It Seems Like Years Since It's Been Clear

( Jackie asked! )
-2:52 AM

Okay so I'm just posting because for the past... uh... week? 2 weeks? I've been frustrated over something, and I'm hoping posting about it will make me feel a little less "OMGWTF" about it. See, in like 9th grade Jackie and I (hi Jackie!) used to draw clothes and hairstyles and stuff on little cartoon doll bases (http://members.aol.com/savageredhead). I made them while I was on my father's computer, which no longer exists. But most of the files I had on it were saved to his laptop. Recently I started making new ones (and now I have about 140 or so that I've made. Yeah, I'm kind of obsessive.)
So lately I've been thinking, what did those old dolls look like? See, since I'm using the same base, I could use the old hairstyles and maybe even the clothes. I was a lot more creative back then, especially since I wasn't making them alone and could ask for opinions. And I remember spending hours painstakingly drawing little hairstyles I couldn't even dream of making now. Especially since I forgot all of my old shading techniques. And I remember one method I used to use all the time when I made hair, but I don't really remember how I did it. And that's really frustrating. See, the files all still exist but I don't have access to them (I tried, but I can't figure out my father's password.) I keep forgetting to ask him if I can burn a CD of all the doll files so I can access them from this computer without downloading them onto it because it's running low on storage space (it's an ancient Windows 98 with 8 gigabytes- yes, 8, not eighty or eight hundred- of storage space).
In fact, I don't even want to make the dolls anymore until I can get to my old files and see what I used to do. I've created a whole batch of new hairstyles, and I even completely changed the face and skin color, but I'd like to have my old dolls as well so I can compare.
I mean, it's like losing something in my bedroom except I can't just go find it. And I know where it is, but it's not that easy.

Heh, I know this all sounds like much ado about nothing, but I love my little dolls and I feel kind of like a mother who's lost her children but had more since. I love the ones I have, but I'd like the old ones, too. Especially since my old stuff might inspire me to create some new stuff, since they're all starting to look alike now.

To add to the frustration, I found an old livejournal icon I made using an old cartoon doll head. I painstakingly redrew the hairstyle (it used to be one of my favorites way back when) because it was a jpeg and those are always all dithered and crappy.
And then, after all of that, I found a bitmap of a cartoon doll on my geocities account that had the same hairstyle with better shading, so I didn't have to go through all the trouble of cleaning up the jpeg. Talk about GRR, dude.

K, I don't feel that much better but it does feel good to type it all out, lol. Now I'm going to go wait patiently for my father to come home so I can assault him for his laptop and a blank cd. I'm probably going to have to wait until tomorrow (since he's off of work on Mondays and Tuesdays) so that'll just add to the frustration. I want my old dolls NOW.
Heh. :)

-Ivyette @ 2:28 AM

Happy birthday, Jackie!
Love, G

Just a few updates to let you know what's been going on (or, really, since you already know, just a few updates to document the fact that these things have happened.)

-Jackie came down last week to chill, yo for a few days. That was nine million tons of fun. I miss Jackie :(
-I changed my display name. I got tired of "Cynthia in the Wrong Decade", because I feel like while it still applies, it doesn't really make sense to anyone reading my livejournal, so I changed it to something silly. I'm going to change it again soon, but for now, enjoy the lame joke. :)
-I've been making bracelets out of the plastic things inside bottle caps. Inside the caps of many Coke products and Publix soda- not Publix water though- there's a plastic circle. You can pull out the circle really easily. If you poke a hole in the middle (after you've taken it out of the cap) and pop out the inner circle of plastic, you're left with a ring of plastic that can be stretched into the ghetto version of a scene bracelet. They're really popular everywhere but here, apparently.
-Yeah, so, everything sucks. That's not new though.
-I went to see Classical Mystery Tour on Monday night. It's four dudes who pretend to be the Beatles in concert. And they're ultracool. This is the second time I've seen them :)
-Ivyette @ 11:34 PM