So like, I still do draw from time to time, but you know them video games sure can suck out a lot of time. With the busy week of work, last week’s trip up to PA, and all, sometimes it’s all I can do to make it to ZOMGTGIFriday. Thankfully, every so often I squeeze in a little bit of time to cook up something.
Here’s the draft stage version of the latest thousandth Sea Slugs! comment gift art. I have to finish the final comedic panels (though it’s not necessarily that funny), but the main panel is finished. I’ve gotten this lineart darkened and switched to grayscale, and I’ve done the usual lazy lines-shading. This is typically what my pictures look like to start with, and I pretty much always do different characters in different ink colors, because it’s the only way I can keep track of how the interactions should look.
Subjects are Rin Tohsaka and Saber from Fate/Stay Night. The recipient requested “Tasty Rin Tohsaka” as the theme, and I’m working up to it. It took forever to even think of something a little more original than straight up onsen fanart. While drawing it, I was thinking in my mind that Curse Seal Sasuke-Rin vs. Gaara-Shirou would be a funny spoof as well. We’ll see if I ever get to that.
I feel like Sydney needs a feline companion during the day, and so we are considering getting a kitten when we move up to Pittsburgh. As much fun as it is to let Sydney chase me and then for me to chase him back, another cat would probably be more interesting. And so when I spotted this post about Animal Friends (their grand opening is March 18th), I was completely intrigued.
Dogs and cats are all vaccinated, wormed, micro-chipped and fixed.
Word. All this has to be done anyway, might as well do it in aggregate and pass on the savings. But does this mean that the kittens are not that young?
I’ve been to the shelter, it’s much brighter and bigger then the old facility. There is actually a medical department now. There are two free roam cat rooms.
Whoa, free roam cat rooms?! That sounds as cool as visiting the home of some crazy cat lady, except without that creepy-weird factor. I want to see this!
There are a handful of kittens available - give it a few months and the shelter will be overflowing with kitens. Kitten season is almost here.
ZOMG, kitten season?!?! That should coincide with our arrival!!!
Anyone else follow the strange saga of this year’s WordPress 2.0 Theme Competition? I guess the original contest (I remember reading about it and thinking that it seemed a little wonky) was a hoax, and that’s really quite sad. I’m not sure why Alex King declined to run it again on his site, but I suppose perhaps it was more work than he wanted to take on.
However, I recently spotted a thread on the WP support boards about the newest iteration of the contest. It’s got its own page now, a more legit organizer, and a deadline of May 1, 2006 (with winners being announced on May 15). Hopefully developers weren’t all turned off by that last fiasco, because I really want to see some more themes that take advantage of the new hooks that WP2.0+ has to offer.
So far in the Fantasy NBA season, my team HaroDragoons has been cruising. One reason why (i.e. the non-Lebron reason) is the spectacular play of Boris Diaw of the Phoenix Suns. Thanks for waiving him, Ender =D. Anyway, while Boris’ stats are certainly good, what makes him really amazing is his position versatility. Just recently, he finally added center eligibility. This makes him eligible to play SG, SF, PF, C. So with Nash out, why not play him a little at the point? He can’t shoot and he is a good passer… I think it could work.
I never owned Magic Johnson, but this has to be a diet version of what it was like.
OMFG, video of Chuck Norris reading the infamous Chuck Norris Facts. This was even better than playing on the Chuck Norris BF2 server!
Please Believe It
Well I guess it’s about time I start writing up about how the apartment search went. And like a mediocre Matrix sequel, this post is best viewed in bullet time.
Picking the Place
- Most of the apartments that we saw on the first day were abysmal. Nothing gets a housing search off on the wrong foot like a whole bunch of overpriced, old 2 bedroom apartments in mediocre locations. Sorry, we already did the whole “I live here cause it’s cheap” thing in college.
- We were excited about the second bunch of apartments because there was the main place we were interested in (over a supermarket), and also this “luxury apartment” in Squirrel Hill. The one in Squirrel Hill wasn’t in as good of a location, but it was huge and for the same price. Driving past it, it looked good on the outside.
- The “luxury apartment” ended up being the most disappointing apartment out of them all. It was gigantic, but inside it was sooooo old and everything was totally crooked. It was as if the builders had never seen a 90-degree angle before. There was also no A/C.
- With every other choice looking like crap, we were really praying that the supermarket apartment (henceforth to be known as the “supartment”) would be really good. While it was small and overpriced, it fit the bill perfectly, and was the clear winner. However, that’s when we found out that an identical 1-Bedroom supartment was available to buy, just two floors above the one we were planning to rent. Thus another path to hell was paved with good intentions.
Who Needs Stomach Lining?
- Everything went superbly at first. There was another couple looking to buy at the same time, but we slipped in just ahead of them and got the paperwork filled in. We were assured that we could get a mortgage (we even got pre-approved); not a great one, but one we could afford. Things looked peachy, and we even got to pick out what kind of tiles/countertops/appliances/etc. we wanted.
- Then the nightmare began. It was one problem after the other. Mostly, because this was a newly constructed condo unit, the requirements for getting a mortgage were steeper. I suppose this is because at this point, the building was more of an investment than a living space. Either way, suddenly it looked like we wouldn’t qualify for a mortgage. We had a clause in our buyer agreement making the contract contingent upon getting a mortgage, but we had to show that we had made a real effort to get the mortgage. This would take time, and while we were twiddling our thumbs, the rental we had wanted before could easily be taken and we could still end up not qualifying for the mortgage and having nowhere to live.
- We did have one ace up the sleeve. Seeing how condos are typical vehicles for scam, we were allowed to back out of the deal with no charge if we submitted paperwork in writing within 15 days of signing the agreement. We decided we wanted to back out and then just try to rent like we had originally planned.
- However, this threat kicked the various parties into high gear and this afternoon we got a call from a new lender that we are approved for a mortgage. Moreover, it’s even better than the one we had expected to get. We even got some kind of wacko mortgage insurance to go through. I don’t completely believe it yet, but I think we may have a place to live!
The migrant lifestyle is a hard one, and I just want to have a place to live. Hopefully everything will stay rosy, and we’ll be in our new supartment by the end of May. Now Bunky just has to pass the Bar…
Work in Progress | Kabitzin 3/17/2006 | 
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