Homo sapiens

Iconfest!

hsapiens — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 15:08:14 GMT

Things on LJ I missed #8942837: ICONFEST!

Six days left to request that icon you've been wanting and give various icon makers the opportunity to make your icon(s). I love iconfest. *happy sigh*

Promo: LIKETHEGUN LIMS

hsapiens — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 05:00:09 GMT

I missed the sign-ups for likethegun_lims, which breaks my heart. I ADORE this comm. They need votes for Challenge 3; voting is open for another 24 hours.

VOTE HERE, PLEASE!

I need a new office chair & advice

hsapiens — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 22:18:50 GMT

Has anyone here used a kneel chair? What about a balance ball chair? If so, what in particular did you like or not like about it?

kneel chair, balance ball chair, and a regular "task chair"

My chair is going to get much butt-time, many hours each day, while I'm at the computer. It *needs* to be comfortable for long term use. That balance ball chair is butt ugly but the reviews are positive. I like the idea of using all that chair time for something more than just staring at the screen.

I'm reluctantly accepting that I need to purchase a new desk chair. I've had my current one for many years but it's so comfy that I've kept it rather than giving it up when it lost one of its arms. Or when the leather seat cracked. But now the leather of the remaining arm pad is disintegrating. *sigh* I'm going to miss this chair, butt-ugly though it is now.

Google+ (& Dreamwidth)

hsapiens — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 19:42:30 GMT

For once I am not the last to join a social media site. I have some Google+ invites to hand out so if you'd like to join, comment here with the email addy where you want the invite sent. Google is trying to control its server load (I'm guessing) by turning invites on and off. If you don't get an invite from me immediately it's because they've turned them off but I'll send one as soon as they turn them back on again.(I don't know how often they cycle them off and on. This morning I could not send any but this afternoon they're on.)

ETA: Comments screened.

ETA2: I also have Dreamwidth invites if anyone's looking to join. Need an email addy for that, too.

Go! Vote!

hsapiens — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 09:34:13 GMT

magicawards magicawards magicawards magicawards

Please vote! (Direct links below.) There are AMAZING makers nominated in every category. You can vote for as many makers as you want -- and it's all ticky boxes! Who doesn't love tickies?

If you agree with my nominations (italicized & capitalized) in some of the categories, I would appreciate your vote.

If you do not agree, I would still appreciate it if you'd vote for those whose work you think merits a vote. These awards mean a lot to many of the makers who are nominated. Winning is nice, to be sure, but votes of appreciation are also welcome. Thank you! ♥

Best Overall || BEST COLORING || Best Cropping || Best Glee || Best Harry Potter || Best Whedon || BEST MINIMAL || BEST TEXT || Best Complex/Texture || Most Creative/Unique || Best Lost || Best Merlin || BEST SUPERNATURAL || Best True Blood || Best Movie || Best 30 Minute Sitcom || Best Fringe || Best The Vampire Diaries || Best Disney || BEST CELEBRITY || Best Doctor Who || Best Skins || Best Legend of the Seeker || Best Game of Thrones || Best Misfits

There is some urgency in voting as I just found out that the first several categories close TODAY, June 16th at 9AM Eastern. That's in 3.5 hours. I've asked for an extension since I was assuming we'd have more warning but if you're up, the first six might close very shortly.

Icons (catch up)

hsapiens — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 18:59:34 GMT

Three recent posts:

1. Makers Whose Work I Admire Part I: winterfish, janie_tangerine, txduck, tle_lovie69, & adina_mpj

2. Icon Post:
67 Supernatural (6x21, 6x22, 4x17, for majestic_shriek)
20 Misha Collins (as himself & in non-SPN roles, for lizajaneok)
48 Dark Angel (Pollo Loco, Jensen-centric)
20 Doctor Who (The Doctor's Wife)
05 Star Trek (for )
32 Inception (Cillian Murphy-centric)
13 Pride & Prejudice (1995)
===========
205 icons, total

3. Icon Post
80 Supernatural (6x20 & 6x19)
40 Supernatural Cast (Jared, Jensen, J2, Misha in various roles)
15 Doctor Who (6x02)
21 Inception
20 White Collar
==========================
176 icons, total

SPN 6.21 & 6.22 - and pondering Season 6

hsapiens — Tue, 31 May 2011 23:16:48 GMT

Late opinion is late. I've been letting this sit, trying to weed out insta-fan reaction from deeper, story-telling opinions. I haven't had a lot to say here about Season 6 because as I watched it seemed extremely disjointed and as if too many stories were being told. I figured I wouldn't really know how all the balls in the air would fall until they, well, fell in the season finale. Oddly, I still don't know what I think of the ending as a whole.

LISA & BEN: My very least favorite part is how they dealt with Lisa & Ben. They were destined to be written out - the writers of this kind of show don't do well with romantic entanglements - and I really thought that when Lisa told Dean it wasn't going to work and had started dating another man that that was the end. That felt closed to me.

Removing all her memories of Dean offends me. First and foremost, removing her agency bugs the crap out of me. I've been unhappy with how they saw no issues with writing a Great Mom inviting a guy whose drink of choice with dinner is hard alcohol and ~issues to live in the house with her son because they'd slept together one weekend a decade ago. I liked her when she stood up for her kid and told Dean that shoving Ben was a deal-breaker and not acceptable. Now he's just a stranger and there's no strength left in her decision to put her son first.

From a storytelling stand point, it stinks. It's lazy and it makes no sense. The problem never was that Lisa & Ben knew who Dean was; the problem was that Dean cared about them. He still does. They're still targets but now they don't know why or whom to call for help. I'm assuming Dean's directive to "never again mention them" means the show is done with Lisa & Ben and will conveniently ignore this obvious loophole.

What I did like about Lisa & Ben in these episodes was Cindy Sampson's acting. I thought she (again) knocked it out of the park. She went toe to toe with Jensen and handled the fight scene well. Given her talent, I wish her storyline had been better written.

Sam's Wall: They spent several episodes telling us about how horrible it would be for Sam to have memories of the Cage in Hell and angsting over whether they should put his soul back. How it would be better to kill him rather than let him suffer the fate of possessing a flayed soul. Death himself takes time to warn Dean AND Sam about it. After his soul is back, Sam angsted over the awful, unknowable things his soulless self must have done. He scratches at the itch and collapses in hell fire. We, the audience, get it: destroying the wall is bad juju.

So Sam's Wall is removed by Castiel (Oh, Cas!)...and we got a really cool sequence of Sam confronting the pieces of his fractured psyche. I loved it. HellMemory!Sam broke my heart. Jared was a-MAZ-ing. But seriously? That was it? Half an episode and he's up and moving around, following Dean and Bobby to fight the fight? Sam suffered more when de-toxing from demon blood. I expected far more dire consequences. IDK. What we got was awesome but it was also just not enough.

What did I like about it?
Jared, Jared, and Jared. I thought he was awesome in playing the three different Sams. He was, at turns, endearing, ruthless, and heartbreaking. He sold me on it (although the flopping on the cot in the panic room was hokey made me laugh). I loved that Sam was determined to put himself back together to be there for his brother. That's the essence of the Winchesters and I'm loving that their relationship is solid. After years of butting heads they're on the same page and I like that. A lot.

Erica Cerra was awesome and had great chemistry with Jared. I've long thought she was one of the best things about Eureka and this appearance confirmed that I'd like to see more of her on my screen. She has an excellent onscreen presence. I'm really sorry this character is dead.

Crowley: I'm a fan of clever, hard to defeat villains. I thought the YED was an excellent adversary. Ruby was brilliant. Gordon and Henricksen were brilliant (usually) human adversaries. I rank Crowley with them and so I'm thrilled at his survival to menace another day. Yay! I see no downside to this development. Long live Mark Sheppard!

Castiel is the New God: I have no idea how I feel about this. It's an awesome twist; one I certainly didn't see coming. Looking at S6 only, I love it. Rumors are flying fast and furious, however, that the show plans to kill Castiel in the season 7 opener. If true, then I HATE this twist.

What I've been puzzling over is why Castiel's arrangement with Crowley is a deal breaker with Dean and Sam. Well, no, I get why for Sam. But did the writers watch Season 5 through to the end? Because both Dean AND Bobby were making deals with and working with Crowley. Sam objected the whole time so I think he has been consistently written. When did it become a mortal sin to work with Crowley to stop an impending Apocalypse? Shouldn't that have happened onscreen?

I did like that Castiel's increasingly poor choices in these episodes were often motivated by the desire to keep Dean & Sam alive and away from Crowley; he's trying to save them. I don't agree with his actions but I liked where he was coming from. (Side thought: When Dean told Cas he was like a brother, my first thought was, "OMG! D/C is the new Wincest!")

~~**~~

So, Season 6. *sigh* What a mess in storytelling. We spent a lot of time on stories that were ultimately dropped or meaningless. Then they had to stuff all the "important bits" into the last 4 episodes and do some re-writing of the season's story. There was plenty of room to have developed these issues if we hadn't had so many aborted stories instead. Just think of how much room there was to explore the good stuff if they'd dropped:

- The Campbells. We never got to know them or care about them. Re-writing family history for two guys who are fanatical about family implies they're meant to be important. Instead they were red-shirts. WTF? I get that Crowley pulled Samuel out of Hell but it was glossed over in a single line in a "memory." That's some pretty heavy star power and screen time wasted on a role that was, essentially, pointless.
- Monsters behaving differently post-Apocalypse - Remember at the beginning of S6, how we saw monsters leaving their home countries or nocturnal monsters attacking during the day or nearly extinct monsters stepping up "recruitment" to build armies? I thought this was the most interesting development and a brilliant way to extend the story post-Apocalypse. New mythology to learn, throw out the old canon to start something fresh, and finally SOME kind of world-changing effect to the friggin' Apocalypse. Yeah, I'd kind of forgotten that set of storylines, too.
- Mom. She could have been so cool, especially if she'd risen early in the season and been played by Samantha Smith the whole time. She brought a gravitas and menace to the role that I quite liked -- and was so much better than the young & barefoot virginal ingenue roaming the countryside. (Oh show, your age and gender issues will never stop making me embarrassed to like you.) PLUS! Bonus angst in having to hunt your own mother. Alas, she was a red herring; remember all those media articles about the New Big Bad? Not so much.
- All the wasted angst over Sam's wall. If it wasn't a huge plot point, I wish they'd just had Death empowered to build a wall that would hold. I'd still believe that Soulless!Sam didn't want his soul back; he felt he was a better and sharper hunter without it.Maybe they'll pick it up again in Season 7 so this could still payoff. In which case, I'm wrong about this.
- Heavenly weapons. We heard about them, there was angel jockeying for them. But Castiel chose not to use them. They played no role whatsoever in the showdown. Huh????

So, lots of chaff and not a lot of wheat in this season. The emotional stories & plots of the early season didn't pay off. The emotional story of the finale was crammed into the final few episodes with little building during the season.

I *hope* that the way the final episodes rocked along are evidence that the writers have gotten better at pacing and telling a story in 22 parts. That would bode well for Season 7. I really really hope so. I hope the pacing problems of Seasons 5 & 6 aren't the norm. *fingers crossed*

Magicawards!

hsapiens — Fri, 27 May 2011 16:46:56 GMT

I've been nominated for:

- Best Supernatural (thank you, absolutelybatty), and
- Best Celebrity (thank you, xafirah)

at magicawards. If you agree, please consider seconding my nominations as only those nominations receiving at least five "I agree" comments will go on to the voting round. There are no limits on how many nominations you may second and there are no limits on how many makers you may nominate.

While you're there, why not take a look around?

Here's the Directory -- there are lots and lots of categories!

Find some other nominations to second! It's a great way to let makers know you enjoy their work with a quick "+1" comment. Or make some nominations of your own! Perhaps you'll even find new makers whose work makes you happy.

I've been busy nominating and will continue doing so as I've only scratched the surface of people whose work inspires and astounds me.

ETA: more nominations. Eeeee!
- Best Text (thank you, xafirah), and
- Best Coloring (thank you, xafirah)

ETA2: another nomination!!!
- Best Minimalist (thank you, azuremonkey)

New comm for concrit

hsapiens — Tue, 03 May 2011 01:05:24 GMT

icons_concrit icons_concrit icons_concrit icons_concrit

First concrit meme open now!

There's a new concrit comm in town! I'm one of five mods and we're hoping to turn this into a thriving, lively place to come and get your honest feedback to help improve your work. But wait! There's more:

Challenges to inspire creativity and instead of voting, we offer concrit. Like a LIMS but without eliminations and structures so that all participants receive feedback on every entry. These will happen every two weeks. Stay tuned for the first challenge which will be posted soon, May 7/8!
Master Classes: Monthly, we'll have a workshop focused on a single skill presented by a maker known for particular talent in that area. First up will be wickedgrdn, writing about that skill almost every icon maker fears: text.

All concrit communities MUST have member participation and this one is no exception. Please join us! Join us in helping each other improve.

Icons (Catch Up)

hsapiens — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 23:26:49 GMT

I keep forgetting to pimp my icon posts in my own journal. Doh.

64 Supernatural (6x17 & 6x18)
13 Supernatural TV Guide Fan Faves (Jensen, Jared, & Misha)
34 Supernatural Conventions (JIB Con 2011)
45 ic0nfest icons (Katie Cassidy, Martha Jones, Billie Piper, Christian Bale, Being Human, Scott Caan, The King's Speech, Misfits, Hercule Poirot, The Vampire Diaries, Charmed, In Plain Sight)
==============
156 Icons, total

Here @ isapiens

65 Supernatural Cast (Misha, Jensen, & Jared)
50 Supernatural (entries for likethegun_lims)
15 Dark Angel
31 Harry Potter
13 Star Wars
17 Pride & Prejudice (1995)
======
191 Icons

Here

~~**~~

97 Supernatural (6x15, LIMS entries, random)
20 Supernatural Cast
22 Misha's Rhino Hunt Teams
35 Dark Angel (2x01, random)
31 Inception
30 Pride & Prejudice
11 Calvin & Hobbes
===================
246 icons

Here

Looking for graphics concrit

hsapiens — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 19:53:11 GMT

MY THREAD | JOIN THE FUN

This is part of a month-long event that I'm participating in. I decided recently that I wanted to have more discussions of graphics and for that, I needed to friend fellow icon-makers and participate more in various comms.

Question: Nuclear power plant design

hsapiens — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:39:43 GMT

I studied just enough physics to know that I'm barking up a perpetual motion tree but I'm wondering if they've considered designing nuclear power plants to use the heat produced by the spent fuel rods (and in times of emergency maybe even the nuclear fuel itself?) to power the cooling systems as a backup to the backup to the backup.

That is, is there a design that once the backup batteries failed would have used the heat generated in the cooling pools to power the cooling system? It wouldn't be perfect or even good for the long term but maybe long enough to get additional batteries on site before it became hazardous to human life. Or are the power requirements of the cooling system so great that the power the spent fuel could supply would always be utterly inadequate?

It just strikes me as horrifically ironic that the very radiation that's leaking and so dangerous could instead have been channeled to replace at least some of the power that was lost post-tsunami.

Tagged! - a meme

hsapiens — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 16:41:29 GMT

*waves* Hello to all my long-time friends and all of the new people I've added in recent friending memes, Misha's Rhino hunt, and through the Supernatural fandom. I was tagged by oddlyfamiliar to do this meme and figured this was as good a time as any to do a meme to introduce myself.

1. Make a list of 5 things that you can see without getting up.

1. Screen
2. Keyboard & Mouse
3. Dog
4. Bolts of fabric
5. DVD collection

2.How do you style your hair?

Style? It has a style? At the moment I'm growing it out. I had it cut off so that I could wear it in my convertible without having it tangle. I loved the easy care (5 minutes with the hair dryer -- FIVE MINUTES!!!) but shorter hair isn't "me" so now I'm growing it out again. I try to control it with straightening balm and a blow-dryer but it's wavy and has its own ideas.

3.What are you wearing now?

Is this a meme or an obscene phone call?

A blue, sleeveless shirt and blue pants. Aren't you glad you asked?

4.What do you want to be when you grow up?

I'm in a transition period, trying to pick a career to last the rest of my working life.

Sat for the first time for the Foreign Service Officer Test a couple of weeks ago. They like for you to prove your sincerity by taking the exam several times before passing you to the next hurdle so I don't expect I passed. In the meantime, I'm looking at other options, all of which require returning to school: patent lawyer (combines my enjoyment of intellectual property law and my abiding love of science), database builder/programmer (has the virtue of being something I've done in a small way before), or working for an archaeology museum (has the virtue of combining my previous work in museums and as an archaeologist).

I know, those have nothing to do with each other. There are too many interesting things to do in this world. I need to commit to something.

5.What do you hear right now?

The dog snoring and birds singing.

6.Who was the last person you hugged?

My BFF.

7.What is/was for dinner?

Rigatoni with veggies & sauce. Dessert was figs.

8.What did you do today?

Wake up. Make coffee. Empty dishwasher. See that I'd promised oddlyfamiliar, who'd tagged me, to do this meme. Do this meme. It has been an exciting day.

9.Dog person or cat person?

Both? I love animals, period. Forced to choose, I'm more of a dog person. I adore dogs. They're always so happy to see you, they're packages of boundless joy; simple things in life make them happy. How can you argue with making another creature's day just by coming home? Or being in the same room? It's ridiculously flattering.

I grew up with cats, though, and loved them just as fiercely. They have the advantage of living longer, too, so it feels like you get to know them more intimately.

10.If you had to change your name, what would you change it to?

Elizabeth. It's my favorite name. When my BFF was giving herself a middle name (it's a looooooong story), she asked me to choose and that's what I chose. I think it's a beautiful name and it can be shortened into several other pretty names: Beth, Lizzy, Eliza, Bess...

11.What was the last thing that you bought?

Drops for the dog's eyes. He's had inoperable, acute early-onset cataracts for 7 years now. He needs daily drops to control the inflammation, poor baby.

12.If you could afford to go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Everywhere? Since we're dropping the money limit, I want to go everywhere!

I want to explore Canada outside of just my favorite city ever, Vancouver. I want to visit the Pyramids of the Yucatan, Central America, Costa Rican coffee plantations, the Pampas, and Machu Piccu.

I want to meet the !Kung San peoples after studying them for so long and reading Nisa's narrative, to see South Africa's caves (esp. Swartkaans & Sterkfontein), Tanzania's Serengeti, Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Swahili architecture in Zanzibar, the rock art of Tanzania & Malawi & Libya, the Rift Valley & the Afar Region, Ethiopian churches carved into the rock, the Egyptian Pyramids, the Cairo Museums, the Valley of the Kings, Thebes, Petra, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (mountain gorillas!) & Kahuzi-Biega Park (more gorillas!), Mozambique, Madagascar (LEMURS!), the Zambezi River, Djenne (& Djenne-jeno) in Mali, Timbuktu, the dunes of the Sahara, the Gold Coast...

OMG I'll never finish even Africa when I also want to visit the Alhambra, all of Europe with its history, castles, cathedrals, the MUSEUMS, its countryside, Germany, Italy, France, Spain & Portugal, ANCIENT GREECE, modern Greece, Turkey (technically Asia but Turkey is linked to ancient Greece in my head) & Çatalhöyük, Babylon, Mesopotamia, Ur & Eridu, and of course every square inch of every one of the British Isles.

(ETA: And Scandinavia! How in the world could I forget to list Sweden, Norway, Finland...and Denmark, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia?? I know those aren't all the same country, or even the same language family, but I've wanted to visit the northern climes for so very long. Can't believe I forgot them.)

Not to mention the countries formerly behind the iron curtain, where I never thought I'd get to visit: Poland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Romania, and Russia itself! INDIA & the Indus Valley, China (the Great Wall! the history), Mongolia, Indonesia, Japan, Australia & New Zealand, the Barrier Reef, and both poles. (OK, I'd be happy to visit the edge of Antarctica rather than the South Pole itself.)

And after all that there are still places in this country I desperately want to see: Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Oregon, Idaho, & the Dakotas rank high on my list. I want to go back and see more of Alaska. I want to explore Newfoundland. I'm curious about the Marianas Trench.

I'd like to visit the moon and Mars. I think it's a damn shame that we won't have the ability to travel to other galaxies in my lifetime because I hate to think that I won't have the opportunity to see them.

oddlyfamiliar mentioned taking me and hils along with her on her travels and I think this is an AWESOME idea. Ladies, you're welcome to join me and my BFF Amy on my personal Odyssey to see absolutely everything.

13.Where do you see yourself in five years?

Settling into a career, hopefully as a foreign service officer. Learning a new language, a new city, a new culture, a new job.

14.Favorite book?

Oh lord. If you aren't new to this journal, you know that "favorite" anything and I simply do not get on. I am constitutionally incapable of choosing just one anything. Thankfully, I'm ignorant of most of non-Western literature so it's a much smaller pool to choose amongst.

Pride & Prejudice is a perennial favorite that I can reread at any time. The Iliad has been one of my favorites since I was ~8 so it wins for being on my Beloved Books List the longest. Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently books make me laugh just to think about them. Amy Tan draws me into her world every time. Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon opened my eyes to the world of reinterpreting literature. Is it possible to overestimate the importance of the Lord of the Rings trilogy? I think not. Love in the Time of Cholera is lyrical and magical.

I gleefully buy every new Eve Dallas book that comes out, despite their sometimes predictable nature because there is no sexier bastard than Roarke. Carl Hiaasan entertains me and gives me the justice so often lacking in real life. Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels are always a breezy, quick read -- perfect for airplane travels. Aaron Elkins's older novels are excellent reads as are Elizabeth Peters's Amelia Peabody books and her Vicky Bliss stories.

Plays by Euripides make me weep and those by Aristophanes make me laugh. As long as I'm thinking classic literature, Shakespeare obviously comes to mind. His use of language moves me and yet he's also a dirty, dirty bastard. I enjoyed Virgil's the Aeneid (hello Trojan Horse!), the Italian Renaissance poetry (oh Petrarch!) I learned for Academic Decathlon so many moons ago, Pope's bits of wisdom, Ben Franklin's bon mots, John Donne's sarcastic poems, T. S. Eliot's odes to cats, and even the terribly soppy Byron and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. (ETA: And Robert Frost! How could I fail to mention him?!?)

I loved loved loved John Ciardi's translation of the Inferno as a kid. I first read Animal Farm when I was too young to know it was anything more than a tale of clever farm animals. The scene in Fahrenheit 451 where the government televises its pursuit of a scapegoat to feed the public desire for vengeance has haunted me as have the dystopian visions of Brave New World, the Handmaid's Tale, and 1984. Why my parents let me read these novels at such a tender age I'll never know.

I retain a fondness for the Cat in the Hat with its ever-spreading stain. If only we had Cats X, Y, & Z to take care of nuclear waste and other industrial pollutants.

*sigh* I haven't even begun to think on other much loved non-fiction books such as The Vegetarian Epicure, my art books, The Woman that Never Evolved, The Blind Watchmaker, Stephen Jay Gould's work, Fuytuma's evolutionary biology text, some of my bone books, Edith Hamilton's Mythology, etc.

15.What are you doing this weekend?

Tonight is a much anticipated episode of Supernatural, which I will undoubtedly be squeeing over with fandom friends for days, no weeks to come. Other weekend plans include the scintillating activity of cleaning the house before my parents visit on Thursday. Their health has been less than good of late so I'm savoring every opportunity.

After revisiting my favorite books mentally, I'm feeling the yen to reconnect with my paper books in the physical realm so I imagine I'll pick up one of the listed tomes as well.

16.If you could play any musical instrument, which one would you play?

As a kid I played the piano, taught by my grandfather who was a musical prodigy, so I'd love to have a nice piano and the room to house it. I would love to learn the djembe.

17.How are you?

Well? Rambly? Short? Alive? All of the above?

18.What are you doing tomorrow?

Maybe I shouldn't have done this on a Friday as the answer is the same as #15. :\

19.What are you looking forward to the most?

Again with the superlatives. *eye roll*

The future? Choosing a career path and making progress on it? Going back to school and learning? Traveling? Experiencing new cultures? Tonight's Supernatural? Seeing my parents? Visiting friends? It depends on the context! There's so much to anticipate. Why choose?

Iconses

hsapiens — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:58:15 GMT

Should I continue announcing icon posts here? Does everyone here who cares already follow my graphics journal? Then again, if I didn't announce here then I might never post here. If you have a strong opinion, tell me.

22 Supernatural Cast
72 Supernatural
53 Fandom Grab Bag (Robin Hood & Sanctuary & The King's Speech & Back to the Future & Toy Story & Psych & Richard Ayoade & p!nk & Heart & Doctor Who & Casanova & Stock & Battlestar Galactica & SG-1 & Dirty Jobs & Kate Winslet & Daniel Dae Kim)
=========
147 icons, total

Here @ isapiens

Realized I didn't announce the last set of icons so there are two announcements this time, even if one is a bit too late. Think of it as reeeeeally early for 2011Hannukah/Christmas/Kwanzaa icons. Plenty of time to shop! ;)

43 Supernatural
20 Supernatural Cast (incl. holiday)
16 The Walking Dead
20 December Holidays (Hanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa)
====
99 icons, total

Here @ isapiens

Misha's Rhino Puzzles!

hsapiens — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 01:55:49 GMT

rhino_pieces rhino_pieces rhino_pieces

Come & join us once you get your rhino piece from Misha so that you can find the others who have pieces to your puzzle!

If you're in the Misha fandom, you know by now that Misha's sending out the first of the "rhino" pieces he promised to fans who sent him mail back in early December. Reply letters have been sighted! Thanks to darkestnight01, we have a copy of that letter. {Direct link to the letter: http://pics.livejournal.com/darkestnight01/pic/00060s54 }

You'll need to submit a blurred scan of your puzzle piece to stripedsockscat or me as proof that you're part of the game. BE CERTAIN TO BLUR IT; you don't want to accidentally help another team, right? The point of the comm is just to connect to other players; it is not for sharing images of your pieces.

We look forward to seeing you there!

It was the best of icons, it was the worst of icons

hsapiens — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 07:01:08 GMT

I was called out by casett for failing to choose my least and most fave icons that I made during 2010 after I sort of badgered her to choose her faves...and she's right. So here are my picks:

Most Faves

1. Everything. This is my very fave of everything I made this year. The image is crisp, the coloring is exactly what I intended as I made it. Normally I fight the icons, fuzting with layers endlessly to try to get what I'm picturing in my head onto the screen. This was a charmed icon where it did exactly what I wanted as I made it. Also? Hot, naked Sam in bed with hot, naked Madison. That episode ripped my heart out; this moment is the calm before the storm.

2. Concept. I'm a representational maker rather than a conceptual one; I'm literal in my images. I've been trying to develop a conceptual eye and sensibility but mostly, I haven't. I sat down with this cap, thinking I was making a completely different icon that focused on the symmetry and geometry of his pod. I'm still not certain how I got to this icon but I love the suggestion of his "throne", reduced to its simplest elements. It's not entirely conceptual but it IS outside the norm for me.

3. Colors. I stink - absolutely stink! - at outdoors shot icons. I just never know what to do with them. This cap, however, called to me. I like the crop, with its hint of the Impala, and the fall coloring (totally not what the original shot had), the water feature suggested by the reflected tree in the background...there's a lot going on in what I perceive as a quiet, "good morning" icon. Also? I like the depth of the icon. It has foreground (Impala) elements, midground elements (Dean, tree), and background elements (other tree, water, gray sky). Depth of field makes the most interesting scenery icons but I rarely achieve it.

4. Light & Character. The play of shadows on Crowley's face and his glower speak of evil. I think it captures the danger he represents, no matter how he might have helped divert the Apocalypse in S5. Looking at this, I'm not surprised he turned out to be a Big Bad in S6.

5. Crop. Such a simple icon but I like the sense that the zombies are pushing to get out. The crop makes the icon for me.

Other MFs: Obviously, I like faces.

Least Faves

1. I've been working on my skills in creating negative space that isn't there in the original cap. In this case, the foreground is made by me. In my excitement over the way the new image emphasized how alone Dean is in this moment, I kind of lost Dean. I needed to adjust coloring & lighting to bring the focus back to him. As is, it looks like a muddy, low contrast mess. The eye travels over it with nothing to make it stop and see.

2. I was creating a background as an alternative to relying on textures made by someone else. (Sometimes I feel like my icons are made half by me and half by a talented texture maker.) I wanted the icon, a LIMS entry, to be *mine.* I spent a lot of time choosing the exact colors I wanted, how they'd be arranged to imply Leia is emerging from one side of a barrier to the other, and futzing with the text -- and never once noticed how out of focus Leia is. Doh!

3. See my above comment for how I stink at coloring outdoor icons. I really wanted to capture the horror of the legless zombie from the pilot of The Walking Dead. I couldn't decide if the grass should be bright as a contrast to the horror of the zombie or dead-looking like the zombie. Looks to me like I did both: it's a lifeless green that's too kelly green to be dead. I don't like the coloring and I think the amazing effect of her flailing femurs is completely lost. It doesn't have any kind of mood. Then the text I tacked on is trite AND poorly executed. The trite is especially wrong as this was a very creative zombie. That text needs to be on one of the shuffling, upright zombies as it's more cliched. There's nothing about the icon that I like.

4. The coloring on this drove me batty. I could choose to make the dead girl's coloring appropriately pale OR I could make her sister's hand properly colored. I tried masking the parts but was never satisfied with the look. In the end I released it but the colors are wretched. The crop is awkward. Blergh.

5. I wanted so badly to make a stock yoga icon that conveyed the sense of peace I get from yoga and highlighted the beauty of yoga. I love the cap I used but I never found a crop I liked. The composition feels awkward, which is the exact opposite of what I set out to do.

Other LFs

2010 Icons

hsapiens — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 20:31:00 GMT

Interesting idea where makers nominate themselves, people choose their favorite icons made by that maker in 2010, and then everyone will vote on their faves for each maker. Kind of cool, no?

~~**~~

I'm seeing a lot of those year-end memes and since I used this journal mostly for posting icons in 2010, I figured I'd take a look back. Inspired by casett's posts.

This was my most prolific year ever. The largest difference in my icons was joining the Supernatural fandom full-force. I've played on the periphery for a long time but never participated. I can't say enough nice things about how kind the people I've met are.

I claim that I don't have a style but I also don't think what I make has changed so I must have a style that I can't identify. Whatever it is, I think it's constant. I'd love to make more conceptual icons but I like to tell stories with icons (even if it's just to myself as I make them) so my work tends to be representational.

I upgraded to PS4 a while back but have only recently started playing with some of its cool features like Smart Objects, Channels, and Paths. Very cool program and I'm always learning.

1824 ICONS in 2010. Fandoms w/ at least 10 icons included:
630 Supernatural
256 Supernatural Cast (incl. roles in other projects)
191 Stargate SG-1
110 Stock
104 Star Wars
87 Buffy-verse
82 Calvin & Hobbes
41 The Walking Dead
35 White Collar
32 SG-1 Cast (incl. roles in other projects)
31 Pride & Prejudice (the 1995 BBC production, natch)
25 Babylon 5
25 Bones
24 Criminal Minds
19 Psych
18 Queer as Folk
18 The Vampire Diaries
10 Burn Notice

...that's what I posted. Made tons more, most of which were scrapped & never uploaded.

I participated in 4 LIMS communities:
shanks_lims Round 1 - Last Icon Maker Standing!
sg1_lims Round 4 - I mod so I stayed in through Challenge 9.
starwars_lims Round 1 - I made it through Challenge 12 (4th place).
starwars_lims Round 2 - Last Icon Maker Standing!
likethegun_lims Round 6 - I made it through Challenge 7.

Obviously I want to do better in the last one next time around but there are so many very talented makers in the Supernatural fandom. I'm grateful to have made it as far as I did. :| The talent pool is DEEP. I wish I had spent more time in Star Trek fandom (I've only familiar with TOS & TNG) as frontier_lims is run by my first fave mod. (What? I have two faves.) I fantasize about joining but it's hard to do a LIMS when you're not a huge fan; LIMS are a LONG slog through weeks and weeks and weeks and months of iconning. You need to love & geek out over the subject.

sg1_lims added a new mod this time, colls! She did the hard work of finding all the caps for "cap pools" from which we finally pick the caps for each challenge. That takes hours and hours and is a job I loathe. I cannot tell you how grateful I am for both colls and beeej, who has been excited about the LIMS since it started. They make the comm possible. Love you!

I participated in lemonpunch's Icon Fest for both of its rounds. LOVED it. Can't wait for the next round and I urge everyone who loves icons (whether making or using) to at least check it out.

I keep getting seduced into 20in20 competitions, despite sucking at them. They're a hell of a lot of fun but I end up stressing more than enjoying. xafirah always makes these gorgeous icons and picks just the right caps...I keep thinking, "Gosh, that looks like so much *fun* -- I wanna play, too!" But then I get these prompts & requirements...and I can't make icons on demand like that. My process is too chaotic. My New Year's Resolution should be to just enjoy voting in them.

I added tons of gorgeous banners to my Digital Hall of Shameless Bragging (newest are last).

xafirah and I had an Icon Battle -- and I'm looking forward to our next one.

I met some amazing people through my icons this year. It started with hils and that in turn brought me harper47, oddlyfamiliar, and cassiopeia7. Love you guys!

I wrote my first fic in years; an icon!fic that was extremely silly crack.

casett also analyzed her favorite icons and her least faves amongst those she made in 2010. I don't know that I can do that. I post a lot of icons I'm not wild about but someone out there disagrees and not only adopts it but makes it a default icon or uses it everywhere I go. Which is 12 kinds of flattering. I kind of figure if someone doesn't see the same obvious flaws I do, then it's prudent to keep my mouth shut. ;-) Also, I figure they see something I don't so who am I to say? I'd happily talk about my faves -- I made some kick-ass icons this year! -- but I made so damned many. Those I love, it's like choosing amongst my kids for faves, and I'm not certain I could choose. And NOBODY wants to have a discussion of a hundred or so icons. Including me. I've done some memes throughout the year that allowed me to talk about my fave icons and you can usually spot my faves just by surfing my graphics journal. I tend to use the, as teasers. ;-)

Friending Meme -- A NEW ONE!

hsapiens — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 23:11:36 GMT

I have at least one person on my f-list who's still in Season 4 of Supernatural and I don't want to spoiler her so details are behind the cut. DON'T CLICK, colls, AS THIS IS A SERIOUS SPOILER!

GABRIEL FRIENDING MEME

Everyone's favorite trickster cum angel! Go! Make friends!

197 Icons: SPN & Cast, Walking Dead, Star Wars, P&P (1995)

hsapiens — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 18:24:47 GMT

100 Supernatural (6x06, 6x07, 6x08, Seasons 4 & 5, 20in20 Castiel icons)
40 Misha Collins, Jensen Ackles, & Jared Padalecki
25 The Walking Dead
12 Star Wars
20 Pride & Prejudice (1995)
=====
197 icons, total

Here @ isapiens

[Fic]: Curlylocks and The Three Hot Men

hsapiens — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 21:09:02 GMT

Title: Curlylocks and the Three Hot Men
Author: Mish
Rating: NSFW but then again, nobody with a functioning brain should read this
Genre: SPN RPS AU, Travesty!Fic, Bad!Fic, Icon!Spam, Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Misha Collins, hils
Spoilers: None
Warnings: Crackity crack crack, Implied Het!, Slash!
Summary: hils discovers her One True Love, Jensen Ackles

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Hils who lived in Fandomland and watched a television show named Supernatural. (More of a woman really but this is a fairy tale and all fairy tales need a girl. Also, it was more like she watched downloads of a show but precision is the enemy of a good tale so roll with me.)

This show starred The Three Hot Men: Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Misha Collins. Hils was the sort of girl who appreciated a good parade of male pulchritude. Indeed, Hils was fated to fall madly in love Jensen Ackles, the prettiest pretty boy in all the land, but she was also cursed. (Gasp!) In her fandom infancy, she had offended a witch on the Buffy fanboard when she argued that Buffy belonged with Spike when obviously the One True Pairing was Spangel.

Now this witch was not that evil cannibal witch lurking in forests, eating children, but was a more clever witch who didn't want to be ganked by the Winchesters. Nothing got their attention faster than killing people. Rather than kill Hils (which would be very sad!) the witch decided on a Just Desserts punishment: so long as Hils was blind to the One True Buffy Pairing then she would be blind to her own One True Love. The witch cursed Hils with peculiar eyesight so that she could not see the prettiness of Jensen Ackles. This made Jensen and all of Fandomland very sad.

Oh, she could see his pretty green eyes fringed with thick lashes , the perfect cupid’s bow of his soft lips , the bulge of his biceps , the symmetry of his features , the cute bow legs that bring to mind riding …um, where was I? Oh yeah. Not even the twinkiness of his early modeling photos could move her frozen heart. The bluebirds and field mice breathed heavy sighs of sadness. There was much sorrow in Fandomland that Hils was thus accursed.

Then one day the evil witch moved to another land. (What? You thought I would kill the witch? There is no death in this fic! Did you see a warning for character death? No!) With the witch went the curse -- and lo, Hils could see the beauty of Jensen Ackles. There was much rejoicing. When he heard the news, Jensen was all This is the end of the story, right? This is the part that goes, "They lived happily ever after," right?

Sadly, no. You see, Misha Collins and Jared Padalecki liked having one fan who wasn’t distracted by the shiny prettiness of Jensen. Misha was all, and Jared was all . They were both very sad at having to share yet another fan with the man who already got more squee-age than any other Hot Man in Fandomland. They decided to fight for their share of the squee.

First up was Misha, who used his gravelly sex voice to mesmerize Fandom with tales of on-set hijinks . Jared struck a pose, showing off his milkshake that brings all the girls to the yard . Seriously? SERIOUSLY? He said his milkshake. That's better.

Misha went for subtle, a smile with just a little stealth tongue (What?!? You think Misha can't do subtle? Bitch, Misha can do whatever he wants!) He followed that up with a smoking hot, sultry look . Those alone are enough to knock any normal mortal man out of the competition.

Jensen, however, is no normal mortal man. He is the Righteous Man! He knows he has no competition . He is destined to be Hils's One True Love! It's Fate so bring it.

Jared repeats, "Milkshake." Misha repeats, "Tongue." And tongue again!

Time to break out the big guns! Jared reminds us of his love for dogs. Nothing makes a man more irresistible than a dog, right? And if one dog is good, then two is the knock-out punch! Awwwwwwww!

Misha sneers at the Jared's Doctor Doolittle. He knows what makes Fandomland weak in the knees and wet in the drawers is getting their freak on. But, you know, just in case, Fandomland does like that Doolittle stuff, Misha is cool with the animal kingdom, too!

Jared's not about to be outdone on the "communing with the birds" front . WHOA. Back the fandom bus up! What was that? We should take a closer look at that entry, don't ya think?

Uh oh, looks like Jensen's going down! This makes Fandomland -- and Misha -- very happy.

Those who know Jensen know that he's a fighter; he doesn't give up just because the day looks lost. Half of being attractive is confidence; he offers up the proof of who is truly comfortable in his skin Yeah, who's owning their sexy now, huh Mr. Padapuppy? But skin demands skin so he whips out... and . Pinch those nips, Jensen. But wait, wasn't there more to the photo? Didn't it go down? Oh yeah, now THAT's what I'm talking about. Am I right?

Hell, even Misha is impressed with the others' offerings. And sad. Sad that he doesn't have photos of his bulging biceps/washboard abs to offer up. But wait! He can fight dirty with the best of them and nobody out attention whores Misha Fucking Collins.

Misha talks slash to Fandomland. . He pwns Jared. He charms Jensen! Misha delivers the coup de grace by stripping down. No, stripping down.

Jared and Jensen concede.

Fandomland lived happily ever after! But Jensen is STILL Hils's Fated One True Love.

And what about that mean witch who ships Spangel? Maybe you'd have recognized him if I'd called him a demi-god? No?
What? No tale of hils is complete without some gratuitous Trickster.

The End. I'm sorry.

Only the temporary insanity due to joy at hils's discovery of The Truth could cause me to stray into fic-land.

Calling Castiel Fans!

hsapiens — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 21:04:07 GMT

Wanna add more Castiel fans to your f-list? There's a meme for that:

Go! Read! Add yourself! Friend!

Meme!

hsapiens — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 05:17:24 GMT

An -est icon meme snagged from xafirah:

MAH ICONS.

default	oldest	newest


saddest	happiest	angriest


cutest	sexiest	funniest


fave ship	fave fandom	fave animated


best quote	best textless	best stolen idea


use the most	favorite by me

HOW MANY ICONS DO YOU HAVE: 372
OUT OF HOW MANY AVAILABLE ICONS SPACES: 415
IF YOU COULD BUY SPACE FOR MORE, WOULD YOU: Yes!
DO YOUR ICONS MAKE A STATEMENT: Yup. I'm a pleasure seeker. I had trouble finding an "angriest" icon but I have lots of icons of things that make me smile: humor, fandom, and hot men. Preferably all at the same time.
WHAT FANDOM DO YOU HAVE THE MOST ICONS OF: Supernatural
AND THE SECOND MOST: Stargate SG-1
WHAT SHIP DO YOU HAVE THE MOST ICONS OF: Dean/Castiel
ARE YOUR ICONS MADE MOSTLY BY OTHER PEOPLE: It's probably 50/50
DO YOU MAKE ICONS: Yes.
ARE THEY ANY GOOD: Yes, though I always wish I were better or more creative. I succeed more than I think my talent warrants.
ANIMATED ICONS ARE: Best suited to humor.

DO THE MEME.
Coding can be found here

This was a mean meme for me, making me choose just one icon for each category. If you've suffered through my icon memes in the past, you know how against the grain this goes for me. If you do the meme, you'll discover that I did change the last category as I cannot choose my fave so I went for fave icon made by me.

I want!!

hsapiens — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 00:42:27 GMT

I'm not a t-shirt person but this? This is something I want very much:

Anyone who knows me (or has paid attention to what I icon) is not surprised by this.

Moar Icons & Birthday Felicitations

hsapiens — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:55:37 GMT

143 Supernatural (6x03, 6x04, 6x05, 1x12, 1x13, Misc., Icon Battle & Alternates)
12 Star Wars
8 Babylon 5
10 The Vampire Diaries
10 Calvin & Hobbes
20 Iconfest II (Stock, Bones, Burn Notice, Covert Affairs, Kim Yu-Na, Emergency!, Being Human, Sum of Us)

Here @ isapiens

Happy birthday to one of my best friends and just about the nicest human being ever, mcroft. Hope that today is the first day of a year of happiness, health, and learning for you and immlass. ♥

Icon Battle!

hsapiens — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 00:09:00 GMT

xafirah challenged me to a Supernatural icon battle. We each chose a lucky number of caps: thirteen.

xafirah
vs.
hsapiens

Here.