Recently a cat wandered into Robert's and my life. He's a pretty good cat, if a bit vocal (4-6 am wake-up calls when we don't have to get up for another couple of hours gets a bit old). There's one thing though that's been a bit more interesting to get used to. He can't stand laughter, specifically mine. Apparently my laugh is just too high pitched for him to stand (okay, so I do squeak sometimes when I laugh ). This is a bit problematic with our household and group of friends. Jokes and goofy antics are fairly standard, and Robert often does his best to make me laugh (Killian actually bit Robert once for making me laugh, though not hard).

Now all of this is a bit of lead in to an amusing incident that happened a few days ago. Robert and I were killing some time while we waited on a couple of friends to get ready for a planned event, so we decided to start bouncing a ball back and forth to one another. This ball is about the size of a grapefruit and very bouncy (hollow interior surrounded by a fairly thick, dense layer of rubbery material). Because of this, the cat was already a bit on edge and had retreated beneath a small table in our living room. Well, I tossed the ball to Robert, and he decided to do something goofy. I choked back my laughter, but a couple of chuckles escaped, and all of a sudden Killian launches himself towards me, jumps on the side of the love seat that I'm standing behind, ears laid flat, scrambles on the chair for a couple of seconds and runs off. That does it. Instantly I drop to the floor laughing as silently as possible after just surviving the "terrifying" cat's "attack". With tears streaming down my face, no sound other than harsh breathing coming out, and a still agitated cat, Robert decides to let him outside. Finally I get a bit of a reprieve and just bust out laughing, and continue until pain and the need to breath force me to stop.

So, yeah, the cat has no sense of humor.

Sorry for the inactivity of late. Motivation for dA has fluctuated wildly over the past few months, and the past couple of weeks have been spent uploading all of the DailyWheel related stuff to Zazzle as a compliment to the CafePress shop. For my art, I've been working on refining [link] and getting a few different styles and colors prepped to take advantage of Zazzle's easy customization options. I've also been contemplating a move away from t-shirts and the like and moving my stuff more towards prints. I don't think I'll kill all the current shirts on CP, but I may start putting up new designs only on certain products (tiles, posters, calendars, etc.) I have joined RedBubble, though, and plan to start getting a number of my better designs uploaded there over the next couple of weeks. I'm really interested in finding the people who really enjoy (and hopefully buy) the kind of art that I create. dA's been great for connecting me with people who can give me good feedback on my art, whether through a fave/collect, a nice comment, or even a critique in one instance, and great information in general. I know you guys and this place will continue to provide this sort of boost. I've just got to keep growing, though, and researching more ways to connect with people outside of this community. (Just to make sure, I'm not leaving dA, taking a hiatus, or anything of that nature. I'm just trying to grow a bit and maybe make a little more money in the process. )

I've been contemplating joining a couple of clubs on dA. On the club front, the main things I'm curious about are time commitment and some general opinions about the benefits of joining. If I join a club, what sort of time commitment is generally expected? Are clubs a good way to connect with other people interested in the type of art I'm doing (thus helping to increase feedback, comments, etc. so I can continue to improve)? I know I watch a few clubs to find new deviants and deviations that interest me, so I'll assume, "yes" to the previous question, but still, it's nice to hear from people who are or have been involved with clubs. Also, with the groups thing in the works, would it be better to wait until those fully launch? I have a couple of questions regarding submission, but those are probably best saved for the individual clubs.

So, nice long journal. Take a beverage, and have a great evening/weekend. For those of you celebrating, have a happy 4th.


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These people gifted me a subscription, and deserve a lot of love. Go check out their galleries.


Some cool clubs that I watch:


And the ever wonderful