...is for my Theabella kitty to feel better. She was diagnosed with diabetes a few months ago and is now on insulin. I last saw her in October when she was just getting a higher dose of insulin. I talked with recently and it seems Thea isn't improving. She won't eat her special diabetic food -- but she does eat the regular cat food, so at least she IS eating. She's having a hard time getting around, though. She can't make it up the pet stairs to the couch, and sleeps on the floor most of the time. has been picking her up to put her on the couch so she can have her favorite spot. I'm really worried about Thea. She's 12 years old and has never been the most active cat, but it's sad to hear that she can't even get as far as those little stairs. I just hope she doesn't feel a lot of pain right now. She's always been such a sweet, lazy marshmallow of a cat...I hope she can hold on a little longer...

I've uploaded a bunch of photos from my visit in Oct. You can see Thea has a very cozy spot on the couch. See, hanging on to your old baby blankets come in handy -- the cat can always use them.

I was sick of Christmas three weeks ago.

No, that's not the reason I haven't posted anything lately. I've wanted to. I have the next two chapters of Renewal sitting half-written. The problem I keep running into is when I write, I end up getting on a soapbox about various issues. While it's true that I've injected my political opinion into fic from time to time, it doesn't reach soapbox proportions. When it does, I set the notebook aside for a while. Now I've set it aside too long again and I'm having trouble picking it up.

Aside from the creative end of it, I can't seem to go for very long IRL without having some health or personal issue. I used to be able to excise such issues through writing, but I haven't been able to take that course of therapy because the words simply aren't coming to me. If I'm in physical pain, I write about Ironhide. But lately I've been in so much pain on and off that I just say "Meh" and sit somewhere like a lump. If I'm in emotional pain, I pick a character who can overcome it and write about them. But, again, I've run out of words to write about how they deal with it. This stinks, because I want to do more than just go "meh" and sit around. Yet the energy and motivation elude me.

I need a shot of pure inspiration right to the brain.

I need to make a recording of my favorite dialog from the TF movies for motivation, too, since I'm getting really picking about music. I blame the store muzak where I work. As I started out this entry saying, I've been forced to listen to Christmas music every day since the beginning of November. It has killed any interest I had in celebrating the holiday. I have a Secret Santa project to do, but at this point I'm fed up. I'll just go and quietly celebrate Hanukkah.

I'm redoing my website and I'm trying to decide which illustrations from my older art I'm going to keep around. Although, after seeing some of it again, I just want to laugh at how bad some of the angles and perspectives are. I do still like how some of the coloring turned out, though, so I'll overlook the bad lines.

Images include original characters that never went anywhere, fanart for Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Gundam Wing, G Gundam, and some misc anime.

I'm headed to New York for a week long visit with my family and to saturate myself in nostalgia before the holiday season kicks my retail-working butt. I think the only catch is if I carve pumpkins for Halloween right before I leave, they'll be mushed out by the time the 31st arrives...

ZOMBIELAND IS AN AWESOME MOVIE!!! It has humor, it has horror, and it has a lot of aftkicking!!! I highly reccommend it to anyone who enjoys zombie flicks, horror with humor, and in general if you can stomach a little bit of gore. ZOMMMMMBIIIEEESSS!!!!!

On another zombie note, I'm looking forward to Left 4 Dead 2 coming out next month. The "Crash Course" add on for Left 4 Dead 1 is honestly not that fun, it's like one huge maze that makes me motion sick. But new achievements are always good.

May I present to you:

Shiri's Playlist For Incinerating Zombies

(my favorite weapons in L4D are the gas can, pipe bomb, and molotov. It's not that I'm a pyromaniac, it's that quantity counts when you're fighting undead hordes.)

"American Idiot" - Greenday
"Bleed American" - Jimmy Eat World
"Bleed It Out" - Linkin Park
"Blow Me Away" - Breaking Benjamin
"Break Stuff" - Limp Bizkit
"Breathe Into Me" - Red
"Burn It To The Ground" - Nickelback
"Crazy Train" - Ozzy Ozbourne
"Control the Storm" - Delain
"Day for Ghosts" - Delain
"Dark Chest of Wonders" - Nightwish
"Degrees of Sanity" - Savatage
"Don't Fear The Reaper" - Apollo 440
"Doomsday Clock" - Smashing Pumpkins
"The Energy" - Audiovent
"Equally Destructive" - After Forever
"Empty" - Unloco
"Everything Louder Then Everything Else" - Meatloaf
"Forfeit" - Chevelle
"For Whom The Bell Tolls" - Metallica
"The Game" - Motorhead
"Getting Away With Murder" - Papa Roach
"Hocus Pocus Insanity Mix" - Gary Hoey
"Indestructible" - Disturbed
"Instruments of Destruction" - N.R.G.
"I Stand Alone" - Godsmack
"Land of Confusion" - Disturbed
"Let The Bodies Hit The Floor!" - Drowning Pool
"Lights Out (Chris Vrenna Remix)" - P.O.D.
"Liberate" - Disturbed
"Looking Down" - Audiovent
"M-80 (Explosive Energy Movement)" - Papa Roach
"No One Lives Forever" - Oingo Boingo
"One More" - Journey
"Pts.Of.Arthrty" - Linkin Park w. Jay Gordon
"The Red" - Chevelle
"Rip It Up" - JET
"Street War" - Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
"Sons of Plunder" - Disturbed
"Sparkle And Shine" - Econoline Crush
"Ten Thousand Fists" - Disturbed
"Thoughtless" - Korn
"Throw It All Away" - Default
"Tomorrow" - SR-71
"When The Lights Go Out" - Oingo Boingo
"Who Followed Who?" - Default
"Won't Back Down" - Fuel
"Zombie" - The Cranberries

This works well when you want to shoot zombies but have the TV on mute so as not to wake up sleeping roommates.

Anyone remember that fic snippet for Renewal that I posted in Nov '07? Yeeeaahhh, I finally got to the chapter it's in. It has been revised since that initial posting, but, WOOOO! I DID IT!!! YAAYYY!! Part 10 and the return of Ironhide are here!