I hope that everyone had a fantastically fun Christmas on Thursday! :D Was gone through most all of yesterday and Christmas Day, so I couldn't internets. But I still offer HUGS TO YOU AAAALL! I've gotten so many nice cards and other awesome gifts from you guys...you're the absolute best! And I apologize for my fail on the gifts front this year, I'll try hard to make it up with art! ><;

My list of Very Fine Things Acquired this year:
- Gorgeous cards by cool dudes
- A set of oil pastels (I want to use them for my eventual Leifeld/Kinkaide horror mashup)
- A crab figure I named him Stumpy
- A tortoise figure Will probably name him Ugway
- Two new sketchbooks! (One is going to be for at home, the other will be for on the road)
- Several nice new long-sleeve shirts
- Sleeping Beauty on DVD
- Rescuers Down Under on DVD
- A Bug's Life on DVD
- Pocahontas on DVD (there seems to be a running theme, here)
- New tree ornament
- Lobster lollipop (halfway eaten by now)
- Life Savers gummis (ate them all)
- CHOCOLATE ORANGE (again!)
- Pocky!
- Monies of various variety


For the monies, I acquired $50 in Best Buy dollars, and $50 in normal dollars. However, I am not quite certain what to do with them! I at least need to spend the Best Buy dollars as those will be useless any place except Best Buy. :| So please help me out, kind flist! What should this combination of Best Buy dollars and normal dollars be spent on? Apparently basic accounts cannot do actual polls so just PRETEND IT'S A REAL POLL and answer in comments or...something. >>


1) Psychonauts for the PS2
2) Shadow of the Colossus for the PS2
3) Elite Beat Agents for the DS
4) Any Disney DVD I do not yet own (likely Lion King or Little Mermaid)
5) Any MST3K boxset I do not yet own (likely #4)
6) Something else entirely
7) In this economy?! Geez, save those dollars, woman!


After presents we had delicious breakfast (pancakes with holiday shapes, fruit, bacon and eggs!) then packed up and headed to grandparents' place. We brought a 1000-piece puzzle, which I spent most of my time working on, though everyone else pitched in to help at some points. Doing that puzzle's made me wonder just how my brain works...because if someone hands me a puzzle, I get intensely obsessive over it, working on it for hours at a time. I did the same thing when I was really little, too: I would have a small ten-piece puzzle for toddlers and I would put it together and take it apart and put it together again, over and over for hours without stopping. The only reason I don't do so now as often is because I have less time and puzzles are expensive/space-consuming. Is it some kind of relaxant for an artist brain to do a very left-brained activity? Is it just a sign of an obsessive nature? o_o I wish I could figure it out.

After said puzzle was completed, the 'rents wanted to go see Marley and Me, but the very LAST thing I wanted to do the day after Christmas was see a movie about a lovable yellow lab that dies at the end. 8| (Turns out the movie was sold out anyway.) So my brother and I went to see 'The Tale of Despereaux' instead.


- The art was pretty! I was especially fond of the set design. I think whoever they go to do the design and the lighting especially had a bunch of fun and did a good job.
- The story? Ehh. It suffered from a number of plot holes. It tried to do too many stories at once, it felt like one part of the climax was progressing faster than the rest of the story, etc. Despereaux was introduced late for the movie, I felt, and another minor character who ended having a large impact on the story wasn't introduced until at least halfway through the movie.
- I think the main problem with it was that Despereaux didn't feel like the main character. I feel like the movie should've been called 'The Tale of Roscuro' instead, because the movie was really more about Roscuro. He's the character we meet first, he's the character who sets the story in motion and actually goes through a character transformation. He changes and grows through the course of the movie, whereas Despereaux doesn't really change at all. Even when we have the chance to see Despereaux go through character transformation -when he is actually afraid of the cat and cowering from it- there's no real follow-through on how that affects him. It just seems like Despereaux is only there to motivate all the other characters to change.
- For how often the movie delved into explanations on characters' motivations, there was a LOT left unexplained. Why was Meg's hearing bad in one ear? Why did her father have to give her up? And it was explained why the mouse society exists the way it does...so how about the rat society? Who or what is the soup genie and was there really a reason for them to be in the movie at all?
- Something about the way they decided to shade the mice and rats' eyes was really distracting.
- So yeah. It was a cute movie and all, and the art was very pretty, but the story was weak. This is the sort of movie where I'd go buy the concept art book and skip out on the DVD. :|


And nooow, I'm back home, with the new year coming up fast! 'Twas a very good holiday with family, all things considered. Now it's time to go catch up on DC. @_@

Once again: I love you all, and I hope you had a terrific holiday! ♥

Drawing: New LG pages

Writing: All that