Drawing Projects

So, I've decided to draw a bunch of characters from Angel. The whole idea came from when I was watching the last 6 or 7 episodes of season 4--Jasmine's face just looked so interesting.

Anyway, I started taking screen caps of different characters (the ones I hadn't already drawn, that is), and ended up with thirteen screen caps. Here they are in alphabetical order (I've already drawn Angel and Cordelia, years ago):

• Connor
• Darla
• Eve
• Fred
• Gunn
• Harmony
• Illyria
• Jasmine
• Lilah
• Lindsey
• Lorne
• Marcus
• Wesley

I decided to start with Fred, and got the basic pencil sketch done, blended it and then sealed the layer with hairspray, like usual. Now, it's time to start adding the low-light layers, and I want to finish the drawing. I just don't want to draw right now, know what I mean? I just kind of lost the motivation to get my fingers all chalky at this point in time.

Ah, well. I'll put the easel in the corner and pick up where I left off tomorrow. Maybe it's just a time of day thing. Maybe my drawing motivation went away because I know that there's no sunlight right now or something, even though there's plenty of light down here in the basement to draw by.

Lost in Austen--Thoughts on the Movie

I NetFlix'd this movie, and watched it the other night. It was interesting, but just not my cup of tea. The main reason I didn't really like it was because the main character, Amanda Price, was obviously a Mary Sue, and the entire movie was about fulfilling her wish to replace Elizabeth Bennett and marry Mr. Darcy herself. Meanwhile, Elizabeth took Amanda's place in modern-day London and became a macrobiotic nanny who knows how to use Google. That just seems completely wrong to me. Not to mention, all of the male characters, at one point or another, fell over their own tongues to pursue Amanda, and Mrs. Bennett, Jane and Caroline de Bourge all either hated or liked her depending on which part of the plot they were in.

A few of the other characters had some differences as well. They were fun differences, but ultimately just fed the Mary Sue theme. For instance, Caroline Bingley was portrayed as a lesbian who only pursued Mr. Darcy because of his money and society's expectations that she marry (which she revealed to Amanda because Amanda had told Mr. Bingley she was a lesbian in order to get him to stop going after her and go after Jane Bennett instead). Also, Georgiana Darcy and Mr. Wickham were shown to be opposite their characters in the actual book--in the movie, Wickham had allowed his name to be dragged through the mud, because Georgiana had actually tried to seduce him, but she was afraid that Mr. Darcy would kick her out if he knew that.

So, while it was interesting, I'd have to give Lost in Austen a less-than-stellar review, due to the fact that its whole plot was solely a form of wish fullfillment.

Laid Off

Yup, you read that right. Turns out, all the over-time-ness that was happening was because a few companies were new customers to the pharmaceutical company, so they were getting their stock up of certain products, which is why there were such huge orders.

Those orders were filled at the end of last week, so things slowed way down. Now those customers will only need to replenish their stock every once in a while, and the orders won't be nearly as huge. So, until they get new customers (around the end of January/beginning of February 2010), they won't need so many workers. I was one of three people laid off today. However, the boss guy did say that we'd be the first people he contacts when he needs more help again next year, if we're still available.

At least it won't be so bad now as last time. Tomorrow, I'm going to pick up my second (and last) check from the pharmaceutical company (Yay for apparently having 40-50 hours of over-time since the last paycheck!), deposit it at the bank, and look into a couple of places I heard about for possible job leads. After that, I'll have to go to Staples and buy some new ink for my printer, because I've got to be able to print out resumés and stuff. Then, I'll balance my checkbook and pay the last of the bills for this month, plus whatever I can pay in advance for next month. There will be no Christmas presents bought by Darcy this year--for anyone. :(

Finally, before I go to the Haven on Thursday, I'm going to go to the temp labor place and put my name on the call list for jobs that day. It may be minimum wage, but it'll help me stay at least mostly afloat until I can find another job--hopefully permanent this time.

New Update

The mystery shopping thing fell through--half-way through my week-long free trial, I still hadn't even looked into any shops, so I called them and asked that the thing be cancelled.

This week marks the first week at my new job where we are not allowed to have over-time. We got done a lot of huge orders last week, and apparently that marks the end of the fall/winter rush, since some of my co-workers are telling me that it'll be pretty slow until at least the end of February. Looks like I'll have to budget really carefully, but at least this upcoming paycheck will be pretty good.

I'm hoping that all three companies I've worked for this year get their W-2 forms sent out to me by the end of the second week of January. That way, I can do my taxes before February 1st, and the money will come sooner too. I'm hoping that my tax returns will be enough to pay what's left on the Bug so that I won't have to budget as carefully as I do right now. (At $277.07 per month, the Bug currently represents my largest monthly bill--not including my portion of the rent--with the combined total of my credit card bills coming in 2nd.)

If the tax return doesn't cover all of what's left on the Bug, then I'm hoping it at least covers half--that way, my last six payments (January through June) will be less than usual.

Once the car is paid off, then I can focus on paying off my credit cards (Two Visa cards, one Discover, and one JCPenney card--I only use the last two, and only for emergencies--like needing all-new underwear because all of the old ones have holes or stretched-out elastic. The two Visa cards are very old and maxed out.) But that's a plan for next year's tax returns (and probably for a few years after that), and I have no idea what my money situation is going to be by then.

Holy Crap, it's Snowing.

That was my reaction when I went downstairs to pack my lunch this morning and looked out the kitchen window. First snow of the season. We now return to our regularly scheduled lives.