So .. it took me three months to figure out just how useful TAGS are. 9.9  And what they are good for.  It also took me all that time to figure out how to best display the wallpapers and organize them.. d’uh… and I also figured out how to fix the images when there’s a gallery without using a plugin.

If I could get some volunteers to help streamline the process, it would be very useful.  Basically.. I need people to go in and tag every comic with the character’s names within in.

I wanted to do an image.. but don’t have time to do it and now that it’s over a week later, might as well just write it up for something to read.

I attended Mephit Fur Meet in Memphis TN over the holidays.  It was an eight hour drive from Dallas to Memphis. :D  Luckily, I had made that same drive with my husband in July … and will be making it again in November … and next summer… although we’re going all the way to Nashville for family get togethers and fun now that we have a vehicle that makes such excursions comfortable.  I really don’t want to imagine driving that far in the Rio.  It’s way too small and well.. it has almost 100,000 miles on it and is six years old.  It’s held up VERY well.  (And that’s why we keep repairing it… it was our only car, it’s paid off and it’s a work car now… which I would not trust to get us to Memphis without something blowing.)  At least it’s a NICE STRAIGHT road, which means the Rondo gets AWESOME gas mileage… like.. 28-30 MPG.  I’m guessing those are ideal conditions for driving it.  I was amazed.

I saw a deer and a fawn vanish into the trees in the MEDIAN of the highway early in the trip and my husband didn’t believe me and while he was driving, kept telling me he saw bigfoot vanish into the trees. :P  On the way back, we both saw a doe and two fawns.

The last time we went, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when I saw a sign that read: Autobot City on it. :D  I laughed about it to my husband and told him It must’ve been AUTOMOBILE city … then forgot to look for it on the way back.  Well.. this time, HE saw it and yes, it IS Autobot City, comic books and toys. :D  In Benton Arkansas.  We will have to stop next time we go through there.

We ended up stopping in Forrest City and selecting a Holiday Inn.  We wanted to see how far we could go before we had to stop and that was it.  (Actually, we drove around seeking a wireless connection so I could check the rates of the various hotels around us on the tablet. :D  We DID find one. :D)

The next morning, it was on to Memphis!  We got to the hotel, another Holday Inn, with plenty of time to spare for setting up in the Dealer’s Den.  Got a phone call from Aerokat’s (Cindy Ramey’s) husband, Jeff and ran into them later in the Den while setting up.  :)  Reception in that hotel is HORRIBLE.  Well… lots of things about the hotel were horrible, but it shouldn’t discourage anyone from going, because it was ‘ok’, just annoying.  This Holiday Inn had obviously been a VERY nice hotel … a few decades ago.  (I will never understand WHY the toilet paper dispensers are six inches from the floor…)  I strongly advise AGAINST using the public bathrooms there and use the one in your room instead.

Long story short, it was great!  MFM is a well put together convention.  (I will go through pictures in a bit and post a few.  Jeff took them all.)  I had a great time and definately need to do more furry conventions, because I do well at them.  I did a LOT of commissions and one of them… I’m REALLY proud of, so I hope I get a copy of it soon so I can show it off.

I met lots of readers and other people who I hope became readers.  I sold several full runs of Akaelae. 0.o  Which amazed me.  I also sold a full run of Akaelae AND Campus Safari to one individual.  That was nice… because it was five minutes before the room closed.

This was a really enjoyable con with really nice people.  And mostly really polite people.  There were of course, a few weird individuals who did not believe in showering and really smelled, but those are to expected at any convention.

I discovered that an individual whom I had negative dealings with, who shall remain unnamed, was also at the convention.  This individual was accused of copying my artwork years ago and trying to sell it at a convention. :D  It was brought to my attention and I dismissed it… until said individual sent me an email whining about how her style was so much different and better than mine. 9.9  Keep in mind that I did NOT accuse her of anything.  I didn’t really care … until she decided to make an issue out of it.  Obviously, she didn’t remember.

I was amused to see that she draws exactly the same as she did years ago.  The only thing different is that she now draws porn.

And I just now realized that this is one of the few conventions where someone didn’t come up to me telling me about their original variation of Star Trek/Wars using furries instead of humans and trying to justify that it wasn’t stealing even though they admitted to copying the full script and just applying furries to it. 0.o  Yes… I have had that conversation and similar ones.

I was sharing two tables with Aerokat, which was great.  I had someone to talk to on occasion and she had someone to suggest things she needed to do since it was her first convention as a dealer.  Pricing things is always a hassle when you’re new at it.

The entire convention was a good boost to my energy and creativity.  I thought of several things and started several things that I had not done before.  Once I finish all my old commissions I will likely start taking new commissions in batches and themes.  As in, one month, I may offer a standard inked 9 x 12 for $25, another month, it may be a set of custom buttons for $10.  I came up with tons of ideas and was even given really good suggestions by people coming by for organization.

After con hours was spent with my husband, Cindy and Jeff.  We went out to eat at Jillian’s the first night, that was fun!  We got to see a lot of interesting things in Memphis that night.  We also got lost. We also ended up grabbing takeout at Corky’s on the second evening and wow… that was amazing.  I do not tend to LIKE barbecue sauce, but I like theirs.

SO that’s pretty much it, great time, suggest that this convention be one that people go to if they live close enough.  No, I’m not going next year and it’s not because I don’t want to.  It’s just too far and the wrong time of year.  Kim’s in school and the driving time cuts into it.

While I figure out what’s wrong with all my sites… when I didn’t touch anything…

We didn’t manage to see Get Smart, it’ll wait until it’s a dollar movie. We DID all go out and watch Wall-E and I’m somewhat ticked off at some of the reviews. It was a great movie, keep in mind I have a 4 year old and a girl. Kimberly SAT through the entire movie, completely captivated by it. I enjoyed it. My husband enjoyed it. And here’s why: There was NOT a ton of dialogue. Dialogue and small children is NOT a good mix. I can’t believe I am reading reviews by people commenting how little kids can’t follow it because of the lack of dialogue. HELLO! How many children’s books do you see with NO dialogue in them?! That’s because 1. Kids can’t read and 2. They are visually oriented to begin with and 3. If you do read to them, they’re going to get bored quickly if there are too many words and not enough pictures. That’s how I get Kim to go to sleep.

I’d also like to take a moment to compare the ‘Green’ messages which seem to be annoying people. It’s handled CORRECTLY. It’s not a pile of trash like Happy Feet was. Oh good grief, I could rant for hours on how much I hated that movie. Only I hated it more for one thing than all the others and that was the outdated take it had on zoos of all things. It brought to mind the same mentality on pounds that was prevalent BEFORE rescue centers and such things. I’ve come around to the point that I don’t even see Lady and the Tramp as a movie I will let Kim watch, because I do not want her seeing all agencies that pick up strays as a place where they go to die. I’d rather let her watch Emergency Vets, Animal Cops and other such shows featuring the situations animals are taken for and what they go through. And the zoo thing… Zoos are not some mindless prison and I was frankly offended that Happy Feet decided to portray that inaccurate information and expected me to believe me. Today’s zoos (most of them as far as I know) make efforts to aid in conservation of animal species and spread awareness. Now, if it’d involved a Circus, I’d have had no problem believing it. I considered it irresponsible. (Of course, I also consider it irresponsible for film makers to make movies using dogs which are not ‘kid friendly’. But that’s more of an annoyance with the people that decide to go out and BUY said dogs for their kids after seeing them in a movie which happened with dalmatians and beagles. I would never recommend either dog for kids. As someone having experience with them.)

*grumblegrumble* I’m just annoyed because I keep seeing people selling puppies on the side of the road and that infuriates me.

It all makes me really sad.

Now that I’ve gone completely off my tangent… time to see what’s going on with my sites.

Today I went to Hobby Lobby seeking out a square hole punch to streamline my keychain making. ;)  I couldn’t find one that was quite the right size and wasn’t sure I wanted to get the one that was a tiny bit smaller without looking at JoAnn’s and Michael’s first.  Since I had a 40% off coupon, I wandered over to the papers and copic markers, which were on sale.  I didn’t have my list.. then noticed a tiny package with the brushes.

NEW PRODUCT!

I use waterbrushes for inking some things, because they tend to look nice and mimic an actual brush and ink.  Because I’m AFRAID of using a brush and an open bottle of ink due to possibility of spilling and open ink bottles around a 4 year old, I’ve found that waterbrushes (brushes you fill with water) work very well filled with INK.

Normally, I use a fine yellow Kuretake H20 waterbrush.. which runs anywhere from $9 - $12.  I’ve tried others and it’s difficult to find them in the ‘fine’ size for doing lineart.  Today, I found the Sakura Koi Waterbrush for … $5.  It’s also a fine brush, so I’m going to fill it with ink tomorrow and see how it works.  I got two of them, so I can use one for watercolors.  These things are awesome for watercolors.

Figured out how to fix the RSS feed to display links.  Well…for livejournal anyway.  My Shivae Studios one doesn’t work, but I figure since it’s set to summary anyway, I will just try not to put links into these posts until the end.  This is more for static news announcements and random posts.