On a related note, now is the perfect time to buy original artwork for less than the artist's cost of supplies!  :-(   Who's dumb enough to end an auction on the 4th of July?  Yup...me.

Also, I've announced an upcoming contest on my site, but I haven't figured out what that means exactly.  Open to suggestions.

And here he is in his most "normal" pose:

And this is from my archives...Nes "hiding" under a pile of blankets and pillows. I have a slew of photos like this one. And yes, those are Nintendo 1-up mushroom pillows. I also have Nintendo curtains in the living room. I never had a NES as a kid, but I have one now...

This U.S. economy is in distress. People are browsing eBay but not bidding. Some of my best paintings have recently sold for much less then they were worth to me personally. It's been a real struggle to deal with this due to my emotional nature, but it also makes me realize what a textbook "tortured artist" I am.

I went to the gym feeling terrible last night. The elliptical machine said that my resting heart rate was 150 (before I began,) which is about what it is after exercising at high intensity for an hour. I couldn't even last that long because I kept getting dizzy from pure stress. If this continues, I'll have no choice but to get a real job, and the thought of that terrifies me. Even the traffic to this blog has slowed to a crawl. I don't much see the point in updating anymore since I could just as easily email the updates to the my 3 subscribers and commenters.

I wouldn't want to hang around a blog where the writer is such a downer, either!

Hiding this side of me has crossed my mind, but I don't see the point in covering up something you have no control over...plus I don't like keeping secrets. It's easier to just be open, honest and sincere and hope that people will be sensitive about it.

Anyway, here's "New Hope #49." It's got a lot of great detail photos in the auction starting tonight. I often wonder who bothers to look at the detail photos. The main photo is always bad due to the lighting, but the close-ups can be taken at an angle and more accurately reflect the colors when viewing in person. I hear over and over again that "the painting looks better in person." About half of my clients use that exact phrasing when they email me after receiving their artwork.

BTW, Koopa is doing great but his sleep cycle is as screwy as mine. He slept for most of the day but as soon as he woke up and approached me, I knew it was time for a turtle yawn. I grabbed my camera, and sure enough...

Now he's kind of just sprawled out and relaxing under his UV light (under my desk.) Everything in a 1 foot radius from Koopa is covered in food because he just ate recently but I'll be giving him a bath and vacuuming as soon as I publish this post. Koopa is a very messy eater!

I also took some photos of my Nes, who has been asleep for the past 2 hours, but he probably wouldn't want me to publish them. Maybe one of these days I'll post an audio version for you. :-)

Ending on a happy note, I just want to say Happy Independence Day to everyone in the US! Let's all be thankful that the Bush regime is almost over.

OK, now go see if you're right, and put the auction on your watch list (please.)

I haven't been feeling too well the past couple of days. The right side of my head and right ear still hurt like crazy, and I'm now contemplating seeing the doctor. However, I'm stubborn and poor so I'll wait a few more days to see if it fixes itself.

My gift from Nes.

Nes knows I love plants, flowers, and vegetables so he bought me an AeroGarden (which I've had my eyes on since I first saw it last year.) It wasn't a special occasion and I wasn't expecting a gift, so this was a great surprise! Nes is such a sweetheart. I didn't plant a "real" outdoor garden this year, so this is the next best thing. An AeroGarden allows you to harvest herbs, vegetables, and flowers indoors for up to six straight months. The setup is soil-free, has automated lighting, a continuous watering system, and comes with dissolvable nutrient tablets, which makes it very easy to maintain. Nes bought me the chili peppers kit - 3 different varieties, which should be germinating in roughly 8 days. I thought it might be interesting to take a photo of it every week or 2 so you can see the peppers growing in my kitchen. Here's the AeroGarden right after I set it up:

This is the inside...the water circulates around the seeds then drains back into this area. This is where the nutrients are added, and we should be seeing some root growth here in the future as well.

I will be be blown away if the plants look even half as good as the photo on the box. Stay tuned. :-)

Kira cannot stand to see us eat anything without her. She had a good deal more trouble trying the sprouts than we did!

I don't think she'll bother with them again.

In other long weekend news: It's been a little warm here.

I don't much feel like writing much today.  I have some sort of migraine/earache combo, and I basically don't feel much like moving in general.  Maybe I'll be back later with photos of the gift I got from Nes the other day.  :-)

American version of Death Note

It was confirmed that they're making an American Version of "Death Note" which was adapted from the manga with the same name by Tsugumi Ohba.

Vertigo Entertainment Developing U.S. Death Note Remake

Yeah, I'm ok with that. It would be nice to see the remake.

And guess who's going to play Yagami Light? It was rumoured that Zac Effron(High School Musical) is going to play the role as Yagami Light. *scratches head* Or is it because the fact that he looks like Kira made people came up with the rumour? I've never thought that they'd look the same. How can he's going to play as Kira? Imagine a happy and preppy Kira. I mean he's too cheerful to be Kira. Ryuk will regret for dropping Death Note into the human world. On the bright side, we get to see a musical version of Death Note (if he's in it). It will be hilarious. DEATH NOTE MUSICAL~

Look at the hair and even the colours of the clothes are the same.

"I'm going to be a God to a new world. But first, I shall dance. Dance first and then kill bad guys."and suddenly a group of dead bodies dance behind him.

I AM KIRA~!!!

"Can I have your autograph?"

"Sure"

The next day, "An unfortunate incident happened to a teenage actor. It was said that he received an unexpected heart attack."

and Madonna as Mello.

Kira is killing people in Belgium

Notes near body parts in Belgium linked to Death Note

According to the newspaper, the two paper sheets both say “Watashi wa Kira dess,” an apparent misspelling of the Japanese phrase “Watashi wa Kira desu,” or “I am Kira (Killer).”

Looks like there's an otaku who believes that he can create a perfect world. He calls himself Kira. He can't even spell "desu".

DeathSponge Notepants

The person who made this video is a genius. And oh no! He killed Squidward and even Mr Crab.

How Death Note affects the world

Death Note Rip-off Becoming Popular With South Korean Schoolchildren

They modified it to a red notebook. I have to agree it's far more appealing than black.

Death Note stirs controversy in China

A middle school student told the Shenyang Night Report, "Many of my friends have Death Note. When they are tired of studying, they have fun by writing down the names of teachers they don't like."

Well, they seemed happy for what they've done since they blurt out the truth just like that.

4 Washington Middle Schoolers Disciplined over "Death Note"

Troyer added, "This is typical Japanese horror movie stuff and is not a credible threat. We see how it could upset parents, but the appropriate actions have taken place, and there is no threat."

Wait until they've grown big enough to do the real thing.

To tell you the truth, I've seen many similar cases of students writing names in their "Death Note" but I'm too lazy to post them all. This shows that the students are really stressed out. Death Note is corrupting the minds of the children and these are just thinking of getting rid of people they hate. It will eventually reach to the next level when people kill and claim that they are Kira just like the Belgium incident.

Lets give him a chance 8D He might be good at it.

And since he was in High School Musical which means he has a huge amount of little children as fans. Imagine those little children watching Death Note just to see him and they will try to imitate what "Zac" did in the movie.

o.O

-End-

And so I  thank the Mail

For giving me the things I need

A book

and some prep for emergencies.

The Mail is good to me.'

Based on a childhood favourite (which has somehow become censored in my memory from Lord to Earth -- not sure how that happened...)

My Grandparents had a copy of this Disney book and Johnny Appleseed was a hero to me. I used to wish I could travel around planting and harvesting. It might have helped create my lifelong interest in gardening actually.

Another inspirational children's book is Miss Rumphius. Last year I harvested the seeds from our Lupins at work and we gave them to all the children on Earth Day in celebration of Miss Rumphius with a little cup and some soil.

What books from your childhood do you still cherish?

re: mail order goodies - The book is written by this blogger and the Emergency Knitting Kit is available here.

I listed "New Hope #47" last night:

I see I'm down to 3 subscribers, from 12 a few days ago.  There must be something wrong with these numbers, but then again the comments seemed to have died as well.  Anyone out there?

Getting my new boat tomorrow...so excited! 

Here's a video for your entertainment. It's the follow-up the the very popular "Where the Hell is Matt?" video that you've more than likely already seen.

I am sure it has a proper name (the latin was something like Eurocopyborus) but I call it a Daisy Tree. The bees love it.

Quite a lot of progress was made on Ophelia..only to discover that sometime during the end of The Good Shepherd (I hope I was not the only person thoroughly in the dark throughout that movie! I had no clue what was going on or WHY?!) I had reversed the pattern half way through the 1st ball of yarn and nearly all of the 2nd ball. Temporary depression set in and I nearly frogged it and left it for something else - I also considered NOT ripping back but...better judgement prevailed and I ripped, knit 2 rows backward (to make sure I had the 4 row pattern in hand at the right row!) and last night during Eagle vs. Shark I nearly caught up to half of what I had ripped back. Argh!

I apologize for the blurry pic - I really need a new camera. This one will not photograph white at all - it leaves me with pics that look like there has been a visitation.

On Saturday we went to our local Farmer's Market, where we got the most delicious strawberries ever! Yum. And we arrived there to find a celebration in progress.

I only just found out that it was a Sikh holiday: Essentially Sikh history, with respect to Sikhs as a distinct political body, can be said to have began with the martyrdom of the fifth Sikh Guru, Guru Arjan Dev in 1606. Sikh distinction was further enhanced by the establishment of the Sikh 'Pure' brotherhood or Khalsa (ਖਾਲਸਾ), by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699.[33] This gives the Sikhs, as an organized political grouping, a history of around 400 years.

My Mother loved this young girl's torquise Sari and asked to take a picture. They were a little embarassed, but willing (little did they know they'd be blogged!) We enjoyed the most delicious fresh samosas, dhal, barfi etc. Along with fresh fruits and drinks of all kinds from our generous Sikh community.

The rest of the weekend consisted of this:

interrupted by bouts of reading and feeding 30 more baby fish!

In other yard news: Look what bloomed!

So anyway....on Saturday I brought two rods with me - one rigged with corn and the other with balled up bread.  I figured one of them would be taken by the carp.  No such luck.  I watched the carp swim right by my bait in the shallow water, completely ignoring it.  I fished the top, I fished the bottom, the middle.  The carp knew something was up.

For six hours I waited patiently, as carp are notoriously hard to catch and picky eaters.  As the sun started to go down, I noticed my "corn bobber" start to jiggle a bit, then it went under with great force.  Aha!  Carp!  That turned out to not be the case, as I ended up reeling in a very angry snapping turtle.

Would you believe this happened 2 more times?  I go fishing for carp, and I end up catching 3 snapping turtles instead.  For those of you not familiar with them, snapping turtles are the meanest, most evil of all turtles.  They will snap at anything in their path, and can sever a finger with one bite.  Unfortunately, I had to cut the line on 2 of the turtles (one broke free,) and I won't be going back to that area until I can discover a solution to the turtle problem.  Very sad.

On a brighter note...

Also, yesterday I won an eBay auction for a little fiberglass boat (a dinghy) that will hopefully fit in the back of my pickup (fingers crossed.)  Mom and I are splitting the cost because we both like fishing solo and the canoe is too heavy for one person to lift (and it's too big for my truck so we'd have to trade vehicles.)  My kayak is light and fits in my truck nicely but it's too unstable to fish out of.  So now we have another boating option!  Yay!

Oh yeah...I almost forgot.

Last night I listed the first of my "Vegetation" series!  This series is painted entirely with fruits and vegetables such as carrots, celery, starfruit, pears, kiwi, sugar snap peas, etc.  I proudly present "Vegetation #1":

Here's the link in case you feel like watching/bidding/seeing more photos.

It's currently Monday morning, 3:15 a.m. and I've just recently returned from the gym.  I'm seeing no results.  Even the scale is hovering around the same number.   I do at least 50 minutes of cardio and usually throw in some minor weight training, 5 days a week.  I'm drinking water, I'm eating the right foods, limiting my caloric intake, etc. but despite all this, I look and weigh exactly the same.  It's very frusterating.

There isn't much more to say right now.  I guess you can tell from my most recent posts where my mind has been.  I haven't been too motivated to get my site updated but I have been listing paintings when I can.  I look forward to showing off the next new series - it's very cool!  It should be breaking in the next few days.

The photos turned out really terrible because I had to photograph after varnishing, as it was necessary to get the clovers embedded in there.  I couldn't use my flash due to the glare, so the pictures look all dark and washed out.  You can't even see my signature in gold on the bottom right.  Geez, someone please throw in a pity bid for me on this one...you won't be disappointed!

Q: Dear Sir, It seems you are interested in original Paintings , i have a collection of 500+ such items, my name is Dr.Abhishek Garg.. And I am a doctor by profession...and I sell on e-bay as a hobby...so if interested kindly visit my store collector’s paradise 2008, or give me your e-mail id...so that i can send you the picture catalogue...for your kind consideration. Waiting to hear from your side soon...Thanks and regards Dr.Abhishek Garg

My reply:

A: Hello Ma'am! Oh yes, I'm very interested in original paintings. I have 13,000 myself...I ran out of wall space so I constructed myself a house out of only paintings (and some duct tape.) It gets drafty in the winter so I have to wrap myself in canvas, which is the only fabric I'll ever wear - it's so luxurious! My obsession with original paintings runs so deep that I plan on building a painting structure so tall that I'll be able to grab birds out of midair. When my project is completed I'll request your catalog to find a painting depicting me grabbing birds with both hands while standing atop a mountain of original paintings. Congratulations for figuring out how to spam people on eBay...very classy format you have there, but you might want to omit the word "sir," as it tends to offend some women. Here in America we have finally been granted the right to use eBay because of a loophole someone found in the 48th amendment. Thank goodness! Anyhow...you're just the type of person that I'd love to have a business transaction with. I look forward to sending you money via Western Union in the near future!

Sincerely, The Princess of Original Paintingland

As I was coming home around 2:30 a.m. I noticed something moving in the road. I slowed down and saw a very cute fox eating some sort of roadkill. Remembering that I had my camera with me, I quickly tried snap a photo in almost total darkness. The fox moved to the opposite side of the road, so my headlights weren't much help. Here's the photo I got:

Cute, right? ;-) Even if I knew how to use my camera's low-light setting, I still think it was too dark.

I am pleased to announce that I will be unveiling 2 new series soon.

Both are non-breast and non-brush in nature. I'm thrilled with the first couple that I've completed from each, and I can't wait to share them with you. I have to keep them a secret while I work on a new auction template and come up with titles, but you can expect to see them within the next week.

It's getting late/early, so I should probably lie down. This insomnia is crazy. Hopefully I'll fall asleep while watching some Saved By The Bell. The last time I was still up at 8 a.m. I decided to extend my wakened state until the next night. That didn't work out too well...I started getting really dizzy and drunk-acting around noon. I'm planning on listing a very "different" painting tonight, provided I don't sleep all day.

Enjoy your daylight, everyone on a normal sleep cycle!

My dog might like cameras. After she heard the camera click this photo of me reading outside on the 1st summery day in some time (it's raining even now and about 6 degrees) her little head popped up from where she was napping.

I barely had time to snap her peeking face before this was my new portrait for Day 365.2.

I kind of like seeing the strap from the camera trailing across the table - adds some perspective. I'm off to walk my attention-whore dog.

ETA: Another month until this (hopefully arg) begins!

On Monday I listed "New Hope #44." This is one of my favorite paintings from the series so far. The photos truly don't do it justice.

This is the first listing I posted using my new photo, which I modified slightly in Photoshop. I got rid of the clock in the background and adjusted the colors a bit. I don't like the photo at all so I'll be taking a new one very soon. It would be awesome to have a photo of myself that I'm comfortable with.

Koopa and I went outside before it started to rain, and he got a lot of exercise. He looked really happy today. I'll post some new photos of him soon.

Oh, one last thing..."New Hope #45" will be listed tonight. It's a different size than most, at 12" x 24."

Fuente

OK, I'm done with the computer until tomorrow.  :-)