Just a reminder, I'm painting live in Ustream for the next hour or so, for anyone who feels like dropping by to watch. I don't think I mentioned last time that you don't have to be a Ustream member to watch or post in the chatroom.

Wish me luck!

*stage fright*

*contemplates actually breaking a leg, as that might be more interesting*

The weather has been glorious the past two days, and today especially. I think I'm going to buy myself a cheap deck chair so I can sit out front and read. My copy of The Demon's Lexicon is waiting at the post office to be collected! Ok, so I'll probably finish it before I get anywhere near a deck chair, but that just gives me an excuse to buy MORE books.

Hot weather also means breaking out the summer sandals, which naturally haven't been worn in months, and my feet seem to enjoy rebelling against new or forgotten shoes. My blisters are getting blisters. Ow.

On a subject more interesting (hopefully) than the weather or my sore toes, I've been toying with the idea of live painting and video tutorials and walkthroughs. I've been toying with CamStudio for the latter and been watching a few people paint live using Ustream. Curious, I set up my own Ustream page and show to see how it all worked in case I decided to go ahead with a live painting session or two.

Then mercurialmind decided to oh so helpfully announce to her own Ustream audience that I was starting live painting sessions and commanded me to post the link. It's impressive how someone can corner you quite so effectively from all the way across the world.

So, my first live painting show will be this Friday (June 26th) at 9PM GMT and you are all invited to watch, if you get the chance. I would love to promise sparkling wit and great wisdom, but since I'm usually horribly shy about speaking to a bunch of people at once and even worse about painting in front of them, you might get me painting Ninja Kittens 2: Stick Figure Edition. I'm just warning you.

Show link is here! http://www.ustream.tv/channel/louisa-gallie---online-illustration

If you can't make it, Ustream records the live sessions and you can watch them afterwards. I'll post a quick reminder on here and Twitter just before I start.

Oh, and last but not least, there have been a couple of new Artemisia posts since last time. Also, Artemisia is going to be featured in ImagineFX magazine this month! I'm so excited. Is it next Tuesday yet? I can't wait to get my hands on it. I'll post pictures when it's out!

Every time I think about making an update here, I remember just how many things I never wrote about properly, like going to Paris and moving into my own place. I finally decided that the only way to properly catch up was one huge photo update!

Last March, Taken was coming out, but we only had a release date for France, and the thought of waiting until we got a vague UK date to see Liam Neeson running around in a leather jacket beating people up was just unacceptable. temve had a birthday coming up and coincidentally needed cheering up, so she, motetus, the_little_owl and I decided to jet set off to Paris to see the film.

( From Paris to Florida! LOTS of pictures )

So, since then I haven't been doing much besides work and sleep. My energy has been low lately, and I'm in the middle of a run of blood tests to check if anything is up. It might be a thyroid issue of some kind *crosses fingers for a clear result*

Another reason I've been a bit absent from LJ is the discovery of and subsequent addiction to Twitter. I'm PhurieDae in case anybody else is using it. I really like it - my Twitterfox gadget sits in the corner of my browser and I can keep one eye on what my friends are up to during the day, and throw out quick updates when I feel like it. I enjoy the fuss free nature of it - it's very simple. I do have a Dreamwidth account now (username austarlis), courtesy of temve, but at the moment it's not appealing to me. It's not customisable enough yet and while some people I follow are over there, all the people I follow are also over here, and the compatability between the two means I can easily watch and comment from here on everybody who has moved over there completely. I like the concept behind the site, but they've got a bit further to go before they can tempt me over into cloning and cross-posting this journal. For now I'll just circle and growl at it some.

I have started an official art blog on Wordpress! http://maverickmuse.wordpress.com/. Not much there yet, but give it time. I'm working towards posting all my art related entries there and keeping this journal purely personal and friends locked (although I will nudge when I update the art stuffs, of course). Melissa and I also kicked off on another partnered project while I was over there - Artemisia - Fantastic Art from a Female Perspective. We both got a bit fed up of buying art books that are full of woman warriors wearing thongs and high heels, so we came up with Artemisia. We're going to fill it with our own brand of eye candy, rant about cliches, interview female artists - stuff like that :D

Argh, I better turn in. Night, guys! I've missed you.

A belated happy birthday to temve! Inspired by the LOLiam link you posted, I present you with your very own tailored-made-to-Tem motivational poster. This one is probably not so suited for work...





I hope you had a lovely day, hon!


P.S. The Maybe for May has been upgraded to a new and improved Very very possibly.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, meletor_et_al!

A hundred ice cream scoop hearts to you <3<3<3<3<3, and also a link to this GIANT MORGANA PICSPAM, which I was going to do but I cannot improve up on this one. Plus, it has like a million birthday candles in it. Just think of Morgana as your cake.

<3<3<3<3<3

You have an awesome day, ok? Let there be chocolate!

Brother is home and with us for Christmas. Long story. All is going well so far.

I am the only techsavvy person in a household that has decided it is a party trick. Send help!

Merry Christmas, flist! I hope you all have a wonderful one. I'll be back to cheer properly and answer comments on Friday night.

*pops champagne*

For those of you curious about what I do all day (Contrary to popular belief, I don't sit around playing video games all day):



We've just released the promotion video for Eldevin, the 3D MMORPG we've got coming out next year. Although none of us knew it was coming out next year until we saw "Coming 2009" at the end of the video. That was a surprise. However, we have also publically announced that it was "Coming spring 2008!" and then later, "Coming fall 2008!" So, take that with a pinch of salt, mmk? :D

Ok, so today I FINALLY got my iPod and various belongings back that the police confiscated last year. It was a pain in the butt and way overdue considering the prick was officially convicted and sentenced almost three months ago, but I finally badgered the nice, paperwork-avoiding policemen into submission, and Spooky the iPod still seems to work ok - just needs a charge up.

And then I get home and apparently a policeman stopped round my parents' place looking for me and GUESS WHO IS BEING RELEASED NEXT FRIDAY?

That's right - my freaking iPod officially spent more time in police custody than he will!

How is this possible? Well, he was sentenced to fifteen months (which is a joke in itself, considering how many women he attacked and his varying other offences) and apparently there is some condition where, dependent on circumstances, he could be released after serving half his sentence. And since he had actually been back in prison since May for - get this - VIOLATING HIS BAIL BY SEXUALLY HARRASSING A MOTHER AND HER TODDLER - they called that time served. And so he gets out in a week. Just in time for Christmas! Merry freaking holidays!

I am beyond pissed. I am contemplating-revenge- pissed. I am dreaming-up-ways-to-make-his-life-and-everyone-else-even-remotely-backing-him's-life-miserable pissed. My one consolation is that the police are about as pissed as I am, and are working to make sure his freedom is as restrictive and difficult as possible. They have absolutely no faith that he's a changed man, and are very much hoping that he'll get arrested for, I don't know, shoplifting dirty magazines or something so they can throw his ass back in.

Oh, and that my brother knows exactly who he is and will likely beat him to a bloody smear in the pavement if he catches him out in public.

Christmas season, I am not impressed with you AT ALL.

( My grandpa did not make it to Christmas. )

I am such a dolt sometimes.

I've been dancing around this little craft project idea I had a while ago for a couple of Christmas presents, and this weekend I finally had the opportunity to take all the material I'd gathered so far and get my hands on my mother's sewing machine. I was cat-sitting for the weekend while my brother was away at the Tang Soo Do British championships (Incidently? We now have a British champion for forms in the family) and my parents were down at Saltcoats visiting my grandparents.*

Unfortunately this plan went to hell, since what I mainly needed to get started was flesh coloured fabric, which my mum told me she had plenty of and had left it out for me. It seems she and I have vastly different ideas of what "flesh coloured" means, and to her it apparently means "just barely off-white". Damn. I tried dying it overnight in a bowl of onion skins and teabags, which gave me a bowl of lovely flesh-coloured water and stubbornly off-white-and-wet fabric. If I can't make the base, the rest of the project kind of falls apart, so I naturally started panicking.

Panicky Me: Oh crap, even if I somehow can find the right fabric in Elgin, how am I going to find the time to get back round here and use the sewing machine in the next two weeks? And somehow get anything done with the family around? WITH the cats' help? I'm screwed.

Practical Me: You were cross-stitching and hand sewing when you were eight years old. You took Textiles at GCSE and made a bunch of cushions, a shirt and a beautiful child's coat when getting a turn on the class sewing machines was like getting to play with the school unicorn. You don't NEED a sewing machine! Moron.

I am technology's bitch. Too many years at home with my mum's fancy quilting sewing machine next door and I completely forget that I know how to hand sew.



*My granddad is sick. Very sick. He has what was apparently stomach cancer to begin with, but it had spread too far by the time they caught it. We've spent the last month taking various trips down there to visit him every time he ended up back in hospital and, like pulling teeth, have finally got the doctors on his case to admit that there's nothing they can do for him. I would be down there right now, but I used up all my holiday days when he had a couple of strokes last month. So he's being sent home sometime next week with a lot of pain medication and some arrangements for a nurse to come and help my gran out (who, thank god, is a very healthy and able woman), and we're just going to have to pray that he makes it until Christmas when we can all be together with him.