Well, I've finally done it. My bizarre (but far from little) web-comic/infinite-canvas piece is finally finished. You can read it here if you like.

Been listening to the End of Evangelion soundtrack for the past hour or so. Strangely enough, the clouds and sunlight are mimicing the music; at appropriate times the sun ducks underneath the clouds, and as the music swells during the Canon in D the clouds part.

And now the shadowing caused by a swaying palmtree is in perfect rhythm with "Thanatos' " beat.

I got screwed at Wherehouse when I bought my Dahmer DVD. Apparently it was the 80's version of the film (and not the recent, and highly acclaimed, version) so everything was really 80's-porno like. Especially the cheezy gore scenes.

I mean, Dahmer didn't dissect all of his victims in the bathtub. And the boy that almost got away did not look like he was 12.

Overall, I felt disappointed. More so when I had the opportunity to buy the better version at Blockbuster that night. But dad was there and he said no.

Even though it was my own money. Huh.

Also, at the MasterCuts in the mall, I got my hair cut. Much to my chagrin, I got the crotchety old woman instead of Angie because the latter was busy dying a woman's head. Tch.

The haircut was satisfactory... until I realized that I looked like Travis. Needless to say, I will be styling my hair until it grows out a bit more.

So, to celebrate the occasion, I let sis play with my hair while I was working on math homework. Her attempts at making liberty spikes was attrocious.

But now I'm sold on the whole palmnade(sp?) thing. I don't mind the shoe-polish smelling stuff as much as I did before.

Slept half the day away already. Not good nor productive in the least bit.

And I've been reading a lot of JTHM.

Hm... no wonder grandma prays for my soul just about every night.

This is how I learned to dance.
Beneath the heavenly stars.
While forever was just a glance;
Life unburdened with these scars,
We deceived our hearts to dream
To our will should fate beseem

This is how I learned to hold,
Hands laced as coupled duet.
The eyes assured, the steps bold,
Tempo mild, this minuet.
But hands once clasped in summer
The autumn winds asunder

This is how I learned to soar.
Leave below the cautious woes.
Within this moment’s ardor,
All Dionic bliss enclose
Yet height gained by passion’s pow’r
Proved a downfall so sour

For naïve eyes could not sight,
Vows broken after this night.

Just a short poem to be used for my sketchbook project.

Went to the mall to do my post-Christmas shopping while taking notes on possible designs for that fashion show.

My friends really shouldn't associate with me at the moment.

Just put the boy down and free him from his misery already.

#1260 ladies and gents.

I hate it when everything comes full circle.

Sis took several "early morning brother" pictures of me with the digital.

Although my bizarrely styled hair (courteousy of sis) was definitely off-place, my mannerisms mimic exactly.

(Addition: Signs that something is definitely not well in the state of Denmark; when backbones can be popped just by inhaling and exhaling.)

And so it starts all over again. I think I'm going to be sick.

Ha. Now no one can accuse me of doing an online comic just because I wanted an easy way out of this sketchbook assignment. If it wanted something easy I would have sat down with my dream-symbols book, my watercolors, and bullshit my way through a composition.

It worked for sis all of last year.

But before I went off on that tangent, I've spent much of today (read: the past six hours) researching and evaluating (web) comic theory. It's quite an amazing subject to study. Mainly because the media is essentially a juxtaposition of images with text.

Which in of itself is quite amazing if one would consider Scott McCloud's triangle diagram of symbols, literature, and art. Essentially, whenever art focused on hyper-realism literature became more abstracted and eloquent (ex. the Edwardian period), and vice versa (ex. the Pop Art movement). And then both subjects become symbols (i.e. icons, letters, phrases, etc.) as their importance increases.

So, for those who are curious (or actually stayed around to read this part) here are two very informative sites that I highly recommend poking around in: www.ScottMcCloud.com and www.JohnBarberComics.com.

I have yet to get through that 50+ paper on layouts as narrative devices, so I doubt I'll have the strength to go shopping tomor... erm, today. Blech.

And I thought Chicago came out in Vegas today, but apparently it's only in selected theaters. Damn.

Went online caroling after I got back from mass (where one of the Scintas was taping our rehearsal) so random people have gotten carols on their pages.

Been reading up on Asimov for the past two days. I am spent.

And for the love of God, if I ever try, on impulse, to shave my legs please stop me.

God-damned holiday calories.

I'm thinking of chopping off all of this hair I've grown on my head. As much as most of my friends are liking the long - and - devoid - of - hair - product - style, that little natural curl on my "bangs" always curls outward and upward.

Damned be my cannibal heritage.

But at least I got my glass of wine.

How shocking; my family is actually doing something for the holidays.

At the moment uncle and family (including Joe's current girlfriend) are chowing down on the cumulative labors of three families. The third one is attending 4pm mass and will be back afterwards to eat.

Apparently I didn't have to start my night at 5pm-ish for this whole church-singing deal. Instead I have to be there by 6pm. Parents still want to drag me to midnight mass... ech.

I'd rather go to those gigantic bonfire services.

Despite the festivities, I'm still not feeling the holiday spirit. Damned be the pragmatist.

And seeing how I don't find conversation with someone I hardly know (Joe's girlfriend) I'm refraining from the dinner table and am instead on the computer. Go me.

I have yet to make progress in any of my homework. Damned holiday obligations/triptophane-induced sleep.

I want a glass of the armagnac that uncle brought over to help lower my inhibitions. Who knows, I may also sing louder during mass.

Wishful thinking that that is.

Yesterday got my spirits up a bit.

Two hours of rehearsal before mass started, and the tenor section is no where near wobbly on our part. But that's because half of us didn't show up for the last rehearsal. It sucks having bronchiatis (sp?).

Lee made quite a derogatory comment during rehearsal concerning the gay bar he'll be playing later that night, the new low his career has taken, and his trusty chastity belt. I was mad at the remark for a good five minutes before I decided to think nothing of it.

Then I imagined all the guys at the bar hitting on the cute, 20-something-but-really-he's-40-something pianist all throughout the night... and everything just got funnier.

Later that night (post-mass) the family went over to Texas Station where, lo and behold, Dean from Becker was there with his friends. He still looks the same.

(Finally) saw LOTR:The Two Towers. Good movie, but the third one will probably blow this one out of the water. And throughout the movie I had to stifle my laughter at every possible Frodo/Sam moment. Specifically near the end when Sam's giving his speech or when Frodo was tell him how he wouldn't have made it that far without him.

A hobbit and his boyfriend indeed.

Spent all of three hours working on a couple of masks today. I'm thinking of doing a Carnival theme for my fashion-contest entries.

It's too damn cold to be moving about.

Spent some time looking back at old entries from around this time last year.

Damn that was a big mistake.

Today's shaping up to be far better than the entire week. (Read: I get to veg out for most of the day)

Just spent a goot two hours making a base-mask for a mask that I'm making for myself for the (still possible?) school masque.

Mom's been watching bizarre filipino christmas shows a la TOTP. One of the funniest moments in the whole show: "Everybody black in the house say 'ho-llaa!'" and everyone "ho-llaa's." Cringe.

A lot of the local pop music has recently sounded dangerously jpop-ish.

Yep, I have yet to start any actual homework. So what else is new?

Tis the season to be stressed out
Falalalala, I hate my life
Makes you want to scream and sho-out
Falalalala, 'tis full of strife

But at least it's now the end of the week. After this Friday, two weeks of possible freedom to do all of my homework! Aw hell.

This year has definitely been devoid of that holiday cheer.

I need to get out of the house and do some rampant christmas (window) shopping. Or something else like bashing people will bundles of bamboo (read: shinai) to help with this odd funk I've been in this year.

How the hell did I manage to remain jolly just two years previous?

The worse thing about saying "it can't get any worse than this": it often does.

Winter Formal was last night. Good times. Not as good as last year's, but we won't get into that.

Ate at an over-priced, low-quantity, typical-quality Pan-Asian restaurant before hand.

Saw a really funny improv show after the dance. It got even funnier when we all noticed that we were amongst 30+ other LVA students, and we were all dressed to the nines... ish. Plenty of in-jokes about Caucasian Chalk Circle, the DMV, etc.

Then sis put a damper on the night, so my patience quickly ran out. Typical.

Friday the 13th didn't turn out to be as bad as weather-forecasted.

The mornings were evil as usual. Someone forgot to tell Mr. Jackson that we were out of plastic cups, so we didn't sell anything today. Ergh. And I woke up early that day too.

Someone when crazy with the spray-paint around the back parking lot. "Pig" was sprayed on all of the cop cars, references to George Orwell were all over some of the buildings, and someone decided to write "anarchy for piece" in really illegible script. Heh, amateur vandalists. Hopefully this has nothing to do with the War-for-Peace protest this January.

I lugged nearly 50lbs of stuff in a carboard box around the dark and quiet, early-morning campus until Bernau-sensei came. Then I just dumped my stuff there and let be.

Helped collect teddy bears for the NHS stuffed-animal drive. The amount of participation was very different: teachers either had no bears to give, or 70+ which required two trips to get all of them. Yeesh. Jackson's backroom is now one gigantic teddy-bear mountain/orgy.

Wasn't too bad, until I realized that I missed half of my AP class to do it. Shite. And I forgot that I had to work with my group on the gameboard assignment. Double shite.

Japanese was the same old song and origami... literally. We sang Christmas songs in Japanese and did origami after taking a short quiz on some grammar stuff. Oh, and I turned in my Kogepan manga (which illicited a "kawaii!" from sensei).

Physics was more or less easy. Just had a lab dealing with acceleration and such, but since I had to catch the 2kg "car," my crotch was in potential danger. No accidents occured.

Lunch was nice; I didn't have to work today so I just hung out around the table.

Art was more or less painless. I was busily working on my perspective piece thumbnail with massive newsprint and dried out five markers in the process. Still need to get it approved by Michaels though.

Holiday Market. Oh holy hell, the first hour and a half was stressful. APC was doing just fine by 4:00pm, but Pride's booth needed a miracle or two. We needed to get our hotdogs cooking, but the damned water hadn't started to boil, so we only started selling hotdogs by about 4:30. And hardly anyone bought our shirts!

Got a ride home with Jon (paid him $10), Adrienne, Niko, and Mica. First thing that comes on Jon's cd player is... ASH! At which point I squealed and glomped him from behind. Adrienne told me not to do it while he was driving, so I stopped and did it again once we hit the next stop sign.

The winter concert at church was... okay. Relatively painless (except for the little, screeching kids) and all the teens left before the Christmas pageant portion began.

So everything more or less evened out by the end.

Sometimes articles hit too close to home to even discuss.

And sometimes the things you learn about people you care for can shatter walls.

I'll only say this once: For the love of God, someone please say that they watched Tuesday night's Inside Edition.

From Andy's blog:

Ron and I went to a Christmas party last night hosted by one of his Philipino friends. They are a fun crew. They all love shopping - and shoes (they all, of course, blame Imelda). I like seeing Ron with them because he always has a good time and they are so gossipy in Tagalog. I mostly talked with Juan (from Columbia) and Chris (Thai guy from Florida). As Ron said as we left, 'all the white guys are so boring.'

Very true about the shopping part. As for shoes... I don't like to stray too far from the five pairs I have. The females in the family beg to differ; two entire shelves are dedicated to those straps of leather they wear around their feet that they haven't touched in HOW many years? Precisely.

Nice to note that filipino parties have a tendency to be entertaining. Then again, my family's parties only get good when the uncles (and occasional aunts) are drunk and trying to sing/squawk into the karaoke machine.

And the extensive movie-watchin marathons sound exactly like my family's Blockbuster-rivalling home collection.

There's really no point to this entry. Thank you and good night.

I can tell that, just from this past sunday, that this entire week is going down into the genetic shatter of all shatters.

It all began circa 2:00am with me wide awake with nothing to do. So, what do I do exactly? Make some Betty Crocker cake mix... and cook it in the microwave. It provides for an interesting... erm, texture. But most of the time not all of the bits are completely cooked. And I added one too many tablespoons of coffee to the mix so it was all nice and overtly bitter.

Got mild food poisoning from that for half a day.

Midday I wake up in the sweltering heat of my bedroom (and yes, it still get's insanely hot during the winter) and decided to go ahead and work on all that damned homework I should have touched Saturday. No such luck. One, it's too hot for me to concentrate so I'm constantly visiting lil Morpheus. Two, American Romanticist literature doesn't really grow on me. I much prefer the great leaders of the goth revival, thank you very much.

So the only homework I even remotely got finished was Japanese. Even then, that was only a mere smidgen of what I'll be doing to the final product. Blech.

Grandma is convinced that no one in the family actually eats her cooking. Instead we supposedly fill our plates and then dump them into the trash can when she goes upstairs or whatnot. Grrr.

The worst part of the entire day had to be church. Normally I find a bit of meditative calm and focus as I try not to doze off during the 20+ minute homely... but today was our first Advent mass. Which means that I have a small solo-ish part during the general intercessions. Which means that I have to sing out, especially since Frank is out of commission and Lee's vocal chords are dying (much like everyone else's).

To add insult to injury (my food-poisoned condition aside) NONE of the microphones were working properly so the choir could barely be heard. Thankfully I didn't blow up from all of the stress and frustration; I was took busy trying to calm any shaking nervousness from my hands and other limbs. Patty looked like she was about to blow up the sound system.

Luckily the night's been shaping up since then. I went over to two Borders and a B&N without spending more than $100. A first in several visits. Just came away with the essentials: two books on Asimov for American Lit., one copy of MetroSource and XY each, and the imported Sonic Sevens Ash compilation. Smile.

Finally figured out how to work that damned graphing calculator to displace scatter plots. Now physics homework will be much easier.

Having way too much fun with my digicam. And no, I will not be posting (most) of said photos for several reasons. Mainly: I don't want to waste page-space for something that's only mildly entertaining, and Mr. Steven already reigns supreme as the almighty sharing one.

Speaking of which, there's an article about gay boys and our need to blog in this month's issue of XY. Hrm, go figure.

... Well, that was unexpected. Sis is getting into electroclash. How the effing hell did she find out about my Chicks on Speed addiction!? (cough... pun fully intended, thank you...) Damned Elle magazines.

It's nice to note that all my Japanese studying has surmounted to this: the ability to score a perfect score (maru!) on this Koge-Kuizu. -_-;;

I swear there's a reason; I'm writing a Kogepan manga for an assignment in Japanese. Just doing some background research about the Sanrio character.

Who the hell knew that burnt bread can be so depressing yet entertaining at the same time? Oh, they're cute too.

And in other news, an easy recipe for tiramisu. It lacks that loverly gallon... cup... of coffee liquor that Buca Di Beppo enjoys using.

Best Places/Moments to Kiss:

• In the backseat of a car, driving home from a night out, as the passing streetlights add rhythm to each movement.
  
• Waking up on the rooftop in the early morning, overlooking the entire city, stretching out and huddling together to keep warm.
  
• Underneath sheets tucked in so that no light from the outside can come in.
  
• When it begins to snow.
  
• Touching noses lightly when the movie starts to get boring.
  
• When you know that the other is having a bad day, so you sneak up behind him, wrap your arounds around his chest and nibble gently on his ear.
  
• While pushing those damned books off of the coffee table.
  
• On the dance floor amidst softly turning lights.
  
• In the kitchen, against the counter, while waiting for the water to come to a boil.
  
• On the piano bench, trying to distract the other's playing.
  
• In a dark corner during a concert when the sweat and the heat have become dizzying.
  
• With the wind blow patterns around you.
  
• As the cherry blossoms bloom.
  
• When completely pissed from a bottle of vodka, running away from your parents... again.
  
• After cleaning the razor and bandaging up the others' wrist.
  
• Sleeping in on a Monday.
  

Oh. Dear. Jesus.

Has anyone else seen Christina Aguilera's video for "Beautiful?" Anyone? The song itself is abso-effing-lutely gorgeous (general empowering message) and then couple that with the video... mmph! Key points about the video: anorexic girl smashes her mirror, two guys make out (with heavy tongue action) on a park bench infront of everyone, an old man puts on a dress and does his eye makeup, and a girl comes home after getting beat up and smiles with braces.

Come on! You've got to love any video that has unabashed man-on-man anything in it. Take that Sigur Ros video for instance.

Erm... just quietly hex out George Michael from that list, please.

This entire effing week is over. I'm so happy. Emotional turmoil--of the inappropriate sort--and stress-induced exhaustion had reigned supreme.

I've discovered that I'm developing an extreme apathy for the subjects which I'm studying. Really, it's all beginning to seem like a waste of time. Don't get me wrong, the skills I'll be learning are quite valuable once I head off into the great unknown. Whether those skills will be utilized or used to display my knowledge, I have no idea.

But my classes are so incredibly easy it's disheartening. Maths (both Trig and Physics) are very simple, and Physics homework is far too easy to put off to the last minute. American Lit. isn't too much of a think class unless I'm writing essays... and that hasn't been as often as advertised. Japanese... that class is going far too fast for my taste and frankly sensei isn't really teaching us. She's more or less presenting us with the information without having the structure needed to make sure that we do learn our material. 25 kanji in two weeks? Are you effing kidding me?! Psychology is a spoon-feeding class. and I often find myself wanting to take photography again instead.

The only two classes that seem to have any relavance these days are US History and Art. One is an AP class (with engaging activities like this Andrew Jackson trial) while the other is my passion. Except that at the moment we're drawing with charcoal and conte crayons to be followed by an exercise in gouache painting. Twitch.

Let's not forget the perspective assignment.

Extra-curricular activities have become more tedious than enjoyable. I have relatively no time to practice piano... because I can't play the damned thing late at night. Choir is nice, but if Patty ends up throwing in the towel and DeDe takes over I will be walking away from the group. Oh, and my vocal chords haven't been up to par what with this whole sickness I'm suffering from.

I've been resorting to numerous escapist activities to pass my time. Grr.

And when I get frustrated, I close off. Take all of this sporatic blogging, for instance.

Heh. Heheh. On the way to piano, an Irish priest and the radio host were duking it out over the airwaves over the Catholic Church's position about Islam and the rash of molestation charges. The funniest part about the whole thing, besides the name calling (Priest:You are a boil on the face of God!), was that neither of them knew enough to argue a properly supported point.

The priest said that the Muslim religion was a degenerate and violent faith while the Catholic church hasn't committed mass genocide in all its history. Um... first off, the Islamic faith is quite accepting of any christian religion. It's the culture of that particular region which inspires people to resort to violence.

And let's not forget the pogroms of the 16th century that the Catholic church readily participated in. Or the Spanish Inquisition for that matter. Or the church's position of disregard concerning the actions of the Nazis during the Holocaust.

The radio host proved his ignorance by failing to bring up any of these points. Or any points whatsoever. Tch.

I've been tired far too often these past few days. Oh, and Holiday Market has been moved to next Friday... which means that next week's Friday will be excessively full: school to market to church to sing, with five minutes or so to spare in between.

Urgh. Damned guy looks like he's twelve.

Had fun with my digital camera all lunchtime long... well, most of it. Then got pseudo-kissed by Deidre while Adam threatened to do the same. Before that Jake was giving people big hugs, and he picked me up in a big bear hug and pinned against the wall in a very compromising position. Ha ha.

Everyone in Art thought that Junior was either adorable or down right freaky. I think the latter. Then again, I think that half of the pictures at rotten.com are cute. Shrug.

Insane amounts of reading to do. Mostly recreational, recommendations, or required. Too many re-prefixes.

Watching a documentary about marijuana use throughout the ages in America. Some really funny stuff.

Heh. I need more OW/PW fics, please!

Well. Leave it to me to have bizarre methods of self-mutiliation. Ah, but this time I have a purpose!

By being a pyromaniac, I'm prone to certain... erm, liabilities. Mainly feeling extreme amounts of pain whenever I get my fingertips nicked by the fire.

So, I have been... for no apparent reason... clipping away the skin of my finger tips with a nail clipper. Results? Slightly sore fingertips which have either formed callouses or have had the nerves numbed or removed from its extremities. And I can mold my fingertip to take on.... interesting shapes. Yes.

Downside: I may be developing a taste for human--or at least my own--skin. It goes along with the whole former-nail-biting thing I used to do before braces put that to a halt. Couple that with Catholic teachings of eating the body of Christ every Sunday and I become a candidate to replace the pro/antagonist from Ambrosial Flesh.

But enough of morbidity. I'm sick and tired of perspective. It's not that I can do it, it's that I've been able to do it. Since second grade. And some people in my class don't even have a grasp of one-point perspective. So it's back to the basics we go!... blech.

This week is stress-hell! AP homework (which I never really finished) and the overwhelming amount of new kanji/grammar from Japanese is giving me a perpetual headache. Today I have an APC meeting wherein Holiday Market will be discussed. And since no one wants to take initiative (or the converse: they delight too much in speaking out) I'm gonna have to plan out more than I really want to. Should have established a committee for all of this shite. Grah.

This month's sketchbook has been done for the past couple of days. In that time, I've learned that Junior has a thing for watching Brit Spears when placed in front of the tv. At least he's stopped freaking sis out by constantly turning to face her.

And don't even get me started on my Trig homework issues.

Oh yeah... and singing that ungodly tenor section for choir. Patty seems to always pick songs where the tenor's high note is exactly on my vocal break. And that's why my pitch tends to get wavery on that song.

Yep, definite favorites in the choir.

I just keep on learning one disturbing thing after another about numerous people that I associate with. If this is a common trend throughout the entire week, I'll be forced to throw a wrench-shaped bomb into the proverbial rumor mill.

And I get to wear my gaudy red robes for my ill-rehearsed Psych skit today. Yay.

It's World AIDS Day.

Get educated.

Ahem... everyone watch out! Designer-Buddha has been birthed, and new shirt designs shall be flying out of the wazoo.

Shopping list for Michaels (post-gallery show):
- several medium-sized shirts (tees and long sleeves)
- fabric paint
- more transparent stencil plastic

And I've discovered the loverliness of those iron-on printed shirts. I have yet to iron the one I created (mainly because the recipient red shirt is two sized too large) but preliminary examples (aka. testers) show much promise.

All of these are essentially decals, but I don't trust the gloss-medium ones I had been making to stick pre/post-washing.

Am I making any coherent sense? Do I really care? Blame coffee?

Trying out the "unicorn" look (borrowed from a manga with genetically enhanced people who have a section of hair lighter than the rest--the section looks like a horn... kinda) for the gallery show just to see if it'll be accessible for the (still tentative) fashion show competition later on this year.

Erm, yeah. Still haven't touched my history homework. I'm almost as bad as Adam now. -_-;;

Well, I think that my Oliver/Percy hunger has been satiated for... um, the time being. Can't guarantee how long that'll last though.

Things are definitely looking up at the moment.

Ahem... who has a new Kodak EasyShare camera? I do. Everyone with whom I associate with in real life beware. (hehehe)

Can't really get more than 20 shots with just the internal memory, so it's time to stash up the memory sticks. Grah. Stupid revenue-gaining tactics.

Say... anyone want to get me a 256MB CompactFlash Card? It's only $142.97.

... Alright, I'll settle for the $79.95 160MB card.

Anyone?

Homework? What homewor... shite.