eeron

My little Ijo (aka "Little Bunny") passed away last month from some sort of health complication. It was quite a shock as she was only five years old and had a lot of life in her, but these things apparently happen.



So ends the Little Bunny/Big Bunny romance, leaving five year-old orphans in our care.

Sleep well my little bundle of furry fury.


The 100 Themes Challenge!


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CSS Journal Design by ClaireJones

Stunning! I'm back! With an upgrade... my spanking new Sony Vaio laptop is now up and running. Currently downloading updates and finding my backups (alas I have lost 60% of recent pictures and files - but I hope they will be recovered in time), I've even decided on a name. She will be christened Imogen

Admittedly a credit company owns her for the time being, but at least I now have the means to make some cash. Woohoo! Now, where is my copy of Photoshop... hmmm... might be a tricky one...

Time for a and a couple of drinks and then on with work. Lets see what this beast can do...


The 100 Themes Challenge!


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CSS Journal Design by ClaireJones

Arses. My laptop has died. Poor old Sony Vaio. RIP my lovely, wonderful bundle of plastic and silicon joy.

Sod.

So what do I do now? I'm suffering with the family PC, and although I can check my emails and moan on dA, I'm pretty much screwed til I work out how to get the cash for a new lappy. Any money-making ideas?

Talking about moneymaking ideas - I've been trying out Google Adsense. In a month I've made a whopping 73 cents! I was grounded by that astounding scheme. I guess I have to work out some better ways to find some online gold. Unless I can heard over a hundred people a day to Astroengine, I doubt I'll be breeching the dollar mark any time soon.

Oh well.

So, that's me! Submissions will obviously slow now I have lost my fifth limb (well, my sixth ... think about it ) so here's to hoping Santa has a returns department where I can pick up an unwanted laptop!

Bye bye for now.

Where's my wine?


The 100 Themes Challenge!


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CSS Journal Design by ClaireJones

***EDIT: 22/12/07***
Take a look at this deviant: rdhotartist. Obviously amazing talent and an amazing image of Jessica Biel. This shows exceptional talent and deseves the DD it was awarded today in my view. But the deviant in question has been offline for for 28w 5d 17h 53m 31s, and the deviation was submitted way back in May 2007. Am I missing something? I thought DDs were for present work, surely an active artist in our great community deserves the DD more? Read on and see what I'm complaining about...
*******************

Now don't misunderstand this as a complaint about deviantArt, to be honest, this is the most active and enjoyable web experience I've ever had. I'm not one of those "I'm gonna complain, complain and complain again" types (oooohh, I'll get to those buggers later), but I do have one small gripe about one small (and not-so-small) area of dA.

Daily Deviations. That's pretty much it. I think i had quite a lengthy discussion in the forums about this when I was downing a bottle of wine, so I probably placed more emphasis on this than I should have, but there are some really argumentitive people out there, so I gave them a good talking to (and by the way, I love the forums, they are so annoyingly addictive - as in they are amazingly annoying, but I like to give as good as I get and write some strongly worded text to the jerks). Now, DDs... In principal I think they are a GREAT idea, a really positive emphasis on this great community. In theory they should give exceptional art the airing it rightly deserves.

But there is a flaw.

Now, correct me if I'm incorrect at any point, I'd love to think i am wrong, but I suspect I'm not.

If I see a wonderful, and unique piece of art, I believe to be worthy of praise, more so than me simply clicking and a nice comment, I see which gallery the art is in, go to the help and FAQ and type "Daily Deviation". Naturally, the search returns the wanted article at the bottom of the page. Next, I browse through which admins look after each gallery and send them a note with a link to my DD suggestion. That's easy enough, a monkey can do it.

But a word of warning: DON'T SEND YOUR DD TO MORE THAN ONE ADMIN! Oh lordy, I did this one day (as sometimes there is more than one admin overlooking a gallery, and then somebody overlooking the sub gallery) - I sent 3, yes, I committed the ultimate sin and sent the same note to THREE admins, guilty as charged. It's as if I killed someones pet hamster (named something cute like "Brian"), really, that bad. Terrible, terrible eeron, poor pet hamster.

I get a reply from some admin (who will remain anonymous as I really don't want to piss her off again! But let's call her "mardypants") telling me off, saying that what I did will only cause confusion and may replicate admins efforts. I knew it! Mardypants is actually a chimp. In all honesty, I was a bit pissed off at this reply. No "thanks for getting in touch", just a short and sharp reply.

Before this I've only had wonderful communication with admins - including Helewidis, dholms and Teeslpscreations to name just three, they are all top notch s, but mardypants was just plain curt, well, even rude. Then i realised, all the admins i sent the message to were obviously in collusion - the other two never replied... mmmm conspiracy!

I think what i'm getting at is that I really don't like this system for DDs. It seems based entirely on one persons view. How can one person be qualified enough to say "wow! Well done Joe Blogs! You deserve a cookie, you clever boy you, here's a DD for you!" - it's worse than school! Even if that one person is highly gifted and skilled in their art, art is totally personal.

It would be a shambles if I were an admin. Heaven knows what I'd be choosing as DDs! As can be seen from my favs, I'd have to be an "Erotic Nude" admin (please dA, still consider me for that job even after reading this tirade!!), as once I see a well photographed, naked, beautiful woman I all the way home. So, no, even I, who i happen to hold in pretty high regard, is NOT qualified to administer one gallery, let alone any more. Plus I could be bribed, well, perhaps, but you get the picture

No one person should be selecting these DDs. As I've seen in recent months, the art on dA is getting better and better - all the artists I watch are very gifted individuals and improving day after day. So why is the quality of the Daily Deviations actually getting worse? (In my humble opinion.) There are some great pieces still DD'd but just because some art is risky, and pushes the boundaries of taste, doesnt make it "groundbreaking" and worthy of being a major feature.

I really do hope the Daily Deviation selection involves more than one person, I'd love it to be an elective process between several admins, but looking at the DD selections every day, I'm not too sure...

(but then again, if I did get a DD, I'd be overjoyed. However I'd rather get a DD after one of my pieces won after a vote rather than "selection". )


The 100 Themes Challenge!


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CSS Journal Design by ClaireJones

I found this challenge on TinyAndAdorable's journal and though it would be an exciting project to attempt. I'm not sure where it originally came from, but I'm going to give it a go. If anything it will expand my gallery a bit. I was tempted to link it with old images in my gallery... but that would be cheating

I will however begin the "Introduction" with an old pic, the rest will be new dammit!


1. Introduction ("Opportunist")
2. Love
3. Light
4. Dark
5. Seeking Solace
6. Break Away
7. Heaven
8. Innocence
9. Drive
10. Breathe Again
11. Memory
12. Insanity ("Insanity")
13. Misfortune
14. Smile
15. Silence
16. Questioning
17. Blood
18. Rainbow
19. Gray
20. Fortitude
21. Vacation
22. Mother Nature
23. Cat
24. No Time
25. Trouble Lurking
26. Tears
27. Foreign
28. Sorrow
29. Happiness
30. Under the Rain
31. Flowers
32. Night
33. Expectations
34. Stars
35. Hold My Hand
36. Precious Treasure
37. Eyes
38. Abandoned
39. Dreams
40. Rated
41. Teamwork
42. Standing Still
43. Dying
44. Two Roads
45. Illusion
46. Family
47. Creation
48. Childhood
49. Stripes
50. Breaking the Rules
51. Sport
52. Deep in Thought
53. Keeping a Secret
54. Tower
55. Waiting
56. Danger Ahead
57. Sacrifice
58. Kick in the Head
59. No Way Out
60. Rejection
61. Fairy Tale
62. Magic
63. Do Not Disturb
64. Multitasking
65. Horror
66. Traps
67. Playing the Melody
68. Hero
69. Annoyance
70. 67%
71. Obsession
72. Mischief Managed
73. I Can't ("I Can't")
74. Are You Challenging Me?
75. Mirror
76. Broken Pieces
77. Test
78. Drink
79. Starvation
80. Words
81. Pen and Paper
82. Can You Hear Me?
83. Heal
84. Out Cold
85. Spiral
86. Seeing Red ("Seeing Red")
87. Food
88. Pain
89. Through the Fire
90. Triangle
91. Drowning
92. All That I Have
93. Give Up
94. Last Hope
95. Advertisement
96. In the Storm
97. Safety First
98. Puzzle
99. Solitude
100. Relaxation


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CSS Journal Design by ClaireJones