see, parents? we have left the house!

Above: I am teaching my cat the names of her toys. She is an attentive pupil, though her verbal participation is, frankly, lacking.

Hey everybody! Here's some pictures of stuff.

Swans live here. They are big. Daniel took this hilarious picture:

This portrait is located in the big-box UK craft store by our house. We were confused, but...delighted.

Pictures from a walk along the back road to downtown:

This frog is enjoying the "finest weed in the Shire," no doubt.

 

Aaaand we have a very impressive art-wall now! 

Sorry for the lack of pictures of Daniel! He is such a camera hog. 

There's no real "reason" for me to blog today, because I have a million things I'm working on and also I'm mentally exhausted by the past few days, but maybe no reason is the best reason! So, let's see what my brainmouth poops out:

How do people feel about Modafinil? I am currently treating my assortment of weird sleep problems (including being tired every day from about 1pm to 6pm no matter how many/few hours I sleep) by POWERING THROUGH like the hardcore lady I can occasionally be. I'm still tired, but I pretend like I'm a three year old and just run around every time I'm sleepy. It works alright. The last two days were extremely productive! But today I am really, really tired. Too bad! More running! Hm. I've tried a cocktail of vitamins to help both with my quality of sleep and quality of wakefulness, buuuut my results are pretty non-conclusive. Or maybe my results ARE conclusive, in that they conclude that the vitamins didn't do poo. I would probably be a vampire/full-fledged night owl if I could, but small town life is not really conducive to that kind of schedule keeping. The bars close at midnight here. Midnight! On Fridays! Anywho, Modafinil is appealing for these reasons. Downsides: I don't know, it's a pharmaceutical drug--theoretically those are "bad"? For reasons? Haha, I'm looking at the list of common side-effects on Wikipedia, and those already all apply to me, so it can't make my baseline feelings any worse, right? (that's a rhetorical question, I'm not stupid, please don't answer that)

Mmmm, I named all of the cat's toys and am attempting to teach her their names by holding them in front of her face and saying them over and over and over and...etc. This is one of those frivolous experiments that I know will end in failure, but I find it entertaining. Teaching your cat English is much cheaper than going to a movie, folks.

I bought some new glasses on BonLook! They should be sending them to me soon. I am excited. They are "grown-up" glasses for when I want to be presentable at events, or in public generally. I love my current glasses, of course, buuuut they don't really pair as well with dresses as they do with sweatpants. I love me some sweatpants, but I also love to use my eyeballs when I'm wearing fancy trousers. Trousers. heh.

Yeaaaahhh that's about all I got. I'm not gonna talk long-windedly about il Papa, or the VM kickstarter (except to say that I donated to it, so you can probably draw your own conclusions about my opinion on the matter), or how sad I am about Google Reader going away, because those things--and the commentary surrounding them*--probably account for why I am so tired today, and are definitely why I drank half a bottle of wine last night.


Now: need more tea. I am NOT ALLOWED TO NAP. bleghhhh


*ALL OF THESE HAPPENED IN THE SAME DAY, so, I experience pretty intense mental overload. Ughhh. Too much for me, man. My mental computer had to be restarted. As you can tell, my poor brainputer is not, as of yet, back to full-functioning.

Call to My Writing Peeps! Re: Twitter

Writing friends: I've been waiting a long time to write this blog post.

I don't have to tell you how much I love Twitter--everybody has heard me yak about its merits--but let me tell you about this dream I have: a dream in which all of my writer friends and mentors are on Twitter, and we form a witty community that is always open to each other and loving to those who follow us.

The comics and illustrating community already has this DOWN. They are tight-knit and funny but also extremely thoughtful about, and critical of, the state of their art as a whole. Those I most admire are both honest and warm.* Since the field of (web)comics is new (comparatively), they have the advantage of naturally incorporating things like Twitter into their work and personal lives.

We literary writers hail from an older art and therefore we are sometimes slower to adapt and grow. Twitter is not just about posting pictures of your dinner (although, let's be real, if you're eating something fabulous, I'd love to see it) or your pets (again, though, our pets are part of our lives, so you won't hear me complain about endless puppy faces and snuggly cats), it's about showing your true self within the very creative confines of 140 characters or less.

If you're not sold yet, just think about all the people you could be conversing with on a human--and not a fan-letter or PR--level: Jeanette Winterson (a vocal advocate of Twitter), Amy Tan, Cheryl Strayed, LeVar Burton, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Neil Gaiman, etc etc. And that's not even touching on comics/graphic novel writers and musicians, who are extremely well represented. So, to end my little blurb: get on Twitter, writers. It's a place to muse over The Art of Writing and show people that we're real humans and not uppity snobs that are above making poop jokes on the internet. It's exactly because of its constraints, and the creativity a little bit of structure allows, that it's a better network than Facebook.

My Twitter account is pretty particular, but I like it, and I don't plan on changing the things I talk about if I ever get (even sort-of) famous. I like to think that my openness creates immediate intimacy, and I very much show my flaws. It's always been helpful to me to know that successful (however we define that) people struggle with depression, tell funny jokes, have bad days, eat cute cupcakes, have good days, miss their families, hang out with their friends, etc. I like to think that by showing all these sides of me, with the benefit of Twitter's succinctness and spontaneity, I can show other people that struggle is ok, and that happiness--when you find it--is a thing worth celebrating with the whole world.

So here's my Twitter. Follow if you'd like! Or just use me as a conduit for exploring how it works.
@killianczuba




Obligatory warning: I don't usually swear, but sometimes I do, so, you know, use discretion if you're against that, etc.



*Any time I tweet at Marlo Meekins or Madéliene Flores, I get a response. A human, appreciative response.
Imagine when you have a little bit of a following and someone tweets a compliment to you, and you favorite it immediately: you will make their day. Heck, you could make a devotee for life. I don't know these people personally, but I seriously admire their work and find them hilarious and real (i.e. not a robot or a preach machine or just a PR blurber), and by giving me even the slightest recognition, I become a more outspoken admirer. Witness: me linking them on my blog