So Easily Discouraged.

Which is not something that my sister Statler wants to hear about, as she knows too many people who express the negative side of things so often that she herself is having a hard time keeping positive for them. And yet, I’m the same way as I convince my friends to vent it all out in hopes that at least expressing their frustrations will help to ease a weight upon their shoulders that simply listening is the only way that I can really help. Then an intense force drives me down as things start turning sour in my direction…



This month’s First Friday was a rather low blow. The past couple of months, sales had increased by a little bit, but with the lack of anything new to show and still no real interest in the character prints or comics (except for the two guys that want me to draw up their stories for them, which I’m still quietly excited about), I had a gut feeling that things would go well this month. I really need to listen to my gut feeling more often. One could easily blame it on the weather this time around, though I honestly think that last month’s location was rather ideal over where they normally hold the show. They tried to make it better by blocking off one of the streets to help deal with vehicle traffic…but that’s neither here or there right now. This time around it was rather windy, which grew to be so strong that it not only managed to knock my canopy over, but the display wall, easel, and table over. It was a mess…but on the bright side, my windows didn’t break. I lost a stein, which no one seemed to have much interest in anyways, my framed prints need to be cleaned up a bit…and after trying to set things back up again and helping my neighboring booth deal with her canopy and other things that had fallen, my stuff got blown over again. “I think it’s time we pack it up for the night.” We only had a half hour before the show was over anyways, and by the time we got home…it started to rain. I suppose the gods were just looking out for me and didn’t want my stuff to get wet, but did they have to cause such a mess?



I’m sure I wasn’t alone in being discouraged by the evening, as the cute blond guy I shall name Karper sat with me at my booth for a good portion of the show when people who were suppose to speak at his reading and discussion at the library canceled on him. We talked about it…he bought a couple of comics, who’s proceeds went to buying my lunch the next day at work…heh…that’s twice now that he’s paid for lunch. I really ought to return the favor sometime. Hmm…right, so then I got to meet his cousins, and when things just fell apart on me, he and his family helped to clean and pack things up. I attempted to read the first poem in a book of poetry he had left at my booth when he went off to chat with people, but I kept on getting interrupted by the wind; first in helping the food vendor cleaning up some chips that had tried to make an escape, and then by my booth deciding that flying away was on its agenda as well. For what little of it I read, I liked the point of view of the poem!



Karper is one of the two guys that want me to draw up their stories for them. The other is ET, who amazingly is unable to stay awake through the movie by the same name, and thus has been unable to see it in its entirety. The same movie that I cried through the ending of because I didn’t want ET to go home! ET has a great story idea that just puts me in a fit of giggles every time I look at the synapses, however…I’m finding that I’m having difficulty figuring out what the characters are suppose to look like. I don’t know if it means that my imagination is broken due to years of…? I honestly don’t know what the problem could be. The idea behind it is neat, and I think it would be a fun read…but…I have more questions behind the development more so than ideas of how it could look. I’m taking this as a bad sign. My dad suggested to just draw up something that first comes to mind to see if it goes along with what the guy wants…but I can’t even do that. I look at the list of characters, and then at the drawing of the vehicle he sent me…and everything just goes blank in my head.



But I’m trying to use such developmental inquiries on yet another project that my friend Keni wants me to write with him; a three book series on the adventures of two of our characters that we play on a game. But even this I found myself getting annoyed with because while he focuses on developing the two main characters (which is fine and important ), I’m trying to get him to focus on developing the world! I can’t think about what a plot or character might be if I don’t know what the world is like? What’s my character’s views on this…well how the hell should I know if I don’t know what this is?! Heh…but I went and took him by surprise by shooting off a bunch of none descriptive questions/options to him over text message while he was on a house hunting trip. From this, I’ve created the skeletal basis of a world for him to peruse when he gets internet access again. Here’s hoping I can get him to focus on that for a bit.



The lack of sales in my shops is discouraging as well, though I half expected it. I don’t have any ideas on how to cheaply advertise a bunch of products online, and the grapevine seems to have shriveled up and died on me. I should forewarn Statler of this before she has me painting anything wine related…out of fear that such ventures will look rather desolate.



Anyways…how do you like the random, old and new art that I have floating around on my computer. Some of them are projects I picked up from friends and family, others were just random things that I might do something with later down the road. We’ll see.

Phone Calls…

I have an extreme discomfort when it comes to talking on the phone. More so when I’m in a work/business situation where you’re forced to sound professional…but in my case, am not able to answer quick enough to satisfy the person on the other end. When it comes to friends and family, I can be a little more relaxed despite constantly getting interrupted, but with customers and operators from whatever utilities companies…the conversation is strenuous, uncomfortable, and rather frustrating.

What’s worse is when I’m in the middle of working on something I have a deadline for, and get interrupted by some survey call from such-n-such-a-company who are asking me questions that I can’t honestly answer because I haven’t been a customer with them long enough to know what the hell they’re talking about! “Can I just say 10 for the rest of these questions because I’m busy and hate taking surveys?” To which then...because I’m annoyed and frustrated in knowing that said person had no account information on me and thus asked me a bunch of stupid questions she could have answered herself if she just opened my file…I have to completely stop what I’m doing, piss, moan, and rant to myself while I pace throughout the house until I get completely fed up with it all…and wait until I can calm myself down again before picking up the brush and continuing with the project at hand.

And people wonder why I don’t like deadlines…or talking on the phone for that matter! It’s enough to make me determined never to sign up with and Bell/BellSouth related phone landlines ever again! Why? Because every week they’d call wanting me to change my plan…saying that this new and improved one with all these features I have no need or use for is so much better, for just a couple dollars more than what I’m paying now. “I don’t need long distance. I have a cell phone for that.” or the ever popular “Why would I need to make international calls? I don’t know anyone outside of the country. Are you going to give me your number so I can call you when it’s most inconvenient?” One night, after having put up with the calls for a month, I tiredly consented to whatever plan the guy from India was trying to sell to me…granted, I couldn’t understand a word he was saying because the only two relatives I have from India speak far better English than any operator I’ve spoken to. I thought it was done and over with…whatever long distance or international calls would generally be free since neither I or my roommates would be making such calls…I hung up the phone, and hoped to move on with my evening. Not even a minute later the guy calls back. “You didn’t pick which country y-“…to which I went ballistic on him. In between a variety of cuss words un-creatively used as nouns, verbs, and adjectives, I told him that all I wanted was a landline for local calls and the security system. I didn’t need voicemail, caller ID, long distance or international calls, and wished that the phone company would get it through their thick skulls that every time they call about changing my plan, that it’s a form of HARRASSMENT, and I was about ready to quit my service with them and sue their asses if this kept up. Poor guy…I think I shook him up some, because his broken English wavered as he profusely apologized and promised to never call the number ever again.

I know I should have been more civil…but even during the times I had been more so, they still called back. Is really blowing up the only way of getting operators to leave you alone? I think it would have been nice if they had reimbursed me on my bill for the inconvenience, but a part of me believes that those phone calls really aren’t being recorded for customer satisfaction. If they were, then they would have surely stopped calling after the first time around.

So what project was I working on that got so needlessly interrupted? A call for artists to submit paintings of anything historic concerning Chambersburg, PA. My interest in this project: Zilch. Dad took me around the historic areas he knew about the city, and I occasionally stopped him when I thought I had an interesting shot. I chose a photo out of five or six, and started on the preliminary work for it. And the more I looked at it, and the more I inked in the lines and with more frustrations that kept on piling up throughout the week started cluttering my head…I tore the paper from the block and stormed out of the house to clear my head. Took some nice pictures along a road that heads out into the farm land…but I’m still frustrated, and still have no interest in painting anything. Sorry Dad, it’s just not happening this time around. You just can’t feel good about doing something you were never thrilled about doing to begin with, and trying to force yourself to make something good out of that negative feeling only adds more to the frustration. Not a good idea considering how I’m trying to stay positive and upbeat!

But after some careful consideration, talking with a friend over another project for my CafePress shops, and doing some major price comparisons, I found that my first shop…is robbing me of any possible profits I could be making, and robbing my customers of money that they could be saving. Did that make any sense to you? Basically, after comparing some prices for specific items that are available in the first shop, I realized that I could sell them in my second shop at a cheaper price than the first…and still make a fair profit. So, I started out with the mugs, bags…other little accessories and such, pulling out the cheaper versions of one or two items, and putting them up for sale in my second shop. Over time, I’ll be adding more to the second shop, including a wider variety of shirts (there’s so much more than what they’re offering in the first shop) at the prices I am able to lower for you. And once I get these specific commissions done for the shop, I’ll be adding another section for people to find their requested image in, amongst a variety of products I thought they’d look good on.

So go check out the changes! Maybe now there’s something you’ve been meaning to buy, but didn’t want to pay for at the first shop’s prices!
http://www.cafepress.com/CerynitisD

Oh, and to add some more randomness to this entry…along with something actually visual to look at ( I would have had some videos up, but they were too fuzzy to see what anything really was), I was given the pleasure seeing my friendly neighborhood spider play with one of his late evening meals. The area is apparently SWARMING with spiders, and I’ve got too many for comfort residing within the walls of my house. Luckily, the one who was spinning his stinkbug dinner around is on the outside of my hall window, and so I wasn’t getting the willies when I was capturing him on video. Just watch…the spider is all like “I spin you right round, baby, right round. Like a record, baby, right round round round…” And Mr. Stinkbug is still kicking and wriggling and all like “Nooooo! I don’t want to be spun right round round round!”

But then the spider was all “Ok, I’m bored with this, and some freaky looking chick won’t stop watching me while I play with my food, so I’m gonna go over here and ignore you for a bit.” And I was all sad. Every so often I checked back to see how things were going. Either he was playing with his food again, or ignoring it completely.

Come morning, though…Mr. Stinkbug was decapitated…

Because She’s Gone Batty…

ISN’T HE JUST THE CUTEST LITTLE OLD CRANKY BATTLE SCARRED DRAGON YOU’VE EVER SEEN?!




And because a friend of mine REALLY wanted to hug him to death, I made him available as a Throw Pillow at my shop here below! Throw pillows and other items are not available in my original shop…but you can find them at this new one that I’m still tweaking. EEEEEEEEEE!

http://www.cafepress.com/CerynitisD

And I never thought that I would see the day where I would hear from my sister and brother-in-law would tell me how his coffee mug at work braking would lead to a memorial service and flowers would show up at a shrine made for said coffee mug the next day. Who would have thought that their co-workers were so awesomely weird?!

In Need of Support!

http://shops.cafepress.com/CeryntisDReichardt

Wait…what? The link says SHOPS??? Ok...you need to copy and paste it first...

And no art, and an update on a Tuesday instead of a Sunday? Surely there’s a good explanation for this. And there is! Really!

I moved! Shockers there, but it was a long time coming and it’s what’s making this year a good year. A fresh new start as I was hoping for. Unfortunately, it means I’m leeching off of my sister and her hubby, along with my parents as well while I look for a job and await a more permanent address. But I’m not at a complete loss! I have goals, but in order to reach those goals…as is with most things in life…I need money. So I went and opened a basic shop at CafePress .com to help make me some commission pay while I look for a job. I’m hoping that if I can make the minimum for a yearly professional account, I’ll be able to add more items and designs and set up the shop the way I would like it.

What do you guys think? There’re only four designs up there, the logo image from here…which will be changing soon to sport my new haircut, two images from some prints I’ll be selling at some art shows in town, oh! And a new image that I’ve altered to help promote a new set of prints that are in the works!

If there’s anything from on here that hasn’t been commissioned by anyone else (as I would need their permission to sell the image elsewhere as it were) that you’d like to see on here, COMMENT! Let me know so I can see if I can’t get the image uploaded onto the shop!

Anyways…thanks for the support! ^_^ I’ll be updating again once things have gotten more settled on my end!