So Very Dark

Easter is over, so spring is officially here…which means the weather is fluctuating between torrential downpours and muggy warmth.  The unpleasant external climate does result in increasing springtime loveliness, however, as the ground is covered more each day in velvety green, embroidered with violets and dandelions and tangles of brambles and vines in the more wooded areas.  The trees themselves are not fully leafy yet in general, but the forests now look as though they are hung with a fine green mist.  Soon, flowers will be blooming and…whatever else happens in spring.

The warm and moist weather has had a positive effect on my garden boxes, which are just full of tiny sprouting plants.  Time will tell if they are grown from the seeds I planted or pre-existing weeds, but something is growing, and I choose to see that as an accomplishment.

Life is largely the same as it ever is; I live in the boonies, I like to draw and occasionally make something that doesn’t suck so much I can’t stand the sight of it.  However, occasionally, things break the monotony (as a side note, I can NOT spell today.  Thank god for spell check or this blog would be unreadable).

A week ago, my friend Dan and I took a mini-road trip to Wheeling, WV, to see our friend Jim talk about new media and how it allows us to tell stories differently.  Because the streets around the library are an impassable warren of one-way streets, we only really caught the second half, but what we saw was good and interesting and full of old people trying to understand why kids today want to post their passing thoughts, locations and drunken photos for the world to see.  All in all, it was an hour-and-a-half drive each way to watch about half an hour of lecture, but it was still fun.  It was an adventure and I got to go somewhere new.

I had a couple of possible freelance opportunities, but since sending price quotes, I haven’t heard back.  I am  now getting to experience first-hand the reality of people not wanting to pay for the time and effort art and design require.  I haven’t yet been told, ‘but…this isn’t like real work…it’s fun for you, so you would be doing it anyway, right?’ but I expect it will happen at some point.

This past Sunday, rather than sitting around a table in nice clothes and answering questions about our lives while we stuffed ourselves with ham, I spent the day making Doctor Who cupcakes and then we drove out to Sewickley and watched the premiere of the new season at Jim’s house.

I have been watching some other things, too, some awesome and some unawesome.  Last week, in the mood for something procedural, I downloaded ER and put Ally McBeal on my instant queue.  ER I just…haven’t been able to care about.  The acting is okay, some of the stories are a little interesting but…nope.  Don’t care.  Ally McBeal, however, (which I added with the idea that it would basically be Grey’s Anatomy, but with lawyers) I do care about in that it annoys me immensely.  Within the first five minutes of the show, Ally tells us that she never had an interest in being a lawyer and only went to law school ’cause her ex-boyfriend did.  However, unlike either Felicity or Elle, rather than finding her own voice and deciding that she could take or leave the man but loved school, she apparently just kind of…went to school and continued to pine over the guy the whole time (except, I suppose, when she was having an affair with her married professor.)  She is a strict adherent to ‘The Game’ (i.e. He has to call, don’t act interested, ect.), but when after playing by ‘the rules’ and getting dumped by her new beau, she chases after him to find out why.  I expected a firm set down and a ‘you seemed nice, but then you were nothing but drama and games and crazy’ but no.  He explains that she is too much woman, too strong and ambitious and he will never measure up.  *eye roll*  I kept watching it for about half the first season, but I have, I think, given up.  I did re-watch the episode of Futurama where the Planet Express crew make a new episode of ‘Single Female Lawyer’, though, and it was, as always, enjoyable.

On the awesome side of things — Briggs and I finally broke down and started watching the ‘Game of Thrones’ miniseries.  I haven’t yet read the books (I know, fantasy geek fail) but I’m enjoying the heck out of the series.  Briggs HAS read the books and is also enjoying it, so I guess that a pretty decent job was done making it.

Annnddd…a couple days ago I discovered My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic.  As a little pony fan from back in the day, I already had a soft spot, and apparently the show won awards and stuff…plus they have a Gallifreyan pony with a messy brown mane and an hourglass cutie mark (yes…that’s what the things on their butts are called)that makes cameo appearances.  I tend to be hesitant about reboots, especially of things I loved as a kid, but overall, it is girlie and awesome and just…well…I blew through the whole season in a few days.  I really hope there is more forthcoming.

My next adventure is giving Stargate another shot.  I’m told it gets good right after where I left off, so…we’ll see.

Not a lot else new or awesome in my life right now, and I have a little freelance project I need to finish up, so, until next time, muchachos!