I'm always serious. But that doesn't mean I'm not fun.

[lillbet]

Watching a "Joan of Arcadia" marathon on Syfy- I had no idea Michael Welch ("Twilight"'s Mike Newton) played Joan's brother Luke. He's kind of awesome. And adorable. And not puffy.

The current episode includes Joan auditioning for a musical about singing and dancing zombies, and the subject line was G*d telling her to try out. LOVE.

"REAL WORLD DC". OH SHIT. IT'S COMING. Damn you, Fox, I hold you responsible for this- take away "Glee" for like 5 months and this is what I end up doing with my time. I remember when they were filming in DC- my coworker Andrew kept reporting back about the RW kids partying in Georgetown. I haven't been watching a lot of reali-crap lately, but from the promos I have to give MTV kudos for showing two pretty boys kissing as a prelude to sex, and then talking about it. RW has come a very long way from Pedro. Thank gawd. And now that I think about it, oh gawd, I will (probably) watch (at least one episode of) "The Real Housewives of DC" too. Because everyone loves a trainwreck, right?

There's an icon comm that I got TDE affiliated with that I basically joined and watch because one of my favorite makers was a member, but she went on hiatus at the beginning of the year hasn't come back. I stayed on the watch list because it wasn't bothering me too much, and then last week I noticed (right around when they changed their name) that... I really hate their icons. They win awards, but the coloring is all the same and the cropping is not that special (imo), and they use the same effects and textures every single time. It's an elite comm, too, which is weird. I guess I can see the point- it's basically quality control. That said... I'm going to take those tutorials on animated icons, and keep using as much damn color as I like in my own stuff, because entry after entry of the sameness us completely unappealing.

Got a bit frustrated at PT yesterday- things hurt again that weren't hurting last week. Some cutesy girl in pink was saying something about having to bail halfway through her step class and all I could think was "YOU TOOK A STEP CLASS? I WANNA TAKE A STEP CLASS!" Which is weird, because I fucking hate step classes. My physical therapist gave me ice and stim- slapped a bunch of electrodes on my back, then paper towels and a giant ice pack thing and then cranked up the current. The electrodes made me chuckle- it felt like little cat tongues tugging at my skin.

You know what's good? Caramel hot chocolate with a dash of sea salt. Breakfast at 11am. Getting work done. The wind outside. A marathon of a quirky, interesting show about religion that doesn't make me want to kill something. Finishing up my pulped_fictions holiday entry. Plans for NYE with cool people. :)

Comments

[tiny-increments.livejournal.com]

I'll be honest, the only reason I want to see Real Housewives of DC is to see the Salahis in action ... I feel so ashamed.

My father is currently obsessed with sea salt. Not sure if he'd be up to it in hot chocolate, but what he doesn't know won't hurt him, right?

[lillbet]

Is it wrong that I'm looking forward to hating them? Their fail is like candy, I tell you. CANDY.

Right! He may pull a baby face and go "ew." and then at least you get a laugh out of it, but if he likes it then you're a hero for expanding his culinary horizons. EITHER WAY? WIN!

[tiny-increments.livejournal.com]

DELICIOUS CHOCOLATE COVERED CANDY Y/Y?

My mom's been trying to expand his culinary horizons for the past 35 years. She's been somewhat successful. He still has far to go ...

[puchula]

I had no idea Michael Welch ("Twilight"'s Mike Newton) played Joan's brother Luke.
I KNEW I HAD SEEN HIM BEFORE! I thought Joan of Arcadia was a pretty niffty show, even if I didn't catch that many episodes...

I'm just going to ignore your reality crap fangirling, because if not I might just puke.

Elite can mean a lot of things in iconmaking, as it does anywhere else really. There are elite comms who root for originality and elite comms who simply root for 'trendy'. There are good makers in both, but I prefer the first kind too... Want to join/watch a good comm? Take a look at iconwhoa.

[lillbet]

I'm just going to ignore your reality crap fangirling, because if not I might just puke.

Pfft. Get over yourself. If I were watching "Jersey Shore" and fangirling it, you'd be within your rights to a.) puke and b.) defriend me with all speed. This show is going to be a trainwreck, but before it goes all haywire, I'm going to watch at least one episode, if for no other reason than to go "ZOMG!ILOVETHATBAR!" and then roll my eyes at the folly of today's 20-somethings. IT IS MY RIGHT.

Ooh, thanks for the recc, will check them out. Big fan of original and I love icon makers who try multiple styles and icon comms who have icon makers with different fortes. It's like a microcosm of humanity and it's just more fun. :D

(And I miss suzyx- she brought the spark to namelesscomm I'm not mentioning here and my userpics in general. Plus she was just awesome.)

[puchula]

All I'm saying is, you get started with "ZOMG!ILOVETHATBAR!" and end up with "OMG!ILIEKCAN'TBELIEVETHEYMADEOUTINTHEBATHTUB", it's a fact. DON'T TELL ME I DIDN'T WARN YOU!

I loved her humor too and her use of text was great. I've seen more original though...

[lillbet]

I WILL BE STRONG. I WILL BE DIFFERENT. I WILL probably give up after one or two episodes. Eh. It's fact. I don't really have a ton of patience with reality tv, but if it's set in DC I'm going to give it a shot every time just to see if they uncover anything new. It's like rediscovering my own city.

I don't know about "more original" just that every time she posted I did a little chair dance of glee. It wasn't the way she formatted the icons or cropped or anything, but the way she managed to marry the right quote to the right picture. Few folks can do that the way she could. I totally aspire to it myself, I admit it. I guess it's purely subjective. :)

I'm kinda bummed she disappeared- she was supposed to be in this area in the fall of this year and I was hoping to meet her. Ah well. Stuf happens.

[puchula]

Well iconmaking is purely subjective as is any other form of art. I think she was great at what she did and I loved her for that, but I wouldn't go to her if I were looking for artsy 'outofthebox' icons, if you know what I mean... Which isn't to say she wasn't good.

That's life, bb.

[susanbones]

I need a tutorial for dummies on the most basic stuff. I bookmarked the tutorial on making animated icons from a movie clip, but I want to know how to make an animated icon by putting several static or moving pictures together.

I'm sorry to hear that your back is bad again.

[lillbet]

You can do that in ImageReady- you just have to import the pictures into the program and place them in frame by frame. It's time consuming, but not entirely possible.

Thanks. ♥ It's my hip and I'm just impatient to get moving again. :)

[susanbones]

I spent a long time trying to figure out how to put pictures in the frame one by one in ImageReady. I finally ended up using a brainless program called Unfreez. You make it sound easy, but I can't figure it out.

[lillbet]

All you have to do, once you have your animation window open (it's the long rectangular one) is open a few new frames, then go to the file drop menu File, then scroll down to Place and pick the next picture you want to insert, then repeat.

Then go to the layers pane and click on the box with the eye in it- if you don't want a picture to show up in the sequence beyond it's first appearance, you click on the eye once and it goes away and then that frame is free for something else.

[susanbones]

I appreciate the help. I tried to follow your advice, but couldn't figure out how to open a few new frames. There is still too much I don't know how to do, that I think I better work on the basics first.

[susanbones]

Thanks for the tip. I went to ImageReady and imported a folder. The pictures in the folder showed up in the frames and when I clicked the arrow, the animation started. I'll have to play with this a little.

[lillbet]

Hey great! Can't wait to see what you come up with. :D