I haven’t posted all week. I have plenty to say, ask my husband, I never shut up. But I’ve been busy. So busy I forget to eat and sleep and bathe which I’m sure Sean finds attractive. But I can’t help it, my muse won’t get off my back. I wish I was one of those people who could just sit down and start drawing, the kind who can illustrate comic books or do animations for Disney. But I’m not. I’m the kind of person who can only draw when and what her muse says to. If I try to draw what I want it looks like crap. Only when I draw what she wants does it look half way decent.

So I’ve been working on my stuff all week, updating my Elfwood gallery and playing in Photoshop. So go look at my new pieces…go, right now…..What do you think? I’m particullarly proud of a couple pieces but I don’t want to bias anyone so I’ll keep it to myself.

I also uploaded some of our pics from FFXI. There were over 1,500 but I widdled it down to around 300. Just a little note: The pictures had to be compressed because they take up a lot of space. So they actually look nicer but that’s the best I could do. We have a blast playing the game together. It’s like going on vacation without leaving the house. Plus what is more romantic than slaughtering monsters with your husband? Nothing, that’s what.

Day’s til our 5th wedding anniversary: 7

Today’s Song: Worry About You – Ivy

Today’s Observation: If you get darker by laying in sunlight, shouldn’t you get paler by laying under the moonlight?

I spent most of this week researching and designing a monolithic dome house. Most people have never heard of such a thing and the people I explain it to think I’ve lost my mind but the concept has been around for a long time and has grown in popularity in the last ten years or so. Ever since I was little I was fascinated by alternative houses, especially the kind in fairtales. Tales of little people living in hobbit-like mole holes, underwater bubble cities and little cottages dug out of the side of a mountain seemed fantastical. So over the years I’ve casually looked into alternative houseing but it wasn’t until recently when I realized our real life would be starting soon and after seeing the LOTR trilogy that I really got into it. There are actually quite a few groups out there who are building actual hobbit holes and even entire shires. It’s awesome.

But my desire to live in a big bubble is more than a kids fantasy, it’s practical too. Dome houses are not only much stronger than wood built houses, thier safer, more earth friendly, last longer and they’re cheaper in the long run. Plus they’re better for people with allergies and other medical issues than traditional housing. Think of it like this: Remember the story of the three little pigs? The straw house and the stick house didn’t stand a chance but the stone house was impenatrable. The only question that remains is above ground or below. There are advantages and disadvantages to both but you have to admit it’s pretty nifty to live underground like a Hobbit.

As soon as I get a chance I’ll post my floor plans for my ideal house. Right now it’s just a dream but I’m optomistic. If your interested in alternative housing some other things you might want to look into are : geodesic domes, hobbit holes, cob houses, strawbale houses, papercrete, ferrocement, earthships, cordwood homes, rammed earth, earthbags, adobe etc.

Song Of The Day: Snow Patrol – Run
Site Of The Day: Fairyland (free mmorpg)
Observation Of The Day – Either peoples heads are getting bigger or thier bodies are getting smaller. Watch any commercial and see what I mean. Almost every actor on tv looks like an alien.
5th wedding anniversary wishlist (July 24th): Tickets, T-shirts and AC.

P.S. I’m particularrly fond of the RFV and the piratemonkeyrobot shirts!.

I hope you’ve noticed (and enjoyed) the new layout for Pranagraghy. I felt the old layout was a little to serious and didn’t show enough of my personality. The new layout is fairytale themed and I rather like it. It took me forever to finish but it was worth it. I’ve been a fan of fairytales, in thier original grissly form, in the modern day adaptions and in alternative styles, since I was a little girl. It’s not so much the ‘happily ever after’ that gets me as the magic and mystery of a time period when people believed anything was possible and weren’t so jaded and cynical. Don’t get me wrong, it would be nifty to be a princess but anyone can prick her finger and fall into a coma, but how many people get to live in a candy house, turn into animals or visit the fairy realm? Plus I have to imagine after sleeping all that time you’d greet your prince with some seriously bad morning breath.

Aside from the website I’ve been busy with a few things. I’m finally going to finish a very long book I started almost two months ago. It normally doesn’t take me long but this one was soooo boring and only just got marginally interesting at the end. I’ve also been doing some packing. Most of my stuff is ‘packed’ all the time because it’s all in plastic bins (my whole apartment is under 400 sq ft) but we wanted to send the universe a hint that ‘Hey we’re ready to go here!’. Whilst cleaning and packing we came across several pick up truck sized water bugs. For those who have never lived in the Florida/Lousiana region, Water bugs are the enormous cousin of the roach that invade your house during the summer months to escape the heat and find water. Of course my severe fear of bugs and my insane obsession with cleanlyness and orderlyness (thanks mom!) lead me to then clean everything within a two block radius. Yes, I know that bugs of this kind don’t come in because you have a dirty house, but they do bring in a lot of yicky germs and I’m paranoid. So now everything is nice and clean and things that don’t need to be out aren’t. Plus the house smells like bay leaves (put them in drawers to repel bugs) which is nice.

Sean and I have also taken up a second language: Japanese. Honestly it’s Skytes fault for getting me into the Sailor Moon live action show, which does have subtitles but would be so much better if we could just listen. So we decided to learn Japanese. The language is both fascinatingly simple and mindblowingly hard. To be honest I learned more about the English language while reading the study guide than in all my years of schooling. Of course the computer learning guide my husband has is, like everything he owns, from 1983. So depending on how much patience I have and how quickly I get bored I may or may not actually learn to say anything.

I’ll be putting the pictures back up this weekend along with some new photos and some graphics I’ve been working on, including a new piece called “Tooth Fairy” that is nothing like my usual style. Most of the new photos are of me and the cats but don’t expect much because as I said everything Sean owns, including the camera’s are from 1983. There are some fairly decent shots of the two of us together that I took for my mom in which you can see just how crazy my hair is. My hair is so long now that I have to keep it braided all the time and constantly have to arrange it before sitting or laying down or I end up giving myself wiplash. The cats seem to like it though as evidenced by my being woken up twice now as something under the bed tries to drag my under by my hair. You really don’t know fear until your cat pulls this on you because your braid slipped off the side of the bed. Sean finds this hilarious. We may not be married much longer.

Ok enough for today. More tomorrow. Good luck and blessings, Prana

Today’s Song: Simon Stinger’s French Connection

Today’s Observation: Did you ever notice that the Olson twins look like the characters from The Dark Crystal?

Today’s Site: Analysis Of The Obvious (The hubbies new site, which I designed and came up with the name for so you know it’s gotta be good!)