Killian's Blog/Website/Whatever

Last Monday, my mom and I went to Value Village. I got some sweet flannel shirts and this: I don't know if you can tell how ugly this jewelry box was, but it was so ugly--and a little broken. However, when I saw this in the "house stuff" section of Value Village for $6, I fell in love with it and knew it must be mine. This is something that DIY Bloggers do regularly--thrifting and then making their finds glamorous--but I admit, I've never had this urge before. Hell yes, I buy stuff at Goodwill like always (mugs! the cutest mugs! and tea pots! swoon!), but never things that can't be used immediately. I'm not the most patient person when it comes to acquiring new pretties. This little jewel box was different, though. I knew exactly how it was meant to look... Like this : Four days, a little sanding, three coats of paint, hours of tedious fabric-gluing, and two coats of varnish later, it's my beautiful little treasure chest!  See that ugly ...

Hey guys. It's been a while. That happens to me every now and again--I go from having a million things to say, to having nada. See:  any of these . Oddly enough, I've slept through the night--and fallen asleep in less than an hour--for, like, 10 nights in a row. This is what I call a "good time". I don't know how long it will last, or why it's happening (miracle? because I can't identify a single lifestyle change in the past two weeks), but I'm gonna roll with it. Maybe it's the extra daylight? Who knows! I get lucky sometimes. It's all cyclical, though; soon enough, I'll be hitting the Anxious Insomnia/Paranoia Stage, followed a month or so later by Nightmare Time, then Depressed Daytime Napping and complimentary Depressed All-Night Insomnia, and then, finally, Miracle Sleep Time. It's like unpredictable clockwork--the time frames for each vary, but that's pretty consistently the pattern they follow. Interestingly enough, I was...

I've reached a decision. I'd say it's tentative, but considering the necessity of my making an official choice in the next, oh, five days, I have to admit it's not really all that up-in-the-air. So here's what's rollin': I'm going to Pacific next year. Still no idea what city we'll be living in, but there you have it--the perk of a low-residency program: ultimate location flexibility. So what about the comics thing? Well, it's not as though I'm going to stop making them. Psh. As if. Also, Daniel said that, in a couple years (once I'm done with the first MFA), if I still feel like pursuing studies at the CCS, he'll gladly move to Vermont with me. Hooray! So it's still on the table for the future. Fantastically, I imagine that the craft tips I'll get through studying at Pacific will apply directly to comics, as well; a big part of Visual Storytelling is the "storytelling". There you have it. And I wouldn't ...

Today was not my emotional best, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I got a lot of stuff done. Did some writing (real, true blue fiction with no computer distractions), finished a new comic ( view here , at your leisure), and I've been slamming down chapters of Oscar Wao* (my second time indulging--just as absolutely, insanely excellent as it was when I read it in 2008) like whiskey after finals. Not too shabby. It's important for me to keep busy this week, since it's Acceptance Blow-Up Time. Everybody is losing their pants over grad school decisions** and I am no exception. I was accepted by Pacific (in OR) yesterday, and it felt WONDERFUL--for about two hours. For some reason, I just can't feel proud of myself. Yes, I worked my butt off, and yes I think I'd enjoy going there, but the Michener rejection has gotten itself wedged in my throat. Not in the way you'd think, though. So, a girl on the MFA draft page got accepted at Michener yesterday--for f...

Got some good brainstorming in this morning--though, as the day creeps ever onward, I find myself growing more and more skeptical of what seemed like an amazing plan this morning. If I wake up tomorrow morning for Brainstorming: Round 2 and it, again, seems like a good idea, then I'll stop talking myself out of it and give it a try. Relatedly--i.e as a direct result of my brainstorm subjects--I got to thinking about what I will here refer to as Writing of the Times. Or we could use the German term (because they have nice, digestible words for all sort of long-winded ideas): zeitgeist .* My general opinion of contemporary (I'm going to further this by adding "white" and/or possibly "male") American fiction that falls into this zeitgeist category is: I don't like it. Subconsciously, I think, I've turned myself against the whole idea of writing the next Great American Novel because I haven't liked any of them for quite some time. Now, this may be ...

Productive news!: I finally got all of my otter comics (official comic title: Eat That Fish) situated on their own little site. They've been retro-dated and tagged with key-words for ease. It's pretty fun to look at them in order and all in one place. If you want to read them, go here:  http://eatthatfish.tumblr.com/ . Might want to bookmark it (I recommend Google Reader/your RSS feed of choice, or tumblr, as is handy), as I probably won't tell you guys on here every time it updates, and I'm not yet coordinated enough to say something insane like "updates every T/Th!". That is too much to expect from me. I mean, I don't even get around to putting on grown-up clothes every day. Sometimes I just eat sauerkraut for meals. This is not what a coordinated adult looks like. Death, from my comic Writing comics has become my source of therapy. It's free, if you don't include paper and pen costs. Even then: does not cost me $100 an hour, and you don...

Guys. Guys. I've been feeling some feelings lately. I have not been blogging regularly. I'm sorry. I will think of something nice to say this week. In the meantime, here are some pictures of things. Joan of Arc was tattooed on my arm. It has given me +10 toughness, as you can see. Then my hair was dyed red, as you can see. This exact picture (obviously not taken at my salon) is my dad and I* at a wine bar in P-town where my aunt Jean was singing with her band, 21June. They're recording an album! Swank. Well, would you look at that! Here's the band! This is my mama (on the right) and our neighbor Karen, enjoying the music, wine, and fun conversation. A lot of our family attended--we couldn't even get everyone into a single picture because we tend to spread out like...moss, or a very endearing rash. Back at home: Daniel models a hat I made. In this shot, he is demonstrating how a lumberjack cuts down a tree. I did go here last week, an...