The Sami Stories

I'm alive I swear. (Round 2)

2012-09-24T20:51:00.001-07:00

I wonder how many of these types of posts I'm going to make.

It's been an adventure for the last month. I currently don't have my tablet or anything to really...post any comic stuff with. I only have my computer, monitor, mouse, and keyboard unfortunately. Here's a brief outline of what the last month has been:

I bought an apartment.
I moved into the apartment.
The apartment wasn't ready because the leasing office & their maintenance are a bunch of idiots.
I started cleaning said apartment (since they didn't) and found mold EVERYWHERE.
I got my already-angry-all-the-time mother involved because she's a meanie-head.
I aimed her super-full-of-anger-ness at the leasing office like a turret.
The corporate office got involved since after 2 weeks the leasing office didn't do shit.
(and this was after 3 weeks had passed from when I saw the apartment to when I signed the lease)
My asthma got worse(getting a new inhaler tomorrow actually).

Good news?
I'm out of the lease & getting cut a reimbursement check. Yay money.

Bad news?
Most of my stuff is still in boxes, I'm back at my dad's again, & I know what a fish out of water feels like.

So, I'll be chilling with the parents for a few months since they're moving into a new house anyway. They'll need some help settling in. Once things work out on their end I'll be venturing into the wonderful world of renting again.

Hey, at least I get all of their extra furniture.

Until this move takes place...the new World of Warcraft expansion comes out tomorrow. I'll see you all when I come out of a coma.

Reformatting

2012-08-08T21:57:00.004-07:00

So my computer's been running pretty damn slow the last couple of months. At first I thought I needed a new motherboard but...apparently my computer is loaded with so much junk that it's crying for dear life. So...I decided to clear everything off of it (and of course, I backed everything up) and put it all in a folder "To Be Sorted" since I'm pretty lazy and don't sort anything I scan, type up, save as from the internet, etc. So all of my folders are generally a cluster f*$# of jpegs & doc files.

Right now, I'm reinstalling my Adobe Master Collection...so no pretty, crappy sketchified update as of yet. Check back this weekend for a complete blog post that isn't this totally anti-climatic filler.

I'm alive, I swear.

2012-08-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

So I almost forgot that this blog exists. It's been in the back of my mind for a while but I never got off of my...er...I wouldn't say "lazy ass." I don't technically have to get off of it to draw, but...either way, I've never really got around to updating this thing. I'm surprised it hasn't started evolving into an internet dust bunny colony.

If anyone's actually wondered where the hell I've been and what in the name of Shiva I've been doing, here's what I've been up to.

After I graduated college, I felt like I was in need of a well-deserved, few-month-long break...as far as artwork goes. Everything else in my life kept going business as usual & slept most of the time...because you know, as a college student, sleep doesn't actually exist. You get a small nap from time to time, but never actually sleep. You'd think the entire community of college students were trying to convert to vampires but in the most horrible & unhealthy way possible.

I was only working part-time...a measly 20 hours per week. It was enough to make my car payment and make gradual payments to my student loans and my credit card. In all honesty, it was boring, and I was ready to move on.

My dad's job transferred to Indiana about a year ago, and lucky for me they were hiring at the time I had graduated. I was offered the job and move up here in January. So I basically went from desk job to desk job, but with more hours and higher pay? And not having to ask people for money? It was totally worth it. I'm happy with the job I'm at right now, especially since I'm tech savvy and it's generally tech support. The only thing I have to complain about is I still feel like I'm missing something.

I have a four year degree and I have yet to do anything with it. I understand it may take a while, especially fresh out of college. Trying to find a job in the industry is a bitch and a half since everyone wants you to have experience, yet no one will give you any.

I've been going through my options. I've taken one class at Imaginism Stuidos' online courses called Schoolism, and I'm looking into taking more to broaden my palette and figure out exactly which direction I want to go as well as come out with some nice portfolio work. Even after the one class I've finished, there's a lot of touch-up work I need to do. I've been trying to get my website back up and running, but I'm terrible with code, and these template websites such as Weebly and Wix are kinda...blah. Weebly is simple but everything has that "look at me, I'm a template" look. Wix has a bit more freedoms as far as design but it crashes more than drunk/women drivers.

I'm also working with an advisor at the Academy of Art in San Francisco about the possibility of pursuing a MFA. The cost of living there just frightens me a bit, so I'm spending at least another year here to save up the money as a cushion while I look for something there.

We'll see where life takes me. I'll keep this thing updated now that I have more time and have had plenty of catch-up sleep from the last five years. Who knows, maybe I'll get famous.

I'm going to go back to watching Star Trek now and cleaning the apartment...because that's what a woman does...right?

Human! I choose you!

2011-09-26T21:08:00.000-07:00

There are times when you wake up one morning and decide, "I want a pet" or, you have an annoying, snobby, pain in the butt child in your family demanding, "I WANT A PUPPY." Either way, at some point in our lives, there's an animal that walks in and changes our lives from that moment on...and sometimes, it's not even our decision. An animal can choose their owner(or we could be their pets, I've never quite figured out which is which) just the same as we can choose them.

As an example...I'd like to introduce my cat, my pest, my royal pain in the neck, but I couldn't live without her, Reesie.

Reesie was actually born into a litter of kittens by a neighbor about four houses down from my parent's house. I don't really know them all that well. I knew a boy around my age from that house. He was a coworker when I had my first job as a cashier at the grocery store not too far from here...and I never liked him. He drank a lot, smoked a lot, did drugs, you name it, he probably had it in his body. One day at work he came up to me asking if I found his shoe in our backyard because he had lost it.

Anyway...I didn't like him, and I still don't. My family and I were driving down the street one day and we saw the kittens...and this little itty bitty calico hiding behind a mailbox. My dad used to always look at her when we passed by that house saying how much he wished we had a cat like that (he really likes calicos).

A few years passed to what brings me to about two years ago from now. We have two other cats, Timmy and Molly. There's a small maid's room of our house where the cats generally hang out, and there is a back porch that we used to let the two cats out on. Well...one fateful day, my dad's cat Molly got into a fight with another cat outside. Molly is very tiny...her story we'll leave for another day though. She is declawed, so...you can imagine she's not very threatening to an outside cat.

My mother and I had to rush her to the vet...but before we left...that calico cat ran off from underneath our porch. I decided from that day, "I must have that cat." (I really don't like my dad's cat) My parents decided to leave Timmy and Molly inside since there were bigger and badder cats outside, and only let them outside on the other porch where the yard is fenced in. They're too chicken to jump or climb under the fence...and the other cats won't come in since we have two larger dogs that go outside with the cats too. (The cats and dogs get along, luckily)

The calico continued to hang around our house. I started to leave cat treats outside for her when she was at the front door. When I came home from work or classes, she started to meet me at my car door, then "escort" me to the front door. Our family began to call her the house guardian.

This trend continued for a few months. We had a really bad winter around this time, and she was still hanging around the house. I wasn't going to just let her sit outside in the snow and freeze to death, so I did what any animal lover would do...I brought her into the house. Since she didn't get along with our other pets (we had 4 dogs and 2 other cats), she just stayed in my room...which is where she is today.

She runs around outside during the day when it's nice out. She comes in when it snows, when it rains, when it's too hot...whenever she wants to come in, she sits by the door and waits...then she makes a straight beeline up to my bedroom. She hogs my bed, steps on my tablet, knocks (and sometimes breaks) my things onto the floor...yep...typical cat, but I love her so.

She's now been named Reesie, and a permanent member of my family. She found me first, and I have no choice but to put up with her now.

No more scanning!

2011-09-01T11:26:00.000-07:00

So, I changed the banner from weekly to daily because there's not enough time to sit here and draw little doodles for every entry to give it that nice little, possibly failing, artistic touch and scan them in, re-size them, and post them. Apparently, weekly isn't good enough either and monthly is too long, so I'm going to go with, "whenever I have time." On a good note, it will be weekly starting this week since my touch-screen monitor finally came in!

With this being said...er...typed, this will probably be the last entry with traditional pen and ink drawings. No more of fussing with a scanner, and no more of feeling like this:

A new semester has started, and will, thankfully, BE MY LAST! I'm actually excited about my classes this semester. I've got Marksmanship...which I'm pretty sure scares a lot of people. I'm probably someone who shouldn't be handling a gun in a room full of people, especially considering I have a very accurate shot. My uncle owns a shooting range, and my first time shooting my first ten rounds, I scored a 98%. Needless to say...it was shocking and a bit frightening.

After this class I have Geology, the lecture on Monday and the Lab on Wednesdays. Hooray rocks. Then I have Desktop Publishing. I get to learn how to make magazine layouts and learn to use InDesign...pretty simple. My two other classes are an online Intro to Film class and my Independent Study. The Independent Study is what I'm really looking forward to! It's about digital illustration and basically me having an excuse to use my new tablet. So again...this is how I feel:

Car insurance just isn't good enough

2011-07-31T02:43:00.000-07:00

So a close friend of mine, who unfortunately lives on the west coast (I'm east coast), was in a really bad car accident. Luckily for him, he made it out a-okay with just minor injuries and has been having constant aches and pains. (at least he has pain medication...yummy!) That'd the good thing about accidents...the medication is AMAZING.

But in all seriousness, car accidents suck, whether it's your fault or not. Generally speaking, it just sucks more if it's your fault. For my friend here...it wasn't his...clearly.

Deadly Crash on Highway 41 (California)

Now I admit, I'm a reckless driver at times. I've never been in an accident, I've only gotten one speeding ticket (and I knock on my wooden desk as I type this). I guess I'm recklessly careful? I use my blinker when I should instead of leaving it on in hopes I EVENTUALLY make the turn. I stop at stop lights and red lights. I speed up at yellow lights because to me it's screaming "Hurry! Speed up before the red light kicks my ass!" But this is besides the point...driving into oncoming traffic? That's just...plain...DUH! I don't know how else to put it. Maybe an epic facepalm would explain my point of view better.

Having a car accident can have only one benefit: if you had a shitty car, and it wasn't your fault and you have insurance...hellooooooo new car! (I'm not calling my friend's car shitty by any means...it was actually a really nice car)

Unfortunately...my friend won't be getting the car...well, vehicle that he wants.

No pewpew tank for you. Better luck next time!

Five Stages of Computer Loss

2011-07-08T21:59:00.000-07:00

The hard drive is slowly failing of my now old Dell XPS, and if my little scanner thingy is correct, it still has a couple of weeks of life left on it. It's not a very good laptop, seeing as I've always had problems with it. I play games through it, and its graphics are barely enough to make playing them tolerable. The game I play the most, and I'm sad to admit that I'm one of those addicts, is World of Warcraft. (FOR THE HORDE!) I was in a raid with my guildies doing the Cho'gall fight, which is the last boss of Bastion of Twilight. We haven't downed him yet at that point...sadly, but you know one of the reasons why?

My laptop crashed.

We were about to start another attempt and then all of a sudden, my WoW screen froze (I play in Windowed Mode). Next, my internet window froze...and last, my Ventrilo froze. Lucky for me, I have my raid leader's phone and let him know of my current inability to move my character, and apologize if she happened to run into the boss and randomly pull, thus killing everyone. (Although...that would be rather funny. It's not like I haven't done it before)

It took twelve restarts to get the sucker to work. At that point, the raid was called, so I just went to bed. The events of the repeated restarts went similar to how one may grieve the lost of a loved one...my computer, to me, is considered a loved one. I'm sure any computer user can identify with this if they've had a computer suddenly crash on them.

My night went a little something like this:

It started by having my computer's life flash before my eyes as the windows lock up one by one. I started to click everything to see if I could get any little ounce of life to bounce back on my screen...but alas, it did not work. In fact, it probably made the problem worse. I began muttering, "No no no no no no!" and pressing every button imaginable on my keyboard hoping something will work to the same effect of jumper cables.

Instead of the pressing of keys to try to get something to pop up...this pressing turns into bashing the keys in a violent rage...which of course, never helps. I started getting impatient and began yelling at my computer, as if it could hear me and would react to what I was saying to it...but all I kept getting was this:

Since my efforts of screaming at it were to no avail, I began trying to work out an agreement with my computer. I managed to get it running long enough to transfer all of my files to my portable hard drive before it crashed again. So the bargaining worked to some extent I guess. At that point, I really didn't care about it...until I realized I needed my laptop to work on classwork for the remaining of this semester...so it was back to the bargaining.

I was then depressed, because I've had so many memories with this laptop. It's been to my conventions with me, I take it with me to my classes all of the time. Ah, the glorious days of playing a lagfest Starcraft II during Modern Art History...those were the days. I started thinking, "What am I going to do without my laptop?" I loved it so, even with my 20 frames per second with WoW on the lowest settings possible...it was at least manageable!

I fell asleep then that night with horrible nightmares of my laptop not being there, as if it were a human being. I woke up, and saw my laptop staring at me from my desk, blankly...literally, it was turned off. My dad came into the room asking me what I was upset over last night because I was cursing and he could hear me from his bedroom.

I explained to him that my laptop was dying and I didn't know what to do. Then my dad reminds me he's a computer tech and gets discounted computer parts so we can build me a brand new PC with all the bells and whistles.

So I quickly got over the loss of my laptop and accepted the fact that it was dead...because I was getting something shiny and new! Hell yeah!

Then I came to this realization: I have no money to afford the parts even at a dealer discount. DRAT!

Currently, I have my beautiful new PC -AND- a netbook to take with me to my classes. It's been wonderful...and now I can begin to update my blogs again. OH HAPPY DAY!

I HAVE A NEW COMPUTER!

2011-06-09T16:13:00.000-07:00

So I have a draft saved about the night my laptop crashed...and I have some nice illustrations to accompany it. I haven't scanned them in yet, but once I get Photoshop (because I'm trying to avoid using MS Paint to edit my images) installed then I'll be posting at least once a week or more.

Anyhoo...the good news is, I was saving up my funds over my blog hiatus and built (with the help of some friends and my father) a nice, really nice, computer. I also have a Wacom Cintiq 21X, well, the newer model, on back order. The Wacom will take at least until August to get here...so I have all that time to save up the $2000 for it! Huzzah! My tuition loan refund posted as well, so that's going into my Savings until then...which will cover the monitor. The reason I finally broke down and bought these things at once is because 1) I'm tired of using crappy out of date things, and 2) I'm starting an independent study in Fall 2011 in digital illustration. I figured, "eh, why not" and just go all out, get high-end equipment so I can make a super nice portfolio and take it with me when I graduate. YAY MONEY!

So, in the meantime, while I'm waiting for my programs to come in to install and get the ball rolling, here's a MS Paint doodle with my mouse. (This song has been stuck in my head for days)

Classes Are Kicking My Butt

2011-04-24T11:35:00.000-07:00

The subject says it all. I keep wanting to draw really cool updates on this thing, but I think my posts look naked without my little drawings. This semester is coming to an end (hooray!) in the next couple of weeks...so now I'm entering what's called "Dead Week." ....I will be a zombie by this coming Friday. Here's my upcoming agenda, in order of when they are due:

Spanish Oral Presentation (Tuesday) on Learning Spanish through online video games, using World of Warcraft as an example.
Spanish Oral Interview (Tuesday), with simple questions like where I work, what my major is, how old I am, etc etc.

Spanish report (TONIGHT) about the movie "Glup" (which I suggest anyone watch who don't mind subtitles)

Intro to the Study of Religion third essay (Thursday)

Intro to the Study of Religion final exam (some time in the first week of May, not sure on the date)

Renaissance History final paper (May 4)

Renaissance History quizzes on readings (Tuesday & Thursday)

Spanish Final Exam (May 4)

Political Life Final Exam (same as Religion, not sure on the date exactly)

I still have to do all of my reading to catch up in my Religion class so I can do my paper, plus the reading for my Renaissance quizzes and my final paper...I've got about, eh, 6 or 7 resources to flip through for that Renaissance paper...I'm not even entirely sure on a topic yet. My professor suggested comparing evidence about the witchcraft trials, but I'm not too sure about it yet. At least it's a starting point. So, with all of this being said, I've barely had any time to actually work on my portfolio. =( Oh well. I still have a month after this semester to work on it, and then I have summer classes! Woohoohoo!

2011-03-31T08:02:00.000-07:00

So I haven't updated yet as I really...should have...yea. Good news is, I'm alive! (and I can imagine some of my worst enemies going, "Damn!") I have survived the weekend of Megacon without being stepped on, trampled, pushed over, mugged, stolen, violated, and I'm completely intact...but that doesn't mean I don't have stories to share. (and maybe I'll actually update the Background Information tab since it has the most views. YOU PEOPLE...ARE STALKERS!)

In short, I met Stan Lee, and it was awesome.(simply bold, underline, and italics doesn't emphasize exactly how awesome it was) 8D Does this make me cool now?
(No cartoons to accompany this post, but I'll make up for it, I promise!)

Bathroom Intruder

2011-03-21T00:23:00.000-07:00

So sorry about a two-day late post for this. My laptop has mood swings on when it wants to actually work. The hard drive is going bad and I seriously need to look into buying either a new laptop or a desktop. I'm leaning towards a desktop because laptops don't have long lifespans for me. They generally live a little bit longer than your average goldfish...the ones you get from the pet store, not the ones you win from those stupid pong games at a festival of sorts. In general, give or take a year or two. My previous desktop died right after I got my first laptop. I found it pretty ironic that it stopped working the week after I brought the laptop home...I think it was jealous.

As for today's, er...this weekend's story (I guess would be the best way to put it) I will be discussing one pain in the ass trait of my parent's two dogs: Logan and Littleman. (further stories and cartoons of my pets will continue over the next week or two to give ya a bit of a back story...anyhoo...)

Sometimes, after a drive from work, from school, or sometimes after several hours of gaming or portfolio working, I come to this astounding conclusion: I really have to friggin' pee. This urge gets to the point to where if I don't get to a bathroom in a matter of seconds, I may as well just be nicknamed "Puddles." So, I dart like a bat out of hell to the bathroom, which when I'm in my bedroom, is conveniently across the hall.

Since in this particular story I'm in the comforts of my own home, and it's usually just me in the house besides the pets, I don't concern myself with shutting the bathroom door (as I'm sure many of us are guilty of)...plus, my only concern at the time is making it to the toilet before I burst, making sure the door is shut is the last thing on my mind.

It isn't before long until I witness something quite disturbing. There is a nose poking out from behind the door...as if it's a little spy camera coming around the door to scope out the room...and witness me taking care of business.

Surprise! It's the dog...or at least, one of the two...never both of them. They have this extreme curiosity to watch me as I pee in the bathroom...hell, not even that. If there's any door cracked open, they will nudge it open with their nose and take a look at who's in the room...then scamper off like nothing happened...like doggy ninjas. When this occurs, it ends with a screaming of the dog's name followed by "GTFO."

So, I end with this: "Hide yo kids, hide yo wife, and hide yo husband cuz they're peepin' on errbody out here."

Midterms Suck

2011-03-18T18:28:00.000-07:00

So midterms just finished up this week (finally). I've been meaning to start this blog up sooner, but with all of my midterms happening at once, it just wasn't going to happen. So...uh...ta da!

Midterms...they're glorious. It's a nice reminder to myself of how I procrastinate and wait until the last possible minute to study or get things done. This isn't entirely a bad thing. I tend to work better under pressure and I have a higher retention rate when I study a couple of hours just before an exam. I'm in my last stretch of my college career and planning to graduate December 2011, and in hindsight of this current Spring semester, I shouldn't have taken all of my general education classes and writing intensives at the same time. My current classes you ask?

Let's see, I start off in the morning with Renaissance History. It's not so bad since the professor is pretty rockin', and I remember the first session of class we got to watch the "Bring Out Yer Dead!" segment of Monty Python's The Holy Grail. Shortly after that class I have Spanish 2010, and after not having a Spanish class since I graduated from high school in 2007...it sucks for the most part. After Spanish I make my way into Intro To The Study of Religion. Now, living in the bible belt makes this class oh-so-much harder. The professor has a tendency of relating everything to Christianity...when I'm not Christian. So when he asks a question in regards to Christianity (when we haven't even discussed it as far as the curriculum goes), I just stare at him with a face of "WTF M8?" I'm not very pretty with that face, and quite frankly, my professor isn't pretty at all. After this bundle-of-fun class I run up a few flights of stairs to get to Political Life, which is actually my favorite class. We learn about politics...which I never thought I'd enjoy since politics is a complete borefest to me. What makes this class interesting is 1) The reading material is historical fiction of the Roman Empire, and 2) the professor is a sarcastic asshole who curses like a sailor. His lectures are actually worth going to and a nice pick-me-up for my last class after sitting through three hours of other classes.

With that being said, I shall continue with the story for today.

Returning from Spring Break, I had two midterm exams on Tuesday...or so I thought. The midterm for Political Life was a single-question 500 word essay, but it was an open note exam, so I didn't worry about studying for it over spring break. The second exam was for Religion. I admit, I haven't been following that class so closely since the professor is very boring, and the entire class is a bunch of book work. I did make an effort to study for the exam periodically during the break, looking over some notes, going over the study guide he had given us in our syllabus, and speed-reading through some of the readings.

Good thing: I made a A- on my first essay in Religion, so my grade in this class is, surprisingly, decent. I didn't want this midterm exam to dull my grade any further if I could help it. So, the night before the exam, as are my usual study tactics, when I get home from work, I went through all of the readings...but I was up until the wee hours of the morning going through everything to make sure I had a pretty good understanding of the material. As the professor told us, our exam would be a single essay question, same as the Political Life exam....here's the kicker: I have selective hearing. That's all I remember hearing the professor in Religion mentioning before spring break. Now...I would have emailed him and asked him about it over the break to be sure, but he never responds to emails (so far this semester I've emailed him three times and never got a response out of him, so it's pretty pointless to waste my time emailing him).

I skipped Renaissance history that morning. Attendance isn't mandatory due to he posts all of the lectures online, and given it's a morning class, we college students have a bitch of a time getting up that early. I continued to review my Religion text books during my Spanish class and after it just before my Religion class. I get to Religion a bit early because the anticipation of this exam is killing me. The class before hasn't let out yet, so my classmates and I are chilling in the hallway waiting for it to start. So, I ask, "So, ready for the midterm exam?" One of the girls in my class tells me:

With dark circles under my eyes, I was both relaxed and pissed off at the same time. I wasn't angry at my professor, or my classmate, no no no...I was pissed off at myself. Due to my selective hearing and short attention span, I completely missed the discussion of no midterm in the session before spring break. After coming to this conclusion, I checked my planner and came to the realization: I never noted of a midterm exam for Religion.

On the bright side, I had an amazing nap after classes for the day.