version of Kenshin is starting to bug me too. They've taken him too far in both directions. He's both too much of a sissy, and too perfect with his fighting sense, predicting things that make no sense and such... yeah. If I didn't just reread part of the manga, I'd be really tempted to throw Kenshin off the top of my Favorite Characters list. So, I must revise that list. The Kenshin from the manga is my favorite character. The Kenshin in the first few episodes of the anime is okay, but the rest of the anime is not the Kenshin I've grown attached to. Depending on how much the next few episodes bug me, I'm probably gonna quit and just keep the Kenshin from the manga. I was planning on at least watching through the Shishio arc, but maybe not.
I also watched the first couple episodes of XXX Holic recently because I liked parts of the manga.
And I started reading "Buso Renkin" by the author of Rurouni Kenshin. It's okay, but I like Kenshin better.

Now for a good series. I actually finished watching it a few weeks ago, but I don't think I've really mentioned it. It's called the Twelve Kingdoms. At first I didn't care for it too much. Youko was such a selfish brat. But about five episodes in, it started getting better. the creatures are really cool, the kirins are beautiful, and Rakushun looks so huggable. The end of the first arc seemed kinda rushed. Sugimoto's change seemed kinda too easy (if I were Yoko, I wouldn't trust her so quickly), and they skipped over what could have been a cool scene breaking into the castle.
The Taiki arc's my favorite. I really want them to finish it. I wonder if the books have gotten that far yet.
The Shoukei and Suzu arc bugged me a lot at first too because those girls were annoying. And then like the first season, they got better and I ended up liking that arc too. I gotta say, it is pretty impressive how they can make you hate the characters at first, and then get you attached to them. But you gotta be careful with that. Youko and Sugimoto almost made me quit right at the beginning of the series.
So, I decided to try to find the first book to read. 2, 3, and 4 seem like they'll be pretty easy to find. But 1 is out of print. And I can't find it anywhere for less than $30. I almost had one on ebay, but I got outbid at the last minute. I'd really rather not spend that much for a bent-up paperback... I hope I can find one some time.

Cara and Mewtwo

So, I just filled up my 3rd big sketchbook. Kinda feels like a milestone somehow. Got a nice fresh one to go.

This was the second commission I ever ordered, from Tuooneo. It's taken a loong time to come. Partially because her tablet broke and it took a while for her to replace it.
Anyway, its really nice. And it actually has a background too. I looves it. It's of Cara and Mewtwo in his awesome cloak.
I guess because it took so long, she did two versions: afternoon and sunset.

Nuzlocke Update

Last week on the train, I noticed that the man that announced our station stops sounded a little unusual. He sounded like Mr. Sulu (from Star Trek) speaking in a voice exactly like the narrator from The Haunted Mansion ride (in Disney Land). Every time I heard "Now arriving at___" I had to fight the urge to laugh.
Today at the train... the person on the speaker sounded like Kermit the Frog with a slightly lower voice.
I'm incredibly curious. Are the conductors trying to make our lives more interesting? Is it one guy who's excellent at imitations? (Because halfway home, the Sulu voice resumed).

Okay, more Nuzlocke stuff. Aren't you excited? I'm mainly doing this as a log to myself because I find it kinda interesting, even though you guys probably don't care about it.
Komali evolved into a Pidgeotto Tuesday night.
Wednesday I went into Ilex Forest. The first Pokémon I found was another Zubat (Female, level 5, Naive. And typically the only Zubat I found in that forest. Wish I'd gotten something more interesting). I named her Nana, after the bat girl in + Anima.
Chu evolved into a Raticate.
After a lot of level grinding (it takes a looong time because the Pokémon here are a low level) we defeated Bugsy and moved on.
I arrived at Route 34, ready to catch my next Pokémon. I sent Hinoe out against a Rattata. The unfortunate combination of Hinoe cutting her HP with Curse and the fact that Rattata knew Bite... Hinoe is now truly a ghost. TT^TT I'm ssoooooorrrry Hinoe! I made another stupid mistake and LOST YOUUUU. I sacrificed my Gastly for a 3rd Rattata. That's the second useful Pokémon I've lost to a stupid mistake. I haven't lost any in an actual touch battle. I need to think more...
So Zabimaru has moved forwards to take Hinoe's place.
I won a bunch of coins at the game corner and got myself a Dratini (female, level 15, Docile). I named her Therru, from Tales From Earthsea.
I took part in the bug catching competion in the National Park. I caught a Weedle (female, level 7, Adamant). I named her Hunny, because bees make honey, so I named her after the boy from Ouran.
Back down to Route 35 where I caught a Nidoran male (Level 12, Naive). I named him Hazel from Watership Down.
Then a guy asked me to deliver a letter and gave me a Spearow named Kenya. Maybe I'll just steal her for fun... (female, level 20, Hasty).
Back to Azalea Town where I used Headbutt to catch another Spearow (male, level 7, Timid). I named him Tanpopo (dandelion) after the little yellow bird in XXX Holic.
When I get the good rod, I'm going back to Cherrygrove and Violet City to fish for some Pokémon. Still not sure if I'm allowed to catch Pokémon from the same in areas with a different Pokémon "roster," but since I have plenty of Pokémon right now, I don't think I need to worry about that.

Nuzlocke Update

Hahah! I like your picture! Especially the shirt. Isn't that bird from one of your old sketch books? I recognize it.

Cause I don't seem to have anything better to do (except homework of course) I'm gonna update my Nuzlocke again. Heheh. I guess these updates are more for myself cause I doubt anyone reading my blog really cares about them. Gonna work on more pictures though. Gotta draw Tydel after he evolved, and Hinoe and Holo and Chu. Those four plus Deku and Komali are my main team for the moment.
We defeated Falkner this morning. It was very easy. Tydel took care of the whole thing himself.
I was then presented with an egg (which will eventually hatch into a Togepi).
Made it down to Union cave where I caught another Rattata (female, bashful, level 4). I named her Frisbee, because the first name I thought of that seemed to fit a female mouse was Mrs. Frisbee. This is my first duplicate Pokémon so far, which I consider a good sign because one of the other Nuzlockes I looked at showed the guy catching a bunch of Zigzagoon.
Route 33 I caught an Ekans (male, lonely, level 7). I named him Zabimaru, because I caught him just as I was watching Renji release his Bankai for the first time, and it's like a big snake.
My Togepi egg hatched (male, relaxed, level 1). I named him Tama (from the cute little antler guy that hatches from the egg in Natsume Yuujinchou).
In Slowpoke Well, I caught a Zubat (male, relaxed, level 6). I named Him Jin, after the wind guy in Yuyu Hakusho. I had a perfect name for a female Zubat. But, ya know, Zubat are pretty common. I could easily catch another one.

There's one thing that confuses me. I haven't actually gotten rid of Goro yet, because she knows Rock Smash. Can we keep our Pokémon if they know essential HMs, as long as we don't use them for battle? Cause theoretically if you stick to the "catch only the first Pokémon you find in each area," you might never catch a Pokémon that could learn an HM that's required to progress with the game. Does that mean you just fail the game if you never catch a Pokémon that can learn Surf or something? I'd rather lose my game by losing all playable Pokémon, which I hope won't happen. Only lost poor Goro so far.

Do you guys actually look at this stuff? Cause I'm probably gonna keep updating about it either way. But you never seem to answer the questions I put on my blog anyway, you stink heads.

New Avatar (finally)

Yeah this was a long time coming, but I've finally got an actual avatar for me to use on stuff, like deviantart, pixiv, life, etc. Just thought I'd post it since I havent posted anything in a while

Nuzlocke Update

Here's my first four Pokémon as they were when I first met them.

Tydel: Level 5: Naughty


Komali: Level 4: Naive


Deku: Level 3: Adamant


Goro: Level 3: Quirky


Last night I caught a Gastly at Sprout Tower. I named her Hinoe, after a Youkai in Natsume Yuujinchou. Because Youkai are vaguely like ghosts, and Hinoe has purple hair (like Gastly's gas). I caught Hinoe at level 5. She's Docile.
This morning, I went to the Ruins of Alph and caught an Unown. An H Unown. So I named it after something that began with an H. And what came into my mind was Horo/Holo from Spice and Wolf. So, my Unown is Holo. Caught at level 5, Lax nature.
At Route 32, I caught a Rattata, Level 4, Bold Nature. I named him Chu, which is the Japanese sound effect for the sound a mouse makes. But It's supposed to be after the mouse baby from Spirited Away.

I'm realizing that Soul Silver has a LOT of places for me to catch new Pokémon (The one I've been looking at for a Black/White Nuzlocke, the person only has 4 Pokémon by the first gym battle). I've caught all the Pokémon I can before the first gym battle, and I missed my very first one. And yet I now have seven Pokémon. Because I will probably have a lot of Pokémon on my team (I hope), I will train one team until I lose one (hopefully not soon) and then substitute one as I need to. Otherwise I'll spend too much time training right now. Besides as it is, I have a pretty well-balanced team considering I'm not allowed to choose who I end up with. So, I will draw Hinoe and Holo, and then draw the others after I start getting to know them better.

Tydel evolved into a Croconaw a little while ago.
And as I was training for my first gym battle, I went to train at the Ruins of Alph. And an Unown killed Goro. GAAAAAAHHHH!!! Damn Unown! You murdered my Geodude! Waaaaah!! And I haven't even been to the first gym yet and I've lost a Pokémon! TT^TT And it's so stupid too because I never know if an Unown will have a super effective hit. I didn't thing it would be strong enough to knock her out in one hit. I'm not training against them anymore. I hope I don't lose any more Pokémon uselessly.

Nuzlocke

So, For a while now I've been hearing and seeing stuff about Nuzlockes online. I've been planning on trying it eventually, but I needed a game to try it one. Since Soul Silver is pretty much the only game I haven't played yet, I decided to go with that one. Which might be convenient because Soul Silver has a lot of routes and places to catch Pokémon.
The reason I decided to finally get started on this is because of the impending large amount of homework this semester. This is probably gonna be a really tricky semester because I have a LOT of classes and very little time in between them during the week to do homework that is due then. Plus there's going to be a lot of big projects due later on. I am rather terrified about the state of my life when I'm a bit farther into the semester... So, what does this have to do with starting a Nuzlocke? Because I'm gonna have a lot of reading homework. And Nuzlockes are going to involve a lot of gaining levels a lot more than usual. And I can level grind while I'm reading, because that is rather uninteresting and doesn't require much concentration (as long as I don't accidentally let my Pokémon die).
I'm still slightly confused about where I can catch Pokémon (Like in caves. I'm assuming I'm not allowed to catch a new Pokémon in every room? But maybe just in rooms that have different Pokemon available?)
And I am going to bend one of the rules. If one of my Pokémon faints, I won't release it, but I'll trade it to another game so I can't use it again (Which I guess kind of defeats the purpose of the Pokémon "dying" since the whole reason I want to trade them is so I don't have to lose them forever... So I guess that is kinda cheating).

So, I shall keep you informed about my Nuzlocke challenge! (Because people often make comics or logs of their Nuzlockes). I might even illustrate some of it if I get the chance. I would at least like to draw the Pokémon that are at my side for this long (and probably grueling) quest. They will probably deserve that, at least.

I started out with a little Totodile. I was going to name him after the Totodile in my fanfic, but I was never really satisfied with his name. So I changed the pelling to make it more interesting.
Tydel is my Totodile. Please stay with me as long as you can!
We went to get the mystery egg from Mr. Pokémon. But since I didn't have any Pokéballs, I couldn't catch the first Pokémon at either of the two routes. I guess that doesn't count though. So, when I finally got Pokéballs, I dashed to Route 29. I found a Sentret... and promptly knocked it out with Tydel's Scratch. I leveled him up too much...
But I was more careful at Route 30 and managed to catch my first wild Pokémon. A Pidgey who I named Komali. I'm gonna try to name all of my team from series and stuff.
Up to route 31, where we caught a Bellsprout. I named him Deku. He'll be useful in using some TM moves too.
And onto Dark Cave where I caught a Geodude who I named Goro. She'll be good in our first gym battle.
And no, I won't name all of them after Zelda stuff. I'll make an effort to get more variety in where I draw my names from. But those all seemed to fit.
Now time to train! I might be able to catch one (or maybe 2?) more Pokémon before my battle against Falkner, but that depends on where I can get to before then.

Remembering the Miyazaki Interview

While watching a video for homework, I found this!
I was sooo excited because I looked many times, but couldn't find a recording of the Miyazaki interview. But here's the entire thing!