The X-Mas Haul
Dec. 30th, 2011 12:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluejeans07These last few weeks came and went with some struggle. The big news was that a few hours before my brothers were due to leave for Korea for a few days, Kim Jong Il's death was announced. After a lot of discussion and preparations, the bros boarded the flight anyway and while I knew everything was going to be fine, I still was a jittery mess the next day and obsessively checked the news every few hours. Anyway, they came home and aside from one brother catching a cold, all was well. Phew. Other than that, spent the holidays working on some light freelance, doodling naked men, planning my next storyboard, and obsessing over turkey.
After years of eating dry turkey, I've been curious about how actual delicious, moist turkey tastes like so I accepted a challenge from my mother to cook a turkey for Christmas. After some bickering, teasing, and squawks of, "YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!" from the more turkey experienced members of my family, I served Alton Brown's roast turkey and gravy with much success. The turkey was moist and flavorful and while the gravy was unexpectedly salty, I was well praised. Of course this probably means I have to make the turkey for Thanksgiving forever now but hey, I've done it once, I probably can do it again. I'm also wondering how turkey would taste in a more Korean style brine with soy sauce, sesame seed oil, garlic and green onion... but I don't think I've mastered the turkey enough to even try something like this.
As for the Christmas haul, I got:
Cash
2 cowls from Forever 21 (very soft~)
A cropped sweater that looks like it came directly from the 80's! The fashions kids wear these days!
Smurfs Holiday DVD XD
Ponyo on DVD (yay!)
Laputa on DVD (more yay!)
Some expensive face cream from Greenland. I haven't tried it yet but I will soon.
2 pairs of really fun socks (I love goofy socks)
OMG Pwnies shirt!
Storyboard Pro (bought this for myself)
I finally forked over money during the Boxing Day sale to buy Storyboard Pro and while it was indeed on sale, it still was fairly pricey. But I'm really sick of storyboarding in Flash, I hate the drawing tools, the fact that it can't export a movie with audio without a lot of struggling, and how I have struggle with After Effects to make a presentable file that can be uploaded. There's also no good way of printing out the images into a flat book portfolio and SB Pro can do all of that. I'm still learning how to use it but thankfully, there are free video tutorials online that I'm watching done by the lovely and wonderful Sherm Cohen. My goal is to understand how to use the program by the end of this year and be able to do my next board on it. *FIST PUMP*
I ended up wearing the Pwnies shirt to church with my family on Christmas Sunday. Ironically, on the way there, I finally got the opportunity to update my religious status to my parents as an 'Agnostic Possibilian' and explained my stance that while I did once believe in Christianity, I feel that as I read more about science and history and studied everything on my own, I related a lot more to what science and history had to offer and less from the Bible. And the more I found out about how the Bible was compiled and how certain writings and stories were chosen and rejected, and even why certain things in the Bible was written, I grew more certain of my own change in direction and felt a lot more comfortable with myself. I've added the 'agnostic' to the Possibilian because I'm not completely ready to write off the supernatural just yet and I'm not extremely active in trying to test ideas, I just tend to stumble along and listen and view way too much British radio and television.
Anyway, it wasn't a dramatic talk at all and I think they're dealing with it the way they've dealt with everything else when it comes to me: smile and nod and hope that it's just a phase that I'm going through. It's how they've dealt with my continuing singleness, my fluctuating arts career, and my non-desire to have children. And Dad's not really a Christian either so it's just Mom who is the less difficult parent! \o/
But going to church is not boring, I can bring a sketchbook and draw people during the sermon, it's a nice thing I can do to make members of my family happy, and I struck a deal with my mom that I only have to go three times a year (Christmas, New Year's and Easter). I do have a mental list in my head of clauses that I can get up and leave during the service (if I happen to be in some sort of pain, or if anti-LGBT sentiments are brought up), but all in all, seems fine. I'm not there to start a fire or try to believe in something that I don't, I'm just there to make a few of the people I love happy. Of course it would make them happier if I became Christian again but they're just gonna have to deal like I do.
After years of eating dry turkey, I've been curious about how actual delicious, moist turkey tastes like so I accepted a challenge from my mother to cook a turkey for Christmas. After some bickering, teasing, and squawks of, "YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!" from the more turkey experienced members of my family, I served Alton Brown's roast turkey and gravy with much success. The turkey was moist and flavorful and while the gravy was unexpectedly salty, I was well praised. Of course this probably means I have to make the turkey for Thanksgiving forever now but hey, I've done it once, I probably can do it again. I'm also wondering how turkey would taste in a more Korean style brine with soy sauce, sesame seed oil, garlic and green onion... but I don't think I've mastered the turkey enough to even try something like this.
As for the Christmas haul, I got:
Cash
2 cowls from Forever 21 (very soft~)
A cropped sweater that looks like it came directly from the 80's! The fashions kids wear these days!
Smurfs Holiday DVD XD
Ponyo on DVD (yay!)
Laputa on DVD (more yay!)
Some expensive face cream from Greenland. I haven't tried it yet but I will soon.
2 pairs of really fun socks (I love goofy socks)
OMG Pwnies shirt!
Storyboard Pro (bought this for myself)
I finally forked over money during the Boxing Day sale to buy Storyboard Pro and while it was indeed on sale, it still was fairly pricey. But I'm really sick of storyboarding in Flash, I hate the drawing tools, the fact that it can't export a movie with audio without a lot of struggling, and how I have struggle with After Effects to make a presentable file that can be uploaded. There's also no good way of printing out the images into a flat book portfolio and SB Pro can do all of that. I'm still learning how to use it but thankfully, there are free video tutorials online that I'm watching done by the lovely and wonderful Sherm Cohen. My goal is to understand how to use the program by the end of this year and be able to do my next board on it. *FIST PUMP*
I ended up wearing the Pwnies shirt to church with my family on Christmas Sunday. Ironically, on the way there, I finally got the opportunity to update my religious status to my parents as an 'Agnostic Possibilian' and explained my stance that while I did once believe in Christianity, I feel that as I read more about science and history and studied everything on my own, I related a lot more to what science and history had to offer and less from the Bible. And the more I found out about how the Bible was compiled and how certain writings and stories were chosen and rejected, and even why certain things in the Bible was written, I grew more certain of my own change in direction and felt a lot more comfortable with myself. I've added the 'agnostic' to the Possibilian because I'm not completely ready to write off the supernatural just yet and I'm not extremely active in trying to test ideas, I just tend to stumble along and listen and view way too much British radio and television.
Anyway, it wasn't a dramatic talk at all and I think they're dealing with it the way they've dealt with everything else when it comes to me: smile and nod and hope that it's just a phase that I'm going through. It's how they've dealt with my continuing singleness, my fluctuating arts career, and my non-desire to have children. And Dad's not really a Christian either so it's just Mom who is the less difficult parent! \o/
But going to church is not boring, I can bring a sketchbook and draw people during the sermon, it's a nice thing I can do to make members of my family happy, and I struck a deal with my mom that I only have to go three times a year (Christmas, New Year's and Easter). I do have a mental list in my head of clauses that I can get up and leave during the service (if I happen to be in some sort of pain, or if anti-LGBT sentiments are brought up), but all in all, seems fine. I'm not there to start a fire or try to believe in something that I don't, I'm just there to make a few of the people I love happy. Of course it would make them happier if I became Christian again but they're just gonna have to deal like I do.
