I was reminded several hours ago that it's my seventh dA birthday here, and the activity information had finally ticked over to indicate that.
So, here I am, writing a journal noting that fact.

It's funny/sad/lame to note that, I'm much more interested in this particular birthday then my actual birthday

Just goes to point out the impact that dA has had on me, when my actual birthday doesn't even merit much of any consideration from me, but my dA birthday does

Ganked from !Mavyrk, some gallery stats, with emphasis on data storage and transfer.

I have:
213 deviations, including scraps
at a total size of 1,038,611.9Kb / 1015Mb
making for an average 4,876.1Kb / 4.77Mb per deviation
which have received 61338 views overall,
resulting in a total of 299,100,710.6Kb / 292,297Mb average bandwidth used
over 2,535 days
or 117,998.5Kb / 115.3Mb used per day.

Behind the Symbol by `PurpelBlur

That is all

the Elusive Nature hopefully should become clear as you read
Time to update my journal, and what better way to do so then to waste your time by making you read a new questions meme. This has been ganked from lolly who ganked it from !OpiateTart

1. Do you snore?
I've been told as such, yes.

2. Are you a lover or a fighter?
Lover, I suppose. Depends on context really.

3. What’s your worst fear?
Trypanophobia (needle phobia in a medical context), I'm also rather telephonophobic

4. As a kid, where you a lego maniac?
Absolutely, I've been recently considering getting a big sack of lego and lego technic recently.

5. What do you think of “reality” tv?
Don't watch it, don't care to either.

6. Do you chew on your straws?
Sometimes

7. Were you a cute baby?
I don't think so.

8. Is the single life for you?
Well, I'm presently single, so, it's not like I have much of a choice as to whether it's for me, I just am single.

9. What colour is your keyboard?
Black

10. Do your sing in the shower?
I beatbox, badly, naturally.

11. Have you ever sky-dived before?
Nope

12. Any secret talents?
If they're secret, how would I know about them?

13. What’s your ideal vacation spot?
Any place with interesting photographic opportunities, preferably somewhere cold.

14. Can you swim?
I can float easily, given how lardy I am, swimming is easy as a result, albeit, not fast

Where's question fifteen?

16. Have you seen the movie "Donnie Darko”?
Yes.

17. Do you care about the ozone?
Yes, I care about not getting skin cancer with only a handful of minutes of exposure to the sun.

18. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?
None

19. Can you sing the alphabet backwards?
Nope

20. Have you ever been on an airplane?
I haven't

21. Are you a single child?
I'm not

22. Do you prefer electronic or manual pencil sharpeners?
I use a stanley knife

23. What’s your stand on hunting?
Doing it for sport is stupid, I've no problem with it if you actually use the kills though

24. Is marriage in your future?
Maybe

25. Do you like your handwriting?
Not in the slightest

26. What are you allergic to?
Pretty sure I'm allergic to Aspirin and stupidity

27. When was the last time you said 'I love you'?
Way too long ago

28. Is Tupac still alive?
If he is, he's even more of a shut in than I am, which I find rather hard to believe

29. Do you cry at weddings?
Nope

30. How do you like your eggs?
Cooked

31. Are blondes dumb?
I am blonde, take of that what you will

32. Where does the other sock end up?
Teleported to the lost sock dimension.

33. What time is it?
15:31

34. Do you have a nickname?
Lou, or my username, I suppose

35. Is McDonald's disgusting?
Yeah, then again, I don't eat fast food in general

36. When was the last time you were in a car?
Couple of weeks ago

37. Do you prefer baths or showers?
Yes

38. Is Santa Claus real?
Only in the imaginations of those who believe he exists

39. Do you like having you neck kissed?
Alas, I wouldn't know

40. Are you afraid of the dark?
No, besides, my night vision is pretty good anyway

41. What are you addicted to?
Chocolate, the Internet, Science

42. Crunchy or creamy peanut butter?
Yes

43. Can you crack your neck?
With difficulty and possible paralyses

44. Have you ever ridden in an ambulance?
Not that I recall

45. How many times have you brushed your teeth today?
Just the once

46. Is drug free the way to be?
For me, sure, but, to each their own.

47. Are you a heavy sleeper?
I have four alarms. I have them set to start to go off two hours before I actually have to wake up. Yes, I'm a heavy sleeper.

48. What colour are your eyes?
Blue Grey/Grey Blue

Where's question 49?

50. Do you like your life?
It could be a lot worse, so, sure

51. Who’s better: Stone Cold or The Rock?
The Rock, I suppose

52. Are you psychic?
Not in the slightest

53. Have you read "Catcher in the Rye"?
Nope

54. Do you play any instruments?
My musical aptitude extends to the aforesaid bad beatboxing and bad singing.

55. Have you ever stolen money?
Nope

56. Can you snowboard?
Never done it before, so, I wouldn't know

57. Do you like camping?
Meh

58. Do you snort when you laugh?
Like a pig during laughing? then no, I don't.

59. Do you believe in magic?
Nope

60. Are dogs a man’s best friend?
I have two cats, not a huge fan of dogs

61. You believe in divorce?
There's more than enough evidence that exists to prove that divorce exists without the need for me to believe in it. If you mean on a less literal note, then, yes, I do 'believe' in it.

62. Can you do the moonwalk?
Vaguely, badly, so no, basically.

63. Do you make a lot of mistakes?
I'm human, so yes.

64. Is it cold outside today?
Nope, sunny, been raining a little the past few days, which is good. I'd prefer it if it were cold though.

65. What was the last thing you ate?
Marmite Sandwiches

66. Do you wear nail polish?
Nope

67. Have you ever been kissed?
Yes

68. What's the most annoying TV commercial?
I don't watch TV

69. Do you shop at American Eagle?
No

70. Favourite song at the moment?
I've been playing Lights (Bassnectar Remix) by Ellie Goulding on repeat for the last few days, so, that, I suppose.

71. Do you like your job?
I work as a cleaner...

72. Do you like your classes in school?
I've not been in school for more than eight years. That being said, I generally liked school I was just, you know, not that good at it

73. How do you like your meat cooked?
Rare

74. Do you like these surveys?
They're good to waste a little time.

75. Do you know how to tag three peoples?
No
By that I mean, if I do these sorts of things, I don't tag people, they're welcome to jump on the bandwagon if they wish.

I support remix culture

I've always supported it, from funny LOLCats to mash-ups and everything between, I always enjoy the spark of creativity that remix culture seems to embody.

Some, or at least, a few of you are probably aware that I put most of my images under a Creative Commons license.

For the past few years most of my images have been under a CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. The Second most restrictive CC license.
With the rest of the images in my gallery simply being copyright.

Today, I went through my gallery and changed the licensing of nearly all of my images, to better reflect my support for remix culture.
Thus, I'm introducing four tiers to my licensing and gallery as a whole.

1. Is fully copyrighted, as in you have to ask my permission for any sort of use.
   This Tier will mainly be used in circumstances where I've photographed pre-existing art, such as graffiti, or where I've intentionally taken a photograph of another person (as in, they're not incidentally in the frame, but are a subject of the photo).


2. will be under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license. Mostly concerning self portraits and the like. This is more so I can be notified if you want to use an image of myself, not to actually stop you from using them.


3. Will be under an Attribution-ShareAlike license, and will cover the previously NonCommercial deviations, and is the second least restrictive license. Comparable to other copyleft licenses like the GNU GPL.


4. Will be a new 'category', in that these will be stock images. Most of which will be images that I didn't think made 'the cut' but weren't bad enough for the bin outright. These images will be under just an Attribution license being the least restrictive short of making the images public domain.

Why?

I've always liked the concept of free exchange of ideas and memes. Collaborative Creativity and Culture seems to be something that I'm particularly fascinated by. The internet, particularly in recent years, has seen an explosion of that sort of concept, particularly as that concept has gone more into the mainstream.
I mean, when Remix Culture can create things like This, I can't help but feel inspired. The length, breadth and depth of human creativity is sometimes something to be marvelled at. And yet, I am also fully cognizant of the fact that we've hardly even touched the surface.

Licenses that help spread ideas, concepts, even entire works to the masses should be things to be applauded, helping to add greater value to the collective pool of resources that all creative's have access to.

That's not to say we should completely disregard copyrights, that's rather silly to do en masse (though I can certainly understand if an individual wants to make their work public domain), giving credit where it's due, at the least, should be a requirement. These licenses just make it easier for creative's to run freely with their creative spark, as opposed to being bogged down with legal codes.

So, in short, with regards to my gallery, you only need to ask my permission to use an image if a. the image contains people or subjects that are clearly not me or my own creation, or b. if you want to use any images of myself in any context beyond redistribution.

Things to Look For

• Audience with Felicia Day


• #MN-Volunteers Blog Takeover


• New: I came, I dAmned, I founded


• New: Putting the Art in #devart


• Forum Features for Febuary


• Those dAmn Rules Explained

Decompression

Salutations denizens of deviantART, it should be fairly apparent to some, or at least a few, that I'm finally back.
Unfortunately, that doesn't mean my present troubles with my account are resolved, I'm only back chiefly because I got lucky.

As explained in the previous journal, I lost my card three pay days ago (as I get paid every four weeks, that's minimally, nine weeks). Naturally, I reported it as lost/stolen and my bank told me that I could expect a replacement card within 10 working days. I waited that time, and, obviously, I hadn't received the card. So, I went down to ask them what was up, and they said there was unauthorised access on the card and they had to do an investigation and that it could take up to 14 days for a new card to come.

Shortly after that, I was disconnected from my broadband, since, clearly, I couldn't pay for it, as I didn't have my card (I don't use direct debits as some companies bill every month, as opposed to every four weeks, plus, I'm leery of automatic withdrawals on my account). Not only that, because the account was under investigation, even if I did somehow manage to magic a card up, I was locked out of my account.

So, naturally, I waited for my card to come, while I twiddled my thumbs (sometimes literally) playing games, or reading, or watching videos on my PC, and, of course, grabbing an hour here or there at my library in an effort to maintain my eroding sense of sanity.
The 14 days passed, and no card. Not even a letter, or a phone call telling me the results of the investigation.

So, I went to my bank again and asked them, calmly (all things considered), asked them WTF?
They were apologetic, told me the investigation was completed, and I should see a new card in, you guessed it, 14 days, and for my trouble, they put £50 into my account.
Slightly mollified, but nonetheless sceptical, I waited for the card to come.

The luck comes in here. My Gran used to pay the telephone bill for where I live, that is, until we got the broadband connection. However, she was still receiving the bills, so, she knew that we had been cut off. She paid off the outstanding charge, and then got the line disconnected.
This doesn't sound lucky, but, it allowed my brother to set up a new line, and then get it to be paid quarterly (so, if something like this happens again, at least we have a larger cushion before being disconnected).

Of course, during this I had still not received my card. So I went to the bank again, and, shall I say, got a touch annoyed with them. Effectively, I forced them to give me money (from my account), so I could at least survive.

A week later, the broadband connection was activated (or whatever it is BT do whenever they pull their finger out).

It's only just now that I feel fairly confident in saying that I've 'caught up' with the rest of the internet, so to speak. Or rather, caught up enough that I'm not wading through a sea of mental fluff while I try to mentally reconnect with being, err, connected.

How have you guys been?

Edit

Still no news, I'm seriously considering resorting to going outside just to cure myself of boredom, that's as bad as it's been. And I've actually been productive.
Well, I've took and edited some photo's, and I decided to make a photography show reel, because, well, I've got little else to do

Suffice it to say, this is two months that I've not been able to access my money (as I lost the card when I got paid, and I've been paid again since), downside, I don't even have belly button fluff left to buy things like, you know, food. Upside, when this problem finally clears up, I'll have a nice wodge of money, hopefully.
If the problem clears up.

If nothing else, my bank knows how to test even my patience, so knowing that much is useful, at the least

Here's to coming back soon, so I can tidy my overflowing message centre

---

Hey guys, just to explain why I've been away, and why I'll be gone for the time being, basically my internet bill wasn't paid, because I lost my card. It was reported as lost two and a half weeks ago (as luck would have it, I lost my card when I got paid). So with that I couldn't pay them, hence my disconnected state.

They said that it'd take ten working days to get a replacement card, but I found out today that the account had unauthorised access (from the 'lost' card), where nearly all the money in the account was withdrawn, since the bank is still apparently investigating I don't know when I'll get a replacement card, or, indeed, when I'll get my money put back into the account (since they said I might get a replacement card before the funds are put back into the account).

Hopefully it will be back soon, but, suffice it to say, they've given me no ETA, so, well, I don't know when I will be back online.

As always, my only internet access as of now is some stolen wifi via my phone, or library access, so, I'll be around, just not around that much

Here's to hoping this problem is fixed sooner rather than later

I said I wouldn't

I said I wouldn't set any resolutions this year, but apparently, I like to contradict myself .

Last year, I set no resolutions, my reasoning being that, if I had something to do, I shouldn't just be compelled to do it because I said I'd do it at the start of the year, and, also because, set plans about such time scales don't tend to work well, due to variable circumstances, or you can just read my reasons in my last (non-)resolutions journal.

Anyway, this year, I've clearly changed my stance on the subject, hence, here are some resolutions for you to pester me about.

• Finish a novel length (50K words +) story before 2012
  It's not impossible, and I have at least three solid story ideas that I can draw from to make this work. At the least, I aim to be solidly on my way through at least the first few chapters by years end.


• Take my dSLR camera out with me every day
  With the proviso 'where applicable', obviously, I'm not to going to take my camera out and about with me if it's sheeting down with rain.
  As it is, I want to do this because I've taken so few photo's with my D50 this year that I haven't needed to charge the battery in it once this year. As in, the charge in it at the moment as lasted since the beginning of January


• Become more comfortable in my own skin
  This will be the hardest one, probably, for me to achieve. I've never really been comfortable with my body, there are features that aren't 'bad' per se, but, for the most part, I've never been comfortable with just being 'me', physically, anyway.
  This has been, I think the major contributor to my personal self-esteem issues, and it's something I need to 'fix' such as it is, if I want to make my life, in general, better.
  I have a number of ways to fix this, it can be through exercise, or through an improved personal perception of myself, or psychiatric help, or what have you, but, this is the big one I want to at least attempt to do this year.
  Of course, given the nature of the problem, it'll probably take me longer than a year to get done, but, it will at least be a start.


• Become an Astronaut
  Because, hey, what sort of nerd would I be, if I didn't want to be one

So there's the list, it's short, helping me to remember them, and helping me to achieve them, hopefully.

Bring on 2011

Guess What?

Actually, don't bother, it should be obvious
Yes, I can has an internets connection again. BT Total Broadband presently running at a whole 2Mbits (that's ten times slower than I had before, though, there's a chance, on a good day, with the wind blowing right, the stars in the right alignment, and only during a full eclipse, I could get up to 4Mbits). Still, it's infinitely better than bumming open wifi signals on my phone after work every day

Suffice it to say, I've learned an appreciation of my internets connection again. Frankly, rationing of the sources of entertainment I had would not have lasted long. I had already watched every series of Star Trek from TNG onwards, all the episodes of Stargate (SG1, Atlantis and Universe), I have, completed both seasons of Ghost in the Shell: SAC, watch Avatar: The Last Airbender. By now, I would have been forced to consider watching the complete series of Buffy and Angel, the former of which, at the least, I still haven't figured out why I haven't deleted it.
On the plus side, I've been doing a lot of reading, at least for me. I've an archive of a few thousand sci-fi ebooks, and I did crack open a few of the, though, still, not that many.
Hell, I even tried to write (but, alas, mostly only fan-fiction ).
But yeah, desperate times indeed.

So, I am ecstatically glad to be back, what have I missed?

Just a heads up

For those of you who don't know, I'm currently away from the internets thanks to my ISP yanking me around.
Aside from open Wi-Fi points with my phone, or, library access (or the occasional times that my brother tethers his phone to my PC), I have no internet access.

As such, I can only be reliably contacted via my E-mail, given that that's the only thing I can check, every day, with relative ease.

Hopefully, I'll be back in a couple of weeks, I shouldn't have gone too doo-lally by that point

This might contain some ranting, you've been warned

So, unless you've been living under a rock, or in a cave, or, you know, just avoiding civilisation in general, then, first, welcome back, I don't envy your temporary lack of internets connection.
But, second, and just as important, you might have heard of deviantART muro, or you're playing with it now, or some such.

$dxd has already written an excellent journal/news article (give luff plx), on deviantART muro and its numerous advantages and its great potential, as well as addressing some of its nay-sayers.

I just want to weigh in on the subject, in the only way I know how, a long winded rant replete with a plethora of verbosity (inside joke ).

One of the biggest complaints with regards to deviantART muro is 'it's like, totally a rip off of x, y and/or z', and 'dA is stealing other peoples ideas' and 'it's supposed to be, like revolutionary and original, but I've seen it all before on website x'.
And so on, ad infinitum (or nauseum, depending on your constitution).

I'll let you all into a little secret (even if it is rather cliche, by now), there's no such thing as originality.
Well, there is, but 'originality' (as in, something that's truly original) is an extremely rare event to behold, and I'd go so far as to say that very few people genuinely get to actually experience it.

You want to complain about a lack of originality. Okay, fine, so, why aren't you complaining about the old masters. I mean, they clearly stole the idea of applying pigment to paper to make images from painters before their time, and they clearly stole the idea from previous generations. And so on until we reach the first hominids who had the bright spark of putting pigments on rocks that we now gawk at.

Originality, as we know it today, is not originality, but, the reformulation of memes (or ideas), into something new, and perhaps unexpected.
Introducing bona-fide 'digital art', as an alternative to traditional art, and providing new tools that suit the medium. It's not an original idea, it's just an extension of an old idea. The reapplication of a pre-existing meme to suite the tools and the times. Nothing new about it, just the application.

Back to deviantART muro, with that little aside.
Are there other online drawing applications? Of course there are, and dA has never tried to hide that fact. Hell, some of these applications have features that muro presently doesn't (like use in an instant messaging/chat room environment). But, does that mean that dA is 'stealing' ideas because other people have attempted this before, even with the same technologies?

No.

We are human (one presumes), we are rather predictable creatures. Those of us who use dA are all exposed to a similar culture, and we bring to that culture our own 'real' cultures. We all share memes (or ideas), we share common themes. We watch, largely, the same films, read the same books, listen to the same music, get exposed to the same sorts of concepts, and so on.
Is it any wonder why two people, born on opposite sides of the globe, can think of, say, a character that can fly, and has super speed and strength?
It shouldn't be.

We all share a similar meme set, it's part of being human. We share a common pool of concepts and knowledge (which is becoming even more generalised, thanks to the internets), so, two different people, from radically different cultural backgrounds, can independently think of two near identical concepts, all the way down to the execution of the thing.

Now, I'm not saying that dA was unaware of the various plugin based browser drawing apps, that'd be silly to suggest. But that doesn't mean that dA stole the idea, because if it did, why aren't you levelling that same criticism towards the various clones of these flash based drawing apps? And, why aren't you accusing all of them of trying to copy photoshop, or its ilk?

Also, just because you've seen something similar to deviantART muro on another site, doesn't mean that the concept isn't somehow 'innovative' on this site.
This site has never had a built in means of being able to create art, being able to communicate in images, without the need to labouriously upload each new image, and so on. Now it does. And it's already starting to cascade into something that will probably be seen as a paradigm shift in dA ten years from now.

To be as basic as I can functionally be, just because something isn't original, does not mean it can't be innovative (two double negatives in as many paragraphs, I fail).
dA did something 'new', it took a known idea, and reformulated it in a new and exciting way.
It's getting people involved, it's getting people talking. Hell, it's even getting schlubs (remarkably apt self description, if I say so myself) like me, to actually get a tablet, or dust of their old one (in my case), and actually seriously consider using deviantART muro for 'srs bsns'.
It's even got some writers (well, a writer, I think), interested in using it.

So, you've got Photoshop, or you've used 'insert flash/shockwave/java based drawing app here'. So what.
They're not deviantART muro, and deviantART muro is not them.
If you want to make 'real art', go ahead and use the application of your preference. You're not being forced to use deviantART muro. However, deviantART muro gives an opportunity to those who don't want to, or can't download an app or plugin to make 'real art'.

Either way, I'm personally more excited about the potential communications shift that deviantART muro will bring, and I hope it will inspire many more ideas into the future.

3,156,480 minutes, 52,608 hours, 2,192 days

Can you guess what it is yet?

Question Time

Ganked from `HazelCraft and `ginkgografix, if for no other reason that to remove the ugly that is my hand writing, from my user page

1. Do you like your name?
It could have been worse

2. Have you ever wished to be your opposite sex?
Not really, of course, I've been curious, but never to the point of actually wishing for it.

3. If you were to have children, what would you name them?
In order
Girls: Katie, Emily, Victoria
Boys: Andrew, Anthony, James
Yes, I have actually thought about it.
No, that doesn't imply I want six children, just that's the initial pool I'd draw from

4. Do you even like kids?
Sure

5. What time do you usually go to sleep on a weekday?
Too late, between 10:30pm to 12:30am, keeping in mind, my weekday wake up time is 4:30am

6. What's your favourite word?
There's so many to choose, I'd have to go with 'antiquated' though

7. Have you ever tYpED lYk dIs at some point in your life?
Never, I used to be pretty adept with chat speak though, but that was back when I was younger and stupider than I am now.

8. What's your dream career?
I don't know, doing something I enjoy doing. Realistically, if I had the ability, I dreamed of being a theoretical physicist when I was younger, but, I couldn't do the maths required, anything of a technical nature I'd enjoy doing. Alternatively, becoming a professional photographer would be nice.

9. If you could be any other race, what would you be?
I'd be an Armadillo.

10. What are you listening to right now?
We Come 1(Rollo & Sister Bliss Remix) - Faithless

11. Grab any book by you, turn to page 69!
Okay, what now?

12. Do you like country music?
Generally, no, but my tastes in music are rather, well, picky. There's general genres that I tend to like, but, over all, I like music on a track by track basis.

13. How would you like to die?
I don't intend to. But if I must, then old and quietly.

14. Do you like taking pictures?
I'd surely hope so.

15. Do you use ":]" a lot?
Not at all.

16. Are your neighbors annoying?
I speak to my neighbours once every month or so, they're not loud, so I don't notice them otherwise

17. Ice cream or popsicles?
Ice Cream

18. What was the last thing you drank?
The tea I'm drinking right now.

19. The last time you left your house? Where did you go?
Work, 5am, returned at 10am (I work part time, obviously).

20. Are you loving life?
It's much better than it could be, given my nature and all.

21. Do you like the way you write?
If you're referring to my hand writing, then, not really, it's nigh unreadable to most ([link] example).
If you're referring to my writing style, then, well, even if I didn't like it, I couldn't really change it anyway. Besides, my writing style is 'uniquely mine', so I like it at least for that.

22. What's your favorite animal?
Bear, grizzly preferred

23. How many times have you used the restroom today?
I've not left it today

24. Are you hungry right now?
Yes

25. Turn on your TV (unless it's already on.)
I don't have a TV. Well, that's a lie, I do have a TV, it's my second monitor, more accurately, I don't have a TV in my room that receives TV signals.

26. Do you like video games?
Yes

27. What's your favorite Pokemon?
Charizard

28. What was the last thing you watched on YouTube?
A youtube made of such monumental stupid that I think I might have suffered an aneurism watching it.

29. Are you cool with bugs?
Depends on where they are, what they're doing.
In other words, as long as they're not trying to kill me, and I'm not in the process of eating them, then I'm cool with them

30. Do you like Halloween?
Like all holidays, it's just another day to me

31. What do you want for your birthday/Christmas?
If someone must give me something for my birthday, either they should give me money, or they can order from my dA, ThinkGeek, or Amazon wishlists.

32. Have you ever fasted?
Do I look like someone who as ever fasted?
But seriously, I have a bad habit of missing meals for, like, days at a time, which could be classed as fasting

33. What's going on tomorrow?
Work, playing games, writing, (if I put it off today) post processing some photos, eating, drinking, sleeping. Oh, and maybe I'll sit on dAmn for a little while.
Yes, my life is the definition of exciting

34. Are you doing well in school?
I'm not in school, but when I was in school, I did terribly.

35. Do you have online friends?
Yes

36. Do you think you're popular?
No, thankfully

37. How much money's in your wallet?
Lint and fluff. Then again, I don't even know where my wallet is, I've not really been using my wallet recently

38. When was the last time you laughed really hard?
I make it a policy to find something to laugh at once a day, the last thing I laughed at was the aforementioned youtube video.

39. What's on the cover of your science binder?
I don't have a science binder. Though, in retrospect, I really ought to have one. I know, I'm slacking.

40. Do you believe there's such thing as an non-racist person?
Of course. If I say so myself, I consider myself a 'non-racist'

41. Do you pass on chain letters?
Nope, I'm still waiting for the immeasurable amounts of misfortune I'll suffer thanks to the wrath of these unsent letters.

42. What do you do for fun at home?
Effectively everything I do (except the occasional bit of house work) is 'fun' at home.

43. Can you wiggle your ears?
Yes

44. Why did the chicken cross the road?
Because it was already walking in that direction, and the road happened to be in the way, and the chicken was either too lazy or too stubborn to find an alternative route.

45. Do you like your voice?
It could be infinitely worse. I do prefer my internal voice over my external (or 'recorded') voice, however.

46. Are you good at receiving/giving compliments?
I'm really not good at receiving compliments, as to giving them, you'd have to ask those who I have complimented.

47. Have you ever won a contest?
Nope

48. What are you using for your messenger avatar/icon?
Generally an image of myself, because I'm just that ego-centric, clearly

49. Can you imitate something/someone well?
Not in the slightest. I'm not a good mimic.

50. What's your favorite amusement park?
I don't really 'do' amusement parks, so I can't really have a preference.

51. Do you have any REAL autographs (not the cheap ones on posters!)
Nope

52. Do you cry easily?
I'm a sentimental softy, any sentimental/sappy/emotional scene in a film or TV program (or whatever) tends to get me choked up easily. Outright bawling, however, is a little more difficult to evoke for me.

53. What's something you do at home that you don't do in public?
Fap?

54. What do you think about boyfriends/girlfriends?
If I had one, I'd be able to tell you, as it is, having one would probably be nice

55. What's something you regret doing as a child?
I would say being introverted, but I've not changed since then, so it'd be hypocritical of me to tell a past self to be more outgoing when I'm not presently outgoing.

56. Have you ever met a gay person?
Aside from the fact that my Uncle (oldest on my mums side) is gay, yes, I have.
Hell, I was even asked out by one, he was disappointed (or, at least, he looked it) when I told him I was straight, but it was flattering all the same

57. Where do you think wind comes from?
In terms of meteorology? Wind is the effect of air moving from a high pressure system to a low pressure system.

58. Do you like sour cream?
Yup

59. What colour are your fingernails?
Fingernail colour, so transparent

60. Do you like animal crackers?
Never had them

61. Can you do a split?
lol, never

62. What do you smell like?
Unicorn farts

63. Have you ever done anything stupid at a drive-thru?
I can't drive, so, no, if you're referring to just going through a drive-thru at all, then, no.

64. Do you like to use song lyrics that relate to you?
Not really. Of course, it'd help if I could actually remember them

65. Do you have a problem with odd numbers?
I can't say that I do

66. What's something you're proud of?
My continued existence. That's my way of saying that I don't know if I'm particularly proud of anything I've done (that's not to say I'm never proud of what I do and have done, more, there are no stand out moments)

67. Do you think you'd be a cool teacher?
That depends on what I'm teaching, and if I'm actually given the freedom to teach in a way that I want to teach.

68. What are your pet peeves?
Spelling weird as 'wierd'

69. Do you know what the number 69 represents?
Did you want me to read that page from the book now? Why did you have to wait 58 questions before you ask me to tell you what is on the page.
Anyway first paragraph of Sundiver by David Brin:

7.
Interference

When Dr. Martine left her quarters and took service corridors to the E.T. Enviroments Section, she thought of herself as using discretion, not stealth. Pipes and communications cables clung, stapled, to the rough unfinished walls. The Hermetian stone glistened with condensation and gave off an odor of wet rock as her footsteps rang down the fused path ahead of her.

70. How do you pronounce "caramel"?
Ca-ruh-mel

71. If you could be any animal in the world, what would you like to be?
Human

72. Are you the jealous type?
Not really

73. Do you keep a journal/diary?
Nope

74. Have you ever used Xanga?
Nope, I did use live journal for about five microseconds when I was in secondary school

75. Do you have a made-up language/alphabet?
Nope

76. What fingers do you use to type?
Nominally, all of them, but, realisitcally, only the first, middle and pinky fingers and my thumb of my left hand, and my first, middle and third finger and my thumb of my right hand.

77. Is there something you need to/have to do to be able to sleep?
I have to turn of my PC and take off my glasses

78. What day is it tomorrow?
Sunday

79. What time is it now?
19:43

80. Do you believe humans evolved from monkeys?
Humans still are monkeys .
That aside, it's not a case of belief, it's a biological fact that we are apes, and monkeys, and simians, and primates, and mammals, and vertabrates, and tetrapods, and so on and so forth.

81. What's your favorite game?
I don't have a favourite, I have favourites, including, but not limited to Fallout 3, Mass Effect 1 and 2, KOTOR 1 and 2, Dragon Age: Origins, the various Splinter Cells, Metal Gear Solid, the Half Lifes, Grand Theft Auto's, Mario games, Final Fantasy games, and so on.

Featured Chat

If you didn't know by now, I seriously have to ask which rock you all have been hiding under.
Anyway, the featured chat with Chuck Anderson ([link] will start in about three hours.
Alas, I probably won't be there, since I needs sleep, and I'm already running a serious sleep debt as it is, and 11pm BST is a bit too late for me, given my sleep debt
But, that shouldn't stop you from joining in the fun.

Writing

So. I've been writing. That's creative writing, mind you.
At the moment, what I have been writing is fan-fiction, and not fan-fiction that I'd want to submit here. I've got a lot to improve before I do that, and there's already two people here, that have read my writing (feel free to name yourselves, if you wish, but I won't until you do ), which should help me get better.

As it is, learning to think as a writer (sort of), has allowed me to flesh out one of my 'original' stories, such that I'll probably write it and post it here, so expect some writing submissions from me within a month or so, hopefully.

A Photo A Day

Even though I'm writing, doesn't mean I've stopped taking photographs. The reason why I'm so behind with my photo project isn't laziness or distraction, I'm just holding myself to a much higher standard than I did in my a photo a day project back in 2008, the reasons are two fold:
the first time around, I used the project as a means of learning, primarily, then a means of producing more work, secondarily, this helped me find my 'style', such as it is. Now that I know my style, I want to expand on it, which is a primary aim of my current photo project;
second, unlike the first project, all the images I'm producing are being uploaded here, which means that I have my own self imposed standards of what I will upload here, meaning I upload less, over all.

To be honest, I don't really mind that I'm not producing more, I'm more interested in quality, over quantity, this time around.

Tutorial

Last year a put up a poll about my making a video tutorial. I've since nixed the idea, mainly because the tutorial would either be too long, or too short, for me to do.
However, the idea of my making a tutorial hasn't disappeared.
About a week ago, I decided to make a good old fashioned static tutorial, and I'm in the process of planning the copy at the moment.
I intend to include practically everything I know, and cover my photography as a whole, so I expect the tutorial to be long, and verbose, and full of technical language.
Before you wonder, I'm not making this tutorial because I think my 'style' is unique, or even good, I'm making it because what I know may be of use to others, particularly beginners, and, I figure, I learned most of what I know about photography from other photographers on the internet, it's about time I share what I know, and have independently learned, with others.

Drama and Anime

So, some (I presume a handful) of people know that I've been watching Korean drama and some Anime, thanks to ~Calyptra, I'm doing this as much for the learning, as the entertainment, besides, given my writing, anything to diversify my meme base is a good thing

The Pink Elephant

Of course, I saved the best, to last, so to speak.
The big Pink Elephant in the corner of the room, regarding my latest poll, yes, I am really going to dye my hair, and, based on the title of this section, and based on the poll results, it's probably going to be pink (unless more voting occurs to change that, of course).
The details are fuzzy, at the moment, I'm thinking I'll dye my hair in about six to eight weeks from when the donation pages go live, or so.
I've two charities I'm thinking of donating to, UNICEF (of course, since I donated to it previously), or an International Cancer charity (please give suggestions to such), and will probably work along the same formula as last time, though, I'll try to pimp it a little more . I'll set a £100/$150 target, as before, but I won't open the donation pages until I've firmly decided on which charity to go for (again, suggestions, plx), though, given that I reached my goal last time, my expectations are, of course, higher, so getting more donations than that will be awesome sauce .

Fin

Also, make sure you check this article and do what you can to help.