ROAD TRIP: Part 1 - Washington, D.C.

Well I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAACK :] And what an interesting time I had. From Maryland to D.C. to Virginia, and I think we passed through New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Love Delaware, no taxes! :D

So between all our misadventures, all the rain, the heat, the windshield wiper flying off somewhere in Pennsylvania, scarfing down pizza with knives and forks, the y'all's, the only half-successful tan, my lack of knowledge in the field of American history, and our difficulties finding butter in a gorcery store, it was fun. I can't say it wasn't fun.

Our hotel room in Largo, Maryland. And half of my brother.

Complimentary Holy Bible. XD

The doors to the metro. Metro! hahaha I'm so used to calling it the subway.

Here's us at the start of the tour (mom, brother, me). We were the only Canadians in the group. There were some Brits, some Americans, some French speakers, and something that sounded a lot like Latvian but I seriously can't tell the difference. We got a pretty cool tour guide, as long as you didn't get too close to him. We want to hear the news not the weather, if you catch my drift.

The Vietnam War Memorial. It was really pretty I must say, and really well done. It's almost as though by seeing your reflection in the stone you can put a face to the name. Or I may be crazy.

The far less controversial half of the Vietnam War Memorial. These three were looking right at the wall of names and as an art major, I LOOOOOOOVE this sculpture. Beautiful.

Vein-y arm! This makes me happy for no reason.

Me standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial. It was suffocatingly hot and crowded that day and I ran out of water halfway through the day.

Me, dad, and Abe Lincoln.

Me, mom, and Abe Lincoln.

Me, dad and brother on the steps of the Lincoln memorial.

The Washington Monument.

Me, in front of the wall of gold stars at the World War II memorial

Same wall of stars, my eyes are closed because that's what the cool kids do. Actually it was more along the lines of the fact that the sun was in my eyes and my dad refused to let up on the picture taking.

Walking alongside the Vietnam War Memorial. Wow out of sequence much.

The White House! Sorry guys this is as close as I could get to Obama without being killed by the snipers on the roof :(

I could however get a picture of myself kissing him, for $7. But he's married and a tad old for me.

The Post Office! This place was great. It was a lot like that underground food court that was near the AGO, only bigger and indoors and classier. There was this elevator that went all the way up to that tower and you could see the original bells, and all of D.C spread out below you. It was awesome.

The ride back to Largo, Maryland on the metro. Tired, sweaty, and my feet hurt like hell. But it was an awesome experience. I wish I had more than one day to spend in D.C. And more patience to show you guys more pictures. But I can't be arsed to write a detailed entry.

~Lenny

of me using my youth as an excuse to bitch about life

Happy Birthday Sinthu!

Remind me never to sketch with only markers again.

Here comes my rant of all things that piss me off/depress me at this point:

1) What the hell is up with 2009? Is it just me or has this year been one giant fluctuation between depressingly bad and REALLY GOOD? Overall I guess I'm going to learn something from all the crap that happened this year, but COME ON. It's like I don't even have time to enjoy being bored and irresponsible anymore!

2) I need to remember that life has a sick sense of humour. And next time I ask for it to be more exciting, I should be more specific. I hate change. Everyone and their dog knows this by now. I will fight change till you pry my cold fingers off of what I'm used to and force me to accept the new. Everything is so freaking convoluted right now that I seriously have no idea what's going on, what's going to happen, and GAH.

3) I think I've finally accepted that I'm another year older, and only have 2 more years of school left before my group of friends split up for their post-secondary education ventures. As if going to high school was bad enough now I have to overhaul like crazy AGAIN? And I need to decide what the hell to do with my life when I honestly don't have the foggiest idea. I'm going to end up a hobo and poor if I go with anything that I'd like to do as a career.

4) Volunteer hours or child exploitation? The library still hasn't called me back after a year and a half, and so help me God if I have to sell carnations for charity again.

5) I miss Amy :(

6) Hell I miss everyone. Please don't leave.

Well that was short and to the point. Sort of.
I'm off to Virginia for a week tomorrow. Waking up at 5 am or something like that. Should be fun :]

Peace Out,

~Lenny

art then. art now.

Because honestly, we all need an ego-boost sometimes, and mine comes in the form of seeing my art improve. *thumbs up*

And the 2007 version makes me cringe, thankfully my art has improved massively in 2 1/2 years. Sage looks more human now (look at the face anybody?). She's gained some weight, has an ass, some skin tone variation, and her HAIR looks more natural. There's still some kinks with the pose, but hey. I haven't improved THAT much.

I'm set on re-painting the rest of this series.

Wish me luck.

Peace out,

~Lenny

3 am wake up call

Happy (late) Birthday Eggplant!

I hope you don't hate me too much LOL

Okay well I've had a remarkably tiring day. First of all, my phone woke me up at around 2:30 am. I thought I was hallucinating at first, but sure enough, my cell was ringing. So pick it up with a drowsy, "Allo?"
and I get in return some weird-ass background noise that suggested that he was in some kind of club, and a "Yo sup?"
"I'm sorry who is this?"
"Uhh Nick"
And the only Nick I know is smart enough not to call me that early in the morning ever.
"I'm sorry but you have the wrong number, please don't call it again"
and I hung up and went back to bed.

For a whole 3 seconds before I had to get up and check that it wasn't someone I knew and that it wasn't some kind of emergency.
My god, I get more wrong numbers than actual phone calls. *facepalm*

But anyways, I somewhow went back to sleep, and then early in the morning my mother dragged me to 5 consecutive grocery stores to make sure we had all the food we need for tomorrow's party.

My back hurts, my butt hurts, my legs hurt, and we didn't even do anything soul-crushingly painful yesterday at TKD. I can almost hear Alex's "I TOLD YOU SO" right now, but I'm kicking myself for not taking a double class.
ACK I should have known better!

Anyways, fun times ahead tomorrow~

Peace,

~Lenny

Happy Birthday Lenny

Today was my birthday, and a day of amazingness it truly was. I can not begin to put into words how happy I am.

So my parents got me a phone, A Nokia 3600 Slide actually. And it is beautiful. Me and my easily amused mind spent the better part of today sliding it back and forth.

My grandparents sent over a jewellery set that is green and I feel kinda bad that I'll never wear it enough.

I've eaten too much cake, had way too much fun, and my face hurts from smiling. Here are some pictures.

Michael stole my purse for reasons unknown. I still say it looks better on me. That's the facial expression I make when I'm trying not to laugh.

Candid shot, thank you so much CJ and Alex for the cake! When I eat it all for the next week, I'll be thinking of you guys <3 Group picture! (and I'll be taking some guesses with the name spellings here) Left to right: Amy, Jenny, Me, Master D, Wesley, Alex, Pavel, CJ, Sinthu and Jessica.


Another group pic Wesley, Amy, Jenny, Master D, Alex, Me (crouching because I was positive I'd be blocking someone's face), Pavel, Sinthu, Jessica, and Michael in the front with his eyes closed LOL.

And now we move onto eating more cake at home -__-"


My dad and me :]

Me and mom.

Siblings, but you'd never be able to tell.

I burst out laughing right as I was blowing out the candles, hahahah.

Sweet Sixteen baby!

I can feel the wrinkles settling in already.

Thank you thank you thank you everyone for an amazingly awesome day, and there's really no greater feeling than the kind you have when you realize that like 20 people bothered to wish you happy birthday on Facebook, countless relatives called long-distance, and people bothered to bring you cake.

I love you all!

Peace Out,

~Lenny

Pandas and pictures I'm not proud of.

Well happy almost birthday Alex. I took pity on you since you got kicked by Master D. Maybe I should draw more animals...

And my birthday being in about... 4 days not counting today, I'm getting pretty nervous.

And here are a few pictures that I spent too much time on, and yet don't like in the least.

This will probably end up being someone's birthday present. I don't even mind giving away the original. It's too pink, too unoriginal, and I ran out of marker ink for the background -___-' It's pieces such as these that make me question my worth as an artist/talentless hack. I'd like to think there's more point to my art than to draw pretty things.
But that's all I end up drawing x)


Ohhh and I got some legit marker paper, and holy crap I love that stuff. Unfortunately it's half-transparent, and looks a lot like vellum/tracing paper. But it's smooth, doesn't bleed and HOLY CRAP THE COLOURS. So totally worth it.
I'd never be able to do my normal technique of mixing watercolour, marker and pencil crayon though, his paper is designed for marker only.
I want more marker colours :(

TKD was fun today! I screwed up my ankle somehow and now it refuses to function properly, but all in the name of improvement right?

Right.

Peace Out,

~Lenny

P.S. NEW BANNER!

Webcomics you need to read

I've been wasting my life away lately in front of the computer reading webcomics. I thought I'd share with you some that I particularly enjoy.

Here it goes,

1. Lackadaisy: http://www.lackadaisycats.com/
Oh my lord I can go on for days about how much I worship the ground Tracy Butler stands on. But go on and take a look for yourself.

2. The Meek: http://www.meekcomic.com/
Gorgeous art, I'm into the story even though it's barely a chapter in. Much love for the facial expressions too.

3. The Phoenix Requiem: http://requiem.seraph-inn.com/
I'd be hard-pressed to find something that I don't like about this comic. The story is amazing, the art is to die for, BEAUTIFUL. Absolute must read.

4. Girls with Slingshots: http://www.daniellecorsetto.com/gws.html
Hilarious, honest, and some of the most memorable characters I've ever seen

5. Evil Diva: http://www.evildivacomics.com/
Cute, I love the art, and the story is whimsical and amusing.

6. Johnny Wander: http://johnnywander.com/
I can't even explain the appeal of this, you have to read it for yourself.

7. xkcd: http://xkcd.com/
I admit that as a high school student I don't get half of these jokes, but the half that I do are awesome.

8. Hark, a vagrant: http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php
Historical and hilarious.

9. Calamities of Nature: http://www.calamitiesofnature.com/
Cute, funny and cynical. And much love for poking fun at groups that really do take themselves way too seriously.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand here's my somewhat pathetic webcomic-in-progress.
Basket Case Menagerie: http://basketcasemenagerie.smackjeeves.com
I swear I'll work on it sometime.

I am always on the lookout for more reading material, I'd love if you suggest me some webcomics that you enjoy :]
I have a list of about 10-12 more that I need to get around to reading, but when I do, consider this list updated.

Peace Out,

~Lenny