Also, because you mentioned your friend, I feel the need to link to my own collection photos, here. This is only a fraction of my collection, though. 8D A lot of my ponies are at my parents' house in storage because I don't have anywhere to put them here.
About reading books - I have the same problem, with wanting to smack myself if I read something then realize that I have all this work to do. For this reason, I end up not doing any leisure reading at all during the school year, except at Christmas; most of my reading gets done during the summer. So, I have all these books around, and I want to read them, but I can't. Sigh. Anyway, I do tend to find large books a tiny bit intimidating. However, this is because I read very slowly, and I generally do not know if I will have the time to commit to a long novel and finish it in a reasonable time. The Count of Monte Cristo took me a month, for example. As for Dorian Grey, I haven't read it, though I have wanted to do so for a while.
Tempt you to English, you say? <3 Come to the dark side, my dear~ We have cookies, and coffee. Yes. Or, well. Maybe not taking classes, but I bet you would have found it at least somewhat interesting to sit in on.
Re: PSP. Yes, it isn't designed for photo editing, and that's what I told the person who tried comparing PS and PSP, but of course what I said went in one ear and out the other. Sigh. People are just dumb. Anyway, as for SAI, I'll keep it in mind in case my PSP disc craps out on me and I need to go looking for something to replace it with. ;p
Anyway. Yes, I'm serious about the amateurish thing, and I seethed about it for months, and it actually had a rather negative effect on my drawings. I changed the way I shaded and started to make everything darker, a bit more drab-looking, and looking back on it now, nothing from that point of time looked anywhere near as nice as the part that came before it. Fortunately for me I went back to brightness after a few years. To be honest, it still really bothers me. Bright colours in cartoon drawings? Gasp and egads. C'est impossible!
As for UrsulaV - Unfortunately I wasn't there (I don't think she's come to Canada before). It was a special deal kind of thing, and I managed to get in on it. I'm pretty sure she doesn't have prints larger than 13x19, and while I realize that isn't huge, it's rather large compared to her regular size. It looks pretty good up on my mantle, anyway. I'd love to have bigger prints, but she produces them all at home, and her printer can only handle so many sizes.
Drawing... eh. I used to scribble a lot. Every few days or so. But after a while, I did it less - didn't have time to sit down and draw - and now, hardly ever. Usually the only time I scribble now is when I'm at parties. I tend to take my sketchbook and scribble portraits of the people in the room. I'm not very good at carrying a conversation, but I like being around people, so it gives me something to do, keeps me from getting bored. I don't know. Maybe I should change what I draw. Start drawing animals or landscapes instead, or something. I always did like doing backgrounds, if buildings were not involved.
YES WELL. Prose-poetry (and poetry in general) is, in some ways, a skill that can be learned. Partly. At least, editing something that already has been scribbled out, is. I realized this when I was working on my honour thesis. Part of what I had to do was take my poetry and make it not suck, and a lot of that involved breaking the lines down (or sentences, for prose), changing things around, finding precisely the right word. It isn't so much about making something sound pretty or flowery as it is about exactness, I would say.
NEW SOURCE MATERIAL IS YAY. But it is not enough. I need moar Nordics. And such. I can dream, anyway. Oh man, Noon and I were partying on AIM that night, let me tell you. It was just... I was so happy. It was much like the explosion the first time we got a strip with Norway and Denmark in it, really. Aaa~ (On, and I definitely agree with you on the matter of Finland's sweater vest. One of my friends even coloured it with salmiakki-pattern - I just haven't gotten around to iconing it yet).
Re: Your comment of 24661 characters exceeds the maximum character length of 4300.
About reading books - I have the same problem, with wanting to smack myself if I read something then realize that I have all this work to do. For this reason, I end up not doing any leisure reading at all during the school year, except at Christmas; most of my reading gets done during the summer. So, I have all these books around, and I want to read them, but I can't. Sigh. Anyway, I do tend to find large books a tiny bit intimidating. However, this is because I read very slowly, and I generally do not know if I will have the time to commit to a long novel and finish it in a reasonable time. The Count of Monte Cristo took me a month, for example. As for Dorian Grey, I haven't read it, though I have wanted to do so for a while.
Tempt you to English, you say? <3 Come to the dark side, my dear~ We have cookies, and coffee. Yes. Or, well. Maybe not taking classes, but I bet you would have found it at least somewhat interesting to sit in on.
Re: PSP. Yes, it isn't designed for photo editing, and that's what I told the person who tried comparing PS and PSP, but of course what I said went in one ear and out the other. Sigh. People are just dumb. Anyway, as for SAI, I'll keep it in mind in case my PSP disc craps out on me and I need to go looking for something to replace it with. ;p
Anyway. Yes, I'm serious about the amateurish thing, and I seethed about it for months, and it actually had a rather negative effect on my drawings. I changed the way I shaded and started to make everything darker, a bit more drab-looking, and looking back on it now, nothing from that point of time looked anywhere near as nice as the part that came before it. Fortunately for me I went back to brightness after a few years. To be honest, it still really bothers me. Bright colours in cartoon drawings? Gasp and egads. C'est impossible!
As for UrsulaV - Unfortunately I wasn't there (I don't think she's come to Canada before). It was a special deal kind of thing, and I managed to get in on it. I'm pretty sure she doesn't have prints larger than 13x19, and while I realize that isn't huge, it's rather large compared to her regular size. It looks pretty good up on my mantle, anyway. I'd love to have bigger prints, but she produces them all at home, and her printer can only handle so many sizes.
Drawing... eh. I used to scribble a lot. Every few days or so. But after a while, I did it less - didn't have time to sit down and draw - and now, hardly ever. Usually the only time I scribble now is when I'm at parties. I tend to take my sketchbook and scribble portraits of the people in the room. I'm not very good at carrying a conversation, but I like being around people, so it gives me something to do, keeps me from getting bored. I don't know. Maybe I should change what I draw. Start drawing animals or landscapes instead, or something. I always did like doing backgrounds, if buildings were not involved.
YES WELL. Prose-poetry (and poetry in general) is, in some ways, a skill that can be learned. Partly. At least, editing something that already has been scribbled out, is. I realized this when I was working on my honour thesis. Part of what I had to do was take my poetry and make it not suck, and a lot of that involved breaking the lines down (or sentences, for prose), changing things around, finding precisely the right word. It isn't so much about making something sound pretty or flowery as it is about exactness, I would say.
NEW SOURCE MATERIAL IS YAY. But it is not enough. I need moar Nordics. And such. I can dream, anyway. Oh man, Noon and I were partying on AIM that night, let me tell you. It was just... I was so happy. It was much like the explosion the first time we got a strip with Norway and Denmark in it, really. Aaa~ (On, and I definitely agree with you on the matter of Finland's sweater vest. One of my friends even coloured it with salmiakki-pattern - I just haven't gotten around to iconing it yet).