Reflections in the Dragon's Eye: A Journal

For those of you who actually look at my Song of the Day below (which is either the song that's stuck in my head when I'm in the shower, or the first song the iTunes randomizer picks if nothing is stuck in my head, in case you were wondering about the selection process)... Where was I?

Oh, yeah. Yesterday's Song of the Day was not actually by Savage Garden. I'd downloaded it from AudioGalaxy's Savage Garden section, but I think someone uploaded it to that section incorrectly. The version of the song I have (and I discovered while poking around yesterday that there are many versions of it) is by Fool's Garden.

Still, it's a cute, bouncy little song, and I enjoyed it. So I downloaded a few other songs by Fool's Garden, just to see if it was a single-song phenomenon, or if I've actually stumbled into a new band I like.

Yesterday was meant to be my first "No Internet" evening. I had my e-mail running, but didn't bother logging in to Instant Messenger. Instead, I went for a bike ride (a very short one; I'm out of shape after a summer of no exercise - I'll be glad when Kris has her baby and then maybe, maybe we'll be able to do stuff again. I need someone to prod me into exercising.)

...I got sidetracked again. Oh! Yes. I went for a short bike ride, and I finished up one of the stories I wanted to work on. (No, I haven't posted it. There are several reasons.) I started working on the second, which wasn't so much a story, but my attempt to paint a very vivid mental scene in words.

I thought I'd try an experiment: I'd close my eyes, so I could see the scene better, and type without looking at what I was typing; just describe what I saw with my mind's eye. I'd gotten about a paragraph in when Matt came in and said, "What's wrong?"

I explained the experiment. He looked dubious, then said, "Did K.T. talk to you about us coming over?"

So I called K.T., and we went over to see their new kitten (which is adorable - small enough to fit on one of K.T.'s hands, smoky black all over except for little white tufts in his ears) and eat Chinese food.

When we got home, I decided that rather than attempt to work on the story, I'd see if I could get the scanner working. It took me about half an hour and four reboots to figure out which extension had been inadvertently disabled that I needed to re-enable.

Finally, I managed to scan a couple of sketches from my sketchbook. I wanted to get a third, but the system kept locking up on me. (The scanner eats memory like candy. It's a little annoying.)

Copied from a model in a magazine. Her eyes are a little too high in her face, and a little too close together; and her lips are lopsided. But I'm proud of the nose, and thrilled with how well the hand turned out.

My best freehand picture yet. This is supposed to be Kevil, one of my Meade Hall characters, but as I was scanning it in last night, I realized it looks an awful lot like my dad, or maybe my brother. I'm quite happy with his nose, too. His lips extend a little too far for a profile shot, and his head is a little pointy in the back. (Though that's easy to fix; I'll just give him some more hair.) His ear is moderately awful, which is why I chopped it off in the scan - ears are hard.

The third picture, which I gave up on after my third reboot (this is after the four it took me to get the scanner working - you can understand why I was getting tired of the process) was supposed to be of my Hall character, Zoya. It's a good freehand profile of a woman, but it's not as good as either of these other two. I also have attempted sketches of my third Hall character, Tarri, but they both turned out terrible, so I didn't even contemplate scanning them.

Both of them were done with a .7mm mechanical pencil, and I don't think I took more than half an hour or so on either. I usually reach a point, with sketches, where I'm afraid to keep working on them for fear of ruining what I've already accomplished. Constructive criticism would be welcome.

As I was scanning, I wondered if re-enabling the extension that made the scanner work would foul up the CD burner. (They both run through FireWire ports.) Well, since I'd promised Ashby I'd burn a few things to CD for him, I plugged in the CD burner and built some CDs.

By that time, it was after 10:30, and I gave in and logged in to Instant Messenger to chat with Karen for a bit. I never did get back to my story. Ah, well. Maybe tonight.

Word of the Day:
perspicuous - plain to the understanding especially because of clarity and precision of presentation

Song of the Day:
...One More Time (Britney Spears)

Currently Reading:
- nothing

Current Projects:
- drawing
- Hall stuff
- garden