I got up this morning and realized that I hadn't posted Candle in the Forest yet this year.

So here you go: [link]

It's just a short Christmas story that I like to read and share every year. It might make you cry, but it will make you happy. For some reason I always want to call the story the Chocolate Mouse.

What're you guys all doing for Christmas this year? We're trying to figure out our new family tradition over here, seeing as my son is 2 and it's time to start one. When to open presents has been the big question. Christmas Eve? Christmas day? Some on both? What do you folks do?

---

Want to see what I'm working on now?



Clubs:


My current desktop:

So, I joined Elfwood.

...

... it kind of makes me homesick for good ol' DA. Elfwood has everything mashed into this itty-bitty extra-crowded interface with cascading menus and a gallery arrangement that doesn't make sense and what do you mean I need a different username for each category??

Anyway. I'm on there as "netraptor" and "netraptor2". As soon as my work gets approved by a moderator. Seeing as I've moderated galleries before, who knows how long THAT will take.

At least I can post art there. Unlike Sheezy. 0.o

---

Want to see what I'm working on now?



Clubs:


My current desktop:

I was researching the dragon book of the same name, and ran across the story of the ship that the dragon was named after.

Read this excerpt:

A mutiny broke out on board in the winter of 1801 when long-serving sailors, believing the war with Napoleonic France was ending, refused orders to sail for the West Indies, where rumors of an imminent French attack persisted. But this single stain on the ship's record was quickly forgotten after her valiant performance at Trafalgar. There, under Capt. Eliab Harvey in the waters south of Cadiz, the Temeraire's defense of Lord Nelson's lead ship, the Victory, helped turn the battle's tide, though not before Britain's greatest naval hero had been struck down. As Nelson lay dying below deck, the victim of a sharpshooter aloft the masts of the French Redoubtable, whose sailors prepared to board the Victory, the Temeraire materialized to unleash a savage broadside, slaughtering scores of French seamen and saving Nelson's colors from descent.

After the Redoubtable crashed helplessly into the Temeraire, British sailors lashed the smaller vessel to their portside and fought on. Their starboard guns yet to be fired, they turned to face another foe, the French Fougueux. Again at close range, the crew of the Temeraire crippled this ship too with a murderous cannonade, and tethered it along their other side. Although fighting continued in the outer fleet and briefly across the decks of the four ships tied together on the swelling seas, Nelson died knowing he had triumphed. His victory left Britain largely free from the threat of Napoleonic invasion. Decades later, Turner's ruminations on all of this would figure in the painting that immortalized one of Trafalgar's last surviving vessels.

From this site, complete with painting. [link]

Is that not bad-freaking-@$$?

---

Want to see what I'm working on now?



Clubs:


My current desktop:

Got a question for all you people. When you look at a Christmas pic, what about it makes it feel "Christmasy"?

I never know how to draw something that's Christmasy, and my attempts at it are usually crummy because I don't know what to put in.

So, whether it be Sonic, dinosaurs, dragons, or something else ... what sorts of things make a picture Christmasy? Is it the red and green colors? Lots of snow? Sparkles? Heck, if you guys even want to show me examples of pics you like, that'd rock, too.

---

Want to see what I'm working on now?



Clubs:


My current desktop:

I was looking up the Jubilee Diamond (it's yellow with a red heart, and I wanted to know more about it.) Well, in my surfing, I ran across this one oddball blog that was talking about how scientists think that in the middle of every white dwarf star (which is basically one that has collapsed and burned out), there's a giant superdense diamond.

I've thought about that a lot ever since I read it. A giant diamond bigger than a planet.

Wouldn't that make a great science fiction story, about people who mine stars for their diamonds?

---

Want to see what I'm working on now?



Clubs:


My current desktop: