slr2moons

Of all the higher math I learned in high school (and there was a lot of it. All the way through Calculus BC) the one formula I have used the most in my adult life, by far, is calculating ratios.

Tonight I used it to find how many pixels "2 points" is at 300 dpi. Points are the classic measurement for font size from the printing industry, still in use today. But all the conversion charts and conversion sites gave the answer in 72 dpi, which is what a digital screen displays. To find the answer at 300 dpi, I had to set up a ratio and solve for X:

2.67 pixels (2 points at 72 dpi) / 72 dpi = x / 300 dpi

Wheee! The answer is 11.125 pixels. I needed this information for my next T-shirt design, which is coming along. And if my answer is wrong, do please LMK. I need the right info...

I suppose 2nd place in higher math usage IRL would be calculating cubed space. Although once, ages ago, I had to remind my father (electrical engineer) and maternal uncle (aircraft designer) about the Pythagorean Theorem when they were trying to figure out the measurements for a corner shelf in my dad's home office. NGL, I had a bit of fun at their expense. XD

Better late than never! Here is my latest natural nail mani, from early December '20. I used the jelly sandwich method to give depth to the lower snowflakes. With this method, you paint over the art you want to appear less clearly using a transparent polish--known as a jelly polish. Then you paint the next layer of art on top of the dried jelly layer. Continue until you're satisfied!

Polish used, right hand: base is Sally Hansen gel polish "wine not", jelly polish is Essie "Knotty or Nice", white base and art is OPI polish "Alpine Snow", green art: see left hand.
Polish used, left hand: base is OPI polish "AmazON, AmazOFF", jelly polish is Pacifica "Mermaid", white art and red art is same as right hand.

( Nail art below cut! )

Some of you already know, but for the past two years, I've been enjoying nail art. Both admiring of others' works, and making my own!

When I was a kid, I wanted pretty pink nails. But unfortunately, my nails are genetically paper-thin. My sister's nails are paper-thin, my mom's, my maternal grandmother's, and I'm sure pretty much all the previous women on my mother's side, going back generations. :P My nails are so thin, once they have an 8th of an inch of length, I can bend them down 90 degrees and they'll snap back up into place. Usually without breaking at all. (Now, my father's nails are CLAWS. Stiff, strong, will happily grown to half an inch and stay that way if they aren't trimmed. This frustrates me to no end, because of course he doesn't do anything with them. ARGH. If only I'd inherited his lovely nail genes!!!!!!1!!! *headdesk*)

Aside from being pretty much useless as tools, thin nails do not wear nail polish well. Nail polish is stiff, without much bend at all. And when something stiff is applied over a flexible base, it breaks and chips. Quickly. A manicure on my thin and weak natural nails will last two days at most, if I don't baby it. If I do baby it--wear gloves whenever washing dishes or taking a shower or anything else that involves heavy hand work--they can last a week. This is frustrating, especially when most nail polish brands brag about lasting for weeks. Sure, polish can last--on a strong natural nail. On weak bendy ones??? No brand will. :C

Finally realizing that my nails are the exception to the norm, I did a random google about how fake nails worked. And that opened up a huuuge new world! XD Here is the link to my favorite nail guru, Suzie of Nail Career Education.

For anyone who doesn't know how fake nails work, the traditional way is to sculpt them. You have an acrylic powder, a liquid monomer. Combine the two on the tip of a paintbrush, put the resulting wet blob on a nail, and shape it into place before it dries. Add more blobs if needed. It hardens within a couple of minutes. Then use nail files to grind it into the final shape and smoothness. Apply polish!

The above is obviously simplified, but that's it in a nutshell. And this is what I've been practicing. :3 See below!



These are my first four attempts at sculpting nails. As Jenna Marbles teaches us, trying to sculpt your first acrylic nails attempts on your own hand--or someone else's--is not wise. So I bought 10 plastic practice fingers off Amazon. I've set a rule for myself to complete my first 10 sculpted nails on these fingers before I will consider applying any acrylic to my own. Safety first!

Controlling the thickness of the nail is difficult. And it sounds funny, but I forget just how small you have to work! All those nail vids are filmed zoomed waaaay in, and the nails look positively huge. But in reality, you're working on a tiny surface. O.o It definitely takes practice.

But I am improving! I did two the nails on the right of the pic above last night, and I definitely see improvement. :3 Applying acrylic to my natural nails comes ever closer! And then, one day, I too will have strong, long, beautifully painted nails. *happy sigh*

I'll be sharing some nail art pics in the future, for fun. ^^V I do enjoy painting my natural nails, as weak as they are. It's still satisfying to create wearable art!! XD

I knew my condo-buying adventure was going too easily. My realtor called today to say the underwriter is unhappy with the appraisal. :C Apparently this is a very rare thing. (Personally, when it comes to beating the odds, I'd rather win the lottery.) He's going to call tomorrow after he's talked more with the loan officer, but I might end up having to use a different bank or mortgage company. Nrrrrrrrgh. *headdesk* And here I thought I was almost done with this chore. *sigh*

Hi, everyone. Yes, I vanished again. *sighs* I certainly didn't WANT to. *headdesk*

The past few weeks have been interesting, in that Chinese curse way. In the past week alone: I'm 3/4ths through the process of buying a condo. (SO MUCH PAPERWORK GAH) Estimated taxes #4 were due on Friday (I am le broke now), the annual apartment inspection for water leaks and potential meth labs is Monday (which means I have to deep clean this weekend UGH), my right-side work monitor finally died and I bought another new one to match the recently replaced left monitor (see le broke note), and this weekend was a local convention I wanted to attend with a friend, but had to cancel because of everything else going on. >< (I had my Agatha from Girl Genius cosplay mostly ready, too. Wig and trilobite pin and all.)

And work is hanging heavy over me, as usual. Annnnd I've been 25-75% sick throughout it all. Fun times.

I want to post this now, so I don't put it off any longer. GAH.

More tomorrow or Monday. If I don't follow through with that, please poke me. Seriously, I miss posting!!!

I stopped posting here and on FB both, when Spicer-kitty was gone. IDK. I just didn't feel like talking much. Life has been okay since then. This summer has yet to be a disaster like the previous three, though the ending is going to be a bit dicey thanks to work.

( Temporary kitty, flying back to TX for a wedding this weekend, work update for all my titles, and a developed tweak to my manga method. )

One page at a time. *deep breath in and out* And on that note, back to work for me.

Yesterday I was able to attend winnett's birthday party, and much fun was had. I had my first ever martini (strawberry, b/c I like the sweet fruity drinks), and then we went to box karaoke.

For those who don't know, box karaoke is karaoke in a private room, where only the people in your group can hear you sing. (None of that embarrassment by singing in front of a huge room of drunk strangers!) I haven't been to box karaoke since leaving Texas. My friends back home knew of a place in Korea Town in Dallas, and we went there three or four times. I had no idea box karaoke was in Portland, but I am muchly pleased.

And yes, I am going back! XD

The karaoke place has their song list online, and I made up a list of all the songs I wanted to sing. I was able to do most of them, too! I only ordered one drink there, for I am a lightweight. IDR the name, but it was some form of sake + plum or plum sake. Delicious. :9

I danced and sang without reservations, likely due to my two drinks. *laughs* It was so much fun!!! Winnett and her BF were the only two people there that I already knew. The other five seemed quite nice, though! I think I made a new friend, who sent me a friend request on FB. (Alas, she isn't on LJ, like so many people these days.) We sang for three hours, and they pretty much had to kick us out. XD The final song was one specifically requested by the birthday girl, Weird Al's "Yoda". I practiced it just for last night! ^^V

Getting home was interesting. I rode the train in so I wouldn't have to worry about being sober enough to drive--and wouldn't have to bother with parking. Which was a VERY good idea last night, as Portland was hosting THREE different professional sports games. Hockey, basketball, and soccer. ^^;;; The train we saw pass by at my train stop to go home was already full from the hockey and basketball games, which happened on the other side of the river. The soccer game (right next door to the train station) was winding down, and ended as we were waiting for the train. And waiting for the train. And waiting and waiting, as more and more people piled out of the stadium and were waiting with us. (Winnett and her BF kindly walked me to the train stop and waited with me.)

At this point, with the train not coming and the masses of people who wanted to board said missing train growing and growing, I began to have memories of 4th of July '13, when I watched the fireworks with book club friends in downtown Portland. The masses of people all leaving the fireworks show at the same time, the super-crowded trains, all meant I didn't get home un 4 AM. yes, it took me FIVE HOURS to get home by train. D:

I asked if Winnett would drive me home, b/c GAH. Thankfully she agreed! Whew! So the three of us tromped the mile and a half or so to their place, and after a short food and water break, they kindly drove me home. OMGYAY. They also met Kakashi. :3 (Alas, Spicer was not in the mood to say hi to strangers.)

Today, I am sore from all the dancing, my voice is rough, and I am very very tired. But it was worth it!! Like I said above, I definitely want to go back. YEAH!

Almost two months since my last update. So much for being the change and posting more, huh? Ugh.

Okay, so...

tl:dr: I have been very busy lately. Lots of stress. Staying in my current apartment for almost another year. Spicer is not doing well. Work is crazy-busy. Haven't been able to do anything creative since Yuletide.

( The whole nine yards, for those not yet given in to the influence of the brief-content platforms of FB, twitter, and tumblr. )

These days it's all work-work-work for me, but in this bought of Work Hell, I gave myself two days off. The first was for book club, and the second was for queenie-mab's Halloween party. Which was last night!

( Party summary! )

I came home with full intentions to work (I did a pink Voice page before the party, actually!), and I sat in front of my computer monitors, checked my email, blinked, and 45 minutes had vanished. I was SO TIRED. I flopped in bed a good two hours early. ^^;;

This morning I only slept in a little, and made myself exercise for real. I did a loop through my residential neighborhood and walked one minute, jogged the next, walk, jog, etc. Half an hour long, and I didn't cheat! But OMG I am so out of shape. *wince*

I've been pretty much a zombie (and not in the fun costume way) all day. The running on top of exhausting myself yesterday at the party has really put a dent in my productivity. I'll finish my Clay daily quota tonight, but it's gonna be tight. At least the pink page for the day is done. Poor Voice has to wait until tomorrow. Again.

I signed up for Yuletide!!!! XD This is the one fanfic exchange I let myself participate in every year, and those of you who have been around a while know how much I LOVE IT. My letter has been public for about two weeks. You can find it here! I would not object to a treat or three...

I'm requesting the full six fandoms, as usual. Four manga (all which I've lettered!), one movie, and one short story. I've been stalking the sign-up stats so far, and only the movie, the short story, and one of the manga titles has anyone offering to write. It's early days yet, though! (But now I think about it, poor Clay didn't have any offers last year. That will probably be true again this year. I suppose I'm the only English-language Isley fan...T.T)

Last year I went crazy and offered to write for 28 different fandoms. This year, I'm keeping things under control. I've offered only 10 this year (7 anime or manga, 1 live-action, and 2 comics). But TBH I'm reconsidering the live action and one of the anime titles. I'd like to see the letters for those, first.

I've made a promise to write at least one treat in addition to my assignment, and I had a flaily fit of joy today when I read someone's letter and FOUND IT! The request I want to treat!! *flails more* I've been wanting to write a fic about that character for several years, and they were requested by someone whose fanfic wishes seem to mesh well with me!!! Ohhhhhhh!! XD

I am SO excited. I am offering this canon, though, so there's a slight chance I could be matched to this person anyway. Which would mean my treat would become my assignment, and I've have to find a 2nd person to write for. ^^;; But I'll deal with that if it happens, which it probably won't! This fandom is a Yuletide fave, and always has a ton of offers. That means low odds I'll be matched. *clutches her treat's notes file to her breast* I have another episode to take notes on, then find the corresponding manga chapters and read those, too. Heeeee! :3

YULETIDE! I LOVE THEE SO!!!!! But for now, back to work. I need to finish my daily Clay quota. (Alas, Isley I miss you. If only you were still alive...)

ETA: OMG, someone offered to write Clay!! *tears of joy* Thank you, kind writer, should you see this!! I am delighted by the possibility of receiving Isley fic this year! XDDDD

As the subject says, I survived.

I've been sleeping a great deal this weekend, no doubt to make up for the continuous stress I've been under for the month before the trip, and the work-week immediately after, when I had three deadlines due on the 26th. Speaking of, Seraph vol 4 is completely finished, Skip vol 34's first draft is done, and so is the first volume of Requiem.

( Lots of words and some pics! below the cut )