I'm a troll...an MPH and DA troll

Dear reader,






During one of my way-too-numerous-to-be-healthy MPH trolling sessions, I came across this little book, 'Written on the Sky: Poems by the Japanese translated by Kenneth Rexroth' It's simply beautiful; a pocket-sized affair, with a single poem on each page. Even though it was so small, the contents didn't look crowded or cramped or anything; in fact, there was this elegant, minimalistic feel to it...lots of white space on each page. Of course, such a nice-looking book will inevitably come with an equally nice-looking price tag. I don't really remember the exact amount--I unconsciously block out things that are too traumatic for me--but it was something between RM 80 and RM 100. Yup. And as I was leafing through the pages, I couldn't help wondering who this Kenneth Rexroth was. On the flipside of the cover page was the small notation: other books by Kenneth Rexroth: 'Songs of Love, Moon & Wind: Poems from the Chinese'. I googled him, and it turns out he translated a French book or something into English as well. How many languages does this guy know anyway?

Anyway, there was this one haiku that I really liked...so I wrote it down. No, it's not cheating. It's not like I wrote down all the poems or anything. It's not copyright infringement either, smarty-pants reader. Not if you credit the author and stuff...I think. So here it is, I don't know what it's called...or if it even had a name to begin with

How long will it last?

I do not know

his heart.

This morning my thoughts are as tangled

    with anxiety

as my black hair.

- Lady Horikawa

             堀 

             川

             女

             后

Ahh~ So beautiful, don't you agree, dear reader? I just love those lines: This morning my thoughts are as tangled with anxiety as my black hair. Anyway. I got the kanji from--where else?--the almighty Google. And if you want to see an actual preview of the book, go here. 

Wow, I just realized...I've been so active lately. Blog-wise anyway. On the other hand, my DA account is suffering from gross negligence. The last time I submitted anything was in September. I'm planning on doing a Christmas piece, though. I've been searching through the archives of previous DA entries, you know, scrounging for inspiration. But all the Christmas pieces I could find were so...chaotic and crowded. A little bit too festive, if you get my drift. Either that, or they were fan art. The bad thing about making fan art is it's only appealing to the fans, not to the general public. There was one that I really liked, though. Really simple, without the usual Christmas gimmicks. It's called 'Christmas', drawn by pu. [love her name, haha] To go to her DA page, just click on the picture.

Maybe I'll do something like that. Simple, not too detailed or intricate, yet unmistakably Christmas-ey. I'll make it a challenge: draw something Christmas-ey without using too many elements commonly associated with Christmas. I won't draw a Christmas tree...I won't draw Santa...I won't use too much red or green...and absolutely no candy canes! We'll see how it turns out, dear reader.




So, this is it for now, dear reader. I'll see ya when I see ya. Til then, I remain...









Yours,





Figgy the Troll

This just in...

Dear Reader,

Just a quick post to say, "How're you doing?"; "Oh, I'm fine, thank you"; "What's new with you?"; and "Guess what! Guess what! I just uploaded a story onto DA!"

There are times when one simply must express one's feelings, or one would inevitably suffer from an emotional meltdown. Fortunately, this is not one of those times. I just thought it would be nice to inform you, dear reader, that my career as a fledgling author has now officially begun. You know, just give you a little heads up before you see my face plastered all over buses and bookstore display windows and TV screens. What? A girl can dream, can't she?

Anyway, like I said, I have just uploaded my first story onto DA. A truly exciting experience, if you must know. I actually have a few short stories from my old essay-writing days, all archived and organized neatly in my little pen drive. The reason I held back uploading them for so long was because I was afraid. Afraid of story thieves. Art thieves are bad enough, but story thieves...they're the absolute worst! The little plagiarisers!

Although DA does provide some sort of copyright law and story licence thingy that protects your stuff from being stolen by unimaginative dumbies who can't even make up a decent story by themselves, so they resort to pilfering and pillaging other people's blood, sweat and tears and passing it off as their own--wait, what was I saying again? Oh, right, copyright blah-blah-blah. But I still wasn't fully convinced, and I wasn't about to risk all my hard work on something that I wasn't 100% sure of. And then, last night, I finally decided to stop living in fear. No guts, no glory. No pain, no gain. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And so on and so forth.

Also, as an extra precaution, the story I submitted wasn't one of my best ones anyway. So, even if--God forbid--someone really does steal it, I won't be totally devastated. Severely annoyed, probably. Livid, perhaps. But not, like, in a homicidal fit of rage or anything.

Okay, I said this would be a quick post, so I should probably go now. See you later, dear reader. Til next time, I remain...

Yours,

Figgy the Fledgling

or Authoress-in-Training

P/S: Click this! You know you want to!

Busy, busy, busy...

Dear Reader,

Lately I've noticed my posts are getting shorter, fewer, and farther in between. They're no longer the loquacious, long-winded rants of former days. And although [I presume] the brevity of my recent posts might actually be more of a cause for celebration than of woe for you, my dear reader, I still feel that I've been neglecting my little Fig House. For once, I actually have a good excuse for my negligence...besides my acute inclination to lollygag, that is. I have been busy. Actually busy. Doing stuff. 

For one thing, I have been busy...drawing. Now that I've joined DA, I feel obliged to churn out artwork at an almost manic rate. Is there such a thing as a prolific artist? Because, if there is, that's what I am. At least, that's what I was until a few moments ago, when I took a short break to get reacquainted with you, my dear reader. And I hope I shall continue to be busy for a long time to come. Nothing like waking up with an unyielding sense of purpose to keep you grounded; it's the little piece of sanity of which I am sorely in need of. Therefore, if I seem inattentive or remiss in my blogging, I hope you'll forgive me, my compassionate reader. It's for the greater good, you see. I have to draw, or I shall go insane.

For another thing, I have been busy...reading. I am currently trying to read no fewer than three books at once. It's slow-going, as you can probably imagine. I just went book-shopping. Bought many, many books. As many as my budget would allow, anyway. The books I am trying to devour whole at present are 'Eragon' by Christopher Paolini, 'Hard Times' by [duh!] Charles Dickens and, surprisingly, 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire' by J. K. Rowling. 

Now, concerning 'Eragon'...I've always wanted to read Mr. Paolini's books. The fact that he started writing 'Eragon' at the tender age of 15 intrigued me. I wanted to see if his alleged writing prowess was really all it was cracked up to be. Pretty interesting so far. You can actually see his progress as the book...progresses. See his skills develop as the plot...develops. Yeah. Anyway, one thing's for sure: the movie is so different from the book. The book is so much more detailed and informative than the crummy movie was. And the characters were different as well. Totally different. *sigh* I hate it when someone decides to make a movie based on a book. The movie invariably turns out to be a complete disappointment.

As for 'Hard Times', well. It was written by Charles Dickens. Need I say more? Actually, I've read it before, a long time ago. But I never owned a copy of it until now. It's one of my life-long goals to be able to quote any given  Charles Dickens book at will. By passages.

Ah, 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'. I hate to say it, but--at risk of being included in the horde of Harry Potter idolaters--the rumours were true. The woman can write. I'm on the fourth book, so I can safely say that I have officially joined the J. K. Rowling fan club. I wonder what else she'll write about. Can't wait to read it, whatever it may turn out to be.

Well, that's it. No, seriously. What exactly do you mean by that, my insensitive reader? 'You don't sound busy at all', indeed! Believe you me, this amount of exertion on my part is no trifling matter. I don't have one industrious bone in my body. And if I do, it's sure to be a puny little thing; overshadowed by my enormous compulsion to be idle. However, with a little exercise, I hope my [nearly] non-existent industrious-ness will develop into something. Something large and all-consuming. Like a bush fire. Or an exceptionally full bladder.

Anyway, I shall take my leave now, dear reader. See you round the bend! Til then, I remain...

Yours,

Figgy the Busy, Industrious, Diligent, Occupied, Engaged, and...Generally Full of Activity

I have deviated

Dear Reader,

I presume you have been eagerly anticipating the appearance of my next post, so I'm sorry for its somewhat tardy arrival. I shall make up for my procrastinating ways by announcing that...I have a major announcement to make. 

I have finally, finally made a decision about something I've been thinking about doing for the past few months. After weeks of deliberation, hours of sleeplessness and considerable bowel discomfort, I have decided to...deviate. That is, I have [finally!] made up my mind to join deviantART.com. I'm sure you've heard of the site before, my techno-savvy reader, but in case you've been spending the last few years hiding under a rock on some desert island, let me fill you in on the details. 

Well, DA [as an honourary Deviant, I'm allowed to use the acronym... ;p] is an online community where artists from all over the world--aspiring and already-there--can post their works, receive feedback from their fellow deviants, and ultimately grow as an artist and improve their skills. There are just so many different forms of art, and all of them seem to be represented on DA. All the categories to choose from! There's photography, traditional art, digital art, manga/anime-style drawings, film and animation, cartoony-type art, literature...the list goes on. There's even a category called 'artisan crafts'. How cool is that? 'where ART meets application!' indeed.

I see you fail to grasp the importance of this announcement, dear reader. There you go, shaking your head in derision, thinking to yourself, 'Well? So what? This is hardly a dilemma'. My dear, dear reader. Have you ever actually been to DA? Have you seen the artwork there? I'm nowhere near to even touching that kind of quality and standard and...and...eminence. Yes, eminence.

Anyway, I took so long to make up my mind because, honestly, I was really intimidated by the sheer awesome-ness of all the artwork already on display. During my periodical reference-picture hunts, via Google Images, I would usually come across something from DA. Almost invariably. So, pretty soon, I'd just skip the Google Images part and go straight to DA if I ever needed some inspiration on a particularly difficult piece.

The thing is, my preferred media is the plain ol' pencil and paper. I'm pretty old-fashioned that way. But, my scanner broke. Beyond all hope of repair. Having said that, I do in fact have in my possession a tablet and pen tool, thus enabling me to doodle straight into the computer.But I'm still new at it, so my drawings look a bit funny. I'm still a noob at colouring. And I suck at backgrounds. In fact, I don't do backgrounds. My backgrounds are all blank.

I'm sorry if this post is sending a whiny and complainy and I'm-just-not-good-enough-poor-me kind of vibe, my dear reader. It's...it's just an abysmal, jarring, and extremely humbling feeling when you realize you're not as good as you thought you were.

I'll get over it, I hope. And there's always room for improvement. Oh, man...when I look through some of the drawings I did a few years ago, I cringe at all the flaws and all the mistakes I've made. Especially in anatomy. So embarrassing. *shudders* Yes, there's always room for improvement.

The point is, I've taken the plunge. I've joined DA. Now all I have to worry about is my compulsive tendency to dilly-dally. Speaking of dilly-dallying, I should be going now. There's something I should've finished doing already. Like, yesterday. So, until next time, I remain...

Yours,

Figgy the Deviant

P/S: Here's the link to my DA page. Just click here!