Jithra

I'm in and have been doing a count-down as well! I just need to figure out what story I'm going to write...I got to 50k last year and still managed to have an incomplete story. (Though I could probably shave at least 10K off due to lengthy expositions made out of desperation to finish when I was blanking out...) but I doubt it would carry me through to another 50k, and I don't want to be stuck mid-wrimo.

*sigh* I'll figure something out...

Edit: My nano account name is writers_block

I think this is very beautiful. It's very soft, yet detailed and expressive. I really don't know what to say as far as what improvments might be needed, because as soon as I start to type something I look at the picture again and say "No, that's fine, any different and it would change the feel/look of the piece." Perhaps a little more contrast in value on the face, but that's more me fishing for something because I'm honestly having trouble finding anything.

I applaud you for doing commisions and I can completely relate with you on never fully being satisfied with a piece. There are precious few pieces that I sat back and said, "Yeah, this is DONE!" and even those I ended up wanting to come back to and add more details. Most of mine I have a hard time making peace with and usually burn myself out because I try to hard and keep on adding stuff when most of my friends say it was done days ago.

I just wanted to let you know that I love seeing your art work and am always shocked to see no one else commenting on them. Hopefully that will change as it really does deserve more recognition.

You know what the hardest part about your questions are? It's that there really is no one answer. Home schooling is, in essence, a customizable educational system from the parent to their child. Because of this, it's hard to give anything but a general answer to most questions regarding it because each family has their own unique way doing it. I've been home schooled up through high school and am now in college, and in those years I saw everything from the very relaxed and laid-back styles to the incredibly busy. Some of my friends had only 3-4 hour school days while others were literally going from right after breakfast until dinner with every other weekend filled with extracurricular activities. So yes and no. Depending on the family, you could have more free time or less than the traditional schools. (My experience had it more in between the two extremes with 5-6 hour school day while getting a little longer in high school because of group/community college classes)

As for socializing...That hasn't been a problem for the most part. Yes, there are families who I believe shelter their kids too much through home schooling. It's unfortunate, but every system--Whether it's home schooling, public, private, charter, etc--Is going to have it's freak incidents that are not considered normal to any degree. Most home schoolers have opportunities to be with people on just about any given day. Sometimes it's through group studies for a given subject, sometimes its through extracurricular activities, sometimes even through public school systems! In high school I was seeing a group of friends every day during the school week. So yes, while it's a valid concern, there's plenty of opportunities out there to get out and meet/socialize with others.

As for who teaches, again, that's really up the individual families to decide. Most of the teaching comes from either one or both parents. For me, my mom taught me my core subjects, and then in high school I would get together with other home schoolers for a group class. In these classes, the mom or dad who had a major in the specific subject (like mathematics for example) would teach us in a traditional class setting...Just in their living room instead of a classroom. I also took community college classes for some subjects like Spanish and science.

And yeah, it does sound like it would be a really weak education coming just from our parents, but remember, they went to school too! Also, it's not like they're teaching from scratch. There are hundreds of programs, curriculum and text written specifically for home schoolers that provides the framework for each and every subject the parent needs to teach. Most of them include parent/teacher guides, student textbooks, and even supplementary activities. So it's pretty well covered.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I wanted to give my two-bits worth as well as mention that all we can do is give general answers to your specific questions because it's different and unique for every family.

*gasp!* Despite your marvelous skills of observation, Turakii, you didn't catch the most important question of all!

If the prince, who is obviously an adult in the stained glass intro, only had until his 21st year to break the spell, how on earth did the village where Belle's from forget they had a PRINCE in a huge CASTLE within a half days ride from their home? That's what, 3 or 4 years since the curse and they've forgotten who their ruling monarch is and where he lives? Talk about short-term memories...

At least, that's the question that always bugs me when I watch this movie... (But BatB is still my favorite Disney. ^.^)

I remember ASP...Good learning experiance, but nerve-racking! Good luck, I will be praying! (What level are you doing this year?)

Nice pictures!

...

Does anyone else think the Matoro backlighting makes him look like a ghost? (especially since his eyes are the only ones in the group not glowing. *Cue Twilight Zone theme*)

Heavens, anything except number 1! The vast majority of expression/emotion would then lie heavily on voice acting and random body gestures if you went with that. Maybe it's just the artist in me, but I feel that a huge chunk of what makes an animation come to life is how expressive it is, and the face is one of the main conveyors of expression. When you're talking to someone, you don't look at their hands or bellybutton, you look at their face and "read" what it says as a visual accompaniment of what they are saying. Also, a single ordinary sentence can have an amazing amount of different and unique meanings depending on the person's expression. You'll lose all that by making a key component lifeless. Also, I agree with Jedi Master J. on this. Throughout the years we've had example after example in the books (And even the comics at times) of the various beings being visually expressive. (For example, "Makuta's eyes narrowed," or "It was Vakama's turn to smile" as paraphrased from Time Trap) Unless the animators feel like figuring out how to make the characters very expressive without the use of facial features and somehow manage to not make it look campy/cheesy, keeping facial features really is the best way to go.

With that said, I'm going to go with Number 4. It seems the best option for keeping the masks "masks" while still keeping the key features for expressing emotion.

I was thinking about you and your sister, wondering if it was raining where you live too! ^.^ I thoroughly loved it, except that it was art day at college and my constant thought while walking to and from classes were "Yes, of course today would be the day I have charcoal and my almost-completed art-project with me... >.<" Other than that it was wonderful!

They loved the same statue, but not the same woman. If they had met each other and had talked about "Lynn" and "Ann" without the context of the statue, they would have no idea that they were talking about the same thing. Each man had formed, in his own mind, a specific personality to fit the statue that wasn't the same as the others. Two different personalities for two different types of women, each one more appealing to one of the "fools" and not the other. The only thing in common was that these two fantasies were based off of the same statue.

That, and that the fantasies were derived from two rather desperate fools. ;P

Ditto, I was very surprised that something that big would be spoiled, and even a little disapointed. Yeah, I do read spoilers now and then, but I prefer it when they're smaller ones that aren't year(s) away from happening. I can't complain, necessarily, because I do read--and enjoy--spoilers so it's kinda my own fault if I'm dissapointed. But I can't help but feel sorry for the people who avoid spoilers. When stuff like this pops up in thread titles/signatures/untagged posts, they can't help but have major things spoiled unless they leave BZP, in this case, for a year.

(And it's not like members leaving doesn't happen. When I find major comic/book spoilers starting to pop up when I've been avoiding them, I "leave" BZP until my comic comes in the mail because I usually don't get mine until the magazine's been out for almost a month. It's frustrating, to say the very least)

In short, I wish people would be a bit more considerate when posting a topic or editing their signature with spoiler related themes. Seriously, how hard is it to say "Year 20XX spoilers!" as a title or to just simply wait?

Anyway, there's my rant for the week. Hope you're able to see the movie soon so you won't have to worry about any[more] of it being spoiled.

Run as though Matoro's avenging spirit is after you and hope the sniper's a lousy shot.

On a serious note, I'd try to observe what pattern he follows for hiding places and tactics, and find the most accurate long-range gun at the party. Some of the bigger rifles have a pretty decent shot so that, if you're able to figure out his fighting routine, you should be able to peg him from a fair distance.

Another thing you could do is have someone who's fast be the distraction so that someone who's good at stealth can sneak in and take him out early on in the game.

There's my two cents worth.

I love drawing on black paper, it's so much fun!

A very lovely picture. Nice subtle shading, especially around the bridge of the nose and the eyes. You can really see the roundness and depth.

Just one thing I wanted to mention. The ear seems to be sitting a little too far forward. Placing it can be tricky, so what I usually do is lightly draw in how far back the jaw goes, and then set the ear just slightly behind and above where the jaw line comes up.

Anyway, good job! The contrast in this piece really gives it a dramatic effect!

Here are two things I do when I need to write but don't feel like writing in any of my current projects.

Timed Writing I do this sometimes everyday for a week or so when I'm suffering heavy writer's block and just need to sit down and WRITE! What I do is a take a timer and for five minutes do nothing except for think of something to write about. I jot down every idea that comes to me, regardless of how silly/weird/boring/hyper/whatever it may seem. By the end of five minutes, I have to have decided on one of those ideas, spend a moment to organize my thoughts, and then set the timer for 15 minutes and type as much as I can regarding the subject I've chosen. It's fast, not time consuming, and helps to get back into the swing of things. I'll admit it can be pretty hard, but some of my favorite short stories have come from this exercise.

And then when I'm SUPER stuck...

Lottary Writing. Take a sheet of paper, write anything from one word to a brief phrase regarding anything that comes to mind, cut them all up, and then draw the first three or four and make a story out of the "sentence" you get. They're usually always really goofy, but whatever gets me to write when I'm stuck is good enough for me.

Hope that this is helpful! It's what I do when I'm stuck.

GoodWill is a dangerous place to go when one has money, supervision or no. (For me at least, man I love that place to bits! ^.^)

Ok, HOW did you manage to find Bionicle books there?! I've never had that luck. [/jealous] The only LEGO item I've seen there was an incomplete LEGO Racer's board game and the first LEGO Racer's computer game.

Edit: And yeah, I'm still looking for Time Trap as well. Figures that one of the most popular books from the series is next to impossible to find, even after all these years.