One Very Special Botcon Photo!

Day 41: Check it out! Check it out! Check it out! CHECK IT OUT!!

That's me! Me and my sister! Me and my sister in an awesome Prowl hat! Me and my sister in an awesome Prowl hat AT BOTCON!

I was cruising through the image gallery on Botcon's website because they had recently put up all their official pictures and I was beginning to miss that amazing feeling of being at Botcon. I was looking through the Saturday pictures, peering in the corners to see if maybe they had taken a picture and accidentally gotten Sarah and I in the crowd.

Nothing. Not even in the ridiculously long line that sprung up Saturday morning for general admission. (We had breakfast in that line and no, we were not in the back of the line. Yay! xP)

So I clicked on Sunday, my peepers ready to peer into more photo corners and then BAM! There we were! It was so cool that I ran up shouting, "SARAH SARAH SARAH!" I was so excited that she thought I was coming to tell her that Steve Blum had called or something. n_n; Which of course would have been cool,  but very very odd...

Anyway that's us! And it's cool! And totally unexpected! Which makes it even better! :)

And dang we've got long hair.....o.O

On the night before Botcon...

My vacation officially started this morning! At like...five-fifty this morning, but still. ;3

My sister and I were ecstatic to arrive in sunny San Diego and man is it beautiful. I mean, back home in Houston, you walk outside at your own peril. I mean you could soak your shirt in sweat without doing anything other than walking around the neighborhood.

And here it's so different! It's cool and breezy and the air outside the airport smelled just the slightest bit like salt water. :) It was really cool in every single way possible! And the land! IT MOVES! What is this land undulation that I see before me?! Is the ground broken? Is that why they have so many earthquakes around here? And what are these 'hills' that people keep talking about...

Oh! Oh! Oh! And guess what we just did! Guess! Guess! Guess!

We just got back from watching the Transformers movie (the live action one from 2007) in the hotel rose garden (they have rose gardens! :D And the roses are the size of my face! o.O They're huge!) and five of the Botcon guests were there. Wheeljack and Shockwave's voice actors from Prime, Wally Burr and Jason Jenson from the G1 80's universe, and Glenn Morshower from the live action movies! They were taking pictures with guests before the movie started and it was such a surprise cause I didn't expect to see them there! I asked Sarah if she wanted to take a picture with them, but she was too shy. I wanted to get my picture taken with them though, but I was too nervous to go up and ask. n_n; We both kinda chickened out...

There were some technical problems with the movie, but it turned out to be even more awesome because of it. It started working just fine and people all cheered when Optimus started talking, but then the picture blinked out. :0 We could still hear it though, and my sister told me it almost didn't matter because she knew everything that was going on just from hearing what was going on. ;P I thought it was funny because I was doing the same thing.

Then the picture came back! Yay! Then it immediately disappeared and took the sound with it! Boo!

But then Glenn Morshower got up and said, "I'll just act out the rest for you guys. 'You will land or we will kill you.'"

XD It was great! It was...it was...it was so great I don't even know what it was! XD

The movie itself was awesome too. I know I've seen it a hundred times, but it was so much more fun when all the other people were cheering when their favorite bots appeared on screen, or when they were all reciting the best lines of the movie. Sarah said it was great being surrounded by 'our people'.

I laughed at her and said she was weird. But then I was forced to admit that she had a point, so...go geeky me! And yay for crowds of Transfans! Woohoo! It was fantastic! Let's go again! Let's go again! :D It was better then chocolate!

Well...okay, so it tied with chocolate. n_n;

And tomorrow morning we're going to get to go to the convention itself! YAY! Tomorrow we're going to get more puggle friends and Transformers and autographs and panels! Hooray!!!!

I also think that my lil sis and I may have ridden in an elevator with Steve Blum....but I'll have to get back to you on that. Needless to say, when we realized why the elevator guy may have seemed so familiar, we both freaked out. Made worse by the fact that we're not absolutely sure it even was him in the first place...

Hopefully tomorrow we'll find out! Or at least get the real Starscream's autograph... ;3

It's getting late, so I'll have to put pictures up here a little later. But if you want to get a little taste of Botcon now, you can check out my Twitter feed. I'm so excited about it all that I've been tweeting more today then I have in the past six months....guess I'm not exactly a micro-blogger. n_n;

The Botcon Quest Begins...

Day 39-40: It's time to party like an Autobot! Just deposited my graduation checks (finally...) and some prize money I got for winning second place in an essay contest (I'm still pretty excited about that :3). And you know what that means? I'll tell you what it means! It means that my sister and I finally went and reserved a hotel room for Botcon!

We're going to Botcon this summer!!!!!!! YAYYYYY!!!

Aaaand...this is how I feel about that. :)

So yeah, the highlight of my day. Now I'm just kind of praying that nothing goes wrong. :_ Because that would be...close to soul crushing really. I'm really looking forward to this. Now that I'm done with school, every time I think about my future it's like looking into a big blank space of nothingness. No purpose. No immediate goals. No point really....

It stinks.

So I guess it's just nice to have something really fun and nerdy to look forward to. And I get to share it with my little sister. n_n; If we keep going on like this we'll have something of a Botcon tradition. And things always seem to look better when you have someone to have fun with instead of just pallin' around with me, myself, and I.

That and we can freak out over meeting Gregg Berger (the voice of Grimlock) together. They haven't released the final guest list yet for the convention (so we don't completely know if he's coming) but we have great hope that he'll be at Botcon this summer. And I can't wait to see who else is gonna come! I'm so getting an autograph band! :D I think I'm going to bring the picture I got autographed last summer and add more signatures to that. ;3 By the end of I'll be proud to have it hanging on my wall for all to see!

And it's such a nice looking hotel too! Maybe it's because we reserved a room early - or maybe it's some kind of attendee discount Botcon's got going on - but it was the same price for the largest room with two beds as it was for a not-as-fancy-looking room with only one. So cool! Sleeping in style!

Now we just have to work on those plane tickets...hmmm......

The Long Road Home Excerpt

So this is has to do with my Transformers fanfiction called The Long Road Home. I haven’t updated in forever so this is to let all my readers know that I haven’t fallen off the story or anything and that I have been writing these last three months.

So, if any of you out there are interested in really cool (if I do say so myself) Transformers stories, then feel free to drop by my Fanfiction.net profile. The link is the middle circle at the top left of the page. Just hold your mouse over the circle with the two stars you see up there and click the very center. If you hold your mouse over that it should say something like ‘My Writing’. Hope I sucker some of you in. :) I always enjoy hearing from new readers. <3

Stick-Formers Unite!

Stick-Jackie Waves Hello

Days 27 - 30: I present to you a whole bunch of Stick-formers! You've already met Wheeljack up there. And of course down below is Mirage. Stick-Grimmy's having a bit of a pout because he's kinda miffed about his cute little curly-que arms. But I think they're adorable! Say hello guys!

*Fancy tea slurp*

Stick-Grimmy Unamused

I'm a big fan of the Starhorse's work (another Transformers fan) and she posted some stick-formers over at her blog Spoiled Robots on tumblr. I thought they were adorable and in a moment of "Well what else do I honestly have to do right now?" decided to try my hand at some of my own. Some of the eyes (and all of the hands) came out slightly derpy...but I think Grimlock there is my favorite. :) And now that I have some decent pictures of them in black and white, I'm going to have to find some time to give them some color. Hooray for color! :3

Oh, and Jazz and Bumblebee here are having a dance party. I should snap some photos of them to use as blackmail at an undisclosed later date before they realize that they can't really dance. ;3

Dance party! Dance party!

Christmas Flashback

Day 25 - Okay, so it took me forever to put up this next picture because if I had kept up with a picture a day thing then Day 25 should have been Christmas Day. Only, ya know, I fell a month behind. xP Blah...

Anyway, this is my younger sister and I after she opened up my present to her. Now I am rather pleased with it (because let's face it, it's awesome) but I made her a Jazz scarf.

Jazz scarf!

Not jazz as in music see, but Jazz as in the Autobot Jazz! She and I are both huge TF fans so when I got this idea (about only a week before Christmas I swear) I just had to make it for her. I was originally going to buy her one off of etsy, but like I said it was only about a week before the big day, maybe not even that... o.O

But I found this plain colored cream scarf that was super duper long (a requirement that Sis put out there) and it was really nice and soft (Bonus!) and I sewed on a big blue plain of fabric, then a red ribbon-stripe, and with a white number four on top. It's really cool! And she loved it so much! xD Yay! I think that'll be what I remember most about this Christmas.

Well, that and the power went out. That was fun....

And my Sis lo~oved it. She oh so lo~oved it! Oh yeah she lo~oved it! *Keeps on dancing in seat*

Yay! And now that I have posted my favorite moment from Christmas, I feel emotionally free to move on and post other, not-Christmasy pictures.

Well...maybe not-Christmasy pictures....just saying...

The Plastic Forest & The Lost Prime

Day 22 - More Christmas merch from Hobby Lobby. As weird as it may sound I rather liked this picture, despite the extra large sale signs that sort of stand out like emergency sirens (^-.-^ Mrs. Mittens didn't like them very much either...)

I think what I liked best about the trees is that I think if I stood in the middle of them all it would feel kind of like standing in the middle of a forest. A perfumed, plasticky, not-very-piney forest but still.

Oh! Dad has just saved Kreon Optimus Prime from the depths of the couch! I didn't even know he was under there...

Me: o.O

OP: -.-

Me: I-I didn't even know you were lost...

OP: }:s

Me: I'm, uh....sorry?

OP: Mmm-hmmm....I'm telling Santa.

Me: O.O NOOOO! OP wait!!!!!

OP - }:p Ha ha! Teach you to leave me under that nasty couch! Oh, by the way, your lost socks say hello.

Me: o.o I thought the dryer ate them ages ago...

;3

Prime's Ice Cream

Even Primes like ice cream. :P

Just an older snapshot I found from when my sister and I took the kreons to dinner. ;) I took quite a few pictures that night and I keep planning to string them together into a strange kind of story, but so far it hasn't happened yet. I still want to do it, so I think it'll get done, with 'eventually' being the imperative word there.

Out of all of the old pictures I found this one just made me the happiest. He looks like he's really about to dive in. And given his kreon size, he probably could....

Good night for real this time.

Wheeljack's Mini-Adventure

Wheeljack: Now, where are those instruction manuals.... :D

Wheeljack overlooks the local Barnes & Nobel. I think he's wondering where the instruction manuals are, especially for laptops. He's was eyeing mine a few weeks ago and it hasn't been the same since. Makes me wonder what he did to it... -.- I'm on to you Jack...I'm on to you...


Of course, I love him anyway, so....there's that. :)

Candy Wars

And now for some silliness. :)

And thus is the story of why we started hiding candy instead of leaving it out on the kitchen table within easy reach of pests-I mean! Of guests. ;3

I must now finish a painting for shipping. Goodnight. :)

A Most Awesome Birthday!

You read the title, today was a most awesome birthday, even though I did have to stay late at school to interview a professor for a class article. It still turned out well, since he's really nice (and talkative) and all (that first one is the main reason I picked him. I don't do well with talking to others so might as well pick a prof that I know is nice.)

Oh, but of course professor interviews weren't the best part of my birthday. I got to go out to dinner with my family, which was very nice. Mom and Dad even got me a Japanese lady's coat jacket for me. It's so cool! And beautiful! Mom says it's made of silk and it has flowers all over the back that look rather like fluffy dandelions. Ya know, silk is much heavier then I thought it would be. And on the inside there's this fabric with pictures of little ladies wearing kimonos on them. It's so cute!

And I got a Wheeljack!! He's so cute!!! ~<3

And I can't wait to play with him! XD I know it's nerdy but I don't care cuz he's adorable and he's mine! :D I WUV HIM!!! Hee hee!

He is my first, very own kreon and my second very own Wheeljack. He is obviously one of my very favorite Transformers, but only from G1! Prime Wheeljack is....not a real Wheeljack. Sure he's cool, tough and all (and I am always glad to see his name on the newest episode summaries) but he's just not Wheeljack. There's no crazy inventions, no blowing himself up on accident, and the only things that explode are the things that are supposed to! Sigh, you see the rift there don't ya?

Also, this is my sister's present. The wrapping paper is cool!

;P Made for ten year old boys or not I think it's cool. And my sister even wrapped it so that the two small ones (which she made. :D I love her so much!) each have a full picture on the front. :) Neat! And difficult...

Anyway, I really want to play with 'Jack some more but I have to get up early tomorrow for more professor interviews. Fun. But if it lets me walk at graduation...well. Easy choice there now isn't it? Besides, these profs are nice and approachable too, so there's that.

I should really post more artwork. I want to post more of my artwork...but it's late. I shall have to introduce you to Mini-Grimmy and her snowman sometime this weekend. :)

Yaaaawwwwnnnn...well g'night....

Bluestreak and the Fro-yo

I fell like I should post something more substantial, but I'm not sure what, so that will have to wait until I get something either A) I get a photo cleaned up enough for posting or B) I finish something.

I'm afraid option B may be a long time in coming....

Anyway, these are some pictures I took while I was being silly a little while ago. Bluestreak is what is conventionally (sorta) known as a puggle, made by Kallycarishokka over on Deviant Art. I 'adopted' him at Botcon this last spring and he's been living in my purse every since. I find him ridiculously adorable.

Except when he's after my fro-yo of course.

Also my sister (featured below when Bluestreak turns his eye on her dessert instead) laughs and/or cringes whenever I bring him out in public. I chose to think of this as a bonus. :)

Bluestreak: Ooo...me wants...

Me: >:( None for you!

Bluestreak: All - ugh! - most - errrr!! - there!

Me: Uh-huh...right...

Uh-oh...new quarry spotted.

The fro-yo guardian has seen him!

Give up your nummies and surrender vile spoon!

HIIIYAAAAAHHHH!!!!

:3 And to think, some silly people think that toys are only for children. :P

Halloween Dawn Over Iacon

I was painting in the studio today (because there aren't any classes in there on Fridays and the place is practically deserted :D Yay for me!) and I was struck with the urge to actually do something with the little things that I've painted in my sketchbook.

So here for some fun is a little painting I did to try and get me writing a Halloween story for, well, Halloween. And I still need to get a move on if I want it finished in time....

Anyway, this is a little sketch of a violet-orange dawn over Iacon. Done with watercolor pencils and watercolors in a, you guessed it, watercolor sketchbook. I don't know what kind of paper they used to make it.

Opinions Wanted!

Hey all, feeling a little bummed today, in part because I drew this little picture of 'Bee and Aria for fun and only one person out of five realized it was Bumblebee. Sigh, depressing, but also the first two like TF, but don't like it so much that, ya know, they read fanfiction on it or something similar, and my sister only said that he looked chubby.

-.-

Needless to say, I was not amused at that because I thought he looked cute. Maybe a bit more like a youngling than the adult we all know and love, but still. Anyway, then I showed dad and he was the one that went, "Yeah, it looks like Bumblebee. Why'd you ask?" So that was a relief. Unfortunately my self doubt bugs me and so I have come to you.

Mind you this idea came to me as a Christmas gag, so 'Bee has a Christmas bow on his head. n_n; Yeah, yeah, goofy I know, but I think it's cute. So there. :p Anyway, this is one above is one of those shiny bows you buy in a bag from the grocery store...

But here's one with a more normal bow with two loops on each side. I decided to try something new because my sister kept saying my first bow looked like a flower...humph. I figure I can color this one red and green to get across that Christmas-y feeling.

Sooo...yeah. It's a weird request. I know. But I'm going to put a link of this request to my viewers of my TF story, so I'm going to assume (hope - desperately, fervently hope) that you're all used to it! :D So please, feel free to drop me some advice, help, your likes and everything else.

And speaking of weird. You've just got to see this. I Googled images of Bumblebee to get a better idea of what his head looked like (and I never would have guessed I'd be saying that sentence this morning) and, you know, I found a crazy amount of pictures of elementary school boys wearing Bumblebee Halloween costumes. It was a little weird, but they are elementary kids. Last year, my fourth grade sister went as Sailor Moon. I did her hair. It was awesome. That's all I'm saying.

But then I found this...

Yeah, it's a 'Bee costume for girls.

...

...I guess I have nothing more to say to that.

And just becuase I'm posting lots of strange pictures right now. This is whst my sister's (yes, the same sister who went as Sailor Moon) cat, Sokka, did practically all weekend.

And yes, that is my previously clean laundry. Ah well, I guess it's still wearable. He's doesn't shed all that much and at least these aren't my white clothes. *Sigh* This proves I'm a cat person. If the dog had done this I would have flipped out. Mainly because she chews EVERYTHING!!!

GASP! Speaking of my-dog-and-things-she-chews-even-though-she-knows-she's-not-supposed-to you'll never guess what she sunk her puppy teeth into a few weeks ago. My block! My linoleum block that I carved to print ink images with as a form of art work. She chewed my freaking art! AGHHHHHHHHH! I swear I have never wanted to hit her before but that did it!

I didn't of course. Are you kidding? I wouldn't do that. She's our puppy and I love her but THIS IS WHY I AM A CAT PERSON!

I took pictures of the devastation, but I'll post them later. I feel self conscious for the amount of pictures I've posted as it is. And besides, this was supposed to be a call for help on my first attempt at Bumblebee. So please. Help!

n_n Later!

Rose

Bang, Flash, Boom!

So first post of the year. Neat. Well, I guess this is a mini post because I just wanted to say that I have posted another little TF oneshot called, you guessed it, Bang, Flash, Boom! It's a short story that focuses on the younglings from my story I Lost A World! Hmm...looking at those two titles together for the first time I'm beginning to realize that I may have an odd relationship with exclamation points...

In case you don't know, the seven younglings are Bumblebee (of course), Arcee (another of course), Valiturum (or Val, whom I made up; his name is the Latin word for strength), Fastlane, Cloudraker (these two are real Autobots, but the only place I heard of them was on an online list of characters, so I've never really seen them before), and then Skids and Mudflap (because they haven't grown up in the last few centuries already so I think they must be children). It was really fun getting the chance to expand on Fastlane and Cloudraker especially because honestly they were only names in my longer story. And now they're not! Hooray! And then Bumblebee and Arcee and the others are always fun to write about too. :)

Anyway, you should go and read it! I wish there was a smiley face that could express just how gleeful I feel. They are just so gosh darn adorable! I think the only thing I can do right now is squee.

*SQUEE!*

You may be confused. I was disappointed with myself because I still can't get that short (Ha ha! Short. Pfft!) TF Christmas story polished off, and I really wanted to have at least one more story put up before the year ended. So when this idea flew over and smacked me in the head, I quickly wrote it down. In like, three hours too. ;3 And all while watching a Transformers marathon for New Year's Eve. (Actually my mom's idea, which is kind of cool) And, if I may say (and I can because it's my blog), it's just so gosh darn adorable! If I could, I'd write it again just to see how it plays out in all its cuteness again! n_n Luv it!

And now for an excerpt, to entice and ensnare you and remind you that reviews and comments are always appreciated, even for cute little stories like these.

            Of course Wheeljack’s lab wasn’t empty when they got there.

             “Because that would have been too easy.” Fastlane grumbled as he and the other younglings peered out from behind the open door to Wheeljack’s lab. Not only was the inventor himself there, but so were Ratchet and Prowl.

            “So what’s going on?” Skids pressed.

             Fastlane gave a frustrated growl. “Does it even matter? We already know that they’re in there and they’re obviously not leaving.”

             “So…?” Mudflap let the question hang.

             Fastlane slowly grinned as an idea lit in his head. “So we get them to leave.”

              Cloudraker knew that look on his brother’s face and it did not sit well with him. “Fastlane? What stupid thing are you going to do now?” He asked flatly.

              Fastlane grinned wolfishly as he backed away from the other three. “You’ll find out in a minute."

What stupid thing is Fastlane planning? What do they want in Wheeljack's lab? And will the adults nab them before they find it? Go read to find out! It's titled Bang, Flash, Boom! at Fanfiction.net and my pen name is Rose's.wings.

Or you could follow the link. You know, just saying. Whatever floats your interstellar boat.

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR! Because you should enjoy it you know, since apparently it's going to be the last one before the world ends. ;p Maybe by large autonomous robots even. Ha! XP

n_n Later then,

Rose

Oh, and P.S. - since that one girl was kind enough to pity Katara in her comment I thought you might also be pleased to hear that she has been released from her Cone of Shame. Which is good for everybody involved since us humans in the house no longer have to worry about getting new bruises on the back of our ankles. *Whew*

An Art Gorilla Student in the Trenches

Okay, so perhaps I should explain myself now that I'm not feeling so cryptic.

So the ending line of that first impressions post? My mom actually suggested it as the name of my blog, and I thought it sounded cool, so I kept it, just in smaller form. It will probably crop back up every once in awhile when I'm feeling frustrated. But just so you know, this is a venting rant to help me feel better. Air my feelings and all that. Although I do think someone out there will identify with what I'm talking about.

So if you're into art, any kind of art - dancing, painting, writing, rebuilding antique car engines, anything - then you know what a slump is. Writer's block, lose your tools because you threw it across the room and it slid under the far cabinet, moody muses that just up and abandon you for no apparent reason (brats); that sort of thing.

It's like being in a freakin' trench.

My latest example; this sequel I'm trying to write for my story I Lost A World!. (I'm going to take an educated guess here and say that most people reading this have been referred over from Fanfiction.net where I've been posting my stories (I'm just saying, I did some self advertising; it seems like pretty good odds) so I'll just say that it's a Transformers fanfic with my surprisingly well liked original character, Aria Rhapsody Johnson (I'm so proud of her name. :3) and right now I'm only one chapter post away from finishing the story, which is so sad. *hic hic*)

Wow, so that was a long winded explanation. Anyway, I really liked Aria and how she interacted with all the bots and it was such fun. So, naturally Aria kept bugging me. "Write more! Write more!" She tells me. So I started writing more.

And then she up and left me!

*Insert aggravated sigh here*

I wanted to kick her butt. But of course, she just ran away laughing at me, leaving me in that thrice dratted trench.

Do you know how aggravating that is? I wanted to scream!

Anyway, I somehow managed to climb out of it (maybe that's why I'm feeling not so cryptic now) and right now I'm chasing her. I'm almost done writing chapter four, so hooray! I feel all better, and free! Free to write and chase Aria so that I can duck tape her to the floor and use her as ransom. If I can't find the bots hiding the story line then I'll just make them both come to me. Right?

So whatcha think? Is that a great idea or what?

...okay, so maybe a fragged off Ironhide bursting down the door doesn't make this such a good plan after all...

But hey, at least I'm finally out of that trench.

~Rose