Freedom From the Metal (A New Age of Art).

     Hello, all.  G-star here.  I actually could've posted this sometime on Friday, but since I posted on Wednesday I thought it might be a little much to write two large posts in the space of two days.  This is gonna be a long one.  (Besides, if I changed to a daily schedule I would feel guilty every time I couldn't go on the computer...I don't need the stress.)
      First things first: Thursday morning I got my braces off!  As my mom had continuously told me, if felt slimy.  I had to get a permanent lower retainer along with a nighttime upper one and the upper one hurts like heck to yank off my teeth.  They have to take a cast of my top teeth the make the retainer, which has got to be one of my top three things to avoid.  They have flavors for the pink stuff they use, but that doesn't matter because I can't taste it.  All I can taste is the icky metal tray they hold the pink stuff in.  Not only does it trigger my gag reflex, it makes my stomach sick, a combination that can come to no good.  But the braces are off and that's what matters.  I've also found out that when the lady who works on my mouth says "you're going to feel a little pressure" she means "it's going to feel like I'm yanking your teeth out of your mouth, but don't scream!" - _ -  Great.  I bet that's what they're trained in: reverse hyperboles.  
     To celebrate MC and I went to the grocery store across the street during lunch and bought sour gummy worms.  Well, I did, she bought sour gummy worms and fake tea.  Then, over the course of lunch she ate the entire bag of gummy worms and finished off the tea, and after she did, she asked if we could go back and buy another bag of candy.
     ...
     I thought I was supposed to be the hyper one?
     I only ate half the bag, and the rest's still in my lunch box.  (No, MC, you can't have any.)  That tea had a ridiculous amount of sugar in it, too.  She was pretty jumpy...
     I like drawing.  You could even say it's a hobby.  But I don't do it a lot.  Like, I'll doodle something when I have an idea or come up with something stupid when I'm bored...or I did.  Ever since I drew up the picture for Akira's and my contest I've been drawing a lot more, on full-size paper instead of in my sketchbook no less.  I even go over the drawings in softer lead to darken the lines and am considering inking a few of them.  I finish more and faster, too.  I think I may finally be on the road to actually continuing one of my comics.  I also found out part of why I don't finish a lot of my pictures; most of the time I don't like how they look because the eyes suck.  I love manga and all, but when it comes to the face the people have to be symmetrical, and that's nearly impossible with anime-style eyes.  So I've been taking a page out of Applegeeks's and Megatokyo's books and doing lazy yet expressive comic eyes, which mainly consist of a slightly curved line and a white circle.  And hey, it works!  I'm still using anime eyes every so often when what I'm drawing requires it, but mostly this comic style works great.  And I don't have to worry about changing the style too much when I go back to working on Zane's comic because their eyes are already like that, just a little bigger.  So it works.  I like it.
     Now that I have my braces off I can eat so many things I couldn't before.  Mom bought a huge bag of dark chocolate caramel pretzels from Costco.  They're DELICIOUS.  And just last night I got a caramel dessert when I went out to eat with my grandparents.  It seems that when they're here we eat out a lot.  Not that that's a bad thing, but...actually, maybe it is.  I'm stuffing my face with fattening foods every weekend, not to mention my frugality won't let me rest...  At least we're eating at sit-down restaurants.  But my mom used to make a nice dinner whenever they came to visit.  I wonder what happened to that?  Mmm, pork roast...
     I uploaded the cyborg picture to G+, so I can post it here for you guys to see, despite my being on a school computer.  Ah, the wonders of technology.  (I did promise.)  The hat and tail are based off things Piro wears in Megatokyo...I always thought they were so cute.  :3  So enjoy, and until next time, this is G-star, signing off!

Overused Cyborgs (Here Comes the Punk/I NEED That Hat).

     Hello, all.  G-star here.  For once this post is being written when it's supposed to.  What a miracle.
     Before yesterday I didn't really have anything to talk about, but now that I do, let's get started.  I get my braces off tomorrow (woohoo!) and, while it's going to feel weird, I'm looking forward to be able to eat caramels again.  In celebration (and because I've been wanting to do this for a while) I'm going to get a bright blue streak in my bangs.  Mom made a hair appointment next Friday for a cut and dye.  Apparently it's my birthday present.  Happy birthday, me.  Even though it isn't for another month...
     I'm also working on a "web comic" inspired by my recent rereading of the entirety of Megatokyo and introduction to Applegeeks.  I'm still a little lost on the plot, but I have the characters pretty well pinned down and that's really what matters in a piece-by-piece comic that you can make up as you go along.  The main character, as far as I know, is a cyborg.  Robots are overused in web comics so I tried to stay away from that cliche.
     I've had an odd obsession with cyborgs recently.  It probably started with a new Minecraft skin I made last week.  It ended up as a cyborg, and it was pretty cool looking...then I updated it and found out that jackets don't work on any of the newer versions.  Now THAT was frustrating.  All that work, down the drain...
     Speaking of cyborgs, I wanted to find a picture of one to use for my G+ picture, which led to my wanting to make my own, which led to an odd little draw-off with +Akira Akiyama.  Now we're both going to draw a cyborg and see which one people judge as better.  She has a crazy realistic style that I could never live up to, and this thing is going to end up being judged on tastes; if people like stylized comic-style art they'll pick mine, if they're not into comics or anime they'll choose hers.  It's a tense situation.  Not.
     I promised Akira I'd show the picture to her first when I finished it, but as soon as I do that I'll post it here.
     ....and that's basically all I have to say.  What is this?  Has my social life decreased yet again?
     Oh!  Of course.  I've recently found an interesting website called Hogwarts is Here; it's an online version of Hogwarts, complete with classmates and homework (not that I need any more...).  I immediately shared it with MC and we are now dorm mates in Ravenclaw and both taking the Defense of the Dark Arts course.  It just started up a few months ago, so everyone's a first year, despite their age.  It's actually pretty cool.
     I just discovered the cutest ship ever: Percy Weasley + Oliver Wood.  Now, I don't normally support yaoi in any way, but...it just works so well.  They're adorable.  Check it out; I promise there are no dirty pics out there.
     There's a book/show I've been wanting to read/watch for a while that I just started: The Nine Lives of Chloe King.  I got the three-book set from the library, and it's pretty good.  MC keeps insisting it's about her.
      I really want Brian's hat...if only I could knit.  Or even sew.  I should learn.
     Speaking of kitty hats, Fred Gallagher of Megatokyo has one in the Megagear store that Piro and Miho wore sometimes in the comic.  I asked both MC (as mentioned before) and my parents for it, but my mom thought it was a slipper and when my dad saw the ears he quickly said no.  Oh well.   A girl can dream...I might ask Mom to teach me how to sew so I can make my own.  I really do like it.
     And that is all.  Next time I post I'll have my braces off and may have a blue streak in my hair; I'll post a picture if that has happened by then.  Until then, this is G-star, signing off.

Everything You Didn't Want to Know About What Valentine's Day Means To Me And More (The Deadly Double-Space).

     Hello, all.  G-star here.  Sorry this is a little late, but I've spent the last three hours making valentines. ^_^'  I promised myself I'd do them yesterday, but I was distracted by this little thing called the internet and so nothing got done.  Every year, I make handmade valentines for all my friends and assorted teachers and tape candies on them.  It bugs me when people buy those mass-produced cardboard things with an animated character saying "Happy Valentine's Day!" on it.  Though I'm not absolutely sure myself if my way is worth it...
     Speaking of Valentine's day, do you have any plans for tomorrow?  I sure as heck don't.  Never dated, never been in a relationship (though I came close, but that's a story for another day), and I've never received a romantic valentine from a boy. '^'  I get my daily allowance of romance from shojo manga, and they overdo it, even if it is fun to watch.  I read a mini story by...um...honestly, I can't quite remember who wrote it (maybe Hari Tokeino?), but it was about a girl whose dream was for it to snow during her first kiss; or a better way of putting it (since that makes it sound like she wants God to celebrate that landmark with her), wants to have her first kiss while it snows.  This inspired me (but really, what other kind of inspiration can you get from shojo manga?) to have a really cheesy dream: to kiss a boy for the first time on Valentine's Day.  It's always been my favorite holiday because I get to see just how much the people I love care about me by how much thought they put into their cards...and because I get a bunch of candy. -3-  That's also why I enjoy Halloween, by the way.  Anyway, someday I want to write a love comic about Valentine's Day.
     But what is Valentine's Day, anyway?  (This is starting to sound like a documentary.  Not a good sign.)  When I was a kid I would listen to these CD dramas called Adventures in Odyssey.  (I spent most of my childhood trying to figure out what state "Odyssey" was in.  Still don't know.)  Sometimes they would record reenactments of Bible stories or historical events.  This included the story of St. Valentine.  To make a long story relatively short, St. Valentine was a priest who would secretly marry illegal couples.  In that time, there was a huge war going on, and soldiers were legally prevented from marrying in order to keep them fighting well and homeless families cropping up from husbands who'd died in the war.  Valentine was sent to prison where he met a blind servant girl and...wait, I think I may be mixing up my stories.  Whatever.  That's who St. Valentine was.  He was martyred later.  My French teacher mentioned today that Valentine's Day really had no romantic purposes until some year I can't specifically remember, but that's really not true.  In fact, the whole holiday was based around true love. <3  Romantic, isn't it?  Lots of death....
     Today I had an orthodontist appointment.  (Dramatic subject change power, GO!)  Evidently I'll be able to get my braces off in about three months.
     I just thought that was important.
     We're working on a final essay for the book we've been reading in IHS Lit., The Samurai's Garden, and today we did some peer editing.  The teacher walked around to help some students personally, and when she passed my table she pointed out that, when I write, I put two spaces after periods.vvMy response was "What?  Um, yeah, that's what you're supposed to do.  No dur. -_-"  She chuckled (chuckled?  What the heck?) and said "Oh, well, you don't normally do that unless you're using a typewriter.  But it's quaint."  WUH?  QUAINT?  THIS OBVIOUS FACT OF TYPING?  We have a problem here.  Apparently no one else I know does this.  My mother and computer teacher both taught me all my life to double-space after sentence-ending punctuation.  THIS IS NOTHING NEW.  Who's right?
     After some Binging, I have discovered various articles on the question, none of them agreeing with each other.  The first one that came up was by someone ranting about how you absolutely shouldn't use two spaces and if you do YOU DESERVE TO BE KILLED BY YOUR WORD PROCESSOR.  (Okay, maybe not that dramatic, but there was some serious hatin' going on in that essay.)  Another person said that it was okay, and was "a holdover from the typewriter days", but wasn't absolutely necessary.  Heck with this.  I've been typing this way for ten years and I'm not stopping now.
     Well, I've been chatting away aimlessly for several overly long paragraphs, and you deserve a break.  Anyway, I'm probably going to post again tomorrow for a specifically Valentine's-Day-oriented entry.  Not that I really have anything more to talk about...stupid constantly open mouth.
     I hope your true love admits his dedication to you tomorrow.  Or you at least get a chocolate heart or too.  Until then, this is G-star, signing off.