Maybe It's Just January...

Last time I blogged, one of my cats was dying. Today, I have four stitches in my foot and I was an hour late to work because they started early. (I should've known they would, because Monday was a holiday and it always takes a day for the "storm surge" of holiday drop-offs to hit shipping, but for some reason I blanked on it. Having to deal with four stitches in one's foot can do that to ya...)

Maybe I should relate the Foot Story.

Once upon a time, one week ago today, I was on my way through the basement when the dog got in my way. This not being an unusual occurrance, I found myself unsuprised to be diverted into one of the piles of Other People's Stuff to either side of my path. I noticed, upon placing my foot down, that it hurt more than usual - "not at all" being usual. But, then, as I said, dogs diverting one into someone else's Stuff is not an unusual occurrance, and a body's bound to get the odd scrape now and again. But this scrape didn't go away. Eventually, I looked down and saw the blood.

"Oh," I said,"that explains the pain."

Up the stairs, to the bathroom with the working plumbing, and I hose off my foot in the tub. And keep hosing. And keep hosing. And the water stays disturbingling pink. At length, I braved a look... and wished I hadn't. A nice, long, quarter-inch-deep gash now graced the bottom of my formerly whole left foot. Now, I could still feel my toes, and nothing was spurting, and I didn't see bone or anything, but this was distinctly Not Good. I bound it up as best I could, and thought about it for a while, then broke down and went to the local walk-in clinic. Four hundred odd dollars later (still no health insurance - joy...), I hobbled out with four stitches and orders to keep off it as much as possible for a couple days. So I blew my shot at a year of perfect attendence at work by having to miss Thursday and Friday, capped by being an hour late today.

At least it was a clean cut.

Hmm... maybe I shouldn't have related the Foot Story. It's rather boring if you're not the one with the stitches in her feet. (They come out next week... Wednesday, in theory, though if I can push it to Friday I will. I've had bad experiences with sutures being removed too soon, and wouldn't 2008 just love another shot at me...)


In other news, I got an unusual request. I've recently joined a new message board, because I always find myself in need of new ways to fritter away time. Shortly thereafter, I got a PM from one of the members asking about commissions. They want line art, a fair whack of it, and are willing to pay.

My initial reaction was: Me? Why me? I'm a total stranger, and besides, I'm not a real artist.

Then I remembered that, sitting in the other room, is a check. A check I received for art I had created - the drum ornaments mentioned previously - which other people had deemed worthy of their money.

Oh. I guess I am an artist, after all...

So now I'm debating what to say: how deep I want to get into someone else's project, and more importantly what a decent rate for line art is.

I wish 2008 would make up its mind what kind of year it was going to be. I'm getting awfully sick of being jerked around like this.

Another One to Rainbow Bridge...

To: 2008

Re: My previous blog entry

To Whom It May Concern,

When I rashly issued the declaration "Okay, 2008, let's see what ya got," I was not, in fact, challenging you to bring on your worst. I did not, for instance, intend for you to give one of my cats a mysterious, rapidly-growing lump on his neck. Nor did I intend to have to sit in the break room at work and hear some Very Bad news from the vet. I certainly did not intend to have to sit all weekend watching my cat purr and play and eat and sleep while my stomach clenched and my chest ached waiting for a biopsy result which I hoped against hope against hope would tell me something I didn't already know.

I dreamed of rainbows this weekend. Bright, beautiful rainbows in the sky. I hoped it was a good sign, a message that everything would be alright and I would get good news and Arty would get a few more years to purr and play and eat and sleep.

But, no, 2008, it was just you playing with me again. Because I just got off the phone with the vet and there are no miracles this year, there is no reprieve, and that ugly, evil, horrible lump on your neck, Arty, really is strangling you, killing you, and now I'm sitting here watching you sleep and I know I'll have to wake you up and take you to the vet so you can sleep forever beyond Rainbow Bridge and I can't even do that right, I can't even take you down there while you're asleep because I don't even have the car to do it. Mom has my car, and I don't know where she is and when she'll be back and in the meantime I'm crying and sitting and watching and hoping you don't wake up, hoping you don't want a purr or a belly rub because I don't think I could take it.

So, 2008, I demand to speak to your manager. I demand a refund or a replacement. Because this is not the new year I ordered.

Thank you for your time.

- BrightDreamer

Hello, 2008!

The neighbors and their explosive devices of questionable legality beyond the limits of a reservation are welcoming in the new year with window-shaking enthusiam. Millions of people are toasting its arrival with whatever fermented beverage happens to be at hand. And already people are looking ahead and wondering what 2008 will bring them, be it good (a better president) or bad (another Republican)... Sorry. Unfair shot, there... Anyway, only ten minutes in, and the new year has a monumental heap of expectations, hopes, dreams, and fears to live up to. Well, here's a few more to throw on the pile...

The 2008 Resolution List

1. Restart my budget. Because I really need to get it pinned down.
2. Organize, clean, and weed out my stuff. Because it needs doing, more badly than I care to admit.
3. Walk and/or exercise at least three times a week. So I gave myself an out for cruddy weather... maybe this time it'll stick.
4. Spend at least an hour a day creating (drawing, painting, writing, etc.) Another carryover.
5. Fill at least three sketchbooks in a year. Because I seem to fall juuust short.
6. Pick an instruction book or course on art or writing and follow through on it, start to finish. Maybe I need a little structure in my artistic meanderings...
7. Finish at least one story for submission to contest or publication. A perennial favorite of mine... someday it's going to happen. I mean, heck, I never thought I'd sell anything I made, and last year I cleared four items.
8. Learn to use my 2D and 3D art programs more competently. This is going to take some dedicated fiddling-around time...
9. Maintain and promote websites more diligently. It's been ten years since I first launched the original version of my websites, after all; I ought to treat them better than I have been.
10. Update website skills (including but not limited to learning XML, CSS, Flash, etc.) Because it's been ten years since I first launched the original version of my websites, and boy does it ever show...
11. Post at least one new creation - artwork, story, Skyhaven critter, etc. - online per month. Yes, I sort of folded a few of 2007's missed resolutions together here...
12. Investigate requirements for a business license. Since I seem to be making things to sell, I figure I ought to do things by the book. Besides, it sounds kinda fun to have a wholesale license. But, of course, it will require better bookkeeping than I do now, which ties back into Resolution #1...

Okay, 2008... let's see what ya got...

A Year Ends, Another Begins...

Well, 2007 only has two and a half hours left of life on this coast. Since I haven't seen any Internet bulletins about major catastrophes, I'm assuming that 2008 has indeed arrived as scheduled in the easterly regions. Thus it is once again time to review a year gone by and look forward to the one on the doorstep.

On the whole, I'd have to say that 2007 was a good year. I landed a job that (thus far) hasn't tried to kill me. I got some new technological toys which I still need to master: a personal DVD player, which will free me from reliance on the living room TV if/when I want to watch something, an MP3 player (from work), which, once mastered, will free me from reliability on battery-guzzling CD players when I'm sketching or at my workbench, and a new digital camera, which will free me from the cruddy zoom on my old digital camera and should enable me to take even lousier pictures with more class. I also sold a few things I created with my own two hands. Looking back to last January, I suppose I ought to dredge up the old Resolution list and see how I did.

2007 Resolutions (In Review)

1. Attain a Source of Income. DONE, in January no less. Go, me! (Of course, it only took a bad axle on the car to undo all the monetary gain I'd managed in the year, and that without blowing money on such frivolities as the dentist or new glasses, but it's still a victory.)
2. Write, Draw, and Create More. An ambiguous goal if ever I wrote one, but I can safely say I pulled it off; I filled 2.9 sketchbooks in 2007 and worked on two major stories, which is up from previous years. (Didn't finish them, but that's a different resolution altogether...)
3. Spend at least one hour daily creating. Ouch... fell down on the job here, even if I did hit Resolution #2.
4. Offer at least one item I have created for sale. Unexpectedly, and almost at the last minute (tail end of November), I actually hit this one, with the phenomenal bonus of actually selling something I'd created.
5. Submit at least one story for a publication or contest. Hmm... must've slipped through the cracks...
6. Post at least one work (art or story) a month on the Internet for public viewing. Er... the cats ate it? Another one that started out with great intentions, but just didn't end up happening.
7. Organize and clean my space. I won't lie and even claim a partial victory. I managed the occasional dusting and clutter rearranging, but I still have as much junk as - actually a bit more than - I started with.
8. Create and share at least one Flash game or animation. Oooh... I don't think I even opened Flash after March or so, even though I bought myself a fancy beginner-level Flash book (aimed at teens, because it had specific projects and lots and lots of pictures) to help me hobble along. Ouchie. Bad me.
9. Update sites. I call this one done, because I did do some significant sitework this year. I brought back the Skyhaven Hunt and added content to all of my sites.
10. Update or add at least five Skyhaven critters. In retrospect, I think I cheated when I wrote this, because I already said I'd update sites in Resolution #9. In the end, I can only claim 4/5 victory; I didn't pull off the last critter update/introduction. Sorry.
11. Walk at least three times a week. Nope, didn't manage it. In my defense, I consider work a form of exercise - I've lost a belt-notch of girth since I started - but that's really no excuse and I know it. Dang it.
12. Restart my budget and learn about investing. Another one I meant to do a million times, but never happened. I don't think I can really put it off much longer, though, so 2008 ought to see some progress on this front.

So, 4 4/5 out of 12... not a terrible average, considering my tendency to do as little as inhumanly possible as often as inhumanly possible. My resolutions for 2008 are already typed up, printed, and stuck to the closet door behind my computer, as 2007's were. There's a fair bit of carryover, but a couple of new ones. I'll post them once the clock's turned over, on the theory that accountability to the nonexistant readers of my blog might be an extra spur towards accomplishing things.

Two hours, ten minutes to go...