~ChynaCat

Man, I SUCK at updating, huh? Hehe. Well, I really have no excuse.
I've been pixeling and manipulating like crazy, and I have even uploaded a few into my gallery. (Maybe later I'll come back and upload some more)

I guess we HAVE been pretty busy in RL...we are trying to move to Alabama, and so we've been packing and sending out resumes (well, not me but my hubby) looking for houses, getting this house fixed up and all that jazz. It's just time for us to get out of Florida, and it will be great to get closer to family.

We have been spending alot of freetime working on the yard lately. We made our own little secret garden in the back courtyard!
The front finally looks decent too. We found some pretty blooming flowers and some purple creeping ones, and the front walk way looks GOOOOOD. Let's see if I can keep these alive. I have the opposite of a green thumb. More like...an orange thumb.

Yeap, haven't really written anything in here for a while. Nothing much happens around here, really. LOL

I've been doing alot of manipulating...I'm completely obsessed with becoming as good at it as some of the artists here on DeviantArt. Not great at it yet, but Ima tryin'. Wish I had more time to practice at it. Heh. Life can be totally busy sometimes even though it seems like nothing is going on.

I was SO excited to see Sherrilyn Kenyon's new book was out. I am utterly crazy over those demigods, vampire hunters, and were hunters. I think this one is about a Skotos. Of course, that will take even more time away from art pratice; that is at least for the next few days.

Dang. I wish I had a subscription. I've been noticing how pretty are making these journals and such. Though I dunno if I could do that fancy CSS stuff...LOL

Thank you. I say good day.

Trying to upload a new avatar and the thing won't work. Yes, I looked up the problem in the Frequently Asked Questions, and apparently this happens all the time. Unfortunately, the suggestions they give to solve the issue aren't working for me. :/

*Sigh*

So recently my hubby's parent were in town for my daughters 5th birthday (OMG she was so spoiled-- I love it!) and they decided to take her (us) to one of the theme parks for a day of fun.

Of course we have all the Disney parks close by (and Universal Studios and all that) but we've been to them so many times and are always very unimpressed. Not that they aren't fun-- just rediculously over priced and always WAY too packed.

Anywhoo, we decided to make the drive over to Tampa to visit Busch Gardens Africa and WOW-- that place is great! The scenery is beautiful (it has that African Safari type feel throughout) the rides were so much fun (and the lines were never long) and the wild life is amazing. The park is great devoted to wildlife conservation which is very commendable IMO. Its like a zoo-- but not a zoo. The animals aren't in cages but rather have sprawling acres where they can live as if they are still in the wild. Really the only thing I was disappointed in was the area where the hippo was living. Why don't the hippos ever have nice areas like the rest of the animals? It just seemed small compared to all the other habitats. >_<

Other than the wonderful animals most of the rides were amazing. I'm such a thrill junkie-- so I jumped at the chance to ride a couple of floorless rollercoasters.

Hubby went on Montu with me-- it's one of the tallest and longest inverted roller coasters in the world. (meaning you HANG instead of riding seated on the track)

But he chickened out when it came to Sheikra-- 200 feet up, and then a drop 90 degrees straight down (and floorless) It even hangs you right above that 90 degree drop for 4 seconds. I went on this by myself. Wowza, what a rush!

Okay, so needless to say I am little irritated at the moment. It seems as though my photo manipulation of (celebrity) Jensen Ackles (made to look like a zombie) was removed due to copyright violation.

I really don't understand this considering the hundreds of celebrity blends, photomanips, and photo airbrushed deviations that are posted on DA everyday. Some of my favorite artists here have posted numerous deviations using celebrity photographs and have never had them removed.

So, it is okay to use pictures of celebrities if we simply put them in a collage and paint them with pretty brushes? Or...what about if we just paint over the whole picture with the airbrush tool? That is acceptable?

I apologize that I may be acting super defensive, but I just don’t understand how my first (and only) submission should be removed when countless others are allowed to use pictures of celebrities in any way they want.

And to whomever ‘told’ on me to have the submission removed...you know, screw you. I’m sure the person who took the picture of this actor wouldn’t give a rat’s baadonkadonk that I painted it to look like a walking dead. I’m sorry YOU have way too much time on your hands. I certainly wasn’t trying to take away any credit from the person that stood with the rest of the paparazzi and snapped a pic of Jensen.