For a more intimate and sensual Simanion experience, "like" my page on Facebook! ..Here: [link]

~ x ~

Oh hello. It's probably time for a journal update, seeing as the last one was eons ago and produced at a time when my brain was apparently in imminent danger of eating its way out of my head. Good news everyone: it didn't!

So, since that special moment in time, I have finished university entirely (after almost 6 mostly wonderful years). Apparently I'm a "Master" of graphic design now. If I understand correctly - and I do - that means I'm entitled to several slave children, and I get to wear a wizard hat and conduct the ocean at my own leisure via the latest Apple product. Cool. What else.. I acquired a girlfriend. I lost that girlfriend. My old sentimental favourite band Silverchair entered a seemingly permanent hiatus Diorama is still my favourite album ever, it's like a big magical warm hug. I went to Thailand and Laos and had an amazing time in the homeland (I played with baby tigers for an extended period of time!!!). I got a kickass second hand lamp. It's emerald green and gold.

Happy new year and such! I think I say this every time, but I do apologise for not being a very active member here. I see how engaged some people are with the DA community - talking to all their watchers, constantly giving real feedback/critiques, featuring unknown artists, holding contests - old friends I started out here with getting Seniority statuses for their contributions, and I feel a creeping sense of guilt that I should be using whatever little powers I have for good. Instead when I'm online I just kinda....eat chocolate and go on Youtube, haha. I'll pick up my game here some day.

I also need to create a whole lot more artwork. My output is pitiful. I spend so much time thinking and not doing, I'm going to burst. Since the beginning of this year, and even the end of last year, I feel like I've been going out or doing various social things every day. I love seeing people and doing stuff, but I also really like alone time in my self-constructed sanctuary of a room. I think I fluctuate frequently between extroversion and introversion in their extremes, which I think just annoys everybody. I have to ask myself how serious I am about being a professional artist and designer. The answer is very serious, haha. So..it may be time to completely throw myself into it, at the expense of a social life. Time to be a creepy art hermit.

Do any of you experience these sentiments? Surely some of you are as obsessive as me, haha.

On the plus side, the one artwork I've actually completed lately went unexpectedly crazy. I was so confused. I uploaded Neapolia and it behaved as every other artwork would. A fave or comment here and there at a gradual pace. I went to sleep. I awoke to find it had gathered a favourite almost every minute for about 6 hours. Whaaat. I assumed it may have been an overnight DD, but couldn't see any evidence of that whatsoever. Eventually I worked out that this was my first taste of front page fame, lol. I'd been in specific categories' front pages before, but never the general browsing "most popular in the last 24 hours" stuff. Of course the next day it disappeared from there and it slowed to a more regular pace. I just wish I knew why it happened, whether it was one mega popular person who faved and started a chain reaction, or if it was linked to from another site, or if it was just that a lot of my watchers happened to be online at one time. It may never happen again, but man it's cool to have an artwork closing in on 1000 without the help of a DD However, it did kind of make me realise why there is such a massive gap between those that chance upon popularity and manage to stay there, and those that are floundering in the unknown. The system is kind of constructed to perpetuate it.

So what's on the horizon for you all this year??

~Simon

To conclude, here are some of my favourite things of late:

Yes. For the first time in the history of my four years of existence on DA, I have changed my avatar. "Whoa there!" I hear you exclaim, "Next you'll be cutting your hair and arriving on time and being professional and all sorts of ludicrous things". But do not fear, for the individual behind the avatar remains he same. BE ALERT...but not alarmed.

I guess it's a logo of sorts I only did it temporarily for my facebook page (which is here by the way, become a fan if you havn't yet!..please, lol: [link] ) but then never got around to doing anything else. I havn't perfected it yet, but when I do I'll upload it with some dodgy business cards and stuff heh.


I just watched The Life Aquatic again, man I love that movie. So deadpan and odd. Bill Murray is the king.

I hope you all gorged on chocolate hardcore

~Simon

It's true.

I like April fools on DA. This tops Mudkips by a million.

But yeah, I wish I could change to Team Jacob. Lol.

Love, peace and a wheelbarrow of assorted vegetables each carved into the likeness of Taylor Hanson to you all

~Simon xx

~GetWatchers is an artists group created to help artists increase their audience by getting more visitors & views. If you need more exposure of your arts and if you wanna discover some talented artists, come join us -> HERE <-.


----------------------------------------------

~ I had a dream where the world's surface was like a trampoline. Grassy trampoline fields. And when you jumped the rocks and animals (horses and ducks mostly) would bounce everywhere. It was actually pretty dangerous lol. I was trampolining with all these randoms, jumping into trees and onto people's shoulders as we built a giant human chain into the sky. It all felt super real. That's about all I remember, but it was possibly the coolest dream I'd had in months ~



Phat Seasonings! I'm propising that as a new "festive season" greeting - watch it catch on.

I havn't written a journal in soooo long..but what a time to do so! Might as well make it a big one. Hope you all had a spine breakingly merry christmas and now that it's new years eve (here) I guess I should throw in a happy new year as well

So another year on DA and I'm still into it. Although I havn't been as "active" as I used to be, I still frequent the site and check everyone's art out, see what's popular and in the process I've found some of the most unique artists that are yet to be properly discovered. This place is a great source of inspiration and slowly but surely the mainstream world is catching on.


*********************

I'm days away from 50 000 pageviews. Nice round number. I will probably have some kind of contest with pants wettingly awesome prizes soon, lol.

*********************


I recently saw a whole lot of the most famous impressionst and post-impressionist paintings in an exhibition at the national gallery called "Masterpieces from Paris". It was all the early modernist superstars. Monet, Van Gough, Gougain, Cezanne.. Amazing stuff. Interestingly my favourite wasnt even an impressionsit painting but more of a traditionalist one: Gustav Moreau's "Orpheus" - the symbolism and detail was astounding.



Hopefully these coming months and this whole year will be more productive for me artwise. I have so many ideas written down or mentally stored, so many different aesthetic and conceptual paths I want to pursue that I ended up thinking about them more than actually doing them. I spend forever on a single artwork...it just sits on my desk and I add the most minute detail each day. And while it means I can indulge my perfectionist streak, it limits my output. No matter what I can't help but incorporate some element of "detail" or "calculation", but maybe it's time for a change of style? ...

I dunno. I've just been thinking about it alot. People seem to like my work but I'm so unproductive due to my style that it's hard to get enough output to keep people interested or put on a decent exhibition or make any money... I could get more out there but it would probably compromise my vision. Is anyone else feeling a similar thing?




New Year's Resolution: Go through my massive DA inbox and Deviations. It's become seriously overwhelming haha.

I've more or less finished my Graphic Design degree and am going to do Masters from halfway through this year. My uni workload will probably be less overall than this year, which means more time for self-initiated artworks as well as something hopefully pretty cool when I finish my Masters work (which will be a continuation of my recent typography stuff).

However I'm wondering how this year will go for me internet-wise. I am in the tricky process of finding my feet well enough financially to move out, with a friend, and start living like a young, poor artist lol.




INCOMING RANT:

I currently live at home in a suburban area that verges on rural at times. There are good people...but it's mostly full of redneck bogans - people who are nothing like me, notice I am nothing like them and want to fight me. That's how they deal with it. Last night I had two of these said bogans whistling and yelling shit at me and my friends in a carpark. They threw a beer bottle at my car window when I was standing 10m away, just because I dress differently or look different or some bullshit. I shouldn't have to censor myself to feel safe, highschool is over. Their car sped off before I even knew what happened. Luckily it didnt smash the window but it left a dent and beer was all over my car. I want to murder them, lol. It's more or less a dead end town, a little bubble I gotta get out of. The creative epicentre of the city is where I'm headed.




But enough of that!

This year is about more art, more freedom and more money lol. More girls would be preferable too.

I'm going camping in the remote wilderness for the next 6 or so days.. If I don't go insane and savagely eat everyone in their sleep I'll see you all in 2010. Have a good one!

----------------------------------------------

~GetWatchers is an artists group created to help artists increase their audience by getting more visitors & views. If you need more exposure of your arts and if you wanna discover some talented artists, come join us -> HERE <-.

~ I had a dream that I was in an open field on a sunny day, in a crowd of hundreds of sailors. We were casting fishing lines into the sky. The lines and hooks would all just stay up there, like the sky had a magnetic pull. After a while a huge school of flying fish, all of them different colours, came by. They started nibbling at the lines and were eventually all connected, and we flew them like kites! The crowd of sailors broke up and everyone started running chaotically all over the field, trying not to get tangled up. All of a sudden everything dropped as if there was no more magnetic pull and the fish fell to the ground, flapping on the grass. Then I woke up ~

---------------------------------------------





So...it's been 4 months since my last journal update. Ha. Anyone still here? *cough*



Apologies for not being an industrious deviant. Somehow I havn't got the same time to dedicate to DA as I did in the holidays, despite me not doing any work for uni until today - the first assignment is due Monday, it's week 4.


I returned to DA after a small hiatus and was dumbfoundeed to see I got a DD for "Think Outside the Square", yay! Haha. Massive thanks again to =xqz-moi and ^snowmask. I've always liked the conceptual strength of that one, despite many parts of the drawing itself being terribly sub par, lol - I remember rushing to get it done for the next day.


I wish deadlines didnt exist, they're pretty much my worst enemy. Oh wow, they really are, I just seriously thought about that seemingly throwaway statement, but deadlines and I really don't match. I'm thoroughly late wherever I go. I get told by friends that things are on an hour before they actually are so I'll be on time, lol.


I've still been doing art, just taking it relatively slow on that front though - I don't want to force it out. I've done lots of little things, maybe I'll post some of them


Oh, I saw the Flaming Lips live! It was pretty much one of if not THE best gig I've experienced. I was about four people from the front. It definitely had the best individual song I've ever experienced: they opened with "Race For the Prize" and with every crescendo the cannons of confetti exploded into the air, engulfing the front rows like a magic dust tornado and instantly lifting us into their joyous world, along with the many giant bouncy balloons they continually unleashed on us, creating a perpetual sky-sea of orbs. Meanwhile there danced a group of girls in yeti/cat suits side stage, and on the other side were frogmen and a giant caterpillar.


It was just overwhelming, and that's not even mentioning the awesome song. I took videos but havn't youtubed them yet, however there's a video here from someone in the stand [link] - the sound is pretty underwhelming, but you get the picture. The rest of the gig was brilliant and fun and sincere and otherworldly and sing-a-longy, but that opening song will stay in my mind forever. I've never cried at a concert before, but after the last song "Do You Realize?" I had a tear, lol.


I went to an Alice in Wonderland party and it was amazing. They had a 20m long rabbit hole (with smoke machine) that you walked through to get to the backyard, and you really couldn't see a metre in front of you. It was intense. Then inside, the room was filled with helium balloons with playing cards attached. Everyone looked so cool, it was very atmospheric. I went as a "Bread-and-Butterfly" lol.



Yeah, so that's that. I just thought I'd better say something, because I'm far too intimidated by the ridiculously high number of messages and deviations to properly tackle them.


Thankyou to everyone who faved "Think Outside the Square" and to all the new friends it made for me, lol. Say hi and tell me something random!



~Bake it easy,
Simon.

~ I had a dream that I was duelling with a plant that had been terrorising a nearby town that predominately grew parsley. It was Basil - both in name and species - and lured combatants in with its promising aroma. I was dressed in Samurai gear, while Basil the basil was very much naked. He proved to be extremely easy to defeat, essentially as easy as you'd imagine a large, unarmed basil plant would be when you have a Samurai sword. I actually felt cuel - I like basil alot more than parsley anyway ~





Hello you


So I finally had/have some new work to upload, and a new camera to better capture some of it Yay.


Things got quite hectic before this week, which was my Easter holiday. I pushed the procrastination too far and ended up handing in a few uni things late, and I have a feeling I was the only one to do so, lol. Saaaad. Some very confusing and tumultuous times of late, but I'll get over it.


I feel I should share with you the (currently) underground cultural phenomenon known as "The Whonado".


I created a facebook group for it, so please join if you wish to one day be part of it, lol. The group is here: [link] and the below information was lifted directly from it..





********************

One.. Who.. Three..

WHONADO!!!


*see the video titled "The Whonado" down the bottom*


A ritualistic tribute to the single most epic moment in the history of music: the Earth-shattering climaxular "YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!" of "Won't Get Fooled Again' by The Who.

David Caruso and the respectable team at CSI: Miami know it.

The short clip, (available below) continaing the most thunderous moment of this legendary climax, is Bluetoothed around - to your friends, the community, the state, the nation and the globe, until it finally reaches The Who themselves.

Following the countdown of "ONE.. WHO.. THREE..", all participants then shout "WHONADO!!!" and simultaneously play the clip from their mobile phone devices at maximum volume and tenacity, their arms rising with the power brought on by the tornado of Who-osity, guided by the legendary essence of Roger Daultrey, Pete Townshend, the fiery spirits of Keith Moon and John Entwhistle, and probably the replacement band members too (most Zak Starkey).

A global Whonado, at the eye of which are The actual Who, is exactly what this world needs right now..

The sound clip for Whona-doing:

[link]

Global financial crisis? War-torn Middle East? Global Warming? Crap on TV?

WHO knows what the Whonado can achieve...

...aaaaaand on Youtube. Rate it:

[link]

**********************************




...I feel I should also share with you this ceremony of chaos and destruction that took place the other night. It's accompanied by a long explanation to give what I feel is much-needed context on why this needed to take place in this way, but if you just wanna see me go crazy with a huge wrench on a piece of shit phone just watch the video. I hope you can view it!


[link]






So yeah, that about sums it up I guess. I can't thank you guys and girls enough for actually maintaining interest in my work, it really means alot that you've stuck around

Adios!
~Simon

~I had a dream once that I was coerced into having terrible and emottionally scarring sexual intercourse with a fat(ter) and overdosing Courtney Love. Good times.


Greetings, juicy and tender steaks of artistic fury.

I apologize for not being active in the past week or so, the busy-ness factor of my days has gone up slightly from doing nothing to almost everything haha. So faithful friends, I will be checking out your work and messages at some point.

Apparently it's my birthday tomorrow (or technically today). 21, woo! I'm having a "surrealism" themed dress up party, should be very interesting

Just a quick one to remind you that Im not dead, and also I guess that I continue to do artwork!

Stay classy San Diego.
~Simonty



Create your own visitor map!




Care for some....... Psychedelic Treasures!!!?? I do.

This is what I'm all about:


:thumb61048282::thumb56427314::thumb68310792::thumb64869479::thumb69552930:

~I had a dream about eating paint with Luke Steele.


Very brief journal to say have an explosive Christmas and luminous holiday everyone! Im seconds away from leaving the house and going to see family in Canberra for a few days.

Sorry about lack of updates and art, I REALLY tried to get a piece of artwork that I've been doing for ages done by today, but it couldn't happen without me rushing it and not being as creative as I could be, so it'll have to uploaded be when I get back.

Ok, some Christmas movie with Tori Spelling just came on, I think it's time to leave, lol.

Have an awesome day everyone! You're all the best and enrich my Deviant life at least twelve-fold. May Manion be with you all.

I'll do a proper journal when I get back!
~Simon




Create your own visitor map!




Care for some....... Psychedelic Treasures!!!?? I do.

This is what I'm all about:


:thumb61048282::thumb56427314::thumb68310792::thumb64869479::thumb69552930:

~I had a dream where I was walking along an absolutely massive marble pillar that had fallen on its side in a massive void. Everything around me was white and pristine. As I moved along the pillar I went through what looked like rooms in old style mansions, with grandfather clocks and old phones - but everything was silent and all white. I stumbled over a paint bucket and splashed bright blue paint all over the floor and objects in the room. I panicked and tried to use some curtains to clean it up, but all different coloured paints started to come out of my hands. I decided to see if I could shoot paint from my hands, and sure enough I could. I threw paint through my hands and fingers all over the place. Soon an alarm went off and sirens filled the void. I looked around for a place to hide and saw a portrait on the wall of myself that I hadnt painted. I took a run off and dived straight into the painting. All went black. I woke up~

Hello!

A big thanks to $spinegrinder for selecting Sugar High as a Daily Deviation yesterday! I'm really happy it was chosen and well accepted. However, what Im working on now makes me see all my mistakes and technical shortcomings in that piece, lol.

To everyone to faved, commented or dropped by - THANKYOU!!! There were alot of you, and I'll be dropping by all my new watchers' pages to say hi. It really made my day, and I had an intense icecream yesterday which was hard to top So yeah..that should keep me busy, lol

I also resubmitted "Manion", as there have been additions to the Manion canon, which can be seen here

Here are some works that have been in my head for a while:

:thumb97567544:

Take it easy compadres! May your thumbs gain so much dexterity that you start unexplainably levitating and eventually unwillingly make your way into space where you can no longer breathe and die, but not before taking in the wonderful view.
~Sim



Create your own visitor map!


Care for some....... Psychedelic Treasures!!!?? I do.

This is what I'm all about:


:thumb61048282::thumb56427314::thumb68310792::thumb64869479::thumb69552930:

~I had a dream where I was on a giant throne on the top of a hill, overlooking a vast lanscape of more grassy hills, but each was a different colour. I had at my feet a giant keyboard. When I pressed one key, one of the hills would rise up and then fall back down again, and the note would echo out across the valley. I did this for (or what felt like) a good half hour, and then I saw a cyclone of empty picture frames racing towards me. I think I accidentally set it off. I ran down the other side of the hill and, with my back against the hill I looked up. The cyclone turned on its side and moved horizontally across the sky and over the horizon. I wandered to the bottom of the hill and found a tall cactus that had knitted clothes on. I took a dart out of my pocket and threw it at the cactus. Then I woke up. This journal entry is dedicated to darts~



Aloha, how be ye all?

So it's been about a month since my last entry, I feel obliged to update. And that feeling precedes actually having anything to update you with haha.

I know I'm late to the party, but I watched (and bought) "Howl's Moving Castle" not long ago - whoa, it is breathtaking. Every scene is like this beautifully constructed painting, with such great attention to tiny, quirky details. Very much my thing, even more so than Spirited Away, and I loved that movie. I have to say if it falls a bit short on anything it'd be story, I coudn't really get that emotionally involved. And the resolution at the end was a bit "hmmmm". But overall I reccommend it to everyone who hasnt seen it

I've been working on a couple of artworks, one has more done than the others. I like the idea so far, so we'll see what happens with it. I must say I've been very inspired by some of the styles and colour schemes in "Howl's Moving Castle", especially inside the castle in Howl's various rooms.

It's been getting toward the latter part of the semester where the big things start loomin closer overhead than before. But I've been very naughty and not doing any uni work when I have the opportunity to do so.. I just can't bring myself to do anything unless I have to, unless it's my own art! haha. I just spend weeks worrying and thinking about it, so it's as if I've been working on it without actually doing anything at all. Lame.

Case in point, it's taken til now to actually feature the one who got my 25000th page view sorry dude!



Man, I can't say Croatia was on the top of my places-to-go list, but your photos are certainly putting in a good word for the place. Some beautiful sights you've captured!

I'm seeing  Aussie band "The Grates" soon. Should be fun. I'll try and dress like a crazy rainbow kid (not flouro kid), or in some kind of silly shirt for the occasion

Oh you must, MUST check out the gallery of Damostoaster :damostoaster: Heres some thumbs:



You can probably see why I like them And he's only got 179 pageviews!

Nanette55 brought to my awareness one of the funniest video clips I've seen in a while.

[link]

The song is also extremely groovy, and I havnt been able to stop listening to it and dancing like a hippie. It's "Carmensita" by Devendra Banhart, boyfriend of the immaculate Natalie Portman who is featured in the video.


I was tagged like a hundred times in various formats by different people, so I'll make up my own thing, introducing...

THE TOP 8 THINGS I WANT TO BASE AN ARTWORK ON SOME DAY (NOT INCLUDING WHAT IM WORKING ON RIGHT NOW) THAT MAY OR MAY NOT EVER HAPPEN:

1. Minas Tirith
2. Several of my dreams
3. Floating over a patchwork quilt landscape
4. Various inflatable creatures
5. Red Square
6. Something purely typographical
7. Another in the "walking the dog" theme
8. A slightly anime-style figure with lots of details, in the vein of the very talented :hellobaby: but in my own style

Yeah.. Tag yourselves lol.

Catch ya on the flip side!
~Simon



Create your own visitor map!


Care for some....... Psychedelic Treasures!!!?? I do.

This is what I'm all about:


:thumb61048282::thumb56427314::thumb68310792::thumb64869479::thumb69552930:

~I had a dream where I was a gardener working on a Victorian-style garden. I was in the middle of cutting a hedge into the shape of a guinea pig when all these other gardeners came running out of nowhere. One yelled "get down!" and tackled me down to the ground, shouting "don't you know we're at war?!!". I pretended I did. I grabbed a spade (I know) and followed the rest of them, eventually standing amongst ranks of gardeners who'd lined themselves at the edge of a cliff. They started firing things in chipped form, for example they'd throw a wheelbarrow into a mulcher and it'd fire off into the distance in a hundred pieces with the sound of a machine gun. There was a "cavalry" section consisting of gardeners on ride-on lawn mowers. One of the gardening soldiers turned to me and gave me a tiny box, saying "the last one". I opened it and inside was a single walnut, painted red. Then I woke up. I never saw what we were fighting..~


Allo!

Well this is just a quick one to let you know I'm still here.. and to apologise for getting way behind, again. I cant handle it! haha.

So yeah, sorry I've been late with replying to messages or journals, and checking everyones work out.

Apologies for the various features I'm supposed to do, they will happen! and I'll do more and more, and make some use of my subscription heh.

Also, I want to apologise for not doing as much art as I should. I admire everyone who can just upload something every day, or even work on something every day in all the spare time they have. It takes me ages to even build up to doing something.

I saw Sigur Ros on Saturday night!! It was breathtaking, and I dont use that word lightly. Truly magical were the most fragile moments where there was complete silence from all 6000 people in the hall, so powerful. They had a kickass brass section with them too

But..because I'm a shortass my view of the stage was blocked nearly the whole time by tall bastards, lol. I realised that this happens to me at alot of gigs, and was inspired to create a facebook group related to the matter:


"94% of my View at Gigs is Obscured by Giants and the Back of Randoms' Heads"

[link]



So join if you can sympathise or empathise with the plight of short people at gigs, haha I searched for one before I created it and didnt find any (most results were about "little people") and so I made it. Then I saw that there are in fact many groups like it, just that I had limited my search options. But theyre all at about 50 members or so, so why dont we make this one the biggest?!!

OH! and I'm going to see Luke Steele on Wednesday. Frontman of The Sleepy Jackson. Not very well known out of Australia (or even in Australia for that matter, but I love his music. Should be a cool, intimate show.

Anyway..tell me about your recent adventures or something.

~Simon



Create your own visitor map!


Care for some....... Psychedelic Treasures!!!?? I do.

This is what I'm all about:


:thumb61048282::thumb56427314::thumb68310792::thumb64869479::thumb69552930:

~ I had a dream where I was living with a family of different coloured gorillas in the jungle. Some were blue, some red, some green etc. I painted myself purple and acted as though I was a gorilla so I didnt give the impression that I thought I was better than them. One morning we unanimously decided we had to vote out one of the family. Of course I was voted out, as it was revealed that I wasnt a gorilla and that most of them never liked me that much anyway. This was all conveyed without dialogue. I then gathered my belongings and trekked into the fields where I came upon a big glass egg filled with red sand. I was commanded by the sky to throw it. I did and it just kept flying upwards. It then started to rain and two suns appeared and crossed over eachother, quickly setting behind the hills in the rain. That was it ~


Hiya!

Wanted a fresh journal Back at uni.. My holidays ended and they were much less productive than I'd hoped. Firstly I have to confess that I am legitimately addicted to the internet (only a few sites, DA features prominently), it's a real problem and it's affecting my life. I joke about it and it is kinda funny, but it's excessive and killing me (softly). What do I do?! ...ehh, it'll work itself out. It's all a journey.. lol, I say that alot.

Secondly, it is short notice but I'm about to cross over 25000 views of the ol' page, and I thought "hey, that's a nice round number, let's do one of those things that people do". So if anyone catches it and posts a screencap then I'll feature them and give them a little interview! wow.. if nobody actually gets the 25000, whoever has the closest wins, lol.

Upcoming gigs for Sigur Ros and Luke Steele, yay!

You can now "become a fan" of Manion! ..if you have facebook. He needs more fans!

[link]

Also, how fricken awesome is "The Dark Knight"?! Saw it on the Wednesday night it came out here and it was thoroughly enjoyable. Not perfect but I liked alot of it. Heath's Joker is definitely the scene stealer, although I wish there'd been a little less hype - it resulted in the expectation of me being blown away into the cosmos and moved to tears of fear or something by his performance. He was definitely fantastic, but not life-changingly good.

Next stop: "X-Files - I want to believe"

QUESTION FOR USAers: what specific confectionary do you know that is in Australia but not the US? I'm going to include some along with some random things for my cd-mix receiver, and have no idea what you guys have. I figure Tim Tams are a good start.

Catch ya on the flip side! May chords erode your koi farm and lead you to a sweeter patch of eternity.

~Psymon.



Create your own visitor map!


Care for some....... Psychedelic Treasures!!!?? I do.

This is what I'm all about:


:thumb61048282::thumb56427314::thumb68310792::thumb64869479::thumb69552930:

*EDIT* - I've now got an amazing artist to feature:



I found this guy probably a little less than a month ago, and needless to say was reduced to this: The amount of artworks that I would label a masterpiece in his gallery is just crazy, and the surreal imagination on display is inspirational. My kinda thing A true master of his work! Check it out...


  




Okies, that is all

--------------------------------------------------------------

~I had a dream where I was pushing a big trampoline along the sand and into the ocean. I got it into the water and managed to make it float, so I got on it and rode it like a raft. As i floated out I started jumping up and down, really high so I could see the tops of the hills on the shore. Out of nowhere people started shooting at me from the shore. I couldnt see them but I could hear the shots and the bullets whirring past, and I  see the smoke. Due to some logic that can never be explained, I pulled out some balloons from my pocket and began blowing them up and tying them together as I dodged the bullets. I had enough to be lifted into the sky and started goin up. I got really high but a few were shot and burst, and I went plummeting down. I hit the water, sank deep and frantically swam to the surface. As soon as I hit the surface and took my big breath of air I woke up~



It's worth saying that the above dream was had in the morning after a party at someones house, and they watched me wake up. I was lying on a couch and I rose up really quickly and took a giant breath, and then apparently shook my head - which would've been me shaking the water out of my hair lol.


Sooo! It's been a while since last entry. I FINALLY got through the semester at uni, which was hell by the end (as always, but it seemed worse this time - my procrastinating habits are pushing it further and further each time lol). So some time to do more art. I have alot of catching up to do with peoples deviations. Although I've been on holidays this week, I havnt had proper time to sit and have a solid go at DA due to other people needing the computer - but it should be better in that department now.


I'm seeing Sigur Ros on August 2nd, yaaay!


I went to the pop culture convention Supanova in Sydney on Saturday and Sunday (it's kind of like a Comic Con thing), and it rocked. Forever hail free crap. Now I would proudly group myself as somewhere between semi-nerd and full nerd, but this is where you find the true hardcore fanatics existing to be simultaneously celebrated, cringed at, and to reduce you to tears of laughter.


As always, the cosplayers were out in full force. One of these years I'll dress up...maybe as a hobbit or something, most preferably as something with a full mask for the loss of inhibitions that comes with anonymity. But I'll never, ever endure the humiliation that is the Cosplay contest lol. Poor girl dressed as Cyndaquil that nobody clapped I felt so sorry for her. And the utterly perplexing and silencing solo sword duel performance from one dude (we think) who was a Red Mage. My friend won the Cosplay this year! She went as Mrs Lovett from Sweeney Todd, and sang as well.


Got to sit in a live hook up with director Guiellro Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy 1 & 2, eventually The Hobbit plus sequel) and Selma Blair. It was a Q& A session for Hellboy 2 but I was there mostly there as a Guillermo fan. He talked about how latin American mythology has influenced the violence and dark imagery in his films. Very cool.


Speaking of Pans Labyrinth, I'd seen it ages ago but bought the dvd the other day and watched it. It really is an AMAZING movie. It's not as much of a fantasy film as you'd probably expect. With the backdrop of the Spanish civil war it's really violent and gritty and gory, but laced with magical and highly imaginative scenes. Ultimately it's very tragic and sad, and emotionally draining. But it's well worth it.


Umm..I should find some artworks to feature here. I'll get around to that.



Just for some fun, if you want to you can ask me any question you feel like, no matter how random or personal or ridiculous lol, and I'll answer it. Most likely truthfully



May you revolve at a constant speed and be cooked evenly all over your body,
Simon



Create your own visitor map!


Care for some....... Psychedelic Treasures!!!?? I do.

This is what I'm all about:


:thumb61048282::thumb56427314::thumb68310792::thumb64869479::thumb69552930:

~ I had a dream where I was surfing a giant turtle. All of a sudden it went underwater and then jumped out and flew into the sky, with me holding on. I shouted "can we slow down?" and he answered "where we're going we dont need roads...". Confused, I let go and fell for what seemed like 10 minutes. Eventually I landed in the grass at the bottom of a hill. There was some sort of outdoor funeral ceremony going on up the top so I walked up, opened a little white gate, took a seat (I now had a suit on somehow) and tried to hear who had died. I went up to the coffin and peered inside. I saw myself - all pale and..well, dead. But I wasnt even scared because I knew (obviously) that I was alive and was telling everyone not to worry. I was kicked out for causing a fuss lol, and the dream ended with me going back to surf the turtle. ~



So..what's goin on?!

Not a whole lot has happened since the last journal. I'm about a month older.. Ooh I finally saw Ironman! Cool movie, if really only for Robert Downey Jr. He made it a not so cliche, noble hero movie by essentially beingg an egotistical prick lol, which was very entertaining to watch. There were really two movies in it - the times when he was Tony Stark (ie. Robert Downey Jr being funny) and when he was Ironman busting up stuff. If they'd integrated them a bit better I probably would've liked it more. But it was fun to watch him figure out how to use the suit

I'm finding it really hard to believe the situation in Burma (Myanmar) and the government's ridiculous position. The government is completely downplaying the disatser and focusing on the election. I saw a bit of what I think was the French news, and it showed footage of a government parade with dancers, all done up with ridiculous giant bows and stuff, prancing around with smiles and singing about how "we all must vote! Vote for our wonderful government! Hurry! Hurry! Off to the polls boys and girls!" when peoples houses lay in ruins around them!! It was sick! and they apparently removed people from their half destroyed homes and converted them into polling booths! Anyway..

I'd always heard about the greatness of the HBO show "Flight of the Conchords", and seen bits and pieces here and there, but it premiered on Australian tv last night and man it was hilarious Trivia: the guy without the glasses was in Lord of the Rings. He was in Fellowship as part of Elrond's council and was voted by fans as the cutest elf on the council, and so Peter Jackson gave him a line in Return of the King. He's the one that's escorting Arwen to the Grey Havens, and comes up and says "My lady, we must not delay. My Lady!" and so on. Haaa.

Finally finished a bit of artwork! Apart from those who have "watching accounts", those who have left, and those who have died, I must be the least prolific person on DA haha.

How good is the band MGMT! Reminds me of The Flaming Lips, Sleepy Jackson etc with a more electronic twist. Oracular Spectacular is a fun album. If interested, listen to "Time to Pretend", "Electric Feel", "Kids", "Pieces of What", and everything else haha.

I think you should have a look at this person's gallery -

She's pretty new here and has a beautiful painting style with dream-like, atmospheric pieces that often subtly reference the more mystical side of rock n' roll.



Also check the brilliance of this out:

   My kinda thing.

It's by whose gallery should definitely have more attention.

Ok, 'til next time!
Simo



Create your own visitor map!


Care for some....... Psychedelic Treasures!!!?? I do.

This is what I'm all about:


:thumb61048282::thumb56427314::thumb68310792::thumb64869479::thumb69552930:

~I had a very short but memorable dream that I was painting bananas (actually painting the bananas) and selling them somewhere in empty hills - no houses or sign of human life anywhere. I didnt get any customers, surprisingly, so i decided to pack up shop, put everything in a sack, and trek across the big open hills. I saw an inflatable pool with nobody around. I peeked inside and saw that it was a roulette table. I spun it and it landed on a symbol of a panda. I love pandas. Out of nowhere a panda appeared and I rode it around like a horse, up and down the hills. Eventually I stopped, hugged the panda and said to myself "well this worked out well" and woke up~


Yay! I know you've all already said congrats before haha, so no need to do it again, but now I am legitimately past 20000 pageviews, which is a milestone..of sorts lol. So here's a feature of some of my dear watchers to say thanks Of course it's not all of them, and I would have featured all my faithful friends if I didnt think I'd accidentally leave people out. So here are the oh so lucky people who bagged a spot lol. Enjoy

Also if you havn't watched this animated video with the kiwi you absolutely must [link]

  



  



  



  



  



  



  



  :thumb68408317:



  



  



  



  



  :thumb82682785:



  



  



  :thumb57883668:



  has chosen to feature



   SummerThe cold weather sets in,
Stockings on my legs
Longing for a jumper
Shivering with the wind
And yet I loathe summer.

There was a time
When I loved the heat,
Three months of begging
For a tan.
And three months
Of sweating
Covered in sand.

But then it grew too hot,
Far too intense
I started to fear it
But found some way to lie.

And I got to the point
Where I didn't think about it
For a few days at a time
I was starting to forget
Learning to regret
Allowing myself to be angry
For the first time.

As much as I hate
The way summer
Makes me sweat
Makes me ill
Keeps me up in discomfort
And drags on forever,
I confess I lo



  



  :thumb53582344:



  



  



  :thumb60506371:



  



  :thumb43073386:



  :thumb60183084:



Thanks to everyone. Take it easy guys!

~Simall Rats



Create your own visitor map!


Care for some....... Psychedelic Treasures!!!?? I do.

This is what I'm all about:


:thumb61048282::thumb56427314::thumb68310792::thumb64869479::thumb69552930:

**This is still the same journal, I just thought I'd alter the title to make it less obvious that it's just full of random ramblings and hint that it actually has a vague purpose**


I totally forgot about how I started every journal with my wackiest dream since the last! Well it's back now..

~I had a dream where I was a volunteering coconut sheller on a tropical island, doing work for a man who always wore an entire fox head over his own so he basically looked like a man-fox whose mouth didnt move. It was freaky. One day the coconuts started screaming when I picked them up and tried to crack them. I could no longer do it without feeling like a murderer, so I brought my predicament to the fox-man. I carried a sack of the coconuts and lay them in front of him in three rows to plead their case. Things turned violent and the coconuts started swiftly gliding through the air and attacking the fox-man. I'm pretty sure the fox-man died... Eventually I ran outside and was picked up by two of the coconuts which now had arms, moustaches and glasses (lol) and carried into the air. Wekept going higher and higher until we were above the clouds. I yelled out "where are you taking me?" and after a long pause one of thm said "home". Then I woke up~




So how is everyone?

I thought I'd update because soon I'll be clicking over 20k page views (my page is probably due for a service soon) and I was thinking of doing a big ass feature for everyone who's reading, yes both of you lol. Just as a way to say "thanks, you're awesome, lets get married over the internet and have several hypothetical children and maybe one real one, who we'll force to talk to and share his or her toys with his hypothetical siblings".

Sooo I'm going to blatantly steal Hellobaby's idea and ask you to post the thumbnail number of one piece that you would like featured It'll be in my journal, so I guess I'll have to draw the line somewhere so my page doesnt take a year to load. So I'm going to severely overestimate my popularity and say the first 47 (XD) people to post will get in the journal, and anyone else (if they exist) who doesnt make it will be in a news article feature (which will be my first, yay).

I just finished a hectic week of due assessments at uni, and so I'm feeling considerably more free and lighter right now. I've got about three weeks until anything is due, so I'm going to try and utilise the time for art making on whatever scale. I recently attended the design (and all things creative) conference Semi Permanent, which had a whole bunch of awesome people giving talks and presentations - people from Lifelounge magazine, Debaser, Ben Frost, Pixar, Amy Sol, as well as the executive producer of The Directors Bureau which is like the leading music video company in America who provided hilarious anecdotal stories behind videos by Beck and Feist I bought a few books with really awesome artwork, like Curvy and the like. The whole thing was REALLY inspiring and I just wanted to get home and create! But I had to do work, boo.

Working on something right now, using watercolours in a way I havnt before - for little details Im no master, but I can do with paint and tiny brushes what I always wished I could do with coloured pencils! Although getting the colours I want through mixing is proving difficult, I'm used to having the ready-to-go pencils heh.

Regarding my fall back in terms of comments/favs, I'm slowly fighting back! but it's gradual and every day there's like 20 more in my dev box, which means I rarely get through to the older stuff. Should I just delete them all and then visit everyones page individually? Help me oh wise one

Yeah..dont know what else I've got to talk about. That's pretty much it. Oh I saw "Be Kind, Rewind" a while ago. I really recommend it Funny and clever and a modest film really by Michael Gondry, who did "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind".

I really should've seen the Smashing Pumpkins when they came..my brother did. Why do I have to be so poor?!

Okay, I'll go to bed now...
Catch ya!

~ Sim card



Create your own visitor map!


Care for some....... Psychedelic Treasures!!!?? I do.

This is what I'm all about:


:thumb61048282::thumb56427314::thumb68310792::thumb64869479::thumb69552930:

Howdy partner!

Well it's kind of Easter..ish, and there wont be a new journal on Sunday, so Happy Easter! Chocolate is calling me. I'm going to Canberra later to see my grandparents and also to go to the Canberra Folk Festival tomorrow (please dont rain!), so that should be fun

So what's new.. Things are happening at uni assessment-wise in two weeks for all my subjects and as usual I have done almost nothing at this point. I actually think I'll never change - everything is always done last minute and I get by well but it destroys me for a few days


I dont know if I'd mentioned this, but my friend is/was on the (Australian) Biggest Loser, anyone watch it? (I never did, but with my friend on it I just had to). And he is a legitimate good friend from highschool, not some "friend of a friend's cousin's dog" claim lol. He's Sam and he's totally rocking it. 19 yrs old (actually 20 now), starting weight was 154.6 kgs (340.8 lbs), on the show (which is about two months behind real time) he's down to 119 kg (262 lbs), and he's lost more since This is his facebook club: [link] and profile page: :[link]

The show started in early February, and we hadnt actually seen him since November of last year, no contact whatsoever. I'm bringing it up now because last night he actually came home, and we were at his house for the "welcome back" party and filming and stuff, I didnt leave until 4.30am! He looked completely different it was really scary I'm not allowed to say much, but he's actually made it into the top 3 and they still have to train to lose weight for the finale when they find out who the winner is - so exciting!!

Are you a WRITER? is holding a writing contest, with a prize of a 3month sub, plus a request and Flash help Check it out if youre interested and, unlike me, you have faith in your writing ability

I got tagged by , 8 interesting things about yourself.. I have run out of interesting things, let's see how this goes.

1. I lived in Thailand from when I was one and a half to two and a half in 1990.

2. I'm obsessed with LOST. At the moment we only have one tv and I make everyone turn off the lights and be completely silent lol.

3. My car has one of those clear DeviantArt stickers on the back side window

4. I cant stop fiddling with things, I'm pretty restless. Unless I tell myself that I'm now going to sit still and just completely "STOP" lol. Then it becomes a challenge.

5. Dorky - I'm in the "fan club" (recieve benefits and presale tickets, plus random merchandise) of one of my top fav bands Silverchair, and a while ago we were asked to send in questions for them to answer. Just last week we all got sent a whole bunch of stuff, along with a dvd of them answering some of the questions and mine got answered by Daniel, yay.

6. I would cut off the tip of my pinky for Larry David to keep making seasons of Curb Your Entusiasm. Well maybe not..but I'd cut off someone elses.

7. I am eating Gilbert Grape.

8. And I will continue my tradition of not tagging anybody, take that establishment.



Well adios amigos!!
New(ish) artwork should be coming soon. Take it easy

~Simon in the sky.



Create your own visitor map!


Care for some....... Psychedelic Treasures!!!?? I do.

This is what I'm all about:


:thumb61048282::thumb56427314::thumb68310792::thumb64869479::thumb69552930: