November 1st and Costumes and Foxes and Stuff

I'm going to try to update all the things, hokay? Hokay. Just don't worry if all the convolutedness makes you confused.

Today is November 1st! It's also NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)! I started doing it in 2008, and have done it every year except last year. I'm a bit more organized about it this year, at least...

For the uninformed, NaNoWriMo is a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I always try to hit 2,000 words a day, just to build up a buffer of sorts (and once I get going that's a really easy goal). There's no prizes aside from the pride of knowing that one has done it--I mean, yeah, one could take 50,000 words and enter it in the word counter thing, but what's the fun in that?

What am I writing a novel about, you ask? Well....it's a story idea that's been percolating for a very long time, let's just put it that way. And I hate talking about my writing stuff because other people might find it silly. But I still enjoy doing it--I just don't show it to anyone. XD

Just know that it's a horse story. But there's lab experiments and stuff, so it's an updated horse story. 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Yesterday I got to dress up all day--I don't like Halloween as far as the 'scary' stuff (I don't mess with stuff like the undead/dead/demonic/whatever. That's just something one shouldn't mess with, imho.), but I do enjoy cosplaying and it meant that I got to go to work dressed like Katniss Everdeen. Mwahaha.

(This was after being in costume for well over 10 hours. I think it held up fairly well.) (I would also like to point out that those shoes are slicker than snot on tile and I almost fell several times at work and walking into the house.)

Like the mockingjay pin? Ah made eet mahself. :3

I followed this tutorial on DA, painted it gold, and then sprayed it with shiny sealant. It's not exactly original, but it was fun (and better than the original idea of cutting out a picture and pinning that). Don't mind the flecks, they're just bits of ice cream from work...

There was a party at church for little kids (*cough* and the big kids too...), so my friend and I painted faces and hands and such.

I can paint a mean taco, apparently.

That was all fun in itself...and I got to go in later to dig through the leftover candy and pull the stuff that I wanted out. I have a bag full of Junior Minds and Whoppers and peanut butter M&M's hanging on my door to dole out over the next month. Ees gonna be awesome.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

This morning we saw the fox. Outside. In broad daylight. 

This happens VERY rarely. But it was still pretty cool.

As soon as I heard Mom yelling about it in the kitchen I ran to get my camera, and got exactly 3 pictures before he saw me. But again, it was pretty cool.

He (she?) was chasing some birds here or something, because he looked up in the pine trees after stopping.

This is my favorite--I was crouched behind a block of wood off the porch and keeping very quiet, but somehow he knew I was there. This was the expression he made for about 5 seconds before taking off into the tall grass.

I was able to get such a close picture because the zoom on my camera is awesome that way. ;)

We used to have battles over the chickens with the resident fox...but since we got rid of said chickens I guess we don't have to go after him anymore. He's way too pretty (and wily) to trap anyway. ;)

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Oh! Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles--I got my Kangen water filter hooked up today! I've been so excited for this--you have no. idea. 

So basically Kangen was is ionized water, and the filter allows one to chance the PH balance of the water. The more alkaline the water, the better it is for you (with 8.0-9.5 being the best range, alkalinity-wise). The idea is that people eat and drink things that create so much acidity in the body that they need to balance it out with alkaline foods and drink. I've known people who have been on Prilosec and acidity medication for years get off of it with this water, and it's helped my brother with canker sores in the mouth (they're triggered by acidic food). I've wanted this filter for ages, and finally bought one last month. 

I'm also excited because the various PH balances can also be used for cleaning anything from mirrors (6.0 PH) to sinks and tubs (2.5 PH--high acid), to taking stains and oils out of clothing (11.5--high alkaline), to mixing with essential oils (11.5 again), etc. It's just an awesome filter. These have been used in Japan for about 40 years in hospitals and such, and are starting to catch on in the US. I'll probably be spazzing about this water for a while and doing experiments and such...chronicling them here, of course. :D

But now...it's not even 9, and I'm ready for bed. All this getting up early and writing nonsense has put me back a bit. Sigh. I'll be back, hopefully before another week passes.

Horse Ramblings and Daily Whatnots

This week I've been good on my word of riding daily--every day except Thursday has been spent either lunging or riding the horse for 40-60 minutes. Mah arms are tired....anyway. Two weeks ago I had posted a picture on Facebook complaining about the horse's sweat pattern:

 

 In this one (taken two weeks ago) the hair on her neck is wrinkled in vertical lines, meaning that she's been bracing her neck and altogether tense for the ride. I was shown how to get her to relax somewhat, so today I went for an hour-long ride and tried to use what I've learned.

(As a hint: it's really hard to remember everything I was shown. My body is sore and tired after only an hour.)

 

Here (taken today) she's a lot sweatier due to the humidity, but the vertical lines are less noticeable and most of her neck is fairly smooth. Plus (and this may just be hopeful thinking) I think she's got a little more definition than she did two week ago. 8D

So...here's to plugging away at it and keeping up with the riding. I have a book on dressage arena exercises that I may be able to pull out and start working on in a few weeks.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

And back to daily life...I'm in a rather 'poor me' mood tonight, but I'll try not to indulge that side too much. 

All I can say is...tomorrow will be 6 weeks. I miss everything, but mostly the daily interactions and little stuff. Like asking how his day was and what he had for lunch, and getting to talk at night and send silly youtube videos and dream about what we were going to do after we were together. I guess the problem with building castles in the air is that they're made out of nothing...but it still feels like something was lost when they collapse. It's a horrible feeling. And the worst part is being cut off (which, granted, was my idea. I can be an idiot sometimes) and not only knowing nothing, but feeling like I can't ask because he'll try to honor my request to not talk to me and just ignore any attempts at contact. *clutches head*

Have I mentioned that this has been highly messy and confusing? Don't ever get dumped if you can help it. *gestures vaguely* 

On a side note, I get the feeling that I'm turning into the mopey friend that people don't want to talk to anymore because all I can think about, after talking about the weather and one's health, is what's happened and I get all depressed. >.< It's really frustrating to try to hold a conversation and burst into tears at the randomest provocation.
Blargh.

Concerning the rest of daily life...there's riding, and school, and cleaning houses...I did go to see The Hunger Games yesterday. No one in my family wanted to go, and I decided to go 10 minutes before the movie started, so it was a lone venture. :p Overall it was enjoyable (though I missed the first 5-10 minutes), but the shaky hand-camera usage was way overused and headache-inducing. It was fairly faithful to the book, but the ending could have been less rushed, with more character development throughout. I know people don't like spoilers--so I'd say go see it, but read the book first. :p The music wasn't as memorable as I hoped it would be--nothing as memorable as the fan-made music I've been listening to for days. It made me sad.

And otherwise...meh. I spend a lot of time trying to distract myself. *shrugs* Someday I won't have to. But in the meantime....meh.

30 Day Drawing Challenge--Days 1 & 2

Yesterday I started a 30-day drawing challenge, because I haven't been drawing consistently for ages (or I'd start a drawing, doodle/sketch for a while, get bored, and stop working on it). So, for the next 30 days, I will be drawing (and coloring!) 1 picture a day.

It's a general list, for the most part.

The only twist for me personally is that I'm restricting my drawing abilities to the Wacom tablet (I have a Bamboo Fun that doesn't get near the use it should, hence I'm not very good at it. XD). No starting from a pencil sketch or photograph--it all has to start and end from scratch on the tablet. 

So with this being day 2, I've got the first two drawings finished...

 Day 1: Yourself

This was started last night around 8, hence it's a bit of a rush job. The style is reminiscent of a graphic novel I was writing/drawing a couple of years ago...the story fizzled out, but the art remained.

The coloring was done by using the pen tool and brushes at various opacity...nothing super special.

Day 2: Favorite Animal

Yeah, yeah, I know...everyone knows I can draw horses and that I stinking love them. XD I used to have an Arab filly this color, with the rose-grey dapples (she started out as a bay, and progressively got lighter. I never cut her mane and tail either, so both were incredibly long and thick and black/dark dark brown with reddish highlights.) 

 I colored in all the base colors by using the pen tool, and then used the dodge/burn tools for the shading. 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

On a side note, am I the only one who is totally psyched for The Hunger Games? 8D I've been listening to fan-written music for the movie, and dang. I'm getting excited for this, folks. I couldn't put down the book when I got my grubby little mitts on it, and read the entire thing in one sitting. It was that good.

And because I can, here's a link to the music I've been listening to all day. It's the 'unofficial score', fan-made and such, but it's really, REALLY good.

http://hungergamesmusic.weebly.com/the-music.html