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So, the last time I wrote a journal entry may have been 2010, is that right?
Yeah, cancer, that's a thing. I had it. I'm done with it. It wrecked shit for a time. Not your ordinary average run-of-the-mill cancer experience, if there is such a thing. Short version is doctors told me that I'd be able to keep working and such, but they were wrong, and treatment took me completely out of the world of the living. I was gone such a long time that when I got back I wasn't quite the same person at all anymore, so there didn't seem much purpose in doing the things I used to do. So I've been away.
I'm changed and yet not. I'll get around to figuring out how to put that into words eventually. In the meantime, I'm back, and I have access to a DSLR camera now. And I'm writing again, snippets of stuff, maybe different than what I used to, but there it is all the same.
Posting something now, just to see if anyone is out there, and I'll try to be around more often, if I can.
Yeah, cancer, that's a thing. I had it. I'm done with it. It wrecked shit for a time. Not your ordinary average run-of-the-mill cancer experience, if there is such a thing. Short version is doctors told me that I'd be able to keep working and such, but they were wrong, and treatment took me completely out of the world of the living. I was gone such a long time that when I got back I wasn't quite the same person at all anymore, so there didn't seem much purpose in doing the things I used to do. So I've been away.
I'm changed and yet not. I'll get around to figuring out how to put that into words eventually. In the meantime, I'm back, and I have access to a DSLR camera now. And I'm writing again, snippets of stuff, maybe different than what I used to, but there it is all the same.
Posting something now, just to see if anyone is out there, and I'll try to be around more often, if I can.
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October Update
2 min read
Well, I've been awfully busy, so it's been difficult to update the ol' DA account. I can't believe from April until now I haven't done much of anything on here. I apologize for that. Maybe things will get better soon.
For those of you following the Erik Plush Project, we have only 75 Eriks left.
and I have been talking some about the possibility of doing ANOTHER Erik plush. This one would be dressed in Erik's Red Death costume from the night of the masquerade ball. We're pretty sure the mask would still be removable. Erik would look about the same underneath. We might change the expression on his face. And he might have a special mask for being Red Death. is working on the sketches, but there is no rush for her to finish and post them because we won't start making those until the last 75 original Eriks are sold.
During the month of September, my husband and I bought some land in the middle of nowhere and we hope to be moving out there sometime in the next six months or so. Have to build something to live in first, though. Details on that as it happens. I imagine there will be plenty of agricultural pictures going up soon--well drilling, water treatment plant installation, fence work, road grading, cattle purchasing, horse trailering... We've already sort of got the horses because we knew someone who had some horses that needed a new home, so that's exciting, too. But of course, it's slow going. What do I expect? It took ten years just to FIND the land. It's not like everything else is going to fall together over night.
Still working as a school counselor which gives me very little time for photography and writing. Double damn. I expect this will be the last year. Details as they unfold.
In the meantime, please enjoy what few photos I am able to post at this time.
For those of you following the Erik Plush Project, we have only 75 Eriks left.
and I have been talking some about the possibility of doing ANOTHER Erik plush. This one would be dressed in Erik's Red Death costume from the night of the masquerade ball. We're pretty sure the mask would still be removable. Erik would look about the same underneath. We might change the expression on his face. And he might have a special mask for being Red Death. is working on the sketches, but there is no rush for her to finish and post them because we won't start making those until the last 75 original Eriks are sold. During the month of September, my husband and I bought some land in the middle of nowhere and we hope to be moving out there sometime in the next six months or so. Have to build something to live in first, though. Details on that as it happens. I imagine there will be plenty of agricultural pictures going up soon--well drilling, water treatment plant installation, fence work, road grading, cattle purchasing, horse trailering... We've already sort of got the horses because we knew someone who had some horses that needed a new home, so that's exciting, too. But of course, it's slow going. What do I expect? It took ten years just to FIND the land. It's not like everything else is going to fall together over night.
Still working as a school counselor which gives me very little time for photography and writing. Double damn. I expect this will be the last year. Details as they unfold.
In the meantime, please enjoy what few photos I am able to post at this time.
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Soooo busy!
1 min read
Wow! I haven't posted anything to this journal since April! And I haven't uploaded anything in even longer!! Craziness! So here goes... uploading some stuff. Not as artistically unusual as I'd have hoped, but at least pretty, I guess. I hope someone enjoys it.
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Wow. How incredibly offensive.
First, DeviantART exercised absolutely no discretion or consideration in deciding that an appropriate April Fools Day joke would be changing our signature lines in addition to our avatars. I got a line out of Twilight about lions and lambs that was clearly a Biblical allusion. That could surely be excused because anyone can act without thinking, not only the insular and ignorant. I set out to express my dismay with the whole situation. I expected either no response at all or a succinct statement that didn't say much but conveyed some semblance of at least a pretend apology. What I got threw me for such a loop that I figured I'd share it with you here.
I said:
BldngHrtCnsrvtv, Apr 02 06:10 am (PDT):
I just wanted to say that I was very unhappy with the April Fools Day prank that involved putting a line about a lion falling in love with a lamb on my signature line. While I recognize that it is technically a line directly out of Twilight (because someone pointed this out to me; I have not read Twilight) the imagery of lions and lambs is very Biblical in my opinion, and although both are mentioned in the Hebrew scriptures separately, imagery of them "lying down together" comes from the Christian scriptures. As a Jewish person, I felt very uncomfortable posting when everything I said had what felt to me to be a very Christian tag-line. I understand that April Fools Day is supposed to be fun and funny, and I wasn't really bothered that the pictures and taglines changed (although I heard that some people were). I would hope that the next time DeviantART decides to participate in April Fools Day care could be used to avoid offending religious sensibilities. I know MOST people are just upset if they don't like Twilight, but I talked with a few other people from minority religions, and they were not pleased either. Additionally, while some Christians find Twilight acceptable because the writer is Christian and does not write graphically, others still have a problem with the vampire theme. This is easily material that could be considered offensive by a large number of people, and religion is something not to fool with. Next year, can it be something actually funny?
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.16) Gecko/2010010414 Firefox/3.0.16 Flock/2.5.6 FBSMTWB
They responded:
Ikue, Apr 09 04:28 pm (PDT):
Clearly, there is no need for apologies. If you felt offended at such a minor change as part of an international day of pranks, then that's not our intention.
We do take your feedback on board, however, and next year we will look at offering a "I don't want any fun" option for those who prefer to exclude themselves from such community team building events.
----
Chris Carey
Customer Service Representative
Community Operations
deviantART, Inc.
www.deviantART.com
www.ikue.deviantART.com
WHAT? I'm sorry... did I read that wrong? Does that actually say "Clearly there is no need for apologies"???! In other words "Your religion matters so little to me that I can't even see why this would upset you." Let's consider the next line though: "If you felt offended at such a minor change as part of an international day of pranks..." Although that line ENDS with "then that's not our intention" but from the tone of the first part of the line (with "such a MINOR change" and "if YOU FELT offended" rather than if you were offended or if we offended you) this really means "Obviously, you are no fun and get offended at almost everything. Therefore, we don't really care what you think, but we're going to put that it wasn't our intention for you to be bothered anyway, just so that there can really be no complaint that this was our fault or anything. Because nothing we do is ever ill-though-out, badly planned, and CERTAINLY not offensive. Because... well... you know... our $h!t don't stink, never has, never will."
I am utterly shocked. Never have I EVER gotten so rude a response to a complaint--not from companies with lousy customer service ratings, not from used car dealerships and not from collection agencies. This little gem is by far the rudest thing I have read in an awfully long time. It's actually even ruder than "Fuck off and die, you stupid un-fun Jew" because at least THAT would have been HONEST where as this one not only conveys the same message but also insults my intelligence by suggesting that I would be stupid enough to actually consider this to be an appropriate response.
Oh, but lets DO look at the rest!
"Next year we will look at offering a "I don't want any fun" option for those who prefer to exclude themselves from such community team building events"
Well, first off, good. They'd better, because I absolutely intend to opt out. But they won't because they don't actually care what anyone thinks. This line was just a sugar-coated way to get one more insult in before he signed off.
SECOND, I never said I didn't want any fun. I said that they should have done something that would actually be funny and wouldn't be offensive.
THIRD, in what way can putting a bunch of Twilight crap all over everyone's posts be construed as a "community team-building event"? The only "community" aspect of it was that a bunch of us gathered together to bitch. I know I wasn't the only one upset because a few others expressed their concern as well. Okay, so that covers community... Team building? Okay, I don't know who this guy is, what his level of education is, or who thought that he had any concept of what "customer service" means (look at his job title, though!) but I have not only participated in but actually assisted in the development and presentation of ACTUAL team-building programs, and they have actual structured activities in which people completely tasks together that foster trust in one another and bonding with one another. Some people love them and some people hate them, but at least they have something to do with TEAMS in that you work together to accomplish something. In what way is F***ing with my signature line supposed to build teams? This wasn't anything "team" related. This was a matter of "We'll do this to you whether you like it or not, and even once you realize it's an April Fools Day prank, you can't turn it off, you have to live in the prank for the whole day while we sit back and laugh.
And Twilight fans, don't be thrilled or anything. If you consider that this was a PRANK and that the whole point of this "holiday" is to "embarrass the gullible" it means they clearly thought it would UPSET people. That's hardly a compliment to Twilight. It's sort of like suggesting "Twilight is so stupid that everyone will be all embarrassed and upset when they find these icons all over their posts and it'll be hysterical!"
But then, I suppose I'm putting too much stock in something stupid anyway, aren't I? I mean, if you consider that putting Twilight stuff on our profiles was the /best/ gag they could come up with, it shows them for being pretty lame, doesn't it? A point that is further driven home by our lovely customer service representive's poor use of English-language idioms. "We do take your feedback on board..." What exactly does that mean? "On board" in current usage typically means in agreement with, as it "Is everyone on board with the new procedure?" (except when it means on a boat or on a plane, etc., in which case it's hardly an idiom anymore. There's above board, which means about the same as on the up and up, but that's irrelevant here. I think he might have meant "we take your feedback at face value" but there's no way to tell if he didn't mean "we take your feedback with a grain of salt."
Maybe, given this individual's language usage, his highly impolite message above actually meant something nice in some alternate universe somewhere.
First, DeviantART exercised absolutely no discretion or consideration in deciding that an appropriate April Fools Day joke would be changing our signature lines in addition to our avatars. I got a line out of Twilight about lions and lambs that was clearly a Biblical allusion. That could surely be excused because anyone can act without thinking, not only the insular and ignorant. I set out to express my dismay with the whole situation. I expected either no response at all or a succinct statement that didn't say much but conveyed some semblance of at least a pretend apology. What I got threw me for such a loop that I figured I'd share it with you here.
I said:
BldngHrtCnsrvtv, Apr 02 06:10 am (PDT):
I just wanted to say that I was very unhappy with the April Fools Day prank that involved putting a line about a lion falling in love with a lamb on my signature line. While I recognize that it is technically a line directly out of Twilight (because someone pointed this out to me; I have not read Twilight) the imagery of lions and lambs is very Biblical in my opinion, and although both are mentioned in the Hebrew scriptures separately, imagery of them "lying down together" comes from the Christian scriptures. As a Jewish person, I felt very uncomfortable posting when everything I said had what felt to me to be a very Christian tag-line. I understand that April Fools Day is supposed to be fun and funny, and I wasn't really bothered that the pictures and taglines changed (although I heard that some people were). I would hope that the next time DeviantART decides to participate in April Fools Day care could be used to avoid offending religious sensibilities. I know MOST people are just upset if they don't like Twilight, but I talked with a few other people from minority religions, and they were not pleased either. Additionally, while some Christians find Twilight acceptable because the writer is Christian and does not write graphically, others still have a problem with the vampire theme. This is easily material that could be considered offensive by a large number of people, and religion is something not to fool with. Next year, can it be something actually funny?
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.16) Gecko/2010010414 Firefox/3.0.16 Flock/2.5.6 FBSMTWB
They responded:
Ikue, Apr 09 04:28 pm (PDT):
Clearly, there is no need for apologies. If you felt offended at such a minor change as part of an international day of pranks, then that's not our intention.
We do take your feedback on board, however, and next year we will look at offering a "I don't want any fun" option for those who prefer to exclude themselves from such community team building events.
----
Chris Carey
Customer Service Representative
Community Operations
deviantART, Inc.
www.deviantART.com
www.ikue.deviantART.com
WHAT? I'm sorry... did I read that wrong? Does that actually say "Clearly there is no need for apologies"???! In other words "Your religion matters so little to me that I can't even see why this would upset you." Let's consider the next line though: "If you felt offended at such a minor change as part of an international day of pranks..." Although that line ENDS with "then that's not our intention" but from the tone of the first part of the line (with "such a MINOR change" and "if YOU FELT offended" rather than if you were offended or if we offended you) this really means "Obviously, you are no fun and get offended at almost everything. Therefore, we don't really care what you think, but we're going to put that it wasn't our intention for you to be bothered anyway, just so that there can really be no complaint that this was our fault or anything. Because nothing we do is ever ill-though-out, badly planned, and CERTAINLY not offensive. Because... well... you know... our $h!t don't stink, never has, never will."
I am utterly shocked. Never have I EVER gotten so rude a response to a complaint--not from companies with lousy customer service ratings, not from used car dealerships and not from collection agencies. This little gem is by far the rudest thing I have read in an awfully long time. It's actually even ruder than "Fuck off and die, you stupid un-fun Jew" because at least THAT would have been HONEST where as this one not only conveys the same message but also insults my intelligence by suggesting that I would be stupid enough to actually consider this to be an appropriate response.
Oh, but lets DO look at the rest!
"Next year we will look at offering a "I don't want any fun" option for those who prefer to exclude themselves from such community team building events"
Well, first off, good. They'd better, because I absolutely intend to opt out. But they won't because they don't actually care what anyone thinks. This line was just a sugar-coated way to get one more insult in before he signed off.
SECOND, I never said I didn't want any fun. I said that they should have done something that would actually be funny and wouldn't be offensive.
THIRD, in what way can putting a bunch of Twilight crap all over everyone's posts be construed as a "community team-building event"? The only "community" aspect of it was that a bunch of us gathered together to bitch. I know I wasn't the only one upset because a few others expressed their concern as well. Okay, so that covers community... Team building? Okay, I don't know who this guy is, what his level of education is, or who thought that he had any concept of what "customer service" means (look at his job title, though!) but I have not only participated in but actually assisted in the development and presentation of ACTUAL team-building programs, and they have actual structured activities in which people completely tasks together that foster trust in one another and bonding with one another. Some people love them and some people hate them, but at least they have something to do with TEAMS in that you work together to accomplish something. In what way is F***ing with my signature line supposed to build teams? This wasn't anything "team" related. This was a matter of "We'll do this to you whether you like it or not, and even once you realize it's an April Fools Day prank, you can't turn it off, you have to live in the prank for the whole day while we sit back and laugh.
And Twilight fans, don't be thrilled or anything. If you consider that this was a PRANK and that the whole point of this "holiday" is to "embarrass the gullible" it means they clearly thought it would UPSET people. That's hardly a compliment to Twilight. It's sort of like suggesting "Twilight is so stupid that everyone will be all embarrassed and upset when they find these icons all over their posts and it'll be hysterical!"
But then, I suppose I'm putting too much stock in something stupid anyway, aren't I? I mean, if you consider that putting Twilight stuff on our profiles was the /best/ gag they could come up with, it shows them for being pretty lame, doesn't it? A point that is further driven home by our lovely customer service representive's poor use of English-language idioms. "We do take your feedback on board..." What exactly does that mean? "On board" in current usage typically means in agreement with, as it "Is everyone on board with the new procedure?" (except when it means on a boat or on a plane, etc., in which case it's hardly an idiom anymore. There's above board, which means about the same as on the up and up, but that's irrelevant here. I think he might have meant "we take your feedback at face value" but there's no way to tell if he didn't mean "we take your feedback with a grain of salt."
Maybe, given this individual's language usage, his highly impolite message above actually meant something nice in some alternate universe somewhere.
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SOMEONE CHANGED MY SIGNATURE LINE!!!
1 min read
Ummmm... What the HELL? Someone changed my signature line! Someone changed my signature line! What is this about the lion falling in love with the lamb??? I didn't type that. I've never even heard of that. What the heck happened? WHO CHANGED MY SIGNATURE LINE??? WHERE'S MY ROBERT HEINLEIN QUOTE AND MY PLUSHY TAGLINE?
Seriously NOT playing folks. I'm ____ed!
Seriously NOT playing folks. I'm ____ed!
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