Happy New Year to all! Hope this year gets better for everyone. 

Stay safe and hopeful.

Hang in there!

Love Y'all!

Much Peace & love.  

: >

I've been waiting all year to say this joke. But see y'all next year. 

This is so gonna be lit with the Virtual Light Show

King 5 News Virtual New Years Show

     Over the Thanksgiving weekend I watched the Netflix show Space Force. I actually found it hilarious and way better than I thought it was going to be. The brief trailer Netflix showed when hovering over the show made me decide to

 watch it. All the accidental explosions. 

    Comedy is always a mixed bag, it is a hit or miss. Sometimes humor isn't funny to some. The Space Force stars Steve Carell. This is a fictionalized depiction of POTUS's decision to create the military branch of Space Force. The show tackles with Space Force branch being taken seriously, their woes, crazy shenanigans, being worried about tweets. and some callbacks growing up in Military culture some of ridiculousness of how Chain of Command can be. 

Space Force is a Black comedy, some aspects reminded me of a modern day Dr. Strangelove. Episode 2 was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. I thought it was great. Watched that particular twice. There was a lot of people offended by that particular episode. It was pretty dark. 

I recommend this show. Can't wait for Season 2.

Ugh! Cliffhangers.  

Speaking of Space. On the 21st the Phenomena of the Christmas Star will be visible. It isn't a star but Saturn and Jupiter will be extremely close to each other or look like one giant star. No one knows.  From Earth to the naked eye planets tend to look like super bright stars. 

Check it out: https://earthsky.org/human-world/was-the-christmas-star-real

I live in an area with light pollution, I cannot see stars only planets. Unfortunately I don't have a awd to go to the good places and observe the stars. Someday, but not anytime soon. I miss looking at the stars and milky way when it is visible. 

Just wanted an excuse to render blue hair. This was originally was going to be a torso up drawing and I drew multiple versions but to capture action it is best to showcase the full body. Just need to clean the sketch up and refine it. I haven't rendered in Copic markers in awhile and want to render the final piece that way.  

This past summer there were so many game sales going on I bought and stock piled games. I did this with every system I have Steam, Nintendo and Sony. Except Nintendo games. They never go on sale. Only in the eshop it does occasionally. Trying to beat all the games I bought before buying new ones.

Despite the release of new consoles in this past month. I've been playing a lot of old game HD Remasters. I've been replaying Star Ocean: Till the End of Time also known as 3. It was a PS2 release. 

The game was a break through at the time. Pretty much fully voice acted cutscenes, different character skins for each character and the large world map. Certain events and dialog choices can lead to or not to recruit characters for your party. Dialog choices and having an impact inside the game were rare those days. 

One thing I noticed is the dialog and actions are so outdated. Game has pointless dialog and actions. Like this example, Click Here. Most RPG games have the storyline and plot of self identity and finding oneself or having amnesia and then thus remembering/finding thy self. I remember there was a scene in the game where Fayt is like, "Who the Hell AMM IIIII?????" and then there was a huge explosion of white light. Could not find a clip of that but I will record it once the scene comes up. It was supposed to be a serious crucial story moment but I remember just finding it pretty hilarious.

Up to when I was a teenager I mainly only played RPG games. I still have a soft spot for RPG games but I don't mind filling my chalice of Hatorade and making fun of them. Back in the day I used to get so sensitive and mad about people that would make fun of RPG games. A friend once said, "Wait isn't that the genre of games where they take turns hitting each other?" For the most part it is, with turn based combat. 

Back to basics basics, practicing my shapes and pen tool in Adobe Illustrator. 

Finally get the hang of doing some vector graphics after dabbling in it not consistently for about a year. This is based on other images I saw, and found. Just need to find that sweet spot of translating the knowledge I know in Photoshop to Illustrator. 

I swore never again to work multiple jobs, here I am again working  multiple jobs. At least they are both Graphic Design jobs. A.R.T related. Yay! One of them I can work at my own pace so I am no longer working to the point of subtracting time from my lifespan and the other at a custom t-shirt 

print shop.

An artist friend asked recently if I was ever trained as a Graphic Designer, the answer is no. I come from a Illustration draw and paint background. The principles of art and design are very similar. My art school Academy of Art University emphasized presentation with your art homework when you turned it in. That was how I landed my first Graphics job because I had a ton of layouts of my homework. An example is my American Illustration History class my essays were in an article format with images. So I would write the essay, research the images, and place them in a pleasing format. I never thought I would work as a Graphic Designer, as a teenager I was not interested in it because you really

 don't draw that much. I worked on this with just a mouse. 

Also I like to research random bits of information art of random facts that eventually it accumulates to something. Its awesome that everyone at my new job is a Graphic Designer and some other type of artist. I learned to streamline the process in Illustrator by watching my co-workers work. Everyone there is so nice and humble, and don't mind explaining what they did. 

I'm excited and motivated to improve my vector work. 

Listen to music while you work on projects. 

 Once again October and Inktober is here! 2020 is almost over? Man so much has happened. 

For Inktober I don't follow a specific prompt just various videogame characters and practice drawing different facial expressions. 

Started on time on the 1st and then got behind on the daily ink drawings. D;  I've only done 2 drawings and its almost halfway through the month! One traditional and one digital. Gotta catch up!

I've been playing Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remaster. The original is one of my top favorite games of all time. 

Until I did more research and looked at images of moogles in this game they do not have arms! Just wings. O__O Artemicion is the cutest one, and has the best moogle VA in the game. 

I think I want to draw more moogles! So cute! I want to get a moogle doll now. 

Here #1 

Liquid acrylic ink

The face I make behind the scenes when I play multi-player and no one casts magic. 

I'm not a total magic user but if it makes the game easier I'll use magic. More of the knight warrior type.

FF:CCR the new Shy Lilty character design. 

Cute little napoleans with high damage outputs.

I played as a clavat, lilty, an uncompleted game with a selkie, and never a yuke. This game can go on forever unless you get bored with it. 

 I moved to Seattle 3 weeks ago! And I LOVE it here!

Moving and traveling to many places on my own accord has been my longest and dearest dream. Finally able to do and keep it. 

I haven't figured out where I want to Be just yet. Most people that know me personally know I LOVE San Francisco, despite being called insane for my love of San Francisco...I still love her. Least she is a 2 hour flight away now. Many think but my end goal is SF but its i not. It's one of the many places I want to be at some point. As one of my friends said, "I feel you San Francisco is a magical place." 

Ever since I was a kid I had this dream to travel. My dad was never home due to work and he bought us a map of the United States so we could see where he was. My brother and I would point at random places declaring we'd live there. Seattle was one of them. I'm pretty sure we argued about that one. 

When I was young I was forced to travel. Instead of rushing to the destination, savor it. I've been to numerous places but also missed out on so many! Grow up and travel when I wanted to at my own accord and hope to meet someone special who would want to travel with me. But alas that part of my dream hasn't manifested yet. Statistically most people settle and don't move more than 60 miles from where they are born. I've been fortunate every place I lived at I had at least one life long friend I still talk to consistently. 

On the surface it seems like many things for me have fallen apart, but it actually all fell together. Its surreal but I'm living a few of my dreams. 

I lost my Graphic Design job due to the lady who I replaced. She worked at the shop for 16 years prior and wanted her job back after trying something else. My previous employer could never say no to her. Ironically it was the one day people were repeatedly complimenting on my work in front of the boss. It was a week before all the lock downs happened in the states. Anyone put in that position would be upset. I was going to quit that job anyways this year, but it happened sooner than I thought. In my life I learned sometimes the greatest things that can happen to you can happen after tragedy. Despite losing my job my personal time line for moving to Seattle was not delayed!

Pre-Pandemic I was working 2 jobs and some side hustles for almost 2 years. Working 35-60 hours a week, 7 days a week. Only getting 1 full day off once a month. Sadly it was robbed because I would sleep. Until I took a 10 day vacation I didn't realize how much stress this was mentally and physically. 

It was hard but I was determined to get money to move. I knew that lifestyle was temporary. I get tired of hearing and saying the same things. Life is moved by actions. So I shut up and made my move. Like they say actions are louder than words. At times the perfect opportunity comes when you are not completely ready, but you have to have courage to follow through and believe in you. There were times before I did not have the courage, I build my kingdom slowly but I get there. 

A lot of people thought this move was spur of the moment, but it was not. I've been planning and working on this for over 2 years. I didn't talk about it much because I didn't want to hear anyone's negative echo. Sure enough when I told people I gave my 30 day notice to my apartment I heard it. In a way it was a small blessing to get covid and recover so it wasn't an excuse to not move at the date I set. It was only delayed one month because by the time I recovered from my relapse it was too soon to comfortably make arrangements to move. 

Ironically my previous employer scoffed at me when I mentioned I'll probably make my side hustle of web design work into my job. And now here I am working as a contractor doing Graphic work and web design remotely. I get to work from home at any time of day or anywhere I feel like working with generous deadlines. All the random skills I learned I can now use. It helps and gives me time to work towards doing my dream job.

Uncharted 2 is my favorite game. I still randomly quote from it. I played it like 3 times and never skipped the cutscenes. I wanted to tell my previous employer, "Oh, you're not jealous...Let's not forget who walked out on whom, after all. You don't get to be jealous." Without the seductive voice. You're the one who fired me, you can't tell me what to do.  I have tact and wouldn't steal clients from your business or work for your competitor. 

She did have her caring side but other times things were weird. Despite not having uniforms or dress codes I was told to take off my hat or decorative scarf because it made her feel uncomfortable. I told my co-worker, "What is she an abusive boyfriend telling me what I can and cannot wear? Wtf." Towards the end I clapped back and said; "Y'know what I have bad hat hair today because I overslept. I'm not taking off my hat." I took off my hat to show my fluffy hair and put it back on. 

It reminded me of when I was a kid and would get in trouble for no reason. Just someone's easy target to pick on because they were stressed.  Alas I did it all for the experience and its just a memory now. I was put out of my misery. 

I got really lucky with my new apartment. Got a great deal on it, management and the neighbors are for the most part pleasant. Super awesome location. The street is a pretty long street. One end there is the ocean and the other end Green Lake. Also easy access and 10 minutes from downtown. It took 2 weeks but I can decently parallel park without too much trouble.

 

So much good food I've tried. Greek food is my latest obsession. Haven't had good Greek food since I lived in Germany. Gyros with lamb, beef meat with tzatziki sauce is probably the thing I've eaten the most while I lived here. My favorite place is Bus Stop Espresso & Gyros. They have like the best espresso in Seattle. I'm sure the cook heard me, not sure if he is the owner but after I said that I got my order and my gyro had so much food on it I couldn't roll it and had to eat it with both hands!  

It took over a week to find a coffee spot I liked. I'm convinced after only searching for coffee in google maps using the word espresso instead I was able to find coffee strong enough for me. I was totally disappointed that there is this cafe down my street where usually people line up. When finally decided to try it the mocha there tasted like buttermilk. I could not taste espresso or a hint of coffee at all. Bus Stop Espresso & Gyros and Kitanda are my favorites. 

Stay tuned! 

Although I'm super busy. @___@

 Usually when I move I have like an album or a music genre I'll listen to. Last time it was Certt.'s album Amaiya jazz. Some reason I got really back into 90's - early 2000's Pop & R&B music. It's been over a month and now I'm starting to listen to other stuff like game music like Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition Bury the Light and synth J-pop while I'm working. 

I had 22 hours of driving and hundreds of hours of packing and unpacking. And these are just a handful! The 90's was an interesting time. People always seem to have a soft spot for the decade they were born in. 

Use Your Heart - SWV

Spice Up Your Life - Spice Girls

Say You'll Be There - Spice Girls

Everybody - Backstreet Boys

I saw BSB live in concert. My friends and I were like wait they didn't play THIS song. We are not leaving until they play this, despite people were already heading out. They played this for the encore. Sure enough the lights came back on and Everybody was the last song of the night. It was hype.  Funny when I saw them live they were not as hot as I remembered.

My philosophy is when you sing BSB you gotta do the hand motions. and Um yes I do them when I'm driving. TT^TT \m/ Gotta rock that body right. 

I'm Dreamin' - Christopher Williams

The Boy Is Mine - Brandy ft. Monica

This song was always on the radio when we would go to Sacramento. To me its the going to Sacramento song. Sac Town!

He's Mine - Mokenstef

One thing I love about the 90's is sometimes songs would be all trashy but sounded eloquent 

and super catchy. 

Too Close - Next

Full Moon - Brandy

Jumpin' Jumpin' - Destiny's Child

Love like this - Faith Evans

Synthesize Her - TWRP

Super Street Fighter II OST Guile Theme

Love Taste - Moe Shop, Jamie Paige, Shiki-TMNS

I Wanna Be Down - Brandy ft. Queen Latifah, Yo-Yo & MC Lyte

11AM - Saba Abraha

Hot Like Fire - Aaliyah

Work It - Missy Elliot

In these times searching for some sense  of  normalcy of pre-pandemic times is totally scared. Bonus points if you can social distance and not harm others. Earlier this month I started doing online figure drawing workshops with Art Center students. One of the students that goes to brainstorm and Art Center invited us to check it out. It has been a blast so far. I'm pretty rusty but hey I'm learning and having fun! 

I've been doing figure drawing digitally. I bounce between Photoshop and Corel Painter.

One of the reasons I started going to figure drawing sessions was because I was taking online classes. I would go to my crappy fast food job and then just go home and repeat, repeat, repeat. Doing that for one semester drove me nuts!

I have my anti-social moments, but need some social interaction. But now-in-days with the pandemic things have to be online, video chat, text or phone. It helped I took a Brainstorm Inland class and it was live online. Everyone was able to get to know each other pretty well. Sometimes we draw together and do voice chat or share screens on discord or google hangouts. Some social interaction.

I learned about the local figure drawing sessions from the local art store. It took me months to actually attend a session. (I can be extremely shy at times.)

I've been to numerous figure drawing sessions and workshops, it was part of my routine and a staple in my life for several years now. It isn't ideal to study figures online instead of live but something is better than nothing. 

Hang in there peeps! It is hard for everyone. 

Stay safe!

& keep drawing! 

There are more drawings but they aren't as good. Or I drew the same thing numerous times to try to get the hang of drawing and understanding the pose. 

Songs on my playlist

Homemade beef stew Version 2 with my own grown chives

I was sick with covid for about 3-4 weeks. The incubation time for me was 12 days. The worst of it was during the first 2 weeks of having symptoms. I also had minor symptoms during the 12 day incubation time. 

My symptoms were gradual lost of taste and smell that eventually completely disappeared, muscle soreness at first. headaches at first, fatigue, brain fog, mild sore throat. Thankfully the way my throat felt was like when you get that pin like feeling when you are about to get sick. It stayed that weird feeling of about to get sick but not. I didn't get the fevers, chills and cough. 

For home self care 

-Drink plenty of liquids. I drank only water and tea with organic honey.

-Eat a good diet. 

-Plenty of rest. There were days I slept all day and only woke up to eat.

-Tylenol - for headaches and if you have fevers.

I started this liking Matcha Mint tea, I had so much of it
I don't like it as much as before.

This honey is the best! So smooth and tastes 

like marshmellows. And its super affordable!

Yes and no Covid-19 has similar symptoms to the Flu. This beast takes over your entire body and mind. Complete lost of taste and smell without congestion is strange. Then again everyone's case is different and the unknowns that doctors do not know too much about this disease. And then the real threat I could really die from this is too real. 

I really can't emphasize how awful the fatigue was. Doing something simple as washing dishes for less than 10 minutes would completely wipe me out. It took an additional few weeks to feel "normal" and be awake the entire day without napping.  

Until brain fog is lifted you don't realize what brain fog is. A friend mentioned the comparison of when you get a migraine, and it lifts you can finally think clearly. It would take a long time to think about things. For example if you are making an omelet and it take longer that usual to realize you need to take the eggs out and other things. Complex thoughts took longer to process, like making a list. 

Didn't help around this time I was sick the news cycle for a few days was really locking on black people were more prone to dying from this. It was pretty upsetting. Like the horror movies the black person usually dies. I'm half black. I joke that my horror movie stereotype is despite being the 'smart' one that almost survives till the end. But, not a surprising plot twist tragically dies because I am black. Doesn't help my other half is Asian and welp they usually die too. Hey guys! lets go this way! -dies- Clears the safe path but never makes it through. *Sigh

My version 1 beef stew. So good I could eat it everyday.
Crock pot food was a lifesaver. 

Surprisingly people were extreme good to me when I told people I had it. I didn't expect that. But when there is a human face in front of an abstract notion people tend to be more humane.

When I was going through it I only told a few people, when I recovered I am now more open to telling people. A couple of friends would think of me when ordering take-out. Like hey I'm going to the burrito place want your usual beef fajita burrito?

 Even my germaphobe friends didn't treat me like the plague. It was funny there was a few germaphobe friends that kept texting me if I was alright. I would lie and say I was fine. They kept badgering me and I did not give in and be honest until I was recovered. Real shock that they had compassion instead of wanting to perform an exorcism with lysol, hand sanitizer or essential oils. But then again I wasn't in contact in person with these people.

Extra food I make I usually freeze, it was nice to have a
good meal without cooking. Split pea soup.  

I made 2 different kinds of beef stew with the same broth and beef chunk. 
The thyme is homegrown. It took a long time to make these. I would sauté vegetables, go back to sleep. Sear the meat and place in the oven. Dose off and so on. Took me 2 days to prepare beef stew to
what usually would of taken an 1 1/2 hours. 

During the worst of this I enrolled in a Brainstorm Inland class and I wasn't sure if should drop the class. I'm glad I did not. It kept me busy and focus on something else besides dwelling in misery. It was difficult at first because I would sleep all day and only get up to eat. 

Recently I saw an article that pin pointed exactly how the covid test feels like. I have had this test 4 times. When you are a kid and you are in the swimming pool and accidentally dunk into the water and the chlorine goes up your nose. That feeling but is swifter. 

I'm feeling better for the most part. 

-Stay tuned for Part 3! - Because Yes! There are lingering side effects. 

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