EDIT: Two important edits.

1. *Syrellia is ready to be open! After 3-4 weeks of sorting my head out and writing everything, and then staying up til 4 am to fix everything x__X Go check it out, it's even better than before!

2. KUROI TSUKI IS WIN. He is Mr Fantastic and one of the artists who inspires me the most.

***

It's not nearly as cold today as it was yesterday, thank god - at least most of the ice had melted when I went to get my lunch.

Now that my brain is not being occupied with increasingly irritating protests of "cold cold cold cold cold", I can finally make a proper journal entry.

At this moment, I have finished the Christmas present, and people will be getting theirs tomorrow. I've only had to pick a few - but this is concerning ACTIVE watchers, and people who have spoken to me here once in a while, whether in a comment or random plz spam. _{Haha, am I desperate for communication yes way too obviously.}

I've been itching to make Jakob Sturluson an actual OC, haha! But nothing, NOTHING, not even nice behaviour from him for the rest of his life will make me do that! I hate the bastard. However, I will most likely do something involving him, Kris and Nik (and possibly Erika...if May allows it).

Also, F*** KRIS. I discovered Revenant's actual final form. THANK YOU, YOU STUPID NORWEGIAN oh wait he didn't know. NEVER MIND I AM TALKING TO MYSELF YOU SAW NOTHING.

While that is being stewed, I am NOT doing any other work. No! I owe art to way too many people! Jeebus I hate not-- you know what, I'm just going to go hug my heater. Again.

The following people have art for them:

*TheAdeptStone <-- not a person, but I still have art due anyway.
=Bleepla
*Omegatutumon
~WinterSin
*Jazzikinns
*laer5
~Xetaja
*Mayonne
=kinno-nabi
*MzUnderstood
*Kaiju-Z

Things that SERIOUSLY HAVE TO BE DONE:

Warriors of the World: The Legend Reborn chapter 15! FFS

The following characters need revamps:

Hakon Eiger
Xin Lien-Hua

The following characters need to be redone as sketches in my style to show current updates:

Kristian Sturluson
Nikolai Sturluson

The following characters need to be updated in general:

All of them except Halyan Kerre.

Journal will not be edited save for Christmas and New Year until I get art DONE. >:I



I keep trying to think up of a journal title but the prevailing cold took over my mind.

Anyway, I'm now happily sorting through people's galleries (with freezing hands to boot).

Meanwhile, I still have yet to sort out *Syrellia's calendar system, magic system and navigation system. Two out of three I can deal with easily, but unfortunately *Mayonne hasn't been on for some time, and the magic system will not be finalised without her help, seeing as she is the admin in charge of Magicka Versus.

I didn't manage to watch Avatar on Monday (tickets were sold out), but I did watch Law-Abiding Citizen with my friends. Oh good god - it's a good movie, but it's quite a shocker at certain points. Quite a few of us covered our eyes several times during the movie.

Right now I am revising.

And finally, commissions. I can't open them now because I don't have my sketchpad with me - and I don't do commissions on lined paper. It's also really hard to draw here because I have no desk (and that means it's really hard to draw with a tablet even so). I need to do more examples anyway.

...actually, right now I shouldn't be making a journal because I am very, very distracted by the cold.

Hi guys. This is the final call for the notes for the Christmas present I've planned (since October). You have about one day or less depending on your timezone to send in up to four of your favourite deviations from your gallery to me. The actual deadline is 22/12/09.

Those who HAVE sent me your notes, rest assured I have them and you don't have to send them again.

For those who haven't, well - these are the plans for you.

Between the 22nd and the 24th, I will simply rummage through your galleries and pick four deviations. It means that if you dislike my choices, you don't need to waste your time telling me about it. Generally because 1. I don't think it matters to you anyway, and 2. I'm not responsible.

Since I am in a PMS-ish mood thanks to the endless freezing cold here, I will stop here before I flood you with a rant/drama and resume reading Good Omens for a while before I go to bed.

Thank you for reading.

In other news, Borders is closing for good. It looks like the online stores will be my source of books now.

Arc.

EDIT: HOLYSHIT ENGLAND YOU HAVE ANSWERED MY WISH FOR SNOW THANK YOU

*arcturus17 has gone out to frolic in the snow like an idiot.

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Everyone, please do send me four of your favourite, FAVOURITE, not BEST, works from your gallery by 22nd December. I can't usually afford Christmas presents for so many people, so I'm trying to make this a Christmas present - but without your cooperation I won't be able to give your fair share to you! D'x

The present will be given on 25th December. Obviously.

That said, journal starts below this dashed line.

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So, this is Arc writing this at 7.30 am GMT. Exactly why is still a mystery even to me, because I have been sleeping at 7-8 hours per day and I went to bed at 1 am this morning - which makes it 5 hours of sleep, since I was woken up at 6.30 am by Doubt & Trust (it's my alarm tone, no less) and decided to have a drink of water. While I was doing that, I thought maybe if it was bright enough I could get up, but I drew back the curtain, looked out, and said, "holy f***!" before going back to bed.

And I didn't sleep again. For some reason. By the way, just to tell you - it's still freezing.

So here I am hugging a bowl of steaming oats and waiting for my hard-boiled egg to cool (sitting in my kettle, too, but that's an entirely different story).

Eff, honey oats never looked more delicious.

I spent two entire days doing a bit of shopping in Loughborough, and just generally exploring the town since I had to find the post office, the bank (wasn't really necessary, but who cares), and other convenience stores I'm usually used to visiting. This was NOT helped that both days were particularly foggy and yesterday it was raining. Oh England winter, why can't you give me some snow instead of rain.

Loughborough is not a bad town. When I first saw the description of it as a 'market town' I seriously thought that I was in for some rural location with little open-air stalls and Sunday markets (not that I think it's a bad thing). That turned out to be quite the opposite, although after walking across the town several times I've come to the conclusion that Loughborough is just a town 4x smaller than York. I mean...you can walk across York in a day. I walked across Loughborough four times in two days.

I'm done with my Christmas shopping. I've almost practically been splurging, although most of the time it was food, and this hall (usually catered) has its dining hall closed till the 18th. Also, there is no other place that serves the best hot chocolate except for...Costa. Yes, I order hot chocolate from a coffee restaurant. Starbucks is fail - it's expensive, and the hot chocolate isn't so nice. Oh, and we don't have Starbucks here anyway.

I've managed to get a Christmas present for myself - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens! Hardcover no less. I still need to get Unseen Academicals, wizards playing basketball is win - oh sorry, I'm digressing. *cough*

The sad thing is, Loughborough has no Borders. Waterstones doesn't cut it. Just for the Americans, Borders is a bookshop that sells, apart from books, DVDs, CDs, posters - but what makes it different from Waterstones is that you can actually sit down and have a coffee - and read your book without having to buy it. I get stuck in there on rainy afternoons; generally you'd have to come and pull me out xD It's comparable to Kinokuniya in Singapore (the largest bookshop in Southeast Asia) and quite possibly Barnes & Noble in the US in terms of how it's designed and stocked for book lovers. Whoop.

Now, after that nice feminine-ish telling of my adventures in Loughborough, I am very sad to be the bearer of bad news - I am leaving dA once again. While it's not as intense as it was last time - I WILL come back to clean out my message centre, because 100+ messages is a bit overwhelming - it does mean that I will stop drawing AGAIN. When does this start?

Tomorrow.

I'm leaving for my sister's in London tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to it, but I will also be revising over at my sister's. I have four exams to take in late January/early February, and omfg they are the four subjects I DIDN'T revise at all this semester because I was so busy with my blimmin coursework AND tests. Even when I stopped drawing. Or doing ANYTHING in my leisure time, because most of it was working on work.

I should be packing now, but give me a break - I've not had a proper breakfast or long journal (rants don't count) for a while.

One more thing before I go.

I'm still considering opening commissions. This because of two very valid reasons.

1. I'd really love extra money...to be able to support my life, especially with the awesome fees I have to pay every month. I literally drain my bank account once every two months paying for the fees, and honestly I'd also love extra money to bring back home and be able to treat my parents out, buy new fixings for the house, etc. I don't think I can do paid work because my student visa probably doesn't allow it.

2.Every time I go home, my parents tell me to stop drawing because it has no benefit to my future and I'm not being paid to do it. Yes, for us, money is time. Or time is money. Whichever way, I will be forced to stop drawing COMPLETELY during the summer. Right now my father is pissed that I drew so much during the summer (and I'm in England, and it's December...that's a long grudge, if you ask me). So I really, REALLY want to see what happens if I open commissions and get paid for it. Besides, if he makes me work for him (he's a freelance graphic designer, amongst other things), he won't pay me. Because I'm his kid. It was the same offer he made to my sister to help him do his computer stuff, because she has a degree in computer science.

There's just one slight problem.

I personally don't think I'm up to it yet.

Also, with my polls on commissioning, a few of you guys have not hesitated to tell me my art is not worth it. Then again, it's been a couple of months or so since I put up those polls.

And I don't know how many people read my journals anyway, honestly.

I have had someone tell me that she WOULD commission me, but she doesn't count right now. Be--

*gets onto the desk and switches on his heater*

--cause it may be biased for all I know. I need a much better, honest opinion on this.

_{The heater control is situated about four feet above my desk. The heater? Below my sink.}

Finally, I'm looking to commission someone again. Sadly too many people have their commission lines firmly closed (I'm not looking at the people I know who do have commission lines open, by the way - I WILL commission you guys some day, but at the moment I just feel like going after someone who doesn't know me). It looks like I will have a long wait.

Thank you for reading this journal, and may you keep well through the festive season!

Arc.

PS: I'm way too addicted to Top Gear.

EDIT: EFFFF botched up the wording AGAIN. Edited.

Yes, yes, tis a Christmas present for everyone who watches me.

But it's a surprise.

Could everyone note to me up to four links of your favourite works in your gallery by the 22nd of December?

Thank you.

Arc.

Though I've been sorely tempted to do this to my dinner for the past two weeks.



I've lost count as to how many times I just wanted to drop right there and then. Thankfully my hunger and habit of not wasting food stopped me, but oh gosh...





Today is the last day of lessons for me, since I don't have lessons on a Friday After having a really eye-opening lecture about physical activity and how prolonged sitting can result in health risks independently of physical activity, I was then forced to live it out when I realised I'd forgotten to get the feedback form to attach to my coursework - it wasn't fun that my hall and the library is situated in the west, and the department all the way to the east. Not to mention the number of people doing nothing in the library save for Facebook, which can get really frustrating when all you want to do is PRINT ONE PAGE.

I should've finished it earlier so I didn't have to deal with the tripe that was going on in the library =__= apart from Facebook users, one of the printers was out of order and I found out that I can't print anything out on a printer if I didn't use the comps nearby to give the order to the printer. Gah. Ended up using the bus three times, and also nearly fell asleep during my Basic Developmental Psychology revision lecture. Which is a first, because that module is so interesting.

But well, it's been two hard weeks of endless revising, writing and multitasking, and I've managed to get a week of rest before I head to London.

Which means I have a week to draw as much as I can and sort out *Syrellia ONCE AND FOR ALL.

Oh, and I know people have replied/commented to me, and the reason why I have yet to get to it is because my message centre now looks like this:



I'll get down to it; I love you guys.

-Arc