Big Things from the last week:

Tuesday - Submitted my portfolio to Bioware. I am not by nature a nervous or superstitious person, but damn. Until I hear back from them, I can see a lot of nail-biting and crossed-fingers in my future. Here's hoping.

Thursday - The day of wandering. Spend several hours killing time in South Edmonton, due to the fact that no buses run anywhere remotely near where I had taken my car in for repairs. It was frustrating not being able to catch up on all the comics I need to draw, but it wasn't a total bust. I got to check out an awesome costume shop and restock my stash of nifty costume-y things, and I spent nearly a full hour in the pet shop talking to the budgies and watching the pile o' ferrets sleep. (Not as boring as it sounds - they move like crazy even while sleeping!) The afternoon was capped off by sitting in Chapters, drinking some really excellent white tea and reading Anansi Boys.

Friday - Dave & Quinn's birthday/Halloween party. Full of awesome. There was some great costumes all around, but I was mostly just glad to get a chance to hang out with some awesome folks. Helo and Ajax loved their cat tree, and spent the entire evening pasted to it. Later on in the evening, I got to try out D's karaoke machine. I approve.

Saturday - The Second-Last Inheritance Game. Shani, Layne and I headed out a little later than we would have liked, and so I got to drive very, very fast in my newly tuned-up car. The game turn-out was pretty low, thanks to Halloween parties and the like, but it was an amazingly heart-wrenching game none-the-less. I expect that next month's game will be even more spectacular.

Sunday - Had breakfast at Traegers before hitting the road. Discovered that red cabbage for breakfast is a fine thing indeed. Drove like a maniac all the way back to Edmonton so that I could finish Monday's comic. Swore to rebuild my buffer. I can't understand how so many webcomic artists can work without a buffer. It sucks. It sucks a lot.

As suspected, the art-blockage cleared up after a hot bath and a good night's sleep, and things have been going smoothly the past two days. Tonight, I sat down and pulled together everything I have ready for my portfolio. It's looking good, but it could use a couple more pieces to really flesh things out. I want to show that I can do good weapon and vehicle designs as well as the more standard character and environment stuff.

These are my favorite sketches from the past few days. They're still works in progress - the greyish bits haven't been colored yet, and I might still do a little more shading on the jungle piece.



Also, I got some awesome news today! Season One of Wapos Bay won the Gemini award for the Best Children's Program!! Dude! They've won a Gemini before for the pilot episode, which I didn't work on, but this time, it's for stuff I was a part of! How cool is that?? The awards ceremony will be in Regina, the day after the next Inheritance game... It'd be cool if I could swing it to get down there and attend them, but the logistics for something like that is making my head spin, and I'd have to check and see if they'd even have tickets for me.

Besides, I have to be back in town on Monday to drop off my portfolio.

Hit a bit of a brick wall today while trying to do a few more environments to pad out my portfolio. For some reason, I was completely incapable of proper perspective today. And I'm not talking about complicated, 3-point perspective or a picture with objects that require multiple perspective points.

I mean, I could not, for the life of me, make a simple cube.

Ok, ok, so it wasn't that bad. But it was sufficiently frustrating that I started and discarded 3 sheets of good paper and 8 pieces of scrap before abandoning it for another day when I was less artistically brain-dead.

Spending some time with Layne after dinner helped get rid of the frustration. A hot bath with mango-scented bubble bath got rid of the lingering stress.

I'm taking the rest of the night off, as I suspect that a certain amount of hormones were involved in my lack of creative mojo. (Stupid hormones... They've stopped trying to alter my moods, having given it up long ago as futile, and now they're attacking my art. How low will they stoop?) I suspect that I will curl up on the couch for a few hours with a good book, and by tomorrow everything will be going great again.

I've been putting my head down and just plowing through these past few weeks. It feels like I've only been taking breaks from work to deal with pressing human needs - food, bathroom breaks, and the occasional social outing so that I don't go completely bonkers and start chewing through the walls. I run in the mornings. And then I work.

The few breaks I've had have all been exceptionally nice. On a whim last week, Layne and I decided that we really needed German food, and called DG, who is a guru on the local German food scene. We met up with he and DD at a wonderful little place that served the finest jägerschnitzel I've ever had. (And some odd quotes - "Jägerschnitzel! I can pronounce it, because it's like a cross between weinerschnitzel and jägermeister!") We talked until well after closing time, and once we finally got the hint and left, stood around in the parking lot talking until we all got too cold to stand it anymore. It was a wonderful evening.

This evening was also wonderful. Layne and I had intended to simply go out and get some groceries, as we needed milk and a few veggies, and instead wound up on a grand adventure courtesty of the local LRT system. (I love that he's as prone to random fits of exploration as I am.) We rode the LRT from Stadium to Central, whereupon my sushi-senses were activated and we left the tunnels in search of raw fish.

On the way to the sushi place, we were attacked by zombies. It was a close call. I was alerted to the presence of the foul undead when a spry older gentleman suddenly sprinted across the street in front of me. I looked back to see what he was running from, and saw shambling hoards pouring out from the shopping mall. (I always knew the malls would be the first to go...)

Well, I suppose shambling hoards is a bit of a misnomer, really. They were more like casually sauntering hoards. They were the most laid-back zombies I've ever seen. I believe I even saw one of them with an i-pod. Jeez, zombies these days. No sense of the eldrich horror...

We amusedly watched the zombie mob try to navigate a crosswalk, and then continued on in search of sweet, succulent brains....I mean, sushi. The sushi place was great - a reasonably priced menu, and a quaint decor that included side-booths with kotatsu-style tables. We tried the sushi tapas, after marvelling at the concept for a few moments ("will there be olives?") as well as a nice selection of nigiri, and did our usual amateur-food-critic appraisal of both. Long story short - we'll definitely be back.

... You know, I'm not actually sure where I was going with this post. I believe it was to say that I am very, very tired, but also a hell of a lot closer to getting my portfolio finished, and therefore, to have a good chance at a job that I really, really want. But, in typical fashion, I got distracted and rambled at length about zombies and food. Now I am hungry.

I want more fish!

Layne and I were in the living room last night, in that few minutes in between me getting home from work and he having to leave for the lab, and we realized something.

Our anniversary was a few weeks ago. Like, in early September.

Usually, I can tell when our anniversary is because we'll be sitting around, and one of us will say, "Hey? When was it that we started dating again?".

Then, we'll mull over that a few moments, remember the night that we were walking by the river in Saskatoon and I mentioned how my grandpa had brought home a bunch of moose, and Layne said he'd love to cook a good moose roast, because he had some of his father's homemade wine and it would make a great wine gravy and he invited me over for dinner that Friday and it wasn't until that Thursday that I realized that being invited over to someone's place on a Friday and having them cook for me sounded suspiciously like a date.

It's not that we can't remember when our anniversary is because it was such an unimportant date or anything. (Quite the opposite, in fact) It's just that the things we would do to celebrate our anniversary are things that we do all the time - treat ourselves to a nice dinner, go for an evening walk by the river, and then cuddle up on the couch to watch some Top Chef. And that is a very good thing!

This week's a little crazy, but maybe next week we'll do something special. I vote for sushi - I hear there's a great place downtown.

Went to Saskatoon over the weekend for the third-last Inheritance game. It was, as usual, full of lots of emotion, especially as a number of characters died. It's getting close to the big finale, and things are really ramping up.

I'm going to be sad when it's over. I've really enjoyed playing Mahalia, and it'll be one less excuse to see the Saskatoon folks. (Well, assuming they don't all end up here!) We stopped by the Hoifloth's house on the way out of town, and it was great visiting with them again. They've got a nice house and a great yard for their little girl to play around in.

They're both temping too, so we shared some stories of our differnent placements. What I've learned from this and the past few weeks:

Temping at random offices sucks. I want a real job. Preferably one where I don't have to answer phones.