It seems that fate has a wonderful sense of humor. Apparently, things were going too well for fate’s taste, so it felt the need to sprinkle a little shit on my epic ice cream sundae.

My hard drive failed. At first, I thought it was just my computer being overloaded with activity, and getting a bit frozen (ah, gotta love PCs!). But no, turns out the hard drive finally decided to retire. So, I’m just gonna try to salvage the few files I’d created in the short time since the re-format, and then just buy a new hard drive. I’d rather buy a new hard drive rather than a new tower, since I’d rather have Windows XP and not Windows 7. However, hopefully with this new job, I’ll be able to buy myself a Mac instead. We’ll see.

I’m definitely not as stressed out as I was during my last computer troubles. This is more of an annoyance than anything else (currently typing this on my iPhone’s WordPress app, btw).

Anyway, here’s to hoping I get a comp again some time soon. Ciao!

Life, Rants computer, hard drive, movies

I can’t think of a title, so… that’s the best I got.

So we’re in the new year, whoop-dee-doo. Same shit, different year, I say. It’s becoming harder and harder to get a job, especially where I live. It doesn’t help that my car is still out of commission until I fix it. Thankfully, my uncle came by the other day and checked out my car. He found what the problem was… an over $100 problem. I’m hoping that our friend who works at an auto parts place can get the part for cheaper. Once we get that, the car should be good as new.

I’ve been really active on deviantart.com lately, and I recently received Senior status. Senior status is given to those artists on the site who have given a lot back to other artists, have created exceptional work, or have just been a driving force and powerful influence in the community. I was shocked and honored to have gotten it. However, every positive is balanced with a negative, it seems. I entered a contest run by the site’s staff for the new videogame that’s coming out soon, Darksiders: Your Last Days. I was quite disappointed with the entries that were chosen. In fact, I was completely dumbstruck. Some of the entries had almost nothing to do with the actual theme, or were poorly done, or could have been replaced with MUCH stronger entries. Even my hubby, who is brutally honest… even to the point that he says things sometimes that hurt my feelings, agreed with me. Whatever, is all I can say.

I just finished another commission recently, and I’ll be uploading it to my website soon. It came out pretty damn cool, considering I used all my own stock and painted a lot of it.

I’m still hungry, so I’m gonna go get a late night snack. Ciao.

Art, Life, Rants Art, commission, contest, darksiders, new year

I’m so fucking pissed right now. I ordered a ring from what I believed to be a reputable eBay store back in mid-September. After a huge ordeal with the first package not coming in and a second item being shipped out, it turns out that what I ordered is NOT what I got. The listing claims the ring is Sterling Silver and “high quality”. However, being that I did six semesters of Jewelry and Metalwork in FIU, I know the difference between Sterling Silver and fucking pewter. Not only is the ring lacking the signature .925 stamp that all Sterling Silver rings are required to have, but it looks like it was run over by a car! Silver does NOT dent or ding very easily, but pewter does, which is why it’s so cheap. This is a cheap ring.

I’ve already contacted the seller and told him that the ring I received is nothing like the one in the listing. Thankfully, the seller has been very good with responding to my emails, and even told me he’d give me a full refund if I hadn’t received it by Monday. I’m going to ask for a refund anyway, and will send this back to him right away.

ARGH, DAMMIT. Audi didn’t understand why I was so happy when the package came, but I have been wanting to get a ring on every finger for YEARS. It’s always been one of those small, seemingly unimportant but very personal goals for myself. Why? Simply put, I love the way it looks. But now, I have to hunt for a new ankh ring for my thumb. This fucking sucks, man.

Ugh… I need a drink.

Life, Rants ankh ring, ebay, ripped off

Today (well, technically it would be yesterday since I’m writing this at three in the morning) was just one of those that went from bad to just plain shit. I was seriously debating whether or not to actually go out and do something, just so that I wouldn’t be at home all day. I finally decided I’d go out to the mall. *shrug* So I head out, get there, walk around, buy nothing and decide I don’t want to go home just yet. I drive across the street, go to some more stores. As I’m exiting the Best Buy, I say to myself, “I’m just gonna go home. I’m tired of being out.”

I get to my car, turn the engine… and nothing. It grinds for about two seconds, and then NOTHING. No lights, no sounds, no indication that this car is alive in any way. I immediately know what the problem is. One of the clamps on my car battery is slightly cracked, so I figured the problem was that there was no power going to the engine. I ended up having to call a towing company to take my car back to my apartment. >_< Thankfully, since my insurance covers towing for up to 50 bucks, it ended up being free. AND the tow truck guy was actually really nice, efficient, and knowledgeable. He knew exactly where my address was and after taking only 10 minutes to get to me, I was home within 20 minutes of calling my insurance company.However, now I have the joy of having to fix my car. There’s no point in trying to find a job if I have no car to get me there! More money that needs to be wasted on that piece of shit. UGH.

Well, after I got home, my neighbor asked what happened (it’s not that easy to hide the sight of a huge tow truck, apparently). I explain to her what happened, and we got to talking. I told her that I was basically home alone for the weekend. She invited to hang out with her and her boyfriend if I wanted some company. So, after I made myself a sandwich (in my kitchen, of course), and checked my email/messages, I headed over. I played some Call of Duty 4, we watched TV, I had two beers, etc etc… It was nice to have someone to chill with. I’ve been pretty lonely for the last few days. =/ I’m such a wimp. LOL.

Anyway, Audi is coming back home tomorrow and I am VERY happy about that. ^_^ Hooray! I get to see my hubby again! *dances*

And now, I am off to bed. I hope. Ciao!

Audi, Friends, Life, Rants Audi, car, mall, neighbors, tow

NOTE: I am not a feminist. For the most part, I don’t like women because they’re catty and much more evil than men most of the time. Most of my friends are male for that reason. So, when reading this entry, keep this in mind. I don’t subscribe to Miss magazine or burn my bras. I just have certain opinions that sometimes makes me sound like a feminist. Got it?

This entire entry will be about a subject that has bothered me for a while. I was mainly inspired to write this entry because of Lady Gaga. A singer that, until recently, I wanted nothing to do with. Not because I disliked her music or anything, but simply because I assumed she was going to be just like all the other irritating new acts that have been popping lately. How stupid was I. I listened to every song she’s put out, and I love every damn one.

Here’s my beef: it’s not with her, it’s with the public. The same shit happened with Madonna, and now it’s happening again with Lady Gaga. I’ve read a shitload of comments all over the net that are wrong and incredibly closed-minded, and I’d like to express my opinion on some of them:

1) She’s a slut. She has a new guy in every video. She’s always singing about sex.

The typical bullshit every woman with a healthy sexual appetite has to deal with. A male singer/rapper can have a different bitch in skanky clothes (or an army of bitches in skanky clothes) in every single one of his videos while he’s singing/rapping about going skeetskeetskeet on her face, and he’s considered a player. A player, of course, is a good thing to most men, and to some fucked-in-the-head women, too. But if a woman has a different guy in every video and sings somewhat covertly about sex, she’s branded a slut. I CALL BULLSHIT. It’s stupid, typical, and unfortunately, going to continue happening. Women can’t talk about sex because then they’re walking VD factories.

The people who say this stupid shit are the same ones who have only heard her songs on the radio or on TV. I’ve listened to all her songs, and no, not all of them talk about sex. It just so happens that the ones she’s put out so far are the ones that talk about sex! And why not? That doesn’t make her a slut, it makes her a smart business woman. She knows what’s going to sell. Kudos for her.

2) She talks about having money and being rich all the time. She’s a gold digger.

So do 90% of the popular rappers that are out right now. Big deal. Once again, the double standard rears it’s ugly head right out of the ass it escaped from. A man can talk about his 40-inch rims, his mansion, his bling, his gold grill, and his diamond-studded dick, but a woman can’t talk about wanting the finer things in life. Hey guys, even women dream about having enough money to live the good life. It doesn’t make them gold diggers. And if you’re stupid enough to get involved with a gold digger, tough shit. The same goes for the ladies, btw.

3) Young kids will be influence by her music.

Hey, jackasses, THIS MUSIC IS NOT FOR KIDS. If there’s a song or two from her album that is acceptable for young ears, then fine. But if there are songs (and there are) where the content is obviously not meant for virgin ears, DON’T PLAY IT FOR THEM. Simple. Yes, I know you can’t babysit your kids 100% of the time. However, parents who actually bother to raise their kids and teach them about life won’t have to worry about their kids being easily influenced by some random chick with record sales. I say this as someone who was born with music. I was listening to bands like Danzig and Nine Inch Nails when I was 13. I didn’t think about suicide or turn into a devil-worshipper, because I had a secure sense of reality. Kids today have no sense of reality. They pay more attention to the words of wisdom on a bumper sticker or a t-shirt than the things their parents say. Why? Because their parents are yuppy, whiny, anal pushovers who think that talking about sex with their kids is going to corrupt them. Hey, think of it this way. If you don’t teach them, SOMEONE ELSE WILL.

4) She’s a hermaphrodite/man/had a sex change/whatever…

Dumb rumors. She’s female. Get over it. Stop believing everything you hear, you fucking sheep.

To sum all this up:

Women who talk/sing about sex, money and naughty things in entertainment do not necessarily have to be sluts, gold diggers, or bad role models. Maybe some are, but that doesn’t mean they automatically are. Maybe, JUST MAYBE, they’re just like some men who enjoy sex, money, and naughty things enough to sing or talk about it in public! Fancy that!

Fin.

Rants Entertainment, lady gaga. music, money, sex

Behold, another random moment of sheer, unadulterated idiocy.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-barrett/like-big-tobacco-big-porn_b_221622.html

I stumbled upon this article while Googling the advertisements I mentioned in my previous blog entry. Apparently, Greg Barnett believes that tobacco and porn Are both equally poisonous… WHAT? How anyone can compare one to the other is completely beyond me.

Since I don’t feel like creating an account at the HUFFington Post just to comment on the article, I’ll just respond to it here:

The ones who should be responsible for children are the parents. Period. The government is there to govern, not to babysit. This is nothing new people. Sin and debauchery have existed for AEONS. The only difference between now and then is that we can play, record, rewind, and download sex. Children today, in my opinion, are no more fucked up now than they were before the internet. Besides, with so many yuppy, spineless parents that are too scared to actually discuss these issues with their kids, where the hell do they THINK they’re going to turn? And then, these are he same parents who turn it around and blame other sources for their kids being led astray. Hey assholes, the fault is yours.

And as a side note, I turned out just fine, thank you…

Rants porn, tobacco

This is just a quick little entry to discuss two moments of stupidity I had the misfortune of witnessing…

I don’t know how many of you have seen these advertisements, but I’ve only seen two so far. One of them has a can of tobacco with a tarantula coming out of it, and the other has a bag of tobacco with a snake coming out. Both of these images have the word POISON written prominantly on the right.

Here’s the problem: Spiders and snakes are NOT poisonous!!! They are VENOMOUS! Two very different things, my friends. Poison needs to be ingested, but considering that spiders and snakes need to inject their prey, the venom needs to go through the bloodstream! In fact, most snakes are not venomous at all! Hence, neither of these creatures is a valid representation for the dangers of chewing tobacco!

A poison dart frog would have been better, but I guess they figured they would go with the “scare” factor rather than be correct.

Fucking morons.

Life, Rants morons, rant, tobacco

I got my copy of “The Den of Shadows Quartet” by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes in the mail today, along with three book covers, from Vicki Sheatsley, one of the lovely ladies who contacted me about using my art piece “Verwandlung” for the cover. If you click on the thumbnail, the original image will open in a new window.

On the back cover of the book, it reads “Cover art © 2009 by Miranda Adria”. Yippee! I’m so excited. Hopefully, this will lead to more contacts and more companies wanting to use my art for book covers, posters, cd labels, etc… Right now, I am in the process of saving up my money to both move out (most likely with Audi) and start my business fully. Even though I am already operating as a business entity, I need to really establish my company and put my name out there. Hopefully, this will help me tremendously in my goal.

On to the second word of my title, People. I’d like to talk about people for a minute. A certain kind of people that piss me off to no end: People who do things without that asking permission or informing me. For example, one of my images was used by a friend for a flyer. I wouldn’t have minded at all, if I had been asked, though. I wasn’t. I saw that I was tagged in this flyer on Facebook and I thought… “Hmm, that’s interesting. I didn’t give permission for that.” Now, my image had been used for a different flyer a few months back, but they asked me. I was fine with it, of course. However, just because I gave permission for one flyer doesn’t mean I gave permission for ALL flyers. It’s not that big of a deal, I just wish I had been asked. That’s all.

Also, I finished a new art piece FINALLY. I’d been so busy with work and spending time with Audi that I just finished it last night. You can see it here, if you like:  Queen of Hueco Mundo

As for Audi and I, things are going very well. We’ve already started making life plans and hopefully, if all goes well, we can pull them off. Wish us luck!

Anyway, I don’t have much else to share, so ciao.

Audi, Job, Life, Rants Art, Audi, cover, den of shadows