I want you all to welcome Biscotti Mostro!! Or you can call him Biscuit Monster. ;D

He is too cute for you all to handle...





Whoa man...is he ever cute! They think that he is a yorkie mix. His little neck scruff is just painfully cute.

Things we'll have to work on:
-leash training: He kinda wants to walk with a lead, but he'll stop as soon as the leash tugs at him. Mel was worse about the leash. He wouldn't walk at all when we got him.
-bath time: He just plain hated the water! Neither did Mel, but he'll take a bath now with minimal argument.
-kennel training: He haaaates the kennel!! And again, neither did Mel. Haha!

I'm not sure yet if he is potty trained. There was a person cleaning his kennel at the shelter, but there's no one able to let them out to use the bathroom, so he probably used the bathroom in there out of necessity. He hasn't acted like he wants to mark anything in the house so far. He just loves being a lazy face.


We'll be calling him Bic Mo for short.

Something of a different nature

I'm going to start branching out here. That way, I'll actually make an effort to post more frequently.

K sent me a link to a really great article that I think all of you ladies should read. It's about being angry, and that it's ok to be angry.

I hadn't thought about how much I've been affected by the social construct of girls and women being submissive in every way, including "toning down" their anger. I know that, especially being raised in the south, that the phrase "you are SO ugly when you're angry! straighten up! smile!" is all to frequent. And I fell into that, every bit of it.

I've been trying to work on the urge to please everyone but myself. I'm a people pleaser, and so my own feelings and problems and etc fell by the wayside because of that. A few recent events have even shown me that doing everything for someone that seems to need some kind of help ends up punishing me more in the long run. Especially if I have no connection to the person other than through their spouse or a friend or whatever-the-hell-else.

This is not to say that I will no longer help people. If I feel they sincerely need some help, or an ear, or a shoulder, then I'll do that. I'll just be a lot more reluctant to give that type of help away, mostly because it is more emotionally draining than I can handle right now.

I'll be sure to let everyone know when I've gained emotions made of steel. Then I will be more than pleased to help the entire world. :D

Anyways, here's a link to the article. I'll put the entire text here as well, if you'd rather take the time to read it here.

Lessons for Girls, number one: Anger

Posted under: Gender, childhood, women's history
snowwhite

If I wish I had learned one lesson earlier in life, it’s this: it’s okay to be angry, it’s okay to make other people angry, and anger can work for you. (Well, that might be three lessons, but I find it hard to disentangle them, so bear with me.)

It’s okay to be angry. Girls are subjected to an impressive load of anti-anger propaganda. Snow White and Cinderella, at least in the mid-century modern Disneyfield versions we’re stuck with today in U.S. popular culture, are both specifically praised for remaining sweet and good-natured in spite of the fact that they’re turned into indentured servants by their stepmothers. (There’s also a not-so-subtle implication that it’s their sweet natures that preserve their beauty–because anger is so aging, my dears!) What kind of a lesson is that for girls? If a child of mine were enslaved by an evil stepmother, I’d sure as hell want her to get pi$$ed off and fight back. But, anger is punished in girls from the beginning. An undergraduate student of mine recently complained that she’s not permitted to express anger. When she does, first she’s patronized and told that she really doesn’t mean what she’s saying, and when she insists that no, she really is angry, the reaction she gets from other people isn’t apology or rational discussion, it’s anger at her anger. (For more on this see below, “It’s okay to make other people angry.”)

I’ve got another version of Snow White’s story I like to tell: Instead of a smiling, simpering dip$hit who simply loves scrubbing the stairs, Snow White sneaks away one day to raise an army. (She makes sure break that tattletale Magic Mirror first, so that he can’t rat her out.) Snow White delivers a stirring speech in a clandestine meeting at the local cathedral, where the women and men of the kingdom agree to enlist in her cause against the usurper queen. She returns to the castle in gleaming armour, and while her army overwhelms the queen’s guards, she chops off the queen’s head with her broadsword, and displays it on a pike from the castle’s highest tower. And of course, the kingdom becomes a republic with a constitution and an elaborate system of shared governance; Snow White stays on as a cabinet secretary. Without anger, that course of action is simply impossible. Without anger, you’re at the mercy of forest animals, dwarves, and handsome princes, all of whom have their own agendas should they choose to help you out.

It’s okay to make other people angry. It happens to us all–if you are a sentient being with needs and opinions, you will pi$$ someone off. Most of the time it won’t have been your intention at all, but you will make others angry. Sometimes you’ll be in a position to make a decision that will make people angry. Suck it up–it’s a privilege of rank to make decisions, and those people are entitled to their anger, too. Sometimes, you’ll pi$$ off others because they treated you badly and you protested their treatment because you are, after all, a sentient being who refuses to be treated badly. But, be warned: people who treat you badly get really, really angry when you refuse to accept bad treatment. Don’t get upset because people who treated you badly are angry. Always remember: no matter what they say, they don’t have your best interests at heart, because they treated you badly!

Sometimes people will get angry and treat you badly because you’ve expressed an opinion they don’t like. Whatever the reason, please get over any compulsion you may have to apologize to them or to anyone else for their anger or for their inappropriate displays of their anger. This will be very hard if they insult your intelligence or misprepresent your point of view. It will be even harder if they scream at you in public and make wild accusations about your motives for expressing your opinions. Understand that these people are behaving childishly, and the way to deal with angry children is to send them to their rooms and ignore the tantrum. Their anger is their responsibility.

Anger can work for you. There are people who will disagree with me on this, but I have found anger to be a remarkably clarifying and cleansing emotion. Men’s liberationist movements are all about anger: Anger was at the heart of what made the American and French Revolutions happen, and anger motivated generations of black and white abolitionists to fight against slavery. Anger is the only rational and healthy reaction to exploitation and injustice. In my own life, anger has worked: Once upon a time, anger motivated me to get out of an exploitative romantic relationship. Early in the present decade, anger motivated me to get another, better job when I was being bullied at work. I agree that anger that doesn’t lead to productive change is a problem that probably requires therapy. (And you have to use anger judiciously–don’t get angry at traffic, and don’t get angry about petty everyday frustrations. That’s anger that doesn’t go anywhere but straight to your cardiovascular system.) Too many girls and women are told that it’s bad simply to feel anger–let alone to express it or act on it, and I think that’s because denying anger is enfeebling. (Denying anger takes its toll on your cardiovascular system, too–beware, my pretties.)

Not being angry is a large part of what makes us girls and women–we agree to be the not-angries who are somehow nevertheless responsible for placating everyone else’s anger: our employers’ and co-workers’ anger, our parents’ anger, our partners’/abusers’ anger, and even our children’s anger (when applicable). That’s a division of emotional labor and emotional privilege that has awesome (and awesomely unequal) economic, political, and social consequences for everyone.

What lesson do you wish you had learned earlier in life? Do any fembloggers out there want to take a swing at more Lessons for Girls? Let me know in the comments below, and I’ll post links here to your contributions to our little feminist vade mecum. (If you don’t have a blog, I’m willing to consider guest posts–so e-mail me and let me know.)

This post is dedicated to Clio Bluestocking, who was recently lectured about her inappropriate “tone” when her opinions were solicited by a fellowship program she’s participating in and she actually shared them with the other fellows. She was informed that no one else in the program liked or respected her, so she should try to moderate her language and “tone” because it would be so good for her personal growth. Clio’s description of her experiences made me very angry on her behalf, but they helped me clarify some thoughts that have been knocking around for a while about women and anger.

In other news, I woke up feeling downright terrible. My stomach was literally boiling (minus the heat). I know you've experienced this before. It's that feeling that indicates that you're either about to vomit, shit yourself inside-out, or both at the same time in a tremendous scene of gore and horror. I went and got some sprite and that terribly salty chicken noodle soup, and that made me feel better. Something about saltiness that makes it all better. Mmmm!

What a great workout

I've really been enjoying seeing myself progress, even if it's been
slow. To be able to work out at that level and not feel terrible
during and after is so amazing to me.

When I was talking to my sister last night, I came up with a goal
that's inspired by a fellow loc'er on fotki. She lost a lot of weight
during the progression of her locs, and now I'm inspired to do the same.

So, my long term goal is to have a really artsy and amazing photoshoot
in one year. Both my sister and fiancé are joining me in this journey.
I figured that, instead of a specific weight goal, that I would aim
for a desired look and health level. That's much more attainable than
a number.

I'm waaaaaay too excited!

-Lauren

Hmmm.

So, I'm going to give this email posting a try. Should be interesting.

Anyways, here's a picture from sometime last week. I think it was
right before bed or somesuch. I am in love with the way the ends are
coiling!! So much fun! :D

Hallo world. This is a test for life.

I should update!

I figured that I should probably update everyone to say that I'm in the process of locing my hair!

After wearing the kinky twists for about 6 weeks, I had an amazing conversation with a woman with absolutely incredible locs in my school's gym. They were amazing, and almost to her waist, and she swung them with such confidence and grace that I was awe inspired.

She looks at me, and says: "You know...the next step from kinky twists is to loc your hair!" and kind of giggled. I told her that at the time, I wasn't entirely ready to do so, considering that I have family with serious hang-ups about natural hair. But we kept talking about it, and that day, I went home and started a massive research on what to do, what not to do, if I should do it myself, etc. It was amazing! I was completely immersed in research for about a week that even my fiance was puzzled.

Anyways, I'm off to work on my art. I should update here some day with that stuff as well. :D

Day 14

Sooo, I'm doing alright with the twists. The first set started to pull out, so I decided to go ahead and take them down this past Thursday.

No fear though, I put them right back in. This time, I wanted to make them smaller and longer, which lead to a 12 hour twisting session. The fact that my thumb had a pretty good cut on it from working metal didn't help at all. D: But it's done, and I think it looks pretty good. :D

Day 3

When I woke up this morning, my entire silk scarf had come off of my head. No worries though, seeing as how I slept pretty peacefully otherwise. :D I should just get a silk pillowcase and save the trouble of trying to keep anything on my head at night.

I'm now looking for a good deep conditioner and leave in for my hair. I'm already itchy!! D:

Day 2

So, I managed to finish my kinky twists, and it was a terribly long ordeal.

I learned a lot though! Next time, I'll probably use different hair, and make them a loooot longer.

So, here's a picture of the finished hair:




I tried roller setting the ends, but that was quite unsuccessful. D: Oh well! I'll try again today some time.

Oh so Kinky!!

I'm going to go for the 100 day kinky twist challenge!! I'm going to do it!!

I'll probably blog about it on here, livejournal, and myspace, so keep in touch!!

Wut wut?

Ok!!! I am GOING to post daily figure studies here.

Well, they're not exactly figure studies, seeing as how I'm using a 3d-posed muscle figure on the internets. But that's ok, it's something, right?

Oh sheesh

I haven't updated since June!!

*facepalm*

I really need to do daily sketches and post them here. I really really need to.

Grah!

Because I'm lazy...

Edit!

Well, that certainly didn't work. =[

Let's see if this thing works on blogger. If not, then I'll update appropriately this weekend. Plus, I'll post up SUPER EXCLUSIVES of the sketches for the life timeline project. OooOooOooh!!

A whole lot of reference links..

So, I've been doing some serious digging around on the interwebs on resources for animatronics and whatnot. I'll toss down some of the better links to places. =3

The Character Shop. These folks are pretty well known in the theatric animatronic field. Worth a look. I sure do wish I could take that man's $2500 class on animatronics. =[

Amazon book list

A pretty good walkthrough on the building of an animatronic head

This place is pretty priceless, even though the majority of the links are dead. But a trip to the wayback machine fixes that easily.

Another book list.

A HUGE list of links to artists and resources!

The Robot Cafe. 'Nuff said.

Pretty good tutorials. Mostly to do with puppetry, but same difference, right? =D

Another site with links. Apparently, halloween enthusiasts *love* animatronics. Who woulda thought? LoL!

The Puppetry Homepage Just an all around good list of links to puppetry-related things.

Kinetica Museum. This site is good for ideas on different types of animatronics (specifically the art form known as automata), and just all around artistic inspiration.

Make Magazine. They actually have a really helpful bit of information concerning electronics and robots. It's worth a search through the archives!

The Cabaret. More links to automata-specific websites and artists.

PAPER ROBOTS!!! Oh MAN this site is cool! I need to get to kinko's so that I can print out a robot on some more durable paper.

Other topic links:

Ikea Hacker! They have some in-freaking-credible hacks on Ikea furniture. We'll be trying some of these soon.

Costuming tutorials. There's some pretty good tutorials/links to tutorials on the more intricate details of costuming. Pretty helpful for sculpting ideas as well.

UFO Catcher forums. This is an INCREDIBLE bunch of tutorials on plushie building.

Vinyl Pulse. Want some ideas on customizing vinyl toys? Head on over.

Elven Warriors. This girl (while seemingly obsessive) has an A+ list of tutorials on costuming, specifically for making her reproduction of the elven warrior costumes from Lord of the Rings. I mean, wow! Holy Wow!

Design Sponge! Oh sweet gravy jeebus!! *droooool*

Delics Tutorials. An aaaamazing bunch of tutorials on shaping fake hair into dreads. Very cool!

=[

My stomach hurts.

Yet, I don't feel much like complaining about it. I had a heavy talk with the s.o. tonight, and it's really got me doubting myself in many ways.

I suppose I should try to fight this by drawing something. In fact, I'll go ahead and work on something now.

Well! It's about that time that I update huh? Haha!

Ok, so let's see:I've been doing quite a bit of doodling and such in my sketchbook lately. Most of the stuff has been forced. Some of it has been done while waiting at the doc's office, and some while I've been waiting for Kendrick when I go to pick him up at work. In any event, I'll just drop more drawings here.



And here's some completed art! I love love looove the color! It still needs some work I think, specifically on the bg, but I couldn't be happier about the feel of the color. The one thing that bothers me, is just how saturated the colors feel. Hmm....



So tell me what you think blogger!

I really need to post in this...

I'll do so today. Sure will!

I'm off to draw now! Stay tuned...