Kris' Ramblings

It's long past time that I did some new art for the front page of my SWAT Kat site. So, here's the line work of my current project. It's a simple thing, but it's always good to get more tablet practice.

...Yes, I know I've been practicing for years. While I've definitely improved, drawing lines with the tablet still isn't as easy for me as on paper. From certain angles, the stylus' onscreen point is just slightly off with its physical point, and that throws me for a loop. Am I the only one?

It LIIIIIVES!!!! Yes, at long last, the SWAT Kats Fanfiction Archive has been updated! It's not a particularly big update, but there are five new stories, one new chapter of an ongoing work, and one new author!

I also made a small housekeeping update to my own SK site. Mostly just taking down the Christmas decorations. Yes, I know how late it is.

So, here as it's almost a new year, I'll make my last post for 2009. The holidays have been good here. Christmas was great. Over far too fast, but great. I got to see all of the family, including my cousin, his wife and my little... second cousin? When you start getting into the children of cousins, I start getting confused. Anyways, good times.

And, I finished my Christmas image before Christmas! It's posted over at Kristen's SWAT Kat Gallery. Though expect to see a corrected version soon as I inevitably end up tweaking anything I rush to complete. (It's already been noted to me that Chance is missing his whiskers. And, that's fixed now.) There should also be a proper update coming along soonish as well.

And, of course I got gifts, including:

- A Sony Walkman mp3 player, which is awesome since the old mp3 player Seeker loaned me died a few months ago and the ancient CD player I've been using was a battery hog.
- The complete Heat Guy J series (fun show).
- "Spirited Away" and "Independence Day" on DVD. (I never had the former and only had a VHS of the latter.)
- The second season of the old TMNT series. (Still my favorite version of the Turtles.)
- The complete set of The Mysterious Cities of Gold. Finally! At last, I get to see that last episode that I always managed to miss when the show ran on Nickelodeon. Of course, it's been so many years, I'll have to re-watch the entire series first.
- And, an Amazon giftcard I will be putting to good use ;)

2009 has been an okay year, but here's hoping I get a few more things done in the coming year. Especially art-wise. I've really been letting my art slide.

Ramblings: Christmas was great this year despite our family gathering being a bit smaller. But, my cousin and his wife were understandably tied up. As of today, I have a new little first cousin once removed!

And, I got some nice gifts:

- Some awesome new jeans loaded with pockets courtesy seekersks, who was apparently tired of me coveting his cargo pants.
- The soundtrack to Steamboy as well as new CD's by Enya and Loreena McKennitt, who I haven't heard anything from in a while.
- The set of all four Indiana Jones movies.
- The fifth and sixth season boxsets of Inuyasha. (Now, I just need that elusive third season box, and I'll have them all to date. Mwahahahaaa!)
- The first Naruto movie, Pixar's awesome Ratatouille and the TMNT movie.
- The Inuyasha Manga Profiles book.
- Several other books, most notably Piper at the Gate by Mary Stanton. It's the sequel to "The Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West", which I read in middle school in a span of about twenty-four hours and still remember clearly. Superb book. I hope the sequel will be as good.

Website Updates: Also, Kristen's SWAT Kat Gallery has been updated! No new Christmas image this year as I was tied up with some other projects, but I did get one finished pic up! It's a terribly out of season one, but ah well. Additionally, I updated the Non-SK Fanfiction page with the drabbles I've been posting here, updated the links and made some minor tweaks to the Curious About Me? page.

Website Updates: And, Kristen's SWAT Kat Gallery is updated at last! I'm keeping my Christmas image up for the moment since I posted it so very late. (I'm also still tweaking its full-size version.) Otherwise, there's one new pic and three sketches from me this time. The What's a SWAT Kat? page has also seen several updates as felonykat gave me permission to use her scans/photos of the "Toon Magazine" article on the SWAT Kats and the SWAT Kats White Castle toys. And, as always, the links have been checked/updated.

Now, I just have to figure out what's up with my scanner as all of my latest scans have looked rather bad. I'm not sure what it could be. It's picking up too much detail (paper texture/wrinkles, etc.). There's always been a little of that, but not to this degree. I thought maybe it was just my new monitor allowing me to see more detail, but I can look back at older images and they still look nice enough. So, hopefully, it's just the software settings. My hard drive is looking at a reformat anyways, so maybe I can start fresh with the scanner software.

Website Updates: Two all at once! The SWAT Kats Fanfiction Archive is updated with three new chapters by Kimberly C., Tigerkat and Ulyferal.

And, I finally updated my personal site, Kristen's SWAT Kat Gallery. It includes three new pics from me and one guest pic. Also, CBS did a lovely illustration from my "T-Bone Too" series! It's already been posted to the SWAT Kat Fan Art Archive, but you can also find it here. I've also posted/collected some of my non-SWAT Kat-related drabbles on the Non-SK Fanfiction page. There is one new icon and some new, cleaner versions of some of the old ones on the icons page. I finally cleaned out my Non-SK Art page, removing a lot of old things that I no longer like. They are not available on the Archives page. However, if you really, really want any of them, just let me know. And finally, as always, the links have been updated.

Website Updates: Yes, after another ridiculously long hiatus Kristen's SWAT Kat Gallery is updated. I've been working on incorporating the php coding modad provided (you are awesome, Matt!) and redoing several of my icons with better base screenshots. (Wouldn't you know it, I get a nice, new flatscreen monitor, and the downside is that I can now see how nasty some things looked.) Additionally, I posted my latest drabble, one new icon and some new sketches I just scanned tonight.

So, yay for an update! Even if it's a small one...

Website Updates: And, after dragging my heels for the better part of a year, Kristen's SWAT Kat Gallery is finally updated! Of course, anyone who has followed this journal has probably seen most everything I added, but... still! I did do a new title graphic, which I like, but I'm rather unhappy with the layout/colors. I'll try not to leave it there for six months.

Anyways, I posted my latest art (mainly MSKAC submissions), some new icons and updated the links. Actually, as usual, I've been updating the links all along.

The biggest change is that I've begun doing some cleaning out on my art. I slimmed down my main fanart gallery and converted it over to a thumbnail version. Most of the art that I removed was shuffled over into the archive section, so it's still available. And, if you find anything missing that you would like a copy of, just ask me about it! As I've probably said before, I hate it when stuff on the internet just disappears, so I'll try not to do that to anyone.

Website Updates: Well, I've got most of the Gallery switched over to the style sheets. Still have a couple new things to post up, but I've put updating on hold briefly while I check out modad's awesome suggestions and see about implementing them.

Fangirling: Finally, saw the FMA movie, Full Metal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shambala last Friday night. *happy squeak* It was awesome. The series ended alright, but, well... there were certain "unsatisfactory" (and spoilerish) elements. When I heard about the movie and saw early images from it, I started hoping. Then, I saw the trailer and started to fear that the movie would be an exercise in frustration that would only circle around and set things back to where they were at the series' end with no definitive finale. However, the movie didn't disappoint me. It does put an ending on the FMA anime, wrapping up almost every loose end I could think of. Almost. They could probably manage at least one more movie based on a couple of unresolved details. Other than that.. < fangirl squealing > Ed was awesome! Al was awesome! Mustang was awesome! It made me happyhappy! < /fangirl squealing >

Obligatory Meme: Just an interesting little fanfiction meme I picked up in another LJ.

( Click Here for Meme )

Website Updates: Kristen's SWAT Kat Gallery is updated! And, yes, it actually has a few things everyone hasn't seen here. Mainly just some new odds and ends I've been able to collect (with a lot of help) of the SWAT Kat-related merchandise. Finally found something on those elusive kid's meal toys!

Also, got my church's webpage updated. So yay!

Granted, now I want to redo the layout of both sites. Aiy well...

In other good news, the Ebay listing with my fanart has been cancelled early! Now, if they just don't try it again... Well, let's hope not.

Okay, going to bed now.