Hello! This is my sort of comment-to-be-added-sticky-post for 2012.
My journal is not locked and you are most welcome to quietly read all my posts or comment on any of them. I don't approve of censorship. I prefer openness. Even when I run the risk of sharing too much. Despite my occasional use of harsh language and posts about sensitive or personal subjects, I chose to not put a teen or adult warning on my journal. This is my life. You may choose to ignore it, but I will not censor myself.
Please leave a comment if you add me and would like me to check out your journal. I like to keep my flist managable, but if we have things in common, I probably will want to keep an eye on you;)
Check out my profile & bio for more background information on me and my journal.
CURRENT FANDOMs
I'm a moderator for the
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif?v=92){kind=small}
nickngreg community and I make artwork in the Supernatural fandom.
Here's a masterlist of my artsy creations:
( ARTWORK RPS SPN )
To remind myself there is more to life than being online,
I keep my booklist at the top of my LJ. That's ironic, Alanis.
( What I'm reading in 2012 )
What I read in 2011 / 2010 / 2009 / 2008
My book reviews (alphabetized!) / You can find my latest reviews in readingcommunity
thej2beeHappy Reading! ~ J.
Tomorrow I have an appoinment at the Legal Aid office, they can hopefully check if the objection letter I wrote is sufficient enough for the (un)employment agency. My arguments need to be sent there on Wednesday at the latest, then I'm back to waiting for the next step. Of course I'm hoping they won't give my boss permission to cut my hours, but I also need to be prepared if they do. I'm trying to take it one step at the time, but I hate not being in control of this situation. *pouts*
In between worrying I tried to make some sketches for my BigBang claim, but it was hard to focus on fun.
I need distractions, anyone got any fic-recommendations? I'd love to read some sweet romance between pretty boys or handsome men. (Mindless porn would work too;)
After a bad night on Thursday, I decided to call in sick on Friday, to give my body and brain some much needed rest. (My body still hasn't decided on the time of the month; pre-menopause sucks balls). I slept a little, did some preliminary research concerning my job and comforted myself with fanfiction. In the late afternoon I cycled to my mum who had my sister in law and my nephew Ruben over for a two day visit. (My brother was in Spain for a conference) Ahw, Ruben walks now! He's such an adorable boy:) All the cuddles made me feel a lot better. I also had the most marvelous dinner: perlini (filled with bacon) and huge meatballs. For dessert mum served icecream with fresh strawberries. *happy sigh*
After we put Ruben to bed, the three of us watched crimeshows until midnight:) Then I cycled back home.
On Saturday brotherdearest came over to fix my computer; we (he) put in a new memory card (2GB instead of the 512MB I had, so it's up to speed again) and upgraded to Windows 7. That's on a seperate partition of my harddrive though, so I can keep working in Windows XP while I re-install all my graphic programs on the new system. In between we went up to my attic with pizza for two episodes of Buffy (we are in the middle of Season 5 with our everlasting rewatch marathon). We had also asked my mum to come over in the evening for coffee and chocolate. So that turned into another family get together:)
Of course I had to go over to mum on Sunday for Mother's Day. I had already given her flowers on Friday (with symbolic contributions of all three of her kids, the partners and grandchild) and she didn't really expect anything else, but I brought some presents. A bottle of delish showergel I got in London, an artsy metal heart in her favorite colour for her collection, a giftcard for the shop where she always orders a massive amount of photo-albums for Ruben and a butterfly that really flies thanks to a tiny solarpanel. That last item was her favorite I think.
In return I got a massive brunch with fancy bonbons after. She also got me a crazy gift, which I will share with you later this week. It's really awesome. What can I say? She loves to spoil me and who am I to object to that *grins* I love my mum;)
Tonight I started on another draft of the aforementioned letter to the (un)employment-agency. I expect it will be revised often this week. Luckily this past weekend gave me a lot of renewed energy and it also made me realise what's really important. The job thing is not the end of the world.
And I didn't let the drivers get to me neither: I made the best decision when I got off the bus halfway to take photos of a piece of art that I've been admiring from the bus ever since it was revealed in 2008. It's called Noli Me Tangere and was made by artist Luk van Soom. It's a huge metal tree with leaves made of lights that change colour. Very awesome.
( I walked all around to captured it from all sides with the stormy clouds in the background... )
And after that moment of Zen, I simply got on the next bus to finish my journey (and continue in my book). Ha.
BOO, I got the official documents from the employment agency :\
YAY, I'm totally absorbed by a book during breaktimes \o/
(The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst)
BOO, my body doesn't know what time of the month it is :(
YAY for beachphotos from Rio: Holy Jackman, Padalecki!
For those of you who are interested, I added two images from the design process to my source-post: this was my initial idea for Sam & Dean bodies (It's not very pretty and a little scary, but mostly entertaining;)
Also funny was the cheese I had on my bread for lunch; it was left over from Easter at my brother's house (but amazingly still within its sell-by date!) and the slices look like bunnies!
( I wear the cheese, it does not wear me. )
But the best news of today is that I managed to claim an amazing story at the
spn_j2_bigbang! I hope the author is as excited about this as I am. *holds hand up for high five* (Reveal yourself, author, you can pm or mail me if you don't want to go public yet:)spn_cinema challenge, I decided to not do one of my usual digital designs. I found an excellent film that inspired me to finally grab those packets of clay I had lying around. As an extra bonus it comes with a plot that could be an old fashioned Supernatural monster of the week episode:) Dundundun....
Title: Sam & Dean and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Artist:
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92){kind=small}
beelikejMedium: Clay, paint, fabric! (and a bit of Photoshopping;)
Movie Prompt: Wallace & Gromit (in TCofWR)
Genre: Casefile, no romance
Rating: G
Concept: The Winchester brothers are taking a break from hunting and are laying low in small town USA, where the people are getting ready for the annual Giant Vegetable Competition. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, a mysterious, ravaging "beast" begins attacking the town's sacred vegetable gardens! Sam goes into research mode and finds out someone may be infected with the CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT. In the meantime Dean has a sudden craving for carrot-cake...
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( Click for a scene between Sam & Dean and The Making Of! )
( The End )
I hope you enjoyed this half as much as I did. FYI: I love comments ;-)
Even more background information can be found in my Spring 2012 Sourcepost. If you want to know more about the film, I highly recommend the official Wallace & Gromit website, it's awesome:)
This was my first time fiddling with Sam & Dean, all my previous designs feature RPS-pairings Jensen/Jared or Jensen/Jeff: Masterlist of all my SPN artwork
-J-
Especially for tanisafan but you may all ogle;)
tanisafan; she asked for Darren Criss dressed in black, I tried to oblige;) Sorry I couldn't get you the real thing, but you are allowed to lick the screen;)Happy birthday, bb!
Black T for the win!
He's dressing up especially for your birthday, no really.
See? Plus he brought party-glasses!
Bowties are good, or so I've been told.
Yeah, I don't know what that is either, but looks like he's gonna play you some music \o/
So, okay, not dressed in black anymore (is it warm in here?) but I had to include this one, because it's HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE. (Click iiiiiiiiiiiit) Look at him. Bet you didn't even notice what colour shirt he's wearing *g*
Hope you had a great day! An actual gift is supposedly on its way; I was lazy and tried to tell the internet where to send it, so I hope it will eventually arrive. *hugs*
( Allow me to show off: tadaah! )
:-)
(If you missed the whole event: here are all the things I made and collected for that world record winning scavengerhunt;)
spn_cinema. Okay, so I first made a mess as expected and it did turn out differently than I had in mind, but I'm quite content with the result so far. Hope I still like it tomorrow;) "Sketches" are due on April 20th, all will be revealed in May...I wrote another bookreview, you can find it in my bookcommunity
thej2bee: Good Luck - Christine Otten & Erik Kessels. FYI: you're welcome to join and read (or write) more reviews:)If you looked at the previously posted photos of my trip to London, you already know how much brotherdearest and I managed to do in just one day. This is the final set of pictures, from our journey back home.
Sunday, April 8
With bonus sightseeing from the bus
After traveling from Amsterdam on Friday and exploring London on Saturday, we're going back home today!
We got up around 6.30 and handed in our keycard at the desk before getting our complimentary English Breakfast in the hotel's restaurant, that opened at 7.00 a.m.
At 7.30 we walked to the tube and traveled underground to Victoria Station.
From there it's a 15 minute walk to the Coach Station for our bus to Amsterdam.
We checked in around 8.15 and the passengers were divided over two busses; one would go to Brussels/Amsterdam, the other to Rotterdam/The Hague.
On our way out of London, the bus passed all the sights, so I couldn't resist making touristy pictures. Get ready, set.... go! (I hope I got all the names right;)
Westminster Abbey (Western facade)
Westminster Abbey (the Old Palace)
Westminster Central Hall (Church)
The Clock Tower (with Big Ben) and Houses of Parliament (the New Palace)
Close up of the Clock Tower. (Big Ben is the name of the largest bell;)
The River Thames and a bit of the Londen Eye.
Bye, Houses of Parliament!
Aaaaaaaaaand a bit more of the London Eye:)
Just because I liked the look of it: The Mad Hatter Hotel.
The Tower of London and Towerbridge
Towerbridge
Bye, Tower of London!
After about two hours(?) we arrive at the Channel Tunnel.
Heehee: France, straight ahead!
While we were waiting for our timeslot on the train, our busdriver tried to repair his broken windshield wiper, but failed. So we were transfered onto the other bus which meant we wouldn't make a shortcut, but had to travel through Rotterdam and The Hague before Amsterdam. We didn't mind, because we were very glad we didn't have to wait for another bus. Both drivers were so very courteous and made sure all the passengers and their luggage were transfered without any problems.
After everything was settled, it was time to board and the bus drove right up on the platform...
This train only has compartments for cars, trucks and busses. Passengers don't have to leave their own vehicle. So cool.
No need for windows when going through the tunnel, but there was a tiny window right below me, so I could see the tracks when we started to move.
Hans did get out the bus for a bit to take pictures. The doors in between compartments are pressurized, but you can go through them if you want to go to the on board toilet. The busdriver took a little break and stretched out on two passenger seats:)
After half an hour we arrived in France; the compartment opens up and the bus can drive right out onto the road! Did I already mention how cool this was?
We're in France! With a long drive ahead of us...
This is Brussels! Driving up Treurenberg hill.
The St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral
(Kathedraal van Sint-Michiel en Sint-Goedele)
Look: behind the trees in the distance you can see The Atomium!
Around six p.m. we had a break just before the border at roadside stop Hazeldonk. There are several restaurants there, we had dinner at the McDonalds;)
Back on the bus for the last part of our trip.
We arrived in Amsterdam around 9 p.m., 45 minutes earlier than scheduled. Hans accompanied me on the metro from Amsterdam Amstel to Duivendrecht...
... where I took the train back to Zwolle:) (I finished rereading part four in the Nightrunner series, yay!)
Home sweet home. All the goodies I collected \o/
The end.
It was a great trip. I don't recommend the nightbus if you need sleep to function, but it worked quite well for us:)
Anyway, I was going to tell you about my trip to London! I'm putting this behind a "spoiler-cut" with square brackets instead of an old fashioned "LJ-cut" because LiveJournal in its infinite wisdom has decided to replace the familiar and sensible parenthesis with a childish image of scissors (a "cut", get it?). I understand the symbol is not visible on some users' browsers and personally I just hate the change (if it ain't broke don't fix it), so spoilercut it is...
Saturday, April 7
(continued from here).
London, day 2: after breakfast
While searching for a shop I had discovered online, we explored the Covent Garden area and ended up in The Seven Dials; a set of streets with quaint little shops; on the right you see Hans walking though a small alley to Neil's Yard.
Neil's Yard; isn't it awesome? So pretty with all the colours! Plus we found the shop I was looking for! (Bought delicious Comfrey & Mallow Footbalm)
Cool graffiti in the alley
When we walked back towards the centre of town, we came by this building-site art by Nathan Bowen
When we passed the Palace Theatre with the Singing In The Rain façade, Hans couldn't resist; he had to swirl around a lamppost:)
We decided to check out tonight's theatre The Duke Of York, to find out how to get there later and to see if we could maybe already pick up our reservations for All New People. (We could, yay!)
View from The Duke Of York. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to check the streetname or sights;) Enjoy the impressive buildings.
While I was leading brotherdearest to Piccadilly Circus (for a visit to bookstore Waterstone's and drugstore Boots) I had meant to quickly bypass M&M's world on Leicester Square. Unfortunately Hans sensed my discomfort and decided we had to go in. Well, he is my little brother and he had been so sweet up until now, accompanying me to all the shops on my list without complaining. Still. I think that doesn't compare to the horror of what I was about to experience...
Four floors of M&M madness, oh pardon, 'merchandise'. It smelled like chocolate but there were humansize dancing M&M's and what little comfort I got from the scent was blown away by the weirdness of it all. I repeat: FOUR FLOORS.
Okay, this was kind of cool, especially the wall with M&M's in an overwhelming amount of colours. But again: on FOUR FLOORS.
Ahw, look at his
And then look at my not so happy face when I discover the Periodic Table of M&M's. I think my exact words were "Oh. My. God." (I didn't know Hans was taking a picture of me until I heard him giggling. Bastard)
After climbing ALL the stairs and checking ALL four floors, Hans finally showed mercy and we went back outside to continue our walk to one of MY favorite stores. Pfew. I was also relieved to see the apostroph was still on the front of Waterstone's. That restored my faith in humankind a little;)
With bags full of books and toiletries (from Boots), we took the Tube to the hotel. On the way we grabbed food at Pret a Manger and had lunch in the park before finally checking into a room where we collapsed on the beds.
We napped until 4 p.m. *grins*
Well, I had to take a photo of my loot first, but then it was really nice to be able to sleep in a bed for a bit, after the long night on the bus and boat.
Completely refreshed we went back into town around 5 for our visit to the Hamleys Toystore, where it was busier than I had ever seen it!
There was an awesome LEGO display of the royal family.
The Queen was sitting in the corner with her little dog. Ahw.
For dinner we went to my favorite restaurant Mother Mash for mashed potatoes with steakpies and for dessert pudding and warm custard. Omnomnom.
Then we walked through Regent Street to get to the theatre. I tried to make a photo of the Abercrombie & Fitch ad across the street. Grumble, stooopid tourists...
My darling brother saw my struggle and having the advantage of height and a better camera, shot a photo especially for me. Obviously, he is totally forgiven for the M&M thing;)
Then it was time for the play All New People, written by and featuring Zach Braff, which is why we wanted to see it. Extra bonus was Eve Myles (Torchwood) who played another one of the four people in the play, who all end up together in a beach house in the wintertime. - If you want to know more, you can find a review from
nick730 which I mostly agree with here.We had great seats, but I had a bit of bad luck with tall men in front of me, the last one coming in after the lights went out, so Hans and I didn't have an opportunity to swap. In addition I was distracted by dumb people beside me who kept checking their phone throughout the performance. Grrrrr. Luckily I still enjoyed the play, because I was just so happy to be there.
Afterwards we noticed a bunch of people hanging around the side-exit of the theatre and since we suspected they were waiting for the actors, we stuck around for a while.
Zach did indeed come outside and was ever so nice: signing programs and posing for photos (he even made some arm length pics for people who were on their own!). We only took pictures from behind the crowd, but it was really nice to see him in person. A great end to a wonderful day!
We went back to the hotel, where Hans crashed while I got comfy in the tub. So comfy in fact that I fell asleep and didn't wake up until Hans started banging on the door. Oops. Luckily I had put my book away and had added warm water right before I dozed off;)
I didn't waste any more time getting ready for bed, since we had to get up early for the busride home...
To be continued:)
( But I'll start with me waking up on the bus; )
To be continued tomorrow:) Did y'all have a nice Easterweekend?
This evening my mum came over; she and my brother had come back from their trip to Curaçao this afternoon. Yesterday I had cycled to her house to leave a welcome back package on her table. (Made some photos on the way there from the beautiful clouds across the bridge and a swan I discovered in between the reed on the waterside.)
So tonight I finally got my needed hugs;) And bonus souvenirs!
john_w_bigbang. It's a Jeff/Jensen werewolf story, so I not only got to fiddle with my two favorite guys but also their animal shaped alter egos. Oh my. Since LJ's fancy new futuristic date-posting option is not doing what I wanted it to do and my original artpost appears to not be showing on your flist's time-line after all, I'm hereby inviting you to come over and check out my artwork and the story that inspired it: Wroawr!john_w_bigbang! (As always: click on the images for full size:)
Title: Stolen
Author:
jayfray18 Artist:
beelikejMedium: Photoshop & Illustrator
Fandom: Supernatural RPS
Pairing: Jeff/Jensen
Genre: Werewolf
Story-rating: NC-17 (for sex & violence)
Wordcount: 16.500
Warnings: Angst, animal-cruelty, fighting/biting (blood)
Summary:In a world that has seen the Were gene become common place, one family has been collecting the creatures for decades, keeping the Weres caged in their animal form for their own entertainment. When his mate disappears, Jensen must fight to recover what has been stolen from him, because sometimes, when something is taken from you, you HAVE to fight to get it back.
Art is safe for work and cruelty free, but graphic intensive, as I have a lot of images to share. The story was inspirational;)
( ARTWORK )
Thank yous
Besides using my own photos in the background, I obviously also needed a lot of pictures from other sources. More information about all the images I used can be found in my Spring 2012 Sourcepost.
Thank you,
jayfray18, I really loved that you wrote an AU that is grounded in real life as we know it, with actors Jeff and Jensen very much being the men I love. The werewolves and OC made this an awesome challenge for art while I could still enjoy fiddling with my two favorite guys;) It was a pleasure.A BIG thanks to
john_w_bigbang. You did an excellent job! Last but not least: thank YOU, dear lurker, friend or passer-by for checking out my artwork. I really love comments of all kinds, so if you have a minute, please share your thoughts, observations and/or concrit :-)
J.
Masterlist of all my SPN artwork
john_w_bigbang and the spn_cinema challenges.Obviously credit goes to the original photographers, but when their names were not attached to the images, I'm linking to the website where I found the photo.
( Sources for Artwork for Stolen, a werewolf story )
THANK YOU FOR STOPPING BY:)
( Have a bonus pic from my research process )
( Sources for Artwork for the 2012 SPN Cinema Challenge )
J.
Obviously this will have consequences for my financial situation, but that is not my main concern at the moment. I feel very betrayed and even though the bossman can conveniently blame part of this situation on the 'economy', I'm not completely convinced this is the only or the best solution to get the company back on track. That's why I'm contesting the decision, which means he has to start an official procedure and there will be an investigation before the cut down will be in effect. I have at least three months left in my current position. I'm not looking forward to the hassle of the procedure, the paperwork and applying for partial benefits or an additional parttime job. I don't deal well with change.
My job is my life and I feel like a big part of my identity is taken away from me.
My first impulse was to run to my mum, but she's currently on vacation on the other side of the world together with brotherdearest, who would be the next person in line for hugs. Even though I didn't want to bother/burden them, I was glad I managed to chat with them last night. That took the sting out of it a little.
Yesterday evening my neighbour came over with food and together we watched two Torchwoods up in the attic. That was a nice distraction and good fun.
This morning reality hit me in the face again and in between work I've been gathering information on my options. Whatever happens, the next few months are gonna be rough.
I haven't had a major melt down yet, but no doubt that will happen as soon as I am home alone with nothing left to do tonight and a whole weekend to think things over.
Right. Back to work. Better enjoy it while I can.
john_w_bigbang is a go! My author and I aren't posting until March 31st, but until then my fellow participants are sharing a new story/art combo featuring either John Winchester (SPN) or Jeffrey Dean Morgan (RPS) every day. Go check it out!Another countdown for April 6... I had mentioned to brotherdearest that I was trying to find a way to visit London in April to see Zach Braff's play All New People and to my surprise he was interested in joining me! This will be the first trip with his big sister:) (I've travelled with my other brother Jaap before, but somehow never managed to make plans with "baby" brother Hans, even though we have much more in common (like our love for Buffy/Angel marathonsessions:) I'm very excited, also because we're going to try a different way of transportation. The Eurostar (train) turned out to be too expensive on short notice, but I found out there is a daily bus-service that's very affordable. It will take us longer, but unlike the train the busses go at night as well, so that saves on hotel expenses and feels like saving time;) We managed to arrange everything right away! We'll be taking the nightbus from Amsterdam on Friday 6 April, see the play on Saturday, spend a night in my favorite hotel WITH BATHTUB and then take the daybus back on Sunday. I have no idea if we'll be able to catch some sleep on the bus (I hope I can read on the way back*), since there are a lot of stops along the way through the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Plus there is the boat across The Channel of course, I understand we have to get off the bus for that, which may be very early in the morning. It will be quite an adventure :-D
After not updating my bookcommunity in the last two days, I'm back on track. Here are the latest reviews:
(When I'm Lost, I Always Take A Step Forward)
*I finished Hofstadter by the way and am now rereading part 3 of the Nightrunners-series (in less than two months part 6 will be published!) I plan to buy The Hungergames in London and I also put the new Aidan Chambers on my shoppinglist (which also includes shoes, toys and toiletries:) Of course shop-opportunities also depend on brotherdearest's whishes, but I'm sure we'll at least go to Waterstone's \o/ (Hope the apostrophe is still on the building!)
This little dude!
back up vid-link
Don't worry, not gonna picspam you with an overdose of cute, just one sample;)
( There is a link to more photos if you can't get enough; )
When I was sitting on the couch in my brother's apartment I checked out the bookshelves (as you do in someone else's house. What?) and look what I found snuggled in between Lord of the Rings, Paulo Coelho and Stephen Fry's novels & Nelson Mandela's autobiography:
( Tigers & Devils by Sean Kennedy! ) FYI: available in its second edition from August 2012 \o/ Read more good news in author
kennsea's livejournal here.More booknews:)
I wrote two more reviews, well three actually, because one of them is about two books. Oh, how I love unexpected sequels:)
(Dutch books, also available in German)
(I read it in original Dutch, but it's available in several languages and will be released in English in August!)
