steady rollin'

Naturally as I have deadlines looming and lots of freelance work staring me in the face, I get extra hours at the day job. Also I am PMSing so I'm all over the place on the mood spectrum and so opening my mouth on the internet probably isn't a good thing. Oops?

But since I'm seeing it pop up on the flist, I'm going to open my mouth again anyway. If you want to encourage transformative works and believe that such works are legal, please consider releasing your work under a Creative Commons license. The license that I've released all my work under for the past few years (BY-NC-SA) is actually one of the more restrictive since by default it requires the same license to apply to derivatives, but I'm rather firm in the belief that sharing and building on a creation should continue indefinitely.

Art post later tonight if I don't collapse of exhaustion.

Today is half work and half fun. Earlier, J and I went to Blue Bottle cafe where we each got a cappuccino and a half pound of coffee. Am trying a new type of beans, so I have something to look forward to tomorrow morning. We walked around a bit, and wandered over to the Irish Bank for lunch. Not expecting to go near a pub, I didn't have my ID on me and couldn't get served. Oops.

It took a month, but I'm at the point where I'm at peace with the fact that I'm no longer invested in my job. I wish I was, since I love interacting with customers (even the ones who ask me for a macchiato) and knowing the ins and outs of nearly every aspect of the workplace, but there's no longer a sense of fulfillment to keep me motivated. The facet of my personality that had me devoting extra unpaid hours is better served working on other, more rewarding projects. I'll be finishing the last of the design work for the cafe between this week and the next and then I'm just going to show up, put in my fifteen hours a week, and let my apathy blanket keep me warm and fuzzy.

Of course, just before I start seriously considering what my options are for job hunting, I shaved my head. I love it and it is very pettable, but considering what the bulkier part of my resume is loaded with, the look is not entirely geared towards business casual.

Tonight is game night for our D&D campaign and I think we're almost out of the dungeon. I can't wait to get back to town and add my new skills. Until then, it's time to do some design and some illustration!

Earlier today I almost had a "no one yells at me" moment similar to the evil twin's, but while rationally I understand the written exchange in the retail log, emotionally I am less than happy with the tone of it. Particularly when my comment was left in the intent to be constructive and seek the root of the problem rather than merely addressing the symptom. My feathers will be less ruffled tomorrow I'm sure, but it made the decision a whole lot easier to apply for another job today. It would be doing pretty much exactly what I do now which I love, and hopefully with more hours and spiffier perks. I cross my fingers.

After work yesterday, J and I saw Up. I can't even pretend to be a robot anymore. :( My superpower to callously watch the most heart-wrenching films has abandoned me and now I get all sniffly over everything. I had no idea what to expect out of Up based on what I'd seen at Wondercon, but as usual, I wasn't disappointed. It was lovely, both visually and emotionally. I'd happily see it again.

I ended up covering the desk at work today and well, that was an unexpected time sink. Bigger paycheck next time around will be nice though. Now I plan to finish up one illustration gig and then do some drawing entirely for fun. I... I just don't know what I want to work on. D: Too many fandoms are overwhelmingly shiny to me right now. Dilemma! Next Watchmen piece I do will probably be Hooded Justice/Captain Metropolis unless something else blindsides me, like, oh, if I come up with a cool idea for The Silhouette, but I'd rather spread my enthusiasm around a bit.

Today I'm doing a lot of cleaning and a lot of drawing, with a liberal dash of work things on the side. As I poke at things I've been mentally plotting out my class project for this semester. I need to pin something down in the next couple days and get started. All in all, I'm rather glad I only have one project-based class as it's going to simplify things a lot for me, especially with all the other things I have in the works.

Discovered that I still hadn't posted a ton of old fics up on my site, so I've been spending a few minutes each evening to get them up one or two at a time. Next I'll need to actually design my layout so I can get the categories looking all nice and neat like Blue's site. Oof. Between editing the old stuff since I can't help myself, and working on tidying up the things I wrote for the blindfold meme, I've gotten quite a bit of writing done lately.

Work is a bit better, and my schedule this coming weekend is altered to save me from going crazy. Despite a completely omgwtf moment last week from the person with whom I dread working, I properly explained my feelings to my boss and had a good conversation with him. I also talked a lot with J which helped put a few things in perspective.

And in fannish news, I still haven't watched any of the new BSG season in order to keep current with SPN, but also we finally had a chance to sit down with Jason and marathon some Dexter. We're almost current with that, and despite a few things that are making me be all frowny face, I'm liking the season in general.

I'm also glad I picked up an emusic.com subscription again. I have so many new things to listen to it's really boosting my creativity, and I've finally filled in a few albums that I had trouble digging up back when I used to, you know, care about owning CDs. Wee.

I have three more days in this semester and the evil twin distracts me with 8000 words of J3 fisting porn. 8000 words of ridiculously hot fisting porn. You know, once upon a time I didn't see the appeal. I am a convert. She is also probably stupidly pleased that I have slid that much closer down the slippery slope towards J2. We'll see if I can ever get there without the JDM crutch. I've missed having an rps fandom though. And with Susan watching all the LotR movies lately, it's been making me super nostalgic over lotrips. Which reminds me, I've been looking around for ages for this fic that had one of the hobbits (I think it was Billy) and SeanB and football and drinking and hotness. I think it had Viggo/Sean mentions in it too. Eurgh. I wish I could be less vague....

Anyway, tomorrow, I have a full day of hard surface modeling in front of me. With how behind I was in that class since the format and the materials just did not click with me, I'm not sure how close to finished I'll be with my project. Enough to get a passing grade, I'm sure, but not nearly where I want. Thankfully I got an additional training vid that did a really good job at illustrating all the concepts I was having difficult with. I'm dedicated enough to the subject (Metallicar!) that it's a project I'll keep going on.

My character model is also not going to be finished to level I'd like, but it's more than good enough to turn in. I have all the main parts done, and done well, and it's only all the extra (and optional) accessories that I'm lagging behind on. That one too I'm dedicated enough to continue working on, and I'm really excited to see it done. I'm dying to texture and pose the character, since I think he turned out looking pretty darn cool. It was nice too to collaborate on an original character that wasn't my own as well as something non-fannish as it gave me a lot of wiggle room and I didn't have to spend weeks trying to do character design when that's not my forte.

I gave away my Sunday shift since I definitely need the time with a midnight due date. I'll still be going in with J during the bake shift at stupid o'clock tomorrow though. I had pretty much told my boss I thought we should decorate and he said, go for it, so I bought/made some things on my own that I could just take down and keep after the holidays, and then used petty cash to pad that out with garlands and cute little mini-ornaments. I got about 50% of it up this morning before my shift actually started, and so I want to finish that tomorrow. The head baker came in early and asked if I was going to put up anything in the back. I hadn't really planned to since I went into it thinking more about customers than employees, but after he asked, I made sure to ration out my supplies so I could make production pretty and festive too. For such a meagre budget, I think I did fairly well, and my favourite regulars were appreciative. That totally made coming in early worth it. :D

Anyway, back to the grind!

p.s. Oh wait, I forgot, J and I put up our xmas lights today on the balcony and they're so very pretty. We're probably going to get another strand for the window in our room, but even now we have the cutest lights on the block! :D

p.p.s. The guy working on his cars in the garage underneath us is playing AC/DC. If only he didn't look like the comic book guy from the Simpsons. Sure I'm pretending otherwise, but still.

Working the desk on the weekends means I can bring in my laptop and write porn do homework. I feel terribly antsy so even though I /can/ fuck around, I instead find myself getting up every twenty minutes to run a load of dishes or something. Today though the newer crew really needs to start problem solving on their own, so I'm forcing myself to sit in the boring office and not be helpful. Gee, I'm forced to waste time on the interwebs. Woe is me. :p

I got all spazzy when my online module said that my midterm was due today, since uh, it's only been a month wtf, but apparently it's the first part of my midterm. Doing inorganic modeling is so very unintuitive to me. I really wish I could get the blueprint references I need to model the Impala, but I just can't find anything for the appropriate year. My JDM bust for my zbrush class is coming along well, though I might ultimately make it a bust of the Comedian just so I can include some iconic pieces in terms of wardrobe and such. Am pleased when I got feedback from my instructor that all my topology was fine, so I've got all that down and now I just need to work a lot on building the likeness and figuring out what I want to do in terms of putting hair on my model.

I started laying out a 2d animation project for myself last night also, since I'm feeling ambitious or something, and also J's 2d class has been fun to watch and learn second-hand (I helped him make a falling leaf animation, so I can see all the ways in which I find that sort of thing fairly intuitive). Anyway, am trying to aim for about a two minute fan animation. We'll see how it goes. :3

Nothing makes me feel like I've got a whole lot more extra time than I thought than checking my schedule and realising that the following day I am working closing, not open. Hm. And despite wasting a ton of time reading news and getting caught up on all the latest goings on, I managed a rough ink for the next 1mr comic which I've slotted to finish tomorrow. I'm fairly on top of my homework as well, and overall I feel surprisingly good about my level of work versus classwork versus funstuffs. I worked another full day in the office today without any hand-holding, so I've pretty much got that down, also got paid which after putting most everything on plastic this weekend for convenience, will be very handy. :3

Speaking of work, J is going to be learning how to cook on the line this week! I'm kinda excited, especially since I think it's neat that he's getting to learn all of that. I'd considered training on it myself since the option is there, but it's a little intimidating, particularly since my height could actually affect my ability to be quick about certain things like reaching for soups that are on the back burners! But anyway, J is on his way home, and has promised me pizza and Iron Man when he gets here, so maybe I'll draw for a bit. Woo! :D

I am so amazingly tired! I had a 9+ hour workday today (voluntarily) and I'm going in a half hour early tomorrow morning (also voluntarily) to help with a catering order. My days off are looking more and more shiny by the minute. Next week I get three days off, and oh man, I'm going to draw my little fingers off. Yay! I am reminded suddenly about how I helped fill a catering order the other day where I rolled hors d'ouvres. One of them was grilled nectarines and pesto wrapped in sliced skirt steak. I got to taste one and holy crap, I don't really eat a lot of meat these days, but that was the most delicious thing I've ever put in my mouth. The nectarine was so cold and sweet and juicy and everything was so flavourful. I'm still thinking about it.

Work was really busy today in spurts, which gave me just enough time to run around and do some of the prep work that didn't get done the day prior by the closer. At one point, which amazingly was a slow point, the owner of the coffee bar/restaurant across the street from my current workplace came in and bought some stuff from me. He told me if things didn't work out where I was to talk to him and he'd give me a job. That was flattering, if a teensy bit skeevy what with the poaching. I like my boss a lot though, as he obviously cares about the people who work for him, and oh man, it makes me feel good that he also cares about things like keeping the front cafe lights off if there's a lot of sun to save on power. The general ethics of my workplace makes me happy to be there. ^_^ On that note, Berkeley area folks, if you know of any charitable organisations that might like donations of day-old breads or pastries, talk to me.

I put in my request for days off around y-con, so I'm hoping I get at least three days, if not four. I'm still not sure what the heck I'm going to do the whole time since I won't have a table. J feels the same way. :p

I'm doing some drawing now, in the hopes of finishing up a commission that I'd intended to do on my previous days off that I instead spent dying in bed from the minor plague. I'm liking my latest batch of commissions, probably because they're all turning out how I want them to! They're nicely diverse too, and letting me play with a few different styles.

Not counting catching up on sleep, I've been a little too unfocused to do much drawing lately. I've been playing mostly LOTRO in my spare time. Almost hit 50 with my hunter, although I've got an alt up to 25 as well. I'll probably hit up the PVP soon since that'll keep me in for the long haul when it comes to end game. Still liking it a lot more than WoW for everything /except/ PVP, so we'll see how I feel about that aspect once I give it a try. I love the instances, and the game is just so amazingly pretty it blows my mind. We've got a nice core group of us playing now too, which makes it even more fun. With the new update they added a ton of stuff, including new dyes for the armour, so I can't wait to compile a nice set and colour it to my liking. I'll be the most dashing elf in middle earth. :D

Work started off super slow this morning, enough so that I managed to write some Batman/Joker porn in my moleskine, but then it was like fits and bursts of busy. Usually we're pretty steady, but today it was slow/fast slow/fast and then just fast. I'm working a lot this coming week, which is good for paying rent and all, but on one of my days off I have to go in for a few hours to train for closing, so that kinda blows. Am still very much liking the morning shift despite the waking up early. I suspect it's because I'm nailing those latte hearts these days, but since I've got closing shift next Friday and Saturday, so that'll give me a better idea of if I /actually/ have a preference.

Am sitting down now to get some art done before having nekofreak over for foods and chilling out. :3 Working on some commission things, but also a new SPN pic since I haven't drawn them in a bit. Am itching to do more Joker though as I am still painfully in love omg.

Came home today with a loaf of Broccoli and Cheese bread and a round of Zapaton which I got to use the slicer on (fun!). Yesterday the Jalapeno loaf I brought home was gone about 10 minutes after I walked through the door. :3 Today was my last day with someone else on shift with me, so tomorrow I'll be opening on my own. I'll need to remember to turn on the sign and some of the "front" stuff which I haven't actually done myself yet, but otherwise I'm pretty confident on setting up all the displays and getting the coffee and such prepped. I'm still working on that microfoam, but I did pour a swirly pattern on the latte I made for J when he came in with Susan and visited me.

I didn't realise it until I had to start taking orders, but we serve a breakfast brunch on weekends. One of the items we had today was french toast made on two huge slices of fresh baked bread and oh god, it looked and smelled so delicious. I stuck to a roll and my banana though. Maybe next time J comes in on the weekend I can share a plate with him. Am still highly enjoying the work so far, and there was just enough time during a couple lulls for me to sketch out two upcoming comics. Woo. Also, I get to plug in my iPod for music on my side of the cafe, which is fantastic. Everyone got an earful of the Heartless Bastards, Wolf Parade, and the Decemberists today. I'll have to come up with a new mix for tomorrow since half the stuff I had on my iPod was techno or bands like Leftover Crack which uh, isn't really suited to the usual crowd at all. ^^

I'm working on inking a commission and doing the colour on a new comic right now. I'm hoping I'll finish up on both before we head out this afternoon to catch Hellboy II. We re-watched the first one last night, and for as much as I love it (oh Kroenen, my most favouritist clockwork Nazi) I can see all the places it's aged. I can't wait to see the new one. The character designs are so completely up my alley. I didn't get enough of that style at all from Pan's Labyrinthe. Unf.

My trial run on Sunday went well. I ended up staffing the booth by myself most of the day, which was fine since the foot traffic wasn't heavy enough to really warrant a second person. The prep work, which included pushing around a huge bread-cooling rack laden with things and hauling down cases of bottled drinks off shelves, left my arms totally sore though. They are much better today, although that's a wake-up call for which muscles I ought to be focusing on when doing weights. :3

Today was my official start, and I trained on most of the duties I'll have at front counter. I managed to pull a perfectly acceptible cappuccino on my first try on their machine. Win for me, and win for the guy training me who was understandably glad not to have to teach someone to make espresso drinks! I worked the morning shift, which meant I had to get up at 6. I haven't seen 6am from that side since school/work before our move, and man, not having an hour plus commute time makes such a difference in how I feel about that. I'm sure it also helps that it wasn't freezing cold in the morning, and it was nice and bright so the walk was really pleasant. I figure it'll take me a week or so to get into the rhythm of things, but everything was nicely straightforward and I got a solid intro to a chunk of the regulars. As much as I tend to be somewhat of a general misanthrope in the philosophical, I actually enjoy working with people, and once I'm off the leash and the only counter person I'm likely to have a relatively steady stream of things to do without a super heavy customer load. Yay. My favourite part of the way was probably prepping the pastries for the display, they were all so fresh and delicious looking.

I'm curious what my schedule is going to end up being like. Both shifts are reasonable on time, neither too early or too late, so I don't have an immediate preference. As is I'm leaning towards opening, since that means I'd get home before 2 and have plenty of time left for doing other things. Also, then I don't have to deal with the bulk of the lunch crowd or the dinner crowd, and can mostly focus on the coffee and pastry side which is mostly where my personal interest lies anyway.

Things I'm looking forward to in particular: Working on perfecting the microfoam and learning how to pour latte art. Also, what sort of free bread I want to bring home with me tomorrow. :d Num. Apparently, later on my duties will include cookie-baking. More num.

Incidentally today was Susan's second day training for her new job at the Pasta Shop. So with her bringing home pastas and me bringing home breads, c9th will not be left wanting on the delicous carbs end of the meal spectrum.

I have a lot of art to finish up this week, all of which is progressing nicely at least. I'd like to do some writing also, since there were a few prompts from porn_battle that I had been eyeing like crazy and didn't have the time to finish. J's birthday is coming up in less than a week as well, which means there will be a family dinner or somesuch, and also present-hunting. He's such a difficult boy to shop for since none of his hobbies require much in the way of materials, and he doesn't, oh, collect doujinshi or something equally easy to snoop around for.