Let’s see if I can wrap all of what happened in July into one sentence: I went to Missouri and had a great time, came back and met a hot kick-ass chick named Jennifer, started going out and having fun again, played video games a lot less, my little sister gave birth to the precious little boy, and my cat Raphael is even more awesome.

If you are into pop or electronica at all you must watch the fierceness that is Lady Gaga in her mini-film The Fame, which is the name of her upcoming debut album. I’ve watched it three times, warning there is a little nudity which I fully enjoyed.

Also check out The Faint on myspace, their electro-rock tracks will have your head bobbing and leave you wondering why you like it.

Listening To: “The Geeks Were Right” by The Faint
Playing: Nothing
Eating: Chewing gum, orbitz bitches!

When death rears it’s ugly head, I’m usually not sure how to deal with it. Two weeks ago, my great-gran passed and I tried to not show my emotions then but they kind of came out at the funeral. She was a wonderful and kind woman and also retained her sense of humor and with her also being a Virgo like myself, we always shared a laugh. She battled years of diabetes and also strokes in the last couple years but managed fight it to live to the age of 96.

Then I just heard today that my favorite artist, Michael Turner passed away on Friday and tears instantly flowed. I didn’t know Michael personally, but had hoped to meet him at an upcoming WizardCon, even if it was just to tell him what an inspiration he was. Rest in peace Michael. The majority of my comic collection is of his art. I’ve been following his drawing career since I was in High School and he was an inspiration to me artistically; then later I was inspired by his spirit as he battled cancer off and on during his career. The cancer came back full force a couple months back, but Michael was still strong. He was only 37. I can’t put into words how much his art and life has affected mine and it will probably seem weird to some people but I don’t care.

Funny thing is I think I’m crying not just for him but also for my great-gran; some kind of pent up emotion that I’ve been trying to keep inside. Losing two people, one I’ve know all my life and another who I’ve never met but BOTH have inspired me their wisdom and gifts of their own.

So to these two great people, rest in peace, and thank you.

Eh, it’s Monday again, but I kept it interesting with organizing my comic collection! I’ve been collecting these buggers since I was about 4, or 5 maybe. They intrigued me even then and I know for a fact they are the key reason why I was an excellent reader at a young age. Not only that, they also helped me learn different styles and techniques of art, lessons I’m still improving upon to this day.

I actually slacked off on collecting comics and action figures for about 3 or 4 years, and just recently started getting back into them. Part of the problem is the comics and action figures have been stowed away in boxes for the last 4 years - mainly because I didn’t want guests or prospective lovers to think I was a nerd. My recent Sac Con attendance made me realize what I was missing and so I decided “hell, I’ll do whatever makes me happy.” So yesterday Rob and I went to the West Sacramento iKEA (I love that store) and I purchased two identical bookcases and then put them together last night. A note to my upstairs neighbor - sorry for the hammering at 11pm.

Today I brought all of my comics and action figures out of the closet *heh*. I came across a cool site that let’s you track and manage your comic collection for free: Comic Book Realm.com. They already have huge database of comics, so more than likely if you own it, it’s in there - and if not, you can add it! After populating my profile with my 115 comics, I added them to the bookcases, along with my action figures. I put my MVPs (most valuable) on the top shelf.

Buy new expensive high heel shoes or boots? Do you know how many video games you could buy! Buy a new purse for over 300 bucks? Do you know how many CGC graded comics that is!! Yeah… proof below that I am not and will never be your typical female - and that makes me happy.

My Toys - I actually had more than this, but some got lost the last time I moved.

All finished!

My 6 favorites and most valuable are at the top, two are signed.

Lots of Tomb Raider stuff

Well I ended up completing my Batman sketch, w00t!

Listening To: Just Dance (Lady Gaga)

Another weekend came and gone, but it was pretty good. Got to watch some UFC with Beth on Saturday and then went to Sac Con on Sunday with Rob and Timm. For those who don’t what the Sac Con is, it’s a comic convention held every couple months here in Sacramento. If you didn’t know I was on that level of nerdiness, now you do! Comics have been a part of my life since I began to read when I was little, and also helped in developing my drawing skills.

I haven’t really drawn much over the recent years but a visit to a Comic con will definitely stir up some inspiration. Also I found a book on my favorite artist, Michael Turner! it was 20 bucks and well worth it. I can add it next to my Boris Vallejo art book (another favorite artist of mine).

After the Comic con, Rob and I went and saw Kung Fu Panda, which I thought was funny. I’d give it 3 out of 5. I had planned on going to bed early, but started reading my Michael Turner book which contains every Comic cover he’s ever done, as well as sketches and inner-page art. After reading the whole thing I had a familiar itch in my right hand - and that only happens when I feel like drawing. I wasn’t originally going to draw Batman, it just started out as a man’s body, and Batman seemed like a good character to turn it into. Not shabby for not having drawn people in forever, the last thing I drew was a few days ago and it was for my tattoo that I’m getting hopefully next weekend. I may do more to this sketch, not sure yet.

Listening To: The TV
Playing: Nothing
Eating: It’s 1:40am and I’m starving, wtf???

Ooooh yeahhh - this is the next big movie for me. I’m a huge Angelina Jolie fan for those that don’t know, and Wanted combines her along with flashy CGI effects and gunslinging. June 27th ya’ll!

My replacement Xbox 360 unit arrived yesterday! So now I’m back on Xbox Live and hopefully this Xbox will last longer than my previous one.

Also exactly a month from today I’ll be on my week long vacation in Missouri! That may not sound exciting to most people but that’s because you don’t party like I do! Plenty of embarrassing photos will be shown as evidence when I return.

Now I’ve been debating what I’m going to do with my custom built PC the next couple months, one thing I considered was to completely swap out the AMD Processor & Motherboard and make the switch back to Intel. I’ve been using AMD products for years but Intel has definitely re-established themselves with the Core 2 Duo line. However, in addition to having to buy the new processor , I’ll have to purchase a completely new motherboard and new memory, as my current memory DDR speed will not be adequate with an Intel Core 2 Duo-based motherboard.

So I can either spend the money on that OR go with my other idea, and buy a Mac! I haven’t decided on whether I want a desktop machine or a laptop but it would be nice to be able to use something other than Windows, especially when it comes to using my graphics apps. I’d still have my PC hooked-up and running here under my desk in either case. If anyone has a Mac I’d like to hear your Pros and Cons about them are.

Listening To: Let’s Do Something Different (Boys Night Out)
Playing: Nothing
Eating: Nothing

All you huntards out there will like this - and I can say since my main is one. A James Bond-esque look at the alliance PVP, this extremely well edited video is done by Neal who I used chat with on some FFXI board many moons ago. As did I, he moved onto the crack that is WoW and used his uber video skills to put together some cool stuff.

So if you look at my Akismet spam counter in the lower right corner, you can see a lot of spam hits this blog - and then I realized today I didn’t have a robots.txt file down this submdomain *doh*. So hopefully with one there now that will help to block stupid bots from crawling this directory.

So the rumor is that Apple is coming out with a 3G version of the iPhone along with a new firmware release in either June or July. I love my iPhone and I’m not griping about not having a 3G version (all current iPhones use At&t’s EDGE network if WiFi is not available) but I do wish that Apple would hurry up with some features or fixes to the current iPhone OS. My wishlist is as follows:

• Instant Messaging: there’s webapps out there that can sort of simulate IM, but that’s not good enough, there needs to be a built-in application, whether it be iChat or something else.
• MMS Ability: Currently if someone sends me a Multi-Media-Message (ie, a photo) you have to go to At&t’s viewmymessage.com to retrieve it. It’s a pain in the butt and I usually never go and retrieve my messages.
• iPhone to PC sync: If I download a song via iTunes on my iPhone, I can’t transfer to my PC’s iTune library, now that’s just full of SUCK
• More Widget Apps: These are probably forthcoming from Apple and other companies utilizing the iPhone SDK, but it would be great if more useful widgets were available - for example, I have absolutely no use for the “Stocks” widget that comes with the iPhone. What I would have use for is a cool RSS Reader widget so I can quickly view my favorite feeds. I do like the Youtube widget app, but it would benefit from extra features, such as allowing you to login to view your favorite videos or channels.
• Contact grouping: Since the Google Maps widget app and contacts can be used in tandem (directions to a Contact’s address can be displayed in a few taps) it would be great to be able to organize contacts. For example, I have family, friends, business folks and my favorite restaurants in my phone, both so I can call or get directions. Currently you can only order by the ascending or descending of the first and last name of the contact.

Current Song Addictions: I Kissed a Girl (Katy Perry), Shake It (Metro Station), Realize (Colbie Caillat)
Playing: my IPhone/Ipod
Eating: Chips!!!

This is one of my favorite videos from years ago, I can watch it ten times in a row and still laugh like crazy.. Go ahead and watch again and again, you know it’s funny.