Clearly.

This journal is typically friends only. If you think you should be on the list and suspect that you aren't, please do post here. If you think you arer on the list and rather would not be, please also post here. Not posting here does not change your status as friend or not friend.

This doesn't really mean that I actually expect anyone to be reading this. Since clearly people are not.

Sorry to have taken up your time.

Oh God that was a fun con. As usual, with no outside help from drugs or alcohol, I hardly remember what all I did because it's a blur of amazing fun.

I'd like to thank anyone who stopped by the Artists' Alley for their visit. It was a great opportunity to talk to a lot of fantastic people and draw some very interesting characters. You guys are all awesome and it was nice to have some company that wasn't glued by the nose to a commission for a while.

If anyone who bought a commission from me could possibly scan it and send me a copy I'd be thrilled. I was very happy with everything I drew at the convention and would like to be able to show it off. :3

In more serious news, my little sister is very ill and Mom had to go get her from her college about three hours away. She is running a fever of 103 and I'm not allowed to go to the house for any long period of time. I have mail to pick up, but should be able to avoid catching whatever she has. It's especially frightening to know that if I did catch it I would have to get over it completely on my own now that I have no health insurance.

Alan works tonight, so it's a lonely busy day today. I have a lot to do to be able to get back to my job search and finish fixing things with my driver's license and the bank. Add to that a few cards I need to make and mail and wow I'm very busy.

I'll probably be on TF2 tonight if anyone wants to game with me while Alan's at work. It will help pass the time.

Images under the ( cut )

Made these at RCFM.

( Scans under cut. )

Let me know if there are any things you'd like to see on these other than dragons and unicorns and stuff.

Just posting some cards I uploaded today.

( I hope you enjoy :) )

( Click Me! )

I've got a spot in the RCFM art show, so I'll be making a huge pile more before then. Hopefully they'll do well. :)

Not certain how this will work out, but I did make a few cards today. My parents are now both encouraging me to try to make a business of it. I think I really will try.

( Some proof )

My mom's trying to convince me to sell prints of my cards on Etsy. I realize that prints aren't allowed on Etsy, but I'd be happy to sell custom originals. However, that failed pretty hard on Furbid so I'm not really comfortable with the idea of having to pay to put the same offer on Etsy.

So basically, what I'd like to know is whether or not it's even a practical idea. I love Etsy to death as a buyer, but I'd like to hear others experience with it as sellers. Maybe cards would do better over there, or maybe I can make prints to sell elsewhere. Either way I'll have to make a fairly generic pile of cards as examples and to have something to sell at all. The only one I still have sitting around here is the Thylacine card, and I like it too much to even send it.

I'd like to be able to make money from these things so that come next February I'll be able to include more fun handmade stickers and maybe fancier shiny paper when I make another giant pile of them for the hospital. I'm not using cheap construction paper you know. This stuff's already medium to heavy cardstock, but it would be a lot of fun to get some of those patterned and handmade scrapbooking papers to use. If I manage to do better than just enough to buy better supplies, maybe some percent can go to charity? The rest to tuition?

If I did decide to go with prints, would it be better to get matte prints and then reline the shiny parts by hand, or should I be lazy and go for plain glossy prints? Would people want them individually signed, or would that detract from their usability as cards? How much of a profit would be considered not thieflike? Where do I find a trustworthy printer? Would it be worthwhile to save up for my own fancy printer? What sort of resolution should I scan in to make professionally printworthy files? 300dpi? 500? Would people want batches of all one card pattern, or would they prefer sets of related images?

How do I set up a minuscule small business to pay tax on income if this works? Do I have to? Is just me selling a few cards enough that the government would really care? I've gotten so very little from commissions in the past that I never really thought about it, but if I'm going through the trouble of setting up an Etsy store or dealing with a printer would I need to go ahead and call it a business instead of just assuming that it's small potatoes and not enough to worry about?

Would it even be worth the stress?

I'll be posting a few low res copies on my office bulletin board when I'm at work Monday to see if anyone over there bites. If I can get enough of them interested I may just do a run of printed cards of the Thylacine love card. Since I still have that one I can still make a higher resolution scan of it. Probably not many will be interested - especially since it's unlikely to be all ready in time for Mother's Day. If anyone here would be interested, just hit me with a number and if/when it ever hits whatever whichever printer I find says is a minimum order I'll let you know a price.

(Crossposted everywhere I go - except the gun forums.)

So. Amid my normal discussions of my day I'd like to make clear something that I think needed to be said back in October.

Pessimism is killing our economy. It's not the state of the financial world that is keeping thing so bleak. It's not the mass layoffs. It's not what everyone claims it to be.

Pessimism.

The economy is driven by consumer spending. This is something that everyone knows is true. When consumers spend less - for any reason - the economy slumps.

The secret reason we're having so much trouble is that people are spending less and saving more.

I'm not even talking about the people who actually have reason to spend less. I'm talking about people deciding that because the economy is down they should put off spending what they would have even though they have no real need to reduce expenses.

When people put off planned and normal expenses there is less demand for the products and services that they would have used. When there is so much less demand - as when large numbers of people put off spending - those products and services can no longer exist. And then people who truly need to reduce spending are created by layoffs in those areas - which naturally spreads the pain, as the people who relied on them for income lose that as well.

It's a vicious cycle.

It can only be combated with optimism.

However, no one seems to be willing to speak for optimism. Not a single person. The media whines and moans and offers fear and gloomy reports from all directions. With that defeated attitude more are inspired to reduce their spending habits even though they still have jobs and undamaged savings.

This is why I feel that we need some kind of economic stimulus plan. Something. Anything. Just some way of offering a kind of refreshing optimism to slow this cycle.

Maybe. Hopefully. If it can be built well enough.

Maybe it can reverse it.

Well. We all knew this day was coming. I just wish it didn't have to.

Vladimir Lenin, my beloved hamster, died peacefully yesterday morning.