2009 updates
December 2009 | November 2009 | October 2009 | September 2009 | August 2009 | July 2009 | June 2009 | April 2009 | March 2009 | February 2009 | January 2009 | December 2008
December 18, 2009
Happy Holidays to everyone!!! I wish I could say my holidays have been happy lately, but they haven't. In any case, the happy mood of the holidays has been difficult to maintain.
Still, there is some happy news out of it all: I am now making an excellent collection of Dream Angel magnet dolls. Instead of requiring velcro or poster putty, these simply require a magnetic surface such as a refridgerator. Lovingly rendered in water color pencil, printed on magnetic sheets and laminated for protection these dolls are admittedly the best yet.
The fixing of this site is coming along slow and steady. Since there's been so much going on, I haven't had a lot of time for it, but school's out for a few weeks luckily. I'm going to have more time, hopefully, for the needed updates and code fixes.
My college major has changed a little. Instead of strictly computer animation, it's web development and animation. I intend fully to pursue my dreams of animation, just in a slightly different area. Instead of animated shorts that are 2+ minutes, I'll be making simple loops for websites and building websites.
Now for the best news of all: I'm uploading the family pages as soon as I finish updating the images. Rather than multiple pages of images, I'm setting up tabbed galleries on one page for each person. Though I haven't started yet, I have plans to do the same thing to my Sailor Moon Paper Dolls collection as well.
Why haven't i updated for a couple weeks?
There is a battle going on in my life: Westwood Online has a class-action lawsuit against it with a very long list of allegations that, although I didn't realize it at the time, apply to me. Thus, my opinion of the school has slipped to the gutter. I adore the online environment and the interaction with my fellow students, but the instructors and other staff tend to leave much to be desired, which is a terrible shame, really. Of all the information I've read about this case, it appears this scam is wide-spread among online colleges... what a waste. In my eyes, they've promised the moon and stars with all kinds of nice-sounding things but in the end, all the student gets is a knife in the back. It's not the first time I've gotten such treatment, but it still hurts a great deal to know that I've lost a year of my life to something that is rapidly proving worthless. What a waste. Still, a wise saying I have found in a MetLife mousepad calendar says, "Challenges are opportunities to find out who we really are..." This is a terrible brick wall to keep me from attaining my dream of a degree in computer animation, but also a strong lesson: don't instantly trust everyone who promises the moon - they're likely to be holding the knife at your back without you knowing it.
Other updates
The toads have been extremely content lately and spend every night singing merrily to each other. Cookie's as crazy as ever and with the lawsuit in action as of yesterday, the house in an emotional uproar. Hopefully, this lawsuit is settled soon and the problems that so many students have been having are resolved.
October 15, 2009
Cyber stalker,
I have clearly gotten your attention based on yesterday's brief conversation regarding my quoting of the Disney Classic Bambi. The quote is most certainly not retarded or childish but meant to make a point. I will state it again: "If you can't say somthin' nice, don't say nuthin' at all." The point of the quote is that if you can't say something polite or constructive about my site, family or the chat room itself, then don't go into the chat room in the first place.
I am asking for polite conduct in my chatroom, not rude comments.
If you cannot say anything nice or constructive in my chat room, stay out of it! I encourage friendly, polite conversation that is site-related, not rude, degrading comments. Go away, cyberstalkers, or I will have you prosecuted! Cyberstalking is a punishable offense, and I will prosecute. Let me make this clear: I will not have cyber stalkers in my chat room at all at any given time.
In the meantime, I have found myself happily watching the stat counter rise steadily and am now enjoying my new classes. This is the one-year mark with Westwood Online! I LOVE IT!!! I hope you're all looking forward to what I will be creating these coming weeks!
October 14, 2009
I've started yet another term with Westwood Online and happily enough I have updated all my character pages images with new designs and moved the old ones to pages of their own. I left my Vampire's design the way it was as it looks quite good and doesn't seem to need changing and haven't quite settled on a good design for Yukie and Yukina yet. The two fairies are a work in progress. I've also added a couple of characters to my villains collection: Roaches and Hellbot.
As a precaution and to further add to my online portfolio, I have added a page for stuff created in my Advanced 3D Animation class. If my homework's too big for e-college, it will be on that page and even if it's not too big for e-college, it'll be there!
Over 400 visitors now and only a scattered few visits to my chat room? Please, if you do enter my chat room, even if I don't answer but I'm in the room, stick around, I might just be somewhere else temporarily.
Also, to the ones who have entered the room left rude comments and left: I don't appreciate such comments in the least. Don't force me to find a chat room with more restricted access to block you. I like chatting with visitors and don't mind that the chat room doesn't remember your username and password. Don't force me to find one that does remember usernames just so I can block the few who have nothing good to say. To quote Thumper from Bambi, "If you can't say somethin' nice, don't say nuthin' at all!" Please keep comments constructive in the future.
The last week of this term completed (workwise), I have had to add a page for one of my final projects due to its size. So, for those who are looking possibly for an interesting level in Unreal Tournament 3, I have built just that and added it into my professional portfolio.
That having been said, why has no one gone into my chat room?! WAAAAAAAAAY over 350 visitors and nobody's come in to say hello!? *Shrug* I haven't been in there much lately because the Unreal Engine took all the power my computer could muster or it would crash.
I still have six crazy fish and two happy toads. The dog reacts to everything but "Late to dinner." She has also found that if it's early enough in the morning, I'll take her to the local dog park to play. Early means there are no other dogs and the park is entirely empty for her to play in and she just looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooves every minute there.
I'm sure the new navigation has been noticed by all.. Sooooooooooooooooo, let me know what you think! I will try to be in the chat room daily at least during the week from about 8AM to 10 PM Pacific time. Don't be afraid to chat with me and offer thoughts and opinions or even simply report a problem with my thumbnailed images or links. I know not everything is fixed, but can't always find what's broken to fix it. The chat room saves nothing personal and is totally free.
September 26, 2009
With one week left of classes, things have been pretty tense. I haven't been intentionally neglecting this site, I've just been quite busy. I've been hearing good reviews for the new navigation and some of the newest content.
The plan now is to finish my last week of classes and take the one week off I have coming and attack this site as much as I can... which will be a neat trick since I am also helping with my mother's site (presently very under construction). The other half of that being a neat trick is one of my next classes is advanced 3D animation. I'm not counting on an easy time with that one, so I'm going to take some time and practice ahead of time in the hope that it'll be of some help.
Over 300 visitors and still nobody has caught me in the chatroom? : ( *Sniff* I'm hurt. I know I'm not really in there super often (mostly due to needing all the power this computer can give me for the games I'm making) but still... I haven't even gotten an email saying something like, "I was in the chat room, where were you?"
I have also discovered something really cool about the local park: it has a dog park and Cookie's in looooooooooooooooooooooooove with it. I've taken her there two days in a row now and both days she came back happily exhausted and panting heavily. ; )
I have found myself having fun in my game design discussion as my instructor teased last week about hearing crickets, I told her I'd sick my toads on the crickets this week which, in a funny way, I did do. The little discussion sparked another idea that I might work with in the future. The humor was with my toads and my discussion post saying "*chirp chirp EEEEEEEEEEEP!*" as the toads "attacked" and "ate" the bugs in the discussion room. The jokes from that have been going wild all week as a result. I may not be much of a gamer myself, but I seem to keep coming up with a lot of good ideas.
In the meantime, Rowen and Sage sit innocently on their island enjoying the hilarity and occasionally creating some of their own. My two "ideal boyfriends" as I call them affectionately, seem more than content with their tank. I try to spoil them once a month with live bugs and the rest of the time, they get freeze-dried. They seem to like this as I find the freeze-dried bugs in the water less often after they've had the live ones and when they have the live ones they don't let them jump into the water - they pounce on them faaaaaaast. This makes them all the funnier when hunting the live bugs. Also, the fish seem to have gotten over their fear of the castle that has bubbles coming out from under the drawbridge. Not sure if I mentioned in the past that when I first put that castle in, all six fish immediately hid on the other side of the tank and stayed there. It took them a while to do it, but they seem to have finally gotten used to that castle.
September 16, 2009
I am quite delighted to say I don't have to make more templates! I have managed to cut down the template count to only three thanks to my new menu navigation!!! You will now notice that the family pages are easier to find, the Sailor Moon paper dolls and Sailor Moon Super StarS pages all have their own private navigation at the top of the page and the pages are all uniform with these nice new colors.
With new navigation and layout, I hope nobody gets lost although the idea of the new navigation is to prevent you from being lost! In any event, I still have a site map page for guidance.
Also, if a link in the navigation doesn't work it means that the page has either not been built yet or I forgot to make the link or I need to update the page the link should lead to. Whatever the case may be, expect a few anomalies to remain as I continue fixing page content in some sections.
In the meantime, my stat counter has hit 237 and still nobody has come into my chat room...*sniff* So many visitors and nobody wants to talk to me? I assure you, the chat room requires no personal information and doesn't cost a thing! It doesn't even remember username and password!!
I am happy to encourage others to join Nana in creating more paper dolls for the Sailor Moon collection. I know it's not easy to learn to draw on the computer and those dolls are a good starting point for practice. Okay, they're not the best starting point, but they are helpful in learning to control the mouse with precision which is quite hard. I'm a left-handed person who has learned to draw on the computer right-handed because that's how I've always used the mouse. I am still teaching myself to use the pen mouse I bought about three years ago. I'm so used to handling the computer mouse right-handed that I've had the worst time trying to draw left-handed on the computer. Yes, all the Sailor Moon paper dolls I created from the Usagi base were drawn right-handed and I'm a leftie!
Another thing: pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease tell me when my thumbnail images don't work! I haven't caught all those yet! I really want to make all the images on this site load fast and look sharp, so please don't hesitate to pop into the chat room if you find me there, tell me about some of the problems you find. I do my best to find them, but even I can't find all the problems!
Fishie bubbles and toadie squeaks,
enjoy this site and all its treats.
Should you close before delight,
yell at me, both day and night!!!
I want to know what is wrong,
don't hesitate to chime along!
I want this site to be the best
the best it can be and all the rest!!!
With two merrily singing toads I have found myself, for the most part, enjoying classes. The headache has proven to be the Unreal Tournament 3 Engine, which I've had considerable trouble working. Fortunately, the work for this week is done, leaving me a moment's peace to tackle this site again!
To my delight, I have to expand my Sailor Moon paper doll collection again. I have gained Ikuko-Mama and two outfits thanks to Nana Aishiku! Thank you, Nana!!! I welcome others to join her in sending me more dolls!! I don't mind having to make more templates for this site and expanding what I hope I can safely call the largest Sailor Moon paper doll collection on the web. True, a good number of those dolls are my original characters, but the professional collections I've seen and found didn't include villains - which is disappointing when you consider it's more fun to play with hero paper dolls when you have a villain to dress up and "beat up." Besides, what's Usagi without her little brother to annoy her? Her mother to yell at her for bad grades, or her father to spoil her with an allowance (I'm jealous of that one, I never had an allowance as a kid)? Either way, I'm going to be adding pages for Queen Beryl, Zirconia, Queen Nehelenia, Ikuko-Mama, Usagi's father and brother even though Ikuko-Mama is the only one who exists presently.
The stat counter has hit 160!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY!!!!
Now, with all those visitors, why hasn't anyone come to chat with me in my chat room? I don't get any personal information in the least. Neither does the host of my chat room. All you do is come up with something as a username and password and if you so choose, you can put in a profile but the chat room is always open and I'm usually online all day (Pacific time) every day. Even if I'm not at my computer, I'd be happy to answer when I am. Come tell me what you think of my site or even to simply report a problem with a link somewhere that I might miss in fixing. Don't be afraid to talk to me when you find my chat. It's always open and I'm always willing to consider any suggestion or idea. I'd prefer keeping conversation to site related material but if you think I should add something to the site, that's fine. It's mainly just a preference to keep conversation to site related stuff.
August 25, 2009
With the addition of a live chat room and some new images, hopefully this site's appearance will improve.
School is of course in full swing, the toads and fish are content in their tank to listen to the radio from time to time and this site is definitely being worked on. I am changing the template again!
Oh yeah, and HURRAY!!! This site's stat counter has officially reached 100!!!
August 21, 2009
Yesterday, I added a live chat room to this website.
Today, I am completely remodeling the site... again! I have found a nice new template called "Internet Sunrise" that will *hopefully* make things easier and look nicer, too.
In the middle of all this, I still have school going on! Wish me luck!
August 20, 2009
My stat counter now says 90, so I decided to add a live chat room so I might be able to talk more efficiently with my visitors. I encourage site feedback but also warn that the chat should be kept mostly to site related subjects. For example, if you think I could improve a character's design drawing just by changing a color at some point, tell me and I'll consider the suggestion. If you want to suggest a character design, first describe it and see if I like the idea, you can send me an image using my regular contact page email which I could easily send to you through my chat room. This chat room is free to log in, by the way. Don't be afraid to talk to me!
August 19, 2009
Classes have certainly kept me busy. My game is coming together pretty well although I haven't attempted any animation in 3D Studio Max yet. I have watched the program's little intro video for animation and found myself impressed with the "AutoKey" feature for animation. This means that the computer puts in the key frames for me so I don't have to fuss and figure out where key frames go. This will make things easier to some degree, but you never know what other issues might arise with a program which even the Autodesk site doesn't have all the tutorials available for! It's that new that there aren't too many up-to-date tutorials for. This leaves me almost totally on my own with only a little bit of reference to figure out this program. I've been lucky so far in finding older tutorials that are similar enough to the current program to help.
Yesterday, I had a problem with the internet on my poor computer and had to spend the day virus scanning. McAfee is a good scanner, but I guess it missed this one! With that problem fixed, I'm back in business and tackling problems again.
I still have some problems to work out, but this site's definitely coming together and starting to look very nice. If I'm lucky, it'll help impress somebody and get me some freelance work.
I still have Rowen and Sage singing happily in their tank with the fish but just this past Saturday, I added a second castle to the tank. This one allowed me to set up an air hose under the drawbridge to make it rise and fall. Rowen investigated this just after I put him and the others all back in the tank but didn't seem to care about the bubbles rising from the castle drawbridge as he rose back to the surface. The fish on the other hand, spotted the bubbles and instantly went to hide behind the other castle and rocks on the other side of the tank and have pretty much stayed there since. They come out of hiding to eat and disappear shortly after all the food's disappeared. I can't say I blame them, though since it's something completely unfamiliar, but it looks pretty funny to see six fish in hiding. They're not camera shy, just shy of the new castle. Ryo was actually the first to come back out of hiding and explore the new castle a little before the bubbles spooked him back in hiding.
If I find a way to embed my game that is being built into this website, I will! I really like the way it's presently turning out and hope that other artists will appreciate it. I won't tell what it is, but I will say that anyone hoping to learn basic drawing skills will find it helpful, I hope!
Hurray!!! The hit counter says 85!!!
August 8, 2009
I have finished fixing all the templates. If there are still any dead links, tell me PLEASE!!!
I have made the template design site wide and standard. No more odd colors and no more bright colors. Hopefully, this new pastel pink/grey combination looks a lot better than the bright pink.
As I am in the process of writing this update, Dreamweaver CS4 is in the process of uploading the last of the pages.
Okay, I know: a LOT of my drawings look pretty bad. I'm going to be tackling that problem next with a few video evolutions like my Angelution on Dream Angel's page. Since she and Katrilina are my oldest characters, they'll have the longest evolution videos. All the Yosemite and Genoa pictures and videos are now on one page each. No more 20+ pages of messy images that take forever to load. They're all thumbnailed with the exception of videos. You'll still have to be a little patient with those, but I can't optomize the video code, only the images.
If you hadn't noticed already, there's a new stat counter at the bottom of all the pages. This tells me how many people have actually looked at this site. While I was fixing templates, it hit the 50 mark! All right, I know: this site's been online for two going on three years and I get excited about a new stat counter telling me I've had only 50 people? I should have found such a thing when I first created this site, but you know what? That was when I was still taking classes in Dreamweaver! I didn't know about such things! Happily, I found one that works nicely for this site. The other new addition: a little piece that tells me date and time for updating pages. This is a handy little thing that will tell you when I last updated the page you're looking at!
So, I'm brushing off the dust of this site and saying I want viewer participation! I know I've got old images, give me suggestions for fixing them! I know I've got a large Sailor Moon paper doll collection, help me add to it!
Don't be afraid of my blog, either. I welcome the chance to have live conversation with viewers. As far as I know, it's free to register so have fun with that, too.
Even the toads are excited about all the new stuff on this site! They've been singing for days!
I have separated the portfolio between personal and professional to help eliminate confusion of what I created myself completely and what is just simple fan creations.
There's been so much going on in the last couple days with this site, it's awful hard to keep up!
Plus, I still have school projects going on again! Maybe I'll upload some of those as they're ready!
Even some of the Sailor Moon dolls who only have home pages might get other pages as well.
August 6, 2009
Having started new classes yesterday, things are getting pressured again already. I am already working hard in class but working equally hard on this website when I can.
Please be patient as I work to make page loading faster. I know the thumbnail images don't always work but I need to know where most of the time.
I have separated my portfolio between personal and professional, please don't get lost and don't panic if you can't find something that's normally in my portfolio - depending on what it is, it's most likely in either personal or professional. I will try to update the site map to help with any confusion.
I still have two happy toads, six fish that appear to know how to read either their food jar or the clock - they're always lined up waiting for food and a psycho dog that loves to play.
Several things to start the month: Sadly, the new toad, has somehow escaped the tank. I have yet to find him. So I'm back down to two toads both of whom seem to be content and happily enjoying themselves.
The tail of the missing fish was solved last weekend: he was hiding under the filter and is now back with the others.
In light of recent critiques of my website and artwork, I am working on improving it all.
With the help of the videos on this channel of youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/markcrilley Particularly the video on proportions, my drawings have started to become what Mom calls "Disgustingly good!" That being said, expect new character images to begin appearing to replace the old ones that have proprtional and anatomic issues.
I am also going to break up my portfolio between fan works and my original works to avoid confusion as to what I created myself from scratch. This means that SMSSS, the Sailor Moon paper dolls and my music videos are all going to be moved to a separate section of the portfolio. Still available, but not included in the stuff that would be considered part of a professional portfolio.
Another thing: I am working on thumbnailing all the images on this site to make page loading faster. If any of them don't work, please tell me and I'll be able to fix them!
July 23, 2009
It's finals week, but I'm still working on fixing this site. Be patient if a thumbnail doesn't yet link to its big brother - I'm probably working on that page!
Once again, I have three toads. The new guy, was greeted first by Ryo, who has gotten quite big since I bought him. It is pretty apparent that I have three boys as all three have been singing since I put the new guy in the tank. They're now set on a regular feeding schedule, and seem to be happy with the idea that every now and then they get live bugs. Good thing is, what the toads don't eat live, the fish attack as soon as it jumps in the water.
All of my character design class work is now online with working thumbnails - Thanks Mark for pointing out that the thumbnails didn't work at first.
With one week left of school, I've been busy. I have taken to heart a friend's suggestion to redesign this web site and have been trying to fix problems along the way. One of the worst has been loading time for images. So, I'm taking the time to create little albums and have the thumbnails in place of the large images. These thumbnails link to the larger images that are now optimized for online viewing. I am also going to take another suggestion I recently got to heart: put together a more up-to-date collection of designs for my characters and update their pages. The last assignment of my character design class will not just be a one character set of images, I intend to do it for all my characters to the best of my ability with all my sources for correct anatomy working to help.
I have added to the Dream Angel paper doll collection as well. Though I may find myself reworking those as well anatomically.
Now for the sad news: I've lost Kento. Rowen and Sage seem to be all right, but I've lost my one-year-old.
June 24, 2009
With my toadie girls separated from my toadie boy, I can only wait and see if the girls start laying eggs. Poor Rowen! Left all alone in the tank with no company but the fish! Sage and Kento appear to be having fun swimming around in their new summer tank now that they don't have Rowen trying to mate with them constantly.
In the meantime, my classes have kept me busy enough. I have added week 4 and week 5 homework to the character design page. I don't know exactly if I'm going to ever use some of these redesigned and newly designed characters, but they're there anyway if I ever decided to.
Presently, I only have 9 pages of Yosemite pictures ready and uploaded, so be patient! I've been kept quite busy by many things. Luckily, I have finished this week's work and have a little spare time until next week starts. If I'm lucky, I'll get a few more pages online and you can enjoy the trip to Yosemite as I did.
Again, if I'm lucky, I'll get some more Dream Angel paper dolls online. I've got several designs out on tracing paper already, but haven't put them into the computer yet. Then there's the fact that I've been playing design wise in my class with my characters, so I might find myself updating character pages with entirely new designs! Still, I greatly enjoy hearing from everyone who wants to venture an opinion on my characters!
June 18, 2009
In light of an art history project and the fact that before the start of this term I went to Yosemite, I am building a Photographic Excursions page.
Kento has pretty much confirmed it: she's definitely a girl. Sage is showing signs of also being a girl, but as I am still uncertain, Sage hasn't been moved to the girls summer tank. Rowen's the one who has proven beyond doubt that he is a guy. He's been calling for Kento and trying to mount Sage in amplexus.
June 14, 2009
I've been attacking everything as much as Rowen attacks Kento (the toads, that is). Though she rejects him, he keeps going for the mating posture of amplexus. Anyway, I've posted this week's character design assignments. Enjoy!
I have finally updated the toadies' page by making them a new one. Enjoy!
June 11, 2009
While school has kept me quite busy, I have my suspicions about the toads. I'm quite sure now that my Kento's a girl and it's quite apparent that Rowen's a boy as he's the only one that sings and goes for amplexus, I'm uncertain about Sage but I have seen Rowen grab him, too although he seems to make the noise of "I'm a guy, dummy!" Thus, I believe I have two boys and a girl in the tank with six fish. All the while, I'm biding my time and carefully planning out this week's character design assignment... look forward to it!
I know! It's been a long time between updates, but I've been veeeeery busy! Classes have kept me overly busy and I had yet to find time to do needed updates. I'm adding sections to show what I did in Maya 2009 and now in Character Design. Fortunately, it's a nice, rainy Saturday and all my homework for this week's been turned in. I have paperdolls to add to the Dream Angel collection, new design concepts for characters, homework that needs displaying and family pictures to add.
Rowen, Kento, and Sage have all been joined by goldfish, too! There's six fish out of about a dozen from Wal-Mart. Thus, I have the "nine armors" in fish and toads. Cye and Ryo have returned as fish! Then there's Dias, Sekhmet, Kale, and Anubis the fish.
I CAUGHT THE EASTER
TOAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just kidding... he doesn't really have ears like that. Meet Sage of the Bubble Halo with painted on bunny ears.
Happy Easter! Sorry, there won't be any family Easter pictures until after next Sunday. The other news: I've lost both Ryo and Slippy. : ( I'm down to Kento, but I've added Sage (on my birthday) and Rowen of the Food Dish Strata, just recently. : )
So, Happy Easter from the Easter Toadie Sage! This was one of the first shots I took of the little rascal. Rowen might as well be his twin only darker.
Oh, and I'm starting to think more and more that Kento of Frog Rock is a girl. Sorry Kento fans, but I guess she's got a crush on him! Sage went for amplexus (mating posture) just after I got him and Kento didn't protest, that's why I think Kento might be a girl in this case.
In other news, I've been keeping veeeeeeeeeeery busy lately with my 3D animation class. For those that don't know Maya, think Toy Story, Shrek, Incredibles, and Madagascar level animation. That's what I've been working with.
Other than that, I've been enjoying the reactions of the toads. What do I mean by that? Simple. Sage and Rowen had never seen their namesakes, so I put in the Ronin Warriors DVD's I've got and watched them react. Sage was the funniest yet. He was sitting on the very edge of their new island when his namesake, Sage of Halo was captured, he fell off the island nose first into the water! Funny toad, right? Kento ignores any episode that doesn't have his namesake pretty prominently featured. Rowen jumps into the food dish when he sees Lady Kayura beating his namesake. Funny toads, right? Then there's the little games they play when the series isn't playing. "Hide behind the island", "Food dish peek-a-boo" and "all around the filter top" are just a few of the favorites.
As usual, Cookie has proven to be a crazy hyper dog. If we try to go anywhere without her, it's nearly impossible. She insists on going places in the car which has since been named after her. It's not Dad's car, it's Cookie's car!
Happy Birthday to Mom (a little late as it was the 2nd), Happy 2nd Birthday to Luke and celebrations for Dream Angel the 7th, Happy Birthday to the web mistress on the 13th.
I've been kept veeeeeeeeeeery busy with school lately, so I haven't had much chance to update things. Fortunately, I finished my school work yesterday and today is my first chance to genuinely start in on this web site again. By the time the day is done, hopefully, I will have at least main pages for all the rest of the requested villains.
Also, the westwoodaholic known as the web mistress has been happily enjoying 2D animation lately, and I do intend to get that stuff online ASAP! This way, when I start my new classes on the 18th, I will be able to upload those projects as they arise in 3D animation. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up with uploading this time!
Dream Angel paper dolls are coming along nicely and I only have two dolls left to make then I can concentrate completely on clothes.
Ryo, Kento, and Slippy now enjoy a full all-aquatic tank and have been making all sorts of noises whenever they feel like it. They adore the styrofoam (very well sterilized) island that their food dish sits on. They even still play food dish peek-a-boo. I think they're starting to sense that spring is about to spring despite the snow we've been having lately. If I can keep the algae down in their tank, maybe I'll be able to put some fish in to keep them company. I just have to make sure that they're big enough that the toads won't try to eat them!
Happy 27th birthday to my brother yesterday.
It's officially one week before the wedding of my brother to Tina.
Westwoodaholic me has been busy despite household troubles of mom's strained shoulder. I've been keeping up with my Flash homework, making more Dream Angel paper dolls and even adding some new Sailor Moon paper dolls by request.
The 3 remaining toads are now enjoying a 10 gallon tank and spend their days happily playing dive off the top of the palm tree in the tank. They mostly belly flop. They still are quite content to play peek a boo from the food dish as well.
Cookie has discovered that I can have a kitty meowing on the computer by the name of Neko. The first time I started up the little kitty that chases the mouse she went crazy looking everywhere for the cat! She's been mostly happy lately. She has found out that when the weather's bad I don't take her outside to play, though. When I do, she is the first to go back in the house completely exhausted for a few hours.
All in all, things have been almost quiet since I spend a lot more time on household chores than I would normally. Still, I try to manage to get stuff worked on.
January 17, 2009
Westwoodaholic me has had some fun already. Check out my animations page! I'm enjoying a 2D animation class which is using Flash, so I'll be adding assignments there as they're created!
My Dream Angel paper doll collection is growing at an impressive rate! I hope people start buying collections soon as they are a one-of-a-kind sort of collection! I'm even creating backgrounds for these dolls to make playing with them more fun!!
There is only one Dream Angel in the world and this is her web site!
As a special treat for Slippy's first year anniversary/birthday, I've created a special animated card. It's also on my animations page!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!! The new term of Westwood online has started, and the Westwoodaholic is at it again! That means my creativity will change this site again! I'm addicted to Westwood already and love the things I've been creating as a result of class assignments! This term, keep a close watch on my animation page in my portfolio. I'm going to be embedding more stuff made in Flash this term!
Also, there has been a request for more Sailor Moon paper dolls. Per this request, I will find time to make the Black Moon family and the Witches 5 sometime soon. If I don't make them by the end of January, keep nagging me!!
The other news is that I'm finally settling on a price for my Dream Angel paper dolls: $10 per collection. This covers the printing, laminating and all other supplies that go into making these beautiful dolls. The difference is, I'm going to have them professionally printed and laminated. I found this to be actually cheaper than if I did it all myself. The "collection" will include one doll and two outfits (this is more cost effective and keeps the price low.). From there, trios of outfits will be the same price. I know it sounds like a lot, but it'll help me work my way through college and these dolls are completely home made. There's a lot to be said about how unusual they are. Please don't be scared away by the price! I assure you, they're worth it!
I just updated Cookie's page with a cute little story. I won't spoil it here, because it's all in detail there. Enjoy and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 28, 2008
I finally got around to completely redoing my site map. It now connects to all available pages of this web site to make things easy to find... Hopefully! I am honestly amazed at how huge this site has become! More than fifty Sailor Moon Paper Dolls, widely diverse characters for my comic book, my own original animations, my music videos, pages showing pictures and videos of my family and pets, there is so much on this web site that I have had trouble keeping up with all of it! I look forward to expanding it more as I continue taking classes at Westwood Online, too.
I hope everyone has had a joyful holiday season and will have a happy new year. I have five baby new year toads. They'll be a year old and soon will start showing me if they're boys or girls. I actually hope I have at least one girl in the tank so I might have offspring to attempt to raise. For now, they're all boys as far as I'm concerned. Still, they're just soooooooooo cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuttttttttteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!! The perfect children: they don't talk back, they don't leave clothes all over the floor, they don't make a major mess of their "room," the worst they do is clog the filter and throw their funny little stuck-up temper tantrums! Gotta love them anyway, though. I'd be happy if I end up raising these little toads.
Anyway, I've noticed some problems with some of the Sailor Moon paper doll pages, so I will be attempting to fix that problem soon, too.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!
