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  <title>everything you know is wrong</title>
  <link>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/</link>
  <description>everything you know is wrong - LiveJournal.com</description>
  <lastBuildDate>Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:03:14 GMT</lastBuildDate>
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  <lj:journal>sk_doodles</lj:journal>
  <lj:journalid>14201070</lj:journalid>
  <lj:journaltype>personal</lj:journaltype>
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    <title>everything you know is wrong</title>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/7320.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:03:14 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Hollow Dawn</title>
  <link>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/7320.html</link>
  <description>I dunno if any of you follow my &lt;a href=&quot;http://silentkitty.deviantart.com&quot;&gt;DA account&lt;/a&gt;, but for those of you that don&apos;t, I&apos;ve been messing around with a new project.  It&apos;s not replacing PT, but I really feel like I need to work on something else for a while.  I know it&apos;s going to annoy a lot of people, but I&apos;m hoping that giving myself a break from it (that&apos;s not a forced break from real life, anyway) will give me motivation to start working on it again.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So, I called my poor parents a couple months ago and asked them to ship me the giant box of stories and drawings I left at home.  In it (along with about 60 pounds of other junk and really old art that I should totally scan) were all of my notes for this story.  It was called &quot;The Dreamers&quot; back then, but I&apos;ve changed the title to something slightly less generic, and I&apos;ve started slowly re-writing it into comic format.  So far, this has involved changing a &lt;i&gt;lot&lt;/i&gt; of really stupid names that only a 13 year old would come up with (including, inexplicably, a male character named Dawn) and finalizing a lot of character designs that have been in limbo for the last 15 years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It takes place in the same universe as PT (far in the past from when PT takes place, although there may be a recognizable face or two), so in some ways, it&apos;ll serve as a nice precursor to PT when I pick it up again.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&apos;m actually starting to put pages together now, so I&apos;ll be dumping some concept art and panels here if anyone has any interest in seeing them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v72/silentkitty/itchies.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/center&gt;</description>
  <comments>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/7320.html</comments>
  <category>comics</category>
  <category>hollow dawn</category>
  <lj:music>Ricardo Autobahn - The Golden Age Of Video</lj:music>
  <media:title type="plain">Ricardo Autobahn - The Golden Age Of Video</media:title>
  <lj:mood>determined</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>0</lj:reply-count>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/6829.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Sat, 26 Jan 2008 17:39:10 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Process :3</title>
  <link>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/6829.html</link>
  <description>[ Small note: Most entries to this journal are now friends-locked.  I know I said I wasn&apos;t going to lock it, but I changed my mind for several reasons.  So if you want to read it, please add this journal as a friend and I&apos;ll add you back. :D ]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Because I&apos;ve had a few people ask me about my page-making process, I thought I&apos;d toss this together as I was working this morning.  Uh, it&apos;s not really a tutorial so much as &quot;here is how I do stuff&quot;, but if anyone has any questions about any of these steps I&apos;ll be happy to try to go into more detail.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Cut for obnoxious length and many pictures. :D&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name=&quot;cutid1&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 1 - Pencils&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/1-pencils.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let me start out by saying that, when it comes to pencils, I am extremely lazy, especially when I&apos;m working on something that I know I&apos;m going to be inking myself.  This particular example is actually much more detailed than my usual pencils.  I have a habit of leaving off legs and arms and saying &quot;Oh, I&apos;ll just finish it later when I&apos;m inking&quot;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Uh.. Don&apos;t do that.  It&apos;s bad.  Or so I&apos;ve been told.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 2 - Inks&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/2-inks.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I do most of the &quot;drawing&quot; of a panel in the inking stage.  This is where I zoom in to about 200% and add in the details and fix anatomy.  There&apos;s just something that seems annoying to me about drawing all of the detail &lt;i&gt;twice&lt;/i&gt;, and then erasing 50% of it, which is why I don&apos;t do it in the pencil stage.  Anyway.  You&apos;re supposed to vary your line weights when you ink.  I don&apos;t usually do this either, because I&apos;m a terrible person.  I do try to make the lines in front a little thicker than the ones in the back, but it usually ends up all looking about the same, like this.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&apos;s also worth noting that in this case, I know I&apos;m going to be changing the color of some of the lines on Margensen and his plant, so I&apos;ve left them on a separate layer than Aisha, Cai, and the background.  It just makes things easier in the long run.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 3 - Flats&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/3-flats.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Guh. I &lt;i&gt;hate&lt;/i&gt; flatting.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For those of you not familiar with the term, &quot;flatting&quot; is basically just laying down, well, flat colors underneath the inks.  In the long run, this makes coloring the page a lot easier (since you can just select colors and lay shadows and textures down on top of them), but it&apos;s really a very boring process that I don&apos;t really have much else to say about.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Personally, I put each color on a layer by itself.  Some people put them all on the same layer and use the magic wand tool to select them when they&apos;re working on them.  Either way works, and putting them all on the same layer makes the file size smaller.  It&apos;s just easier for me to keep myself organized if I have them all on different layers.  YMMV.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 4 - Shading (Characters)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/4-shading1.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyone you talk to will tell you, when coloring, to start with the background first and work your way to the foreground.  Because I am an ass and prefer to do everything backwards, I nearly always start with the characters and work my way to the background.  Don&apos;t do this, it makes keeping your lighting consistant much harder than it should be.  In fact, I don&apos;t even know why I color in this order.  I&apos;m just impatient, I guess.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, I don&apos;t have much else to say about this step.  The coloring in these first few coloring steps is all &quot;under the ink&quot;.  I&apos;ll go back in and add highlights and special effects after I have all of the rest of the coloring done.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 5 - Shading (Mid-Ground)&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/5-shading2.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Next up is the immediate background surrounding the characters.  Not much for me to say here except that the mid-ground on this particular panel is a &lt;i&gt;little&lt;/i&gt; half-assed because I know it&apos;s going to be almost completely covered up in text when I&apos;m done.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 6 - Background&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/6-backround.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And, finally, the far background.  Now it actually sort of looks like a comic panel. :D&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&apos;ve had a couple people ask me about how I do the backgrounds, and it&apos;s really not complicated at all.  The trees are just flat colors layered on top of each other, with the lighter colors in back to give them some depth.  They&apos;re just vaguely tree-shaped scribbles if you zoom in. D:  As far as making the stars not look like white pixels in the sky (even though I think they still kind of do), you can do a couple of things:  the sky itself is a soft gradient, darker on the top and lighter on the bottom.  The stars are applied directly to the gradient, with a light blue brush (not white) set to &quot;color dodge&quot; so that you get a little tiny bit of a blue-colored border around the outside of each dot.  The star sizes are also varied, with more of them the smaller the brush gets.  As a final touch I usually go back with a huge soft brush set to &quot;color dodge&quot; and about 10% opacity and just run it over a couple of areas (like the area between Aisha and Cai, on this panel) to give it a little more depth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And uh, that&apos;s it for the background, really.  Onward!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Step 7 - Finishing&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/7-finishing.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After the background is done, I usually make another layer named &quot;on top of stuff&quot; to do the special effects on.  Sometimes I don&apos;t even do this step, if there aren&apos;t any particular effects on a page.  In this case, Margensen&apos;s branch and the little bugs flying around are all that was added.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For the branch, I just colored the lines white (on the actual ink layer - remember I said I saved it on a separate layer?  I just pixel-locked the layer and colored directly on top of the lines) and added a soft border around it to make it look glowy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The bugs are just light blue dots on color dodge with bigger, soft dots of color dodge around them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And that&apos;s it!  The panel will get pasted into the rest of the page and lettering will be added when the whole page is finished.  @_@&lt;/center&gt;</description>
  <comments>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/6829.html</comments>
  <category>purgatory tower</category>
  <category>finished piece</category>
  <lj:music>Ar tonelico II - The Moon-Dwelling Demon</lj:music>
  <media:title type="plain">Ar tonelico II - The Moon-Dwelling Demon</media:title>
  <lj:mood>sick</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>11</lj:reply-count>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/5327.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:37:27 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Chickadee + Squirrel = ?</title>
  <link>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/5327.html</link>
  <description>&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/chick-web.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/chick-prev.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;small&gt;-click on the thumbnail to see the full image-&lt;/small&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Art&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Remember the chickadee gryphons I mentioned in my last post?  That got me thinking about them, so I decided to sit down and draw one.. except I got distracted halfway through drawing the head, and when I came back to finish it, somehow it ended up transforming into...this monstrosity, which I have dubbed the &quot;chickasquirrel&quot;.  Mostly because &quot;chickasquirrel&quot; is really fun to say.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I really think I need more sleep.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Total Time:&lt;/i&gt; 1 hour&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Tools:&lt;/i&gt; Tablet, Photoshop&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Finished?:&lt;/i&gt; Yuh&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Rambling&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I got nothin&apos; today.  Have a few links that may be of interest to a couple of you? =D&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.freerice.com&quot;&gt;FreeRice&lt;/a&gt; - Everyone and their grandma has linked to this one, but it&apos;s still a good site to visit if you have some spare time on your hands (or you&apos;re trying to avoid doing the work that&apos;s keeping you from having spare time on your hands, like me).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bloglander.com/cheapeats/&quot;&gt;Cheap Eats&lt;/a&gt; - A really cool blog about uh.. cheap food.  If you&apos;re like me and you&apos;re on a massive food budget, you&apos;re probably really tired of rice and ramen noodles. :]  There&apos;s a lot of good, inexpensive recipes here, along with some pretty fun to read reviews of foods.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://uglyoverload.blogspot.com/&quot;&gt;Ugly Overload&lt;/a&gt; - I&apos;m sure you&apos;ve all seen or at least heard of &lt;a href=&quot;http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/&quot;&gt;Cute Overload&lt;/a&gt; - this site is like the antithesis of it.  :] If you have a severe aversion to bugs, I&apos;d suggest avoiding it, since he posts them up pretty often, but they&apos;re almost always accompanied by interesting factoids, and I&apos;ve actually learned quite a bit by reading some of his posts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://joshreads.com/&quot;&gt;The Comics Curmudgeon&lt;/a&gt; - If you&apos;re like me and you have pretty much lost all faith in newspaper-run comics, this site will make you laugh.  It will probably make you laugh even if you love to read them.  It&apos;s a daily blog in which he essentially just rags on various serial comics, and it&apos;s almost always hilarious.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.posemaniacs.com/&quot;&gt;Posemaniacs&lt;/a&gt; - A very useful reference site for artists, featuring about 2,000 different 3D-model poses that you can rotate.  Print-screen to save them, as far as I can tell there&apos;s no way to just right-click.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;K!  I&apos;ll go away now. =D</description>
  <comments>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/5327.html</comments>
  <category>rambling</category>
  <category>creatures</category>
  <category>sketches</category>
  <lj:music>Culdcept II - Light and Shadow (Battle)</lj:music>
  <media:title type="plain">Culdcept II - Light and Shadow (Battle)</media:title>
  <lj:mood>amused</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>6</lj:reply-count>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/4331.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Wed, 28 Nov 2007 04:38:05 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Aaaasgafdsfsdf.</title>
  <link>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/4331.html</link>
  <description>&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drunkduck.com/Desktop_PT/gfx/panel3.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/panel3-prev.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;small&gt;-click on the thumbnail to see the full image-&lt;/small&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Art&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;God, this next page has been absolutely killing me for some reason.  I&apos;ve been working on it all day and I feel like I&apos;m getting nowhere, lol.  Although, I&apos;m really happy with how this panel came out, so I thought I&apos;d share it at (close to) full size, since it&apos;ll be shrunk down to less than 50% of this size when the final page gets posted.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&apos;s worth noting that the greenery in the background does not look nearly as cool when you&apos;re zoomed way in like this, har har har.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Think of it as a little preview, I suppose, if you see it before the page goes up at some point tomorrow. :D&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Total Time:&lt;/i&gt; GOD I DON&apos;T EVEN KNOW. TOO LONG FOR ONE PANEL .&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Tools:&lt;/i&gt; Tablet, Photoshop&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Finished?:&lt;/i&gt; Yes :|&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Rambling&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We sell this chair, at OfficeHell.  You may have seen it.  It&apos;s basically just a stiff, armless, curved block of fabric that they call a &quot;gaming chair&quot;, mostly because it has speakers in the sides of it.  Presumably you&apos;re supposed to plug your TV or whatever into the chair and have stereo music playing around your butt while you&apos;re gaming.  I don&apos;t really get it, but that&apos;s beside the point.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The point is, that they currently have the floor model of this chair parked directly next to the copy center, which, as you may have gathered, is where I work.  And of course, what good is a floor model, if it&apos;s not functioning so that people can see how it works?  Anyway, normally they have it on the local pop radio station, which is not great, but tolerable.  &lt;i&gt;However,&lt;/i&gt; of course, in light of the season, they have been blasting Christmas carols from it.  Non stop.  For the last two weeks, and presumably, for the next four weeks as well.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We had no customers whatsoever tonight, so, in an attempt to entertain myself, I kept a checklist.  Over the course of a six hour shift, various, horrible remixes of the following songs came up:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Frosty the Snowman: 9 times&lt;br /&gt;Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer: 5 times&lt;br /&gt;Rockin&apos; Around the Christmas Tree: 3 times&lt;br /&gt;Jingle Bells: 10 times&lt;br /&gt;We Wish You A Merry Christmas: 6 times&lt;br /&gt;Do You Hear What I Hear: 13 times ( !!!! )&lt;br /&gt;&quot;New&quot; Christmas Carols That Nobody Knows The Words To By Various Pop Singers: 8 times&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;...God, I hate Christmas music.</description>
  <comments>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/4331.html</comments>
  <category>purgatory tower</category>
  <category>finished piece</category>
  <category>work</category>
  <lj:music>Evans Blue - In A Red Dress And Alone</lj:music>
  <media:title type="plain">Evans Blue - In A Red Dress And Alone</media:title>
  <lj:mood>groggy</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>19</lj:reply-count>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/3870.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Sat, 24 Nov 2007 23:26:27 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Coloring Practice!</title>
  <link>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/3870.html</link>
  <description>&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/Witchblade_Sketch.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/witchblade-prev.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;small&gt;-click on the thumbnail to see the full image-&lt;/small&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Art&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I didn&apos;t draw this!  The original version is &lt;a href=&quot;http://rantz.deviantart.com/art/Witchblade-Sketch-67575092&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, and was drawn by &lt;a href=&quot;http://rantz.deviantart.com&quot;&gt;rantz&lt;/a&gt;.  I was just using it for coloring practice, and was pretty happy with how it came out.  I&apos;m sad to say that I really know next to nothing about Witchblade, so I just kind of guessed at most of the colors.  :D&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Total Time:&lt;/i&gt; 1.5 hours&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Tools:&lt;/i&gt; Tablet, Photoshop&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Finished?:&lt;/i&gt; Yes&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Rambling&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Black Friday at OfficeHell was pretty much as expected.  They were apparently super-busy during the morning, but I didn&apos;t have to go in until 1pm, so I missed most of it.  It was pretty much completely dead the entire time that I was there, so they ended up sending me home early.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Surprisingly, I only had one customer freak out at me, and it was over the phone.  We had a sale going on, as a lot of places did, that was only effective from 7am to noon.  After noon, all the prices reset back to their regular price (except for a few which remained on sale, but at a higher price).  This customer called, first asking me what our policy on price matching was.  I told him that we weren&apos;t matching prices that day, because of all the Black Friday sales going on, but if he&apos;d like to come in Saturday we can do so.  Of course, at this point, he starts getting snotty with me; the conversation went something like this:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Him: &lt;b&gt;WELL,&lt;/b&gt; I went to your other store, but I was an hour late for the sale.  So I missed the sale price.&lt;br /&gt;Me: I&apos;m sorry to hear that, sir. o_o&lt;br /&gt;Him: What can I do about it?&lt;br /&gt;Me: Um.. Nothing, the sale ended at noon.  The prices aren&apos;t valid after that.  If you want the item, you&apos;ll need to pay the full price.&lt;br /&gt;Him: So you&apos;re telling me that I&apos;m screwed, because I was late to the sale?!&lt;br /&gt;Me: ...Yes.&lt;br /&gt;Him: That&apos;s ridiculous, give me your number to corporate!&lt;br /&gt;Me: xxx-xxx-xxxx.&lt;br /&gt;Him: This is ridiculous!  [hangs up after ranting in my ear for another two minutes]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I just don&apos;t understand why people feel like exceptions should be made for them in cases like this.  It was made perfectly clear in the flyer and all of the advertisements that we sent out, &lt;i&gt;the sale ends at noon.&lt;/i&gt;  If you&apos;re late, tough cookies.  You  had a span of five hours in which to get yourself to the store - if you choose not to do so, that&apos;s not our problem.  Chances are the item that he wanted was gone anyway, since we pretty much sold out of everything in the ad by noon.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Buh.</description>
  <comments>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/3870.html</comments>
  <category>finished piece</category>
  <category>fanart</category>
  <category>work</category>
  <lj:music>SMT: Nocturne - Heretic Mansion ~ Shining Heaven</lj:music>
  <media:title type="plain">SMT: Nocturne - Heretic Mansion ~ Shining Heaven</media:title>
  <lj:mood>accomplished</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>6</lj:reply-count>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/3830.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Thu, 22 Nov 2007 16:22:23 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>PT character meme!</title>
  <link>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/3830.html</link>
  <description>I saw this fun little survey in &lt;span class=&apos;ljuser  ljuser-name_terioncalling&apos; lj:user=&apos;terioncalling&apos; style=&apos;white-space: nowrap;&apos;&gt;&lt;a href=&apos;http://terioncalling.livejournal.com/profile&apos;&gt;&lt;img src=&apos;http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif&apos; alt=&apos;[info]&apos; width=&apos;17&apos; height=&apos;17&apos; style=&apos;vertical-align: bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;&apos; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&apos;http://terioncalling.livejournal.com/&apos;&gt;&lt;b&gt;terioncalling&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&apos;s journal and had to snag it for myself.  It&apos;s a series of survey questions, answered by five PT characters.  You can find more info on the characters &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.drunkduck.com/Purgatory_Tower/html/character.html&quot;&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;, if you&apos;re confused.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just as a warning, there are some very minor spoilers contained below.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;1. Choose a few of your own characters. Five at the most.&lt;br /&gt;2. Make them answer the following questions&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a name=&quot;cutid1&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;A. How old are you?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt;  24?  I think?  Never really bothered celebrating birthdays, so I kinda lost track.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cai:&lt;/b&gt; [huffs]  Younger than anyone else who gives an answer.  Next question.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Margensen:&lt;/b&gt;  U-um, Miss Cai, I&apos;m pretty sure you&apos;re-&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cai:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;b&gt;SHUT UP.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Margensen:&lt;/b&gt; ..Yes, Miss Cai.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Winley:&lt;/b&gt; 27, although this doesn&apos;t really seem relevant in any way.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Veyra:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;i&gt;Dche,&lt;/i&gt; why am I here?  This is stupid.  Ask me something interesting or I am going to start entertaining myself.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;i&gt;NEXT QUESTION PLEASE.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;B. Height?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; 5&apos;1&quot;.  Being short has its uses, shut up.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cai:&lt;/b&gt; 5&apos;5&quot;.  Let me guess, you want my measurements next?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Margensen:&lt;/b&gt; Um, I&apos;m afraid I don&apos;t really know.  I suppose it varies anyway, depending on what-&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Winley:&lt;/b&gt;: 5&apos;7&quot;. Can we please hurry this up?  I have things that I need to do.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Veyra:&lt;/b&gt;: [stares at Aisha] ...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt;: U-um..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Veyra:&lt;/b&gt; ..Eh?  Did they ask another stupid question?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;C. Got any bad habits?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; W-well.  I guess snagging people&apos;s stuff without permission might be considered a bad habit.  By some people.  I say they should just keep their stuff somewhere that I can&apos;t reach it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cai:&lt;/b&gt; ... Next question.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Margensen:&lt;/b&gt; I don&apos;t really think I have any bad habits.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; I&apos;m pretty sure calling everyone &quot;Miss This, Sir That&quot; every ten seconds counts as a bad habit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Margensen:&lt;/b&gt; You.. You think so, Miss Squirrel?  I hadn&apos;t realised that I did it so-&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Winley:&lt;/b&gt; Interrupting people while they&apos;re talking.  Next question.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Veyra:&lt;/b&gt; Stabbing people.  Mostly.  I am told it is a bad habit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; ...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;D. Are you a virgin?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; Wh- Ugh.  No, I&apos;m not.  Next question.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cai:&lt;/b&gt; What kind of question is this?!  You&apos;re starting to get on my nerves.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Margensen:&lt;/b&gt; I-I&apos;m afraid I don&apos;t know what that is.  Is it a bad thing to be a virgin?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Winley:&lt;/b&gt; No.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Veyra:&lt;/b&gt; Of course not!  Do you think that I am so unattractive that I could not attract a mate?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; ...Uh, well-&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Veyra:&lt;/b&gt; DO NOT ANSWER THAT IF YOU WANT TO CONTINUE BREATHING, &lt;i&gt;T&apos;CHAI-SEN.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; ..Gotcha.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;E. Who is your mate/spouse?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; No one, at the moment.  Thank &lt;i&gt;the gods.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cai:&lt;/b&gt; Asking me the same question in a different way is not going to make me answer it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Margensen:&lt;/b&gt; Miss Cai, it isn&apos;t really the same question.  It is possible to-&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cai:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;i&gt;Can it&lt;/i&gt;, Margensen.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Margensen:&lt;/b&gt; Yes, Miss Cai.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Winley:&lt;/b&gt; I don&apos;t have time for that type of thing right now.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Veyra:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;i&gt;Iyeh?&lt;/i&gt; You mean marriage? Yech.  I am getting bored with these questions again.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;F. Have any kids?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; ...Seriously?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cai:&lt;/b&gt; What?!  I hate children.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Margensen:&lt;/b&gt; I-I think that&apos;s kind of a physical impossibility for me right now...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Winley:&lt;/b&gt; Children are a complete waste of time and energy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Veyra:&lt;/b&gt; Yes. I have kids for a snack, sometimes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; ...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cai:&lt;/b&gt; ...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Margensen:&lt;/b&gt; ...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Veyra:&lt;/b&gt; I was joking!  I made a joke!  You are supposed to laugh.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; ...I&apos;m not so sure she was joking.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;G. Favorite food?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; I was raised in a slum, and it pretty much taught me not to be picky.  My favorite food is whatever I can get my hands on.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cai:&lt;/b&gt; Oh!  These wonderful little pastries that my mother used to make.  I really miss them.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Margensen:&lt;/b&gt; I don&apos;t really need to eat anymore, you see...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Winley:&lt;/b&gt; My answer is the same as Aisha&apos;s.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Veyra:&lt;/b&gt; Oh! It is-&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha, Cai:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;b&gt;DON&apos;T SAY CHILDREN.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Veyra:&lt;/b&gt; ...I was going to say roasted pork. &lt;i&gt;Dche,&lt;/i&gt; so sensitive.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;H. Favorite ice cream flavor?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; Favorite whatnow?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cai:&lt;/b&gt; I haven&apos;t got a clue what the hell that is.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Margensen:&lt;/b&gt; Ice cream..?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Winley:&lt;/b&gt; ...&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Veyra:&lt;/b&gt; Whatever it is, it sounds cold.  I do not like cold things.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;I. Killed anyone?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; No, for crying out loud!  Why does everyone keep asking me this?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cai:&lt;/b&gt; Er, I&apos;d rather not answer this question in the company present.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Margensen:&lt;/b&gt; Yes, I have.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; ...Wh-&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Winley:&lt;/b&gt; Yes.  More, if indirectly counts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Veyra:&lt;/b&gt; Are you really soooo stupid that you have to ask me this question?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;J. Hate anyone?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; Yes, one person.  And oh look, he&apos;s &lt;i&gt;right over there.&lt;/i&gt; [jabs a finger at Winley]&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cai:&lt;/b&gt; I really kind of hate most people.  They&apos;re annoying.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Margensen:&lt;/b&gt; Not really anyone in particular.  I only hate people who try to harm Miss Cai.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Winley:&lt;/b&gt; Hate is a waste of time and energy.  It accomplishes nothing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Veyra:&lt;/b&gt; &lt;i&gt;Neh?&lt;/i&gt;  If I hate someone, I am stabbing them.  Then the problem is solved.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;K. Any secrets?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; Well, obviously.  But if I told them to you, they wouldn&apos;t really be secrets, now would they?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cai:&lt;/b&gt; Yes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Margensen:&lt;/b&gt; Not really.  I will tell people what they want to know, if they ask.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Winley:&lt;/b&gt; Yes, I do.  I don&apos;t feel the need to divulge them at this time, however.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Veyra:&lt;/b&gt; Secrets?  I hate sneaky-sneaky things, just say what you are thinking.  &lt;i&gt;Dche.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;L. Love anyone?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Aisha:&lt;/b&gt; Ugh, no, thank god.  What a mess &lt;i&gt;that&lt;/i&gt; was.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Cai:&lt;/b&gt; Do you mean romantic love?  Then, no.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Margensen:&lt;/b&gt; I am fond of Miss Cai, but I don&apos;t think it is in the way that you mean..&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Winley:&lt;/b&gt; Loving someone only gets in the way if you need to use them for something later.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;Veyra:&lt;/b&gt; Orun is the only man who I will tolerate.  Perhaps that means I am loving him?  Who cares?  Stupid question.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh, and happy Thanksgiving!  Don&apos;t eat too much, or you might explode.  Nobody wants that.</description>
  <comments>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/3830.html</comments>
  <category>purgatory tower</category>
  <category>rambling</category>
  <lj:music>Foo Fighters - The Pretender</lj:music>
  <media:title type="plain">Foo Fighters - The Pretender</media:title>
  <lj:mood>awake</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>3</lj:reply-count>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/3267.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:47:31 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Mostly a PT entry.</title>
  <link>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/3267.html</link>
  <description>&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/eyes-web.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/eyes-prev.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;small&gt;-click on the thumbnail to see the full image-&lt;/small&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Art&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This actually started out as a portrait of Winley (second down), but his mouth kept pissing me off, so I cropped it.  Then, as you can see, I got carried away, as I tend to do. :D  I actually had a lot of fun doing this, and I might do another one with the rest of the cast soon.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Erm, from top to bottom, Sort-of-Cai, Winley, Aisha, and Verya.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Total Time:&lt;/i&gt; ~1 hour&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Tools:&lt;/i&gt; Tablet, Photoshop&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Finished?:&lt;/i&gt; Maybe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Rambling&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;PT is really the first full story that I&apos;ve released to the public.  I don&apos;t really have any experience whatsoever with writing comics, although I&apos;ve been writing short (and, sometimes, painfully long) stories my whole life.  Most of them I&apos;ve never showed to anyone outside of high school teachers and a couple of friends.  To that end, watching people&apos;s reactions to the characters in PT has really been interesting to me, and quite a learning experience.  People like (and dislike) characters I didn&apos;t expect them to, and have been catching onto some plot elements a lot sooner than I expected (while completely missing others).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The reaction to Margensen, in particular, has been really fascinating to me.  In the beginning of the comic, he&apos;s really kind of a background figure, and he doesn&apos;t really have that big of a role to play until a few chapters from now.  Never in a million years did I expect as many people to latch onto him as they have.  Without getting into spoilers (since I know most of the people reading this journal came from Drunk Duck), I&apos;m curious to see what the reaction to him will be once his role becomes more apparent, and changes a bit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To me, the real story is really just getting ready to start as chapter 3 ends.  My favorite characters (Winley, Veyra, and M&apos;aar) will finally have more than a background appearance once every twenty pages, and we&apos;ll finally start to get some background information on characters. :D&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&apos;m looking forward to it, anyway.  I really wish I could manage to update 2-3 times a week, because I kind of feel like things are dragging a little at one page a week.  3 updates a week is not going to happen anytime soon, but my plan is to try to get at least one panel finished (inked/colored) a day from here on out, which will either get me a buffer (finally) or allow me to update more often as I finish pages.  We&apos;ll see how it pans out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I don&apos;t even know what I&apos;m talking about anymore, so I&apos;ll shut up now.</description>
  <comments>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/3267.html</comments>
  <category>purgatory tower</category>
  <category>sketches</category>
  <lj:music>Persona 3 - Deep Breath Deep Breath</lj:music>
  <media:title type="plain">Persona 3 - Deep Breath Deep Breath</media:title>
  <lj:mood>hungry</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>11</lj:reply-count>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/2909.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Mon, 19 Nov 2007 05:19:28 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Subjects are for Kings</title>
  <link>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/2909.html</link>
  <description>&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/anime-web.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/anime-prev.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;small&gt;-click on the thumbnail to see the full image-&lt;/small&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Art&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I...really don&apos;t have much to say about this, it&apos;s really just some random anime elf that I doodled while we were dead at work.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;THAT IS ALL.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Total Time:&lt;/i&gt; 20 minutes&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Tools:&lt;/i&gt; Ballpoint Pen, Photoshop for texture&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Finished?:&lt;/i&gt; ya.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Rambling&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&apos;ve been awake since 6am, because I had to work this morning, and I have this compulsive need to get up at least five hours before I have to be at work.  There&apos;s just something about getting up and going straight into work that&apos;s enough to ruin my entire day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Plus, I&apos;m too cheap to buy a hair dryer, and my hair takes about two hours to try on its own.  More, when it&apos;s freezing cold out, as it is right now.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway, yeah.  Gonna sleep now.</description>
  <comments>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/2909.html</comments>
  <category>sketches</category>
  <lj:music>Thievery Corporation - Indra</lj:music>
  <media:title type="plain">Thievery Corporation - Indra</media:title>
  <lj:mood>restless</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>12</lj:reply-count>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/2640.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Fri, 16 Nov 2007 04:53:27 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>I got nothin&apos;</title>
  <link>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/2640.html</link>
  <description>&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/red-web.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/red-prev.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;small&gt;-click on the thumbnail to see the full image-&lt;/small&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Art&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&apos;m not exactly sure about the anatomy involved in having an eye on your tongue, but I can&apos;t imagine it would be terribly comfortable.  Or, for that matter, terribly useful, in the long run.  Unless you had some particular reason that you needed to be able to see inside of your mouth.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Er, anyway, this really ended up coming out very dark, but when I tried to lighten it up, it didn&apos;t look as cool.  So I just left it.  This is what happens when I go into &quot;fuck it all&quot; mode and start playing with the dodge and burn tools. :[&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Total Time:&lt;/i&gt; 45 minutes&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Tools:&lt;/i&gt; Photoshop, Tablet&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Finished?:&lt;/i&gt; Ah-yuh.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Rambling&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You know, on my way home from work this afternoon, it occurred to me how wonderfully ironic it is when they play censored versions of Rage Against the Machine on the radio.  Every time I heard them futilely raging &lt;i&gt;&quot;f**k you, I won&apos;t do what you tell me&quot;&lt;/i&gt;, I giggled.  Well, apparently, Mr. De La Rocha, you &lt;i&gt;will&lt;/i&gt; do what they tell you, when they&apos;re paying you thousands of dollars to play your angsty songs on the radio, at least.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But keep on stickin&apos; it to the man!  Power to the people!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Anyway,there was more that I was going to say, but it will have to wait unti lafter I curl up in bed and die for a few hours. I was okay all afternoon, but I think three hours of sleep is finally starting to catch up with me.</description>
  <comments>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/2640.html</comments>
  <category>music</category>
  <category>creatures</category>
  <category>sketches</category>
  <lj:music>Poets of the Fall - Dawn</lj:music>
  <media:title type="plain">Poets of the Fall - Dawn</media:title>
  <lj:mood>cold</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>9</lj:reply-count>
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  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/2366.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Wed, 14 Nov 2007 04:49:13 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Faces, Dragons, and DHL</title>
  <link>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/2366.html</link>
  <description>&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/medley-web.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/medley-prev.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;small&gt;-click on the thumbnail to see the full image-&lt;/small&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Art&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This started out as a reference drawing, with the girl in the middle, but I gave up somewhere around ten seconds into the drawing and just started doodling.  Of course, dragons ended up coming out.  They always do, no matter how hard I try to keep them from doing so. :[&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Total Time:&lt;/i&gt; 30 minutes&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Tools:&lt;/i&gt; Photoshop, Tablet&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Finished?:&lt;/i&gt; Yaa&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Rambling&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you have the option, never ship through DHL.  Seriously.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We offer shipping through them at my workplace, and really, they&apos;re awful most of the time, but today just kind of took the cake.  A guy came in with his reciept, asking me why, when he got himself a rate quote over their website, it told him that it would cost him $12 to ship his package by ground, while we had charged him &lt;b&gt;$38&lt;/b&gt; in the store, for the same service.  At first I thought maybe it was just our retail rate (since obviously we mark it up a bit so that we get some profit from shipping), but that&apos;s a pretty huge difference, so I tried to look into it for him.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;First, I tried re-shipping a package of the same weight and dimensions as the one he had sent, to the same address, same insurance, same everything.  DHL&apos;s shipping system proudly informed me of my total: &lt;b&gt;$28.35.&lt;/b&gt;  So now we have three different shipping quotes, for the exact same package.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Boggling, I told him to wait and I would call DHL&apos;s customer service and see what they said.  The customer service guy took down all the information, typed it into his little system, even used our account number so that he would be sure he was shipping with the same rates... What did he come up with?  &lt;b&gt;$21.42.&lt;/b&gt;  We now have &lt;i&gt;four&lt;/i&gt; different shipping quotes, for the exact same package.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Why, I asked the customer service rep, would this be?  I am as confused as my poor customer by this point, and would really like to have an answer to give him.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&quot;&lt;b&gt;I don&apos;t know,&lt;/b&gt;&quot; he tells me.  &quot;I&apos;d tell you if I knew.  Can I help you with anything else?&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And then he &lt;i&gt;hung up on me&lt;/i&gt; while I was still boggling about DHL&apos;s complete inability to produce an accurate shipping quote.  Honestly.  I didn&apos;t have any idea what to tell the customer, and suggested that he give DHL a call himself and see if he can&apos;t get himself a fifth quote.  Luckily, he was more amused by the whole thing than he probably should have been, and told me he&apos;d let me know how many different quotes he could get before they got sick of him calling.</description>
  <comments>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/2366.html</comments>
  <category>art</category>
  <category>creatures</category>
  <category>sketches</category>
  <category>work</category>
  <lj:music>Ar Tonelico II Hymnos - EXEC over.METHOD SUBLIMATION/. ~ Ee Wassa Sos Yehar</lj:music>
  <media:title type="plain">Ar Tonelico II Hymnos - EXEC over.METHOD SUBLIMATION/. ~ Ee Wassa Sos Yehar</media:title>
  <lj:mood>amused</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>10</lj:reply-count>
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<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/1982.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Sat, 10 Nov 2007 04:53:05 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Old Guy n&apos; a Deer</title>
  <link>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/1982.html</link>
  <description>&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/oldman-web.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/oldman-prev.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;small&gt;-click on the thumbnail to see the full image-&lt;/small&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Art&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Nothing too exciting, just a study of an old man&apos;s face.  I used a reference, but by the end it pretty much ended up looking nothing like the reference.  He wasn&apos;t a farmer when I started, I swear. o_o  Well, anyway.  I don&apos;t know what the hell the deer thing is.  Maybe it&apos;s running up to attack the old guy or something. :D&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Total Time:&lt;/i&gt; 30 minutes&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Tools:&lt;/i&gt; Photoshop, Tablet&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Finished?:&lt;/i&gt; Yup&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Rambling&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Bleh.  I&apos;ve been completely unmotivated all day today, and I really needed to get some work done.  I&apos;ve just been so lethargic and out of it for the last week or so, it&apos;s hard to motivate myself to actually sit down and work on stuff.  I blame the cold weather, just because I can.  :D&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;But yeah, really.  Nothing interesting is going on.</description>
  <comments>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/1982.html</comments>
  <category>sketches</category>
  <lj:music>10 Years - Through The Iris</lj:music>
  <media:title type="plain">10 Years - Through The Iris</media:title>
  <lj:mood>tired</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>2</lj:reply-count>
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<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/1560.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Thu, 08 Nov 2007 19:56:00 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Black Frost, Part Two</title>
  <link>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/1560.html</link>
  <description>&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/blackfrost-web.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/blackfrost-prev.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;small&gt;-click on the thumbnail to see the full image-&lt;/small&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Art&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Done! :D  He actually didn&apos;t take as much time as I though the would to finish.  The leaves were kind of added in as an afterthought, and I&apos;m not sure I like them too much, but it needed something in the foreground and I couldn&apos;t think of anything else to put there.  *deep breath*  Despite my deep hatred of this particular shade of purple, I still had fun with this piece, and I&apos;m pretty happy with how it came out.  Expect to see me prodding around with some more fan art in the future.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Total Time:&lt;/i&gt; 2 Hours&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Tools:&lt;/i&gt; Photoshop, Tablet&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Finished?:&lt;/i&gt; Yes :D&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Rambling&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This apartment complex kills me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&apos;s, like, November, right? Freezing cold outside, the grass is no longer growing, there&apos;s still a couple of leaves falling off of the trees now and then. 8 am this morning, they had the grounds crew outside, &lt;i&gt;sweeping up leaves&lt;/i&gt;. Not only were they sweeping them off the ground, they were also sweeping them off of the roof. With their giant power sweepers. This would be okay, except for the fact that they just &lt;i&gt;did&lt;/i&gt; this not a week ago, and there are hardly even any new leaves on the ground, because they have all fallen off of the trees already.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As soon as it starts snowing, as it is every year, all of these grounds workers will vanish, like the flowers, underneath the snow. Not a single one of them will be anywhere to be found as the snow piles up outside of people&apos;s apartments, making it impossible to walk to their cars without a grappling hook and mountain climbing gear. The road will not be plowed until somewhere around mid-February, after the cars have already crunched the snow down into its own little snow-road anyway.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, if one &lt;i&gt;single leaf&lt;/i&gt; should fall off of a tree, seventeen workers will appear out of nowhere and descend upon it instantly, all with their giant noisy leaf blowers,to make sure it doesn&apos;t sully the look of the apartment complex.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sigh.</description>
  <comments>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/1560.html</comments>
  <category>rambling</category>
  <category>finished piece</category>
  <category>fanart</category>
  <lj:music>Blue October - Into the Ocean</lj:music>
  <media:title type="plain">Blue October - Into the Ocean</media:title>
  <lj:mood>amused</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>2</lj:reply-count>
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<item>
  <guid isPermaLink='true'>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/1264.html</guid>
  <pubDate>Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:30:22 GMT</pubDate>
  <title>Subjects are for kings.</title>
  <link>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/1264.html</link>
  <description>&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/11-7-web.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc158/skdoodles/11-7-prev.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;small&gt;-click on the thumbnail to see the full image-&lt;/small&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Art&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I don&apos;t really know what these things are.  I was actually messing around with brushes in Photoshop, trying to make something that looked like a pencil, and got a little carried away when I started drawing hair, as I tend to do.  Drawing stuff like this makes me realize exactly how little I actually know about anatomy.  I usually just start fudging around with lines and hope for the best.  :D&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Total Time:&lt;/i&gt; 20 minutes&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Tools:&lt;/i&gt; Photoshop, Tablet&lt;br /&gt;&lt;i&gt;Finished?:&lt;/i&gt; Yeah.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;u&gt;Rambling&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I&apos;m currently wearing three pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, two turtlenecks, a sweater, a pullover, and a hat. And I am &lt;i&gt;still cold&lt;/i&gt;.  I hate winter almost as much as I hate summer.  I really need to find a climate that goes straight from spring to fall, and then right back to spring again.  This whole &quot;four seasons&quot; system is really not working out for me.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Work tonight.  Is it sad that I&apos;m looking forward to going in because the building is heated?</description>
  <comments>http://sk-doodles.livejournal.com/1264.html</comments>
  <category>rambling</category>
  <category>art</category>
  <category>creatures</category>
  <category>sketches</category>
  <lj:music>Persona 3 - Unavoidable Battle</lj:music>
  <media:title type="plain">Persona 3 - Unavoidable Battle</media:title>
  <lj:mood>cold</lj:mood>
  <lj:security>public</lj:security>
  <lj:reply-count>0</lj:reply-count>
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