I have a new morning ritual thanks to the restructuring of VAS Littlecrow:

• Wake up.
• Eat.
• Call family and friends.
• Check Craig’s List, email, promo databases and venue leads for modeling and performance opportunities that don’t involve hardcore pornography, webcams or hideous photography.
• Take care of grooming and weigh myself.
• Think about my goals for the day, and think of ways to be a better citizen.
• Exercise
• Pray
• Work and smile a lot.
• Reflect upon my day, check internet for opportunities and unwind.
• Sleep

This ritual makes me feel awesome and centered.  This really beats the miserable, sleepless days of the print shop.  I feel like I am becoming much more pleasant to be around, but it is important that I stay vigilant of myself and my attitude.  The last thing I want to become is an ungrateful egomaniac without any consideration for those around me.  I have behaved like that in the past and I don’t care to do it again.  It is in my nature to be abrasive and unfiltered, but I don’t have to be a Neanderthal about it.

My trip to Minot has been absolutely wonderful in spite of the weather-related hiccups.  I have been meeting my average daily earnings goals.  My leisure time has been well-earned, and my work has been paying off.  I have been getting massive compliments on my makeover.  Apparently, my red afro and longer vintage dance dresses have been proving to be a hit with the folks at the Chicago Club.  My dance practice and Tai Chi have also been paying off.  One guy told me that out of all routines he has seen at cabarets and gentlemen’s club in thirty states, that my routine for Meatloaf’s “Anything for Love” is the most energetic and exciting that he has ever seen. It’s nice to know that my ASCAP fees are a well-spent investment.  Watching the crowd cheering and loving the show has been incredibly gratifying.

I can’t wait to get back home, but I am loving the trip!

I love snow when I’m looking at it and playing in it.  I despise it when it interferes with my work day.  The damn storm yesterday forced me to go home before I could start a high-profile promo gig in Eden Prairie.  I was so pissed, I could have breathed fire.  On the bright side being snowed-in helped me spend some quality time with Loki.  I also did some more work on my network of sites.  Before I get to that, I’d like to point out that Zoya and Dmitri made an extra cute guest appearance in Ryan Dow’s Instrospective Comics.  Be sure to check out all of his previous episode.  They are pretty darn good!  Plus, the guest comics are pretty awesome as well.

New at VL:

• If you ever get lost at my site, the 404 page will direct you to my handy, “OH SNAP!” Google-Powered Site Search.  It’s like regular Google, except it only searches my sites and the sites of people who are cool enough to be included.  This will be my substitute for a links page.  If you want your website to be included, and I like you on a personal level, simply reply to this post, and I will add you!  This site search is also the reason why Misty is working on getting all of my webcomics transcribed.  Hey, I’m looking out for y’all.  No need for a link back, although it is appreciated.
• My Art Portfolio has been moved to VisualArtsServices.com (which is long for VAS.)  Be sure to spell it “Arts” and not “Art.” Otherwise, you’ll end up on a site from Brussels with nothing but a logo and an underwhelming lack of substance.
• After months of just being compcard with links, my Modeling Site is back.  My portfolio site took over the http://allpurposemodel.com/ domain from the Confessions of an All-Purpose Model blog.  I made this decision, under Loki’s guidance, after Lucinda and I came to the rather painful realization that neither one of us had the time and resources to update the blog at this juncture.  There really was no reason for a domain with pre-existing traffic to lose it’s value through neglect, when it can be put to good use.  CoaAPM may come back in the future with a shiny new domain name and fresh content.  Until then, I’ll keep y’all posted on any developments.
• I have abandoned the Gutterotica Manifesto project.  Fortunately, another long-absent VL artist will be taking it over.  More on that in a future post.

Okay, time to chat with the Luce before I die of exhaustion.

What I achieved the last seven days:

• I listened to WAY too much Megadeth this week.  In fact, I am listening to Hangar 18, right now.
• After years of not having an official online arts portfolio, I finally did it!  This in spite of not having access to my office desktop or most of my art, while I was trapped by snow for two days in my home. (Contains some NSFW art.)
• I updated my main site big time. 
  There’s now a schedule/calendar which I can actually update from my
  phone. The site is more focused, and my networking link section is no
  longer a mess.
• I’m chasing modeling leads and trying to snag a few new clients.  Got a new booking this week in spite of this being the dead season for this industry.
• I got accepted into Feature program at an exotic dance school for an agency that I’ve been chasing around for six years!  WOO HOO!  It was the most nervewracking three-month wait EVER, but I start the week-long boot camp this spring!  I don’t think I’ve ever heard Storm be so happy about me having to cancel a booking, when I called to break the news.  When The Chicago Clubs closes their dancer stage in a couple of years, I would love to have something to fall back on.  Plus this training will be awesome when Upir’s Mark starts touring.  Did I say too much?  You guys can wait for that answer.
• I did all our personal finances.  Mad at being in debt again because of the car mayhem, but happy that we are on track in spite of the stinky economy.
• Went out on a date with Loki.  Awwww!
• The Catnose Comics site has been updated.  The SIF link is permanently gone.  Oh, and I called the Trademark Office to make sure: Catnose is not just a registered trademark anymore.  It’s an incontestable registered federal trademark!  VAS Littlecrow/Ouhe logo is next, buddy!
• The following bits of work on my webcomic sites.  In addition to adding (poor) translation links and the regular update the Rasputin Catamite site. Scanned new content  for Loki.  I still need to fix the RSS feed at the RC site, and the KillerDyke.com site.  Fortunately, there’s plently of time for that next week.  (Contains NSFW links.)
• Created new bits of art for various reasons.  Made a comic for another cartoonist that I should’ve made a month ago.
• After much frustration with my current business insurer, I got a fantastic lead for a arts-specific insurance provider.  Thank you Bruce and Springboard for the Arts.
• I got someone resembling Misty O’Brien back on the VL staff, and she is kicking butt!  She dropped a ton of dress sizes, got a smokin’ hot boyfriend, is super stylish and is even more sarcastic than ever.  Thanks to her 1/4 of all of my RC comics are transcribed, and the bookkeeping mess from last year is about to be solved. 
• Had a blast at the Rice Chamber of Commerce Christmas Party.  Got a great workout running around with a basket for a Toys for Tot’s fundraiser.
• Conquered my backlog of email.
• Had an opportunity to appreciate the sheer awesomeness of my landlords.  If you need art studio space in Rice, this place is awesome.

There’s more, but I need to sleep.

There are lots of few cool things happening this weekend.  Here’s a list:

If you are in the Twin Cities Area

ALLEY CAT: A TRIBUTE/BENEFIT IN MEMORY OF ERIC LAPPEGARD
What: Benefit to Honor Comic Artist & Bicycle Advocate Eric Lappegard

When: Saturday, September 8th, 2007. 2pm-10pm

Where:

Alley Cat Bike Race to begin at Behind Bars Bicycle Shop, 208 13th Ave NE, Minneapolis 2pm-5pm

Comic Art Show & Silent Auction at Altered Esthetics, 1224 Quincy St. NE, Minneapolis 5pm-10pm

A
Raffle and Vegan Bake Sale will also take place at Altered Esthetics.
Raffle items have been donated by local businesses and include
something for everyone.

Minneapolis / St. Paul:

Beloved
local comic artist and bicycle advocate Eric Lappegard passed away on
July 23rd from complications following an automobile accident. Eric was
in the process of moving from Minneapolis to Portland, Oregon, when the
accident occurred. Originally from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Eric had
spent the last number of years in Minneapolis, where he worked as a
bicycle messenger and coffee shop java-slinger, artist, community
organizer and bicycle advocate.Eric (a.k.a. Schmapples, a.k.a. Vegan
Ninja) was an active member of the local comics collective The
International Cartoonist Conspiracy, as well as a founding member of
The Minneapolis Bicycle Federation, a group that advocates for a better
cycling environment. Eric was a friendly face around town, a vegan who
championed animal rights and environmental sustainability, and a friend
to many people across the community. He will be greatly missed.

On
Saturday, September 8th, friends of Eric are partnering with local
businesses and arts organizations to pay tribute to a dear friend and
important member of the art, music, and bicycling communities. All
proceeds from the event will go to Eric’s family to aid them with
expenses incurred as a result of this tragic accident.The Schmapples
Tribute event will include a messenger-style alley cat bike race
beginning at Behind Bars Bicycle Shop in Northeast Minneapolis.

Eric’s artwork, as well as donated artwork from local artists & members of the Cartoonist Conspiracy (cartoonistconspiracy.com), will be on display at Altered Esthetics (alteredesthetics.com)
all day Saturday, with a silent auction and reception to begin at
5:00pm. Two original publications, “ALLEY CAT: A TRIBUTE TO ERIC
LAPPEGARD” and “SCHMAPPLES: THE COLLECTED ONLINE COMIC by: Eric
Lappegard”, have been created specifically for this event & will be
on sale. Additional items for auction will be included, including gift
certificates and highly-desirable items from local bicycle, comic and
other businesses. Live music will be provided by the Roe Family Singers.

Raffle
tickets can be purchased for $5. Prizes include artwork, comics, gift
certificates and custom bicycle parts and products. A Vegan Bake Sale
will also help to raise funds for the Lappegard family.For a complete
schedule of events visit: http://myspace.com/ericlappegardtribute

If you are in the St. Cloud/Little Falls Area

There
will be Arts and Craft fairs in Rice and Little Falls this weekend from
early in the morning until late after noon and early evening.  I will
be caricaturing, and selling books for the Schmapples benefit in case
you are unable to come down to the Cities.

Fargo, ND -  9/11 – 9/13

I
will be doing promo work in Fargo, ND, for sure.  If you want to visit,
or do shoots to help me rebuild my portfolio, let me know. 

Today was nothing but CHAOS!  But, rather than let the stress of the
chaos to me, I did like the song says, rode the chaos and made a
bonfire with all the negative stuff.  Right now, I feel like a
full-fledged Discordian Pope (and I’m not even Discordian) or something…  I just feel good!

I
was having a bad case of full-blown depression, but I decided it could
go to hell, pressed on with my work and found a good deal on sweet
frozen things. 

There was a strange day with a  full moon (not that it matters, it just sounds more dramatic.)

Yet, I managed to get everything I needed
to get done, finished.  (Except for the stuff I am submitting to
Debauched Dreams.  But, that can wait until Saturday and Mr. SBE still
needs to send me the FTP info anyhow.  I am so happy that the CC fliers
don’t need to go out until Monday and ditto for the RWOT stuff.)  I
have a plan on how to deal with an important proof that needs to be
looked at before the weekend, as well as the KillerDyke.com site. Tried
to have a nice attitude, and made it in one piece .

I know I get
depressed, I know shit happens, but today, I made up my mind to kick
it’s juicy butt and have a stress-free weekend promoting the USAF (a
job I wanted,) yummy foods on the weekend, and drawing Polska, Sucka!
and training in one of the new artists.

Special thanks to Ayperi
and LJ (who were having a worse day than I,) Courie, Gypsy, Naomi and
Loki for helping me pull this feat off!

Now off to shave my
legs, cleanse my greasy body and sleep.  The challenge will be to fight
the urge to party and stay up all night.

Ass-Tastic

1. Woke up at 6:00 am, presumably with enough sleep, but I felt totally wiped-out.
2. I
   was dealing with all sorts of coding, CNAME, blog template tweaking,
   email hell.  AllPurposeModel.com is unreachable at the time of this
   post.
3. I had massive artist’s block on the text-only back
   side of a one-color business card for… (insert your mocking laughter
   here…) an insurance rep.  Needless to say, creativity was pretty sad
   most of the day.
4. I almost forgot to mail my paperwork for my last TMT promo (which was already late by three days…) again.
5. Loki
   and I went to McDonald’s because we didn’t want to look at the kitchen
   after canning 15 pounds of tomatoes (I shit you not) the night before
   and making an elaborate dinner.
6. I went to pick-up my cool
   new newspaper-powered barbecue grill from Freecycle.  I arrived over an
   hour late, thanks to St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids’ Erisian entertainment
   that passes for detour signs during road construction.  The woman
   didn’t have a cell phone.  I wrote down the wrong number, but still
   managed to get a hold of her spouse.  No cool little grill ’till this
   weekend.
7. I forgot to bring my free oil change card to the
   service center at the car dealership.  Needless to say, my car is
   incredibly late for its oil change and that won’t happen until Monday.
8. My office looks like a tornado struck, and Gypsy won’t be able to clean until next week.
9. Gypsy
   was going to treat me to ice cream, but those plans went awry.  I had
   to go back to Rice, because the USAF Promo did go through and I to get
   everything done by TONIGHT.
10. Because of the USAF Promo, I
    have to wake up by 5:00 am tomorrow.  Also, I won’t get to proof a
    major printing project that’s due ASAP until Monday.
11. I still need to wax and shave… and pack.

What do I think of today?  This songs says it all:

I finally updated the Rice Print Shop website to better reflect the reality of what the business is now, and to let people know that I VAS Littlecrow is my business and the print shop is a department, not the other way around.  I am so damn resentful of having people assume that I’ve only been at this for two years, when in reality, I’ve been a business owner for the majority of my adult life, that I can hardly stand it.

I also updated my main blog’s look some more.  It’s still an LJ blog, but now, it can now be reached at VanesaLittlecrow.com.  Hopefully the addition of its own domain will make the search engine demi-gods happy, and will show people that this autobiography/writer/artist stuff is not amateur hour anymore.

More housecleaning to come…

I finally updated the Rice Print Shop website to better reflect the reality of what the business is now, and to let people know that I VAS Littlecrow is my business and the print shop is a department, not the other way around.  I am so damn resentful of having people assume that I’ve only been at this for two years, when in reality, I’ve been a business owner for the majority of my adult life, that I can hardly stand it.

I also updated my main blog’s look some more.  It’s still an LJ blog, but now, it can now be reached at VanesaLittlecrow.com.  Hopefully the addition of its own domain will make the search engine demi-gods happy, and will show people that this autobiography/writer/artist stuff is not amateur hour anymore.

More housecleaning to come…

I finally updated the Rice Print Shop website to better reflect the reality of what the business is now, and to let people know that I VAS Littlecrow is my business and the print shop is a department, not the other way around.  I am so damn resentful of having people assume that I’ve only been at this for two years, when in reality, I’ve been a business owner for the majority of my adult life, that I can hardly stand it.

I also updated my main blog’s look some more.  It’s still an LJ blog, but now, it can now be reached at VanesaLittlecrow.com.  Hopefully the addition of its own domain will make the search engine demi-gods happy, and will show people that this autobiography/writer/artist stuff is not amateur hour anymore.

More housecleaning to come…