http://jullieit.deviantart.com/art/Piano-Thing-71238498

Wow, that's awesome. At first I thought it was photo-manipulated, but she actually has piercings. I don't have any piercings whatsoever, but that's actually something I might consider. Either on the lower back like that or on my arm. Hm. Having it on the arm would make it near impossible to tie without help though. I actually had an idea for a drawing of a girl sewing laces into her arm. Apparently corset piercings like that are highly prone to rejection though, so they'd most likely have to be temporary. Don't know if it would be worth it, but it is neat.

Semester is over. Show has opened. All is finished for now. Huzzah!

I changed my profile. Now it's all pretty. Mm... Yep, that's all.

Been terribly busy with rushing to complete schoolwork, prepare for finals, and have costumes complete in time for show opening this Thursday. Had myself an anxiety attack in the middle of the costume studio the other night. :( Yeah, I talked with my doctor and we upped my medication back to what I had been on initially before trying to go off it and going back on. Doesn't really seem to help in those times when I'm super stressed though. But trying to calm myself down doesn't really seem to help either. At least things are looking much more manageable right now.

Good news. Kitty was found. A neighbor found Alley hiding in his garage and called Brian thanks to seeing Missing Cat fliers. Brian managed to wrangle her into her cat carrier and brought her back home, where she hid in the garage and was later coaxed up into the laundry room. She was apparently very happy to see Andy when he got back and spent time sitting in his lap.

More good news. I got cast in a film that will be shooting this fall. Right now, a promo shoot is scheduled for mid-August. It's a historical action/romance movie based upon Alfred Noyes's poem The Highwayman (also the name of the movie). I'm playing Bess, the innkeeper's daughter and love of Will, the highwayman. I'm excited. It should be a lot of fun. Not only do I love the genre, but it's also a paid role with an established production company.

Even more good news. I got financial aid, yea! This is the first year I could submit the FAFSA without having to put my dad's info on it, as he makes too much for me to qualify. This will cover tuition and fees and more than enough for books... for my last semester at RRCC, hehe. I also received aid for Spring 2009, and hopefully it will transfer over when I start going to Metro.

Whew. I just want to sit and do nothing for awhile. Still have costume stuff to do tomorrow though, although it's mostly just minor things and alterations. And my last day of class is Wednesday, although I've already taken my finals. So glad to be done with math... I'll have a few weeks off before fall semester starts, but I'm sure to be occupied with things like filming and taking care of costumes if needbe. Must look up publishers and send in Stareleon too. Oh, and I will post photos from our trip once I get them uploaded and edited. Hopefully I will have time to post more now too.

Well, my older brother decided to leave for Vegas yesterday along with a friend of his. He was planning on flying out anyway, but I guess he wanted some extra time before we all got there. He just recently moved into a new condo, and his friend Brian (drummer in a couple of his old bands) is going to be his roommate. Well, Brian was moving stuff into the condo last night, and he left the door open, and my brother's cat Alley got out. :( She's definitely an indoor kitty, although she hasn't been declawed. She doesn't like Brian much, and he only noticed she was gone when he didn't hear her hissing at him when he walked by. But, it sucks that it happened the day Andy left town. Plus, it's a new place that she's not familiar with (although she was never outside at his old place either). We went over there and looked around for her, but she could be anywhere. We made some Missing Cat fliers that Brian handed out to neighbors and posted around too. He's worried he will be repacking his things when Andy gets back if he can't find Alley. Andy was pissed at first when he found out, but for now he'd just rather not think about it. Hopefully kitty will get back okay.

So, we will be leaving tomorrow afternoon/evening. I still have some costume stuff I'd like to get done before then. Plus, I have more homework to finish for when we get back. I can always work on that in the car. It's like a 12 hour drive, my dad said. We're just heading out to Grand Junction tomorrow and then will drive the rest of the way on Monday. Should be fun (apart from the heat, at any rate). My sister just turned 21, so maybe we can have a girl's night out or something, hehe. See you all when I get back.

( Free write: Sathiel )

Hm. Dunno what prompted that. Thinking of the intro of The Maverick, I suppose. Actually, I just went back and read what I had written for a beginning. I knew there was the innocence thing, but I had written about a "hero" too. And I think on FR Sathiel said something about never claiming to be honorable. I'm thinking I should redo his journal as a place to develop my novel, but I'm not yet ready to start actively working on it. Shall have to research publishers for Stareleon first and send that in. And I was thinking of writing a fleshed out version of Dominion and Dionae's story called The Fall of Dominion. And maybe another children's book. And, of course, homework shall have to take precedence over all that.

This semester is flying. Have to present a couple of speeches next week. And the week after that, we're heading out to Las Vegas for a family reunion and multiple birthday celebrations. Have to have all the costumes ready to present before we go too. I'll have til the 30th for any fixes/last minute things, but it'll still be tight. Will have to take it one thing at a time I guess.

Ah ha! Related to my last post about the surveys we are doing for our presentation on Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love. We now have both surveys posted on surveymonkey.com, which should make it easier for people to respond. The links are:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=1a8UUVdg5p4r3JQJ0rYaHQ_3d_3d

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=pk2jEiouGYc3j1izkehblQ_3d_3d

Here is some basic info on the Triangular Theory of Love which will help in taking the surveys.

Sternberg states that there are three different kinds of love:

Intimacy - feelings of closeness and connectedness
Passion - physical attraction and romance
Commitment - commitment to sustain a long-term relationship

Different types of relationships contain varying combinations of these. Sternberg defines these different types as:

Liking - just intimacy
Infatuated love - just passion
Empty love - just commitment
Romantic love - intimacy and passion
Companionate love - commitment and intimacy
Fatuous love - commitment and passion
Consummate love - includes all three types

Please take these and help us out! Thanks.

Hey everyone. For my PSY 101 class, we're doing a presentation on Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love. No, not this Triangular Theory of Love. It basically states that there are three types of love:

Intimacy - feelings of closeness and connectedness
Passion - physical attraction and romance
Commitment - commitment to sustain a long-term relationship

Different types of relationships contain varying combinations of these. Sternberg defines these different types as:

Liking - just intimacy
Infatuated love - just passion
Empty love - just commitment
Romantic love - intimacy and passion
Companionate love - commitment and intimacy
Fatuous love - commitment and passion
Consummate love - includes all three types

Our group has composed a couple of surveys based on this and we'd like to get as many responses as possible. If you'd like to help out, you can fill these out and leave me a comment or email me at resplendentposy@hotmail.com. All results will be kept anonymous and I will keep comment screening on for this post.

( Survey 1 )

Survey 2

Also, if you'd like, you could fill out this survey about a current or past relationship, or use it to help inform you of what sort of things fall under the categories of Intimacy, Passion, and Commitment. If you fill it out, you can use a scale of 1-10 with 1 being Not at all and 10 being Absolutely.

Thanks a lot.

I've been having higher anxiety levels lately = more prone to freak outs. I thought it was just the one time, but it happened again tonight. I wonder if it's just feeling stressed about getting homework done or if things with Chris have to do with it. Am I having to do too many things in a short amount of time? I don't know, I don't recall being this stressed last semester even though I was taking more classes. Maybe the condensed summer schedule is making deadlines come up faster. I'm worried about getting everything done on time. And when I'm struggling to understand things like in Algebra, it makes things worse. At least with doing research or writing papers I know what I'm doing. If I just had to take the tests and didn't have to worry about understanding how to do it, it would be a lot easier. And I guess I'm somewhat stressing about the deadlines for costuming and not being able to get in touch with people in order to get done what I need to.

I don't know, it seems like stuff I should be able to manage though. Really, I have enough time, don't I? But I need my time to not be worrying about it. I constantly have to look one step ahead and keep on top of that because the next deadline will fast approach. I don't have time to just relax and return to a comfortable state before the next thing comes up. And it's incredibly difficult to get stuff done when you are stressed about getting stuff done. I'm just feeling more anxious than I have in awhile. I go to see Kathy on Tuesday, so I'll bring it up to her then. Hopefully she will have some advice that will help. I just don't like feeling this way. :(

I just want everything to go away for awhile... :(

A lot of the imms on Feudal Realms were on it. So I decided to join too. I think Terloch was the one who gave me a code actually. (Wonder what ever happened to him... Probably busy with kidlets.) It gave me a place to spill my thoughts and to keep up with others.

So, over the summer I am taking Public Speaking, General Psychology I, and College Algebra online, while also designing costumes for the summer show as part of an internship. I was also signed up for Interpersonal Communication, but the class got canceled. I debated signing up for the other class that was offered, but they were using a different book from the one I'd already bought, and I'd have to be up earlier. So, I think I'm just going to read the book and see if that helps any.

I've already had trouble with the College Algebra class, mostly because I waited until the last minute to take the first quiz. I was hoping to study and then take the practice test before taking the actual quiz. But, as I started the practice quiz, I realized that it was going to take longer than I thought. I had to figure out how to enter answers using the system and everything, and I was still trying to figure out the material. Once I understand it, it isn't too bad, but my brain is not math-oriented (or physics-oriented, as I've found). So, time was running out and I decided to forget the practice test and work on the actual test. But, frustration mounted, as I was trying to figure out too much in very little time, and I had myself a freakout. Didn't actually finish the quiz, but I submitted what I had, so I ended up with a crappy score on that.

Also, my teacher had suggested that I might prefer taking Math for Liberal Arts, because I'm a Theatre major and College Algebra is geared more towards those who have to take higher math. I just need the credits, and I thought maybe I'd be happier with a class geared more for practical application. So, I tried switching classes, but the teacher for that class said it was too late to join her class. So... I guess I'll stick with this one. It's only 8 weeks long at least, and we're only graded on the tests and quizzes, so don't have to worry about excessive homework. I actually gave myself time for study and practice for our first major test, and I did much better on that one. Just have to make sure I keep on top of stuff, I guess. And now I actually know how to enter answers and everything. Hopefully doing better on all the other tests will bring my grade up then.

The other classes are not bad. Have to come up with ideas for speeches. I think for the informative one, I might do something on folklore. Need sources from scholarly journals though, so I'll have to pick something that I can find in those. Also have a persuasive speech, and I'm not sure what I want to do for that. And... special occasion speech. Hm. Like a wedding, or graduation, or something like that. Maybe I can come up with something creative.

Hm. I was going to post about how I've changed socially, in regards to growing more comfortable, engaging in conversations, etc. to go along with Interpersonal Communication. But, I'm tired. *snicker* Maybe I can put my thoughts together later.

Well, I finished rewriting the one part of Stareleon. I may still do some more edits, but I don't think I'll have any more major changes. Anyone want to read it and give me some feedback? It's about 6000 words. It's a children's fantasy short story full of cute heroicness. Mostly wondering if any parts stick out as being off somehow. Also curious what you think of the vocabulary and appropriate age range, if I should change some words to suit younger readers. I think I may have to do some scouting around, looking at children's books and seeing how mine fits in. I don't know that it's long enough to be a chapter book, but it has some higher vocabulary and complexity. I guess I can get a feel for what is out there and what publishers might be good to send to and make some changes if needbe.

I'm going to see Nightwish! Whee!

I keep occasionally coming across profiles online of people I knew in high school. I hear about children of old family friends who are my age. They've started careers. Some have even gotten married and had children. It seems strange. I'm not there yet. People tell me that I'm still young, I have time to do these things. But I feel old and left behind. I feel like I should be at a certain point, but that... I'm not there.

My sister will have completed her Bachelor's degree by the time I finish my Associate's. Some people at work even think she's older than me. Granted, my older brother never finished a degree, but at least he's found a successful job. I plan on getting my Bachelor's and then... what? Throwing myself into the industry and hoping I find something? Somehow keep afloat by selling the books that I can't get myself to sit down and write? Neither one of those things are really stable careers.

I can't help but feel like I wasted four years of my life doing nothing but staying locked up in the house, sleeping all day, and playing Feudal Realms. Although, I did use that time overcoming depression and "finding myself," and I don't think that I would have been ready then to do some of the things that I'm doing now. Maybe I needed that developmental stage. But I still feel like, had I been motivated enough, I could have gotten to this point a lot quicker. And I feel like I'm behind other people. Although I suppose I've had time to figure some things out that other people wait their whole lives to do. But... am I really that much more wise, when there is so much "real world" knowledge that I'm ignorant of? Does anyone even appreciate what I see? Will I ever be able to show anyone?

I don't know where I should start. I'm going for a degree because I think that will help me with training and knowledge and better prepare me for what lies ahead. But what lies ahead? I feel like I don't have time with schoolwork to work on my stories or to get involved in theatre and film. Will I do those things once I'm finished with school? I feel like, by then, even more time will have passed, and I'll be trying to catch up. I look at other people who are achieving successes in these fields and I wonder how they did it. I feel like I'm doing these things to prepare myself, while other people have already done it. Do I need to just jump in, to do it? I don't know how... Or I think I'm not prepared, and I'm afraid of failing. I don't have the confidence in myself. I need someone to direct me and tell me what steps to take. I know where I want to be, but how do I get there?

Mwah. One of my better pictures of Yana, my kick-arse Ashen bladedancer from my story-to-be-graphic-novel Lifeblood. (And thanks to Crisco for helping me figure out how to draw a katana in perspective.) I've drawn her a billion times, but I think I come closer with each depiction. She kind of reminds me of Fran from FFXII, although I created her before I'd seen the video game. I think Lulu from FFX served for inspiration for her actually. Oh, that reminds me...

Lol. A hilarious review of FFXII.

"Please note that I have not actually played Final Fantasy XII. This makes me more qualified to review it. I can be more objective because I haven't spent countless hours getting my ass kicked by a giant turtle."

"Fran is cranky all the time because none of the other Bunny Rabbit Drag Queens like her any more. Or maybe it's because her butt is cold from hanging out of that outfit."

Except Crisco might be pissed because they diss on Kratos. Just don't read that part! Really, the part on the characters is the funniest, so feel free to skip the rest. :)

La! Done for the semester. Hooray! I kicked Astronomy's arse (I think I could've failed the final and still gotten an A) and I think I did pretty well in my other classes too. Now have two weeks before summer classes start. I'd really like to get Stareleon finished in that time. It's silly to leave it sitting for another semester when there's really not that much left to write. And I would like to finally be able to send it off to publishers. Anyone know any children's book publishers interested in fantasy?

Still have some scholarship applications to fill out, and hm... what else did I want to get done? Maybe update my lj profile, do some reading, catch up on different sites, update my deviantart gallery... Lots of little projects too, but I'd like to get the big one out of the way. Silly me, I keep finding ways to leave it for something else. It would be nice to get it done and have something to show for it.

http://holisticonline.com/Yoga/hol_yoga_breathing_traditional.htm

Yeah, I need to relearn how to breathe. I think I've been a shallow breather all my life. Probably part of why I'm so quiet too. I just talk from my chest. I never give my diaphragm any exercise, so it's no wonder I have difficulties when I do have to use it when performing and such. I'm always out of breath. I've been having pain in my chest too, which I'm thinking may be caused by taking a short, gasping breath when I feel like I'm not getting enough air. I think the anxiety is a contributing factor, but it's probably also just bad breathing habits.

Interestingly enough, as I'm posting this right now I can breathe just fine. There's no tightness in my chest or anything. Not sure that I'm doing anything different. I've been just sitting here before and still have had problems. It's weird how it comes and goes.

Aw, the Avs are out of the playoffs. We did have a lot of injuries to cope with, including Ryan Smyth, Wojtek Wolski, Paul Stastny, and Peter Forsberg for half the games. Plus Marek Svatos and Brett Clark have missed all the playoffs with injuries. It's looking like it's going to be Detroit vs. Dallas and Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia, barring a comeback. Hm, I dunno who to root for. I don't care much for any of those teams. *snicker* We'll just say not the Red Wings. *sage*

This is the second time in a month that it's gone from nearly 80 degrees one day (I think we may have actually hit 80 yesterday) to snowing the next! Although, I guess it is May now. Good thing I didn't leave my car window cracked. *snicker* I quite literally was wearing my Nightwish tanktop yesterday and long sleeves and my heavy coat today. And here I had just been pondering a way to keep my car cooler when summer comes around. Methinks our weather just likes messing with us.

Coming up on the end of the semester. Have to make sure I finish up all my projects. There's a lot to do now that I look at it. Have to do an introduction and some revisions and put together my final English project, write a couple critiques, do the rest of my makeup designs and take pictures of those at home since we've been doing face casting in class the past couple of weeks, organize my notebook of makeup designs and reference pics, another costume design, a couple more Astronomy assignments, and a project for Development of Theatre. Then I should have just two final tests to take in class. And... I think that's all. I've got just a week and a half left. I shall slowly slice away at it though.