So amped

last modified: Friday, February 22, 2013 (7:31:22 PM CST)

Wow, I bought a couple of Sonic comic pages today that have me all kinds of energized to get back on top of my gallery here. I have some items that have been waiting to be added for like a year, and I never did formally re-open this place when I was sprucing it up. I'm so excited about these new pages, though, that I may be trying to get back on top of this soon. THEY'RE SO PRETTYYYY I MUST SHARE.

Mario Marathon benefitting Child's Play Charity!

last modified: Monday, June 27, 2011 (8:40:10 AM CST)

Hey guys, if any of you can spare some money or attention, go and check out http://www.mariomarathon.com for a great charity event! A team of gamers is playing Mario games non-stop until they drop to raise money and awareness for Child's Play Charity, which provides toys, books, and games for children's hospitals worldwide. ALL proceeds go directly to Child's Play, the gamers never see the funds. It's always a good time, so have a look! If you can donate, that'd be great! And if you can't, at least spread the word! Thanks to anyone that can help out!

Hidden items hidden forever?

last modified: Saturday, June 11, 2011 (9:25:19 AM CST)

As I've been working on rebooting my gallery, I've taken previously hidden items out of hiding to put them on full display. However, even after setting them back to public view, they're still not showing up in my gallery. The main index will add the number next to the series name, but when you click on that series, the previously hidden items don't show up. It's bizarre.

Is anyone else having an issue like this? I know I could just delete and repost the items, but that being an annoying amount of work aside, I'd like to preserve the upload dates. Any ideas?

Gallery reboot?

last modified: Friday, June 03, 2011 (11:24:41 PM CST)

Holy snizzles, I've been out of the cel game for a pretty long time. The main reason for this is when my old PC died, my old scanner died along with it. There were no drivers for my scanner past Windows XP, so I was SOL as far as updating my gallery goes. I have a bunch of things I need to add, though, and I have a new scanner that seems to be behaving. Hopefully I can get this place up and running again sometime soon.

I think I need a major overhaul, but I'm not sure how to go about it. We'll just have to see, I guess.

One of my cels on Sonic Gear?

last modified: Wednesday, September 08, 2010 (7:19:39 PM CST)

I've been aware of the website "Sonic Gear" for quite some time now, but it may be a surprise to those that know me that I actually don't browse the site much at all. I already collect Sonic junk too much as it is, and if I had my fingers on the pulse of the industry, I'd get completely hopeless.

So imagine my surprise when a friend linked me to this page, which featured my "holy grail" of Sonic cels!

http://www.sonicgear.org/HighEnd/HighEnd.html

I'm just glad that they actually credited me for owning it, even if they didn't provide a link. How cool is that?

I have a confession to make -- updated

last modified: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 (10:08:52 AM CST)

I'm sure anyone that knows me is intimately familiar with my Holy Grail: the 3-layer pan cel with original matching background and 3 matching sketches and certificate of authenticity from the deleted opening of the SatAM Sonic cartoon. The cel that makes me nearly pee my pants every time I look at it, and has gotten me numerous death threats from ninjas and my best friends. The cel that came into my possession by pure serendipity and generous human spirit. The cel that's been the jewel of my collection for about 2½ years. The cel that, if you haven't seen it yet, you must witness by clicking here:
http://ledastudios.rubberslug.com/gallery/master_query.asp?SeriesID=25156

Which I only JUST framed a few minutes ago.

I KNOW, I KNOW, IT'S A SIN IN 12 COUNTRIES TO LEAVE A CEL THAT GORGEOUS UNFRAMED FOR SO LONG. But I swear it's not my fault! This thing is awkwardly sized, and my choices were either to put it in a bigass poster frame that was WAY too big for it and would make it look bulky, or to pay for a custom-made frame for likely hundreds of dollars. >_o Neither of these options seemed appealing, so it's just... sat around waiting. Protected between boards from sunlight and cathair, of course.

Then, tonight while I was at work, I just happened to pass by an absolutely perfectly-sized frame just sitting on an endcap. o_0 I have no idea when this size popped up, but damn, it was beautiful. My mom grabbed it for me when she came into the store, and when I got home tonight, I set about trying to get my baby safely into it. It may not be anything professional (the ''glass'' isn't even glass, it's plastic), but it still looks fantastic! And it fits damn near perfectly! And all for only $15. Looks like my patience has paid off again! Now I can see this beauty immaculately displayed on my wall whenever I feel like it~

[EDIT]: Since I've gotten a comment that's questioning my judgement on this, I feel compelled to point out that my room literally never sees the light of day. I've got thousands of dollars of collectibles in here, I'm not dumb enough to risk damaging it with something as obvious as sunlight.

Thinking of changing my gallery name

last modified: Friday, January 23, 2009 (8:47:20 PM CST)

When I first started my gallery here at RS, I only had a handful of cels and no real focus in mind; I was still in that honeymoon stage of collecting, and would basically take anything I could get ahold of.

However, over the last couple of years, I've kind of "matured", I suppose. I focus much more directly on Sonic and Conan, as my gallery now clearly shows. So, I was thinking of changing the name to reflect this focus.

The name I'm currently kicking around is Detective Hedgehog. X3 I think it's cute.

The Day of my Birth

last modified: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 (2:28:12 PM CST)

Those of you around here that know me quasi-well may recall that I don't usually have good birthdays, and for the most part consider it the worst day of the year. Every year I tend to leave a journal entry to the tune of "I hate this day."

But, this year I made no such entry. My birthday went surprisingly well, even right from the start. I was really surprised that so many people this year actually not only took notice, but bothered to give me well-wishes, and even a couple of gifts. Three people even sang me happy birthday. I think I cried twice just because I was so moved.

And even better, the winners of the Beta Awards were announced on my birthday, and to my great surprise I actually placed third in the shikishii catagory. X3 That was a nice birthday gift in and of itself. I can't wait to upload it to my gallery.

Super Wishlist Dreamcel slips through the cracks

last modified: Thursday, September 25, 2008 (8:03:48 PM CST)

Weeeeeelp, a scrambling effort has fallen flat for me. I was perusing eBay the other day, and tripped over an absolutely amazing wishlist cel that I never, ever, EVER thought I'd ever see. It's just... absolutely mind-blowing.

http://i1.ebayimg.com/06/i/001/0e/5d/020d_1.JPG

The listed price is $200, with $20 to ship. I quickly started flailing about like the panicked fangirl I am, and started posting threads at forums I know offering up cels and other anime/video game items for sale to try to quickly raise money to be able to afford this utter dreamcel.

Buuuuut... two things have gone wrong. For one, no one's really interested in anything I'm listing, and the other is that the cel just got a bid tonight. T_T00 It would've been a longshot to raise enough money TO bid, let alone to be able to compete with another bidder.

So... Eh, I'm going to leave my sale threads open just in case, but for the most part I'm considering it a lost cause. I can't imagine I'd actually raise MORE than $200, especially in just 2 more days.

Possibly the worst part about this is that I actually got an offer of $170 for one of my cels, but unfortunately it was a cel that's too special for me to part with. T_T I have a feeling I'm going to be regretting turning that offer down, even if it WAS that cel.

Anyone else getting spam mail via feedback?

last modified: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 (3:10:50 PM CST)

The first time it happened I thought maybe there was just some sort of hiccup in the system or something. The second time I wondered if someone was trying to play a joke on me, since they had both come after posting a journal entry. These third and fourth times, however, are really starting to make me consider that somehow spambots ARE getting past the little math portion of the feedback form.

For those curious, here's an example of the last one I've received:

Name: mjzmhvq
Email: evzvsr@tplqev.com
Site: KVRXrgqSKYvdBs
Comment:
3pwhpS http://ehnuazcevofj.com/">ehnuazcevofj,
[url=http://qcxubibiuoyk.com/]qcxubibiuoyk[/url],
[link=http://thigaqpespoc.com/]thigaqpespoc[/link],
http://qveuezqvienq.com/

With the jibberish stuff varying with each e-mail, of course.

Has anyone else gotten any messages like these, or is it just me? Like I said, this is my fourth one, so it's really making my head tilt.

A Dream and a Question

last modified: Sunday, August 31, 2008 (12:01:34 PM CST)

So I had this dream last night that I was going through the bin where I keep most of my cels, and as I was admiring their prettiness, I suddenly discovered a cache of Yu Yu Hakusho cels toward the back that I'd apparently gotten in some kind of lot and forgotten to scan in. They were beautiful shots, many of characters I didn't have, and I was so excited to have found them. ... And then I woke up and cursed the cosmos.

Anyway, I've been wondering what the policy around here is on prints. A friend of mine got me a pair of limited edition autographed Last Unicorn prints at a convention, and while I have seen autograph sections in other galleries, I don't really know what the ruling is on prints. They're not production art, really, but they did come from the person that made the story. Opinions?

To Thank and to Clarify

last modified: Monday, August 18, 2008 (11:55:31 PM CST)

First and foremost, I want to thank those of you that commented in my journal and sent me e-mails offering your comfort and support. I really didn't expect much of a response, so your comments all really moved me. Thank you to everyone that took the time to leave your kind words.

Having said that, there are two things that I would like to make clear. One thing that several people mentioned in those very messages were that they knew who it was I was talking about in my last journal. No one has accused me of this, but I would like to go on record anyway to say that I have no intention of slinging mud in public. It's the reason I referred to the person that slighted me simply as "him" rather than by name. He's a well-known figure in the community, but as this business was only our own, I didn't think it right to air his dirty laundry in front of everyone. If you happen to know who the person in question is simply by reading what happened, that is your advantage to know, but I left him anonymous deliberately.

The other thing I would like to mention is that, at least by my reading, most of those that responded felt that I was crushed simply by the fact that I'm not getting the Sonic X sketches. While that IS a devestating disappointment that I'm still struggling with, that actually wasn't the greater injury that provoked me to vent my pain. I was (and still am) far, far more upset over the manner in which I was treated, specifically because this is someone I had considered a friend (even if he was admittedly not a close one). I suppose you could say that I had always considered RS to be somewhere I was "safe", so to be treated like a piece of trash, and then furthermore to get laughed at when I started breaking down about it, was something that completely blindsided me. In the past, he had always been kind and civil when we'd spoken, so, it was gut-wrenching to have been kicked to the curb with no remorse whatsoever.

Thank you again to everyone that's taken the time to show a little kindness, even to a perfect stranger. It's nice to know that there IS still some good in people. This incident hasn't deterred me from the hobby, and I know that I'll eventually get past this, but the support makes the process that much easier. Thanks again.

~Leedzie

Betrayed trust and other crap

last modified: Friday, August 15, 2008 (2:12:34 AM CST)

I've been around this community for a fair amount of time. I've never been a major figure in it, but I have lurked around for... what, 3 years? 4 years? I've had incidents here and there with sellers on eBay. I've knocked heads with people running online stores. I've haggled with dealers at conventions. And I've read enough journals here on RS to learn about the escapades that can go on in the lives of heavier hitters than I am. I know that there are a lot of scumbags in the hobby of animation art. I know there are people out there that are only out for their own interests and don't give two shits about anyone else around them.

I just never expected to run into someone like that in my own backyard.

I've never been able to cognate cruelty. I could never understand how a human mind could possibly be okay with knowing that they've hurt someone around them. I could never figure out how someone could sleep at night knowing that someone out there is devestated because of their actions, and not only not feel guilty about it, but to furthermore find entertainment in it. I still can't understand it today. It's just something I could never, ever do to another person.

Close to a year ago, I posted a journal here at RS in a fit of desperation. I was at my wit's end with trying to find animation art from Sonic X. Not only could I not seem to track it down ANYWHERE over the course of the last couple years, but on top of it I kept noticing it in other people's galleries around here. I figured I had nothing to lose, so I wrote asking if anyone out there had any leads on where I could possibly find something.

One of the responses I got was actually a bite at the line. Tracking him down in the chat, the fellow RSer here said that he did indeed have some Sonic X art, but that he didn't know where it was, and asked me to give him enough time to find it. Patience always was one of my virtues, so I eagerly agreed. Good things come to those who wait, right? I could wait a while as he dug around for it. Although, that "while" seemed to be getting pretty long. Spotting him again in chat a couple months later, I asked what the status was. He assured me that he DID have them, but that he'd just moved, so it would take even longer. It was disappointing, but, I again reserved myself to the wait.

Even more months have passed. As I said at the beginning, it's now nearly a year later. I spotted him in the chat again tonight, and decided to ask yet again what the status of things were, and honestly I was expected yet another excuse as to why things weren't moving forward. So, you can imagine I was quite shocked to find out that he'd found them and posted them in his gallery months ago, and just never bothered to tell me. What's more, he also dropped the bomb on me that he was in the process of selling them to someone else entirely, because I never claimed them.

Wait, what???

I just... I'm absolutely speechless. I tried not to be confrontational over things, but as the conversation went on, I started getting more and more upset, and ended up bursting into tears here at my computer as the whole debacle exploded in my face. He not only seemed to have no remorse whatsoever for leaving me hanging for a year just to ultimately screw me over, but furthermore found my reaction hilarious. And despite my repeated attempts to just get a straight answer from him on what he would be asking for even ONE of the sketches, I couldn't get a word of it out of him. First he ignored that I'd even asked a question, then he dodged answering it, and ultimately he refused to do any business with me.

((This entry turned out to be too long, see first comment for the rest.))

Unforseen problems, have I.

last modified: Thursday, November 08, 2007 (3:10:28 PM CST)

...WELL. The good news is that at a recent convention, I not only scored new Sonic arts, but in a new format: I now possess original comic book pages! I've got two pages from some classic Archie comics (back when I actually still followed the series).

HOWEVER... This also poses a problem I never once thought of until just recently. These pages are WAAAAY too big for my scanner to handle. n.n0 I have absolutely no idea how the hell I'm going to scan these. Whoopsie. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Aaaaand as to my hunt for Sonic X art... T_T Nada. Xeno had said that he might have a Knuckles he could sell me, but that he'd have to find it first, and I haven't heard from him since. Mughowjfo#JO*Q@#J T.T A LITTLE HELP HERE, TOO? PLEASE?? DESPERATION SETTING IN.

Alright, who do I have to blow to find Sonic X art?!

last modified: Saturday, September 29, 2007 (4:09:21 PM CST)

Seriously, this has been driving me insane for MONTHS. I have not once -- NOT. ONCE. -- even seen a LISTING for ANY art from Sonic X, but in the meantime it keeps popping up in other galleries around RS. IS THERE SOME KIND OF SECRET SONIC X-SELLING MEETING PLACE THAT I'M NOT IN ON? COULD I GET AN INVITE? PLEASE? PLEASE?!

UofjwO*@J(#*@JOFISJElF *rubs face* Frustrated.

Rocky road, and I don't mean ice cream.

last modified: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 (8:00:08 PM CST)

I don't even LIKE that ice cream.

Well, good news and bad news. My wishy that I found a few days ago arrived... damaged. It's not a gigantic injury, but it wasn't well-protected in transit (no warnings on the package not to bend, most notably), and now there's a crease right on Sally. Aurgh. But the seller seems to be working with me well on a partial refund. I only asked for $5, even though I could probably get more. He offered $30 when he first replied to me and asked for pictures, but it's not a $30 injury. Still an injury though. AND ON SALLY OF ALL PEOPLE. Uggghhh.

Also, I bought a Naruto sketch on eBay MONTHS ago (so long ago the auction link doesn't even work anymore), and I received bubkis. Well, I just found the seller's RS gallery back online, and not only that but my sketch is still in his gallery. I wasn't sure if I was delighted or furious. I just sent him a feedback explaining that I'd bought that sketch and I'd like to receive either that art or a refund. We'll see what happens. Hopefully he'll stand up and send the art over; I'm very aware of the fact that since the auction's long since expired he could very well do nothing, but dammit I have to try. Hopefully he'll be a good guy. :| Funny I have that kind of hope for a guy that took my money and sent me nothing -- not even a reply to any of my eBay e-mails.

Guess we'll see what happens.

Mental Meanderings with Chocolate Milk.

last modified: Thursday, August 10, 2006 (7:46:04 PM CST)

Hum.

Well let's see. I haven't written a journal entry in a while, and quite a few things have happened since then. For one I tweaked the look of my gallery and updated my wishlist. Which, to the average visitor, ranks slightly above a snore in excitement. Eventually I'll finally be adding section descriptions to my gallery, which is even less interesting, but then again I've been saying I'll do that since last October.

So on to the business of cels. There's good news, there's bad news, and then there's just plain news. I don't have any particular order for this aside from when things just happen to cross my mind as I'm writing. So, on that note, I'd like to start with something that's pissing me off. I snagged a Naruto sketch on eBay quite a while ago for considerably cheap. The eBay ID was "sensei-ghibli". I paid immediately, and now, over a month later, I'm still waiting for the sketch. I've e-mailed the seller twice to no avail. Then, out of coincidence, I happened to notice that there was a "sensei-ghibli" here at RS. Upon checking out the gallery, there indeed was my sketch. I WAS going to try to contact them via feedback.... but for some reason didn't. I told myself "I'll try feedback if I still don't get a reply to the eBay messages." Yeah, great idea, Leedz. Now it's a month later, I still have no replies, and the gallery appears to have been deleted. God dammit.

I'm in the middle of working out a cel trade with dearest Leah. She's being an ANGEL and working generously with me to try to aquire a wishlist Rurouni Kenshin cel featuring my cupcake Soujiro -- and during my favorite episode, to boot. I'm just waiting on a couple of Tenchi cels to come in the mail before we finalize anything; I wanted her to see the one of Tenchi that's on its way to see if she might like it better than the one her eye is currently on. In a way I kind of hope so, because my current Tenchi was my first Tenchi Muyo! cel ever, so I'm attached to it. In addition to Tenchi, she's also eyeing one of my Ranmas, one of my Ryogas, and one of the Yoh sketches. Luckily they're all ones I can convince myself to let go of with some reminders of Soujiro and the prying of a crowbar.

Yet to be added, in addition to the two Tenchi cels in transit, I have a new cel of Richard from Detective Conan, a wishlist of Chii and Hideki from Chobits (which came at a stupidly low price, huzzah), and a nice set of Sonic cels. Sonic cels have been driving me off my rocker lately because there's one guy on eBay with some nice ones, but he always prices each one of them right at the top end of my cel budget. He's sucking me dry, so my spending money's been isolated in one place, but not only that I've lost a couple of other ones I liked because I couldn't get them at once. It sucks, but, eh, that's how this goes sometimes. In addition to there being too many Sonic cels, it seems like there's no good Conan cels. Conan just isn't hanging around eBay lately; all the great ones are on YJ, where I can't bid. Sigh.

I still haven't gotten The Holy Grail framed yet. We're supposed to go this weekend, but I don't know if it's going to happen. My prediction is that it won't get done until after the wedding I'm in next week. I still have to find somewhere safe around here to hang it. Actually I still need to sit down and write that cel's description. Yeesh.

I also need to finally make a For Offer section. I've meant to for a while, and haven't yet partly because it's bitchwork, but partly because it's difficult to admit that some cels should leave me. Meeeeeh. Must keep reminding myself that they'll go to loving homes and that they'll fund future wishlists. ... Snore.

Hopefully I'll get an update in Saturday. I really wanna show off those Chii & Hideki sketches.

.............

last modified: Friday, July 14, 2006 (2:14:01 PM CST)

The Holy Grail just got a little bit holier. And I'm beginning to think that the angel isn't an angel, I'm beginning to think he's just plain God on vacation in Australia.

The Ca-- ... No, the MIRACLE

last modified: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 (6:35:18 PM CST)

The Holy Grail has just fallen into my lap.

And it was bestowed upon me by an ANGEL.



You'll see what I mean next update.

The Philanthropist Wishlist Case

last modified: Thursday, December 08, 2005 (9:31:38 PM CST)

T_T ZAG, SME, AND MATT ARE WONDERFUL WONDERFUL PEOPLE. The three of them donated to me enough money to bid on a wishlist cel that's ending in less than a day. They are AWESOME and I love them all, even if the worst happens and I get outbid. Everyone go to their galleries NOW.

Zag: http://zagcels.rubberslug.com/

SME: http://sme.rubberslug.com/

Matt: http://celaddicts.rubberslug.com/