Luthrai

I've been on a crow kick lately, thanks to Sy Montgomery's, "Birdology," John Marzluff's "In the Company of Crows and Ravens," and Michael Westerfield's, "The Language of Crows." Crows are amazingly cool, and I very dearly want to see a communal crow roost - They make giant communal roosts overnight during the winter, probably for the warmer microclimate it creates, as well as using it as an information center. So, nifty stuff, all told. I'd read about crow roosts in Connecticut- in Hartford, Norwich and Waterbury thanks to crows.net. I happen to be at my aunt's for vacation in Connecticut, so hey, prime opportunity to visit some roosts, right? Well, my uncle knows where the Hartford roost is, but says it's in a bad part of town. My aunt and I found ourselves near Norwich today, so we gave that location a whirl. The good news, it looked like there was a roost about where crows.net reported there was one, as indicated by the large number of bird droppings we found. The bad news, we were a couple hours early and there was no crow in sight. A few within earshot, though. I'm headed back to Vermont tomorrow, so next winter, locating a communal roost will be a prime goal of mine.

I also had the interesting experience of obtaining a permit to sketch in a museum. The Pequot Museum on the Mashantucket Reservation in Connecticut, to be exact. They don't allow photography or sketching, and upon hearing the latter I was vastly disappointed. What good is a museum if you can't draw? But after 30-40 minutes, I got a permit from a couple super-nice security guards, and off I went with my sketchbook. If you have any interest in Native American stuff, and happen to be near Connecticut, I highly recommend this museum. (I don't think I can post any of my sketches, due to the form that I signed. Oh well. They weren't very good, anyhow. Mostly visual notes.) While there were some exhibits I kind of yawned my way through (did not take ADD meds that day), there was a walk-through Pequot village with an audiotour that was fantastic. I spent well over an hour and a half inside of it. My aunt was super-patient and brought her knitting- which was highly intelligent of her. We didn't even get through all of the museum, and we were touring it for 4-5 hours... of course, that was with me sketching most of the way through. (Got through most of it, though. We skipped the videos.)

(Also, I think we saw fish crows outside the museum. That's what they sounded like, at least. Am I a dork for thinking that's really cool?)









(spacer to attempt to keep the text out of the planet)

New project!
Make turn-shoes!
What are turn-shoes, you may ask? They are shoes that you make inside out, and then turn them rightside out when you're done! Voila! As far as I can tell, the term usually applies to medieval shoes, and that's what I'm making.
Why?
Partly for Halloween, partly because I want a pair for my longsword class. We get all armored up - gambeson, spaulders, coat of plates, gloves, vambraces, gorget, elbow couters, ugly helmet... and bare feet. As my instructor pointed out, we're getting to the level of grappling where that's a bit dangerous. If a metal rivet or anything came down hard on the top of a foot... That's not an "Owie owie" dance. That's a "Oh god, oh god, oh god!" dance. So. Shoes. Yep. (...Oh, we practice inside of a dojo, so no street-shoes allowed on the mats. That's why we're in bare feet.)

So far, it's been a fun project. I found a nice walkthrough of the making of a turn-shoe, got some leather from my instructor, and for the past couple days I've been making duct tape mockups of shoes. I think I'm just about ready to move onto the actual leather. I'd better be ready, because Halloween is almost here. And saddlestitching these things is going to be a pain.

Of course, every time I turn around, I seem to need something. First it was duct tape, then  leather, then an awl, then leather needles, then thread (of the waxed, linen variety), now I need chalk and a boxcutter. So, I think it's safe to say that I had nothing that I needed to start this project. Best kind of project to start, yeah?

Off to get a boxcutter and chalk! And maybe eventually I'll get back to producing artwork again. I've been out of my ADD medication for the past couple weeks and it's not that I can't focus... I just can't focus on what I should be focusing on. (Not for lack of trying, I assure you.)
Some days I wonder if my ADD meds actually do anything for me... then I get off of them for a little while... and my wonderings are answered with a resounding "YES."

Seriously. How is anyone supposed to fit their feet in 3 inches of space? I rode in one the other week, and although the driver kindly pulled his seat up, my feet still had to go sideways. So I ask, why have back seats when you don't have leg-room?
And really, that's all I had to say about that.

CTCon was great, as per usual. SoandSewPlushies, SmilinJack and Myrretah  are ossim people and I love seeing them. My sister, 16reapers also came, which was a lot of fun. Although I wished I could have explored the con with her more instead of being nailed behind a table. Sigh. I don't go to cons to see them.

Jumped out of the con and straight into theatre! 4 days to learn the lights and sound system of a new theatre for a show is not much time, but it was enough. And I jumped straight from theatre into moving apartments! Which I am still in the process of doing. It sucks and I hate it. As, I am sure, most everyone else does.

And after two months, I pick WoW back up. Sorta. Enough to see that man, are my skills rusty. Still, it's nothing a few days of dungeon-running won't fix. But that will have to wait until after the move is finished.

And speaking of finished and not-so-finished, I still need to finish my gambeson for the dagger tournament I'm supposedly in. That's on the 20th. My gambeson is still in pieces, at the moment. So yes, there's a lot of work left to do on that.

Also, I love surprising people with my age. It's hilarious. Last night I discovered (as I suspected) I am the eldest in one of my gaming groups. Reactions were priceless as people matched up my actual age with how old they thought I was. What can I say? I take joy in simple pleasures.

So there's my spastic journal entry for the next few months.

Lots of ups and downs in life lately. Denoted here by ^'s and v's.

--School's started. That's a "meh." Means lots of work and no play for me, but I'll sneak play in there anyways.

v-My closest canine cousin had to be put down last week... That's a definite down. The upside was that I got enough warning that allowed me to drive the 90 miles between here and there to be with her for the afternoon/evening. Expect to see sketches/portrait of her in the future.

v-The internet's been going in and out for the past few days, and seems to have settled on "out." (This was mostly typed during an "out" phase, and posted on a rare "in" phase.) Our phone is also connected to out internet, so my TracFone has been seeing a lot of love as of late.

v-Annnd, lesse... Oh, I'm in trouble with the landlord because the plowpeople do not know how to announce their presence so I can actually go move my car for them when they are here.

^-I do have a good mockup for my gambeson for fencing. It just needs a few alterations to get the fit right and I can start on the actual thing. (The really neat thing about a gambeson/pourpoint is that it has to pretty form-fitting, but allow you free movement without stretching, even when 90% of it is strapped down to you by armor. It's some cool sewing engineering.)

^-And I put up art! That's definitely an up. And it got a lot more attention than I expected. Also a much-needed up.


And for those who stuck it out through that, or those who just skip to the beginning of each paragraph and skim:
slyeagle brought something neat to my attention. GetWatchers.com (and if you don't want to be referred by me, just look for getwatchers.com). Pretty much you go, sign up, pick up to 10 of your niftiest artworks, and start looking at other people's art. The more you look, fav, comment, or watch, the more credits you earn. And credits = Views. And if you refer people (*cough* kinda like what I'm trying to do), you get wicked extra points. I don't know if it's gotten me any new watchers, but it's worth a shot, right? It's something of a timesink, but I've found some really cool artwork that I never would have seen otherwise through it.

slyeagle also did a nifty dragon skeleton that I thought I'd post in my journal, since I have access to a more dragon-oriented crowd than she does.

It's an Orisian Ember dragon (therefore part of the Prime of Ambition webcomic - we are not dead!). It's mostly based on how I've been drawing the dragons, which is cool. It irons out a few of the issues that I've been wishy-washy on, so I'll have to be a bit more careful in the future.

I wish I had something a little more ossim to update with. I never do. This is mostly a "I got tired of looking at the old journal post" post. Granted... it wasn't meant to be this long, either. Sorry about that.

I just got back from vacation - first actual vacation I've had in like 2.5 years. I got to go to Mystic Seaport, Mystic Aquarium, Dinosaur State Park, the Peabody Museum and Nature's Art/Dinosaur Crossing. Of course I spent my time in every place either sketching or taking pictures/video for drawing references. I ended up with nearly half an hour of sea lion footage from the aquarium. It was ossim. I got to stand around and take pictures of the weirdest things. Buckets. Lanterns. Bubble trails. Dinosaur feet. Oh, and I moved apartments. And got a new car. Lots of crazy stuff.
I also got tagged by slyeagle. It's a character meme, y'see.

RULES:
1. Post these rules.
2. Post eight facts about your character.
3. Tag eight other characters.
4. Post their names with the creators' avatars.
(I'm disregarding rules 3 and 4, unless you want to be tagged.)

So Sly tagged Kryxxtemordekai~
....I really need a newer picture of him. Or a finished one. Hm.
So, 8 facts about Kryxxt.

1) Kryxxt started out his existence as a pretty messed up individual. I blame this mostly on his father Myrthraxxaknor, who believes in treating his children like psychology experiments. (He believes in aggressive natural selection, y'see, and likes to experiment with nature over nurture and whatnot.) This said, not many of his children survive to reach adulthood - those that do will usually be around for a while, though. Kryxxt managed to reach (young) adulthood on his own, but had help in re-evaluating his beliefs and upbringing. He both dislikes and greatly respects his father.

2) Kryxxt has a fondness for silver and cats. Silver for its musical tone and cats because... well, they're independent, relatively easy to care for, and still willing to curl up with you - especially when you've got the best bedding in the lair.

3) Kryxxt is fairly artistic. Besides being a trained musician with a natural ear, he's also begun to enjoy sculpting with earth (being a mud dragon, he naturally controls the element). He finds it very relaxing and rewarding - especially since raising his own offspring. He's working on sculpting/decorating his entire lair - except the entrance of course. He often thrums/hums to himself when working.

4) Kryxxt finds a certain amount of plumpness very attractive. After all, it shows that a potential mate can fend for herself and has access to good hunting grounds. What's not to love? (Though now that he has a mate, he's no longer eyeing other females.)

5) When it comes to the common tongue, Kryxxt is a slow writer. While his father taight him to speak it at an early age, it wasn't until much later he learned to write it. Even now, he doesn't have much call to practice, since he doesn't communicate with many twilings (two-leggers), and those he does usually speak Drakish. He has plans to start learning other languages once his offspring require less looking after.

6) Thanks largely to his upbringing (and partially to his arrogance), Kryxxt often feels the need to "cull the herd" so to speak. If he thinks an individual is too weak to survive or do well for themselves, he'll usually make his thoughts clear on the matter - at least if said individual is of equal or lower rank. And when it comes to food, the weakest are generally the easiest to catch, so of course they get culled. This attitude does not apply to his own family, of course... they're his blood, after all.

7)Kryxxt is slightly merinthrophobic. That is, he starts to panic if tied up or restrained for too long. This doesn't mesh well with the fact that he's instinctively squirmy when it comes to pain and usually needs "help" in staying still.

8) If Kryxxt could make a New Year's resolution it would be to be more in control of his emotions- especially the negative ones. He's very protective of what he believes is his, and if he's too late to defend it, he'll "happily" settle for vengeance instead. He's not sure if this truly bothers him, but would appreciate it if his brain had a bit more to say in the decision making process.

So yar. 8 Facts about a character most of you probably never heard of. If you want taggage, all you need to do is ask.