Ah, screw it. On with life.

---

Nobody wanted to name that song. I guess I should have provided some incentive or something. (I'd have offered to give the painting to the first person who guessed right, but I can't bear to part with my originals...I'll need to get over that if I want to be an artist...) Oh well. Who'd have known there were so few B52's fans out there? (And if you know which song it is now, tell me. I'll...I dunno. Do something. Maybe an art request. Not that anybody would want crappy old me to draw them something, anyway, but...meh. If it has wings, maybe I'll do a good job. I have this wing obsession...)

Wow, I rambled. Normally I don't ramble this much in my diary entries. And I sounded all bummed and mopey, too. What's up with that? Maybe it's the fact that I'll probably never finish that painting due to lack of motivation, and then end up doing a spectacular digital version years later. Or never. Yeah, that sounds more likely. I did the concept sketches, and now my brain says I'm finished. Stupid brain, being lazy again.

Okay, time to stop rambling, get off my butt, and DRAW, dang it. I had a cool idea earlier that would look great as a digital drawing and wouldn't be too hard, either. Okay, doing that now. No more rambling.

I swear I'm done now. That's it. End of ramble. Go away.

Name that song!

---

Okay, as I said in my previous diary entry, I'm planning to do a painting based on a song. I want to see if anyone here can name the song. (The band who did it is one of the ones listed in one of my older diary entries, titled "Survey says...".) I'll be posting my planning sketches as I do them, and that should be enough for someone to guess the song (I am taking the lyrics very literally, so it shouldn't be too hard). If no one guesses it before I finish the painting, I'll post the finished piece up here and give you until it's up at my Elfwood gallery to guess the song. If anyone thinks they know the answer, mesage me or post in the relevant forum thread ( http://elftown.lysator.liu.se/view_forum.html?n=1124150233&mnr=277518 ) that I started in My Day. If you get it right, I'll try to think up some sort of award for you. (You're welcome to suggest one, too.)

---

Okay, here's the first sketch (click for full-sized version):

It's a futuristic ocean liner. If this sketch were in color, the ship would be white.

---

Sketchy number 2 (click for full-sized version):

Some futuristic skyscrapers. They're going to be part of a larger city. If this were in color, they'd be blue.

---

The big ol' composition-planning sketch (click for full-sized version):

I still need to draw the city (it'll go in that big white space) and a few other little things. What you should be noticing:
-The sea
-The forest by the sea
-The moon (that's that big partially obscured round white thing on the right) is rising
-A spinning starfish
-A singing dolphin (it will be blue when I do the final painting)
-Some white ships sailing the seas (you can hear the tune now, I know you can!)

Gunnin' for a Mod's Choice!

---

Okay, I've decided to get crackin' on my art, starting with a picture that has been in my head for at least six months, wondering when it will be drawn (well, actually, I plan to paint it). If I do it well, and I'm sure I can, it might just catch the attention of the Elfwood moderators and earn me my first Mod's Choice, which would be awesome because then people would actually start coming to my gallery.

The painting I'm planning is going to be based on a song by--no, wait! I'll let y'all guess! I'll post some of my planning sketches as I do them, and let whoever reads this try and figure it out based on those. Hint: The band who did the song is one of the ones listed in an older diary entry called "Survey says...". Not that THAT narrows it down much, but hey, it's a start.

Goodbye, Doc...

---

I just got an email saying that yesterday afternoon, Ignacio Ocasio, a chemistry professor at Case Western Reserve University who was known to everyone as "Doc Oc", passed away.

He taught several freshman chemistry courses, and in the fall of 2003 and spring of 2004, I was lucky enough to be one of his students. He was a wonderful teacher. His energy and enthusiasm were contagious, his ability to explain difficult concepts was such that even a fool could understand, and his kindness toward struggling students--and everyone else, for that matter--was seemingly without limits. To those who knew him, he was not only a teacher, but a friend; most of us will never forget him.

So goodbye, Doc Oc. Rest in peace.

Survey says...

---

I've been poking around and looking at other people's houses, and I notice that an awful lot of them have these personality survey-type things that they've filled out. I've begun collecting some of the better ones, and plan to fill them out at my leisure. Here's one I filled out already (I find the questions on it to be especially descriptive and all-encompassing):

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LAYER ONE:
-- Name: Allison Kathleen Whitby (yes, I LIKE my middle name)
-- Nickname: None really. Very few people get away with calling me Al. Online I go by Dragonette, or a variation thereof.
-- Birth date: August 31, 1985
-- Birthplace: Huntington, West Virginia (and before you ask, no, I am not a hillbilly and my parents are not related!)
-- Current location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (da Burgh!! I love this city. I don't wanna move to Philly...)
-- Eye color: Blue-green-ish (closer to blue), with funny little orangey-brown rings around my pupils (my sis and I got this strange trait from our dad)
-- Hair color: Dark brown
-- Height: Somewhere between 5'10 1/2" and 5'11 1/2" (179 and 181.5 cm) (every person who ever measures me gets something different...)
-- IQ: I've never taken an official test, but I think it's somewhere in the 140's or above
-- Righty or lefty: Lefty and proud of it!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LAYER TWO
-- Your heritage: Half British/Welsh, 1/4 Italian, 1/4 Serbian
-- The shoes you wore today: Slippers right now, but I put on a pair of Nike sneakers when I went out earlier
-- Your weakness: Little wads of paper or tin foil. They are my OCD Kryptonite.
-- Your fears: that I'll be stuck in therapy and living with my parents until doomsday
-- Your perfect pizza: No sauce, lotsa cheese, and some garlicky sauce stuff
-- Goal you'd like to achieve: Right now, I'd like to know the routes to all the places I could conceivably want to drive to during the month of July.
-- Your favorite bands: (oh boy, here goes nothin'...) First, the extinct or really old ones: Emerson, Lake and Palmer; the Who; the Beatles; Crosby, Stills & Nash; Heart; Simon & Garfunkel; Steely Dan; Steve Miller; Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers; Traffic; Billy Joel; Genesis; Peter Gabriel; Frank Zappa; Joe Jackson; the B52's; Stevie Ray Vaughan; Queen; John Hartford; Harry Nilsson; and probably some others I forgot. Oh, and those were just the ones that aren't current/recent (and by "recent", I mean the ones that came out with new CDs within the last decade or so). My favorite current/recent bands are (hold your breath, folks!): Barenaked Ladies; the Cranberries; Seal; Dave Matthews; Evanescence; Matchbox 20; John Mayer; the Smashing Pumpkins; Sting; Kenny Wayne Shepherd; Alanis Morissette; Bananafish; the Kings of Convenience; Enya (just a little); and I'm sure there are more. I'm a big music lover, and I like pretty much everything that isn't hip-hop-rap-crap, country (I mean die-hard, REAL country--I like a lot of bands that are a little bit country...Oh dear, but NOT the Osmonds!), or just plain awful. Oh, and I like classical music as well (especially Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky). Sheesh, I could've spent a whole diary entry jus on this question!
-- Your favorite songs: Are you KIDDING?! I'd have to write a freakin' book!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LAYER THREE
-- Your most overused phrase: "like" (only in real life, though--I never type it without good reason)
-- Your thoughts first waking up: "What time is it? I wanna go back to sleep..."
-- Your best physical feature: I think I have a pretty nice figure. (I sound like someone from the 50's when I say that...)
-- Your bedtime: Midnight or later
-- Your most missed memory: What does this question mean, anyway???
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LAYER FOUR
-- Soda: Grape!

-- Fast food joint: Burger King if I want a burger, McDonald's if I want chicken
-- Single or group dates: Either works for me
-- Adidas or Nike: Whichever fits and doesn't look ugly
-- Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Lipton all the way, baby! Nestea tastes like someone poured chalk in it.
-- Chocolate or vanilla: Both! At once!
-- Cappuccino or coffee: Neither. Caffeine does very bad things to me.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LAYER FIVE
Do I...
-- Smoke: No. Yuck!
-- Cuss: Yes, but not terribly much.
-- Sing: Only in the shower.
-- Take a shower every day: I plead the fifth, Your Honor.
-- Have a crush(es): Not currently
-- Do you think you've been in love: not really, but there was one guy I knew that I might have fallen in love with if I'd known him longer...
-- Want to go to college: I'm in college! I'm currently majoring in graphic design, and I think that's where I'll stay.
-- Want to get married: If I find the right man, maybe. Marriage is really just a formality, though, in my opinion.
-- Believe in yourself: In certain cases. For example, I believe I exist. Or maybe we're all just some ethereal being's dream...
-- Get motion sickness: If I spin around in circles, yes (SEVERELY). If I ride in a car/bus/boat/plane or ride a roller coaster, no (except for the Steel Phantom, which beat my brain to a pulp. Good riddance to the shaky thing. Phantom's Revenge is better anyway). I've never actually thrown up from motion sickness, though--I just get very very falling-down dizzy, sometimes for days at a time. A doctor I saw for this diagnosed it as "migraine equivalent". I get real migraines, too, but from stress rather than spinning around.
-- Think you're attractive: Meh. If I didn't have trichotillomania hair or all these marks on my face, maybe.
-- Think you're a health freak: *snrrk*WAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
-- Get along with your parents: Yes, quite well.
-- Like thunderstorms: If I can watch them from indoors, and I'm not trying to sleep, I think they are awesome.
-- Play an instrument: I used to play the violin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LAYER SIX
In the past month...
-- Drank alcohol: Nope!
-- Smoked: Eww, no.
-- Done a drug: No, no, no. I never would, either.
-- Had sex: No, but that doesn't mean I didn't think about it...
-- Made out: No
-- Gone on a date: Unfortunately, no
-- Gone to the mall: Yes, but with my friend Kelly, who spends approximately 0.5 seconds in each store. I am not a mall rat.
-- Eaten an entire box of Oreos: Several! Just not at once. :)
-- Eaten sushi: Yup! Me likes teh sushi!
-- Been on stage: Nooooooooo no no no!
-- Gone skating: I wanted to, but...
-- Made homemade cookies: Um, no.
-- Gone skinny-dipping: No
-- Dyed your hair: Nope, I don't see a reason to.
-- Stolen anything: I might have filched some of my sister's Easter candy...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LAYER SEVEN
Ever...
-- Played a game that required removal of clothing: Eeep, no.
-- Been trashed or extremely intoxicated: No, and I probably never will.
-- Been caught doing something: Uh...like what? Nothing illegal, if that's what you mean.
-- Been called a tease: Nope
-- Gotten beaten up: No, unless you count that time in high school gym class when two boys conspired to hit me in the face with a dodgeball and nearly broke my nose...
-- Shoplifted: Nope! I'm generally an honest, well-behaved citizen. (Why risk going to jail over a few dollars here and there? But then again, I'm not exactly poor, so if I were I'd probably be saying something different...)
-- Changed who you were to fit in: Not really, except for not wearing certain things in my wardrobe outside the house.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LAYER EIGHT
-- Age you hope to be married: Whenever it happens.
-- Numbers and names of children: No, no, no children! I'd be a TERRIBLE mother.
-- Describe your dream wedding: Small, brief, and cheap. It's just a stupid formality--why does it have to be all fancy? I'd rather spend my money on something more useful.
-- How do you want to die: Quickly, painlessly, and not now.
-- Where do you want to go to college: Where I am going to college! I like it at La Roche.
-- What do you want to be when you grow up: Ooh, I could be a creator or designer in the video game industry! That'd be nifty!
-- What country would you most like to visit: Of the ones I haven't already visited, probably Australia. For the scenery and wildlife, of course.
-- Who is your most loved people: Eh? I'll just say my sister and parents, and hope I didn't misinterpret the question.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LAYER NINE
In a boy...
-- Best eye colour: Blue or green, or some weird color like hazel
-- Best hair color: Blonde
-- Short or long hair: Depends. If he looks good with long hair, then long hair it is! I like long-haired guys...
-- Height: Within an inch or two of mine
-- Best weight: On the thin side, but not really skinny
-- Best articles of clothing: Whatever he looks good in. Tip: ALL men look good in fishnet. (That's just wishful thinking, though...)
-- Best first date location: A casual sort of restaurant
-- Best first kiss location: Wherever it happens is fine with me, as long as nobody's watching.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LAYER TEN
-- Number of drugs taken illegally: None, and I never will.
-- Number of people I could trust with my life: Maybe one. Maybe.
-- Number of CDs that I own: My family shares CDs, so you could say that I either own none or have well in excees of 200.
-- Number of piercings: None (It's not that I don't like how they look, it's just that I'm not fond of the idea of mutilating myself for fashion, especially since I might regret it later.)
-- Number of tattoos: None, for the same reason.
-- Number of times my name has appeared in the newspaper: Once that I remember, but it was a silly fluff story in the local paper of some small town in North Carolina. I didn't do anything bad to warrant it, if that's what you're asking.
-- Number of scars on my body: Two that are noticeable, one on my chin (I slipped and fell chin-first in a pile of tiny rocks...OUCH) and one on my stomach (a funny bump from when I had the chicken pox and scratched one).
-- Number of stitches I've had: 9. Two in my eyebrow when I was two years old, and 7 from the aforementioned chin accident, which happened when I was 13.
-- Number of big injuries: Just the chin thing, if you can even count that. And I broke my toe once.
-- Number of bones broken: One (second toe on my right foot--I ran too fast up the stairs...)
-- Number of things in my past that I regret: If I had to count, I'd be here all day. Mostly little things I said or did, or didn't say or do.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope I didn't bore you to death. (Well, it was fun for ME, anyway.) I'll go find some more surveys and bore you with those! HA!

That dragon quiz thing.

---

So, I took the Inner Dragon quiz at http://dragonhame.com , and apparently I am a mithril dragon. Here's the description from the results page:

---

Mithril Dragon

In the war between good and evil, Mithril Dragons take the side of the noble and good.
When it comes to the powers of Chaos vs. those of Law and Order, your inner dragon walks a fine line between Law and Chaos.
As far as magical tendancies, magical spells come as naturally to the Mithril Dragon as breath from its body.
During combat situations, a true Mithril Dragon prefers to defeat opponents by the use of spells and other tactics.

Dragon Description:

Mithril Dragons build and dwell in castles of crystal, high in the mountainous regions. A Mithril Dragon is honest and gentle.

Mithril Dragons are armored with highly reflective scales. To see one in bright sunshine has the effect of looking at a multi-ton, 150 ft. long disco ball.

They tend to smile frequently but rarely laugh aloud. Mithrils dislike violence. A Mithril Dragon is very selective when choosing close friends, but is generally admired by all. A Mithril Dragon leads a very quiet and unobtrusive life. Never judgmental, the great Mithril Dragon's feelings run deep and true. Mithril Dragons mate for life.

This Dragon's favorite elements are: Mithril, Earth, and Courage

---

Personally, I think it's pretty much a spot-on match for what I'm like in real life. Online, I tend to be less inhibited, though I'm still very honest. Basically, who I am online is who I would be in real life if I wasn't afraid of being judged or ridiculed. Hmm, maybe I should take the quiz again and answer like my online self...

Okay, done. I'm a copper dragon. Here's the description:

---

Copper Dragon

In the war between good and evil, Copper Dragons take the side of the noble and good.
When it comes to the powers of Chaos vs. those of Law and Order, your inner dragon walks a fine line between Law and Chaos.
As far as magical tendancies, Magical spells come as natural to the Copper Dragon as breath from its body.
During combat situations, whether by spells or by claw, your inner dragon will do whatever it takes to get the job done.

Dragon Description:

Copper Dragons make their homes on wooded hillsides, preferably close to a spring or river. They are fond of the Irish and typically speak with a soft Irish accent.

At birth, the Copper Dragon's body is covered in semi-reflective copper scales. As the dragon matures into its young adult stages these scales become more polished and highly reflective.

As the dragon grows older and moves to the elder stages of life, its scales begin to tarnish and mature into a bright greenish brown color. Copper dragons spend little time among humans, but can be often found among the elves and other magical folk.

This Dragon's favorite elements are: Copper, Emeralds, and Laughter

---

Once again, a perfect match. This is more like the "real" me, when I'm on the internet or around people I trust. (Out among the general public, I tend to try to blend in and not look conspicuous or be seen as weird. Around my family and good friends, I act naturally because they already know I'm weird, and online there are plenty of fellow weirdoes and everyone else can go to heck if they don't like it.) That quiz thingy works pretty darn well.

I return!

---

I'm back, after a long period of not being here. I do this every once in a while--get so involved in real-life things that I forget about all my online hangouts. I've even been neglecting all my favorite webcomics for several months...I feel guilty.

Anyway, the reason I'm back doing the internet thing is that IT'S SUMMER VACATION, BABY!! As of today, I am officially done with all things school-related until sometime around the end of August. WOOHOOOO!! FREEDOM!!


Hmm, looking down at my last diary entry, I realize that it has been a month and a half since I saw the Carnegie International, and I still have not gotten that call from the museum gift shop. I really wanted that book, dangit! I still do! Maybe I better come up with a good excuse to go to the museum again. Hey, the natural history museum is in the same building, and they're working on remodeling the dinosaur hall...Maybe I could convince the family to go with me and see it under construction? Ooh, that'd be cool. I haven't been there (the Museum of Natural History) in years...

Artist spaz!

---

I am one of those artists who is really an artist, in more ways than just doing a lot of drawing. I like to just look at things for what they are, lines and shapes and colors and textures, without expecting any sort of information or message. I especially like to look at other people's art, which is why I went to the Carngie Museum of Art today even though I am still suffering from a sinus infection.

Why I dragged myself (or rather, why my family dragged me, though I was still quite willing) out of my house is because today was the last day of the Carnegie International, a humongous art exhibit featuring the works of contemporary artists from all around the world. Much of it was installation art--that is, things that the artists actually had to come and assemble inside the museum. (Some works were arranged on the walls or floor in specific ways integral to the work. Some involved the construction of entirely new walls to support or enclose them. One guy built several small rooms, including a flimsy wooden loft area, and filled them with weird stuff, including an old leather sofa that had been sawn in half, an ancient rusty motorcycle (in between the halves of the sofa), some old bits of electronics, what I can only describe as a giant sock spider, and, in a little glass case near the entrance, what he claimed to be the fingernail clippings of Bertolt Brecht.) I should have gone to see it earlier, I know, but I and my family members took turns being busy, sick, or just plain lazy until this weekend.

Well, I saw good art and bad art and really weird art, but I didn't really fall in love with any of it until I got to the room containing stuff by Lee Bonticou. She makes these amazing, intricate, beautiful abstract hanging sculptures out of wire and mesh and ceramic, big hovering things that look like insects or futuristic space stations or scale models of galaxies, organic and mechanical features seamlessly blended together. And her drawings (graphite and colored pencil, mostly) are similar in nature, a bit like what you'd get if you crossed Juan Miro and H. R. Giger, abstract but spatial and textural and intricately detailed. I am now officially a huge fan of this artist. I wanted to spend hours in that room just staring and internalizing everything, but the rest of my family (my sis, my mom and my dad were all with me) wanted to keep moving, and my sinus infection wanted a big boxful of Kleenex. I tried to find something relevant to Lee Bonticou's art in the museum gift shop--a book, some postcards, anything to stare at that might evoke the same feeling of awe and wonder I had looking at the exhibit--but there was nothing there. Currently, anyway. Apparently they had a book on Lee Bonticou for sale there at one point, but the book went out of print. Then the lady behind the counter piqued my interest by mentioning that there would be a second printing of this book in about a month, and that the gift shop was already taking names of customers interested in obtaining a copy. And just when she had me sold, she added that this book would cost around 50 dollars (U.S., of course). This was enough to turn my mother and father off of the idea, but me? No. There is no stopping an artist once she's been inspired. I put my name on that list, gosh darn it. I will, however, look at the book carefully before I actually buy it. For 50 bucks, though, I'm betting it's exactly what I'm looking for--a full-color, hardcover, coffee-table type book, all high-quality pictures and very few words.

I will be drooling and quivering in anticipation until then, especially since it is next to impossible to find anything online about Lee Bonticou. Apparently, after she caught the art community's attention way back in the 70's, she decided to withdraw from the public art scene completely and has only recently reemerged into the limelight--she does not have an online gallery, and there are very few pictures of her work to be found on the interent. Arrgh! I need my Bonticou fix!!

I are photographer!

---

I entered two photos in the ET Photograph Competition! They are on page 4. That is all!

Update (March 27): Okay, they got moved to page 5. But they're still there! Ha!

Diagnosis: Too Much TV

---

So I went to the doctor today, and after waiting about half an hour to see her (the waiting room was PACKED--flu and allergy season, don'tcha know), I told her what was wrong (sinus infection and mysteriously swollen fingers). Then we got into a conversation that sounded a lot like an episode of House:

Doctor: "Hmm, have you been sick any other times in the past couple weeks?"

Me: "Actually, yeah, a week or so ago I thought I had the flu, but it went away in a few days."

Doctor: "Did you have any sort of a rash when you thought you had the flu?"

Me (confused by strange question): "...Uh...Oh, yeah, actually I did. There weren't any bumps or anything, just some red splotches on my chest and stomach that didn't itch or anything. They went away a few hours after I noticed them. What does that mean?"

Doctor: "I think you might be suffering from some complications caused by strep."

Yes, apparently the flu-thing I had last week was strep throat without the sore throat part. I did not know this was possible (my mom now theorizes that it was because I have no tonsils), so naturally I though I had some little 48-hour bug and didn't tell my doctor. Apparently, an untreated strep-throat infection can cause weird side effects, including my swollen fingers. So my doctor put me on antibiotics for the sinus infection, though they will help the strep thing too if that's what it really is. She also did one of those nasty gaggy throat-swab tests, which in a few days will tell if I actually have strep or not. And just in case she was wrong, she made me get a blood test to make sure the finger thing wasn't something more serious.

So now I have a head full of snot, my fingers are all fat and sore, AND my arm hurts. Oh well. At least I'm probably on the road to recovery.

On the "I have no tonsils" thing: I had them removed when I was six, after they stopped working right and caused me to become chronically infected with--guess what?--strep throat. (It's a nasty (but not fatal) bacterial disease whose most famous symptom is a really wicked sore throat. "Strep" is short for the type of bacteria that cause it, which I'm guessing is either streptococcus or streptobacillus. I'll have to look it up.)

Diagnosis: Hypochondriasis

---

Okay, not really. I actually have something that could be serious. For one, I feel like crap because I have a cold that skipped the "cold" stage altogether and instantly became a sinus infection--which for me is not unusual, just annoying and icky. My real worry is that some of my fingertips hurt and have started to swell up (unrelated to the sinus infection, obviously). I know I didn't injure them--how could I have, when it's a few random fingers on each hand? I have no idea what could possibly be causing it--well, okay, it might be poor circulation or some sort of vitamin deficiency (lord knows I have terrible nutritional habits). What really sucks about it is that my left pinky is all swollen and hurts like heck to touch, so since I'm left-handed, I can't write, draw, or paint. What really really sucks is that my spring break just started today. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, so hopefully they'll figure out what's wrong with my hands and give me some means to fix it. (The sinus infection doesn't matter. I get them all the time, and they usually go away on their own.) Luckily I can still type okay.

This sucks.


...Wait a minute, did I just say "lord knows" somewhere in there? Huh. Religious expressions are so ingrained into this culture that even I use them, and I don't believe in God/gods. (Well, I don't deny the possibility that he/she/they could exist, but until someone shows me convincing scientific proof, I'm inclined to believe otherwise.)