I have 'finished' one head, four to go. The list is thus(not in this order of work though):

Lamb
Lion
Dog/coyote
Bear

I'll be loading photos of finished works that I haven't posted here soon.

Happy holidays everyone!

Now don't get me wrong. LOLz pages are fun to peruse. We are all suckers for a bit of drama, and I am totally guilty of such.

But with all that said, I still find it funny that the most active people on groups like furrydrama_2  are absolute nobodies. They talk mad shit, but outside of this tiny intarweb bubble they have nothing else to back up their "impressive" online presence. If these people harnessed their power towards good, they might move out of their parents' linen closets :)

The Durdy Souf treated me well. As always it was fantastic to see my family. Besides the typical overindulgence of amazing food, I found out that my sister got engaged. Her fiancee is pretty darn cool and I approve of this 110% Since he's black, we are going to have some Tiger Woods popping out eventually (hopefully they won't get beaten up by golf clubs toting enraged wives).

Otherwise I helped Mom in the yard, went and saw Up in the Air and Invictus (Invictus being quite moving) and relaxed and watched much football with the family. Air travel was a breeze; no atypical security or holiday hold-ups. But returning to a 20F, snow covered car was a harsh reality check.

I miss wuf something awful. Won't be seeing him till the 31st. Hopefully I can maintain some resemblance of sanity till that point. I hope the holidays were merry and grand for you all!

“The visuals are so stunning it really deserves being watched on a reasonable sized TV.”

A classic sketch if I've ever seen one.

Music hasn't been a priority this year. It's been good, but I've discovered a lot more old stuff than new stuff released this year (and a lot of trance and house musics). As per usual, this is a list of the good albums released in this year. Unlike in years previous, there is no ranking. I don't think there are ten, though, but that makes up for the years where there have been like twelve or fifteen.



Fanfarlo — Reservoir
This one has the “Harold T. Wilkins” track.

Röyksopp — Junior
The companion to this, Senior is due out in 2010.

U2 — No Line On The Horizion
Best U2 since Achtung Baby

Franz Ferdinand — Ulysses
Especially disc 2.

Ziggy Stardust Remixed
Bowie remixes with a haunting remix of MGMT's “Kids” that's better than the original.

Fireflies — Butterscotch EP
No, you're probably thinking of Owl City's “Fireflies.” This band is called Fireflies, has no relation to Owl City, and sounds a lot like Polaris.

Jens Lekman — THE SUMMER NEVER ENDS
This is the 49:00 of this year — that is to say, it is both excellent and obscure.


These are not all the new albums I got in 2009. Some of them just weren't amazing. Some simply do not deserve to go on the list. Others were compilation albums. So yeah. And it's not like I can pick any one that's best because they're all different.




And since it's 2009, aka the end of the decade and the start of a new one:
( My favourites of the last 10 years (2000-2009), in which I disagree with Pitchfork a lot )

She needs some trimming and maybe a little dry brushing but besides that she's done (she's a partial). I really wish I had the opportunity/money to try my hand at more realistic suits; this was really enjoyable!

Better pictures tomorrow!

I can finally get to some serious cinematography. My mom just got me this kick ass camera for Christmas, and I can't put it down.

It's a Sony Handycam DCR-DVD650, Memory stick PRO Duo+DVD Hybrid, 60x optical zoom (+2000x digital), a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens, wide touch screen LCD, 5.1 Dolby Digital. Mom even got an 8GB Memory stick for it.

I'm blowing all my gift cards on essentials like a tripod and a case.

http://virtualrootbeer.webs.com

To my friends,

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes
for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress,
non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice
holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious
persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with
respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of
others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular
traditions at all.

In addition, please also accept my best wishes for a fiscally
successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated
recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010,
but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other
cultures whose contributions to society have helped make this country
great (not to imply that this country is necessarily greater than any
other country or area of choice), and without regard to the race,
creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual
orientation of the wishers.

This wish is limited to the customary and usual good tidings for a
period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday
greeting, whichever comes first. "Holiday" is not intended to, nor
shall it be considered, limited to the usual Judeo-Christian
celebrations or observances, or to such activities of any organized or
ad hoc religious community, group, individual or belief (or lack thereof).

Note: By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This
greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal, and is revocable
at the sole discretion of the wisher at any time, for any reason or
for no reason at all. This greeting is freely transferable with no
alteration to the original greeting. This greeting implies no promise
by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for the wisher
her/himself or others, or responsibility for the consequences which
may arise from the implementation or non-implementation of it.

This greeting is void where prohibited by law.

So, I made it up to the frozen north in one piece.  Though the journey was a little rough.  I had decided that Toby absolutely *must* see Avatar before I take off to Michigan  for Christmas.  So to ensure there was enough time to procure good seats after Toby got off work, we saw the 10:35 PM showing of IMAX 3D.  Which means we got home around 2 AM. 

After a fairly restless night of sleep, Toby took off for work, and after our goodbyes, I enjoyed a lazy morning of packing, loading ski equipment, prepping the car, panicking on the discovery I couldn't find a valid insurance card, all the while scaring the bejeezus out of the dog who thought I was going to leave him again. 

Fortunately Chaos' fears were put to rest when he too was able to jump in the car with me.  The drive to Traverse City only took about 5:30 hours this time around.  Traffic moved swiftly and despite some snow on the south end of the lake, most of the drive up was sunny and clear, with only one back road in the area being completely coated in ice.  Last night, the folks, Nuna and I went out to see Invictus.  A phenomenal movie for anyone, even people who don't have a great deal of interest in Rugby or South African political history, it is a truly beautiful film and should be seen.  It's been awhile since I've been moved to tears so many times in one movie.

Today, while we were waiting for friends from Indiana to come up and join my family and I for Christmas, dad and I decided to get some errands done.  We dropped off the mazda for some 'minor' maintenance, so she should be just a little bit happier when I head to Columbus next week for new years.  If I get her back in time, anyway.  Dad took me to a really awesome tiny little hole in the wall place that recently opened up here.  The owner of the restaurant is Jordanian, and he ran a mean kitchen.  After a tasty dish of gyros, hummus with lamb and pine nuts, and saffron rice and lamb stuffed grape leaves (*drools again just thinking about it*) We headed back out to the boonies and caught a quick showing of Fantastic Mr. Fox.  It was nice to finally see what everyone had been talking about.  I don't think it was an epic film, but it was fun, and I enjoyed many aspects of it.  

I took a little walk tonight, went out under the stars.  I can sort of see the stars in Chicago, so sometimes I forget just how vibrant they can be without light pollution when you get a little further away from things.  I think this weekend when there is a little more snow after the holiday events have settled down, I am going to take Chaos with me one evening and go back up to our favorite ridge on the north end of the valley.  It's been awhile since I've been up there and I think I can do some much needed thinking.  Will try to get some photos.  Either way, it was just peaceful tonight looking up at the stars, and being back up here...  and it was a good opportunity to just think about some things that have been eating at me the last month or so.  Funny how that kind of environment can bring such calm. 

If no post happens sooner, which it probably will, Merry Christmas, happy holidays, Happy New Year to everyone! 

Either darkwolph paid off the right people, or this is punishment for growing up in the South.

But every time Wolphy leaves it immediately snows. This, in itself, isn't really an issue. But the fact that he gets to skip out on all the awesomefuntime snow shoveling is. Seriously it's clockwork.

Next time I'm burying Boris in the snow while he's gone, handing him a shovel when he returns and wishing him luck :)

ECET 302 - Introduction To Control Systems: B
ECET 480 - Professional Issues In EET: A
ECET 496 - Project Design and Development, Phase I: A
ECET 525 - Applications In Forensic Engineering Technology: B

Semester GPA: 3.22
Cumulative GPA: 2.97

Woot. One more to go.

I've been thinking about getting my own dog for a looong time; more and more often it has been on my mind.
I found a few dogs that caught my eye on Petfinder. The first dog i went to check out must have just gotten adopted (i hope...i didn't want to ask what happened to him..it is a kill shelter x.x).
The second dog, i filled out an adoption form, they said he should be a good fit for me, and i drove 2.5 hours across state to meet him, have him steal my heart, only to find out my landlord didn't want a 3rd dog in this house. I talked to him more the next day, and he took a few days to think about allowing another dog in here. When i called him next, he said okay, and i immediately called the rescue shelter that had the dog i wanted. I was going to set up a time to come finalize the adoption and bring the aussie/shep mix home, but i was told he had JUST been adopted :(

I half-heartedly browsed Petfinder again, having combed it rather thoroughly the two weeks before. I didn't expect to find a dog i liked, but i did. Pekoe is an American Eskimo Dog. That was instant win for me, since i looooooooooved the eskie mutt i had growing up, and know i like the breed's personality and that they have (almost too much) brainpower.
I called the shelter, and they said he was still available, but that i needed to bring along my roommate's two dogs to make sure they all got along. That's fine, but Pekoe was at a shelter 2 hours away from me. I didn't want to have 3 dogs in my car on the way home, but if i didn't bring them, there was no option to adopt Pekoe x.x
I made sure it was okay with my roommate for me to take her dogs on a long car ride to meet Pekoe, and then Shawn (yes, my ex. We are good friends again) rode with me to help keep the dogs in line.
Everything went well at the shelter, and on the ride home, and now i have my own happy little eskie on my bed :D

Pekoe pics!

Before we left today though, i was driving to the bank, and got hit in the passenger side of my poor, beautiful Impala :( She has a long, but not-too-noticeable dent all along the bottom portion of the two doors on that side, with some paint scuffing that draws your eye to it. Shawn had jokingly said, "That car is gonna hit you!" And when i realized that it actually was pulling out in front of me (I was traveling North, and the other car was turning left/South from my right side, out of an apartment complex. I obviously had the right-of-way) it was too late to stop. Thankfully, the other lane had no on-coming traffic, so i tried to arch way out into that lane to avoid a collision, but a mailbox made it so i couldn't actually move over enough to get fully out of the other car's way. The impact was really not that bad, but it was enough to send me sliding sideways and almost backwards into the sidewalk. I BARELY missed hitting a big tree with the trunk of my car, but i had no control over the skid. My car ended up in a big snowbank :/
I realized i not only had Shawn in the car with me, of course, but Lucy and Rusty (my roommate's dogs) as well. Also thankfully though, the accident happened about a block and a half from my house, so i handed Shawn the leashes, and he walked the dogs home while i waited for the cops to show up.
The guy who hit me came over from Ethiopia 2 years ago, and the rest of his family had just gotten here 2 months ago. The wife was crying, the little girl never said a thing, and the guy looked totally petrified. I felt bad for them actually... But i am glad it wasn't a worse accident, and that it wasn't my fault! Shawn was able to just push me out of the snowbank, so i didn't even need to get a wrecker either.

So, also today, Rusty broke (or really badly sprained) the last knuckle of my finger. It happened when we were introducing Lucy and Rusty to Pekoe, so i had Rusty on a leash for safety and control during the meeting. Rusty bolted unexpectedly and pulled the leash from my hand, and all i was able to catch the leash with was the very end of my middle finger..and *SNAP* x.x The whole thing was stupid though because he was inside a totally enclosed room, so he wouldn't have even gotten far :P My instinct is to NEVER let a dog's leash drop though, so i grabbed it with whatever i could...

Shawn, however, does not have that instinct it seems, because he accidentally dropped Rusty's leash while we were walking the dogs at a rest stop O_O I was TERRIFIED Rusty would run out into highway traffic!! He loves it when you chase him (it's his favorite backyard game .-. so annoying when it's time to come inside!), so the more i ran after him, the further he ran from me. I stopped running his way, called his name more cheerfully than i can probably ever manage to again, and RAN with Pekoe in the opposite direction. He turned and came full-tilt after us. Eventually, i snagged a handful of his back, and Shawn grabbed his leash. I was still shaking with adrenaline when we got back into the car XD

On the drive home, i held Pekoe on my lap in the passenger seat, and Lucy and Rusty stayed in the back. They did fine for the most part, until Lucy decided to look out the window, and had perfect paw placement on the window control! The window dropped behind me, and Shawn freaked out, thinking i had opened it that far. According to him, Lucy was half out the window, watching the passing traffic @.@

After a very eventful day, it's time to settle down with my pup (who is now resting at my feet) and work on some Christmas art (though there is almost no way i can get all my gifts done in time..oops).

Wuf insisted we see it in 3D IMAX.

Went to the late showing.

Got home at 2 AM.

Absol-fuckingtastically worth it!