From here on out, I am a dork

I'm back in Richmond from Thanksgiving break. Had a rough time, but that's nothing that friends and a LAND BEFORE TIME MARATHON can't fix!

They should've read Jurassic Park. Would've known T-rexes can't see you if you're standing still. Sucka's.

Seriously, guys, you have no idea how awesome The Land Before Time series is.

See, I've always been a big time dinosaur nerd (though because people my age seemed to have lost interest in them I don't really ever get the chance to geek out about them) and from the age of whenever until the end of elementary school, all I drew were dinosaurs. I designed dinosaur games. I made up new dinosaurs. I tried to draw complete encyclopedias of dinosaurs. I doodled them all over my math homework. I doodled them when the teacher was talking about multiplication tables. I made dinosaur caricatures of '90s political figures. I embarrassed my older sisters by pretending I was a dinosaur in Giant. At one point my mom had her office space covered in probably 10-20 of my best compositions about the Mesozoic era.

In short, dinosaurs errwhere.

Hell, if I weren't so bad at mathematics and so good passable at art, I'd be in Montana digging up some dromeosaurid claw and obnoxiously re-enacting the opening scenes of Jurassic Park.

So its only natural that my favorite movie was the Land Before Time (the first one.) Now, I was born about 4 years after the movie was made, but I still managed to hop on the train by the time the second and third movies were coming out.

I hadn't watched the first movie (the best one!) since the age of 6, so seeing it with fresh, jaded older eyes gave me a new perspective on the depth of the movie's messages.

To elaborate, here is a scene that was cute and fun to me as a child, but never really spoke to me until now:

This was probably my favorite scene when I watched it the other day. Having come out of a big loss, though not so big as death, I could relate to Littlefoot in a way I had never considered. When I go through loss, I ignore everything like Littlefoot did, sometimes even gestures of kindness from other people, because things seem so bleak to me. When the narrator spoke about him losing sight of finding The Great Valley, I realized I do the same sometimes, and I understood what the message was: you can't give up on your goals, no matter how big of a wall you run into.

There are also messages of accepting people no matter how different they are (Cera and Littlefoot becoming friends despite their parents ideology,) persevering against fear and doubt (Petrie learning how to fly,) and the importance of friends and taking care of your bonds with them (they'd never find the Great Valley without each other.)

Seriously guys, I love these movies even more now. Except for the songs in the sequels.

And the sequels after number 5. They don't exist to me.


On an unrelated note, does anybody else get the feeling that The Brave Little Toaster was one of those movies Disney couldn't wait to shut away in the closet of obscurity along with the racist crows from Dumbo...?

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year I spent my Thanksgiving in the (540) with my best friend, Abby, and her family.

Abby's family owns a small farm made up primarily of poultry (they got chickens, geese, peacocks, pheasants, quail) and I keep a few of my pet chickens with them, because I can't do that where I live.

Cock-a-doodle-doo! :)

This is one of my roosters, Stubsy. He is a Japanese Bantam (bantam means they are a miniature breed.) This breed is particularly cute because they have dwarfism in their legs 

Abby with one of her Silkie roosters. Silkies have a mutation in their feathers which gives them a soft, fur-like texture and makes them look like stuffed animals! They also have a very sweet disposition.

Abby with a Polish Crested rooster. Great head of hair, eh?

Another one of my roosters, Buddy Holly, who is a black Rosecomb bantam.

This is my Bearded D'uccle rooster Roy Orbison, who won Champion Bantam in last year's county fair

And of course, I couldn't forget about the goats! Abby's family has 4 goats: 3 females and 1 male whose name is Hercules.

playin the push-me-push-you game with Herc

But of course, my day wasn't all just chillin' with the animawls. Can't forget about the dishes, after all ;)

Le Turkey

Le canned cranberry sauce (my absolute favorite)

Le Stuffing, which, as we all know thanks to South Park, is what makes the world go round.

My plate of happiness and carbohydrates (which are sometimes the same thing!)

And to top the night off, I spent a good two hours soaking in their hot tub, making my poor back all loose and happy again. All in all, a great night :)

I am so thankful for my family and friends, thankful for the opportunities that have crossed my path, for wisdom, for the gift of art, and for the gift of life. I cherish it all deeply, and I know that despite the bad things that happen to me, they can never outweigh the people for which I have been so blessed or so lucky to have in my life.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

How to deal with a breakup? MMA, y'all.

About a month ago, my boyfriend of almost two years broke up with me. The relationship was serious and I was very hurt by the loss. I did not understand how something so special and so deep could dry up like that.

I don't want to go all mushy sad emo girl on you, because that's just not cool and just not who I am, and I'm sure everyone who knows me has heard enough about it! But I will say this: after a month of feelings, thoughts, and processing time, I've changed and matured from the experience, and dare I say I feel good about it now. In fact, put on some 311, and I'm downright happy to be alive!

Some of the things I've done to help me work through my problems have been to explore Richmond (my new place of residence,) explore possible career options, move forward with my illustration style and skills, read up on women's MMA, and throw myself into my kickboxing routine.

Speaking of which, let me introduce you to the sport of women's MMA with this video of the fight between Strikeforce champ Cris "Cyborg" Santos and Hitomi Akano.

This is a very exciting fight, though probably one-sided (Cyborg has a clear weight advantage over Akano and is throwing her around like a ragdoll!)

Upon watching numerous WMMA fights for a few months now, I've noticed that I find the women's fights more fun to watch. Perhaps its because they're a small rebellion against the traditional view of a woman's place in the world, or maybe it is because I see a focus on technique and dexterity I don't quite observe in male fights, or perhaps its because I can relate more with a female fighter than with a male fighter. In any event, after watching these fights, I've come to a conclusion:

In addition to making art and illustrating, I want to be an MMA fighter. Maybe not pro-level, but certainly at the amateur level.

All right, enough of this, I'm all pumped up for kickboxing from the Cyborg vs Akano video :) Peace!