Owl's Soapbox and Sanctuary

Sad news... Falkor, our corn snake, passed away New Years morning. He's been having trouble off and on since we moved up here, though he always ate like a pig... it just kept coming back up. We kept trying to fix his temps, rearrange things... I don't know, it just didn't make any sense. It's too weird that he's gone... he was our first snake... We'll miss that little character... he was always a good eater, so much personality, and such a little oddball... He left way way too soon...

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Hey guys, remember me? ;P

Life has been crazy and exciting. So I'm gonna do some catching up behind a cut. ( Collapse )

Now, I know I have a lot of crafty people on my flist, and I need some advice. Google has given me some mixed messages, and for the most part is talking about resin molds when I try to look this up... But Dashboard Ganesh lost his delicate ears in the car accident. I've taken to repairing him myself with Sculpey (which matches his skin perfectly miracles of miracles) and have managed to sculpt some very lovely replacement ears onto his precious little head. The question now is... how do I finish it?

I'm 90% sure that Dashboard Ganesh is resin. We got him off e-bay forever ago, and he came in a shell which he no longer resides in. He's already painted, and the paint doesn't want to stay on as is. His pants faded in the sun, and I'm going to repaint those as soon as I figure out how to bake his ears. I don't want to repaint all his beautiful details though, nor risk him cracking in the oven.

So how do I make this work? Leave his ears unbaked? Bake him slow at a low temp? What? I've never done a project like this before, and am eager to finish him up and put him in Pilot. It's not the same driving around without Dashboard Ganesh. Even with a flux capacitor.

EDIT: Yay, Dashboard Ganesha is baked!... that doesn't sound right... but he made it out of the oven just fine with brand new ears. :D Now we just need to paint and mount him! Oh, and add a finish! Thanks so much!

This is amazing, brilliant, and SO true. If you are an artist in any form: A writer, a painter, an actor... you should so listen to this.

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth…

EDIT: Well, I found it cool and encouraging anyway. :P To me, what it's saying is stop stereotyping and thus discouraging writers. And when we doubt ourselves, to push through the creative block anyway. That the world needs writers. Romanticizing suicide, alcoholism, and misery is not particularly healthy and I certainly don't want to be presumed and encouraged down that road. I found the speech to be very positive.

YARR!!

From me and Karen. <3 (also Labrys and Emsa!)

I am still alive! Mostly, I've been facebook dwelling again and no promises that I won't continue to because it's so easy to do. I do want to catch up here though and hopefully post more here again in general. Rediscover LJ, if you will.

As far as RL situation goes... we're doing much better while still remaining broke. Karen found a job that actually makes use of her degree! As well as a gay friendly church. :) I'm working primarily for http://www.earthseeds.org/ both as a graphics person and manning the Susbus as well as being the new Colorado Springs Exotic Pets Examiner. 8 articles up there so far! I don't make much doing these, but it's something and I'm still looking for more work to be had. We'll both be doing seasonal tax work too! We're still way behind on things, the credit cards are a bust and I'll probably have to declare bankruptcy, but we and the babies are housed and fed and that's what matters. We're keeping our spirits up and supporting each other best we can.

... Wow, I thought I'd have a lot more to say here! Mostly, working and trying to keep our heads above water. It is beautiful here, the weather and rain and greenery... The bunnies continue their cuteness, as do the herps. Found out that in the next WoW expansion there will be Troll Druids and lost my mind. Saw some very excellent movies such as http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/. More bunny cuddling... Gomez cuddling...

Um. I dunno what else off the top of my head. Oh! I'd hoped to have Medusa done this year... no dice. Too much drama and inability to think let alone novel write. So it's still a work in progress. Le sigh. Also REALLY need to update www.BlueGorgon.com. Sadly, I still can't seem to access my FTP and can't figure out why! It's driving me nuts because there's SO much I need to update there... such as Ma-tsu's memorial.

Anywhos, I guess that's about it. Still hanging in there!

Guess what I did for Earth Day? Bought a bike!! Yay Craigslist! A nice couple were moving and unloading a lot of stuff, one of which happened to be a lovely teal 18 speed mountain bike for only $25. I've been wanting a mountain bike, but obviously not wanting to spend the money. This was perfect, if not difficult to fit into the corolla, lol! Now I just need a helmet and to figure out how gears work. The last time I rode a bicycle it was the sort you peddle backwards to brake, which is sad. It'll be a workout just getting it up and down the 3 flights of stairs here, but it was such a good deal and a workout is what I need anyway. :) I'm excited!



On the tattoo artist front... Thank you, guys, for your encouragement! I asked the advice of a number of practicing tattoo artists online, they recommend I research different shops and look for an apprenticeship I don't have to pay for in money, rather in lots of hard work with no pay. Try and find the right shop, the right teacher, the right hours for me. Hopefully something I can do part time while making some cash doing something else. It does feel like the right direction. Trying to scrounge up the money for this one particular opportunity doesn't feel right, but tattooing does. So I'm glad it planted the idea in my head if nothing else!

Hmm, I have some serious thinking to do... and soon. Yesterday I went to a sort of interview for a tattoo artist apprenticeship. I did not realize that it was more of a course than a job, which was naive of me, but Karen and I were talking and I'm seriously considering it. I would still need to find another job too-we need the income- and the guy was clear that the internship would be a lot of hard work. A job would be guaranteed after the apprenticeship is over though. I can shadow someone for free to get a feel for if I want to do this. I do intend to try the free shadowing.

If it wasn't for the money, I'd definitely give it a shot in a heartbeat. It's an art related job, I adore tattoos, and I could actually learn to make money with my artwork. My style is very suited to tattoos. Karen says if it's something I really want she's supportive. I'm really torn and bewildered about this. I'd never envisioned myself as a tattoo artist before but now.. I don't know. It's very very tempting. I'd in essence be going back to school for a few months though, and we're not sure if we can swing that. But it could lead to steady work in a field I know I have a ton of interest in, as opposed to say a phone bank or something. And I wouldn't have to cover up my tattoos, obviously, in that line of work.

I dunno. We'll see.

Still hunting for another job, I miss Liberty already. Miss the income too. :P Gah! Life is complicated.

EDIT: Asking tattoo artists about their apprenticeships! I think I'll call around to other shops in the area and see if any are offering unpaid apprenticeships that I could do with a second job too. Thanks for the support guys!

OMG, Slumdog Millionaire was fantastic! Really really amazing. Well done. Also, every movie should end with the entire cast doing a Bollywood dance number through the credits. All of them.

Also, Big Love is the new Sopranos.

My sister's baby shower is Sunday, pretty sure the gift will get here before that but a little twitchy. That's what I get for being used to Interweb shopping. ;P

Less imperative is I had to order a new purse. My old one is falling apart, but it served me well for a $15 bag on e-bay!

Working on Medusa, lots of little scenes in my head at work that I have to scribble down on my breaks. Writing this book will be a bit like putting a puzzle together in the end I think.

Some links!

So, there's a ton of links out there already relating to Amazonfail. But this one caught my eye as something that's bothered me for some time and I'm glad to see someone else writing about it! GLBT people in American Pop Culture.

Lady jumps in polar bear enclosure and is surprised to find it's a bad idea. I'm with the zookeepers on this one. That was her bad - and the bad of anybody else who thinks this is a brilliant thing to do. No reason to up the security. People determined to get a Darwin Award are just gonna do what they're gonna do.

Some more amazing non-photoshopped images

Firstly, if you keep ANY exotic pets -basically anything that isn't a cat or a dog - you'll be wanting to follow this link. I can't imagine this stupidity will pass, but can't be too careful when it comes to maintaining the right to keep our fur, scale, and feather kids. They're part of our families. Below is a vid Brian of BHB (who I'm getting my next snake from) has made about this bill.



*sigh*

Speaking of exotic critters though, Daphne is feeling MUCH better after her tooth trimming. This is our new vet, and she is a total doll. VERY bunny savvy, big on exotics, and I feel very good about entrusting my fur and scale kids to her. We chatted for a while about our bunnies and bunnies in general. Thank you to Cara for the recommendation. <3 Dr. Phillips even let me hold Daphne while she was coming out of her drug addled drunken state, and it was SO cute. She was all soft and floppy and goofy. Today, she licked my foot (I'm pretty sure it was Daphne, both bunnies were under the desk) and she's not being angry and destructive like she is when her toof hurts.

I've had a lot of thoughts and things, particularly yesterday, but I'm too tired and distracted now. So here's a summary of things I may or may not post about whenever, largely just as a reminder to me. :P Or I may end up ranting a bit right now, who knows.

Law and Order: Gay Detectives Unut. ~ All detective/investigation shows need at least one queer detective to point out obvious queer situations to the other detectives, aparently. This isn't a diversity issue or anything, I just hate how fast I figure out every one of those episodes when it's supposed to be a "twist". There was an episode on the other day where from the first few minutes I was like "Oh, ouch, obviously this is a lesbian closet case gone wrong, gotta question that chick." and it took forever for them to catch up with me. There are many shows like this. I know heterosexual perps are far more common, and it doesn't come up *that* often, but dudes... if I wanted painfully obvious, I'd watch reality shows. :P

Road Rage, kinda. ~ How Phoenix has changed me as a driver since I was last here and how painfully slow Colorado Springs is. 35mph? Really? and OMG TURN SIGNALS PLZ WTFBBQ!

So much win. We love you Jon!!

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Gotta run and errand before work, but plan to post more later about new vet etc and stuff. ^_^