Black Friday

So I hate Black Friday. I worked in retail for two years and watched people almost get into fist fights over stupid material things that likely wouldn't last a year. People have been trampled and taken the hospital (not at our store but in general) or even killed. For what? A freaking passing fad like Tickle Me Elmo? Ugh.

We did however brave Best Buy after about 2 this afternoon though. It was pretty crazy still but after discovering that our insurance wasn't going to cost as much as we were planning on, we decided it was time to buy a game or two, or something fun at least. So we didn't end up with anything from Best Buy (not for a lack of things we want, which if anyone wants to buy us Wii Resorts with the lil Motion attachments, Tekken 6 or Need For Speed, we wouldn't protest ;) ) but we did end up at Radio Shack after finding out today and tomorrow that the inkd buds from Skullcandy are on sale for $10. I looked, wasn't real sure as the only colors were black, white and pink but finally went with the white ones. Then we hit the mall and spend a whole lot of time finding nothing, lol. Well with the exception of a charging station for the PS3 controller, but it got us out of the house, which was good since I was determined to have a day off- no work, no school, no obligations whatsoever.

So we got home and we're sitting around and I decide to try out my ear buds. Now I have Skullcandy Lowriders (which have seen better days but still work) and I love them. I always have issues with earbuds though and usually chuck the ones I get into a drawer somewhere.

Not anymore! These headphones are AH-MAZ-ING!! I put em in, and everything was muffled and I was like "big hairy deal". Well I turned on my Zune (on 6 which normally isn't near loud enough and between 6 and 8 is PERFECTION! Once I started my tunes I couldn't hear a damn thing around me. Cody even tried talking to me and I didn't even know it! HAHAHA! Then he tried em when I was telling him how awesome they were and then he told me to talk, so I started talking and he didn't even believe that I was really talking! XDDDD

So yeah... if you need new headphones, Skullcandy is the way to go. Great sound and they have a warranty. It only fully covers manufacturer screw ups BUT if your headphones break, they will give you like 50% or something off of a new pair! Now that is awesome.

Wow... last blog and this one were completely and totally random! I am all over the place today. Even more than usual. Hell, the thought processes don't even make sense to me anymore...

O.o

Goodbye NaNoWriMo, Hello Week of Hell

So Thanksgiving was great. Okaasan made it and it was a good thing she got here when she did as the turkey got done an hour early so then we were rushing around trying to get everything else fixed, lol. My rolls failed. They're edible but they didn't rise cause I wasn't thinking when creating them, hahaha. It was still awesome and we all ate ourselves into a turkey coma and I had to take a quick nap before work. Oh and speaking of work... it was the longest four hour shift EVER. It was pure torture. Plus I accidentally knocked one of those big ass bottles of the "smart water" crap and it fell on the lid and busted and I ended up with a good portion of the damn thing in my shoe. It was super and of course it was as I was putting the last item on the shelf before I left for the night. >.<

But then we drove around and got some photos of Christmas lights as there is a house here in town that is just effing INSANITY. Seriously it's like daylight surrounding the house. It was a lot of fun though. Then we came home and watched Star Trek. For those who don't know I am a HUGE Trekkie. As in while in Vegas on our honeymoon we went to Star Trek the Experience (where I got my pic in a borg regeneration chamber, in the captains chair of the enterprise and with a Klingon that was hanging out in Quark's bar.) Proof?



Yeah my face is way red. It's what happens when I'm buzzed/toasted, which is about the only way I would have the balls to ask a Klingon to get a pic with me. Yes I'm sure these guys get this all the time but they don't break character for anything. Hell they prolly don't break character for a freaking fire, LOL. Yeah I really want that job. No joke. It is on my list of dream jobs.

Though the original series is not my favorite (They go in this order- TNG, Voyager, DS9 then TOS) I was excited to see this movie as it looked awesome so finally we rented it. And?


IT WAS FREAKING EPIC! I loved it. Plus JJ Abrams is my new hero. He uses some of the most simple things that most wouldn't even think of to achieve certain effects and he is totally going to be a huge influence in my photography in the future. So yeah it has my official seal of approval! Even Cody liked it. Yeah I'm totally going to turn him into a Trekkie.

Then today we put up Christmas decorations. Tree, the furkids' stockings, some garland, well loved nativity set and a few other odds and ends. Hopefully I'll be able to get a few shots of the nativity set and stuff put up and explain about my nativity set and ornaments in the next week or so. Someone remind me. Kthx. ^w~

So I have officially thrown in the towel on NaNoWriMo. I just don't have the time to write 30,000 words this weekend and most of tomorrow, Sunday and likely all night Monday, I will be spending on a painting. Also at some point I need to take glorious photos of said awesomesauce Christmas decorations for my final photo project. Oh the joy. Then finals are next week... AAAAHHHHHHHHHH! So not ready for them but so ready for this semester to be OVER! I have decided though that I am going to finish my novel though. It just isn't going to happen in time to submit it for word count. Super disappointed in myself but I just can't let my grades take a back seat so I'm going to finish the first week or two of winter break. :D

Anyway... enough babbling. Hope everyone had an AMAZING Thanksgiving! <3

^w^

Lady A has made me break my own rules!

For those who don't know, I love country music and my absolute favorite country band is Lady Antebellum. They have one album and a new single off of an upcoming album called Need You Now which I have been obsessed with since it came out, which if you follow me on Twitter I'm sure you're aware of, lol. Now they've released their version of Baby It's Cold Outside which is nothing less than amazing, which is the usual for them.

Now as to the rule they made me break. I have a rule about not listening to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving. I just feel like to do so is to gloss over the wonderfulness that is Thanksgiving. Odd I know but you can bet the day after Thanksgiving the Christmas music comes out while we put up the Christmas decorations. :D In my defense though this song in no way mentions Christmas so I'm maintaining that I'm, merely bending my little rule because it is thought of as Christmas music, lol.

So I wanted to share the song with you if you haven't heard it. Here they are singing it last Christmas Eve on the Today Show. My favorite part is when Charles sings "gosh, your lips look delicious". It makes my heart melt EVERY time.



Oh Charles... the things I would do given the chance you sexy, sexy man. Yeah I met him once, and it was probably the closest I've ever come to fainting. It was amazing and I didn't want to wash my hand afterwards. (I kid, I kid) He is even more hot in person and he rendered me silly after he winked at me. Yeah, I'm sure he winked at every girl that came through the line but in any event it. was. AWESOME.

In fact, here is a photo I took from said concert that I met him at in Greeley, CO at the Stampede.



Hotness monster! ;) Okay... I'm done. For now. ^w~

Diru Concert

Okay so this was almost a week ago but I've been too busy editing photos to edit photos. Lol. Make that too busy editing photos for assignment to edit leisure photos. Better? Good, if not, too bad. ^w~

So here are a few photos from the concert- not really edited either, lol. I'm feeling lazy today, you're lucky I'm even posting them! ^w~


The sign out in front of the Gothic. We was super excited to get inside, partially to see Diru and partially to get out of the freakin cold!






And of course, Kyo started to shed clothing. And yes, everyone was happy, ESPECIALLY me.


No blog about a Dir En Grey concert is complete without the totally shirtless Kyo shot either. Sadly his arms are covering that ripped and sexy torso of his. *wipes drool from keyboard* Oops. Sorry about that guys, I try to contain myself but it's not always possible. ESPECIALLY when hot guys are involved.

My bestie, Margi, was also awesome enough to get me a CD and she got a DVD so we were able to get autographs afterwards. Sadly it was only Kaoru and Dai, but it was enough to make my night! Margi got autographs last year too and again it was only two members so she decided (&I agree completely) that getting Dir En Grey's autographs is like collecting pogs. (If you are too young to know what POGs are, please, go enrich your life- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogs ) Now all she needs is Kyo.

We had a blast, stalking the Diru tourbus after the concert too. Yeah we totally stalked the bus and didn't get arrested or get whined at about being arrested. ^w^ We weren't the only ones though and one guy almost made it to the bus. The best was watching these other two girls, one who, honest to god, tried to blend in with a brick wall when one of Diru's roadies came around the corner. It was a riot watching them. Plus there was always the strange antics of two other girls in corsets. Crazy bitches anyway, bet they shed em when they got home and one probably had bruises. ;) Yeah the crazy bitches were us, and we totally shed them as soon as we walked through the door. Lol. No more corset for me for a while. For a concert breathing & blood circulation is overrated... everyday life not so much.

So yeah. There they be!

Thanksgiving!

So I'm super excited about Thanksgiving. I wasn't but I am now. My Mommy is going to come up and spend Thanksgiving day with us (I have to work but only a 4 hour shift) so we're going to make the whole dinner, which should be interesting in Cody & I's tiny ass kitchen. Seriously I've seen bigger closets.

I am also happy that I will actually get to enjoy the holidays this year too. The last two years I worked at JC Penney's and they started playing Christmas music the day after Halloween which is just too damn early, plus all the commercialization which I just couldn't handle. YAY! For some reason the approach of the holidays is making me feel all house-wifey too, lol. I just wish I had the money to buy stuff to make more decorations, particularly a wreath for the door. No, not buy a wreath, buy the materials to MAKE a wreath! To hell with some crappy walmart overpriced wreath that has no meaning to me or my family. (whoa... uhhh, getting off of my soapbox now...) I'm also going to make (or rather attempt to make from scratch) pumpkin pie and rolls for Thanksgiving, which is a little scary as I'm not good at that kind of stuff, lol. Cody's happy though, it's one less thing he has to cook! Hahaha! He does most of the cooking, mostly because I hate to because I worked in a restaurant all of high school and a few years after, blech. I'm getting back to liking it though, just don't tell him that, lol. ^w~ Actually though, if it weren't for school and all this homework I would likely cook much more often so he will probably see more meals from me come graduation, or at least after Spring semester. :D

I'm also excited that Mom will be there til afternoon the day after Thanksgiving too so we can put up Christmas decorations. It's a tradition that I love! Snacking on Turkey sandwiches and decking out the house with decorations I've had since I was a kid (even ones I made as a kids). Plus there's always picking out a new ornament for Cody and I and another for the furkids.

Anyway, I suppose I should get back to doing something productive, like studying for my Nihingo exam, which I almost forgot to do. Oops!

Quickie Post #01

I say quickie... but we'll see how quickie it really ends up as I have a tendency to babble like a brook.

So first...
I got by best grade of the entire semester on my most recent assignment and get this... it was the only one I totally hated and it was a last minute decision (rather forced decision) to hand in. Here's what happened. I shoot hockey games and when I do so I change my camera format to jpeg. There's no reason to shoot in raw when all I'd have to do is convert it to send them in. In class we have to turn in originals in raw (or dng rather but my camera takes the photos in dng to start with which saves me a good 20 minutes- I love Pentax). Well I went out, took some photos and edited one in class no big deal. Well I was working on it again early Friday morning when it was due and I realized I had forgotten to change that setting. FUCK. The one good photo I had was now shit and I could never turn it in, so after bawling and screaming into a pillow and making my headache even worse, I went with a photo that was in raw that was one of many I took for my painting and then took a pic of flower, that was now dead, and boom. My two best grades of the entire semester, which are STILL only B's. Don't get my wrong I'm happy I finally made a B+ but son of a biznatch this entire sitch was well beyond frustrating.

I should not be blogging...

But I'm very easily distracted today. Which is bad. Bad bad BAD! Honestly it really isn't different from any other da- oh look! Shiny object!

Anyway. Tonight is the Dir En Grey concert with one of my besties. Then, we come home, sleep for a bit, I got to class, we have a homework party and then... New Moon at 12:01 with her and a few more besties! I'm excited. I really can't afford (as in don't deserve because I haven't been a good kid and gotten my homework done) to take part of this all this week but who cares! I've slaved away and been super stressed and well if I can't have a new tat or piercing I'm going to have some fun at least!

On a sadder note... I am going to be 20,000 words behind on NaNoWriMo as of tonight. T^T

Anyway... off to do some photos, gesso a canvas (a much smaller one this time) and check on that delicious smell the roast is creating (It's either deer or antelope... not sure which as we forgot to label bags. Cody said "eh we don't need to label them, we can tell em apart" then two nights ago said "I really wish we would have labeled these" to which, I being the loving wife I am said "but I though you said you'd be able to tell em apart.").

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week and hump day!
^w^Bitten Usagi^w~

p.s. My bestie and I are totally making t-shirts for New Moon. Anti-werewolf t-shirts cause we're with the vampires and who wants to hang out with a smelly dog? ;)

Meteor Showers, Adventures & Horrific Pain

So for those who don't know I am a total astronomy geek. I took Astronomy 101 & 201 in high school (part of a dual credit program where I got high school science credit as well as college credit while taking it with one of the coolest teachers I've ever had- yeah it was a total win.) and I've been fascinated with the stars and space since I was knee high to a cricket bug, or at least as long as I can remember. I'm sure my being a Trekkie and loving science fiction has a role to play in my love as well but I digress. I have missed every freaking meteor shower in the last like 10 years. I either fall asleep before I can view it, forget, it's cloudy or I'm immersed in other things like homework so when I found out about the Leonid Meteor Shower I decided I was going! I went online and found out the peak time was supposed to be 1:30 am to 3:30 am so I twittered to see if anyone was willing to brave freezing temps, my driving and the possibility of a gang rape (we do live in Greeley, CO after all so at that late of night that's a possibility anywhere in town) and of course my beloved bestie Kat was all for it. Well after she got layered up, found her phone and I layered up, unlayered in order to find my ever-elusive keys and then relayered we were on our way.

So we headed North (or was it East Kat? ;) No worries hun, my mother in law and I recently discovered that in Fairview, Utah the moon comes up in the south, LMAO) to go where my family does every year to watch the 4th of July fireworks thinking that was our best bet. Wrong. The farther North we got the foggier it got. >.< So we decide to head South to Evans in hope to find clear skies and that a spot on the outskirts of town that would make for prime real estate. I had a place in mind, a place by the bridge just as you come into town on highway 85 that I had been to to take photos and is completely innocent and unscary during daylight. Night however is a different story. After driving and then falling through ice into a pothole half the size of my lil Ichigo (my car's name is Ichigo, which is Strawberry in Japanese bc to be she's shaped like a strawberry) we pull up and realize exactly how scary it is and decide to turn tail, so I backed up a lil to flip a u-y. That's when it happened, something in the shadows moved, Kat yelled & then said something, and I wasn't staying long and didn't bother backing up again and high tailed it through snow praying Ichigo didn't pick now to get stuck in the snow for the first time. It was just a fox, and later I realized that's what Kat had said but all that was working was my flight response.

So we tried the Evans community complex parking lot to no avail as well. I realized that while searching for the peak time of the meteor shower I probably should have looked up where in the sky. I was trying to on my phone but the only site with a sky map on gave me the constellations Leo & Cancer to judge from and all I can recognize easily is the Big and little dippers and Orion. So then we went off to the UC, stared for a while, still not seeing a thing. I was still searching the interwebz for a helpful site and realized I can still find Casseopiea (sp?) which I made a little internal jump for joy about and then I finally found a site that told me what direction in the sky to look and we moved and right away saw one! That however was the beginning and end of our show though. We sat there for who knows how long before I saw it was damn near 3:30 and I said to hell with it and we went home. Lamest. Meteor. Shower. EVER. Granted I knew it wasn't going to be spectacular (unless you were in Asia where it got up to 200 to 300 meteors per hour) and was only supposed to be 20 to 30 per hour but 1? REALLY? Killin' me smalls, really killin me.

The good news though was that Kat and I had a late night, er, early morning adventure and some good laughs so it was worth it. It was a good distraction from my current woes, which I sorely needed. So for that, Kat, I thank you for being my meteor shower buddy and going to creepy places on the outskirts of the city. I look forward to seeing the video documentation, no matter how Blair Witch it turned out ;) (actually I liked the Blair Witch Project but that's a whole other can of wormies) and I'm happy we lived to actually post it to YouTube.

Now the horrific pain part, which is my current sitch. I gained a headache in my staring at the sky and took an Excedrin knowing full well that if I go to bed with a headache I will still have it or it will be a full blown migraine by morning. Well apparently I was mean to be in pain today and I had to take yet another Excedrin... and with that I bid you adieu as I can no longer stare at this computer screen without wanting to die. Thanks for reading.

^w^ Bitten Usagi ^w~

So Much To Do!

So let's see. Last week was my birthday, it was great cause I got to hang out with my Mom, Grams and Aunt for most of the day and we ran around and went shopping. My Aunt got me a necklace, my Grams got me a card and Okaasan (Mom) got me the Twilight Saga Journals and yummy Ferrero Rocher chocolates. She almost got me a calendar too, lol. I had taken a pic of a RPattz Calendar for Kat (I take pics of RPattz stuff all the time for her, lol) and my mom thought it was because I liked it. I was just glad we figured it all out before we got to the checkout, lol. I got the rest of my gifts this weekend. A Scentsy warmer and three new yummy scents from my hubby, some $ from my in laws, a card from my gran-in-laws and lots of fun. :D

On another note I am stressed the hell out! Classes are totally kicking my ass as is my financial sitch. Ugh. I am so done with stress... unfortunately it doesn't even seem to be close to being done with me. >.< Big photo project due Friday and needing to start a new painting. Think I may have finally come up with an idea for this painting though, which is a huge step.

Going to take a study break (yeah that's kind of what I'm doing now too but let's not dwell on technicalities) later with Kat to check out the Leonid Meteor Shower. I'm excited (gonna hopefully be a photo or two that works out) since I've missed the last few meteor showers. Just hoping we don't get killed by gang bangers out in that area of town. I'm kind of hoping there will be a few other peeps with this idea parked out there so maybe there's a less chance of us getting raped or murdered. Yeah... The more I think about it the more I want to find somewhere else to park to watch it lol.

Anyway... that's about all that's new with me... oh other than being over 10,000 words short on NaNoWriMo. But since most of my homework is photos and painting (which I don't have the money to buy my stretcher bars til tomorrow anyway...) so maybe I could bust some out after taking some photos!

Here's to hoping I don't go insane soon....

Today was good, er bad, er... alright?!

I'm currently super irritated. I dunno wtf the deal is other than after I got out of class I had a voicemail from my boss telling me to call her because we needed to "have a chat". What?! What did I do? Well now I gotta wait until tomorrow to find out. I realized there is a training I forgot about, but I remembered that today and was gonna call and see if I could do it tomorrow. That's the only thing I can think of that I could possibly be in trouble with. The waiting is what's irritating me though. I hate waiting and not knowing. Now hopefully whining about it here will help me forget for the night.

The good news for the day- I got my painting finished (after pulling an all nighter to finish it) so that was a relief. I was nervous for the critique, this painting was so much more personal than the previous ones, so there's that putting yourself on the line with your subject matter, technique, etc. Got really good comments from my critique group and then I was talking to my professor about possibilities for my next project and she said that if I could just add some green in my background she'd like to display it in the hall! I almost jumped for joy. She's a pretty tough prof too so I'm really excited about it. She said it was "really beautiful" and during this semester I have really learned a lot from her and come to respect her and value her opinion, so this was HUGE.

Here is my painting (You'll have to rotate it so the blue is at the top):

http://twitpic.com/p0q8w


It's a cross between the technique of Anselm Kiefer (a german artist who used mixed media in his paintings, such as straw) and Georgia O'Keeffe who did the really big flowers to help illustrate their beauty and inspire viewers to look more closely at nature. I combined the two by doing a flower like O'Keefe did but I used grass to bring out the beautiful veins of the rose petals (and if you didn't know rose petals have veins you really need to pay more attention to them! I spent probably a good 20+ hours on this painting. It's 30" x 40".

Plus on top of that I get a night to myself, which is nice, though really it needs to be spent preparing for my next painting and next two photo projects. *sigh* Guess I don't really get a night to myself but I'm going to take it anyway... I'm running on no sleep so that's my excuse. I may post another blog later if I feel like it, but who knows. Damnit I hate having good news and then depressing news... it's so much easier when it's they other way around.

Girl beaten to death by painting

That's what the headlines for the papers may be tomorrow, as it is possible that any minute now this painting will commit murder.

Seriously though, this painting is driving me nuts. Some areas are blending oh so well while others... well they're killing me. There's no rhyme or reason to what's working and what's not either. It's depressing.

Yeah well there she is, my first entry on Blogspot. Superb.

Been taking painting breaks in order to fix up my background and make a banner all with pieces found from thecutestblogontheblock.com and with any luck I will still be alive later today and survive my critique in order to start this blog properly. We shall see though.

And if it's months after this was posted and nothing has happened.... it was the painting.