So Very Dark

Today I’m going to start coloring my huge project for Concept Development. We group critiqued them in class yesterday and I my teacher and classmates seemed to like my lineart (which I will hopefully post later today) and questionably more importantly, *I* liked my lineart (coming back and looking at something after it’s completed, sometimes I end up hating it, and it’s always nice when a fresh look at it after putting it away and sleeping gives me a pleasant surprise.)

So anyway, I need to start my massive coloring job today. I finished my acrylic painting for painting class last night –it has a slightly abstract feel to it, due to unshadowed snowy hills and shadows of trees that don’t curve with the terrain…but I think I kind of like the effect. It’s very bold.

A friend of mine sent me a link to this dreadlock site, saying that the chick reminded him of me (?) and, although I have no plans to dread my hair ever, I do really kind of want this hat:

<–pigtail hat! Squee!

I just finished reading two books that pleasantly surprised me.

I actually found this book while shelving in the romance section at work–I was intrigued by the image on the front and decided by the blurb on the back that hinted at some good post-apocalyptic sci-fi…but judging a book by it’s cover can be a bit of a gamble. This one paid off. The book was by no means ‘deep’, so if you are looking for something to discuss at your next wine and cheese party, this may not the best choice –this book is a quick read, fun, actiony, science-fictiony, with a good future dystopia 100 years after a couple countries pushed ‘The Button’.

Basically, Skye Brown, successful Manhattan game designer at Chix0r, the all-girl game design company, keeps having these weird dreams. She’s in some weird place that’s very post apocalyptic and people are chasing her and she doesn’t know who she is, and people are calling her ‘Mariah’, and claiming that she’s the long-lost revolution leader in the fight of the abused and slave like have-nots against the luxury-dwelling haves. She thinks they are all crazy–she’s a game designer, not a general! And of course, for the romance aspect (which doesn’t play a big, steamy, bodice-rippy part in the book) there is Dawn, the (very beautiful) boyfriend of the girl everyone is claiming she is, who thinks she betrayed them before leaving them all. Anyway, it was way better than I expected, in a fun, sci-fi escapism story way.

<–the second book that surprised me is one that a customer was purchasing, that caught my attention, so I purchased on a whim. This book is the first in a trilogy and tells the story of a group of young people in an exclusive virtual reality boarding school. The morbid main character goes by the name ‘Halloween’, and he has realized that SOMETHING is wrong. He’s sure someone is trying to kill him. The adults and AI in charge assure him that he’s just being paranoid, but he’s having trouble believing them, since some strange electrical surge pretty much wiped his memory a few days back.

It wasn’t until after I finished this book and was reading the acknowledgments that I realized that Nick Sagan is the son of Carl Sagan. He did a good job. I like the story, and I like his mopey, death-obsessed, paranoid emo-kid of a main character. I am looking forward to reading the next two books.

Other pleasant surprises…

A couple weeks ago at work I found a jar of a Republic of Tea flavor that I had purchased once before, years ago, and loved. At the time it had been a one time Valentine’s Day limited production, but apparently they made it again for this Vday. I just opened it this morning and have a cup brewing as I type:

<–this tea tastes like romance. Black tea with red and pink rose buds mixed in…with a little vanilla creamer….so sweet.

And now, time to go get my tea and get to work.