Smothered

This past week was full of highs and lows for me on one level or another. A lot of little stuff that doesn't make a damned bit of difference in the Big Wide World got to me. There's a Thing or two lurking in the background that might be a Big Deal down the road(and not in a good way), but I'll have to wait to see what happens. Yargh.

And then there's the game last Saturday. The apparently-now-annual-and-inaugural Fight Crew vs. Tough Cookies matchup. At least we weren't the Very First Game of the season, which happened the previous two seasons. But every damn year Fight Crew's first game is against the Tough Cookies. I'm kinda bored with it, but whatever. It's one of those Little Things that doesn't make a damned bit of difference in the Big Wide World.

Anyway, my team went into the game strong. I mean, REALLY strong. They were kicking ass and taking names. I was very comfortable with my packmates...we seemed to be working well together. We were doing our jobs, and most importantly, WE HAD FUN.

















Then Something happened. I'm not quite sure what. Tough Cookies started rallying, but it wasn't anything Fight Crew couldn't handle. No, that Something was internal. A loss of faith. A growth of fear. We smothered our success over a fear that we could definitely contain. Which has happened before, but I thought we were over that after last season. However, seeing some of the expressions on my teammates' faces just before the end of the half showed that I was wrong.


The peptalk at halftime didn't do much, as our 3rd quarter was not impressive. 3 of us were on the verge of getting kicked out for too many penalties. We were still giving fear breathing room. I think we were behind by around 30 points at the end of the 3rd quarter.

But in the 4th quarter, we rallied. We rallied like hell. The fear was suffocated and killed. We went forth and did what I always knew this team could do when they smothered the fear and insecurity and overthinking. By the end, Fight Crew came back...not enough to win, but enough to make the crowd go completely nuts and actually like our team for once.

Also, Tough Soles and I got ejected for too many penalties. BOO. LA photographer Stalkerazzi got our spiral fly-down:
















Argh. But we weren't the only ones in the game to face that fate...it happened to a couple of key Cookie skaters as well.

So this game was fun and all, but I now know what I gotta work on for myself and the team this season. Some old stuff, some new stuff, but mostly on our way of thinking. Or overthinking. We'll see how that goes!

OMFG

I think I'm done with the Battle on the Bank III artwork. I don't have to worry about lettering, fonts, etc. and whathaveyou. YAY.


















Now on to the next million things to do on my list o' crap...

Working in Progress

The past week has found me completely and utterly overwhelmed with life.


That whole winning Ri-Ettes Team Captain thing? STRESSFUL AS ALL HELL.

Thinking of classes to teach at the upcoming March RADness camp that LADD is hosting? MAKES MY BRAIN SQUIRM.

Doing a constant barrage of derby-related artwork? MY EYES WANT TO ASPLODE IN THEIR SOCKETS.

Worrying about where the next day job is coming from so that I can continue to pay for health insurance? HOLY FUCK MY SOUL HAS DIED, LEAVING ME AS AN EMPTY SHELL OF A HUMAN BEING.


Every little thing is pissing me off as well as the big things in life. From the way the DH continues to chew his goddam chewing gum 24/7 to the endlessly stupid facebook updates from people who can't seem to leave MySpace behind(no, really, I don't give a flying fuck about who your "celebrity doppleganger" is. Or that you're looking forward to watching "Lost". Your bra color? DON'T CARE. You love your sister/brother/mom? Charming. Your status updates don't need to reflect that unless they just died). I'm hating on the outdoor cats, the indoor cat, the way I drive, how much I'm eating, and what's on tv.

The things I'm reading on some of the online groups I'm on makes me want to take a gallon of gasoline and a match to myself in frustration. My main response is, "WHO CARES?!" to most of the middling issues brought up.

Usually exercise is my main way of blowing off steam, but it's not working. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!



So, in an attempt to unload some frustration, you can look at what I've been up to lately art-wise.

See this? Ignore the background color, as it'll change. This logo is for the upcoming Battle on the Bank III in San Diego. I have more stuff to do to the background, but the girls themselves are pretty much done.





















Here is a rough sketch I'm doing for the next GirlsDrawinGirls book about desserts. My dessert is angel food cake.

















For all our sakes, I hope my life and mood improves. I need it.

Glitter

Last Saturday I was a bench coach for the Sirens for the first time.

How is that different from a team manager? Bench Coach keeps track of penalties and can call for points or penalty challenges. Team Manager arranges the skater lineups for each jam. I personally think I do better as a team manager than a bench coach, but what the hell? I'll try most things once.




















I tried to go for "comfortably pretty". Did the hair and makeup all girly-like, but wore comfortable shoes to run around the infield screaming, HOLD THE INSIDE! LOOK BEHIND YOU! SLOW THE FUCK DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!














The hair was a total fluke. I set it earlier in the afternoon, but it didn't take fully, except for my bangs. CRAP. What to do? I quickly added about 50 lbs. of hairspray and made victory rolls. A tornado could've hit my hair and it wouldn't have budged. I got a lot of compliments on it, which surprised me.

For makeup, I had a lot of glitter added around my eyes. The funny part about that was having people get distracted when I tried to talk to them about VERY SERIOUS derby stuff. Apparently it's the little things that can throw people off.





















Oh, and guess who's the captain of the all-star Ri-Ettes this year? Yeah, ME!

OH CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Before/After

I guess this could be considered a semi-process thread, even though I'm not going to show a lot of the process, but will try to explain it. GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!

Since I don't know a whole lot about Photoshop, I decided that the next Derby Dolls flier I did would have me trying stuff in it and using an action shot from one of our games.

Luckily I periodically gather fun action shots from our games, so all I had to do was rifle through a file folder o' photos and found a great shot of Tough Cookies' Iron Maiven trying to put the smackdown on Fight Crew's Vulvarine. And flailing.

I imported the photo into Photoshop and immediately put Vulvarine and Maiven onto separate layers. Then I desaturated the entire image and upped the brightness and contrast. Next was going to the skater layers and changing the color so that each skater was the color of her respective team. I then switched to the track layer and blurred it out a bit and made it pink.

Next I imported the tweaked photo into Illustrator to do the background and type. For some reason I HATE doing type in Photoshop. I hate doing a bunch of stuff in Photoshop. It's not as if I'm that great with Illustrator; I just feel more comfortable there.

I found a fun font that one wouldn't ordinarily think to use with the Dolls(it's called "Bicycle") and laid everything out information-wise. The result was this:




















Not too horrible.


I then sent it along to the rest of the Dolls' amazing Art Dept. and got critiqued. The main critiques were about color and futzing with the photo background more. I let them do that, and here is the finished result:





















I think it turned out pretty good. The rest of the league seems underwhelmed. Pfffffft.

I think it's a perception that anything done internally isn't going to get the notice and respect that stuff from an outside source gets. As if it's the same ol' same ol' if it comes from one of us, but it's special when it comes from someone who ordinarily doesn't do stuff for the league. I'm not just talking about Art, but of the whole works. Ignoring the usual and ordinary, I guess? I dunno.

Sometimes it's disheartening. But sometimes I get over it. I'm such a sensitive artist-type!

At any rate, I'm looking forward to skating the game on the 13th.

Playing with Boys

The LA Derby Dolls had the opportunity to beat up boys for charity.

How does a dream like this happen? Well...

Every year the LAFD has fundraisers for their widow and orphaned children fund. One of their fundraisers is having broomball games against outside teams. Last year they went up against some of the LAPD. And won, I do believe. This year they asked to go up against the Derby Dolls.

















The way the request was posted to the league gave a general response of,

Broomball? What the hell is that? Wearing shoes and a helmet? On ice? In downtown LA? Sounds stupid. Oh wait, did you say something about firemen? I'M IN!

Needless to say, we had an enthusiastic team going in to this sport that we didn't know diddley about.

Broomball is essentially ice hockey in shoes, with brooms and a small rubber ball all wrapped up in duct tape. You're not supposed to touch the ball with your hands unless you're the goalie. No throwing of the ball. No checking, hitting, or unsportspersonlike behavior against the other team. So NOT LIKE derby. OK, got it.




















At first, everyone was very cautious and nice to each other. We were getting beat, but it was kinda fun to run around on the ice and try to scoop up the ball with the brooms while avoiding smashing into firemen.

Then the cheating started.

First off, WE DIDN'T START IT.

The firemen were obviously better at broomball than we were. Duh. But they decided to get all silly on us. First, they'd manage to wrangle our brooms out of our hands during the game. Annoying. Then, they'd "accidentally" bump into us. Repeatedly. Eventually they started to actually pick up any Derby Doll that was in their way, and swing her to the side while they hit the ball with their brooms. WHAT?! The final insult was when we'd almost hit the ball into their goal, and they'd move the damn net so that we failed every time.

OK, fine.

We can deal with that.


















So we started to grab the ball whenever we could and throw it across the rink to their goal. Some girls tried the "hit and hug" technique of trying to hit the ball with the broom, and then abruptly hugging the nearest fireman. We snuck in an extra ball and repeatedly kept hitting it into their goal(we should've ended up with a tie score for that manoever alone, but the officials wouldn't count them). We started flailing and falling onto the firemen. I got really good and body-checking them when they weren't looking. At one point, I jumped on the back of one of them, and he just carried me around piggyback-style. And he still hit a ball into our goal. DAMMIT.

















We won at cheating by actually carrying out our goal off the ice so that the firemen couldn't rack up any more points against us.

Suddenly, the game was called and the firemen won.






















Whatever. We're more fun to play against than the cops were.

And of course, we won the Morning Beer Afterparty at the Biltmore Hotel across the street. Security got called on us and everything.

Ah, derby!

Here's the DH's video of the event. Enjoy:

Best. Conversation. EVAR.

Tonight we drove to Bore-bank to celebrate Tough Cookies' captain Iron Maiven's birthday. What's in Bore-bank? Karaoke at a dive bar...a very Old School Derby Dolls way of celebrating a birthday.

Hilarity ensued with karaoke hi-jinks. Maiven was able to keep going up to the karaoke stage to announce that it's her birthday, and so was able to get plenty o' birthday drinks for free. GO, MAIVEN!! Suzy Snakeyes and I sang backup for many a karaoke singer. Whether they wanted us to sing with them or not. There was girl-on-girl macking, girl-on-girl Stranger Danger, and just a lot of funness.

The best part of the evening was when it was time to leave and I made one last stop in the bathroom. Two women walked in while I was in one of the stalls, and the following conversation JUST HAPPENED, Y'ALL:

Woman #1: You know that older guy I was talking to? I've had sex with him before but I can't remember his name! You gotta go up and find out his name!

Woman #2: Why do I always have to find out the guy's name?!?!?!?!

Woman #1: Because you have to! But...y'know...shit happens.

Woman #2: Yeah...

Woman #1: If I got paid for everytime this type of thing happens, I'd be able to pay off tonight's bar tab. And get condoms to cover myself, y'know.

Woman #2: ...

Woman #1: So, are you gonna do it? Find out that guy's name? All you gotta do is go up to him and say, "Hi, my name is Dippy McDipshit* and I don't think we've been introduced..."

Woman #2: Yeah...

By that time I was out and trying to contain my laughter as I practically ran back to where the Derby Dolls were hanging out.

*I wish that girl was named Dippy McDipshit. But it wasn't. Sigh.

Bicycle! BICYCLE!

I am an idiot when it comes to maintaining my modes of transportation, and my bicycle is no exception.

My everyday/running errands/doing-whatnot bike is a Schwinn Voyageur. It's a "comfort bike", which basically means it's an entry-level bike for those who don't want to spend thousands of dollars on some mega-lightweight carbon dealie that one can lift with their pinky finger. "Serious" bicyclists don't ride comfort bikes, but I like my bike because it's...well...comfortable.

I've ridden that damn thing in downtown LA, Little Tokyo, Historic Filipinotown, Torrance, El Segundo, Malibu, Santa Monica, Palms, Venice, Culver City, Century City, Beverly Hills...I've been all over the place on it except where I have to cross mountains...so no Valley riding for me.

That bike is getting beat to shit in the process, and I'm kinda proud of that. It ain't a pretty bike, but it's a bike that's getting ridden, for fuck's sake.

Last year I noticed that the rear wheel was kinda crooked. Not enough to stop me from riding it, though. So I neglected to get the wheel unbent, with the crazy idea that whatever rock or pothole or whatnot that bent the wheel to begin with might hit the wheel on the other side and kinda straighten it back out.

That was not to be.



















The wheel kept getting more and more crooked. Every time I rode the bike, the wheel would make a soft, subtle, yet unmistakable whump-whump-whump sound as I rode along. Crap.

The crooked wheel started to affect what I put in the handy-dandy folding baskets I have on the rear of the bike. Going shopping was becoming a balancing act, as the grocery bags were putting added stress on the back wheel, throwing the weight distribution off.

Then there was my endurance. For the past couple of months I've been bitching about my lack of endurance. That wasn't entirely true. The rear wheel was becoming more and more warped, which made pedalling harder, which wore me out faster. I couldn't go up hills like I used to. I couldn't go down hills like I used to, as the rear wheel would throw my weight off and I was afraid I'd get thrown off the damn bike.























The Dear Husband didn't mind my semi-warped bike, as it slowed me down enough to make him look like a speedy badass in comparison whenever we were both on bicycles.

But finally I had enough and wobbled over to the bike shop where I bought my poor abused bike two years ago to see what needed to be done to fix the damned thing.

I roll into the service area and spin the rear wheel for the service dude. He frowns, inspects the wheel, and tests the spokes in the particularly bent part of the wheel. An already-loose spoke pops out, taking a piece of the wheel rim with it. Which means that now I need a whole new wheel. Dammit.

The service dude searches around the shop for a replacement wheel. They don't have one in stock. WTF?! They don't have a damn SCHWINN wheel in stock?! It's not as if I have an exotic, hard-to-find bike, here. IT'S A FUCKING SCHWINN. Everyone and their damn dog should have that in stock, shouldn't they?!!?!?!?!?

No, they have to special order a new wheel. DAMMIT.

I'm told to go up to the front counter to order said wheel. I do. The guy behind the counter is surly. And stupid. I have to repeat what I want/need about 5 times before the information registers in his big block head and he goes to look it up in their catalog.

He still can't figure out what I need(I sure as shit don't know; just replace the stock fucking wheel, morans!)and has to ask 3 different people what to order. When he finally finds the wheel, it apparently only comes in flat black. My current wheels are flat silver. He asks me if that's OK. I just glare back at him. He searches further(with the same 3 people helping him) to no avail, so when the wheel comes in, my bike will be mismatched. It took about 30 minutes just to write the special order, and they told me it would take 5-10 business days to get the new wheel in. DAMMIT!!!!


















So I cautiously rode my poor, still-broken bike home to wait until the new wheel comes in. Which I hope is sooner than later.

Since then, I haven't been biking much, as I don't want to ride the broken bike. The other bike, a super-fun Raleigh beach cruiser, doesn't have the extra-thick innertubes and tube lining that the Schwinn has to help prevent flat tires. It also used to have a problem with the gear cable popping out of its casing, which caused slack and the chain would pop off the front derailleur. ANNOYING. That problem has apparently been fixed, though I still fear that it'll happen again occasionally.

Today I had to run errands, so I took the Raleigh.






















Goddam, it was fun. And fast compared to my regular bike.

I'm not quite as unhealthy as I thought I was!

Hiatus is OVER

New Year's Eve was very quiet. Didn't go out. Didn't whoop it up much. Just stayed at home, finished reading Official Book Club Selection by Kathy Griffin, and finally saw the Scientology episode of Southpark.

Didn't do a lot the rest of the weekend, either. Beach skating, some wRECk League skating(and nuturing badass blocker Krissy Krash), and just skating in general.












Hiatus from derby is now over.

VERY over.

Now that I'm Art Dept. co-head, I get to be in charge of annoying our artists to do more art crap for the league. A job I was born to do...too bad I don't get paid!

The LA Derby Dolls are having a training camp the first weekend of March. We have to organize the shit out of it and promote heavily. Last night at our Executive Committee meeting I made a pitch for doing a quick Youtube clip of our badass warehouse and track. It went something like:

"WHAT THE FUCK?! You don't like LA?! THE FUCK YOU DON'T! Look at what we have here! A fucking AWESOME warehouse! A goddam BANKED TRACK! A fucking flat track area! HOW COULD YOU NOT WANT TO COME HERE?! We're LA! FUCK YOU! Come visit us!"

If that's not gonna sell tickets to this thing, I don't know what will.














I don't do New Year's resolutions, but the closest I came to one was saying to myself that I have to draw more. I did that by going to a late night life drawing gathering on Monday in a restaurant in Little Tokyo. 5 20-minute poses and a glass of wine later, and I found out that compared to some of the other people there I didn't suck too bad, and I was sleepy as hell.

So I want to do that type of thing more.























In the meantime, I gotta start the ol' job hunt again. No job + bored me = too much goofing off online. Especially now that I have Gmail chat. Anytime you want to discuss the joys of Jersey Shore, be sure to look up taraarmov51.

Now, I must step away from the computer and do something!

Last of the Year...

A few more hours and it'll be 2010.

I can't wait for 2009 to be gone...it hasn't been a personally horrible year, but I'm always wanting to look upwards and onwards. Which would include having next year be ten thousand times better than this year. Including having a union gig so that I don't have to shell out $800 a month for COBRA all year. We'll see.





















I'm getting over yet another cold-thingy. The flu shot didn't seem to work this year. Feh. So next year I'm keeping my $20 and buying another dvd instead.

The good thing about being sick so much is the urge to get back the endurance I lost from the day job. That seems to be going well, as I was able to scrimmage last night while doped up on cough medication and barely broke a sweat. I didn't play exceptionally well, but my endurance was great!





















My new favorite show is Man v. Food. Why the hell didn't I tune in earlier? This show was made for slobs like me. I now want to become a competitive eater when I grow up, cos I can nom the hell outta food.




















As a belated birthday present to myself, I got the raddest book ever. I accidentally stumbled across it at a local bookstore while shopping for the Dear Husband. And I promptly had a pleasant heart attack as I thumbed through the pages. MUST HAVE. I was on the bicycle, and the book is HUGE, so I went home and looked up the book on the bookstore's website. Not available.

Dammit.

Went to the publisher's website. Not in stock.

DAMMIT.

Then I remembered that I had a gift card from said bookstore stuck to the fridge, so I ambled back over on the bicycle and bought the book.

EPIC WIN, BY GAWD.

Welp, off to read some books and generally be boring on this NYE. Stay safe, kids!

My Mom Loves Me

I got a late birthday present today from my mom.

A snuggie.

Not just any ol' store bought Snuggie in leopard print. Not a doggie Snuggie, either.

I am now the proud owner of a pirate-themed snuggie that MY MOM MADE HERSELF.

FOR ME.




I WIN AT LIFE THIS WEEK.


Photos will follow soon.

Fucking Epic

This time last year the Dear Husband was working on a James Cameron film.

It was SOOPER-SECRET. It was sooooooooo secret, the DH wouldn't tell me anything about the film except that it had 9-foot-tall blue aliens in it and it was called Avatar. Eh, whatever! was my reaction at the time.

Most weeks were 7 day, 12 hour long funfests of computer magicry. Scenes were shot, reshot, reshot, reshot, and reshot again. When reshoots happened, the crew basically shrugged their tired shoulders and said, What are you gonna do? We're working for James-fucking-Cameron. He's known to be "difficult" to work with, and it's best to do what he says and just shut up about it.

And keep on working.

And working.

And working.

Some people worked on this film for years. The DH was on it for six months longer than anticipated. Luckily(?)I was freelancing on Back at the Barnyard, so even though I missed seeing him, I figured it's all part of the job when working for James-fucking-Cameron. When the DH was finally laid off, he insisted on hibernating for the rest of the year because he was so mentally exhausted.

But he said this film was going to be EPIC.

I got my first clue about how EPIC it was going to be when there was an Extra-Special 15 Minute Sneak Preview screening in late August across the US. When I went into the IMAX theater, I was still extremely not interested in the film. I'm not a big fan of sci-fi or action-adventure. Blue aliens? Dances With Wolves-esque story? Really? Blah.

I came out of the theater saying, WHOA.

YEAH, the DH replied.













A few months later...


Last night was the cast and crew screening of the finished film at Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Again, storywise it's not breaking new ground, but...

WHOA.

It's fucking EPIC, y'all.

No, really. It's REALLY FUCKING EPIC.

Go see it in IMAX. SRSLY. You'll wet yourselves.

Right after the screening was the afterparty at the Roosevelt Hotel(I have to remind myself to go back there to check out the redone lobby one of these days). We get there early, and right near the entrance is...James-fucking-Cameron, being gracious and talking it up with everyone who walked in.

OK.

Hollywood Bigshot of the highest order. Not too crowded party. Big loud-mouthed redhead who just saw a Fucking Epic movie that the Hollywood Bigshot made. What could possibly go wrong with this combination?

Side note: James-fucking-Cameron is so intimidating that at last year's holiday party, everyone's sphincter tightened up to instantly create diamonds in their intestines the moment Jim and his wife showed up. I've never seen anything like it. This dude gets crazy-mad respect from his crews.

I walk up to him. Wait while he talks to other people who shake his hand vigorously. He turns to me. I shake his hand and say, Congratulations on making an EPIC FUCKING FILM!

Now, go back to the crazy-made respect part for a quick second. Most people would NOT say that to a Hollywood Bigshot of the highest order. They would be very polite, very deferential, and very kissass. I, however, don't have a damned thing to lose, and why not be honest if it's complimentary?

It worked.

He smiles happily, turns to his wife and says, Did you hear that? FUCKING EPIC! Other folks gathered around the Man of the Evening laugh. The DH is probably about to faint behind me. Jokes are made about putting my "quote" in the ad campaigns. Jokes are then made about how the film is just...ok. I might tell my friends about it, I say to James-fucking-Cameron, then tell him congratulations again and wisely scooted away as more people started to flock around him.

Afterwards I instantly had the shakes and couldn't believe that I wasn't escorted off the premises.

The DH had a great time retelling the story to everyone he knew on the crew. He stayed later than I did and whooped it up right. Hopefully the work done on this film will lead to him being busy next year and I get the chance to be a foul-mouthed asshole to other Hollywood Bigshots!

EPIC WIN.

Moar Random Pix

I'm too busy to make relevant posts, so here's some more bullcrap stuff.


Top blockers from my last game this season:














Compare to the top blocker stats from the first game this season:













Goddam, I came a loooooong way.



Here's Cagey Bea and I asserting our Commie Bastardness thanks to Charlie Chu:

















Stalkerazzi caught me on my way up to the Nerd Nest with birthday beer:





















My last day at work will be the 22nd. I might be able to do some holiday shopping on the 23rd! Yay!

21 + 20

Yesterday was my birthday.

You know what? Turning 41 seems to be a Not A Big Deal type of birthday, which makes me happy.

Had fun eating and drinking all day, and even squeezed in a beach skate before the weather turned foul. WIN.

The husband got me my very own GPS unit to carry around and even occasionally use. WIN!

A lot of people wished me a happy birthday. Partly because the Derby Dolls 2009 championship game was the night before my birthday. I got a LOT of birthday drinks, cake, and even got swept off my feet by a Santa impostor at the afterparty. WIN!!

Also at the afterparty, I drew an inordinate amount of boob-tattoos. Not a bad thing, but usually I draw on arms more than anything. Good thing there was a guy there whose arms were covered in tattoos but wanted me to draw on him, so he pulled up his shirt and I got to draw away from hipbone to solar plexus. WIIIIIIINNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!





















I have two weeks left at the ol' jobby-job. There was hope that the gig would get extended to January, but apparently that's not gonna happen. BUMMER.

Things have gotten comfy to the point where us three in-house storyboard people have no problem screaming, WHORE!!!!!!!!! when the computer program crashes while we work. An occasional ASSHOLE! can be heard as well when things are really crazy.



Last Friday was the Animation Union party. New location, but we still were packed together like sardines trying to network and stuff. I was pleased to discover that people wanted to talk to me again this year...being social at these events is a new feeling for me!




















One side effect from the job is not getting enough exercise. My exercise time has been cut in half. A couple of weeks ago I rode my bicycle from home to the track(approx. 28 miles roundtrip), and thought I was going to die. Part of it was the bent rear wheel on the bicycle, but part of it was also my losing endurance. I also had a derby practice where I thought my lungs were going to explode, and that NEVER happens.

So I've been getting up two hours earlier than I do when I'm working from home to get in some running, bicycling or beach skating before work. It's helped my mood tremendously, though I now have some nasty blisters on my feet for taking up the beach skating again.




















Derby has been making me think a lot lately.

I'm still in a quandry over how to fit together fun/athleticism/monetarily viable when it comes to DIY derby. Why does pure athleticism have to lose the fun edge that brought this crazy group of people together in the first place? Will DIY derby splinter off into groups? The Oly Rollers/pure athletic group made up of lifelong atheletes who want to make derby an Olympic sport. The competitive-but-probably-didn't-come-from-a-sports-background group that makes up most of derby right now. The totally goofy spectacle-over-sport group that features fighting over form?

It could happen. All I know is that I like where I ended up skating-wise...competitive but still willing to wear some silly outfits because it's FUN.





















I feel like I'm waiting for something to happen in life.

Which is stupid, because I should be making something happen for myself. I think this is what keeps me from being a success...too fearful to just say FUCK IT and come up with a plan and plow through with it. What's going to galvanize my puny little frog brain into action?

I don't know.

But overall I'm happy and busy for the moment, and that's OK.

For now.

My soul is dying...

...because I'm so busy.

Had a great time in Philadelphia. Saw some amazing flat track roller derby. Did a lot of boutcasting. Heard a lot of bitching about some strategies utilized in the game(PS: shut it. Do yourself a favor and counterstrategize instead of complaining. Thank you.). Ate and drank a lot. It was delicious. Saw the Liberty Bell and walked by Independence Hall. I'd go back to check the city out a little more thoroughly if I could.


Work is killing my endurance. Staring into a computer screen at close range seems to literally suck the life force out of me. Thank goodness the crew is pretty danged awesome, or else I'd totally lose the will to live.

I did an uncharacteristically stupendous storyboard section for this latest project, and unfortunately it looks like it'll never see the light of day. Which is ticking off just about everyone on the crew. I shake my fist in futile anger at the jokers in charge of this project...they do not have their father's vision.

Are you in LA this weekend? Then come by the GirlsDrawinGirls booth at the CTN Animation Expo in Borebank! I'll be there Saturday midday. Buy a calendar and some buttons and I'll let you live!

How to Spend a 15th Year Anniversary...

Friday, Nov. 13 will mark the 15th wedding anniversary of the Dear Husband and I.

What will we do for this momentous occasion?

We'll be in Philadelphia for the WFTDA 2009 National tournament.

Pretty fucking rad, if I do say so, myself.





















As I type, the DH is already whooping it up in Philly. I had to work today. Taking two days off was a guilty pleasure enough as it was...to go with the originally-planned three days would've been semi-career suicide. Well, beyond my usual charming disposition when it comes to work politics, at any rate.

I had to drive him to the airport this morning.

At 6am.

Those of you who know me know that seeing either of us awake at that time is akin to the Second Coming...it just doesn't happen that often. It was ugly. REAL ugly. I've gotten about 4 hours of sleep within the past 24 hours...the only thing that's keeping me awake is the early morning cup o' Yum Yum Donuts coffee. FUCK STARBUCKS. If you want to be awake, Yum Yum is the way to go for 1/3 the price of Starfucks.

I've never been to Philly. Neither has the DH. Of course he has an entire Philly Cheesesteak Extravaganza planned. We also have Amish folk to visit. Should be fun! Hopefully I'll get enough sleep on the plane to be enthused for the one, provolone, witout that I want waiting for me when I land in the City of Brotherly Love.

Oh, Kitty!

Last Friday I was finally staying on schedule to get to work at a reasonable hour.

As I stepped out the back door to get the murdersickle out for the morning commute, I almost stepped in this:
















A beheaded bird.


A closer look...if you're in to that sort of thing:

















Kitty at first was proudly lounging nearby...until I tried to take a photo of him. Then he excitedly got up and trotted over while I investigated the crime scene. I shooed him away from the corpse(I was still taking photos of it, dammit), and that hurt Kitty's feelings. When I was done, I tried to pet Kitty, and he shied away. Awwww, poor Kitty! It took several attempts at flattery to get him to finally believe me(he doesn't know that I was doing that just so he keeps the killing spree to a minimum). Then I fed him some nice wet cat food, which he infinitely prefers over the dry kibble we've been leaving out for him lately.

The Dear Husband says that a dried-out bird corpse was brought to the back door a couple of weeks ago. He said that Old Blue(the only cat that Kitty is afraid of) was the one that brought this previous victim to light when he was batting it around the back patio. The DH didn't take photos, but just disposed of the dead thing quickly.

My theory on this is that Kitty killed the bird but left it somewhere on the patio (much like the baby squirrels that were brought to us in September) where it wasn't found right away. Then Old Blue brought the corpse to our attention at a later date when the handiwork wasn't complimented enough(or they got really impatient with the continuation of the Dry Kibble Cat Diet).

It worked...the outdoor cats are now getting more wet food. Little conniving bastards.

Photo, Shopped.

This weekend was mainly wasted on much of nothing, which is great.

The one thing of note that the husband and I did was be a photography subject for our good friend Papaboop. He's always been a good photographer, but now he's taking classes to become a great photographer. See example below:





















Can you believe that shit?! I look pretty damn good for once...that's how good he is!


After posting the above photo to Facebook, my friend Gary came up with a clever response:













I always loved the Road Warrior movie, and now I get a cameo!

The logjam of radness has been released unto the world.

First we have Fight Crew's skateout from last Saturday. While the video was playing, we just huddled in the infield, then did a quick lap around the track.





Then we had fun winning.














Which included saying goodbye to retiring Siren skater Paris Killton.














But finally having a victory photo was SO WORTH IT.
















Stalkerazzi put together an animated montage of all the photos he took Saturday night. Fascinating to watch!




Just to throw you off a bit, I've included a DRAWING. That I did! HOW ABOUT THAT?!

This is a Get Well card I did for my favorite TXRD person in the whole wide world, Cherry Chainsaw. She's been with the league from the very beginning in 2001. She just had her last game a couple of weeks ago.

Her team, the Cherry Bombs(yes, a TEAM was named after her! How awesome is that?!)made it to TXRD's season championships for the first time. This was Cherry's LAST GAME EVAR. Her team was doing great and so was she, until she managed to snap her leg giving a whip to her own jammer. FUCK! She asked afterwards, "I've been skating derby for nine years without a major injury. WHAT ARE THE ODDS THAT I GET INJURED IN MY LAST GAME?!?!?!"

I concluded it was because she tempted the Retirement Gods too much, for she had claimed she was going to retire two seasons ago.

Heal fast, Cherry!

Early Results

Still waiting for an updated webcast archive, as I want to see Saturday's game.

Still waiting for official photos from Saturday's game.


But we have these...

The Sirens' Dash Assault and I say O HAI on the track:
















Stalkerazzi caught this mellow moment right before the game:
















Hurricane Ken and I show off our charming personalities at the afterparty:
























Yeah, it was that type of night.

IT'S ABOUT TIME!

FINALLY.

After two seasons of being the Charlie Brown team, Fight Crew finally won a regular season game last night against the Sirens! The score was 101-88.

WOW!!!!!!!!

Some highlights from last night include:

• I didn't get kicked out of the game. Which makes this season extra-special since I didn't get kicked out of any game the entire year!

• Being told that I am no longer "notorious" as a result.

• Having the Dear Husband's parents in attendance. They hadn't been to a game in about a year. I think they enjoyed themselves...they at least got preferential parking and VIP seats!

• Having Papa Armov give me a kiss on the forehead before the game. The derby folk who caught that were apparently freaked out because they didn't think I'd let anyone do that. I say it's an old Jewish custom that helps teams win roller derby games, so shush!

• Having our good friends the Boops show up and take photos. They haven't been to a game in at least two years, if not longer. They were impressed with the ever-upwards production value of the game. Woohoo!

• Hurricane Ken dragging "Area 51" , Tara's fan club to the game. It's always nice to have friends screaming, "WHAAAAT!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" during the entire game.

• I think I did a good job in the game. I don't think I was as consistent as the previous game, but apparently I did well enough to keep me going in every other jam the entire game.

• Wrecking announcer Evil E's new invention: the Tara Armov Drinking Game. Whenever I get sent to the penalty box, everyone takes a drink. Didn't work well the first half, as I wasn't sent to the penalty box at all. However, I made up for it the second half, where I would've gotten kicked out of the game if there had been one more jam!

• Whenever the refs called a time out, I'd yell either, "NAP DRILL!" where everyone on the track would fall down and pretend to go to sleep, or I'd yell, "BOOTY SHAKING DRILL!" where everyone on the track would shake their butts in time with the background music.
  

• Having our jammer Haught Wheels take a whip off of my belt so hard that I was sent flying backwards onto my butt. The audience LOVED that!

• Throwing a heinous penalty that was NOT CAUGHT by the on-duty refs, but made the off-duty refs stare open-mouthed in amazement. PS: sorry about shoving you like that, PITA!

• Seeing my team really keep their shit together during the game. It was a close game throughout, but for the most part, everyone kept their wits about them and did what they needed to do. It was beautiful!

• We had by the far the weirdest skateout ever in LA Derby Doll history. I'm proud of that.

• Meeting an animator at the afterparty who also works at the studio I'm currently working at. He squinted at me and says, "You look kind of familiar." I say, "I'm the one who rides a motorcycle." He brightens up and says, "OH! I've seen you walking down Ventura Blvd! I said to myself, 'Why the hell is she wearing a leather jacket? IT'S THE VALLEY!" Ah yes, I'm that Insane Leather Jacket-Wearing Freak. Nice to meet you!

There's more, but I'm hung over and lazy today. The pain is juuuuuuuuuuuust starting to set in. Tomorrow will be long and painful!

I can't wait to see the webcast!

AUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Work Computer Program and Email:

You're not making my life easier.

In fact, you're pissing me right the fuck off.

"Learning curve"? More like a learning RAVINE, assholes.

I can't fucking wait to master the new stuff and make all of you my bitches.

Things I Learned in Tuscon This Weekend

In random order:

• Dealing with an ant invasion in the kitchen because the cat didn't like his cat food from the night before when one is trying to leave the house was very, very frustrating.

• How to spell "Tucson".

• Remembering to bring an mp3 player for the longest. Drive. EVAR.

• Pants are optional, but nice.

• Freak heatwaves in October suck.

• Forgetting to pack a bathing suit is riDONKulous.

• Playing the Tucson league is FUUUUUUUUN.

• Losing is no bueno.

• LA Derby Dolls know how to throw an afterparty.

• The only worthwhile thing to do in Quartzite, AZ is to buy earrings with bugs in them.

• Gas up in Arizona, not California.

• The Days Inn in Tucson is apparently "ewwwww", according to Killo and Amber.

• The Holiday Inn Express is sa-WANK.

• The Comfort Inn isn't too shabby, either.

• Tucson skaters? SRSLY, they're awesome.

• I have never loved the marine layer on the LA Westside so much as I did today when we came home.

• Do not ever play covers of Robin Trower music in front of me from your mp3 collection. Play the real thing or deal with me screaming, "BLUESHAMMER!"at the top of my lungs repeatedly.

• If I can't get into the afterparty, make sure you have a sooper-VIP-afterparty-Afterparty so that I feel better. It works.

• Even when we lose, we win.

• Heckling is only as good as the volume at which it's done at. If we can't hear you, it doesn't count.

• Downtown Tucson is confusing to navigate.

• Every time I think that I hate LA, I find out what I like about it when I leave and then come back.

• However, California NEEDS Waffle Houses. SRSLY. That stuff is tasty. I don't know if I can live with myself for not trying them out when I was in Texas years ago. FOR SHAME.

• Is amused that the Cabazon dinosaur exhibits are owned by creationists. Some of the literature at the Gift Shop is...uh...interesting.

• Finding that the ants didn't reinvade the kitchen was very, very nice.

• I loveloveLOVE skating with the Derby Dolls. Truly a bunch of klassy broads.

Busy

Still a busy week for me.

The car had a faulty O2 censor in it, and so it had to be taken in for fixing. Unlike my last car, this was covered under the extended warranty I smartly bought, and so the total damage to my pocketbook was just over $100. WIN!

In the meantime, the rain kept me from being as mobile as I want to be. Ah well, it'll go back to being dry and miserable soon enough.

Skating in Tuscon this weekend. Will be driving out there. UGH. I kinda wish I wasn't going, as I've been needing to study character designs for the upcoming gig that I start next Monday. UGH.

And something to actually look at...

I started to actually use my flickr account as an online portfolio, especially since my old website hasn't been updated in...forever. I no longer have the website program to access said old website, so that's that. But yesterday I FINALLY added a set about my favorite hobby, drawing on people. I have a LOT of photos of my drawings on people, but this set is a pretty decent documentation of the general jist of it all.

Now back to doing stuff. Today it's a visit to the tattoo-removal place and practice. Just over a week away from the last game of the season for my team. It'd better be worth it.