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well.

Now that I can't go to work.....That means I get to spend all day drawing. :D

HOLY $#!^!!!

from: http://www.nyc.gov

PR- 473-05
December 20, 2005

STATEMENT FROM MAYOR BLOOMBERG ON ILLEGAL WORK STOPPAGE BY THE TWU

"Tonight, Roger Toussaint and the TWU have taken the illegal and morally reprehensible action of ordering a citywide strike of our mass transit system.

"The contingency plan that we outlined last week will go into effect and be implemented for Tuesday morning's rush hour. Among other measures, HOV lanes have been designated; Police checkpoints are being established and a new fare structure for taxis is in effect. The entire contingency plan can be viewed on www.nyc.gov.

"At this hour, City Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo is joining the MTA in requesting an emergency hearing in front of Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Theodore Jones. We will seek to show that the TWU is in contempt of the court's earlier injunction and ask the court to impose severe fines on the union and its members.

"I hope Judge Jones will grant this motion as quickly as possible. The union must understand there are real and significant consequences to their actions.

"For their own selfish reasons, the TWU has decided that their demands are more important than the law, the City and the people they serve. This is not only an affront to the concept of public service; it is a cowardly attempt by Roger Toussaint and the TWU to bring the City to its knees to create leverage for their own bargaining position. We cannot give the TWU the satisfaction of causing the havoc they desperately seek to create.

"Going forward, we will need to be patient, considerate and resilient. We can't let inconveniences, as massive as they are, stop our economy, shut down our schools, or jeopardize public safety.

"It will no doubt be a difficult time for people of this City and the region as a whole. But New Yorkers have made a habit of pulling through tough times and showing doubters what we're made of. These traits will be put to the test as long as this strike lasts.

"Rush hour will begin in few hours. I will join fellow New Yorkers going to work by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to lower Manhattan. Let's show our determination by walking, cycling or carpooling, to get to work and school.

"We will show that New York City works even when our buses and subways don't. I have no doubt that, by working together, we can and will get through this.

"Thank you and have a good night."

take joy in all you do.

not well slept, and i'm up to finish a colored commissioned piece this morning. work's been killing me, but things are doing all right there too.....is that normal??? for me to actually ENJOY my day job?? it isn't normal. something must be fishy. =P

this weekend will be a SOCIAL weekend. i haven't had one of those in awhile. there is still a lot of work to do though. derek and i are busting out t-shirts and promo posters for his Knitting Factory show on Saturday. for two people who work full-time, network, and spend all the majority of their spare time working on lengthy creative projects, i have to say that i give the both of us props for barely being able to maintain the things that need to be done to live here in the city...(like, laundry at odd hours, and um...cleaning stuff..).

okay, that was a really badly written paragraph i realize. it's 8am and i've barely slept, and i feel weird and it is the morning, and i hate mornings..blablabalblablalba.

enjoy the microwave kitty.

i'm whiny.

i think i have to repark my car. worst of all, i have to wake up ridiculously early and work a 12 hour day.

so it is december and the drama in my personal life hasn't seemed to end...however, there seems to be a divergence in that the drama is occurring nearby.........meaning, to people close to me, but i'm somehow not as involved, which is a really good thing.

so that means i'm doing something right. right?

i dunno.

the little boy is my bestfriend's 5 year old nephew caleb. i swear, he is the love of my life. tragically, he suffers from asperger's autism. he is also the most brilliant kid i have ever met. and he has these amazing blue eyes, and you can see him disappear into the world of his mind. he's beautiful. i love him.

the highlight of my day today: drawing in starbucks and giving my fish cartoon away to a bundled up little girl. she was a bit whiny because she was hungry, and her and her sister had to wait reluctantly for their mom to pick them up from, i'm guessing, being with the nannies. i think she was happy about the fish cartoon, but she was a bit pouty so i'm unsure. ahhh..kids are so cute. (when they're not yours, i've learned.)

i'm anxious. i don't want to work. i'm also anxious because there is a lot going on in with every aspect of my life, work, business, personal, family...EVERYTHING. the holidays....new year's..ack!! ACK!! i wish i could just skip the rest of december and all of january and get to february already. chinese new year is always a nice time.

year of the dog? yeah, year of the dog is next.

must get ready for bed. ciao.

one more day.

if only i could have one more day for a weekend. but anyway, the reason for the title, it's the title of the song derek james and i are animating. and that there...i a little sketch of james and ophelia, starring in soon-to-be-the-most-rockin'-animated-music video ever known to mankind. YEAAAHHH!!!

the holidays are RIGHT around the corner...isn't that wild? i'm seriously feeling the pressure of all of it. i'm looking forward to it, but at the same time, i kind of can't wait for all of it to be over. or..i think that is my general feeling of the winter, period. it's so ricockulously cold here, sometimes i wake up and it takes literally hours for me to really be awake....well, no, i'm always like that, but now, with it being so cold, i think it just enhances that.

i'll be heading back to the west coast for the New Year. it will be such a change from the cold and snow. it's so silly, i think....how easily i am influenced by the weather. =P

i'm just rambling. it's time for bed.

i'm being vague, but this is my story.

i have had a struggle with being too personal on blogs to not knowing how to not be impersonal on blogs. so i have this weird in between, bouncing back and forth from being personable to standoffish way of writing. well, anyway. i found out something today that is very critical to my time here in new york city, and i grew nostalgic. this is what i wrote. this is sort of the biography that never appeared on this site, so, i guess in a way, it kills two birds with one stone, uhh..yeah..or something like that.

so this is a story of a girl who liked to daydream a whole lot.

she daydreamed to pass the time, waiting for the bell to ring, in the first period of the seventh grade. she was a swimmer and dreamed about becoming an olympic star. she dreamed about falling in love, and finally being seen for who she really was.

swimming took her to many places. she traveled to many great cities to compete. her daydreams would take place in the water. being immersed in the different shades of soft blue kept her imagination flowing. all kinds of ideas and stories would formulate in her head, and she would wait for practice to end, and for dinner to be over, for her to be alone at night where she could write and organize these new thoughts.

on the swimteam she made who she thought would be lifelong friends. slowly, these friends that were so accessible and familiar slowly become unrecognizable. drugs and pretension took some of them away. interests other than swimming took some more away. and soon enough, the girl found herself alone again, lost without her friends.

although lost and alone, this girl still happened to find herself in the soft blue of the water, alone in her thoughts. but soon enough, the intimate places of the mind she reached while swimming endless laps broke her heart. the nostalgia of the good times that had passed were too much, the loss of friends could no longer be ignored, and she had to take her daydreams elsewhere.

she went to the nearby university, determined to walk her own path. here she met a boy who she thought she could daydream with, and while their energies were fueled by different passions, they dreamt together for nearly three years. believing that she was finally being loved for who she really was, the girl planted a seed in her heart for the future of her and this boy. music, poetry, and art resulted in abundant amounts. their love was deep, and no matter what obstacles they came across, the girl made sure she did what she could to keep the bond strong.

and then one day, the boy broke the girl's heart. just weeks before he had spoken of proposing, and for a year's time they had spoken of marriage.

but on this one day, the boy made it very clear to the girl that he didn't want to daydream with her anymore.

so the girl moved far, far away.

and for the next few years, the girl wandered aimlessly, sometimes from boy to boy in search for the daydream she had experienced during those ten minutes before first period was over.

a few times, she thought she found it.

one boy was a fireman she'd bumped into in the dessert aisle of the grocery store.

another was a carefree, brooklyn-born italian who loved to take her shopping, make her home cooked meals, watch movies, take her out dancing, and go out to music concerts and festivals.

one boy she remained with for nine months trying to convince herself that she was something she wasn't just so she could smile brightly at how picture perfect they looked on the outside.

there was a boy who she'd met in her favorite california town who was passionate about music and sociology, whose eyes smiled when she looked into them.

all of these boys had their own daydreams, and as amazing as they were, none of them matched the daydream she was in search for since the days of her childhood.

and then one day she came upon a boy whose deep blue sea of eyes touched every nerve in her entire body and soul.

everytime she looked into them, she was mystified. she would leave his side and not be able to escape the trance he had put her in. she would close her eyes, and he would be in her daydream, as much as she tried to resist.

when they spent time together, they would not have to speak. they just needed to look at each other. and despite all the obstacles that stood between them, the girl knew that this was the boy in her 7th grade daydream.

but the obstacles were great. and sudden. and even though this was her daydream boy, and she knew it was, they had to be apart.

and forced apart they were.

they went their separate ways, and the girl suffered in their separation. (the boy did too, we assume.) to cope, she started to draw. she would stay up late at night, drawing to reduce the anxiety, but even in her creative release, it wasn't enough to save her from lovesickness.

another relationship occurred. this one, fresh, new, and wild. seemingly filling. seemingly real, and even practical. as far as she knew, the daydream that was had died with the separation from the deep-blue-eyed boy. the idea of the daydream ever materializing she realized was impossible. and she accepted it.

the girl ran away from her far, far away place that she had run to after the university heartbreak, and found herself in new york city. she had run away from her current relationship, and had run away from her family, and her past, and everything she'd ever known and written and made her own.

and she decided to start completely over. she cut ties with everyone she had ever known, and broke off her relationship. she broke off from several friendships, some the most important in her life. some, nonrecoverable heartbreaks. in a city so unquiet and congested, she craved for silence in her mind. no more daydreams, she thought. just dreams.

just real, raw dreams. not to pass the minutes of the day like she had once done, but dreams she realized needed to be materialized. armed with her insatiable passion for colors and ink, the girl who had before used her art to cope with the incomplete daydream is now utilizing it to keep a roof over her head.

the boy in the daydream will have to wait, because the girl in his daydream is busy.

productive illustration weekend.

so i've made sure to chill out this weekend, decompress from the stresses of a 40 hour work week by indulging myself in spa-related activities, art, and multiple cups of hot chocolate.

i've been illustrating like mad. the above "poster" was inspired by the three cats i live with and my kitty-loving roommate, AMPeters. along with commissioned pieces (i.e., the spa illustration), i have goals to complete Friendship 101 before Christmas time. here below is the trial cover:

this Sunday, if i can help it, won't be lazy.

but the rest of you, have a nice one.

v.

turning a new leaf.

so the piece above is a new piece i just completed (it may go under some rendering later on) for some massage therapist friends of mine. the little guy makes me want to indulge myself in spa delights. sigh. it's friday and i'm really overworked. this weekend, however, begs for art-related attention.

*yawn*

by the way, i have printed ten copies of Romance 101, and have sold most of them. i still have 3 or 4 left, so if you are interested, please let me know. this is R101's NYC debut printing. they're $20 a copy. just email me at vanissawchan@yahoo.com. thanks!

have a great friday everyone!

ryry-sound.net

this is my buddy ryan, also a virginia tech alum, sporting my, "please don't have children," tee. thanks for the support, ryan!! ryan is a very, very talented DJ. experience his sound at ryry-sound.net.

to purchase this shirt and view other Pigmint products, please visit cafepress.com/pigmint.