Monday, December 13, 2010

Things on my mind and whats been going on over the weekend

I am pleased to find that my late night writing sessions have been paying off.
I realized last night that I have 15 new pages written (future chapters not immediate ones) 
I wrote 8 of those last night/early this morning & the rest not long before last night.  
I honestly only thought I had 3-5 pages since I had been writing it on OneNote & it looked like soo much less than it actually was until I transferred it to MS Word & actually saw the page count. Go me!
I hope to keep this up even though it keeps me up later than I should be, which is late even for me.
Writing is more important than sleep, right? haha.
It seems that my muse likes the wee hours of the morning for me to do my best writing currently.
I am happy I am getting more done even if it is not on the chapters I should be on.
The book will come together how it comes together in the end.
I am having a lot of fun developing my new characters, though some are coming along easier than others.
I need a bit more character inspiration for a couple of them
to help develop how they react to different scenarios.
I believe I have finally come up with a last name for Iris (my main character) her last name had been a blank in all the old chapters since I could not come up with anything that fit.I am finding I am quite happy with her last name being Snow, obviously inspired by the 9 inches of snow we got here not long ago (which I wish had stuck but now we have thick fog) So as it stands now  her name is Iris Snow.

The next scene I am writing is a good one, or will hopefully be a good one.
I really do hate it when sleep will not be put on a back burner for as long as my muse would like it to be and I have to pass out right as I am about to type the good stuff.
Once I get going with my writing it gets kind of hard to stop sometimes.
Other times it is a big push to get through even a page or two, but I have to keep going or else I stay stuck for a long period of time. I am cheating by writing other chapters while I am stuck on a small scene in the current chapters. It is ok for me to do that because I am still writing and not letting the story get stagnant so to speak.

I have sent the first 216 chapters of my book (I have more than that now, but that's what I sent out that I was happy with showing) to a few close friends of mine to read over and get opinions from.
So far I am getting good feedback and have a good flow and progression to my writing,
which is good to hear.
I have a lot of friends who are either good with English or are writers themselves,
like one of my friends is who is reading it,
so I try to get feedback from knowledgeable people rather than just ambiguous likes or dislikes. 
I should note I do not mind negative feedback so long as it is constructive and not destructive.

I would post up small sections of my book for everyone to be able to read 
(I will not post the whole thing up for everyone because I may publish the book at some point in the future) 
but I honestly wouldn't know what parts to post up...
I am not good at chopping my book up into interesting tid bit parts since I see the book as basically a whole. Maybe I will talk to one of my friends after they have finished what I have sent them and see what parts they would post up for tid bits of reading here and there
so people can get a better idea of what it is I am up to all the time.


Another thing I have not been able to get off my mind recently is the udder,
can't say need so I will say want, to dye my hair blue again. 
The last time I had it blue it was this kind of blue underneath and dark green on top,
though you cant really see the green in my picture so it looks all blue. 
I would love to either do it all blue this time, or mostly the darker colbolt looking blue with some parts that are a lighter shade of blue or turquoise. To give it depth.
I don't usually like doing only one color in my hair.
I had also considered doing my hair blue and black with it done in the peek a boo style like this image I found is, but black does not like to stay in my hair long I find.
Though blue LOVES my hair and will stick for a long while.
I would also love to have matching synthetic dreads put in my hair like hers is done at some point.
The Macrame yarn hair falls I am making take forever for me to make.
I just don't have the time to put into them that I should..
Not to mention I suck at making my own synthetic hair dreads.
Tried once, failed miserably.


This is the color I want, but I want more blue and less black, if not all blue.



This is me in the below picture, when I had green and blue hair.
Sadly I did not take many pictures when I had my hair this color. Which sucks because this is my favorite color I have had in my hair out of all the colors I have had, which is many.
The picture sucks and so does the lighting
(super bright outside and no blinds) and was a spur of the moment thing.
Yes i had bangs at that point, I no longer have them now.
This photo was taken a few years ago too I should note. I cut my hair pretty short awhile after that and it has grown back since. Not as long as it was then (which was to my navel or hips depending on when it was) but long enough for me to like it again.



Only reason I haven't dyed my hair yet is A. I don't currently have the funds to go get it done professionally and I don't talk to the person who used to do my hair for free for practice since she was in cosmo school and wanted to mess around with fun colors; and B. I was waiting for it to grow out, which it is grown out enough now but that also brings me back to point A.
So unless I find another way to do it my hair is staying its current blonde color which it is naturally.

One of the many reasons I have been thinking about dying my hair is because I had a photo shoot idea planned out in my head a bit recently. Which originally involved flat backed blue and green rhinestones for the mermaid scales on my upper body. I got a better more cost efficient idea today of using glitter glue in the blue and green to draw the scales on my body so to speak. I have been getting antsy since I have not done an erotic art photo shoot in quite sometime and I wanted to do one with a better quality camera. Which I believe I have a photographer friend who would love to help me with taking the photos.
In the past most of the erotic art photos I have taken were done with a horrid camera if not a web camera so it lacked the clarity I wish a particular set could have had.
Not to mention some of which I had to take myself which restricted pose options.
I would like to make it clear, I am not taking pornographic photos, I am not fully naked, and no I do not do requests. It is a form of art for me in how I can inventively cover myself and not be slutty about it.
Some people I find just do not understand this concept.

Anyways, I will not be doing the out of water (meaning no tail but still scales) mermaid shoot until I am able to somehow dye my hair since that is a big part of it. Having some seaweed colored sheer or textured fabric to use in the shoot would also be a wonderful addition.

I will say, the shoot I did recently (which wasn't in the woods as planned but still a ton of fun) will be awhile before pictures are posted. There is a lot of editing that needs to be done. When working in the dark it is sometimes hard to tell exactly how clear the pictures will turn out no matter how clear they appear on the camera. Some turned out really well, some really fuzzy and need to be worked with as do most pictures.
I know some of you are impatient and want to see them but you will have to wait for now.
No, I am not doing the editing myself, someone else is.
I am horrid when it comes to editing photos.Never learned much about how to do it, though I have had many offers to be taught how to, just haven't had the time to do so.
It wasn't an extremely long shoot and was rather unplanned all things considered so it will not be the quality it could have been had we had exactly what we wanted, so I will be happy if even a few pictures come out well since we did not take that many as far as photo shoots go.
Of course being treated to hot chocolate after being out in the cold was a wonderful treat!
Yay for hot chocolaty goodness!


Had to push some things around on short notice this weekend since I had a friend fly out to see me ^_^ it was well worth it though. I will catch up on the other stuff later on, no big deal.
We have been having a ton of fun since he got here. He took me out to eat a few times, one of which was to the Sakura Steak House which has my current favorite sushi rolls on their menu (The spider roll)  Watched a ton of movies late nights. We found that even though in the last movie Indiana Jones got raped, it was still funny to watch. We walked around all over down town and went to the Flying M for coffee. Haven't been there in ages, used to go every Wed I could back in the day
since that was the local hang out for most of my old friends.
He lives in Canada but was in the US for some photo shoots, and had a couple of days between shoots so he decided to come here to see me before going to San Fran for his next shoot.
I had a ton of fun getting to play around with his hair and makeup
...going through some of the makeup he brought with him.... >_<
Not to mention all the drunk dancing haha! good times.
I swear I was not the cause of this.
>.>
<.<


Anyways, I need to get back to things so I will end this now, though I am sure there is much more I could type about. Just felt like taking a break for a moment to type out whats been happening,
whats on my mind, and update all of you.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!
~Lotus

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Samsung Galaxy Tab

I have found my newest technology love, it's the Samsung Galaxy Tab. I had heard much talk about all the different tablets out there and I finally got to see both this one and the Ipad in person. Further proving my dislike for apple, I did not like the Ipad at all. It is vary awkward to use and I am just not a fan of how they do things. I loved the smaller but not too small size the Galaxy Tab had to offer. I love that it has swipe, a front and back camera (so you can do video calls on Skype) though I do wish it was a higher megapixel camera. The main camera has 3.0mp, the front facing camera is only 1.3mp.
The 7" display is perfect size in my opinion. Makes it easier to use one handed. It has wifi so I could use the wifi I have in my house instead of hooking it up to Verizons internet, as well as use it anywhere there is wifi.
I am very much in love with the idea of at some point owning one of these. It would be wonderful for doing my shop stuff on the go, taking it to the park to write portions of my book that require further inspiration I cannot get from within my home. Not to mention it's a pain to pack up my laptop... I would rather have something that could fit easily into my purse and would be convenient for working with clients on the go. You can't exactly walk and type on a lap top wherever you happen to be at, and I could take orders on the spot online with PayPal rather than someone needing to have cash on hand if they would like to purchase something I have in my carry kit. Could read books on it like a kindle or possibly look some up to read online, I do love a good book. There are a ton of uses I could see for this tab. It might take a bit of saving up since I do not currently have the $636 (which I believe it would be with tax) but if its do-able at some point I would love to get one unless another tab comes out in that time that has something I like better than the Galaxy, which is possible, but currently I am stuck on the Galaxy Tab : )

If you want to check it on further, you can go Here to the Verizon website.

I am also looking at getting a smart phone whenever I go to upgrade my phone in the next 6 to 8 months. I currently have an EnvTouch which isn't bad, I quite enjoy the phone really, but there are some features on the smart phones that would better suit me for what all I use my phone for. Hopefully potentially one with a camera that is better than 3.2megapixles which is what I have now.
I also don't like how almost all the new phones coming out nowadays that have touch screens are hard touch screens. I tend to grow my nails out rather long and its much easier to use those to touch the screen than the tips of my fingers which are wider than a nail obviously so it takes more concentration so I don't press 3 buttons at once. The phone I have now I can use my nails on, but a lot of the smart phones I am finding you cannot. There are some, but not many, and I am picky when it comes to phones. It sounds silly but it really does make a world of difference for use.

Oh well, if I keep talking about gadgets and such, I am going to start talking about other less practical gadgets I like... Like steampunk gadgets and spy gadgetry haha. Yes, I am a James Bond fan as well as I do watch Leverage and Warehouse 13 from time to time : D kind of hard not to be into all the gadgets that go along with it ha ha. Not to mention who would not love to have a flying pirate ship filled with interesting gadgets for the voyage? ; )

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Snow

These are pictures of the snow around my house.
It snowed all day yesterday and then snowed through the night.
We got at least 8 inches of snow.
We measured 9 inches on our property.
The news said there was as much as 12 inches in some areas near here.
It was a snow day for more than 100 schools in the areas there was so much snow.
Mainly because the roads around here are horrid during winter.
The plowers are SUPER lazy when it comes to plowing and salting the roads.
They had 50 plows out today, when they should have had them out early this morning.
We are lucky they even got out today... most of the time it is days before they get out.
Of course my brother loved this, he is in the process of building a fort in our back yard.
Sorry about the picture quality for some of these, I had to take them with a cell phone camera.

My brothers fort from a distance.
He says its not done and he plans to build snowmen guards in front of it haha.
I think it was a snow day well spent.

My brother in his fort.
Bare in mind he is 15 and like 6'2
He got a ton done in a very short period of time.
It mad me smile.

Despite all of the snow,
Even with my tiny little car
(I have a 95' Honda Del Sol)
I managed to get out and run all of my errands today.
I was worried I wouldnt be able to.
It was actually a lot of fun going out today.

 The table in our backyard looks like the cream filling in a double stuffed oreo!
And
We have magic! the kind that can make tiki torches have snow instead of fire. We are cool like that ^^
 It really is beautiful outside
 Icicles that formed the first time it snowed.
It actually trailed up higher than this picture shows. Its like an ice sculpture.
 This is my favorite icecicle
Nature is amazing.
Nature makes its own art and I was just happy I was able to capture it in a photo.

Some neighbors have Christmas lights up already.
Snow gremlins showed up.
Wonder who could have made those >.>
haha

It is very much hot chocolate weather.
Turkey from Thanksgiving is almost gone surprisingly enough.
14 1/2lb bird. Many meals have come been made from the left overs.
It was a delicious Thanksgiving meal.
I went out and played in the snow late last night a couple of times and then watched
Nightmare Before Christmas.
It has been wonderful : )