We have a new doggie around the house! We are going to be dogsitting for another faculty member for a few months. The dog is a black-mouthed cur named Josie, and she was quite happy to greet me at the door when I got home from work after midnight last night. (And then to follow me upstairs and steal one of my stuffed animals.)

It'll be really nice to have a dog around the place again; I think just having a dog here of some kind makes everyone happier. But it'll also be interesting since we were so used to Sunshine, and how she liked to sleep all day because she was old. Josie is much younger and craves more attention. She'll happily jump on beds and into laps no matter what you're doing, and she's only a little smaller than Sunshine was. XD She's also much more of a barker. When we take her for walks she'll have to be on a leash; whereas with Sunshine she had no leash and collar, and would just walk with us when we took her out. I may post a picture of her later. XD

Been playing a ton of Okamiden lately since I have all this free time at work, but haven't been posting commentary as frequently. So, here it is all in one big dump:

( Beating the Witch Queen up through second visit to Demon Market and Kazegami )

Here's some latest waking-up drawings...

( Under-covers drawings 47-49 )

Aaah internship starting in a few days...

Drawing: Lots of LG, some revisions to concept and board stuff

Writing: A challenge fic...

Sorry dudes: no new Dissidia commentary yet, since I've been spending most of my time leveling up the characters. (Oh, level grinding!) May be able to continue story stuff tonight or tomorrow.

For some reason this morning I spent looking up 4D objects/tesseracts, 10th-dimension theories and watching the Flatland movie on YouTube. It's all really super cool, but now my brain is sort of stuck on extra-dimensional visualization and it's preventing me from getting much of anything done. Except I suppose in the fifth dimension I haven't watched these videos and therefore have gotten more done, I just cannot observe this dimension as nothing more than a shadow on my present reality, even though in actuality this reality and the one in which I got more stuff done are existing simultaneously along with everything and anything else and I need only fold the fourth dimension to see both these things at once. Um, I think.

QUANTUM PHYSICS ARE DISTRACTING.


Now time for COMPLETE TOPIC CHANGE

So my little bro has come home from Germany last night. It's been really good to see him again, although also kind of interesting, because it's all a reminder again of the fact that Sunshine isn't here and we still miss her. To that end, mom has been talking about us getting a new dog; probably a puppy. And it's a weird thought to me...on a very large level, I miss having a dog and all the love and happiness that comes from them. The family feels rather empty without Sunshine in our lives. And at the same time, a small part of me feels weird about the fact that it'd be a different dog, and not Sunshine. The intellectual part of me knows that it's not replacing Sunshine, that a new dog would be an entirely different person with a different personality...like adding a new member to a family. But a teeny bit of the emotional part of me is still going "...but I miss Sunshine. :("

In any case, I need to inflict more MST3K and even My Little Pony on bro now that he's home. XD


OTHER COMPLETE TOPIC CHANGE

I got accepted into a summer internship at Zoic! :O Huzzah and hurrah! It'd be unpaid and only two days a week, but that works out pretty decent for me, and it's an opportunity for work experience and learning and even a potential job, at a company that seems to work on some pretty cool things. I'm a nervous boo, but hopefully everything shall go well starting in May.


ART TOPIC CHANGE

Here's the art that I did for syvia, for the help_japan auction...

( On a new world )

And the most recent waking-up drawings...

( Under-covers drawings 15-20 )

Finally, a new Lunargyros page is up.

Drawing: Storyboards, storyboard practice, aaaand ponies

Writing: Tags both fun and freaky

So, it's been exactly one month since Sunshine died. It's kind of weird...it feels like it's been forever, and at the same time not that long at all. I've started to get used to the fact that she's just not home here with me, although I still prefer to be upstairs instead of downstairs where it's a lot more of a reminder. If I think about her a lot or see photos of her, that can get me crying...hearing about other people losing their pets can make me cry now, too, because I get reminded of all those feelings. I've also had Sunshine in my dreams a bunch...more often now than I did when she was still here.

I guess with time, things really do get easier. Although it's going to be really tough when my brother comes home in a few weeks...it's going to be like a repeat of what we've all been going through, since he hasn't really experienced it himself yet. :(

Aside from thinking about this some and also still slogging through this animation, today was not so bad. Took Kia to the airport, but beforehand we got dinner and had a lot of lols. More lols may develop in future days. XD

Here's today's waking-up drawing:

( Under-covers drawing 5 )

Drawing: Animation stuff; so much of it

Writing: Occasional tags

Once again, thanks for all the kind wishes and thoughts on the last entry, dudes. <3 Been hanging in there, mostly by hanging out with super cool friends and watching MST3K and POTC. You guys are seriously the bestest ever.

I guess this is just going to take some time to get used to. I keep going downstairs or finishing a meal or just walking in the house and my first instinct being to go and pet Sunshine, and then I remember she's not there. :( I hate that feeling, because it keeps coming up all the time. We've been saving a bunch of pictures and videos of her, too. (At least, my little bro was smart and took video of her.)

- I kinda want to see 'Gnomeo and Juliet.' It doesn't look amazing or anything, but it looks cute enough.

- I've been debating getting a Plurk. Y/N?

- I really need to draw something for myself soon.

- I keep getting the sense that I need to watch the new My Little Pony, at least an ep or two, because people keep raving about it. But I didn't play with MLPs growing up and I didn't watch the show...

- A small part of me is curious to read Homestuck just so I know what the heck everyone keeps going on about, and then I remember just how long all that is and I get scared off. 8|

- There's a new Lunargyros page up from Friday.

Now, gonna go home and watch the Oscars. Thoughts will likely come later.

Drawing: LG and LG thumbnails...time for some serious catchup on LG this week.

Writing: RP...sob, when will I have time for reindeer story again?

Everyone, thanks so much for all your comments and thoughts yesterday. Sorry I didn't respond, but I read them all. I really appreciated all your love. <3

Sunshine's gone now.
She was the best dog I could ever ask for...sweet, happy, and just unconditionally loving everyone, all the time. She made all of our lives better just by being herself and left so many happy memories. I'm glad she's not hurting anymore, because she was in a lot of pain and still just putting on a brave face for us. She deserved all the kindness and love we could offer her at the end.

But it hurts so much, and me and my parents have been crying all day. My brother overseas got to talk/see her on Skype, so thank goodness for the internet. I still feel slow and heavy. I think I'm getting a little better and then I remember my dog is gone and I won't see her anymore, and then the tears just come again.

Thought I should do one last watercolor painting of her today, so I did:



I love you, Sunshine. Thank you for being my dog.

Sunshine hasn't been getting better at all, and the insulin shots haven't been helping. She's barely walking and eating; she has no energy for anything or anyone. It's amazing she actually walked all the way up to my room today, and then when she did she didn't move at all and just slept.

My parents took her to the vet again today, and the vet figured it was more than just diabetes...she has some disease caused by liver failure (I can't remember the name) that makes her skin break out in sores and it's so painful she can't walk or eat. And this disease can only have symptoms treated; there's no cure for it and she'll only get worse and worse.

So the doctors are coming by tomorrow to put her to sleep.
My two brothers are still out of state/overseas and won't get to say goodbye. My dad hugged me and cried; this is only the third time in my life I can remember seeing him cry.

I feel like a stone; I can't move and it's hard to breathe.

Happy Valentine's Day to all who celebrate it! I'm kind of over the whole 'Singles Awareness Day' schtick...if dudes want to have some fun and yummy chocolate with their significant other, go for it. And if not, you're still cool dudes who deserve love of any form. At least for me, I'm confident enough in my singleness to not get myself all worried about this holiday anymore.

And me? I got a bag of candy hearts all to myself, that my parents gave me. Ohhhhhh yeah.


Okay, good things first and then bad things next:

Good: Went to Disneyland with Kia and Kristin on Saturday, woohoo! Although since it was a Saturday and a holiday weekend (and a really nice day), it was pretty crowded. Still much fun, though. I have now been introduced to the convenience that is the single rider line.

I am a colossal nerd and have now obtained every avatar piece/set in Re:Coded. OMG those things are so dang cute it's really addicting. Especially those really bizarre "buddies" animals. WTF even. Who the heck even came up with those.

Bad: So, after some tests from the vet, we've discovered why Sunshine has been having a lot of problems lately: she has diabetes. D: We're going to have to start giving her injections of insulin a couple times a day. I just feel really awful for her, and I hope at this point giving insulin injections gives her some relief... :(


Also, if I seem to be totally out of it and ignoring everyone now, it's because the AMV bug has latched onto my brain and is sucking out all ability to think about anything else except DO THIS THING. So, apologies in advance while I spend however much time I need wrestling AfterEffects into a chokehold and laughing maniacally.

Drawing: Practice practiceness

Writing: RP sorta?

There is a new Lunargyros page up today. Also, as we are starting February, this means it is the start of Double Update Month again! More updates on Friday!

Been working a bunch this week, but it's all Stuff That I Can't Share. I wish I could work on more Stuff I Can Share, but the Stuff That I Can't Share has to come first. I know I'm waaaay behind on reindeer story, for one.

Guess I should go ahead and go into why I've been really down a lot lately...

( Depression Inside )

Drawing: Movie studies, a site design and a logo design, commish, whatever else I can do

Writing: Trying to get stuff in, mostly just some RP

I totally goofed for this morning and put up the wrong Lunargyros page! However, I finally realized the error and fixed it, so now the correct new Lunargyros page is up.


So my dog, Sunshine, went to the vet yesterday. And they ended up confirming what we were suspecting: she has arthritis in her right hip. Really bad arthritis, to the point where there's no cartilidge left in her right hip, it's just bones all pushed out of place and grinding against each other.

And the worst part of it is that there's just...really not much we can do for her. There's replacing her hip bones with holycrap titanium hips, but that's really invasive surgery and costs upwards of $8,000. D8} So the only other thing we can give her is pain medication and try to keep her comfortable. (I don't think I'm going to make her sit for treats anymore.) Apparently, labs are really stoic breeds and don't yelp or whine if they're in pain...they just limp instead of walking, and lick their paws. And she's been doing that so much.

I love my dog so much, and just knowing that she's just grinning and tail-wagging through would could be a lot of pain breaks my heart. I just wanna hug her all day now. T_T

( Have some KH arts )

Drawing: Lunargyros, plus I just seem to keep starting these sorts of practice things. o_O

Writing: Starting new tags