Friday, December 2, 2016

Celebrate The Small Things - December 2, 2016



I started off the week to a leaky tube underneath my bathroom sink. For those of you who have read my other blog posts, you know that I've had a lot of plumbing problems. I couldn't believe the plumbing problems were starting again. My husband thinks it's because I listen to paranormal and sasquatch podcasts. It's funny, but when I was listening to writing podcasts, I didn't have the plumbing problems, but last week I started listening to Sasquatch Chronicles and the plumbing problems began. LOL! My husband thinks that since Native Americans lived here before this area was settled and they believe in Sasquatch, that can amp up the activity. Some people think Sasquatch is paranormal because UFOs and mysterious lights are seen sometimes when Sasquatch is around. Or Sasquatch disappears mysteriously. My husband said not to play the podcasts out loud, so I bought wireless headphones.

Looking on the bright side, I have learned a lot about plumbing. Nevertheless, I still needed help. I tried to fix this problem on my own and as usual, it didn't work out. I turned the water off to the house, tightened the nut, then went outside to turn the water back on. I heard gushing water when I got back in the house. I ran down the hall as fast as I could to the bathroom. The water was shooting out of the side of the tube and the bathroom was flooding. This time I just turned the water off under the sink. If I was watching myself from outside my body, I would've been laughing my ass off. My uncle came over to help and I learned more about plumbing. Thank God this time the part was only $4.99 and the problem was fixed quickly and easily. I need to get myself a basin wrench one of these days. Yeah, I know what that is now. Ha ha ha!

I went to the CTN Animation Expo with my husband because he was working the Animation Mentor booth there. I like to go there and look at the artist booths. This time, however, I decided to talk to the artists and introduce myself. I normally don't do that when I go to conventions, but something compelled me to do that this time. I met a couple of people that I follow on Instagram and talked to the artists that do comic books, graphic novels, and children's books. One of them told me that Scholastic is having a graphic novel contest for their middle grade and teen Graphix line. The deadline is April 1! I already had an idea and partial outline worked out on my computer from an idea that had come to me about 2 weeks prior to hearing about the contest. I finished the outline in a day and have done 16 pages of roughs so far. The book is going to be a partial memoir about when I was a kid and went to Hawaii to visit relatives. It's going to center around my aunt's passing. There's going to be drama, humor, and some paranormal elements in it. My family is Japanese from Hawaii, but I was born and raised in California. It sounds unusual, but most of my friends at school were California-born Japanese whose parents are from Hawaii. I think readers will get a glimpse into our culture that has never been written about before. I never saw myself as an "ethnic" writer or felt compelled to write something ethnic just to fit a genre or need, but I was telling my kids about the funny things that happened to me when I was a kid visiting Hawaii and decided to do a graphic novel about it. Since I had the idea 2 weeks prior, I had asked my mom for old photo albums. She gave me 7 albums, so when I started working on the graphic novel seriously for the contest, I already had the albums on hand for reference. At a restaurant a few weeks ago, I doodled characters of my best friend and myself the way we looked when we were kids. I drew them on the paper tablecloth and my husband took a picture of it to save it even though I was going to leave it to be thrown out. I guess I had an inkling of the idea in my head for longer than 2 weeks because she is in the book as well.

The contest started in July, so I'm a little late in the game, but if I'm diligent, I can do the required 12 finished pages before the deadline. I'm so excited!

This week, my oldest son asked me for a blank sketchbook so he can start his own comic. I didn't push him into it and he hasn't shown an interest to draw in the past couple of years at least, but he wants to write about how messed up things are in his life. He's going to be a teenager in a few weeks so the teenage angst is creeping in. (rolling my eyes) I told my husband about it and he said, "We're all gonna be poor." Who knows? Maybe he'll have a bestseller and rub shoulders with Lincoln Peirce and Jeff Kinney!

What are you celebrating?
Check out the blogs below for your reading pleasure and please visit our hosts' blogs:
Lexa Cain: http://lexacain.blogspot.com/
L.G. Keltner http://lgkeltner.blogspot.co.uk/
Tonja Drecker http://tonjadrecker.blogspot.com/
If you would like to join our blog hop, visit Lexa Cain's blog for info.

1.

Lexa Cain2.Fiction and Film
3.Writing Off the Edge4.Kidbits
5.TheCyborgMom6.Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne
7.My Inner Geek8.Intentional Insights with S. Kelley Harrell
9.Constantine10.My Miracle Life
11.Writing, Reading, and the Pursuit of Dreams12.Lara Lacombe
13.TF Walsh14.Life, Yoga and Other Adventures
15.About myself, by myself16.Suzanne Furness
17.Elizabeth Seckman18.Avalon
19.My Baffling Brain20.Planet Kimberly
21.Shah Wharton22.Victorian Scribbles
23.Tanya Miranda24.Ann - A Friend of Jesus 2013
25.Special Teaching At Pempi's Palace26.Square Pegs
27.Patricia's Place28.Yvonne Van Dalen
29.Anne Higa30.My Antimatter Life
31.Bouquet of Books32.Lightravellerkate
33.Curious As A Cathy34.Julie Flanders
35.Crazy Old Lady36.In My Own Words
37.Allison Bruning38.Tamara Narayan, Author
39.My Creatively Random Life40.Yvonne Ventresca
41.Two Book Minimum42.On Becoming a Writer

Friday, November 18, 2016

Celebrate The Small Things - Nov. 18

 

The past few weeks have been stressful, but things are starting to fall in a normal pattern. There have been a lot of home-invasion burglaries in our neighborhood while people are at home. I have been so paranoid about it. To make things worse, we had a prowler on the side of our house a couple of weeks ago while I was home in the late afternoon with the kids. I happened to bring the dog in earlier that day so she did not know he was there. Our security cameras picked him up and my husband called to ask who the man on the side of our house was. I called the police. The man was not from the gas or electric company. He was in slacks and a dress shirt with a logo on the arm, but I'm sure it was fake and made to look official. The man didn't go to anyone's house around me because he was not picked up on the neighbor's security cameras nor seen by neighbors who were taking their trash out at the time.

I mentioned it to an acquaintance who told me that his friend nearby had a prowler in his backyard around the same time a month prior. The man was staring at him through the sliding glass door. This guy's friend went to get a knife from the kitchen and called the police, but the  man jumped over the fence and got away.

There are things happening around here almost weekly. On Monday, I saw a guy stopped in the middle of the road taking pictures of my street. I think he was taking pictures of all the streets around here casing the houses to see when people are home or not home. There was an attempted burglary last week next door to my son's friend's house a few streets over from us.

I spent days looking for another dog for protection. It was so stressful! I went to the same shelter three times and went to two humane societies. There were problems with all of the dogs we wanted but we finally found one at the humane society near our house. After driving 20+ minutes each way  to the other places to look for dogs, we ended up with one from about 7 minutes from our house. My family loved the dog we chose when they first saw him, but I wasn't sure he'd be a good guard dog because he's smaller than what I was hoping for. We named him Bumi (pronounced Boomie) after King Bumi from the Avatar the Last Airbender animated series. He loves me so much that he follows me everywhere. I thought he was too friendly, but he bit my mom when she came over! I think he was trying to protect me, but against the wrong person! She seems to be okay, but sore. She has to see the doctor to make sure there's no infection and I offered to pay her medical bill. This new dog agitated my other dog, Korra, so they both were growling at my poor mom. I put them both in another room which I am told was not the right thing to do. I was so stressed out that I called my friend and cousin for dog advice since they know a lot about dogs. They told me what I need to do to train my dogs not to bite family and friends. I have taken both my dogs with me to pick up my kids from school, but now I can't do that for fear they will bite a child. Before we had any dogs, I didn't even want one, but now they love me the most in our house, lol!

So, I guess am celebrating our new loyal dog. He is very lovable and funny despite his aggressive behavior. He loves my husband and kids, too and they love him. I have learned so much about dogs in the past couple of weeks, so I'm celebrating that, too.

Our oldest son made the Principal's Honor Roll for the fourth time, so I'm also celebrating that. Our  youngest son got better grades than his last report card which we are happy about. He struggles, but he did well in math, reading, and writing. His penmanship is also improving. He loves creating comics in his sketchbook and is always looking for good ideas for his next comic book story. I know the feeling.

I don't have any drawings to post today because our internet is antiquated and won't be able to handle it, but we are going to get an upgrade in a couple of weeks. I should be able to post pictures then. Have a great weekend!

What are you celebrating?
Check out the blogs below for your reading pleasure and please visit our hosts' blogs:
Lexa Cain: http://lexacain.blogspot.com/
L.G. Keltner http://lgkeltner.blogspot.co.uk/
Tonja Drecker http://tonjadrecker.blogspot.com/
If you would like to join our blog hop, visit Lexa Cain's blog for info.

1.

Lexa Cain2.Fiction and Film
3.Writing Off the Edge4.Kidbits
5.TheCyborgMom6.Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne
7.My Inner Geek8.Intentional Insights with S. Kelley Harrell
9.Constantine10.My Miracle Life
11.Writing, Reading, and the Pursuit of Dreams12.Lara Lacombe
13.TF Walsh14.Life, Yoga and Other Adventures
15.About myself, by myself16.Suzanne Furness
17.Elizabeth Seckman18.Avalon
19.My Baffling Brain20.Planet Kimberly
21.Shah Wharton22.Victorian Scribbles
23.Tanya Miranda24.Ann - A Friend of Jesus 2013
25.Special Teaching At Pempi's Palace26.Square Pegs
27.Patricia's Place28.Yvonne Van Dalen
29.Anne Higa30.My Antimatter Life
31.Bouquet of Books32.Lightravellerkate
33.Curious As A Cathy34.Julie Flanders
35.Crazy Old Lady36.In My Own Words
37.Allison Bruning38.Tamara Narayan, Author
39.My Creatively Random Life40.Yvonne Ventresca
41.Two Book Minimum

 

Friday, October 21, 2016

Celebrate The Small Things - October 21, 2016

 

I've been so busy these past few weeks that I didn't get a chance to post. I was working on a painting for an art show that looks like it was easy to do, but it took me the month to finish. It will be on display this weekend and remain there for the duration of the show which ends on Nov. 6. The show is called "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Since I'm a fan of the show "Stranger Things" I did an acrylic painting on canvas of the characters from the show in the Peanuts style. I will post the painting when the show is over. This will be the first time being a part of this art gallery and I am very excited! My husband has a piece in the show, too. It will be the first time that we have paintings in the same show, too. His piece is a mash-up of Peanuts and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

My husband worked on a movie for Disney and was able to get discounted tickets to Disney's California Adventure on his last day of work. We took the kids and had a blast. We decided to go there because The Tower of Terror ride is there and will be closing permanently this coming January 2017. Our kids had never been on the ride, so we wanted them to experience it. They didn't want to go on it because they were scared, but we took them anyway. My husband said to them, "I bet you five dollars that after this ride you're going to say, 'again!'" I thought the ride was like the one in Florida, so I told them they would be told the story, see the ghosts, the doors would open, then we would move forward and drop. Well, I was taken by surprise when we dropped immediately after seeing the ghosts. I was hanging onto my bags which were flying up into the air while keeping an arm around my youngest son.  My hair was flying in my face, but I didn't have a hand available to brush it away. I was screaming and laughing the whole time. Our kids did not want to admit they liked the ride. My husband said to them, "I see a smile! You liked it, didn't you? You owe me five dollars!" They said, "No! We didn't take the bet!"

I wanted to go on the biggest roller coaster in the park. They complained the whole hour that we were in line trying to get out of it. A girl in back of us started crying when it was their turn to go, so they had to leave. Their mom was so mad at her because they wasted an hour. Our son mustered up some tears, but it was too late. He was already strapped in. He ended up liking the ride. It was so fun! It was our last ride of the day. On the tram ride back to the car he was sad and hugged me. He said, "I was hoping this day would never end."

I have been doing an ink drawing every day this month for Inktober and so far have been able to keep up. Last year was the first year I participated in it and I remember struggling with it. I must have improved because I have been whipping out ink drawings with ease. Here are a couple that I have posted on Instagram:


I have been rapidly filling up my second book of comic/graphic novel ideas and am ready to start making my web comics. I drew my layout and am working on roughs. I have had great ideas this month and have decided to do three sets of comics. (I always seem to make things hard for myself. I don't know why.) 1) A funny comic strip. 2) An autofictionalbiography of the time when I was a kid and visited relatives in Hawaii. 3) A fictional story. I'm so excited about this!

What are you celebrating?

Check out the blogs below for your reading pleasure and please visit our hosts' blogs:
Lexa Cain: http://lexacain.blogspot.com/
L.G. Keltner http://lgkeltner.blogspot.co.uk/
Tonja Drecker http://tonjadrecker.blogspot.com/
If you would like to join our blog hop, visit Lexa Cain's blog for info.
 

1.

Lexa Cain2.Fiction and Film
3.Writing Off the Edge4.Kidbits
5.TheCyborgMom6.Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne
7.My Inner Geek8.Intentional Insights with S. Kelley Harrell
9.Constantine10.My Miracle Life
11.Writing, Reading, and the Pursuit of Dreams12.Shells Tales and Sails
13.Lara Lacombe14.TF Walsh
15.Life, Yoga and Other Adventures16.About myself, by myself
17.Suzanne Furness18.Elizabeth Seckman
19.Avalon20.My Baffling Brain
21.Planet Kimberly22.Shah Wharton
23.Victorian Scribbles24.Tanya Miranda
25.Ann - A Friend of Jesus 201326.Special Teaching At Pempi's Palace
27.Square Pegs28.Patricia's Place
29.Yvonne Van Dalen30.Anne Higa
31.My Antimatter Life32.Bouquet of Books
33.Lightravellerkate34.Curious As A Cathy
35.Julie Flanders36.Crazy Old Lady
37.In My Own Words38.Allison Bruning
39.Tamara Narayan, Author40.My Creatively Random Life
41.Yvonne Ventresca42.Two Book Minimum

Friday, September 16, 2016

Celebrate The Small Things - Sept. 16, 2016




I am appreciating a quote I heard this quote this morning:

Thomas Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, "How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?" Edison replied, "I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps."

It’s so inspiring. So, no matter how many times we fail in writing or art or whatever else we are striving for, those failures are not really failures. They are part of the process.

This week didn’t start off so good because I hurt my foot. My dog wanted to chase the ball, but I didn’t want to pick it up to throw it because I didn’t want to get my hands dirty. I kicked it instead, and ended up kicking my heavy metal art easel as well. It cut my foot open. My foot got swollen and purple. I couldn’t drive or go to the gym for a few days. My husband and son got the chills just looking at it. Hahaha! I’m able to walk pretty well now and was able to drive to the art workshop on Thursday. It’s still sore and purple, but I’m happy to be able to get around.

This is a drawing of one of my new friends, Shelly, who modeled for the art workshop:


Last weekend, I bought a pair of wireless headphones so that I could listen to my podcasts and music without having to carry my phone around. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before. My head must’ve been in the dark ages. Well, I didn’t research it and ended up buying a really crappy pair for $19.99. It cuts in and out and the sound is muffled. I was so disappointed. What happened to the times when you could spend $12 for a pair of wired headphones and they sounded great? Anyway, I did some research and found a good pair for a reasonable price. I can’t wait for them to arrive in the mail. I’m going to have to sit by the door for the delivery guy to arrive because someone has been stealing packages from the porches in my neighborhood.

I did a pretty good sketch for the Charlie Brown Great Pumpkin art show that’s coming up, but my husband didn’t like the idea, so I’m going to sketch out some other ideas. I drew Charlie Brown as a little devil on a Mexican La Loteria card. My husband says that's not in Charlie Brown's character. He has a point. I still like the idea, though. Maybe I’ll post it after the show is over.

I was able to get another chapter of my novel done this week which I am happy about even though I wish it were several chapters.

There was a major discount on a comic book software program for artists that I was able to buy online called Clip Studio Paint Ex. It's so awesome! I can't wait to use it for the comics I create.

I discovered new music this week and saw this happy, colorful video by Systema Solar called Yo Soy Ganao. I don’t know what they’re saying but the people look so happy. I love the fish that come out of the water. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9t4XTOwtEo


What are you celebrating?
Check out the blogs below for your reading pleasure and please visit our hosts' blogs:
Lexa Cain: http://lexacain.blogspot.com/
L.G. Keltner http://lgkeltner.blogspot.co.uk/
Tonja Drecker http://tonjadrecker.blogspot.com/
If you would like to join our blog hop, visit Lexa Cain's blog for info.

1.

Lexa Cain2.Fiction and Film
3.Writing Off the Edge4.Kidbits
5.TheCyborgMom6.Thoughts and Ideas from Deanie Humphrys-Dunne
7.My Inner Geek8.Intentional Insights with S. Kelley Harrell
9.Constantine10.My Miracle Life
11.Writing, Reading, and the Pursuit of Dreams12.Shells Tales and Sails
13.Lara Lacombe14.TF Walsh
15.Life, Yoga and Other Adventures16.About myself, by myself
17.Suzanne Furness18.Elizabeth Seckman
19.Avalon20.My Baffling Brain
21.Planet Kimberly22.Shah Wharton
23.Victorian Scribbles24.Tanya Miranda
25.Ann - A Friend of Jesus 201326.Special Teaching At Pempi's Palace
27.Square Pegs28.Patricia's Place
29.Yvonne Van Dalen30.Anne Higa
31.My Antimatter Life32.Bouquet of Books
33.Lightravellerkate34.Curious As A Cathy
35.Julie Flanders36.Crazy Old Lady
37.In My Own Words38.Allison Bruning
39.Tamara Narayan, Author40.My Creatively Random Life
41.Yvonne Ventresca42.Two Book Minimum